Bits Bucket for April 2, 2015
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Realtors are liars.
Living beyond your means is the American way. Don’t rock the boat.
Is early retirement an “impossible dream” ?
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/04/01/impossible-dream
With bonds paying an impressive 2% on a good day, you’d be crazy NOT to retire early.
This is a good read. It counsels for doing stuff in direct contradiction to our entire financial structure, stop buying stuff you don’t need and start saving.
“stop buying stuff you don’t need and start saving.”
How dare you blaspheme the Debt Culture Bible.
Why hoard worthless paper dollars? Exchange your worthless fiat currency for assets that produce. Do so in a diversified mix of companies (stocks), tools (computers/machinery), real estate (land, not condos), and natural resources (mineral rights holdings). Diversify outside your own governmental boundaries. As a safety measure, hold some physical assets like gold and silver… whats the big problem anyway???
“Retirement” is a relatively new phenomenon. It isn’t in the cards for most people.
The boat is a ship and it is the Titanic.
The American way is to purchase a large house with a two-car garage, and then park your cars outside because you need the garage to store all the garbage that you never threw away.
So is Obama!!!
Obama: ‘If Iran cheats, the world will know it’
This is what happens when you have the ugly combo of agri-biz and mass immigration. Citizens get punished, restricted, whatever. Society becomes less free. And it’s not just water. Free speech goes down the crapper, as it did for the students who wanted to wear American Flag t shirts on Cinco de Mayo. The area gets more crowded, less safe.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/02/gov-jerry-brown-battling-california-water-crisis-created-by-his-father-gov-pat-brown/
You go, Jerry Brown! Clean up your father’s mess. Not.
Sigh. I haven’t spent a whole lot of time in California, but it used to be such a great place on so many levels. Now it’s just a symbol of all that’s wrong with the US.
Warmists Warming Thursday
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/02/science/california-drought-is-worsened-by-global-warming-scientists-say.html
Scientists say?
What do those scientists say about that snowball into inside the U.S. Senate?
What do those scientists say about that snowball into inside the U.S. Senate?
They need to ship a few trillion (or more?) of those snowballs to the Sierra Nevada.
Unless California gets a miracle next winter, they are gonna be so screwed.
I posted an article a couple of weeks ago, I think it was on Zero Hedge, that Cyclone Pam, the one that hit Vanuatu, was so powerful that it has initiated a change in weather patterns in such a way that California and the West Coast are in for some very wet weather of a prolonged nature. Interesting.
The author said that if true, we should be seeing the effects in a few months. He wasn’t willing to say for sure this would happen, but to wait and see. I say give it a year.
Of course, if that happens, there will be floods and mudslides and people will be screaming global warming, sigh.
That would be highly unusual (summer rains) in California. Especially in SoCal it’s not unusual at all to have no rain at all for months in the summer.
What crisis? Someone is going to be encouraged to adopt the motto “if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.” It’s all talk and hype looking for federal printed dollars. They aren’t chaging Jack.
Just think, here in Albuquerque I pay about $2.05 for gasoline in California gasoline is a dollar or more higher. Most of that is related to environmental taxes and regulations sold to the public to reduce co2 emissions and pollution. The policies have a negligible impact on warming due to it being a drop in the bucket of total emissions and the climate being far less sensitive to co2 emissions than the claims. Just think if that money had been diverted to desalination, CA could ride out any drought just like Israel can ride out any drought due to its desalination program.
Nuclear powered desalinization is the new black.
I don’t know, you don’t hear much about LA’s smog problem anymore.
LAs smog problem isn’t reported much anymore because it would be against the realtors interest to make it seem less than glorious.
Moreover, the air is cleaner all over the country without the costly requirements placed on cars in California. One illegal driving around an unregistered la bamba car puts out as much pollution as a 100 cars, look at the five cleanest cities and five dirtiest cities:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/air-600421-particles-pollution.html
but it used to be such a great place ??
It still is…Just need to pick & choose where you go….
When you start having to live in gated communities, you are Mexico and not the U.S.
Welfare is the “water” these days; bring it, and the hoards will come. California is home to 12% of the U.S. population, and roughly 34% of America’s welfare caseload.
“California is home to 12% of the U.S. population, and roughly 34% of America’s welfare caseload.”
I hear this frequently. How do you define “welfare”?
Total FEDERAL Medicaid spending is about $238B, of which CA receives $25.7B, or 10.7% of the Federal spending.
If you are looking at food stamps (the second largest program behind Medicaid), CA has 4.4MM out of the nations 46MM food stamp recipients, less than 10% of the total, less than it’s proportionate share.
At the same time, total Federal tax receipts in 2012 were $2.5T, of which, CA paid $292.5B (11.5% or so).
If you are trying to say that CA is a giant leech, sucking away everyone else’s money, the data from the two largest Federal programs (combined with taxes paid) doesn’t seem to support that view.
If you are saying that CA has created it’s own nanny state (with it’s own money), where it coddles it’s residents, I can’t argue with you there. I’m just curious where you get the 34% number (and what it represents).
As a percentage of its population, California is near the bottom in foodstamp participation:
http://www.cheatsheet.com/view-image/?src=2015/01/food-stamp-chart-final-feb-2015.jpg&28f213
The states with the highest percentages are, surprise, mostly in the south.
Nope.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/jul/28/welfare-capital-of-the-us/
It’s been posted here over and over Rental_Fraud. Just like the massive excess housing inventory of 25 million houses. You pretend is doesn’t exist.
Rental Watch:
As usual, I didn’t actually read your long comment. California gives a lot of assistance to middle-class people, not just poor people. That’s probably where that super-high welfare statistic comes from (and also illegal immigration). In the meanwhile, most of the “aid” only goes to prop up asset prices to benefit the wealthy. Weird, huh?
“I didn’t actually read your long comment.”
Nobody does.
Speak for yourself; I frequently find them thought-provoking.
Speak for yourself. We find the words of an established liar unworthy.
And who do you think that I am today? Cause you obviously have me confused with someone else.
We know more care who you are than reading about Rental_Frauds tall tales.
We know more care
LOL…
Illiterate.
Or are you high?
“Sigh. I haven’t spent a whole lot of time in California, but it used to be such a great place on so many levels. Now it’s just a symbol of all that’s wrong with the US.”
Forget it, palmetto. It’s Chinatown.
No - jerry is running around cleaning up his own mess from the first run around the block 30 years ago - we didn’t call him Moon Beam for nothin’!!
How did Jerry Brown’s father create California’s water mess?
jeebus, buddy, just click the link to the article. Then read it.
I did, and other than a lot of innuendo, it really doesn’t back up it’s title. Water has always been an issue in California, and the drought only makes things worse. The whole article seems kind of hyperbolic, not that there isn’t plenty of blame for CA’s trouble - they should have prepared for this a long time ago. The same thing will eventually happen to Vegas and Phoenix, but for now those green lawns and swimming pools look great.
grass is a bigger problem than pools (lots more surface area for evaporation).
Grass is not a problem at all. Flood irrigation in fields seems to be the 80% case problem where the focus needs to happen. The real solution is just make agribusiness pay the same rates as cities for water delivery.
Yeah, mathguy, but then what will happen will California farmers still have to compete with Mexican farmers on price? NAFTA causes more problems than it’s worth, I swear.
BS POS article. California a symbol of what’s wrong with the US? Gee, California has the #1 GDP of any state and in early 2015 had the highest rate of job creation. A good part of that sustained growth over the decades has been because of the distribution of water.
For years rightwing media was pushing the myth that Calif is a basket case, doomed to fail — man, they’ve been proven wrong…
WaPo is right wing media????????????? Bwahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, no. It’s still a doofus article written by somebody who obviously doesn’t live in California. To WaPo’s credit they didn’t say California is the “next Greece.”
Yes, Greece might have sued for defamation. (sarcasm off).
East of the continental divide the water situation, while concerning, is far less dire:
http://www.reporterherald.com/ci_27821266/snowpack-low-storage-high
5% of average snowpack is just brutal. Think about that.
Because when you run out of ways to “rally the base” you can always pull the Nazi card
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/01/hitler-philadelphia-bus-ads
Sounds like the perfect recipe for smaller government and lower taxes, LOLZ
John Bolton - War is the answer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/for-john-bolton-war-is-the-answer/2015/04/01/d4581d28-d8b5-11e4-b3f2-607bd612aeac_story.html?tid=HP_opinion?tid=HP_opinion
Small, small government, and low, low taxes, LOLZ
How does a flake like John Bolton keep getting platforms to express his chicken hawk opinions? Although it is good that we can keep track of what neo-cons tell each other behind closed doors.
Thank you for flying Cloward-Piven Airlines and enjoy your free education, food stamps, medical care and living expenses!
“The new arrivals will be officially known as Central American Minors (CAM) and they will be eligible for a special refugee/parole that offers a free one-way flight to the U.S. from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras.”
Reunification,” Refugee Program for Central Americans
APRIL 01, 2015
To facilitate the often treacherous process of entering the United States illegally through the southern border, the Obama administration is offering free transportation from three Central American countries and a special refugee/parole program with “resettlement assistance” and permanent residency.
Under the new initiative the administration has rebranded the official name it originally assigned to the droves of illegal immigrant minors who continue sneaking into the U.S. They’re no longer known as Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC), a term that evidently was offensive and not politically correct enough for the powerful open borders movement. The new arrivals will be officially known as Central American Minors (CAM) and they will be eligible for a special refugee/parole that offers a free one-way flight to the U.S. from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras. The project is a joint venture between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the State Department.
Specifically, the “program provides certain children in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras with a safe, legal, and orderly alternative to the dangerous journey that some children are undertaking to the United States,” according to a DHS memo obtained by JW this week. The document goes on to say that the CAM program has started accepting applications from “qualifying parents” to bring their offspring under the age of 21 from El Salvador, Guatemala or Honduras. The candidates will then be granted a special refugee parole, which includes many taxpayer-funded perks and benefits. Among them is a free education, food stamps, medical care and living expenses.
During a special teleconference this week officials from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the State Department explained how CAM will work. Only “friendly” groups and individuals invited by the government were allowed to participate and the event was not open to the media. Judicial Watch attended as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with interest in the matter. Obama administration officials offered an overview of the new CAM initiative and confirmed that the U.S. has deployed staff to the region to handle the influx of applicants. A State Department official promoted CAM as a “family reunification” program that will be completely funded by American taxpayers, though the official claimed to have no idea what the cost will be.
If the applicant doesn’t qualify for the more desirable refugee status he or she can be considered for parole, a USCIS official explained in the teleconference, which was attended mostly by immigrant rights groups known for advocating on behalf of illegal aliens. Refugee status is a form of protection offered to those who are deemed of special humanitarian concern to the United States. Parole allows individuals who may be otherwise inadmissible to come to the U.S. on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit. The State Department official assured that applicants need not express or document a credible fear to qualify under CAM because “we want to make sure this program is open to as many people as possible.”
http://www.judicialwatch.org/…/ - 34k -
If you like your child paralysis, you can keep your child paralysis
Free polio for all US citizens!
Is your base rallied yet?
Terror attack in Kenya (Obama was born in Kenya), chaos in Yemen, Russia threatening the Baltics, Iran nuke talks breaking down, Israel threatening military action against Iran, ISIS in Iraq and Syria, lions and tigers and bears, and if that wasn’t enough, Drudge linked to an article reporting that there will be a “blood moon” lunar eclipse on the same weekend as Easter and Passover
A mere two weeks ago (March 20) our solar system endured and survived a solar eclipse and so now this same solar system will have to experience (and hopefully survive) a “blood moon” lunar eclipse?
Shirley, the End Times are at hand.
What to do? Maybe go to cash? Will that be enough?
The survivors will be those who were true to diet Coke. Pepsi drinkers and tea-totallers will be obliterated. Their body parts will be everywhere! The rest of us will have to hose everything off.
And speaking of Kenya, the Ebola is back, and it’s in In Colorado’s hometown
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/front-range/loveland/colorado-patient-with-ebola-symptoms-being-evaluated-at-medical-center-of-the-rockies
I once had the pleasure visiting the ER in that hospital. It was for a false heart attack scare. Turns out I had gall stones, and bid farewell to my gall bladder a few weeks later.
The patient doesn’t have ebola, or at least that what the hospital is saying.
I wonder if he’s a parishioner from one of our fundy megachurches. The cool thing to do in those circles is to go on a month long junket … I mean “mission” … to Africa.
For you Goon: http://insider.foxnews.com/2015/04/01/you-sound-obama-hannity-takes-pat-buchanan-over-iran
I respect Buchanan’s position but talking to someone does not mean you sign a bad deal. The outlines of the “deal” being negotiated are bad. You can put lipstick of a pig and call it Lola, but in the end you still have a pig, albeit much better looking that the real Lola.
does not mean you sign a bad deal ??
There are 4 other secretaries from very powerful nations in the negotiations along with Kerry… Germany, France, Russia (and your best-of-the-best) China …Why are we (neocons) the only ones I here crying ?? Why are we (neocons) the only ones that sent a letter to Iran ??
Russia and China are essentially allies of Iran, I would not expect them to object. France has been objecting, maybe you need to get news beyond the Huffington Post, and MSNBC and Germany has been very quiet so difficult to say whether they are for or against. However, the nations that should have the most say and have been excluded from the talks, Iran’s Sunni neighbors and Israel are very opposed to the deal, and if it really was going to keep Iran from getting the bomb they would be for the deal. Even some of the left on this board admit that Iran will get the bomb but still back Obama. It is not my country right or wrong but it clearly is Obama right or wrong.
“Russia and China are essentially allies of Iran”
Exactly. They use our stupid isolation of Iran to ingratiate themselves with the current regime, much like with Cuba. And the current theocratic regime uses our actions to defend their autocracy rally the populace to their side, just like happened with Cuba.
Our good friend Russia, of course, essentially built the Iranian nuclear program, and one of the many problems with bombing those sites is that we’d probably kill a bunch of Russian scientists and engineers in the process.
If you go into a car dealership and you want to buy a car more than the dealership wants to sell you a car, you will walk away with a really bad deal. If you go into the negotiations with a clear goal on the price and you are willing to walk you will do well.
Similarly, we should have the upper hand in these negotiations. It is Iran that is suffering under these sanctions, the status quo is not hurting us at all. The countries in the region that will be most impacted by the lack of a deal do not want the deal Iran has put on the table. Iran has to worry about an airstrike from Israel and/or Saudi Arabia, if no deal is reached. Despite all these advantages, the rug merchants are winning since Obama wants this deal so bad.
So it is just like the ACA, we have to sign the deal before we know what is in it:
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-sees-progress-talks-resume-night-session-082019447–politics.html
First you say Iran is winning the negotiations, then in your next post you say we don’t know what’s going on in the negotiations.
Sounds like mindless robotic opposition to me.
No, I am saying we do not know entirely how bad it is but based on leaks it is very bad. Just like the ACA, they would not be trying to hide the details if it was not so bad.
The opening position by the U.S. on enrichment should have been our closing position. Iran can have a peaceful nuclear program but it cannot have an enrichment capacity. Most countries that have nuclear reactors do not have such a capacity. Somehow we went from that position to the capacity to produce a bomb in one year, I do not need to know the details about how bad it is, that general fact is enough to pronounce this a very bad deal.
What deal are you talking about? Has a deal been made?
There is a deal to make a deal, but the outlines clearly would give Iran the capacity to make a bomb.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-deal-a-capitulation-will-give-iran-nuclear-power-for-purpose-of-war/
I have to admit, deciding whether Obama or Iran is lying is real tough, however does not sound like they are really close to the final deal:
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iran-accuses-u-s-of-lying-about-new-nuke-agreement/
Terror attack in Kenya (Obama was born in Kenya), chaos in Yemen, Russia threatening the Baltics, Iran nuke talks breaking down, Israel threatening military action against Iran, ISIS in Iraq and Syria, lions and tigers and bears, and if that wasn’t enough, Drudge linked to an article reporting that there will be a “blood moon” lunar eclipse on the same weekend as Easter and Passover
Sounds like the lyrics to a Billy Joel song about not starting the fire or something.
Oh, and add to that we will be at year 7 in October after the 2008 financial debacle. Fasten yer seat belts folks.
The latest on Chinese housing prices, even I am amazed at how slowly the housing prices are coming down. The Chinese government is addressing the affordability problem more with wage increases than with house price declines. I thought housing prices would have to come down 20 to 30% but that was assuming a much quicker resolution, if you keep housing prices going down by about 5% per year while wages go up 10% after two years, you are basically in the same place as a 30% decline with flat wages:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-04/02/content_19978155.htm
“The Chinese government is addressing the affordability problem…”
The Chinese government isn’t addressing squat, wages will not go up 10% after two years, and housing prices in China will not continue to fall slowly.
They went up almost ten percent last year alone and should increase 8% at least this year.
I think you are confusing cost of labor due to currency fluctuations with wages - they aren’t the same.
No, not at all, I am talking about their real rise in wages, the Chinese currency largely tracks the U.S. currency. China has not moved from paying ten cents an hour to paying about 1/3 of our wages without real wage gains.
In reality wages in China ring closer to 1/10th our wages, and a flat costs 40 times that.
Support for those contentions?
In China, there are still hundreds of millions of rural peasants but if you are working in the factories even the low margin factories, you are making far more that that. Our there cities where houses cost 40 times the average salary, of course but they are just a few tier one cities and it is the elite that live there. We have Aspen and Beverly Hills here.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-19/china-wages-policy-backfiring-as-cost-jump-means-sock-city-blues
We posted some links for you a few pages back dan. Right around where Oxy called you out for magical thinking.
Sorry I missed them. But what ever they said does not change the reality that Chinese wages are approaching U.S. levels in many areas. The MSM use to print some of the facts a few years ago, when it was making the argument that jobs would be resourced to the U.S. Instead, they have gone to places such as Vietnam where the Chinese are running the factories. Oddly, the articles have stopped despite Chinese wages rising another 20% in real terms since they were common in 2012.
I was pretty sure you didn’t need to read the articles. They had information you don’t want to know.
We have evidence that China is in a painful contraction. Maybe those factory workers didn’t get a 20% raise from their $250/mo salaries last year like you hoped.
The average 1,000 ft2 flat is 40 times average salary. With 12 hour work days, the Fang Nu could hardly make up the payments with a second job. They can buy a 500 ft2 flat and pay 70% of their salary for the next 30 years.
As for Oxy’s question; Just how do they afford a house at 40 times salary (or 20), buy a rice rocket for several times their salary and manage to save 40% of their salary?
When you save 40% of your salary and are not paying Mr. Banker interest of consumer loans it is easy to pay cash for a vehicle, even twice your salary. Now, buying a house for 20 times your salary is very difficult especially since you need to put down 30% as a down payment. Of course, if you are married it with a working spouse it becomes much more manageable. However, you are assuming that homeownership is at the same level as the U.S. It is not. It tends to be the lower level managers on up that are actually buying. The migrants are living in rentals many substandard and saving up to buy in the countryside where the costs of the houses may be a tenth of price in the city.
Look Americans do not save like the Chinese but they buying houses ten times their incomes on the coasts, how are they doing it?
However, you are assuming that homeownership is at the same level as the U.S. It is not.
I should clarify it is not within the cities where the migrants work. But they do own homes back in the countryside.
“The migrants are living in rentals many substandard and saving up to buy in the countryside where the costs of the houses may be a tenth of price in the city…But they do own homes back in the countryside.”
They are a strange people indeed.
It is going to take a lot of middle managers to soak up 150 million extra of these “not for the ordinary worker” houses. Are a third of their population middle managers?
How do they do it? Well we’re here to see how it works out. Seems to work well as the bubble expands, not so well as it collapses.
Excerpt from link, now because this is from a private entity and not the Chinese government, it should be treated with even more scrutiny:
The rate of decline in Chinese home prices slowed in March from February, two private surveys showed on Wednesday, adding to hopes the housing market is stabilizing as Beijing enacts policies to bolster economy.
Prices of new homes in 288 cities fell 0.01 percent in March, the 12th consecutive drop on a monthly basis, a poll by property services provider Real Estate Information Corporation (CRIC) showed. The drop slowed from a 0.06 percent decline in February.
But home prices were 1.71 percent lower compared to a year ago, from 1.62 percent in the previous month.
“The index has been falling for one year, but the monthly drop has been narrowing for four months,” said CRIC, owned by E-House China Holdings Ltd.
China on Monday lured potential home buyers with a bigger tax break as it cut downpayment requirements for the second time in six months, stepping up a fight against sliding house prices that are imperilling the world’s second-biggest economy.
The central bank cut interest rates in November and February and lowered bank reserve requirements to encourage lending. More cuts are expected in coming months as Beijing works to meet a growth forecast of 7 percent this year.
But as stock market investors cheer China’s latest bid to boost an ailing housing sector, bankers are gritting their teeth over the risks they face in further relaxing rules on lending to home buyers.
A separate survey by China Real Estate Index System (CREIS) showed average prices in 100 of the biggest cities fell 0.15 percent in March on-month, also narrowing from a 0.24 percent fall in February.
Compared with a year ago, home prices dropped 4.35 percent, the sixth consecutive month showing an annual fall, compared to 3.84 percent fall in the previous month, said CREIS, a consultancy linked to China’s largest property data provider, Soufun Holdings.
Dan,
Falling prices in the US. And we need them to fall even more.
But … but … but falling prices destroys equity, and destroyed equity destroys the money that is backed by this equity so … so … so the equity needs to be protected and the only way to protect this equity is to protect the price.
And some folks will say this is a totally screwed up dilemma we have gotten ourselves into and, IMHO, they are absolutely correct.
R u San Diegans prepared to go broke paying through the nose for housing, electricity and water?
Pbear…Have you looked at the long term chart on Iron Ore ?? Pretty dramatic….
The 10-year view on this chart suggests the iron ore price remains inflated by a large multiple of economic reality and has further to fall in order to reach a stable bottom.
I missed one month on my water bill and I owed 271.00 this month.
My water bill last July was $70. Last month it was a whopping $15 (we don’t start watering the lawn until late May)
Time to trade in those green lawns for rocks and cacti, er, I mean xeriscaping.
Phoenix, behold thy future. No more golf course greens in the desert.
Phoenix, behold thy future. No more golf course greens in the desert.
I think we all knew that is was only a question of time. The historically low water levels in lakes Mead and Powell should be making everyone in the southwest nervous. It’s also affecting power generation at Hoover Dam:
http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060002129
So not only will the toilets be unflushed, but reduced A/C too.
I know where I won’t be going this summer.
California…. Let it dry up and fall off.
I think San Diegans have become so accustomed to being broke that they don’t even think about it anymore. That’s why I no longer live in California.
This seems to be the year that the rubber hits the road in my neighborhood. Prices rose through May last year. After that it’s too damn hot for much activity. The next couple of months data has to be compared to increasing prices in last spring’s data and should show declines YOY by comparison.
Here is a story that happened recently. A house was on the market for 349K and was “pending.” Then it went back to active and the price increased to $354K. I asked the realtor why and she said because prices were going up and it appraised higher. The first day it went back active she said 4 families looked at it. This was about a week or two ago. A few days ago it dropped back down to $349K original price. Yesterday it dropped another $250. We’ll see what happens there, but there are a lot of houses at this price point that appear to be sitting.
If I was looking to buy a house (and I’m not), and the price dropped a measly $250 I’d avoid it like the plague.
This is a cute little trick they do to get it to pop back up on all the email alerts for price reductions and to show up on zillow as price reduced. I’ve seen them drop by $100 every couple of weeks to see if they can catch more eyeballs.
Maybe it would have sold if they had asked for $348,999.99. That penny makes all the difference.
Will the Fed’s rate hike postponement lead to an inflationary spiral?
This is the point where driving while looking out the rear-view mirror gets tough.
Opinion
The Fed Needs to Step Up Its Pace of Rate Increases
Unemployment is now 5.5%, historically the lowest rate that can be sustained without starting an inflation spiral.
By Martin Feldstein
March 30, 2015 7:34 p.m. ET
The Federal Reserve now faces the tough task of unwinding the easy-money policy that has helped bring about the current solid economic upturn. But its projected path for increasing the short-term federal-funds rate over the next few years is dangerously slow. Most members of the Federal Open Market Committee want the real interest rate to be negative at the end of 2015 and approximately zero at the end of 2016. Only in 2017 would the real fed-funds rate even exceed 1%.
The justification, according to the Fed, is to achieve its statutory goals of “maximum employment and price stability.” Neither goal justifies such a slow normalization of interest rates. The Fed is aiming for an unsustainably low unemployment rate, and there is no indication it is considering the adverse effects its interest-rate path might have on financial stability.
Overall unemployment now is 5.5%. This has historically been regarded as about the lowest rate that can be sustained without starting an inflation spiral. The Fed is nevertheless projecting that its policies will cause unemployment to decline to 5% by the end of 2015 and even lower in the next two years. Historical experience suggests that means inflation would eventually increase year after year.
…
tough task of unwinding the easy-money policy ??
In the face of the world markets you bet its tough…Raise interest rates you strengthen the dollar against all other currencies…Strengthen the dollar you decrease exports and hurt American business…You hurt American business you get less production…When you get less production you have less wages and possibly layoffs…
Nonsense.
An increasingly valuable dollar means lower prices. Lower prices are positively bullish and good for the economy.
Lower prices for imported goods, not domestically manufactured goods. A strong dollar allows foreign manufacturers to produce the same item at a lower price, which is fine unless you work in a factory. You obviously don’t work in a factory.
But cheaper houses are good for everybody except realtors, who can always get a job in a factory in China.
You can’t export production for efficiencies without the benefit of lower prices. And that’s what we’re getting with an increasingly valuable dollar.
Considering they are battling the deflationary effects of globalization, this strategy would make sense for them.
I hope so. I’d like to see some inflation so I can pay my mortgage with cheaper dollars and earn higher rates on CD/savings. What’s not to like?
Get a second job then. Or dump the shack for what you might be able to get out of it.
The deflationary spiral rages on.
You’re assuming interest rates would be higher in response to inflation and that your wages would rise. Those two things aren’t guaranteed — it may just be that your cost of living increases and you still have to pay back the mortgage.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/04/02/25-years-of-monitoring-global-temperatures-from-satellites-and-an-interview-with-christy-and-spencer-of-uah/
If you had your druthers, would you druther bet on Warren Buffet or a dumb attorney?
Need to Know
Oil prices may be about ready to prove Warren Buffett wrong
Published: Apr 2, 2015 9:32 a.m. ET
Critical information ahead of the market’s open
Warren Buffett may not be solid when it comes to his oil calls.
By Barbara Kollmeyer
Markets reporter
Here we go again. Voices are calling, saying it’s time to get back into oil. At least this time around, it seems there are fewer Chicken Littles saying that’s a ridiculous notion.
“Something has clearly changed and changed for the better,” says CNBC’s Jim Cramer, who adds that expectations for oil companies are “low — so low, in fact, that they could be beaten.” He’s also been talking to oil executives who think there’s demand for oil in the low $40s.
Oil notched some decent gains yesterday, after supply data showed crude-oil production falling for the first time in eight weeks. “Indeed, it could well be an indication that the slump in drilling activity since the beginning of the year is now starting to be reflected in the hard production data,” say analysts at Commerzbank.
Watch in coming weeks for whether the trend in U.S. oil production really is reversing, they say. And of course, there’s the oversupply issue, which doesn’t seem to be going away.
It’s a tough call, clearly, as WSJ’s MoneyBeat surveyed a bunch of investment banks and came up with end-year WTI forecasts of $52 to $84 a barrel. Bank of America Merrill Lynch this morning predicted “bear market rallies” for commodities in the second quarter as it sees the dollar weakening.
Then there’s Warren Buffett, who backed out of oil stocks in the fourth quarter of last year. But hey, as our call of the day points out, the Sage isn’t always right (gasp).
…
Oil notched some decent gains yesterday, after supply data showed crude-oil production falling for the first time in eight weeks. “Indeed, it could well be an indication that the slump in drilling activity since the beginning of the year is now starting to be reflected in the hard production data,” say analysts at Commerzbank.
Even a few weeks before my schedule. If I am dumb and I tend to get things right ten times more often that you, I guess you must be special ed.
“If I am dumb and I tend to get things right ten times more often that you, I guess you must be special ed.”
My ‘dumb attorney’ remark was obviously a reference to Cramer. It’s pretty interesting how you personalize everything!
Like you and I don’t have a history of personalizing things.
There is nothing personal about calling out propaganda.
If it is propaganda, merely show some factual evidence to refute it. 99% of the time you just scream propaganda because you have nothing. I guess the Chinese are all still poor like they were in 1979 but they are driving up property prices in California by buying million dollar houses for cash. The two constant threads of posts by you are totally contradictory. We are not talking about a few billionaires being creating, we are talking about millions of millionaires.
It’s all about falling prices Dan. Falling housing prices from grossly inflated levels. Falling oil and fuel prices from grossly inflated levels.
Falling prices are the only hope to accelerate the economy.
The real propaganda is from the MSM controlled by the banksters which is trying to avoid this:
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/02/china-targets-dollar-us-government-has-conniptions-yuan-reserve-currency-sdr/
Good morning Dan.
I just realized that Dan rhymes with “ban”. Coincidence?
More bachelor shaming from the Marxist/feminist Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/wp/2015/04/02/dont-be-a-bachelor-why-married-men-work-harder-and-smarter-and-make-more-money/?tid=HP_more?tid=HP_more
Update: Oil Down 50% YoY; Housing Demand Falls 15% YoY Nationally
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/crude%20oil%20-%20electronic
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/Metro/Metro_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
It’s pretty funny how certain posters here can only see the trees of occasional one-day 1%+ oil price increases, somehow missing the forest of a 50% price decline.
Sorry but I am not in the inner cycle of the Obama administration so I do not know exactly how he is going to manipulate markets. I do provide myself some protection last Summer by writing calls on stocks. Also, why don’t you at least read the articles you post, because the basic premise was Buffett was wrong last December and did not see the recovery coming, I did.
The inner cycle? I’m pretty sure you have to be a female for that, ABQ Ban.
I’ve never made money by merely recognizing what has already happened.
I’ve made lots of money be understanding the dynamics behind what happened, and making predictions based on those dynamics playing themselves out into the future.
In other words, who cares if oil prices have already fallen 50%?
What matters is WHY they fell 50% (massive shale oil production), what the market response was to the price reduction (massive decline in drilling in shale formations), and what will happen in response to the decline in drilling (production decreasing), leading to…prices rising and drilling resuming.
The same is analogous to housing.
What would you say if someone was crowing that home prices have gone up 30%+ over the past few years? Your response should be that the higher prices will lead to more development, which will eventually lead to an oversupply and price declines–beware.
There is already an oversupply of housing and prices are falling because of it Rental_Fraud.
The interesting point is that the rig count is so low that oil production will continue to decline even after drilling begins to rise due to less wells being fracked and the sweet spots being drilled, there is a limit to how close you can drill wells, the spacing can be tighter with shale oil but we reached that limit and quality of the wells dropping in the next shoe to drop or at least to be recognized.
Oh, and then there’s also OPEC. Remember that we don’t have a free market in oil, and we won’t until OPEC runs out of the black gold.
Is it safe to say at this point that the Greek debt crisis has blown over without lasting consequences?
No, just like Obama just did with Iran, the Greek deal was a no deal, deal just meant to kick the can down the road. Had Obama not announced some kind of “deal” Congress was ready to impose new economic sanctions on Iran, now he can argue that he should be given three more months to create a deal.
Same is true for Greece, the Greek leaders were not ready to do a full reversal of their election promises, so they were given a few months to find a way to back down.
NO! It is not safe to say that. I still want to go to Greece on vacation. This has not worked out because I would have to get a cat sitter, and I coparent my cats with a person who is still worried about leaving them with a sitter (bless his little heart). The Greek debt crisis must continue until such point that I can get a cat sitter without causing household strife.
CraterRage® Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/aTK717
How did this person lose their bottom teeth?
Now this is interesting - The NY Observer is a very liberal rag in NYC……well worth a read.
http://observer.com/2015/03/president-obama-must-not-complete-a-disastrous-deal-with-iran/
Obama golfs in Florida with energy and business titans
By Jose A. DelReal
March 29
Joining Obama on the course Sunday were Floridian owner Jim Crane, an energy executive who also owns the Houston Astros; private equity mogul Glenn Hutchins, a co-owner of the Boston Celtics; and energy titan Milton Carroll, who sits on the Halliburton board of directors.
All three have golfed with the president in the past.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/obama-golfs-in-florida-with-energy-and-business-titans/ -
^Engineering another price fixing scheme.
+1 Yep, nothing personal… just business.
Nestle Continues Stealing World’s Water During Drought
Nestlé is draining California aquifers, from Sacramento alone taking 80 million gallons annually. Nestlé then sells the people’s water back to them at great profit under many dozen brand names.
By Dan Bacher for IndyMedia | March 20, 2015
The city of Sacramento is in the fourth year of a record drought – yet the Nestlé Corporation continues to bottle city water to sell back to the public at a big profit, local activists charge.
The Nestlé Water Bottling Plant in Sacramento is the target of a major press conference on Tuesday, March 17, by a water coalition that claims the company is draining up to 80 million gallons of water a year from Sacramento aquifers during the drought.
http://www.mintpressnews.com/…/203544/ - 321k -
Conservatives say its good that Nestle is taking all this water ‘cuz private bizness exploitin’ scarce resources is capitalism dang it and it’s the ‘murican way, never mind that company is a furrinner from Yurrip, it’s still privut bizness doin what privut bizness does best
Trying to perpetuate the tired, old myth that all conservatives are uneducated and speak like they are from Alabama? You’re not a very creative troll, are you?
Imagine the horror of draining aquifers for drinking water. That water is needed in Mountain View for the swimming pools of the rich and to keep their grass green. So lets destroy an industry and lay-off workers instead.
Cave man!
jeez, jeff, Nestle Waters does the same thing right here in Florida. Pumps out Crystal Springs near Zephyrhills for their Zephyrhills Water brand. They have some kind of lease agreement with a family who owns the land on which the Crystal Springs is located (which happens to be the headwaters for the Hillsborough River, the source of Tampa’s water).
Heh, Crystal Springs used to be a nice family owned and operated park where people could go and enjoy the springs, swim or tube or whatever. Then the family made a deal and they shut down the park and walled off the springs, although they left a little pipe coming through the wall where people could go and fill up jugs with spring water, how nice of them.
Nestle has to report how much they’re pumping out, but who really knows what the numbers are? There was actually a drought in this area during the early 2000s when we moved here and the Hillsborough River was shockingly low, even for a drought. My speculation was that Nestle was over-pumping, but just try and prove it. In fact I think they deliberately overpump during a drought, because it gives them cover when the Hillsborough River is at low levels. They can blame it on the drought.
That land should have been taken by eminent domain and it should have been done while the family still had the water park. Now it would cost way more, because the family gets big bux from Nestle.
Wait’ll Florida has its next drought. It will be uglier than Cali, that’s for sure. Flat ground, overbuilding and overpopulation, dry aquifers. What could possibly go wrong?
Aren’t Florida aquifers filling up with seawater?
I’ve heard that has happened in some areas of South Florida, but I don’t know if it’s true. I really shouldn’t criticize Cali, it’s actually probably far worse here, but not really known about. All it will take is one bad dry season here in Florida to really expose the problems.
I used to think that SoCal tap water was gross, that is until I tasted tap water in Orlando. I almost gagged.
Try any tap water in Monterey county sometime. You’ll vomit.
“…taking 80 million gallons annually.”
That’s roughly 245-acre-ft, not much in the world of water.
Euro Posts Worst Quarter on Record as Greek Aid Talks Stall
by Lananh Nguyen
Rachel Evans
10:17 PM PDT
March 30, 2015
(Bloomberg) — The euro posted its biggest quarterly slide versus the dollar since its inception as Greece struggled to avert a default.
The 19-nation currency’s share of global reserve holdings fell to the least in 12 years amid the European Central Bank’s unprecedented monetary stimulus. That contrasts with the U.S. Federal Reserve, which is on track to raise interest rates this year for the first time since 2006.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty on how things are going to materialize with Greece,” said Pete Karabatos, a senior foreign-exchange trader at Silicon Valley Bank in Santa Clara, California. The euro’s decline “is the worst performance since the inception of the currency, so I generally think it’s going to be negative next quarter. But I would be hesitant to think it’s going to be on a par.”
The euro fell 0.9 percent to $1.0731 as of 5 p.m. in New York, after sliding 0.5 percent on Monday. It lost 11 percent the past three months, the biggest quarterly drop since the shared currency began trading on Jan. 1, 1999.
The common currency declined 0.9 percent to 128.91 yen, pushing its drop since Dec. 31 to 11 percent, its biggest quarterly loss since September 2011.
The yen was little changed at 120.13 per dollar. It ended the quarter up against 13 of its 16 top peers, boosted by haven demand amid Greece’s negotiations and Middle East unrest.
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which measures the greenback against 10 major peers, added 0.1 percent to 1,200.68. That extended a ninth successive month of gains, the longest winning streak in data going back to 2004.
…
Another day, another 2%+ drop in the price of oil (yawn…)
Futures Movers
Oil falls on news of Iran accord
Published: Apr 2, 2015 12:16 p.m. ET
Supply concerns still weigh on market
By Myra P. Saefong
Markets/commodities reporter
WilliamWatts Reporter
& EricYep
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Oil futures fell on Thursday with traders concerned that sanctions on Iran are a step closer to being lifted by Western powers, which threatens to add to the global oil glut.
When news of a preliminary deal over Iran’s nuclear program emerged late Thursday morning, oil prices fell below $49, then recovered some of those losses.
May crude (CLK5, -3.53%) was down 69 cents, or 1.4%, to $49.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange after tapping an intraday low of $48.38. May Brent crude (LCOK5, -4.96%) on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $1.50, or 2.6%, to $55.60 a barrel.
…
“Oil falls on news of Iran accord”
That must be why Dan was against it.
Graphene supercapacitor developed, which can store electricity like a battery but has very fast charging rates. Quick fillups for your electric car. Store power from your solar panels to be used at night.
Scientists and engineers continue to chip away at fossil fuel, which is destined to slowly fade away and become a bit player in world energy.
http://phys.org/news/2015-04-scientists-quick-charging-hybrid-supercapacitors.html
Right. When did you want that trailer full of building materials? 2019?
I bet your ancestors, on horseback, sneered at the horseless carriage went by and said those rattletraps will never amount to anything.
Backpedal some more.
I think he has backpedaled all the way or at a minimum wants to completely change the subject.
she.
Sorry WPA, not trying to question your gender.
“Sorry WPA, not trying to question your gender.”
I wouldn’t want to do that either.
But since I don’t know I have to.
Now what’s the real answer here?
The real answer is that a capacitor is not an energy source.
No physics, no engineering, just blather. This chit is funny.
Kerosene will never replace whale oil!
A capacitor is a store of energy. So is a battery.
Fair enough. Let me know when a battery has the same energy density as a liquid fuel.
Ever try to get a 747 rolling down the runway with batteries?
Because solar works so well here in the northeast in the winter… and everyone knows oil is only used to fuel motor vehicles and not used in the creation of plastics and lubricants, among other indespensible materials to modern human civilization.
Could you be any more one-dimensional in your ideology and tired diatribes?
Let me know when battery technology allows for an electric full-sized 4×4 SUV to go 400 miles between recharges… at a cost that is affordable to more than the 1%. Until then, I’ll stick to my Hemi V8 380hp Jeep fueled by dino juice.
^that.
He did say that fossil fuels are “destined to slowly fade away and become a bit player in world energy”, so you might have to wait a long time.
“He did say that fossil fuels are “destined to slowly fade away and become a bit player in world energy”
So Wombat the WPA is a he?
Colorado? Goon - what say you - do the stats include pot laced brownies?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-01/americas-most-and-least-drugged-states
It seems like the highest levels of drug use are in the Trad Con south. I’ll bet that alcohol use is the higher than average there as well.
This doesn’t surprise me. The only time I’ve ever been approached by someone trying to sell me weed was in Texas (I do wonder if that was an undercover cop).
I had a good chuckle when I saw Colorado near the bottom of the list, since we now have the reputation of being the nation’s stoners.
Is a puzzled look on Robert Shiller’s furrowed brow a clear warning sign that it is time to clear the decks?
The Tell
Why Robert Shiller is calling this U.S. stock market ‘a great enigma’
Published: Apr 2, 2015 9:58 a.m. ET
CAPE ratio is at levels last seen in 2007
Robert Shiller is puzzled by this stock market.
By Anora Mahmudova
Reporter
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Confounded by this wacky stock market? You’re not alone.
Robert Shiller, the 69-year-old acclaimed economist who helped create the Case-Shiller home-price index, is having a tough time deciphering this U.S. stock market too.
The 2013 Nobel laureate and Yale University economics professor told MarketWatch that this volatile, post-financial-crisis market, in which interest rates have been at or near zero since 2008, is “a great enigma.”
So far, stock prices haven’t buckled in the face of falling earnings and signs the U.S. economy has been slowing, while the Federal Reserve is hinting at a rate hike as early as June.
But they haven’t exactly been stellar either. The S&P 500 SPX, +0.28% fell 0.4% on Wednesday and is now flat for the year.
“This stock market is an enigma,” Shiller said.
“Short-run forecasts are very difficult. But analyzing historical data taking into account cyclical adjustment, we can calculate long-term returns,” Shiller said, referring to the Cyclically Adjusted Price-to-Earnings ratio. The CAPE ratio is the ratio of the S&P 500 index to trailing 10-year average earnings, and to some, including Shiller, it has been signaling that stocks are overvalued.
And even despite these lofty levels in stocks, Shiller sees reasons why the market could still stumble higher.
“When CAPE was this high (at nearly 28), 10-year returns on the S&P 500 are nearly flat, because inevitably there is a major correction,” he noted.
…
“This stock market is an enigma,” Shiller said.
I think he meant to say enema.
Do you have a link for that article?
No, but there is copious blue, underlined text to drive home the point.
There have been only two prior episodes back to 1880 when Shiller’s Cyclically Adjusted Price Earnings (CAPE) ratio reached the current level in a bull market, in 1929 and 2000.
Is it necessary to rehash what happened to U.S. share prices shortly thereafter in each case?
Are you predicting a market crash? To profit, you need to be right on the direction AND the timing. Being right on just one often makes for a loss…
Sometimes we settle for preservation. In that case, early is OK.
Just because the market crashed within two years of the only two previous times the CAPE was this high doesn’t mean it will happen again a third time. Two data points don’t average to a statistically significant prediction.
But I think there may be more than two data points in the overall analysis.
http://peakoil.com/publicpolicy/our-current-illusion-of-prosperity
No mention of decline in oil related steel fab in this article….just blaming imports and the like - really?
http://www.postbulletin.com/news/state/us-steel-to-idle-part-of-minntac-layoffs-expected/article_c3b7584f-31ec-5a2b-ae9e-ae78ad43b2f9.html
Halliburton and Eagle Ford Shale - layoffs again
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/blog/eagle-ford-shale-insight/2015/03/halliburton-lays-off-60-employees-inside-eagle.html
Another oil related outfit shutting down…..
http://www.newsherald.com/news/business/flexsteel-closing-in-panama-city-76-employees-to-be-laid-off-1.459077
“…CEO Thirucherai Sathyanarayanan wrote…”
Now that’s a name!
No debt is the ONLY good kind of debt.
A dead debt, extinguished, retired, paid in full.
“No debt is the ONLY good kind of debt.”
UNLESS you can position yourself on the correct side of debt.
Which isn’t hard to do in a nation populated by vast hoards of dummys.
“dumbies”
“There is no way out of this dead-end debt street except for two possibilities; one is a catastrophic global financial collapse. Second, is the possibility for a courageous act of declaring an international debt jubilee; the forgiveness of all outstanding debts and the rebuilding of a global money system not based on debt.”
http://www.anielski.com/world-verge-another-financial-crisis/
Step 1: Dumb ‘em down:
“At the heart of this crisis is the level of ignorance amongst the vast majority of people about the nature of money. Most people assume that the government produces the majority of our money supply by printing money. Not true.”
Step 2: Profit:
“Private chartered banks create 98% of the money supply in the US, Canada and the UK.”
What’s your CraterRating? How many CraterCards do you have? Are you up to your a$$ in CraterGators?
crater
Say it ain’t so Xiangyu Ouyang
Stanford PhD cancer researcher arrested after ‘poisoning classmates’ water bottles with carcinogenic embalming fluid’
By Josh Gardner For Dailymail.com
Published: 09:02 EST, 2 April 2015
A cancer biology PhD student at Stanford University is facing four felony poisoning charges after confessing to putting a known carcinogen into classmates’ water bottles over the course of weeks.
Xiangyu Ouyang, 26, was on a state-sponsored scholarship from Singapore when authorities say she began dosing the bottles with paraformaldehyde - a potentially deadly form of embalming fluid - starting last September.
Now, the recipient of Singapore’s prestigious Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) scholarship has been dropped from the top university and could face as many as 8 years in prison.
According to SFGate.com, Ouyang admitted to poisoning two students’ bottles as well as her own.
‘I am truly sorry for what happened, but I really didn’t mean to harm people,’ she allegedly told authorities. ‘It was me crying out for help.’
A former roommate of Ouyang’s says both her parents were also researchers. Colleagues called her shy and insecure.
One victim told authorities that Ouyang ‘had never had a boyfriend, and envied those who had,’ Vice reports.
Despite her flaws, though, none of her classmates said they would have ever suspected the quiet Singaporean of trying to harm them.
However, the students believed someone certainly was.
‘I think someone is trying to kill me!’ one student yelled after sipping from a poisoned water bottle.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3023221/Stanford-PhD-cancer-researcher-caught-poisoning-classmates-water-bottles-carcinogen-paraformaldehyde.html#ixzz3WBXOGCzQ
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Humans do not deserve executions
By Salil Shetty
April 1, 2015
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/01/opinions/shetty-end-executions/ - 459k -
Humans do not deserve executions
They don’t deserve to be murdered.
Did you happen to check out the Women of Death Row 59 photos?
No, sounds like it could be very unpleasant.
here is my plan we give the innocence project all the money they need to do a final investigation of everyone on death row……
the inmate gets a chance of proving innocence with new dna testing and maybe a hope for a new trail or release…..in exchange they waive all appeal rights and if they are guilty the innocence project must agree to their execution in 90 days or less.
so we can recycle the jail cells and not build any new ones……….and the victims families will not have to worry about the killer ever again.
Hehe, #24… not a Maybelline girl.
A bloody day of violence and terror at a Kenyan college finally ended Thursday night with “all four terrorists” and at least 147 other people dead, authorities said.
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/kenyas-garissa-university-attacked-masked-gunman-breakingnews-com-n334386
JPMorgan Chase on track to pay $9 billion to homeowners as part of settlement
10 Hours Ago
Reuters
JPMorgan Chase is on track to meet its mandate to provide billions of dollars in consumer relief to struggling homeowners as part of a settlement it reached over bad residential mortgage-backed securities it sold before the financial crisis, an independent monitor said on Thursday.
Joseph Smith, the monitor overseeing the settlement the largest U.S. bank reached in 2013 with the federal government and five states, credited Chase $2.2 billion out of the $4 billion goal it is required to provide to consumers by 2017.
The bank receives extra credit for certain types of help and less for others, so the total is not a dollar-for-dollar accounting of the assistance provided.
The relief comes in the form of mortgage forgiveness, refinancing and disaster area lending. Chase, JPMorgan’s brand for consumer loans, must also pay $9 billion in cash, totaling a $13 billion settlement.
“We are seeing steady progress from Chase,” Smith said, noting the bank may meet its goal before deadline.
Citigroup and Bank of America have also entered settlements for their role in the U.S. mortgage crisis.
“Joseph Smith”
Is he perchance a Mormon?
Got Flakka?
I think some on this board are using it.
Others are giving it.
wat
We will go bankrupt in a week, Greece warns creditors as trust frays in debt drama
Athens officials say there is “no way” the country can stay float after April 9
Greece is battling to convince its creditors for rescue funds to keep them afloat after April
By Mehreen Khan
6:00PM BST 02 Apr 2015
Greece will go bankrupt in within a week, government officials have told their creditors, as the country’s bail-out negotiations push the cash-starved government to the wire.
A Greek government representative is reported to have told eurozone officials at a teleconference on Wednesday: “there is no way we can go beyond April 9″ - a reference to an impending International Monetary Fund repayment deadline. The claims were later “categorically” denied by the finance ministry.
The warning shot came as creditors failed to rubber stamp Athens’ latest bid to unlock vital bail-out cash.
…
phony scandals
Comment by “Auntie Fed, why won’t you love ME?”
2015-04-02 23:40:31
The survivors will be those who were true to diet Coke. Pepsi drinkers and tea-totallers will be obliterated. Their body parts will be everywhere! The rest of us will have to hose everything off.