Bits Bucket for April 18, 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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Are Grexit fears keeping you awake at night?
Yep. Haven’t slept since 2009…I am a Zombie now.
Data my friend data!
Euro/Dollar Plummets 13% YoY As Greece Sinks
http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=EURUSD%3DX+Interactive#%7B%22range%22%3A%225y%22%2C%22scale%22%3A%22linear%22%7D
It’s a great time to hold dollars in cash whilst watching other currencies tank.
Bloomberg
China Seen Expanding Mortgage Bonds to Revive Housing
2:14 PM PDT April 15, 2015
China’s Property Market
Commercial and residential buildings stand in Beijing. In 2011, Chinese banks began to curb home lending to prevent a real estate bubble from bursting. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
China is poised to expand mortgage bonds to lift its slumping real estate market that accounts for a third of the economy.
Officials will likely allow banks to sell commercial mortgage-backed notes for the first time by the end of the year after reviving securities tied to home loans in 2014, according to China Merchants Securities Co. and China Chengxin International Credit Rating Co. The offerings, which help banks boost mortgage lending by freeing space on balance sheets, will grow “substantially” this year, China Credit Rating Co. said.
The government of Premier Li Keqiang eased home-purchase rules after new housing prices slid in many cities across China in February. Authorities, who halted securitization in 2009 after subprime mortgage bonds triggered the global financial crisis, are returning to such offerings to spur an economy growing at the slowest pace since 1990.
“The launch of commercial mortgage-backed securities may send a strong policy signal because it will give banks more space to lend money directly to property developers,” said Zuo Fei, a Shenzhen-based director of structured finance at China Merchants Securities, underwriter of the first RMBS deal this year. “The regulators are trying to improve property purchases in a gradual and an appropriate way.”
…
“China is poised to expand mortgage bonds to lift its slumping real estate market that accounts for a third of the economy.”
“… real estate market that accounts for a third of the economy.”
And just what this mean?
Is one-third of China’s economic transactions associated with the real estate market? Or do they mean that one-third of China’s wealth is associated with the real estate market? Or is it somehow a combination of the two? Or maybe they mean something else?
And just what this mean? = And just what DOES this mean?
I would read it as their third of the gdp is real estate related.
“I would read it as their third of the gdp is real estate related.”
If this is true and if it is true that their real estate market is supported by debt then it follows that their gdp is supported by debt.
Debt is money. Debt is GDP.
Debt isn’t GDP. Borrowed money spent on building crap is GDP.
No smaller government or lower taxes happening here
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/17/morton-klein-and-daniel-mandel-iran-deal-will-prov
Of course not.
Not entitlement to the “FSA” was touched.
2014 US Federal Budget:
Department of Defense: 17%
Entitlements: 60%
Interest on Debt: 6%
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/media/File:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2011.png
Easy answer. Slice one percent each year until budget is balanced. Then hit the deficit.
Sorry - wrong answer.
That makes you a racist,
Someone who wants to starve kids
And throw grandma into the street.
Kirkland, WA List Prices Crater 9% YoY; Housing Demand Dives 6% YoY
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/City/City_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
http://www.zillow.com/kirkland-wa/home-values/
In 2007 it took Viagra to get it up, but this time baby I swear it’s all natural.
Give it up, HA. Kirkland is one of the hottest areas around Seattle right now. Hard to find a house there under $750K.
Your beef is with the data. Take it up with MRIS.
Yeah right, a third grade teacher came up with this thinly veiled get kids to rat their parents out assignment that is all over the national news and has already been repeated in 17 states.
“I wish my teacher knew” assignment reveals kids’ hardships
April 17, 2015, 6:44 PM|
Third grade teacher Kyle Schwartz wanted to know about the world her students live in, where 93 percent of the students qualify for meal assistance. She created a simple assignment, asking her students to complete the phrase “I wish my teacher knew.” As Barry Petersen reports, the assignment and its answers have gone viral.
http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/i-wish-my-teacher-knew-assignment-reveals-kids-hardships/ - 188k - Cached - Similar pages
I bet that teacher has some intrusive ‘what I did over summer break’ assignment too. What next? Show and…tell ?
I’d tell my kids to plead the fifth.
The teacher does know, like all teachers know, it’s all about the parents. Cruddy parents = cruddy kids, low test scores, free lunches, etc. There is no solution to cruddy parents.
But Hillary told us it takes a village to raise a child. Of course where everyone is responsible, no one is accountable.
Sixth Graders Polled On Gay Marriage, Abortion And Gun Control
by Mikael Thalen
November 24th, 2013
Updated 11/26/2013 at 8:51 am
Parents of a sixth grade student at the Milam Elementary School in Tupelo, Mississippi were shocked when their daughter brought home a political beliefs worksheet that teachers asked students to fill out.
The in-class assignment entitled “Are you a Democrat or Republican?” was posted to the “Stop Common Core in Mississippi” Facebook page with a message alleging that the young female student was told not to talk about or take the assignment outside of class, although multiple parents later refuted the claim.
Regardless, the assignment, written for 11-year-old children, asks students what their beliefs were on such issues as abortion, gun control and gay marriage, before having them tally up their “D” and “R” answers to determine which establishment party they belonged to.
The worksheet, which has a clear bias towards more government control, goes on to frame such topics as healthcare as supporting care for everyone including the poor if you are a Democrat, and essentially denying care to those who cannot afford it if you are a Republican. The paper gives no historical context of the incredible failures of government run healthcare, the millions currently losing their health insurance due to government intervention, or the government’s direct relation to dwindling quality, skyrocketing costs and loss of charity care as the push for government monopoly by both parties’ leadership continues.
The section regarding beliefs on military spending attempts to paint the Democratic party as more anti-war and pro-veteran with Republicans supporting more military intervention and bare minimum aid for those who served. Despite the so called anti-war left becoming nearly non-existent as President Obama expands his drone program and foreign entanglements, the reality of the Republican and Democrat leadership’s continued support of radical jihadists, while ignoring our veterans perils at home, is unsurprisingly absent.
Many parents not only found the assignment highly inappropriate, but question if the assignment was an attempt to gauge families’ political affiliations given the fact that many sixth graders would likely repeat what they heard at home, not having a true personal understanding of the listed topics. The assignment also clearly attempts to push children into the mindset that there are only two political parties and two mainline opinions to hold on any important topic.
Just last month, 12-year-old students in Colorado were given a similar assignment as well. A quiz entitled “Righty or Lefty?” had near-identical questions, clearly leading children towards the assumption that government is the answer to all issues facing the country.
In similar fashion, parents in Arkansas were shocked to learn that their sixth grade students were being asked to revise the “outdated” Bill of Rights after an assignment informed them that the U.S. government decided that it “may not remain in its current form any longer.”
Other outrages, such as fourth grade students in Illinois being forced to read a biography of the president that labels all white voters as inherently racist, have contributed to the rise in homeschooling as parents reject the MSNBC talking point that all children belong to the “collective” and not their parents.
Read more: http://www.storyleak.com/sixth-grade-students-told-hide-political-beleifs-worksheet-parents/#ixzz3XfeUe4nQ
But the offspring of the permanent Democrat super majority will of course ask for more statism.
And we will become another Greece but we should not study and learn from Greece because that would be hardhearted.
When 95% of your electorate is stupid, your democracy may not end well.
Castration?
Or Mr Yellon can print more money.
“I wish my teacher knew.”
How her insane public union goon pensions and benefits have destroyed public education, bankrupted cities and forced people to move/sell/abandon their long paid off houses because they can’t afford the property taxes…
LOL. Turn in that paper and you’d have SWAT teams breaking down your door & social services hauling away your kids before sundown.
Is it time to wheel out someone from the PPT since the dow was down almost 300?
Maybe another fed member can talk about buying some more bonds or saying rate hikes are off the table for 2015?
Doesn’t it feel good to buy overpriced assets cause some folks thinks prices should be high?
“Maybe another fed member can talk about buying some more bonds or saying rate hikes are off the table for 2015?”
I hope so. Collapsing demand is the best cure for grossly inflated prices.
Here is another irony, the U.S. stock market fell after the Chinese markets had closed up but their futures market were showing big losses after regulatory changes that were perceived to be an indication that the government wanted to cool the market. While he is an excerpt from a link that is about to post that suggests that is not the case. So maybe China’s stock markets will be down less on Monday than our markets were yesterday:
BEIJING, April 18 (Xinhua) — New measures unveiled Friday to promote the balanced development of margin trading were not meant to suppress the stock market, an official said Saturday.
Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and two industry associations issued a notice to encourage institutions to lend stocks for short selling and expand the number of stocks available for investors to sell short.
In the past five years, margin buying experienced rapid development, while short selling with borrowed stocks saw much slower growth, the notice said.
China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) spokesman Deng Ke said the notice aims to promote the balanced development of transactions in both directions of margin trading.
Taking the rules for a crackdown on the stock market is a misinterpretation, Deng said, adding that short selling by borrowing stocks is a mature mechanism commonly adopted overseas that can reduce fluctuations, discover reasonable prices and hedge against market risks.
“discover reasonable prices”
Perhaps there is the perceived danger.
What happens when boatloads of borrowed money goes against you.
CraterRage Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/2fL5c1
We got another inch or so of rain last night, reservoirs are at about 80% or better now. Too bad some of this rain isn’t falling on CA.
I’ve gotta red maple to plant today after my lumbar mri. Strategic placement calls for this deciduous specimen to be on the southwest corner.
Housing - one of the fsbos in my hood threw in the towel and went realtor. One of the others appears close to closing as the owners moved out, inspections done, etc.
About 7 out of 8 FSBOs seem to be delusional in their “wish pricing.” Always enjoy seeming them throw in the towel after months with no buyer interest.
Lack of exposure on the mls hurts a lot. This guy didn’t even do a discount listing service to get it on the mls. He had a sign in the yard for a month or so. I checked realtor.com and he is under contract now after a couple weeks of having listed it with a realtor.
he’ll break even. He just moved in a year ago and bought at close to $200k. Listed at $230k now.
Care to speak to all the the fraud going on ibbots?
It is always worth a shot to sell FSBO for a few hundred dollars.
Especially if you throw in 2.5% in a realtor brings you a buyer.
You never know.
And it gives you pretty good leverage when choosing a realtor to slice the commission.
Another week of no rain means housing is up at least 10% in Kallifornia.
California had a high tech bubble burst that brought it to its knees. Then around eight years later it had a housing bubble burst that brought it to its knees again. It seems to want to engineer a simultaneous bursting of bubbles so it can live in really interesting times.
Here’s a worrisome development: Our views are converging.
“California had a high tech bubble burst that brought it to its knees.”
+1 Home equity extraction to the rescue!
Not happening this time. Mr Yellon will not let it happen.
Chinese “investors” view on their stock market:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-04/18/content_20468347.htm
Another excerpt from link:
Some specialists and investors do not agree. Citibank recently burst a number of potential bubbles, claiming that there was no risk until market indices hit double current levels.
Sun Yu, chief China securities strategist at HSBC, believes that a more open capital market with less government control over IPO pricing means that now is the time for foreign investors to hit China’s market.
Not all market rises are bubbles: government policy and national strategy have fueled this rise. Since the beginning of this year, innovation has been the watchword of China’s leaders. “Makers” are the new economic heros and “Internet Plus” key to an innovation economy.
Propaganda Dan.
Excerpt from link, Mao in the stock market have to love the irony:
BEIJING - Mao Yuhui, a Beijing civil servant, did not buy the new Corolla as planned when he got lucky in Beijing’s car plate lottery. An incautious man, he put all his money into the Chinese stock market.
“The stock market is so hot, maybe in two weeks I can buy a Camry instead,” he said. Mao invested 90,000 yuan ($14,500) and expects to double his money. As of Thursday he was 20,000 yuan to the good.
Mao is one of millions of Chinese investors clinging to a rocketing market. All this week, the Shanghai Composite Index has set new high after new high. From April 7 and April 10, more than 1.68 million new accounts were opened in the A-share market. On April 12, a ban on multiple accounts was lifted, so each investor can now have up to 20 accounts.
The number of investors exceeded the capacity of the market data system. China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp Ltd reported delays in processing digital certificates on Tuesday, and many new investors, desperate to join the feeding frenzy, failed to have their accounts approved.
Not very Mao-like. Someone needs to go back and re-read their Little Red Book.
No bubble here:
“… expects to double his money.”
“… is one of millions of Chinese investors clinging to a rocketing market.”
“… the Shanghai Composite Index has set new high after new high.”
“From April 7 and April 10, more than 1.68 million new accounts were opened in the A-share market. On April 12, a ban on multiple accounts was lifted, so each investor can now have up to 20 accounts.”
“The number of investors exceeded the capacity of the market data system. China Securities Depository and Clearing Corp Ltd reported delays in processing digital certificates on Tuesday, and many new investors, desperate to join the feeding frenzy, failed to have their accounts approved.”
When the Chinese bubble crashes, there will be major social unrest. Decades of communism have completely rid the Chinese of any Confucian notions of personal responsibility for your own fate and decisions. They’ll blame the government (rightly) for allowing and enabling the bubble, and associated fraud and corruption, in the first place.
The Chinese communist party is in the same predicament as Putin and his cronies. Given what they have done while in power, if they ever truly lose power, then they’ll end up in prison or dead.
Hence, they can never lose power. So they must run what are, in the end, totalitarian regimes. And totalitarian regimes can never really prosper long-term, because there is no reliable rule of law in them.
rid the Chinese of any Confucian notions of personal responsibility for your own fate and decisions
Sure doesn’t match my experience with the few Chinese nationals I have gotten to know over the last few years…
Next they will gamble on kallifornia housing. Or was it already done?
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-04/18/c_134162376.htm
This is a real dilemma for Goon, it is in WUWT but it is quoting the NYT and they are real journalists. It shows just how much the U.S. is losing its “soft power” due to the rise of China:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/04/17/developing-world-abandoning-obama-green-agenda-turning-to-china-for-help/
Of course, Obama’s green agenda is to help the crony capitalists now funding the Democrats. So he will use the public institutions using massive amounts of American taxpayers’ dollars force countries to spend their loans on his crony capitalists technology. It is good to be king and I would love to see his Cayman Island account.
When Obama leaves office, I wonder how many millions of dollars he’s going to rake in giving speeches or being on the advisory boards of the insurance firms he enriched with his compulsury Obamacare.
UK Guardian, Dannyboy
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/18/florida-obama-climate-sceptics-earth-day
Warmists gonna warm
Here’s an article about Florida sea level rising that includes a picture, and the picture carries this caption:
“Sea level rise threatens Florida’s infrastructure, even though government officials may or may not be allowed to acknowledge climate change exists.”
Which suggests that this picture shows to the rest of us folks just how it is in Florida.
So my question is: Is this how it is in Florida? My guess is: No, but I’m not in a position to say because I don’t live there.
But I am a bit skeptical, not saying the picture is photo shopped but am suggesting that the flooding in the picture is not due to the ocean rising.
I say this because I live close enough to the beach to be able to notice whether or not the ocean (the Pacific Ocean, in my case) is rising or not and I do not see a lot of it happening. But then I wouldn’t expect to see a lot of this rising because the rise is supposed to be measured in fractions of an inch.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/16/florida-climate-change-rumored-ban-jonathan-steverson
You do know.
Al Gore predicted we all would be dead by now.
The boiling oceans would have made beachfront property in Kansas.
Funny how Al Gore’s living habits and living standards only got better and better the more he spoke about the destruction from global warming…
“I say this because I live close enough to the beach to be able to notice whether or not the ocean (the Pacific Ocean, in my case) is rising or not”
I’m going to put on my worldwide scientist conspiracy hat and suggest that a small rise in sea level (say, one inch) would not be ‘noticeable’ to your eye, but would result in more flooding during rain events, very high tides, storm surges, and the like. And would also affect saline levels in local estuaries, rivers, and streams that empty into the ocean.
I now return you to “watts up with that” to get the real story.
“So my question is: Is this how it is in Florida? My guess is: No, but I’m not in a position to say because I don’t live there.”
Bullsh#t Bullsh#t
Do some streets get like this picture after a heavy rain? Sure, just like 30 years ago when I moved down here.
If they took the same picture 45 minutes later would the same street be dry? Sure, just like 30 years ago when I moved down here.
Does my mom’s basement in Old Greenwich on Midbrook Lane get water in it when rains a lot and it’s high tide? Sure, just like 55 years ago when it was built.
Ironically that basement was bone dry after Super storm Sandy’s high tide arrival which seems odd with the sea level rise and all.
“Ironically that basement was bone dry after Super storm Sandy’s high tide arrival which seems odd with the sea level rise and all.”
Further proof that ’super storm Sandy’ never actually happened. That sand was trucked in, those people were actors. It was all staged so Christie could man-hug Obama and whisper ‘I support sharia’ in his ear. The secret sign.
“Further proof that ’super storm Sandy’ never actually happened.”
Oh it happened, and there was a storm surge just like 1928 when storm surge from “sea level rise?” killed all those people by Lake Okeechobee.
1928 Okeechobee hurricane
From Wikipedia
The Okeechobee hurricane, or San Felipe Segundo hurricane was the second deadliest tropical cyclone in the history of the United States, behind only the 1900 Galveston hurricane.
Early on September 17, the storm made landfall near West Palm Beach, Florida with winds of 145 mph (233 km/h). In the city, more than 1,711 homes were destroyed. Elsewhere in the county, impact was severest around Lake Okeechobee. The storm surge caused water to pour out of the southern edge of the lake, flooding hundreds of square miles as high as 20 feet (6.1 m) above ground. Numerous houses and buildings were swept away in the cities of Belle Glade, Canal Point, Chosen, Pahokee, and South Bay. At least 2,500 people drowned, while damage was estimated at $25 million.
“Oh it happened”
Who are you and what have you done with my bro’ phony? Those were clearly actors, the same as seen in numerous ’scenes’ from various mass shootings around the country.
“Super” storm Sandy was staged to glorify the climate change heresy and to bring together the establishment wing of the GOP (Christie/’Christ’) with the sharia wing of the dems (Obamallah), in a demonic bid to bring down both western civilization and our daughters’ panties.
Please tell me you recognize this, or tell me where phony is.
“Those were clearly actors, the same as seen in numerous ’scenes’ from various mass shootings around the country. ”
Only 1 mass shooting with actors that I know of.
Still, back to your point of sea level rise and climate change if you look at a map of where Old Greenwich Ct. is compared to the flooding on Long Island, NYC etc. if the problem was actually sea level rise and not storm surge you would think Old Greenwich would be flooded also. It wasn’t.
Well, looks like it’s going to rain again in South Florida so maybe we will get 2 feet of water in our living room today like President Obama says happens every time. So far I have been really disappointed, it’s like he was trying to push some agenda or something.
” it’s like he was trying to push some agenda or something.”
And the agenda is?
A worldwide conspiracy of scientists to…make us conserve energy more? To make us insulate our houses more? To make solar companies more profitable and oil companies less profitable?
What’s the ulterior, nefarious motive? The evil of energy independence?
Scroll down for your answer.
The Global Warming / Climate Change Scam
Written by Leigh Haugen, guest post on 03 October 2014.
Are there no interests opposed to this climate change scam? Are they hobbled by lack of money? Lack of political power?
Why don’t we hear from them?
“In the same way I think there are families right now in south Florida who see two feet of water coming into their house every time it rains and start thinking, you know what? Rising temperatures and rising ocean levels are going to affect my property.”
“Warmists gonna warm”
Ground Control to Major Tom
Our houses are dry, there’s something wrong
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
Can you hear me, Major Tom?
————————————————————–
7:22 p.m. Friday, April 17, 2015 | Filed in: Weather
Update, 6 p.m.: If you are traveling on Interstate 95 or Florida’s Turnpike in West Palm Beach, get ready for some heavy rains.
A strong cell near Wellington is headed east, bringing heavy rains, wind and lightning.
Update, 5:30 p.m.: Heavy rains are moving from the Royal Palm Beach area east toward West Palm Beach, radar indicates.
Storms are expected to continue throughout the evening in Palm Beach County.
Update, 4:45 p.m.: Strong storms are continuing to hit Palm Beach County, moving from Lion Country Safari east through the northern part of the county.
Frequent lightning, rain and gusty winds are prevalent in North Palm Beach, Jupiter and Palm Beach Gardens.
Update, 4:15 p.m.: Almost all of northern Palm Beach County is under dark skies and storms, according to radar.
——————————————————————–
CBS’s LaPook Helps Obama Advance Narrative Climate Change Is Harmful to Personal Health
By Curtis Houck | April 8, 2015 | 9:00 PM EDT
LAPOOK: Did that bring it home for you with Malia, this is affecting my daughter? I have to do something about it.
OBAMA: You know, there’s no doubt about it. In the same way I think there are families right now in south Florida who see two feet of water coming into their house every time it rains and start thinking, you know what? Rising temperatures and rising ocean levels are going to affect my property. Part of what I’m trying to communicate here is that there is a cost to inaction.
- See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/curtis-houck/2015/04/08/cbss-dr-jon-lapook-frets-climate-change-legislation-has-stalled#sthash.8H5cD4DG.dpuf
While 95% of the American electorate have voted in favor of continued crony capitalism with their support for Obama, McCain, Romney, and now HillaryJeb, Spain is starting to take a harder line on its rapacious oligarchs.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/04/18/don-quijones-rodrigo-rato-former-imf-president-bankia-fiasco-president-spanish-vp-untouchable-gets-crushed-by-the-law/
The week has not been kind to Rodrigo Rato, the embattled former vice-president of Spain, former president of the IMF, and former president of ongoing bank-bailout-fiasco Bankia. First the Spanish news website Voz Populi reported that he was under police investigation for tax fraud, money laundering and embezzlement. That was on Tuesday.
Later that same day, Rato was recognized by passengers on an easyJet flight from Geneva to Madrid. Things must be bad if a man of his standing and financial means has to stoop so low as to travel low-cost with the hoi-polloi. One assumes it will be the last time for a long time after he was forced to spend an excruciating hour and a half being heckled, filmed and accused of robbery by his fellow passengers.
How many bankers has obama put in jail again???
FREE JOHN CORZINE!!!
The Founding Fathers tried to warn us about the likes of HillaryJeb. Too back we have become too amoral and dumbed down as a people to heed their warnings.
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/hillary-clinton-and-jeb-bush-corrupt-successors-to-the-same-old-dynasties_042015
From George Washington’s farewell address: “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.”
George Washington, if running today, would have been called a racist, gun nut, homophobic, child starving, throw grandma in street, anti-choice, Indian killer with white privileged by today’s left.
GO HILLARY!
Yes we can!
Hope and change.
Yep and he would have bombed I rack, I ran and all other ..stans.
All I can say - at least there was a vote to bomb Iraq in 2003.
With dictator obama - he has “a phone and a pen.”
————————–
58% of Democratic senators (29 of 50) voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002. Those voting for the resolution are:
Sens. Lincoln (D-AR), Feinstein (D-CA), Dodd (D-CT), Lieberman (D-CT), Biden (D-DE) , Carper (D-DE), Nelson (D-FL), Cleland (D-GA), Miller (D-GA), Bayh (D-IN), Harkin (D-IA), Breaux (D-LA), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Kerry (D-MA) , Carnahan (D-MO), Baucus (D-MT), Nelson (D-NE), Reid (D-NV), Torricelli (D-NJ), Clinton (D-NY) , Schumer (D-NY), Edwards (D-NC), Dorgan (D-ND), Hollings (D-SC), Daschle (D-SD), Johnson (D-SD), Cantwell (D-WA), Rockefeller (D-WV), and Kohl (D-WI).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Resolution
George Washington, if running today, would have been called a racist, gun nut, homophobic, child starving, throw grandma in street, anti-choice, Indian killer with white privileged by today’s left.
What point are you trying to make with this statement?
NOAA: March 2015 for combined land and ocean surface temperatures was hottest on record:
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/service/global/map-percentile-mntp/201503.gif
Meanwhile, humans just keep pumping that CO2 into the air:
https://scripps.ucsd.edu/programs/keelingcurve/wp-content/plugins/sio-bluemoon/graphs/mlo_full_record.png
All you have to do is look at the climate over the last 400,000 years which can be found at climate4U and you will see what a hoax CAGW is. The only reason we set a record by .02F last year (based on 1880 to current records, and just maybe since it falls within the margin of error) is NASA and NOAA changed previous data claiming that it could not be right according to their models. In the brave new world of the Obama administration the models trump the actual data. But if you look at the 400,000 year climate estimates, we are still 2 degrees Celsius cooler than normal. We may because of El Nino be .02 F warmer this year ago before we start cooling next year. The AGW crowd will talk about the record but not how meaningless a .02 rise is when compared to normal peak of an interglacial period.
The slow temperature changes of 400,000 years ago due to natural variations are irrelevant to the rapid temperature changes induced by the equally rapid massive injection of CO2 by humans over the last 100 years.
It’s a tsunami of evidence Dan. Rapid Greenland ice melt, record low Arctic ice extent for April 2015, record land and ocean temperatures, glaciers disappearing, ocean rise, ocean acidification, methane craters in Siberia, record droughts, record intensities of cyclones… and all of this happening at once right now.
All of that occurs every interglacial cycle, it is normal.
There has never been such a rapid change in temps or CO2 (<100 years). Geological processes don’t happen that fast. It’s a logical fallacy to try to use prehistoric natural events to disprove manmade forcings occurring today. It’s an apples to oranges comparison.
CO2 is fertilizer, and the more fertilizer you use, the better. There is no upper limit.
Right, gardeners, farmers, chemists, botanists, and biologists?
Right?
There is no upper limit to BS, that is for sure.
No upper limit to BS we have been shown, certainly. Have we ever been shown no upper limit to CO2?
Have we?
Isn’t it curious how China authorities ring the alarm bells on the stock market at the very same time short sales are authorized? Someone is about to make out like bandits!
That theory might have some validity except for link I just posted. The Chinese did not wait for the stock market to drop before they explained they are not trying to cool the market. I know it sounds strange to us but they appear to just be trying to create a more capitalistic market where short sellers are able to speculate as easy as the longs thereby creating a balanced and more stable market.
It’s called “foaming the runway” over here in the U.S. Not sure of the Chinese term…
You are saying two contradictory things that the government is encouraging a fall to make money for cronies and then it is trying to reduce the crash.
No. You are saying that I am saying two contradictory things.
For clarification, it looks from this side of the Pacific like the government stood back while a ginormous stock market bubble inflated, and is now foaming the runway by tightening up on margin lending at the same time they ease restrictions on short sales. This should enable crony capitalists to make out like bandits by short selling just as the authorities spark a panic to facilitate quicker slaughter of fattened hogs.
I don’t disagree with the government’s move to ease short sale restrictions, as short sales increase market efficiency by making it easier for prices to adjust downwards in case fundamentals deteriorate, as has recently occurred in China. Just found the concurrent timing with a “Red flag warning” on stock prices to be a bit curious…
This development brings to mind George W. Bush’s nationally televised deer-in-the-headlights warning on U.S. markets in Fall 2008:
President Bush Addresses Nation on Economic Crisis
Check out his analysis of the housing market…it’s pretty impressive, especially considering what has occurred in the US housing market from 2008-2015!
Bush’s address is a classic apology for too-big-to-fail bailout policy.
Markets
China Raises Red Flag on Its Stock Markets
Regulator warns small investors, raising fears of a market selloff that couple ripple across globe
Fund managers are looking for value in the state-owned behemoths traded on the Shanghai exchange. Photo: Carlos Barria/Reuters
By Chao Deng
Updated April 17, 2015 9:41 a.m. ET
China’s securities regulator issued its strongest warning yet about the country’s soaring stock markets and tightened rules on margin lending, while the country’s two stock exchanges said they would make it easier to bet against stocks, spurring worries that the world’s best-performing markets could tumble.
The announcements late Friday by the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges and two industry associations raised fears of a selloff in China, where the main market index has doubled over 12 months and the riskiest index is up 70% this year.
A selloff in China could affect markets around the world, analysts said. “If China is down 5%, it’s going to weigh on global sentiment,” said David Welch, head of equity distribution at brokerage firm Reorient Group.
The CSRC warned small investors, who have been big drivers of the rally, not to borrow money or sell property to buy stocks, ratcheting up its rhetoric about the market. Mainland investors opened stock-trading accounts at the fastest pace ever in the week ended April 10, and margin account balances reached a record 1.16 trillion yuan ($187 billion) as of Thursday, according to the Shanghai Stock Exchange.
The regulator banned a type of financing called umbrella trusts that provided cash for margin trading, the practice of borrowing against the value of common shares held at a brokerage, and placed limits on margin trading for highly risky small stocks that trade over the counter, rather than on exchanges.
The regulator said customer accounts needed to be better classified, potentially a warning that limits will be placed on the type of trading permitted for small investors.
The exchanges issued rules that would make it easier for investors to short, or bet against, stocks. To short a stock, an investor borrows shares and sells them, hoping the price will fall and so let them repay with cheaper shares. It has been difficult to short stocks in China even as valuations soared because it has been virtually impossible to borrow shares. The exchanges said they would push for an increase in the supply of shares available for lending and increase the number of stocks whose shares can be borrowed.
“Margin business has been growing rapidly, but short selling business has been developing slowly,” the exchanges said.
…
I wrote a housing bubble haiku a few years ago that quite nicely summarizes the situation at hand:
Barn door left open
All of the horses have fled
Hurry, shut the door
As a bubble the Chinese market would have had plenty of room to run. Chinese stocks are selling at 16x earnings which would be above the norm for US stocks but not very far above it. That is why the Citibank person said China’s stocks would have to double to be in a bubble. Thus, they are closing the barn door rather early since all the horses are clearly not out. Certainly, it has the feel of the beginning of a bubble but the clear irrationality based on price is not there.
16X earnings if you believe their financial data. I don’t.
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who take China’s official economic statistics at face value, and those who don’t. (Well, maybe three kinds — I’m ignoring the 99% who don’t give a flying f__k.)
Judging but the number of posts you make about China neither you nor I are in the 99% category. I do not take any statistics at face value but I do not find that China’s data is widely different from the poor quality data coming from all other countries. Apparently, neither does Citibank hence the quote that I included in one of the links today.
Fair enough…given politicians are generally willing to deceive the masses in order to manipulate them, any official statistics should be taken with a big grain of salt.
US is the master of fake data. China close second.
Industries | Fri Apr 17, 2015 6:33am EDT
Related: Financials
UPDATE 1-China allows fund managers to lend stocks for short-selling
* China allows fund managers to lend shares for short selling
* Will let investors short sell more types of stocks
* Margin financing growing but short selling lagging-regulators
By Samuel Shen and Pete Sweeney
SHANGHAI, April 17 (Reuters) - China on Friday allowed fund managers to lend shares for short-selling, and will also expand the number of stocks investors can short sell, in a bid to raise the supply of securities in the market.
Investors now face difficulties borrowing stocks for sale, even with some companies trading at lofty valuations.
China’s shares posted seven weeks of gains, reaching seven-year highs on Friday, as retail investors rushed to open stock accounts and borrow a record amount of money to buy shares, pushing trading turnover to record highs.
Institutional investors including mutual fund companies and asset management businesses of securities firms are encouraged to lend stocks because the “margin financing business has been growing rapidly, but the business of short-selling has been developing slowly,” the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges said in a statement.
Friday’s announcement, also issued by the Securities Association of China, comes a day after the launch of two stock index futures that provide investors with new tools to hedge against risks.
“This is a combination of actions that is negative to the stock market,” said Shen Zhengyang, Shanghai-based analyst at Northeast Securities.
“With index futures to hedge against risks, institutions would be willing to lend stocks for interest income.”
Shen added that a correction in Chinese stocks “is unavoidable”, given the rich valuations of some stocks.
The type of stocks that investors can short sell will also be expanded soon to 1,100, from 900 currently.
At a new conference in Beijing, China’s securities regulator warned investors to be cautious of market risks.
“Some investors have insufficient understanding and alertness of market risks,” Deng Ge, spokesman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission said. “I want to remind retail investors: invest rationally, and always treat the market with awe.” (Reporting by Samuel Shen and Pete Sweeney; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)
…
All things being equal, does it make sense to refinance your house to an interest rate 1/2 a point less? Seems like a lot of effort for a small possible reduction in payment a month.
This is where the magic of rising equity comes into play. You not only get the advantage of dropping your interest rate by 1/2 of a percent on your current debt but at the same time you get to cash out some of that equity that would otherwise be sitting around in your house rotting away - cashing out equity at an interest rate that is 1/2 a percent cheaper than it was before.
Assuming no cash out seems like it makes little sense.
It depends on many factors such as how long do you realistically expect to stay in the house, for most people they will not stay long enough to get back the costs of refinancing.
Rule of thumb is 1%, ie if refi results in reduction of 1%.
Getting rid of pmi would be one reason to refi even if reducing rate by <1%.
Might change your recourse status…
Time vs money.
How much will the refinance cost in TOTAL. To all include all fees, taxes, reinsurance, fed ex expenses, etc.
How much will you save per month.
Calculate the break even point in time.
How long will you be in the house.
If break even point in time < How long will you be in the house
then it makes financial sense.
And luckily you don’t have to worry about any money that would have been in the bank earning ANY interest. So it makes the calculations really easy!
But it doesn’t cost anything because I don’t have to pay anything, they just roll it in and I get a lower rate right? (;
With rates so low right now and “ZIRP forever” Yellen, I’m thinking ARMs look pretty good right now. A 7/1 ARM is at 3.0%. Even if inflation and rates explode 8 or 9 years from now, with a 5% cap the rate maxes out at 8%. If the mortgage payment is affordable at 8%, then I think the risk-reward ratio of an ARM is not bad.
Then put your money where your mouth is..,.
That’s right…..you don’t have any.
Is Alibaba stepping on the banksters turf?
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/17/us-alibaba-autos-idUSKBN0N816P20150417
Did you sell your stocks on time?
The moment The Cheese Sandwich Trucks, Inc stock gets back to six bucks a share is the moment that I’ll be out - out and rich!
I already have my sell order entered into the system. All I have to do now is wait.
Time will tell. Sold almost all of my staffing stock last year. I hardly ever realize gains on my stock mutual funds though. Drastic moves are almost always the way to lose. Strategy is that when you need some extra cash you sell the asset with the biggest gains. If you don’t need extra cash then don’t sell. And if you dollar cost average over time, and consider your cost basis, market corrections will temporarily knock down your NAV but you anticipate that temporary setback anyway and if you weathered steep declines before, no reason not to ride out the storm ahead.
I am on board with DCA but also prone to pulling the plug when it seems like a correction is in the works. Guess I have a case of cold feet.
When I read stuff like that I just review My Vanguard ten year performance charts and also notice the dividend payouts I get now compared to back ten years ago. And every one has been and is reinvested.
The Dow is up 3.23 points so far in 2015. Lololol!
How are pension going to get their 7% annual rate of returns????
But…I have more shares of the funds that I have been dollar cost averaging. And they do pay dividends. I have time.
Economics
Yes, Worry About the Stock Market
Mark Gilbert
Apr 14, 2015 11:45 AM EDT
By Mark Gilbert
Stanley Druckenmiller, the man who broke the Bank of England and made $1 billion in 1992 by selling the British pound with his colleague George Soros, is worried about today’s economy. For Druckenmiller, it feels like 2004, just before the financial crisis, just before the global economy slid into recession. “There is nothing more deflationary than creating a phony asset bubble, having a bunch of investors plow into it and then having it pop,” the investor told the Lost Tree Club in Florida on Jan. 18.
On Friday, a transcript of that talk started circulating (you can read it here). The same day, the total value of the world’s equity market surpassed $70 trillion for the first time ever, extending a rally that’s seen it expand by 175 percent since its 2009 nadir of less than $26 trillion:
…
Druckenmiller’s message is that the economic backdrop doesn’t justify the Federal Reserve keeping borrowing costs near zero, and that its policies are forcing investors to take on extra risk to boost returns. Half a decade ago, there was a risk that Japan-style deflation would trash the U.S. economy, justifying emergency measures; in recent years, Druckenmiller said, those concerns have turned out to be “dead wrong,” but the Fed hasn’t changed course:
…
“There is nothing more deflationary than creating a phony asset bubble, having a bunch of investors plow into it and then having it pop,”
Are deflation-shy FOMC members aware of this?
To compound their conundrum, raising rates against a backdrop of economic weakness is also deflationary. That’s why they have been pushing on a string for five years running with no end in sight.
Oops…actually seven years and counting (2015 - 2008). Been going on for so long already with so many rate increase head fakes that I have lost track of the time.
ft dot com > Markets >
Capital Markets
April 17, 2015 11:34 am
Federal Reserve and Treasury market face uncharted territory
Michael Mackenzie in London, Robin Wigglesworth in New York and Sam Fleming in Washington
A man walks past a Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO) advertisment which is displayed on a building in Hong Kong, China, on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross raised the percentage of Treasuries and other U.S. government-related debt in his flagship fund in October after the Federal Reserve unexpectedly maintained its bond purchases. Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
©Bloomberg
The task of lifting interest rates from near-zero levels — when it finally happens — will be an unprecedented one for the US Federal Reserve. Never before has the central bank been faced with the challenge of starting to unwind such a vast amount of stimulus.
But venturing into uncharted territory does not stop there. Profound changes in the composition of financial markets — and in the menagerie of players operating in them — will make this a very different operation from when the Fed completed its previous interest rate tightening cycle in 2006.
This week, the International Monetary Fund highlighted a principal danger of the next tightening cycle: investors rushing for the exit to escape falling prices, while a senior Fed official expressed concern about bond market liquidity.
Such concerns are warranted by the transformation of the US bond market since the financial crisis. Dealers, who support the market and underwrite Treasury debt sales, have become smaller and are less willing to stem volatile changes in prices, reflecting tougher regulations and higher costs of capital.
Meanwhile, the size of the US bond market has swollen markedly over the past decade, with Treasury debt tripling to $12.5tn.
In turn, sovereign wealth funds and large institutional investors, led by BlackRock and Pimco, have become far more powerful players in the US fixed income universe. Thanks to the suppression of interest rates, money has flooded into bond funds, driven by retiring baby boomers. Foreign demand for US debt has also grown sharply, with Japan and China each owning $1.2tn of Treasury bonds.
The one-way traffic into US bonds by investors, aided in part by the explosive growth of fixed income exchange traded funds in recent years, now overshadows the efforts of the central bank in trying to normalise interest rates over the coming year.
Robert McAdie, head of research and strategy at BNP Paribas, says a poorly conceived signal from the Fed could trigger a “serious effect” in markets.
“Due to illiquidity you could see severe moves and losses that could spiral.” He adds: “These volatility spikes make it harder to manage risks. This is a problem that is here to stay.”
The IMF this week warned: “Without the buoyant liquidity provided by the Federal Reserve, the liquidity-inhibiting impact of regulatory changes, industry consolidation and other secular factors will probably become more pronounced.”
…
Buttonwood’s notebook
Financial markets
Bond markets
The great bond conundrum
Apr 16th 2015, 14:57 by Buttonwood
Timekeeper
AT THE start of 2015, the yield on Germany’s 10-year bonds was 0.54%, which probably did not look very enticing to investors. Now, however, the yield is just 0.1% and seems to be heading inexorably for zero. Already the average yield on all German debt is negative. A recent survey found that a net 84% of global fund managers thought bonds were overvalued.
How far can this go? That is the dilemma. In the long run, such a yield looks crazy; in the short run, not so much. The European Central Bank is buying bonds to the tune of €60 billion ($64 billion) a month. Betting against a purchaser with an unlimited credit card is like standing in front of a train. Nor does it matter whether or not you believe the evidence that the euro-area economy is recovering (something that would normally cause bond yields to rise). “In this monetary policy environment, short-term data don’t matter” says Salman Ahmed of Lombard Odier, a fund manager.
One can only have mixed feelings about this. In some respects, the argument for lower bond yields is a “this time is different” case familiar to those who lived through the dotcom bubble (and thus deeply suspect). On the other hand, people have been calling the top of the Japanese bond market for more than a decade, without success. Back in September 2011, the British weekly, the Spectator wrote that
But it has not yet done so. As Justin Fox, a shrewd observer of these things, wrote yesterday, the media overuses the bubble term. But there have been a lot more of them in recent decades (the first chart, from GMO, an investment-fund manager, defines a bubble as a price that moves more than two standard deviations from its real trend) so it is tempting to see them everywhere.
In your blogger’s view, this is the result of central-bank policy, which has tended to intervene when asset prices fall, but not when they rise. This “asymmetric ignorance” has encouraged speculation and also landed central banks with a dilemma. If they fail to cut rates, or tighten policy, markets may crash. But with each crisis, the required level of support gets greater, moving eventually from the simple measure of cutting rates to outright asset purchases. At each step, the need to intervene proves overwhelming. As Tim Geithner, former Federal Reserve governor and Treasury secretary, once wrote:
The result of all this, however, is that it gets ever more difficult to normalise policy. As a report published earlier this year by McKinsey, a consultancy, showed, total debt levels in most advanced economies are higher than before the crisis. Private-sector debt has simply been shifted onto public balance sheets. Servicing that debt at interest rates of 4% or 5% a year would be too much of a strain. Countries like Sweden that started to tighten policy and raise interest rates have been forced to retrace their steps and cut them again.
So it may be at least a bit different this time. Regardless of whether you believe in secular stagnation, both real and nominal growth are lower than they used to be (see second chart).
That would also suggest that interest rates will be lower than before.
Another difference is that an old taboo has been removed; that of the zero nominal bound. Central banks have cut short-term rates below zero in the euro area, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland. Bond yields are also negative in many of those countries; the Swiss even issued a 10-year bond with a negative yield. Economists used to think this wasn’t possible. After all, investors can hold physical cash as an alternative. But it seems that yields will have to be much more negative before they do that. In part, this is because of the nature of modern money; few people want to hold great piles of cash. It is neither convenient nor secure. Most modern money is electronic and that is subject to negative rates. Furthermore, many investors (pension funds, insurance companies, commercial banks, central banks) are forced, or at least accustomed, to holding government bonds for regulatory or accounting purposes; they are indifferent to price or yield.
There must be some negative yield at which attitudes would change. Mr Ahmed points out that, if yields fell below -2%, it would be worth setting up a hedge fund, converting client money into cash and holding it in a vault, and offering to outperform the bond market.
We are not there yet. So what would bring the bond bull market to an end? A tightening of Federal Reserve policy might not do it, not least because the gap between Treasury and German bond yields is already high. Any surge in Treasury yields would prompt buying by European investors. A return to healthy global growth might not do it either, because of the problem already referred to: a surge in bond yields might end up sabotaging such growth because debt levels are still so high. The trigger for a crash would thus need to be a rise in inflation on such a scale that central banks would be forced to act, regardless of the growth consequences. Some bears think that this will be a two-stage process in which deflation is so severe that the authorities will be forced to target inflation by opening both the fiscal and monetary taps. But times are not quite that desperate yet.
…
Stock Markets Fall Around the World
By PETER EAVIS
APRIL 17, 2015
A trader on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 279.47 points. Credit Justin Lane/European Pressphoto Agency
Signs of complacency were evident before stock markets around the world tumbled on Friday.
European shares have been on a tear this year, even with Greece seemingly edging closer to default. Doubts about China’s economy did not stop its stocks from more than doubling in the last 12 months. The United States market has been lukewarm this year, but the excitement seemed back on Thursday, after three companies carried out initial stock public offerings that rose sharply on their first day of trading.
But the good times evaporated on Friday. The day’s moves weren’t large by recent standards, but the global nature of the swoon gave traders and analysts pause. The benchmark Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 23.81, or 1.1 percent, to close at 2,081.18.
The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 279.47 points, or 1.5 percent, to close at 17,826.30. At one point in the day, it was down as much as 357 points. The Dow is more or less flat for the year and down about 2.5 percent from the high, not adjusted for inflation, that it reached last month. The Nasdaq composite index fell 75.98, or 1.5 percent, to 4,931.81.
Chinese stock futures, which allow traders to bet on future movements in shares, plunged on Friday. The sell-off occurred after Chinese market regulators on Friday announced changes that could restrict the supply of loans that investors use to finance stock trades and increase the amount of negative bets against Chinese stocks.
A technical issue also agitated traders. There was a failure of about two and a half hours on Bloomberg terminals, the computers that banks and investment firms around the world rely on for many financial activities.
Germany’s DAX index declined 2.58 percent. Adding a chill to the market on Friday, the yield on the 10-year German government bond fell to 0.08 percent.
Investors flock to German government bonds during periods of nervousness, making people willing to accept such low returns. The yield on the United States 10-year Treasury note, another safe haven investment, fell to 1.87 percent from 1.90 late Thursday.
Some analysts said the markets had looked vulnerable to a sell-off.
As shares have risen, the valuations on companies have become more expensive, which can make investors less likely to hold them if earnings disappoint. Volatility in the markets has also dropped in recent weeks, suggesting that investors thought that the outlook for stocks and bonds was predictable.
“If there is a news item, the market reacts because of this vulnerability,” Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, said.
…
While “Zimbabwe Ben” Bernanke and Yellen “The Felon” debase the dollar into worthlessness with their deranged money-printing, the Chinese are poised to offer an alternative world reserve currency - one that may be backed by the massive physical gold holdings they have accumulated since 2008.
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-04/18/content_20468392.htm
Good source. LOL. However, you are right that is the end game and the time table is speeding up.
We will know we are in the “end game” when treasuries are created that will be repaid NOT in dollars.
It is the end game of every corrupt government when no one wants their bonds (in the host country’s currency).
It buys just a little a more time before total collapse.
But for the corrupt in power - ANYTHING to stay in power is worth it.
The corrupt in power can count on a brain-dead, docile 95% of the electorate keeping them there, and bending over for their oligarch accomplices on demand.
A reasonable person would have to suspect that your constant denigration of 95% of the “electorate” implies that you think that you are in the top 5%. Let’s just get something straight right now. Not only is voter turnout is generally lower than 50%, but you are not better than the people who get out there and do.
If China and/or Russia back their currencies with gold, the stampede out of the dollar is going to be epic.
obama thinks trillion dollar deficits don’t matter.
As long as it buys the right amount democrat votes.
It has worked so far as America has the reserve currency of the world and we have just exported massive inflation to everyone else.
This trick doesn’t work if you are not the reserve currency of the world.
See Zimbabwe for a recent example. Printing a deficits just make your country poorer and poorer if nobody wants to use your currency.
Printing and deficits ALWAYS end in disaster.
I can hear the democrats now - no one could have saw this coming. It wasn’t our fault. We had the best intentions…
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2015-04/17/content_20454916.htm
South Africans looting I guess because the Ferguson police department is racist.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Thursday that China has already made formal complaints to South Africa over xenophobic attacks against Chinese nationals.
Blacks attacking Chinese is not racist.
It is only racism if whitey does it. Or even thinks about it. Or performs a micro aggression by holding the door open for a black lady…
Heck, “racist” is not racis.
The real war on women.
————–
Bill Clinton - Juanita Broaddrick rape accusation - Network tv interview
youtube | Lisa Myers, NBC DATELINE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ug7diBO3XYY
This is really the unthinkable. An attorney general, running for governor, brutally bites and rapes a nursing home owner. The rapist and his wife have a long history of launching attacks with PIs to intimidate into silence others who could tell their stories.
Brings to mind what recently happened to the San Diego mayor.
Though I have to wonder whether this story is merely a byproduct of the vast right wing conspiracy designed to bring down the Clintons.
Of course it is. Clinton is a saint.
What horrific crime against God did America commit to doom ourselves to the punishment of eight more years with the Clintons in the WH?
It’s called descending into IDIOCRACY. Watch the movie and suddenly it all becomes clear why retards turn out en masse to vote for the likes of Bush, Obama, McCain, Romney, or HillaryJeb.
i dunno….if you are a celebrity women even married ones throw themselves at you, flash you, grab you, and cant seem to say no, until they want their 15 minutes of fame.
so i find rape accusations very skeptical..
Your line of argument gives good cover to celebrity rapists, and a good reason for non-celebrity women to avoid situations which put themselves alone with the likes of a Bill Clinton or Mayor Bob Filner.
The feminists would gladly hold down the rape victim if the rapist was Bill Clinton or any other “progressive.” What a vile group of losers.
You are about the last person who should be speaking for feminists. JB and her friend say they knew she was raped and did nothing about it? WTF? Like they did not have feminists and rape support centers then? 21 years later, with no proof is too late to expect feminist support. Bill Clinton will not be running for office anymore. The motives for bringing this out now will not get feminist support either.
It takes a mucho dinero to keep the FSA voting the right way…
———————–
Where your tax dollars go
Pioneer Press | 4-14-15 | John Gray
It’s a question that naturally springs to mind when tax season rolls around: Where are all those tax dollars being spent?
In total, Washington will spend $12,304 per citizen. Unfortunately, the government will collect only $10,878 in tax revenue per person. That means that, you, the American citizen, will be left with an additional tab of $1,426, on average. The $1,426-per-person represents this year’s deficit of $455 billion.
Perspective: Adjusting for inflation, the government spent $894 per person in 1940, $7,319 per person during the peak of World War II (1945), $6,026 per person in 1980 and slightly more than $7,000 during the 1990s.
Where does that spending of $12,304 per person go? Let’s take a look:
Social Security: $2,884 per person.
Medicare: $2,103 per person.
Food stamps: $241 per person.
Other mandatory and welfare programs: $2,530 per person. Medicaid ($1,129 per person), Supplemental Security Income ($188 per person), and unemployment compensation ($113 per person) are just a few examples of other mandatory spending.
Total mandatory spending is projected to swell to 14.2 percent of gross domestic product in 10 years, consuming 78 percent of all federal revenue.
Defense: $1,774 per person.
Education: Almost $300 per person.
Net Interest: $868 per person.
In Florida we have apparently started batch foreclosures. I came across this gem while looking through the lists in Palm Beach County:
http://151.132.206.222/pdf/nv_273_20498374_img.pdf
It is scheduled for April 23rd if you happen to have a couple of extra million dollars.
Whoa! Did you notice the penalty interest rate that was applied after default??!? 25% per annum—unreal! I thought only CC companies could get away with that kinda stuff.
50 condos… Interesting.
Hillary Clinton Is Grooming A Former Goldman Banker To Become America’s Next Treasury Secretary
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/17/2015
The humorous spin continues:
It got so bad a member of the Hillary SuperPAC almost caused the entire staff of CNBC to burst out in laughter when she said that “Hillary is certainly making it clear that she is running as a champion for everyday Americans. People who are looking how to get by, get ahead, stay ahead.”
Suddenly it all falls into place: Wall Street’s banks paid Clinton handsomely so that, under the guise of endless populism, she would stack her staff with current and former Wall Street professionals, those who would never dare abuse the status quo in which Wall Street was, is and will remain at the very top in America’s social and financial oligarchy. In other words, more of the same.
http://www.zerohedge.com/…ing-former-goldman-banker-become-americas-next-treasury-secreta - 274k -
The staff of CNBC has no business laughing at anyone but themselves for being in the tank. Have they yet given any air time to the Judicial Watch story on how ISIS is camped miles from our southern border?
http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/weekly-updates/exclusive-isis-border-threat-exposed/
What a crock of shit. Don’t believe all the BS you read on the Internet.
More stupid than the 95%
Comment by phony scandals
2015-04-18 12:24:06
Hillary Clinton Is Grooming A Former Goldman Banker To Become America’s Next Treasury Secretary
zerohedge.com/news/2015-04-17/hillary-clinton-grooming-former-goldman-banker-become-americas-next-treasury-secreta
Who is it you think she should groom instead? Of course you need someone who has experience in the industry. Hillary’s candidacy is not about a war on Wallstreet. She is not running as a reformer. She is running on representing the interests of the middle class. Did you by any chance notice that she will also have to work with a Republican Senate and Congress. That is, unless they keep acting so anal that they get themselves voted out in 2016.
So far as Wallstreet is concerned, one would expect the market to correct itself by 2016.
In other words, more of the same.
When 95% of your electorate is stupid, “more of the same” is pretty much a given no matter how badly the sheeple are getting screwed over.
Funny how the only political faction you do not denigrate are the Obama “progressives”. Got your Politifacts all straight? But WE are all sheeple? Give me an F’n break. You are a Bobot.
“The world is now recognizing a basic truth of our times: We need to buy insurance for the planet,”
I’m sure we’ll have to buy that insurance from Geico which is owned by Obama supporter Warren Buffett.
UN Secretary General to Visit Vatican to Discuss Climate Change
April 17, 2015 - 12:34 PM
By Melanie Hunter
(CNSNews.com) – In a speech at the National Press Club on Thursday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that he will visit the Vatican later this month to meet with Pope Francis to discuss common concerns, “including the encyclical on the environment that he plans to issue in the month ahead.”
“The world is now recognizing a basic truth of our times: We need to buy insurance for the planet,” Ban said. “We must all be ambitious as we look to conclude on our agreement at the climate change conference in Paris in December.”
cnsnews.com/…/un-secretary-general-visit-vatican-discuss-climate-change - 77k -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-04-18 12:50:11
UN Secretary General to Visit Vatican to Discuss Climate Change
cnsnews.com/news/article/melanie-hunter/un-secretary-general-visit-vatican-discuss-climate-change
Insurance? So if the Earth becomes uninhabitable we’ll get a payout from Lloyd’s of London and use the proceeds to purchase a brand new replacement “Earth”?
Or just relocate the populous to Newt Gingrich’s 52st state, aka the moon.
how about some market driven price discovery please? why should I overpay 100k for a house or grossly inflated facebook shares?
UT-San Diego
Editorials
No contrition for Poway Unified bond fiasco
U-T San Diego Editorial Board 05:00p.m. Oct 14, 2014
It’s election season in the Poway Unified School District, and two board incumbents are facing criticism for approving an unusual $105 million construction bond that could cost nearly $1 billion to repay — an action that was taken in 2011 without a clear explanation to residents of what the school district was up to.
Trustees Marc Davis and Todd Gutschow say it’s not fair to judge them on one decision. They note, correctly, that Poway Unified has maintained its reputation as an outstanding school district during years of budget headaches stemming from the decline in state revenue.
But there is a problem with this argument. From Poway Superintendent John Collins on down, there’s been little contrition from district leaders over the decision. Even as the insanely costly borrowing terms drew international ridicule and prompted a new state law putting limits on bond repayment terms, Poway officials suggested critics didn’t know what they were talking about and said they had no choice but to accept a terrible bond deal.
If Davis and Gutschow want to be judged on their full record, that record includes not just one bad decision in 2011. It includes years of subsequent arrogance-driven denial.
If they won’t admit that what they did was wrong, who’s to say they won’t make similar mistakes again?
its nice to spend other peoples money.
Just crossed paths with Marc Davis at a social function, which reminded me of those famous Poway School District capital appreciation bonds.
Some day I’d like to corner him and have a frank discussion about the logic of passing today’s liabilities onto the backs of tomorrow’s taxpayers.
He didn’t win reelection. Have to wonder whether that bond deal wss a factor.
Is it safe to assume that today’s captal investment will appreciate by a nominal factor of ten in thirty years’ time?
Or will deflation scuttle the plan?
If we print lots of cash anything is possible.
The Global Warming / Climate Change Scam
Written by Leigh Haugen, guest post on 03 October 2014.
The other side of the Climate Change story that they so desperately want to hide…
It’s all about money and power, not the environment. So many people who love the outdoors and respect the environment fall for the climate change scam because they never seriously consider the alternative – that it’s just a scam. You think that if you care about the environment and our future you must care about climate change and you wear your participation in this horrific scam like a badge of honor. This generation and anybody who loves the outdoors and cares about our environment should care enough to take the time to do the research and know the facts about climate change.
Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Change is simply the greatest scam in world history. The Big Green industry driven by the incessant UN/IPCC quest for money and power has become one of the most corrupt criminal enterprises the world has ever seen – all courtesy of the climate change scam.
It’s not about pollution or saving the environment anymore. Look at all of the major players, UN/IPCC, US/NASA/NOAA, EPA, Wall Street, virtually every major environmental group, 3rd world countries, wind, solar, biofuels (Rothschilds, Rockefellers, JP Morgan, Lazard Freres, Schoellkopf, Kuhn-Loeb, Warburgs, Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs http://tinyurl.com/36xedyg)…etc, every single one of them has gone ‘all in’ on the climate change scam and misappropriated hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer funding around the world. Money that could have been used to address real clean water, food, pollution and economic issues instead of creating green millionaires and billionaires and building the framework for Agenda21 and unelected, unaccountable global government by stealing taxpayer money from the 99.9% and driving up the cost of everything – right when people can least afford it.
http://www.climatechangedispatch.com/the-global-warming-climate-change-scam.html - 82k -
People should really educate themselves about Agenda 21. It’s all out there on the web for all to read (drink lots of coffee).
It’s currently being implemented at local government level via zoning laws and planning commissions. Basically, it packs people in high-density housing right along public transportation corridors. Only the 1% will own single-family houses (which consume too many resources and take too much space) and drive cars (which consume too many resources and pollute too much) in the future.
And my local city is paying a city planner to count C02 emitted by both businesses and residents within the city. I truly wish I was making this up but I attended the meeting in which said planner explained her job.
We all emit C02 every time we exhale - should we pay a carbon tax for breathing? The end game of the extremist environmental movement is the total extermination of humanity - Gaia worship to be sure.
Is the BOJ buying stocks so people have disposable income?