Bits Bucket for April 29, 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
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ZIRP forever, baby!
scr@w the savers! We need another round of QE so stocks can go higher. Its quite interesting that the QE really favors stock owners.
Why dont they give the middle class some free money to spend instead of giving free money to stock holders?
Aren’t the middle class stock owners? Don’t they have 401ks that have doubled in the last few years creating the wealth effect? Don’t they also have houses that have seen their values rise by 30 percent plus in the last 3-4 years?
The middle class has benefitted greatly from this QE stuff. Every one is a “fiscal conservative” until their house drops in value and their 401k takes a hit. The majority of the public is behind the bail outs and QE and all the fiscal policy measures that keep the boat afloat. This is a fundamental reason why OWS was doomed to fail.
The majority position on this board is a small minority position overall.
We met the FSA and it is us?
They have nothing till they cash those 401k’s in. Its illusionary wealth. Could be gone in a short time. Everyone knows its a major bubble waiting to collapse with some sort of catalyst.
Sure some people have seen their homes go up in price but now there are people forced to overpay to have a roof over their head. House prices are grossly inflated again thanks to QE. Why is it that high prices are the cure for everything?
What happened to savings and work? Now we just increase asset prices till the bubble pops and then print more money to mop it up. Its like giving free money to people who have assets.
Take a loan from your 401k and buy a house! Or two. Say what you want about it all going poof, but the majority is in favor of this. The 65 percent who already own houses want those prices to stay up.
Zimbabwe had one of the best stock markets in the world on a nominal basis for about a decade. Just ignore inflation and we will do fine. (sarcasm off).
“Zimbabwe had one of the best stock markets in the world on a nominal basis for about a decade.”
Sounds similar to China today.
Except the fundamentals support the Chinese market and foreign investors have been investing. Zimbabwe was never supported by fundamentals just money printing.
You have to wonder at what point economic fundamentals will overtake central bank manipulation of credit markets.
Economy Central Banks
China Readies Fresh Easing to Tackle Specter of Debt
Central bank’s shift will allow banks to swap local-government bailout bonds for loans
A pedestrian walks past the People’s Bank of China headquarters in Beijing. The central bank is planning fresh easing measures to tackle a worrying buildup of local-government debt. Photo: Bloomberg News
By Lingling Wei
Updated April 28, 2015 3:37 a.m. ET
BEIJING—China’s central bank is readying its most aggressive easing tool since it launched a massive stimulus plan in 2008 to counter the global financial crisis, in a bid to help one of the government’s most important economic-rescue initiatives get off the ground.
Chinese leaders have singled out the ballooning debts of various levels of government as an economic threat that must be defused. But a debt-for-bond swap plan aimed at giving provinces and cities some breathing room has started to hit snags as many of China’s commercial banks are balking at purchasing the new bonds.
That is prompting the People’s Bank of China to speed up consideration of an innovative tool, according to officials with knowledge of the central bank’s deliberations. Under a Chinese version of strategies used in Europe’s bailouts, the PBOC would let commercial banks swap the local-government bonds they purchase for loans from the central bank, with the aim of keeping the debt-restructuring effort on track without causing a painful credit crunch.
On Tuesday, the Finance Ministry urged local governments to “speed up debt issuance” to move ahead with the debt-for-bond swap program.
“The purpose of the plan would be to encourage commercial banks to buy those bonds while making sure that wouldn’t cause a shortage of funds available for lending,” one of the officials said.
The unorthodox strategy, which the officials say could be adopted in the next couple of months, suggests growing nervousness among China’s policy makers that Beijing may fall short of reaching its already lowered expectations for growth—set at 7% for this year, the lowest level in a quarter-century. Key to maintaining reasonable growth, senior Chinese officials have said, is the country’s ability to gradually reduce debt levels that many say increasingly threaten China’s financial stability.
…
Oliver,
Much of this country’s middle class has not experienced anything of the sort.
Most of the middle class has not seen their homes increase 30 percent in the past 3-4 years. Not even close. Most people do not live in California, Washington, Denver or Dallas. Further the “middle class” that you speak of who live in these areas are not middle class as defined by people who o not live there. In most areas of the country, household income of $150K is a great deal more than “middle class”.
Further, most in the middle class do not own stocks. They do not have 401ks, either.
We differ on what we call middle class. Yes, many have not benefitted. Many more have. Phoenix is not SF or New York or CA, but prices have gone up there 30 percent as they have in most places where there was a big drop. Most do not live in Nebraska.
The 1 percent do not own all those houses included in the 65 percent plus home ownership rate. The middle class does have 401ks, what decade are you living in?
MacBeth, what you are referring to is the “working class,” also known as blue collar, and could be classified as “lower” middle class. You know, union goons and all that. There isn’t much of that left.
No, I’m not referring to the “working class”.
What I am referring to is 100 million people.
Median household income is about $55K annually. That means half of all U.S. households pull in less than that.
OIl cities exist all over the country. Most cities are nothing like Phoenix, coastal California, etc.
Look at home prices the following cities: Columbus, Ohio. Indianapolis. Pittsburgh. Chattanooga. Little Rock. Kansas City. Milwaukee. Memphis. San Antonio. El Paso. Houston. New Orleans. Louisville.
Most of those cities have 500,000+ residents.
Ohio is home to 10 million. Pennsylvania home to 12 million. Texas is home to 28 million. Indiana is home to 6 million. Tennessee is home to 6 million.
This board looks at the economy in a heavily biased manner.
Housing is local. As is income. What is “middle class” in coastal California isn’t in Louisville.
Nor is the ability to invest in stocks. It’s an outrageous comment to state that most of the middle class invests in stocks.
OK now I see where you’re coming from. I was thinking of “middle class” in terms of what big stuff the household can afford, not as the median.
btw, the big stuff is purchase a house, purchase one car which can be paid off in 3-5 years, invest in 401K (or get pension), be able to send kids to college, comfy but not elaborate retirement.
I guess that’s the 1970’s model. And it’s obvious that today’s median class hasn’t kept up with the middle class of the 1950’s-70’s, even with households adding a second semi-skilled income during that time.
That lifestyle is set aside for Debt Donkeys.
http://www.areavibes.com/
check out cities, crime etc.
“Look at home prices the following cities: Columbus, Ohio. Indianapolis. Pittsburgh. Chattanooga. Little Rock. Kansas City. Milwaukee. Memphis. San Antonio. El Paso. Houston. New Orleans. Louisville.”
I think that there was a time in America when working class and middle class were two separate groups of people. At some point people, especially politicians, stopped talking about the working class. Now we talk about the rich, poor, and the middle class. If you’re not rich and you’re not poor you’re in the middle. So most of the working class was rhetorically promoted to the middle class.
The percentage of net worth that the middle class derives from assets is very small compared the same percentage for the upper class. Middle-class people rely mostly on wages, and hope to earn enough to also purchase performing assets. Upper-class people rely mostly on the performance of their existing assets.
Aren’t the middle class stock owners?
I would say that only the upper end of the middle class has non trivial 401K savings or other stock holdings. The average Joe/Betty spends every penny they earn. Save money? But I just have to have an iPhone 6 with and unlimited data plan, a satellite TV subscription with the works and eat out every other day with the guys/gals/
Why dont they give the middle class some free money to spend instead of giving free money to stock holders?
The middle class is bending over and grabbing its ankles for the .1% by voting for its political enablers like HillaryJeb. There’s no need to give money to people that stupid, not when they’re perfectly willing to go on enriching the .1%.
The HillaryJeb .1% masters are doing a really good job, on average, providing for their ants. On average, the ants are healthier, better fed, happier, better educated and more entertained by a long shot than at any time ever in history.
And it is only going to get better with AI and virtual reality just around the corner.
“Needless to say, this giant speculative class is showered with immense windfalls in the casino system that inexorably supplants traditional financial markets under a regime of modern Keynesian monetary policy. The speculative class, in turn, returns the favor in the form of political support for the so-called “independence” of the Fed and via embracing the self-justifying ideology of the central bank usurpers.”
“Instead, it ends-up bidding up the price of financial assets–that is, inflating financial bubbles. And this is exceedingly perverse because sooner or later financial bubbles burst when they reach utterly irrational levels and the last sucker is fleeced in the casino. Bursting bubbles, in turn, cause a sharp retrenchment of household and business confidence, resulting in lower spending and intense liquidation of excess inventories and labor accumulated by bullish businesses during the financial bubbles apex.”
“Needless to say, the central bankers and their Wall Street shills then say I told you so——claiming that the economy is now caught in a circular swirl toward the drain. It can only be “saved” if our indispensable central bankers have the “courage” to crank up the printing presses for another cycle of rinse and repeat.”
“What the central banks have generated, instead, is a casino that is blindly impelled to churn the secondary capital markets and inflate the price of existing assets to higher and higher levels—-until they ultimately roll-over under their own weight. That is, the central banks have fostered an unstable and destructive system of speculative finance that everywhere and always is the enemy of genuine capitalist prosperity.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/why-markets-are-manic-the-fed-is-addicted-to-the-easy-button/
Needless to say, this giant speculative class is showered with immense windfalls in the casino system that inexorably supplants traditional financial markets under a regime of modern Keynesian monetary policy.”
The productivity didn’t spread out but concentrated wealth for the “owners” . Economics a weird complicated science.
Bernanke is cashing in for his easy money policies:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pimco-hires-bernanke-senior-advisor-143017648.html
bernake is a genius as seen on the several youtube clips out there saying there was no housing bubble. Its sure funny how the media likes to forget that.
All it takes is throwing a few pretentious words comingled with 10 chapters of blather. Rental_Fraud is a perfect example.
Real estate “infesters” looking for yield:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/real-estate/Record-US429b-in-funds-for-real-estate/shdaily.shtml
Stock market now below 18,000, QE episode V? Or is it the Phantom Menace?
QE has had mixed results for me, by driving 100% cash speculators into housing it made it impossible for me to buy with a mortgage in 2011/2012…but when I gave up on that idea in mid 2012 and retired early I got waaay more for cashing out my pension than I would have had interest rates been normal, rolled the cash into an IRA and it has done well so far as has my 401K. However I don’t see how QE can possibly end well and actually expected the STHTF by now.
Why buy a depreciating asset at a grossly inflated price when you can rent it for half the monthly cost?
PB, oil up over 2% again today. Yawn.
gas is 3 bucks a gallon in ca again. I had a feeling it wouldnt last long.
…and yet people still buy 4wd Navigators down there?
$2.30 in my neck of the woods.
I managed to get it for $2.19 at Costco but it seems it is north of 2.30 at other gas stations.
2.09 in PA, CT and NY.
$3.40
Refineries to blame they say, maintenance shutdowns, strikes….
That’s good for me. I told you I held my nose and bought at recent (intermediate) lows.
Time will tell whether the rate of currency debasement is sufficient to more than offset the demand collapse.
Yea, that is what you said, totally inconsistent with the rest of your posts but I do remember you saying that.
Not at all inconsistent. We are living in a world where asset prices can diverge wildly from fundamentals.
Exhibit A: Chinese stock market
It’s been going up at over a fifty percent annual rate since my first purchase last December. . I’m wishing I had backed up the truck!
Demand is not falling and storage is not overflowing. But the weird part of this article, is I believe T. Boone was talking about this draw on Monday on either CNBC or Bloomberg and it appears that this government data was not released until today, according to the story. I guess T. Boone is still friendly with the Obama administration:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/oil-dips-high-supply-saudi-022721035.html
evah
The Fed is hinting that rate increases are still on the table, and Mr Market is taking them at their word and throwing a taper tantrum in response.
Got popcorn?
…ever seen a hungry baby get it’s bottle taken away…?
Yes. Every day on CNBC.
What is the “D-word”?
Debt? Devaluation? Deflation? Depression? Defenestration?
What could the “D-word” be?
MarketWatch First Take
Opinion: Fed, White House fail to mention the D-word
Published: Apr 29, 2015 2:43 p.m. ET
By Steve Goldstein
D.C. bureau chief
There’s a word that both the Federal Reserve and the White House didn’t mention Wednesday that has played havoc with the U.S. economy this year — the dollar.
Search the text of the Federal Open Market Committee’s statement, or the statement put out by the White House after the disappointing first-quarter gross domestic product report, and you won’t find any direct mentions of the strength of the greenback.
Part of that is down to politics and the mantra that only the Treasury speaks about the dollar. Because, without mentioning the dollar, the Fed pretty well describes what has happened.
“Inflation continued to run below the Committee’s longer-run objective, partly reflecting earlier declines in energy prices and decreasing prices of non-energy imports,” the Fed said.
That doesn’t sound like much, but look carefully at the back part of that sentence — the reference to “decreasing prices of non-energy imports.” That’s another way to say that consumers and businesses can buy more stuff and services from abroad for less.
And, why is that? Because the dollar is up 26% against the euro over the last 52 weeks, and about 17% vs. a broader set of currencies as measured by the WSJ dollar index.
The White House allusion to the dollar is even more subtle. Written by Jason Furman, the chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, the White House statement does note that volumes of U.S. exports are sensitive to foreign GDP growth. This weak growth has of course helped the dollar to rise.
Furman has previously been on the record about the dollar being a headwind for U.S. growth. Whether the new tone is a result of pressure internally from colleagues at Treasury or more a political shift isn’t clear.
Either way, both the Fed and the White House are finding it hard to ignore the biggest elephant in the room.
…
It strikes me odd that the stock market sold off on the bad GDP number. Don’t Wall Street peops realize the chance ZIRP will never end just increased?
Did your Twitter shares get twacked?
Speaking of social media, research proves the existence of bought and paid for professional “protesters” who take their orders directly from Eric Holder and are paid with checks personally signed by Obama:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/04/28/social-media-analysis-suggests-links-between-baltimore-and-ferguson-violence
This Baltimore situstion has you pretty wound up.
You voted for Obama twice, I hope you’re proud of what you created
I voted for O twice. He did a great job getting us out of the Bush Recession. Sorry, he could not end the Bush wars.
Next time give me a better (GOP) option.
McSame/ Palin??? seriously??
I’ll vote for Rand if he makes it through. I like the idea of cutting off Israel and saving $8 Bill a yr.
Next time give me a better (GOP) option ??
Ditto here…
Write in = clean hands.
Any “better” GOP option would be run out on a rail during the primaries.
That said looking at party platforms, the best moderate GOP option candidate is probably Hilary.
I voted for O twice. He did a great job getting us out of the Bush Recession.
The recession ended on its own, technically, in the Summer of 2009 before any of Obama’s policies had taken hold. Cyclical recessions like cyclical climate change is just a fact of life. What is unusual is typically the deeper the recession the more robust the recovery. It did not happen this time and I believe that Obama is mostly responsible for that. It is very hard to tell the difference between this recovery and the recession for tens of millions of Americans.
if good happens on O’s watch, it happens magically.
if it is bad, then O did something wrong.
you are embarrassing yourself.
Cyclical recoveries are not magic, they are the norm.
BTW, a comparison between the Reagan and Obama recoveries:
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/04/obama-vs-reagan-big-government-socialism-proves-to-be-as-disastrous-as-expected/
Cyclical recessions like cyclical climate change is just a fact of life.
It was not a cyclical recession. It was a recession caused by a financial crisis - vastly different and much more rare.
You know this but you act like you don’t Adan.
Baltimore!
Wikipedia has this to say about the t.v. series “The Wire”:
“Despite receiving only average ratings and never winning major television awards, The Wire has been described by many critics as one of the greatest TV dramas of all time. The show is recognized for its realistic portrayal of urban life, its literary thematics, and its uncommonly deep exploration of social and political themes.”
The Wire has been described by many critics as one of the greatest TV dramas of all time.
+infinity. One of the best series ever, IMO.
I’ve just started season 4 of the wire.
The Wire was awesome.
“This Baltimore situstion has you pretty wound up.”
5. Thug
by Infowars.com | April 24, 2015
Here are four actual words leftists tried to ban!
1. BROWN BAG
In 2013, a memo was sent out to city employees in Seattle, Washington that banned the words “brown bag” due to its “offensive nature.”
2. BLACKLIST
Ever been blacklisted or used the term? Obviously you’re racist – and police in the UK agree.
3. BOSSY
“Stop using the word bossy, now!” say ironic women not understanding irony.
In early 2013, Michelle Obama championed a campaign to ban the word “bossy,” arguing that the word was used to defame women.
4. CITIZEN
Attempting not to scare away their illegal immigrant voting base, Seattle successfully banished the word from all government paperwork.
Just call them n*****s’: Baltimore city councilman lashes out at CNN anchor for referring to rioters as thugs
By Evan Bleier For Dailymail.com
Published: 21:20 EST, 28 April 2015
A Baltimore city councilman has lashed out furiously against an CNN anchor who called rioters ‘thugs.’
‘Just call them n*****s,’ Carl Stoke wryly told CNN’s Erin Bernett live on air.
Before asking Stokes what he thought about the word, Burnett pointed out that Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and President Barack Obama had both chosen to use the word.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3060084/Carl-Stokes-tells-CNN-s-Erin-Burnett-Just-call-n-s.html#ixzz3YhpM6WQs
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
The purpose of “real journalists” has nothing to do with the alleged news, their mission is scripting narratives and social engineering.
“…if you like your CVS toilet paper you kan keep your CVS toilet paper.”
Leave no flat screen TV behind?
Youz gots to prioritize.
In all seriousness, Al Jazeera has a report on Baltimore and showed what the west side of Baltimore looked liked compared to the white areas just ten miles away. It is no wonder, it is a ticking time bomb. Al Jazeera also mentioned that at one time the area had a steel mill that use to employ all the high school drop outs from the area and paid a decent middle class wage. This country needs presidents that will create jobs for people that will never be coders or it is going to get increasingly ugly. To be bringing in more unskilled labor to compete with the existing residents by amnesty, is nothing short of treason and perhaps designed to create an explosion.
It’s interesting the admin wants to fight terror groups with jobs. Maybe applying the same to these areas would do a world (nation) of good. It would also help if dads stepped up to be men but that’s a whole ‘notha social post.
To be bringing in more unskilled labor to compete with the existing residents by amnesty, is nothing short of treason and perhaps designed to create an explosion.
You can call it treason, but since 95% of the electorate is going for corporate statists and globalists who are pushing such policies, maybe you should call it mass self-destructive stupidity instead.
“This country needs presidents that will create jobs for people that will never be coders or it is going to get increasingly ugly.”
Minimum wage hikes are not going to help, as higher wages will price non-coders out of the kind of employment for which they readily qualify, providing inadvertent encouragement to pursue black market employment (e.g. drug dealing, prostitution, etc.).
Speaking of social media, research proves the existence of bought and paid for professional “protesters” who take their orders directly from Eric Holder and are paid with checks personally signed by Obama:
Spewing slanders and misinformation doesn’t help your credibility.
Holder steps down as Attorney General the exact same day of the Baltimore riot, but it doesn’t mean he’s off the Obama payroll.
Connect the dots and follow the money.
Didn’t someone here post an article showing he got a 77 million dollar job with some bank or hedge fund? I really doubt he cares at all about Baltimore now.
Fox News today having a big o over Baltimore Mayor Rawlings-Blake telling police to “stand down” during the riots. Gotta bring in Benghazi somehow, I guess.
I dunno, maybe standing down was a good idea. Let the rioters show everyone what they really are. And what would have happened if the police didn’t stand down? Probably would have had a few more deaths/martyrs? IMO, better to destroy a couple more CVS than to escalate the riots.
Gotta bring in Benghazi somehow
I’ll bet the average Joe has no idea of what Benghazi is.
Maybe not, but the average Fox viewer sure as heck does.
Let the rioters show everyone what they really are.
Pissed off that their people get killed by cops for the same crimes much more than your peeps?
“Maybe not, but the average Fox viewer sure as heck does.”
The average fox user will be dead or too senile to know where they are in 5 years.
“Spewing slanders and misinformation doesn’t help your credibility.”
Social media analysis suggests links between Baltimore and Ferguson violence
By Catherine Herridge
Published April 28, 2015
EXCLUSIVE - An analysis of social media traffic in downtown Baltimore Monday has unearthed striking connections to the protests in Ferguson, Mo. last year, according to a leading data mining firm that shared its findings exclusively with Fox News.
The firm, which asked to remain anonymous because of its government work, found between 20 and 50 social media accounts in Baltimore that were also tied to the peak period of violence in Ferguson. While further analysis is being conducted on the data, it suggests the presence of “professional protesters” or anarchists taking advantage of Freddie Gray’s death to incite more violence.
http://www.foxnews.com/…/ - 46k -
The bottom 1% are the biggest threat to the top 1% the other 98% are just there to pay taxes.
AFAIK the top never gets taken out by the bottom. They get taken out by the upper middle class once their interests diverge.
The upper middle class is vanishing, soon to be extinct. Thank you, Federal Reserve.
It depends on your definition of upper middle class. In my opinion, they’re doing OK. As Carl wrote, it would be foolish for the PTB to harm the upper middle class much. They’re the people who work as managers in their corporations, do PR for them and so forth.
National Guard trains for civil unrest, rioting
Posted: Apr 28, 2015 10:52 PM EST
By Sarah Navoy
Many of the Guardsmen are trained for a situation just like the one in Maryland.
It’s called “civil unrest training,” and it was recently completed in Tennessee with a local police department.
Troops have also trained in Maryland and Colorado.
“It really helped put it into perspective the person we are going to be up against - the rioter, the unruly person,” said one National Guard official.
The training includes gas mask training and practice with shields and batons.
“If we have to use it in the outside world… we are ready for any task possible,” said another National Guard official.
Troops plan to remain in Baltimore to help until order in the city returns, or until Maryland is no longer under a “state of emergency.”
http://www.waff.com/story/28925313/national-guard-trains-for-civil-unrest-rioting -
Real journalists report where the racists are (yes, you are a racist)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/28/the-most-racist-places-in-america-according-to-google/?tid=HP_more?tid=HP_more
By Christopher Ingraham the racist.
Real journalists are the real racists, but you knew that already.
A good measure of racism in America, by county, is the map of places where John Kerry got more votes in 2004 than Obama did in 2012.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/US_Election04-08shift.png
Real journalists will script the narrative. Battered by neglect? Neglected by who?
Neglected by evil racist white Republicans who vote against giving more free sh*t to the Free Shit Army in Baltimore, that’s who.
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/29/us/baltimore-riots-are-another-scar-on-a-city-battered-by-neglect.html
Whoever is behind this swastika graffiti is getting paid for it:
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/04/28/watchdog-groups-call-for-protection-of-jewish-students-following-swastika-hate-crime-at-stanford/
It’s a pretty hateful and disturbing way to rally a base, but unquestionably effective…
You see conspiracies everywhere, don’t you? Have you ever considered that some low-life pieces of sh!t get off on doing things like descretating Jewish graves or painting swastikas on synagoges?
I see conspiracies everywhere because there are conspiracies everywhere.
This isn’t a conversation about antisemitism, it’s about the psychology of rallying a base, which at its core is just emotional manipulation.
Bahahahahaha … College professor fails entire class.
And the semester hasn’t even ended.
But … not to worry, the administration over ruled him.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/living/texas-am-professor-fails-class-feat/index.html
Bahahahahahaha … dumb ‘em down, and profit.
But it could have been worse, it could have been Corinthian Colleges.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/04/29/corinthian-colleges-students-heald-college/26559295/
Bahahahaha … Corinthian Colleges shut it’s doors and left its students stranded - in debt and stranded.
The jokes write themselves.
The ultimate joke will be on taxpayers when Obama or Hillary “forgive” $1.2 trillion in uncollectable student debt (translation: ensure their bankster patrons get paid by transferring that debt to middle class taxpayers, who will gladly and willingly grab their ankles for another Wall Street shafting by voting for Wall Street’s crony capitalist political adjuncts).
Governor wants Californians fined $10,000 for wasting water
SACRAMENTO
April 28, 2015 12:55pm
• Will propose legislation increasing powers to cite and fine
• The water cops are coming
The California governor now wants to have residents and businesses fined up to $10,000 for every violation involving the wasting of water.
Gov. Edmund Brown Jr. had earlier demanded that urban water users cut consumption by 25 percent. He had backed that up with fines of up to $500 a day.
Apparently that’s not enough.
Emerging from a closed door meeting Tuesday with what his office describes as “mayors from across the state,” Mr. Brown says he will propose legislation to help local officials “better enforce conservation requirements.”
The governor’s legislation would:
• Establish a new penalty of up to $10,000 per violation, expanding on the $500 per day maximum infraction established in last year’s drought legislation;
http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=28237
“wasting water”
An interesting term in that it has no clear meaning.
One person’s “prudent use” could be seen by another person as “wasting”.
There are forces at work, CATO, etc., to commoditize water including farm water through market force pricing. Count on the peeps like the Koch bros to game prices higher still. Yep, it’s Ayn Rand time, i.e., higher prices for the broke @ss lösers.
Instead of levying fines another solution might involve raising the cost of water usage.
The more water you use the greater your cost.
(Nah, it’ would never work. Fines are better.)
But then again … if a fine is an economic incentive to not waste water then so is raising the price.
And you don’t have to deal with the problem of defining the term “waste” when you raise the price.
(Nah, too simple of a solution. Fines are better.)
I agree, water is way too cheap here in Calif. Some local water districts tried to implement tiered rates (the more you use, the higher the price per gallon) but a court struck it down because several years ago a ballot initiative was passed that prohibits local governments from charging fees in excess of cost of service.
See Propostion 218 for the reason why they don’t implement price increases.
Apparently that proposition ties allowed cost of water to “cost of service”, and thus there is belief that tiered water rates are illegal.
Unless, of course, the “cost of service” includes ever increasing costs due to trucking in water, etc. Then of course, they can charge more.
Californians should be fined $10,000 a year just for being Californians, exempting those who are opposed to Comrad Pelosi and her ilk.
Yeah, I like that. There’s a price to be paid for constantly annoying the rest of us.
… then there needs to be a $20,000 fine for Texans, who are even more annoying than Californians.
I’d OK that as well. All big state attitudes get a surcharge!
Unpossible.
Just cut someone off after they use their allotment for the week 😀
Let that hellhole of a state dry up and fall off.
So despite the Fed lavishing trillions in printing-press “stimulus” on it’s .1% accomplices on Wall Street, the US economy continues to languish. Imagine that.
http://www.businessinsider.com/q1-gdp-april-29-2015-4
Is there a difference between giving stock and homeowners free money via appreciation from inflation vs dropping free money from the sky ?
You gotta sell first.
Where is the buyer considering housing demand is at 20 year lows and falling?
Not him. He’s the king of the $50 HELOC.
Skyrocketing rents prompt Lafayette council to consider emergency moratorium on increases
By Jennifer Modenessi
Posted: 04/28/2015 02:31:32 PM PDT
Lafayette residents say the new owner is increasing the rents as much as 90 percent, pricing families, seniors, disabled residents and other tenants out of their one-, two- and three-bedroom apartment homes. Some residents have received 90-day eviction notices. A number of families have already left.
While astronomical rent increases and tenant displacement are common in large Bay Area cities such as San Francisco and Oakland, they’re also on the rise in the suburbs, including smaller, affluent cities such as Lafayette, where more than 20 percent of residents rent their homes.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_28006500/skyrocketing-rents-prompt-lafayette-council-consider-emergency-moratorium
Scdave, as I stated about your china article there was nothing conservative about assuming a US growth rate of 2.5% in the first quarter.
Did you see the number ??
Yes .2% is the US number and likely to revised lower. Due to the high dollar and the collapse of oil drilling both related to Obama’s war on Putin, we are dead in the water.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/economy-u-stalls-slump-business-123002999.html
How does drilling a dry well lower GDP?
It is not drilling the well that lowers the GDP.
Neither is it the falling price of oil.
You have had the chart upside down for the last month.
LOL, no. Down a bunch and up a little is still down. If it goes above $90 I’ll stop saying it’s down.
What matters is falling prices, collapsing demand and massive excess supply.
China GDP Down 50% With No Bottom In Sight
http://goo.gl/7iG35f
Don’t you hate it when Hillary Clinton supporters fight among themselves?
https://i.imgur.com/HBlqXmZ.jpg
That is a nice bag. I’d grab it too.
I love the hovering chair drone.
Watching these gloating, brazen thugs make obscene gestures and commit crimes on live camera, it’s easy to understand why there might be lots of community policing issues in Baltimore.
USA: Ruptly producer robbed at Baltimore protest
RuptlyTV
Published on Apr 26, 2015
A Ruptly producer had their handbag stolen live on camera, after being surrounded by a group of youths, as they filmed a protest over the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, Saturday. The producer gave chase to the suspected thief before police intervened.
“Comments are disabled for this video.”
They can’t handle the truth.
Because nothing says Republican “family values” like a 49 year old state legislator voting against “gay rights” and then trying to pick up 21 year old boys on Grindr:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/04/29/n-d-legislator-caught-sending-grindr-pics-after-voting-against-gay-rights-bill/
The hypocricy of the Republicrat duopoly’s empty suits is surpassed only by the gullability of the sheeple. Here we have the so-faux “Tea Party conservative” Ted Cruz, who’s wife, not coincidentally, is a director at Goldman Sachs aka the Vampire Squid on the face of humanity, cheerleading for the Fed/Obama stimulus in 2009.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/02/ted-cruz-president-obama-stimulus-lawyer
Nice tie.
That dude is 49 and nobody figured this out before now?
What are the “gay rights” that he voted against? Victim identity politics masquerading as social justice?
The solution to “gay marriage” is to remove government from hetero marriage, and all marriage for that matter.
“The solution to “gay marriage” is to remove government from hetero marriage, and all marriage for that matter.”
I believe that was Ron Paul’s position which I happen to agree with.
I would only add that I would insist on retaining my First Amendment freedom of speech right when it comes to people wearing ties like that regardless of gender or sexual orientation.
Back in 7th grade we used to call odd and silly things “gay”. I guess you can’t do that anymore.
Those funny Republicans, probably just some frat boy shenanigans…
Wide stance man (R), was just messing around too…
“Randy Boehning”
Perfect name for a gay porn star.
“Perfect name for a gay porn star.”
I always thought, “Tom Cruise” topped (no pun intended) ‘em all.
President Obama Demands Critics Tell Him What’s Wrong With TPP; Of Course We Can’t Do That Because He Won’t Show Us The Agreement
by Mike Masnick
Mon, Apr 27th 2015
He insists that it’s unfair to compare TPP to NAFTA because they’re different deals:
“You need to tell me what’s wrong with this trade agreement, not one that was passed 25 years ago.”
Well, Mr. President, I would love to do that, but I can’t because you and your USTR haven’t released the damn text. It takes an insane lack of self-awareness for the guy who once declared his administration “the most transparent in history” to demand people tell him what’s wrong with his trade agreement, when that agreement is kept entirely secret.
Furthermore, multiple experts concerning things like the corporate sovereignty ISDS provisions and the intellectual property chapters have gone into great detail as to why the leaked versions have problems. They’re not complaining about NAFTA. They’re actually complaining about the latest drafts — but the USTR won’t acknowledge them because they’re talking about leaked versions.
In fact, the only real complaints I’ve seen relating to NAFTA concern the fact that the government says one thing about these big agreements, but the reality is something different.
http://www.techdirt.com/…p-course-we-cant-do-that-because-he-wont-show-us-agreement.shtml - 195k -
For what it’s worth, the liberals HATE the TPP and they’ve been screaming about it for months. They are rallying behind Elizabeth Warren, who spoke out against TPP but couldn’t be specific because the thing is classified.
With deadline near, lawmakers introduce bill to end NSA program:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/with-deadline-near-lawmakers-introduce-bill-to-end-nsa-program/2015/04/28/8fd1cf6e-edb4-11e4-a55f-38924fca94f9_story.html
If my mother got $300k a speech I wouldn’t care about money either.
“Libertarian” Koch Brothers Finance Group Protesting Gay Marriage at Supreme Court
By Lee Fang
Concerned Women for America, an organization that hosted an anti-gay marriage rally outside the Supreme Court this morning, has received the great majority of its funding in recent years from Freedom Partners, the “secret bank” of Charles and David Koch.
Between November 2, 2011 and October 31, 2012, ahead of the presidential election, Freedom Partners gave over $8.1 million to the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, the organization’s 501(c)(4) arm. During approximately the same period, CWALAC brought in $8.7 million in total revenue. (In 2013 CWALAC continued to receive funding from Freedom Partners, though significantly less. Records after 2013 are not yet available.)
CWA’s mission is to “promote Biblical values among all citizens.” The protest today was held as the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that could extend same-sex marriage rights nationwide.
“God-designed marriage is a symbol of Christ and the Church,” said CWA president Penny Nance, according to an attendee of the event. Last year, CWA’s Alison Howard led a protest and warned, “It is far past the time that we reject the lie that homosexuality and redefining marriage has no consequences.”
The Koch brothers have been celebrated by some in the media as staunch “libertarians” who support gay rights. But the Koch’s verbal commitment to gay rights appears rather weak given their continued backing of leading anti-gay groups.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/28/anti-gay-marriage-group-demonstrating-front-supreme-court-financed-libertarian-koch-brothers/
Who should have authority to protect or prohibit perversity, the states or the Fedgov? What would be the Libertarian view?
The teachings of Machine Gun Jesus trump libertarian thought.
This is one area where the Koch Bros are striking out. I wonder why they’ve hitched their horse to this wagon. Corporate America seems to be A-OK with same sex marriage.
Maybe they just think it is wrong?
Corporate America seems to be A-OK with same sex marriage.
+1 Same sex couples frequently have above average dual incomes.
Has the stock market become to big to fail? Will companies keep buying back stock to boost EPS?
Top line growth is not there folks. Its all financial engineering. some would consider it fraud.
If a company is buying back stock with free cash flow (not levering up), and thus giving the remaining shareholders a bigger and bigger piece of the cash generating economic machine, how is that fraud?
It seems like very tax efficient return of capital to shareholders to me.
Unless of course, you are grossly overpaying for the shares that you are buying back–then it could end up being a bad use of capital (it could have been better served to pay out the money as a dividend–despite the extra tax bite for shareholders).
I am guessing Paul Craig Roberts will not be invited to Victoria Nuland’s Christmas party.
Truth Has Been Murdered
The Western media has created a fictional account of events in Ukraine
by Paul Craig Roberts | Infowars.com | April 29, 2015
The Obama regime and its neocon monsters and European vassals have resurrected a Nazi government and located it in Ukraine. Read this statement by Elena Bondarenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament:
http://slavyangrad.org/2015/04/18/statement-by-elena-bondarenko-peoples-deputy-of-verkhovna-rada-of-ukraine/
The Western media has created a fictional account of events in Ukraine. The coup organized by the Obama regime that overthrew the elected democratic government in Ukraine is never mentioned. The militias decked out in Nazi symbols are ignored. These militias are the principle source of the violence that has been inflicted on the Russian populations, resulting in the formation of the break-away republics. Instead of reporting this fact, the corrupt Western media delivers Washington’s propaganda that Russia has invaded and is annexing eastern and southern Ukraine. British and European politicians parrot Washington’s lies.
The Western media is complicit in many war crimes covered up with lies, but the false story that the Western media has woven of Ukraine is the most audacious collection of lies yet. Truly, truth in the Western world has been murdered. There is no respect for truth in any Western capital.
The coup in Ukraine is Washington’s effort to thrust a dagger into Russia’s heart. The recklessness of such a criminal act has been covered up by constructing a false reality of a people’s revolution against a corrupt and oppressive government. The world should be stunned that “bringing democracy” has become Washington’s cover for resurrecting a Nazi state.
crushing.housing.losses.
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2015/04/28/metro-denver-again-sees-highest-home-price-gains.html
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2015/04/median-average-rents-in-metro-denver-top-double.html
It’s big daddy d now? Don’t be a coward.
Denver, CO Sale Prices Plummet 14% YoY; Inventory Ramps Up On Rising Foreclosures
http://www.zillow.com/denver-co-80218/home-values/
Good morning HBB’ers. Here’s your guide to police slang for abusing perps in police vans:
“Rough ride” aka “Cowboy ride” aka “Rodeo” — make unbelted but cuffed perps fly around the cab by driving aggressively
“Screen Test” aka “Bring ‘em Up Front” — slam the brakes so hard the perps fly into the metal grate that separates the rear of the van from the front.
“Nickel ride” — aka rough ride, term dates back to rickety amusement park rides that only cost a nickel.
It’s Abu Ghraib On Wheels right here in America for Americans…
If they had not rioted, injured more than twelve officers and burned down a good part of their own neighborhood, people would have a lot more sympathy for them.
I agree. Rioting is negative publicity and counterproductive to their cause.
I agree, the head of PR for these thugs is making it worse. I have no sympathy for those who continue to break the law.
If only we outsourced our prison industry to Mexico or Nicaragua, maybe the cost would go from $5000 per month to $1000 a month and they might actually be afraid of jail and stay in school.
Not my circus, not my monkeys. (old saying, not racist)
last week you weren’t talking about baltimore. This week you are… As George bush would say: mission accomplished
If they had not rioted, injured more than twelve officers and burned down a good part of their own neighborhood, people would have a lot more sympathy for them.
Is that response to what Bring Back the WPA wrote about rough rides and so forth?
Yes. Extra judicial punishment is wrong, but it is more understandable, if not justifiable, if the victims of it are a danger to the police and society as a whole. Or as Jack said in a Few Good Men, you cannot handle the truth.
But the rough rides occurred before the riots. And who can’t handle what truth?
The truth is that the police believe just like Jack’s character that unpleasant things need to be done to maintain order and without soldiers or police doing things that we do not want to know about, we would be in danger. Whether you agree with that statement or not, by their actions the rioters played right into that narrative as WPA recognized.
The truth is that the police believe …
It’s possible that some police believe that. I can easily handle that fact if it is in fact the truth. However, I disagree that the police should be doing things that are kept secret from the citizens and taxpayers they they’re supposed to be working for.
Also, you’re thinking is still muddled. Your wrote, “Extra judicial punishment is wrong, but it is more understandable, if not justifiable, if the victims of it are a danger to the police and society as a whole.”
Once again, the rough rides have been going on for a long time. It doesn’t make sense to say that the riots carried out this week justify extrajudicial punishment that’s been going on for a hundred years.
Or as Jack said in a Few Good Men, you cannot handle the truth.
Yes and I think he said it right before Jack’s sociopath character was hauled to Leavenworth’s Military Corrections Complex.
Prison terms for sociopaths are understandable and justifiable, if the victims of it are abused by police and society as a whole.
If they had not rioted, injured more than twelve officers and burned down a good part of their own neighborhood, people would have a lot more sympathy for them.
Who would have “more sympathy” for them? The people who don’t like them anyway?
“Rioted”? I lived in LA in 92. This weeks Baltimore “riots” were a joke “riot”.
Are you Korean? Were you manning the store roof with an Ak?
You think the cops won’t do the same to a white boy who’s too poor to lawyer up?
Wall Street Journal - The Lawbreakers of Baltimore and Ferguson
“If the Ferguson protesters were responding to a majority black town being oppressively run by a white minority — which is the implicit argument of the Justice Department and the explicit argument of the liberal commentariat — what explains Baltimore?”
Baltimore means that rogue white copes gonna give you a rough ride even if there’s a black mayor in charge.
The Fox-WSJ-Limbaugh axis of misinformation will play up the race aspect in order to obscure the real issue — police brutality — because the conservative base wants the police to be tough on thugs. And, as Dan noted, the rioters just reinforce the race aspect and play right into the RW narrative…
The Fox-WSJ-Limbaugh axis of misinformation will play up the race aspect in order to obscure the real issue — police brutality — because the conservative base wants the police to be tough on thugs.
They also do that because their audience enjoys hearing stories about black people misbehaving. It makes them feel good about themselves.
Here’s a funny take on it all:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/785266
At $188, is this America’s cheapest house?
Douglas A. McIntyre, 24/7 Wall St. 1:08 p.m. EST November 7, 2014
The house does not have much to recommend it. Located at 2518 Dakota Ave., it only covers 1,225 square feet, which accommodates three bedrooms and a single bath. It sits on a lot of just 5,663 square feet. The house was built in 1928, before the Great Depression.
The listing of the house on Realtor.com says it is a:
“Fixer Upper Home, Needs lots of work, has major fire damage, seller selling AS IS”
http://www.usatoday.com/…/2014/11/07/247-wall-st-least-expensive-house/18649751/ - 83k -
—————————————————————————
2518 Dakota Ave, Flint, MI 48506 - Public Property Records Search …
http://www.realtor.com/…/2518-Dakota-Ave_Flint_MI_48506_M32985-60490 - 256k -
“GE, in order to paper over a net loss of $13.6 billion and declining revenues in the first quarter, said on April 10 that it would buy back $50 billion of its own shares. That’s on top of the $10.8 billion in actual buybacks last year. The announcement was beat only by Apple’s $90 billion announcement last year, to which it added another $50 billion on Monday.”
“So be it if actual earnings, as reported under GAAP, are in the doldrums. By reducing the number of shares outstanding, companies automatically increase their earnings per share. And EPS is the magic metric, particularly “adjusted” ex-bad items EPS. It performs outright miracles.”
“It has worked perfectly so far, pushing the stock market from one new high to the next. By now, companies are the biggest buyers of their shares. The entire stock market valuation is based on the premise that companies will forever buy their own shares. And most companies have to go out and borrow this money.”
“So they issue bonds – nearly free money these crazy days – and they use this cash to become the relentless bid in the market. They buy when shares hit highs because it drives them even higher, and they buy when shares sag because it puts a floor under them. In the process, they load up their balance sheet with debt, and they hollow out stockholder equity. They’re becoming a precarious structure that balances an enormous amount of debt on an ever shakier foundation.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/c-suite-financial-engineering-binge-goosing-stocks-and-options-gutting-balance-sheets-and-growth/
It says a lot that companies are not willing to invest their free cash flow into operations, instead buying back (overpriced?) shares.
well maybe they think they can make more money in the casino rather than the businesses they operate?
Also when people buy are stock they should be concerned with shareholder equity and most people have no clue what that is.
Borrowing money to buyback stock is a liability.
Total assets - total liabilities = shareholder equity.
Stock buy backs another effect of artificially low interest rates
“Also when people buy are stock they should be concerned with shareholder equity and most people have no clue what that is.
Borrowing money to buyback stock is a liability.
Total assets - total liabilities = shareholder equity.”
Agree 100%.
I started down the path of trying to find undervalued stocks by researching the “Dividend Champions” (companies with 25+ years of consistent dividend increases), focusing on average annual total return to shareholders, as measured by cash dividends per year, and annual growth in shareholder equity.
I had waded through all the SEC filings I could find for 20 or so companies before I simply decided it was too large of a task for one person to do on a regular basis (I wouldn’t have the time to get through all filings before the next quarter was upon us). Each company had up to a couple of decades of filings. Of those 20, I think I found 1 or 2 that seemed to be priced pretty well based on long-term history of building up shareholder value.
Perhaps I’ll resurrect the effort at the next downturn.
Don’t bother Rental_Fraud.
If you the big banks have too much power, Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is your man.
“If Congress cannot regulate Wall Street, there is just one alternative,” said Sanders in a speech Saturday. “It is time to break these too-big-to-fail banks up so that they can never again destroy the jobs, homes, and life savings of the American people.”
“If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist,” he said.
+1 for Bernie.
Bernie and I use to haunt the same libraries in Burlington VT. At least he is not a globalist but he still is too easy on immigration so his policies in that key area would be no different that Jeb.
The problem was that the new regulations made it very hard to be a small bank.
Post Dodd-Frank, we have fewer small banks than at any time after the Great Depression.
Yes, Dodd-Frank has made the problem worse. The only question was it deliberate or an unintended consequence. I lean towards the former.
What do they all have in common?
they are all attorneys.
++
they tried to end, too big to fail, good try.
Like HCA, they tried to stop the insurance co’s from ripping us all off…. good try.
Ill never vote for an attorney.
You will never vote for Hillary? I thought you loved Hillary?
Except I just read above you voted for Obama twice, do you research your votes at all or just vote how MSNBC tells you?
I’ll never vote for an attorney. (again) With Pailin on the ticket, drastic measures were needed.
I will vote for Rand, if he can get there and does not pick Boehner as VP.
Nice try but Palin was not on the ticket in 2012. But I would like you to make a clear statement on this, are you saying you will not vote for Hillary since she is an attorney.?
Let me make this clear, the downfall of the great American Empire can be 100% blamed on attorneys and fear of litigation.
You are avoiding answering the question. Will you vote for Hillary?
I just read above you voted for Obama twice
And who didn’t? Repubs have lost the popular Presidential vote in 5 out of the last 6 elections. 5 out of 6. Dang. And the only one Repubs won was in the middle of 2 wars.
Almost any clown nowadays can beat a Repub in a national election.
That’s how bad your Republican brand has devolved.
It’s getting bad even for Rasmussen.
His name was Lola…. he was a show girl…..
Pimco Hires Ben Bernanke as Senior Adviser
http://blogs.barrons.com/focusonfunds/2015/04/29/pimco-hires-ben-bernanke-as-senior-adviser/?mod=BOLBlog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INmqvibv4UU
Uh oh. I’m gittin’ the heck OUT of Pimco.
BB scared you off?
Yup.
There’s No New Housing Bubble–Now Please Buy This DC Garage for $900K
Original article, better pictures: Exorbitant House of the Week, Garage Edition
Your engagement with enragement is causing your derangement.
CraterRage Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/CIxmuW
Profits before people:
WASHINGTON — House Republicans are pushing legislation to block predatory lending protections for American soldiers, under pressure from the banking lobby.
GOP lawmakers tucked the deregulation item into the National Defense Authorization Act — a major bill setting the military’s funding, along with a number of other controversial terms on Guantanamo Bay and other issues. If the banking item is enacted, it would impose a one-year delay on new Department of Defense rules meant to shield military families from abusive terms on payday loans and other forms of high-interest credit. The bill is being considered Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee.
Region IV
David Stockman: ‘There Are No Markets, Just a Raging Casino’
by Newsmax • April 27, 2015
Tweet about this on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on LinkedInPrint this pageEmail this to someone
By Dan Weil at Newsmax
Mania in financial markets has raged so far out of control as to place them outside the realm of rationality, says former White House budget director David Stockman.
“There are no markets left in any meaningful sense of the word, just a raging casino infected with the madness of the crowds and the central bank pied pipers who mesmerize them,” he writes on his blog.
That madness is illustrated in the months-long rise of Chinese stocks and the rebound of McDonald’s shares last week, Stockman says.
As for China, the Shanghai Composite Index has soared 121 percent in the last year. “And what has transpired in the land of red capitalism during that parabolic move?” Stockman asks.
“Why everything has gone virtually straight south because the most fantastic credit bubble in recorded history is beginning to burst.”
When it comes to McDonald’s, the stock has jumped nearly 4 percent since Tuesday, despite a weak earnings report Wednesday.
That move can’t hide the fact that McDonald’s business model “is visibly failing (because people are tired of getting fat on its products), and has been for several years,” Stockman contends.
Bottom line: “this is a mania — an outbreak of herd irrationality that would make Graham & Dodd and any other true value analyst as welcome as a skunk at a garden party,” he says.
The economy is so dependent on the financial markets that they simply cannot be allowed to crash. So as an investor you are forced to buy overpriced assets if you want to get in the game. I don’t see how people have any confidence buying.
I think that if anyone in our government gave a flip about CO2 emissions like they say they do, we would stop putting ethanol in our gasoline. Even the EPA says it is a horrible idea, the ethanol I mean. Half the corn we grow gets turned into vodka, which we don’t even get to enjoy before two gallons of it gets poured into our gas tanks and makes our car run like crap. That’s enough corn to feed everyone in the country all year twice over, not that it would be the best diet. Meanwhile we have 50 million on food stamps while we subsidize the farmers to burn food (as ethanol). Everybody should now accept that it takes more oil to make the ethanol than the ethanol replaces. If we stopped doing this, oil consumption would drop instantly, gas would be cheaper, the federal budget would go down and the price of food would go down.
Just one of the little things that makes me think that most of the what the government says is true and necessary, is not so at all.
Everybody should now accept that it takes more oil to make the ethanol than the ethanol replaces. If we stopped doing this, oil consumption would drop instantly, gas would be cheaper, the federal budget would go down and the price of food would go down.
The first statement may or may not be true I have seen studies going both ways but the ROE, if any, is so bad, it is not worth doing. It is expensive to subsidize and it does drive up food costs.
Half the corn we grow gets turned into vodka, which we don’t even get to enjoy before two gallons of it gets poured into our gas tanks and makes our car run like crap.
Not disagreeing with your point, but I just wanted to mention that my car runs really REALLY good on E85 :-).
I use E85 every time I need to pass smog for my older Jeep. Sometime I even add alcohol straight to the tank. The recipe runs very clean. I fail with out it.
Looks like the corn lobbyist are smart and own our congress.
Looks like the corn lobbyist are smart and own our congress.
It’s not that the corn lobbyists are smart; rather, 95% of the electorate are stupid and don’t hold their elected officials accountable for letting corporate lobbyists write most of the legistlation that gets passed.
Carl,
I am pretty sure there is a lot less power delivered from the ethanol than from gasoline. My engine doesn’t cough or knock on it, but I don’t think it drives as far.
The old 454 in my Airstream won’t run on anything but high octane. Got any motorhead advice on that?
I have been having a pinging problem on my old chev too. I have never tried running high octane . Tried to tinker with timing and that didnt help. Pinging is usually related to preignition. Something hot in the cylinder like carbon could also preignite the air fuel mixture before TDC.
Check the muffler bearings Poet.
that makes a lot of sense dude. Is that what you tell your greenhorns?
Try using the original factory spark plugs. Years ago, I had a car that pinged quite a bit. I put in different plugs, used high octane, but finally decided to got the straight original equipment route. Cleared it right up.
YMMV of course, there are different root causes of knock, but it’s something to try.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/04/29/new-uah-lower-troposphere-temperature-data-show-no-global-warming-for-more-than-18-years/
I guess just waiting for the older people to die is no longer an option. Makes sense if you are under 20, you have never witnessed any warming:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/04/29/climate-alarmists-fighting-a-losing-battle-nearly-half-of-young-americans-are-climate-skeptics/
Makes sense if you are under 20, you have never witnessed any warming:
You are bad at math. Of course they have witnessed warming- more than you, relative to their years on earth.
“Thirteen of the fourteen warmest years on record have all occurred in the 21st century, …”
World Meterorological Org.
Not witnessed Rio, modeled. Historical data is uncooperative, so it has to be modeled.
Your topic is actually quite humorous, if you are not part of the groupthink.
“There is no standstill in global warming,” said Mr Jarraud. The warming of our oceans has accelerated, and at lower depths. More than 90 percent of the excess energy trapped by greenhouse gases is stored in the oceans.”
I think this is hilarious. It is the Argo guys that aren’t good at math. Begun in 2000, the program to measure the deep water temperature of the oceans compares their data to 50 years ago? Haha! Of course their data is warmer than anything “on record”. 14 years worth.
0.05 degrees…+/- nothing, we must assume. I think they missed the sophomore math class called statistics, along with 99.99% of everyone else. I guess they do what they are paid to do.
Your topic is actually quite humorous, if you are not part of humanity.
Not witnessed Rio, modeled, experienced, felt, been through, lived, witnessed, studied, denied for politics but confirmed by science.
You lived through 100 years of deep ocean warming? You “feel” it? What an incredible disconnect with reason and reality.
“What an incredible disconnect with reason and reality”
2015, Stephen Hawking on The Koch Klimate Klub.
“What an incredible disconnect with reason and reality”
As if you have a better connection to “reason and reality” than over 95% of the renowned scientists and institutions in the entire world studying climate-change. You flatter yourself.
“Upside” to your position:
Corporations make more money for the 1%.
Downside:
You’ve been duped into furthering the destruction of our planet in order to make money for the 1%, and you will go down in history as a duped anti-science tool of propaganda who promoted destruction. (All in the face of science)
I do have a connection to reality. I’ve spent my life making chemistry and thermodynamics do what it is supposed to do. You’ve got emotions and insults, more hysterical than logical inquiry. You could amaze me and return with a though about Argo, but I am sure you will not. That is too deep.
You have no clue what 95% of scientists and technicians around the world think. You have press releases from heads of agencies. It is an entirely different thing. I read them and there is universally a disconnect from protocol and reason in the first paragraph. I understand their motivations and lack of substance. You simply mirror their message without analysis or the capability thereof.
I enjoy discussing these matters with someone who is inquisitive, has science training and has some exposure to the conversation at lower levels. This isn’t the place for that I think. Sorry for responding to you at all.
I do abhor a farce.
I’ve spent my life making chemistry and thermodynamics do what it is supposed to do.
To mostly serve the .01% it seems by your disregard of science that will actually be deemed important historically.
Sorry for responding to you at all.
I’m not the one you should apologize to imo.
Neo-con propagandist Judith Miller of the (what else) New York Times, one of the main cheerleaders for the invasion of Iraq, blithely denies any fault for the subsequent fiasco.
http://www.salon.com/2015/04/21/you_dont_think_this_is_a_disaster_chris_hayes_presses_judith_miller/