Bits Bucket for June 11, 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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Never leave your children or pets alone with a Realtor®
Or your sheep.
Yeah, they’ll try and put them into a option ARM balloon payment. Say “balloon” and you’ve got the kids hooked for life. It’s why they put balloons on cars at dealerships.
Article for 2brony and MacBeth notes that the administrative costs in 2013 for America’s private health insurance industry were $173 billion
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-10/why-america-s-2-9-trillion-medical-industry-still-runs-on-paper-payments
See also:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-10/hospitals-are-blatantly-ripping-us
Hospitals
Higher Education
Housing
Financial Services
Big Pharma
Big Ag
Seems almost everything is a scam blatantly trying to rip us off. So many business models are based on trying to avoid bottom line price discovery.
The only thing not ripping us off is fast food. It may not be good for you but it’s super tasty and cheap. Maybe consumer electronics also.
This is what 95% of ‘Muricans voted for - crony capitalism with its blatant rip-offs. So bend over for your overlords, sheeple.
its why I gave up and went with Kaiser Permante
Its bad and getting worse esp. for profit hospitals
Only bigger and bigger government with more and more regulations ans higher and higher taxes can solves this.
And remember - if we cut one inefficient government program by even 1% we will turn into Somalia…
This is confusing, I can’t tell what base this is supposed to rally
Christian Zionist website World Net Daily interviews commie Noam Chomsky, who says Hillary Clinton is just like Barack Obama, only more militant
http://mobile.wnd.com/2015/06/chomsky-hillary-like-obama-only-more-militant
Top headline on Fox News website to “rally the base”
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2015/06/11/al-qaeda-leaders-say-group-has-collapsed-amid-rise-isis-report-claims/
No “lower taxes” or “smaller government” happening here, LOLZ
Now I’m really confused
Bernie Sanders, who is a self-proclaimed socialist, wants Congress to pay for the war? Paying for wars is just commie talk!
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/244587-sanders-wants-to-pay-for-war-fund
US Federal Spending
Defense - 17%
Entitlements - 60%
Interest on the debt - 6%
You are going to need a bigger talking point.
Hey - let’s raise the income tax to 90%!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_federal_budget#/media/File:U.S._Federal_Spending_-_FY_2011.png
Does that 17% include the “emergency” off-budget war authorization that both Bush and Obama use to jack up military spending?
Are you saying you don’t believe the obama’s administration numbers?
From the most transparent administration in this country’s history???
Might surprise some posters here but just because I’m a left-of-center Dem it doesn’t mean I’m an automatic Obama cheerleader.
I haven’t seen any posts to the contrary.
Might surprise some posters here but just because I’m a left-of-center Dem it doesn’t mean I’m an automatic Obama cheerleader.
Equals…
I will still vote obama and every other democrat every single time…
Just don’t blame for the outcome.
Re: left of center doesn’t equal Obama-devotee
Well said WPA. After 8 years of “W”, Obama was and still is a breath of fresh air. Not sweet perfume.
I think the problem with too many right wingers is that they project their own worldview filters onto people that have nothing to do with it. i.e. Obama as a “savior”, global warming as a “religion”.
Republicans are speeding their own demise every time they open their mouths: anti-gay marriage chatter/Caitlyn Jenner bashing, more limits on abortion, revived neo-con militarism. Next to all that, anybody looks good.
I concur Wondering. In Nov 2016, assuming Hillary is the nominee, I think a lot of people won’t be voting for Hillary so much as they will voting against Jeb-Walker-Rubio or whomever. Lesser of two evils as they say.
Are you having a conversation with yourself?
Not clear where the Caitlyn Jenner bashing idea came from. Most right-of-center news and editorial outlets were either welcoming or shrugged their shoulders.
Of course one wouldn’t know that if one only exposes themselves to leftist publications that go out of their way to paint every single person that’s on the right as some crazy obsessed religious prude.
Now when Caitlyn came out as Republican you should have seen some of the vitriol from the left.
“I concur Wondering. In Nov 2016, assuming Hillary is the nominee, I think a lot of people won’t be voting for Hillary so much as they will voting against Jeb-Walker-Rubio or whomever. Lesser of two evils as they say.”
That’s funny.
I so much won’t be voting for the Republican candidate as much as I’ll be voting against Hillary. I simply don’t trust her.
Might surprise some posters here but just because I’m a left-of-center Dem it doesn’t mean I’m an automatic Obama cheerleader.
No, but you’re a dyed-in-the-wool sheep. And “Wondering” who just showed up here appears to be a denizen of Alice in Wonderland.
Did you sell your Treasurys on time?
CNBC dot com
Cashin: Fed could cause spontaneous combustion in bond markets
Tom DiChristopher
16 Hours Ago
Art Cashin warned on Wednesday that a self-fulfilling prophecy could take hold in bond markets, causing yields to spiral out of the Federal Reserve’s control.
Treasurys were on the back foot Wednesday as a rise in the benchmark 10-year German bund yield kept pressure on the U.S. bond market.
The 10-year Treasury yield, which moves in the opposite direction of the price, rose to a new eight-month high of around 2.49 percent before trading near 2.48 percent, as bund yields pushed above 1 percent for the first time since last September.
“If the yields move up and people who are in bond funds and other places begin to get nervous and they start to redeem their shares in those bond funds, that may force bonds to liquidate even more and thereby push yields even higher,” Cashin told CNBC’s “Squawk Alley.”
“While the Fed is talking about being measured and data dependent, they’re potentially playing with fire here because they could start spontaneous combustion that they can’t control,” UBS’ director of floor operations at the NYSE said.
…
And all this is causing mortgage rates to spike up? That ain’t good for housing!
Right now I guarantee Realtors are telling people to buy now or they will be priced out by rising mortgage rates. In the history of the planet has a Realtor ever said it was a bad time to buy? Did a Realtor in Rome say you better buy now before the barbarians flood across the border?
Realtors need to discuss falling housing prices from grossly inflated levels, how houses depreciate and collapsing housing demand.
Barbarians flooding across the border…interesting concept.
It’s very good for housing, thanks to improved affordability on the supply side.
“If the yields move up and people who are in bond funds and other places begin to get nervous and they start to redeem their shares in those bond funds, that may force bonds to liquidate even more and thereby push yields even higher,”
I would like to commend this analyst for actually explaining how the money is moving and why prices are going where they are going. It’s certainly more accurate than equating economic activity with the laws of physics, like “spontaneous combustion that they can’t control.” :rolleyes:
PB - this from Cashin in his comments at UBS this morning…..
A Bit More On Pimco – Yesterday, we took note of the fact that after Bill Gross departed, the Pimco Total Return Fund reduced its exposure to U.S. government debt from 23.4% to 8.5%. Now it appears they may not have done all that in the open market. Here’s a bit from Bloomberg piece overnight:
When Bill Gross stepped down from the Pimco Total Return Bond Fund in September, traders across Wall Street anticipated that the world’s biggest bond fund would be forced to dump holdings at firesale prices to meet record client withdrawals. So why didn’t it happen? One explanation, according to a regulatory filing last month, may be that Pacific Investment Management Co. held the fund’s clearance sale in-house. The firm sold about $18 billion of Total Return’s assets to other Pimco funds and accounts between October and March, helping it meet more than $100 billion of redemptions that followed Gross’s surprise exit.
Pimco, among the largest bond managers with about $1.6 trillion in assets, made use of a provision in the Investment Company Act of 1940 allowing funds within the same family to trade with one another under limited circumstances. Such cross trades are tightly regulated because they pose potential conflicts of interest, and can only be done if they’re beneficial to the buyer and seller. In this case, their use may also have limited the fallout in areas of the bond market where the fund traditionally held large chunks of debt, such as Treasury Inflation Protected Securities, or TIPS.
“There was this perception that Pimco would have to dump stuff on the marketplace and that just kind of tanked prices,” said Claude Erb, a former fund manager at TCW Group. “Pimco’s forced selling did not materialize,” though, “so things recovered fairly quickly.”
Nonetheless, equity traders fear that rising yields may lead to bond fund redemptions, which could mandate bond liquidations and promote a vicious cycle.
That’s rather similar to oil traders hoarding black gold on ships at sea in order to avoid crashing the market when there is a global glut.
However, it seems like the strategy might have backfired for Pimco, unless they later liquidated, given the big selloff in Treasurys now underway.
The oil trade paid off, the price recovered around twenty dollars, don’t think that is a good example.
Insurance companies are snapping up treasuries to off-set their long-term liabilities so they are effectively replacing the Fed’s buying. A steeping of long term rates makes credit MORE available because banks will loosen their underwriting standards and write more loans.
I heard all that on CNBC Wednesday afternoon.
Sold my REIT fund.
Asset allocation forces me to hold some bonds. 60% stock 40% bonds however I have been buying short term CD’s and calling them bonds.
I offloaded mine before this recent spike in bond yields. (Tip o’ the hat to FPSS for warning me!)
Short term declines in REITs are definitely expected with rising yields.
I moved part of my REITs into oil/gas earlier in the year, but am now thinking about when to move back fully to REITs (oil stocks recovering, REITs going down could make the move the right one).
Watch the next REIT earnings announcements…follow rent growth announcements by the REITs. It will be strong for a few years. Top line revenues growing, with costs fairly steady will be good for REITs over the next few years.
I am still dollar cost averaging into my REIT and bond funds. Loading up on higher yields. But if I do not get a raise this year I might just stop buying more shares for awhile and ride it out.
Now this is what you call “rallying the base”
Young bootstrapper Ryan O’Leary served two tours in Iraq with the Iowa National Guard, now he’s going back to fight ISIS on his own
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2015/06/09/iowa-soldier-iraq-guard-isis-ryan-oleary/28767975/
William Kristol, seated in an air conditioned television studio, looks at the camera smiling, praises Mr. O’Leary, says he is an example to follow for American youth, and reiterates that defeating ISIS is the greatest challenge America has ever faced, and then when the segment ends and cuts to commercial, he laughs to himself and mutters under his breath “stupid f*ing goyim”
If he really wants to help the world - he should stay home and become a community organizer…
laughs to himself and mutters under his breath “stupid f*ing goyim”
If he were a combat dodging cheerleader, he could be the president and start his own war.
There have been prior articles about this before, about American soldiers leaving the military, getting all listless with no direction in life, and going back to fight as paid mercenaries.
Except that in this case, O’Leary is acting as a trainer and is evidently not being paid. Why can’t he use his training skillz in the US?
Reddit has started banning subreddits on topics they deem “unsafe”
Fifty years of Marxist feminism, and this is what you get…
There’s always 4chan!
This is an article written by real journalists at the New York Times providing a state by state breakdown of the percentage of children who live with both of their biological parents:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/upshot/the-north-south-divide-on-two-parent-families.html?_r=0
Interesting. The map suggests that the states with the lowest percentage of children living with both their biological parents are the states with the highest percentage of African Americans, yet when you read the article it indicates race is not a factor.
You must have missed this part.
Mr. Wilcox and Mr. Zill also point out that two-parent families tend to be more common in states with predominantly white populations. But race is hardly the only explanation for the patterns. White single-parent families have become much more common in recent years. And in the Deep South, single parenthood is common among both whites and blacks.
I read that part. What I would expect to read, that would explain the data, is that single parenthood in white families is more prevalent in the Deep South than it is elsewhere.
They could have added more information like that, including anecdotes like the fact that the white fundamentalist Sarah Palin didn’t appear to be at all embarrassed about the fact that her daughter had a kid without being married and that divorce is more common among whites in places like Arkansas than in Massachusetts. But then other people would complain that there was too much discussion of race in the article.
There aren’t large African American percentages in Oklahoma and Nevada. And I think New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic Americans.
This is an article written by real journalists at the New York Times that subtly advocates the “progressive” agenda of the global extermination of white people:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/opinion/the-myth-of-a-white-minority.html
Don’t tell the NYT but…
Asians are now white (no more AA in getting into college)
Some hispanics are now white (Zimmerman)
This is an article about housing AND Obama, decried as executive overreach in search of an “unrealistic utopia”
http://thehill.com/regulation/244620-obamas-bid-to-diversify-wealthy-neighborhoods
I can’t copy and paste easily on my phone, so somebody on a PC please mine this piece for the gems and copy and paste here
Some hispanics are now white (Zimmerman)
Contrary to what the crackpot right wing media spouts, many Hispanics have been considered for decades. It didn’t start with Zimmerman.
LaRaze (the Race) says no…
LaRaze (the Race) says no…
Not all Hispanics are Sons of Aztlan. Hispanic is anyone of Spanish descent, including Spaniards, who by definition are white. Ditto with Argentinians, Uruguayans and Chileans. Not everyone in Latin America is Mestizo.
What about Central Americans?
LaRaze (the Race) says no…
Are you sire about that? Is that the official position of the National Council of La Raza, that no Hispanics are white?
Hispanic is anyone of Spanish descent, including Spaniards, who by definition are white. Ditto with Argentinians, Uruguayans and Chileans. Not everyone in Latin America is Mestizo.
This would also include most Cuban-Americans, such as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.
There’s a lot of variation in Central America. Most of the population of Costa Rica is white, along with the elites in other Central American countries. There are even small Chinese communities in some countries.
‘Most of the population of Costa Rica is white’
Easy now, I hear crows overhead.
“When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras.” –Unknown
This is an article written by real journalists at the Washington Post about this Saturday’s Capital Pride gay pride event in Washington D.C.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/going-out-guide/wp/2015/06/10/jello-wrestling-comedy-and-late-night-dancing-what-to-do-at-capital-pride
Real journalists don’t write articles about Fathers’ Day, because that doesn’t advance a “progressive” agenda
And speaking of fathers, if you find yourself struggling how to explain Caitlyn Jenner to your children, you are a racist
Someone who mutilates their body to try to correct a mental problem?
Forty years ago, virtually no one would disagree with that assessment. It is amazing how quickly society can change, but of course that is a two way street and it may swing back just as quickly. Forty years ago, Iran was a rapidly modernizing nation with women being afforded equal rights.
Forty years ago less than 10% of the USA approved of interracial marriage.
As long as they vote for Jeb, it’s all good old fashioned family values.
It is not the conservatives social or economic that are supporting Jeb it is the moderate to “liberal” republicans.
Use caution while commenting:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-10/war-free-speech-accelerates-doj-subpoenas-reasoncom-over-comment-section
And don’t delete your browser history in case you do something naughty in the future, because you could be accused of destroying evidence:
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/national/deleting-your-browser-history-could-land-you-court/nmX4t/
Commander in Chief Hillary Rodham Clinton has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
To the Kremlin.
Pant suit nation? No thanks.
Cry havok, and loose the dogs of war!
Please don’t underestimate the power of the FSA…
—————
The Democrats Have the Worst Presidential Candidates in America
FrontPage Magazine | June 10, 2015 | Daniel Greenfield
Competing against her is Senator Bernie Sanders who is currently discussing 90 percent tax rates and why he believes women want to be raped. His winning campaign slogan is “You don’t necessarily need a choice of 23 underarm spray deodorants when children are hungry in this country.”
You also don’t need a choice of 23 highly qualified conservative free market candidates when you can choose between Hillary Clinton and a senile Socialist from Vermont visiting late night talk shows to discuss his rape fantasies. Either Hillary Clinton will take all your money or Bernie Sanders will take all your money and then take away your underarm spray deodorants for the sake of all the hungry children.
And you’re lucky if that’s all he does.
The Democratic Party is like shopping at a Soviet supermarket. There isn’t anything to buy and what little there is, is so terrible that you would rather go hungry than take it home.
If a creepy old Socialist and the Clinton Crime Family don’t suit you, what about a former mayor of Baltimore? Martin O’Malley is polling badly in his own state and his biggest career accomplishment was cleaning up Baltimore. Since Baltimore is now run by roving street gangs killing each other on alternate blocks, that’s not the best possible resume for a presidential candidate.
Unfortunately the only other thing that O’Malley is famous for is taxing the rain as governor.
He can either run as the former mayor of the city that the country is watching tear itself apart on television or he can run as the tax-happy politician who will tax even more things than Bernie Sanders. Voters can choose between a wealthy Socialist whose net worth is ten times that of the ordinary American, but thinks ordinary people are too rich because they can afford underarm deodorant.
If you don’t like those choices, Lincoln Chafee, who has been a Republican, an Independent and now a Democrat, has entered the race with a vow to switch the country over to the metric system.
Chafee, inspired by his time in Canada, called for “a bold embrace of internationalism” by going metric.
He also promised that the chaos, waste, expense and accidents involved in switching the country to a new measurement system would “help our economy”.
He also implied that it would atone for the Iraq War.
Communist Yugoslavia had more inspiring elections. North Korea’s dictator hates ordinary people less than the 2016 Democrats running in a race to see which of them can deprive you of more things for the greater good. This isn’t a clown car. It’s a burning Yugo filled with the acid dreams of decaying leftists.
The Democratic Party has fielded the worst slate of presidential candidates in the country. Maybe even the world. Its only possible support comes from voters who hate America, rain, ounces and deodorant.
It’s too bad that Rand Paul is (literally) going to go down in flames like Paul Wellstone did
Obama may have a phone and a pen, but Hillary has over forty years of scores to settle going all the way back to Little Rock
You have been warned
Yes, but JEB!
That’s a great article. Bernie is travelling the country talking about deodorant and how women want to be raped, not any issues that people care about.
There is only enough room for one Media Analyst on this blog, MikeyMite
Frontpagemag = created by David Horowitz, former red diaper baby from communist colony Sunnyside, Queens, since turned neocon, creator of website discoverthenetworks, and author of book “Hating Whitey”
These guys should make a million dollar donation to the “Clinton Charity” and all their problems would magically go away…
——————–
14 Alleged Black Guerilla Family Members Charged In Racketeering Scheme
WJZ-TV | June 10, 2015 | Alex DeMetrick
BALTIMORE (WJZ) — The FBI has gone after what it says is the biggest and most violent gang in Baltimore. Wednesday, 14 members of the Black Guerilla Family have been charged with a string of crimes in the city.
And according to the U.S. attorney, 13 BGF members carried out murder, attempted murder, racketeering, including extortion and drug trafficking, allegedly under Gray’s command.
“Violence, drug trafficking, murder—that’s what they do. That’s what we listened to for months over intercepts,” said FBI Special Agent in charge Stephen Vogt.
But it isn’t the only federal investigation working. The DEA is actively hunting looters who stole drugs during April’s rioting.
“We will identify and we will prosecute the members and people that were involved in any of those 30 pharmacies that we’re dealing with today,” said DEA Special Agent in charge Shawn Ellerman.
Kinda reminds me of that crowd in Philly a couple of decades ago - called themselves “The Family” I think - police moved in and burned down a few homes as a result.
They actually bombed them from a helicopter. The first time in American history.
And the bomb started a fire that burned down the entire neighborhood.
And yes - democrats have controlled Philadelphia for the last 60 years…
So it was for the children.
Good luck getting a “jury of their peers” in Baltimore to convict them, no matter how overwhelming the evidence. “If the glove don’t fit…”
Falling prices is the cure for a sick economy.
“GAS PRICES KEEP FALLING IN SAN DIEGO”
http://www.sandiego6.com/news/local/Gas-prices-keep-falling-in-San-Diego-306874341.html
The whole Lola EKG heart attack scare was nothing more than an attempt to curry pity and have his ban lifted. It turns out it was just Hillary’s plummeting popularity giving him heart burn.
Lola drinks from the Cup Of Rage. Poor Lola.
From the State of North Dakota website, there was a time when the oil companies were bragging about wells producing 5,000 barrels a day of oil for initial production, now this from yesterday:
PRODUCING WELL COMPLETED:
#23517 - NEWFIELD PRODUCTION COMPANY, JOHNSON 150-99-34-27-2H, SESE 34-150N-99W, MCKENZIE CO., 1411 BOPD, 3240 BWPD - BAKKEN
#28681 - CONTINENTAL RESOURCES, INC., LEONARD 4-12H, NWNW 13-159N-96W, WILLIAMS CO., 595 BOPD, 428 BWPD - BAKKEN
#28682 - CONTINENTAL RESOURCES, INC., LEONARD 3-12H1, NWNW 13-159N-96W, WILLIAMS CO., 583 BOPD, 584 BWPD - BAKKEN
#28683 - CONTINENTAL RESOURCES, INC., LEONARD 2-12H, NWNW 13-159N-96W, WILLIAMS CO., 346 BOPD, 690 BWPD - BAKKEN
Don’t be a Lola and remember…… Saudi Arabia oil production is profitable at $6 per barrel.
Even if it was still true and it is not, it is irrelevant, oil will be set at the marginal costs of shale oil wells in this country and with the oil companies only drilling their prime wells and those wells becoming less productive, the cost per barrel to produce is about to soar even above $80 a barrel. The Saudis are at peak production it is all downhill from here. This is the type of well, the Eagle Ford formation use to produce:
http://eaglefordshale.com/news/eog-eagle-ford-well-produces-7500-barrels-in-24-hours-regional-record/
No my friend. It is true. You just happen not to like that truth. And remember…..Saudi Arabia establishes production and price.
Really, so when was the last time we had $6 oil?
Depreciation Dan,
When was the last time it cost $80 to produce a barrel of oil?
In many shale oil fields right now.
It’s time to find greener pastures then. Meanwhile OPEC continues to pump at $6 a barrel as oil demand collapses.
In an alternative universe demand is collapsing. Meanwhile, drilling is only occurring in the core areas and only the prime areas of the core. Shale oil companies are rapidly running out of potential drill sites at these prices hence the EIA prediction of falling production. The Saudis are not even attempting to increase production anymore since they know their fields are in terminal decline. If they could produce a $6 a barrel they would be drilling like crazy to capture additional revenue.
http://eaglefordtexas.com/news/id/153119/oil-drilling-in-montana-taps-out/
Demand is collapsing Dan. The globe is awash in oil.
Further, Arabia doesn’t need to drill. They pump more than enough at $6 a barrel.
Saudi Arabia cannot balance its budget at these prices so apparently it is not producing enough oil.
LOL.
You’re backpedalling Depreciation Dan.
No, back pedaling, my point is if the Saudis could produce at $6 and if they could produce more oil, they would since they need to. The fact that they are not is strong circumstantial evidence of two of my contentions: 1. They cannot produce at $6 a barrel (2) their tired fields are at or near capacity.
If they wanted to pump more, they would. Considering they’re profitable at $6/bbl and crude oil prices are falling, why would they?
Saudis just announced they will increase production. HAHAHA.
That’s right. More production, less demand, falling oil prices.
How much and when?
The Saudis can claim that they can increase production and it makes sense for them to make the claim to hurt oil shale some more before they allow the price to rise. But unlike in 1986 when they had ten million barrels of excess capacity at most they have a few hundred thousand barrels today. Bluff and nothing else, otherwise they would have never allowed oil to rise twenty dollars a barrel when they wanted to hurt Iran, Russia and shale oil producers not necessarily in that order.
More, now.
The disconnect between what the Saudis are saying and doing:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/20/saudi-china-oil-idUSL5N0Y918W20150520
What they’re doing is flooding the market in an environoment with collapsing demand, further driving prices lower.
Remember….Falling oil prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
Aussie Central Bank Admits, Property Prices “Have Gone Crazy”
Zero Hedge - 06/10/2015
With The Philly Fed admitting QE has been the driver of inequality in the USA and the Kiwis slashing rates unexpectedly, the fact that Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens uttered the following is even more crucial. “I think it’s a social problem,” Stevens told the Economic Society of Australia, adding ominously, “I think some of what’s happening is crazy,” specifically pointing to Sydney property prices as an example. No matter where we look around the world, Central Bankers appear to be exercising their honesty glands about the impact of their policies. However Stevens can’t help himself at the end, noting “we remain open to the possibility of further policy easing.”
In other words - we know it’s crazy what we are creating but we have no choice…
Treasury boss John Fraser last week said Sydney and wealthier parts of Melbourne were “unequivocally” in a housing bubble.
“I think it’s quite some time before we even think about interest rates going up.”
Once created, bubbles must be maintained indefinitely, for the good of the children.
An understanding of this need to maintain bubbles is what encourages the bull stampede to race ever faster in their headlong rush towards the cliff.
So where are all of these all-cash foreign buyers going to take their $ if they sell their houses?
The entire world is drowning in excess liquidity right now.
Ten years ago, there was massive mortgage fraud right down the street from me. People were buying $900K houses totally on credit, getting them refinanced when the crooked appraiser said they were worth $1.1M and pulling all of the equity out, and then they stopped paying. This happened to three of the four new houses in the same cul-de-sac.
So yes, when the bubble popped, these houses came down to the low $800s as foreclosures. Now, these houses are up to $1M again, but the difference is, they are now predominately being purchased by foreign buyers with all cash.
Lots of foreign buyers that I have personally talked to:
1) don’t trust banks, and
2) think that land is a good thing to own, regardless of its price
So if/when RE prices correct, will most of these owners sell? I don’t think so. And if they do, where do they put their $? Gold and silver coins?
There are no “all-cash” sales. It’s all dumb borrowed money.
Bulletin
Rupert Murdoch to step down as CEO of 21st Century Fox: reports
The Fed
The Fed fears lifting interest rates, ex-insider says
By Greg Robb
Published: June 11, 2015 7:30 a.m. ET
Former Fed official, Cyprus central bank chief says FOMC moving too slow
Bloomberg
Athanasios Orphanides, former head of the Central Bank of Cyprus, says substantial rate hikes are needed from the Fed.
WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — An expert who’s been involved in internal debates at both the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank says the U.S. central bank is already behind the curve in lifting interest rates.
Athanasios Orphanides, now a professor of global economics and management at MIT, was head of the Central Bank of Cyprus for five years, ending in 2012. He started his career as an economist in the Fed’s monetary policy division and later became senior adviser to board of governors.
St. Louis Fed President James Bullard noted that Orphanides is probably the only person on the planet who has attended Fed monetary policy meetings as well as European Central Bank governing council meetings.
In a speech at the St. Louis Fed earlier this month, Orphanides discussed the Fed’s fear of liftoff and what the causes might be. MarketWatch talked to him about why the Fed seems reluctant to raise interest rates.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
…
Would you want to be operated on by an affirmative action surgeon?
“Space to destroy”
“All these court houses look the same!”
——————-
Things go from bad to worse for (Baltimore DA) Marilyn Mosby
PowerLine | June 10, 2015 | Paul Mirengoff
Marilyn Mosby, the prosecutor in the Freddie Gray case, continues to make news for all the wrong reasons. First, her motion for a gag order in the case was dismissed because she filed it in the wrong court. The Baltimore Sun reports:
Judge Charles J. Peters ruled the motion lacked standing in an actual proceeding, as it was filed by Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s office in Circuit Court on May 14. At that time, the officers’ cases were still in District Court. They weren’t transferred to Circuit Court until May 21, when the officers were indicted.
Mistakes like this aren’t unheard of in litigation, but they smack of amateurism.
Second, it has been revealed that Mosby directed Baltimore police to ramp up narcotics patrols with increased “targeting” at an intersection near where Freddie Gray was arrested. Mosby’s directive does not, of course, bear on the question of whether police officers committed crimes in their treatment of Gray after he was arrested. An order to ramp up patrols isn’t an invitation to injure people.
However, Mosby’s directive seems to undercut what’s left of the criminal charges she filed in connection with Gray’s arrest, as opposed to his treatment thereafter.
It is going to be funny when lily white liberals in their protected neighborhoods get smacked in the face with liberalism…
Section 8 coming soon to (ruin) a nice community near you.
I’m sure all the pols in favor of this won’t mind low-income housing next to their homes, so let them start with their neighborhoods.
——————-
Obama making bid to diversify wealthy neighborhoods
The Hill | June 11, 2015 | Tim Devaney
The Obama administration is moving forward with regulations designed to help diversify America’s wealthier neighborhoods, drawing fire from critics who decry the proposal as executive overreach in search of an “unrealistic utopia.”
The regulations would use grant money as an incentive for communities to build affordable housing in more affluent areas while also taking steps to upgrade poorer areas with better schools, parks, libraries, grocery stores and transportation routes as part of a gentrification of those communities.
“American citizens and communities should be free to choose where they would like to live and not be subject to federal neighborhood engineering at the behest of an overreaching federal government,” said Gosar, who is leading an effort in the House to block the regulations.
Critics of the rule say it would allow HUD to assert authority over local zoning laws. The agency could dictate what types of homes are built where and who can live in those homes, said Gosar, who believes local communities should make those decisions for themselves rather than relying on the federal government.
If enacted, the rule could depress property values as cheaper homes crop up in wealthy neighborhoods and raise taxes, Gosar warned.
More on spreading the wealth -
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/343242/obamas-plans-suburbs-and-how-stop-them-stanley-kurtz
http://www.amazon.com/Spreading-Wealth-Robbing-Suburbs-Cities/dp/1595230920/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358868447&sr=8-1&keywords=
They’ve tried this before. It was called “Move to Opportunity.” And it’s typical of government assistance programs. They help the poor, harm the middle class and have no impact on the wealthy.
Immigration - Hey, Look! A Cop Yelling at a Black Girl in a Bikini!
Ann Coulter | Jun 10, 2015
I’m impressed by the coolness and steadiness of our media in suppressing any news about immigration. It’s as if they’ve built a triple-layer fence with border guards around immigration topics. And guess what? Their fence is working!
How many thousands of news stories have there been on Ferguson, ISIS, Chris Christie’s “Bridgegate” or men becoming women?
But the media will never tell you about Mexicans gang-raping a lesbian in Richmond, California, an Indian immigrant in San Francisco importing 12-year-old girls he bought from their parents for sex, or three children being beheaded by Mexicans in Baltimore.
Don’t Americans have a right to know about the cultures flooding into our country?
townhall.com/…gration–hey-look-a-cop-yelling-at-a-black-girl-in-a-bikini-n2010910 - 100k -
Racist
I’m sorry I thought it was a climate change story.
“Don’t Americans have a right to know about the cultures flooding into our country?”
Cisgenderist
We may have a right to know, but the media, unfortunately, is not compelled to report on it. They prefer to wait until things have reached critical mass and then stir up a “controversy” than will explode into a riot.
No but here is one Phony and it is quite good:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/06/11/open-letter-to-tom-karl-of-noaancei-regarding-hiatus-busting-data/
Don’t forget the next trick by liberals, if it is covered by Fox News or a link to Drudge, they will be dismiss it because it appeared on Fox or on the Drudge site.
Just as Republican party pimps will try to dignify Fox News or Drudge links by hinting that only liberals would dare question the veracity of the story…
How did she find out about these stories in California and Maryland? Does she travel the country and investigate them herself?
Take a Midol and go watch the 2014 Super Bowl Coke commercial, MikeyMite
I’m just pointing out some obvious nonsense in what she wrote. I think that she can use something to calm herself down. Maybe you can send her some brownies.
Comment by phony scandals
2015-06-11 05:43:56
Immigration - Hey, Look! A Cop Yelling at a Black Girl in a Bikini!
townhall.com/columnists/anncoulter/2015/06/10/immigration–hey-look-a-cop-yelling-at-a-black-girl-in-a-bikini-n2010910
B…b…but Caitlen Jennings and deflated footballs are what matters here. The MSM said so.
Note to Boston University Hockey Coach:
If you want your players to remain eligible keep them out of professor Saida Grundy’s class.
Prof. Blasted Whites on Social Media, in Dissertation
June 4, 2015
By Peter Hasson at Campus Reform
Boston University has already been under pressure to fire incoming sociology professor Saida Grundy for inflammatory racial comments on social media.
Grundy first came under fire earlier this year for a series of tweets in which she disparaged white males.
“These Scholar-Feminists also packed my survival kit with just the thing I needed to see my way through Michigan—the intense and convicted knowledge that there was never going to be a room in which I was present where a white boy was going to be smarter than me.” Tweet This
“White masculinity isn’t a problem for America’s colleges, white masculinity is THE problem for America’s colleges,” Grundy tweeted in March.
In January Grundy tweeted: “Every MLK week I commit myself to not spending a dime in white-owned businesses. and every year i find it nearly impossible.”
In yet another tweet, Grundy labeled college-aged white males—who she’s somehow expected to teach and grade impartially—a “problem population.”
“Why is white America so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?” Grundy tweeted.
Grundy’s tweets were not the first time Now, however,Campus Reform has obtained a copy of her Ph.D dissertation, in which she showed the same racial animus and hostility towards young white males.
Upon examining Grundy’s Ph.D dissertation at the University of Michigan, Campus Reform found several remarks disparaging white men in the document. Specifically, Grundy showed disdain both for the intelligence of white male students and for the “self-assurance that white boys are handed undeservingly.”
Grundy also credits her undergraduate professors at Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., with shaping her views towards white men.
“Spelman College is a magical place, where the embryonic minds of Black feminist thinkers and activists are incubated by feminist scholars,” Grundy stated.
“These Scholar-Feminists also packed my survival kit with just the thing I needed to see my way through Michigan—the intense and convicted knowledge that there was never going to be a room in which I was present where a white boy was going to be smarter than me,” she continued.
https://www.thefire.org/prof-blasted-whites-on-social-media-in-dissertation/
Hillary Clinton will appoint her to be Secretary of Education
You heard it here first
1. It is unpossible for blacks to be racists
2. She better stay out of bus stops and McDonald’s then…
“These Scholar-Feminists also packed my survival kit with just the thing I needed to see my way through Michigan—the intense and convicted knowledge that there was never going to be a room in which I was present where a white boy was going to be smarter than me.”
Wars without end…
Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, almost Egypt, Yemen,
Military Bases = “Lily Pads????”
—————–
U.S. Weighing More Military Bases in Iraq to Fight ISIS, Top General Says
New York Times | June 11, 2015 | By HELENE COOPER
The United States is considering establishing additional military bases in Iraq to combat the Islamic State, the top American general said on Thursday, a move that would require at least hundreds more American military trainers to help Iraqi forces retake cities lost to the militant Sunni extremist group.
President Obama’s decision this week to send 450 trainers to establish a new military base to help Iraqi forces retake the city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar Province, could signal the beginning of similar efforts in other parts of the country, said Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
General Dempsey described a possible future campaign that entailed the establishment of what he called “lily pads” — American military bases around the country from which trainers would work with Iraqi security forces and local tribesman in the fight against the Islamic State.
“You could see one in the corridor from Baghdad to Tikrit to Kirkuk to Mosul,” General Dempsey said.
The lily pads would be modeled after the training hub now being built at Al Taqqadum, an Iraqi base near the town of Habbaniya in eastern Anbar. The American troops being sent are to set up the hub primarily to advise and assist Iraqi forces and to engage and reach out to Sunni tribes in Anbar, officials said.
The American troops being sent are to set up the hub primarily to advise and assist Iraqi forces and to engage and reach out to Sunni tribes in Anbar, officials said.
These “non-combat” troops will see combat if they are sent to that spot.
Keep letting people go from Gitmo and we will need more. Meanwhile, Clinton’s Libya is doing fabulously:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/world/middleeast/libya-groups-vow-to-crush-unit-of-isis.html?ref=world
http://news.yahoo.com/america-sliding-open-ended-conflict-iraq-192223804–politics.html
One of the key points is the number of private contractors that have been hired.
I would spend the money in the Detroit better than in Iraq….
better spend american taxes in infrastructure and healthcare
Like obama’s $1 Trillion “shovel ready” stimulus program.
Just where did all that money go????
You could look it up if you really want to know.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009
From Nancy Pelosi (5/14/15) –
Dear GOP, It’s Time to Invest in Our Nation’s Infrastructure!
There are just five legislative days left until America’s Highway Trust Fund expires, jeopardizing hundreds of thousands of jobs and 6,000 construction projects, and yet House Republicans continue to ruthlessly cut investments in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
The urgent state of our nation’s infrastructure cannot be overstated. Once among the world leaders in quality infrastructure, the United States now ranks 16th – behind Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, and Japan – according to the World Economic Forum. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), nearly one-third of America’s roads are in poor or mediocre condition and one in four bridges require significant repair or cannot handle today’s traffic. ASCE’s overall assessment of our nation’s infrastructure rated America at a D+.
So are Democrats and mayors across the country. It is long past time for a long-term reauthorization of the Highway Trust Fund that will bring our roads, rails and bridges into the 21st century. We can’t afford to wait.
http://www.democraticleader.gov/newsroom/dear-gop-its-time-to-invest-in-our-nations-infrastructure/
The first example of Obama’s “f ‘em, we’ve got the votes” attitude that killed any hope of bipartisanship during his presidency.
In his first 50 days.
People who point to so-called Republican “obstructionism” conveniently leave out the fact that Obama asked for Republican input on this bill, he got that input, and then (despite saying the ideas weren’t bad) promptly left out all Republican input from the legislation.
And so they got 3 Republican senators voting yes, and 0 Republican representatives.
You got that right. Repubs and Libertarians don’t care if bridges, dams, and water treatment plants rot and fail. Remember, crumbling infrastructure will be saved by “trickle down” if you just cut taxes enough.
All tax money will towards public union pensions.
It is only fair.
A promise is a promise.
It is for the children.
Besides - joining one of these public unions is a CONDITION of employment as well as paying union dues that go 99-1 to democrats. It is a money laundering scheme that is IN THE US CONSTITUTION so we can’t change it.
ALL infrastructure money goes to pensions? Exaggerate much there Ban-Ban?
Seen the budget of Detroit or Chicago much?
How much of the 700 billion go to infra projects?
Just give a big tax break to billionaires and watch the tax dollars just roll in because of all the trickle down jobs that will be created. Just look how great Kansas is doing.
Really, I think you find the infrastructure far better in states like Utah than any of the blue states.
It’s funny that you had to pick Utah, which is basically a city and a few towns, and Mormons are much more community oriented than the typical evangelical trickle downers. That’s a list that leaves off 95% of the population of the rest of the red states. But we all know why you had to do that, because you really don’t have any other red states to choose from.
Well, he did write “states like Utah”, so he may have others in mind. Of course, if it’s really true that Utah has better infrastructure than other states, one reason for that could be that their members of Congress are particularly good at bringing home the federal bacon.
The best run states in America typically are red states and the state of the infrastructure is rated in lists that rate them. It just is not true that Republicans do not maintain infrastructure.
http://www.news10.net/story/news/2014/01/22/4768469/
Another deadbeat socialist administration (Argentina, not California) being painted into the corner as vulture funds want their money.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/06/10/this-ruling-could-push-argentina-off-the-cliff/
‘The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.’
– Margaret Thatcher
“and that is usually a great time for a country to go to war so the people will forget who bankrupted them.
– 2banana
So Kansas is going to war. Seems like trickle down economics is what bankrupts states
This link appears to be lost in cyberspace, I will try again:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/real-estate/Housing-market-continues-to-recover/shdaily.shtml
Don’t be a sucker!
Marketwatch dot com
Opinion: The world’s worst investment bubble will burst soon
By Howard Gold
Published: June 11, 2015 5:00 a.m. ET
In China, all the signs are there, but not many investors see them
Bloomberg News/Landov
Almost 85% of China-listed companies are trading at higher multiples today than they did at the previous market top in 2007.
Investment bubbles always look so obvious in hindsight. But when you’re in the middle of one, it’s hard to fight the crowd, even if that little voice in your head tells you to run for the hills.
Why? Bubbles produce compelling narratives that give people reasons to believe. The Internet is changing everything. Housing prices never go down. Tulips are the most precious commodity on God’s green Earth, etc.
Now the same thing is happening again in China, a market that has had one huge bubble burst only recently. The Shanghai Composite index briefly topped 6,000 in October 2007 only to plummet to just above 1,700, a sickening 70% plunge in only 12 months.
But a mere seven years later, Shanghai is above 5,000 again, and the bulls say more gains lie ahead, even though China’s economy is slowing dramatically and some valuations already are stratospheric.
They’re counting on China’s central bank to keep cutting rates. It already has reduced them three times in the past six months. Sound familiar?
…
Yes and as far as making the stock market go up it worked here. The Chinese can cut rates for years and still not reach O at the pace they are cutting while we have run out of ammo to keep the stock market going they have tons of it.
I am not advocating anyone buy at these levels, but shorting the market is essentially fighting the “Chinese Fed and that usually does not end well whether it is our Fed or their “Fed.”
You are right on this one. Better to keep your powder dry and buy during the fire sale.
I wouldn’t buy at any fire sale. Once a few hundred million Chinese realize their government swindled them of their life savings, the fires may get very real.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/10/investing/alan-greenspan-housing-stagnation/index.html?iid=SF_LN
Uhh Ohhh!!
Who listens to that mumbling old fool?
This is what happens when you don’t have a “trickle down supply side” Kansas Brownback running your state:
SACRAMENTO (AP) — After taking a significant recession-era hit, California’s economy has bounced back up to the seventh largest in the world as the state’s gross domestic product reached $2.3 trillion in 2014, show figures released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
That was enough for California to edge past Brazil’s 2014 GDP of $2.2 trillion, but still below the sixth-place United Kingdom.
No pension reform - check
Just ignore pension and related health care costs - check
Raises taxes - check
Businesses continue to leave - check
Illegals who hop on the massive CA welfare program continue to arrive - check
QE will continue to push up stock prices to cover pension deficits forever - check
The housing bubble will continue forever - check
The use of “special off budget funds” - check
Where do you think this will end when you really think about?
——————
Gov. Brown Uses Tricks to ‘Balance’ CA Budget
Budget ‘balanced’ with tax hikes, smoke & mirrors
Leonard Gilroy - January 18, 2013
Gov. Jerry Brown is telling everyone that California’s state budget problems are “fixed” and predicting surpluses for years to come.
To make his budget proposal look balanced this time around, Gov. Brown makes another series of optimistic assumptions, including that the tax increases California voters approved last November won’t hurt the economy and the state’s economy and tax revenues will grow; that California’s millionaires, hit with higher taxes again, won’t pack up and move to low-tax states; that California’s housing market will improve and home prices will go up; that President Barack Obama and Congress won’t do anything to hurt the national economy; and that the stock market will rise.
The tendency has been to shift expenditures from the general fund to new special funds and that has the effect – intended or coincidental – of flattening out general fund numbers and thus making the growth of state spending look smaller than it has been.
For all of Gov. Brown’s talk about spending cuts and “fiscal discipline,” his budget forecasts a 5 percent jump in state spending, rising from $93 billion in 2012‑13 to $97.7 billion in 2013‑14. But as Walters notes, you need to add in all the other spending that is not included in those numbers: nearly $41 billion in special funds and over $7 billion in bond funds. Suddenly, the state is spending over $145 billion in 2013-14, not $97.7 billion.
Maybe that’s why even the Los Angeles Times isn’t fully buying this balanced budget:
But even though it appears to be free of the deficit that dogged the Capitol in recent years, the state is no model of financial health.
Sacramento is legally obligated to pay many billions of dollars withheld from schools, local governments and healthcare providers as lawmakers struggled repeatedly to balance the books. It owes Wall Street more per resident than almost every other state. And it has accumulated a crushing load of debt for retiree pensions and healthcare, now totaling more than taxpayers spend each year on all state programs combined.
The budget Brown proposed Thursday addresses only a small portion of the overall debt, which stems from the same types of bills that drove cities like Vallejo, Stockton and San Bernardino into bankruptcy. The state is likely to find its debt consuming an ever larger share of money meant for the basic needs of government.
The Department of Finance goes on to proudly say that the debt is “already” paid down to less than $28 billion. Of course that doesn’t include government employee pension and health benefits that have been promised but not yet funded. California estimates its unfunded pension and benefit liabilities total around $181 billion. Stanford University research, however, pegs the unfunded liabilities of California’s largest state pension systems a lot higher:
The combined unfunded liability for CalPERS, CalSTRS, and UCRP under the 6.2 percent discount rate is $290.6 billion, equal to more than three state General Fund budgets. That figure represents an unfunded amount per household of nearly $24,000. Using a low-risk, or riskfree, discount rate, the combined unfunded liability for these three systems reaches $497.9 billion.
There’s a parallel crisis in unfunded state retiree healthcare liabilities too, which a 2012 Pew Center on the States report set at $77.4 billion and growing. Worse, Golden State politicians have systematically skimped on making annual contributions to retiree pension and health systems (akin to making the minimum required monthly credit card payment), so future taxpayers’ tab to cover the cost of the “shadow” state workforce that’s no longer actually working continues to climb.
Until California tackles its pension and retiree healthcare crises, it will simply be nibbling at the margins of its fiscal problems. Many had hoped that Gov. Brown, as a Democrat, would be uniquely equipped to bring about serious public pension reforms by negotiating with public employee unions. He has not.
CA = Wiley Coyote holding a sign with nothing below.
rj, don’t be projecting Illinois’ unique problems out here to California. You guys should just collapse already and let the Feds bail you out. Nine states defaulted in the 1800’s and we all survived, it’s not the end of the world.
WPA -
ILLANNOY is toast - Cali was toast a loooooong time ago.
As a wise sage once told me - If your outgo is greater than your income - you in trouble. Cali in trouble there friend. To deny same would be blindness - caution you to not be blind.
Also - Ya I did reach back two years for the specific reason that a reading of history is such that “Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.” Read your history friend.
Here is more current article on California that shows that it is actually burnt toast:
http://californiapolicycenter.org/unrecognized-legacy-of-prop-39-debt-accumulated-from-borrowing-money-via-bond-sales-for-california-educational-construction/
Or how about this article:
http://calwatchdog.com/2015/06/09/campaign-2016-bipartisan-group-files-pension-reform-initiative/
Key excerpt:
By engaging voters in the pension decision-making process, the group hopes to contain the state’s growing pension liability. Proponents of the “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016″ point to independent numbers which show the state’s pension liabilities have increased 3,000 percent in a decade. Last November, then-State Controller John Chiang (now state treasurer) pegged the state’s total unfunded pension liability from 130 public pension systems at $198 billion, a dramatic increase from just $6.3 billion in 2003.
Good to know that ABQ Dan has my back!!
Thanks Dan….sometimes I sense that I am out on a limb alone on this blog.
Living in Chicago area, you need someone to watch your back. But glad to do it.
Link a 2-year old article? Really had to reach back for that one, eh?
Has anything changed since 2013?
A budget passed in 2014 or 2015 would have hardly time to take effect to debate.
Now go back to your fantasy liberal world where all problems can be solved with bigger government, more regulations and higher taxes.
The stock market is higher. Could explain part of the euphoric feeling that California dreamin’ has returned?
It’s probably easier to negotiate with unions during a crisis. We aren’t in a crisis, yet.
DavisBacon is nothing more than a tool for the Fed to anchor wages where they think they ought to be.
Liberals carve out a life in their own mind as opposed to the real world.
Yup. Just like spending addicts think that the solution to their maxed-out credit cards, is another credit card.
Markets Stocks Europe
Europe Stock Rally Halted by IMF’s Pullout From Greece Bailout Talks
Stoxx Europe 600 had earlier climbed more than 1% on hopes of a deal
By Tommy Stubbington
Updated June 11, 2015 11:11 a.m. ET
European stocks pared gains Thursday after the International Monetary Fund said it had stopped bailout talks with Greece.
The Stoxx Europe 600 was 0.6% higher late afternoon after an IMF spokesman said a failure to make progress had halted negotiations. The index had earlier climbed more than 1% on optimism that Greece was close to hammering out a deal to unlock fresh financing, and a letup in the recent bond selloff.
Germany’s DAX was 0.5% higher, France’s CAC-40 was up 0.8% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 was flat on the day.
Athens’s main stock index closed 8.2% higher ahead of the IMF news. National Bank of Greece and Alpha Bank led the Stoxx 600, surging more than 16%.
“Investors are pricing in a positive solution to the Greek talks, but fears are mounting. The market’s going to remain volatile until we reach a deal and scrutinize any news or rumor on Greece,” said Jeanne Asseraf-Bitton, head of cross-asset research at Lyxor Asset Management.
In bond markets, German 10-year yields fell back to trade at 0.88% as the recent rout in fixed-income markets encouraged some buyers to step in. German debt extended its gains after the IMF spokesman made the comments on Greece at a press briefing in Washington.
Germany’s 10-year yield had moved above 1% for the first time since September on Wednesday, a sharp rise from the all-time low of 0.05% hit in April. Yields rise as prices fall.
…
Does the IMF pullout from Greece talks explain today’s big flight to quality move into long-term Treasurys?
Wsj dot Com
Credit Markets
U.S. Government Bonds Rally; 30-Year Auction Draws Strong Demand
Yield on benchmark 10-year note earlier hit 2.5% for first time since September
By Min Zeng
Updated June 11, 2015 1:35 p.m. ET
U.S. Treasury bonds rallied Thursday as buyers stepped in after the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note hit 2.5% for the first time since September.
A $13 billion sale of 30-year Treasury bonds Thursday afternoon drew the strongest demand since December, adding to the bond market’s price rally. A broad rally in the eurozone’s government debt market also rippled into the U.S. debt market. Analysts say the 10-year German bund yield around 1% also lured fresh buying interest.
The price strength is a balm for the bond markets that have taken a heavy beating since late April. Money managers say higher yields reflect a brighter assessment of the growth and inflation outlook in the U.S. and Europe, but they don’t expect bond yields to rise significantly because that would jeopardize the still uneven pace of global economic momentum.
…
Mohamed A. El-Erian
✔ @elerianm
FYI #S&P downgrade of #Greece to CCC has few consequences.It does highlight however extent of financial and reputational risk for @ECB #ELA
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/rental-america-why-the-poor-pay-4150-for-a-1500-sofa/
What’s finance, Alex?
America is not a country, it’s a scam in every level of society and gobmint.
What ever happened to buying a sofa at a garage sale or salvation army?
I did that for the first 15 years of my early working life…
$1500 for a sofa???? That is what I spend for a car!
Somebody’s gotta take the first major depreciation hit.
Still money in the ol’ budget for cigarettes. (And, though it’s not mentioned in the article, no doubt beer/booze as well).
Also, tablets and smart phones are not necessities. You can get a pre-paid phone for very little up front cost, and just buy the minutes you need/can afford.
Plus, dropping out of school in ninth grade generally does not set you up for a comfortable life.
“Someday I hope your life is as awesome as you pretend it is on Facebook.”
Profound.
I have a neighbor that I saw the sheriff deliver papers back in April..
Looking at the county case history today I see this. All are defendants to Wells fargo who is the plaintiff.
NEW CASE E-FILED; WELLS FARGO BANK NA VS XXXXXXXX
PETITION FOR FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE
PETITION AND SUMMONS ISSUED TO ATTORNEY FOR CERTIFIED MAIL “ASSET ACCEPTANCE LLC” E/S
PETITION AND SUMMONS ISSUED TO THE SHERIFF OF JO CO KS “HAMPTON PLACE HOMES ASSOCIATION INC” C/N
PETITION AND SUMMONS ISSUED TO ATTORNEY FOR CERTIFIED MAIL “E-LOAN INC” E/S
PETITION AND SUMMONS ISSUED TO ATTORNEY FOR CERTIFIED MAIL “MORTGAGE ELECTRONIC REGISTRATION SYSTEMS INC AS NOM” E/S
PETITION AND SUMMONS ISSUED TO ATTORNEY FOR CERTIFIED MAIL “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTERNAL REV SERVICE” E/S
PETITION AND SUMMONS ISSUED TO THE SHERIFF OF WYANDOTTE COUNTY KS “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA INTERNAL REV SERVICE”
PETITION AND SUMMONS ISSUED TO ATTORNEY FOR CERTIFIED MAIL “STATE OF KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF LABOR” E/S
PETITION AND SUMMONS ISSUED TO ATTORNEY FOR CERTIFIED MAIL “STATE OF KANSAS, DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE” E/S
I am desperately hoping this will be quick and they will be gone. I see they got a loan mod in ANOTHER case back in 2009-2011 (after 18 months) with wells. Do they get that ability again with Wells Fargo? Will the previous mod send this fastrack to getting them out? Thoughts?
Coming soon to your neighborhood and community, to be paid for by…you, unless you’re a Free Sh*tter.
http://www.huduser.org/portal/affht_pt.html
Are corporations enriching themselves and screwing shareholders?
Bloomberg Coverage of Bilderberg Ignores Attendance of Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief
Current head of media outlet attends elite confab for 16th time
by Mikael Thalen | Infowars.com | June 11, 2015
The first notable coverage of the 2015 Bilderberg conference by media outlet Bloomberg unsurprisingly omits the attendance of its editor-in-chief John Micklethwait.
A video article entitled, “Here’s Who’s Going to The Secret Bilderberg Summit,” which features a brief synopsis of the group’s 63rd gathering, fails to mention the numerous high-profile media attendees.
“The Bilderberg summit, an annual gathering of some of the most powerful people in the world starts on Thursday. Here’s who got an invite,” the article states.
Micklethwait, who joined Bloomberg after stepping down as The Economist’s editor-in-chief in 2014, has been a regular attendee of the group since at least 1996.
Despite attending for the better part of two decades, Micklethwait, as the Bloomberg video states, will remain tight-lipped due to Bilderberg’s policy of secrecy.
As noted in Infowars’ Adan Salazar’s breakdown of media representation at this year’s meeting, Bloomberg’s coverage of the event has been superficial at best “despite boasting over 5,000 daily articles and over 150 bureaus worldwide.”
While affording extensive coverage to the G7 summit, the only other coverage of Bilderberg this year by Bloomberg was a failed hit-piece attacking Infowars for merely asking if Jeb Bush would attend.
I like the cell phone jammers they have already set up. Wish they would allow those in movie theaters!
And while on the tinfoil hat topics, I saw my first black helicopter today on my way home from work. Zero markings, and either machine guns or high-gain microphones on the front of it (about 3′ out the front with ribs on them). Flying right over a busy urban area in broad daylight.
I see several helicopters daily, and I have never seen one like this before.
phony scandals
Jebderberg
phony