The Housing Bubble

Neither do the chromasomes

Social Justice Warrior™ = there is no injustice, historical or present, perceived or actual, that can not be remedied via redistributive taxation

Feels before reals

The PTB want the public’s attention off trade agreements and immigration. Gay marriage, transgender or race related stories all help.

White collar conservative flashin down the street, pointing that plastic finger at me,
they all assume my kind will drop and die, but I’m gonna wave my freak flag high.

How well the freaks are treated is the measure of a country and a person. It’s probably the truest measure of freedom.

How well the freaks are treated is the measure of a country and a person. It’s probably the truest measure of freedom.

It worked real well for the Weimer Republic.

“It worked real well for the Weimer Republic.”

I never said it made you immune to fascist takeover. It probably increases the chance, actually, since such freedom clearly riles the local taliban.

Well you will get to vote on an “interesting” referendum:

http://calwatchdog.com/2015/05/15/cas-winding-history-direct-democracy-sometimes-brings-crackpots/

“I never said it made you immune to fascist takeover.”

What do you think political correctness is?

Our Colleges and Universities are ripe with PC. We should really consider shutting them all down and starting over with targeted higher education.

If you want to be indoctrinated into progressive fascism, you can choose that type of education and pay for it out of your own pocket.

Those interested in a real career can attend specialty Universities that will also provide unbiased classes on world history, English, writing, etc. No gender and Identity based studies or majors.

This madness has got to stop or this country if finished…may already be too late.

What do the people mean when they say that country or a city or a state is finished? And what’s targeted education?

+1 Bill

It seems like you’re the one with an agenda, not the media.

I’m beginning to think that Media/Goon/Boots’s agenda is that he is masquerading as a libertarian but in reality is a hard right reactionary. Real libertarians fully support transgenderism because they are exercising their personal liberty to pursue happiness in their own way.

Progressives can’t handle losing control of the narrative

Key word: control

“…but in reality is a hard right reactionary”

For some, freedom means letting people do what they want, as long as it doesn’t directly harm others. For others, freedom means getting to control the actions of people who they feel are hurting their feelings/morality/society. It’s a fundamental split in the conception of freedom, imho.

It’s like the Jimi Hendrix thing. Some explore their minds and find love, others explore their minds and find hatred and judgement.

” because they are exercising their personal liberty to pursue happiness in their own way”

The squad is too smarmy and snarky to be anything other than a DINO/RINO follower of Stewart/Colbert.

“For some, freedom means letting people do what they want, as long as it doesn’t directly harm others. For others, freedom means getting to control the actions of people who they feel are hurting their feelings/morality/society. It’s a fundamental split in the conception of freedom, imho.”

Wow…The indoctrinators are some crafty folks. You have really nailed that one Oddy…they (fascist progressives) are so successful in their brain washing that the actual meaning of “Freedom” is up for debate.

Call me stunned. The word “Control” belongs nowhere near the definition of Freedom. I am saving that paragraph, hope your progressive buddies aren’t upset at you for letting the cat out of the bag.

You need to work on your reading comprehension, Clubber.

99% of corporate welfare recipients who get billions and ALL defense contractors who make billions off war, voted GOP.

So everyone is a moocher except me.

Show me a single mom who gets this much?

Alcoa — $5.64 Billion

Boeing — $13.18 Billion
Intel — $3.87 Billion
General Motors — $3.58 Billion

Real “progressives” would advocate for the elimination of age of consent laws

Ginsberg at one time thought that twelve year old girls should be able to consent to males of all ages. Do you think a conservative would be sitting on the Supreme Court if they once held that position?

The real libertarian solution is the removal of government from heterosexual marriage

Which is unacceptable to tradcons

And would remove the progressive/feminist agenda of redistribution to government designated victim classes

The real libertarian solution is the removal of government from heterosexual marriage

Which is unacceptable to tradcons

I’m not so sure about that. I’ve met plenty of Fundies who are just fine with leaving marriage to the church.

And would remove the progressive/feminist agenda of redistribution to government designated victim classes

Now that I agree with. Eliminate state sanctioned marriage and alimony becomes a relic of the past.

Don’t know why it’s so difficult to have two unions: one in the church and one in the state. Take vows in front and sign papers in the back.

Alimony is probably still covered under civil union law.

Alimony is probably still covered under civil union law.

But if you can get “married” without bringing the state into it, why have a civil union?

Or why get married at all? In another generation or two, only religious tradcons and the very wealthy will get married, everyone else will just either hook up or have short term relationships.

“I’m not so sure about that. I’ve met plenty of Fundies who are just fine with leaving marriage to the church.”

That’s true, but there are a lot of folks who were NOT married in the church that would still like to have their relationship with their wife/husband called a “marriage”. Count me as one of them.

However, if there is a stark choice:

1. Remove the word “marriage” from civil unions, but allow same sex civil unions; or
2. Leave the word “marriage” as also connected to a civil union, but bar same-sex civil unions.

I would choose #1.

its inexpensive phones are making it much harder for Apple in the developing countries ??

More crap…soon all the developing countries will have their crappy phones since China can produce them by the millions per day…Then what ??…I will take Apple’s approach all day long…Like Jobs said; “We don’t produce & sell Crap”….

What they fear shown in this link and it is interesting that Bloomberg concentrates on Mexico vs. Russia instead of the U.S. vs. China. BTW, I find the resilience of Japan to be amazing particularly since this board seems to consider Japan to be the poster child for the evils of a debt bubble popping. Sorry it makes all the difference in the world why you go into debt, a country like Argentina is the best example of that.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-23/mexico-to-overtake-russia-by-2050-as-u-s-slides

Once again Bloomberg ignoring China’s flying by the U.S. in the headline shows how the MSM is trying to downplay China’s leaving the U.S. behind.

soon all the developing countries will have their crappy phones since China can produce them by the millions per day…Then what ??

“Crappy” phones break and need to be replaced.

It still amazes me that people will pay $600+ for a phone. Apple knows how to reel in the suckers.

“We don’t produce & sell Crap”

I had Macs at school, and then shifted to Windows after I graduated.

I shifted back to Macs at home after they introduced OS X.

I have so far been pretty happy with the longevity of Macs hardware. HOWEVER, I just purchased a new Mac for home. A supposedly powerful one, and it is sluggish. There are times when it is non-responsive to the keyboard, etc. And I’m not even doing anything that requires much processing power.

Color me extremely unimpressed with the OS on the new machine. If in fact I don’t find a setting, or some reason why it’s so sluggish, I will probably “Bootcamp” the box (to run Windows on it) and perhaps will transition back to a Windows box for my next machine.

lined up to trade in perfectly good and functional iPhone 4’s and 5’s for iPhone 6’s ??

Because its a bigger and better phone….People trade in many perfectly functional things for the newest and best…Car’s being the biggest example…

New crap is always shinier and prettier than old crap.

Just saying that just because people have their houses full of crap doesn’t mean they won’t go out and buy more.

People trade in many perfectly functional things for the newest and best…Car’s being the biggest example…

I seem to recall reading that the average age of a car is now 11 years old, whereas most people I meet, regardless of income level, have an almost new $600 phone in their pocket or purse.

People will drive their cars into the ground, but will buy a new $600 phone every year or two, even though the old phone works just fine.

IMHO a car is a depreciating consumable. I drive a Volvo, I’m boring!

I hardly ever upgrade my phone. I’m not a “topper”.

For goodness sake, the new phone doesn’t cost you anything if you sell the old one. I do it every two years, and am out of pocket nothing, unless I choose to pay for an extended protection plan.

“New crap is always shinier and prettier than old crap.”

Also more pungent.

I heard something similar from a friend, this time militarily. There are so many Chinese that they could beat us with steak knives, as long as they gave one to each and every citizen.

America’s greatest asset is clean air and water. Surprisingly that China isn’t buying up American lakes and water rights. I’m sure Detroit would be willing to make a deal.

Surprisingly that China isn’t buying up American lakes and water rights.

Kinda hard to ship it to China in the quantities they need.

China decided long ago to buy the USA vs trying to invade it.

Meanwhile, we blow up Iraq and rebuild it. Thanks GOP!

Can we (USA) at least buy Cuba or Baja?

All I see in Afghanistan and Iraq is the very people we do not want to have power taking power. Thanks Obama. People wanted you to end two wars not lose two wars.

America’s greatest asset is clean air and water.

In large part to the illegals, I do not think California has an abundance of either one.

Can we (USA) at least buy Cuba or Baja?

The Mexican constitution forbids foreign ownership of property 50 km from the coast.

duh! Bush signed the treaty to withdraw troops or they will be arrested. Your Google work and you are an attorney, you should know this.

” Comment by Albuquerquedan
2015-06-23 12:00:33
All I see in Afghanistan and Iraq is the very people we do not want to have power taking power. Thanks Obama. People wanted you to end two wars not lose two wars.”

‘Bush signed the treaty to withdraw troops or they will be arrested.’

Nobody bothers with historic reality anymore. The US was facing the soldiers losing immunity to law, so Bush signed an agreement to leave because the soldiers liked to shoot up everything. BTW, Obama has a screw loose because he said he was “good at killing people.”

I’m not talking about the Chinese in China. I meant the 64% of Chinese who want to take their money and GTFOOD. Buy up an Oil City homestead with acreage and water in Flyover State, send the kiddie to Football Factory University, and chain migrate the rest of the family. The whole shebang would cost less than an Effing Floating Box of Air in Miami.

LOL, what’s with the “I have to say”, palmy? Get another cuppa cawfee, fer chrissakes.

Yep, it’s moving right along. The congresscritters have been briefed. They know what the “secret” is.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-23/obama-faces-union-anger-ahead-corporate-coup-detat-trade-deal-fast-track-vote

No. Here’s why:

“It’s widely assumed that Wall Street rules the roost in both the mainstream financial media and in the alternative financial blogosphere. In my view, the speculative excesses and political power of Wall Street pose a strategic threat to the Deep State, and as a result a showdown between the Deep State and the surface machinery of governance that has been captured by Wall Street is looming.

Though everyone who is convinced the U.S. dollar will go to zero is confident that Wall Street will emerge victorious from the next financial crisis, I am convinced of the opposite: the Deep State will do whatever it takes to eliminate strategic threats to the integrity of the Deep State and the nation it depends on for its power and survival. In a financial crisis that threatens the dollar and the Deep State, the phantom claims of Wall Street’s financier skimmers, scammers and swindlers will be tossed under the bus with few qualms. The triage might even be performed with a certain relish.”

http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar14/throw-under-bus3-14.html

That’s some pretty primitive political analysis there. If these Deep State people are going to go up against Wall Street, there going to need some very powerful forces on their side.

Except that they ARE the powerful forces. Wall Street et al exists at the pleasure of the deep state, although I do believe there is an uneasy alliance of sorts. We’ve already seen an example of this “triage” that Charles Hugh Smith speaks of, when Lehman was let sink and AIG was backstopped. THAT, my friend, is the deep state at work, picking the winners and losers.

There’s money and there’s power. Some have both, some have one or the other. The deep state doesn’t need to HAVE money, just access to it, which they do have, and plenty of it. If not enough on hand, they can just extract some fines from the world of finance. After all, it’s much easier and more immediate than Iran/Contra types of operations.

I really wish there was another term for “deep state”, or “shadow state”, because it all sound so ooga-booga, but this sort of entity has been around for centuries, for as long as there have been nation states, courts and kings and that sort of thing. The “Elizabeth” movie series gives excellent examples of the deep state of the day. And also shows Elizabeth for the brilliant ruler strategist that she was, being able to triangulate between all the various factions and entities she had to contend with. There may be others, but she is the best example of a ruler that was able to keep so many entities happy while doing what she had to do. The people loved her, the business interests loved her and so did her shadow government. And she needed them all on her side, because she was up against the Holy Roman Empire, the EU of her day.

It may seem primitive. I prefer to use the word simple. Most of this stuff is fairly simple. It’s just been made complicated, and takes some cutting through the BS. There’s always profit in complication, that’s what makes it so hard to eliminate.

They need powerful forces outside the government bureaucracy itself. Wall Street spends vast sums on campaign contribution and has its lobbyists swarming all over Capitol Hill. The only example is that I can recall of bureaucrats having something that could counter that sort of influence was when J. Edgar Hoover supposedly had files on the backgrounds of lots of elected officials.

“They need powerful forces outside the government bureaucracy itself. Wall Street spends vast sums on campaign contribution and has its lobbyists swarming all over Capitol Hill.”

Once again, they ARE the powerful forces. OK, let me give you a more recent example. Victoria Nuland, deep stater par excellence, and who ever heard of her until Russia got her on tape with her “Eff the EU” conversation? Like most deep staters, Nuland has her gig no matter which party is in power. Deep staters tend to keep their gigs for decades. If you care to, google it up and listen to the clip again, it’s an excellent example of the sorts of things these folks get involved with and how they go about effecting coups and such things.

The dollar rose because the US is considered the world’s cleanest dirty shirt. Do you want to own Euros? China’s RMB?

What was the alternative…mandating that the Fed print money and drop it from helicopters?

Let’s face it, the dollar rose because it’s considered the safe haven in the world.

The is the party line. The Europeans and the Japan were actively trying to drop their currencies down and we went along is the truth. The question is why and I say it is Obama’s hatred of Putin.

“Let’s face it, the dollar rose because it’s considered the safe haven in the world.”

that’s no fun! Lets blame Obama!! And my kid’s school lunch is bad (like it has been for 50 yrs) darn you Mrs O for trying to make things better, even thought people are lazy and dumb!!!

Fine, but it does not address my point. If the parts are not made in China and I actually believe some are contrary to that article then the parts must be imported and they would be counted against China’s trade balance. Now, they may create a deficit with Japan or Taiwan but they are counted and the surplus is $65 billion for the entire world. Meanwhile while China may get the credit for the phone, the U.S. is not picking up the increased deficit with Taiwan or Japan, China is, like most of Business Insider articles the reporters demonstrate they have very little knowledge about the areas they are writing about.

http://www.todaysiphone.com/2013/08/why-iphones-are-made-in-china-infographic/iphone-infographic/

http://www.intomobile.com/2013/09/13/iphone-made-infographic/

Elderly have saved and they hoped to live off their savings ??

Live off ?? I suspect a High percentage of them don’t have that much in savings…Maybe a retirement plan…401k…I think believe they live off of a combination of income streams but don’y believe they rely much on interest on savings…

The principal goes much faster when the interest rates are low. Ironically, the real “loosers” will be the generation that most voted for Obama, the deficit in their cash flows is being met with reverse mortgages for the boomers, the slacker generation will be living in the parent’s cellar until their parents die and the reverse mortgage people take their houses.

I suspect a High percentage of them don’t have that much in savings

I suspect that only a minority have more than 100K stashed away. Used to be that they would have the house paid off when they retired, but with serial refis (with cash outs) that is no longer the rule

The article talks about higher housing prices as if it’s good news that people have to pay a higher and higher percentage of their income to the bank, and then wonders why people aren’t saving more. These kinds of articles are always written by clueless hacks.

and then wonders why people aren’t saving more

And when they refuse to buy a house and instead DO save their money, that also is bad.

Pension funds depend upon a high interest rate in order to remain viable, don’t forget.

My parents are in the camp of retirees who are having their financial plans impacted by the Fed.

They have one non-government pension, Social Security, and 401k’s that they have saved over the years. They own their house without a mortgage. The low interest rates have caused them to re-allocate $ into dividend paying stocks. As some CDs they held matured, they didn’t roll them into new CDs, but averaged into the market as their portfolio of CDs naturally matured.

Thankfully they did so post-crash/pre-runup, and so they are not suffering like folks who sat on cash and watched the run-up unfold before them.

I suspect that only a minority have more than 100K stashed away. This an important point. Is someone has $50k in a CD, an extra 1% works out to be $500 a year.

“Unless you want to gamble on real estate instead…”

Anyone who refuses to join the Ownership Society deserves to see his dollar-denominated savings inflated away.

Since the Fed has started their “dual mandate” that includes inflation at 2%, you have to assume that your cash money is debased by 2% per year.

As such, at times when MM funds are below 2%, you have a choice to make.

1. Assume that the yields will rise soon enough that you are willing to keep the money in cash; or
2. Seek higher yields by investing the money in something else in order to protect your wealth from inflation.

The shame of it all is that the people who understand this probably are on firmer financial footing than those who do not understand this.

The problem with the stock market is that one can lose alarming sums with depressing regularity.

The Fed heretofore unprecedented QE and other market supports have pushed up the market, and benefits those who remained in the market after the tech crash.

The problem for retirees who plan to retire on a big stock portfolio is that it can go poof in very short order. I’d talked to people who were going to retire but the tech bust wiped them out.

The problem with even starting to dollar cost into the market now is the Fed’s unprecedented intervention - and ditto with the rest of the world’s central banks. Can they keep this up forever? I don’t think so. Dollar cost averaging into a declining market doesn’t help the net worth.

The game plan was to keep interest rates low, drown the market in liquidity, take bad debt off the hands of Wall Street, and yadda yadda, the economy is roaring again.

That didn’t happen. What the Fed again didn’t realize was, like Greenspan who flat out admitted it was that markets don’t self regulate, and they don’t act in the “public interest.” They act in their private interest. So instead of lots of borrowing and investment in jobs-generating and technology generating projects, companies did borrow - to do stock buybacks and load the companies up with debt.

All that money given to Wall Street was used to create asset bubbles - malinvestment to the society, but very lucrative to those normal, self-interested individuals who work at those companies.

The Fed is trying to central plan and they’re always gamed.

Bernanke went to Citadel. Geithner went to Warburg Pincus. I’m not so sure the gaming is unintentional.

Anyway. One thing I’ve learned from personal experience is that moving lump sums into the market is a gamble. Even if the investment is a well regarded index fund. Dollar cost averaging is the only way to go. But even then you want to be near something like a market trough and this doesn’t seem like a market trough. It’s a soaring market driven by central bank intervention. Which seems unlikely they can keep up for too much longer. They’ve been involved in this unprecedented intervention for eight years now.