Bits Bucket for September 19, 2015
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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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Buy a house today and you will lose alot of money. Alot of money.
goon,
You’re level headed. “Today” is the operative word. Yes, as the perpetual cycle of this bubble continues, your risk for a realized loss goes up. Luckily, some of us bought at the almost bottom of a deflationary cycle, so we protected ourselves, in a demand region. With us, worse case scenario, we’ll break even.
You paid a 200% premium for a rapidly depreciating asset in a impoverished state that’s losing population……and then threw more good money after bad at it.
You did not.
“we’ll break even…”
This is magical thinking Inchy. You bought very close to the manic high of a generation. You poured a lot of cash into fancy upgrades which never “break even”.
Unless by “even” you mean back to before you had the windfall on the previous houses? It’s kind of ironic that you can paint the period when oil and other commodities were doubling and tripling a “deflationary bottom”. Do you now think that we are in an inflationary spiral?
I sold my house in 2009 for $449k. It sold 2 mos ago for $473k. And it looks like the owners put about $30k into it. They might have broke even depending on the commission they paid. Funny to see stuff like where there was a window I put in a french door when I bought it. They took out the same french door and put in a window.
$473k - $449k - $30k = -$6k.
It looks like they lost money, especially given that rents on comparable housing are typically lower than monthly ownership costs, that they likely shared in the transaction costs of buying the home in 2009 and of selling it a few short years later, and that monthly payments in the initial years of ownership with a thirty-year mortgage go almost entirely to interest payments.
Muppets will be muppets.
It rents for $2000 because it has a great local school, so not much savings there. But the improvements and commission ate any profits.
How large are your losses to depreciation?
I did well. I bought it direct from the owner for $300k in 2005. Put, ~$10k in improvements including a hot tub over the 4 yrs. Very low prop taxes in NM. No complaints. Bank account swelled. Timing is everything.
What were your losses to depreciation?
We did a lot of deferred maintenance, and not many fancy upgrades. I am holding steady on my outlook to break even. We’ve saved $80K-$90K on rent so far over 3 years. Every year, we save approx. $30K on rent. That washes out any money we’ve put or will into the house, and we’ve enjoyed our home. We’ll make money on this place. No matter what, one story ranchers are in demand for the aging baby boomers.
Cactus and I bought at a reason price in a good area.
mafia, you’re clueless.
You paid a 250% premium for a depreciating asset and threw more good money after bad at it.
Do the honest math.
We sell FSBO (I’m licensed) and that saves us 10’s of $1,000’s. Online MLS services rock.
Buy a commercial building today and you WILL lose a lot of money.
I bought a commercial building 13,000 sq feet in October of 2010 and posted on HBB about it in November 2010. My purchase price was $12.67 per sq foot. I have done the following so far.
2 new kitchens with granite tops
2 new bathrooms
I office
2600 + 1900 sq feet of commercial carpet installed on 2 occasions
Parking lot repaved for 27 cars. Only 1 layer cost $38,000
Exterior and interior painted.
Torchdown roof doing these days for 25 percent of the building.
All new exterior and interior lights (Led) with Smart watt program
Hard wired smoke detectors
Lighted exit signs
3 automatic garage doors.
Camera system
Insulation and new ceiling tiles.
ADT security system
New sump pumps and concrete repair.
Very high end office furniture.
My cost too high to even calculate.
Frustrations Unbelievable.
Not to offend anybody but I have come across more tradesman that are alcoholics, drug users, thieves, liars, wage garnishments, illegitimate kids, without driver licenses and the story goes on and on.
The good thing is I have 6 bathrooms, Sauna, Shower, fireplace (natural gas) and low taxes compared to my neighbors who have smaller buildings. I will pay $8K they are paying between $12K to 18K. Go figure.
When the sh*it hits the storm I can leave the Syracuse City and come to the building. It’s on the commercial side of town near the thruway. If I die my wifey can rent this building for $5 to $6 per sq foot quite easily and supplement her retirement income that is one of the reasons I have improved this structure.
I do get rent from my company for the building and it has helped me secure some deals which might not have happened otherwise.
Did you build out residential area in a commercial building?
No, This building was owned by a printing company before me and the owner was from Denmark. He built the Sauna and imported tiles from France for the bathrooms. The owner was living in the thousand islands and would commute and stay Mon thru Friday at the building. The printing owner got rich when color separation with Dec computers came to the markets. There is 1000 sq feet of a computer room that had to be constant humidity maintained. So there is a 30K floor and a huge dehumidifier in the building.
I remember you posting about that purchase SUGuy…
Yeah I remember too. Seems like a good spread. Syracuse is upper NY state isn’t it? Except for the lieberals in NYC the res of NY seems fine. I got a cousin there in some rural area. She is no lieberal.
We paid cash, and that stopped the renting money bleed. $550/mo accruals (ins and prop taxes), is petty cash for a nice place to live. We bought in a down cycle of our regional housing cycle. We are happy, and could care less about what other people think. Locking in housing costs is smart. The same house rents for $2,200/mo down the street.
Now include your losses to depreciation.
Just think of massive pile of cash you’d have had you not blew it all on paying a 200% premium for a depreciating asset that you could have rented.
McLean, VA Housing Prices Fall 7% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/mclean-va/market-trends/
I figure my hood loses 1-2% next year
22151 S of Kremlin
By now, that’s a win.
Did the FOMC spook the market by punting on liftoff?
It seems like September is a bit early for the market to get spooked, though come to think of it, the Fall 2008 financial meltdown was already on the boil in September. I can vividly recall the distraction of the September 2008 news that the evil GSE twins had imploded while trying to maintain focus on a challenging work assignment.
There will be no financial meltdowns as long as money can be printed. It is clear that everyone in the plutocracy is committed to this policy. So 2008 conditions would be rapidly met with a quicker and different response of immediate massive printing. They would not let anything fail today. It is different. We lost our virginity then.
“They would not let anything fail today.”
I assume you don’t mean anything like the recent botched Chinese government attempt to shore up stock prices? What a hoot!
Goldman Sachs chief ‘would not invest in China’: report
AFP
September 17, 2015 5:26 AM
Goldman Sachs chairman Lloyd Blankfein said China’s broad stock market intervention, including state-funded share buying, as it seeks to shore up slumping prices, was “ham-handed” and “sloppy” (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm)
Beijing (AFP) - The chairman of investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has slammed China’s handling of its economy, adding he would not currently invest in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Lloyd Blankfein told the paper that China’s broad stock market intervention, including state-funded share buying, as it seeks to shore up slumping prices, was “ham-handed” and “sloppy”.
“They don’t have a lot of experience in this market stuff,” Blankfein, who is also Goldman’s chief executive, said of the ruling Communist authorities.
His comments come after Goldman this month said that it estimated China’s economy was growing at around six percent a year, lower than the official figures of 7.0 percent for each of the first two quarters.
Some analysts fear that the world’s second-largest economy could face a steep decline in expansion — with ramifications for the rest of the world — if it does not pull off difficult reforms to rebalance its model towards domestic consumption.
Blankfein said Chinese leaders “know what the problems are” but changes in policy would be “really hard”.
He added that he “would not invest in China right now”, the newspaper said.
…
BloombergBusiness
It’s a New World: How China Growth Concerns Kept the Fed on Hold
Enda Curran and Christopher Condon
September 17, 2015 — 8:53 PM PDT
Why Yellen Focused on International Economics
- Yellen: `Focused particularly on China and emerging markets’
- China accounted for 13.3% of the global economy last year
Here’s the latest sign of China’s arrival as a global economic power: It’s roiled financial markets enough to nudge the Federal Reserve away from raising interest rates.
Fed policy makers left their benchmark rate near zero Thursday, saying the U.S. economy and inflation may be restrained by “recent global economic and financial developments.” Fed Chair Janet Yellen elaborated in a press briefing, saying the financial turmoil reflected investor concerns about risks to Chinese growth.
“If it weren’t for China and all the turmoil surrounding China, I think the Fed would have hiked rates,” said Mickey Levy, chief economist for the Americas and Asia at Berenberg in New York, who has analyzed Fed policy for more than 30 years.
The focus on China comes after a market rout that wiped $5 trillion in value off the nation’s stocks and after a sudden move on Aug. 11 to change its exchange rate regime, a decision which triggered the yuan’s biggest depreciation in two decades and roiled global markets. The world’s second-largest economy is set to grow at its slowest pace in a quarter century this year even after five central bank interest rate cuts and fiscal stimulus.
“China was an influence in this meeting, whereas in the past that would have been much less important,” said Tai Hui, chief Asia market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management in Hong Kong.
…
I told you a couple years ago that low rates are here for a long time.
Your interest sacrifice ensures food stamp check go out and stock buybacks continue to rig the phony market.
Only an idiot can explain the actions of fools.
Not true. I routinely point out how 95% of the ‘Murican electorate bends over for the Oligopoly by voting for their water carriers like Obama, McCain, Romney, and HillaryJeb. And I, by my own estimation, am indisputably a genius….
Yet you have not explained it.
You feel so smart because you suffer from the Dunning/Kreuger effect.
I suffer from the Freddy Kreuger effect.
Yet you have not explained it.
Not so. Stupid people do stupid things because…(drum roll) they’re stupid. No further explanation required.
“Here’s the latest sign of China’s arrival as a global economic power: It’s roiled financial markets enough to nudge the Federal Reserve away from raising interest rates.”
Which is something they never intended to do in the first place.
“Fed policy makers left their benchmark rate near zero Thursday, saying the U.S. economy and inflation may be restrained by “recent global economic and financial developments.”
Events that came out of nowhere.
“If it weren’t for China and all the turmoil surrounding China, I think the Fed would have hiked rates”.
Not a chance in hell.
“China was an influence in this meeting …”
Correction: China offered-up a nifty excuse in this meeting.
There was no way the Fed was going to raise rates because low rates are locked in.
Correction: China offered-up a nifty excuse in this meeting.
Exactly combo. Can’t believe people get paid to write this kind of pedestrian stuff in MSM.
There will be no interest hikes period. Prepare yourself for more NIRP and more QE.
The problem with “more NIRP and more QE” is that you need an army of willing debt slaves who are not already at their debt service limit. The last bunch were found in China, now apparently saturated. Where will they find the next even bigger one?
Right here in this country and they will import more debt holders if they have to
Where will they find the next even bigger one?
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh? Still plenty of poor people there that they could convince to lever-up…
There was no way the Fed was going to raise rates because low rates are locked in.
Locked in—for how long?
Politicians love it when a red herring of convenience appears to justify a policy course they had already planned to take. (I’m thinking of yellow cake uranium as another example.)
Nancy Pelosi’s sanctuary city where homeless men squat to defecate on the streets and…
THIS is what $350K buys you
By Regina F. Graham For Dailymail.com
Published: 19:33 EST, 17 September 2015
In many cities across the country, $350,000 is enough to buy a nice sized home with all the trimmings.
But in America’s most expensive city, San Francisco, that amount of money is only enough to land a person in a wooden shack.
A new real estate listing in the Outer Mission neighborhood of the city has a dilapidated 765-square-foot wood siding home for sale for $350,000.
The two bedroom and one bathroom California dwelling sits on a 1,633-square-foot lot on 16 De Long Street in the city.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3239257/In-America-s-expensive-city-350K-buys-San-Francisco.html#ixzz3mBfwG3ph
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Don’t live there. Problem solved.
Don’t matter. There will be no shortage of corrupt chinese people.
“Don’t live there. Problem solved.”
Which problem does that solve?
Nancy Pelosi, the sanctuary city or homeless men squatting to defecate on the streets?
How to solve San Francisco’s homeless pooping problem
Brandon M. Mercer Updated 9:55 am, Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Image 1 of 4
A homeless man squats to defecate at Mint Plaza, just off 5th Street, on Aug. 17
San Francisco is known for its Golden Gate Bridge, world class cuisine, panoply of cultures, striking skyline, frigid fog, and homeless. More specifically, aggressive panhandling and homeless defecating and urinating in public. And sometimes doing even worse things.
With the holiday shopping season coming, and Super Bowl 50 right behind, the city by the bay will be in the national spotlight once again, and so will images
While Mayor Ed Lee announced this week that “the homeless must leave the street” for Super Bowl 50, it’s more what they leave behind on the street that is a concern for the million or so people who have to walk a few blocks or a few miles in the city every day.
http://www.sfgate.com/…/article/How-to-solve-San-Francisco-s-homeless-pooping-6465355.php - 299k -
Anyone remember the blog “For sale or crack shack?”
Is it safe to assume the long slide in oil prices is over, and $80/bbl oil by December is in the bag?
Middle East
In a Mideast upset by cheap oil, more crude may enter market
FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2009 file photo, Iraqi laborers work at the Rumaila oil refinery in Zubair near the city of Basra, Iraq. Across a Mideast fueled by oil production, low global prices have some countries running on empty and scrambling to cover shortfalls, even as more regional crude is on tap to enter the market. (Nabil al-Jurani, File/Associated Press)
By Jon Gambrell | AP September 19 at 3:32 AM
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Across a Mideast fueled by oil production, low global prices have some countries running on empty and scrambling to cover shortfalls, even as more regional crude is on tap to enter the market.
While some Gulf nations rest on ample reserve funds, embattled Iraq is desperate to scrounge up more money for its fight against the extremist Islamic State group as protesters demand repairs to its failing power grid. Contrast that to neighboring Iran, whose nuclear deal with world powers positions it to re-enter the global oil market and make long-needed repairs to its fields to increase its daily production.
The possibility of more supply entering the market has analysts already lowering their forecast price for oil into the next year. And even if the price rises, industry experts say U.S. production quickly could ramp up and keep prices low for years to come, challenging the power of OPEC.
“There’s almost no way that OPEC can get the band back together,” said Greg Priddy, the director for global energy and natural resources at the Eurasia Group. “You can’t get prices rapidly back up … because you’d get runaway growth in the U.S.”
…
Top News
Fri Sep 18, 2015 | 5:28 PM EDT
U.S. crude tumbles 5 percent; Wall Street selloff offsets rig data
A service truck drives past an oil well on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota, November 1, 2014.
REUTERS/Andrew Cullen
By Barani Krishnan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil prices tumbled on Friday, with U.S. crude falling 5 percent, after a selloff in Wall Street equities offset the positive impact of a third weekly decline in the U.S. oil rig count.
A rise in the dollar, fears that OPEC oil production will not slow and reduced political tensions in the Middle East from U.S-Russia talks on Syria also weighed on oil.
U.S. crude futures’ front-month settled down $2.22, or 4.8 percent, at $44.68 a barrel.
The front-month in Brent, the global oil benchmark, fell $1.61, or 3.3 percent, at $47.47.
Oil services firm Baker Hughes’s report on the weekly U.S. oil rig count showed a drop of eight rigs this week. It was the third weekly decline of the rig count, a sign that a renewed fall in crude prices since July may be slowing some drillers from returning to the well pad in a bigger way.
U.S. crude futures, already down 3 percent before the Baker Hughes report, pared losses just briefly on the news.
“The industry is getting so much more production from new technology that a decline in working rigs doesn’t mean nearly as much as it used to,” said David Thompson at Powerhouse, a commodities broker in Washington specializing in energy.
Shortly after the rig count report, oil prices began a sharper descent as Wall Street’s key S&P 500 stock index .SPX headed for its biggest rout since the start of September. The dollar also rebounded from a 3-week low hit earlier in the day after a Federal Reserve decision to keep interest rates unchanged.
…
BloombergBusiness
Goldman Sees 15 Years of Weak Crude as $20 U.S Oil Looms
Robert Tuttle
September 16, 2015 — 10:20 PM PDT
Updated on September 17, 2015 — 11:41 AM PDT
Oil Price: Why the Big Discrepancy Between Goldman, OPEC
- Prices may drop to $20 when refineries shut in October, March
- Analyst Currie says bank’s long-term forecast for crude at $50
A glut of crude may keep oil prices low for the next 15 years, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
There’s less than a 50 percent chance that prices will drop to $20 a barrel, most likely when refineries shut in October or March for maintenance, Jeffrey Currie, head of commodities research at the bank, said Wednesday in an interview in Lake Louise, Alberta. Goldman’s long-term forecast for crude is at $50 a barrel, he said.
Goldman cut its crude forecasts this month, saying the global surplus of oil is bigger than it previously thought and that failure to reduce production fast enough may require prices to fall near $20 a barrel to clear the glut. Prices may touch that level when stockpiles are filled to capacity, forcing producers in some areas to cut output, Currie said Wednesday.
“The last time we saw a period that was similar to today was 1986, 29 years ago,” he said. “We waited 15 years” for oil to start rising again.
Lower iron ore, copper and steel prices as well as weaker currencies in commodity-producing countries have reduced costs for oil companies, according to Currie. The world is shifting from an “investment phase” of a 30-year commodity cycle to an “exploitation phase,” with shale fields as an important source of output, he said. While Goldman’s official forecasts extend to 2020, there is a “very high probability” prices will stay depressed until the end of next decade, he said.
…
We could sure use an update on AlbqDan’s December 2015 oil price forecast!
AQB Dan’s cardboard box doesn’t have wifi, and the bridge he’s living under would block the signals even if he did.
Aw, leave the guy alone, he’s not around to defend himself.
You know he’s reading it. He will come back as soon as china and oil do well.
In other words he won’t be back.
He’ll be back after 2030 if he lives that long and Ben is still running the HBB by then.
When he stopped being right, he left.
u evangelicals need to support trump.
When he stopped being right, he left.
No, he stuck around fighting a losing rear-guard action long after his basic arguments had been totally discredited.
“No, he stuck around fighting a losing rear-guard action long after his basic arguments had been totally discredited”.
Well put, Ray K
Where is the guy who lost his a$$ on oil and a rapidly depreciating housing he paid a grossly inflated price for in 2010?
http://goo.gl/pw9QU2
Is China still on track to achieve its seven percent GDP growth target in 2015?
7.00% annual growth was achieved by March, and further growth this year has been suspended so as not to over shame the failed capitalist pigmen in the United States, comrade.
As long as the ChiComs can use censorship to keep their citizens in the dark, perhaps the news that growth has slipped below 7% won’t matter much back home.
ft com > GlobalEconomy >
Chinese Economy
September 16, 2015 12:29 pm
Doubts rise over China’s official GDP growth rate
Josh Noble in Hong Kong
A general view shows the Shanghai city skyline on a sunny day in Shanghai, China, September 11, 2015.
REUTERS/Stringer
CHINA OUT.
NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN CHINA
©Reuters
The view that China is growing far slower than official figures show is increasingly going mainstream, with big global investors among those now basing decisions on a rate of about 5 per cent.
According to government statistics China’s economy grew at an annual pace of 7 per cent in the second quarter of this year, in line with Beijing’s target for the year and the World Bank estimate of 7.1 per cent.
However, doubts have long lingered about the veracity of Chinese economic data, with many analysts believing them to be understated during times of rapid growth and overstated during the current slowdown. A strategist at one European asset manager described the official growth figure as “a very crude propaganda tool”.
The recent decision by the People’s Bank of China to devalue the renminbi, a move that rattled markets across the world, has been seen as further evidence that China’s economy is in far worse health than official data show.
Some have instead turned to alternative estimates, such as the “Li Keqiang index” — a composite of various indicators favoured by the Chinese prime minister, such as electricity production and railway freight volumes. Many of those gauges fell into outright contraction late last year.
Bob Browne, chief investment officer at Northern Trust, said the fund manager recently lowered its growth forecast for China for the next five years to “5 per cent and change”, which he said was a recognition that using official statistics was “really no longer appropriate”.
“We just can’t reconcile it with the private sector surveys or more valid government bottom-up numbers,” he said.
…
“Among the most insidious of these is that the corporate C-suite has been morphed into a stock trading room. The mountains of cheap corporate debt that have been sold to yield hungry asset managers has enabled companies to literally rig their own stock prices higher and higher via $2.5 trillion of buybacks since March 2009. At the same time, the Fed’s wealth effects policy and free money to the carry trades has fulsomely rewarded buy the dips robo-machines and hedge fund gamblers, thereby insuring that the cash register keeps ringing on executive stock options.”
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/riding-the-zero-bound-into-the-doom-loop-monetary-central-plannings-dead-end/
David Stockman, inventor of trickle down voodoo economics. Future economics textbooks will not be kind to his legacy.
To be fair he left Ray-gun admin after disagreeing with their voodoo economics.
I don’t know where that bit of revisionism comes from but Stockman is the undisputed author and champion of trickle down.
Stockman was quoted as referring to Reagan’s tax act as: “I mean, Kemp-Roth [Reagan's 1981 tax cut] was always a Trojan horse to bring down the top rate…. It’s kind of hard to sell ‘trickle down.’ So the supply-side formula was the only way to get a tax policy that was really ‘trickle down.’ Supply-side is ‘trickle-down’ theory.” source
I think a more accurate statement is that Stockman reversed his position on Reagan tax cuts/trickle down once he realized they don’t work.
Nonsense
I agree — trickle down and Reagan/Bush tax cuts are nonsense.
Falling prices my friend. Nothing accelerates the economy like falling prices.
WPA jobs weren’t union jobs. Rebuild infrastructure = govt Union goons, or worse.
Rebuild infrastructure = govt Union goons
Don’t they hire private contractors to do that? My understanding is that they don’t have to be union, they just have to pay the prevailing union wage.
“I think a more accurate statement is that Stockman reversed his position on Reagan tax cuts/trickle down once he realized they don’t work.”
Reading Wikipedia is a poor substitute for a basic college economics course.
Trickle-down economics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the political term. For the marketing phenomenon, see trickle-down effect.
“Trickle-down economics”, also referred to as “trickle-down theory”, is the theory that economic benefits provided to upper income level earners will help society as a whole. In theory their extra wealth will be spent into the economy, providing wealth for lower income earners and creating jobs. This wealth in turn is spent back into the economy. The term originated in United States politics.[1][2]:27-28 It has been attributed to humorist Will Rogers, who said during the Great Depression that “money was all appropriated for the top in hopes that it would trickle down to the needy.”[3]
Economist Thomas Sowell has made the case[4] that no economist has ever advocated a “trickle-down” theory of economics, which is rather a misnomer attributed to certain economic ideas by political critics who either willfully distort or misunderstand the actual stated goals of their political opponents.[5]
…
“Trickle down” is the humorous name for “supply side economics”. You learn that one in a basic college history class.
It seems quite a stretch to claim David Stockman invented “supply side economics” if the humorous term to describe it was first coined by Will Rogers back in the 1930s.
You’re assuming that Rogers was correct in claiming that supply side/trickle down was significant part of the New Deal. He was probably mistaken about that.
Good old wikipedia comes through again:
Once again, you’re pointless Lola.
I am sure he foresaw a record number of people on food stamps as a result. Just the way the 1% likes it.
Why nothing changes regardless of which Oligopoly water carrier gets elected.
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/deep-state-america/
We need to bring back public hangings to send a message that society doesn’t have to put up with scum like this.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/18/got-phoenix-freeway-shooting-suspect-arrested/
I think it’s general knowledge the bad things will happen to you if you shoot at cars on the freeway. I don’t think that factored into his decision.
As I was driving on I-10 from Sky Harbor rental car facility last night I was wondering what are the chances some nut will blow my head off. Hopefully the one they arrested is the one who did it.
This stuff happened in 2007. Two guys were involved, I was working in the Arcadia district of Phoenix. I remember a colleague used to walk home from work zig zag. His strategy for making less of a target for the sniper.
walk home from work zig zag
Serpentine!
We’ve had some freeway snipers on the loose around San Diego in recent years as well.
A dickweed who takes potshots at cars isn’t a “sniper.”
“Sniper” is protected speech? Are we not being PC?
I just used “sniper” in the generic sense of a loan gunman taking potshots from under cover. No offense was intended towards soldiers in the armed forces assuming this difficult duty under combat conditions.
Actually they don’t like to be called snipers… they prefer to be called “persons of ballistic temperament with high personal space requirements”.
They are saying he is a gun nut with “anti-government views.” His dad is quoted as saying anyone who believes his son did this is a moron.
His Facebook supposedly has a video of him shooting a gun.
If he is anti government how did he know if none of his targets were not statists?
A true anti government type understands he treats family, friends, and colleagues the way he would want to be treated: with kaiser-faire. And he would be so conscious of this that he would refuse to vote. Voting is the act of hiring agents to kill, steal, or kidnap. Voluntaryist says voting is therefore immoral. Even if you only vote for libertarianism you sanction the system which statists claim is consent for majority rule. Even if 51% of the eligible voters vote to kill CountryClubberLang, the act of voting does not make carrying out your murder anymore moral than a lone sniper.
Anti-government means just that. It doesn’t say whether you are kind to puppies, have accepted Jesus into your heart, or love your granny. It just means that you don’t like the government.
It’s not a political platform. It’s a very specific… and I think most people in this country are anti-government. Some of them kick puppies. A lot of them don’t believe in Jesus. Most probably love their grannies, but none of this has anything to do with whether they like the government or not.
Sounds like a nut with a gun rather than a gun nut. From his actions he seems anti-human rather than just anti-government.
Exactly, he acted very much like government by killing people at random. 262 million, yes million - people were murdered by governments (including the U.S. and Great Britain) between 1900 and 2000. Over 1 million Iraqis were killed since 2001, mostly because of no existing weapons of mass destruction. Cheney and Bush should be on trial in world court for war crimes.
You’re repeating the lamestream media spin. This man was clearly an environazi protesting the government’s inaction against Japanese whaling and the plot of the speckle-throated tree monkey.
Bill Moyers, “Anatomy of the Deep State,” or why elections don’t matter.
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/
Another conspiracy fact?
Good article from the highly respected and thoughtful Bill Moyers.
Respected? Wasn’t he the Baghdad Bob during Vietnam war?
Working for the warmonger and racist like LBJ. How’s that respectful? Oh, he’s in the blue team, right?
No, not rooting for the blue team this time. I think you’ll find agreement amongst most journalists that Bill Moyers has achieved an impressive body of work as a writer and journalist. He’s not limited to politics, his work has included philosophy and religion. Anyway, he railed against the expanding oligarchy and shrinking middle class back in 2003. Too bad we didn’t heed his warnings.
+1 WPA
Religion? Well unless he’s anti-religion I guess that disqualifies him from being left wing.
“There is the visible government situated around the Mall in Washington, and then there is another, more shadowy, more indefinable government that is not explained in Civics 101 or observable to tourists at the White House or the Capitol. The former is traditional Washington partisan politics: the tip of the iceberg that a public watching C-SPAN sees daily and which is theoretically controllable via elections. The subsurface part of the iceberg I shall call the Deep State, which operates according to its own compass heading regardless of who is formally in power.”
And there it is: What he calls the Deep State is what we call the PTB.
Deep State, PTB, or maybe the Ruling Class.
Wiki-up “Ruling Class” and you will get this:
“A ruling class is the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society’s political agenda by mandating that there is one such particular class in the given society, and then appointing itself as that class.
“The sociologist C. Wright Mills (1916-1962), argued that the ruling class differs from the power elite. The latter simply refers to the small group of people with the most political power. Many of them are politicians, hired political managers, and military leaders. A common term used to refer to people who directly influence politics, education, and government with the use of wealth or power is the ruling class.”
In order to have an unaccountable ruling elite, you must first have a broad mass of stupid, unquestioning, docile people.
Obama Zombies, McCain Mutants, and Romney Retards have self-identified as such.
Bill Moyers, “Anatomy of the Deep State,” or why elections don’t matter.
That was quite a read. Thanks!
Will Canada’s housing bubble implode before ours?
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/09/16/time-bomb-under-canadas-housing-bubble-makes-a-loud-tick/
The prairie bubble, absolutely. The Vancouver bubble might pop after ours
More Democrat-on-Arrival asylum-seekers on the way.
http://projects.aljazeera.com/2015/09/mexico-invisible-cartel/
43% Of New Foreclosures Are Post 2008 Housing Sales
http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2015/09/17/local-foreclosure-numbers-buck-national-trend-skyrocket/
Does anyone still believe that the Fed is about sound monetary policy, rather than enriching its .1% partners in crime?
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/yellen-folds-her-cards-admits-it-was-a-bluff/
“In the process, Yellen is making herself out to be a complete fool or a liar:
“I do not want to overplay the implications of these recent developments, which have not fundamentally altered our outlook,” she said. “The economy has been performing well, and we expect it to continue to do so.”
Let’s pretend for a moment that Yellen said something different, such as:
“We are screwed. The economy has morphed into a borrowed-money economy and I see no way out.”
What then? Yellen is one of these “high achievement” types who spent her entire life “becoming somebody” and there is no way she is going to trash it all buy suddenly becoming honest.
Is there a female version of the title “The Maestro”? Greenspan certainly fed off that title; I’ll bet Yellen would like to be anointed with something similar.
If you are a member of the special club, what we like to refer to as the PTB - the Shotcallers - then you will need front men (or women) to carry out your agenda, and IMO that was what Greenspan was and this is what Yellen is.
Same goes for political candidates, those folks who are anointed and selected by the PTB to run for office. We, the voters, are given choices but only choices among the candidates that have been pre-selected.
What then? Yellen is one of these “high achievement” types who spent her entire life
That’s why they will see it to the ruin to preserve their ego. Power in hands of mad men like him are not good for the little guy.
Is there a female version of the title “The Maestro”?
The Maestra?
Clowness.
“U.S. Homeownership Rate Hits 48-Year Low”
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/07/28/u-s-homeownership-rate-hits-48-year-low/
US Housing Demand Plummets To 20 Year Low
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qRBemWyulY0/VNGrDCBXzOI/AAAAAAAAiMA/jdA2RQkiNDc/s1600/MBAFeb42014.PNG
People of working age have never been so impoverished.
There are a greater number of impoverished citizens today then ever before.
It’s called the Fed induced recovery. LOL
For the weekend folks:
JoshuaTree Extension for Chrome ‘officially’ released, now has an options dialog to control settings/view ignore list:
JoshuaTree at Chrome Store
Enjoy, and don’t forget to tip your wait staff (aka Ben)
Thanks very much, works better than the FF version so far as I can tell, will have to redo my ignore list but that is actually a most satisfying task
(FWIW I did already donate to the HBB after selling my house in early 2007 thanks to what I learned here)
“Great myths die hard. And I think what we’re witnessing today is the slow death of one of the great myths of human history: this idea that centrally planned command economies work, that they’re even feasible, and that they can be successful.”
The new billionaire seems to be an Austrian economics fan.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-18/mark-spitznagel-warns-if-investors-thought-august-was-scary-they-aint-seen-nothin-ye
I think we knew that already with the USSR…
But our socialists think they are smarter…
Our crony capitalists pretend to be advocates of free enterprise, which seems like the other extreme from Chinese crony capitalists pretending to be communists.
True that.
Talent, OR Housing Prices Plummet 13% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/talent-or/home-values/
Here is what the links says:
The median home value in Talent is $215,800. Talent home values have gone up 7.6% over the past year and Zillow predicts they will rise 4.3% within the next year.
This is from your own source! Nothing is plummeting in Talent. I know, I own real estate in the area.
California Leads the Nation in Job Growth
Bloomberg — “Payrolls rose in 34 states in July and the jobless rate fell in 24 as the U.S. labor market continued its return to health. California led the nation with an 80,700 increase in employment, followed by a 31,400 advance in Texas”
It wasn’t that long ago that Texans were crowing and bragging about the “Texas Miracle” with Rick Perry coming to California urging companies to move there. And so it is with delight I share this news that my fair state is leading the nation in job creation. Heh, I bet some of the Californians who relocated to Texas will be coming back, looking for work…
I bet those who left California left for equal or better jobs. The majority of jobs created in CA or anywhere for that matter are part time service or barista jobs.
Only half true. When you dig into the stats on the 80,700 new jobs in Calif they are split equally between low wage service jobs and high wage white collar. There’s a donut hole in the middle.
Those that took new jobs in Texas may not fare so well if the crashing oil economy takes down the peripheral jobs with it.
It will be interesting to see if the oil price crash results in a reversal of the flow of families from California to Texas.
Only if they want to pay higher taxes and live in the poorest state in the country. Who wants to live in a 3rd world? Texas is prolly second world right now, but still better than Kali as whole.
Texas is prolly second world right now
“Second World”, IIRC , was a name for the old Soviet bloc.
Texas is definitely third world.
“Texas is definitely third world.”
That’s what happens when your state gets overrun with illegals.
I am an employer in California. I pay $15/hour for trainees and $25/hour for journeyman insulation installers.
I can not find anyone to hire, I get a few applicants but they are not available for full time work.
Is their a lot of building going on in Mammoth Charlie ?? I would have thought the light winter and drought summer would have taken its toll on that resort area…
Volume is up quite a bit.
Mammoth and June Lake now have a lot of new homes for owners that would be in the 2-5 million dollar range.
We are working on a tract of 35 golf course homes for $1.2M-$1.5M
Condos are coming back in Mammoth, some of which have been on hold since 2008.
There is nothing affordable in Mammoth.
Mono and Inyo counties are seeing an uptick in SFRs built for owners.
The Round fire 6 months ago destroyed 40 homes in Swall Meadow and about half of them are being rebuilt.
We are working on a motel rebuild in Bishop that was burnt as well.
After 7 years of depression I can once again make a living, not like pre 2007 but there is now a fair amount of work but not a healthy market we are mostly building for the rich.
Code enhancements have made the work more expensive especially in my area.
Is there any housing demand at all at any price point in CA?
BTW
It was ‘worst drought ever’ last winter but spring / summer have been cool and very wet. Wettest ever.
We only saw about 10 days this summer without wild fire smoke, but the summer tourism is stronger than ever.
I’m very optimistic that (short-term) climate change is going to bust California’s drought. San Diego just enjoyed its second-wettest September day in recorded history.
Storm brings record rain to San Diego
Mugshot of Gary Robbins
By Gary Robbins | 6:34 a.m. Sept. 15, 2015 | Updated, 8:32 p.m.
Pedro Gonzalez, left, of Marina Village is reflective wondering how to empty water from the parking lot due to a clogged drain on Quivira Road.
— John Gastaldo
The remnants of Hurricane Linda brought record rainfall to San Diego County on Tuesday, easing the region’s wildfire danger while contributing to the temporary closure of Interstate 15.
Lindbergh Field, the official weather station for San Diego, recorded 1.15 inches of rain as of 6 p.m. That figure easily broke the city’s previous record of precipitation for Sept. 15 — a mere 0.12 of an inch, set all the way back in 1906.
It also made Tuesday the second-wettest September day in the record books.
Annual rainfall totals
The monsoonal storm’s intensity varied by time and place, coming as a downpour at times and as a wispy curtain of moisture at others.
Motorists were forced to slow down or stop in places such as Oceanside and Fallbrook, which both recorded more than 1.3 inches of rain by Tuesday evening, and in San Diego’s Fashion Valley Mall, where 1.27 inches fell within the same period.
Other areas that topped an inch of rain Tuesday included Carlsbad, Encinitas, Kearny Mesa, Linda Vista, Point Loma, Ramona and University Heights, according to the National Weather Service.
Birch Hill on Palomar Mountain was the wettest spot in the county by Tuesday evening, with just under 2 inches of rainfall.
Six vehicles, including a big rig and a KUSI-TV vehicle, were involved in a crash in Mission Valley that left northbound I-15 closed for nearly three hours, the California Highway Patrol said. The accident, which occurred where the freeway meets Interstate 8, was reported at 10:33 a.m.
CHP Officer Tony Contreras said the collision occurred while it was raining.
Accidents aside, the rainfall was welcomed amid the state’s drought, which is deep into its fourth consecutive year.
Many areas of San Diego County have received normal or slightly above normal precipitation during the past year, after falling short in the past three years. Tuesday’s rainfall could be a sign of things to come this winter if a strong El Niño system indeed materializes and provides ample rainfall for California.
Scientists said the periodic phenomenon has been developing in the equatorial Pacific, contributing to the unusually warm waters off Baja California and Southern California.
Such warmth can allow hurricanes like Linda to track unusually far north, affecting Southern California’s precipitation levels and sometimes even the weather in the state’s northern half.
“The warm water in the eastern tropical Pacific has fueled a busy hurricane season,” said William Patzert, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. “So, yes, there is an El Niño connection. That’s how I see it.”
Strong El Niños typically bring more moisture, but it’s not a guarantee.
This year, because of El Niño’s influence, the Climate Prediction Center in Maryland lists the odds of a wetter-than-normal winter in much of Southern California at 60 percent — versus 33.3 percent for a normal year.
Beyond discussions of atypical weather patterns so far this year and the chances for heightened wetness in coming months, the San Diego region has experienced another anomaly: an unusually hot summer. For example, the average temperature in San Diego this month is running almost seven degrees above normal.
The rain this week “will give us a reprieve from the wildfire threat, but it won’t last long,” said Brett Albright, a forecaster for the National Weather Service. “Inland temperatures will get back into the 90s by the weekend.”
…
I’m very optimistic that (short-term) climate change is going to bust California’s drought.
I agree the current wet pattern and the El Nino are reasons to look for change, but that’s just weather not climate change.
150 years ago we seemed to be at this same nexus lets hope it doesn’t get that wet!
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atmospheric-rivers-california-megaflood-lessons-from-forgotten-catastrophe/
“…but that’s just weather not climate change…”
Fair enough.
San Diego has also experienced a hurricane over the time since it was settled by Europeans.
The other thing to bear in mind about climate change is that it actually plays out over geologic time, much longer than individual human lifespans or political cycles. When you hear someone suggest that climate change is happening over the time span of a few decades due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, check to see whether the person talking is either a politician or a scientist whose research grants depend on funding sources whose overseers believe that climate change is real.
climate change is that it actually plays out over geologic time,
Source? Or was that one scientifically pulled out of Uranus?
I am an employer in California. I pay $15/hour for trainees and $25/hour for journeyman insulation installers.
I can not find anyone to hire, I get a few applicants but they are not available for full time work.
It sounds like $15 and $25 are not enough. Try offering more.
GO! Or we’ll yell “GO!” again!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/kerry-says-syrias-assad-has-to-go-but-us-is-flexible-as-to-when/2015/09/19/de7b897c-5cc0-11e5-8475-781cc9851652_story.html
Kerry might as well fart into the wind. Assad and Putin are fighting for their lives. The US? For the Saudis and Israel. Assad and Putin will win. Putin will become the savior of Europe. Buh-bye, NATO.
Putin wants to rebuild Russia’s navy and become a sea power again. Russia has a naval base there and he’s afraid that if ISIS takes over he’ll lose the port. Another facet to this is by being a “good guy” and fighting ISIS he’s hoping to get some EU nations to drop sanctions over his Ukraine invasion.
Putin will win
We’ll see. It looks like a replay of their intervention in Afghanistan to me.
Yep. Obama will continue to arm ISIS and we will have no choice but to invade ISIS ala Afghani in near future. Smart diplomacy and some people voted twice for this shiite. LOL
Lol, ISIS? This ISIS? And what’s with the Nutella? Product placement much?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-18/friday-humor-isis-fighter-upset-groups-lack-cell-phone-charger-etiquette
Oh, and this just in:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-19/clock-ticks-us-syria-strategy-assad-pounds-isis-targets-russia-sends-fighter-jets
There won’t be any boots on the ground from the US, that’s for sure.
Whoops! Checkmate. AND…It’s gone! Never thought I’d see the day I’d be rootin’ for Putin.
I wish O never invaded Iraq I the first place….oh wait.
Or pulled our troops out with that treaty….oh wait…
Got Bush?
Must deflect must obfuscate
We call it history and facts.
Facts? Facts are of even less use than science. God put the knowledge of all things in our heads, and to question that is heresy!
Well by all means, lets let them take over.
So we can continue supplying arms to ISIS?
Well those Syrians ain’t gonna shoot themselves, now are they?
Putin will become the savior of Europe.
Europe is already fed up with Putin.
Putin is an evil bastard. He does, however, have a certain logic in his actions.
Western Europe agrees with you about Putin’s evilness. Central Europe and the Baltic countries agree emphatically.
CA Ranks Tenth In Nation In Number Of Unemployed
http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm
Are you missing out on the Fed’s financially engineered, QE-fueled housing and stock market wealth gains for Ownership Society member households?
Economy
WSJ PRO
U.S. Household Wealth Set Record in Second Quarter
Federal Reserve says household and nonprofit net worth climbed to $85.7 trillion
By Josh Zumbrun
Updated Sept. 18, 2015 6:27 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON—The wealth of American households climbed to a new peak in the second quarter, bolstered by rising real-estate values that more than compensated for a flat stock market.
…
Those whose wealth skyrocketed due to owning assets whose prices bubbled up in response to QE should worry about what is going to happen once market distortions revert to the mean or even overshoot.
I guess it’s not too late to go to cash, unless you own Chinese stocks or commodities.
Do we thank Congress or Obama or Dick Cheney? Hard to keep track.
The Fed is oddly missing from your list of acknowledgments. Aren’t they the primary architects of the post-2008 economic recovery?
Trump says he’s not ‘morally obligated’ to defend Obama against claims
http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/19/politics/donald-trump-obama-twitter/
Yer darned tootin’. I couldn’t believe all the garment-rending about this. Silly beyond belief. But I suppose, from the point of view of the MSM and The Great and the Good, it’s their bounden duty to lecture and correct the little folk and guide them in the principles of “goodthink”.
Trump’s a birther, right? Therefore he probably agreed with the guy. Why would he defend Obama against charges he agrees with?
Who’s crazier birthers or 9/11 conspiracy types?
Could be an astroturf. Dont forget demoncraps are master of this sort of thing.
yes, I had that exact thought.
The more Trump gets out into the limelight, the shakier his candidacy appears.
LOL, compared to whom? Who?
Himself as perceived over time by the American electorate…
Trump is a roller-coaster ride. Always has been.
It augurs poorly for Trump if arch-Republican Utah’s press questions the legitimacy of his candidacy.
My MIL mentioned in all seriousness her suspicion that Trump is secretly working for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
The Salt Lake Tribune
Lowry: The media’s stupid Trump obsession
By Rich Lowry
The National Review
First Published Sep 18 2015 06:33AM
Last Updated Sep 18 2015 06:33AM
CNN gathered together all of the Republican presidential candidates at the Reagan Library for a highly touted debate and could hardly think to ask them about anything except Donald Trump.
By one count, 44 percent of the questions touched on Trump. Why even pretend it’s going to be a debate? Just bill it as a seminar on the worldview and foibles of Donald Trump, with occasional diversions into matters of greater public import.
The CNN event was typical of a press that has lost its mind, not to mention its dignity, over Donald Trump. The media follow him with the obsessive interest of a wide-eyed fangirl who’s fallen for the latest boy band. Everything about him is pored over and dissected, and he is treated as the biggest thing to happen in American life since the arrival of the Beatles or the moon landing.
A meteor could strike the Earth, and the first question that much of the media would think to ask is, “Yes, but how will it affect Donald Trump’s poll numbers?”
…
Jeebus, surely you don’t give credence to anything the cuckservative weasel Lowry writes? That guy has a serious case of sour grapes.
I know nothing about Lowry. Just posted that article because it seemed striking that the Utah press would openly question the legitimacy of the leading Republican candidate.
I can you why might think that Lowry is a phony conservative. He should realize that CNN exists to make money for its shareholders and that Trump is ratings gold.
Still no word from Angela Merkel? Is she MIA?
Come out, come out wherever you are, Mutti!
People get mad at Obama for not fixing Bush’s mistakes fast enough.
Bush Wars
Bush Recession
Bush tax cuts on the wealthy and deficit and too big too fail bailouts
Bush treaty to withdraw troops from Iraq
Bush Medicare D spending
Fix Em! O!! Its all O’s fault!
How do fix Bush’s mistakes when you are continuing the same policies?
You voted twice for this mistake. Time to repent.
that is my point, we blame O for not fixing Bush’s mistakes. I am sure McSame/Palin would have done a 180.
McStain/Palin would have been an unmitigated disaster.
“we blame O for not fixing Bush’s mistakes”
I know
Fast and Furious, Benghazi, IRS, NSA, Obamacare
ya got one: Obamacare. Those others are laughable.
But the ACA is far from over, just a start. Think of it as Windows 3.0 - some will always hate it.
“Those others are laughable.”
Did they let the youtube dude that caused the Benghazi attack out of jail yet?
What got shipped to who through where?
—————————————————————–
Judge rules Fast & Furious kept out of trial in murder of US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry
Posted at 9:18 am on September 19, 2015 by Twitchy Staff | View Comments
In August, one of the men charged in the murder of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry accepted a plea deal and will spend 30 years in prison. The attorneys for two other men set to go on trial this month wanted to explain details about the guns used in the shooting, but a judge ruled yesterday that Fast & Furious can’t be examined in court, KVOA reported:
Published: 22 June 2012 07:59 PM
Obama places seal of secrecy on Fast and Furious
President Barack Obama changed that last week by declaring that any documents still withheld by Attorney General Eric Holder would remain secret under executive privilege.
Holder has testified eight times before Congress, his story changing shape each time. Already, his office had to withdraw a false Feb. 4, 2011, letter denying the gun-walking. Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has focused on events surrounding that letter.
http://www.dallasnews.com/…editorial-obama-places-seal-of-secrecy-on-fast-and-furious.ece - 78k -
Lois Lerner’s lost emails are laughable?
IRS Official Whose Emails Were “Lost” Visited White House More Than 30 Times
Katie Pavlich | Jun 20, 2014
townhall.com/…fficial-whose-emails-were-lost-visited-white-house-35-times-n1853823 - 185k -
Federal Judge: What’s The Status On Lois Lerner’s “Lost” Emails?
Katie Pavlich | Jun 10, 2015
Back in November, IRS officials admitted the agency hadn’t bothered searching for Lerner’s emails despite being told to do so by Congress.
“The Obama IRS obstructed and lied to a federal judge and Judicial Watch in an effort to hide the truth about Lois Lerner’s emails,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement. “The IRS, including its top political appointees IRS Commissioner John Koskinen and General Counsel William J. Wilkins, has much to answer for over its contempt of court and of Congress. And the Department of Justice officials enabling this cover-up in court need to be held accountable, as well. The IRS is out of control and Judicial Watch is happy that Judge Sullivan has taken this key step to remind the agency that it is accountable to the rule of law and the American people.”
townhall.com/…/federal-judge-whats-the-status-on-lois-lerners-lost-emails-n2010640 - 165k -
—————————————————————
Maybe we’ll talk about Sharyl Attkisson tomorrow.
Comment by phony scandals
2015-09-19 18:47:19
Editorial: Obama places seal of secrecy on Fast and Furious
dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20120622-editorial-obama-places-seal-of-secrecy-on-fast-and-furious.ece
IRS Official Whose Emails Were “Lost” Visited White House More Than 30 Times
townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2014/06/20/irs-official-whose-emails-were-lost-visited-white-house-35-times-n1853823
Federal Judge: What’s The Status On Lois Lerner’s “Lost” Emails?
townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2015/06/10/federal-judge-whats-the-status-on-lois-lerners-lost-emails-n2010640
Wow, don’t have a cow! I didn’t vote for him (nor did I vote for either of the other guys) I think history will write that Obama did one very good thing for the US, although I think he did it for himself more than for the country. I’m not going to get into it right now, though.
To be fair, he kind of puffed himself up to the heavens (and people fault Trump’s ego??) and others did the same, leading people to expect far more than he could ever have delivered. And he has been severely mis-advised. I don’t think Syria was entirely of his own making. He has not been surrounded by good or competent people, IMO.
As bad as it is, better him than McCain or Romney. I just hope he goes quietly into that good night and collects his speaker fees, instead of heading for the UN.
What’s going on in Syria? Iran/Hezbollah/Russian boots on the ground fighting ISIS/jihadis/Al Qaeda, while we occasionally swoop overhead in a jet or drone and drop a bomb on someone bothering our Kurds?
If Obama planned that one out, he beat the heck out of chessmaster Putin, who’s currently sending in ground troops.
Obama is Bush Lite.
Was Bush Omaba Lite?
Bush was epic incompetence personified.
Mr Yelling and his 17 academic papers:
15 say ZIRP
1 says NIRP
1 says QE to Infinity
You all know where we are right now.
Yellen is the monkey. The Vampire Squid is the organ grinder. Don’t confuse the two.
More hypocrisy-
Francis is expected to make immigration one of the major themes of the visit. He has called for countries to be more welcoming of migrants seeking a better life for themselves and decried in particular the plight of would-be migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border- signaling he has no qualms about wading into a politically charged issue in the U.S. presidential campaign.
How many refugees has the Vatican or Argentina taken in? How much money has the Vatican contributed to the issue? talk, talk, talk….
It would be interesting if the Vatican were to take in a few hundred Muslim refugees and let them set up a little mosque somewhere in the city. Might be a good PR move.
No bubble in Palo Alto to speak of….
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-09-18/palo-alto-outdoes-itself
“So, as you can see, the (very well-compensated) new CFO at Google purchased a house in town for $30 million, a record for the city.”
“One interesting tidbit I learned about the house is that it’s been unoccupied for……….twenty years. Its owner, the billionaire John Arrillaga, bought the house in 1972 for a million bucks, and although he lived there a while, after he moved out, he just let it sit vacant. (I guess when you’re a billionaire, foregoing rent doesn’t really matter).”
—————————————————————————–
The secretive billionaire who built Silicon Valley
by JP Mangalindan
July 7, 2014, 7:10 AM EDT
How John Arrillaga Sr. transformed California fruit orchards into high-priced office space for the likes of Google, Apple, Hewlett-Packard, and Cisco.
He and business partner Richard Peery are the real estate developers who had the foresight in the 1960s to buy up the Valley’s fruit orchards and turn the farmland into thousands of acres of low-slung office parks and campuses that have come to house Intel INTC -2.32% , HP HPQ -3.74% , Apple AAPL -0.34% , Google GOOG -1.99% , and more. All told, the duo have erected more than 12 million square feet of office space and sold or leased tens of billions of dollars in property–an effort that has made Arrillaga, worth more than $2.5 billion, perhaps the richest man in Silicon Valley who didn’t make his money by starting a tech company. (Peery is also a billionaire.)
fortune.com/2014/07/07/arrillaga-silicon-valley/ - 149k -
The Vacate Manifesto
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=mlCzXCZoMaY
The key is to keep these people separate from the Black Lives Matter people and the OWS people. By Any Means Necessary. (Right, phony?)
Clock Kid: What They’re Not Telling You Alex Jones’ Infowars …
http://www.infowars.com/clock-kid-what-theyre-not-telling-you/ - 105k -