Bits Bucket for November 2, 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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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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I went to Google and I typed in the words “barrier islands homes hurricane”, then I clicked on “view” and this is what I got back:
https://www.google.com/search?q=barrier+island+homes+hurricane&biw=1360&bih=617&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMI1v_3scLxyAIVQcxjCh35jgUT
IMHO in a rational world these pictures should dissuade people from building homes on barrier islands that happen to be visited by hurricanes now and then, but alas …
The house is almost certainly a speculative item, or taxpayer insured.
So, for consumption, if taxpayer insured, if it is destroyed, little cost to the owner. If it is used for speculation in a non-recourse + judicial state, again limited cost to the owner other than credit rating (which can affect some job prospects).
Bottom line is the owner almost certainly has a way to privatize any profits and socialize any losses. If you can entice politicians to legalize that business model in your industry, you have a license to print money.
I said the other day that soaring house prices are beloved by politicians because they are stealth tax increases, due to property tax. Add to that payments to politicians and the system will neatly fall into place.
The irony is in calling a sandbar a “barrier”.
Such valuable land. Sand,water,hurricane.
If they we not insurable, no one would build there.
Which is also why our national flood insurance program is perpetually broke - they have to go to congress to fund payouts.
Greedy flipper across the street from me about to have to take his second price cut. 3 open houses in the last 3 weeks, no takers. He’s asking more than 100k over the “zestimate.”
Backstory: in the summer, some guy here gutted and remodeled a house he paid about 300K for in 2011. He sold it for over 600K after less than a week on the market. This is absolutely unheard of in this neighborhood. In the summer of 2014 another idiot here tried listing their house for 625K and pulled it off the market after a week when nobody even came to look at it.
So now 600K is the new normal for a remodeled shit shack that was selling for half that five years ago. Or so they hope. This is unfortunately a very popular area if you can get in. Not much for sale before this late summer/early fall. I have realtors stuffing my mailbox and banging on the door daily.
But starting to see overpriced crap not selling. This is the White Rock Lake area of Dallas, 1/2 - 1 acre lots, 1940s houses with a lot of teardowns and McMansions.
my friend lives out near boerne tx. claims it is booming.
Do you think uncle fed is causing more harm than good with this bubble economy?
Townhouse across from me just sold for $100K above the 2008 sales price, bringing it to $589K. Some family of Indians moved in (kind of common around here.)
Are these Tee-Pee town homes?
JAVA developers or something
That is way ridiculous. I think the Dallas bubble will deflate before the Gay Area of California.
Yes, TX will crash soon, low oil price issues. CA is next.
Sounds like Casa Linda. It was just a matter of time before the tear downs started over there. Great area, I have a friend on El Campo, she loves it.
My wife and I looked in Little Forest Hills a while back but the houses were kinda small for us. Ended up in Lake Highlands.
The WaPo headline reads, “Justice Department set to free 6,000 prisoners, largest one-time release.” I’ve repeatedly been hearing on the radio that these are “nonviolent” offenders. But realize this - nonviolent offenders are not merely those imprisoned for singing too loudly in the church choir. No, it involves car theft, felony theft, breaking and entering and a host of other crimes which most certainly have victims and cause harm.
Those are drug dealers they are turning loose to return to the streets to commit more crime and uphold the 75 recidivism rate. I’m sure they are all ready to study what percentage is back within a year or two when their parole is yanked.
I don’t think the Feds got after car thieves, only car jackers.
Who cares anyway it’s a small drop in the bucket, 6-10,000. Less than ten percent of the Feds. And the feds is less than ten percent of state and local. Just window dressing.
One more note: These may be “nonviolent” crimes, but they are far from “victimless” crimes, i.e. consenting adults engaging in non-coerced, mutually agreed-upon behavior.
Change
Father+godless =dangerous
+ neutered police. =X2
+ neutered police. =X2 ??
Police feel neutered and lack respect from the public because of BAD COPS…There is nothing worse then a Bad Cop other than a BAD D/A…
The cameras on all cops will go a long way in deterring bad behavior by bad cops thereby improving the perspective from joe public..They should have had cameras long ago…
…As far as the D/A, I believe they are immune from criminal prosecution for convicting a innocent person…We see it all the time..People spending 10-20-30 years in prison for a crime they did not commit…How many spend a few years for something they did not do ??
Yep, no judge or jury involved. No appeals judges either.
The Causes of Wrongful Conviction;
http://www.innocenceproject.org/causes-wrongful-conviction
in Balt the cops had to watch looters gut a cvs store
is that what you want?
I miss the fleeing felon laws
folks were polite then
in Balt the cops had to watch looters gut a cvs store
is that what you want ??
What does that have to do with wrongful convictions ??
There is no God. Everybody is godless. The religious are godless and delusional.
I have a friend who has some felonies on his record. He volunteers with an event that I do as well. It’s not easy — he is banned from working at 90% of the jobs, and he is pretty highly technically skilled. Any job with a background check is out, and he found that when he moved the line of work he was in before might have a ban on him working in that line of work in this state. I never realized how bad it was.
Sorry to clarify - he is banned at working many of the normal make real money market jobs, not the jobs with the music and gaming festival.
“Some felonies”? One incident? What kind?
I think he and others turned off electricity to neighborhoods and cell phone sites for fun when they were younger. Maybe a B&E.
“… he is banned from working at 90% of the jobs …”
So, in such cases as this, does poverty cause crime or does crime cause poverty?
Hint: If he didn’t do the crime then he would be able to make the big bucks. But since he did do the crime he will be forever shut out of the big-bucks market.
The irony is he had his own business (AV rental), but he recently relocated to another state and there is some sort of extra business license for his field that seems to have a requirement of no criminal background.
I saw some threads on reddit on the subject and people were just listing off industry by industry that has blocks against priors. I mean I know he isn’t going to get a gov’t clearance to bank $100K for watching netflix but didn’t know so many other industries were blocked.
I just suggested to him electrician work if it isn’t blocked, he already knows how to do it all and does a better job than the real licensed guys.
You guys joke about this, but at many publicly funded construction sites in Florida, you need to pass a background check. So if construction work is unavailable to these uneducated dudes, then what do they do?
In the old days, they would work on local farms. Most of those are mechanized now or non-existent.
+1 Cracker….Exactly….
Non publicly funded construction work? Most people in and out of jail ain’t about work anyway, be real.
That’s a very dumb and irrelevant remark.
Don’t many who wind up in jail or prison go there because of the type of work they choose?
Don’t many who wind up in jail or prison go there because of the type of work they choose ??
most likely go because of punitive laws…Three strikes law in Cali is a excellent example…
Is China still on track to achieve its seven percent GDP growth target?
The Wall Street Journal
Chinese leader sets growth target of ‘at least’ 6.5%
By Grace Zhu
Published: Nov 2, 2015 7:12 a.m. ET
Li Keqiang signals publicly that economy could grow at below 7%
Getty
China’s economic growth recently reached a 6-year low
China’s Premier Li Keqiang appeared to set a floor for growth in the world’s second-largest economy, saying it will expand at a pace of “at least” 6.5% annually over the next five years.
In two separate speeches delivered on Sunday in Seoul, Li signaled that Beijing will set the growth target below this year’s goal of “about 7%,” which looks increasingly difficult to fulfill give a lack of momentum into the year-end. It was the first time China’s leaders have publicly given a figure for annual growth lower than 7% in coming years.
“We have capacity to keep annual economic growth at above 6.5% and meet the targets of creating a ‘moderately prosperous society’ by 2020,” he said in a meeting with business leaders in Seoul, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Li’s remark sparked speculation over whether China lowered its economic growth target in its next five-year plan, which was approved by the Communist Party in its key meeting last week.
…
Is oil set for a year end rally?
MarketWatch dot com
Futures Movers
Oil price sluggish after China manufacturing data
By Jenny Hsu
Published: Nov 2, 2015 1:42 a.m. ET
Shutterstock/zhengzaishuru
Crude-oil prices dropped in early Asia trade on Monday as lackluster Chinese factory activity data widened fears that demand from the world’s second-largest economy is likely to stay low.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in December (CLZ5, -1.63%) traded at $46.39 a barrel, down $0.20 in the Globex electronic session. December Brent crude (LCOZ5, -1.65%) on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.03 to $49.53 a barrel.
Earlier Monday, the Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, a gauge of nationwide manufacturing activity, rose to 48.3 in October from 47.2 in September. The reading suggests the shrinkage in factory activity may be slowing, although it marked the eighth straight month of contraction. The official gauge of China’s factory activity, released Sunday, was unchanged at 49.8 in October. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in activity while one below that mark signals contraction.
“This suggests that China’s traditional sector of heavy industry and production will continue to contract for a while, which leads to less demand for oil,” said Vyanne Lai, an energy analyst at that National Australia Bank.
China’s declining consumption of oil has been a major worry for the global energy sector. Plagued by oversupply and softening demand, oil prices have nearly halved from the same period a year earlier. With the expected resumption of Iranian oil exports in the coming months, analysts and industry leaders are bracing for a “lower for longer” scenario.
Even the news of a lower oil rig count in the U.S. last week–a decline of 16 to 578–failed to sustained the rally from last week.
“We believe the U.S. crude-oil production will likely not taper off until second-half of next year at the earliest,” said Ms. Lai.
…
Better hope ,so at the margins fracking was the boom d boom
Business Earnings
Chevron to Cut Up to 7,000 Jobs
Oil giant will also pare capital spending; revenue, profit fall less than Wall Street expected
Chevron announced plans for heavy job cuts on Friday.
Photo: Alan Diaz/AP
By Chelsey Dulaney
Updated Oct. 30, 2015 9:35 a.m. ET
Chevron Corp. on Friday said it could cut 6,000 to 7,000 jobs and pare its capital spending by 25% next year, as profit tumbled in its third quarter.
Still, results for the quarter fell less than Wall Street had expected. Shares of Chevron, down 20% this year, added 1% in premarket trading.
Chevron didn’t detail when the job cuts could occur. As of December 2014, Chevron had about 64,700 employees, according to a securities filing.
The second-biggest U.S. oil company said it expects capital spending of $25 billion to $28 billion in 2016, down 25% from this year’s budget. The company said it expects to cut spending further in 2017 and 2018, to around $20 billion to $24 billion.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Chevron reported earnings of $2.04 billion, or $1.09 a share, down from $5.6 billion, or $2.95 a share, a year earlier.
…
Markets
Oil Subsidies Mean Alaska Is Losing Hundreds of Millions of Dollars
ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, BP have benefited from tax breaks that state wants to curtail
The cost of subsidies adds to Alaska’s financial worries at a time when falling oil prices have cut the state budget. Here, an oil pipeline in Alaska.
Photo: Thomas Sbampato/Corbis
By Timothy Puko
Updated Nov. 1, 2015 9:11 p.m. ET
For its entire history as a state, Alaska has made money, sometimes billions of dollars a year, by taxing the oil pumped from its wells.
That 56-year winning streak is over.
Alaskan leaders want to scale back subsidies designed to spur production by oil companies that have ballooned beyond expectations. Alaska is giving back more than $1 billion annually in tax credits and rebates to oil companies and Wall Street lenders, wiping out what had often been its largest source of income. In all, Alaska likely lost $263 million on its oil production tax program in the past year, state estimates show.
Companies ranging from giants ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC to Australia’s Linc Energy Ltd. have benefited from the tax breaks. Alaska enacted them about 20 years ago to stop a decline in production and expanded them in recent years as the oil boom increasingly lured drillers to North Dakota and elsewhere. The tax breaks now include cash payments covering as much as 85% of a well’s costs.
While the subsidies have succeeded in drawing in exploration-and-production work, their costs began skyrocketing just before oil prices started plunging in mid-2014.
That cost adds to the state’s financial troubles and is too high at a time when declining oil prices have drastically reduced the state budget, Gov. Bill Walker said last week.
The subsidy program “began for all the right reasons, and it’s reached a point beyond our fiscal appetite,” Mr. Walker, an independent, said in an interview. “We can no longer subsidize exploration.”
Alaska joins governments far and wide struggling to adjust to shortfalls in oil, gas and coal money during a crash in commodity prices. Venezuela is suffering from triple-digit inflation. Mexico suspended a high-speed-train project this year. Louisiana’s state universities have been facing state funding cuts. West Virginia counties have laid off sheriff’s deputies, janitors and laborers.
Alaska may be the hardest-hit state in the U.S. because it is so oil-dependent. Oil money usually makes up 90% of the state budget and funds dividend checks to every Alaskan, $2,072 a person this year. Part of the administration’s plan announced Wednesday would remodel the state’s oil fund after other countries’ sovereign-wealth funds, which could lower that dividend by half.
…
Looks like the natives will have to get a real job… maybe even move [hehe].
National debt nearly doubles under Obama…how’s that hope ‘n change working out for ya, ‘Murica?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/1/obama-presidency-to-end-with-20-trillion-national-/
But Reagan tripled it going from a billion to three billion, Obama only doubled it going from a trillion to two trillion.
O has a rocking GPD too. 60% better than when he took over.
If you make a lot more money the debt is not as bad.
Bush wars are expensive.
The problem with GDP is that it is a made up number. It in no way reflects our wellness, and certainly does not reflect our incomes.
We are not “making a lot more money”. Where have you been the past couple of decades? We are now a lot deeper in debt.
Like China; it takes $1.50 in debt to get 80 cents in GDP. What are US stock buy-backs up to, a trillion?
No, GDP does reflect incomes. And all economic statistics are “made up” to a certain extent.
‘GDP does reflect incomes’
Oh yeah, like an empty city or wind-farm with nothing on the end of the wire. Or empty, luxury condo towers all over the globe.
I know, it is not trickling down. But we dont want the gov to force Apple or Google to hire more people.
OK. no using statistics to prove anything.
I suppose the construction of a wind farm does end up in GDP, but that’s because it employs people.
Nobody is interested in money losing ventures like windmills.
Today’s Darwin Award winner.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11969555/Drunk-woman-bitten-by-tiger-after-sneaking-into-zoo.html
I thought conservatives did not believe in Darwin?
Stories like these are why the terrorists hate us:
“GRANTS, N.M. — A man is accused of beating his friend to death after he claims his friend began “to change into a zombie.”
“… he told detectives that while the two were drinking his friend began “to change into a zombie” and tried to bite him, police said.
Perry said he had been binge-watching “The Walking Dead” on Netflix recently.
He allegedly punched and kicked the friend, and hit him with an electric guitar, microwave and other household items.”
http://myfox8.com/2015/10/26/man-kills-friend-after-binge-watching-walking-dead-says-he-believed-friend-turned-into-zombie/
Neurotic cats for neurotic feminists to grow old with.
http://www.independent.co.uk/property/house-and-home/pets/pet-cats-share-neurotic-tendencies-with-zoo-lions-say-researchers-a6717176.html
Should I buy a bunch of overpriced stocks cause everyone else is?
Thank God Welfare only costs us $150 a month.
“Comment by CalifoH20
2015-11-01 16:17:08
What do you get on the dole? Do you need a soc sec?
EBT = $150 mo
what else is there?”
I know there is Soc Sec and medicare counted as entitlements, but,…..
Lacking a sprog… ya gotta be a 5150.
Ya gotta claim to be.
Once a 5150 there’s no going back.
Dear “Zero Hedge”……….your paranoic assumptions are getting a little bit tiresome
Case in point: Your commentary about the Russian airliner crash.
A bomb or missile is not the only way an airplane can cme apart in mid air. Ice or a blockage in the air data system, followed by a stall and a botched recovery will do a good job of disassembling the airplane too. So could a botched repair after a tailstrike.
The fact that they have ATC data for position, altitude and airspeed tells me that the transponders were still functioning after the upset/incident. Which means no loss of electrical power, at least for a while.
As far as the airline’s assurances that the airplane had no mechanical issues……….yeah, thats what they all say.
Dear “Zero Hedge”……….your paranoic assumptions are getting a little bit tiresome
Thank you. Zero Hedge is a pro-Russia site (perhaps explaining why they constantly “talk down” America’s markets and economy?) and it puzzles me why so many posters here soak up ZH like a kitten lapping up milk.
Because there is truth to it Lola. It’s no less puzzling when you quote DonkeyMath Krugman.
“Without a substantial carbon tax, there’s no incentive for innovators or plant buyers to switch.”
Bill Gates says that capitalism cannot save us from climate change
Posted 3 days ago by Louis Doré in people
The world’s richest man, Bill Gates, has said that the private sector is too selfish and inefficient to produce effective energy alternatives to fossil fuels.
While announcing his plan to spend $2 billion of his own wealth on green energy during an interview with The Atlantic, the Microsoft founder called on fellow billionaires to help make the US fossil-free by 2050 with similar philanthropy.
He said:
“There’s no fortune to be made. Even if you have a new energy source that costs the same as today’s and emits no CO2, it will be uncertain compared with what’s tried-and-true and already operating at unbelievable scale and has gotten through all the regulatory problems.
Without a substantial carbon tax, there’s no incentive for innovators or plant buyers to switch.”
100.independent.co.uk/…capitalism-cannot-save-us-from-climate-change–b1xNpbL8O_x - 690k -
Warmists gonna warm.
“Even if you have a new energy source…”
Which we don’t.
The most effective way to reduce oil consumption is to stop chasing economic expansion. We have to hand it to China for demonstrating this. If we wanted to reduce “fossil fuel” consumption in the US, the first thing to do would be to eliminate the Fed and the FHA.
Comment by phony scandals
2015-11-02 07:56:25
Bill Gates says that capitalism cannot save us from climate change
i100.independent.co.uk/article/bill-gates-says-that-capitalism-cannot-save-us-from-climate-change–b1xNpbL8O_x
TBoom!
We all know Sean Hannity is smarter than Bill Gates.
The world’s richest man, Bill Gates, has said that the private sector is too selfish and inefficient to produce effective energy alternatives to fossil fuels.
Bill Gates is right. Sometimes government has to get in the face of capitalists and make them change directions. If it wasn’t for government regulations, we’d still be using child labor.
ROYALS WIN!
Unless you read New York City papers, in which case they didn’t win as much as the Mets gave it to them.
Much like the myopia that DC and NYC have about whats going on with the rest of the country economically, the Northeast sports writers don’t trouble themselves with observing whats going on in the places that dont matter. The Royals have been winning games this way since mid-2013.
Case in point: Alex Gordon. The New York guys call him a #8 hitter. Anyone who is paying attention knows that he is a leadoff or #2 hitter moved to the eight spot, because, for some reason, Alicedes Escobar hits about 40 points better in #1 than he does #7, 8, or 9.
They play a different kind of baseball. They are almost all fast, which means they can beat out any infield bobbles, or can score unless you execute perfectly (see Hosmer scoring the tying run last night for an example). Their speed forces mistakes.
Their speed forces mistakes ??
Yep and its also very disruptive to the pitcher & catcher…
I haven’t paid much attention to baseball in a long time but it sounds like you do and you are a Royals fan so congrats.
One other thing, any chance the dude who hits 40 points higher at the top of the lineup is related to Pablo Escobar?
Not sure…May be able to dig around in a KC organizational link and find out…
Just started to get interested again. Being forced to watch crappy baseball for 25 years will do that to you.
Got a chance to get tickets to Game 6 of the ALCS a week ago Friday……featuring the Lo-Cain First Base to home 180 foot dash/”Death by a Thousand paper cuts” offense, and Wade Davis, The Cyborg relief pitcher.
Was surprised that 3/4 of the crowd was under 30. Figured that they would be “priced out”, and old geezers would be the only people attending.
Maybe that’s where all of the “down-payment for houses” money is going
Watched the game last night and loved the Royal’s style of play. They scouted and analyzed all of the Met’s weaknesses and prepped the players to exploit them. It paid off where they make improbable come-from-behind victories look routine.
Destroying Your Vote
Both citizens and non-citizens are included in the census
Destroying Your Vote
by Walter Williams | Lew Rockwell.com | November 2, 2015
Voter ID laws have been challenged because liberal Democrats deem them racist. I guess that’s because they see blacks as being incapable of acquiring some kind of government-issued identification. Interesting enough is the fact that I’ve never heard of a challenge to other ID requirements as racist, such as those: to board a plane, open a charge account, have lab work done or cash a welfare check. Since liberal Democrats only challenge legal procedures to promote ballot-box integrity, the conclusion one reaches is that they are for vote fraud prevalent in many Democrat-controlled cities.
There is another area where the attack on ballot-box integrity goes completely unappreciated. We can examine this attack by looking at the laws governing census taking. As required by law, the U.S. Census Bureau is supposed to count all persons in the U.S. Those to be countedinclude citizens, legal immigrants and non-citizen long-term visitors. The law also requires that illegal immigrants be a part of the decennial census. The estimated number of illegal immigrants ranges widely from 12 million to 30 million. Official estimates put the actual number closer to 12 million.
Both citizens and non-citizens are included in the census and thus affect apportionment counts. Counting illegals in the census undermines one of the fundamental principles of representative democracy — namely, that every citizen-voter has an equal voice. Through the decennial census-based process of apportionment, states with large numbers of illegal immigrants, such as California and Texas, unconstitutionally gain additional members in the U.S. House of Representatives thereby robbing the citizen-voters in other states of their rightful representation.
Voter ID laws have been challenged because liberal Democrats deem them racist. I guess that’s because they see blacks as being incapable of acquiring some kind of government-issued identification.
I notice that ne supplies no quotes from these liberals. There was a story in the news a couple of weeks ago about the state of Alabama shutting down offices that issue IDs in rural areas with poor populations.
Counting illegals in the census undermines one of the fundamental principles of representative democracy — namely, that every citizen-voter has an equal voice.
If he’s really concerned about this voter equality issue, he should want to abolish the Senate. It’s a much bigger problem.
Bitcoin punched through $342 this morning. Resistance at $350. Bitcoin is up 19 percent in two years. About 23 months ago it punched through $800 and came back down to sane levels just this February.
But new variables have been added to the equation: capital controls in Greece and looming capital controls in China.
Volume since early August has been building steadily to levels not seen in more than a year. I can see a case made for wealthy Chinese to load up paper wallets with $100,000 * n in Bitcoin and traveling “light” to Vancouver, San Francisco, Irvine, or whatever, and buying up RE.
“sane levels”
Now that’s an interesting turn of a phrase for something that has no basis for valuation other than utility in law breaking.
Something is happening, but I don’t think Greece is the powerhouse. Chinese smugglers seems possible. It occurs to me that if the Chinese decide to stop this traffic, they only need to cut a few heads off and it will stop.
Then you won’t be so excited. In the meantime, enjoy!
Yet you invest in the fiat
You get pretty darn excited about fiats too. That’s what you posted about, how many fiat dollars your bitcoins are worth. It really is ironic.
At least I don’t totally reject one new asset class on the grounds that my current asset class has a defect.
By the way new I bond rates are out. Fixed rate is 0.10 and the rate for next 6 months is 1.64. I will buy $10,000 worth. To beat my t bills. Take a 3 month interest penalty when I sell and be better off than buying new t bills.
“asset class”
Is it that or a currency? If it is an asset, I am lost on what it is a claim on. If it is a currency, it is not backed by any government. So…out on a limb?
I don’t like the fiat system, but I don’t see any barriers for electronic bits going to zero in a sudden crack. If you lose interest, it’s over. 10 cents, $1,000, $200, $300, who knows?
I think that crooks are using it as a railway right now. When their trade route gets cut off, it will have no utility.
Got “climate debt”?
U.N. planning court to judge U.S. for ‘climate justice’
Stealth agenda to issue rulings on debt, finance, tech transfers
Published: 19 hours ago
Leo Hohmann
At the upcoming United Nations Climate Summit in Paris, participating nations have prepared a treaty that would create an “International Tribunal of Climate Justice” giving Third World countries the power to haul the U.S. into a global court with enforcement powers.
Congress would be bypassed – left out in the cold – by this climate deal, critics say.
Policies once left to sovereign nations could be turned over to a U.N. body if the U.S. and its allies approve the proposed deal in Paris during the summit scheduled for Nov. 30-Dec. 11.
According to the proposed draft text of the climate treaty, the tribunal would take up issues such as “climate justice,” “climate finance,” “technology transfers,” and “climate debt.”
Buried on page 19 of the 34-page document is the critical text – still heavily bracketed with text that hasn’t been completely resolved and agreed upon – reads:
[An International Tribunal of Climate Justice as][A] [compliance mechanism] is hereby established to address cases of non-compliance of the commitments of developed country Parties on mitigation, adaptation, [provision of] finance, technology development and transfer [and][,] capacity-building[,] and transparency of action and support, including through the development of an indicative list of consequences, taking into account the cause, type, degree and frequency of non-compliance.
The U.N. held a preparatory conference in September in Bonn, Germany, that drafted language to be approved at the upcoming Paris climate summit. At the Bonn meeting the U.N. brought together more than 2,000 participants from governments, observer organizations and the media.
But none of those media chose to report on the proposed new global tribunal.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/11/u-n-tribunal-to-judge-u-s-for-climate-debt/#EipQPQMtY4CVL7hT.99
74 degrees here in Region VIII today. Warmists gonna warm.
“74 degrees here in Region VIII today. Warmists gonna warm.”
74 degrees on 2 November?
MY GOD! You guys are right! It’s CLIMATE CHANGE!!!
Oh wait.
Indian summer
“The most probable origin of the term, in our view, goes back to the very early settlers in New England.”
Source: The 1985 Old Farmer’s Almanac
The most probable origin of the term, in our view, goes back to the very early settlers in New England. Each year they would welcome the arrival of a cold wintry weather in late October when they could leave their stockades unarmed. But then came a time when it would suddenly turn warm again, and the Native Americans would decide to have one more go at the settlers. “Indian summer,” the settlers called it.
http://www.almanac.com/content/indian-summer-what-why-and-when - 172k -
The comments give us more evidence for the need of the “International Tribunal of Climate Justice” to take up issues such as “climate justice,” “climate finance,” “technology transfers,” and “climate debt.”
Indian Summer
reply
Submitted by Linda Lynn on October 21, 2015 - 1:07pm
Had an Indian Summer last night in the mid North East. We had a cold spell for a few days and yesterday around 4:00 pm it gently blew in. I just stood on my porch for hours soaking it in until it was taken over with the chill of the evening. Praying it happens again tonight….we’ll see
SW Michigan Indian Summer
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Submitted by Donna Allgaier-… on November 2, 2015 - 12:08pm
We are certainly having an Indian Summer day on our homestead today, The Small House under a Big Sky in SW Michigan. It is 70, clear and our sky is a brilliant and bright blue. Our Lab Sassy is out on a blanket checking on a bone, our chickens are free ranging in the sunshine pecking at worms under the oak leaves. I am raking and cutting back perennials on our 5-acre property. I’ll be eating lunch out under the trees soon. A glorious autumn day!!
These poor Deniers don’t even realize damage they are doing with Climate Catastrophe lurking right around the corner.
The only hope is for the International Tribunal of Climate Justice to wake them up by taxing those chickens and teaching that Lab Sassy a lesson by slapping some climate justice on her owners @ss and signing her up for some climate debt.
Crimes against nature.
Too bad they are not all abuzz over crimes against humanity.
Doesn’t China put out more CO2 than the US? What are the odds of them being summoned to this court? And if they were, would they appear? lol
The real crime is having money.
“NASA scientists have shattered the conventional wisdom that Antarctica’s ice surface is shrinking and revealed that the amount of ice is in fact growing.
Though accepting that glaciers are still shrinking because of man-made global warming, the new study published in the Journal of Glaciology suggests that recent gains more than offset losses elsewhere…”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/environment/climatechange/11970682/NASA-reveals-that-Antarctica-is-actually-gaining-ice.html
Fed proposal targets ‘too big to fail’ banks
Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
4:21 p.m. EDT October 30, 2015
AP FEDERAL RESERVE A USA DC
(Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)
In an effort to further minimize losses to taxpayers and the financial system in a crisis, the Federal Reserve proposed Friday that the nation’s largest banks raise billions of dollars in debt as a cushion in case they fail.
The initiative is designed to counter the widely held perception, spawned by the 2008 financial crisis, that the institutions are “too big to fail.”
As a result of the crisis, the eight banks affected already have to maintain more capital and undergo annual stress tests to ensure they can withstand a crisis. They also have had to draft “living wills” to specify how they would be safely dismantled.
The proposed rule would provide an additional layer of funding in the form of borrowed money that can be used in case a big bank fails and must be wound down by the government to head off damage to the financial system. The long-term debt, along with any remaining shareholder equity, could be used to absorb losses and provide new capital to the restructured subsidiaries of the failed firm. Typically, a bank that has gone belly-up has little if any remaining equity.
…
Help Wanted:
Here in Santa Clara Valley I’ve recently seen a proliferation of “Help Wanted” signs. They’re prominently displayed on places like Home Depot, Lowe’s, Kelly Moore, and others. These are jobs that pay around $12 an hour.
they dont pay sh@t so they cant keep good people.
You can barely get by on a techie salary. How does the $12/hr crowd survive? It’s not like you can live in someone’s basement, because there aren’t any out there. I’ve read stories of people (illegally) converting their garages and renting them out.
“barely get by on a techie salary”
An important life skill is not to living where renting a room in a house with other youngsters costs $1,000.
That’s quite a poverty/welfare state you’ve got going in CA.
Who sez the US doesn’t “export” anything?
http://tinyurl.com/q4xacod
Hence, the -fixr’s “Sudden heart attack or stroke, found dead on the hangar floor” retirement plant.
“Throw a rope around him, and drag him over a floor drain until he quits leaking. Then push the airplane out; we don’t want to be running late for our vacation to Bermuda…..”
Read a story recently about high schoolers volunteering as pallbearers for homeless veterans funerals.
“In addition to club meetings, band practices and football games, University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy teens are also signing up to serve as pallbearers for homeless veterans. ”
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/30/us/michigan-high-school-pallbearers/
Damn decent of them. Wish more active-duty military & veterans would step up as well.
Prosecutor Who Went After Student For NRA Shirt Pulls Gun Over Fake Spiders
Posted by Bob Owens on October 30, 2015 at 12:40 pm
You might not remember the name Jared Marcum, but you probably remember the situation he found himself in as a West Virginia eight-grader who was suspended and then arrested for wearing an NRA tee shirt with a rifle pictured on it.
The prosecutor in the case who slapped Marcum with a gag order and who had him arrested now finds himself in hot water for pulling a real gun—not one printed on fabric—because of Halloween decorations that he didn’t like.
A Logan County assistant prosecuting attorney has been suspended indefinitely after a bizarre incident involving a pistol and fake spiders.
According to Logan County Prosecutor John Bennett, assistant prosecutor Chris White was suspended on Wednesday due to an alleged incident that happened in early October.
White has been with the office for more than five years, according to Bennett.
“I never saw it coming, that’s for sure. Obviously, I wouldn’t have even hired him if I had seen it coming. And the fact that he’s been there five years and we haven’t had any incidents like this also, to me, is a pretty good indication it’s certainly out of the ordinary,” Bennett said.
The alleged incident happened on October 5th after several secretaries in the office decorated for Halloween. The decorations included many fake spiders that were throughout the office. Apparently, White has arachnophobia and became irate over the decorations.
“He said they had spiders everyplace and he said he told them it wasn’t funny, and he couldn’t stand them, and he did indeed get a gun out. It had no clip in it, of course they wouldn’t know that, I wouldn’t either if I looked at it, to tell you the truth,” Bennett explained.
Bennett says it’s his understanding that White didn’t point the gun at anyone or wave it around but did threaten to shoot all of the spiders. Bennett says the incident caused quite the scare for the three secretaries that witnessed it.
“Quite naturally, the ladies were concerned, as I would have been. Anybody would be, I would think, with a gun no matter where it was,” Bennett said.
It doesn’t appear that White will face charges or lose his carry permit, even though he irrationally pulled a gun, in anger, over spiders he knew to be fake.
It sounds to me like three counts of brandishing a weapon at a minimum, or assault with a deadly weapon at a maximum.
In any event, its clear that White lacks the temperament and discernment to be safe with a firearm.
Maybe that’s why he has it in for those of us who are responsible with firearms and respect the National Rifle Association.
bearingarms.com/prosecutor-went-student-nra-shirt-pulls-gun-fake-spiders/ - 129k -
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Assistant Prosecutor Suspended For Pulling Gun On Fake Spiders
Chris White reportedly has arachnophobia.
Ed Mazza
Overnight Editor, The Huffington Post
Posted: 10/29/2015 04:10 AM EDT | Edited: 10/29/2015 04:17 AM EDT
Some people really don’t like spiders.
Chris White, an assistant prosecuting attorney in Logan County, West Virginia, has been suspended for pulling out a gun and threatening to shoot fake spiders set up around the office as Halloween decorations, according to WCHS, the ABC station in Charleston.
The station reported that White has arachnophobia, or a fear of spiders.
“He said they had spiders everyplace and he said he told them it wasn’t funny, and he couldn’t stand them,” Logan County Prosecutor John Bennett told WCHS.
He said White pulled out a gun and while he didn’t wave it around or point it at anyone, he threatened to shoot all the spiders.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/prosecutor-gun-spiders_5631b5a4e4b063179910fabf - 339k
Water in the desert not enough
https://www.revealnews.org/article/what-california-can-learn-from-saudi-arabias-water-mystery/
A global domino effect has begun. As one country runs low on water, it turns to another, putting more strain on those water reserves. Last year, both China and Saudi Arabia set record-high agricultural imports from the United States.
The federal government ran the largest deficit, in absolute terms, it has ever run in 2009: $1.4 trillion. The primary causes of the large deficit were the Great Recession, two simultaneous wars, the Bush tax cuts and the stimulus spending.
Who’s budget was that?
Jeb 2016!
Daddy Goon’s. Who else?
The economy lost jobs every month of 2009. The economy has gained jobs every month after February of 2010. Including 2009, the United States has added an average of 108,000 jobs per month during Obama’s presidency, which places him fifth for job creation since FDR. However, excluding 2009 (Bush budget), the average would be 194,000 per month, which would rank him [Obama] second, and from 2011 to the present, we have averaged 215,000 per month, which would place President Obama in a tie with President Clinton for first place.
service jobs
How many jobs does the economy need just to put the people coming into the workforce to work? We should be adding 300-400k jobs every month.
We should be adding 300-400k jobs every month
We lost 400k jobs per month for a few years. We most certainly haven’t added those back — the folks who lost the jobs just aren’t counted as unemployed anymore.
“…the folks who lost the jobs just aren’t counted as unemployed anymore.”
True.
Many of ‘em in their mid forties or older [and] without a college degree are now on SSI Disability for life having exhausted two years of unemployment and a one year extension. Now it’s sitting on the porch with Jesus.
Are you sure?
Labor Force Participation Rate Falls To 37 Year Low
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Which is falling faster: The Labor Force Participation Rate or the U.S. Homeownership Rate?
LOLZ at the South for having the least population with health insurance in the country:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/31/upshot/who-still-doesnt-have-health-insurance-obamacare.html
No worries, when you get sick you can just pray to Sky Wizard
“The remaining uninsured are primarily in the South and the Southwest. They tend to be poor. They tend to live in Republican-leaning states.”
This from The New YorkTimes and Margot Sanger-Katz?
I’m shocked.
Margot Sanger-Katz is a correspondent at The New York Times, where she covers health care for The Upshot. She was previously a reporter at National Journal and the Concord Monitor, and an editor at Legal Affairs Magazine and the Yale Alumni Magazine. In 2014, she completed a Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism at Columbia University. Her recent work focuses on health policy and the business of health care, but previous stories have included New Hampshire’s militia movement, the John McCain presidential campaign, Indiana’s fight over daylight saving time, and the death penalty
Real journalists.
Careful… that’s a hyphenated last name SJWs.
I wonder if Margot will have a chance to work on this story?
Obamacare Is A Disaster: Co-Op Insurers Across America Are Collapsing, And Now There Is Fraud
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 10/30/2015
Two weeks ago we reported that in what at the time was still a rather isolated incident, Colorado’s largest nonprofit health insurer (aka co-op), Colorado HealthOP is abruptly shutting down, forcing 80,000 Coloradans to find a new insurer for 2016.
At the time, we said that the health insurer had been decertified by the Division of Insurance as an eligible insurance company because the cooperative relied on federal support, and federal authorities announced last month they wouldn’t be able to pay most of what they owed in a program designed to help health insurance co-ops get established.
In other words, one of the 24 co-ops funded with Federal dollars and created to give more policyholders control over their insurers - especially those who wished to stay away from various corporate offerings, had failed simply because the government was unable to subsidize it: the same government that spends $35 billion in global economic “aid” but can’t support its most important welfare program.
Fast forward to today, when we learn that another co-op, this time New York’s Health Republic Insurance - the largest of the nonprofit cooperatives created under the Affordable Care Act - is not only shuttering, but was engaging in fraud.
The fate of Health Republic Insurance was first revealed a month ago when the WSJ reported it would shut down after suffering massive losses “in the latest sign of the financial pressures facing many insurers that participated in the law’s new marketplaces.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/…o-op-insurers-across-america-are-collapsing-and-now-there-fraud - 265k -
ooops…..another one bites the dust, and another one goes and another one goes, another one bites the dust - God bless Freedie Mercury and his lyrics.
Utah insurer closing leaves 65K looking for new options
Gets even better……
NY Obamacare Exchange Enrolled Hundreds Of Dead People
So … no claims?
and this….
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2015/10/8581360/health-republics-finances-substantially-worse-reported
I guess the goal is to get everyone insured so we pay the “negotiated rate” not the regular rate.
My neighbor had a sleep study done. Cash rate $2500. Insurance pd $290, he paid his $50 deductible. All good. Because he had insurance it was $340 vs $2500. w t f kinda billing is this?
It’s been like that for 20 years, and is precisely why we don’t have competition in the insurance industry.
Hospitals don’t make much money (if any), which is why one insurance company paying less, means others need to pay more.
I worked for an insurance consulting firm for a summer about 20 years ago. They rebilled insurance companies for under-compensation. And so I read lots of contracts between insurance companies and the hospital.
NICU stay? One insurance company paid X, one paid Y, one paid Z per day. Some had max number of days.
Kidney transplant? Fixed price of $30k for one company, more for another, etc.
Lowest payer? Medicare.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. If I were king for a day, I would make it illegal for a healthcare provider to charge different prices.
Everyone pays the same for a Kidney transplant. The sleep study you mention is the same price for everyone.
The result would be that the cash and negotiated price would be the same (probably $500).
AND, there would be a ton more insurance companies, since small companies could compete (since they wouldn’t be at such a disadvantage).
The big problem with my idea though is that it would bankrupt Medicare very quickly.
I should have said “at least 20 years”.
The result would be that the cash and negotiated price would be the same (probably $500).
One might argue the cash price should even be less — less administrative overhead and a guaranteed payout. It might then work like the auto insurance industry, where one chooses to pay cash out of pocket rather than make the insurance claim (thus keeping insurance costs down).
“Because he had insurance it was $340 vs $2500. w t f kinda billing is this?”
It’s called corruption and racketeering.
I can’t see what’s so interesting about that one paragragh résumé.
“I can’t see what’s so interesting about that one paragragh résumé.”
You wouldn’t, would you?
If that’s your response, you must not be able to state any interesting about it either.
Explaining to a Leftist that a writer for the liberal rag New York times is a Leftist is an exercise in futility.
Cheaper to rent???? Not everywhere.
https://slo.craigslist.org/apa/5283315369.html
Everywhere
Cheaper to rent here in OC, by 66% monthly. I got so much money left over by not being a loan owner that. Gotta buy savings bonds and bitcoins and gold.
Another crazy CA rental, 10 people x $750 each
http://santabarbara.craigslist.org/apa/5259928708.html
flophouse?
Isla Vista… a bevy of e-z-coosie. Memories.
Iron ore has found itself in a freefall… Again
14 minutes ago | 8:31am | Daniel Palmer
The price of iron ore has moved further away from the $US50 mark on the release of mixed manufacturing data out of Beijing on Sunday.
At the end of the latest session, benchmark iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Tianjin in China was trading at $US49.10 a tonne, down 0.8 per cent from its prior close of $US49.50 a tonne.
Meanwhile iron ore for immediate delivery to the port of Qingdao – also known as the metal bulletin price – was $US49.50 a tonne, its lowest level since July.
The commodity has now risen in just one of the past 16 sessions, with the run of red bringing both its recent four-month low of $US49 a tonne and 10-year trough of $US44.10 a tonne into play.
The falls have been predicated on steady supply in the face of fresh signs of stagnating demand, with disappointing Chinese manufacturing data over the weekend further clouding the demand outlook.
And yet the S&P is back above 2100
New Mortgage Monitor out recently.
Interesting how they slice and dice mortgage delinquencies.
http://www.bkfs.com/Data/DataReports/BKFS_MM_Sep2015_Report.pdf
With foreclosure moratoriums in all 50 states, the ‘data’ is worthless.
Hmmm. Ok, all the deficit spending thus far has benefitted the middle class? Let’s do more of it to get a different result. BO must think Americans are just idiots. Many are.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/obama-signs-budget-deal/ar-BBmK9p9
strong cities Networks
US Housing Demand Plummets To 20 Year Low
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qRBemWyulY0/VNGrDCBXzOI/AAAAAAAAiMA/jdA2RQkiNDc/s1600/MBAFeb42014.PNG