The Housing Bubble

Will the first working day of the new year bring the return of Lola and the Pineapples?

2banana’s Law:

Long term democrat rule + insane public unions + huge free sh*t army = misery, ruin and bankruptcy

Gawd help you if you won a house or a business in Chicago.

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Escape From Chicago
Chicago: The mess that Democrats made.

January 1, 2016, Daniel Greenfield, Freedom Center

Chicago is on fire. It’s America’s mass shooting capital. Its deadliest neighborhoods are gang territories prowled by thousands of killers with some of the highest murder rates in the world.

So far, 442 people have been shot and killed in Chicago this year. 2,540 were shot and wounded. 2,982 were shot. Fewer Americans died fighting Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War than in a year in Chicago.

But in Chiraq, the devil is a Democrat. Chicago Democrats are closely entangled with its 68,000 gang members who deliver the votes and the money. There are more gang members in Chicago than people of English ancestry. That makes them a powerful voting bloc. And Democrats bow to their wishes.

A Latin Kings member described how the vote organizing worked. “Every chapter had to vote for that guy… That was a direct order. That means you can’t say no.” Under the Dems, that’s Chicago democracy.

Chicago Democrats ritualistically demand gun control, but carefully avoid cracking down on their own political base. Obama calls for “common sense solutions” after every shooting, but like a good Chicago Democrat he voted against a 1999 bill to try anyone carrying out a shooting in school as an adult. Under Obama, Federal gun-crime prosecutions in Chicago have became as rare as honest Chicago Democrats.

Chicago is a dead city. It was shot and killed generations ago. Now it’s just lying in a gutter and waiting to die. As in Detroit, Baltimore and so many other once promising cities, the killers were Democrats.

Rahm’s public school chief, whom he called “the best and the brightest”, pleaded guilty in a corruption scheme for accepting kickbacks while writing in an email that she needed money because she had “casinos to visit”. That was convenient because Rahm had been pushing for a city-owned casino to fund schools. But under Democratic Party corruption, school corruption funds casinos instead.

Rahm Emanuel had a simple job. In true Chicago style, his job was a con job.

The con was attracting enough prosperous young people to slow down the rate at which Chicago will go bankrupt. Chicago has a $63 billion debt. It will be paying off bonds from 1993 in 2039 for public housing that was already torn down. It’s no wonder that its bonds were downgraded to junk this year.

But the rich, young people who were supposed to bail out Chicago didn’t show up. Instead they left. Their top reasons for getting the hell out of Chicago included high taxes and lots of shootings.

So Rahm Emanuel piled on even more taxes on top of taxes. He taxed cable, hotels, cigarettes, parking in garages (it’s 22 percent on weekdays) cloud-computing services and Netflix. Water and sewer rates nearly doubled. And more companies left. Many of them blamed the rising taxes.

But his attempts at technocratic progressive tinkering with school reform at the expense of the powerful and greedy Chicago Teachers Union (the organization called a strike demanding a 30% raise) made the organization and its crazed head, Karen Lewis, into his enemies. Rahm Emanuel had also done such politically incorrect things as trying to lure companies to move to Chicago which earned him a 1% label.

The last Republican mayor of Chicago was born shortly after the Civil War. In his last year in office, the population of Chicago stood at around 3.4 million. A few years ago, the population fell to levels not seen in a century as the escape from Chicago continued.

Chicago’s population has been falling since the 50s. 200,000 fled between 2000 and 2010. Tens of thousands of homes stand vacant. In some neighborhoods 1 in 6 homes are empty. And with an underwater mortgage rate that hovers around 20 percent, they’ll soon have plenty of company.

Democrats killed Chicago’s future. All that’s left is a skeleton for the aldermen to pick apart, for the political machine to bankrupt and for activists to run against. It’s the same familiar cycle of Democratic rule that shrank the city, destroyed its economy, stole its jobs and drove away its families.

It looks like you guys will have another opportunity to BTFD today.

I was expecting an article on living within your means and not using your house as a free piggy bank ATM…

—————————–

6 Ways to Protect Your Home From the Coming Foreclosure Crisis
John Persinos - 01/03/16 - The Street

Think the mortgage foreclosure crisis is long over? Think again. A legacy of the Great Recession of 2008-2009, the problem of financially pressed Americans losing their homes wasn’t solved — only deferred.

Many public and private temporary relief measures will expire in 2016, likely triggering a new wave of home repossessions. This scenario is only one of many dangers lurking for investors in the new year. Below, we show you six ways to protect your home from foreclosure.

To be sure, eight years after the mortgage crisis initially emerged, foreclosures are down. At the peak in 2010, nearly 3 million homes experienced foreclosure filings in 2010; in 2013, the number was down to 1.1 million.

But that’s about to change. Notably, home equity lines of credit that homeowners took out during the prerecession “go-go” years (when homeowners routinely used their homes as ATM machines) will start to feature increased payments in 2016, as borrowers are forced to pay back principal instead of merely the interest.

1) Carefully Scrutinize All Information

2) See if a Payment Will Extricate You

3) Seek a Compromise

4) Borrow Money From a Family Member or Friend

5) Refinance the Loan

6) Sell the House

Looks like a bad day in store for Mr. Market.

2banana’s Law:

Long term democrat rule + insane public unions + huge free sh*t army = misery, ruin and bankruptcy

FYI - for all those looking to retire or just starting out in life. From the chart in the article, I would choose a state in the bottom 15. And yes, they all do seem to have a few things in common.

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Puerto Rico Is Greece, & These 5 States Are Next To Go
ZeroHedge - 01/03/2016

As Wilbur Ross so eloquently noted, for Puerto Rico “it’s the end of the beginning… and the beginning of the end,” as he explained “Puerto Rico is the US version of Greece.” However, as JPMorgan explains, for some states the pain is really just beginning as Municipal bond risk will only become more important over time, as assets of some severely underfunded plans are gradually depleted.

But, as JPMorgan details, Muni risk is on the rise for US states, but broad generalizations do not apply (in other words, these five states are ’screwed’)…

The direct indebtedness of US states (excluding revenue bonds) is $500 billion. However, bonds are just one part of the picture: states have another trillion in future obligations related to pension and retiree healthcare. In the summer of 2014, we conducted a deep-dive analysis of US states, incorporating bonds, pension obligations and retiree healthcare obligations. After reviewing over 300 Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports from different states, we pulled together an assessment of each state’s total debt service relative to its tax collections, incorporating the need to pay down underfunded pension and retiree healthcare obligations.

While there are five states with significant challenges (Illinois, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Kentucky) , the majority of states have debt service-to-revenue ratios that are more manageable.

obama will ignore the US Constitution and the will of the Congress/Senate and impose gun control through EOs.

His first step, as always, is to go after his political enemies using the vast resources of federal agencies (such as the IRS).

Democrats always believe that the tactics they use against others will never be used against them.

And they will burn in the camps…

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Years of NRA tax filings are loaded with apparent falsehoods
New York Post | January 3, 2016 | Isabel Vincent and Melissa Klein

The National Rifle Association doesn’t shoot straight when it comes to documenting its lobbying and political activities, filing tax forms for years that were littered with information gaps and apparent falsehoods, a Post review of the filings found.

And for six years on tax filings, the NRA failed to list the Political Victory Fund, its PAC, as one of its associated organizations. These tax documents are signed under “penalties of perjury.”

CREW also asked the Federal Elections Commission to audit the NRA. The FEC wouldn’t comment, but a recent filing on its Web site shows the NRA paid the agency $2,750 as part of a settlement agreement.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office, which regulates nonprofits and collects both the federal tax return and audited financial statements from the NRA, refused to comment on whether it was investigating the organization.

Another year of fake HGTV shows selling lies about how cheap it is to remodel and flip or cupcake shows lying about how making a cupcake is somehow hard.

I ask my liberals friends - name ONE thing obama has done to increase the size of the middle class or to create jobs.

There is no answer.

So who is going to buy all these $500,000 crack shacks?

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Obamacare Tightens Yoke on Small Business
American Spectator | 1/4/2016 | David Catron

One of the worst of Obamacares ill-conceived provisions went quietly into effect on January 1. The employer mandate, previously inflicted only on businesses with 100 or more employees, will now be imposed on those with as few as 50. This mandate will prevent countless small employers from hiring workers they would otherwise have hired and incentivize many others to replace full-time employees with part-timers. It is such an obvious job killer that the Obama administration delayed enforcement until after the 2014 midterms, the liberal Urban Institute has called for its repeal, and it has even been obliquely criticized by Hillary Clinton.

The employer mandate requires all businesses with 50 or more full-time employees to provide health coverage to at least 95 percent of these employees as well as any dependents they may have under age 26, or pay crippling fines. But not all small employers can afford to offer insurance. Those which lack the resources to do so will avoid the mandate by assuring that the number of full-time workers they employ remains below 50. And, because Obamacare has arbitrarily redefined full-time to mean 30 or more hours per week, the employer mandate effectively caps both the number of workers many businesses can hire and how many hours they will work.

The nation survived Jimmy Carter so the nation will survive Donald Trump.

Looking like 2000 at the start. That year, the market puked into February and then made the big drive to the top in March. Personally I wouldn’t chase this move on the downside. Second mouse gets the cheese. A nice preview of what’s to come though.

I like natgas if you must be long something.

Looks like the Flight to Safety (and Dash From Trash) has begun in earnest.

http://www.kitco.com/market/

Tech Bubble II starting to look mighty shaky….

http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/03/it-starts-tech-trouble-mucks-up-silicon-valley-real-estate-party/

Has one round too many round of quantitative easing left the global central banking cartel trying to steer a rudderless ship adrift in a sea of volatility?

Comment by Patrick
2016-01-03 19:22:19

Fake capital purchased shares and created untrustworthy market prices supported by free money to a select handful of insiders.

What happens when this small handful panic ?

They appear to be gambling that they will be able to spot when interest rates start to hurt well in advance of the general market. Really !

Remember, one world event overnight could trigger a pin to break these bubbles.

We have more well educated people in business than ever before - MBAs by the truckload.

Why do they seem to think that the financial markets are more important than the shop floor ?

We all know that this bubble will break with higher interest rates. But when ?
Reply to this comment
Comment by Ben Jones
2016-01-03 19:31:16

Oh dear…

http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/shcomp?countrycode=cn&mod=MW_story_quote

Comment by Professor Bear
2016-01-03 20:48:15

Let’s put that right out in the open so AlbqDan can clearly see it (assuming he still lurks here):

Shanghai Composite Index 3,399.91
Change -139.27 -3.94%
Volume 145.84m
Jan 4, 2016, 11:30 a.m.

Comment by Professor Bear
2016-01-03 20:52:32

It’s still turtles all the way down in China.

Asian markets slide on fears of stalling Chinese economy
Published: Jan 3, 2016 10:32 p.m. ET
Shares tumble across region; oil futures rise on Saudi-Iran rift
Women wearing traditional kimono dresses ring in the new year at the Tokyo Stock Exchange on January 4, 2016.
By Chao Deng

Shares across Asia tumbled Monday, the first trading day of the year, after the latest signal that China’s economy is stalling.

The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP, -3.94%) fell 3.4%, the smaller Shenzhen Composite (399106, -5.34%) is down 4.5% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (HSI, -2.33%) fell 2.1%.

Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average (NIK, -2.59%) was down 2.6% while South Korea’s Kospi (SEU, -1.46%) was down 1.6%.

Markets around the world were closed Friday for the New Year’s holiday.

The losses in the region deepened after a private gauge of Chinese manufacturing activity continued to weaken. The Caixin China manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 48.2 in December from 48.6 the previous month. A figure under 50 indicates contraction.

“I think this will raise expectations of more government action to support the economy,” wrote Andrew Sullivan, managing director at Haitong International Securities, in a note, adding that manufacturers continued to trim their staff numbers.
…

Comment by Professor Bear
2016-01-04 00:46:51

It’s broken, but not everyone knows it yet.

ft dot com > Companies > Transport >
Shipping
January 3, 2016 4:17 pm
Shipowners rocked by sinking charter rate
Robert Wright in New York

China’s slowing growth and a glut of ships have hit earnings for vessels carrying coal and other dry bulk commodities so hard that owners face forced sales, emergency capital raisings and possible bankruptcy.

Charter fees are not covering vessels’ operating costs, let alone their financing, in the latest bad news for the many private equity firms that have invested in the sector.

Short-term charter rates for Capesize ships — the largest kind — were as low as $4,897 a day on December 23, down from more than $20,000 a day in August. Vessels typically cost around $13,000 a day to operate and finance.

The Baltic Dry index, which measures overall average charter rates, has been at its lowest levels since it started in 1985.”

And this was on a post about global recession.

The bits bucket = azdude at the roulette table,”red or black, RED OR BLACK?!”

So if I am a wealthy Chinese guy, I want to get my wealth out of the country while currency devaluation is underway, then to repatriate it when the fire sale begins, right?

Hope and change for the native born youngins….

They still can’t seem to see the linkage of their vote for obama and having no jobs and no future.

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Yellen’s Job Puzzle: Why Are 20-Somethings Retiring?
Americans are increasingly foregoing paychecks due to disability, school
Bloomberg - January 4, 2016

How come more people are retiring in their early 20s? Why are middle-age men becoming stay-at-home dads? What’s keeping women out of the workforce other than illness, kids or school?

Those are some of the questions raised in a new Bureau of Labor Statistics report that shows changes over the past decade in why people stay out of the labor force. Finding answers is key for the Federal Reserve as it maps the contours of a job market that’s becoming harder to predict with the aging of the baby boomers and shifting household priorities.

Here’s what the bureau found, broadly: Thirty-five percent of the U.S. population wasn’t in the labor force in 2014, up from 31.3 percent a decade earlier. (You’re considered out of the workforce if you don’t have a job and aren’t looking for one. That’s distinct from the official unemployment rate, which tracks those out of work who are actively job hunting.)

Other reasons for not working are also on the rise. More men between 25 and 54 cited home responsibilities, while women of the same age range increasingly point to illness or school as the leading cause. The data also show, perhaps not surprisingly, that men and women without a high-school diploma are more than three times as likely to be out of the workforce than their peers with a college degree.

Understanding why people aren’t in the workforce — and whether it’s permanent or temporary — is important for the Fed. Policy makers are trying to estimate remaining slack in the labor market and the outlook for inflation as they weigh the timing of the next interest-rate increase.

The best contrarian indicator ever. There are no more inept prognosticators on the planet than the clueless/co-opted Fed hacks.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-mester-sees-slight-pickup-in-growth-in-2016-and-is-not-worried-about-risks-2016-01-03

Teaching your kids the value of financial responsibility through Bitcoin

https://news.bitcoin.com/value-of-a-bitcoin-teaching-kids-financial-responsibility/

Yellen’s Job Puzzle: Why Are 20-Somethings Retiring?

Americans are increasingly foregoing paychecks due to disability, school or retirement

Kasia Klimasinska
Benchmark
January 4, 2016 — 8:00 AM EST

Here’s what the bureau found, broadly: Thirty-five percent of the U.S. population wasn’t in the labor force in 2014, up from 31.3 percent a decade earlier. (You’re considered out of the workforce if you don’t have a job and aren’t looking for one. That’s distinct from the official unemployment rate, which tracks those out of work who are actively job hunting.)

Drilling down into the numbers reveals more about the shifts in the reasons some people forego a paycheck. In all age groups, for instance, more people cited retirement as the reason for being out of the labor force, and it wasn’t just older people.

For Americans between the ages of 20 and 24, the share of those sidelined over the past decade because they were in school increased, unsurprisingly, during the decade that included the Great Recession. What’s more unusual is that the share of 20- to 24-year-olds who say they’re retired doubled from 2004 to 2014.

VIDEO: Hillary Clinton LASHES OUT at Rape Survivor at NH Town Hall – After Questions About Husband Bill

Hillary LASHED OUT at the questioner

Gateway Pundit | Jim Hoft - January 4, 2016

Hillary Clinton held a small town hall event at Derry, New Hampshire on Sunday.

During the event State Rep. Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien (R) repeatedly asked three times about her husband’s past sexual misconduct.

After the third attempt Hillary LASHED OUT at the questioner.

Rep. Katherine Prudhomme-O’Brien (R) told reporters she is concerned about the issue because she is a rape survivor.
CNN reporter: Why does this matter to you?

Prudhomme-O’Brien: Because I’m a rape survivor myself.

Lawmaker heckles Clinton over sex scandals - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7cEnRkOaXE - 188k -

“Obama will also take questions from the audience.”

I’m sure the Kokos in the audience will do a fine job reading their questions.

Obama To Lead Town Hall On ‘Guns In America’ Thursday On CNN
Will take questions from the audience…

Kinsey Lowe | Deadline.com - January 3, 2016 101 Comments

In a move that is certain to stir things up as the political new year unfolds, President Obama will lead a televised town hall Thursday to address tightening restrictions on access to guns. Obama will sit down with Anderson Cooper on CNN at 8 p.m. ET for the one-hour event titled “Guns in America,” which coincides with the fifth anniversary, next Friday, of the shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, in a mass shooting that left six dead and 13 others wounded.

Obama will also take questions from the audience. The President has repeatedly expressed his frustration with Congress’ unwillingness to pass new gun laws and has frequently spoken out about increased gun control in the wake of mass shootings.

Obama also plans to meet Monday with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss options for tougher gun restrictions and is expected to announce soon an executive action with the goal of expanding background checks on gun sales.

Scare tactics, dividing people along class and racial lines, fear mongering, promising more free sh*t and never let a crisis go to waste.

Standard democrat playbook. Democrats could never be elected otherwise…

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Al Gore Armageddon Clock About To Hit Zero After Ten Years
Dailycaller.com ^ | 1-2-2015 | KERRY PICKET

Gore predicted, when his film “An Inconvenient Truth” was first released at the Sundance Film Festival, that the earth would be in “a true planetary emergency” within the next ten years unless drastic action was taken to reduce greenhouse gases.

CBS News reported at the time that Gore’s film predicted the worst-case scenarios would be a new ice age in Europe, massive floods in China, India, and other areas. Gore described himself as a “recovering politician” to the Sundance audience at the time and that he “benefits from low expectations.”

“What really attracted us to this presentation is the tone Al strikes,” said “An Inconvenient Truth” director Davis Guggenheim to CBS. “It’s not righteous. It doesn’t have a political agenda. It lands right in the middle, and Al just lays out what is this inconvenient truth. And I think that’s why the audience is willing to receive it.”

Climate models scientists referred to for the past six decades were incorrect, a working paper released in December by CATO scientists Patrick Michaels and Chip Knappenberger said. Both Michaels and Knappenberger discovered the models over-projected the warming rates than what actually happened.

“During all periods from 10 years (2006-2015) to 65 (1951-2015) years in length, the observed temperature trend lies in the lower half of the collection of climate model simulations,” Michaels and Knappenberger said, “and for several periods it lies very close (or even below) the 2.5th percentile of all the model runs.”

Immigration raids targeting Central Americans with removal orders have begun across the U.S.

By Chris Quinn Updated 5:39 pm, Sunday, January 3, 2016

Various news reports and social media posts from immigrant advocacy groups indicate that raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials targeting Central Americans have begun across the country.

In a tweet posted on Sunday by the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the group said that raids had begun just before dawn.

The group #Not1More posted on their website that children as young as 4 years old were among those swept up by the raids.

The Dallas Morning News and Los Angeles Times also report that raids have begun.

In a blog post the Morning News said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a statement Sunday morning that referenced and reaffirmed “policy priorities” in a memo from November 2014, which stated the intent to detain and deport “aliens” who have been ordered by a federal judge to be removed.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/…/Immigration-raids-targeting-Central-Americans-6734063.php - 798k -

Where is the PPT?

The S&P 500 just breached 2000…

Thought for the day….

obama, his cronies at the Fed and democrats in general are trying desperately to hold off the inevitable bursting of the dam.

Big stock market and housing bubbles need to be timed to burst upon the first day of the Donald Trump presidency.

Things are happening ahead of the time line…

I saw The Big Short the other day. I highly recommend it. It’s funny, dramatic and informative. The book may be different (haven’t read it), but the movie doesn’t absolve the big players of control fraud. It doesn’t focus on control fraud, but it definitely allows for the possibility. It’s a well done film, balancing entertainment and chronicling the run up to the Financial Crisis.

In an environment where 70 percent of Americans don’t know who Janet Yellen is, this will give people a neatly packaged and entertaining look at some of the issues that brought on the crisis.

More joys for Mr. Banker:

“Why Not Sell a Portion of Your Home?”

“… a fund that would invest to co-own houses. “They could own 10 percent or 15 percent of your house, so you don’t have to borrow as much,” Rampell told NYT. “I think there’s a lot of room for more of those kind of new asset classes.”

The originality of the idea seems to make is appear somewhat insane, but I think it could have some sound uses.

Rampell is apparently thinking about such financing in terms of aiding in buying a house:

Mr. Rampell said, such a fund could invest to co-own houses in, say, pricey Palo Alto, Calif., making it easier for prospective home buyers to make down payments and reduce their mortgage burden.

That’s one possibility, but I think where it could have even a better possibility is after there has been an extensive boom in prices of real estate. If a homeowner doesn’t want to move, but would like to cash out some of the equity in his house, the only way to do that now is with a second mortgage, which, of course, leaves the owner extremely vulnerable during a downturn, But if instead of taking out a second mortgage a 10% to 15% stake in the house is sold, the downturn wouldn’t be so financially devastating if the first mortgage isn’t that large in the first place.” …

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2016/01/why-not-sell-portion-of-your-home.html

What ever happened in Dumbo where the limousine liberals didn’t want their kids going to school with those poor black and brown students from the housing project?

I can’t find a follow up.

Brooklyn school battle not so ‘black and white’

By Andrea Peyser
October 2, 2015 | 2:53am

The story played out in much of the media as A Tale of Two Cities — on methamphetamines.

Wealthy, white Brooklyn parents were said to be lunging for the Xanax en masse. Under a plan put forward by the New York City Department of Education, little Matilda or Asher could be booted from their precious, racially segregated and woefully overcrowded (read: majority-white) public elementary school. And some kids who live in million-dollar-plus condos in the gentrified Dumbo neighborhood would be sent to an underperforming and under-enrolled school that draws many of its overwhelmingly poor black and brown students from a housing project.

Are racists hiding out among progressive New Yorkers?

“Brooklyn — The Capital of Liberal Hypocrisy,’’ declared the National Review.

Then, on Sept. 21, another town hall was held at mostly white PS 8. And this time, reporters leapt at the chance to cast bourgeois parents as opposed to racial diversity.

One white dad complained that he didn’t “want to be the bad guy’’ by pointing out that PS 307 was “severely underperforming.’’

“How does sending Dumbo and Vinegar Hill children to the school solve PS 307’s problems?’’ he asked.

I wonder if Jeb is on the phone with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to see how he can help? Maybe they will sell Fox News and all their Houston properties now before Iran kicks their arsse.

You only live once, why do it in Detroit or Chicago?

Chinese investors run for the exit. Will the gov prevent this again? if so, then why do we consider the Yuan worthy to be traded for real property in the USA?

If you look at the national maps of support for Donald Trump, you’ll see that the poorer, less educated parts of the USA are among his strongest regions. And now with the Internet, they have a voice.

My parents just moved their money (all of it) to money market.

Is the stock market reacting to a GOP goofball as POTUS? Things have gone downhill since 2014 and the GOP congress.

Can some of you liberal folks help me out here. I need to know whom to blame if Trump is elected. I guess everything will be his fault? Or will the problems still be Bush’s fault? If Hillary is elected, will she finally solve all of America’s problems? Or will she need another 4 years after her first 4 years to accomplish her agenda? Will her 8 years plus Obama’s 8 years be enough to accomplish stuff? Or will we still be able to safely blame Bush and Reagan?
I’m going to predict that if a Republican wins the election, our SJWs will blame everything on him, while if a Democrat wins, our SJWs will blame everything on Bush.
You heard it her, first.

Comment by Bill, just South of Irvine
2016-01-03 12:03:46

Vacate the banks and vacate the vote. Ignore the sociopaths who want to rule over others. Grow a set of balls. Fractional reserve is a big ripoff that plunders the world. Starve the beast.

Bill, last I heard, you had a SIGNIFICANT nest-egg invested in the markets, in both stocks and bonds. That makes you deeply invested in the current system, and strongly benefiting from it. In other words, you are an owner of the current system.

Discuss.

Isn’t it about time our Justice department started putting people in jail?

—- Knapp Gets 6 1/2 Years for S&L Fraud : Thrifts: The once high-flying chief of American Savings is also ordered to pay $11 million in restitution.
December 15, 1993|JAMES F. PELTZ | TIMES STAFF WRITER
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Charles W. Knapp, the maverick money man who once headed the nation’s largest savings and loan, was sentenced Tuesday to 6 1/2 years in prison for duping an Arizona savings and loan into lending him $15 million.

Knapp, 59, was also ordered to pay $11 million in restitution–a sum prosecutors claimed was the amount Western Savings & Loan in Phoenix lost on the Knapp loan.

The stiff sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in Los Angeles, followed Knapp’s conviction in July on two criminal counts of making false statements and one count of conspiracy.

Knapp–wearing a gray suit, white shirt, maroon tie and wire-rimmed glasses–sat stiffly and showed no reaction as the sentence was read. He remains free on bail until he must surrender Jan. 18. Wilson, acting on a request by Knapp’s lawyer, recommended that Knapp be sent to a federal prison in Pleasanton, Calif. Knapp turned down Wilson’s invitation to speak to the court before sentencing. After the hearing, Knapp said he intends to appeal but declined to comment further.

Before issuing the sentence, Wilson chided Knapp for having “no qualms” about using crime “to salvage his crumbling financial empire.” The judge called it “an egregious offense that was callously committed by a sophisticated defendant.”

Bill Morgan, a former business associate of Knapp’s until they had a bitter falling-out and who testified against Knapp during his trial, said in an interview that Knapp “got exactly what he deserved.”

“When it comes to robbing banks, the only difference between Charlie Knapp and Jesse James is that Jesse used a gun and Charlie used a fountain pen,” Morgan said.

Mark S. Dodge, who worked with Knapp at Trafalgar Holdings, a Los Angeles investment firm Knapp formed, said after the hearing that he had mixed emotions about Knapp’s downfall. Dodge left Trafalgar before the Western Savings loan was made.

*

“The years I was with him were beneficial to me in many ways,” Dodge said. “But I also feel he did take advantage of, and victimize, a lot of people when he became a desperate person. It was so needless. He had everything at one point in his life.”

Two of Knapp’s former business associates were also convicted in the case. One, Anthony C. Sarno, was sentenced Tuesday to 5 1/4 years in prison and ordered to pay $500,000 in restitution. The other, Joseph V. Nash, had his sentencing delayed a week.

Knapp becomes the latest major figure of the nation’s S&L debacle to be sent to prison on criminal charges.

In July, Charles H. Keating Jr. got a 12-year, seven-month prison term for looting Lincoln Savings & Loan. But in Knapp’s case, his conviction was not related to his stewardship of Financial Corp. of America and its Stockton-based American Savings & Loan, which Knapp built into the largest U.S. thrift.

Regulators ousted Knapp from his job in 1984, and American Savings eventually collapsed because of a mountain of bad loans made during the Knapp era. But no criminal charges were ever filed in connection with the case.

Instead, Knapp got into trouble after forming Trafalgar.

He was found guilty of conspiring to concoct financial statements that grossly overstated the assets of one of his Trafalgar units so it could qualify for the unsecured loan from Western Savings in 1988.

The assistant U.S. attorneys who prosecuted the case, David J. Schindler and Carolyn J. Kubota, alleged that the loan was never repaid and that Knapp never intended to repay it. They also said the loan contributed to Western Savings’ 1989 collapse, which cost U.S. taxpayers about $500 million.

Knapp, a charming, flamboyant financier who piloted vintage airplanes and cruised on his yacht in the Mediterranean, had a free-wheeling style at American Savings that made him a role model for other executives who wanted to rapidly expand their newly deregulated savings and loans.

*

After being ousted from American Savings, Knapp hoped Trafalgar could become a major force in financing corporate takeovers, but prosecutors alleged that by mid-1988, Knapp and Trafalgar were “flat-out broke” when Knapp secured the Western Savings loan and that at least $1 million of the loan went toward Knapp’s own expenses.

Trafalgar dissolved as Knapp’s personal financial problems began mounting three years ago, and he and his wife, actress Lois Hamilton, filed for personal bankruptcy protection in September, 1992. But prosecutors claim Knapp still has a net worth in the millions of dollars.

Knapp said Hamilton filed for divorce in July, near the time of his conviction.

Show me someone without an ego, and I’ll show you a loser.

looks like the PPT came to the rescue the last hr of trading again.

It’s -1 degrees right now.

So much for global warming.

New post, Mark Hanson:
1-4-16 Hanson: “The Housing Recovery” That Wasn’t

This is the typical hypocrite-Republican:

As one of the leaders of a band of armed, anti-government activists who have taken over a National Park Service building in Oregon, Ammon Bundy has denounced the “tyranny” of the federal government. And he has brought a new round of attention to the anti-government militia movement that in 2014 rallied behind his father, Cliven Bundy, when the elder Bundy and armed supporters confronted federal agents in Nevada. But not long ago, Ammon Bundy sought out help from the government he now decries and received a federal small-business loan guarantee.

Ammon Bundy runs a Phoenix-based company called Valet Fleet Services LLC, which specializes in repairing and maintaining fleets of semitrucks throughout Arizona. On April 15, 2010—Tax Day, as it happens—Bundy’s business borrowed $530,000 through a Small Business Administration loan guarantee program.

Obama Calls Executive Actions on Guns ‘Consistent’ with Second Amendment

President says proposal “well within my legal authority and the executive branch”

Mikael Thalen | Infowars.com - January 4, 2016 574 Comments

President Obama labeled his upcoming executive actions on gun control “consistent with the Second Amendment” Monday during a public address from the Oval Office.

“I’m… confident that the recommendations that are being made by my team here are ones that are entirely consistent with the Second Amendment and people’s lawful right to bear arms,” the president said.

Obama defended the proposed actions, which have yet to be specified, following a meeting with Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI Director James Comey.

“These are not only recommendations that are well within my legal authority and the executive branch but they’re also ones that the overwhelming majority of the American people, including gun owners, support…” he added.

According to reports, President Obama is expected to expand background checks while also barring Americans secretly placed on the government’s controversial no-fly list from purchasing firearms.

The president, who also argued that bypassing Congress would “potentially save lives,” plans to announce the executive actions “over the next several days.”

Despite President Obama’s insistent stance on gun control, a new Gallup poll found that only 2 percent of Americans view “guns” and “gun control” as a major issue facing the country. In contrast, 16 percent of Americans agreed that the government itself was the “top problem.”

Multiple Republican lawmakers, including Texas Governor Greg Abbott, have vocally protested the president’s plan.

“Obama wants to impose more gun control,” Abbott tweeted Friday. “My response? COME & TAKE IT.”

Bail ins in U.K. before the USA. IT IS NEAR. If this article does not get your money out of U.S. banks and into crypto and precious metals, you are are a state worshipper.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/tax/10819885/David-Cameron-Taxes-will-rise-unless-we-can-raid-bank-accounts.html

El moment es verdad…

Happy Chinese New Year and Christmas!

For all the complaining snowflakes here, things will only get worse! Americans today have no idea what real suffering is or what a bad economy looks like. There are countless snarky posers on the internet who seem to think that they are wise or smart, but their only qualifications are that they hang out at websites like this.

The present world economy is a product of lots of things, but everything probably points back to China. No one understands anything about the “world economy” since economics isn’t a science. But lots of wealth has been created and it seems that the good times can’t last forever.

Countless people, governments and businesses are overextended and I bet that this is not going to end well. However, if there’s anything that can be learned by examining history, it’s that people will continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

My parents lived through the Great Depression and World War II. People born post WW II don’t know what hard times are. I can’t wait for the show to begin.