Bits Bucket for February 24, 2016
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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
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“As a sign that mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are performing better is the consistent decline in the serious delinquency rate on residential loans insured by the GSEs, which is now at a level comparable to what it was in September 2008 at the start of the conservatorships.”
http://www.dsnews.com/news/02-09-2016/gse-serious-delinquency-rate-is-lowest-since-start-of-conservatorships
https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?id=OEHRENWBSHNO,
Was September 2008 a good time for mortgage default rates? It seems like the wheels were falling off the economic bus about then, but perhaps not too many folks had lost their jobs and the ability to make mortgage payments yet.
The wheels were falling off the bus at the high levels of finance as early as August 2007, when the secondary market for MBS finally figured out what “Alt-A” meant. (remember that? Those were the first liquidity injections from the Fed. But even then the disaster was already baked into the cake in the form of future ARM resets.)
The biofuel didn’t really hit the wind turbine until on Main Street until Obama was elected in November 2008. The the layoffs hit hard.
And of course Fannie and Freddie are performing better. By the time I bought four years ago, Fannie had shifted away from fog-a-mirror to typical financial reaming. I got the reaming.
Just how many phony, sketchy mortgages are they holding that were made in the last 6 years alone? 10 million? 20 million?
Alt-A was tanking already by December 2006.
The Economist print edition
Finance and economics
Mortgage lending
Subprime subsidence
Parts of America’s mortgage market are in turmoil. Some on Wall Street see this as an opportunity. Others are biting their nails
Dec 13th 2006 | New York
MORTGAGE lending is hardly the raciest business, but it has its moments. “It’s a bit like the definition of combat: 59 minutes of boredom followed by a minute of sheer terror,” says Michael Youngblood, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, an investment bank. “And we seem to be going through another one of those minutes now.”
What has set pulses racing is subprime lending—mortgages extended at higher than normal rates to those with weak credit histories. In America, where it is most advanced, this market is under a lot of strain, and so, by extension, is the giant asset-backed securities market that is linked to it. The market for prime mortgages (those extended to higher-quality borrowers) is faring better, though it, too, is showing signs of weakness, exacerbated by cooling house prices. Might these troubles, some wonder, be the canary in the mine, warning of a looming credit crunch as investors, for years free with their money, recoil from risk?
Once a backwater, subprime is now very much in the mainstream. Annual loan originations grew fivefold between 2001 and 2005, to $625 billion, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, a newsletter.
But with rapid growth has come fragility. According to UBS, the rate of subprime-loan delinquencies of 60 days or more stood at around 8% in October, nearly double the rate of a year before. Foreclosures are also around twice as high as they were. Worse, loans are decaying remarkably quickly: the number of borrowers falling behind on payments in the first few months has leapt, to around 4% of the total. This has taken some analysts by surprise. But Anthony Sanders, finance professor at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, thinks they should have seen it coming: “With the traditional mortgage market flat, the growth has been in the one area nobody wanted to go into.”
This is already producing casualties. A number of mid-sized mortgage firms have failed in recent weeks. The latest, on December 7th, was Ownit Mortgage Solutions, the 17th-largest subprime lender. Others—such as H&R Block’s Option One Mortgage—are for sale, their owners keen to leave the business. Earlier this month, in another bad sign, KeyCorp sold its subprime arm, Champion, for an undisclosed sum thought to be well below the $200m-250m tag analysts had put on it.
These troubles did not come out of the blue. Their origins lie in 2004, when some of the big subprime lenders began to compete hard for market share. By late 2005, this battle had pushed rates for ropy borrowers down to a little over 7%. This led to a boom in new business as thousands scrambled onto the housing ladder.
But the Federal Reserve had already started raising short-term interest rates, flattening the yield curve, the difference between short and long rates. (Since banks borrow short and lend long, their margins are higher when the curve is steep.) When this began eating into lenders’ profits, they reacted by pushing subprime rates back up. This time, though, they could not attract the same quality of borrower as before: with the housing market looking vulnerable, only the desperate were willing to borrow at interest rates of over 8%.
The lenders compounded their problems greatly by loosening their underwriting standards in a further attempt to keep business chugging along. Sometimes these were waived altogether. Adding insult to imprudence, they lured borrowers with “alternative” mortgage products, such as “negative amortisation” deals (where payments are so low that the overall debt gets bigger, not smaller) and adjustable-rate products (where teaser rates jump after a couple of years). Mark DiRienz of Moody’s, a rating agency, says the “payment shock” was made worse by rules that allowed lenders to go from a low introductory rate straight to one much higher than the prevailing rate.
New subprime lending has tailed off this year as mortgage firms have, belatedly, become fussier about whom they will serve. They say they will plough more resources into vetting applications but, as Mr Youngblood points out, this would raise their costs. There is no easy way out.
Moody’s and other debt-raters have cast a worried eye over the market, placing subprime deals on watch for a possible downgrade. Regulators are also twitchy. They have stepped up warnings about slack lending standards.
…
2011 was a good time to buy near ,,dc
Cheer up
Are you sure? Let’s take a look.
Median transaction price in 2011 in DC was $400/sq ft. That’s roughly 10 times higher than long term trend and 7x higher than construction cost(lot, labor, materials and profit).
Are you sure?
Thank you Nevada!
Reckless euphoria has run amok!
Time to pay the fiddler.
Caw, caw, caw! Oh today is going to drive Professor Bloviate crazy. Trump crushing it in Nevada AND pulling a yuuuge amount of Hispanic votes.
Better just bury your head in leftist academic journals today.
You get the top prize for most annoying Trumpling posts, ever.
Rejection of the corrupt, feckless Republicrat status quo is producing a poltical insurgency. F**k you, GOP establishment and your oligarch masters.
Voters been giving the finger to the R establishment since last June. Glad to see you caught up. Does this mean you won’t be posting about 95% of the electorate bending over for the Republicrat masters?
Now if the left can only nominate Barney. Maybe Bubba will step in as Hillarykins’ backup.
“Donald Trump” = Yuuuge in Burma = FRAUD
Winning!
“Winning!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjnZO5ZgWE8 - 162k -
It’s all happening. Look out Hillary and leftist media. The middle finger is being raised.
“It’s all happening. Look out Hillary and leftist media. The middle finger is being raised.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1_nbnQYYGY - 223k -
Hahaha classic. I need to order a ton of foam middle fingers with Trump stamped on them and head to the rallies to hawk them for $20 a piece.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKT3dXaijXg
funny stuff
Juxtaposition. Trump has the headlines and Lady Macbeth has all the ads.
Apparently the Pineapples were completely wrong about what a narrow slice of the population wants change in Washington.
What “Pineapple” said that a “narrow slice of the population” wants change?
Or did you just imagine that one?
Wasn’t it you that wrote there weren’t enough angry old fat white men to elect the guy?
No matter, the Pineapples all read alike to me lately.
In all fairness PB you’re a crackerjack bubble news sleuth.
“No matter, the Pineapples all read alike to me lately.”
As well they should.
NeoCons = Progressives.
I remember 41 months ago when exactly two posters (polly and I believe Prime) thought I was onto something.
Maybe 6-8 other posters outwardly thought I was nuts.
Granted, I am not correct nearly as often as I’d like, but on this one, I was. And am.
In all fairness PB you are a crackerjack bubble news sleuth.
Apparently I tried to post that twice and succeeded!
No fairness is needed when basking in The Donald’s glory.
“Wasn’t it you that wrote there weren’t enough angry old fat white men to elect the guy?”
My comments were about the national electorate.
I certainly wouldn’t have suggested a limited number of angry old white Republicans. (I don’t recall saying “fat”, but you are probably right about that, too.)
Maybe 6-8 other posters outwardly thought I was nuts.
I was probably one of them. I’ll speak for polly and say she didn’t think you were on to anything. For one thing, you didn’t invent the progressives = neocons meme. That was your thought directors. It is interesting that you think you invented it though.
As I recall, it was Russ who posted that.
MacBeth is being deceptive, not nuts.
The original early 1960’s neocons were the proverbial “liberals who got mugged” and became more conservative. By the mid 1970’s, the term had morphed to describe the cabal of corrupt old Nixon advisers who eventually lied into Iraq to line their buddies’ pockets and get brownie points for Securing The Realm.
The original Progressive was Teddy Roosevelt, the mixed bag centrist who practiced military imperialism while fighting for coal miners and food-eaters on the home front. Nowdays progressives are social justice warriors trying to break free of the old liberal label.
So both terms run the whole spectrum. Until MacBeth defines where he is (he hasn’t yet), the neocons = progressives meme is meaningless.
Mr. Trump…. You truly are an esteemed statesman…… with a hot wife and a squad of sexy strumpets.
“Trump Takes Nevada By A Landslide; Rubio/Cruz All Tied Up - Live Feed”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/trump-takes-nevada-landslide-rubiocruz-all-tied-live-feed
“TOKYO—Look no further than Japan’s hardware stores for a worrying new sign that consumers are hoarding cash—the opposite of what the Bank of Japan had hoped when it recently introduced negative interest rates.”
WSJ
Duh.
Guess I’ll have to read the article to grasp the hardware store connection to selfish cash hoarding?
It’s safe to read. Get it?
Very punny!
People are buying safes.
When Yellen the Felon imposes NIRP, even the dullest of the sheeple might finally, belatedly be aroused to fury at the Fed’s financial warfare against the 99%.
See, the policy works….it stimulated retail sales!
“People are buying safes.”
Hmmmm … if these safes are portable enough to buy and bring home from the store then they are probably portable enough for a thief to carry away. So a person would probably do well to buy a safe but keep it empty and hide his cash somewhere else.
Q. When does a person stop looking for something?
A. When he finds what he was looking for.
If a thief is looking for a money stash then provide him with one, or rather provide him with something he believes to be a money stash.
“People are buying safes”
Ironically to protect our valuables such as precious metals and crypto currency paper wallets while people look forward to choose between Fascism and oligarchy at the ballot box.
The “opposite” of the BoJ had hoped for? What the bloody heck did BoJ THINK the citizens were going to do? “Oh look I deposited 5000 yen last week and this week it’s worth 4850 yen. I better deposit more!”
The central bankers are idiots. They think they can make banks lend and people spend to infinity. The pool of willing and able debt slaves is finite.
Which candidate most resembles a combination of Berlusconi and the Kardashians?
Nobody. Trump didn’t make past labor day 2015.
John Kerry?
He’s Abe Lincoln + Fred Flintstone
Sam Malone + Herman Munster
Trump got 46 percent in NV outperforming his polling and driving historical turnout. Because of him Rs are turning out at much higher rates than Ds. That mean President Trump. That means lefties like Professor State Pension better worry.
Trump / Haley 2016 ?
The Haley angle would improve both his woman and minority appeal. It would also quiet the media, the ones with the bullhorns into people’s homes via the television and radio. The optics and tribal politics are solid.
Haley’s also the scripted establishment sort, so it might be attractive to those types as well.
She crossed the Don by bad mouthing him. I don’t think Don will forgive her for that. He will probably go for someone like Carson.
Why not Palin? She better fits The Donald’s image than does Ben Carson, by far.
You’d love that because you think it would hurt him. Nobody but you and your deluded fantasies think it’s possible. Geez you are a case study in cognitive bias.
Choosing Palin would hurt him no more than if he shot somebody or picked a fight with the Pope.
Wishful thinking. He will choose someone who is smart. It’s what he does.
I don’t see how choosing Palin could hurt one bit. She’s in synch with The Donald’s image both visually and verbally.
If you think she’s be a better President that Hillary you can write her in.
Scott Brown.
Chris Christie.
Trump’s gonna need an enforcer, not a milquetoast.
Haley is an establishment puppet. Just say no to establishment puppets.
Do you think he wants Haley and her periods and mood swings and blood in her eyes on the campaign trail?
I don’t either.
You will not be seeing this on CNN or The CBS Evening News.
Obama Cracks Scalia Death Joke - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRutwOF0T48 - 214k - Cached - Similar pages
2 days ago …
Outrageous!
Read the comments
Donald Trump’s terrible appeal
The Economist
The Economist is the mouthpiece of the City of London oligarchy.
The Economist is a NeoCon-Progressive Party mouthpiece.
The writers at the Economist are poop-throwing monkeys.
As much as I like The Economist for the volume of information and the analysis, their editorial staff is aggressively what I think is called “neoconservative”.
Meaning:
• Socially liberal. Pro de facto open borders, anti-death penalty, hold other typically liberal positions.
• Very pro-business (though often willing to call a spade a spade - i.e. willing to call out shady or socially destructive business practices).
• Advocate “muscular” US foreign policy, i.e. “Never saw a conflict they didn’t urge American troops to get involved in.” America’s gotta lead they say, anywhere from Africa to the Middle East, and that means Boots On The Ground.
I put “neoconservative” in quotes because it means different things to different people. I see neoconservatives as socially liberal, fiscally conservative/pro-business, and hawkish.
My attitude towards The Economist is “I wish I could quit you.” But the quality of information is just that good that I keep renewing.
I laugh every time when these neocons bad mouth anyone. They have supported and continue to support more evil everyday. Them the main fear is Trump won’t carry their water. They aren’t happy about it.
Neocons gonna neocon.
And trumpligs gonna trumple.
Al Davis said it best, just Win, Baby, Win! Trump knows something about that. Terrifies you leftist Hillarykins.
And while you are at it why not just go ahead and say that you think say all Trump supporters are stupid ignorant racist bastards. All your bloviating just boils down to that.
Pineapples gonna Sad?
Not as sad as that post by a long shot…
Oil prices just plunged another 4%, and I paid under $2/gallon at the pump for the first time in maybe a decade yesterday. How good can it get?
Gas is under $2 by a significant amount even in NY.
It can get a lot better.
Repeal ObamaCare and many tens of millions have a great deal more money in their pockets - much more than saving $2/gallon yields.
Even for the gasoline, repeal putting tortillas in the gas. The corn subsidy is stoopid, it raises the price and increases consumption.
It also screws up the seals in your engine and delivers less energy. Ethanol is a crony capitalist scam on consumers.
George W Bush was quite the ethanol champion, as I recall.
Did you see last week’s NBC/WSJ “poll” that indicated Trump losing his lead in SC? Same concept: trying to paint Trump as a loser so that the voters wouldn’t back him.
There’s a new meme attempting to take root, I think put out by the RNC. And that is ‘Trump = Hitler’. It’s quite amusing. I think it smacks of desperation. If you google ‘trump hitler’ you’ll see what I mean.
Where you been? That’s been said here for months and months.
Crude oil drops nearly 4%, battered by the no-production-cut blues
By Jenny W. Hsu
Published: Feb 24, 2016 7:35 a.m. ET
Weekly U.S. crude stockpiles data coming later
AFP/Getty Images
Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi
Oil prices slid further on Wednesday after Saudi Arabia dismissed the possibility of a production cut and traders expected another increase in U.S. oil stockpiles.Brent crude (LCOJ6, -2.01%) on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.79, or 2.4%, to $32.47 a barrel. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in April (CLJ6, -3.04%) traded down 2.4, or $0.80, at $30.75 a barrel. Both benchmarks lost more than 4% on Tuesday.
Late Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute, an industry group, said that U.S. stockpiles increased by more-than-expected 7.1-million-barrel last week. The Energy Information Administration will release its official data later on Wednesday and analysts polled by The Wall Street Journal expect an increase of 2.4 million barrels.
…
Dow futures slump more than 100 points as oil dives again
By Sara Sjolin
Published: Feb 24, 2016 5:38 a.m. ET
Earnings from Target, Lowe’s and Chesapeake Energy on tap premarket
Reuters
St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard is set to speak on Wednesday
U.S. stocks are faced with another day of losses Wednesday, as investors again take a cue from slumping oil prices and move out of risk-sensitive assets such as equities.
Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (YMH6, -0.85%) dropped 105 points, or 0.6%, to 16,289, while those for the S&P 500 index (ESH6, -0.86%) fell 11.85 points, or 0.6%, to 1,904.25. Futures for the Nasdaq 100 index (NQH6, -1.21%) erased 31.25 points, or 0.8%, to 4,128.
The declines came as oil futures took another beating, pulling down U.S. oil companies in premarket trade. Brent (LCOJ6, -2.13%) and crude (CLJ6, -3.14%) both traded with more than 2% losses after Saudi Arabia dashed hopes of a production cut to tackle a supply glut in the international oil markets.
Iran’s oil minister also zapped sentiment in the oil market, saying Tuesday that a deal to freeze output at January levels is a “joke”. Iraq’s governor to OPEC joined the conversation Wednesday, saying oil producers inside and outside the cartel should act promptly together to rebalance the market.
…
Article on MarketWatch dot com
Dumb question of the day: Why are U.S. stock prices attached at the hip to oil?
Spendthrifts, debt donkeys and socialists don’t help each other. It will be dog eat dog.
The US is now an oil exporter.
It’s great that U.S. oil producers are finally free to compete in the international arena.
Good to see you feel this way.
See? Yet another person who believes in free market medicine! Nationwide competition for insurance, available to all individuals coast to coast. Hell, lets make medicine an international marketplace!
You’re starting to see the light, Bear.
So if you like free markets, I suppose you will agree that Trump’s tariff proposal is a bad idea for the wealth of nations.
Iran’s oil minister also zapped sentiment in the oil market, saying Tuesday that a deal to freeze output at January levels is a “joke”
Sounds like Chessmaster O’bummer brought them in from the cold at just the right time.
How’s that cheap oil working out for chessboy pooty-poot?
Respectfully, who is “chessboy pooty-poot”?
One of the many hobgoblins living in Lolas empty skull.
who is “chessboy pooty-poot”
Google is your friend, jane. If you google the phrase, you’ll see “pooty-poot” was W’s nickname for Putin (pretty common knowledge, actually, and widely mocked).
“Chessboy” refers to Chessmaster O’bummer whipping Putin’s butt at the chess game of world politics. That part is a bit of an inside joke ’round here.
Here’s some charts …
http://americanactionforum.org/housing-chartbook
Note how the goings-on of the first chart is reflected in the goings on of the other charts.
The first chart is related to the cost of monthly payments and the other charts show the market’s response to the cost of monthly payments AND the psychology that drives demand - the psychology that drives the desire of buyers to take on monthly payments, also known as the price.
That’s my take; I’m sure there will be others. You decide.
This verbiage is associated with one of the charts …
“NAR HOUSING AFFORDABILITY INDEX
“The National Association of Realtors releases updated numbers on housing affordability monthly. The measure is an index in which the value of 100 means a family has exactly enough income to qualify for a mortgage on a median-priced home.”
Note that even though the subject is affordability there is no mention anywhere of the word “price”.
Remember….. If you have to borrow for 15 or 30 years, it’s not affordable nor can you afford it.
Payroll taxes are in a nosedive. That will add some “psychology”.
A comment from 538blog:
TRUMP WON WITH HISPANICS. PERIOD. Many Mexican-Americans LOVE Trump for telling it like it is about the illegals. Trump LOVES them. That’s why he’s kicking out all these criminals and enforcing American laws. The more that hard working, law abiding Hispanic American citizens think about it and let it sink in, the more they realize that Trump (a man who employs THOUSANDS of Hispanics who are legal) is 100% on their side. And they realize that Trump is good for them and their communities. After all, where do illegal immigrant criminals go and commit their rapes and robberies? THINK ABOUT IT.
Trump isn’t doing anything but telling a bunch of angry, frightened, fat old people exactly what they want to hear.
It’s a con… and you fools are eating it up.
Tax fat people
Hook them to carts until thin
Save energy
Sustainability achieved
All you have to do to make them run faster is yell “Allah Ackbar!”
Trump is racist. That’s why 45% of Hispanics voted for him (must be because they’re racist, too).
Trump is also old, white and male. That means he’s sexist. Hard to believe 45% of Nevadan women voted for him (must be because they’re sexist, too).
Hmmm….45% Hispanic and 45% female. White male vote was 47%.
Given the alternatives, I’m surprised it wasn’t higher.
That’s why 45% of Hispanics voted for him
Mmm, yeah. That would be 45% of Hispanic GOP voters who voted in the Nevada caucus. In other words, less than half of a small fraction of Nevada Hispanics.
Oh come on, there were at least 50!
Welcome Back Reagan Democrats.
The Great Wall of Trump (political cartoon).
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/images/user3303/imageroot/2016/02/22/20160222_trump%5B.jpg
Stop Calling Bernie Sanders a Socialist
By Thor Benson
April 30, 2015
Bernie Sanders is a Socialist
By phony scandals
February 24, 2016
Barney Sanders is a socialist. And pro-debt slavery.
All the Republican and Democrat candidates are socialists.
Testify, brothah. F*** the statists and their Free Sh*t Army and Wall Street welfare queens.
http://media.breitbart.com/media/2016/02/Cb-p3l7WEAA-UIR.jpg
The subprime bubble is starting to burst. Will voters meekly bend over for pro-bailout Republicrat Wall Street water carriers as they did in 2008 and 2012?
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/02/23/subprime-auto-loan-asset-backed-securities-come-home-to-roost-in-your-bond-fund/
As Trump easily rolls to victory in his third caucus on a wave of anti-establishment anger, the sleazy, sellout Establishment GOP and their corporate puppetmasters must be as nervous as a six-year-old at the Neverland Ranch.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/nevada-gop-caucus-2016-219685
Q: what time is bedtime at Neverland?
A: when the big hand touches the little hand.
LULZ
Worried you’ll be labeled a stupid ignorant racist bastard for speaking out against illegal immigration, Islamic jihadists or any of the other politically correct leftist sacred cows? Easy, just say Trump. Political speech is the core of what is protected by the 1st Amendment.
This strategy is now being employed on campuses across the nation in response to lefties like BLM. Shouts of Trump, Trump, Trump.
Drives them crazy.
Rubio - a Cuban - thinks he’s going to obtain majority support of Hispanics.
Guess what? Hispanics don’t identify with Cubans. They are not the same.
I know that’s a shock to both establishment GOP and liberal coastal elitists. But, hey, that’s what happens when you live in insulated bubbles. You end up knowing very little about the real world.
You must have meant to write that some Hispanics or most Hispanics don’t identify with Cubans. Cubans are Hispanics.
/false.
I went to college with a couple of Puerto Ricans. They also did not identify with other groups that the rest of us lump all together.
Kind of like the Amish calling all other people “English”.
To be fair, different Hispanic cultures do have some commonalities, like language and religion. But beyond that there are some rather large differences, including:
Accents
Slangs
Music
Food
Some years ago Coca-Cola ran a Spanish language commercial on Univision where three young men are talking about catching a bus. The Puerto Rican guy called the bus a “gua-gua”, the South American guy called it an “omnibus” and the Mexican guy called it a “camion”. They then agree to get a soft drink, referred to as either “soda”, “gaseosa” or “refresco”.
Of course, the one thing they agree on is that they want a Coca-Cola.
And speaking of Univision, there have been complaints from the non Mexican Hispanic community that Univision has gone from being a “Hispanic” channel to being a “Mexican” channel.
Guess what? Hispanics don’t identify with Cubans. They are not the same.
Or to be more concise: Mexicans (and Central Americans) don’t identify with Cubans.
So I guess Hispanics don’t automatically identify with each other? Kind of like the Scots not identifying with the Irish.
Cubans understand sociallism
Puerto Ricans hate Cubans. Or so, I’ve been told.
Rubio is a stooge of the .1%. So is Goldman Sachs puppet Cruz. Most Hispanics who have to go out and make their way in our oligarch-looted economy are probably intelligent enough to not vote for the toadies of the oligarchs who are screwing them and the rest of the 99% nine ways to Sunday.
Yet another housing bubble signaling meltdown ahead.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/02/22/signs-of-mortgage-house-price-meltdown-in-australia/
I love the smell of Crater in the morning.
NPR reporting Denver used house prices up 10% yoy, trailing only San Fruitcisco and Portlandia. And up 40% in the last 4 years. I’m moving to Salida or Durango next year.
Isn’t Durango just as pricey, if not worse; plus there are no real jobs? Or are you planning on opening a branch office for the “shop” there?
Telework, Rockstar. Jobs tied to physical locations are for the olds.
“Jobs tied to physical locations are for the olds.”
I resemble that statement.
Old Guys Rule T-shirts - Trenz Shirts
http://www.trenzshirts.com/old-guys-rule-t-shirts/ - 84k -
Telework, Rockstar. Jobs tied to physical locations are for the olds.
I wouldn’t say that. Unless you are a superstar in your field, the boss wants to see you come into the office. Even in Silly Valley.
“Unless you are a superstar in your field, the boss wants to see you come into the office.”
I guess that made Chelsea Clinton a superstar at NBC News for her $600,000 a year no show job.
I’d go with Santa Fe over Durango, more action
I guess that made Chelsea Clinton a superstar at NBC News for her $600,000 a year no show job.
Chelsea needs to check her privilege.
May Crater be with you.
Thousand Oaks, CA Housing Prices Crater 11% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/newbury-park-thousand-oaks-ca/home-values/
CR8®
B…b…but the muppets were supposed to SELL gold, not buy it.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/gold-breaking-out-leaving-goldman-stumped
AUY broached $2.84.
Gold spot price is at its 52 week high.
More and more rumors of banning cash transactions + more rumors of capital controls = higher prices for precious metals and crypto currency. Do the math.
Does the average Joe even care? How many people do you know who carry even a single $100 bill on them?
I do. Several times a year I have been out when the “computer just isn’t working”. I have had my bank card shut down by a security breach twice in the past 10 years. I get a 3% discount at several places for not using a card (check will do). I do business with the Amish, only some of which have the electronics to do credit cards. Occasionally I buy a tree from a farmer; here’s $100. My son sometimes wants me to float him $200. Am I going to hand him my bankcard? Some of the gas stops on the Erie and the Trent canals simply do not take credit cards. Same for some of the grocery stops. I have bought vehicles cash from individuals. Tax gets paid when I register it. Strangers don’t want your checks.
But you have to admit that your lifestyle isn’t “typical”.
I’m not saying that most people don’t carry cash, just that they don’t carry a lot of cash, hence why they don’t have 100 daollar bills in the wallet. And as others have pointed out here, if you try to pay with a $100 bill many retailers will give you the stink eye.
Once as a joke I passed a 5000 Brazilian Cruzeiro note to the waitress for a bowl of soup. She looked at it wide eyed and apologized that there wasn’t enough in the till to make change.
Lola?
Just kidding.
haha. My coin dealer was giving them away as a warning of what happens to currency that is not backed by anything (gold). 40 some years ago….
Most home-debtors don’t have two dimes to rub together.
Truth. Not being able to “charge it” is often a disaster for the debt donkey.
Miami, FL Housing Market Craters; Prices Plunge 5% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/miami-fl/home-values/
New York Times real journalists provide a grabber narrative:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/opinion/effective-firearms-regulation-is-constitutional.html
“What they do?
Gonna ban the AK
My sh*t wasn’t registered
Any f*ing way” — Ice Cube
I feel a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of FBs screamed in unison and were suddenly silenced.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/january-new-home-sales-collapse-most-2009-prices-plunge-2-year-lows
“To be an anarchist and assume responsibility for yourself, I think that’s a great idea” - Ron Paul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoSFarMaBsI
Great. Just reported on Fox News that many people who supported Jeb Bush are now supporting me. I knew that would happen, pundits didn’t!
FRAUDULENT POSTER ALERT
Wait, that’s not really Trump? You’ve lost it man.
Trump and authoritarianism
http://www.vox.com/2016/2/23/11099644/trump-support-authoritarianism
Authoritarianism? Sure sounds like political correctness is more your enemy than Trump. They tell you what is valid to think and speak. Say the wrong thing and you’ll get marched to HR for a pink slip. You better be on the side of the thought police.
Trumps against all that PC stuff. He’ll call a pussy a pussy.
By the way Bill, this is also horseshit. The article says “People who score high on the authoritarian scale value conformity and order, protect social norms, and are wary of outsiders.” What’s wrong with order or social norms? Everyone’s gotta be a freak? This sounds like more of the old PC trick to spread the definition so broadly that you can manipulate the data into some shocking conclusion.
Do you really think the problem with our society is too much order?
You are to shallow to get it. Our society has NO order as long as it has the State. The state disrupts the spontaneous order which you are too blind to see.
I tell you what Hillary, you get me a $600,000 a year job at NBC News that I don’t have to show up for like you got Chelsea and five or six $300,000 a clip 2 hour speeches at public Universities a year and I will recognize my privilege.
By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times - Thursday, November 27, 2014
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton charged $300,000 to speak to students and faculty at University of California Los Angeles in March, even after school officials tried to negotiate the deal.
According to new documents obtained by the Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act, the school asked for a reduced rate for public universities, but Mrs. Clinton’s representatives said that $300,000 was the “special university rate.”
Hillary: White People Need to “Recognize Our Privilege” and “Practice Humility”
Democratic front runner suggests white guilt is necessary to placate ‘Black Lives Matter’
Paul Joseph Watson - February 24, 2016 375 Comments
Hillary Clinton suggested that white guilt was a necessary means of placating the ‘Black Lives Matter’ crowd when she responded to a question by asserting that white people need to “recognize our privilege” and “practice humility”.
During a Facebook Q&A on Monday night, the Democratic front runner was asked by MTV reporter Jamil Smith how she would engage with white voters on the issue of “racial justice” and if she would continue to call upon whites to be “humble and attentive to black concerns”.
“White Americans need to do a better job of listening when African Americans talk about the seen and unseen barriers that you face every day,” Clinton responded.
“We need to recognize our privilege and practice humility, rather than assume that our experiences are everyone’s experiences,” she added.
Update: Dow Craters; Down 200+ Points
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/DJIA
“I wouldn’t support Trump as the nominee” - Ron Paul
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/02/24/ron-paul-i-wouldnt-support-trump-as-gop-nominee.html
I don’t think it matters at this point.
When the HBB was favoring Ron Paul in 2012 but the regulars now favor a fascist, it does matter. It says something, like how I’ll Americans have become: nationalism is a mental disease.
Trump likely doesn’t give a $hit about that either.
Seriously? Selfish how can you give no credit for his being a Republican that says Iraq was a disaster and slamming Bush? That light years from any other R with any realistic chance of winning. Have you moved so far into a cocoon that you just want to be contra to anything?
My point is Trump doesn’t give a crap who on the HBB flipped or changed their mind about anything. Aside from that, I or anyone else here can change their mind. It’s a free country.
Mass insanity is what this blog is about!
If you are not going to vote at all, why should you care if one politician does or does not support another?
Worthless housing. Worthless worthless housing. Housing is worth less and less with each passing day.
“Worthless worthless housing.”
THAT’S IT!
I heard this song a couple of weeks ago and I was trying to figure out why I found myself singing…
Worthless worthless worthless worthless
Neil Young - Helpless - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7rQvJgTQ9U - 225k -
A socialist single word soliloquy.
Helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless helpless……
Now here is a Neil Young song that some may sing 65 months into an 84 month Subprime new car loan.
Subprime loans — betting that new car will last 84 months
Low payments look good but seven years of interest adds up
03/16/2015 | ConsumerAffairs | Subprime Lending
Long May You Run by Neil Young
Songfacts
Neil’s beloved Pontiac hearse, “Mort” (a.k.a. “Mortimer Hearseburg”), was the inspiration for this song. Neil drove “Mort” from Toronto to Los Angeles, where he met Stephen Stills and formed Buffalo Springfield.
Neil was in Canada driving to Sudbury when ‘Mort’ broke down in Blind River, June 1965. (Which is contradictory to the lyrics; “well it was back in Blind River, in 1962, when I last saw you alive”).
Long May You Run - Stills Young Band - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIk1O8l2czk - 188k -
Now here is a Neil Young song that some may sing 65 months into an 84 month Subprime new car loan.
The average car on the road in the USA is 132 months old (11 years).
I do remember the days when a car was ready for the junkyard well before it reached 100K miles.
Until they trade that 3 year old Kia in that had an 84 month loan on it.
Some other reasons that people get upside down on the car loans:
No money down, long loan terms. These popular incentives sound too good to be true…because they are! Cars depreciate 20% almost immediately and lose 50% of their value by the third year. If you don’t put at least 20% down, you’re upside down right away. If you’re still paying for a car that is five or six years old, your payments can’t keep pace with the depreciation.
Roll over loan. If you owe money on your old car, the dealer will often offer to roll that negative equity amount into the loan for a new car. This means you are paying two loans at once – the balance on the old car, plus whatever money you’re financing on the new car. In most cases, that means the total financed already is more than the car is worth and you’re upside down again.
http://www.debt.org/credit/loans/auto/upside-down-car/ - 125k -
Debt Donkey math.
“Debt Donkey math.”
I know a dude who is driving around in a $40k Ford pickup that had a sticker of $27k from this same sh#t.
Just add a zero on the end of the $40 and you got millions of others who did the same thing with a house.
I know a dude who is driving around in a $40k Ford pickup
$40K is probably more than a low end 3rd worlder earns in a lifetime.
VIDEO; Trump Crashes Glenn Beck Speech At Nevada Caucus – Steals His Thunder
It is widely known that Glenn Beck loathes Donald Trump
Jim Hoft | Gateway Pundit - February 24, 2016
Glenn Beck Looks STUNNED After Trump steals his thunder in Las Vegas tonight.
In Iowa Glenn Beck even told Ted Cruz supporters he would support Socialist Bernie Sanders over Donald Trump.
On Monday and Tuesday Glenn Beck was in Nevada campaigning for Ted Cruz.
But revenge is a dish best served cold–
Tonight in Las Vegas Donald Trump CRASHED a Caucus where Glenn Beck was speaking.
Trump stole Beck’s big caucus moment!
The crowd immediately dropped Beck and ran to Trump.
THAT HAD TO HURT—-
Trump storms Glenn Beck’s Cruz event in Nevada and makes …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCEtRKGsGQc - 168k -
He who lives rent-free, owns. Trump is doing a whole lot of rent-free living.
Isn’t religion grand
Comments by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump proposing a ban on Muslims entering the US and by fellow candidate Ben Carson saying a Muslim should not be elected US president have been decried by many as racist and Islamophobic .
But Saba Ahmed , an attorney and the president and founder of the Republican Muslim Coalition , says that while she found them “hurtful”, they would not stop her from urging other American Muslims to vote for the Republican party, and even for Trump.
Ahmed, who lives in the Washington, DC, area, says she left the Democratic party in 2011 because she could not reconcile her own views with what she considers to be the party’s “liberal values” and “incompatibility with Islam”.
Despite what appears to be a firmly anti-Muslim sentiment among some US conservatives and elements of the country’s Christian religious right, Ahmed says she believes that Islamic values are most closely aligned with those of the Republican party and that American Muslims would be better off voting for it.
Al Jazeera: What is it that you think makes - or should make - the Republican party attractive to American Muslims?
Saba Ahmed: The appeal to American Muslims is that Republicans have values - such as [being] pro-life, [in favour of] traditional marriage, business, trade, etc, that align with Islamic beliefs.
Democrats, [on the other hand], espouse liberal values which are incompatible with Islam. I couldn’t support their pro-choice, pro-LGBT
So to sum it up, better to vote for people who would denigrate you and deport you than give up on your hatred of gays and your desire to use gov to force your religious values on others. The sheep shall inherit the sheering.
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/02/saba-ahmed-urging-muslims-vote-republican-160223122816776.html
People that believe any variety of Grey Haired Man In the Sky are not fit for public office.
I have a hunch that we haven’t had one in the White House for decades.
Judging by the actions of our last 4 presidents, they’re adherents to the gospel of Shotgun Jesus, if anything.
WATCH the 60 minute video at the bottom of this article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/new-big-short-australias-housing-bubble-grip-insanity
Home Groans - 60 minutes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_ktN_h7-J4
Bring back the cast iron prison cell; a pink one for Kate Malone.
Reasonable answers for Senate Republicans to give President Barack Obama for his Supreme Court nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia.
NO!
or perhaps
You can eat sh#t and bark at the moon, it ain’t gonna happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRutwOF0T48 - 214k - Cached - Similar pages
2 days ago …
“falling housing prices”
ZIP 80210 will confirm this. CRATER.
This is what happens when you try to clone Karl Rove and something goes wrong:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/24/us/politics/ted-cruz-campaign-manager-jeff-roe.html?_r=0
Warning: The first photo isn’t the worst, scroll down to the second one. But just remember, what has been seen, can’t be unseen.
Fanatical minions of The Greasy Preacher.
Norman Mushari. Pop goes the weasel!
“scroll down to the second one”
That boy is one Egg McMuffin away from popping that button.
Quick question: Has the aggregate net income for all the S&P 500 companies been negative since the second quarter 2015?
I’ve been out of the stock market for years and not bothering with analysis, but when I pulled up a chart of SPY it shows PE ratio is a negative number after September 2015.
“The worst atrocities in history were the result of a very small number of truly nasty people acquiring positions of power, combined with a very LARGE number of AVERAGE people who viewed these few people as AUTHORITY, and so felt obligated to obey their commands. It has always been the law-abiding tax payers who have funded and empowered oppressive regimes. The problem is that most good people have fallen for the lie that when aggression, robbery and control is committed in the name of law, then it is legitimate and moral, even necessary. The belief in authority tricks basically good people into going along with LEGALIZED INJUSTICE.” - Larken Rose
So true.
We are very fortunate here in the US to have a system available to us to throw bums out of office when we do not agree with them, and not have to resort to violence.
Freedom of speech, freedom to vote, freedom to follow our conscience. If you are not willing to protect and exercise these freedoms, you have lost your courage, your moral compass or both.
I really do wonder about Bill and what happened to send him down his rabbit hole. I get the whole voluntaryism thing. I think it is incredibly naive and utopian, but hey fine, I may be totally wrong. I also empathize with his views on gun rights and staying fit. But I get the sense from some of what he posts here that things really blew up for him years ago with the whole marriage/family thing. Maybe it’s been mentioned before and I missed it. I just don’t think personal isolationism is a good idea and I think that’s where it’s trending.
Hint: Harry Browne’s “How I Found Freedom in An Unfree World,” which I read in 1979 or 1980 had a lasting impact on me. I also carefully studied his references and found more books along the line that helped me go down that rabbit hole in 1980.
The rational culmination of collectivism is always the mass grave. Never, ever let the oligarchs disarm you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-SI8RF6wDE
So, new home sales are down.
However, the share of new homes sold that have not been built are near a 10-year high (homes that are being put into contract where construction has not started).
Definitely not overbuilding for-sale housing yet.
With housing demand at 20 year lows and falling and 25 million excess, empty and defaulted houses, there is no for more of them.
It too this long to figure this out?
Click on the url in my name to see Harvard Research that high housing prices are responsible for inequality
So the theory is paying inflated prices for a depreciating asset makes one wealthier? Strange theory considering it makes the end user of a SFR far poorer. Now if you constructing and selling new product, yes, it’s going to earn profit.
In other words, the government should focus more on housing policy and less on taxing the wealthy, if it wants to properly deal with the inequality problem.”
I think this was tried already ? Sub prime ?
POTUS - your move turtle-boy.
(R) nominee????
San Diego, CA Housing Market Craters; Prices Plummet 9% YoY As For Sale Inventory Balloons
http://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca-92130/home-values/
The polls show that I picked up many Jeb Bush supporters. That is how I got to 46%. When others drop out, I will pick up more. Sad but true.
Trump picked up 46% of the Latino vote in Nevada. What could be more nightmarish for the Oligopoly than the spector of all the members of the 99% that the Wall Street-Federal Reserve Looting Syndicate has waged financial warfare against since 1913, be they white, brown, or black, closing ranks to say “Enough!” to the oligarchy and its Republicrat hirelings?
http://www.businessinsider.com/unstoppable-trump-is-gops-worst-nightmare-2016-2
Detroit teachers are reaping what they sowed by voting en bloc for corrupt, incompetent Democrat administrations (redundant, I realize). Their rage is going to be epic when they realized the swindlers they voted for, swindled them just like everyone else. Bwahahahaahhaaa!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-24/detroit-teachers-face-payless-paydays-dilapidated-school-district-faces-financial-re
China warns us to keep bending over for their currency manipulation, or else….
http://freebeacon.com/politics/china-warns-u-s-after-trump-wins-nevada-caucus/
Forty-five percent of ‘Muricans pay no tax, but are quite okay with voting themselves endless benefits that someone else will have to pay for. Forward! Our glorious permanent Democrat supermajority awaits!
http://nypost.com/2016/02/24/45-percent-of-americans-pay-no-federal-income-tax/
“Forty-five percent of ‘Muricans pay no tax”
Well that right there is completely false. No IRS tax maybe. However, anyone with a job pays payroll taxes to the Feds. Anyone who buys stuff pays sales tax and hidden excise taxes, and the stuff they are buying is made more expensive by taxes and duties along the way. Everyone lives in housing that is taxed.
Oh, the joys of multiculturalism!
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/24/child-sex-abuse-rotherham-guilty-gang-hussain
The subprime auto loan meltdown is here. Ante up, taxpayers.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-subprime-auto-loan-meltdown-is-here
Great comments in that piece!
The timing is right for us as we need to update our household auto fleet soon. Any suggestions for picking up used cars in foreclosure on the cheap?
Once the DNC has its permanent Democrat supermajority in another year or two, we, too, will be a collectivist nightmare like Venezuela.
https://projectchesapeake.wordpress.com/2016/02/13/venezuela-could-be-the-future-of-western-civilization/
For the thinking 5% trapped among the zombies, this will resonate.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/02/22/no-way-out/#more-115142
This part I like, zombies = “They feed off the public welfare system, incapable or unwilling to work for a living.”
Too long and elitist an article though.
A preview of coming attractions for our permanent Democrat supermajority collectivist utopia. Forward!
http://caracaschronicles.com/2014/02/20/the-game-changed/
http://www.salon.com/2016/02/24/robert_reich_2016_is_the_beginning_of_the_end_of_the_establishment_partner/
The establishment is having conniptions. They call Trump whacky and Sanders irresponsible. They charge that Trump’s isolationism and Bernie’s ambitious government programs will stymie economic growth.
The establishment doesn’t get that most Americans couldn’t care less about economic growth because for years they’ve got few of its benefits, while suffering most of its burdens in the forms of lost jobs and lower wages.
Most people are more concerned about economic security and a fair chance to make it.
The establishment doesn’t see what’s happening because it has cut itself off from the lives of most Americans. It also doesn’t wish to understand, because that would mean acknowledging its role in bringing all this on.
Yet regardless of the political fates of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, the rebellion against the establishment will continue.
Eventually, those with significant economic and political power in America will have to either commit to fundamental reform, or relinquish their power.
We can only hope this is true, the other action is to follow oligarchs of the past and drive up nationalism and try to divide us further. Gut what’s left of the middle class so they can control the gov more fully.
Have China stocks FINALLY stopped cratering?
MarketWatch dot com
China stocks dive in run-up to G20 meeting
By Chao Deng
Published: Feb 24, 2016 11:25 p.m. ET
Talk in Japan of further monetary stimulus if Nikkei breaks 16000
Reuters
A staff member walks through the venue of the upcoming G20 meeting in Shanghai, China, on Thursday.
Stocks in China fell sharply Thursday amid persistent worries about the health of the Chinese economy, just as global leaders prepare to meet tomorrow in Shanghai for the Group of 20 meeting.
The Shanghai Composite Index (SHCOMP, -3.36%) slid during Thursday morning’s trading session, last off 3.6% at 2823.06. Stocks in military defense, construction and computer manufacturing slumped on profit-taking, said analysts.
The Shenzhen Composite Index (399106, -4.32%) dropped 4.76% and China’s Nasdaq-style ChiNext board was down 5℅.
…
Chinese “retail investors haven’t recovered from the stock market disaster early this year while institutions are incentivized to take profits once market recovers a bit,” said Zhang Xin, an analyst at Guotai Junan Securities. Transactions in Shanghai and Shenzhen fell below 600 billion yuan on Wednesday to 579.6 billion yuan, indicating low risk appetite.
The steep fall in Shanghai comes after the benchmark surged late in the session Wednesday. Investors had been watching for Beijing to unveil pilot programs aimed at improving state-owned enterprises.
…
soon