Bits Bucket for March 4, 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
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Rent free
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-03 23:24:41
It’s hard to imagine evangelicals voting for a candidate who uses R-rated language on. the campaign trail.
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-04 00:04:59
It seems like the establishment Republicans completely missed the boat on stopping Trump. Now they are stuck with a candidate who is an abusive bully and doesn’t give a flying f_ck if traditional Republicans take offense.
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-04 00:06:51
Is Trump homophobic?
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-04 00:11:28
Is there at least some chance that if Trump wins the Republican nomination, many of the top Republicans in the country will openly urge their constituents to vote Democrat?
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-04 00:16:20
Is Trump not only a fraud, but also a threat to democracy itself?
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-04 00:17:41
Frankly, Trump mainly strikes me as a gasbag. I don’t mean to suggest that wouldn’t change drastically if America makes the mistake of putting him into the Oval Office.
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-04 00:22:19
Is Trump a white supremacist or isn’t he? I can’t tell by the way he answered questions about David Duke.
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-04 00:46:24
Is “Trump University” a real university?
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Comment by Professor Bear
2016-03-04 00:55:49
The Iowa Electronic Markets spread in favor of a Democrat win in November keeps getting wider and wider, especially now that the Republican Party is engaged in outright civil war.
What I find most interesting is the neocons storming into the Clinton camp (where they’ve been for years). Again I’ll ask, liberals and progressives, is this how you roll?
The whole system of Extortion, Graft, Bribes, Prostitution, Homosexuality, Adultery, Nepotism, Eugenics,Cronyism and Globalism must band together to save themselves from the voters.
People may die.
“I Am Really Good At Killing People”
– obama, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize winner
“Waterboarding and worse”
-Trump
Yep.
———–
“This country’s made a lot of mistakes and the war in Iraq was one of them. We got into a war, we have destabilised the entire Middle East.”
– Donald Trump
———-
“In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including Al Qaeda members, though there is apparently no evidence of his involvement in the terrible events of September 11, 2001. It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well affects American security.” — Hillary Clinton, October 10, 2002
The Iraq Resolution or the Iraq War Resolution (formally the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, enacted October 16, 2002.
Those voting for the resolution were:
- Clinton, Hillary (D-NY)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_Resolution
“Again I’ll ask, liberals and progressives, is this how you roll?”
I can’t answer for folks who identify with these convenient labels, because my views don’t fit them. Like Bill in LA, I’m a voter without representation in the current political war zone.
Incredulous.
Same here.
Anyone who thinks Trump is anti war is a dam fool. Trump is only against wars other tyrants start, not wars he will start.
For the life of me, I cannot believe the same people who are smug to avoid the real estate bubble cannot see the Trump bubble. Trump is no less a tyrant than Obama and Bush and Clinton.
You don’t have a say in the election.
“Trump is no less a tyrant than Obama and Bush and Clinton.”
Possibly worse
Trump seems to be big on the protectionist side, talking about trade deficits with Mexico and China. Perhaps one of the things that he realizes is that if the middle class is continued to get hollowed out it will hurt the value of his assets?
Never trust real estate people, but it’s odd to see someone on the political stage bringing up NAFTA and unbalanced trade being bad for the US. I can’t imagine what large corporate boardroom discussions are like right now.
“You don’t have a say in the emplection”
I SURE AS HELL DO.
“Brothers from another mother.”
I’m beginning to doubt this.
Try Bernie. A torture-free, anti-war, soft-spoken agent of change.
Who is such a p*ssy that he meekly surrenders his microphone to ratchets from BLM who disrupt his appearances.
Yeah, the dictators of the world will respect that kind of toughness.
I had a vision of the BLM sending in one of their SWAT teams to make demands, then realized you were talking about those other BLM people.
Trump would have run away and let his bodyguards take care of the BLM girls. Because those girls would have kicked his fat white butt.
Would’ve been fun to watch.
Ben, I commented on this the other day.
There was an article that said something to the effect of “the Democratic Party rethinking their views on war and peace.” The author was clearly painting the Dems as all blindly following Clinton. That is, if Clinton went warmonger, then all the Dems would go warmonger too.
Of course, this is patent nonsense. If the neocons storm into the Clinton camp (and Clinton accepts them), then that’s simply Clinton herself leaving the Democratic tent and pitching a new tent of her own. The Dem tent will *not* move, or expand, to include a warmonger. That much is plain.
Look how many votes she’s already lost to Sanders just on account of her Wall Street/corruption issues. If you add a warmongering plank to her platform, she’ll lose many more — to Jill Stein (Green Party) or to a write-in, or even to Trump.
So the short answer is no, that’s not how liberals and progressive roll. They will roll another way.
Tent don’t pitch with Hillary.
“Of course, this is patent nonsense. If the neocons storm into the Clinton camp (and Clinton accepts them), then that’s simply Clinton herself leaving the Democratic tent and pitching a new tent of her own. The Dem tent will *not* move, or expand, to include a warmonger. That much is plain.”
Oxide, Clinton IS a neocon.
‘If the neocons storm into the Clinton camp (and Clinton accepts them), then that’s simply Clinton herself leaving the Democratic tent’
She’s been appointing neocons and starting wars for years. Libya, Syria? Remember the huge anti-war demonstrations against Bush? Where are those people now? The outrage against warrant-less wiretapping? Gone, even though the wiretapping is now on a scale that would make the Stasi blush.
Face it. The Democrats are just as guilty as the people who defended Bush all those years. The blood is on the hands of anyone who ever voted for a Clinton or a Bush.
The only thing that’s curious now is, with the neocons openly embracing Clinton, why can’t you see what a monster she and Obama have been all along?
“Where are those people now?”
Lining up behind Sanders.
Trump (or any other GOP candidate other than Rand) and Clinton show that there are people on both sides of the left/right spectrum who will support a pro-war candidate, even if they themselves are anti-war, if it suits their overall politics.
Bear with me on this:
I was listening to the Econtalk podcast the other day, and the conversation turned to having economic-based conversations with people who are non-economic thinkers.
The topic related to wages. When the non-economic thinkers were confronted with the very real issue that higher minimum wages need to come from somewhere (lower profits, higher prices, fewer employees, etc.), there were two reactions that those in the conversation got from the non-economists:
1. “I don’t like to think about the world that way.” and
2. “I don’t need to listen to this (person got up and walked away)”.
People who are entrenched with their “team” are precisely the same. When confronted with reality about their “team”, they plug their ears and go “la la la”.
I had this happen with someone who is VERY intelligent, and VERY critical of all sorts of details about absurd things that GOP politicians say and do.
When I started asking her what she thought about the Hillary e-mail server, her response was “I don’t know much about it.” (why would she research something that might make her think differently about her superstar?).
She did agree though that the likely reason for the server was not incompetence on behalf of HRC, but that HRC, knowing what scrutiny is leveled in a presidential election, wanted to control the content of her SoS communications.
However, when I pointed out that this would mean that HRC put her own political aspirations ahead of the security of US secrets (and thus US lives), which was a deal killer for me, in went the fingers into ears “la la la”.
Libya and Syria prove she already is a neocon, and so is Obama.
“We came, we saw…he died”.
BWaHaaaaHaaaa………
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y
My facebook friends got their panties in a twist yesterday when I called Hillary a war criminal, LOLZ.
Hillaryous is unelectable.
Well she is a war criminal. But that does not mean one must vote for tyrant Trump.
What I find most interesting is the neocons storming into the Clinton camp (where they’ve been for years). Again I’ll ask, liberals and progressives, is this how you roll?
I’m guessing that Sanders supporters would insist that Hillary isn’t a progressive.
This could be an “interesting” election. Some Neocons voting for Hillary and some Sanders supporters either voting for Trump or staying home on election day.
Also, wiil Religious Right voters vote for Trump, or will they stay home too? There’s no way they will vote for Hillary.
How come it is automatically assumed that if one hates Trump then one must love Sanders or Clinton or any of the other sociopaths who want to be president? What type of logic is that?
I told one of my FB peeps yesterday I’d rather “throw my vote away” voting for Gary Johnson than vote to throw the country away by supporting Hillary, LOLZ.
“I’d rather “throw my vote away” voting for Gary Johnson”
That’s where I’m heading unless Sanders somehow gets the nom.
How come it is automatically assumed that if one hates Trump then one must love Sanders or Clinton or any of the other sociopaths who want to be president? What type of logic is that?
I did say “some voters”, not “all voters”. I even said “some might stay home”.
Bill, to sincerely answer your question, the assumption comes out of the two-party winner-take-all system. Here are the two modern examples:
In 1992, Ross Perot played spoiler for the Republican side, giving them Bill Clinton.
In 2000, Ralph Nader played spoiler for the Democratic side, giving them George W. Bush.
Lesson learned: It became automatically assumed that you should VOTE for your party’s candidate as the lesser of two evils. It is *not* automatically assumed that you have to “love” the candidate. You only had to hold your nose and vote for them.
But this year, things are changing. All the party candidates are so foul-smelling that no amount of nose-holding is going to work. That’s an argument for Trump, e.g.: “Well, no one’s good, heck, no one is even less evil. If things are going into the crapper anyway, I may as well vote for Trump just to stick it to the big donors who bought the people who outsourced my job.”
“What I find most interesting is the neocons storming into the Clinton camp (where they’ve been for years). Again I’ll ask, liberals and progressives, is this how you roll?”
NeoCons = Progressives
Ben, I know that bromide is tired - I’m tired of it, too. Unfortunately, it’s fairly accurate.
en, I know that bromide is tired - I’m tired of it, too.
Then why don’t you give it a rest?
It’s not fairly accurate. It’s patently inaccurate.
A single former progressive switching (or revealing) over to the neocon side does NOT mean that all progressives are neocons. The anti-war progressives disavow the pretender and move on. They’ve been doing that ever since they figured out what Hillary really was.
No, it isn’t patently inaccurate. You just don’t like it.
Both are against liberty for individuals.
you can not put party labels on most smart voters these days. no longer does one size fit all.
I cant stand the Cheney side of the GOP, but i like Rand Paul. Bernie is good, Hillary is bad.
The lone wolf.
And pretty much no one was feeding the bear yesterday, especially because there was a good discussion of muggy’s housing deal. Still he’s obsessed and not able to control himself.
I wonder, faced with our current political climate, who the founding fathers would choose, Trump or Hillary? I know the loons try to paint Trump as a dictator in waiting. But does any one think Hillary is going to do anything but expand government full throttle and expand executive order authority massively?
Dictators don’t propose health plans that give control back to the states like Trumps health care plan does through Medicaird block grants.
I wonder, faced with our current political climate, who the founding fathers would choose, Trump or Hillary?
That’s a very odd question. I’d like to meet people who would ponder such a question in order to make their own choice.
Of course, the obvious point can be made that those guys back 200 and something years ago wouldn’t think that a woman should be president.
So Trump! Seriously, that SJW point of view never crossed my mind. I think they’d be able to put that aside when faced with the current realities.
They’d vote for Bernie.
Except maybe Jefferson, who’d be worried about his slaves.
Seriously, that SJW point of view never crossed my mind. I think they’d be able to put that aside when faced with the current realities.
You just love that acronym, don’t you? It doesn’t matter how useless. It’s an interesting theory. If we could dig up and re-animate the founding fathers, they would adapt modern attitudes regarding women, but hold fast to their small government, “anti-government” attitudes.
You are the one who seems obsessed with attacking me. What is it about my posts that makes you feel compelled to summarize them?
(And thanks for the effort…I’m sincerely flattered…)
Maybe it’s the flailing.
I’ve told you repeatedly that’s not me. I’ve not posted for days to allow you to regain balance. Your paranoid delusions cause me to vacillate between hilarity and pity. But at least you’ve been exposed as the partisan hack windbag lying spammer that you are. So you got that going for you, which is nice.
Got delusions of grandeur?
Yea but the important thing is PB is dead spot on about housing.
Trump also has said he plans to audit the Fed.
That’s hardly what a dictator does, either.
A dictator would absolutely want to audit, and control, the Fed.
‘A U.S. watchdog agency is preparing to investigate whether the Federal Reserve and other regulators are too soft on the banks they are meant to police, after a written request from Democratic lawmakers that marks the latest sign of distrust between Congress and the central bank.’
‘Ranking representatives Maxine Waters of the House Financial Services Committee and Al Green of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations asked the Government Accountability Office on Oct. 8 to launch the “evaluation of regulatory capture” and to focus on the New York Fed, according to a letter obtained by Reuters.’
‘In an interview, the GAO said it has begun planning its approach.’
‘Such perceptions have dogged the U.S. central bank since it failed to head off the 2007-2009 financial crisis. The Fed’s biggest critics have since been Republicans looking to curb its policy independence, but the request by Democrats could cool its somewhat warmer relationship with the left.’
“We currently do have some ongoing work looking at the concept known as regulatory capture. We’re in initial stages of outlining that engagement,” Lawrance Evans, director of the GAO’s financial markets and community investment division, said in an interview.’
‘The New York Fed, which acts as the central bank’s eyes and ears on Wall Street, has come under fire for a series of oversights and perceived conflicts of interest in recent years. That prompted a congressional hearing in late 2014 in which Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren warned New York Fed President William Dudley to fix his institution’s “cultural problem.”
‘In their letter, Waters and Green said they are particularly concerned about the New York Fed and reports of a “revolving door” between it and banks and “a reluctance to challenge” the firms. They want the GAO to use New York Fed actions between January 2008 and January 2015 as a “case study” for the broader investigation.’
The Fed’s biggest critics have since been Republicans looking to curb its policy independence, but the request by Democrats could cool its somewhat warmer relationship with the left.’
Oh please. Both wings of the Republicrat duopoly are prison bitches of the Wall Street-Federal Reserve Looting Syndicate.
They would write in Ron Paul.
Thanks for the great summary of the issues I have recently raised about Trump.
P.S. “Rent free”
I notice that angry old white men repeat themselves alot.
P.P.S. If anyone is interested in the news articles from internationally reputable sources that I linked to the leaders above, please look for them in yesterday’s bits bucket.
And I’m happy Yuuuge has finally come around to helping me provide factual information about the candidates, instead of merely launching repeated ad hominem attacks in me.
internationally reputable sources
http://www.infowars.com/feinstein-youre-not-a-real-journalist-unless-you-draw-a-salary/
You’re like that guy Lola pointed to, riding by the same webcam everyday.
That was one of your lamer attempts to attack me. Nice try, though.
Has Trump started a War on Decency?
Philly dot com
News — Opinion
Support Trump or decency?
Updated: March 2, 2016 — 3:01 AM EST
Camera icon ETHAN MILLER / Getty Images
Donald Trump in Las Vegas on Feb. 23.
by Dana Milbank .
Here, Republicans, is how your party’s likely nominee, Donald Trump, spends his Sunday morning.
At 6:13 a.m., he retweets a quote by the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” When confronted later with its provenance, Trump says: “What difference does it make whether it’s Mussolini or somebody else? It’s certainly a very interesting quote.”
At 9:08 a.m., he is on CNN, where he repeatedly declines to disavow the support he has been getting from white supremacists and the Ku Klux Klan, saying he would need to “do research” before taking a position on hate groups’ support for him.
At 9:14 a.m., he is seen on NBC stations telling Meet the Press host Chuck Todd that a judge in a case against Trump may need to be removed - because the judge is Hispanic. The judge can’t be fair to Trump “because of the wall and because of everything that’s going on with Mexico and all of that,” the candidate says.
By late morning, Stuart Stevens, who was a top adviser to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012, had heard enough. “It’s becoming obvious that supporting or not supporting [Trump] isn’t a political choice,” he tweeted. “It’s a moral choice. The man is evil.”
…
He’s making these comments with the deliberate strategy of stuffing the SJW hypocrisy and ending PC phony outrage. And it’s working. It’s the only effective strike back I’ve seen happening in many years, so if a few outrageous (but funny) comments gotta be made, oh well. These same hypocrites defend the worst kind of cultural poisoning trash being pimped by their entertainment industry donors and buddies. All phony outrage that only makes him stronger.
Your compulsive tendency to serve up lame kneejerk responses to all of my posts could be a symptom of serious mental issues. I suggest you consult your psychiatrist immediately to make sure you have the right balance of meds.
He’s making these comments with the deliberate strategy of stuffing the SJW hypocrisy and ending PC phony outrage.
That’s an odd description. Is everyone who expresses bigoted sentiments doing the same thing?
Someone on a news site made a very astute comment: Reince Priebus must be working the phones and calling in decades worth of favors to rally the conservative punditry and old guard to crawl out of their holes to rally against Trump. Who’s next, Bob Dole?
A Reagan hologram.
Did somebody say Long Hot Summer? LOLZ
“Cleveland is seeking to buy 2,000 sets of riot gear, including riot-control suits and collapsible batons, as part of the city’s latest move to spend a $50 million federal security grant for July’s Republican National Convention.”
http://www.cleveland.com/rnc-2016/index.ssf/2016/03/cleveland_seeking_to_buy_riot.html
They got free money and they’re spending it on toys that they like.
Let’s play a little game.
Tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter, La Raza, SJWs, Tea Party, and white supremacists, some of them armed, all convene on the streets of Cleveland, facing off against each other and 2,000 trigger happy riot police.
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
An then the GOP nominates Little Marco in a brokered convention.
And then the GOP nominates Little Marco in a brokered convention.
“spending it on toys that they like…”
… and can use over and over again. Never forget that.
They’re gonna need it.
Recent TV news from CLEauthorities began investigating “several” shootings after being called to the area of the 14700 block of Euclid Avenue for a report of shots fired in the area at around 10:30 p.m…the victim could not be located, and authorities said he sought medical attention himself.
Officers located a traveling vehicle that they said was connected to the shots fired, and … learned the vehicle was stolen out of Cleveland and arrested the male suspect in that shooting incident.
Shortly after, at around 11 p.m., officers were called to the same area regarding shots fired. When police arrived on scene, they found an unresponsive man … Police said they do not have any suspects in the second shooting at this time. Authorities have not said if the shooting incidents are believed to be related.
But the violence didn’t stop there.
Police responded to a third shooting around 2 a.m. Sunday...
Tens of thousands of Black Lives Matter, La Raza, SJWs, Tea Party, and white supremacists, some of them armed had better be ready to shoot it out with tens of thousands of local yoof who are also armed.
Up since 3:30 again!
I’m in full meltdown mode… questioning why I moved to FL and why I chose the career I did. I’m going to give it a day or two, but I might be asking the wife unit to consider relocating.
At a certain point I have to acknowledge the pattern. We’ve never been able to pull ahead here in FL, and the main culprit is housing.
“the wife unit”
Lol.
I don’t understand it. From your post yesterday, you seemed to have a very good setup. Why the meltdown? Fear of change or commitment buying a house?
Look, the grass ain’t greener. You make your life, you make your choices. Most wrong ones can be undone with enough elbow grease anyway. The Internet is also a terrible place to get advice because you got a mostly anonymous crew whose credibility and wisdom you really can’t judge.
http://youtu.be/7nqcgUDoV_M
“Look, the grass ain’t greener.”
The grass is greener on the graves of former home owners who died young while trying to make good on their death pledges.
No matter where you go, there you are.
Hilaries trade policy is more lp.org than Donalds
The Clintons are power mad hillbillies. He’s Bill. She’s Hill. Together, Hillbillies. They’d make us more of a laughing stock by far than Trump ever could.
I guess it’s a choice between veiled references to fellatio and other R-rated topics in Presidential speeches, or news stories about such actual behaviors by the WH occupant.
Both seem pretty embarrassing.
Your anti-Trump posts are getting tedious and boring, PB.
Well, Ray, I can’t say that I find your daily pimping for Trump highly enlightening.
I don’t pimp for Trump. I lay out the simple choice: Trump or Goldman Sachs. Choose your poison.
What is the rent vs 15 mort ratio?
What county?
Fl is attracting retirees again and zillow shows some counties predicted positive.
You can get good advise in the BBC ,but u need to offer some numbers.
Poor donks.
Please do not move to Colorado, you’ll hate it here!
Muggy’s one of the good guys, Goon. I’d welcome him and his family.
Yes, and I would be sorry to see him leave Florida, but I’d understand it. I’ve considered leaving myself, but right now I’ve got a pretty sweet deal here.
If he wants to move here and buy a $750,000 starter home in a school district full of Mexican gangbangers, then yeah, he should move here.
There’s a Colorado outside of Denver, my friend. Although the Denverites keep voting for Bolshevik jackass Democrats who pander to the gun-grabbers and free sh*tters.
The suburbs (Boulder excluded) are cheaper and relatively gang banger free compared to central Denver (which the skinny jean hipsters are welcome to keep).
I’m going back st augustine in may to check out retirement homes! After 60 years in southern california, i just want to find a parking spot, a quiet home and some sunsets!
But I didn’t earn it so i’ll need a tax haven!
Part of me wishes I could live in Key Largo FL
Until the hurricane hits, that is.
But US News and World Report says Denver rates No.1 (Austin No. 2) as the place to live! Speaks volumes about the political mindset of USNWR and their “evaluators”.
Denver is an urban playground for rich white people.
All the Bernie Sanders supporters I know here don’t really interact with the underclass of brown poors that make their lifestyles of consumption and convenience possible.
“Please do not move to Colorado”
The song says go to Tennessee.
Dave Loggins - Please Come To Boston - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjraHR9yeAI - 233k -
and the main culprit is housing.
If you are moving…
Housing is pretty reasonable in FL compared to other major housing markets.
And it is downright cheap compared to east/west coast cities.
FL is in a another bubble. And it will pop. The only question is when.
“the wife unit”
A friend I grew up with in Connecticut used to call his wife “the entertainment center”.
That’s beautiful. I’m co-opting that starting today.
Sometimes people get paralysis by analysis…sounds like you’re over thinking it. I’d go back and look at the factors you listed yesterday, below market, family, school, etc. Probability is in 6 months you’ll regret not pulling the trigger and you’ll have all the same issues.
Remember the starsky and hutch move with Ben stiller and Owen wilson? When stiller is telling the bad guys ‘just do it, just do it’ in the ny wop tone of voice? That’s what you should be telling yourself now…
“just do it”
You are not the one who has to pay the consequences.
“If you have to borrow for 20 or 30 years to pay for something, you cannot afford it.”
“Sometimes people get paralysis by analysis…sounds like you’re over thinking it. I’d go back and look at the factors you listed yesterday, below market, family, school, etc. Probability is in 6 months you’ll regret not pulling the trigger and you’ll have all the same issues.”
“below market”? Are you sure?
“regret not pulling the trigger”
And prices sink 45% over the next 18 months, then what? Are you going to cover his losses?
Buy that jank, pay down the principal a bit then if you get bored put it under property management and rent it out!
Rinse, repeat.
You should see how much money my landlord has made
Of course, if the market goes south I bet he could just flee back to India and skip out on all the loans.
Problem with that is he’d be in a negative cashflow situation.
“sounds like you’re over thinking it.”
It’s a tough decision to not overthink.
If the house was built in the sixties and it is still a good neighborhood it will more than likely remain a good neighborhood. That’s a big plus.
If the house was built in the sixties there are things like plumbing and hurricane insurance being higher on houses built before 2000 whatever codes that you will probably have to deal with. That would be a minus.
It sucks that you have to go through a mind torturing decision over giving your family a decent place to live and the potential benefits or consequences that come from it.
I can tell you what I did but the jury is still out because the house is not paid off, the market is still being manipulated and I’m not dead yet.
From 2005 through 2011 we looked for a house in Jupiter Fl. that was in a decent neighborhood, CBS construction, had a hip roof, fenced yard (for Dozzer RIP) city water, no HOA, and reasonable price that I could realistically afford.
I found it, it was a Fannie foreclosure. I put in a bid $5k below the $170k asking price. I didn’t get it.
About a year later I found it again on the same street, same thing, virtually same house they were asking $20k more. It had upgrades (crown molding throughout, better lot, landscaping etc.) I put in a bid of $1k over asking (against the advise of the listing Realtor because she said don’t bother she already had a solid buyer and 2 backups) and I got it (pissed her off she had to split the commission with the Realtor I used to put in the long @ss complicated Fannie bid).
I have paid about $400 a month less than I did for rent for going on 4 years.
The house would cost $300k today and I would not buy it. It would cost over $2k to rent and I would not want to rent it.
If the value dropped to $150k next week I would still be OK with me decision to buy at $190k almost 4 years ago.
Muggy., you’re a smart guy with a good stable job and by all accounts a good father who wants to do right by his wife and kids. You know the market over there and you know the neighborhoods. Use your best judgement and make your decision on that.
Here is some plumbing stuff to look at.
Your plumbing lifespan
Supply pipes (under constant pressure and therefore most likely to cause water damage when they leak)
Copper 50+ yrs
Drain lines
Cast iron 75-100 yrs (from what I have seen not that long in Fl.)
Polyvinyl chloride (known as PVC) Indefinitely
Read more: http://www.houselogic.com/home-advice/plumbing/types-plumbing-pipes-and-their-lifespans/#ixzz41wZfqqXn
Follow us: @HouseLogic on Twitter | HouseLogic on Facebook
Naples Florida Cast Iron Drain Relined to Fix Cracked Pipe Without …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd4VjJ-0g40 - 171k - Cached - Similar pages
Nov 17, 2012
The DVW line is the owners problem.
Get a big fat quote from a site contractor and after you’re done throttling the price of the shack down, reduce the price by the amount of the quote and any other punch list or defect items.
Then come back to me and I’ll tell you how to replace it for the price of a pigtail and operator for four hours and a stick of SDR.
Don’t grovel to a seller. He needs you more than you need him. If you’re not ready to walk and never look back, do not enter into discussions with seller as they will detect it that weakness.
Personally, with the way prices are cratering in FL, I wouldn’t be doing anything right now.
Fernco Couplings ?
‘Get a big fat quote from a site contractor and after you’re done throttling the price of the shack down, reduce the price by the amount of the quote and any other punch list or defect items.”
yep
You should also consider a 1 year home warranty and have the seller buy it for you.
That’s what I did and put it to good use also.
I doubt sanitary code would allow a buried fernco. Some municipalities prohibit No-Hub joined cast iron buried unless encased.
” questioning why I moved to FL ”
So much for never needing an exit plan.
Muggy, it’s good that good that you have all this angst before signing what is the biggest purchase to date.
From my prospective job security and family support are the two big issues looming overhead. If you move at this time (i.e. relocate to another state, etc) which one of you will have the easiest time finding the more stable employment? How long would that job last in this topsy-turvy economic environment? What would be the relocation costs? What would be the non-tax benefits (i.e. medical, vacation,etc)? What would be the new move in rental costs (when we first moved into a rental in Salinas in 2004 it was $5200 up front)? The good news was that the rent for us remained constant for 8 years but not for those after we moved. You and your wife both work. What support do you have for when your children are sick, or kids are off for teacher leave days, date nights, etc (you would have to build a trusted network if you move and that can be very hard)?
Keep thinking of moving in the future when the economy gets back to some norm but in the meantime it sounds like you are more secure with jobs and family for now just where you are.
“Keep thinking of moving in the future when the economy gets back to some norm but in the meantime it sounds like you are more secure with jobs and family for now just where you are.”
yep sounds like good advice to me.
I’m in full meltdown mode”
You are freaking yourself out its just a house. It will cost more to move the family across country than what you “may lose” on a house.
How much to replace the Sewer Drainline? Have the owner discount that from the price of the house, then get it fixed.
A big trench from the house to the street a good plumber will replace the whole thing that’s what they do.
my 2 cents not really seeing the situation close up.
Get used to losing sleep night after night if you plan to sign a death pledge.
Nothing is more of a death pledge than receiving an 8% rent hike when you’re 70.
Paying an extra half a million over 25 years to avoid a $30 expense 30 years from now doesn’t pencil out very well.
Rents don’t go up by 8% in a post-credit mania distopia.
Where I’m at, I’ve been looking for similar places to mine in case landlord goes bonkers with a rent increase. There are a *FEW* but for the most part people are trying to push the rents up about $200/mo from where they were 2 years ago ($2400/2500mo.)
If I have enough time I might look into living (illegally?) in commercial space again. I’d rather live in a high ceiling cavernous office space
Yet renting is still half the cost of buying at any time in the last 15 years.
Anecdotal for you: yesterday afternoon I was standing in the driveway outside of my apartment building smoking a cigar, and the dude next door is walking around on the roof of his house with some repair guy. They climb down the ladder into the front yard and I overhear him being told that the estimate to get his roof fixed is fifteen thousand dollars.
Ouch! Muggy, you had better put your family vacation plans on hold for the next three decades so you can set aside enough savings to cover future home repair costs.
Our landlords graciously pick up the tab for us every time a major home repair need arises.
home equity loans are coming back strong. my wine rack is looking bare again. Time to hop in the chevy for a trip to wine country.
If you paid your mortgage off, it means you probably did not manage your funds efficiently over the years. It’s as if you had 500,000 dollar bills stuffed in your mattress.
makes a lot of sense to me.
Have u noticed the central banker noise was a lot quieter this week since the markets have been going up?
Those of us involved in the real estate profession find ourselves in the awkward position of favoring price softening. REALTORS® are asking (pleading) sellers to accept market realities and reduce their listing price. And it is important to remember that the true measure of health in a nation’s housing markets is sales growth, not price appreciation.
how many people do u think are still living rent free from the last housing bust?
‘Yes, as a libertarian I shudder at the prospect of a man on a white horse heading for the White House, as Donald Trump surely is. His rank demoguery and poisonous rhetoric about immigrants, Muslims, refugees, women, domestic victims of police repression and the spy state and countless more are flat-out contemptible. And the idea of building a horizontal version of Trump Towers on the Rio Grande is just plain nuts.’
‘But here’s the thing. While spending a lifetime as a real estate speculator and self-created celebrity, The Donald apparently did not have time to get mis-educated by the Council On Foreign Relations or to hob knob with the GOP inner circle in Washington and the special interest group racketeers they coddle.’
‘So even as The Donald’s election would bring on a thundering financial crash on Wall Street and political upheaval in Washington—–the truth is that’s going to happen anyway. Look at the hideous mess that US policy has created in Syria or the incendiary corner into which the Fed has backed itself or the fiscal projections that show we will be back into trillion dollar annual deficits as the recession already underway reaches full force. The jig is well and truly up.’
‘But a nation tumbling into financial and fiscal crisis will welcome the War Party purge that Trump would surely undertake. He didn’t allow the self-serving busy-bodies and fools who inhabit the Council on Foreign Relations to dupe him into believing that Putin is a horrible threat; or that the real estate on the eastern edge of the non-state of the Ukraine, which has always been either a de jure or de facto part of Russia, was any of our business. Likewise, he has gotten it totally right with respect to the sectarian and tribal wars of Syria and Iraq and Hillary’s feckless destruction of a stable regime in Libya.’
‘Even his bombast about Obama’s “bad deal” with Iran doesn’t go much beyond Trump’s ridiculous claim that they are getting a $150 billion reward. In fact, it was their money; we stole it, and by the time of the next election they will have it released anyway.’
‘Besides, unlike the boy Senator from Florida who wants to be President so he can play with guns, tanks, ships and bombs, The Donald has indicated no intention of tearing up the agreement on day one in office.’
‘Most importantly, The Donald has essentially proclaimed the obvious. Namely, that the cold war is over and that the American taxpayers have no business subsidizing obsolete relics like NATO and ground forces in South Korea and Japan.’
‘At the end of the day, the reason that the neocons are apoplectic is that Trump would restore the 1991 status quo ante. The nation’s self-proclaimed greatest deal-maker might even take a leaf out of Warren G. Harding’s playbook and negotiate sweeping disarmament agreements in a world where governments everywhere are on the verge of fiscal bankruptcy.’
‘He might also come down with wrathful indignation on the Fed if its dares push toward the criminal zone of negative interest rates. As far as I know, The Donald was never mis-educated by the Keynesian swells at Brookings, either. No plain old businessman would ever fall for the sophistry and crank monetary theories that are now ascendant in the Eccles Building.’
‘When it comes to the nation’s current economic wreckers-in-chief, Janet Yellen and Stanley Fischer, he might even dust off on day one the skills he honed during his ten year stint on the Apprentice.’
‘Indeed, the sound of “your fired!” in that context would echo with high approbation down the pages of history. Worse things could surely happen.’
Nooses for neocons, please!
Compared to Hillary - Trump is libertarian.
Trump calls the war in Iraq a mistake. Hillary supported and voted for it.
Trump has an excellent plan to reform health care that any libertarian would love. Hillary wants to expand obamacare.
Trump carries a gun and respects the 2nd Amendment. Hillary wants to ban certain guns and enact a plethora of more gun control.
And I could go on…
Wasn’t Trump initially in support of the Iraq War? I don’t know where his views were when the voting took place, but no matter — he wasn’t in elective office anyway at the time.
All you care about is skin color group racial identity SJW politics. You don’t care about the war stuff. Trump, as REPUBLICAN, denounced the war as built on lies.
Didn’t Trump initially support the Iraq War? (I know I am repeating myself, but angry old white men are often hard of hearing.)
P.S. Last time I checked, the Republican Party was crafting a plan to fire The Donald.
Perhaps something has changed since 11 PM last night?
Trump calls the war in Iraq a mistake. Hillary supported and voted for it.
When she was told that Ghaddafy was dead, he response was:
“We came, we saw, he died.” While cackling like a witch.
Qaddaffi had the last laugh. An estimated 11 million Africans will transit Libya, now an open-borders jihadist playground, on their way to Europe. Suck on that, NATO, says Qaddaffi from his place in hell.
Trump is by no means a libertarian. Show me the URL where he repudiates any initiation of force. Forcing 11 million people to leave land that he does not own is initiation of force. If they were in Trump’s own property then he has a right to evict them.
Pro-Trump posters don’t have any links to back them harebrained world view.
Bill’s government of one selfishness is at least more interesting than your heart palpitations at the prospect of someone mentioning fellatio.
I don’t care if Trump openly calls Ted Cruz a pussy, insinuates that Mitt Romney is gay, or suggests that his penis is larger than Marco Rubio’s.
I’m just a bit surprised that the Republican Party is lining up behind someone who openly insults his top rivals, not to mention the many Christian Republicans who find this kind of language deeply offensive.
I guess Trump has succeeded in proving that he can say or do anything he chooses with no loss of support.
It is the right of every country to enforce its borders.
Building a wall turned out badly for Eastern Block countrie citizens, and now a leading U.S. Presidential candidate wants to follow the Soviet Union’s lead.
Go figure!
The eastern bloc walls were to keep people from leaving, kind of a big difference don’t you think?
Don’t confuse a liberal with facts.
And why is the a wall around the White House?
BUILD WALL NOW
————–
El Chapo entered US twice while on the run after prison break, daughter claims
theguardian.com | Friday 4 March 2016 07.00 EST | José Luis Montenegro in Mexico City and Rory Carroll in Los Angeles
The drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán bankrolled the election of senior Mexico politicians and twice secretly entered the United States to visit relatives, according to his eldest daughter.
Guzmán Ortiz said her father crossed the border in late 2015 to visit relatives and to view her home, a five-bedroom house with a large garden which he bought for her and her four children. She granted the interview on condition its location not be disclosed.
“My dad deposited the money in a bank account with a lawyer and a while after he came to see the house, his house. He came twice.”
She declined to specify how he criss-crossed the heavily guarded frontier, saying only: “I asked him the same, believe me.”
El Chapo has other family ties to the US: his third wife, the former beauty queen Emma Coronel, is a US citizen and in 2011 gave birth to twin daughters in southern California.
At the time, El Chapo had been on the run for a more than decade, and then president Felipe Calderón speculated that the fugitive drug kingpin could be hiding north of the border.
Marco Rubio is pretty much toast, IMO. He’ll hang on through the Florida primary, which he’ll probably lose to Trump and then he gets the hook.
This was interesting, reposting from last night:
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/271569-report-fox-news-finished-with-rubio
So much for “fair and balanced”. Rubio sought Fox’s support to push his Gang of Eight legislation. Apparently Fox considered it, too. Ailes is not happy about being outed on this one.
What a surprise! (Hey, it’s South America, like duh.)
“Brazil on course for the worst recession in a century”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/brazil-growth-plunges-3-8-percent-biggest-fall-005105335.html
South America again … this time it’s Argentina. “One hundred years of ineptitude”
A snippet …
“There are four kinds of countries in the world: developed countries, undeveloped countries, Japan and Argentina.”
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21596582-one-hundred-years-ago-argentina-was-future-what-went-wrong-century-decline
(The article is two years old but … hey.)
From the Argentina article, a joke that hits home, home meaning the USA …
“’Only people this sophisticated could create a mess this big,’ runs a Brazilian joke that plays on Argentines’ enduring sense of being special.”
Another telling quote from the Argentina article …
“If a guy has been hit by 700,000 bullets it’s hard to work out which one of them killed him.”
“’Only people this sophisticated could create a mess this big,’ runs a Brazilian joke that plays on Argentines’ enduring sense of being special.”
My sister visited Argentina some 20 years ago. She said that every taxi driver had a degree; usually in philosophy, literature, sociology or some other “soft” subject.
In Mexico, Argentinians also have the reputation of being stuck up. It’s a racial thing. Unlike other Latin American nations Argentina does not have a mestizo majority. Then again, the same is true in Uruguay, and they aren’t half as stuck up as the Argies,
“’Only people this sophisticated could create a mess this big,’ runs a Brazilian joke that plays on Argentines’ enduring sense of being special.”
FWIW, everywhere you go, the locals thinks they are special and better than others. The Argentinians are different in that they have made an art form out of it; though I think they are others who give them a run for their money. France and Catalunya come to mind.
Brazil, after raising up successive crony capitalist socialists who like our own DNC looted the till to enrich their cronies, is now under a more conservative administration starting to hold accountable those who led the country to ruin, up to and including an ex-president. Maybe someday Bill and Hillary Clinton will finally get the matching orange jumpsuits they so richly deserve, once the sheeple get fed up enough to stop sanctioning the status quo with their votes.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-04/brazil-s-lula-targeted-in-police-raid-into-corruption-scandal
““Brazil on course for the worst recession in a century”
So where is Rio telling us how good he has it down there?” Where is Abq.Dan on oil, china and the economy? Inquiring minds want to know!!
I think Porf Purple thinks they are me.
What ever happened to the 3x your salary rule?
It would be interesting if this article also listed median salary in these cities.
———————–
Here’s the salary you have to earn to buy a home in 19 major US cities
Business Insider | 03/03/2016 | Libby Kane
1. San Francisco
Population: 777,660
Median Home Price: $781,600
Monthly Mortgage Payment: $3,453
Salary Needed to Buy: $148,000
2. San Diego
Population: 1,284,347
Median Home Price: $546,800
Monthly Mortgage Payment: $2,407
Salary Needed to Buy: $103,000
You’d have to pay me to live there.
even though i qualify for obamacare subsidies i have health share. I rent my ass off. 2250.00 a month and If i made 103k a year most of it would go to taxes and moonbeam but hey, i didn’t earn it!
“I rent my ass off.”
When I first met the townhouse I now live in I told it, “I’m going to rent you so hard.”
Looks like someone seriously needs to get some….
What ever happened to no more than 20% of your monthly income for a house? And now we have some paying up to 60% of their monthly income in rent.
60% and more in the case of a mortgage once you include losses to depreciation insurance and taxes.
You’re in California, so you know the answer. It doesn’t matter if you’re barely getting by every month. As soon as you close on the house, its value will start growing rapidly. So if the car needs expensive repairs or one of the kids needs braces, it won’t be a problem. You can just tap that equity with a HELOC and pay the bills that way.
Are you sure?
Davis, CA Housing Market Caves; Prices Implode 8% YoY As Demand Craters To Multi-Decade Low
http://www.zillow.com/davis-ca/home-values
I was being facetious. I making a remark about the way that a lot of people in California think. They experienced a big crash in house prices less than decade ago, but my guess is that many think that it can’t happen again.
“As TrimTabs CEO David Santschi notes, BLS reports “tend to be highly inaccurate, and that the jobs situation generally has been far worse than the BLS has been reporting. In fact, TrimTabs estimates job growth in February was 55,000 to 85,000 - call it 70,000 - the lowest number in two years.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-03/us-added-only-70000-jobs-february-based-withheld-taxes
feb jobs # just released and says 242000 jobs created.
That is a huge difference folks.
Instead of our faked, Soviet-style offical statistics, look at shadow stats if you want the real, no-BS data on inflation and unemployment.
http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts
And keep in mind this isn’t transient unemployment. We’re talking chronic, acute long term joblessness. With every crushing recession there is a massive step up in unemployment and it’s cumulative and these POS at the top of Gov and Fed can’t sweep it under the rug anymore.
Labor Force Participation Rate Plummets To 38 Year Low; Joblessness At Record High
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
You are missing part of the big picture: automation. With robots and automation being advanced in quantum leaps more and more of the entry level jobs are going the way of the horse and buggy.
The benefits of productivity gains and efficiencies as a result of automation have not been pass down as savings. In other words prices are bottlenecked, fixed and markets are rigged.
Yeah, why does a band aid at a hospital cost so much more than a band-aid 10 or 20 years ago? Technology should make things cheaper. I heard a guy say the other day that cosmetic surgery keeps getting cheaper, and that’s because competition and technology makes it cheaper. So why does medical care keep going up?
So why does medical care keep going up?”
I ask that question often with no good answers.
“cosmetic surgery keeps getting cheaper, and that’s because competition and technology makes it cheaper. So why does medical care keep going up?”
Is insurance involved with cosmetic surgery?
Because cosmetic surgery is elective. It’s kinda hard to price shop if you rupture your spleen in a traffic accident, or are having a heart attack.
There won’t be any “free-market” in health care, ever. Too many people’s inflated incomes/profits depend on maintaining the status quo. (Doctors, medical schools, insurance companies, drug companies, the list goes on……..)
If screwing Joe Q. Public is what has to happen to maintain US “leadership” in this industry, that’s what’s going to happen. Just another example of privatizing the profits, and socializing the costs.
The closest thing to a free market in US health care is getting elective procedures done outside of the country.
This actually happened to me about 15 years ago. I called a privately run outpatient sleep polysomnography center about getting a test done on myself. The doc in charge spontaneously offered me a 30% discount for cash. He spoke with a foreign accent.
Medical care is getting pricier because those with money and jobs have to pay for the DNC’s Free Sh*t Army and illegals.
Medical care is getting pricier because.
1. People are living longer and we have a huge arsenal of treatments. If you prolong survival for a heart attack victim he might later be diagnosed with prostate cancer. 10 years ago we might have had 1 or two treatments for prostate cancer. Now we might have 10.
2. Hospitals have become profit centers. Most used to be non profit, many run by nuns. Now we have hedge funds buying up small hospital chains and charging for a mandatory wheel chair trip to your car when you leave.
3. Medicare is not allowed to bargain for cheaper medications, so unlike other developed countries we pay far more for the same drugs.
4. Direct advertising to the public- Doctor doctor I need the pill that allows me to fly in the hot air balloon and be happy. Here is the add.
5. Pay for production rather than results.
6. Middle men - Insurance companies advertising paper pushers and administration chew up massive amounts of money 20% of every health care dollar.
7.
Heavy taxes.
The state nationalizing industries.
Ever growing redistributive policies to buy votes.
Massive corruption.
Where did you think the Argentinian economy would go?
Where do you think America’s economy will go?
———————-
As the couriers carry their bundles around Buenos Aires, they pass grand buildings like the Teatro Colón, an opera house that opened in 1908, and the Retiro railway station, completed in 1915. These are emblems of Argentina’s Belle Époque, the period before the outbreak of the first world war when the country could claim to be the world’s true land of opportunity. In the 43 years leading up to 1914, GDP had grown at an annual rate of 6%, the fastest recorded in the world. The country was a magnet for European immigrants, who flocked to find work on the fertile pampas, where crops and cattle were propelling Argentina’s expansion. In 1914 half of Buenos Aires’s population was foreign-born.
The country ranked among the ten richest in the world, after the likes of Australia, Britain and the United States, but ahead of France, Germany and Italy. Its income per head was 92% of the average of 16 rich economies. From this vantage point, it looked down its nose at its neighbours: Brazil’s population was less than a quarter as well-off.
The divide between farmers and workers endures. Heavy export taxes on crops allow the state to top up its dwindling foreign-exchange reserves; limits on wheat exports create surpluses that drive down local prices. But they also dissuade farmers from planting more land, enabling other countries to steal market share. The perverse effects of intervention have been amply demonstrated in the Kirchner era: according to the US Department of Agriculture, Argentina was the world’s fourth-largest exporter of wheat in 2006. By 2013 it had dropped to tenth place. “The Argentine model of 100 years ago—producing as much as you can—is the one others now follow,” laments Luis Miguel Etchevehere, the president of the Rural Society of Argentina, a farmers’ lobby.
Property rights are insecure: ask Repsol, the Spanish firm whose stake in YPF, an Argentine oil company, was nationalised in 2012. Statistics cannot be trusted: Argentina was due this week to unveil new inflation data in a bid to avoid censure from the IMF for its wildly undercooked previous estimates. Budgets can be changed at will by the executive. Roberto Lavagna, a former economy minister, would like to see a requirement for parliamentary approval of budget amendments.
http://www.economist.com/news/briefing/21596582-one-hundred-years-ago-argentina-was-future-what-went-wrong-century-decline
With the declining wages and whole disappearance of middle class jobs in our Obama-Fed-Goldman Sachs “recovery,” how much longer before home prices revert to their historic mean of three times median income?
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-salary-you-need-to-afford-a-home-in-these-25-cities-2016-03-03
Ben, those cartoons you posted up front the last few days are hilarious, and so true.
And regardless of who wins the election, people with mortgages will still be broke @ss loosers!
2banana’s Rule #341 on housing.
Never buy a house in a city with democrats in long term power, insane public unions and a huge free sh*t army.
————————-
The Most Shameful Injustice-Death by Democrats.
Frontpagemagazine | March 3, 2016 | Bill Whittle
Author John Perazzo has compiled a remarkable booklet called “The New Shame of the Cities,” which contains an exhaustive, amazing and depressing army of statistics that outline The Detroit Pattern that has killed those American cities ruled by unbroken lines of Democrats and Democratic Party policies. So if we want to understand the Detroit Pattern, maybe we should start in Detroit.
Through the 1940’s, 50’s and into the 60’s, Detroit was not the blasted ruin you see today, but the thriving, pulsating center of American business enterprise. By 1960, Detroit… yeah, Detroit..! had the highest per capita income of any city in the United States. Factories were humming, Motown records was spinning out blues and soul and Detroit’s school system - called by New Republic “One of the finest in the world” was turning out world-class students of every race. Up until 1960, Detroit could boast a large and prosperous black middle class, black congressmen, and wages for unskilled were higher than the national average. That was the last year Detroit had a Republican mayor.
So, what happened?
The first of the Democratic Dynasty, white liberal Jerome Cavanagh, greatly expanded the role of the city government in the city’s business.
This was preamble. The wave that eventually destroyed Detroit and so many other American cities came from Washington DC, and Democratic President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty programs.
$490 million in Federal money - an enormous sum in the mid sixties - poured in through the Model City program. It went to housing projects and social programs, dispersed by City Hall, and not to help small business and entrepreneurs keep the city economically viable. By 1990, Detroit’s Model City area had lost 63% of it’s population, 45% of its housing units, and were unimaginably violent and dangerous.
34% of Detroit’s citizens were on the welfare rolls by 1987 - four times what it was twenty years earlier.
Sociologist Walter E. Williams looked out over the financial ruin of Detroit and said, “The welfare state has done to black Americans what slavery couldn’t do, what Jim Crow couldn’t do, what the harshest racism couldn’t do. And that is to destroy the black family.”
In 1976 the Democratic mayor cut the police force by 20%; by 1987 the homicide rate was three times higher than it had been twenty years earlier. When locals complained about the skyrocketing crime, the mayor openly stated that calls for law and order were simply code words for white racism.
So where did all the money for law enforcement go? Into the same pockets that the money for education went. Today, the Detroit Public School system spends $15,500 PER STUDENT per year; that’s half again more than the national average. It’s not that there wasn’t enough money. It’s where the money went.
In 2009 forensic accountants discovered 257 “ghost” employees on the payroll. Another 500 people were illegally drawing millions of dollars in benefits from the public school fund, and after a few months of this seven additional public officials were charged with felony embezzlement, having pulled tens of thousands of dollars from the school system. In 2009, Detroit’s children had math scores lower than any ever recorded in the history of the city and they now read at a level 73% below the national average. One in five fourth graders can write with fourth grade proficiency.
Economically, 55 years of Democratic corruption in Detroit means the city now has the highest property tax rates in America, and yet, in 2012 city revenues were 40% LOWER - in constant dollars - than they were in 1962. In terms of economic freedom - the ability to start new businesses without acres of government red tape, Detroit ranks 345th out of 384 regions measured. When facing this ocean of fees and regulations, most people trying to start new businesses simply give up. Their dreams simply die.
What never dies, of course, is the City’s vast bureaucracy with forty-some individual labor unions, each with high salaries and lavish retirement benefits. Their schools are the worst in the country, and their Murder rate is either first or second, but Detroit can proudly state that fully one-third of all the money it spends every year is paid to some 21,000 public-sector retirees and their families.
This is what 55 years of Death by Democrats has done to Detroit: 911 police calls average 58 minutes response time - the national average is eleven minutes. There are 12,000 fires every year in Detroit - Fire Department money goes the way of the Twain Library repairs. Half of the city parks have closed due to lack of funds since 2008. About 100,000 housing units - nearly thirty percent of the city - are vacant. And 40% of the population hopes to escape the Detroit Pattern of Democratic Destruction within 5 years.
And it is precisely the same pattern for other major cities like Baltimore, where the city government awarded the family of a deceased drug dealer named Freddie Grey 6 million dollars and indicted six police officers on trumped up charges for having the temerity to arrest him. As in Detroit, millions and millions of dollars of taxpayer funds are regularly funneled not into law enforcement or education, but rather into contracts for friends and political supporters.
Like Detroit, and Baltimore, Washington DC constantly vies for the title of the nation’s murder capital; when Democrat Marion Barry, videotaped by the FBI and shown smoking crack on national television, was tried for 14 counts of cocaine possession, he called the prosecution “a political lynching;” NAACP executive director Benjamin Hooks said that “overzealous, hostile–if not openly racist–district and U.S. attorneys will bring a black official to trial on the flimsiest of evidence.” Ten blacks and two whites found him guilty of 1 count of possession. A few years later he ran again as Mayor and was handily elected; he ran for a seat on the DC council in 2004, got 95% of the vote, and still serves on the council today.
2B -
this…..on West Philly…..
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/03/02/30-blocks-of-you-gotta-see-it-to-believe-it/
If you were from a foreign country…
And you drove down City Ave in West Philly (City Ave is a very straight road that separates Philadelphia from Montgomery County).
And (heading north) that person looked left and saw beautifully maintained lawns/houses, thriving businesses and people working/shopping.
And then the person looked right and saw slums, falling down houses, closed businesses, trash, and side roads in disrepair.
You would think there was something magically about the road.
And there is. The same magic that caused east and west Berlin to be so different.
Never buy a house in a city with democrats in long term power, insane public unions and a huge free sh*t army
And, of course, free sh*t army means black people. Cities like Baltimore are where it all comes together - poverty, blacks, big government, unions, crime, drugs, gay pride parades, people sharing walls with strangers in apartment building and sharing seats with strangers on public transportation. And through these wonderful white supremacist websites you can learn all about them from the safety of your lovely suburban neighborhood. This allows you to derive nearly endless entertainment that makes you feel so good about yourself, which is the best feeling that a person can feel.
Whatever would you do if such cities didn’t exist?
Whatever would you do if such cities didn’t exist?
Are you really asking if the cesspool of corruption, tax sucking from the rest of the state, massive voter fraud, bankrupt, unable to educate its children due to the power of public unions “city” of Baltimore ceased to exist (kinda like Detroit in phases) - what would I do?
Maybe get a Margaretta.
Cool narrative bro.
Do they have black people there in Scottsdale? Or do you just see them on TeeVee?
Goon -
I work for a black owned firm - know a bit about the resistance the owners have dealt with over the years. Your judgement preceeds you my friend.
There’s a woman across the street from me who bought her house when it was built in 1967. At work, I’m part of group of six people. One of them is a young black guy.
Of course, your question might be posed to the people that I was ranting about. My guess is that some of them have only ventured into a big city a few times in their lives, which they do to attend professional sporting events.
Orwell once said “in a time of universal deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act”.
The majority of the inner city problem exists because of the demographics of the people living in the inner cities. It no longer has anything to do with economics, guns, racism, white people, lack of jobs, not enough money being spent on education, technology gaps, lack of good black role models on television, the war on drugs, not enough representation in their local Government, lack of clean drinking water, not enough money being spent on housing, not enough money being spent on job training, lack of libraries, the history of slavery, food deserts, lack of opportunity in general, police brutality, or not getting enough screen time in Hollywood made movies.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAHNbrHRAw8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo-crYw-Zu4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufk7IXdxc-c
Financial resources have been squaudered on the free sh*t army types for the last 60 years. Time to pull the plug on the taxpayer funded pipeline and then wait to see who sinks and who swims.
I also would include the Bankers and Financial oligarchs, who are mostly white, on that FSA list that needs to be cut loose.
What is the inner city problem and how do the demographics of the people cause the problem? That’s an odd sentence. What do you mean by demographics?
The central bankers financial crack cocaine, QE, is rapidly losing its potency as each new “stimulus” announcement has a shorter-lived effect on levitating the central bankers’ Ponzi markets.
http://www.businessinsider.com/credit-suisse-qe-is-an-exhausted-policy-tool-2016-3
The Great Unwashed are finally pushing back against their corrupt and venal overlords, rather than meekly bending over for them as they did in 2008 and 2012 with their votes for Wall Street water carriers.
http://dollarcollapse.com/politics-2/why-were-ungovernable-part-13-the-rise-of-the-unprotected/
This must terrify the oligopoly: nationalists and leftists joining forces to urge a BREXIT out of the EU.
https://www.rt.com/uk/334519-brexit-campaign-leaflet-drop/
Who will be our president-for-life once the DNC has imported enough dependency and entitlement voters to secure a permanent Democrat supermajority and leads us further down to path to a Zimbabwe-like kleptocracy?
http://news.yahoo.com/zimbabwes-mugabe-want-punch-floor-124643449.html
93.7 million ‘Muricans “not in the labor force” yet offical unemployment rates show 4.9% jobless. Even using Common Core math, that doesn’t add up.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/labor-force-participation-improves-slightly-94m-americans-not-labor-force
Thank you America!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ccs_osIW4AAEbKS.jpg
Your supporters seem highly insecure.
Gold is on a tear as more and more people are seeking a safe haven from the inevitable consequences of the Keynesian lunacy of our central bankers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/04/gold-soars-into-bull-market-as-global-growth-fears-mount/
Beware the oil glut, as the 93.7 million “not in the work force” ‘Muricans aren’t doing much driving.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/03/03/dallas-fed-unplugs-oil-bulls-warns-of-liquidity-crunch-contagion/
The slowing Chinese economy is most likely a much bigger factor.
Gasoline in my neck of the woods rose almost 30 cents per gallon in the past two weeks.
Worthless housing. Worthless worthless housing. Housing is worth less and less with each passing day.
Leave it to greedbag Hillary to turn running for President into a for-profit enterprise. She will REALLY make bank if she gets elected and goes on to enrich her donors while dramatically expanding our dependency classes.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/hillary-paid-herself-250000-from-campaign-funds/
The story of the indigenous activist who was assassinated in Honduras deserves a little notice:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/04/world/americas/berta-caceres-indigenous-activist-is-killed-in-honduras.html?_r=0
Ah, yes, there’s China:
“The protest prompted the Chinese company Sinohydro, which had the contract to build the dam, to withdraw from the project.”
This indigenous peasant got in the way of neoliberal economics.
Read the book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” by John Perkins.
Already have, brother. Quite an eye-opener.
More of Jeb Bush’s “acts of love.”
http://www.myfoxboston.com/news/usps-says-letter-carrier-was-assaulted-in-dorchester/142164272
Are sane banks and lenders finally starting to push back against the Keynesian lunatics and “former” Goldmanites at the central banks?
https://www.sovereignman.com/trends/its-a-revolution-german-banks-told-to-start-hoarding-cash-18777/
Trump stopped Jeb in his tracks. For that he deserves the thanks of a grateful nation.
Testify, brothah!
However, Roger Stone contends that the Bushes are just in re-group mode at this time. Time will tell, but I really am grateful to Trump for the shellacking he gave JEB!, not to mention GWB and the Iraq War. I suppose he deserves some loyalty for that.
I was irritated by his stand on torture and Snowden last night, not to mention the flip-flop on H1B, but I see Jeff Sessions must have jerked his collar a good one on that.
Boca Raton, FL Housing Market Craters; Prices Collapse 20% YoY As Speculators Slash
http://www.zillow.com/boca-raton-fl-33076/home-values/
How’s that hope ‘n change working out for ya, ‘Murica?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-04/wasnt-supposed-happen-us-weekly-earnings-drop-most-record
Did weekly earnings of federal employees in Washington DC also drop?
Or were they immune?
What about *your* weekly earnings? Did they drop?
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who would have opposed Hitler during his rise to power, and those who would have helped him out.
Which type are you?
CNN on the TeeVee yesterday while I was on the treadmill had Wolf Blitzer wetting himself over the prospect of a brokered convention.
Washington Post website top several articles are now all anti-Trump narratives, every day.
Spend some time outside of the West Coast and you’ll understand why Trump is winning.
I regularly spend time outside the West Coast. A month ago I had lunch with an old friend from college while visiting family in the Midwest. We didn’t waste much time talking about Trump, though she did indicate that she can’t stand him.
I have no doubts that midwestern Democrats don’t like him
Spend some time outside of the West Coast and you’ll understand why Trump is winning.
Who cares about flyover?
Kasich and Rubio. It’s their last hope.
Rubio is mini-Jeb. No thanks.
That wasn’t an endorsement.
People living in the expensive areas out west all compete hard everyday. We dont even have porches to sit on and do nothing. Like 2 different planets.
That’s a pity. You’ve got that wonderful climate - never hot, never cold, never rains, never snows. Yet you’re stuck indoors at work all of the time and never get to enjoy it.
Has America ever previously had an ungracious, unapologetic, menacing bully in the White House?
If so, which President?
Start with the founding fathers. A more rude and politically incorrect bunch of ruffians would be hard to find.
Then there’s the current President. Killing people is rather rude.
How about Thomas Jefferson? Wasn’t he a man of letters who played the violin and designed Monticello? Is he what you consider a “ruffian”?
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Is he what you consider a “ruffian”?
IIRC, he was the first president to send US forces into Muslim territory.
Obama On Executive Actions: ‘I’ve Got A Pen And I’ve Got A Phone’
“We’re not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that we’re providing Americans the kind of help they need. I’ve got a pen and I’ve got a phone,” Obama said Tuesday as he convened his first Cabinet meeting of the year.
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2014/01/14/obama-on-executive-actions-ive-got-a-pen-and-ive-got-a-phone/
Clicking on Huffington Post and Salon dot com links won’t stop Trump from getting elected.
And regarding the Drumpf narrative, would that joke be as funny if it was about Jewish immigrants who Anglicized their surnames at Ellis Island?
This real journalist agrees with your SJW objection.
John Oliver’s ‘Donald Drumpf’ jokes play on the same ugly xenophobia Trump does
Beating Trump shouldn’t mean joining him.
“Make Donald Drumpf Again,” John Oliver declared on his show Sunday night, and America — or at least, liberal America — was happy to take him up on it. By the afternoon of Super Tuesday, “Donald Drumpf” was being searched more frequently on Google than any Republican candidate’s actual name besides Trump’s. On Twitter, “Drumpf” quickly became the epithet of choice for our national political trash fire. “Drumpf is the orange [expletive’s] real name,” as one Twitizen explained it to me.
Drumpf, of course, isn’t Trump’s real name, nor has it been the real name of anyone in his family since the 1600s. But it’s fun to call a bully names, especially when that bully is on the verge of winning the GOP presidential nomination. Names have power; by renaming something, you take control of it, quarantine it in a defined box. This is some George Orwell/Sapir-Whorf stuff. The names we use to talk about a thing determine how we think about it, too.
“Drumpf” feels so satisfying to critics of the Republican front-runner partly because it sounds funny and foreign; it sounds funny BECAUSE it is foreign. Specifically, Drumpf sounds funny because it sounds German. Drumpf, to an American ear, conjures up a dough-faced Bavarian Nazi on his stumpy way to murder all the Jews in his village. (At least, that’s what I think of, as a progressive Jew who opposes Trump.) In the face of a campaign that’s drawing support from white supremacists by a candidate who promises that he would ban Muslims and build a “beautiful wall” to keep out Mexicans, it’s nice to think of Trump that way — as an interloper, a false face that conceals a creeping foreign influence. As not one of us.
But it’s not really funny if you think about it much: The “#MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain” concept traffics in the very xenophobia that is Trump’s sick stock in trade. Trump has already dragged our politics down, and he threatens to do worse if he’s elected. Opposing him shouldn’t mean joining him in a contest to see who can better plumb the ugliest nativist impulses.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/03/03/john-olivers-donald-drumpf-jokes-play-on-the-same-ugly-xenophobia-trump-does/?tid=pm_opinions_pop_b
Are we talking Obama aka Abomination or Abominator of the nation?
Lyndon Johnson.
You’d have to have rocks in your head to buy a house at these massively inflated prices.
But no rocks in your head to admire an arrogant bully who is a racist and wanting to hallucinate such a sociopath to powerful role?
Madeleine Albright says 500,000 dead Iraqi children was worth it:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=omnskeu-puE
Yeah I know that.
What do Albright, Cheney, Bush, Obama, Clnton, Trump, McCain have in common?
HBBErs are supposed to be critical thinkers, but they do it only selective in regard to real estate bubble.
The commonality is they are rulers or want to rule.
Only Ball-less people want to be ruled.
Donald Trump is your next President. Get over it and get on with your life.
What if the Republican Party wakes up one day to discover that Trump doesn’t actually represent core Republican values, and fails to hand him the nomination? Is Trump strong enough to win as an independent, on the Trump Party platform?
What the GOP does won’t effect the outcome. It’s a movement and it’s growing. The movement will expand massively if the party screws with him.
PB, Trump does not have the stones to run as an independent. He needs the Republican name because people still foolishly think the opposite of Democrat is Republican. If he runs as an independent he will get crushed like Perot.
Depends on whether Trump wants to win or just wants to play. If he wants to win, he’ll have to stick with the Republican name. But if he gets butt-hurt at the convention, he may well decide to take revenge on them by throwing the White House and probably the Senate to the Dems. And he has that power.
a movement indeed…
Frank Abagnale is impressed
Is your next president. Deal with it.
Another neocon success story.
http://www.businessinsider.com/ramadis-destruction-is-staggering-2016-3
Happy Friday!
Sit back and count your stack!
https://youtu.be/x4Z_qG6YJIM
Here’s one for Donk and the MT Pockets.
https://youtu.be/eih67rlGNhU
I must confess I always click on the second link first.
What states will Trump win tomorrow?
Whatever happened to the poster with the multiple personas of
Canklepants
Anklepants
Yuuge in Burma
Meltdown
DumidolFanger
And the fake Donald Trump?
It seems like about half of them spontaneously vanished. I don’t know whether that’s a sign that Canklepants’ stay in the “rest home” was effective it not. Hopefully his meds will help him restrain his compulsion to launch ad hominem attacks on anybody who dares to post factual information about his Dear Leader.
+1
Cankle is currently at the drawing board designing another schizophrenic name.
Soon there will be 30 “different” screen names singing the virtues of tyranny. Her/his aim is to make it seem like a majority of our small number of 60 or so regulars glowingly write about the sociopath, THEREFORE (LOL) a majority of Americans will vote for the sociopath!!!!!!!!
‘a majority of Americans will vote for the sociopath’
What if we all agreed here on a candidate? What if we all then volunteered and donated to this candidate? You just acknowledged it wouldn’t change anything. So why argue about it like it could change anything?
I do not support anyone politically. Four years ago I was a delegate to the Arizona GOP state convention. The chairman got up and told us we were there to nominate Mitt Romney. Four years ago, on this blog, there were screeds from posters telling us Ron Paul was a lunatic racist radical who would turn this country into hell on Earth. The Establishment told Paul they were going to go after his family and he quit.
For my entire life there has never been a non-establishment presidential nominee for the two parties. Reagan was an outsider but gave in by picking George Bush. Outside of that one blip, there hasn’t been one chance that the war party would lose control of the chief executives office.
I don’t like Trump. I have given him hell for years, louder and harsher than anyone on the world wide web. Anyone! When he first decided to run I was more than skeptical. Openly. But I listened. He said we shouldn’t police the world. I listened closer. He said regime change was a mistake and got people killed for a worse outcome. Now I ask you to consider that regime change is the dominate feature of the US empire. And Trump said it was wrong. More importantly, he got the support of people because he said it.
He stood on a stage with a Bush and didn’t blame Muslims for 9/11. He blamed George W Bush. Think about that. And the people supported him because he said that. He said we’ve been getting a raw deal on trade. I happen to think that myself. I happen to think the WTO and NAFTA are about the worst thing that’s ever happened to this country. And I’ve pointed out the same group of so-called elites were and are responsible for globalism. We’ve talked at length here that these bubbles are partly done to hide the impoverishment that globalism has brought us.
What you and I think doesn’t matter. What does matter is the millions of people out there who suddenly have been willing to look at the world, not as the TV tells them it is, but in words the TV tells us are untrue. Racist, radically, which will turn this country into hell on Earth. It is this realization that reality is not what we’ve been told for decades that is shaking up politics. IMO, there is actually a slim chance that this country and it’s people might not be destined to shrivel under the debt of empire, to continue to stain the ground in blood all over the world. I have no idea if that time has come. But there is a slim chance the people are seeing and hearing using their own eyes and ears. I like that.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) issued the following statement today regarding the 2016 presidential election:
“Here’s my message to the Republican Party leaders: Focus more on listening to the American people and less on trying to stifle their voice.”
“What’s happening in the Republican primary is the result of two things: the fecklessness and ineptness of the Washington establishment in failing to address the big issues facing our country and years of anger with the overreach of the Obama administration. And to be candid, I think the American people should be angrier than they are.”
Senator Corker has not endorsed a candidate in this election.
I also liked Huckabee’s take (someone I’ve just about never agreed with) in that this is a peaceful overthrow of government, which is better than the alternative.
Cooker must be up for reelection. Seeing Trump’s victory in TN I would be worried, too. Cooker is as weaselly establishment as they come.
Ben - can you put a pole on this site to see who we would all vote for? Interesting to see which state the voter is in too.
HEREFORE (LOL) a majority of Americans will vote for the sociopath!!!!!!!!
You must know because you used to vote republicans, didn’t you?
Never voted and will not vote ever. Love the idea of Trump to bring the whole $hit down.
You should vote for Trump in that case.
“You must know because you used to vote republicans, didn’t you?”
In 1980 I campaigned for Ed Clark, LP candidate for President.
I was the campaign manager for my a LP candidate for state assembly in 1982. I won a minor office. I voted for one Republican and that was tyrant GWB in 2004.
I don’t need to go to the designing board I’ve already got one picked out.
All those people you think are me are laughing at you.
Well I have a life unlike you.
Me too, can’t spend all day from my ivory tower cubicle down the hall from the hijabees posting.
If you have to finance it for 15 or 30 years, it’s not affordable nor can you afford it.
This app disables voicemail on cellphones, when people call they get endless ringtones:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/no-more-voicemail-app_us_56d87497e4b0ffe6f8e86666
Davis, CA Housing Market Caves; Prices Implode 8% YoY As Demand Craters To Multi-Decade Low
http://www.zillow.com/davis-ca/home-values/
Judging from the vigorous ad hominem attacks on anybody who posts factual information here questioning the legitimacy of Trump’s candidacy for the Republican nomination, one has to wonder whether The Donald wears the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Who cares, really? Unless you think there’s some conspiracy that is getting him the lead, if it’s what the people (and not the party) want, it’s what they should get. Agree with him or not, that should be celebrated.
“factual information” = Admitted Obama voter.
“posts factual information” = calling Trump a racist and a Hitler for wanting to enforce EXISTING immigration laws.
Are the Swiss racist too?
———
Swiss unveil plan for unilateral curbs on immigration
Reuters | March 4, 2016 | Joshua Franklin and Michael Shields
Switzerland on Friday unveiled tough draft legislation for unilateral curbs on immigration, raising the stakes in talks with Brussels on limiting the influx of foreigners from the European Union.
Switzerland is two-thirds of the way through a three-year timetable to enforce a binding 2014 referendum vote in favor of immigration quotas which would violate a bilateral pact guaranteeing freedom of movement for EU workers.
Rally the NASCAR and WalMart base.
the WalMart base is in misery, they will always vote for help.
Fed Makes A Stunning Discovery: “Consumers Across The Country Are Borrowing More To Buy Cars And Go To School”
No chit. Just look at debtclock.org all consumer debt is surging. It’s NUTS!!!!
The global yard sale WILL BE EPIC.
“The global yard sale WILL BE EPIC.”
Can you send me an Outlook invite for this?
You bet.
Of course you’ll already know it’s here when the bail in’s,…er.. mandatory crowdfunding starts.
I am sure this will be on the news 24/7 for the next week.
Hillary praising a Grand Wizard of the KKK.
Right. No bias? Right.
——————–
Hillary praises Klan organizer and leader
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oau_a5hlGBo
27/7 news coverage - right???
Fair and balanced. No bias.
After all - Trump not immediately disavowing David Duke (it took him 20 minutes) is at least equal to:
Hillary praising a Grand Wizard of the KKK
Bill excusing a Grand Wizard of the KKK
—————–
Bill Clinton ATTEMPTS to Justify Robert Byrd’s KKK Membership
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fg3XNTMzNo
This is America, u can join whatever group you want. Dont try to control the people.
Morning Boyz and Girlz:
Back here in the lovely utopia called Chicago after being in Scottsdale AZ soaking up the sun for the last week -
Ben - it has been hot out by you.
This.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/news/ct-sta-district-210-wyllie-pension-st-0304-20160303-story.html
It is for the children.
————
Retired Lincoln-Way schools chief gets state’s biggest teachers pension: $312,081
Facebooks’s decision to book major UK sales via its London operation, rather than through its Irish subsidiary, shows the impact of criticism about low tax payments by US multinationals.
The move shows how this process poses some threats to Ireland, as Facebook says it will pay “ millions” more in tax in the UK. This means it will pay less tax here, though dig a bit deeper and you will see that, in fact,the tech giant does not pay much tax on corporate profits here in the first place.
£4,327 UK tax bill
We will have to wait to see Facebook’s accounts over the next few years to see what this will mean in reality for the exchequers in London and Dublin. In the UK, the company paid just £4,327 in corporation tax in 2014, less than what a lot of its employees would pay in income tax in a month.
So where was the profit on sales made in the UK taxed? Nowhere, is the answer - or not much anyway - and this is the crux of the debate, which centres on how little US companies pay on profits earned outside the US.
The sales were booked through its Irish subsidiary, meaning invoices to UK customers came from Dublin, not London. This has contributed to huge revenues in Ireland - the latest figures for 2014 show €4.8 billion in revenue. But the company has only declared tiny profits in Ireland - €12.8 million in 2014, on which it paid tax of €3.4 million, a tiny sum by any reckoning.
Facebook’s ‘double Irish’?
How does Facebook achieve this? Well the main Irish operating subsidiary pays billions in “ administrative expenses” to another company in the Facebook empire. Most of this relates to expenses paid to allow the Irish subsidiary to use the intellectual property (IP) used to develop the Facebook service.
Most of the cash which goes in the front door of the Irish subsidiary goes straight out the back exit to elsewhere in the Facebook empire. Previously it was reported that this was done using the “double Irish “ structure, with the expenses paid to a holding company incorporated in Ireland but tax resident in the Cayman Islands, where no corporation tax is levied. Facebook may or may not still use the same structure - the double Irish has been abolished for new companies, but remains available for existing players until 2020.
This has all been done legally - it is tax avoidance, not tax evasion. But these kind of structures are now attracting huge international criticism and the OECD is leading a move to develop new international rules. Ahead of this the big players are adjusting their tax tactics. This explains the Facebook move, as the booking of sales in a territory other than where they are made is one likely target of the OECD process. Already Google settled with the UK authorities due to a similar argument
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/cliff-taylor-facebook-likes-uk-tax-but-does-it-mean-unfriending-ireland-1.2560088
Trump/Webb 2016
Webb would be a perfect VP, and would moderate some of The Donald’s more odious tendencies.
all is well cause stock and home prices have recovered. lmao
If Trump took the presidency, with his talk of trade imbalances and protecting American blue collar jobs and such — do you think it would boost consumer confidence? Or do you think the loss of raw profits companies are making on the imbalance would cause Wall Street downturn?
He can talk all he wants, but he isn’t going to shift the entrenched interests… even if he isn’t flat out lying.
Imagine if he had the advantages of an obama
Filibuster proof senate
Super-majority in the house
Fawning press that will never question him
Who cares. Remember nothing accelerates the economy cures poverty and creates jobs like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels.
Trump will do no such thing.
The overwhelming majority of peeple who take on a $600,000+ mortgage have no intention or means of EVER paying it back.
They will loan you more money to live in the house you can’t afford.
Carpe diem!
Why are Rubio and Cruz waiting for? All of these good ideas of theirs should have been implemented long ago. Why keep them so secret?
Somehow you are not going to ask this to Bernie and Hillary, right?
They had these ideas before Rubio and Cruz were even born. Why the F they waited so long?
Obama the socialist at work!
the economy added a better-than-expected 242,000 jobs in February while the unemployment rate held steady at 4.9 percent.
not really you know the numbers are totally rigged.
We really only added about 55- 70k jobs. so a little more than 1000 / state.
Got any more bs?
When did the rigging start? Did Bush lose more then 800,000 jobs a mo?
all my neighbors have jobs
why do u losers keep bringing up bush? WTF does that have to do with TODAY?
“Our businesses have created jobs every single month since I signed that ‘job killing’ Obamacare bill,” the president said. “Think about this: If somebody had told us seven years ago that we would get to this point — at a time when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month, and the unemployment rate hit 10 percent — we wouldn’t have believed it.”
Calling the American economy “the envy of the world,” and saying that his administration’s economic plans “have worked,” Obama framed the jobs growth in terms of some politicians’ rhetoric.
“The numbers and the facts don’t lie, and I think it’s useful given that there seems to be an alternative reality out there from some of the political folks that America is down in the dumps,” he said. “It’s not: America is pretty darn great right now.”
Are you suggesting that without Obama’s policies the US economy wouldn’t have recovered?
You can’t test what didn’t happen, but what would you say to someone who would argue that the recovery would have been stronger if it weren’t for two massive laws that were passed soon after the recession that have taken nearly his entire administration for people to understand (Dodd Frank and the ACA)?
Personally, I believe in the resilience of the American economy, and usually it springs back DESPITE government intervention, not because of it.
just showing you the score
There are two types of people in this world. Which one will you be? A loser like them or a winner like me?
U.S. entrepreneur says Trump’s China tariffs are a bad idea
The factory floor in Southern China is grimy and the air smells like metal. Loud clanging limits conversation as steel is punched and bent and molded into the light fixtures they will soon become.
This is Xie Li Factory, and the goods made here that get exported around the globe, are part of what Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump loves to bash most.
He’s repeatedly fingered China for engaging in unfair trade practices. “They’re killing our companies,” he said.
Trump’s solution? Slap a tariff on some goods imported from China. The idea is that it would make it more expensive for firms to buy from Chinese factories, forcing them to send business back to American companies.
But at least one U.S. businessman, Ben Schwall, who sources from Xie Li, says that higher taxes on Chinese goods wouldn’t accomplish any of that, and instead, would eventually burden the middle-class consumer.
“We can do it, but when it’s all said and done the only person who could afford a light fixture would be Donald Trump,” said Schwall, the president of Systems Technology Group, a company that helps U.S. firms buy Chinese-made products. “When you really think about it and understand what it means, it’s not such a great thing.”
A new tariff — and therefore, a higher import cost — would simply push U.S. companies to raise prices in order to keep turning a profit. That means the average shopper in the U.S. would be forced to pay more.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/03/news/economy/china-trump-trade-business/
Tariffs are already being raised.
“…..not such a great thing.”
Sez the guy who makes his money from offshoring/outsourcing.
Buy your new phone, blender, laptop and 60″ tv now.
Like y2k all over.
Team Trump:
He said that experts have questioned his stance on terror suspects and their families and noted that the military might refuse such orders if they do not comply with international law.
“They’re not going to refuse me. Believe me,” Trump responded.
He has also stated that he would do a “hell of a lot worse” than waterboarding terrorist suspects if he were elected president.
Costco Will Raise Minimum Wage as Competition for Workers Grows
Costco Wholesale Corp. will lift its minimum wage for the first time in nine years, by a $1.50 an hour, as the labor market tightens and competitors start giving workers a raise.
The second-largest U.S. retailer will start paying at least $13-to-$13.50 an hour, up from $11.50-to-$12 an hour, the company said Thursday in a conference call with analysts. The increase will cut its earnings per share in the next three months by 1 cent, and by 2 cents in the following three quarters, the Issaquah, Washington-based company said.
Retailers are under pressure to boost wages as unemployment falls below 5 percent and 14 states have raised their minimum wage this year. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which operates the Sam’s Club warehouse-style chain, a Costco competitor, lifted its pay floor to $10 an hour this year and gave an increase to more than 1 million workers. Costco didn’t say how many of its 117,000 employees would get a raise.
“It will help, and it is important to do,” said Richard Galanti, Costco’s chief financial officer. “This is a physically challenging job. You’re on your feet, lifting cases, moving carts, and we thought it was time to do it.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-03/costco-raising-minimum-wage-as-competition-for-workers-grows
do u want to work for 14 bucks an hour?
No, I don’t. But I would prefer $14 to $12. Wouldn’t you? And what’s your point?
$14 an hr, living at home going to community college. not off to a bad start.
no head of households please.
Gallup: “The Amount Of Debt Americans Carry Is Staggering And Grows Every Day”
Deleveraging is SO 2009…
The impressive non-farm payrolls of 242,000 and an unemployment rate that remained at 4.9% put even more downward pressure on what’s known as the “Misery Index,” an unofficial economic measure calculated by adding the unemployment rate and inflation.
This indicator, created by economist Arthur Okin, has become a staple of election-year commentary and has an impressive record of predicting the outcome of U.S. presidential elections since the middle of the last century. The current index, at a 25-year low, suggests the Democrats will retain control of the White House this year, according to Bloomberg’s Chief U.S. Economist Carl Riccadonna.
“Historically, gains in the index as Election Day approaches have augured poorly for the incumbent party. But with the jobless rate tumbling and inflation only inching higher, the signal this year points toward a Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders victory,” Riccadonna said.
When yer debt free yer misery index is “0″.
Most homeless people and illegals are debt free.
…and they use “all cash”.
Even Barney Sanders knows these numbers are BS
“Sanders said the “real” joblessness rate is closer to 10 percent when those who have given up looking for work are factored into the equation.”
Sanders lukewarm on jobs report
By Bradford Richardson
February 05, 2016, 11:59 am
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Friday said January’s jobs report, which shows the unemployment rate dropping below 5 percent for the first time in nearly eight years, does not capture the complete picture on the health of the American economy
Sanders said the “real” joblessness rate is closer to 10 percent when those who have given up looking for work are factored into the equation.
“There’s another government statistic that comes out at the same time that does not often get reported, which looks at unemployment not only for those who don’t have jobs, but those who are working part-time when they want to work full-time,” Sanders said at an event in Manchester, N.H.
“And that’s a lot of people in this country. And those people in high unemployment areas who have given up looking for work,” he added. “When you add all that together, you’ve got 9.9 percent unemployment, which is a serious problem.”
Congress, for instance, refuses to raise the national gasoline tax, even though gas prices are extremely low and the Highway Trust Fund, which is supposed to be funded by gas taxes, requires “offsets” from other programs every year. Despite years of griping about a mushrooming national debt that’s now $19 trillion, Congress steadfastly refuses to raise taxes (or cut spending) so the government spends within its means. Instead, it borrows, inevitably passing the bill onto future generations.
All of America spends just like Congress and vice versa.
edit: A lot of America spends just like Congress and vice versa.
Yes, there are exceptions. As a whole, the country has leadership of its own spendthrift kind. This will change when the people are individually crushed by their debts. Not before. It is too bad we do not have genetic memory in this regard. It is a lesson relearned after the passage of a previous generation with learned wisdom.
Has the Republican Party finished committing seppuku yet?
crater