Tue 12 May 2009
From Newsday:
Moving out Gotti? LI mansion again in foreclosure
Victoria Gotti is boiling mad.
The daughter of the late mob boss John Gotti may lose her sprawling Old Westbury mansion after all, according to a state Appellate Division ruling.
The four-judge panel ruled last week that JPMorgan Chase bank can proceed with foreclosure on the home often featured on the television reality series “Growing Up Gotti.”
The show gave Gotti enthusiasts a glimpse into the daily lives of Victoria Gotti and her sons - Carmine Jr., John and Frank Agnello - in the five-bedroom, 5 1/2-bath white brick house they call home. “I’m bitter,” she said. “The house, all the marital assets, are part of a divorce package (settlement) I have never seen yet.”
…
Gotti, who is also a former New York Post columnist and author, wasn’t sure what legal move she would make next. She said her ex-husband, Carmine Agnello, took out a loan secured by the property for about $700,000 without her knowledge. She said that although she had the right to bring charges against him for taking out the loan, he agreed to payments.Gotti said he made about three payments before stopping and she thought that the family had lived in the house 15 years without any mortgage.
A Century 21 Laffey Associates listing agent, Anthony Piscopio, said the home is available. It’s been on the market before. Victoria Gotti tried to sell it in 2002 for $4.7 million, but lowered that a year later. In 2004, when “Growing Up Gotti” was broadcast on A&E, she relisted the house for $4.8 million. From 2005 to 2006, she asked $3.995 million; in 2008, the asking price was $3.899 million.
Victoria Gotti relisted the property in December, asking between $3.2 million and $3.5 million. Earlier this year, Piscopio said Gotti wanted to move to a smaller property within Old Westbury. “The boys are getting older now,” he said. “She’s not going to stay there forever.”
From the Post:
BANK FORECLOSES ON VICTORIA GOTTI’S ESTATE
Here’s the reality: the Gotti’s gotta go.
The bank has been given the go-ahead to foreclose on Victoria Gotti’s palatial estate on Long Island — the same used in the TV reality show “Growing Up Gotti” — saying she owes a whopping $650,000 in mortgage payments, according to court paper made public today.
Gotti’s lender, JP Morgan Chase, claims the daughter of the late Gambino crime family boss John “Dapper Don” Gotti — owes them the staggering amount after she failed to make payments for two years starting in September 2006, court records reveal.
…
The bank said in court records that the mafia princess owed them $25,000 a month — and that she never made all the payments.
Frist!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124208323316008467.html
California isn’t cutting the mustard. More cuts on the horizon. The voters are not about to pass the tax increases. Projected: The only prop going through is 1F to curtail increases for the legislature. More lost jobs.
Sas - I asked you a pretty extensive question on the last thread if you get a chance.
Grim - Missed that show - It must have been a doozy.
From the Philly Inquirer:
NJ prepares for layoffs of state workers
A union leader says New Jersey is making preparations to lay off hundreds of state workers to balance the 2010 state budget.
Rae Roeder, president of Communications Workers of America Local 1033, says union representatives for at least three state departments have been notified , as required by law , of layoff notices that are being drafted.
Roeder said Monday that her local was advised of approximately 300 positions at the Motor Vehicle Commission, 300 at the Treasury Department, 50 at the Education Department and 30 at the Secretary of State’s Office.
Corzine spokesman Robert Corrales says a layoff plan is being prepared, but the governor prefers to use furloughs and wage freezes. He says no final decisions on layoffs have been made.
we’ve reached a bottom!
it’s all over the news! Barclay’s (sp?) said so!
the better news is that Lawrence Yun at NAR said we’re NEAR the bottom in housing! if he said it, it MUST be true! hurrah!
/sarcasm off
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-health-cuts8-2009may08,0,4592200.story
(4) Grim - Watch out with that…
“U.S. Threatens to rescind stimulus money over wage cuts”
“The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.”
http://www.housingwire.com/2009/05/11/revised-early-cost-disclosures-finalized-by-fed/
Revised Early Cost Disclosures Finalized by Fed - Housingwire
“The final rules also require creditors to wait seven business days after they provide early disclosure before closing the loan and to provide new disclosures with a revised annual percentage rate (APR) - and wait an additional three days before closing - if any change occurs that makes the original APR inaccurate.”
“The rules allow a consumer to speed up the closing procedure in the case of a personal financial emergency in foreclosure. The new provisions become effective July 20, 2009 for all applications received from that date.”
Yesterday was pretty rough for me on these boards and I did not sleep well at all. People were saying things that were very spooky and I had to keep an eye out for the Freddy Kruger boogeyman that might have been hiding in my closet.
Let’s not be spooky today ok? Let’s be positive ok? We all know that there are signs that we’re reaching a bottom, so we just need to be positive about it and talk about the green shoots ok?
Thanks in advance for your co-operation in this matter.
reinvestor101 says:
May 12, 2009 at 7:22 am
Yesterday was pretty rough for me on these boards and I did not sleep well at all. People were saying things that were very spooky and I had to keep an eye out for the Freddy Kruger boogeyman that might have been hiding in my closet.
that’s what i love to hear. still have about 200 comments to go. better to be spooked than lied to.
Small business in deep trouble.
“In a last-ditch bid to survive the nation’s economic downturn, Advanta Corp. is closing its small-business customers’ credit cards to new charges after June 10, the Montgomery County company said yesterday.
The unprecedented move, which will affect nearly one million accounts with the Spring House firm, was designed to preserve the capital Advanta needs to absorb losses on loans to small-business owners, who often borrow heavily and typically bear the brunt of economic downturns, the company said.
Robertson said Advanta’s percentage of loans written off as uncollectible, at 20 percent on March 31, exceeded subprime consumer accounts at other lenders. “This is a life-threatening charge-off level,” he said.”
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/business/homepage/20090512_Advanta_Corp__suspends_credit_cards.html
More homes for sale are attracting multiple offers as buyers pursue lower-price homes and banks low-ball asking prices to attract competing bids on foreclosures.
Multiple bids have picked up in recent months in California and other states hit hard by foreclosures and steep price drops, real estate executives say.
When you begin to see people willing to fight for a property, that’s a good sign,” she says. “We are beginning to see the beginning of the end of a disaster time.”
http://www.courierpostonline.com/article/20090512/BUSINESS01/905120321/1003/RSS03/More+houses+up+for+sale+receive+multiple+offers
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2009/05/more-from-standup-economist.html
Log this under “humor” - this guy is a standup comedian - an economist.
Re Gotti. Two years rent free?
grim (4)-
Looks like the CWA was a little hasty in tossing Carla out.
They could use somebody like her right about now.
Nothing like a few pics of Jon in leather chaps and dog collars to stave off the job cuts.
Cindy (6)-
Looks like Big Brother is stretching his sphere of infuence.
How long will it be before we’re instructed not to disparage our Dear Leader?
#8
Just find another activity to replace reading these comments for a day if they are getting to you. Lots of other things you could do instead. Easier said than done, I know.
tard (8)-
They’re coming to loot your house, steal your wife and sell your daughter into chattel serfdom.
But, it’s sunny and nice out today.
I feel like a McFlurry and some fries. Mmmm…
DL (10)-
Green shoot. Check.
“Robertson said Advanta’s percentage of loans written off as uncollectible, at 20 percent on March 31, exceeded subprime consumer accounts at other lenders.”
BAC turns Temasek into big bagholder.
Or, Temasek gets CCB on the cheap.
Who knows?
(15) Clot - They tell us to cut - we cut (pink slips everywhere for teachers, city employees etc. - mid-year budget cuts - cuts again next year….but - wait - Let us tell you where you can and cannot cut or you lose federal funds.
I’m nonunion so apparently I’m sunk.
interesting article to give you a flavor of the ramifications of our usual bank failure fridays (or as i like to say bank takedowns).
“Farmers hurt by Greeley bank’s collapse may get relief”
http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20090512/NEWS01/905120322&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL
SAS
(10) Advanta credit cards.
When I heard the name Advanta, it stuck out for some reason.
Advanta was fond of offering new credit card holders 15 months of 0% interest or 2.9% interest rates for life. They were one of the most popular AOR (app-o-rama, see Fatwallet.com) credit cards where applicants took out as much as their credit limit would allow them to (with the 0% deal) and then would invest the money in 12 month CDs. Some people would do this hundreds of times and would make a pretty penny with barely a ding to their credit score. I suppose their chickens have now come home to roost.
Cindy (20)-
This is how you get an economy where everybody wants to throw a parade over the “achievement” of adding 66,000 census-takers to the employment rolls.
We’ve dumbed down everything else. Why not apply the same idiocy to our definition of progress and recovery?
I actually feel sorry for Victoria, she owned that home mortgage free and her ex husband via Chase bank cashed out the equity without her signature, now he is a so called minister with zero income and can’t pay it back and she is stuck.
“Sas - I asked you a pretty extensive question on the last thread if you get a chance”
well, i would have to get back to you so I can give the question the appropriate time to respond.
one thing, as a positive that might happen after the shakeout is that people will realize and invest in their families and kids with their time and companionship rather than giving them some crap widget from China or go on some synthetic corporate theme park (which uses slave labor goods made by kids…go figure)thinking a material good will somehow replace lost time.
A good ivestment strategy, have a nice pot luck with family or a friendly neighbor over the weekend.
but you taint going to hear that from Wall St. or your college educated planner.
I try to be an optimist, but its hard for me.
I’ve taken one too many Punji sticks in my day.
SAS
sas (21)-
Wonder how many people those farms feed. A good part of metro Denver?
This is happening across all types of small business. And, it doesn’t take bank failures to dry up lines of credit…even for borrowers who are profitable and have never missed a payment.
I found this out myself about four months ago. LOC for my business, called at the maturity date when the bank normally would automatically roll it for another year. Never as much as a late payment for years on end.
Fortunately, another bank wanted my business and I moved the LOC to them. I know plenty of people in my spot- also +++ credit- who aren’t so lucky.
There’s another green shoot for the propagandist Mr. Kudlow.
I actually feel sorry for Victoria, she owned that home mortgage free and her ex husband via Chase bank cashed out the equity without her signature, now he is a so called minister with zero income and can’t pay it back and she is stuck.
Feel sorry for what? The house is worth millions; all she owe’s is $700g but she’s trying to make a killing on the sale and walk away with millions (note the sale prices ranging from $3.2 - 4.8 with no takers).
If she put it up for $2 mil for a quick sale; she could walk away with just over $1 mil clean after paying the $700k back and commmissions. That should be able to buy her a new house.
-Richie
CLot,
In some ways, US industrial farming is just a credit dependent and leveraged as the banks.
Its all about the NPK, and the next few years could get interesting
Clot,
my wife had good morning america on this morning. They were hyping that the recession is over and that housing has probably hit bottom because the average sales price is going up!!!
ROFLMAO!
network news is starting to sound like someone thought 1984 was a training manual, not a work of fiction.
vodka (29)-
Note to self: continue to stockpile 12-gauge shells and seeds.
Feel bad for the gotti’s. Cmon, they shouldn’t even have that house.
The U.S. trade deficit in March widened in line with expectations, but not in the manner expected. And the latest trade numbers bode ill for manufacturing. The overall U.S. trade gap widened to $27.6 billion from a revised $26.1 billion deficit the month before. The March shortfall was close to the consensus forecast for a $27.5 billion deficit. But the widening was not due to a rise in imports as was expected to be boosted by higher oil imports. Exports dropped a sharp 2.4 percent while imports slipped 1.0 percent. Oil imports did rise but were offset by other imports falling. The news for manufacturers is not good as the worldwide recession is cutting into demand for U.S. exports.
The drop in exports was led by a drop in capital goods excluding autos and also included declines in consumer goods and autos. Modest gains were seen in foods, feeds & beverages and in industrial supplies.
Imports were pulled down by decreases in industrial supplies and in capital goods excluding autos. A moderate rebound was seen in consumer goods but this followed a huge drop the month before. Autos and foods, feeds & beverage imports were little-changed but marginally positive.
The oil deficit worsened slightly to $14.1 billion from $13.7 billion in February while the non-oil gap grew to $23.1 billion from $22.5 billion in February.
Year-on-year, overall exports slipped to down 17.4 percent in March from down 17.0 percent in February while imports improved to down 27.0 percent from down 28.7 percent the previous month.
Although the overall deficit was in line with expectations, equities should not like the fact that exports were so weak.
[29] ket
“network news is starting to sound like someone thought 1984 was a training manual, not a work of fiction.”
It’s neither—it’s a prediction, and one that is coming true a lot more than folks think, and has been building for a lot longer than folks think.
Kettle,
MSM is so sad. Not only do they take government info at face value, they actively promote the propaganda because they hope it will provide further “exclusive access” to future propaganda.
#29 kettle: The same GMA had a segemnt on how people are throwing rent parties tody to pay for the rent.
Throw a party, invite family friends and neighbors, and than pass around a can for donations to pay this months rent.
shameless plug but my company made the new york times yesterday-woot:
http://tinyurl.com/qbzdxc
22- But all the offers I have ever seen had a different non 0 apr for cash advances.
Note to self, monitor wife, may have been infected by indirect suggestive techniques as evidenced by watching good morning america.
One of the Gotti kids has a tanning Parlor in Huntington LI called Gotti Tan, now that is a good name. You too can have that same color skin for your next trip to Carlos and Charlies in Cancun.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15245616/egan
We need to do something about this problem - yesterday.
Sean Egan - Solving the Credit Crisis
“Rating reform proposals are well-intentioned and some certainly move in the right direction but they share a common premise that the major rating agencies are in the business of providing timely and accurate ratings for the benefit of investors when, in fact, these companies have, for the last 35 years, been in the business of facilitating the issuance of securities for the benefit of corporate issuers and underwriters, i.e., the entities that pay them.”
NakedCapitalism has an interesting link to some questions being asked of the Inspector Gen. of the Fed.
More homes for sale are attracting multiple offers as buyers pursue lower-price homes …
True story. A TH on sale in my neighborhood has had multiple offers this spring, all about 5-10% above 2003 prices (and 5-10% below list).
Owner is unwilling to budge. I think he should take it and move on.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=acfK4UBwO_ug&refer=home
Hehe,
Editors have become gutless and reporters have been 1) seduced by access and 2) get shut out if they do don’t accept the seduction. For most of the Bush years, the NYT was not allowed to send a reporter on the plane with the SECDEF, and certain Wash Post reporters were denied all access to anything other than the daily briefing, which anyone could watch on the internet.
Investigative journalism costs too much for most news organizations to care about doing and it brings with it the danger of being sued or shut out by policy makers. Go along and get along seems to be the new motto.
Shore,
hence the rise of the bloggers
Sync,
Why settle? Have you not heard? The recession is over and personal savings rates are on the rise. Extra calorie-free cake and icecream for everyone.
It is funny, we hear reports of personal savings going from 0 percent (or below) to 4 percent and it gets trumpeted as a great sign that the economy is on the mend. It makes one wonder, though, why we do not hear as much about current debt loads. So what if a family saves $4,000 this year if the credit card bill is not declining, or is increasing.
It becomes an exercise in polishing the ships bell on the Titanic.
Shore,
For the global economcy to “recover” someone else must spend a dollar for every additional dollar that the american citizen saves.
Hows that chinese consumerism plan coming along?
more savings means less earnings for companies but then more savings means more money into stocks and other securuties.
obviously not an equal balance as stock crashes happen upfront and saving is timely process but to what extent does the savings offset the crash in stocks? is my question.
Also, savings doesnt create jobs the way spending does.
any thoughts or analysis on that would be interesting.
Shore,
another fun question:
how far can one go in pulling future earnings into the present in order to boost consumption.
And how exactly does one fill the subsequent consumption vacuum that is formed when the future period you drew from becomes the present, as drawing future consumption into the present can have a nasty little effect of limiting the economic utility said resources may provide in that future period
Shore Guy #46,
That is exactly what he’s thinking. His lowest offer so far was the first offer he got. In his mind, this is a sign that prices are on the uptick again. I said to him, I think the guy who made the first offer was likely a bottomfeeder d i c k and these new offers (which are all clustered around each other) are more realistic, you should take them. No. Prices are going up!
#10 - DL - Thanks for that, saw it on CR too. That should be very big news, it won’t be though.
Does anyone have info on 304 Wellingtom court., Jakson NJ 08527 ? Thank you
Veto,
Are the savings that are currently being generated entering the stock and securities markets at the levels they were previously?
While there is a lot of hype about “buy stocks now”, “green shoots”, I suspect we will see less of the saved capital available in the markets
ket 45
Dunno the source of the quote:
Information wants to be free!
sl
RE: tanning salons
http://images.onesite.com/gabster.fm1071.com/user/fm107_ian/blog_photos/ian5.jpg
SL
this seems to be the earliest reference:
On the one hand information wants to be expensive, because it’s so valuable. The right information in the right place just changes your life. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time. So you have these two fighting against each other.
-Stewart Brand at the first Hackers’ Conference in 1984
53) “I suspect we will see less of the saved capital available in the markets”
Ket, i will agree there is prob some truth to that and im just speculating here but most savings is prob not going under mattresses. But even if it goes into local bank mmkt, the bank then invests that savings into securities markets, albeit low risk securities… thats all im thinking. and have to wonder to what extent it will help offset the weak securities markets
#55 - I don’t know how many times I’ve seen that picture. I refuse to believe it’s serious, it just can’t be. It has to be satire.
re#43 - John - the republicans were bitching just yesterday that O’bama was shorting the markets to bankrupt and then divide and conquer the American people.
Where is the recession??
http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf
Tosh,
I don’t know, his friend looks pretty serious:
http://idiotpantsparty.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/guido2.jpg
“may have been infected by indirect suggestive techniques”
flicker rate.
SAS
Median home prices fell in US in 1Q
Home sales fell in all but six states — Nevada, California, Arizona, Florida, Virginia and Minnesota — where buyers have been able to snap up foreclosures at a deep discount.
The median sales price nationwide was $169,900, down 13.8 percent from a year ago.
The biggest drop, of more than 50 percent, was in Fort Myers, Florida. Prices fell 40 percent or more in Saginaw, Michigan; Akron, Ohio; San Francisco; San Jose, California; Phoenix; Sarasota, Florida, and Riverside, California.
The biggest price gain, of more than 21 percent, was in Cumberland, Maryland. The only other double-digit increase was in Davenport, Iowa, which saw the median price climb nearly 14 percent.
Lawrence Yun, the trade group’s chief economist, said the $8,000 tax credit for first-time buyers included in the economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year should boost sales.
“We expect a measurable increase in home sales during the second half of the year, which would help stabilize prices in most areas,” Yun said in a statement.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Median-home-prices-fell-in-US-apf-15215447.html?sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=
Al,
Recently those labor statistics reports have been off by about 65,000 jobs. They have been revised heavily upwards for the last six months. This means that the goverment is consistently getting their numbers wrong by about 10% or more, an unacceptable range of error.
These are not statistics, they are a sham.
I haven’t read the report but I read (maybe on this blog) that those numbers also included census jobs which are temporary in nature and are typically discounted from the jobs reports at the turn of the decade.
NAR’s chief economist, Lawrence Yun, characterized it as a lull before an upturn. “Housing affordability conditions are at record high levels, ” he said, “and we expect a measurable increase in home sales during the second half of the year, which would help stabilize prices in most areas.”
Not to hate on Cumberland, MD but it is really far out in western Maryland. It is nested in the Appalachian mountains right close to Western VA.
If home prices appreciated in that area it is likely due to some extenuating circumstances like a plant opening or something. Or all their homes cost 8,000 and they have become free due to the federal tax credits.
#65 John:which would help stabilize prices in most areas.”
Except ours.
Not the return of the fist pump!
Western VA == West Virginia
http://images.onesite.com/gabster.fm1071.com/user/fm107_ian/blog_photos/ian5.jpg
Lobster Man Group?
His face was fried by the light
Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night
Face fried by the light
Mama always told me not to look into the sights of the sun
Oh but mama that’s where the tan is
Veto,
we agree on the savings matter
“Lawrence Yun, characterized it as a lull before an upturn.”
He then excusded himself from the interview satating, ” I must go now and prepare myself for a manage a trois with Angelena Jolie and Jennifer Anniston. Madonna was going to come too but she is still sore from her horse-riding accident.”
#29 - i also think it way too funny that people think this mess is over. billions of $$$ of CMBS is about to come due starting 4Q09 and continue for the next few years. The REIT privitization craze starting in 4Q04 and was done with 5-7 loan terms. Add in the fact that some of the deals were levered 80%+ even more if you include pref equity. commercial real estate is usually last in the crapper, last out. also how are out of this “mess” if most of my buddies have been laid off from “wall street jobs” ie banking, trading, etc. (and don’t really have any prospects on the horizon to even come close to the $$ they were making before) or have seen their bonus cut 90%-100% (bonus is the majority of their income). i do mentoring of undergrad for my alma mata and all the kids i am talking to say that about 50% of their class have a job. when my class was coming out in 1999 most folks had multiple job offers. got my 10 year reunion in philly, will be interesting to see how my class is doing now. i am just excited to hit up pat’s again. wiz with is pure heaven!!!!
Nick 64
The fun part is i ran some projections and even if you believe the reported unemployment numbers, and believe that we have either bottomed out now or by late summer, then we are still past the point of no return for a depression level event (i.e 20+% U3)
If you play with more realistic numbers then we are already set to surpass the economic fallout of the 1930’s in the job markets.
Of course a handy war could solve that problem. As SAS pointed out before, a draft would suck up a huge # of unemployed people and provide jobs for a majority of the remaining individuals in support roles.
#64 - nicholas - They have been revised heavily upwards for the last six months
It’s been noticeable too, I believe the Feb numbers went from 640K to 699k.
[73] centaur
Don’t you mean “wiz wit”?
Tosh,(41),
I couldn’t believe my ears. You got to be kidding me. She had no idea what a off balance sheet transaction is.
About the price drops:
This pea brain finds it funny how people assume the price declines have created “bargains.” If the peak prices were rational, sure, then the current prices would be great deals. But, if like when one goes to certain stores and they take goods that have a market value of $X and double the price and then offer 40% off as a “sale” one is still paying too much. Heck, under such circumstances, even 50% just puts one back where one should have been all along.
There may be a handful of “deals” out there. As a rule, though, prices are at best where they should have been, and around NJ most are still well above that.
We have a dearth od citizens with critical-thinking skills.
Talking about a home price recovery in 2009 is like talking about an internet stock recovery in 2002. Boring. I always do like Yum’s positive attitude.
Four hurdles for BC and Nassau county to overcome in high end housing
Financial Services High Paying Jobs need to start recovering
Jumbo Mortgage Market needs to reach normalization
O’s big plans to cut mortage interest
tax deduction for high earners needs to be fleshed out.
RE Taxes need to at least stabilize at these high levels, someone paying 20K taxes at least would like it to stay at 20K for awhile and not buy a home and wake up and taxes are not 40K.
Sellers need to cut prices enough to entice multiple offers on a property to create at least the illusion you need to buy now, overpricing a home to 2007 prices just results in no traffic and no offers, buyers just sit on sidelines.
Currently buying a million dollar+ home where you do not have job security, do not know if the RE taxes will be jacked and are unsure if you can get a loan or if prices are near bottom is a tough sell. Too much risk to buyer when these buyers already have smaller homes and moving up is a luxury.
The couple in a one bedroom with a 8 month pregant wife may roll the dice on a small starter cape, but the 45 year old in a split he almost owns cash and is financial secure won’t bet the farm on a mcmansion unless he knows it won’t cause him financial ruin.
3b says:
May 12, 2009 at 10:49 am
#65 John:which would help stabilize prices in most areas.”
Except ours.
Madonna was riding an upside down horse, her box is bigger than that one that was sucked into a jet engine last night.
Shore Guy says:
May 12, 2009 at 10:56 am
“Lawrence Yun, characterized it as a lull before an upturn.”
He then excusded himself from the interview satating, ” I must go now and prepare myself for a manage a trois with Angelena Jolie and Jennifer Anniston. Madonna was going to come too but she is still sore from her horse-riding accident.”
“…numbers went from 640K to 699k.”
699K…Maybe they thought they selling a home in Brigadoon?
From yesterday:
“Thriving Realtor Mindset:
• The old market isn’t coming back.
• I’m thriving in this market.
• I’m learning to “dance in the rain.”
• I’m making the shift: new mindset, new skills and new actions.
• There is always a market. I just need to find it.”
”
This sounds like something from the Jeff Spicoli guide to real estate. The one line left out is “Dude, I am so fu(king wasted.”
#77 - I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. There is the possibility that such questions are not within her purview. Thus she wouldn’t be able to answer about them and the Rep. is just a showboating a**.
It doesn’t appear that way though. If you know you’re going to break the law, make sure the cops are incompetent.
#79 John: Hey look at that, I agree with you.
#29 ket:
“network news is starting to sound like someone thought 1984 was a training manual, not a work of fiction.”
They were at it for a long while. I remember them looking for “Arab men” after Oklahoma City bombing, hyping Y2K endlessly, pumping up dot com stocks, cheerleading the war. It’s not news anymore — it should come with the “This is entertainment” label that they have for late night Psychic Show cr@p.
Wanda Sykes is cool!
S
John,
About property taxes. We were looking at two wekend places, one in NJ and the other in NC. The NJ house had taxes of $15,000 a yer and the NC house rounded up to $3,000 a year. That difference of $1,000 a month (ignoring the likelihood that the NJ taxe increases will continue to outpace the NC tax increases) assuming an interest rate of 5% over the course of a 20-year loan works out to just under $76,000. In other words, with the purchase of a secoind home in a lower-taxing jurisdiction, for the same monthly cost, one can get $75,000 more house for the money — or pocket the cash.
Does anyone here have any experience with Korg keyboards?
Even Moody’s Thinks Fed’s “Adverse Case” Is A Joke
Posted by Tyler Durden at 9:39 AM
When even Moody’s chimes in and notes that the Fed’s “Adverse Case” assumptions are in line with their “Base Case” assumptions, one can’t help but wonder in what parallel universe the Federal Reserve is expecting to see its optimistic outcome realized, especially since many of its macro worst case parameters have already been trampled by real economic data.
http://zerohedge.blogspot.com/2009/05/even-moodys-thinks-feds-adverse-case-is.html
Shore,
Are you an artist/producer?
“Of course a handy war could solve that problem. As SAS pointed out before, a draft would suck up a huge # of unemployed people and provide jobs for a majority of the remaining individuals in support roles”
when I say draft, we have to look at as a 2 prong draft.
a) one prong, no draft letter but still have a choice, but due to poor economics and psychological feelings as a military as “a way out”. i can’t think of the proper word to describe this phenomenon. usually privates are black kids from the inner cities and the white bread from the farm.
b) other prong, a true draft card. which comes for the poor & middle to upper class kids, no choice.
you have tots, better wake up & pay attention.
SAS
zieba,
No. Just a parent.
{76} yeah my bad this LA kid could never get the philly lingo down in my four years there
Zieba,
Are you?
“draft”
but this can be up for debate, as technology can reduce the required manpower and this new system of hiring private buisness armies (aka. blackwater) & Outsourcing jobs of what use to belong to the military is now done by immigrant workers. ex. military base in Iraq, you have alot of Iraq people doing the everyday things like laundry, cleaning, stuff like that.
a new military system has somewhat emerged to take care of the grunt work with cheap labor, and attract someone with video game control from a console in Colorado Spring, CO… while the bomb and damage goes off in the middle east.
its like a ying/yang.
some old school, with the new.
SAS
Shore,
I am in the industry but not in that capacity. I am an accountant who combs through books to find spare change for clients.
Area Man First In His Family To Coast Through College
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/area_man_first_in_his_family_to
“Thanks to his parents’ foresight, frugal habits, and careful financial planning, Peterson has never had to worry about tuition or consider working to cover living expenses. He shows his gratitude often, stopping by his parents’ house twice a month to enjoy a home-cooked meal and relax in front of the TV watching sports. ”
Very funny Onion article.
GM shares at 1.09 on market trading after executives announce they sold over 300,000$ worth of stock.
GM has two weeks to dodge bankrupcy and the best they could come up with is 100 to 1 dilution of common shares followed by a 100 to 1 reverse stock split.
This company is going into bankrupcy in two weeks.
The music business seems to be finding itself inthe same place as the auto makers, the model of years past, which everyone thought would be around forever, has turned on a dime and there are few new hit products (a/k/a bands or individual artists) that are the cash cows of the 60s-80s.
“after executives announce they sold over 300,000$ worth of stock”
Like rats from a sinking ship — they feathered their own nests before getting wiped out by bk.
I’m more of a Genos guy. Mainly because you can get a sandwich like Pat’s anywhere in the city. Last week I was down there and Geno’s had a line of about 15 people. Pat’s had no line which I found odd. I always thought that Pat’s was busier.
The publishers are doing better than the record side. While physical record volume has dropped off, distribution channels have multiplied. While most of these new distribution methods are not nearly as profitable as the LP album, their relative complexity, and the labels subsequent failure to properly integrate into antiquated accounting systems, keeps me busy year in year out.
Speaking of the Onion, and the Yankees:
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/slashed_ticket_prices_allow_lesser
The real money has always been in publishing. Let some other guy pay for studio time, session musicians, tour, yadda, yadda, in support of selling X units and then pay you for the music and lyrics. Anyone who sells any of their publishing rights is insane. Even my kids know that IP is key to nearly everything.
[100] d2b
Pat’s. Geno’s. Never liked either and too far into South Filthy for me.
The wife’s place was Jim’s. So it was mine also, and where she took me when I won our super bowl bet (she wore her eagles jersey, and I wore wore my Patriots one, and she had to buy me cheesteaks, all while acknowledging my greatness in front of the assembled Jim’s customers).
What i find interesting is the process required by ASCAP etc. to get royalties to everyone.
#97 - GM shares at 1.09 on market trading after executives announce they sold over 300,000$ worth of stock.
Play them off, Keyboard cat.
…sorry, just thought I’d add to a meme…
Nom,
You slept on the couch for, what, a month after that?
[92] centaur,
4 years. Obviously undergrad. Where didya go?
[107] shore,
No, but she didn’t speak to me for a week.
The bet collection came many months later, so the hate had long worn off.
FOrget the cat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoGdx3I3dPE
oops, wrong link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0brHGJ6xqbk&feature=related
One of my old teammates played for the Pats but, even so, I never got into them.
sean (59)-
Oblamma doesn’t need to do that. Just as Jefferson (and Lenin) understood, all you need to do to bankrupt your population is grind them between the millstones of inflation and taxation. That way, you kill everybody, not just the investor class.
“the republicans were bitching just yesterday that O’bama was shorting the markets to bankrupt and then divide and conquer the American people.”
“(she wore her eagles jersey, and I wore wore my Patriots one, and she had to buy me cheesteaks, all while acknowledging my greatness in front of the assembled Jim’s customers).”
And you thought I was bad when I revealed sexcapades prior to meeting my wife. :)
[104] jim’s is great as well but when we had iron stomachs in college we could do the cheesesteak challenge down in south philly, one at pat’s and one at geno’s (sometimes 2 at each place if we were really hungry). its amazing we didn’t have heart attacks at 22. i admire you for wearing a pats jeresy in the middle of eagle country.
[108] upenn. go quakers!
Shore,
Agreed pub is where its at. The right to control these exploitations is highly prized. For example, If the market were to value a publishing catalog where the owner retained his right to actively issue/decline mechanical/synchronization licenses (as opposed to being a passive recipient of royalties) it would assign a multiple that is triple that of a catalog where no such rights exists.
California state budget deficit grows to $20.5 billion
California’s budget shortfall grew last month, according to figures released Friday by Controller John Chiang. The state’s cash deficit grew to $20.5 billion on April 30. California started the fiscal year on July 1, 2008, with a deficit of $1.45 billion. General fund revenue was down $1.89 billion, or 16 percent, in April from budget estimates. Personal income taxes were down $1.06 billion, or 12.6 percent, and corporate taxes were down $831 million, or 35.6 percent, from estimates. Year-to-date revenue is $2.1 billion below expectations. Chiang warned that the state could be in deep trouble with the current fiscal year drawing to a close this summer.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2009/05/04/daily97.html
“i admire you for wearing a pats jeresy in the middle of eagle country.”
If it had been a jersey from a real team — read that Giants — they would never have been able to identify the body without dental records.
“upenn. go quakers!”
I dont know about this naming sports teams after religious or ethnic groups.
“California’s budget shortfall grew last month”
They grow up so quickly.
Clot
Options for Fannie, Freddie May Include ‘Wind-Down’.
Options for overhauling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-run mortgage-finance companies, may eventually include liquidating their assets, according to a document released today by the Obama administration.
The Office of Management and Budget also projected today that the companies, which have received or requested $78.8 billion in aid since their federal takeover in September, will need at least $92.2 billion more by Sept. 30. The Treasury Department doubled an emergency capital commitment for each company in February to $200 billion.
Alternatives under consideration range from “a gradual wind-down of their operations and liquidation of their assets,” to returning the two companies to their previous status as government-sponsored enterprises that seek to maximize shareholder returns while pursuing public-policy goals, according to the document released by the OMB.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKznvsNas8Qo
With respect to budget deficits, here I part company from RR who once said something to the effect of, “I don’t worry about the budget deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.”
re: Bumbleclot
You’re a freakin’ idiot.
vodka (122)-
My options for Phony/Fraudy would involve two daisy cutters, of equal size and power.
osirus (124)-
Are you Barney Frank…or his buttboy du jour?
“GM has two weeks to dodge bankrupcy”
If it’s anything like the Chrysler “bankruptcy” then they will effectively be allowed by the government to dodge bankruptcy in the end.
It will be interesting what this does further on bond yields going forward. Who is going to be investing in any company where there’s a risk that the gubmint will come in and force a sale that gives you pennies on the dollar and a bunch of diluted shares in a lousy company.
Bumbleclot - long on talk short on action and brains.
[115] centaur.
Philly fans weren’t bad about it. Not at all.
I wore my jersey while walking the dog in schuykill section immediately after the game. I wore it in So. Philly a week prior to the game. I wore my Pats cap at Foreman Mills a few days before the game when I was buying the wife the last Westbrook jersey in a medium in the City (and got weird looks for that one).
Only one person said anything negative–Right after the Super Bowl, one guy said “you gotta lot of nerve wearing that around here.” I stopped, looked him down and said “Yes. Yes I do” then went on my way. That was all the grief I ever got.
Shore. Giants are a good team. Their fans are puss1es though.
osirus (128)-
1031 Rt 202, Branchburg. Come in, introduce yourself, and find out about the action part.
Short of that, kindly STFU.
Bumbleclot,
I don’t know how exactly what your point is, but considering your obsession with gays and butt sex maybe you ought to move to Maine and start living your life out of the closet.
How come gun cleaning accidents only happen to good people?
#86. Shore guy,
Have you factored in transit costs and the time involved traveling to NC?
[119] i have never seen more intense fans than northeast fans (philly, nyc, boston). grew up in LA where the volume at sporting events is equal to the volume at your local elementary school library. was living in NYC for the last 8 years and moved back to LA this past winter and after going to ranger, mets, yankee, knicks, jets and giants games, laker and dodger games are like attending a wake. was a the lakers game last week and was told to settle down by staple center security after fisher got tossed. (he did deserve thought after watching the replay).
[125, 129] Osirus,
????
Was there a point, or are you just trying out for WH press secretary?
Bumbleclot,
Why would I want to meet you, I’m not into butt sex like you. Dont you have work to do?
“I actually feel sorry for Victoria, she owned that home mortgage free and her ex husband via Chase bank cashed out the equity without her signature, now he is a so called minister with zero income and can’t pay it back and she is stuck.”
Yeah, I feel so sorry for the daughter who lived in a multimillion dollar house that was bought and paid for with decades of murder and extortion her father performed.
osirus (131)-
Go back to #130. Other than in person, nothing to say to you.
Goodbye.
[132] osirus
never mind. Saw your last snark after posting.
from bloomberg :-(
Home Prices in U.S. Drop Most on Record in Quarter (Update1)
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Kathleen M. Howley
May 12 (Bloomberg) — Home prices in the U.S. dropped the most on record in the first quarter from a year earlier as banks sold seized homes and foreclosures in California and Florida dominated sales.
The median price fell 14 percent to $169,000, the National Association of Realtors said today. Prices dropped in 134 of 152 metropolitan areas, with the deepest declines in Cape Coral-Ft. Myers, Florida, and the San Francisco and San Jose areas.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&sid=a2Y9brIKcxK4
Ben,
Just the daughter of a businessman who was hounded by the feds just because of his heritage and the fact that he went up against the WASP oligarchy.
shore - if you have small children don’t ever let them see the quaker mascot, that thing still gives me nightmares. nom - glad the philly fans did not give you a hard time, once i wore my karros jersey to a dodgers-phillies game at the vet, took a lot of grief that afternoon.
[134] centaur
True. I have one LA friend who tries to talk trash with me (usu. Lakers-Celtics) and his attempts are pitiful.
In fact, right now, with the Lakers doing well, and Boston struggling with injuries and the prospect of facing King James (should they get past Orlando), I expected lots of smack from the Left Coast, yet so far, nothing.
Kind of disappointed, actually.
Forget Philly (blasphemy…I know) and stay on this side of the river and go to Gaetano’s in Willingboro for the world’s best cheesesteak.
My brother introduced me to them and they are unreal.
BTW, I’m a provolone man. Cheese Whiz is cr@p. It might be a tradition, but it’s like drinking a fine wine out of a dixie cup.
HEHE
it gets even better. The US government is playing shenanigans with bankruptcy and now this
US plans new antitrust effort.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-plans-new-antitrust-apf-15203949.html
Safe,
While there are indeed travel costs, they do not outweigh 1) tax burden, 2) longer “season.” What caused us to back-off, for now anyway, is the erosion on the OBX. Do you know how one can look at a clock and see the minute hand move? Their coastline is like that, they are losing huge swaths of beach. That leaves the bay side and we may do something there but, like NJ, people still think it is 2005. We will not buy until there is blood in the streets, as someone here was once fond of saying. In the meantime, we can use what would be tax/mortgage money on weekends/weeks in the tropics.
“Cheese Whiz is cr@p.”
Stu,
That is like saying George W. Bush was not the smartest of all our presidents.
[15] Clot,
Was trying to figure out what set off Osirus. Thought I had it, but still trying to figure it out.
Then I came across your quote:
“How long will it be before we’re instructed not to disparage our Dear Leader?”
I think we have an answer to your question.
Kettle,
I surprised the stinking B.O. Administration doesnt prohibit bk for anyone who ever earned over $200,000 a year.
‘, the missing apostrophe
Apologies if this has already been posted over the last few days:
Double-dipping on the rise in N.J.
Do you hold at least two public jobs, make at least $100,000 and have a lucrative state pension lined up?
If so, you won’t be lonely in the Garden State.
The number of double-dippers soared to 1,560 in New Jersey last year, up from 896 in 2007, according to an Asbury Park Press review of government payroll data.
“Well, unfortunately, it’s business as usual here in New Jersey,” said Jerry Cantrell of Randolph, president of the New Jersey Taxpayers’ Association, a grass-roots group that says it seeks “real tax reform” in the state. “It’s a cancerous culture of deception, and we have allowed ourselves to be lulled here.”
Overall, regardless of income, 8,255 workers had two or more state, county, school, local or other nonfederal government jobs last year, according to the data.
Their median salary was $61,773, and they earned $538.8 million altogether.
One person had 12 jobs that generated a total of $96,508.
You can search public employees by name, agency or pension fund type at http://www.DataUniverse.com, the Asbury Park Press’s public records site. Look under “What’s New.”
The site also allows you to see a list of multiple-job holders paid $100,000 or more.
Heading that list is Damian Murray, an Ocean County lawyer who made $320,439 last year, up 6.2 percent from 2007.
His pay exceeded that of the chief justice of the United States and is less than $80,000 shy of President Barack Obama’s $400,000 salary.
Last year, Murray held eight part-time jobs as a Municipal Court judge in Beachwood, Island Heights, Lacey, Lakehurst, Little Egg Harbor, Seaside Heights, Stafford and Toms River.
Each job paid from $11,209 to $57,000, according to pension data.
If Murray, a 60-year-old Toms River resident, retires today, he could qualify for a state pension of about $160,000, according to a calculation of retirement benefits.
“We should not allow people to take a couple of salaries and combine them together and get a bigger pension,” said Chris Daggett, an independent candidate for governor and former state Department of Environmental Protection commissioner.
State Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, said he thinks Murray’s salary should be capped, at least for pension purposes.
But Murray, who is now also Municipal Court judge in Eagleswood, said he handles probably 100,000 matters a year and is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for search warrants, to set bail and to handle domestic violence restraining orders.
He said he probably works 50 to 60 hours a week, on average. When that is factored in, he makes about $100 to $125 an hour, he said.
For a lawyer with 34 years of experience, that’s comparable to or a lot less than what most lawyers get, he said.
He also contributes more than $15,000 a year to the state pension system, he said.
“I didn’t create the system,” said Murray, a former Ocean County freeholder. “I just go out and work every day, and the system says that I would be paid (based) on those cumulative totals, so I’m certainly doing nothing illegal. I’m just doing what the system created.”
Lawmakers no exception
Legislators elected after Feb. 1, 2008, can’t hold two or more elected offices, under a 2007 measure signed by Gov. Jon S. Corzine. But some officials were allowed to keep their seats until they relinquished or lost their posts. As of last year, 19 lawmakers held two or more public jobs.
State Sen. Nicholas J. Sacco, D-Hudson, ranked first on the list among state lawmakers who have more than one elected office.
He made $270,798 last year, including $206,798 as assistant superintendent in the North Bergen school district, $49,000 as a state legislator and $15,000 as North Bergen mayor. Sacco could not be reached for comment.
What Sacco is doing is “perfectly legal,” Codey said. “As long as the residents say, “Hey, we’re all right with that and we’re going to elect him and keep electing him because he does a good job.’ ”
But in the future, “those things, I think we’re gonna look at . . . them differently,” Codey said.
Locally, Assemblyman Ronald S. Dancer, R-Ocean, held two government jobs: his lawmaker job and interviewer in the Ocean County Adjuster’s Office. His total pay was $118,526 last year, according to pension records.
Dancer said he supports “one job, one pension” legislation that would ban a second income to calculate pensions.
Shared services
Tom Vincz, a spokesman for the state treasury department, said, “most of those multiple jobs are at the local level and there have been a number of reforms put in place in 2007 and 2008 that address many of these issues in the pension system that have resulted in multiple jobs, pension padding and other activities that . . . increase the cost of the system.”
For new employees, the retirement age is now 62, up from 55. Jobs that pay less than $7,500 have been cut out of pension calculations, and the maximum income used to calculate a pension was capped at $102,000 last year.
People who have professional services contracts, such as lawyers, engineers and architects, can no longer enroll in the state pension system under a 2007 law, Vincz said.
Pension and health benefits reforms will save up to $6.5 million over the next 10 years, he said.
“We got to still keep our eye on it to make sure people aren’t trying to con the system, and I think that’s the biggest problem and issue that you have,” Codey said.
At some point, towns must share services to save money and reduce taxes, “but at the same time not do something that would . . . help somebody get a greater pension,” he said.
Republican Christopher J. Christie, the former U.S. attorney for New Jersey who is seeking Corzine’s job, would eliminate dual office-holding, according to his campaign Web site. He also would prohibit anyone from holding a full-time government job and a salaried elected position.
Codey opposes that idea because teachers, for example, could not be legislators.
“Why would you ban a certain class of people?” he asked. “That means anybody who holds a public job would have to give up their job, and that’s not going to happen because you could be out (of) the Legislature in a heartbeat.”
But Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, R-Monmouth, said in a statement that “we need to address the root causes of our chronic budget problems and an excellent area to start is to end double-dipping for public employees and legislators and reform our pension system.”
http://wap.app.com/detail.jsp?key=198155&rc=ne&full=1
“Center for American Progress”
Named by Geo Orwell?
Apologies if this has already been posted over the last few days:
Double-dipping on the rise in N.J.
Do you hold at least two public jobs, make at least $100,000 and have a lucrative state pension lined up?
If so, you won’t be lonely in the Garden State.
The number of double-dippers soared to 1,560 in New Jersey last year, up from 896 in 2007, according to an Asbury Park Press review of government payroll data.
“Well, unfortunately, it’s business as usual here in New Jersey,” said Jerry Cantrell of Randolph, president of the New Jersey Taxpayers’ Association, a grass-roots group that says it seeks “real tax reform” in the state. “It’s a cancerous culture of deception, and we have allowed ourselves to be lulled here.”
Overall, regardless of income, 8,255 workers had two or more state, county, school, local or other nonfederal government jobs last year, according to the data.
Their median salary was $61,773, and they earned $538.8 million altogether.
One person had 12 jobs that generated a total of $96,508.
You can search public employees by name, agency or pension fund type at DataUniverse.com, the Asbury Park Press’s public records site. Look under “What’s New.”
The site also allows you to see a list of multiple-job holders paid $100,000 or more.
Heading that list is Damian Murray, an Ocean County lawyer who made $320,439 last year, up 6.2 percent from 2007.
His pay exceeded that of the chief justice of the United States and is less than $80,000 shy of President Barack Obama’s $400,000 salary.
Last year, Murray held eight part-time jobs as a Municipal Court judge in Beachwood, Island Heights, Lacey, Lakehurst, Little Egg Harbor, Seaside Heights, Stafford and Toms River.
Each job paid from $11,209 to $57,000, according to pension data.
If Murray, a 60-year-old Toms River resident, retires today, he could qualify for a state pension of about $160,000, according to a calculation of retirement benefits.
“We should not allow people to take a couple of salaries and combine them together and get a bigger pension,” said Chris Daggett, an independent candidate for governor and former state Department of Environmental Protection commissioner.
State Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, said he thinks Murray’s salary should be capped, at least for pension purposes.
But Murray, who is now also Municipal Court judge in Eagleswood, said he handles probably 100,000 matters a year and is on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week for search warrants, to set bail and to handle domestic violence restraining orders.
He said he probably works 50 to 60 hours a week, on average. When that is factored in, he makes about $100 to $125 an hour, he said.
For a lawyer with 34 years of experience, that’s comparable to or a lot less than what most lawyers get, he said.
He also contributes more than $15,000 a year to the state pension system, he said.
“I didn’t create the system,” said Murray, a former Ocean County freeholder. “I just go out and work every day, and the system says that I would be paid (based) on those cumulative totals, so I’m certainly doing nothing illegal. I’m just doing what the system created.”
Lawmakers no exception
Legislators elected after Feb. 1, 2008, can’t hold two or more elected offices, under a 2007 measure signed by Gov. Jon S. Corzine. But some officials were allowed to keep their seats until they relinquished or lost their posts. As of last year, 19 lawmakers held two or more public jobs.
State Sen. Nicholas J. Sacco, D-Hudson, ranked first on the list among state lawmakers who have more than one elected office.
He made $270,798 last year, including $206,798 as assistant superintendent in the North Bergen school district, $49,000 as a state legislator and $15,000 as North Bergen mayor. Sacco could not be reached for comment.
What Sacco is doing is “perfectly legal,” Codey said. “As long as the residents say, “Hey, we’re all right with that and we’re going to elect him and keep electing him because he does a good job.’ ”
But in the future, “those things, I think we’re gonna look at . . . them differently,” Codey said.
Locally, Assemblyman Ronald S. Dancer, R-Ocean, held two government jobs: his lawmaker job and interviewer in the Ocean County Adjuster’s Office. His total pay was $118,526 last year, according to pension records.
Dancer said he supports “one job, one pension” legislation that would ban a second income to calculate pensions.
Shared services
Tom Vincz, a spokesman for the state treasury department, said, “most of those multiple jobs are at the local level and there have been a number of reforms put in place in 2007 and 2008 that address many of these issues in the pension system that have resulted in multiple jobs, pension padding and other activities that . . . increase the cost of the system.”
For new employees, the retirement age is now 62, up from 55. Jobs that pay less than $7,500 have been cut out of pension calculations, and the maximum income used to calculate a pension was capped at $102,000 last year.
People who have professional services contracts, such as lawyers, engineers and architects, can no longer enroll in the state pension system under a 2007 law, Vincz said.
Pension and health benefits reforms will save up to $6.5 million over the next 10 years, he said.
“We got to still keep our eye on it to make sure people aren’t trying to con the system, and I think that’s the biggest problem and issue that you have,” Codey said.
At some point, towns must share services to save money and reduce taxes, “but at the same time not do something that would . . . help somebody get a greater pension,” he said.
Republican Christopher J. Christie, the former U.S. attorney for New Jersey who is seeking Corzine’s job, would eliminate dual office-holding, according to his campaign Web site. He also would prohibit anyone from holding a full-time government job and a salaried elected position.
Codey opposes that idea because teachers, for example, could not be legislators.
“Why would you ban a certain class of people?” he asked. “That means anybody who holds a public job would have to give up their job, and that’s not going to happen because you could be out (of) the Legislature in a heartbeat.”
But Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, R-Monmouth, said in a statement that “we need to address the root causes of our chronic budget problems and an excellent area to start is to end double-dipping for public employees and legislators and reform our pension system.”
http://wap.app.com/detail.jsp?key=198155&rc=ne&full=1
[144] stu,
Provolone as well, though I will settle for american. Wiz is just too salty and kills the steak taste.
Funny that for a guy from a state where you can get a cheesesteak with american or provolone (we don’t call them Philly cheesesteaks and we don’t use Wiz), Kerry tried to order one with Swiss.
I just cringed when I heard that.
Shoreguy:
“That is like saying George W. Bush was not the smartest of all our presidents.”
Good analogy, but it still kills me how many people ruin a beautiful creation to be a hipster. Sort of like 2-buck chuck. I could barely swallow that swill, yet tons of people swear by it to this day.
Sheeple. All of them!
Kettle,
Looks like a shakedown of Silicon Valley much like they shook down the Hedge Funds with the “ordinary income” tax threat.
Swiss? Maybe with ham, but with a greasy cheesesteak? I agree, american cheese is fine as well.
#151 njgator: $206,798 as assistant superintendent.
$206,798, as an assistant school Superintendent, in North Bergen!!! Simply Amazing!!
Stu,
Whenever I hear that something is “the best selling…” that is it for me, I go the other way.
[151] shore,
Careful. You are likely to be associated with Harrison Bergeron, and thus declared an undesirable.
In that event, watch for agents of our future Handicapper General, Diane Moon Glampers. You will be taken in for “refitting.” I suspect some on this board are agents for the Handicapper General, so post from a secure location.
[154] stu
It gets worse. My mom was into Little Penquin wines for awhile. I would have preferred 2 buck chuck.
“Little Penquin wines”
Never heard of them, which must be a good thing.
Gator,
“He said he probably works 50 to 60 hours a week, on average.” Boo hoo. What successful professional doesn’t work in excess of 60 hours a week? Twit.
“For a lawyer with 34 years of experience, that’s comparable to or a lot less than what most lawyers get, he said.” Putz. If you want to earn what high-earning partners in big-law firms do, go and cut the mustard there. I have never met an Ocean County lawyer who could.
“He also contributes more than $15,000 a year to the state pension system, he said.” Find me a 401(k), SEP, SIMPLE, etc., that will pay one enough to pay for his retirement health insurance and $160,000 a year with 30 years of $15,000 contributions.
It strikes this taxpayer that this guy and all like him are leeches who are both ungrateful and have too great an impression of their own worth.
The law should be changed. Of course, one wonders how many people in the Statehouse are either doing the same thing, have done the same thing, or plan to do the same thing.
“
[161] Stu
“Never heard of them, which must be a good thing.”
Yup.
Makes Yellow Tail look like Penfold’s Grange.
come on now. you can’t have a cheese steak conversation with out mentioning Tony Luke’s. hands down the best in the city. so much so that Bobby Flay challenged Tony to a “thrown down” and lost!
although it seems they have jumped the shark since you can pick them up in the frozen food isle at your super market:
http://www.tonylukespronto.com/
Didn’t Corzine promise he would end double dipping if elected?
Stu,
He meant no banging two people who have business with the state at the same time.
Nom !!
My Brotha from another motha!
Come, Lets buy gold coins with all our cash and sew them into our stomachs and ride out to Texas, before Big Brother takes all our money and guns, turns our children into zombies and raises our taxes.
We had it so good under Bush, man, lets talk about those days while shooting some mexicans and liberals.
Anyone have the cheesesteak at White House subs in AC. I’ll be down there for a hockey tournament this weekend and all this cheesesteak talk is starting to get me craving. Of course, I’ll wait till the tourney is over on Sunday before I wreck myself with a big ol’ greasy cheesesteak.
This Republican never had it so good as under Bill Clinton. Second best president in my voting yers.
re 5: “the better news is that Lawrence Yun at NAR said we’re NEAR the bottom in housing! if he said it, it MUST be true! hurrah!”
I see it ending badly for Yun. He has to loathe himself for what he is. Assuming his IQ is greater than the current air temp, he has to be contemplating eating a bullet soon.
years, even.
“He has to loathe himself for what he is.”
Naah. He is just an economic prostitute. He gives NAR just what they pay for.
Stu - WH in AC is awesome, get one with provi and one with wiz (j/k)
STU - whitehouse rocks ***** in my book, be sure to get one with hot peppers.
I once ordered a whole WH special and tried to eat it while driving. I was concerned that the other end of the sandwich would hit the gas pedal. I only ate there once and was not disappointed. I look forward to trying their hot stuff. I will order ahead though.
Plan is for fried onions peppers and provolone.
Despite Housing Bust, Homeownership Among Immigrants Remains Steady
It found that although immigrants are far less likely than their native-born counterparts to own a home, the rate of homeownership for immigrants during the years of the housing bust has declined at a much slower pace than it has for those born in this country.
“Contrary, perhaps, to common perception, immigrants have not really fared as badly as one might have expected,” said Rakesh Kochhar, an economist with Pew and author of the study. “The forces of assimilation seem alive and well and have guided them through the troubles in the housing market.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/12/AR2009051201208.html?wprss=rss_business
not for nothing but I can see Victoria being someone who could use a good donkey punch followed by a dirty sanchez.
John,
…and here I thought you were going soft on us. Soldier on.
Despite Housing Bust, Homeownership Among Immigrants Remains Steady
See my post about immigrants sharing houses from last week. You put 2-4 families in NJ home and all of the sudden it is very afordfable - on 3-4 incomes from adults and shared costs.
And most first generation immigrants I know live in the same house with their extended families.
btw i have been a long time reader and very seldom poster on this blog. had not had as much time as i would like to read it since i moved to LA but it is good to see the old crew going strong, stu, gator, clot, shore, nom, and john. you guys made many a boring working day in NYC very interesting and funny. just wanted to say thanks to all and an especially big thanks to grim for all his hard work.
Centaur Kid(180),
You’re a hater.
[167] Rush,
Yes. You are Da Man!!! Careful of posting though, Rush, old buddy. There’s spies on this board. I suspect Sastry, Victoria and maybe even that new guy Osirus, of being Gubmint agents.
We’d better put our tin foil hats on now.
Still, one wonders what sort of world “we voted for” as Gibbs so often puts it. Vonnegut saw back in 1961 where events may take us:
“THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.
Some things about living still weren’t quite right, though. April, for instance, still drove people crazy by not being springtime. And it was in that clammy month that the H-G men took George and Hazel Bergeron’s fourteen-year-old son, Harrison, away.
It was tragic, all right, but George and Hazel couldn’t think about it very hard. Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts. And George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their brains.”
Another REDC auctions is coming to NYC.
http://www.auction.com/auction-details.php?auctionID=H-086#;
[177] John,
Great. Two more terms I am gonna have to google (and risk getting on the blocked site report) just to see if they are something Victoria deserves or not.
I think I will wait until I get home. Something tells me that I don’t want that search in my cache.
[176] yome,
“The forces of assimilation seem alive and well and have guided them through the troubles in the housing market.”
I think that immigrants, having bought into the american dream, also bought into what used to be american values. So they saved, did not overextend themselves with debt and possessions, invested in what they knew, and maintained a strong community. Consequently, they were better off than a lot of others for having done so.
Too bad that they will also be punished for their conscientiousness. I guess that is also part of assimilation. Welcome to the U.S. Here’s your bill for our excesses.
Clot
You get a 2fer on this one. The first is the obvious cratering Commercial RE.
Can you guess the second?
First Allied is a private company so there is no access to its financial information but there is no doubt that shopping centre owners are being badly affected by the economic downturn, with retailers shutting down in droves. New stats show the vacancy rate at neighbourhood and community shopping centres rose to 9.5% in the first quarter of 2009 from 8.9% the previous quarter and 7.7% a year ago, according to the research company Reis. Victor Calanog, director of research at Reis, believes the situation will get worse before it gets better. He is projecting a continued increase in vacancy for neighbourhood and community centres into 2011.
Clot Forgot the link.
http://tinyurl.com/pe8mkn
“debt, which has a double-digit interest rate.”
I think I like that as a motto.
#184
Yes Nom, wait til’ you get home…
Hey Chifi, I am selling bonds today and this one I bought in December for 75 I am up in the air. Yea it is a good gain, but it is short term and I am getting 450 tax free on the bond, but then again it has moved a lot since 75 but then again a year ago it was at 95 plus. Oh what to do. The rest I got good bids and sold or bad or no bids, this is my only borderline bid.
CUSIP: 64983TPC1
Description: NEW YORK ST DORM AUTH REVS PERSONAL 04.50000% 03/15/2034INCOME TAX REV BDS SER. 2004 A EDUCATION)
Action Type: Customer Sell
Quantity: 10
Bid Quote Indication: $92.25900000
Everybody was long credit. If you weren’t long $300 jeans you were long vacation homes in the Bronx Riviera (Poconos).
I know of a few immigrant families who are either on the verge of or in various stages of foreclosure. They leveraged otherwise healthy investments, along the lines of what Traitor talked about, with the promise of doubling or tripling their returns.
Everyone wanted in on the gravy train baby!
That said, it appears that the media is quick to draw results and render verdicts.
This flushing of the weak has just started! This is a multi-year process between various bills, counseling programs and the sheer amount of time it takes to get processed by the system.
Stay tuned!
grim says:
May 11, 2009 at 4:24 pm
From Baristanet:
Ex-Mrs. New Jersey Sentenced To Year In Jail
Former Mrs. New Jersey (2005), Heather “Hedy” DiCarlo loved antiques, and had an astonishing collection in her Essex Fells home. After one particular spending spree in 2007, the beauty queen was arrested for allegedly bouncing $70,000 in checks. On January 29, 2009, DiCarlo pleaded guilty to four charges of theft by deception and writing bad checks.
Today, according to a report in NJ.com, Essex County Superior Court Judge Torkwase Sekou sentenced DiCarlo to 364 days in jail, calling DiCarlo a “master at deception.” Her lawyer said she will probably only serve two months.
anyone google this chick? she morphed from beauty queen to dumpster-diving white trash as soon as the makeup was removed
yikes,
That was SO yesterday!
The Treasury posted a record $20.9 billion deficit in April, a month that since the recession of 1983 has seen nothing but tax-based surpluses. Purchases of agency debt totaled $11.5 billion in the month with TARP-based outlays totaling $3.2 billion. The fiscal year-to-date deficit is also of course a record, at $802.3 billion. Just yesterday, the administration upped its fiscal-year deficit projection by $89 billion to $1.8 trillion. But all the red ink isn’t affecting the markets at all.
plume (184)-
Don’t sweat it. You’re probably well-established on several watchlists already.
I’m pretty sure I am.
“since i moved to LA”
ouch.
SAS
PGC (187)-
The Glazers, in a race to the bottom with Hicks and Gillett (aka Beavis and Butthead).
Classy the way Man U tries to make Tevez look like a jerk…when they won’t sign him, because they can’t pay him.
I really hope Tevez ends up at Eastlands and rams it up the Red Devils’ arses twice a year. Tevez is also way too class an act to stay with the whingeing SAF for much longer.
Of course, Tevez will leave this Summer with another CL trophy and EPL championship ring. Goddamned United.
PGC-
I think First Allied is in at least as good a shape as GGP and SPG. :)
That was SO yesterday!
OMG! This +++. We’ve so moved on.
/apologies for sarcasm and continued meme-ing.
Recession hits Social Security and Medicare hard; Medicare problems ‘more imminent,’ with insolvency seen in 2017, Geithner says
Man U…500mm in debt…traded at 70% of face value?
I hope they get relegated in a year or two.
#199 - insolvency seen in 2017
I thought I had heard on NPR this morning it was even earlier than that. They were projecting `15 as a likely year.
[195] clot
I think Osirus put you on ACLU’s watch list for some reason (I’m already there).
I’m still trying to figure out why. Thoughtcrime?
yikes,
look at the 2 photos next to each other in the second row far left. That’s a heck of a before and after!!!!
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=7dc&q=Heather%20%20DiCarlo&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
plume (202)-
The ACLU can kiss my monty white ass.
[192] yikes
It’s a bad joke really.
Remember “Miss Congeniality” with Sandra Bullock? She played a runner up Ms. NJ, I believe. I can’t remember the reason Ms. NJ had to pull out, but it was something equally salacious.
Only in NJ
“Man U 500mm in debt traded at 70% face value”
John, you are all over that
[205] clot
They tried to kick mine last year. They failed miserably.
Uncle Sam’s well is running dry in April.
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/12/news/economy/treasury_budget/index.htm?postversion=2009051214
tosh,
SS being insolvent in 2015 was based on the economci situation basically following the treasuries scenario for stress test! I kid you not.
Will try and find the article that mentioned it.
That means that SS will be insolvent before 2015.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SOCIAL SECURITY LOCKBOX?????
NOM,
She had to pull out due to some mostly clothed, yet inappropriate photos that surface
“It’s going to get worse before it gets worse.”
http://www.writingshop.ws/html/11th_hour-i.html?ref=patrick.net
157 3b - Shut up. It’s for the children.
NJ as the poster child for pension troubles:
“For years, states all across the country have been starving their retirement plans. Here’s a look at how the crisis is playing out in New Jersey, where the bill is coming due, and the state doesn’t have the money to pay it.
. . . To better understand this ticking time bomb it helps to focus on a single state, and New Jersey makes a compelling case study. For one thing, its situation is dire. In June 2008 the state estimated that the plan - one of the nation’s largest, covering teachers, state employees, firefighters, and police - had $34 billion less than it needed to meet its obligations. Since then the market value of the plan has dropped from $82 billion to $56 billion (a new estimate of underfunding is due in July).
Also, New Jersey is in some ways ahead of the pack in trying to deal with the crisis - Gov. Jon Corzine, a Democrat, made addressing the problem a central theme of his 2005 campaign - and the obstacles it is encountering shed light on the hard choices facing other states.
“The pension obligations could spark a huge problem for New Jersey,” says Thomas Kean, a former Republican governor. “They must be paid because they are absolutely an obligation of the state, but as it is, the budget is balanced with chewing gum and sealing wax. . . .”
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/12/news/economy/benner_pension.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009051212
clotpoll (#196)
at least Man U management is much better than chelski… chelsea’s a joke.. tevez is a rare talent
And the hits keep on coming . . . It’s gang up on Jersey Day at Fortune:
The leak in states’ budgets
The tab for retiree health care benefits is spiraling out of control.
“. . . Governments have piled up huge unfunded health care liabilities, the dimensions of which are just now being realized,” writes Lance Weiss in a report released in 2006 by Deloitte titled “Paying for Tomorrow.” “Estimates of unfunded liabilities associated with retiree health benefit plans represent a fiscal crisis for many states and municipalities.”
Deloitte estimates that public pension systems owe employees about $1 trillion in current and future health care costs; and that as medical expenses zip higher they will eat away at larger portions of state budgets.
For example, New Jersey owes about $68 billion in future health benefits, the largest unfunded obligation of its kind in the country, according to a 2008 study by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence.”
http://money.cnn.com/2009/05/12/news/economy/benner_pension2.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2009051212
I reiterate—-the vast number of people that have or will buy property in NJ are fools. Including me.
Man U sounds like a club in Greenwich village when donkey punches were all the rage.
Clotpoll says:
May 12, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Man U…500mm in debt…traded at 70% of face value?
I hope they get relegated in a year or two.
Re:215 Won’t nationalized health care take off some of the state’s liabilities? If
that does not work the liberization of pillow use may pick up some steam.
Nom,
you could always walk on the mortgage after securing a new residence elsewhere. you yourself have pointed this out several times.
Greenspan Sees ‘Seeds of a Bottoming’ in U.S. Housing Market
May 12 (Bloomberg) — Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said that the U.S. housing market may be on the verge of recovery and that it’s “very easy to see” financial markets continuing to improve.
“We are finally beginning to see the seeds of a bottoming” in the housing industry, Greenspan said today during a conference of the National Association of Realtors in Washington. The U.S. is “at the edge of a major liquidation” in the stock of unsold properties, which may help to stabilize prices, Greenspan said.
Home-sales figures in recent weeks have shown a slower pace of decline, and the slide in property prices has eased, according to gauges including the S&P/Case-Shiller index.
The former Fed chief, who was among the first prominent economists to warn about the risk of a recession in 2007, also said “company after company has been raising capital and they are getting far more than they expected.”
Companies in the U.S. have sold bonds at a record pace so far this year, including a $3.75 billion offering from Microsoft Corp., the world’s largest software maker, today.
#212 NJgator: I am so,so sorry, I forgot. They are the future after all, excpet there will be no future for them in NJ
#219 John:Greenspan Sees ‘Seeds of a Bottoming’ in U.S. Housing Market
Not in our area, not even half way there yet.
I think what we need is for the banks to start clearing inventory at auctions quickly to set new bars in pricing, currently banks mls at near owner pricing and they are not moving. They need to bang them out clear inventory and force sellers to either take home back off market or lower price. That happened with RTC in 1991/1992 and by 1993 prices stablized.
Greenspan Sees ‘Seeds of a Bottoming’ in U.S. Housing Market
Even with his thick glasses; he couldn’t see a huge housing bubble. I doubt he could see the bottom of anything. Move on gramps, your time was up years ago.
jerk (214)-
You mean to tell me that a gangster Russian billionaire who lends his club unlimited amounts of money at 0% interest is an example of poor management?
Sumbitch still can’t buy himself a CL trophy. Fool.
[sarcasm off]
Speaking of Female LI Reality Stars I bet that girl from LI wins biggest loser tonight.
John (216)-
You should really look into some of that discounted Man U debt.
Those notes are covered with dafunk.
Clotpoll says:
May 12, 2009 at 3:44 pm
jerk (214)-
You mean to tell me that a gangster Russian billionaire who lends his club unlimited amounts of money at 0% interest is an example of poor management?
Sumbitch still can’t buy himself a CL trophy. Fool.
[sarcasm off]
Just one correction…
He never was a “Gangster” - he was more like “Bernie” Madoff - may be a criminal, but he did not do anything illegal in Russia….
“Greenspan Sees Seeds of a Bottoming in U.S. Housing Market”
And given his track record with respect to the bubble, debt, etc. we should accept his assessment? Gimme a break.
Al (227)-
If you don’t think Abramovich hasn’t either killed somebody with his bare hands- or ordered somebody killed- you’re delusional.
Then again, that may not be technically illegal in Russia…
ewww. my ford stock getting body slammed today. i predict that stylish new fiesta rivals the civic upon release in 2010-2011.
who says fun things dont come in small packages…
http://www.toomanycars.info/images/2010FiestaRS.jpg
#231 Veto
If they bring over the fiesta cosworth, I would buy one in a heartbeat.
These NJ tax amnesty notices are like extortion. $100 here $500 there with no real explanation. We had one client from 6 yrs ago call to bitch about a $30 notice on an estate return! We tell them just pay it. It’s not worth it to fight the state.
Veto,
I had one of the original Fiestas and loved it. It was barebones but never broke down, easy on gas, and could hold a lot of cargo.
I would rather be caught on a moped than in a Honda, an 1987 Ford Taurus is more stylish than a 2009 Honda.
Ford Rocks the House, Jap Cars should be made illegal. Westhampton Bath and Tennis Club doesn’t even let jap cars park out front, ruins the scenery.
veto that says:
May 12, 2009 at 4:00 pm
ewww. my ford stock getting body slammed today. i predict that stylish new fiesta rivals the civic upon release in 2010-2011.
who says fun things dont come in small packages…
http://www.toomanycars.info/images/2010FiestaRS.jpg
I did have one bad ford, an old 1974 mercury, they put a german engine and tranny in but the rest of US made parts. The damm thing had lots of metric bolts mixed in with american style bolts, fixing that thing I wore out more nuts than a male figure skater.
Great NEWS! Recession over, Greenspan says so!
U.S. Stocks Rise as Greenspan Says Housing Bottom May Be Near
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aurndyPek5zg&refer=home
Shore start hit the ivories and Grim strike up a cord on your guitar..
njrereport let’s all Sing it now……
So long sad times
Go long bad times
We are rid of you at last
Howdy gay times
Cloudy gray times
You are now a thing of the past
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy days are here again
Altogether shout it now
There’s no one
Who can doubt it now
So let’s tell the world about it now
Happy days are here again
Your cares and troubles are gone
There’ll be no more from now on
From now on …
Happy days are here again
The skies above are clear again
So, Let’s sing a song of cheer again
Happy times
Happy nights
Happy days
PGC, i feel the same about that little vw polo…
but imagine weaving in and out of traffice on route 17 like they are cones in this little pocket rocket, wearing a helmet and fireproof jumpsuit. that oughta turn some heads.
http://www.erc24.com/db/news/800_x0904200921027.jpg
Greenspan Sees ‘Seeds of a Bottoming’ in U.S. Housing
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=amYs8axswrJQ&refer=home
shore, didnt even realize there was an original fiesta, but now that you mention, i think i can picture it. i dont know much about their pens liabilities and union problems but as far as adapting and making decent looking practical cars, they are doing alot of things right. imo.
ACLU watch list????
Nom you’d better get home I think someone from Acorn is under your bed.
[242] joeblow
Damn. Why ACORN? I’ve dealt with them and all their women are ugly.
[219] kettle,
I have tried not to get into races to the bottom. I think it will be my downfall, esp. here in NJ where they are better than nearly anyone at racing to the bottom.
Furthermore, if it ever gets to that point, I am basically walking away from my investment, not a mortgage, since I have roughly 45% equity.
pardonez moi if this is already posted:
“Costs of the Social Security program are expected to exceed tax revenues supporting the program beginning in 2016—one year earlier than projected in 2008, the Social Security trustees said May 12.
The Social Security Trust Funds are expected to be exhausted in 2037—four years earlier than trustees estimated in 2008, the 2009 trustees report said.
Meanwhile, the Medicare program faces even more daunting financial challenges, the trustees said in their annual report on the two entitlement programs. Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund is projected to become insolvent in 2017, two years earlier than the trustees projected in 2008.
Overall, Medicare’s annual costs were 3.2 percent of gross domestic product in 2008, or nearly three-quarters of Social Security’s, but are projected to surpass Social Security expenditures in 2028 and to reach 11.4 percent of GDP in 2083, compared with 5.9 percent for Social Security.
“Today’s Trustees Report contains some disappointing, but not unexpected, news about the financial condition of the Trust Funds,” Social Security Administration Commissioner Michael J. Astrue said in a press release. “We should be neither casual nor hysterical about the revised insolvency dates. As with the economy as a whole, the Social Security system will weather this recession. However, the sooner we get on with the task of reforming the system, the easier it will be to make the tough choices that we all know we need to make.”
The Social Security report is available at http://ssa.gov/OACT/TR/2009/. The Medicare report is available at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/.
It did nto sell at 879k, and it was reduced to 849K, and it did not sell, but now it has been reduced to 839K, and it just has to sell.
http://www.njmls.com/cf/details.cfm?mls_number=2915862&id=999999
Silly Nom,
you put down the minimum and maintain a built in put. although your put would be little more expensive.
just busting your chops! :)
3b,
the styling on the exterior of that house is hideous. Who thought random sections of faux stone was a good idea????
what drugs were they on? I would like to avoid those as what ever they were on is clearly dangerous stuff
China’s exports fall 22.6%, imports down 23%, as domestic investment rises
Chinese exports plunged for a sixth consecutive month, falling 22.6pc compared with a year ago, as the global financial crisis continued to take its toll on the world’s third-largest economy. The figures, which were worse than expectations and exceeded the 17.1pc year-on-year fall in March, were blamed on continuing weak demand for Chinese goods from Europe and America. Analysts said that the data released by the state-run Xinhua news agency showed that China’s exporters – the engine of growth over the past decade – would continue to experience tough conditions for the remainder of 2009. “The financial crisis and its impact on China’s trade sector will not fizzle out any time soon,” said Mei Xinyu, an analyst with China’s ministry of commerce, “and it’s too optimistic to expect a big rebound. I believe China’s exports will remain weak or stabilize at a low level in coming months.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/5311157/Chinas-export-industry-feels-the-pressure-as-demand-falls.html
having lunch tommorrow with the former head of the resolution trust company, want to hear his opinion of this mess. he is one lucky guy getting to eat lunch with me.
acorn is a great organization, it gave all the javitts crack hos a place to work after guilani started busting them.
veto that says:
May 12, 2009 at 4:00 pm
ewww. my ford stock getting body slammed today. i predict that stylish new fiesta rivals the civic upon release in 2010-2011.
veto: THIS is one of your other “blue chips”; you are useless; why don’t you just use your money as toilet paper;
Greenspan is a trip, didn’t he say the same thing back in 2007. Die already dude!
Interesting case
NY Court Says Police Can’t Track Suspect With GPS
http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/12/1731256
HEHE
Greenspan knew exactly what he was doing. he is simply a well paid cheer leader at this point in time. Its all a confidence game
don’t forget to set your dvr’s for “real housewives of nj” tonight on bravo (j/k)
Trade Deficit Indeed Rises, Drags on Recovery
At 2.4 percent of GDP, the trade deficit subtracts more from the demand for U.S. goods and services than President Obama’s stimulus package adds. Moreover, the lift from the Obama stimulus is temporary, whereas the drag from the trade deficit is permanent.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/137178-trade-deficit-indeed-rises-drags-on-recovery
grim, 245 and 246 in mod.
Feel free to kill one of them.
Looks like the VP needs to come to NJ and see what the unions have done here. It’s more like killed off the middle class.
Biden: Unions are way to rebuild middle class
Vice president says it’s time to level playing field by passing ‘card check’
Haraz N. Ghanbari / AP
Vice President Joe Biden tells American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) managers in the private sector use “every trick in the book” to undermine unions.
View related photos Video
Biden: ‘We’re on your side again’
Jan. 30: Joe Biden invites the public to give their ideas, comments and stories to the middle class task force, which he will be leading on behalf of President Obama.
MSNBC
Slideshow
First 100 days
Striking images from President Barack Obama’s jam-packed first 100 days in office, including a surprise trip to Iraq, a visit with Queen Elizabeth II, a handshake with Hugo Chavez, and the arrival of a new dog at the White House.
more photos
Video: White House
Sebelius on Obama’s health care plan
May 12: TODAY’s Meredith Vieira talks to just-confirmed Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about President Obama’s plans to reform the U.S. health care system.
——————————————————————————–
Obama presses for health care reform
Red carpet extends to White House
Chicken soup for America’s healthcare
updated 2:14 p.m. ET, Tues., May 12, 2009
WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden, making a renewed pitch for a major change in labor law, told union leaders Tuesday that the best way to rebuild the middle class is to help labor unions grow.
Biden said it’s time to “level the playing field” for unions by passing a bill that would make it easier for workers to organize.
“You’ve got to climb up a hill with so many roadblocks on the way to organize that it’s just out of whack,” Biden told a conference of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has about 1.6 million members.
Story continues below ↓
——————————————————————————–
advertisement | your ad here
——————————————————————————–
“If a union is what you want, then a union is what you should get,” Biden said.
The Employee Free Choice Act — also known as “card check” — is organized labor’s top priority this year, but business groups are adamantly opposed. It would allow a majority of workplace employees to sign cards to join a union instead of holding secret ballot elections.
Senate lawmakers are working on a compromise version of the measure that will satisfy some moderate Democrats that have concerns about the bill. Democratic leaders need to garner 60 votes in the Senate to overcome an expected GOP attempt to filibuster.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30706018/
Sorry for the long post. Didn’t realize I captured all the extra.
[195] LA’s a pretty good place if you love the beach and ignore all the weridos out here. Did the Manhattan thing for the last 8 years and it wore me out. NYC was too tough for this Cali kid.
Yes RU, the general issue is the unions are a far cry from when they started to protect workers from a very powerful and often abusive corporate boss. The general structure of unions is very broken as it stands today, workers should be able to stand up for their rights but today the union is tantamount to extortion. Obama and Biden are broken if they think unions are the future, unions are a relic of the past, globalization makes them basically obsolete. The unions kill the goose that laid the golden egg, they either force the employer out of business or force the off shoring of jobs.
Obama is a joke, lets cut us some military spending, lets make better infrastructure investments, lets get real with the banks, and how about reinstitution a higher capital gains tax rather than increasing taxes on people making less than 250k.
JC,
As a union-busting management attorney once told me, most companies get the union they deserve. Seldom have well-treated and well-respected employees ever decided to organize.
housing rebound my ass:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hzwtLJiY_vy8TnMHD2WVKYsBykywD984U9180
Median home prices fall in 88 percent of cities
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home prices fell in nearly nine out of every 10 U.S. cities in the first quarter of this year as first-time buyers looking for bargains dominated the market.
While sales rose in six states among the hardest hit by the housing slump, analysts said the nascent signs of recovery in the market could be short-lived if employers continue to lay off workers in bulk.
The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that median sales prices of existing homes declined in 134 out of 152 metropolitan areas compared with the same period a year ago. Prices rose in the other 18 cities.
Goldman Pays to End State Inquiry Into Loans
In the first major settlement involving Wall Street’s role in the subprime mortgage business, the Goldman Sachs Group agreed on Monday to pay up to $60 million to end an investigation by the Massachusetts attorney general’s office into whether the firm helped promote unfair home loans in the state. The money will be used for a loan modification program that would allow Massachusetts homeowners with mortgages from Goldman entities to write down their principal balances by as much as 50 percent. The settlement resulted from a continuing investigation by Attorney General Martha Coakley into subprime lending practices and the role of investment banks that acted as middlemen in loans that have resulted in foreclosure or contained terms so onerous that they were destined to fail.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/business/12lend.html?_r=3&ref=business
Now its getting interesting
Schwarzenegger Tells Lawmakers California Deficit May Swell to $21 Billion
California’s budget deficit has grown so severe that Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said he may be forced to release 40,000 prisoners or lay off 51,000 teachers if voters next week reject three budget balancing measures.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aN0teSUBHk5k&refer=home
Shore, how about the gov’t workers? How about construction jobs, why does everything cost so much to build in NY, not even in the City, I’m talking Westchester or LI. Some developers I know have told me that building in NJ is very expensive but in Westchester it is even worse like 20% more because basically the unions work 6 hour days and each worker has 2-3 supervisors. The only people who can build around here without the unions are most probably tied into organized crime or the gov’t.
xmonger’s thoughts on Alan:
Greenspan is age dirt. His brain long ago atrophied; assume the opposite of what he says to be correct.
Has anyone come across a site with p/e ratios for rentals in northern/central NJ? Thanks.
Nom #184…
You have some valid points and may be using creative license to make a point, but it seems unreasonable to proclaim fear of too much government intervention in private lives *immediately after* we kicked out a government that sanctioned illegal wiretapping, torture, suspension of habeas corpus, promoting one faith, etc.
S
Richie says:
May 12, 2009 at 8:45 am
I actually feel sorry for Victoria, she owned that home mortgage free and her ex husband via Chase bank cashed out the equity without her signature, now he is a so called minister with zero income and can’t pay it back and she is stuck.
Feel sorry for what? The house is worth millions; all she owe’s is $700g but she’s trying to make a killing on the sale and walk away with millions (note the sale prices ranging from $3.2 - 4.8 with no takers).
If she put it up for $2 mil for a quick sale; she could walk away with just over $1 mil clean after paying the $700k back and commmissions. That should be able to buy her a new house.
-Richie
the word you’re looking for, Richie, is GREED. instead of walking away with a million, she might get zero.
greed.
Just me :52
This morning you asked about 304 Wellington Ct, Jackson.
Very interesting history on that one. Looks like it sold in 8/05 for $504K.
Was listed as Bank Owned at $439K until 11/08.
Sold on 4/07/09 for $262K.
That’s not bad for an 8 year old CHC on 3.39 Acres. I wonder if it was vacant all winter ??
Clot,
We put a bid at the ask on a property. If it goes through (may be we will know in a couple of days), I may need some help from your financing guy.
S
Re 272:
Please read the story again. The amount stated as owed is just the missed mortgage payments not the loan amount outstanding. She is most likely upside down on the house.
Freddie reports quarterly net loss of $9.9 billion
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/freddie-reports-99-bln-quarterly-net-loss
Guess what: the obama wall street gang cannot find enough suckers to buy their overvalued assets
cont 275:
$25k per month mortgage, assuming 30 yr conv at 6.5% = $4,000,000 amount outstanding
#274
Don’t forget about Grim when you see the HUD-1.
grim (278)-
I second that.