From the Star Ledger:
N.J. Legislature bill would regulate foreclosure rescue fraud, offer relief to distressed homeowners
They call themselves “foreclosure rescue” companies, but in many cases they end up enriching themselves while destroying whatever credit-worthiness a distressed homeowner has.
A bill to regulate the industry overwhelmingly passed both the state Senate and Assembly last week and housing and foreclosure experts said it will at least bring some relief to the already daunting task of helping people stay in their homes.
“It’s some of the most egregious kind of predatory lending, the foreclosure rescues,” said Peggy Jurow, who leads the Foreclosure Defense Initiative at Legal Services of New Jersey. She said it can take years to help victims sort through the complicated mass of subsequent lawsuits and paperwork, even if the consultant has been jailed.
“People want to believe that they can get help and they get this card in the mail and it says, ‘I can help you save your home,’” she added. “It’s literally a swindle. This regulates it and puts some bright lines into this practice, which is important.”
There are currently more than 118,000 houses in some stage of foreclosure in New Jersey, and another 55,200 properties that are more than 90 days delinquent on the mortgage, according to LPS Applied Analytics, a real estate data firm.
…
Last year, Attorney General Paula Dow obtained $17 million in legal settlements through rescue fraud prosecutions, including Hope Now Financial Services and Hope Now Modifications of Cherry Hill, New Hope Modification of Bellmawr, and New Day Financial Solutions of Somerset County, said spokesman Lee Moore. The office continues to investigate similar consumer complaints.The U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Jersey has also prosecuted several foreclosure rescue fraud cases, and in May U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman announced the guilty plea of Ronald Harris, of Piscataway, who admitted to his role in a scheme that defrauded mortgage lenders of over $10 million, $1.15 million of which Harris personally received.
From Bloomberg:
U.S. Home Prices Poised to Climb as Foreclosures Wane, HUD’s Donovan Says
Prices for U.S. homes may climb as soon as the third quarter, ending declines as foreclosures decline make more home available for sale, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan said.
“It’s very unlikely that we will see a significant further decline,” Donovan said yesterday on CNN. “The real question is when will we start to see sustainable increases. Some think it will be as early as the end of this summer or this fall.”
Home sales have increased in six out of the past nine months and the number of property owners in default is declining, Donovan said on CNN’s “State of the Union” program. Housing prices will begin rising as the number of foreclosures declines, he said.
“In the long run, it’s a good time to buy,” Donovan said. “It’s so affordable today compared to where it’s been for generations.”
Contracts to buy previously owned U.S. homes rose 8.2 percent in May, following a revised 11 percent drop in the previous month, the National Association of Realtors said on June 29. A separate report by the Chicago-based group on June 21 showed sales of existing houses, which make up about 96 percent of the market, declined in May to a six-month low.
Home prices fell 4 percent in April from a year earlier, the biggest drop in 17 months for the S&P/Case-Shiller index of values in 20 cities.
An estimated 1.7 million U.S. homes were in the foreclosure process and expected to be put on the market as of April, down 18 percent from the peak, as fewer loans entered delinquency and more distressed homes were sold, CoreLogic Inc. said in a report on June 22.
From the NY Times:
Big Banks Easing Terms on Loans Deemed as Risks
As millions of Americans struggle in foreclosure with little hope of relief, big banks are going to borrowers who are not even in default and cutting their debt or easing the mortgage terms, sometimes with no questions asked.
Two of the nation’s biggest lenders, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, are quietly modifying loans for tens of thousands of borrowers who have not asked for help but whom the banks deem to be at special risk.
Rula Giosmas is one of the beneficiaries. Last year she received a letter from Chase saying it was cutting in half the amount she owed on her condominium.
Ms. Giosmas, who lives in Miami, was not in default on her $300,000 loan. She did not understand why she would receive this gift — although she wasted no time in taking it.
Banks are proactively overhauling loans for borrowers like Ms. Giosmas who have so-called pay option adjustable rate mortgages, which were popular in the wild late stages of the housing boom but which banks now view as potentially troublesome.
From the Daily Record:
NJ employers will pay $100 per worker more for unemployment fund
New Jersey employers will pay on average $100 more per worker during the next year as part of a plan to make the state’s unemployment trust fund financially viable.
Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation Thursday that will avoid a sizable tax increase on employers and spreads out the pain over three years instead.
“We are very satisfied with how this turned out because we avoided the (bigger) tax increase,” said Melanie Willoughby, a senior vice president at the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, a lobby group.
Most workers who are laid off for no fault of their own are eligible for two-thirds of their wages, up to $598 a week. The money comes from a trust fund financed by a tax on employers and employees.
The unemployment trust fund, however, has been strained, mainly because lawmakers from 1992 to 2006 diverted $4.6 billion for other programs, leaving it unable to cover workers’ unemployment claims if the economy ever turned south.
The economy began to collapse in late 2007. The unemployment rate soared from 4.5 percent in December 2007 to 9.8 percent in January 2010. In fiscal 2010, the fund collected $2.2 billion and paid out $3.4 billion to 564,000 workers.
One result: The state has borrowed $1.5 billion from the federal government – with $31.9 million in interest – to pay workers’ benefits.
From the NYT:
For Home Prices, It’s Back to at Least 2004
IS your home worth as much as it was seven years ago? If so, you’ve done better than most Americans.
What is most impressive about the decline in home prices is the ubiquity of the fall and how many years of gains were wiped out. Real estate agents, using some dubious statistics, used to claim that national home prices had never fallen for an entire year, even if there sometimes were regional markets that suffered for a year or two.
The most-followed index of home prices, the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city composite, managed a small rise in April, the first gain after seven months of declines, but it remained at a level first reached in May 2003.
None of the 20 regions — each “city” is actually a collection of metropolitan areas that include suburbs — have prices now that are as high as they were in 2005, as can be seen in the accompanying graphic. Only four of them, New York, Washington, Seattle and Portland, Ore., have prices as high as they were in 2004.
The return of prices to levels seen many years ago has occurred in areas where prices soared during the boom as well as in regions where there seemed to be no bubble in home prices. From the end of 2001 through the end of 2006, prices in the San Francisco region rose 69 percent, far more than the modest 13 percent increase in the Denver area. But prices in both regions are back to where they were in 2001.
The banks probably save more money not adding to the foreclosure litigation and backlog of inventory by taking a 50% haircut then thwy would if they went after those people in the future; and why not do it, the government is letting them pretend they are solvent anyway so what’s a few more billion between friends.
Charlie Wowkanech, the head of New Jersey’s AFL-CIO, is normally an approachable guy with a ready smile.
But he’s bothered these days, especially yesterday when Gov. Chris Christie and Democratic leaders shook hands over pension and health reform.
It’s not the money stuff that really grates on Wowkanech. It’s the fact that this agreement suspends the right to bargain over health benefits. Instead, those terms are now set by law.
To the unions, and to their allies in the Democratic Party, collective bargaining rights are sacred — and pinching them like this is unforgivable.
“It is a terrible moment for anyone who cares about democracy and workers’ rights,” Wowkanech said.
That is how most Democrats feel. Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) and Assemblyman Joseph Cryan (D-Union) are both banging this drum hard, rallying the more liberal members of their caucuses against the leadership.
For Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D-Gloucester), this issue could be a career killer. He wants to run for governor someday, perhaps for U.S. Senate, but the public worker unions are determined to get revenge. And they probably have the power to derail him in a Democratic primary.
So let’s look at collective bargaining, starting with the good stuff. Bargaining is what gave us an eight-hour workday, weekends off, basic workplace safety and wages that helped build the middle class in America. We owe all that to the unions, and they did it at the bargaining table.
But those gains were made by private sector unions. And the public sector is different in key ways.
For one, public worker unions have political power and can hand pick the people on the other side of the bargaining table. With money and volunteers, they can dominate local politics, especially in low-turnout elections.
This happens all over New Jersey. In Edison, for example, the police union is the big dog in town and the result is an average cop salary of more than $100,000.
Another big difference: Governments don’t go bankrupt, or move to Mexico. When auto workers negotiate with GM, they know that if they get greedy, they could lose it all. The cops in Edison have no such fears. So why not press for that deal that gives you and your family free health care for life?
Here’s one final difference: In the public sector, the people who pay the bills are the common folk, not the fat cats. The class-warfare language of the private labor movement doesn’t fit here.
Ask yourself this: Is it progressive to ask a senior on a fixed income to pay higher property taxes so that a cop or teacher can avoid paying a reasonable share of their health costs?
Today, the public sector is the last holdout for unions. But that’s something new. It wasn’t until 1959 that Wisconsin became the first state to allow public worker unions to bargain collectively. Until then, even Democratic heroes like Franklin Roosevelt thought the idea was nuts.
Fast forward to present-day New Jersey. If we are to believe people like Wowkanech, Buono and Cryan, this reform is a radical right-wing departure.
Really? We already set pension benefits by law, without bargaining, and no one complains about that. So why is it a threat to democracy if we handle health care the same way?
This reform doesn’t actually kill bargaining over health care; it suspends that right for four years. It pushes the “reset” button so that these costs can be contained.
Yes, it is a heavy hand, and a last resort after watching teachers refuse a pay freeze, and watching cops in Newark and Camden refuse to give up benefits even in the face of mass layoffs. Wowkanech may love that system, but the mayors and school boards, not so much.
For Wowkanech, the right to bargain is a sacred thing. And given labor’s heroic role in building the middle class, that’s understandable. He’s a labor guy and he has reason to be proud. And in fairness, the unions didn’t create this problem on their own. It was the politicians who signed all those contracts and set the rules.
But this reform is the only way out. It will save an average of more than $4 billion a year. And in the end, public workers will still have pension and health benefits that are more generous than those in the private sector.
That is a good and fair outcome. And it would not have happened at the bargaining table.
NYT article supports how it’s a great time to buy, especially before FHA caps down to $625,500 from $729,750 on October 1. Interest rates cannot get lower – period. As long as you’re buying below that $730K level and going with an FHA, think about it…less than $25K down + closing cost, historic rock bottom interest rate, lots of inventory in some pretty great towns.
Makes sense to make as minimal a down payment and put as high a percentage of the purchase price into the mortgage as possible with these incredibly low interest rates. 3% down & historic rock bottom i-rate today, or 10% to 20% down after October 1 (for the $700K house) and i-rate can only go up.
It is far cheaper and smarter for anyone looking at the $700K home to buy with an FHA while you still can!
Restless
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/two_are_shot_on_boardwalk_in_a.html
2cents,
There are currently more than 118,000 houses in some stage of foreclosure in New Jersey, and another 55,200 properties that are more than 90 days delinquent on the mortgage.
Any Questions?
Essex good piece…
Yes gary I have a question, when do prices come down below 2004 levels?
To the unions, and to their allies in the Democratic Party, collective bargaining rights are sacred — and pinching them like this is unforgivable.
These issues will seem like ancient history in 10 years from now, when these guys are attempting to trap a squirrel to feed their families.
2 cent (7)-
The idea of buying a 700K home with an FHA loan is like giving a junkie meth to get him off smack.
Neanderthal [11],
Do you hear that sound in the distance? I would suggest that you step off the tracks as that locomotive is at full throttle.
veets (11)-
Come to prestigious Hunterdon Co. We’re looking at 2002-03 prices on the handful of closings that actually occur.
Hotsheets full of big price cuts every Friday. By fall, we should be close to catching up with Sussex in the race to the bottom.
gary (14)-
That locomotive is off the tracks.
Note to self: practice squirrel trapping this week.
As millions of Americans struggle in foreclosure with little hope of relief, big banks are going to borrowers who are not even in default and cutting their debt or easing the mortgage terms, sometimes with no questions asked
why do I feel like an ass paying my mortgage? easing terms no questions asked f%ck me!
Moody’s says 10% of China’s GDP is in the form of bad debt. Why would this be a problem?
“The timing on the earlier pronouncement that rating agencies may have found religion could not have been better. Not even an hour later, here comes Moody’s with a blockbuster which may put China’s “White Knight” status, at least as far as Europe is concerned, in grave danger. In a report just released, the rating agency not only warns that China’s debt problem is “bigger than stated” (i.e., China is hiding a ton of ugly stuff off the books), but goes ahead to quantify it: “Of the RMB 10.7 trillion (about $1.6 trillion) of local government debt examined by the Chinese audit agency, RMB 8.5 trillion ($1.3 trillion) was funded by banks. However, Moody’s has identified another potential RMB 3.5 trillion ($540 billion) of such loans that the Chinese auditors did not discuss in their report….we find that the Chinese audit agency could be understating banks’ exposures to local governments by as much as RMB 3.5 trillion.” Naturally, the implication is that this is an absolutely willing “omission” (thank you central planning), which means that of China’s $5.8 trillion GDP (or whatever imaginary number the Polit Bureau is happy with throwing around for mass consumption), $540 billion is debt that is “unaccounted for”, most likely due to being, well, bad. That would be equivalent to saying that $1.4 trillion of US corporate debt is delinquent. And lest anything is lost in translation, Moody’s drives the steak through the Dragon’s heart: “Since these loans to local governments are not covered by the NAO report, this means they are not considered by the audit agency as real claims on local governments. This indicates that these loans are most likely poorly documented and may pose the greatest risk of delinquency.” So let’s get this straight: a country which has 10% of its GDP in the form of bad debt, is somehow expected to be credible enough to buy not only Greek debt, but the EURUSD each and every day?”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/moodys-july-4-bomb-rater-finds-10-chinese-gdp-bad-debt-claims-china-debt-problem-bigger-stat
marty (17)-
Because you are. MS walks away from skyscrapers and pays out multimillion bonuses to the guys who screwed it all up. Time to embrace the oblivion and inhale the stench of death.
“why do I feel like an ass paying my mortgage?”
Can you show us some examples of the biggest price cuts in hunterdoom?
Hobo With a Shotgun says:
July 5, 2011 at 7:46 am
veets (11)-
Come to prestigious Hunterdon Co. We’re looking at 2002-03 prices on the handful of closings that actually occur.
Hotsheets full of big price cuts every Friday. By fall, we should be close to catching up with Sussex in the race to the bottom.
Depends, people are guessing rates are rising and guessing that banks won’t get back in to the jumbo game at competitive rates. If rates don’t rise and banks re-enter jumbo market it is irrelevant.
One could argue even if rates rise and banks do not enter jumbo market causing jumbo rates to skyrocket and even larger down payments required if one is planning to put down a large down payment higher rates and higher downpayment requirements are a god send as it will drive prices lower.
2Cents says:
July 5, 2011 at 6:55 am
NYT article supports how it’s a great time to buy, especially before FHA caps down to $625,500 from $729,750 on October 1. Interest rates cannot get lower – period. As long as you’re buying below that $730K level and going with an FHA, think about it…less than $25K down + closing cost, historic rock bottom interest rate, lots of inventory in some pretty great towns.
Makes sense to make as minimal a down payment and put as high a percentage of the purchase price into the mortgage as possible with these incredibly low interest rates. 3% down & historic rock bottom i-rate today, or 10% to 20% down after October 1 (for the $700K house) and i-rate can only go up.
It is far cheaper and smarter for anyone looking at the $700K home to buy with an FHA while you still can!
Grim 1, Donovan’s was taken to the wood shed yesterday here as you know. Questions of over use of recreational drug and his overall sanity have been the view on that bombastic call.
Kill the ‘s more coffee, just rolled out.
Essex 6 Do you agree with the writer?
“For one, public worker unions have political power and can hand pick the people on the other side of the bargaining table. With money and volunteers, they can dominate local politics, especially in low-turnout elections.
This happens all over New Jersey. In Edison, for example, the police union is the big dog in town and the result is an average cop salary of more than $100,000.
Another big difference: Governments don’t go bankrupt, or move to Mexico. When auto workers negotiate with GM, they know that if they get greedy, they could lose it all. The cops in Edison have no such fears. So why not press for that deal that gives you and your family free health care for life?
Here’s one final difference: In the public sector, the people who pay the bills are the common folk, not the fat cats. The class-warfare language of the private labor movement doesn’t fit here.”
jj (20)-
I can show you tons of stuff like this:
GSMLS #2869207, 14 Cobblestone Ln, Clinton Twp. Now asks 1.75mm (below assessment of 1.856mm), down from 490 days meandering down to 2mm from 2.495mm. Rumor had it Michael Vick was UC to buy, but nothing happened. Perhaps he found the two story ballroom, waterfall and bridge to nowhere a tad ostentatious.
Actually, the whole place looks like Liberace’s house. And, as such a sui generis kinda thing…it’s gonna sit on the market for another year or two.
Hunterdoom. I like that.
Everything must be good! Don’t hear FDIC bank failure friday anymore
Borat Obama has imposed a news blackout on the FDIC.
re #25 – Perfect place to convert into a retirement home. check it out. The even had it showcased on LX TV last year. What would Michael Vick do with a ballroom dance floor anyway?
http://lxtv.com/openhousenyc/video/10686
Hobo With a Shotgun says: “The idea of buying a 700K home with an FHA loan is like giving a junkie meth to get him off smack.”
–
Why do you say this? Smart & wealthy people use OPM (other people’s money) whenever possible. If you’re at a $700K buy point, it’s smart/shrewd/wise to buy it with an FHA at today’s interest rates, as opposed to a jumbo (10% dp) or conventional (20% dp) or even cash. There are way too many other more attractive and lucrative things to do with cash…if you have the option.
Again, please speak to the logic and sense of you point? My read is your comment speaks to your ignorance, plain and simple….
http://www.nj.com/hunterdon/index.ssf/2008/12/seasonal_magic_back_at_glassma.html
picture of women who owns that monster house. NOT A PLAYA
11 Well at they are back to 2004 levels. And none of the real estate cheer leaders ever expected that. The longer you can wait, the more they will come down to below 04 levels.
hobo 25,
what’s with the dining room and all the tables? It looks like one of those wedding factory places. The kitchen is hideous. Then again, I’m not a pro sports player
#30 2 cents – FHA limits were increased in 2008 to fill the void in the mortgage marketplace. Without FHA, VA, FNMA and FHLMC the ability to finance real estate in this country would have been severely impinged. We were and are now in a real estate and real estate financing crisis.
The crisis was caused in part by lax lending standards and high loan to value ratios. Hobo’s point is likely that FHA continues to add to the problem rather than to be a part of the solution.
For decades FHA loan limits were based upon median home sale prices for the region. This is no longer the case. The limits which are now expiring were temporary but we are not returning to the previous limits. Instead we are stepping back gradually. Please keep in mind that the limits should now be lower than they were during the “bubble years” as median values have gone down substantially.
Why are we not returning to the pre 2008 limits if the market is healthy and “its a great time to buy”?
X-everything (33):
If the owners would have hung a 55 inch LED TV in the bedroom with Scarface playing while they filmed the segment they might get some interest from the hip hop crowd.
re: #30 – 2 cent – Hasn’t recent experience taught you anything?
Very little can be done to affect the real estate market in a upside direction for the long term right now. Market forces are simply too strong to overcome, and any kind of governmental intervention with artificially high conforming loan limits (added in the 2009 Stimulus Bill ) or tax credits etc will only provide temporary first-aid but will not curtail the ensuing pandemic.
“And given labor’s heroic role in building the middle class, that’s understandable. ”
So all nice things that happened during the last 50 years or so are the result of heroic labor unions? I bet they invented the Internet too (sorry, Al).
Who built the nice autobahns in Germany? Should Germany be grateful for that and give absolute power to those heroes?
all hype 35,
The hip-hop crowd would feel right at home in Clinton and would fit right in with the pseudo Blue bloods and rednecks
2cents,
Love the satire… keep it up!
Essex,
Have you done a turnabout on your pro-public sector union position?
Good article none-the-less. Thanks for posting it.
That house has all the warmth and charm of a conference center. What, with the original cost of the land and construction and the additions, forget about the taxes, I wonder if they are in the hole. Glug, glug.
#13 hobo The idea of buying a 700K home with an FHA loan is like giving a junkie meth to get him off smack.
or maybe like giving him smack to get him off pot?
I know a number of Agency folks and this is a nice profile on THE guy key to getting UBL:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2011345/CIAs-Osama-bin-Laden-hunter-John-NOT-pictured-Situation-Room-photo.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
For John:
http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/05/the-secrets-of-the-male-hand/
Does anyone here, more in tune with pop culture than I, know anything about this?
Comedian can’t let go after being called out on his lies
June 28, 2011|By David Zurawik | The Baltimore Sun
I think it is time for fans of Jon Stewart to start worrying about him. He has not been right since the day CNN confronted his friend, Anthony Weiner, outside the then-congressman’s office — and Stewart attacked CNN for doing its job.
Stewart has been in a real tailspin since Weiner admitted his lies a week after that. But the event that seems to have really pushed Stewart off the rails is the interview he did with Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” June 19.
In that interview, he lied about Fox News viewers being the “most consistently misinformed” of news consumers and then he compounded the false charge by saying “every poll” shows this to be true. And if you look at the video tape, you will see he makes the claim not once but twice – almost spitting the words “consistently misinformed” in Wallace’s face. PolitiFact, the Pulitzer-Prize-winning fact checking operation, labeled Stewart’s statements false.
snip
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2011-06-28/entertainment/bal-jon-stewart-chris-wallace-fox-interview-lie-20110628_1_fox-news-viewers-fox-interview-jon-stewart
Amen:
Grand Rapids, Michigan (CNN) — If you’re the kind of parent who allows your 5-year-old to run rampant in public places like restaurants, I have what could be some rather disturbing news for you.
I do not love your child.
The rest of the country does not love your child either.
And the reason why we’re staring at you every other bite is not because we’re acknowledging some sort of mutual understanding that kids will be kids but rather we want to kill you for letting your brat ruin our dinner.
Or our plane ride.
Or trip to the grocery store.
Or the other adult-oriented establishments you’ve unilaterally decided will serve as an extension of your toddler’s playpen because you lack the fortitude to properly discipline them, in public and at home.
And we know you don’t discipline them at home because you don’t possess “the look.” If you had “the look,” you wouldn’t need to say “sit down” a thousand times.
If you had “the look,” you wouldn’t need to say much of anything at all. But this nonverbal cue needs to be introduced early and reinforced diligently with consequences for transgressions, just like potty training. And whenever a kid throws a temper tantrum in the middle of the shopping mall it’s just as bad as his soiling his pants to spite his parents, and it stinks just as much.
I have seen a small child slap her mother in the face with an open hand, only to be met with “Honey, don’t hit Mommy.” I have seen kids tell their parents “Shut up” and “Leave me alone” at the top of their lungs — and they are not put in check. I shake my head knowing it’s only going to get worse from here.
snip
snip
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/07/05/granderson.bratty.kids/
I never heard about this guy before today but I like his style:
http://www.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/06/28/granderson.raising.nerd/index.html?iref=obinsite
box (29)-
Stage dog fights?
“What would Michael Vick do with a ballroom dance floor anyway?”
This author has just discovered the trend?
BMW layoffs exemplify the evisceration of the middle class
Every working American should be dismayed by — and afraid of — what BMW is doing.
July 03, 2011|Michael Hiltzik
By all accounts, BMW’s parts distribution warehouse in Ontario was one of the jewels of the company’s system.
Supplying dealer service departments throughout Southern California, Arizona and Nevada, it received gold medals from BMW for its efficiency and employed several of the top-ranked workers in the country. In the roughly 40 years its workers had been represented by the Teamsters union, there had never been a labor stoppage.
Times being what they are, when a Teamsters committee came to the plant in early June to open negotiations over a new contract to start Sept. 1, they thought they might be asked to accept minuscule wage increases and maybe some givebacks on health coverage.
They were stunned by what they heard instead: As of Aug. 31, the plant would be outsourced to an unidentified third-party logistics company and all but three of its 71 employees laid off.
The union contract will be terminated. Some of the employees might be offered jobs with the new operator, but there are no guarantees. And no one expects the new bosses will match the existing $25 hourly scale or the health benefits provided now.
The average seniority of employees at Ontario is about 20 years; five have spent 30 years or more at Ontario or its predecessor warehouse in Carson. Of the employees to be laid off (according to a notice BMW sent the union), 27 are age 50 or older. The word that came most often to the lips of workers and their families I’ve talked to is “devastated.”
snip
In these economic times, one should probably not spend more than one can earn at his or her next job, if that one is likely to be lower paying than the current one.
Shore, that’s a very deflationary concept.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/05/us-greece-debt-idUSTRE7643G420110705
Analysis: Default needed to lure long-term buyers back to Greece
snip
Clot,
And it means that people become net savers and are not likely to be unable to meet any obligation.
Then again, we can keep creating individual and corporate deadbeats who stoke the inflationary fiat machine and inexorably drive our nation toward a violent, bloody collapse.
Then again, it’s always a good day to declare war on China.
re # 52 – Shore the vultures don’t even want to pick apart that carcass.
Last week they put up for sale 39 airports, 850 ports, railways, motorways, sewage works, a couple of energy companies, banks, defense groups, thousands of acres of land for development, casinos and Greece’s national lottery and there were no takers yet.
Reason being?
“Even in the good times Greece is not a country that attracts investment. Foreign investors don’t want to invest in a country where there is no flexibility in hiring and firing people,” he said. “You don’t want to invest in a country in which you wake up and a new law has been passed which totally undermines and destroys the value of the investment you’ve just made.”
If everyone (I mean individuals AND businesses) is a net saver economy and GDP would actually decline; this is what we are currently observing.
Charles Hugh Smith:
“The Status Quo–in the U.S., in China, and in Europe–has staved off reality for a full 2.5 years since the 2008 global financial meltdown via by adding unprecedented sums of public debt to “solve” the crises of private overleverage, overindebtedness and malinvestment.
This “fix” has already failed, but the EU has bought a few months at best with the latest bailout of Greece’s Kleptocracy.
Note that the time bought by each new “fix” is diminishing with every intervention. I have likened this process to the onset of diabetes, where the body’s sensitivity to insulin declines even as the body attempts to overcome the desensitizing by producing more and more insulin. Eventually the system breaks down.
Massive, unprecedented interventions bought 2.5 years of bogus “recovery” 2008-11, but that level of intervention–roughly $100 billion a month in Federal Reserve “stimulus” and $130 billion in Federal borrow-and-spend stimulus a month–cannot continue at that pace, as it is destabilizing the entire system.
In the same pattern of reduced effect from greater applications of borrowed money, the EU bought a year of “recovery” with last May’s bailout of Greece. Now the latest ECB bailout, which exceeds the previous bailout in size and complexity, is buying perhaps two months before the crisis reappears, like a 1950s movie monster, even stronger and more destructive.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-now-playing-cognitive-dissonance-and-wishful-thinking
#40 Lib Talked with some public sector employees over the weekend, both Dems and Repubs, and they absolutely despise Christie. They really do not care about the rest of the state or those in the public sector. They want it all. And of course his weight was a topic of conversation and laughs as well. They truly do live in their own world.
Headline news:
If you are in the private sector and 1) receive income greater than the value you produce to your company, or 2) are making considerably more money than an equivalent supplier of said value would charge, then your job is in threat.
This isn’t a new phenomenon, it’s been going on for centuries. What is new is that the competitive field is becoming less geographically constrained over shorter periods of time.
#36 Juice: He feeds Unicorns,and ties blue ribbons on old oak trees.What did you expect??
3b (59): Last year I met a NJ Transit maintenance worker at a banquet in Atlantic City. He had been on disability for the past two years (non-work related accident) and was complaining about the cuts to no end. He saw nothing wrong with the 25% fare increase as long as he was able to maintain his benefits. He suggested too, that all changes should be made to new hires. That’s another wonderful union concept. The man was so obese I’m not sure he’ll ever work again. Yet, he’s gambling enough to earn entry into this mid-roller banquet.
Stu: for you…..
http://www.sportstvjobs.com/resources/hockey-players-are-tough.html
I’m curious. How often does your town do bulky waste pick-up? Montclair is twice a month. Glen Ridge is once a month and Marlboro is once per year. At a time they are cutting librarians in the schools in Montclair, isn’t twice a month bulky waste excessive?
Chi (63):
For what it’s worth, I once scored a hat trick in a game after losing 3 teeth. Never played without a full face shield since. My front two teeth upper row were manufactured in Canada. The dentist said they are much more experienced at making fakes compared with labs in the U.S. due to their national past-time.
Speaking of gruesome injuries, I was at a game about six years back. One guy gets hit from behind and his arm goes into the boards in a position that it shouldn’t have. He has a compound fracture and there’s blood everywhere. I skated up to him and told him, “You are not to look down at your arm until the ambulance comes.” The bone was literally sticking through his jersey. A plethora of screws and metal rods and he’s back on the ice in two years. So most of the players on both teams are sick to their stomach and nobody is in the mood to finish the game, so as team captain, I have to do something to lighten the mood. Well I decide to perform a crouch skate over the blood trail and yell, “Hey look, it’s my first period blood!”
Stu,
We get bulk pick up weekly, and we do not need to schlep cans out to the curb.
“GDP would actually decline”
I will take a smaller GDP for a debt free nation than the current state of affairs.
“Daddy, where were you when the Democrats caused the economy to implode?”
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/07/why-cant-the-gop-get-to-yes/241437/
Squeezed Dry: Why Americans Work So Hard but Feel So Poor
By Derek Thompson
Jul 1 2011, 9:30 AM ET115
How is it possible that we’re both working harder and finding it more difficult to make a living? Maybe the same thing is making work cheap and life expensive. It’s the productivity paradox.
Sped up, slimmed down, squeezed dry, or simply shut out, the American worker faces an unprecedented slump. The numbers say we’re getting better at our jobs, but paychecks suggest we’re worse off.
Since the recovery began, corporate profits have captured nearly 90 percent of the growth in real income. Wages and salaries have accounted for 1 percent. That’s “unprecedented,” say Northeastern University economists, but it ain’t new. Productivity (that’s work/time) has increased seven times faster than wages in the last 30 years.
snip
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/07/squeezed-dry-why-americans-work-so-hard-but-feel-so-poor/241252/
River Edge must be filled with CEOs:
While millions are still out of work, U.S. CEOs received a 28% pay raise this past year. A lot of factors are driving the increases. Job performance isn’t one of them.
By Eleanor Bloxham, contributor
FORTUNE — Did you get a decent raise last year? How about 28% without having to change jobs, vie for a promotion or outperform your peers?
If you were a CEO of an S&P 500 company last year and your pay only went up 28%, then sorry, but half your peers did better than you.
snip
http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/05/how-to-get-paid-like-a-u-s-ceo/?section=magazines_fortune
Truly witty…
Libtard in the City says:
July 5, 2011 at 12:29 pm
Chi (63): Well I decide to perform a crouch skate over the blood trail and yell, “Hey look, it’s my first period blood!”
I could not play hockey. It is the bronx in me. I have to stick a shiv in anyone who knocked my teeth out. Apparently it is frowned on outside of the bronx.
Stu Not surprised I know somebody who has been on disability from the department of corrections for years due to an inmate cracking him over the head with a chair and injuring his neck. Dude, weight lifts, rides a harley and is really no worse for wear. Always ends up in a wheel chair if he ends up going in for benefits review.
I only wear a half shield and also potted a few after having my front chompers dislocated from my jaw. Put the shield on after seeing a buddy almost lose an eye. I prize vision more than teeth, teeth can be replaced.
“teeth can be replaced”
Somebody better tell Leon Spinks.
Complex system leaves foreclosure properties to become eyesores
TAMPA — Standing at the end of a quiet suburban cul-de-sac, Gene Minkel surveyed one tiny battleground in a nationwide fight that often pits local governments against Wall Street.
The veteran Hillsborough County code enforcement officer looked over 7501 Woodland Oaks Ct. and wished Bank of America would mow the waist-high weeds. Or patch the shattered windows. Or get rid of the wasps that have taken up residence.
The 1,300-square-foot home has sat largely vacant since falling into foreclosure more than two years ago, racking up $55,372 in code violations while the case lingers in court. A tattered sign out front informs visitors that BAC Field Services, a subsidiary of the megabank, “intends to protect this property from deterioration.”
“They’re doing a great job,” Minkel said sarcastically.
This slice of central Florida has been battered by the foreclosure crisis. But thousands of abandoned and vacant properties, many in legal limbo, are plaguing neighborhoods across the country. The result has weighed down already falling home values, attracted crime and vagrancy, and forced cash-strapped municipalities to tap dwindling budgets to care for decaying houses.
With more foreclosures looming, some state and local officials are pushing the financial industry to do more to repair the damage on Main Street, which is still reeling from high unemployment and a housing crisis that has hampered the national economic recovery.
Assigning responsibility
In Los Angeles, officials are suing Deutsche Bank, calling it the city’s biggest slumlord. In Illinois, some legislators have pushed for a bill that would allow cities to enforce ordinances on vacant properties against banks that are foreclosing on homes, even if they haven’t taken ownership.
In Maryland, a lawmaker from hard-hit Prince George’s County wants banks and lenders to face stiff fines for failing to maintain properties to local standards. Hundreds of cities have passed or are considering ordinances requiring firms to register vacant properties so officials know whom to pursue when homes fall into disrepair.
“I’m seeing almost every week another community doing something to go after these properties,” said Frank S. Alexander, a law professor at Emory University who has advised municipalities on how to face off with banks. “The local governments are realizing that they are the ones that are getting stuck with all the cost. It’s killing them.”
snip
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/complex-system-leaves-thousands-of-bank-owned-properties-to-become-eyesores/2011/06/28/AG0EFDsH_story.html
SINGAPORE—Japanese explorers have found large deposits of rare-earth minerals on the floor of the Pacific Ocean, British journal Nature Geoscience reported.
While the discovery has the potential to alter the dynamics of the global market for the metals, the difficulty of extracting the minerals from the sea floor present a big challenge.
The Japanese team found deep-sea mud containing high concentrations of rare-earth elements and yttrium at numerous sites throughout the southeastern and north-central parts of the Pacific Ocean, the journal said in its online edition over the weekend.
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304760604576425230759407002.html#ixzz1RFhiqgul
Any of you remember seeing Clint Malarchuk’s injury?
http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2006/12/03/the-10-worst-hockey-injuries-of-all-time.html
This example from the education industry illustrates why this nation is in such a bad economic situation right now:
““I’ve never seen a major start with so many students in it so quickly,” said David D. Lee, dean of the Potter College of Arts and Letters at Western Kentucky University, which last year added an undergraduate film and television production program. It now has 84 majors, many with only a vague notion of the future for which they are training. “I’m going to make a career that probably doesn’t even exist right now,” was Mr. Lee’s description of the prevailing ethic. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/movies/film-school-graduates-job-prospects-at-usc-nyu-ucla.html
Raises hand, one of the most gruesome things I have ever seen on a rink. Knowing what I know now of physiology, amazed he survived.
JJ, I’ll be expecting a royalty check for the two hands thing.
For those of you with no life, the Casey Anthony jury reached a verdict. Court reconvenes at 2:15.
And no, I am not making a prediction. After mopping egg off my face after OJ, I am out of that business.
Last Wednesday, I donned the skates for the first time since Toronto in April of 2010 due to my Achilles rupture. I was actually surprised at how well I could skate. Stopping turning to the right (putting my weight on the left outside skate), was a no no, but I’m learning to transfer the weight to my right inside blade when stopping in that direction. Stopping to my left is a piece of cake, but sometimes the play dictates a hard stop the other way. My first couple of warm-up loops looked quite funny, but I think I’ll be OK for the season in October after 8 ninety minute clinics, which is what I’m signed up for. May have a spot or two on the team (we won our division last year, no help from me) if anyone from the blog is interested.
81. If she goes free she will be killed on the streets. This I have no doubt.
shore [78]
We need to determine the education fields where the graduates are truly needed, and provide free tuition for all academically qualified (I guess the criteria of “qualified” will go up). OTOH, we have to stop any sort of state sponsorship of time-wasting activities; if someone really wants a degree in gender studies, pay cash or get a market-rate loan.
Cobbler,
There are a whole lot of things it may be fun or interesting to study; however, the government should not be in the business of subsidizing fun or interesting.
If that woma goers free, she will have a network TV deal before dinner.
I need coffee.
getting interesting.
Holder and other DOJ/ATF cronies could face justice in Mexico.
(Isn’t this sort of international collaboration what lunatic left wanted?)
This was secret government program by anti-gun activists at DOJ. The program let 2,000 assault weapons to be delivered to Mexico (gun stores would have refused to sell but DOJ forced them to go ahead). Hundreds of people, including Mexican Senator and US border guard were murdered by these weapons.
Holder deserves death penalty.
fox news
“U.S. Officials Behind ‘Fast and Furious’ Gun Sales Should Be Tried in Mexico, Lawmaker Says By William La Jeunesse While the investigation continues into the U.S. operation that helped send thousands of guns south of the border, Mexican lawmakers say they’ll press for extradition and prosecution in Mexico of American officials who authorized and ran the operation. “I obviously feel violated. I feel my country’s sovereignty was violated,” Mexico Sen. Rene Arce Islas told Fox News. “They should be tried in the United States and the Mexican government should also demand that they also be tried in Mexico”
And WTF is up with commodities???
Posted at 12:49 PM ET, 07/05/2011
Right’s latest talking point: Stimulus cost $278,000 per job
By Greg Sargent
It’s the latest talking point on the right: The Obama stimulus has cost the taxpayers $278,000 per job created. That number comes from a Weekly Standard article from over the weekend, and House Speaker John Boehner promoted the story today on Twitter.
The Weekly Standard reached this conclusion by dividing the cost of the stimulus bill so far, $666 billion, by the Council of Economic Advisers’ low-end estimate of the number of jobs created by the stimulus, 2.4 million. The Standard concluded: “The government could simply have cut a $100,000 check to everyone whose employment was allegedly made possible by the `stimulus,’ and taxpayers would have come out $427 billion ahead.”
snip
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/rights-latest-talking-point-stimulus-cost-278000-per-job/2011/03/03/gHQA0ELDzH_blog.html
As the father of a young child, Nom, you don’t need coffee, need a thneed.
shore [85]
Subsidized education in fluff fields is another form of social engineering, plain and simple.
Not guilty on the killing counts
stu (64)-
The librarians in Montklair ARE bulky waste.
“At a time they are cutting librarians in the schools in Montclair, isn’t twice a month bulky waste excessive?”
Thanks to chifi, I’m now the proud owner of the 2-disc collector’s edition of Hobo With a Shotgun.
Bitch got away with whacking her own kid. She will be a regular on E! channel or MTV within three months.
Can you imagine being part of the crew she goes out to party with tonight?
Anybody who thinks “it’s for the kids” in Amerika should take heed of today’s verdict.
Kids aren’t anyone’s constituency. There’s no money in it.
This verdict is what happens when every conspiracy becomes not only plausible, but the skeptics of the theories are seen as the naive fools. This Orwell quote sums it up nicely:
“Probably the truth is discoverable, but the facts will be so dishonestly set forth in almost any newspaper that the ordinary reader can be forgiven either for swallowing lies or failing to form an opinion. The general uncertainty as to what is really happening makes it easier to cling to lunatic beliefs. Since nothing is ever quite proved or disproved, the most unmistakable fact can be impudently denied. Moreover, although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge, the nationalist is often somewhat uninterested in what happens in the real world. What he wants is to feel that his own unit is getting the better of some other unit, and he can more easily do this by scoring off an adversary than by examining the facts to see whether they support him. All nationalist controversy is at the debating-society level. It is always entirely inconclusive, since each contestant invariably believes himself to have won the victory. Some nationalists are not far from schizophrenia, living quite happily amid dreams of power and conquest which have no connection with the physical world.”
NEW YORK (TheStreet (Symbol : TST)) — A Florida jury on Tuesday found Casey Anthony not guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter charges, but was found guilty on multiple counts for providing false information to law enforcement officers.
NEW YORK (TheStreet (Symbol : TST)) — A Florida jury on Tuesday found Casey Anthony not guilty of murdering her 2-year-old daughter Caylee.
Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murder and manslaughter charges, but was found guilty on multiple counts for providing false information to law enforcement officers.
Can’t wait for realty tv show and penthouse spread.
“Muni” bonds gained 4.45 per cent in the last three months, the largest return since 8.07 per cent in the third quarter of 2009, a Bank of America Merrill Lynch index showed.
Oh Whitney where art thou?
Barb 98 – What’s the over-under on how long it will take Nancy Grace’s head to explode over this?
NJ.com had an article yesterday on how difficult it is to fill juries these days.
“Thaddeus Hoffmeister, an associate professor at the University of Dayton Law School in Ohio who writes a blog about juries, agreed the trend is national and said it is a problem.
“It’s skewing juries toward retired people and the long-term unemployed,” he said, making it difficult for people who are working to get a panel of their peers.
Henry Klingeman, a defense attorney in Newark, agreed: “You have more unemployed people who can serve. You may end up having people wanting to be on the jury so they can collect a jury fee on top of whatever unemployment benefits they might be relying on.””
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/rough_economy_makes_filling_nj.html
[101] Gator,
I know of Prof. Hoffmeister. We both worked in the same place at different times. He never makes any alumni reunions though.
108. Gator
they better have a tranq gun locked and loaded over there at HLN.
JJ
I look forward to the “accidental” home video release. She should clean up nicely with a professional makeup artist and some good lighting.
NJ Gator (101):
Nancy Grace, LOL, I just made the same comment to my co-worker not 30 seconds ago…
Good news for the Gators (sort of)
http://realestate.msn.com/july-rental-advice-as-rents-rise-whats-a-renter-to-do?GT1=35006
Of course, it isn’t all inuring to landlords. Their costs have exploded, especially taxes, so they have to raise rents just to stay even.
[98] barbara
” The general uncertainty as to what is really happening makes it easier to cling to lunatic beliefs.”
That explains cable news and the blogosphere.
[91] shore
“Thneed”???
Nom, 108
Ditto. Was wondering the same thing….
sl
Nom
Perhaps shore has been reading ot much Dr Sues.
This thing is a Thneed. A Thneed’s a Fine-Something-That-All-People-Need! It’s a shirt. It’s a sock. It’s a glove. It’s a hat……
or spell check got him again.
Obviously, Shore’s working on a thneed to know basis, and we’re all just not quite thneedy enough to thknow.
I do need a thneed,
A thneed’s what I need,
not Gack’s or Yops, or things that might bleed.
I’ve two little girls, that go off on screeds
So to keep us all sane,
A thneed’s what I need.
Basho I ain’t.
I think I went way over seventeen syllables with that one.
[110] kettle
Apparently, I haven’t been reading enough Dr. Seuss.
Shame on me, a fellow Bay Stater no less.
Nom,
I’ll see your 2 little girls and raise you a son!
Just learned that a summer condo rental we were looking at in OC-MD is on the market. Apparently the owner has two units and is trying to sell each of them for 50K under her purchase price.
Wife has some unease about paying in advance for a week in a place that might get sold. I suggested she ask the owner if she would be willing to escrow the funds with her realtor. If the owner balks, we take a walk.
[115] Kettle,
You know not the kind of pain you are in for.
Nom,
try this one for a good tongue twister
Fox
Socks
Box
Knox
Knox in box.
Fox in socks.
Knox on fox in socks in box.
Socks on Knox and Knox in box.
Fox in socks on box on Knox.
Chicks with bricks come.
Chicks with blocks come.
Chicks with bricks and blocks and clocks come.
Look, sir. Look, sir. Mr. Knox, sir.
Let’s do tricks with bricks and blocks, sir.
Let’s do tricks with chicks and clocks, sir.
First, I’ll make a quick trick brick stack.
Then I’ll make a quick trick block stack.
You can make a quick trick chick stack.
You can make a quick trick clock stack.
And here’s a new trick, Mr. Knox….
Socks on chicks and chicks on fox.
Fox on clocks on bricks and blocks.
Bricks and blocks on Knox on box.
Now we come to ticks and tocks, sir.
Try to say this Mr. Knox, sir….
Fox In Sox, a favorite of the kettle Jr’s
Nom,
I hear whiskey and xanax can take the edge off. Besides their big brother is already very protective and they seem to like him better then Mrs kettle or I. I suspect he will be quite a pain for them when they eventually develop an interest in boys.
[118] kettle
No problem so long as they are Red Sox.
Nom,
I hear whiskey and Zanax can take the edge off. Besides their big brother is already very protective and they seem to like him better then Mrs kettle or I. I suspect he will be quite a pain for them when they eventually develop an interest in boys.
This is one of those stories that knocks you out of your jaded worldview:
“The event – a foul-shooting contest for top academic students at Compton High School in Los Angeles – was created with a simple premise: Organizers wanted to show the kids at Compton how to create community spirit with college scholarship money as the incentive.
Allen Geui won in front of a packed house. . . . Three months after winning the $40,000 top prize, Allan Guei donated all of his winnings to the seven other finalists.
Guei, a star player on the basketball team who is headed to Cal-State Northridge on a full scholarship, said he felt the others could use the college cash more than he could. He wanted to give his classmates a chance to make their academic dreams come true, too.
“I’ve already been blessed so much and I know we’re living with a bad economy, so I know this money can really help my classmates,” he said in a release from the school. “It was the right decision.”
[snip]
Then again it may just be easier to buy one of these:
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=5&ved=0CH8QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.storz-bickel.com%2F&rct=j&q=volcano%20vaporizer&ei=gW4TToSzN8jx0gG_ssSyDg&usg=AFQjCNGXD1f67vWjCOqtesR9xh_F2fW1ig&cad=rja
[120] kettle
Indeed so, and if he is large and in charge, he may prove to be a pain for some of the boys as well.
I was a mite overprotective of my little sister. True story–When my sister started dating Bob, one of my best friends from h.s., all of my other friends conspired to keep it from me because of a pervasive belief that I might become irrationally dangerous (not so but I did little to change the perception). Later, I found out that their first date was the movie “Scarface.” In one scene, Tony caps his best friend because he thought said friend was diddling his sister (in fact, they got married so he inadvertently capped his BIL). As that scene played out, Bob leans over to sis and says “who does that remind you of?”
Watching Nancy Grace now. This is all worth it, just to watch her melt down.
Hobo
Any recommendations for zanax c0cktails?
Hobo 124 – Have a shot of Knob Creek every time she says “Tot Mom” or “Travesty of Justice”.
vodka (125)-
Muddle some mint, sugar, ground X@nax and bitters in the bottom of a glass. Add a triple shot of good whiskey and ice. Float some c0deine cough syrup over the whole brew-up, then chug it.
Hobo, your going to need more grain if you continue to watch that shrew. Her face makes me angry. Count me in as one who stated to a co-worker that it was going to make Ol Nancy hag face’s head explode.
Probably also a good idea to have a defibrillator or paddles on hand when you make these drinks.
The real travesty is that the few people in the media who rise to Nancy Grace levels of indignity as we are financially r@ped into submission (Dylan Ratigan, etc.) are summarily silenced.
Of course, our entire nation grinds to a halt because some rictus-faced hag gets all boo hoo over some piece of Florida trailer trash who will no doubt meet a fitting end before she hits the age of 30.
Pain,
I like it when she hears something she doesn’t like, flares nostrils, breathes in, locks beady eyes on camera…
I think Roseanne Barr got it right today when she tweeted “Kids only matter in this country when they are fetuses.” This does not just apply to the criminal justice system.
When this story broke on HLN, I enjoyed the tasteless juxtaposition of 40 minutes of commentary on missing baby, the smell of human decomposition, duct taped skull, maggot husks, Target booze hauls, tattoos, azz contests followed by sweet pics of Nancy’s twins as she sickeningly coos in the mic and chats them up for her crazy azzed fans.
http://www.numbersusa.com/content/nusablog/beckj/july-5-2011/what-difference-7-million-jobs-would-make.html
What A Difference 7 Million Jobs Would Make
“CBS News recently reported some devastating statistics for Black Americans who are living with depression-era unemployment rates, including this: “34 percent of New York’s young black men age 19 to 24 are not working.” Blacks are not the only ones hurting. Unemployment rates are high among almost every class of worker, especially Blacks, Latinos,and teenagers. CBS further reports that most graduating students don’t have marketable skills. But the report ignored the federal government’s failure to prevent U.S. employers from illegally displacing less-educated U.S. workers.
Employers have illegally taken U.S. jobs out of the hands of 8 million American workers; workers like the less-educated young adults profiled by CBS. Only 4 percent of those jobs are in agriculture. The rest are in industries where citizens and legal immigrant workers compete directly with illegal labor. Most of these workers have less than a college education: 32 percent of the civilian labor force and 74 percent of the illegal labor force have a high-school education or less.
…..
The Legal Workforce Act (H.R. 2164) could change that. Within a couple of years of passage, 99 percent of all employers would be using E-Verify for all new hires, and the No-Match program would anchor a targeted approach to cracking down on identity thieves and other illegal workers who got their jobs through theft or fraud. The Legal Workforce Act would give millions of Americans an opportunity for a dignified life free of dependency.
The media doesn’t get that immigration policy is a jobs policy. For years, immigration policy has enabled outlaw businesses to discriminate against American workers. H.R. 2164 would change that, immediately putting millions of Americans back on a path to full employment.”
It will be interesting to see how H.R. 2164 does in Congress.
Can we put the interests of the majority of Americans — for whom illegal immigration is a very bad deal — ahead of special interest groups? I certainly hope so but I am not holding my breath.
Nom,
You hit it with the OJ reference earlier
For those of you who could not watch along at home…
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2011/07/05/exp.ng.anthony.verdict.reax.cnn?hpt=hp_t1
I was wondering why with all the talk about cutting billions and trillions from the federal budget , I don’t recall hearing anything about laying off a single federal worker?
All the cuts seem to be in programs, not employment.
Am I wrong?
I suspect that with cutting some programs FTEs will also go. On the other hand, there are many in government who state that it is bad policy to add to the unemployment rolls at a time of high unemployment. It is a good question.
I refused to get interested in the OJ newsfest, so I’m surely not going to invest time in the latest killer mommy distraction. I’ve got to keep my monicle focused on my bags of money.
Monacle, that is.
Monocle, third time’s a charm. Goes with my cane, hat, and moneybag.
Nom [121];
Funny, I was just reading another Compton story from a general aviation pilot. It seems he had all of 5 hours training under his belt when he and a foreign-born instructor left Long Beach airport (towered field) for Compton airport to practice landings, since there was generally less traffic at the non-towered Compton field. The complication was that the LA riots broke out. He was climbing out of Compton when he took 3 .45 ACP slugs to the wing and his instructor froze. He made for the housetops, got fast and low and ran back to Long Beach airport. “Long Beach Tower, 44T is inbound from Compton at low level and taking fire.” The FAA had a Notice to Airmen out a year or two ago about aircraft in Tamiami growing bullet holes as well.
As I have noted here for about two years, and in non-internet places even longer, beware of the Horn of Africa:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-naw-somali-detainee-20110706,0,3861006.story
To borrow a phrase from a movie, I could tell you stories from there “that will turn your b@lls the size of rasins.”
This sounds like just before the RE crash:
Irving Fisher was a noted 20th century economist. No less an authority than Milton Friedman called him “the greatest economist the United States has ever produced,” and many of his contributions to economics, such as the Fisher equation, the Fisher hypothesis and the Fisher separation theorem are cited by economists to this day.
Yet despite his intellect, he made one statement in 1929 that destroyed his credibility for the rest of his life.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/43094187?slide=2
A. West,
Just don’t land on Park Place or Boardwalk.
Anon,
I don’t recall any recent NOTAMs about that, although there may have been one a few years ago.
Hello, good post. I look forward to your next post. Thanks.
Guess everyone is watching The Matrix on AMC right now.
Everytime I think of buying, comments such as (7) scare the hell out of me.
“Everytime I think of buying, comments such as (7) scare the hell out of me.”
That scares you? How about Jamie Dimon replacing little Timmy as treasury secretary?
For your reading pleasure on the eve of doom. I recommend a little insight from Mr. Armstrong and the history of investment banking.
“What we must realize is that there are some Investment Bankers who will sail around looking for a victim to push over the edge. I believe AIG was such a target once Hank Greenberg was removed. What they unraveled was clearly even beyond what the Investment Bankers expected, since they themselves had to be bailed out. Trust me – they didn’t expect that to happen! These sorts of trader only perspectives as to how much they can make on a single trade is getting dangerous. They do not consider the consequences of their actions. This type of activity can even lead to war for if their actions wipe out the financial system of a nation, then all bets are off. Their hold on the U.S. government is endangering the rest of the world because of their irresponsibility.”
http://www.martinarmstrong.org/files/The%20Fate%20of%20Gold%20and%20Oil%20Front%20Runner%2007-04-2011.pdf
151, “That scares you? How about Jamie Dimon replacing little Timmy as treasury secretary?”
Jamie Gorelick not available?
California may be broke, but let’s not worry. The legislature is not resting:
via AP
“California lawmakers on Tuesday sent the governor a bill that would make the state the first requiring public schools to include the contributions of gays and lesbians in social studies curriculum”
Clot
Are you still a Realtor, or have you given up? :)
vb (153)-
Still a Realtor, in that my license is current, my company still exists, and my remaining agents do a deal every now and then. I still have a couple of buyers who might buy a house within the next decade or so and a couple of short sale listings that may actually see a closing.
Beyond that, I’m paving my way out of the biz. It is the absolute definition of “dead money”, and the flotsam and jetsam around it are just soul-murdering in their stupid, depressing entropy. Top it all off with generous helpings of fraud and stupidity, and I have many a morning when I wake up wondering why I didn’t take a pink bath the night before.
al (151)-
Thanks for the new Martin Armstrong. Love this part:
“Going into 1980, silver was the name of the game. Working as a teenager in the bullion industry, this tendency of keeping track of who was doing what led me to first hear of the name the HUNT BROTHERS. They were buying silver when it was $1.29. They did not become a household name until the cycle was near completion most likely as a ploy to get the small investors buying the high. For you see, they needed to hype the market for silver has always been the poor man’s gold. The bulk of the long contracts are always in the hands of the small investor who the professionals rely on to make a killing.
I was young and naïve, and in the early 1970s I was building my credit with the local bank. I went in and asked to borrow $100,000 when that used to be a lot of money. I gave the reason that I wanted to buy silver. I told my banker about the Hunt Brothers and that silver would go from a few dollars to maybe $20. It eventually went to $54. The bank turned me down. The banker told me I should have said I wanted to buy silver for inventory.”
Just classic Armstrong:
“While there is a quiver full of silver arrows to deal a swift blow to the Front-Runners, more often than not, they smell blood and it is probably yours if they guess the correct size of your portfolio and can listen to the tremor in your voice. When you are just approaching the TOO BIG TO FAIL level and don’t have the government waiting in the wings to buy your losses, you can also become the sacred cow being prepped for the slaughtered. The Front-Runner will jump in front and sell the shit out of your market knowing that your pain threshold has been reached. That is how they bankrupted the Hunts. The front-runners were there ahead of Long-term Capital Management. They were there in Lehman, Bear Sterns, and AIG, and just about every other famous collapse.
Make no mistake about it. There is no loyalty. You can do a ton of business with a particular Investment Banker. However, if he sees a profit over your dead corpse, prepare for death for you will be the next target. Now with government no longer a threat being subordinated to Wall Street, the game has gotten way out of control. The risks have now risen to a systemic level that threatens society as a whole.”
Shore [147];
You’re right about a few years ago, May 2008.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=683b4373-3357-44e9-be65-96bd3146ccba&
Hobo With a Shotgun: shouldn’t you be watching Hobo With a Shotgun?
Hobo With a Shotgun says:
July 5, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Guess everyone is watching The Matrix on AMC right now.
Hydroxatone To decrease the appearance of wrinkles in our facial area, we are opting to get the very best anti wrinkle creams sold in the drugstores and within the internet. The usual predicament is how to get the right goods since you will find hundreds of goods introduced and advertised in newspapers, magazines, and in various web sites. This is extremely confusing on the part of the consuming public simply because some of them don’t have any concept of which are the best anti wrinkle creams for their skin.
Webmaster, I am the admin at SEOPlugins.org. We profile SEO Plugins for WordPress blogs for on-site and off-site SEO. I’d like to invite you to check out our recent profile for a pretty amazing plugin which can double or triple traffic for a Worpdress blog. You can delete this comment, I didn’t want to comment on your blog, just wanted to drop you a personal message. Thanks, Rich
Many thanks. You’ve got shared a few very powerful and informative words of advice with me at night. Thank you so a lot to take time to listen to my personal problem and for your assist. May perhaps Our god bless you