From the WSJ:
Outlook on New York City-Area Jobs Perks Up
The Greater New York job market showed continued but modest growth in November, state reports showed, with particularly good news for New Jersey, which had been adding jobs at a tepid pace.
New Jersey gained 14,100 private-sector jobs and 2,800 government jobs. The state’s unemployment rate fell 0.6 percentage points to 7.8%, the largest monthly drop on record, according to a report released Thursday by the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
The data were a vindication for Gov. Chris Christie. Earlier this week, the financial rating service Moody’s had downgraded the outlook on the state’s $32 billion in general-obligation bonds from stable to negative. In October, the state had lost 1,400 private-sector jobs.
Moody’s cited New Jersey’s “sluggish economic recovery,” among the challenges the state faces. Mr. Christie on Thursday called Moody’s analysis “half-baked,” as it didn’t take into account New Jersey’s latest job numbers. “These are all signs of a growing, robust economy and job market in this state,” Mr. Christie said during a news conference in Trenton.
Joseph J. Seneca, an economics professor at Rutgers University, called the November report an “early holiday present.”
“Over the last several months, New Jersey had been lagging the national economy in terms of jobs growth,” he said. “But the November numbers reassure us that New Jersey is participating in the job growth the nation is experiencing.”
Mr. Seneca also noted, however, that the decline in the number of people unemployed didn’t translate into more people employed, because they likely left the labor force.
Frist.
Chicago style . . . It’s good to be a brother, and even better to be related.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/12/19/obama-commutes-eight-drug-sentences/?hpt=hp_t3
Good morning London!
Anyone like Balvenie 12 year double wood?
IMHO, very good choice, but this is my go-to scotch. You would need to spend many, many times this price to get a better drink. In fact, I’m hearing that the much more expensive doublewood (16y or is it 18y) isn’t all that much different, which I think cements it’s position as a value leader.
The reason I think I like it so much is that it’s aged in bourbon barrels, and I prefer bourbons over scotches. Smooth, sweet, vanillas, caramel, oak, light finish. Very easy straight drinker, no water or ice in this one.
Big peat scotch drinkers think this one is for wussies. That said, there are plenty of self-proclaimed scotch aficionados practicing self-hatred every time they open a bottle of overpriced crap. The reason some of that stuff needs 20 years in a barrel is because it came off the still entirely undrinkable and needed 20 years to mellow out to the point where it wouldn’t strip paint.
Grim,
I want you to walk around the London streets, go up to people and start blurting out quotes from Monty Python skits in your best zany British accent.
I vote for this one:
“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”
Fast Eddie says:
December 20, 2013 at 7:01 am
Grim,
I want you to walk around the London streets, go up to people and start blurting out quotes from Monty Python skits in your best zany British accent.
I’d love to hear what Fast Eddie thinks of London house prices.
http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/find.html?searchType=SALE&locationIdentifier=REGION^87490&insId=2&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=&minBedrooms=&maxBedrooms=&minPrice=&maxPrice=&retirement=&partBuyPartRent=&maxDaysSinceAdded=&_includeSSTC=on&sortByPriceDescending=&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&secondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType=&oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&newHome=&auction=false
chi, skip the Seavey Cab. Not that great…unless you’re a fan of Smuckers jam.
I have the Clos Julien Cab- made from Seavey grapes- for under $20. Really good bottle of wine.
Richard,
London is on par with Manhattan prices I suppose. For one that has that kind of dough, then touche’.
taking a brief break the next two weeks.
it will be a time of joy and reflection – a time to thank God for all the blessings received in 2013.
will return in 2014 with a much invigorated effort to continue the never ending fight against the dark forces: regressives, racists, fukctards, teatards, right-wingers, free mkt fanatics, talibanists, fascists, slumlords, tax dodgers, self-righteous prlcks, doom & gloom proclaimators, banksters apologists, greedy baztardz, etc, etc, etc.
for the rest of you, Merry Christmas.
From prior thread:
Fonseca is my go-to port. Don’t know that particular bottle.
All of the single malts discuss are personal faves. I’d also add in Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban.
Anon I’m surprised you called it christmas shouldn’t it be some non denominational PC approved clap trap. any way have a merry christmas I hope you have a wonderful one with your family and drink enough egg nog to maybe awaken some of those dullard brain cells of yours.
My fiance… we just got enaged. :)
http://tinyurl.com/q9yzmcs
Anon (19):
You have a good holiday too. Thanks for the Christmas card. I did not know Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes were your parents.
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=217358
All Hype [23],
I shake my head every day regarding the monumental decline that is taking place in this country. I have no idea how this country became so p.ussified, weak, distracted, d.umb, fat, limp, lazy and fractured so quickly.
[19] anon,
Well, thank you, maybe. I trust you are not celebrating all of the capitalistic trappings of the holiday. And you certainly don’t have a white Santa.
But I didn’t think you believed. After all, wasn’t it one of your idols who called religion “an opiate of the masses”?
In 2014, looking forward to a series of inane tweeted opinions that are intended as a substitute for argument.
He is not a Christian. A true Christian would have forgiven us for our sins.
Eddie (24):
Agree. It really is the change in culture from our youth of playing army, tackle football and cowyboys and indians, etc to supervised play dates where any sort of physical interaction or violence is frowned upon. Also, video games and iPhones are making kids soft and IMHO socially unskilled due to texting. The lack of daily physical activity is making boys weak, fat and unhealthy. This combined with the message that the gubbmint is the answer to all life’s problems is causing young men to become delayed adults where actual maturity does not start well into their 30s. The problem is that when you are a 35 year old fat, unmotivated slug you cant just get off the couch and work hard for a living. You have wasted your prime years to get out and grab the literal “bull by the balls”. You are a grown man with man boobs who now has to compete with younger people who are actually motivated who can out-work you and older emplyees who can out-think you.
Anon will be gone for two weeks? Time to reactivate my twitter account.
Judging by the complete lack of traffic on the GSP this morning, things are gonna be light around here this week fo sho.
Happy holidays.
All Hype,
It’s as plain as day… couldn’t agree more. But what makes you believe that there are younger folks that are going to push the 35 year old man boy? If anything, it’ll get worse. Unless, of course, you have a young guy who came over from from some war-torn, poverty pit of a country and is hungry as a wolf. Then, the question of illegal vs. legal immigration takes place. But, the bigger picture here is that this socially interactive, minute by minute world we’ve created seems to have more downside than upside. Did you see that video/newstory where they changed the lyrics to “Silent Night” because they didn’t want to offend people? What are you f.ucking kidding me? It’s the reason the song exists? Have we lost our minds?
Grim…please unmod my diatribe on child abuse.
Gary (30):
There are 20s kids who will beat the man child up and down the street when competing for jobs. They are out there. All my friends, even the extremely liberal ones, have instilled the fear of God in their kids bout succeeding in life. My best friend’s kids are the most socially well adjusted and pleasant kids I have ever been around. They will kick pajama boy’s ass and they are girls.
The Silent Night dealo is utterly stupid. The school did apologize but I wonder about the lack of brain matter of the choral director and principal.
Juice,
Chivas is a gang drink? First I’ve heard of it. I was under the impression gang liked clear liquors (vodka, gin).
I’ve changed my stance on opposing the death penalty
NJGator says:
December 19, 2013 at 11:22 pm
Patrick DeBlasio gets sixth public job
I’ve changed my stance on opposing the death penalty
anon (the good one) says:
December 20, 2013 at 9:09 am
taking a brief break the next two weeks.
it will be a time of joy and reflection – a time to thank God for all the blessings received in 2013.
will return in 2014 with a much invigorated effort to continue the never ending fight against the dark forces: regressives, racists, fukctards, teatards, right-wingers, free mkt fanatics, talibanists, fascists, slumlords, tax dodgers, self-righteous prlcks, doom & gloom proclaimators, banksters apologists, greedy baztardz, etc, etc, etc.
for the rest of you, Merry Christmas.
Best scene in a great movie!
clotluva says:
December 20, 2013 at 8:03 am
I vote for this one:
“Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.”
Every Winter I am slightly peeved by the number of pedestrians that would rather walk in sn0w-narrowed street arround instead of the sidewalk, shoveled or not. I’m also amazed that people don’t value their lives more. This winter it’s the same old, same old, except now these same pedestrians are texting while walking in the middle of a snowy street. I imagine there has to be numerous cases by now of texting drivers hitting texting pedestrians, except I think a texting pedestrian is not reported any differently than a non-screen-zombie pedestrian in news reports. I did stumble on this stat, though:
Safe Kids Worldwide has found that pedestrian deaths are up for older teens (ages 15 to 19), who now account for 50% of pedestrian fatalities among those 19 and younger.
http://www.businessinsider.com/texting-while-walking-killing-teenagers-2013-8
re: # 23 – Moose maybe not but pretty much every bodega that I have been in that sells liquor has Chivas and Hennessy in stock, although most of those visits for me were well after midnight when you cannot find too many places open that sell the hard stuff with a wink and a nod. Just ask our resident sommelier.
execute anon for Christmas
rollin down the street, smokin endo, sippin on gin and juice
Just because it’s popolar doesn’t mean it’s bad. I love a good craft beer and have tried most of the fancy, keg only, limited edition stuff that only males in Che t-shirts usually swallow, but I still think Guinness and Negra Modello are in my top 5.
Though admittedly, I am really not much of a bourbon or whiskey drinker. I think I simply got sick of it too many times in college.
[?id=beats8]
All-cash home sales reach new high
Why the Fed tapering may help drive more all-cash buyers
Quentin Fottrell
MARKETWATCH — 34 MINUTES AGO
More Americans are buying homes in all-cash deals, according to a new report. But real-estate experts say this increase may not be a good sign for the health of the housing market, which may also be impacted by the Federal Reserve’s decision to pull back on its bond-buying program.
All-cash purchases accounted for 42% of all sales of residential property in November 2013, up from 39% during the previous month, according to data from real-estate data firm RealtyTrac released Friday. “This is still a very cash- and investor-driven market,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac.
The cities with the biggest month-over-month jumps in the number of all-cash sales, according to RealtyTrac, included Florida (63%), Georgia and Nevada (both 51%), South Carolina (50%) and Michigan (49%). This helped boost overall sales of U.S. residential properties, which sold at an annualized pace of 5.1 million in November 2013, a 1% increase from the previous month and a rise of 10% from a year ago.
The decision by the Federal Reserve Wednesday to reduce its bond-buying program to $75 billion per month starting in January, from $85 billion per month currently, may also encourage more cash-purchases — at least for those who can afford it, Blomquist says. “They’re going to do everything they can to keep interest rates low, which may be tough to do,” he says. To reduce cash buyers, he says there will need to be low interest rates and a cooling off in home price appreciation. “Otherwise, you’ll see the market skew even further toward cash buyers,” Blomquist says.
When interest rates went up slightly in June, there was a notable increase in cash sales, Daren Blomquist says. “Some markets are more interest-rate sensitive than others based on affordability,” he says. “Just a slight increase makes homes a lot less affordable.” In fact, another report by Goldman Sachs in August was even more strongly in the cash-is-king camp, estimating that cash sales now account for 57% of all residential home sales versus 19% in 2005. Walt Molony, a spokesman for the National Association of Realtors, says that the association’s estimate of the share of the market made up by all-cash buyers is lower than others’, at 31% in July, but that it’s still at an all-time high.
Molony says that investors make up 32% of all-cash buyers (70% of all investors pay cash), up from 31% in October and 30% in November 2012, while retirees who’ve built up equity in their homes or paid off their mortgages account for around 12%. The rest include vacation-home buyers and foreign buyers.
While cash buys help explain the surge in home sales over the past year, some experts say it’s an unsustainable trend — and one that should be greeted with caution. “The rise in cash sales is not a good long-term trend for the housing market,” Blomquist says. Although RealtyTrac doesn’t identify who has cash-in-hand, experts say wealthy Americans and downsizing retirees account for some of these all-cash deals. Investors who are keen to make a profit by buying low and renting those properties — or flipping them — also drive up the number of all-cash deals, he says. None of these three groups — flippers, retirees and the wealthy — are big enough to sustain the market in the long run, he says. If it remains dominant in the long run, cash buying “will have a chilling effect on home sales and prices,” Blomquist says.
If tapering does lead to higher mortgage rates, some home buyers might buy with cash rather than a mortgage, says Jed Kolko, chief economist for real-estate firm Trulia. However, many cash buyers are investors, and now that prices have risen, investor activity is also starting to decline, he says. (House prices in 20 American cities rose more than 13% in the 12 months leading up to September, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values, the biggest rise since February 2006.) “On balance, the all-cash share of purchases will probably decline next year, as fading investor activity outweighs the impact of higher rates.”
Another challenge for the housing market in 2014: The pool of potential buyers is being limited thanks to a combination of tight lending standards and rising interest rates, experts say. “Cash is king in hot markets where getting the sale done now matters and where investors are driving price recovery,” says Susan M. Wachter, professor of real estate and finance at The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Cash’s dominance is a sign of the fact that it’s more costly and hard to get financing, she says, “that’s a bad thing.” On the upside, interest rates are still historically low, she says. “Now is a time to lock in if you are a buyer.”
I’ll be trucking my fat, busted knee, muffin top, sloppy ass to Walmart tonight to check on the status of this country. If I like what i see I may splurge and hop on one of those motorized carts.
On another note I believe it is time to cover the pathetic and weak with 10 feet of hot asphalt. Newark, Camden should just be paved into a gigantic asphalt mound. It could be a tourist attraction. Come to NJ and see how we deal with unsolvable problems.
Jerry West at 75. Impressive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buYB75cMehY
AG can I subscribe to your newsletter, of course we will need to deport those folks to Detroit I hear they have a housing problem with lots of vacancies.
Meat,
I’m getting old; I remember when the dude was still playing.
Mother and son beat down on the street. Ho-hum, just another day in New Jersey. I’m so glad we have such strict gun laws.
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2013/12/video_shows_mother_son_being_beaten_on_newark_street.html#incart_m-rpt-1
(36). God bless the man. It was late 70s (early 80s?) when the Nets were playing at the RAC in Piscataway. I was not a big follower of pro basketball by that time. I’m meeting my buddy at the Holiday Inn in South Plainfield which was the only respectable hotel/motel in all of Central Jersey at that time. Heading to the bar/lounge on a Friday night. About 11pm walk in from the front entrance the Lakers after, I assume, a game with the Nets. Girls, especially tall ones, line up in the corridor as if they’re in a lineup. All on cue. The black players, including Abdul, examine and choose. Girl walks merrily behind and into hotel room. Just about all black players on the team do the same. White players ignore the girls. Ignoring this all is Jerry West and his assistant (damn, forgot the name, another great Laker, if I remember). Jerry walks into his room and half hour later appears at the lounge. Takes a table with his assistant. No one in the room recognizes him or even cares. Except me, of course. I run up and get his autograph. Nicest and politest man that ever was.
Grim, I think I’m in mod. What tf?
never mind
#39
Who in their right mind would voluntarily visit Newark?
clot: you had me at “I have…”
Anyway, you gave no commentary on this…
chicagofinance says:
December 19, 2013 at 11:58 pm
As an aside WTF does this mean?
The aromatics are rich with blueberry, violets, toasted oak, vanillin and spice. As this wine opens in your glass, its tightly wound aromatics will continue to unveil themselves. Your palate is greeted with blueberry, Provençal herbs, bittersweet cocoa, baking spices, basalt, blackberry, dried violets and tobacco.
“The 2010 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate exhibits a dark purple color along with a pungent, earthy nose displaying hints of new saddle leather, roasted meats, cedarwood, barbecue smoke, creme de cassis and blackberries.
creme de cassis ….. ahhhhh
roasted meats…..dried violets and tobacco……
[42] Lots of folks hit up the Ironbound for Iberian food. It has been a relatively safe area.
What’s that I see dead ahead?
Better question is who the hell attacks a laborer and his 60 some odd year old mother? What could they have worth stealing? It’s senseless violence.
http://www.examiner.com/article/noting-link-between-forced-disarmament-genocide-does-not-trivialize-holocaust
Writing for Bearing Arms a week ago, Bob Owens reported that Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop is putting the city’s police officers at risk by choosing firearm and ammunition vendors based not on the quality of the products they offer, suitability for the department’s needs, and cost, but on the vendors’ answers to his misguided “social responsibilities” questionnaire that must be filled out before any bid is considered. Fulop outlined the questions he will be asking in a piece he wrote for the Huffington Post:
Jersey City will be asking all bidders the following six socially responsible questions:
– What do you do to combat illegal gun trafficking and illegal gun crime?
– Do you manufacturer and sell assault weapons for civilian use? [by “civilian,” Fulop clearly means “not police”–the militarization of law enforcement is just fine with him]
– Do you agree not to sell certain models of firearms for civilian use?
– Are you requiring your dealers to conduct background checks? [is Fulop really unaware that federal law already requires these?]
– Do you fund research related to gun violence and smart gun technology?
– Will you commit to prohibiting your brand name from being used in violent video games?
NRA board member Scott Bach is now drawing fire for expressing surprise in a phone interview on NRA News that Mayor Fulop could be so rabidly anti-gun, given the fact that his grandparents were Holocaust survivors. Predictably, the “progressives” cannot contain themselves, and are in full-throated anguished bleating meltdown mode. The amusingly misnamed “Think Progress,” for example, had this to say:
Comparing gun control to the Holocaust is one of a number of faulty and offensive analogies the gun rights movement has used to illegitimize [sic] gun reform measures.
Source of bought-and-paid-for anti-gun “news” Media Matters (founded by a paranoid “progressive” who insists on heavily armed security–often illegally armed), apparently having decided that one article of outrage was insufficient, whined about Bach’s argument twice.
The Anti-Defamation League has also gotten in on the act, issuing a press release with this statement from their director, Abraham Foxman (excerpt):
It is especially disturbing that in the debate over gun control in America, Holocaust analogies and references to Nazi Germany flow so freely off the lips of critics of gun control. There is absolutely no comparison of the issue of gun control in the U.S. to the genocidal actions of the Nazi regime.
Scott Bach’s critique of Jersey City Mayor Steven Fulop’s gun control measures undermines and trivializes the historical truth of the Holocaust as a singular event in human history that led to the murder of six million Jews and millions of others. That he did so by invoking Mayor Fulop’s family history makes it all the more offensive.
Bach, of course, never compared American “gun control” to the Holocaust. The fact remains, though, no matter how shrilly the gun ban zealots deny it, that genocidal tyranny is vastly more difficult–not to mention risky–against a people who are heavily armed and prepared to use those arms in their defense.
That’s why those bent on genocidal tyranny insist on a “government monopoly on force.” Is it not fair to ask, then, why the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Congressman Jerrold Nadler demand the same thing?
If anyone is “trivializing the Holocaust,” it is those who wish to silence any who raise the alarm about policies that will make the next Holocaust more difficult to thwart.
Real estate prices in London suburbs out of control – North Jersey looks downright cheap in comparison.
Emergency calls to 911, placed the night an unarmed Florida teenager was killed by a neighborhood watch captain, were too much for his family to bear. He killed my son, the boy’s father screamed as his mother fled the room in hysterical tears,Beats Headphones For Cheap, according to a family representative who spoke with ABC News. The recordings were released late Friday night. Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was allegedly shot to death by George Zimmerman, 28, on Feb. 26. Martin, a high schoo
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Tip for Jaime Di(a)mon(d) — avoid holiday cards where people are lobbing balls at your head. It reminds people that you should be in prison.
I made this one just for the blog:
street (49)-
Fulop is such a p^ssy, he won’t or can’t even shut down the drug dealers at the basketball court not 50 yards from his own house.
By Ted Sherman and James Queally/The Star-Ledger
NEWARK — Nearly a week after 30-year-old Hoboken lawyer Dustin Friedland was gunned down in a deadly carjacking while returning to his vehicle in an upper level parking deck of the Mall at Short Hills, police this morning arrested four men on charges of murder.
The four, all from Newark, were identified as Karif Ford, 31, Besim Henry, 32, Kevin Roberts, 35, and Hanif Thompson, 29. All were being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility on $2 million bail each.
Thompson was taken into custody in Irvington. Ford and Roberts were arrested in Newark. Henry was arrested at a hotel in Easton Pa., Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn Murray said in a statement.
All four have been charged with murder, felony murder carjacking conspiracy and weapons possession, Murray said.
Friedland was killed last Sunday evening after he and his wife, Jamie, were exiting the upscale mall in the Short Hills section of Millburn after an evening of holiday shopping. Police said they were headed back to their parked 2012 silver Range Rover just after the mall closed at 9 p.m. when they were confronted by at least two assailants who demanded the SUV.
“Why did they have to shoot that man?” she said. “Now we have four black men lost to the system.”
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2013/12/neighbors_of_suspects_charged_in_short_hills_mall_carjacking_react_following_arrests.html#incart_maj-story-1
Shocker: friends and family describe the thugs as good, non-violent boys.
Yes, the real tragedy here is “four black men lost to the system.” Not the innocent white man they shot in the head.
Thank goodness Corzine got rid of the death penalty in 2007.
Wonder if its made from hopium?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/21/us/heroin-marked-obama-care/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews
And there is a NJ angle to the story.
Magpies 3 pts off Champions League spot!!!!
I bet the people who look at this view from the Bronx evertday could care less.
http://www.nj.com/bergen/index.ssf/2013/12/lg_headquarters_opponents_plan_protest_at_manhattan_best_buy.html#incart_river_default
62. Idiots.
Love the comment that complains that the manhattan skyline ruins the view from NJ of the sunrise.
Nothing like having a little fun while selling real estate…….
http://www.northjersey.com/news/236909301_Agents_accused_of_sex_in_home.html
If I were part of an opposing army I would just surrender.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/24383191/eagles-will-be-honoring-former-cheerleaderturnedsoldier