This is the time and place to post observations about your local areas, comments on news stories or the New Jersey housing market, open house reports, etc. If you have any questions you wanted to ask earlier in the week but never posted them up, let’s have them. Also a good place to post suggestions, requests for information, criticism, and praise.
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From MarketWatch:
Crude oil hits record high in electronic trading
Crude oil prices spiked to a record high in electronic trading early Friday. The August light crude contract traded as high as $141.71 a barrel. Recently it was up $1.23 at $140.87 a barrel.
From Bloomberg:
Homes Less Affordable as Prices Fall, Rates Rise, Zillow Says
Rising mortgage rates are driving up the cost of buying a house even as prices fall, making property more expensive across the U.S., according to a new study by Zillow.com, an online provider of home valuations.
Monthly payments on 30-year fixed mortgages are 6 percent to 10 percent higher in 41 of the top U.S. housing markets than they were two months ago. First-quarter prices have declined from a year earlier in 88 percent of those areas, Zillow said.
“We’re going to need about a 30 percent decline in house prices if you are going to keep payments stable,” said Morris Davis, a former senior economist with the Federal Reserve and now a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Business.
2nd?
From the Washington Post:
This Recession, It’s Just Beginning
So much for that second-half rebound.
Truth be told, that was always more of a wish than a serious forecast, happy talk from the Fed and Wall Street desperate to get things back to normal.
It ain’t gonna happen. Not this summer. Not this fall. Not even next winter.
This thing’s going down, fast and hard. Corporate bankruptcies, bond defaults, bank failures, hedge fund meltdowns and 6 percent unemployment. We’re caught in one of those vicious, downward spirals that, once it gets going, is very hard to pull out of.
From the LA Business Journal:
IndyMac Shares Swoon to Record Low
Shares of IndyMac Bancorp Inc. hit an all-time low Thursday, plummeting more than 25 percent to just 80 cents, leading Sen. Charles Schumer to express public concern over the Pasadena lender’s financial health.
Schumer, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, wrote letters to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of Thrift Supervision expressing “concern for the safety-and-soundness risks posed by IndyMac.” The New York Democrat said IndyMac sits on the verge of collapse and asked if either agency is taking steps to protect IndyMac and its depositors.
The mortgage lender has been pummeled by the subprime meltdown and credit crunch. IndyMac posted a nearly $200 million loss in the first quarter as a result of writedowns on mortgage-backed securities.
The company’s stock has fallen nearly 95 percent over the past year.
It’s friday people! Fri-day….now let’s see some excitement! It’s a great time to buy something….plasma TV, Stocks….or a home!
Shopping as therapy?
From Bloomberg:
AIG Poised to Absorb $5 Billion Losses From Securities-Lending
American International Group Inc. plans to absorb losses for a dozen insurance units after their securities-lending accounts suffered $13 billion of writedowns tied to the subprime-mortgage collapse during the past year.
The world’s largest insurer will assume as much as $5 billion of any losses on sales of the investments, up from a previous commitment of $500 million, said Christopher Swift, vice president for life and retirement services, in an interview. AIG also will inject an undisclosed amount of capital into some of the subsidiaries, he said.
Moody’s Investors Service and A.M. Best Co. both cited the writedowns in May when they downgraded New York-based AIG’s credit ratings. State regulators in Texas said they didn’t know AIG was investing cash collateral from the securities-lending business in subprime-linked assets and were concerned the insurance units hadn’t put aside enough capital to cover potential losses.
“We were aware of this portfolio, but we didn’t have transparency on what was in it because it was off-balance sheet,” said Doug Slape, chief analyst at the Texas Department of Insurance in Austin, which oversees three AIG insurers that have suffered about 60 percent of the writedowns.
I take the position that it would be rude to call someone at home on business at 5:30 am, even if they didn’t have a baby in the house.
From the Jersey Journal:
Condos get better tax deal
The Jersey City City Council voted Wednesday to give the Canco Lofts, a condo complex at the old American Can factory on Dey Street, a better tax abatement deal, responding to claims by the developer that sales had stalled.
James McCann, the attorney representing New York-based Coalco, the developer, said the change would save condo owners a total of $6.7 million during the first 10 years of the abatement.
In a 7-0 vote, the council voted to stick with a 30-year term for the abatement, but reduced the payments in lieu of taxes due the city from 16 percent of gross annual revenue to 10 percent for the first 10 years, 12 percent for the next 10 years and 14 percent for the final 10 years.
Coalco had agreed to the original terms of the abatement two years ago.
Out of 202 condos on the market since November, 57 have signed contracts, Coalco spokeswoman Christa Segalini said. More than 500 units are planned for the site.
From CNBC:
Existing Sales Rise, But Look At What’s Selling
An interesting aside on the existing home sales numbers today from the National Association of Realtors: Sales appear to be hovering just below the five million annualized rate, with little bumps up and down and sales bounce around the bottom.
…
I asked the Realtors how much of these sales are “distressed” properties, that is, short sales (where the seller works with the lender to sell at a price below the mortgage value–that way the seller and the lender avoid foreclosure, which usually ends in bigger losses) and REO sales which are bank-owned properties (homes that have already gone through foreclosure).
According to the Realtors, a full one third of sales are distressed properties. Think about that. Five million home sales expected this year and of those about 1.65 million will be homes that a seller couldn’t afford to keep.
Top CNBC Idiotic Observations:
1. We’ve hit a market bottom
2. Stocks are oversold
3. Overseas markets won’t be affected by the U.S. slowdown
4. Now’s a good time to buy financials
5. Rebound will happen in the second half
6. Core inflation only 2.1% (what are you little people complaining about?)
7. Now’s the time to bet on emerging markets
8. Housing turn-around in sight
Bonus Question: Who is the bigger idiot: Cramer or Dennis Kneale?
From Reuters:
Merrill may take $5.4 bln in Q2 writeoffs: Lehman
Merrill Lynch & Co will likely incur $5.4 billion of write-downs in the second quarter, mainly from its exposure to monolines, said an analyst at Lehman Brothers, who also saw higher quarterly losses at the world’s largest brokerage.
Analyst Roger Freeman raised his write-down view by $3 billion for Merrill, making his estimate the highest among Wall Street analysts. Analysts have till date expected write-downs to range from $3.5 billion to $4.2 billion.
“We did a deeper review of Merrill’s monoline exposures on non-ABS CDO (asset-backed security and collateralized debt obligation) assets… this incremental $1.7 billion of writedowns constitutes the majority of our adjustment,” Freeman said.
In addition to the monoline write-down, the analyst said he was now incorporating a larger CDO/subprime write-down following a sharp decline in the ABX index over the past few days. ABX, a synthetic index of home equity asset-backed securities tied to credit default swaps, is comprised of risky home loans.
rude to call someone at 5:30am period
From the WSJ:
Fed May Give Private Equity
More Leeway to Help Banks
By DAVID ENRICH, ROBIN SIDEL and DAMIAN PALETTA
June 27, 2008; Page C1
The Federal Reserve may soon make it easier for private-equity firms and others to invest in the nation’s ailing banks, according to people familiar with the matter.
With bank stocks crumbling and the second quarter drawing to a close Monday, the changes could offer a lifeline to cash-strapped lenders desperate to secure capital.
“This would be a bit of a sea change for the Fed,” said Gregory Lyons, head of the financial-services practice at law firm Goodwin Procter LLP. “A number of banks would love to access the private-equity pool. It’s a clean slug of money.”
The move comes as regulators grow increasingly worried about the ability of many banks to replenish capital amid the worst banking crisis in decades. Small and regional lenders are expected to have a tougher time lining up new investors, particularly since some recent capital infusions have stuck banks’ new shareholders with big losses.
The Fed and other banking regulators historically have resisted unregulated entities’ exerting control over banks, and tough enforcement of federal rules has often prevented private-equity firms from pumping much cash into banks.
14 tbw
agree. they don’t pay me enough.
So looks like the Housing Bail out bill is stalled cause some Senators tried to sneak in some other crap into the bill.
Bofa must be lobbying hard for the bill as they start to gag on the Country Wide.
I wouldn’t take Bofa stock even if someone paid me to own it. I think Angelo stuck it to Kenny and now Kenny is putting up a brave face.
After pumping millions to build out Investment Banking and hiring the tier two management from the big I-Banks to lead Bofa Divisions, here’s what Ken had to say about I-Banking !!
“I’ve had all of the fun I can stand in investment banking at the moment, So to get bigger in it is not something I really want to do.”
Before long he’d say something similar about Mortages !!
12 DL
“Bonus Question: Who is the bigger idiot: Cramer or Dennis Kneale?”
I’m going to have to vote for Dennis Kneale. Cramer’s got a show and a schtick, which is more about getting viewers than anything else. Cramer’s a maroon, but Kneale doesn’t even have an excuse.
“So looks like the Housing Bail out bill is stalled cause some Senators tried to sneak in some other crap into the bill. ”
Unfortunately, the reason they chose that bill to sneak in their cr*p was that it is the bill voted Most Likely to Pass.
“So much for that second-half rebound.”
Hah. I guess Meredith Whitney’s star is shining a bit brighter these days. Eh?
There are some bright things about $7 a gallon gas.
1) It will stop the spread of Mcmansions for the masses
2) People will rediscover walking
3) Soccer moms will no longer be able to schedule Madison and Claymore’s every second of their lives with soccer, music, singing, art, mom’s book club, mom’s walking club, fingerpainting for 3 year olds, yadda yadda, yadda and other mindless child must be entertained at all times bs
4) We might actually eat better food and get healthier. Will TV shows switch from flipping houses to gardening shows so we can grow fruits and veggies on our 1/5 acre yards?
5) We will have a great excuse to avoid visiting relatives and casual acquaintances
We live in South Brunswick, NJ. We placed our townhouse in Nassau Square on the market last Monday. The following weekend we got two offers and are no in attorney review.
Our asking price was about $20K less than neighbors. We are in the process of finding a large home for ourselves.
“It’s a great time to buy something….plasma TV, Stocks….or a home!”
Dirt.
#12 DL
Don’t forget the money honey. 2 years ago I saw her roll her eyes in disgust at the suggestion of a housing bubble. Hope she went long lots of north jersey real estate.
I am so glad I got the 4cyl Accord instead of the 6!!
“I take the position that it would be rude to call someone at home on business at 5:30 am”
njp,
Especially if it’s your margin clerk in London.
“This would be a bit of a sea change for the Fed,”
The fed is lost with the dolphins in the Shrewsbury. By the way, have they made their way back to sea?
“Dennis Kneale”
Total buffoon. Unless, of course, if you use him as a contra play.
Anti[17],
Good to see you back. Haven’t heard from you in awhile.
Whoa some of you guys are up WAY early…. I have college kids home and the only time i get uninterrupted puter time is now…so…from yesterday…what’s up in Montclair people??? I work in the pool (no, I’m not kidding) at a Y…mine is a JCC and therefore we have police protection a lot…helped me yesterday when i got stopped by a cop who moonlights at my Y and recognized me and didn’t give a ticket…apparently you supposed to come to a complete stop at a stop sign and look both ways before proceeding..who knew?
Babs Corcoran coming up on the Today show. Can’t wait for her next tidbits of advice…
Also from yesterday’s thread..RE#221 and #321
I have one word for your older first time Mom friend…Allendale.See yesterday’s post #321 for more info. This is the stuff i know. Unfortunately I also know the loss of a pet and you have my condolences..my kids still talk about our cat who ran off when we brought home our dog and except for the chipmunks and field mice who now run wild around here we all still miss her.
#31…just turned on channel 4 …that woman has some crazy eyes…Coldplay too!
Actually, its late where I live. Hint, a gallon of gas will cost you north of $10.
How much will eventually be picked up by the Essex taxpayers? A high school stadium on Bloomfield Ave to depict the LA Coliseum, complete with a seperate clock tower?? Will they charge a license fee to all the taxpayers in the county? Wait to they calculate the final tally for this extravagance.
http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1214455076124660.xml&coll=1
#35 BC
$24 million for a high school sports complex? WTF? Another example of the waste in our schools. When will people realize that the government spends our money, not government money?
North Korea blows up its own nuclear reactor. On purpose.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/06/27/northkorea.explosion/index.html
Will this trigger a 1 day rally in the market?
nj.com
Traffic declines at Hudson River crossings
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/jersey/index.ssf?/base/news-10/121454140152510.xml&coll=1
BOSTON (MarketWatch) — KBH 18.13, -1.06, -5.5%) before Friday’s opening bell reported a second-quarter loss of $255.9 million, or $3.30 a share, compared with a loss of $148.7 million, or $1.93 a share, in the year-ago period. Total revenue slipped to $639.1 million from $1.41 billion, the Los Angeles-based residential builder said. The latest quarter’s results included pretax charges of $176.5 million for inventory and joint venture impairments and the abandonment of land option contracts, and $24.6 million for goodwill impairment. “Despite substantially lower home prices, relatively low interest rates and an abundance of choices, potential new home buyers remain reluctant to purchase a home,” said KB Home Chief Executive Jeffrey Mezger in a statement.
“$24 million for a high school sports complex?”
bairen,
When it is all said and done, it will be closer to $40M. Hey, what the f*ck, it comes with a giant clock tower. On a positive note, the Newark residents won’t have to shell out any $ for a wrist watch.
#29 BC
I have been in Bangalore for since last December off-shoring some jobs. More on the way. Avg cost per employee in Bangalore about 50K USD a year as opposed to 300K per year in NY. Even with the much lower productivity it’s still commercial atleast for now. I was offered 30 people in Bangalore for 10 people I had to loose in NY.
Next years budget season should be kicking off shortly and given the mood on the street, any head count increase will have to be in India, I think.
With outsourcing you get what you pay for…
Anti,
What’s it like there? Is it worth a move?
From MarketWatch:
U.S. May real disposable incomes flat excluding rebates
U.S. May incomes, spending get boost from rebates
U.S. May incomes rise 1.9% vs. 1.5% expected
U.S. May core inflation up 0.1%, vs. 0.2% expected
Isn’t this sweet of big Dick:
Lehman’s Fuld, McDade to Forgo Their 2008 Bonuses (Update1)
By Yalman Onaran
June 27 (Bloomberg) — Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld and President Herbert “Bart” McDade will forgo 2008 bonuses, the biggest chunk of their pay, after the fourth-biggest U.S. securities firm reported its first quarterly loss since going public.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aWTfB3net_2M&refer=home
You think last years billions will make up for it?
“Lehman’s Fuld, McDade to Forgo Their 2008 Bonuses”
he,
HMMM? What’s that regarding the 9th inning?
30 laurie,
who says we go to bed????
Here comes the shell(pun) game.
SEC looks to classify oil sands as reserves
The plan, which is a response to industry changes in the past three decades, aims to help investors get a ‘more accurate and useful’ picture of a company’s reserves
http://link.ft.com/r/J0VG55/WV14X/QHPW/4ZK6N/IEVIL/SN/t
From the WSJ:
Stimulus Boosts Consumer Spending
By JEFF BATER
June 27, 2008 8:34 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Consumer spending surged in May, fed by mounting inflation and the round of income-tax rebates unleashed to brace a soft economy.
Personal consumption increased by 0.8% compared to the month before, the Commerce Department said Friday. That was the biggest gain since 1.0% in November 2007. April spending went up 0.4%, revised from a previously estimated 0.2% increase.
Personal income increased at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.9% compared to the month before. That was the largest gain since 3.2% in September 2005. Income rose 0.3% during April, revised from a previously estimated 0.2% increase.
Economists had forecast a 0.4% increase in personal income during May and a 0.7% climb in consumer spending.
Consumer spending makes up about 70% of U.S. gross domestic product, reflecting a big part of the economy. Climbing prices helped elevate spending last month. In fact, when adjusted for inflation, spending in May climbed 0.4% — which was the largest gain of its kind since 0.5% in December 2006, yet much smaller than the unadjusted 0.8% increase in May spending. Friday’s data revealed a price index for personal consumption expenditures rose 0.4% in May compared to the prior month — double the increase of 0.2% in April.
Compared with a year earlier, the PCE price index climbed 3.1% in May. The year-over-year climb in April was 3.2%.
The PCE price index excluding food and energy, or core PCE, rose 0.1% in May, after rising 0.1% in April. Year over year, it climbed 2.1% in May, after increasing 2.1% in April.
From Reuters:
KB Home posts deeper loss
KB Home, the No. 5 U.S. home builder, posted a deeper quarterly loss on Friday on tumbling revenue as the United States faced its deepest housing slump in months.
KB reported a net loss of $255.9 million, or $3.30 per share, in its second quarter, compared with a loss of $148.7 million, or $1.93 per share, last year.
From Bloomberg:
Royal Bank of Scotland Credit Ratings Are Lowered by Moody’s
Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the U.K.’s second-biggest bank, had its credit rating lowered by Moody’s Investors Service who cited “higher volatility” in its securities unit and “greater risk” of defaults at its U.K. division.
#43 HEHE
Traffic, pollution & Law and Order is a b$#@%. Bangalore is years away from any decent infrastructure. If there is no compelling reason, I wouldn’t recommend moving there now.
Too busy to look for the link but there was a report today on rising mortage rates. The interviewee said housing prices would have to drop another 30 percent if monthy payments were to stay at pre-hike levels.
India is great for workers. Not thinkers. However, 90% of Clerks, AVPs and SVPS are like the working dead and can be easily replaced. The 10% of people who have brain activity in NY should be able to keep their jobs as someone has to direct the Indian worker drones. However, India in 20 years will resemble the US with a more capitialist mindset and they will be thinkers too and the 10% in NY will also get laid off.
Oil Sands = Reserves then you may want to check out a stock called Oil Sands Quest, BQI, due your due diligence. Of course there’s Suncor, OXy etc too
AntiTrump,
On the last day that I left Chennai, their version of CNBC (much more honest than ours, as each announcer kept saying the entire Indian market is overvalued) had this amazing graphic animation when the Sensex hit 21,000. This was late January. I checked the index today and it’s in the 13,000s. I feel bad for all of those who jumped into these emerging markets after ours began to implode late last year.
This is just crazy!
Ps. I owned BQI before that douchebag Cramer started popping off about it last Friday. Usual Cramer affect, up 10% one day, down 10% the next.
clot
“Babs Corcoran coming up on the Today show. Can’t wait for her next tidbits of advice…”
Please summarize!
grim :51
That’ll teach the Royal Bank of Scotland to pop-off about the upcoming gloom & doom!! Next time they’ll keep their forecasts to themselves.
#54
John, Agree with you from a Financial Services perspective.
However, Manufacturing/IT is moving up the value chain. They are now starting to move some R&D there.
But I do agree that India is atleast 10 to 15 years away from from giving the developed countries in the west any serious competition in High end R&D, Tech and Financial services.
I have been in Bangalore for since last December off-shoring some jobs. More on the way. Avg cost per employee in Bangalore about 50K USD a year as opposed to 300K per year in NY.
India will always keep cost advantage by devaluing their currency to keep the Software industry. The key to successful outsourcing lies here in US. If you have developed matured process for Procedures, Standards, Documentations, Communications, Training etc… than you will succeed or fail miserably. I have been on all sides of this work – managing teams in India, US and both. I will tell you don’t fall for Indian or US services companies fool you into 5:1 cost reduction ratio. I work with all of them daily and listen they make their pitch to clients and kind of laugh in my mind. The real cost is time, and without proper management and process, you can take double the amount of time to get same thing done. Of course with proper mgmt, you can be done in half as well.
What John mentions here about thinkers is not true. I have done much complex product development in India than you could ever do in US. The key is hiring smart people and training them, in India average work experience is very less and folks are not exposed to many biz scenarios as here.
AntiTrump: Also I would recommend not even going to Banglore for Employee turnover reason. If you want long term commitment from employees, go for 2nd tier towns like Pune, Nashik etc… Of course you will have same infrastructure issues but employees wont change jobs as quickly.
I’m very annoyed at Weichert Financial. I specifically asked them if it would be worth it to get the “Floating” loan before we locked in our rate and they said absolutely not. The market sinks and the 10 year is at 4.01 right now we locked in when it was at 4.11. I really don’t know how much of a lower Interest rate we could have gotten but i’m sure it would have been a little better than 6.75%. Man i feel stupid. Not to mention that i wouldn’t even care if we could have gotten the 6.125% we were approved for but we “make to much money” to be considered first time buyers and therefore cannot take advantage of it. Because we can’t put 20% down we’re essentially being punished, or at least that what it feels like. “If you’re poor and don’t make X dollars here’s a great rate, good luck!” But “if you make X dollars and can actually afford the house but can’t put 20% down here’s a much higher rate, thanks for all the cash!”
you guys are such pessimist, Look at th ebrite side of things. This country was founded on optimism.
“If you exclude the sub-prime, or the financials, things look good.”
“If you strip out food and energy, inflation is not a problem.”
“You can never underestimate the resilience of the American consumer.”
“The earnings are way down, but the earnings are above Wall Street estimates!”
The millions of economic stimulus payments gave a massive jolt to household finances in May, sending after-tax incomes up by the largest amount in 33 years.
Ok, so the proletariat have squandered their meager rations in a flash and stand there with their bellies hanging out and chocolate smeared on their faces waiting for more. So what was the purpose of throwing this money out of helicopters?
#65 gary,
It’s to delay the day of reckoning till after the elections
India is in for a world of hurt,India imports around 76% of the crude oil it processes. Crude oil is the country’s largest import item in dollar terms. Indian Oil is running losses of $76 million a day, and will run through its line of credit of $21.4 billion by July.
The other two state run oil companies are not in any better shape. There will be widespread portests in India soon over fuel costs. They will need to raise prices at the pump and perhaps drop some of their subsidies to stay solvent.Perhaps even double to cost of gasoline.
I doubt it will succeed.
although the payments seem to be staggered. some coworkers got their check in May, another got his this week, and my parents just received notice they are getting their check in July.
Stu: CNBC had this amazing graphic animation when the Sensex hit 21,000. This was late January. I checked the index today and it’s in the 13,000s.
Indian Stock market has always been very volatile as there is lot of speculative money than long term investment money. In US you have large amount of 401K money being pumped every month, you don’t have anything even close to like that in India. Also it is prone to scams. In ’92 there was scam by Harsha Mehta, in ’00 there was scam by ketan parekh. I am sure something will come out in couple of years. Also all large stock brokers are from few communities and most people are related or know each other. Its very easy to manipulate the market.
Actually Gary, the proletariat were suckered into spending money they didn’t even have.
If you give everyone a dollar, everyone will be a dollar richer, but no one will be better off as inflation erodes the added value of that additional dollar.
If you’ve saved that dollar, you’d be in exactly the same position as you started from, and no better. But if you spent it, you’ve put yourself into a position worse than you started in. Not only are you a dollar poorer, but the remainder of your savings has been devalued as well.
Who comes up with these things?
Lets just give everyone a million dollars, then we’ll all be millionaires and there won’t be anything else to worry about…
I have been in Bangalore for since last December off-shoring some jobs. More on the way. Avg cost per employee in Bangalore about 50K USD a year as opposed to 300K per year in NY. Even with the much lower productivity it’s still commercial atleast for now. I was offered 30 people in Bangalore for 10 people I had to loose in NY.
Next years budget season should be kicking off shortly and given the mood on the street, any head count increase will have to be in India, I think.
Good luck. The large pharmaceutical I work for has been trying to outsource IT operations to India for the past 8 months. It’s a complete disaster; we went from having great IT service to poor service with tons of communications issues. Don’t drop any of your resources until India picks up your operations 100%.
It’s OK to outsource SOME of the operations, but when it comes to the higher-technical level jobs; they really should have thought it over.
We probably had 30 guys here in our teams supporting the infrastructure; replaced with 100+ guys in India who are clueless.
In any case; I resigned this week and will be starting a new contract gig in July…
-R
HE (55)-
Gran Tierra (GTE)- also Canadian- smokes ’em all. Lots of operations in S. America.
patient (58)-
Couldn’t bear to watch her, so I did some work. I turned on the TV again to see Coldplay, though.
Richie: I agree with your experience. We had similar issues (company hired 400 people in India in 6 month), and then I quit due to frustration.
The issue always has been some senior manager in US, just looks at bottom line number and goes for kill. That is tries to do things in Big Bang manner without realizing any operational issues. To me the issue always has been political and lack of ground experience at Senior mgmt level in US.
Joey (63)-
Why are you hooked up with Weichert Financial? They are the worst. Shit rates and horrible service…if you think they suck now, just wait until you’re ready to close. A complete Chinese fire drill.
gary (65)-
I’m going to buy drugs with my rebate check. :)
Lets just give everyone a million dollars, then we’ll all be millionaires and there won’t be anything else to worry about…
Grim,
Please don’t give Congress and the Fed any dangerous ideas they will support, after all it is an election year.
grim,
That’s why I said Bernanke should lower the fed rate another 100 basis points. Why not? In fact, have the government back every single dollar… just lend people money like it was 2003 again. Who cares about inflation or a weak dollar and that nonsense. Tell people to go out and buy, buy, buy. The economy will be singing.
Yes but did the think of the product or just develop it? The airplane, empire state building, lightbulb, Bike, telephone, man on the moon, internet etc. required some radical thinking and the US schools are good at that. The indian schools are good on turning out great engineers, doctors, chemists, IT people. But will those people cure aids, develop a car that runs on water, invent flying cars etc.? Or will they used their engineering know how and cheap labor to implemen? Even Japan and their world famous SONY brand, just copies things. The Radio, TV, DVD player, etc. none of it was invented by them. But their far superior education, dedication and work ethic made our inventions better. India is one of the birthplaces of civilization and Hindism is the oldest religion, how the heck did India not invent all of these things? Heck at least you could have come up with toliet paper given the 10,000 years you had to think!! Just kidding on that one!!
What John mentions here about thinkers is not true. I have done much complex product development in India than you could ever do in US. The key is hiring smart people and training them, in India average work experience is very less and folks are not exposed to many biz scenarios as here.
It’s odd how people keep complaining about $4 gas. Yet the same sheeple fail to realize how expensive it will be to heat their homes this winter, how their food bill will increase at double digit rates, how oil is used in many products and those will be going up. etc.
I think most people spend more on utilities and food than they do on gas, yet $4 gas to cruise suburbia gets all the attention.
[24] barien,
Don’t use money honey too much. She copyrighted it. Don’t want to get Grim in trouble ;-)
clotpoll [77],
I’ll hook ya up, yo. Wadda ya need? Eightball? Diesel? P-funk?
“Who cares about inflation or a weak dollar and that nonsense.”
Gary,
Our present monetary/fiscal policy indicates this.
“man on the moon”
John,
REM?
June 27 (Bloomberg) — American International Group Inc. plans to absorb losses for a dozen insurance units after their securities-lending accounts suffered $13 billion of writedowns tied to the subprime-mortgage collapse during the past year.
Dopes – sec lending is known as riskless trading, done via loanet and DTC, market to market daily and counterparties are vetted by credit and you can demand collateral back daily. Only AIG can turn it into a system to trade crap with crap counterparts and lose 5 billion.
“Personal income increased at a seasonally adjusted rate of 1.9% compared to the month before. That was the largest gain since 3.2% in September 2005. Income rose 0.3% during April, revised from a previously estimated 0.2% increase.”
Where’s the recession I ask? People have more money then ever, there are too many jobs and not enough people and home are still selling.
When will the gloom and doom arrive in NJ? So far I don’t see it.
[from yesterday’s thread]
Pat and Still — Nice to see some old school ’85 grads here, incl. me.
Still, what house were you in?
Hype, if you have CVs send them. Mrs. Nom gets a bonus if she refers a hire.
#82 nom
How about $ bee sugar?
Is that safe? :)
In 5 minutes;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF–ldYIBnM
Record lows?
# njpatient Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 6:16 am
“I take the position that it would be rude to call someone at home on business at 5:30 am, even if they didn’t have a baby in the house.”
Very rude. Could be a good power play though.
Yes Man on the Moon. Heck Kennedy put his balls on the anvil for the whole world to wack when he said we would be on the moon by the end of the 1960s. With slide rules, adding machines and room sized Univac punch card early computers the US did it. A feat that the commies to this day could not recreate with a million times the technology. And don’t say it did not happen it did. My uncle worked for Grumman, Sperry and Fairchild Republic all during the 1960s to 1980s and it is amazing what they could do.
“there are too many jobs and not enough people and home are still selling.”
Frank,
Inflation.
Question;
What do you get when you combine Richard, BIA, Listen, and the lumber trader?
Answer;
Frank
“100+ guys in India who are clueless”
The core of the problem here is the 100 Indian associates sitting around saying “What the F*** are we supposed to be doing, because no-one has told us?” Off-shoring IT is a major task that needs a significant amount of capital and time and planning invested before it will generate returns. One big issue is telecoms. Most of the country is still running copper wire so there are frequent outages.
oil shale / tar sands
hmm people thought drilling is bad w/ regard to pollution? you might want to look into oil shale/tar sand recovery methods. And of course then there is the question of stated vs in situ vs recoverable reserves. Guess which number they arent going to use? guess which number is the smallest? The avergae recovery from traditional oil wells is about 30%. Oil shale and tar sands look to be well below that avergae. SO next time yyou hear about a 100 bazillion barrel reserve in oil shale or tar sands, consider that we will be lucky to recover even a quarter of that…. but wait there is more! 1 barrel of kerogen (What is actually in the ground, a precursor to “real” oil) is the equivilent of about 1/2 of a barrel of light sweet crude (what we are getting out of saudi arabia).
Now lets check those numbers. We can only recover about 30% ( i will be generoous here) of the 100 bazillion barrel reserve to start with. Then the recovered material is only equal (in energy) to about 1/2 of that in light sweet crude terms ( light sweet crude is the gold standard of oil).
SO this mean that we can expect to actaully see 15 bazillion barrels worth of energy from that 100 bazillion barrel oil shale reserve AND this is best case scenarion.
YEEHAW!
PS i am not suggesting that these sources not be used, but be ready for all sorts of stories about how we are now an oil super power!
PSS I have run a little loose and fast with my numbers, but they are all ballpark figures
frank & bergabe vs. Buffet.
Which side of that trade would you want to take?
Please supply status of MLS ID#2499826. Thank you.
We haven’t outsourced to a Vendor. Our’s is a captive unit in India. We have been there for a number of years now. The first groups to move there was core infrastructure. Those are the guys who work behind the screens and you never see or hear from until your outlook stops working.
This is the first time for my group, but other groups have been very successful there. I have have heard many success stories and failures stories of outsourced operations in India. We did have our initial set up issues, but over the past couple of years the office has grown to about 2500 people in Bangalore.
There will always be limitations and issues of an off-shored office. It’s just that some firms manage it better than the others.
My firm considers it a success so far and we are broke ground on the second facility this year. Personally, I think the biggest challenge is Domain knowledge and culture.
When the office was starting out, we spend a lot of money paying for expat packages for NY/London employees to work there. Over time we find talent locally to fill the management slots. We also have some people who moved back for personal reasons after spending many years in the west.
#95 kettle1
Don’t forget the amount of natural gas it takes to convert tar sands to to synthetic crude. Plus the huge amount of water.
From MarketWatch:
U.S. June UMich consumer sentiment 56.4: reports
Record percentage of consumers say finances have worsened
U.S. June consumer sentiment index 3rd lowest since 1952
Consumers’ inflation expectations reach highest in 2 decades
BC (93)-
Frank has moved to the “Beavis & Butthead Rolled Into One” wing of the pantheon.
Move over, bi. Although your oil @ $40 call remains a classic.
query whether our present economic situation is really unprecedented (see discussion of the Panic of 1837 below):
*****
The American people with one consent gave themselves to an amazing extravagance of land speculation. The Eden which Martin Chuzzlewit saw in later material decay was to be found in the new country on almost every stream to the east of the Mississippi, and on many streams west of it, where flatboats could be floated. Frauds there doubtless were; but they were incidental to the honest delusion of intelligent men inspired by the most extraordinary growth the world had seen. The often quoted illustration of Mobile, the valuation of whose real estate rose from $1,294,810 in 1831, to $27,482,961, in 1837, to sink again in 1846 to $8,638,250, not unfairly tells the story. In Pensacola, lots which to-day are worth $50 each, were sold for as much as lots on Fifth Avenue, in New York, which to-day are worth $100,000 apiece. Real estate in the latter city was assessed in 1836 at more than it was in the greatly larger and richer city of fifteen years later….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1837
more on Panic of 1837:
The price of public lands was fixt by law at $1.25 an acre; and they were open to any purchaser, without the wholesome limits of area and the restraint to actual settlers which were afterward established. Here then was a commodity whose price to wholesale purchasers did not rise, and the very commodity by which so many fortunes had been made. In public lands, therefore, the fury of money-getting, the boastful confidence in the future of the country, reached their climax. From 1820 to 1829 the annual sales had averaged less than $1,300,000, in 1829 being $1,517,175. But in 1830 they exceeded $2,300,000, in 1831 $3,200,000, in 1832 $2,600,000, in 1833 $3,900,000, and in 1834 $4,800,000. In 1835 they suddenly mounted to $14,757,600, and in 1836 to $24,877,179. In his messages of 1829 and 1830 Jackson not unreasonably treated the moderate increase in the sales as a proof of increasing prosperity. In 1831 his congratulations were hushed; but in 1835 he again fancied, even in the abnormal sales of that year, only an ampler proof of ampler prosperity. In 1836 he at last saw that tremendous speculation was the true significance of the enormous increase. Prices of course went up. Everybody thought himself richer and his labor worth more.
There is no longer dispute that the prostration of business in 1837, and for several years afterward, was the perfectly natural result of the speculation which had gone before.
The enormous extension of bank credits during the three years before the breakdown in 1837 was rather the symptom than the cause of the disease. The fever of speculation was in the veins of the community before “kiting” began. Bank officers dwelt in the same atmosphere as did other Americans, and their sanguine extravagance in turn stimulated the universal temper of speculation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panic_of_1837
bairen (99)-
SA Total has got the tar sands figured out. They’re building a giant nuke plant to power their extraction process.
Smart dudes.
[89] barien,
yes, I think so. Flame away at Bartiromo.
Besides, she is done. Old news. I have taken to calling Becky Quick the New Money Honey.
I have also been watching Bloomberg more often in the a.m. for biznews, as it isn’t so campy and gets more to the point. It also has better intl. coverage. And they have some hot reporters as well, so I don’t miss out on the eye candy.
John,
my uncle was one of those “bright young engineers” that actually put the whole thing togather and was incharge of the space shuttle atlantis untilhe retired . They were an impressive group and the number of incredible progets that they put together that got put on dusty shelves was amazing! the buerocracy killed the dream and the potential that that dream gave rise to. You should see some of the proposed projest the engineers drew up ( he left me his old design files) impressive stuff! a lot of them obviously read a lot of issac asimov.
grim Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 9:34 am
Lets just give everyone a million dollars, then we’ll all be millionaires and there won’t be anything else to worry about…
It will be a mess initially and inflation wiol be something like 1000%/year – but hey we won’t have to pay out national debt back!!!
It will be worth about a barrel of oil!!!
USA might have some troubles borrowing money again… but who cares. All our debtors will be royally $crewed
SG, Richie, Others:
I agree with your assessment of outsourcing. The teams I trained were unique in that they weren’t IT nor financial nor CS. I trained premedia (prepress/preflighters) technicians. Last year our company pushed most of our composition teams offshore. There was little documentation and we tried to force them to work OUR way. Cultural differences and the lack of procedure caused huge damage to some of our client relationships as turnaround times suffered greatly. With this in mind, I focused my training on learning our culture first, procedure next. Once they understand the process, I allowed them to adjust it to fit their needs constantly explaining that being late is OK as long as the job is done right. Being late and not giving us honest updates will earn you a bus ticket home. Most importantly, it is OK to say “no”. India is the land of the cup half full. No one there ever says “no.” It’s sort of like the Montclair town council.
For what it’s worth, my teams have been nothing short of fantastic and my supers really think it has more to do with teaching them culture than process. They understand the job at hand. Where they fail is when you tell them how they must do the job.
It does help that most of my team have degrees in the industry.
One other thing. Their accuracy is significantly better than my national teams and their ability to learn quickly is astounding. The toughest issue is dealing with attrition (30% annual rate) and constant training of new recruits.
Sony, the CD player springs to mind.
I still think the moon landings were staged.
All you bears on this board wish for a disaster, the reality is much better, US consumer will figure out a way to make and spend money.Wall St. will find another way to make money and you will try to convince old ladies to sell their homes and move to FL.
“Move over, bi. Although your oil @ $40 call remains a classic.”
Clot,
How did I forget to add Bi into the equation?
Sorry Bi. Hey, where is Biluva?
In a previous position I did some work evaluating Indian outsourcing. It was amazing what a failure the whole process was for a number of companies. Many companies I examined suffered huge losses of reputation due to poor customer service, just to point out the tip of a very big iceberg. As with any business trend, you have many executives who jump on a particular bandwagon without thinking things through.
I often marvel at the bigwigs and decision-makers I have come across. While some are brilliant, too many are just executive “sheeple”.
“All you bears on this board wish for a disaster”
Frank,
I don’t wish for disaster, just 30-40% off 2005.
By the way, nobody has to wish for anything. The masters have done the job for them.
104 clott,
i would love to see the numbers on that project . That seems like it wouldnt add up, but what do i know?
My dear old mother is going to see her investment advisor today. He called her yesterday to tell her he would need to liquidate some assets if she was going to continue to draw money every month. I wonder how many other retired seniors are getting the same phone call?
frank,
I’m not wishing for a disater. I’m predicting one.
Housing bubble collapse = credit crunch.
FED’s loose money and low rates = inflation
Developing countries growth = US having to compete for raw materials as the value of our dollar falls.
Higher raw materials causes higher energy and food costs for consumers who have little to none savings and are watching their houses crash in value.
You don’t have to get too close to a pig farm to know it’s going to stink.
Oink Oink
Lodi FUTURE Comp Killer!
286 FARNHAM AVE
Purchased: $760,000 8/4/2006
Current MLS#: 2826140 (also listed as a 2-family)
Original List: $839,555 11/29/2006
Current List: $697,500 6/27/2008
Frank says: “US consumer will figure out a way to make and spend money”
This, is the crux of the problem Frank. Wages for the bottom 98% have been declining against inflation since the 1980s. The only thing that has kept the train rolling is easy debt both personal (mortgage/loan/cc) and national (treasuries thanks to the Asian’s). Both have ground to a halt and I see no impetus for an improvement. The more the government prints greenbacks, the less likely the Asians will be to fund additional debt. The gig is up my friend.
America is no longer #1, except in military spending. You must spend some time out of the country for a change of perspective. Mention your an American and EVERYONE ASKS why we elected Bush. Our perception has gone from being the worlds policeman to the worlds slave master. I do not make this stuff up. If you want to make friends outside of the US, you must claim to be a Canadian!
How’s your 401k doing Frank? Optimism will get you a 18% loss in wealth.
Joey #63
Did you get hooked up with Weichert Financial through a Weichert Realtor?
Were you also referred to a “Weichert Approved Attorney”? The only absolutely essential qualification for one of those attorneys is that he/she uses Weichert Title Company.
The wh@re lawyers who do that make me sick.
#116,
So when are you getting a row boat to go back to Europe? Or are you moving to Mexico?
-Goldilocks
-No Contagion
-Consumer Resiliency
-Stagflation
-Slumpflation
-Bustflation
-Complacency
-Concern
-Fear
-Panic
If things are so bad in this country and will only get worse why do people are still willing to die to come here? When will all the blogger on this board start moving back to Europe or Mexico? Is grim moving back to Poland soon?
Hackensack FUTURE Comp Killer!
108 LAWRENCE ST
Purchased: $249,900 3/21/2005
MLS#: 2823262
Original List: $242,900 6/6/2008
Current List: $235,900 6/27/2008
Schumer, a member of the Senate Banking Committee, wrote letters to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Office of Thrift Supervision expressing “concern for the safety-and-soundness risks posed by IndyMac.”
Is schumer really asking the Fed to back stop the IndyMac bank from imploding? Is he trying to have Merrill or someone who needs a depositor buy them with a loss limit aka Bear.
If it’s only a political letter type move then why i sthe stock up 5% today?
interesting nonetheless,
Frank says(120):
“So when are you getting a row boat to go back to Europe?”
Keep ignoring the reality and Bairen will be paying you to row!
Frank,
Many of us would consider moving, but the value of the dollar against foreign currencies is our shackle. Move to Europe sale…Lose half your worth!
Ho-Ho-Kus FUTURE Comp Killer!
160 BLAUVELT AVE
Purchased: $1,350,000 6/30/2004
MLS#: 2813578
Original List: $1,479,000 4/4/2008
Current List: $1,349,000 6/26/2008
I still wouldn’t mind sharing a glass of wine with Maria. I’m a sucker for nice eyes and she really, really has nice eyes. I believe they would be classified as bedroom eyes.
“Ok… someone toss a bucket of cold water on Gary, he’s sullying up the forum!”
#120 frank
Neither one. Prefer Asia and Australia.
It was amazing watching the level of anit-americanism grow from 03 to 07 when I lived in Sydney. The last year I was getting dirty looks several times a day when people heard my accent.
frank,
Why so touchy this morning? You get one of those late night margin calls too?
41 anti
“Avg cost per employee in Bangalore about 50K USD a year as opposed to 300K per year in NY.”
Yeah, but the commute is a real pain.
You NJ taxpayers ae screwed…
letter from the head of CWA local 1037.
“Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Despite the newspaper stories to the contrary – we did not get defeated in the Legislature.
Here’s what happened –
There were a half a dozen bills to cut our benefits including proposals to cut pension benefits by 9%, to put all new workers into 401K plans, to change the formula used to compute the pension from the average of the final 3 years to the average of the final 5 years, and to eliminate anyone not working 35 hours a week from healthcare and pension.
We launched a huge fight with our allies in AFSCME, IFPTE, AFT and the NJEA which included not only membership mobilization, but an extensive media campaign which brought pressure on the Legislature.
We beat back:
All cuts to Parks and Forestry;
All layoffs;
9% cut in pension;
New workers will not go into 401Ks;
We keep 3 years final average salary;
Part-timers keep pension and healthcare (where they have it);
But our enemies (Senators Steve Sweeney and Barbara Buono) are powerful and held the budget hostage.
They extracted 3 concessions as a price of their vote:
A bill changing the Normal Retirement Age for new workers from 60 to 62
At the end of our contract – ALL local government and state government workers lose the Lincoln’s Birthday holiday by statute
New part timers will have to earn $7500 a year to be in the pension plan instead of $1500. (All of our part-timers meet this requirement.)
Do not be discouraged. We protected our members and we have a Fight Back plan!
We demand that Corzine veto the bills that violate the contract.
If he does not, we are filing a grievance. We will seek to enforce the contract.
We are putting together a Day after Thanksgiving plan (which I don’t want to put into email.)
We are putting together a “Reward our Friends – Punish Our Enemies” plan which I also don’t want to put in an email.
Bottomline – We fought hard and beat back the worst. Many legislators are very angry at Sweeney and Buono for holding the budget hostage over the retirement age of people 25 years from now and over Lincoln’s Birthday (which saves nothing). We too will remember this and reward our friends and punish our enemies.
We don’t always win – but we do always fight! Thank you to every Shop Steward and every member who wrote or called their Legislator or came to Lobby Days or rallied to save our Parks. Your participation in mobilization, as always, made a HUGE difference in the outcome of this struggle.
In Solidarity,
Hetty Rosenstein “
You can find this online at:
http://www.cwa1037.org/budgetoutcome.htm
re; #118 & 120 & so true about GWB, nearly every time I meet someone new from outside the US, invariably they will ask me why we re-elected him.
I will be travelling in September to Italy, Greece, Croatia and Turkey, not sure if I will pass myself off as Irish or American.
#130,
I am loving this market, making so much money shorting bank stocks but I just don’t understand the pessimism.
“Hetty Rosenstein”
[132],
The captain of Frank’s ship.
Hard to get gloomy when the someone buys a house down the street, flattens it and builds a mcmansion. And where are all these unemployed people, I have hard time filling jobs.
Pessimism? What pessimism?
Just back from europe where gas prices are more than $10/gal in euro countries and the brits tell me it’s more like $12 in the UK. And we’re complaining?
#135 BC
Since Pret seems to have diasappeared, he must have been their navigator.
NNJ [136]
What type of jobs?
#9
brutal
IT, Corporate Finance, Retail (non wall-street).
(from yesterday)… so, how many Nittany Lions are there, here? (penn state: a drinking school with a football problem.)
i was a townie. :*)
at the federal level, you may be frustrated by either parties. at the state level, it is insane to vote for dems if you want to stay in new jersey. here is just a few reasons:
– raised sales tax by 14% and increased coverage of sales tax
– new COAH Regulations hurting businesses
– found 400 million plus for Democrat Christmas Tree items
– Decreased Municipal funding
– Elimination of property tax refunds
– Extension of the energy tax that was due to be phased out
– Union negotiations with Carla Katz and failure to disclose the emails from Governor Corzine to Ms. Katz
– The whole NJ Toll plan
– The bonding for 3.9 additional more in state debt to add more money for the 31 Abbott districts that already get most of the state funding
68 bairen
“my parents just received notice they are getting their check in July.”
My bro gets his in July. Mine arrives shortly after H*ll freezes over.
“Lets just give everyone a million dollars, then we’ll all be millionaires and there won’t be anything else to worry about…”
And think of the status symbolism – “My housekeeper is a millionaire, and so is my pool boy!”
bi,
I agree with you, but good luck getting the people of Newark, Camden, Paterson, New Brunswick, etc. to agree with you. That’s where all of the gubmint workers live and they ain’t votin’ their jobs away. Speak to the hand!
Just back from europe where gas prices are more than $10/gal in euro countries and the brits tell me it’s more like $12 in the UK. And we’re complaining?
US is a different animal where majority of the so called middle class lives in Suburbs. In Europe people live in Cities and their public tansportation is superior to ours.
If there is no Energy policy that aims at drilling then access to mass transportation will be the new granite, inground pool, curb apeal, acres, good schools and prestige neighboors combines equivalent.
just a few years from now in 2012 they expect 2 million less cars on the road.
What does that tell you. A sharp shift downward of our standard of living.
“And where are all these unemployed people, I have hard time filling jobs.”
NNJ,
Come down to the canyons.
If you look at today’s housing crash I’m sure then umbers will support that from here on the major price reductions will be the one’s that have the largest average commutte.
“Retail”
NNJ,
Basic brick and mortar?
N.J. housing rules deplored
Developers of commercial projects are abandoning plans; others are trying to figure out, if they do move forward, how to pony up millions of dollars to satisfy new financial requirements that fund affordable housing statewide.
For example, a developer of a proposed power plant in West Deptford, Gloucester County, will need to pay a $45 million lump sum to the state before receiving certificate of occupancy, Riccardi said.
“If it were deferred over 30 years that would be one thing, but there’s no way to pay $45 million up front,” Riccardi said. In the end, it also costs him business when developers needing his services drop projects on which he consults.
The $45 million figure is derived from charging 2.5 percent of the total assessed value of commercial projects and putting that money into an affordable housing fund. Residential projects are charged 1.5 percent.
I have a hard time filling IT jobs too.
But its probably because we won’t pay a dime over 50.
151, yup, upscale.
Clot,
Thanks for the tip, I’ll add it to my list. Here’s one for you TGC. Little oil & gas co.
COAH housing units elsewhere still EW’s hope
Council approves $1M addendum after legislators vote to ban RCAs
EAST WINDSOR — The Township Council agreed this week to the concept of paying Long Branch $1.16 million through a regional contribution agreement — a move that would further satisfy East Windsor’s affordable housing obligation — despite the state Legislature’s approval of legislation the day before banning that very practice.
#92
my grandfather was an engineer who worked on the first moon launch. it blows my mind how they achieved that without any real computers
AP – After tax income rose 5.7% last month due to stimulus checks.
This is NOT good nes.
more on precursors to the Panic of 1837:
” During this time [the 1830s], the money supply was increasing (approx. 200%) despite the stable reserve rates of banks. This increase in the supply of money did not come from within the United States, but resulted from a positive specie inflow from foreign investors. British investors found it increasingly attractive to lend to the state governments in the United States in the 1830s.”
nes = news
Watching the indexing approach lose you money in slow motion……
http://dayton.bizjournals.com/dayton/stories/2008/06/23/daily34.html?ana=yfcpc
@ Oleg (22)
Oleg Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 7:48 am
We live in South Brunswick, NJ. We placed our townhouse in Nassau Square on the market last Monday. The following weekend we got two offers and are no in attorney review.
Our asking price was about $20K less than neighbors. We are in the process of finding a large home for ourselves.
——–
Says the Moose:
Chris Walsh! Stop trolling the blog message boards selling overpriced crap! http://tinyurl.com/5k2za5
Once upon a time, row homes were poor city tennaments, and people didn’t delude themselves that they were desirable. They also paid accordingly.
Have you guys with experience in India or China found many Americans or Europeans deciding to permanently move there?
The U.S. still seems to attract the talented and ambitious from the rest of the world, how much longer will that last?
163: doesn’t exactly answer, but my father in law said, last time he visited, it used to be bright young brits would go to america or canada. now, he says if he was young enough he’d emigrate to australia/new zealand.
Stan (163):
“Have you guys with experience in India or China found many Americans or Europeans deciding to permanently move there? The U.S. still seems to attract the talented and ambitious from the rest of the world, how much longer will that last?”
As long as an Indian or Chinese worker can make more money here and then send it home to family, the trend will remain intact.
Here’s what I noticed today: ZERO traffic on the SI Expressway heading East. This is a miracle. I am positive that it’s beacause yesterday was the last day of NYC public schools (also my birthday). I cannot believe that all those cars on the road are teachers and parents taking their kids to school. It is unreal. I wonder what they’d think about mandatory carpooling.
big problem I see with investing in China in particular (less so India) is that rule of law is basically non-existant. you are basically taking someone’s word for it that he is not simply going to steal your money. people overlook this when economy is going gangbusters, but when there is a pullback and people start defaulting, you are left naked
#167
Sounds awfully like WS.
lostinny,
Got a late jump this morning and at 7:50am on the GSP between exits 148 and 140, not a single slow down either way. This occurs about 10% of the time I commute. Very strange! 78 wasn’t backed up to route 24 either. This never happens ;)
Sorry, take that back.
We just pass new law to legalize the pilfering.
Companies like Cognizant, which are headquartered in Teaneck, but have 90% of their business in India, is a much safer way to play emerging markets.
Disclaimer: I think oil will get to $40 in the next few weeks.
162#, Whats your point? one is 3bd and the other is 2bd. they are different.
re; #118,120,129 re: anit-americanism
The media in other countries is placing the blame on the worldwide recession firmly on Americans.
Fortunately I can put on a pretty decent Irish brogue when the circumstances call for it, and I will use it to escape any raging mobs of anti-americans rioting over fuel prices in Europe.
169 Stu
At least we had a nice drive in. I can only imagine what it will be like going home.
Last two Friday’s were light traffic wise, on beautiful beach weekends. Another sign of the times, I’m going to LBI next week with the family. 2nd unit of our rental house is unrented. This is unheard of for July 4th at LBI. Our unit is empty this week which means we get to go down Saturday evening rather than Sunday morning!
175
I love LBI. Have a great time!
I am very surprised about the vacancies though.
gary (128)-
Becky Quick is a dead ringer for my GF in college. However, she ruins it for me whenever she does a softball interview with people like Buffett. It almost seems like Buffett has told them he won’t appear unless he gets the cute girl who asks the easy questions.
It dawned on me the other day she’s probably the only reason I still turn on CNBC. Her, Gartman and Santelli. The rest of ’em can go to hell.
Santelli is the only one who seems to be living in reality.
147#, stu
156#, sg,
the problem is not those munucipalities. the problem is people are voting along party line. for example, mayor Janice Mironov herself in that article is a democrats and likely will campaign for state dems in her town east windsor.
http://www.mercerdems.net/partyofficials.htm
Problem with CNBC broadcasters:
These are almost all people who studied broadcasting in college. Doubt any even have an economics minor. These people are making investment calls that the sheeple are following. This should be illegal.
The cd player was invented by philips who licensed the technolgy to sony.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=ajMo97E3ZvS0
Bi,
When Whitman got in, people didn’t vote along party lines. Maybe you can write Corzine and ask him to make a 4 syllable promise on Saturday and then break it on Sunday. That seems to be the only way to communicate with the sheeple.
No new taxes
Read my lips
Mission accomplished
Yes we can
Tear down this wall
I am a gay american (wait that was a long one)
Did not inhale
Nucular
Etc.
Businessweek article,
The Housing Abyss
Why the worst may be yet to come as forces battering the market gain strength. And the remedy coming from Congress? It’s likely to fall short of the mark
by Peter Coy and Mara Der Hovanesian
182, i think nj legislature is worse than corzine. in general assembly, dem to rep ratio is 48 to 32; in senate, it is 23 to 17. dems can do whatever they want.
You said it!!! My uncle who is in his 80’s is back at work consulting for Boeing. In the dreamliner they had trouble getting IFE and wireless internet working. My uncle fixed the bugs and the dreamerliner has seamless wireless internet. Even cooler Mitusbishi sub Jamco which is an airline seat maker teamed with Mitsubishi electronics and Boeing engineert to make the seats out of this work electronic gadget wise. Everything in a plane is complicated. You may laugh but the dreamliner if the first commerical aircraft with a window in the bathroom. Even that was hard to figure out how to do. The dreamliner is made in the largest building in the world in the state of Washington. You can see that damm building from a crazy distance.
skep-tic Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 11:04 am
#92
my grandfather was an engineer who worked on the first moon launch. it blows my mind how they achieved that without any real computers
From Bloomberg:
Manhattan Office Rents Fall for First Time in Three Years
Manhattan office rents fell 2.2 percent in the second quarter, the first decline in the most expensive U.S. office market since 2005, according to real estate broker Studley Inc.
The decline was 4.4 percent for Class A office space, according to a preliminary second-quarter New York market report by Studley, which represents tenants. The broker blamed a “malaise” among Wall Street securities firms, which hadn’t previously stopped the rise in rents, in a report by Steven Coutts, Studley’s senior vice president for national research services. The full report will be released next week.
“We’re really starting to see the culmination of what people have been expecting to occur since the fourth quarter of last year,” Coutts said in a telephone interview. “It’s the result of the whole chain of events, from the subprime to financial jobs being lost in the city. In some cases, it’s starting to affect secondary industries. We’re starting to see a slowdown in advertising and publishing.”
For Clot:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2155/1715379219_32f5150037.jpg
Here’s one…
Next time you go and buy a bottle of water or a Starbucks latte – convert it into price per gallon. It will really surprise you. Think a gallon of gas is expensive at $4.00?
This puts things into perspective.
Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ….. $10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 … $9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 ……… $10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 …… $10.00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 …… $33.60 per gallon
Vick’s Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 ….. $178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 …… $123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ………. $25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 ……….. $84.48 per gallon
And this is the REAL KICKER…
Evian water 9 oz $1.49 ……. $21.19 per gallon!
$21.19 for WATER … (and most probably know that Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)
“Manhattan Office Rents Fall for First Time in Three Years ”
Maybe the residential prices will finally fall.
grim,
#190 stuck in moderation.
Here’s what I noticed today: ZERO traffic on the SI Expressway heading East. This is a miracle. I am positive that it’s beacause yesterday was the last day of NYC public schools (also my birthday). I cannot believe that all those cars on the road are teachers and parents taking their kids to school. It is unreal. I wonder what they’d think about mandatory carpooling.
I was wondering the same thing. I flew thi smorning. I must have been doing at leats 100 on Staten island expressway between Todt Hill road and the verrazanno. Unbelivable.
WAMU is under five bucks.
Last [Tick] 4.8300[ – ]
Change -0.2100
% Change -4.17%
BC Bob Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 10:26 am
-Goldilocks
-No Contagion
-Consumer Resiliency
-Stagflation
-Slumpflation
-Bustflation
-Complacency
-Concern
-Fear
-Panic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AlH2oYedfk
Did Pretard read that? NYC rents falling? He said that would never happen. The commercial rent space was doing well. How can this be?
(189)
Maybe the residential prices will finally fall.
They already are Frank, they already are.
—————
Ridgefield FUTURE Comp Killer!
511 LOWE AVE
Purchase: $595,000 3/2/2007
MLS#: 2826177
Currnet List: $539,000 6/27/2008
alia
“so, how many Nittany Lions are there, here?”
I guess Quakers don’t count?
Qtn to all Finance wiz:
What is the impact of all 401K money going into Stock market? Does it contribute to boom/bubble?
How much money is put into equity mutual funds every year?
Ultimately, does the dollar cost averaging still make sense?
Teaneck FUTURE Comp Killer!
42 GENESEE AVE
Purchase: $380,000 11/22/2004
MLS#: 2819298
Original List: $350,000 5/9/2008
Current List: $320,000 6/27/2008
196: the fighting quakers?
150 make
“from here on the major price reductions will be the one’s that have the largest average commutte.”
agree this will be a big factor, other than via commuter rail or transit bus
Waldwick FUTURE Comp Killer!
79 E PROSPECT ST
Purchase: $369,000 4/4/2007
MLS#: 2746066
Original List: $392,000 11/16/2007
Current List: $339,000 6/27/2008
“BC Bob Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 7:49 am
“It’s a great time to buy something….plasma TV, Stocks….or a home!”
Dirt.”
And when they was no sand, we ate crawdad.
Moose (162)-
Didja catch the slick description of that POS townhouse?:
“Residents of South Brunswick find that this town is flourished with art and history…”
Could that Realtor be bi?
sx (187)-
Gee, thanks (I think).
287 north was DEAD between exits 3 and 14 this morning rushhour… usually a huge pileup around Easton Ave in New Brunswick.
Okay, school’s out and everyone’s going to the shore?
Then why are the roads JAM-PACKED at 5pm when i get out of work!!
SG Says: June 27th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Qtn to all Finance wiz:
What is the impact of all 401K money going into Stock market?
adds stability (not to say STABLE, just more stable than without)
Ultimately, does the dollar cost averaging still make sense?
of course…any form of diversification lowers risk in a portfolio…DCA is time diversification…..one caveat…one could make the theoretical argument of the Random Walk, as a result, DCA would “theoretically” mean that you are postponing current investing and choosing to buy in the future at even higher prices, hence, you will underperform a one-shot investment. As always, a one-size-fits-all answer is worth what you pay for it.
lost
“Here’s what I noticed today: ZERO traffic on the SI Expressway heading East.”
There was also zero traffic on 78 east and 95 north, but maybe that was because it was 5:45 am.
market is down 100 points, news at 11pm.
Everyone moved to Manhattan.
bi already said he wasn’t a Realtor. He said he was a quant, didn’t he?
But I have a feeling he’s a liar, liar pantup fire.
He gets really hot under the collar about South Brunswick area real estate.
And the Target in South Brunswick DOES have an aisle with art. Other than that, I’m not where the flourishes are.
Citi closing distressed debt desk for new hedge fund:reports
>>
I don’t know what it means but whatever it is can’t be good.
grim
“Manhattan office rents fell 2.2 percent in the second quarter”
can you email that to pret and ask him about it?
Because that CAN’T be true!!
he is a bi – a quant and a realtor
205…No problem….me, I am a Liz Claman type of guy….http://glamzilla.com/file/item_thumb/120_10122.jpg
206
“Then why are the roads JAM-PACKED at 5pm when i get out of work!!”
because these days there are more people leaving work than going to work.
212
Citi closing distressed debt desk for new hedge fund:reports
NJ,
They’re probably on their way to an art exibit in New Brunswick hosted by the one and only BI.
ChiFi:
Did you listen to the DCA conference call? I’ve been following it ever since you shared the concept with me and so far have been quite unimpressed with the results. Was wondering what they were attributing the fall to?
Pat (211)-
“And the Target in South Brunswick DOES have an aisle with art.”
Pat, black velvet Elvises (or is that “Elvii”?) are not art.
Why does bi feel the need to relentlessly pump So. Brunswick?
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/cbuilder?ticker1=INDU:IND
Everyone better start looking for their DOW 10K hats.
#204 clot
“Residents of South Brunswick find that this town is flourished with art and history…”
probably a typo. should be “this town is flushed with farts and is history”
Ah, the outsourcing conversation is back. I can tell you that there are many difficult issues with Indian off-shoring and really the only way it can be successful is if the company off-shores work, but doesn’t outsource. They also have a huge problem in that the so called “Talent” is lacking in 85% of the people working in technical fields. Some of the people are really smart the vast majority are in it for the money, are eager to please, but not terribly astute when it comes to the technology and definitely unfamiliar with the motivation for creating it(I.e business). It can work but there are tremendous hurdles, infrastructure(India has none, want reliable electricity look elsewhere), high cost of real estate(Office space is roughly equivalent to the Hudson Gold Cost rents in Bangalore), culture that is not well adapted to business(Eager to please, strict structure to job title, never any reasonable pushback, Indian management style comes from the 3rd circle of hell), and high employee turnover. There is a definite reason the best and brightest come to the USA(Hopefully to Stay), trust me when you hire WIPRO, or TATA you get what you paid for, the quality of the work from a 24k per year consultant is pretty piss poor. It can be cost effective for IBM, Sun, or Microsoft to open a facility though because they have the scale and on site people to make it work, most other companies do not have the codebase or number of employees to support this type of investment.
#220 maybe bi likes the strip malls on Rt 1? He likes the fairly new interchange of 130 and Rt 1? From south brunswick you can drive to the shore without paying a toll? It’s between Princeton and New Brunswick?
Long a townhouse or 2?
Enjoys cow tipping?
bairen,
didnt forget about you, will have a fat e-mail for you tomorrow
Michael Perry, chairman and chief executive of IndyMac, declined to comment on the [Schumer] letters, saying he had not seen them. “We’re working hard on trying to raise capital,” he said. It should be clear within a few weeks whether that’s possible in the near term, Mr. Perry said.”
I find this quote my the Perry a bit troubling. Do you?
i feel the market is going to have a reversal either today or monday.
Where’s my broker, SDS, buy buy buy
#224, there’s that Burrito Royale place on Rt. 1. Oh what a joy it must be to live in South Brunswick. You can live a mile away from your job and it still takes you 45 minutes to get home.
bi
“i feel the market is going to have a reversal either today or monday.”
How much of a reversal and how long will it last?
There was a reversal a moment ago where the DOW rose $2 in less than a minute. Was that what you were referring to?
NJP (216)
because these days there are more people leaving work than going to work.
Now THAT’S funny!
bairen, #68
The government sent me a notice that I would get my stimulus check on June 20th. Still hasn’t come in.
dealbreaker reporting:
Wachovia: Bonuses down 50 percent (top first year analysts got 90k in 2007).
Citi: 1st tier got 65k, 2nd tier got 53k and 3rd tier 25k.
ouch. They can now only afford some lousy $1.5M condo in Hoboken. No more fancy $3M lofts in Tribeca.
i feel the market is going to have a reversal either today or monday.
Whew! Coming form you that’s real comfor… hey, aren’t you the $40 oil guy?
From MarketWatch:
S&P cuts AAA ratings of some Countrywide securities
Standard & Poor’s on Friday cut its ratings on 36 classes of home equity lines of credit issued by the mortgage unit of Countrywide Financial Corp., the ratings agency said in a statement. S&P cut the ratings of the securities from AAA to lower grades. At the time of issuance, the deals represented $6.4 billion in debt, S&P said.
“Barclays Capital has advised clients to batten down the hatches for a worldwide financial storm, warning that the US Federal Reserve has allowed the inflation genie out of the bottle and let its credibility fall “below zero”.”
“We’re in a nasty environment,” said Tim Bond, the bank’s chief equity strategist. “There is an inflation shock underway. This is going to be very negative for financial assets. We are going into tortoise mood and are retreating into our shell. Investors will do well if they can preserve their wealth.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/06/27/cnbarclays127.xml
“i feel the market is going to have a reversal either today or monday.”
Personal note: Go short the diamonds.
Stu Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
ChiFi: Did you listen to the DCA conference call? I’ve been following it ever since you shared the concept with me and so far have been quite unimpressed with the results.
Stu: ?
The DOW has been a bad investment for the entire decade. The runup from 03 to 07 is nothing when you factor on REAL inflation. If everyone is so mad about oil people profiting, they should invest in it themselves. Instead, they invest in the Dow and scream bloody hell that oil and commodities are profiting.
ChiFi: Am I mixing up DCA with PFATX. Sorry dude.
#110 frank:All you bears on this board wish for a disaster.
The disaster is alreaddy here.
Are you that dense that you still cannot see that? And yet you are still prattling on about NJ, and how all is well.
Another dismal Spring selling season in north Jersey coming to an end as we approach the 4th of July, coupled with everything else, and Frank is still asking where is the disaster.
DOW is up $10! bi was right!
#113 BC Bob:I don’t wish for disaster, just 30-40% off 2005.
And that wish is coming closer to reality every day.
Another reason why we are all buggered.
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2008/news/0805/gallery.real_people_gas/2.html
Here’s a guy going to law school 135 miles away from his house!!! He drives 270 miles a day. He now has to either drop out of law school in his third year or lose his house since gas is now costing him $500 a week.
Why do people live 100 miles or more from their work or school?
ben [293],
Amen. I didn’t remember the rants/screams, specs, during dot com when worthless pos stocks were being bid up and flipped every day.
That’s Ben, 239. I’m flipping #’s
http://florence.en.craigslist.it/vac/725787925.html
can’t make this stuff up. house for sale by divorced women who is throwing herself into the mix. buyer of house gets her included in the deal.
#150 MM: Not necessarily true, with jobs being cut in NYC as well.
#153 grim:But its probably because we won’t pay a dime over 50.
Isn’t 50K better than zero, assuming you have unemployed people4 looking for these jobs.
John (247),
The 1ST floor master suite has a double entry door.
I bet that’s not the only double entry available.
Frank,
there is no financial/economic disaster and the titanic couldnt sink either
BC
“I didn’t remember the rants/screams, specs, during dot com when worthless pos stocks were being bid up and flipped every day.”
That’s because you weren’t visiting the Patient household
yea but that blonde in florida guarantees that the carpet matches the drapes
#186 Pret can you address this please?
#247
Why would someone want to buy her house and marry her?
Maybe a weekend rental for both?
#189 frank:Maybe the residential prices will finally fall.
They already are. Where have you been?
3b in the NNJ job market 50k is peanuts for anyone with some kind of education. You could be a public school teacher and make that plus insane benfits, or any kind of unionized labor and make 2x that. Given inflation et al. relatively inexperienced IT folks start at 70k+ in NJ and in NYC that is like 80-85k.
bi:
Drop in markets since start of yesterday (and to some extent, since the start of June) has been quite organized. From a technical standpoint, this does not point to a quick short-term bounce. How does that quote go?
“Sell in May and walk away! Come back in July and see if there is anything left to buy?”
244 Bairen,
the guy is obviously lacking the intelligence and will make a very bad lawyer. By my calculations, he’s driving a car that gets 11 mpg. ROFL. If he’s spending $500 bucks a week on gas, he could easily buy a used scooter or motorcycle to cut his bill down. I see bikes for sale for 2 weeks worth of his gas bills. He’d cover that margin in about a month.
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDLink=3697786&ref=patrick.net
BTW here are the two daughters you get with the wife when you buy the house. Scroll down.
No wonders realtors can’t sell homes.
#236 BC Bob: Stop!! Bi knows better than these guys.
Rich In NNJ:
I like your Pending Comp Killer index. Better than the Pending Sales numbers.
# bi Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
i feel the market is going to have a reversal either today or monday.
____________
Dead cat bounce?
#259 ben,
I thought his decision skills were somewhat lacking as well. But it’s easier to stay the course and drive into a brick wall then think differently. Hence he’ll be another statistic on the blvd of broken dreams
#257 jcer; I understand. Howver, if youa re an IT guy (for instance),and you are having trouble landing work at 70K, then at some point you are going to have to take the 50K job.
I think we are at the point, where peopl are nto going to eb able to pick and choose, and hold out for their desired salary.
NNJ,
Can you shoot me an email through grim? I have a buddy who lost his job with a Finance Co. and is looking for work.
Thanks,
-Dave
From Fitch:
Fitch Ratings Places Wachovia on Rating Watch Negative
In light of continued headwinds facing U.S. consumer asset quality and indications of further meaningful home price deterioration in certain markets, Fitch Ratings has placed the ‘AA-/F1+’ Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of Wachovia Corporation and its subsidiaries on Rating Watch Negative. A complete list of ratings can be found below.
Wachovia built its loan loss reserve by $2 billion in first quarter-2008. However, this represents only about 1.2% of Wachovia’s substantial $170 billion residential mortgage portfolio. Included in the portfolio is $121 billion of Pick-A-Pay (option ARM) mortgages, a product that has exhibited more significant deterioration in performance metrics than conventional 30-year or 15-year fixed-rate mortgages for the industry.
The vast majority of Wachovia’s Pick-A-Pay portfolio (58% or approximately $71 billion) is in the troubled California market, with much of that in the central part of the state that has experienced among the most severe home value devaluation. This is expected to increase the pressure on Wachovia at a time when many of its other business, such as parts of the Corporate & Investment Bank, are still grappling with credit and capital market disruptions. Fitch believes that pressure on earnings from the residential mortgage portfolio will remain significant over the near term.
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/06/27/an-ex-bankers-unusual-job-pitch/
An Ex-Banker’s Unusual Job Pitch
June 27, 2008,
It’s hard to find a job these days on Wall Street. Most financial firms are liquidating staff from top to bottom amid a global economic slowdown that has hit the financial sector particularly hard. Those that find themselves out of a job are busy sending resumes to recruiters and human resources personnel, but they seem to get lost in an electronic abyss.
Joshua Persky, a former investment banker for Houlihan Lokey, has been looking for work for the past six months. But nothing “has gelled yet,” Mr. Persky told DealBook. “So I decided to get a little more creative and aggressive and humiliate myself a little and hit the street.”
No, Mr. Persky isn’t pounding the pavement and going door-to-door. He is standing on Park Avenue handing out resumes to passersby wearing a sandwich board that says, “Experienced MIT Grad For Hire” with his name and contact information.
So DealBook headed out to see what kind of reaction Mr. Persky was getting on the street. He did pick a good spot with several hundred people passing him every hour. The jovial middle-aged man didn’t look bitter or angry standing out in the summer heat. Instead, he was smiling and standing tall, wearing his best suit under the placards.
Many looked and snickered when they passed by him, but no one was really paying attention. This is New York after all; odd occurrences are commonplace. But there were a few of his white-collar denizens that gave him a sympathetic look and a few even took a resume.
Mr. Persky has yet to score an interview, though, but said he has “gotten a lot of encouragement and some new leads.” This was only day two, so he is hopeful that something will pan out for him. So far people have been nice, but he did receive a crank phone call from a man that asked if he would come over and pack some boxes for him.
$121 Billion of Option ARMs in a portfolio totalling $170 Billion
God help them
Oil Sands vacation anyone?
http://travellingalberta.com/
is that 50K a sign-on bonus?
IndyMac halted?
gary: It is 3:00 PM on Friday, a week before the 4th of July, and just about the end of a dismal Spring selling season.
May we please have one of your famous probing open letter to realtors/home sellers.
You won’t like him (gary) when he gets angry!
is that 50K a sign-on bonus?
Yeah, and the summer associates get the check right after the wine and cheese tasting.
Productivity in the tri-state area has dropped to 0% as the Yankees and the Mets started their first game of a double-header this afternoon.
doesn’t frank work for the gov’t? maybe this explains his bizarre optimism
John (247)-
Craigslist needs to start a new section:
“Skanks”
John (260)-
Is that her daughter, or a transvest!te?
#274 gary: oh but I do. I have the a red beer cup with his name on it for the gtg kegger.
grim (275)-
What kind of cheese? Fromunda cheese?
“house for sale by divorced women who is throwing herself into the mix.”
John [247],
LOL! Hey the Gints need another defensive end. She could use a helmet over that ug face.
Here it comes, no comments regarding helmet.
grim Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
IndyMac halted?
trades under a buck too long, NYSE flips to ARCA which does not show up on bloomberg quotes
At least PSL for Giants is 20K this women is 500K
BC Bob Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
“house for sale by divorced women who is throwing herself into the mix.”
John [247],
LOL! Hey the Gints need another defensive end. She could use a helmet over that ug face.
Here it comes, no comments regarding helmet.
From CNBC:
Credit-Card Debt Snaring More High-Income People
An attorney with a six-figure salary, Will Chen thought credit card debt was something that only affected people with low-paying jobs. But when the lavish spending inspired by his new job outpaced his paychecks, he quickly fell $100,000 into debt.
Credit-card debt is becoming even more prominent in the struggling state of the economy. The average amount per consumer rose to $6,900 in the last year, a 21 percent increase, according to Experian, a global information services company. The average number of past-due accounts also increased to exceed more than one per consumer.
And it’s not just those with low salaries who are susceptible.
#285 grim:he quickly fell $100,000 into debt.
How does on quickly fall into 100K debt? What a a bunch of nosnense.
Apropos the discussion earlier today about off-shoring and outsourcing:
Citi no longer can afford to own Indian back-office services
Citigroup Inc. invested in India years ago to save money on domestic jobs in the U.S. Well, now Citi is ailing and,with a dire need for capital, the New York-based bank cannot afford to own those companies in India that offer back-office support
More at: http://www.thedeal.com/dealscape/2008/06/citi_no_longer_can_afford_to_h.php
“3b Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 3:37 pm
#285 grim:he quickly fell $100,000 into debt.
How does on quickly fall into 100K debt? What a a bunch of nosnense.’
High priced call girls and blow is my guess
I’ll give bi this much, it’s definately a heck of a short covering rally
The guy has “a six figure salary” What heck does that mean? If he made 100K and had a stack of student loans and a mortgage of course he is going broke running up his credit card, but if he made 999K he can easily swing the lifestyle. Six figures is a heck of a range.
Clark FUTURE Comp Killer!
4 Grouse Lane
Purchased: $648,000 9/8/2006
MLS#: 2541725
Current List: $519,900
Agent remarks: “BANK OWNED BEING SOLD AS-IS. MOVE-IN CONDITION, JUST NEEDS A LITTLE BIT OF YOUR PERSONAL TOUCH. GREAT LOCATION, LARGE YARD.BUYER MUST BE PRE-QUALIFIED. BUYER RESPONSIBLE FOR C OF O & SMOKE DET. CERT”
[272] Grim,
If indymac is halted, it could mean that their are a posse of men with bow ties in the corporate headquarters, making sure no one shreds or deletes anything.
In the 90’s, banks that got seized and closed down by FDIC usually went down on Friday afternoons.
No real knowledge here, just being historical.
Top CNBC Idiotic Observations:
If market’s down, it’s due to the inevitable Democratic presidency.
If markets up, McCain gave a good speech.
I just wish Kudlow would say ‘King Dollar’ and ‘drill drill drill’ more. I’m thinking of proposing a nuclear plant near his house, I’m sure he’d support the endeavor.
Is kudlow deaf? Why is he always shouting?
Clotpoll
Why are you hooked up with Weichert Financial?
Our realtor is Weichert and they approved us for 6.125% like everywhere else we shopped around for so we figured why rock the boat, lets just make our lives easy. Then we find out that “we make too much money” and started getting approved for higher rates when she shopped around again. So we said, again…let’s not rock the boat. I should have gone with Chase like my gut said to. At least right now they’d be giving me a better rate for no extra money because my wife would be able to get their “Union Benefits” package. The seller pushed the closing date a month early and we are currently locked in and have a July 11th commitment for the money. I emailed Weichert today to see if there is ANYTHING that can be done, i doubt it though.
Let’s be realistic, the payment for our loan is about $119 more a month between the two rates, it still bugs the sh*t out of me though.
#225 kettle1
Looking forward to reading it.
“Is kudlow deaf? Why is he always shouting?”
Maybe a side affect of all that blow he did? Or perhaps it’s habit after years of trying to shout down Cramer?
Nom. You have a point. I worked in Philly on Market in the late 80’s/early 90’s.
Black Friday at Meritor Savings Bank was a ghost story told to newbies. Everyone got quiet and settled down…even if it was at the bar.
Merrill Lynch is overhauling its compensation structure across divisions in an effort to bring it more in-line with company growth. Remember complaining about $50 million bonuses for one trader in a down market while the rest of the company is getting squeezed? Well, that’s not likely to happen at Merrill this bonus season. The firm’s performance will determine the overall bonus pool, which will then be divided among divisions based on their performance and only then will individual performance come into effect. That may trim some of the fat from stars’ bonuses, but Goldman had done a similar overhaul a few years ago, and you don’t see anyone leaving Goldman over cash too often.
#300 John:and you don’t see anyone leaving Goldman over cash too often.
It’s not like they would have a lot of options now is it.
As far as compensation at Goldman, it was always firm, first, than division, than department, than employee.
Bogota FUTURE Comp Killer!
69 MCDOUGALL LN
Purchased: $460,000 1/11/2006
MLS#: 2826265
List: $400,000 6/23/2008
Keep them coming Rich. Grat job with the futures. Can’t wait to see how some of these turn out.
grat = great
editing (forehead slap)
Dead Man Walking;
http://bigpicture.typepad.com/
266, Email on it’s way.
188 JoeR
Natural Light 30 Pack 360 oz $12.99… $4.61 per gallon
Stella Artois 24 pack 288 oz $23.99… $10.66 per gallon
Stone Brewery IPA 6 pack 72 oz $9.99… $17.76 per gallon
DFH Palo Santo 4 pack 48 oz $15.99… $42.64 per gallon
Sometimes, I really wish I could drink cheap beer like I used to when I was in college. “Red White and Blue” (Pabst’s Bad Batch) was going for around $3.00 a twelve pack ($2.66/gallon) and the Pub had dollar pitchers of Bud on Friday afternoons… ;)
JoeR Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 12:31 pm
Here’s one…
Next time you go and buy a bottle of water or a Starbucks latte – convert it into price per gallon. It will really surprise you. Think a gallon of gas is expensive at $4.00?
This puts things into perspective.
Diet Snapple 16 oz $1.29 ….. $10.32 per gallon
Lipton Ice Tea 16 oz $1.19 … $9.52 per gallon
Gatorade 20 oz $1.59 ……… $10.17 per gallon
Ocean Spray 16 oz $1.25 …… $10.00 per gallon
Brake Fluid 12 oz $3.15 …… $33.60 per gallon
Vick’s Nyquil 6 oz $8.35 ….. $178.13 per gallon
Pepto Bismol 4 oz $3.85 …… $123.20 per gallon
Whiteout 7 oz $1.39 ………. $25.42 per gallon
Scope 1.5 oz $0.99 ……….. $84.48 per gallon
And this is the REAL KICKER…
Evian water 9 oz $1.49 ……. $21.19 per gallon!
$21.19 for WATER … (and most probably know that Evian spelled backwards is Naive.)
Clotpoll Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
grim (275)-
What kind of cheese? Fromunda cheese?
syn: smegma cheese?
whoopee-do … got the economic stimulus check!
just in time to stimulate my large and growing health insurance premium :)
With Gas prices being so I high I have been looking at alternative vehicles.
I like the 2005 model.
http://www.webfilehost.com/images/gas-prices.php
Stu #126: “Many of us would consider moving, but the value of the dollar against foreign currencies is our shackle. Move to Europe sale…Lose half your worth!”
I don’t get your logic. You would be paid in local currency (Euros) and you can leave your US investments/401ks here. It is more than likely, that in the next 30 years, the USD will be much stronger than Euro (they have similar deficits there).
If you own a house here and intend to buy a house in Europe right away, that will affect your downpayment (if you convert it to Euros), but it is hardly “lose half your worth”. You would pay the mortgage back in Euros.
beer (307)-
Clearly, Stella Artois is the value here.
It doesn’t matter if you stayed in the US or Europe. As someone holding dollars, you already lost half your wealth.
[299] Pat,
At this point, I’d say it is 50/50 whether indymac opens on monday (the doors, not the stock). I’d have to believe the dollars flying out of there would be enough to crash it, esp. if they had a good chunk of deposits in large e-savings accounts.
A bank run today is so much faster than it used to be, and you have to figure that depositors have been bailing ever since Chuckie went off on his most recent “relevance” exercise (true story–official Trenton jokes that the most dangerous place in the world to stand is between Schumer and a camera).
I was talking with a mortgage wholesaler yesterday and they tell me that FHA loans only require a 580 FICO and the loan limit is something like 400K. Bush, in his infinite wisdom, has enabled for this to occur and this will beat back the doldrums in the housing market!
This administration will go down as one of the greatest in history. It’s just a shame that McCain is really not cut from the same cloth. For if he were, this punk from Illinois would be riding his damn wave right now.
I’m really starting to hate him and the liberals he represents.
55re101,
your trolls are starting to get a little to over done. 315 fails even assuming suspeneded disbelief. take breath and then try again, lets see that good ol Re101 we know and love, lets here about all of the housing terrorists
FAIL
http://failblog.org/2008/06/24/playground-fail/
would=wouldn’t
315: Senate democrats, not Bush, have been forcing FHA/Fannie Mae to give more loans to minorities (who didn’t have good enough credit). Apparently, it was a racist system to deny loans from people with low credit scores (who tend to be minorities more often than asian or whites).
The end result, as everybody knows, was extra risky lending to minorities.
I have to agree with neutral grain spirit, though inspired this is one of your lesser troll “baiting” comments.
I am still not convinced that RE101 isnt really grim stirring up the natives.
Bait???
If I want to catch some damn fish, I go to a lake with nightcrawlers. If I want to see some dogs hollar. I come here and throw some damn rocks.
You liberals are real sensitive
Rich In NNJ Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
I have to agree with neutral grain spirit, though inspired this is one of your lesser troll “baiting” comments.
#321
“If I want to see some dogs hollar. I come here and throw some damn rocks.”
If you want to see a jackass, do you look in the mirror?
I am still not convinced that RE101 isnt really grim stirring up the natives.
With more than 800 comments in less than two days, I don’t think I need to.
jamil 318,
arent asians a minority????
1000 comment weekend?
is that when you sell the site for $$$
kettle1 Says:
June 27th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
I am still not convinced that RE101 isnt really grim stirring up the natives.
For the umpteenth damn time, you guys don’t need to be stirred up. There were 300 posts by the time I got here today, so you guys are already stirred up with terrorist activity in an attempt to continue to upend the housing markets. You don’t need me to stir up shlt.
kettle 324: Yes, technically Asians are a minority, but given their appreciation of education, hard work and family values, they don’t have systematic problem with low credit scores. It is mainly one welfare/teen pregnancy/drug-dealing/anti-education segment of population, that has systematic problem of low credit scores (despite massive government programs to specifically help them – or perhaps just because of these programs)
Gartman on CNBC he bought gold yesterday.
“If I want to see some dogs hollar. I come here and throw some damn rocks.”
50.5,
This dog is hollering for you;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/barnism/124669668/
alia, 143
Ahh yes, State Penn.
Penn State fans
Rockaway Twp. police chief to retire
ROCKAWAY TWP. — Police Chief Walter Kimble will be retiring by the end of July, Mayor Louis Sceusi said today.
…
Kimble, a fourth-generation resident of Rockaway Township and a 1979 graduate of Morris Knolls High School, will be moving with his wife to Charlotte, N.C., Sceusi said.
…
http://dailyrecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080627/UPDATES01/80627012
Nicely played by this guy. Retire at age 45 based on 122k base + overtime and then bolt town.
RE101 (321 & 326),
Really, it’s truly disappointing. I can see that the effort is there but now you’re basically imitating yourself. It’s as they say about sitcoms, you’ve “jumped the shark”. Your posts now are, well quite frankly, embarrassing.
Well, I suppose we’ll at least always have Bi or Pretorius to fall back on. Hey, maybe Richard can stop eating crow, wipe the egg off face and post an “elitist neighborhood” comment.
But as far as entertainment factor, it looks as if RE101 is done. It’s a sad day.
Dumont FUTURE Comp Killer!
5 BIRCH RD
Purchased: $410,000 6/23/2005
Purchased: $425,000 6/30/2007
Current MLS#: 2824085
Original List: $429,000 2/12/2008
Current List: $389,900 6/27/2008
With all the bad news out there when will see real home price declines in NJ? Hoboken and Westfield is still at all time high.
rich,
so true, so sad. but give him a chance to recover rich, i think re101 is stinging a little from heavy hitters comment.
Where’s the RE recession I ask?
“HOBOKEN was often held up as the prime example of the booming real estate market, and now it appears that the city is showing that it can hold its own in a down market, too.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/realestate/22njzo.html?ref=realestate
I think the RE bears need to take a summer break.
Just my observations/experience. Went to look at a house tonight – on the market 3 days and already in attorney review. Received multiple offers. This has happened numerous time in past month. Priced right for the house and location.
come on frank get creative, a number of comp killers have been posted for both towns, try a new line
315…you should take up arms….the supreme court says its OK.
I have not seen comp killers for Hoboken or Westfield yet.
#315 renutjob: You are in a word insane. Seriously go back and play with your Legos. This is a discussion for adults.
frank,
Do you work for the Fed? How else can you be so unaware of what’s going on.
#335 frank: They are already declining there frank;you just choose to ignore the reality.
frank,
There are now 21 houses listed below 500k in Westfield. This time last year there were only a handful. Not only that, but the conditions of the houses has improved in that price range.
#337 frank: I think you need therapy. Oh and the Wall St layoofs continue to rage. So many of those layoffs are affecting the Hoboken market.
Who is going to absorb that real esate Frank? Who? Can you answer that question?
Get help. please. We really do care.
Frank,
There have been Westfield comp killers posted, just google.
I’ll let you in on a secret though, I’ve never posted a Camden comp killer.
Camden is prime.
#334 Rich 425k in Dumont? Scary, very scary, and now it is at 389K, and it will sell for alot less than that. Last I look on the njmls there was tons of inventory in Dumont.
AS far as frank and reestatediaperwipe, what can I say. Really pathetic that they are still trying to peddle their real estate is fine case.
Talk about living in your own delusional world.
“This administration will go down as one of the greatest in history”
you not serious are you? please tell me your sarcastic?
“this punk from Illinois”
yup, I have to agree with you on this one.
We need Ron Paul!!
SAS
#338 very: No need for multiple bids etc IMO. There will be lots to pick and choose from over the next year.
Unless somebody truly wanted the house, why buy now.
“Camden”
I hate that town.
last time I was there, 2 yahoos tried to mug me in broad daylight, I got into a street fight at my age…
SAS
I live in the apartment complex right next to our work place. DINK newbie #2 had the nerve to insinuate I was lucky to live there. I retorted that he could live there too, it isn’t an exclusive community and they do have 2 BRs for DINKs. He threw the old “Well we weren’t going to rent when we could buy for practically the same amount” line at me. I am so sick of hearing about my sub-status as a renter even though all the commuters are now envying the renters with the 3 minute walking commute. The next time someone says that to me, I think I might smack them. Actually, this newbie was pretty annoying at the interview and has been slightly irritating since he got here, he may be the first vicitm…
Very recently we put in an offer for a house for rent. The rent we offered was a little lower than the asking price. The owners rejected the offer. They want the full price. We need the extra space however feel the rent is too high for the place. We have told the realtor to let them know that we are not willing to go higher. Has anyone here being in a similar situation and have any words of wisdom?
Gryff
“Well we weren’t going to rent when we could buy for practically the same amount”
Really? What’s your mortgage? And how much equity have you lost so far? Property tax? Repairs? Insurance?
Watching guys like frank and refascist101 drown in debt makes it all worth while.
197- i thought the fighting quakers were swarthmore, but google tells me they’re u penn.
you’d think i’d know this, being a (lapsed) quaker myself… (waits patiently for the oatmeal jokes)
341 frank
“I have not seen comp killers for Hoboken or Westfield yet.”
Adult illiteracy is a terrible thing.
333 rich
Lol
bp, yes, I have a word.
Find the old partners who bought in 1974 to 1990. They’ll own ten properties. One guy plays good cop and smiles. One guy says no pets.
These are the guys who actually put in new carpeting and fix the flashing, whatever that is. But they’re very proud of doing that.
You find them buy driving around townhouse developments that were built pre 1980, chatting up the residents, and finding out who owns the townhouses. Then you call the guy and ask if they have SFH.
Jamil
“technically Asians are a minority, but given their appreciation of education, hard work and family values, they don’t have systematic problem with low credit scores.”
Thanks for your insight. What median FICO do asians have and how does that compare with the mean of other groups? Thanks in advance for not knowing the answer. Google is your friend.
Jamil
“It is mainly one welfare/teen pregnancy/drug-dealing/anti-education segment of population, that has systematic problem of low credit scores (despite massive government programs to specifically help them”
Why don’t you tell us who you’re talking about, jamil? Too much of a pansy to stand behind your own opinions?
Jamil
“315: Senate democrats, not Bush, have been forcing FHA/Fannie Mae to give more loans to minorities”
Wow!!!!!
Democrats were able to “force” their agenda throughout the bubble despite being in the minority at all relevant times?!?
I didn’t realize that the Republicans were such spineless wimps despite having complete control of the Federal gov’t! That’s really the most conclusive argument I’ve yet heard as to why there’s no point in voting Republican at the Federal level.
Or was that not your point, Jamil?
356 alia
Mmmmmmmm…oatmeal.
The little patients love the oatmeal. I make it with cinnamon, a touch of vanilla, genuine VT maple syrup and raisins.
Yep. U-Penn
Re: Traffic returning home
Sorry my report took so long. I know you’ve been waiting on the edge of your seat. I came home and fell asleep for a much needed 5 hour nap.
Anyway, half day coming home- again zero traffic at 12 PM. However, at 5 PM when I went to do some errands, SI Expressway again packed. More then the usual rush hour traffic. I love shore traffic that starts no where near the shore.
Westfield Comp Killer
445 Topping Hill Rd, Wychwood Brand new construction (4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3 car garage) in the Wilson School district on a quiet street. Just sold for 1.3 million. It was listed a few months ago at 1.7, I don’t know the original list price, but even my neighbors who thought the other low sales were because “they owned forever” or “they were in a hurry to sell” were shocked at this one.