From MarketWatch:
Home prices fall record 1.8% in November
U.S. home values dropped at the fastest pace on record in November as the fury of the financial storm hit housing market.
Home prices fell a record 1.8% in November, according to the Federal Housing Finance Agency. That’s the largest one-month decline since 1991 when the agency began tracking repeat sales data from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
Home prices fell in all nine regions of the country in November, the agency said. FHFA runs Fannie and Freddie following the government takeover in September.
In the past year, home prices are down a record 8.7%, compared with a 7.5% drop through October. Prices have fallen 22% in the Pacific region in the past year.
Since the peak in early 2007, national home prices are down 10.5%, with declines in all nine regions, FHFA said.
From Bloomberg:
Housing Prices, Starts Tumble at Record Pace in U.S. Recession
Home prices in the U.S. dropped the most in at least 18 years and builders broke ground on the fewest houses since record-keeping began as the recession deepened, government reports said today.
Prices in November declined 8.7 percent from a year earlier, the biggest drop in records going back to 1991, the Federal Housing Finance Agency said today in Washington. Housing starts fell 16 percent last month to an annual rate of 550,000, the lowest since the government started compiling statistics in 1959, the Commerce Department said.
From HousingWire:
Record Home Price Decline in November, FHFA Says
A wealth of other home price data has shown that November and December were rough months for the nation’s varied housing markets; new data released Thursday morning by the Federal Housing Finance Agency shows that housing woes are continuing to extend their reach into conforming lending markets, as well.
…
Prices in November now roughly correspond to home values last seen in March 2005, according to the report. And if our premonitions are correct, we still have further to fall in the months ahead.
From Forbes:
Gov’t index shows monthly drop in home prices
U.S. home prices fell 1.8 percent between October and November 2008, more than the 1.1 percent decline in the previous month, according to a government report.
The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s monthly house price index also showed that prices declined 8.7 percent in the 12 months ended in November. Since April 2007, when the index peaked, prices have fallen 10.5 percent, the report showed.
hey… where’d everybody go??
sl
From Consumerist:
Countrywide Freezes HELOCs, Says “It’s Not You, It’s Your Home”
This would be good news, no? It gets us closer to rationale pricing, no?
Tarragon moved to the pink sheets. Not that it matters, they are bankrupt.
I guess zillow is really the best source of information on home values. Much like the Wizard of Oz.
The frozen HELOK.
Is that some kind of wrestling move like the Fujiwara armbar?
goods new is when homes are selling for $1,000 we won’t need mortgages.
my favorite part of Zillow is when you see a house that just sold and the Zillow value “adjusts” and is still much higher than the selling price.
Grim,
I think I made this suggestion a while back but I will restate it incase it got lost.
You could probably put a button or link at the top of the page that navigates you to the last post on the thread. That would save you from having to scroll down to the bottom every time you posted something from a mobile device.
With that feature you wouldn’t have to worry about a thread getting too long and annoying your mobile users. I know when I view from my phone that is definitely the most annoying thing.
MSFT’s browser on my desktop computer remembers where I was when I navigate back to the page so I don’t have to scroll. The browser on my mobile device is much slimmer and doesn’t have those nifty built in features to conserve space/power.
Has anyone else seen this market cap chart from Alphaville via dealbreaker?
Too fun.
Yeah tosh we saw it yesterday I think.
The problem with that chart is that the market cap is represented as the diameter of the circle and not as the area.
For example the circle for JPMorgan goes from 165 to 85. a reduction of 49% in market capitalization. The smaller circle doesn’t represent 51% of the larger circle, it represents more like 33%.
#11 – Yeah, I’m seeing the criticism in various posts over at DB.
I just ran the numbers, the smaller circle is actually 26.5% of the larger JPM circle.
Thain this year spent $1.2 million to redecorate his office at New York-based Merrill, CNBC reported today.
so according to Clot’s post on the last thread, 70% of foreclosed homes have yet to hit the market. obviously, this doesn’t account for all of the homes that have yet to be foreclosed on but will be. basically, there is a massive amount of shadow inventory out there. prices down 20% nationally in 2009?
John,
You’d be proud, Madoff leased a CTS.
In addition to 3 Mercedes, a Lexus, and a Range Rover.
Probably drove the CTS when he met with auditors, or when he collected deposits from investors.
Someone reported their secret tips to buying stocks in this market.
1. If you want to buy a stock, short it.
2. If you want to short a stock, buy it.
Voila!
From the Star Ledger:
Resorts Atlantic City casino faces possible foreclosure
The lender of Resorts Atlantic City is seeking to take over the struggling casino, saying New Jersey’s first casino has defaulted on its mortgage.
Column Financial, a commercial mortgage subsidiary of Credit Suisse, filed a petition today with the state Casino Control Commission asking permission to foreclose on the casino, which has not paid its mortgage since October.
Failing that, Column Financial wants the owners, affiliates of Colony Capital LLC, to surrender the title to the casino.
Colony Capital, eh?
Did Tom Barrack finally get run down by an amateur on the polo grounds?
Now that is a spreading it around, German, Japanese, American and English Cars. He is a true hero to the working class.
grim says:
January 22, 2009 at 3:13 pm
John,
You’d be proud, Madoff leased a CTS.
In addition to 3 Mercedes, a Lexus, and a Range Rover.
Probably drove the CTS when he met with auditors, or when he collected deposits from investors
tosh,
BC was looking for that bubble drawing from Alpha earlier today.
It takes some real talent to bankrupt a casino. Maybe they need a house advantage of 75%.
Bond of the Day
VIACOM INC SR DEB 7.875% 07/30/2030 Price (Ask) 64.540
Yield to Worst (Ask) 12.730%
Alphaville has released a revised version of the market cap chart. Apparently the author of this one if familiar with geometry, at least in name.
Ben (8)-
The last time Zillow adjusted its algorithm was the day the site launched.
All their quants must’ve left them to work for I-banks.
Who was that goof who used to come here and rant about how Zillow was taking over the RE industry?
John,
Now that is a spreading it around, German, Japanese, American and English Cars. He is a true hero to the working class.
Range is Indian.
John (23)-
I’d put that bond in a deadpool with Sumner Redstone and Liza Minelli.
You PA folk are crazy.
Police: Angry customer rammed Pa. bank with pickup
A western Pennsylvania man had several figurative run-ins with his local bank before police said he had a literal one: purposely driving his pickup truck through the bank’s front door, causing nearly $100,000 damage.
Police didn’t immediately arrest Richard Smorey after the Jan. 1 crash in Jackson Township because they didn’t know if it was an accident. But Smorey has now been charged with criminal trespass, criminal mischief and other crimes because financial records revealed he had a motive to be angry with Huntington Bank, authorities said.
Smorey, 59, of Forward Township, was late with payments on his truck loan, was recently denied a $12,000 loan, had restrictions on his checking account because of overdrafts, and had a loud argument with a teller in November, police told the Butler Eagle for Thursday’s editions.
Oh, it gets better…
Police found no skid marks. “The vehicle’s black box indicated it was going 44 mph at the point of impact, and accelerating,” said Jackson Township police Chief Len Keller.
Going back to the Teddy Roosevelt discussion. One thing that surprised me was how many books he wrote, especially about The Great West. I mention this because I have now heard from at least 3 or 4 Obots about how The One is our first author-president, I assume because he wrote a book about himself or something. I guess we are going have to get used to this nonsensical deification, but its already getting old.
My guess is that he was just upset that there was no drive thru window, so he tried to make one of his own.
Ok, so the NY Federal Reserve has purchased approximately $50 billion worth of MBS to date, with $19b or so of that coming last week.
http://www.ny.frb.org/markets/mbs/index.html
Mortgage rates? Up.
They’ve blown 1/10th of their proposed $500b total purchases, with very little to show for it. I suppose you could argue that rates would have been significantly higher, had they not purchased. I might agree with that. This would, essentially the same argument that Kash-Carry used to describe the success of the TARP program.
“See, the sun came up today and the world didn’t end in Armageddon. Therefore, the TARP must have worked.”
Hard to argue against that one. I didn’t shave this morning, and I wasn’t attacked by tigers. Therefore, not shaving must have protected me from tigers. Like I said, makes perfect sense.
Looks like they are on track to purchase approximately $70 billion a month, which means about 7 months of purchasing left.
Stu (31)-
I’m waiting for somebody to pull a move like this on the Federal Reserve building.
Banks aren’t passing the rates on to consumers. If the masses were enlightened to the extent of the banking industries greed it would be guns and ammo time.
Sitting at bar in fort lee, old stomping ground, enjoying seven and seven while lazio pounds torino on the big screen, overhearing bar tender bragging that she won the bidding war on her house 4 years ago, during closing she asks just out of curiosity what the other bids were. They explain her her bid wasnt the highest but she had most attractive credit and downpayment, then she lets rip that she only put down a whopping 3%. Not only do i doubt there were any other bidders at all but im also thinking, no wonder all the banks are crumbling…
grim (32)-
They should use that money to buy some really good dope.
Toll Brothers offers 3.99% 30-year fixed loans
36
How do you think they got the idea?
If you look at the letters of past presidents to various members of government, you get some really good insight in the way the world works. Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson spent plenty of time battling with the central bank and private bankers because they knew that this would happen.
veto (35)-
What was more painful: having to watch Torino, or listening to that story?
“Toll Brothers offers 3.99% 30-year fixed loans”
Weren’t they offering a 1 weekend only all homes must go sale over a year ago? I guess they still haven’t sold their garbage.
make money says:
January 22, 2009 at 4:13 pm
I thought India was part of England, they smell bad, have crooked teeth and drink a lot of tea.
John,
Now that is a spreading it around, German, Japanese, American and English Cars. He is a true hero to the working class.
Range is Indian.
Clot,
You’ll love this one:
http://newsfeedresearcher.com/data/articles_n4/bunker-police-tampa.html
Tampa, Florida – Tampa police have seized 66 marijuana plants found growing in an underground bunker previously used to store ammunition for the Army.
“They explain her her bid wasnt the highest but she had most attractive credit and downpayment, then she lets rip that she only put down a whopping 3%. Not only do i doubt there were any other bidders at all but im also thinking, no wonder all the banks are crumbling…”
FHA is still doing 3% loans, err wait, they jacked it up to a big 3.5%. At their current rate, they’ll be back to 20% by the year 2037.
obviously using zillow isn’t a ‘standard’…but how should i go about figuring what a home price should be, or where it is going? I am finding it so hard since prices are all over the place. As of now, we figure what the house is worth to us- which is usually about 20% off list price.
“Banks aren’t passing the rates on to consumers. If the masses were enlightened to the extent of the banking industries greed it would be guns and ammo time.”
Maybe the reason all the big banks reside on Wall St is because NY has such strict gun laws. I don’t know what’s worse, the fact that the bailout has been pocketed by Merrill Lynch execs that were going to be out of a job or the fact that people aren’t rioting outside of every building that says Merrill Lynch. Have we seriously been this easily conditioned to accept the fact that they literally stole 10% of our GDP with a vote through congress?
Warning:Video
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/161718/Crisis-Solved-Give-Money-to-Healthy-Banks-Let-FDIC's-Bair-Handle-the-Dying?tickers=C,JPM,BAC,USB,WFC,XLF,SKF
Historically, the FDIC puts insolvent banks into receivership, put their assets into a new corporation which is “clean” (no legacy liabilities) and sells it to a stronger bank. JPMorgan’s purchase of Washington Mutual followed this script, for example; Bank of America’s purchase of both Countrywide and Merrill did not, which is why Ken Lewis is now stuck with “two rancid, hideous cancers,” Whalen says.
If you listen to his direct quote he says “two rancid, hideous cancers eating at their gut.” Great analogy.
“It takes some real talent to bankrupt a casino.”
Bondholders to Trump: You’re fired!
Well, maybe soon enough, anyway.
“obviously using zillow isn’t a ’standard’…but how should i go about figuring what a home price should be, or where it is going? I am finding it so hard since prices are all over the place. As of now, we figure what the house is worth to us- which is usually about 20% off list price.”
That’s a pretty good estimate. I like to take the 1998 prices and add maybe 3% a year. I still think I’m being too generous. Most places in NJ are run down houses that haven’t been updated in 30 years. At least all those houses in California and Arizona are new.
Maybe Donald Trump should stop charging me 10 bucks to park at his Casino. I might be inclined to go more often. Get them in the door and drunk. They will certainly lose more than 10 bucks. The same goes for sporting events. I can’t understand how the Nets can justify their ticket prices when no one goes to their games. They would probably make more money if they charged 5 dollars a ticket and jacked up the heat inside to make everyone thirsty.
“i like to take the 1998 prices…”
ben..how do you get the 1998 price?
Lennie,
That is a tough question that I had trouble answering before I started to do some more market research.
Essentially when you list a house for sale in America you always ask for more then you think the house is worth so that when the offer comes in you get what you think you deserve. Crazy, I know.
Americans have very poor bartering skills so they hire RE agents to do the bartering for them. The RE agent then says, “I can get you a deal on this house” and proceeds to whittle off 5-10% from the purchase price in a normal market.
You feel good cause you “got a deal”, seller feels good cause they “got what they wanted”.
Now to really determine what you should ask for, especially since this isn’t a normal market you need to calculate the spread between the bid and ask price. That is, calculate the ratio of the sellers asking price of the house and the actual purchase price.
In Maryland this ratio was running around 95% during the peak of the housing bubble. A person would list at 100% and get 95% of what they ask. Remember that this is an average, some got more and some got less.
Right now this ratio is running around 83% and has been falling for the last 18 months. The data is seasonal so remember to account for that aspect.
Essentially year of year ratios eventually drag down the list price so there is a floor to how low that ratio can go. This data is also probably highly regional so you would need to calculate it for your area.
Correction:
Essentially year over year ratios
cool your rocket jets, no one took nothing, this is all a big CJ. We all have ML, Citi, Chase etc. in our 401Ks, either we prop them up or lose even more of our 401Ks and pay higher mortgage rates and get less interest on checking when there are less banks. Either way you lose.
grim (19),
Never mind an amateur polo player… Tom Barrack’s gonna feel like he got run over by a freight train when Xanadu goes belly up
That will help you in determining how overpriced current list prices are.
It will also help you determine the direction of the market. A low ratio will indicate a very soft market, a persistently low ratio indicates a declining market.
(understated) Maryland is currently in a soft/declining market.
“Maybe the reason all the big banks reside on Wall St is because NY has such strict gun laws.”
Ben,
Actually, it’s because WS is between a cemetery and a river.
nicholas… thanks! think we are on the right track.
“We all have ML, Citi, Chase etc. in our 401Ks”
John,
Speak for yourself.
Between January 15 and January 21 the Federal Reserve purchased 19.009bn of agency mortgage backed securities. The once cheaper Freddie Gold MBS took a back seat to Fannie MBS this week. This brings the Federal Reserves MBS tab to $52.627bn….which equates to 10.53% of total expected spending.
In the 12 days the Fed has been actively supporting the MBS market their purchases have averaged $4.3855bn per day.
two year AAA muni is now 1.3%, that is crazy.
If you have an SAP 500 or a index or a target fund you have it.
“In the 12 days the Fed has been actively supporting the MBS market their purchases have averaged $4.3855bn per day.”
Someone better pick up the slack. Foreign cb’s agency purchases have dropped like the plague.
http://www.jsmineset.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/tic-data-for-november-2008.pdf
— confused here.
Jumbo mortgage right now is anything over 417K. Anyone know when “jumbo” starts for 2-family houses?
Can’t be the same, can it? Don’t make sense if its the same.
Hey, I just came back from an all day interview to find that Thain got canned today.
Looks like Ken Lewis is trying to keep his job at all costs.
Definition please:
gebroni (sp?)
jabroni: The Rock says you should shut your rudy-poo, cand-@ss, you jabroni!
“Can’t be the same, can it? Don’t make sense if its the same.”
It was the same when we purchased our multi back in 2004. Of course, I thought the conforming limit was raised much higher recently.
The killer right now about obtaining a mortgage on a multi is that the banks are charging a .25 percent interest rate penalty. Best no point rate I could find on a refi so far was 5.125. When I changed the property to a single family I qualified for the 4.875 easily.
This was the case for both Wachovia, and Wells. Chase was way higher for both.
#46
“Have we seriously been this easily conditioned to accept the fact that they literally stole 10% of our GDP with a vote through congress?”
what about the idea that the debt is there either way (whether it is public or private) and will wreak havoc on the economy either way. we often talk as if we could just isolate this issue in one corner of the economy and everything else would be fine. it is not that simple
in other words, we are taking water out of one side of the bucket and putting it into the other. what is the effect?
Jabroni:
One who promises but doesn’t deliver.
—
Stunad
well, interesting development. my wife just called to tell me that the house we bid on 4 weeks ago the sellers came back to us. they had tried to instigate a bidding war back then and we declined to participate. well the other bidder apparently walked as well and now they have come back. too late for them, unfortunately. we have come to our senses. Clot’s warning a week or so ago did indeed hit home
“It was the same when we purchased our multi back in 2004. Of course, I thought the conforming limit was raised much higher recently.
The killer right now about obtaining a mortgage on a multi is that the banks are charging a .25 percent interest rate penalty. Best no point rate I could find on a refi so far was 5.125. When I changed the property to a single family I qualified for the 4.875 easily.”
According to the following links, the conforming limits are much higher.
http://www.fhfa.gov/GetFile.aspx?FileID=135
and
http://www.fhfa.gov/GetFile.aspx?FileID=134
I can’t seem to find any freaking bank that understands these numbers. Everyone is saying no matter if its multi or not, above 417K is a higher rate. They don’t even seem to be honoring the “high-cost” living area numbers of 625,500. Multi’s are naturally more expensive than singles … not sure why they’d have the same limit (not even in 2004).
Thanks for the info.
Arg…
“we are taking water out of one side of the bucket and putting it into the other”
Sounds fun! Lets use the same principle when they are making profits. Oh, wait…
HEHEHE says:
January 22, 2009 at 5:50 pm
jabroni: The Rock says you should shut your rudy-poo, cand-@ss, you jabroni!
I think I understand now……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk7mIUoA0Wk&feature=PlayList&p=09E45A3D15FD9798&playnext=1&index=10
BC Bob says:
January 22, 2009 at 9:22 am
“5. Buy gold (not for a few more years)”
Stu,
Too late.
All Disclaimers.
elaborate?
grim (43)-
Excellent re-purposing of existing resources!
BC (58)-
My SEP-IRA proudly features nothing but SRS, SKF, FXP and GLD.
not that it matters, but at the closing, but here’s a discussion with the mortgage guy, both realtors, and the person from the title company:
in the area in Bucks I live in, prices only went up 10% a year in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
They said that yes, prices went down in 2008, but they are confident that they will level off now and not go lower.
i pressed them – what goes up; foreclosures; you name it. i even told them I BOUGHT THE HOUSE, PEOPLE, QUIT FUC*ING sugar coating!
they really do think, in this area (NOT NJ, that’s something to remember) prices have leveled and won’t really plunge lower.
and more anecdata: They said they have seen an increase in people moving from NJ to PA.
one last one: Alarm guy put in the house today and he said there’s been a surge in new installations. “When the economy gets crappy, people start to worry about crime.” he said most of the issues are on the immediate burbs of philly; we’re about 40 mins away.
yikes (76)-
All that denial is just a signal to all of us to figure out ways to make money off it.
Yikes, congratulations on the purchase of your own little piece of Pennsyltucky. Now you need to go shopping for a burning barrel for the front yard. preferably Amish made.
just want to go on record, Clot, as saying i do not believe then.
then the obvious, ‘why’d you buy?’
i just dont think anything that goes up so much can only slide down a bit. obviously up 30% over 3 years is nothing like Florida, Cali, vegas, which were probably up 100% or more. maybe even NJ too.
actually, 30% is quite low, huh?
Stu says:
January 22, 2009 at 12:16 pm
Ben,
As long as I can get my cash out of my Ameritrade account (don’t see much of an issue here as they appear to be quite strong), then getting it to the bullionvault should take minutes.
how easy is it to “cash” out of buillon vault? has anyone here ever done so?
“how easy is it to “cash” out of buillon”
i cashed out in the 70s, and it was damn easy.
but also, i did alot of trading/bartering with some metals overseas.
SAS
Nicholas, you’re missing the percentage of total that are distress sales and non-arms length transactions in MD. The relatively high percentage of “non-traditional” sales debases the process of using comps as a market indicators.
I don’t believe you could possibly be including most sales based on the 83% you’re tossing. Had you used a number under .75, I’d think you were on the right track.
Don’t use zillow sales/comps to frame your logic, and don’t rely on comps you get from an agent or the paper. There’s a bigger picture. I’m new to MD, and I live in Montgomery County, but I’m a plankton turned clownfish and then forcibly morphed into a barracuda after years of real estate shenanigans. When I see a list of 5 comps that goes back six months, I no longer laugh at the joker handing it to me, I just thank him or her, and offer them my own private Idaho comp list for a $25 fee.
I am reposting this from the earlier thread…
Has anyone seen big drops in home prices in NJ areas (I am looking at Greenbrook/Warren/Livingston and North Edison). The asking prices on realtor.com seem to be stuck for a while. Most of them seem to be old listings. We are deciding on whether to jump in this summer or next.
Any suggestions with respect to the disparity between the asking prices and the general sentiment? Should we even use realtor.com as an indicator?
S
“Geithner was “involved in just about every flawed bailout” of the Bush era”
http://tinyurl.com/744hxo
Sastry (83) –
I would suggest getting a buyer’s agent who will then get you comps in the area you are looking for. Even if you are not looking, I would guess that good agents will still give you the info in hopes for business in the future.
Hmm. turns out Princess Caroline was cheating on taxes, his spouse with NY Slime(s) publisher, and her nanny.
True Kennedy!
take your prozac johnny…we love you.
“Americans Drug Their Children with 300 Percent More Psychotropic Meds”
http://tinyurl.com/bvzhwb
“cheating on taxes”
so was Bush, now omama’s cabinet members.
we love you govt.
SAS
From what I have read…Bullion Vault is completely legit.
Banks dodge U.S. regulation by changing to state charter
Using a system called “charter conversion,” about 240 banks have
avoided federal supervision since 2000 by dropping their federal
charter in favor of a state charter. Experts said at least 30 of
those banks escaped federal enforcement action by walking away from
their federal charter and placing themselves under state authority.
The Washington Post (22 Jan.)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/21/AR2009012104267.html
jamil (86)-
Hey, those are qualifiers for a Senate appointment!
$1.22 million to revamp office
When John Thain became Merrill Lynch’s CEO in early 2008, he hired Michael S. Smith Design to revamp his office suite, spending approximately $1.22 million according to documents.
The following is a list of the items in his suite:
— Area Rug: $87,784
— Mahogany Pedestal Table: $25,713
— 19th Century Credenza: $68,179
— Pendant Light Furniture: $19,751
— 4 Pairs of Curtains: $28,091
— Pair of Guest Chairs: $87,784
— George IV Chair: $18,468
— 6 Wall Sconces: $2,741
— Parchment Waste Can: $1,405
— Roman Shade Fabric: $10,967
— Roman Shades: $7,315
— Coffee Table: $5,852
— Commode on Legs: $35,115
WTF??
How much stuff got ordered and sent to his house.. you know, by accident.
WHY??? WHY??? WHY???? Do we sit around an accept this shit? That’s OUR tax dollars and our KIDS and our KID’S KIDS money!!
WHY does NOBODY say or do something???
sl
The Kennedy family’s move into super-wealth and status was concurrent with its move into organized crime.
In America, there’s only one OG. A family named Kennedy.
WHAT????
http://newjersey.craigslist.org/reb/1003408744.html
Can someone explain “Montville” to me? What’s so special that each house on CL is waaaaaaay overpriced? Sorry – I’m new to NJ.
sl (92)-
Hey, I just hope Thain was wearing a raincoat if he got any rub-and-a-tug action from young Mr. Smithy.
And I hope they didn’t desecrate that delightful “commode on legs” (actually, I thought that was Thain’s BAC nickname).
http://www.michaelsmithinc.com/img/286366
SS (95)-
Flee. While there’s still time.
I think about it all the time! Wife is still in school, but after grad, we’re out.
Whenever I see the word ‘boasts’ in a description, I now think of John.
I used to heave. So, I’m thinking I’m making some mental progress on my housing psychosis.
When I see the word ‘boasts’ and say, “Hmmm, that IS nice,” then I think we’ve hit bottom.
Gary, how do you feel when you see the word “boasts” in a housing description?
WHY??? WHY??? WHY???? Do we sit around an accept this shit? That’s OUR tax dollars and our KIDS and our KID’S KIDS money!!
WHY does NOBODY say or do something???
Because we are sheep. BAAAAA, BAAAAAA!
Anybody see the Independant Lens film on PBS about the Class Monitor election in a Chinese Classroom?
Brutal. Those kids were brutal. And smart. An amazing microcosm of elections and also an indication why American kids are doomed.
At the risk of repetition let me say again that my plea is not for immunity to, but for the most unsparing exposure of, the politician who betrays his trust, of the big business man who makes or spends his fortune in illegitimate or corrupt ways. There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has disgraced. Expose the crime, and hunt down the criminal; but remember that even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to the public mind than the crime itself.
– Theodore Roosevelt, speech, “The Man With The Muck Rake” (April 15, 1906)
What’s it gonna take for this to change (if ever…?) We used to be scrappy fighters… now we’re sheep. It’s true.
sl
SS (94):
Look closely to the picture of the outside of the house. It looks like they replaced the window and the sills. The homeowner did not even bother to pt up new shingles.
My guess is serious water damage. I would not buy that POS for 300k.
Yo, Yo, what’s up still_looking?
Where is Teddy Roosevelt when we need him most?
Sadly, the closest thing we had might have been that f.uck Spitzer.
Even he couldn’t keep his dic.k in his pants.
Even if you could fight the thievery and pillaging of the US taxpayer — HOW would you even start??
sl
Hi little brother…. not much…just sick of everything that’s going on.
Shorting the shit out of everything now. Watching the remains of my long portfolio peter out and wishing I had had the balls to have sold it all 18 mos ago.
How’s job hunting? You got a date yet?
sl
Here’s the link:
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/pleasevoteforme/film.html
And from the comments:
“For me, I used to be a class monitor in my primary school. Most audience doesn’t understand that to be a class monitor, excellent academic record is the basic requirement. Therefore, no wonder all candidates were successful academically. With one or two talents are very common for Chinese primary students. I have learnt calligraphy and painting since 6 years old. Most my friends are good at flute, piano, ect. You don’t need to surprise that all candidates were so smart. With 1.3 billion populations, China is lack of resource and opportunity. Everyone has to strive to win in any single chance and the loser got nothing–this is social evolution–only the winner can survive.
That’s why the competition is so brutal even between kids–they have to learn all skills to win in future from an age when most US kids are still believe fairy tale. They lost their childhood forever!”
“Where is Teddy Roosevelt when we need him most?
Sadly, the closest thing we had might have been that f.uck Spitzer.
Even he couldn’t keep his dic.k in his pants.
Even if you could fight the thievery and pillaging of the US taxpayer — HOW would you even start??”
Campaign finance reform. You see how far that got. I cannot believe that NY seriously considered Caroline Kennedy for the Senate seat. Why? because of JFK? JFK was one of the worst presidents in US history and he had only 2 years in office. That guy took us to the brink of nuclear armageddon, Vietnam, and Latin Americanization in 2 fing years. Fuck the Kennedy’s, Clintons, Bushes.
doh!
un mod
Lady, you have a mouth like a damn sailor. Look, no one wants to hear your damn swearing every damn time you post something. As to Thain, what the hell are you worried about? You act like he spent your money.
Hell, I hope they keep plenty of damn soap in the ER for your mouth. You’re a damn doctor and are supposed to have a calm relaxing bedside manner. No one can get well with the behavior you’re exhibiting. You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
still_looking says:
January 22, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Where is Teddy Roosevelt when we need him most?
Sadly, the closest thing we had might have been that f.uck Spitzer.
Even he couldn’t keep his dic.k in his pants.
Even if you could fight the thievery and pillaging of the US taxpayer — HOW would you even start??
sl
If the modder could only get to hear some good old fashioned OR banter. Corporate etiquette police need not apply.
Tard 111 wrote: “You act like he spent your money.”
TARP money= taxpayer money
taxpayer=me, my kids, my kid’s kids and so on.
Oh. and you too… uh that is, if you pay taxes. Not angry? Maybe you should be.
sl
james 112
You ain’t kidding! Been there….spicier than a Cajun kitchen.
sl
I really like how “falling housing prices” sound. I’ve been saying that today’s Real Estate game is a buyers market and this article reinforces that. I’ve been buying homes through Taylor Morrison (learn more about them and enter to win a dream vacation at http://dreambig.taylormorrison.com/?utm_source=bc) for a while now, and I love it!
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It’s no secret that dramatic changes have occurred in the Real Estate market lately.
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Founder Realty Price Target