From the APP:
In business for 25 years, Mary Burnetsky, the owner of Farley’s Ice Cream in Jackson, had seen enough economic cycles to believe that her industry might have been recession-proof.
hen came 2009. Her customers, hit by rising job losses, eliminated everything they didn’t need, including — gasp! — ice cream.
“Our business is way down this year,” Burnetsky said last week. “Why, I have no idea. I can only assume people can’t afford to buy ice cream as a luxury.”
The year 2009 ends this week, and few people are shedding a tear. The year will be remembered as the time when workers lost their jobs, homeowners fought to avoid foreclosure and consumers saw their credit-card interest rates rise.
It was part of the fallout of the longest recession since the Great Depression, and it left no one unscathed.
…
The state from January to November lost 88,900 jobs, and its unemployment rate rose from 7.3 percent to 9.7 percent. When the unemployment rate reached 9.8 percent in September, it marked the highest jobless rate since 1977, according to the state.
…
Behind the job losses was an economy trying to recover from the housing market’s collapse. The federal government tried to stabilize the industry to mixed results.The government bought mortgage-backed securities and drove down mortgage rates to historic lows of less than 5 percent. And it offered buyers thousands of dollars in tax breaks to jump-start sales.
…
The government made less progress convincing lenders to modify the mortgages of homeowners who could no longer afford their payments.
…
The net result? The median price of an existing home in the region that includes the Shore was $343,800 during the third quarter, down 8.9 percent from $377,300 in the same quarter a year ago, according to the National Association of Realtors.
…
“It was really a year of stabilization and setting a stage for what should be recovery in 2010,” Jeffrey Otteau, an East Brunswick-based real estate analyst.
First!
Second First!
It was really a year of stabilization
WTF!!!! Housing is down about 10%, the official unemployment rate goes up to almost 10%, and he calls it the year of stabilization. Wonder what it would take for him to call it a bad year.
http://www.calculatedriskblog.com/2009/12/jim-realtor-flippers-galore.html
Check out Jim the Realtor: Flippers Galore from Calculated Risk
He contends WaMu-Chase are just dumping properties at the courthouse steps.
This place had $3.6M in loans and went for $1.642 – 2010 “They are just dumping.”
will 2010 be a year when property taxes spike? with Gov. Christie cutting the budget so hard I would imagine it will trickle down to our property taxes.
cross 5 Why would they spike if he is cutting?
That being said he can cut cut cut but they will keep going up. the pension & health cost for retiring & retired employees will kill us.We can’t afford for people to retire at 48 & get 60-80 k a year plus benefits for the entire fam for the rest of their lives.Unsustainable they can live another 20-30 years,just think how bad it will be in 10 to 20 years as more & more retire.
property taxes will go up,period.
as it typical in NJ,, no place to hide.
its the system. glad to be a renter and out of the nonsense.
=
the state supports every town in one way or another if those funds are cut the town has no choice but to cut their budget or raise taxes.
freedy same here, look at homes in my area reasonably price look at the taxes & say F that.
cross cut the budget, like hell.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/179842-after-fannie-freddie-ultra-bailout-expect-new-homeowner-program
Interesting take @ Seeking Alpha…
“After Fannie Freddie Ultra Bailout Expect New Homeowner Program”
“In an attempt to limit the damage that the economy does to the majority in the 2010 elections, the administration is likely to go all in on mortgage modifications that require principal reductions.”
Taxes will have to go up, at all levels. It won’t do any good, of course, because the debt, at all levels, is so crushing. So even those with no debt will have less and less money. Is there any light at all in this dark tunnel? I mean, that isn’t an oncoming train? Anyone?
happy solstice from key west. Think i’m going to stay here.
Jamil, I like it here too. been a full timer for 5 years. Real Estate has become reasonable too. Enjoy!!
Jamil, I like it here too. been a full timer for 5 years. Real Estate has become reasonable too. Enjoy!!
Schumpeter says:
December 26, 2009 at 2:51 pm
shore (102)-
I’d say tactical nuclear strikes at Riyadh, Teheran, Islamabad and the entirety of Yemen and Sudan would put a pretty good initial dent in the terrorist effort.
why aren’t nukes in play? as Shore said, there is a fundamental hatred of all things Western. They don’t like us. Period.
best strategy? eliminate them. drastic yes, and I know there’s oil to be had … but at some point, i think it needs to be on the table.
grim/bednar/jb
can you find the 2009 predictions post? id love to take a look back at that one
in 2010 the unions win again. taxpayers,property owners screwed again
and the biggest winner is the SCC.
thieves
yikes (16)-
Nuke ’em all. If we don’t, they’ll just keep coming at us. And they’re breeding like rabbits.
freedy get in a union & rent. If you can’t beat them join them.Now I have half that down just need the state job.
Clot 20 is that the kill them all let god sort them out policy? Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Clot might have found a house that beats my present numbers. 3bd ranch full finished basement 3700 taxes,updated all neutral colors nice. 129,900. Downside Wantage not Vernon, daughter would have to change schools.
Here is the predictions thread for last December.
https://njrereport.com/index.php/2008/12/22/predictions-2009/
Pretty damned close…..[bows]
40.chicagofinance says:
December 22, 2008 at 9:02 am
Predictions:
1) Depeche Mode’s new album Masters of the Universe debuts at #1 on Billboard Album Chart
2) Giada has a wardrobe malfunction on The View
3) The Ryland Inn rises from the dead and clot drops $250 on a bottle of wine there
4) grim accidently posts the wrong image on his March sales update…in lieu of the chart, we are treated to his nude submssion to the noted Krakow Alternative Lifestyle Magazine…Spotski Me Teenie Kielbasa
5) chicago and kettel meet at a GTG and come to blows
6) Cindy drives cross country on a Harley to meet at Morristown GTG in August
7) Scientists are stumped at how the Onion crop in the United States has been destroyed. The root systems seem to be decaying due to an infection of the herpes virus, but they cannot understand how such a transmission could have jumped from humans to plants
” with Gov. Christie cutting the budget so hard I would imagine it will trickle down to our property taxes”
The governor can only go so far in cutting if the legislature refuses to go along, and I don’t see the dems as cooperating.
Assuming that the Gov says fcuk ’em and refuses to spend all the budgeted funds, I am not certain that property taxes willspike. I get the feeling that Cgristie wants to force these decisions to the levels of government closest to the taxpayer — town and city — because it is easier to mobilize against spending or taxing at the local level and so many people are disconnected from what happens in Trenton.
When I stated last night that a key to ending terrorism is for the West and Japan to cease needing oil from a particular list of states, I did not mean that it would cause the Islamic world to stop hating us, but more that we would have no need to kow tow to them, to pretend to be friends, or to prop up miserable kings and lesser potantates just to ensure an uninterrupted supply of the magic juice.
chi,
your friend who was expecting his third child?
boy or girl?
his nuggets may not be big enough to fight off the trenton crowd. remember he’s now a pol and the feathers change with the wind
Shore Guy says:
December 26, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Gator even.
Here is an article on Stoops going to Florida:
http://www.sportingnews.com/college-football/article/2009-12-26/sooners-stoops-would-have-tough-time-turning-down-gators
Meyer departure is huge news. But never trust the sporting news. that rag hasn’t been relevant since the 80s.
the favorite seems to be Meyer’s former buddy Dan Mullen. keep an eye on Bobby Petrino, too.
http://tinyurl.com/yajfhcx
#25 chifi
Mine wasn’t too far off
bairen says:
December 22, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I predict
1) Housing will fall more in the US, and even more in NJ
2) Jets and Mets will still stink
3) things will get so bad kettle1 will become bullish and chicagofinance bearish
4) reinvestor101’s real identity will be revealed
5) CNBC’s rating will go lower then Richard Bey’s and Phil Donahue’s
6) The government will slash interest rates and print like crazy, yet RE will keep falling
7) Hard core Republicans will reminisce about the Clinton years.
8) I will know at least one family or friend who does jingle mail.
December 27, 2009 at 10:58 am
Shore Guy says:
December 26, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Gator even.
Here is an article on Stoops going to Florida:
Meyer departure is huge news. But never trust the sporting news. that rag hasn’t been relevant since the 80s.
the favorite seems to be Meyer’s former buddy Dan Mullen. keep an eye on Bobby Petrino, too.
http://tinyurl.com/yajfhcx
“Jets and Mets will still stink”
No offense to Stu or John but, isn’t that like saying the sun will rise in the east?
Schumpeter says:
December 27, 2009 at 10:21 am
yikes (16)-
Nuke ‘em all. If we don’t, they’ll just keep coming at us. And they’re breeding like rabbits.
Clot, i have proposed this to friends and for some reason, they are very opposed to it. wonder why it is such a polarizing topic?
#32 Shore Guy,
I wanted to get at least one prediction right.
Sean @ 24 – Fun. How do you copy the link? I’m @ 8:53 #35. Do I just need to retype it or can it be brought over some how?
My “Frugal Families” never did materialize but frugality does reign.
re: #33 – Why so polarizing? It’s pretty simple, there are only 100 active AQ in the entire country of Afghanistan, and a few hundred more spread out throught the world. Nuking hundreds of million of people to kill a few hundred is simply insane.
re#35 – Cindy highlight the text with your mouse (use left mouse key and move the arrow around the text) and do “CONTROL + C” to copy.
Then to paste here do “CONTROL + V”
Speaking of the Nuclear Genie.
U.A.E gets Nuke Plants without a peep but Iran doesn’t. I wonder how much money was funneled from the Wahhabi nutjobs in the UAE to AQ? Wahhabi fervor was significant in the history of the present-day UAE, and yet they get Nuke Plants without a peep from the UN or Europe?
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2009-12-27/u-a-e-awards-20-billion-nuclear-contract-to-korea-update3-.html
mike (23)-
What school district is Wantage?
6% Mortgages coming back soon?
After hitting an all-time low in early December, the average rate on a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage rose to 5.05 percent this week and could climb to 6 percent by the end of 2010, if not sooner, according to giant mortgage financier Freddie Mac.
The results are noteworthy because rates have not topped 5 percent since the last week of October, when they reached 5.03 percent, based on the results of this closely watched survey, which polls lenders during the first three days of every week.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/25/AR2009122501652.html
sean (36)-
The few million do nothing to stop the few hundred. If they would, we wouldn’t be in this position. Countries like Pakistan pretend to be our allies, yet it’s a factory for turning out more and more terrorists.
Therefore, we turn the Islamic world into a parking lot.
You are either for us or against us. We are losing this “war on terrorism” precisely because we are weak and unwilling to do what it takes to end it.
Shore – Not jealous? I don’t understand why :)
I am just thankful for frequent flyer miles, and the fact that no one else has a desire to spend New Year’s in Ohio. This will save us 19 hours round trip of driving!
Cindy says:
December 22, 2008 at 8:53 am
2009 is lost to us..but:
1. Unemployment – the key issue – can also spur innovation and opportunity for new business creation…
2. Maybe we raise trade restrictions – Cuba? – The UN has been after us to do it for years.
3. The dollar holds up. Not because it is great but because it is the best thing out there.
4. Block grants to states
5. Hoping to reinflate consumer spending, the 4.5% refinance goes through but folks retrench and use the new-found monthly bump for essentials.
6. Families may need to consolidate, plant a garden, start over in 2010.
7. The strong, well-run small businesses who didn’t “lever up” will survive but many will go under as divorce, illness take their toll on already-strapped situations.
8. By the summer of 2010, we will have some level of stabilization: A humbled, down-sized, resilient America will emerge.
9. Frugality will be king in 2009.
10. A new TV show, “Frugal Families” will be a real hit.
Thanks Sean @37 – Hope it worked…
this property tax situation stinks.
I’ve kissed the thought of retirement goodbye.
business wasn’t as good this year as in the past. we started out the year really cooking. but, during the Fall we had 4 canceled contracts. so, fall was non-event. So, we had to make decision, increase executive pay vs xmas bonus.
I was out numbered, everyone voted no xmas bonus, and keep exectuive pay increase. one guy sited he has tuition bills for his daughter. This round table discussion gave me a stomach ache. I had to step in and tell them, there was no way I’m taken away bonus. Last thing i want is my head on a platter. so, with my charm & crooked smile, there was a change of plans, and no executive pay increases.
now, I’m a broken spoken.
SAS
Gator,
I sure hope you are traveling for family.
but, we some contracts coming out of Asia later this year. thats good.
SAS
Sas @ 46 Whenever you say “contracts” – you know we are all a bit fascinated…
In 2010, we will stop referring to our economic system as “capitalism”.
Formation, accumulation and deployment of capital is now illegal unless you are part of TBTF.
The blogosphere will refer to the new system as fascism. MSM will call it progressive- or, enlightened- capitalism.
Clot 39 Wantage till HS then High Point High School.
re #41 – I disagree Schump the latest bomber’s own father turned him in just weeks ago.
Clot No better or worse than Vernon per say just that she doesn’t want to leave her friends. Tough s**t I say.
We have very little crime or school violence up here just crappy overall test scores. If you have a child that works hard they can excel.Most just go with the herd.Nice teachers ,good overall in my experience with them. If you child is classified ,my oldest is dyslexic,they do a great job.Now in college doing well.
Wake me up when it’s New Years.
Nice read on TBTF.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20100104/carter
Re: Middle Eastern Oil
I’m afraid if the adversaries over there start lobbing nuclear hand grenades at each…..will all the oil deposits in the region be turned into radioactive goop ??
We’d be plunged into the Peak Oil Scenario and immediately be sitting on Crude with a half-life of 24,000 years.
Boy. Born just before the snow and came home during…..
28.scribe says:
December 27, 2009 at 10:55 am
chi, your friend who was expecting his third child? boy or girl?
Early 2010 prediction….
Clot will take a sealed bottle of Knob Creek and smash the glass top off to open it. Still Looking will need to give him four stiches to close the wound when he decides to drink from the bottle.
The end is nigh…
NJ Transit train collides with vehicle, kills driver
AP
CLIFTON, N.J. — An empty New Jersey Transit train on its way to New York struck a vehicle that somehow got stuck on the tracks early Sunday, killing the man inside.
The Jeep was not at a designated railroad crossing when the crash occurred around 5:20 a.m. in Clifton, said NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel. The engineer activated the train’s brakes but could not stop in time, he said.
It appears that the vehicle left the road shortly before the crash and went through some trees before landing on the tracks, but an investigation is continuing.
Stessel said authorities were still working to identify the Jeep driver.
The train was traveling toward Suffern, N.Y., where it was to begin its route on the Main Line. The accident caused minimal service delays.
Booya……..
http://www.nypost.com/promos/covers.htm
#15 is pretty good…
Jamil (13):
“happy solstice from key west. Think i’m going to stay here.”
See if you can find a place that does not have internet access.
I wonder if the listed terrorists flying into the US will adhere to the new rule to stay in their seats 1 hour before landing. If they don’t, and the regular passengers do, that may be a problem. Now, no one will try to stop the terrorist, before they blow up the plane, because it’s no longer legal?
Sean,
The fundamental cause of TBTF is govt deposit insurance. This is what destroys the incentive of banks to maintain safe capital ratios, and of consumers to give a damn about their bank’s financial condition. Bank runs are good for banking system health, believe it or not.
shore, lisoosh:
excellent analysis on AQ. Yep, it was Cheney, and probably haliburton, that invented AQ in 2001.
Sure, some right-wing nut may ramble something about those annual man made disasters during Clinton years, such as first WTC attack, embassy bombings, Cole, failed attack to simultaneusly bring down 8 transatlantic jets etc, but we know they are lies. Clinton had 2 easy opportunities to kill bin laden, CIA was waiting orders but Clinton refused – again Cheney was behind this. Probably assisted by Haliburton. First time CIA snipers had obl on crosshair, the other opportunity was when obl was flying from Somalia to A-nistan. Tora bora was speculative, ie airlift 10,000 marines to the mountais for cave to cave operations and hope for best.
Yeah.
A.West [62]
All 140 or so banks that failed this year had deposit insurance, so your claim about it being the cause of TBTF is not correct. FDIC insurance doesn’t cause banks to not maintain safe capital ratios, because it protects not banks but their customers. Cause of TBTF is that we have little left of the economy except consumption and financial companies.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/drala/id7431990
cobbler (64)-
That is the first coherent thing I’ve seen you post.
I might add that TBTF is the philosophical mechanism by which a tiny number of financial services corporations legally rob the United States of Amerika blind.
cobbler (64)-
That is the first coherent thing I’ve seen you post.
I might add that TBTF is the philosophical mechanism by which a tiny number of financial services corporations legally rob the United States of Amerika blind.
Just as in 1979, this country wants bin Laden alive…for a whole host of reasons.
We are a soft, degenerate nation of lackeys and cowards.
Jets will win today…only to figure out some way to rip out our hearts and stomp on them next week.
chi,
please give your friend my congratulations :)
I felt it would be a boy :)
hahahaha
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that “the system worked.”
http://us.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2009/12/27/sotu.napolitano.talks.terror.cnn
this only goes to show ,,, how stupid they
think americans are. I’m afraid she may be right.
vodka (71)-
We deserve whatever we get. We are a degenerate nation of fat, slothful losers.
Schump,
US 1940’s: http://i.imgur.com/kaP4j.jpg
Schump
US today: http://i.imgur.com/txzc5.jpg
Need i say more?
Clot,
correction,
The boy on the bigwheel was taken in 1970
http://i.imgur.com/txzc5.jpg
Clot,
correction,
The boy on the bigwheel was taken in 1970 in suburbia California
http://i.imgur.com/txzc5.jpg
clot,
US citizen, 2009
http://i.imgur.com/zXVbj.jpg
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/24/AR2009122403374.html?hpid=topnews
Weak Economy Motivates Americans to Save More – Wash. Post
“The recession has caused a seismic shift in the consumer culture, converting die-hard spenders into savers.”
Reminded me of your lead article Grim. Folks are cutting back and finding they can do without…ice cream and much more.
Welcome to the seventies! Porn mustaches for everyone!
about my contracts, working on timber trade. from the midwest to asia & middle east (Iraq and other locations).
asia market less restrictive. middle east is a little harder.
no fun to show up to talk business and wear bullet proof vests and have to kiss the ground on your belly till the sniper threat is gone.
but, we got these damn canadians with their subsidies trying to corner the market.
SAS
“but, we got these damn canadians with their subsidies trying to corner the market.”
SAS,
Dump every piece of paper that states, backed by full faith and credit. Buy loonies.
what is a ringback?
SAS
“Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that the system worked.”
I guess this makes it official. Aviation security is now do-it-yourself. I guess we have been drafted.
The end is nigh….
http://gothamist.com/2009/12/27/video_bloody_fight_on_the_6_train.php
caller hears a song instead of ringer. The song is hosted on the carrier’s network (not the user’s phone).
84.Shore Guy says:
December 27, 2009 at 10:22 pm
“Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday that the thwarting of the attempt to blow up an Amsterdam-Detroit airline flight Christmas Day demonstrated that the system worked.”
I guess this makes it official. Aviation security is now do-it-yourself. I guess we have been drafted.
The new Law gives you life in prison for getting out of your seat in the last hour.
I thought the regulations call upon the crew to “Goldfinger” the passengers who rise from their seats.
5rom the NYT, Letter from Washington, by Al Hunnt:
“ed in a Dec. 4 interview with Mr. Geithner, who was asked what is the “clear, coherent economic message” of the administration.
He proceeded to talk about “high-class education” for children, affordable health care, better incentives for energy and infrastructure, public-private arrangements and the like.
There are 15.4 million unemployed Americans and another 11.5 million “underemployed,” either having given up looking and thus not counted in the jobless numbers or involuntarily relegated to part-time work. A laundry list of the Democrats’ agenda is unlikely to prove comforting.”
So, by Timmy’s own count, we have 26.9 million people unemployed or underemployed.
Out of a workforce of about 154mm, that is a pretty big number.
An easy 17%, and that is likely the most conservative counting of the situation.
When does the double dip begin? We need two quarters of negative growth, so could the economy be declared as back in recession by around April?
An easy 17%, and that is likely the most conservative counting of the situation.
When does the double dip begin? We need two quarters of negative growth, so could the economy be declared as back in recession by around April?
From CBS, an interesting twist on a political se-x story:
Indian Governor, 86, Resigns Over Sex Tape
HYDERABAD, India, Dec. 27, 2009
The 86-year-old governor of a southern Indian state resigned, a day after a television news channel broadcast a tape allegedly showing him in bed with three women.
Pressure mounted on Gov. Narain Dutt Tiwari to quit after the tape allegedly showing him in bed with three women was broadcast Friday, prompting the opposition and women’s right groups to hold street protests in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh’s state capital, demanding his resignation.
snip
Making a tape was certainly an error on his part but, as a middle-aged guy, I do have to admire his energy level
“ed in a Dec. 4 interview with Mr. Geithner, who was asked what is the “clear, coherent economic message” of the administration.”
Shore,
How about banks for clunkers?
re: 84
That has been clear since 9/11/2001 in Pennsylvania.
shore, 84
fly, 95
Works well for c0ckpit and cabin. Cargo? Not so much.
sl
They both can double as a good blanket But Maynard is the superior blanket IMO
It’s nice that you took your time to write all this up; it’s encouraging to see another’s point of view. I appreciate your work on this site, and I’ll return for more information.
Being a blog writer myself, I really appreciate the time you took in wriitng this article. I am currently reading it on my Blackberry and will scan it once I get home.