Predictions 2010!

This is quickly becoming a tradition around here, so here we go again! You know how this works, break out the crystal balls and prognosticate.

Ground Rules

Review the Predictions 2009! thread, and if you did make a prediction, please post it here so we know how you did (please do not skip this step).

Predictions provided should either be for June 30th, 2010 or December 31th, 2010, please specify.

Provide justification for your forecast, where applicable (unless you are just making it up, if so, state that).

You may provide any caveats and/or assumptions that your forecast is based on.

You need not provide a forecast for all categories below.

Where applicable, forecasts are judged against the surveys/reports listed.

Real Estate
National
Existing Home Sales – NAR
Existing Home Price – S&P Case Shiller HPI
Existing Home Price – OFHEO HPI

New Jersey
Existing Home Sales – NAR/NJAR
Existing Home Price – S&P Case Shiller HPI
Existing Home Price – OFHEO HPI

National New Home Sales – NAHB
Median New Home Price – NAHB

Commodities
Energy (Oil, NatGas)
Metals (Gold, Silver, Copper)

Equities
United States
International Developed Markets
Emerging Markets

Mortgage Financing
30-Year Fixed – Freddie Mac PMMS
15-Year Fixed – Freddie Mac PMMS

Macroeconomic
10y Treasury
Fed Funds Rate
National Unemployment Rate
New Jersey Unemployment Rate

Oddball
Anything else you’d like to make a prediction about.

This entry was posted in Economics. Bookmark the permalink.

366 Responses to Predictions 2010!

  1. willwork4beer says:

    I predict I’ll be frist!

  2. grim says:

    Happy New Year!

  3. mikeinwaiting "Bicep" says:

    Happy New Year!

    willwork frist, you didn’t have enough beer last night.

  4. Cindy says:

    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.

  5. Cindy says:

    Well Grim – Feel free to tear into this mess….

    I identified my #1 concern to be unemployment and said frugality would be king. I also felt families might need to consolidate and didn’t feel we would see any stabilization until the summer of 2010.

    Pretty wishy-washy stuff. I sounded hopeful – huh.

  6. cooper says:

    merry new year all!
    Grim thx for another year of updates and reality
    wishing all of you the best for 2010!!

  7. frank says:

    2010 prediction:
    Clotpoll will quit real-estate business and go back to working in a bodega in Guatemala.

  8. Cindy says:

    Happy New Year – For sure.

    Grim – What ever happened to your thoughts about a possible move? Is your employer doing well? Are things looking up around there?

  9. Cindy says:

    My only justification for any prediction is that it is an election year.

    #1 Because it is an election year, unemployment numbers drop from a national rate of 10.2% to 9% by election day.

    #2 Fed aid to states in some form- 2nd stimulus plus a push for “Race to the Top” funds for schools and infrastructure spending – election year – They have to make it look like they are trying to help.

    #3 No double-dip recession. We slog along @ 2-3% growth.

    #4 I still think the dollar holds up – Same reason: Not because it is great but because it is the best thing out there.

    #5 30-year fixed 12-31-10 %6% or so.

    #6 Oil – $80. or so now – $80. or so 12/21/10 as well.

    #7 Gold $1200 – Same thing as oil and other commodities. Limbo – election year over-shadows everything else.

    #8 Folks continue to de-lever. Savings rate @ 6%.

    #9 O finally pays attention to the economy as the 2010 elections near – He is a bit too late. Dems lose seats in the House and Senate.

    #10 The shadow inventory is huge (1.8M in CA they say) – Banks don’t do as well in 2010. Prices continue to drop as more homes hit the market.

  10. SG says:

    Happy New Year.

    I predict followin,

    Beginning of crash of emerging market bubble.
    Continued down slide of USD.
    National Unemployment rate will be in double digits.
    NJ unemployment will increase due to consolidations in Pharma, FSI and Telecom
    US moving more toward socialized economy.
    US and France will become friends again.
    Obama approval ratings will be below 50% most of the year, but above 30%.
    GS employees will be given more bonus than 2009.

  11. NJCoast says:

    Happy New Year.

    I’m suprised I didn’t see Clot in this article.
    http://www.newsweek.com/id/228428

  12. Noah says:

    My prediction is that all of us (myself included) that believe we’re about to fall off a cliff will continue to be amazed at how well things seem to go on in spite of all the reasons the dollar should inflate, gold should rise, real estate should fall, etc. etc.

  13. Well, I was off on the specifics…but I was accurate in spirit. :)

    I think the only spot where I came close was on UE, where I probably nailed it, if we all were to recognize that the gubmint’s numbers are cooked:

    Clotpoll says:
    December 22, 2008 at 7:54 am

    1. Civil unrest will begin by 6/1/09. Most likely spot? California, as pension payouts are halted and Calpers is declared insolvent.

    2. The 10 year UST yield will drop below 2% well in advance of 6/1/09…and stay there through the rest of the year.

    3. A nationwide bank run/”bank holiday” event will occur sometime in 2009.

    4. The Hubbard plan for residential mortgage principal writedowns will become law. Upon its passage, whatever is left of the residential RE market will collapse under the weight of near-universal mortgage defaults and inability of RE markets to properly establish asset values and clear itself. Neighbor-against-neighbor violence will surge, as those who still have equity and are making payments are pitted against those being bailed out.

    5. Failed commercial RE developments will become giant warehouses for homeless people. The unemployment rate will rise to 12% by 6/1/09. The actual, true unemployment rate will be more like 25%, which puts us at the point of…

    6. Depression. By 6/1/09, CNBC will declare that the US is, for all intents and purposes, in a Depression.

  14. Cindy says:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126222090787511123.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_news

    Clot/Grim – What is up with this new federal rule takes takes effect today?
    Better? A joke?

    “Rules to Clarify Cost of Mortgages”

  15. Cindy says:

    15 – takes takes – that takes…

  16. safeashouses says:

    I got a few right.

    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.

  17. safeashouses says:

    #17

    that was my predictions for 2009.

  18. willwork4beer says:

    Mike #3

    Quiet evening at home with Mrs. Beer last night. Had a nice selection in the fridge, so I was a happy camper. We turned in early as we usually do on NYE. NYE is amateur night as mentioned in the previous thread. Coincidentally, Mrs. Beer’s birthday is March 17th. I always take her out the day before or the day after. Too maný amateurs, just like NYE.

  19. Cindy says:

    http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Washington-Times-slashes-apf-3465937834.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=

    Man – What a year for newspapers.

    “Washington Times slashes staff; sports section out”

  20. chicago tan-talizer says:

    I crushed. Sounds of the Universe debuted at #4, and we had the onion scare….

    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

  21. mikeinwaiting "Bicep" says:

    Willwork 19 Same M O here just kidding.

  22. chicago tan-talizer says:

    oh…and instead of Giada it was Catherine Zeta-Jones on Broadway.

  23. Now, for 2010:

    1. A wave of municipal bankruptcies will start all over the US, as unions refuse to negotiate any wage/pension concessions. Any civil unrest that may occur in the US will be started by municipal employees. Cascading bankruptcies will be well underway by 6/1/10. Cities declaring will include Houston, Philadelphia, Cleveland and Detroit.

    2. Eraserhead and Bergabe will ensure that the USD will be alternately beaten-down, then brought back from the dead, through several orchestrated mini-panics, such as a deliberate stock market crash and staged events of political unrest in world hot spots.

    3. As the date for the Fed to cease buying agency paper nears, there will be a dislocating event in mortgage markets which will prompt the Fed to announce that they will continue buying agency paper until the end of recorded time.

    4. The USG, JPM and GS will be exposed to the general public as manipulators in the precious metals markets.

    5. The healthcare reform bill will die in conference.

    6. Repugs will make major gains in the midterm elections, thereby ensuring two years of gridlock and ending the chance of a second term for O.

    7. By 6/1/10, European sovereign defaults will be well underway. Greece and Spain will descend into civil unrest.

    8. Chelsea will win the EPL and Bordeaux will lose to Barcelona in the CL final.

    9. Bartering- and other practices consistent with a black market/underground economy- will become a huge trend in the US. B2B web entrepreneurs will match buyers and sellers via new social networking sites.

    10. As the deflationary debt crisis intensifies, the price of oil collapses by 6/1/10. Concurrently, shipping rates fall to the lows of late 2008.

  24. chicago tan-talizer says:

    Welcome to the new paradigm….

    The end is nigh…..
    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/nba_gunpoint_R52AnT76DRgTSuVKDQ8XBO

  25. Cindy (15)-

    A disaster. They will slow down closings, force borrowers to tender prepaids further in advance and serve to suppress borrowers’ ability to shop lenders.

    Of course, it is great for the banks…who now own the gubmint.

  26. prtraders says:

    13

    That’s me. For some reason the pessimist’s arguement always seems more compelling than the optimist’s.

  27. Cindy says:

    Chicago – #6 – Never made that Harley ride but you know I am there in spirit.
    I love you guys….

  28. Cindy says:

    26 – Clot – Yeah – I was thinking…wasn’t it 1 page – now it is three…? What are these jokers doing?

  29. tan (25)-

    The NBA…it’s FAN-tastic!

  30. And…2010 will feature 365 days that bring us right to the precipice of oblivion.

  31. Cindy says:

    Safe @ 17 – Your #4….He will yell or laugh at me but I say……Reinvestor 101 = Clot.

    I have thought so for months. Maybe six months back, I thought a pattern emerged. Then, I thought Clot just needed someone to argue with (to keep himself entertained) so he created a dependable jerk.

  32. freedy says:

    someone said the nba is like the wwe. correct.

  33. I didn’t predict last year. I don’t know why.
    For this year:
    Housing prices will decrease in the NY Metro area by 10% by Dec, 2010. I believe they should decrease much more but apparently, people are masochists and like to draw out the pain they suffer. I base this on the fact that by Dec, 2010 we will be 4 years post peak.

    I believe that the cover up regarding the true state of the economy and real estate will continue. Because of this, in reality, the economy and real estate will be worse then it is now.

    I predict I will have a new job in a completely different field.

  34. freedy says:

    homes in bergen county will not go down.
    to close to NYC. Besides, it’s BC

  35. Outofstater says:

    I didn’t make any predictions last year and good thing too because I would have been wrong. I really thought we’d have some massive blow-out across most markets that would leave people flopping on the ground gasping for air and begging for the pain to stop. Only then, do I think that we’ll start to recover. It didn’t happen in 2009 so maybe the PTB can keep things slogging along for another year. I think they realize that they can’t stop the economy from collapsing further, they can only slow it down a little which has the redeeming quality of getting the masses used to things falling apart slowly, bit by bit, which makes civil unrest less likely. So Happy New Year everyone!!

  36. Shore Guy says:

    Here goes, at least a partial list anyway:

    Reported unemployment falls while the actual number of unemployed/seriously underemployed rises.

    NJ has a constitutional crisis as the Gov tries to slash spending but theLeg refuses to agree, prompting the Gov to refuse to spend all allocated monies, and the Leg to threaten tp hold their breath until they turn blue. (If Christie is not reviled by the end of 2010, he will be a complete and utter failureas Governor. If he is reviled, he will go down in history as one of the best NJ governors).

    Congress will spend more and raise the debt ceiling again.

    Going out on a limb, I think that the healthcare “reform” legislation dies in Democratic internicine fighting.

    Home sales continue to increase (prompting “all is well” pronouncements from all quarters even as prices continue flat overall and decline in places like NJ that have lagged other regions that declined faster, and increasing numbers of “homeowners” find themselves underwater and foreclosure activity fails to abate.

    NJC gets the “Donna Reid of Rock and Roll Award” from a Death Metal Band who is so taken by her Blueberry Crumble that they become a acoustic folk Christian band and open a rescue center for abandoned kittens.

    Most everyone here who thought they would buy something in ’10 find reason to delay until ’11.

  37. crossroads says:

    17

    “2) Jets and Mets will still stink”

    can you add to this and predict the level of stink? when will the mets collapse. from spring training on? will the jets start slow and make playoffs?

    to just say stink is like throwing a ball in the ocean. you can’t miss

  38. Shore Guy says:

    “I predict I will have a new job in a completely different field”

    We can hope that Timmy, etc. do also: A prison-farm work-release crop field.

  39. Shore Guy says:

    “I predict I will have a new job in a completely different field”

    We can hope that Timmy, etc. do also: A prison-farm work-release crop field.

  40. Cindy (32)-

    Not me. I don’t need to create an imaginary someone to argue with when I could provoke an argument with the Pope.

  41. freedy (33)-

    I think instead of overtime, the NBA should settle tied games with pistols at ten paces.

  42. Cindy says:

    41 – Sorry Clot. Thought I noted a posting pattern and was onto something. Thanks for being such a good sport.

  43. Shore (40)-

    Too easy a punishment. Eraserhead should face a firing squad.

  44. NJCoast says:

    Rut-roh. No more HGTV or Food Channel on Cablevision. Civil unrest coming for sure.

  45. Food Network sucks. About another 50 or so narrow-interest channels should go, too. Permanently.

    In the new economy, nobody needs a how-to on making a pot of beans, fixing an omelette au gubmiont cheese or dumpster-diving behind a restaurant.

  46. Essex says:

    ‘Mericans will organize themselves in grass roots open ended communes. Sharing their desperate vision of consumerism/sexuality/book learnin’ A new breed of American will emerge. More competitive, better armed, and ready to face whatever obstacles await.

  47. Forrest Gump says:

    Predictions: The 8K home buyer tax credit will be extended to 10K indefinitely and 30 yr. fixed rates will average 4.875%. The June YOY median home price in North Jersey will increase slightly as potential buyers sell excess gold jewelry, family heirlooms and anything deemed Ebay worthy in an attempt to buy at the “bottom” before price levels accelerate despite a 11.2% unemployment rate in the Garden State. Property taxes will have risen 7% on average from 2009 levels by year end but will not slow the pace of robust home sales perplexing financial experts and creating an economic anomaly.

  48. ruggles says:

    As of December 31, 2010, Bergen County will still be a shiithole. Gary will not find a suitable house.

    Christie will be rushed to the hospital for something heart related (it may be a sympathy ploy).

    Christmas Tree Shops will be NJ’s fastest growing and a top 3 best performing retail outlet.

    The apartmentization of McMansions will begin in some key or high profile location (most likely closer in to a train station).

    Dems will lose seats but only because the ruling party always loses seats after the new pres is elected. Not because people are any smarter.

    the wave of tax appeals will end as towns pony up to reassess and/or manipulate their tax ratios.

    Xanadu will open as a high end outlet center designed to compete with Woodbury, Tannersville and Manhattan itself. will also start killing Bergen and Short Hills stores.

    Westfield will become a slum. Oh, sorry, that already happened.

    Chester Township and Chester Borough will fail to merge (supposedly on the ballot this year).

    Grim will leave NJ without telling anyone. Will keep the site up as a ruse and be unavailable for get togethers.

    my kitteh will kill and partially eat 7 mice.

  49. All "H-Train" Hype says:

    I predict that I may actually make it to one get together in 2010.

  50. 3b says:

    I predict many school budgets will be voted down this year in Bergen Co.

  51. freedy says:

    bergen county will make it. it’s all for the children and of course the parents.
    must have high end SUV ,. 4 door late model sedan to go with the high end house.

    vacation is a must,,, which includes house rental (ocean side)

    and private school for zoe and mark

  52. Just over the fence says:

    I got my ticket out of NJ and will be relocating to Dallas in early 2010. With that, does anyone have a recommendation for a blog site for the Dallas RE market? I have come to enjoy this site so much that I’m hoping I can find something similar in Texas.

    Thanks in advance, and good luck to those who are staying behind!

  53. sastry says:

    Happy new year to all. May the year turn out better despite our well-justified fears.

    S

  54. Shore Guy says:

    Enjoy the Metroplex, and cheering the Giants when they come to town.

  55. Shore Guy says:

    ” our well-justified fears”

    Are you a Republican yet?

    Sometimes I feel like a person facing west while the rest of the crowd faces east and I can see Godzilla about to stomp on the crowd but they are too busy watching the video screen to notice.

  56. Cindy says:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/01/us/01preserve.html?ref=us

    Never thought of this advantage:

    “Preservation Groups Find Bargains in Housing Bust”

    “The Trust for Public Land is helping to purchase this 46-acre property in Little Egg Harbor, N.J. for $3.5 million. It will become part of the adjacent Edwin Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge.”

  57. syncmaster says:

    My prediction. At the end of 2010, New Jersey will still suck a s s.

  58. Essex says:

    Prediction….leaked Miley Cyrus secks tape and the fallout from that will be the big story of 2010.

  59. Essex says:

    Prediction…Obama will continue his ascent into Carter-dom and give a huge downer speech where someone will stand up and call him a “loser” while his teleprompter immediately craps out leaving him to stuttered for 10 minutes before being led off the podium.

  60. Just over the fence says:

    #56:Shore Guy

    I have always been a Republican, or at least I think so. I question this as I have only lived in Democratic towns, Chicago, Cleveland and NJ(BC). I guess the real test will come when I am no longer a minority by living in TX.

  61. 3b says:

    #52 And winter vacation too. After all can’t have people thinking your poor.

  62. I’d like to thank all of you that recommended tire rack. I saved over $125 on my tires. They are fantastic! I feel much better in my car. Now I have to decide if I should be a princess and get a new car (which I don’t need) or stick with my old car and be smart.

  63. 3b says:

    I predict that the house listed below will finally sell after being on the market for over 4 years!!

    http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=2814743

  64. zhim57 says:

    Happy New Year to all!

    Below is my 2c totally made up no hard support except for the economic situation as I see it.

    6/31/10 – darkest moment in the US and world economy

    1. Gold $1450
    2. one dollar = 0.45 euro
    3. true unemployment ~ 14% and if minimal wages and part time included ~29%
    4. gas 3.3 per galon
    5. Oil $100 bbl
    6. major bank fails
    7. home prices down 3% from present level
    8. government disaproval record High
    9. major us corporation fails
    10 djia below 9000
    11. economy hits second bottom
    12 State governments anounce 40% budjget and personnel cuts

    12/31/10
    ———

    1. all American electric vehicle with 150 miles range on one charge is a hit

    2. New Solar System company “solar King” mass retrofitting homes with new low price solar systems , families receive 3 year tax breaks for each newly installed system

    3. DJIA is above 14000

    4. Home prices up 9% from August ’10 levels

    5. interest rates gravitate ~5.50%

    6 gold under $800

    7 oil $150 /barrel

    8. gas $5 per gallon average

    9. National car rental company with ev fleet takes 50% of all car rentals for December 2010 in whole US

    10. Commences mass production of a hybrid diesel / electric 18 wheel truck in US

    11. Construction of new super- energy efficient home develpments commences in 10 us states.

    12. unemployment officially under 7,5%

    13. Dollar regains strength and is up to 0.96 Euro

  65. Barbara aka B-Cat says:

    prediction- two years…a civil revolt cut across racial and cultural lines will result in work day walkouts, school outs, sit ins, it will come from both sides of the spectrum, become competitive, fueled by the internet and generally easy media exposure. Sadly it will all be divide and conquer as the real villians sit back and enjoy the drama. Ok, its a dark horse but reflects my general view of how its all going down.

  66. Barbara aka B-Cat says:

    whoops, should read “CUT ALONG RACIAL AND CULTUAL” kinda major.

  67. Shore Guy says:

    From ther Washington post, a good read:

    U.S. economy took a dive in the 2000s, a lost decade for workers

    By Neil Irwin
    Washington Post Staff Writer
    Friday, January 1, 2010; 3:27 PM

    For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different.

    The past decade was the worst for the U.S. economy in modern times, a sharp reversal from a long period of prosperity that is leading economists and policymakers to fundamentally rethink the underpinnings of the nation’s growth.

    It was, according to a wide range of data, a lost decade for American workers. A decade that began in a moment of triumphalism and the idea among some economists that recessions were a thing of the past has included two of them — bookends to a debt-driven expansion that was neither robust nor sustainable.

    There has been zero net job creation since December 1999. No previous decade going back to the 1940s had job growth of less than 20 percent. Economic output rose at its slowest rate of any decade since the 1930s as well.

    Middle-income households made less in 2008, when adjusted for inflation, than they did in 1999 — and the number is sure to have declined further during a difficult 2009. The Aughts reflected the first falling median incomes since figures were first compiled in the 1960s.

    And the net worth of American households — the value of their houses, retirement funds, and other assets minus debts — has also declined when adjusted for inflation, compared with sharp gains in every previous decade since data were initially collected in the 1950s.

    “This was the first business cycle where a working-age household ended up worse at the end of it than the beginning, and this in spite of substantial growth in productivity, which should have been able to improve everyone’s well-being,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank.

    [snip]

    But beyond these dramatic ups and downs lies an even more sobering reality: long-term economic stagnation. The trillions of dollars that poured into housing investment and consumer spending in the first part of the decade distorted economic activity.

    Capital was funneled to build mini-mansions in Sun Belt suburbs, many of which now sit empty, rather than toward industrial machines or other business investment that might generate economic output and jobs for years to come.

    “The problem is that we mismanaged the macroeconomy, and that got us in big trouble,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight. “The big bad thing that happened was that in the U.S. and parts of Europe, we let housing bubbles get out of control. That came back to haunt us big-time.”

    The housing bubble both caused, and was enabled by, a boom in indebtedness. Total household debt rose 117 percent from 1999 to its peak in early 2008, according to Federal Reserve data, as Americans borrowed to buy ever more expensive homes and to support consumption more generally.

    [snip]

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101196_pf.html

  68. Shore Guy says:

    Just over,

    My question about being a Republican was for Sastry.

  69. frank says:

    Residential Sales Around the Region
    Look at the prices. Where’s the recession???

    http://www.nytimes.com/ref/realestate/20090103-ressales.html?ref=realestate

  70. Qwerty says:

    In 2010….

    1. The stock market continues to ignore fundamentals.

    2. Home sellers remain in denial.

    3. The US govt continues its war against the prudent.

    4. More automakers die/consolidate.

    5. Mortgage delinquencies continue their meteoric rise.

    6. Unemployment remains near 10%.

  71. Shore Guy says:

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/34660666

    By: Ron Lieber
    The New York Times

    [snip]

    If you invested $100,000 on Jan. 1, 2000, in the Vanguard index fund that tracks the Standard & Poor’s 500, you would have ended up with $89,072 by mid-December of 2009. Adjust that for inflation by putting it in January 2000 dollars and you’re left with $69,114.

    [snip]

    So say you put $50,000 in the much broader Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund at the beginning of the decade. Then, for exposure to equities outside the United States, you put another $50,000 into Vanguard’s Total International Stock Index Fund.

    As of mid-December, your $100,000 would have been grown to $109,334, though that is just $84,921 when you take inflation into account

    [snip]

    Now, consider a much more realistic scenario, with 50 percent of the money in bonds.

    If the decade begins with $25,000 in each of the domestic and international stock funds and $50,000 in Vanguard’s Total Bond Market Index Fund, you end it with $145,619, or $112,971 in 2000 dollars.

    [snip]

  72. Shore Guy says:

    “3. The US govt continues its war against the prudent.”

    This is like calling for the Jets to su-ck.

  73. Shore Guy says:

    Hey, THIS sounds ideal for a Nompound:

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/space/01/01/moon.lava.hole/

  74. Shore Guy says:

    This is emblematic of the dreadful architectural styles that pervade so much of Ocean County.

    http://cmsimg.app.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=B3&Date=20100101&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=100101050

  75. sastry says:

    Shore,

    Not a republican yet, but I think O’s positions have been closer to Bush’s than what were promised in the campaign.

    S

  76. Cindy says:

    Stu/Gator – Good luck today.

    My guys (U of O) aren’t going to win with these turnovers and first downs for Ohio after the flags.

    Ohio’s first flag – 6 minutes left in the second quarter.

    After the catch yardage for Oregon – 1.

    Pryor is dominating – Masoli – left on the sidelines.

    16 (Ohio) to 10 (U of O) @ the half.

  77. fence (61)-

    Those aren’t Repugs in Texas. It’s the Taliban.

  78. Cindy says:

    Oh – And someone – sorry I can’t remember who – warned me about the defensive line for Ohio. OMG.

    They have shut down Masoli.

  79. 3b (64)-

    At that price, the owner is better off burning it down.

  80. danzud aka D-Train says:

    Some 2010 predictions:

    1. Republicans gain 30 seats in house and three seats in Senate but are still minorities in both. Reid is one of the losers. Democrats declare this a victory after comparison of 1994 overthrow fall short.

    2. Gilad Shalit released by June.

    3. Iran has bomb, protests die and no sanctions of signifance are done in reality.

    4. Fidel finally dies. So does Ariel Sharon.

    5. US Unemployments drops but New Jersey’s does not. Real Estate gains in small pockets of Midwest but drops everywhere else. NJ drops more than rest of country.

    6. Gold between 1000-1100 at end of year. There will be tons of predictions saying Gold will go to $1,500 to $2,000 and gets as high as $1,350 in middle of year.

    7. People rave about GM Volt and bitch about price of car.

    8. Seattle Mariners win World Series. A key Yankee will be out for the season by May.

    9. Jets have 5 to 10 thousand unsold PSLs by start of season and dump seats on Ticketmaster.

  81. Just went to a New Year’s GTG. I have one more prediction:

    2010 will suck even more than 2009.

  82. The train is off the tracks at 140 MPH.

  83. You’d think- with Phil Knight being an alum of Oregon- that Nike would give them uniforms that didn’t make them look like giant pieces of Russian candy.

  84. Everybody at the GTG smelled holidays in the air.

    All I smelled was fear and oncoming defaults.

  85. Shore Guy says:

    “Not a republican yet”

    We will leave the light on for you.

  86. Cindy says:

    85 – Clot – They have an entire sports marketing dept. basically started/ financed by Knight. They have had the ugliest uniforms known to man for years. One year they had what amounted to tire tracks all over the jersey.

  87. 88 Cindy
    At least they don’t look like Christmas trees on skates:

    http://www.zimbio.com/pictures/wV-M841MO4q/Phoenix+Coyotes+v+Minnesota+Wild/-MU6Vmz4kev/Cal+Clutterbuck

    Really, someone got paid to design this crap?

  88. confused in NJ says:

    We need a New Party (i.e. The American Party) that will actually represent the People, not Special Interests.

  89. NJGator says:

    Thanks Cindy. My father-in-law and I may be the only Gator fans in the city of Cincinnati.

    We gained a brother-in-law today and 3 new nieces and nephews. Not a bad way to start off the year!

  90. PGC says:

    Last years big prediction for me was that the recession over by Q3/09. I think john was the only other one I saw that called it.

    2010 will be a year of cause and effect.

    Apple will launch their tablet and lose Steve Jobs. Stocks will follow the dollar. If the dollar stays weak, companies with strong foreign earning will continue to post big numbers. If the dollar strengthens, domestic exporters will do well. Trade protectionism will continue to creep in. Dow either tanks in March or slight growth to 11500 for the year.

    Europe will be a mess. Germany will post great GDP, Spain will beat Greece to the bottom. UK may (big if) consider abandoning GBP for EUR.

    China, will continue the worldwide acquisition of companies and commodities. Wheat Wars will be the commodity battle of the year. Inflation here will be triggered and

    Sovereign default in the Gulf and Saudi “production issues” (Peak Oil rumors) will push oil back up to $150-$200

    Elections is were the real fun will be. March primaries will be ugly for the GOP. If the moderates make it through, the GOP will pick up seats. If the Tea baggers come through, they lose Louisiana, Missouri and North Carolina. Pataki will beat Gillibrand, and the Dems keep the Governorship, even if Paterson runs. Liberman crosses the isle and Biden Jr wins Delaware.

    RE101 will be outed with a Y chromosome.

  91. PGC says:

    isle = asile

    That missed FG just finished the Rose bowl

  92. Pat says:

    You guys with the RE101 predictions.

    I already told you – like two years ago – who RE was.

    Nobody ever listens to short chicks.

  93. PGC says:

    I flew to Disney on Christmas day for a long weekend. Very busy as expected.

    I would like to thank the B&^@#Rd Newark baggage handler that must have thrown our stroller off the stairway onto the apron. The impact broke two 1 inch pieces of solid aluminum and bent a solid steel axle.

    I also want to know how the Chevy Malibu won car of the year. What a POS. Getting luggage into the truck was an absolute pain.

  94. PGC says:

    #94 Pat

    I would say report, but it seems that people are having fu guessing.

  95. cobbler says:

    Why We’ll Always Have More Money Than Sense
    By Robert Shiller | NEWSWEEK
    Published Dec 30, 2009

    ***
    My partner, Karl Case, and I (founders of the S&P/Case-Shiller home-price index) recently conducted a survey of people’s expectations of the U.S. housing market and found that, despite all the problems of the past few years, Americans still expect prices to rise over the mid- and long term—even though my data show that between 1890 and 1990 real home prices actually didn’t increase.
    ***

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/225624

  96. cobbler says:

    New Jersey Real Estate will be saved by the pirates

    Pirate cash suspected cause of Kenya property boom

    By TOM ODULA, Associated Press Writer – Fri Jan 1, 3:47 pm ET
    NAIROBI, Kenya – Property prices in Nairobi are soaring, and Somali pirates are getting the blame.
    The hike in real estate prices in the Kenyan capital has prompted a public outcry and a government investigation this month into property owned by foreigners. The investigation follows allegations that millions of dollars in ransom money paid to Somali pirates are being invested in Kenya, Somalia’s southern neighbor and East Africa’s largest economy.
    Even as housing prices have dropped sharply in the United States, prices in Nairobi have seen two- and three-fold increases the last half decade.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100101/ap_on_bi_ge/af_kenya_pirate_property

  97. Pat says:

    I feel this incredible kinship with Robert Shiller.

    It’s like nobody listens to short chicks or geeky, tall, skinny dudes.

  98. safeashouses says:

    #99 Pat

    Maybe they should breed with each other and create medium sized, slightly geeky people

  99. frank says:

    Start the New Year right, foreclose on someone.

    U.S. Loan Effort Is Seen as Adding to Housing Woes
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/business/economy/02modify.html?hp

  100. frank says:

    #98,
    Looks like NJ is cheap vs. Nairobi or Somalia.
    Buy a home now, before Somali pirates outbid you for a NJ condo.

  101. Shore Guy says:

    Like we didn’t already know this.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/02/business/economy/02modify.html

    U.S. Loan Effort Is Seen as Adding to Housing Woes

    By PETER S. GOODMAN
    Published: January 1, 2010
    The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good.

    Since President Obama announced the program in February, it has lowered mortgage payments on a trial basis for hundreds of thousands of people but has largely failed to provide permanent relief. Critics increasingly argue that the program, Making Home Affordable, has raised false hopes among people who simply cannot afford their homes.

    As a result, desperate homeowners have sent payments to banks in often-futile efforts to keep their homes, which some see as wasting dollars they could have saved in preparation for moving to cheaper rental residences. Some borrowers have seen their credit tarnished while falsely assuming that loan modifications involved no negative reports to credit agencies.

    Some experts argue the program has impeded economic recovery by delaying a wrenching yet cleansing process through which borrowers give up unaffordable homes and banks fully reckon with their disastrous bets on real estate, enabling money to flow more freely through the financial system.

    snip

  102. Shore Guy says:

    Doh! Beaten to the punch by Frank.

  103. Shore Guy says:

    Gator,

    Ahhhhhh, wedding. One of the only sensible reasons to go to Cincy this time of year.

  104. Shore Guy says:

    “Maybe they should breed with each other and create medium sized, slightly geeky people”

    Best laid (no punn intended) plns. They would likely end up with short, thin, geeky people.

  105. Shore Guy says:

    From that Times article:

    Some experts argue the program has impeded economic recovery by delaying a wrenching yet cleansing process through which borrowers give up unaffordable homes and banks fully reckon with their disastrous bets on real estate, enabling money to flow more freely through the financial system.

    “The choice we appear to be making is trying to modify our way out of this, which has the effect of lengthening the crisis,” said Kevin Katari, managing member of Watershed Asset Management, a San Francisco-based hedge fund. “We have simply slowed the foreclosure pipeline, with people staying in houses they are ultimately not going to be able to afford anyway.”

    Mr. Katari contends that banks have been using temporary loan modifications under the Obama plan as justification to avoid an honest accounting of the mortgage losses still on their books. Only after banks are forced to acknowledge losses and the real estate market absorbs a now pent-up surge of foreclosed properties will housing prices drop to levels at which enough Americans can afford to buy, he argues.

    “Then the carpenters can go back to work,” Mr. Katari said. “The roofers can go back to work, and we start building housing again. If this drips out over the next few years, that whole sector of the economy isn’t going to recover.”

  106. Shore Guy says:

    A new Years observation: wine is good.

  107. Shore Guy says:

    My prediction from last year, and I stand by it:

    predict that in short-order (maybe 10-20 years, at most) George Herbert Hoover Bush will be viewed as one of the worst four presidents of all time, and will quite likely bee seen as the wost and the one who posed the greatest threat to America’s civil liberties and the rule of the Constitution — eclipsing, even Richard Nixon’s disregard for Constitutional rule.

  108. Barbara aka B-Cat says:

    All I hear at holiday GTGs are school admins getting raises and promotions. No joke. I see them as the same welfare cases that live down the street, cause they are.

  109. Pat says:

    Shore, I’m having a cheap, but good wine myself. It went well tonight with low-salt, mid-40’s chicken parm.

    And you’re right about the geek kids. I’ve been trying to exorcise the geek outta my kid for years. At least the doc says she’ll be 5’5″ or 5’6″. My true goal. Somebody to get crap down from the top cupboards for me when I’m old.

  110. PGC says:

    #107 Shore

    Shore, my personal opinion on articles like this is to scream BS. As pointed out here may times. The state and Federal response to foreclosure has had little to no effect on the issue. A very small number of people have been helped out.

    The figure I want to see that would make sense of this whole issue would be “What percentage of properties in the US changed hands in the period of the bubble.” Any property such as flips can only be counted once.

    You have the natural turnover of death, divorce, job loss and relocation and new construction. But in todays world the only people truly fcuked are the ones who were first time buyers or used seconds to over leverage. Anyone who sold and bought just moved sideways. Their issue is that they refuse to give up perceived equity. They rolled 100K from house 1 to house 2, they want to see that 100K come out of the second house if they sell regardless if they are getting a 100K reduction from peak from house 3.

    Beyond that, all losses are down to the banks. With 10:1 minimum leverage, they have a big hole to fill on defaults.

  111. 111 Pat
    My husband puts things on the high shelves just to mess with me. Step stools and chairs work wonders. :)

  112. syncmaster says:

    We need a New Party (i.e. The American Party) that will actually represent the People, not Special Interests.

    The special interests will have to fund the New Party if it wishes to win. This country is simply too large to win elections in without significant cash.

    The only real solution to returning power back to the people in this country is a devolution of power out of DC and back to the states. Elections can be won on smaller, local levels without the need for massive amounts of money.

  113. Pat says:

    You know, I only ever wanted to own my own home so I could lower the kitchen cupboards, right?

    Finally, I confess. Permarenter wants a house so I can lower the cupboards.

    lost, I can’t do the step stools. I’m a walking pending ER case. I’ve never met a step stool I haven’t tumbled off of. Definitely a geek thing. And yes, my husband also puts things like the pancake mix and the elbow macaroni and the yellow cake mix up on the top shelf – when he’s feeling particularly passive aggressive towards me. I just know he’s doing it on purpose.

  114. Pat says:

    I love this show called pawn stars.

    It’s really refreshing after the flipper shows of years past.

  115. NJGator says:

    Shore – there is never a good time of year to go to Cincy. But good wine and my sister-in-law help dull the pain. And a 23-0 Gator lead helps too.

  116. Barbara aka B-Cat says:

    98.
    The Somali Pirates and their rebuilding of their country’s economy is eloquent.

  117. Pat says:

    Somebody just pawned a Ball and Chain for $400.

    One shop worker says “what the h3ll is that thing?” while another guy drops it and smashes it through his glass display case.

  118. Shore Guy says:

    “But good wine and my sister-in-law help dull the pain.”

    I can’t say that I ever had your SIL, so I can’t speak to her pain-dulling abilities, but I have had good wine and it does work magic. Even enough so-so wine will do the trick.

  119. Shore Guy says:

    As I have said many times, al Shabaab is a real danger:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a7SfMopu3zds&pos=9

  120. House Whine says:

    Instead of using step stools I have learned to use kitchen tools like long handled tongs and broom handles to move items on top so that they can at least tumble down off the shelf. That being said, I have to be sure my reflexes are quick enough to duck before the item falls on my head. It’s kind of a game I play.

  121. Pat says:

    We need a revolt against high shelves in the kitchen.

    Who needs shelves, anyway?

    I’m building my kitchen with those drycleaner racks that circle around. I press a button and the stuff circles around in front of me.

  122. Pat says:

    Maybe I’ll put three circling shelves together.

    If I hit the jackpot, like in Ac, then the sugar, the flour and the vanilla will show up together and I’ll hear a prize alarm.

  123. House Whine says:

    Pat, that made me laugh. Is that one of your predictions for improvement in the housing industry for 2010?

  124. Pat says:

    Yeah. Computerized. You pull up a recipe on cooks dot com and hit send, and the circling racks spin like Double Diamonds until all the ingredients are lined up.

  125. 125 Pat
    I am cracking up here. But make sure when you hit that jackpot, no one else is around. They’ll think they’ve hit the jackpot and you’ll have to bake something for them.
    I like the revolving thing though.

  126. NJGator says:

    Shore 120 – Speaking of good wine, are you going to come up to Montclair for restaurant week?

    And since the FL-Cincy game is turning into a blowout, Stu has stopped rooting for Cincy, so he just might get back to Skyline Chili again before the trip home ;)

  127. chicago tan-talizer says:

    111.Pat says:
    January 1, 2010 at 9:21 pm
    At least the doc says she’ll be 5′5″ or 5′6″. My true goal. Somebody to get crap down from the top cupboards for me when I’m old.

    Pat: check out what this 5’5”er did…..listed as 5’7″ but not true…

    http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=300101001

  128. Shore Guy says:

    This is shaping up to be a busy month. I hope to come up but if not for the event, another time for sure.

  129. willwork4beer says:

    Prediction: Chris Christie streamlines state government by disbanding the Legislature and introducing Sumo wrestling to settle any political differences. Christie is declared Dictator for life after 96 consecutive victories…

    http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/christie_swears_in_new_republi.html

  130. mikeinwaiting says:

    willwork 133 Sounds better than our present system.

  131. confused in NJ says:

    The only real solution to returning power back to the people in this country is a devolution of power out of DC and back to the states. Elections can be won on smaller, local levels without the need for massive amounts of money.

    Corzine & Bloomberg are classic cases of massive amounts of money spent a State & City level.

  132. I would happily submit to anyone who disbanded the NJ legislature.

  133. Smells like oblivion this morning.

  134. willwork4beer says:

    Mike 134

    Did you check the photo on that article? A few more belly bumps like that and those two are going to start a grease fire.

  135. willwork4beer says:

    Photo credit: Mitsu Yasukawa, First Sumo Photographer of the New Dictatorship.

  136. frank says:

    Inventory of homes for sale in NJ are down to multi-year low, let’s see what the new year brings.

  137. Essex says:

    I predict I continue to live on the edge…and luff it.

  138. freedy says:

    housing in NJ. can someone sum it up for the rest of the year.

  139. Shore Guy says:

    Housing in NJ in 2010:

    Like the kid in A Christmas Story who goes to see Santa and starts sliding down the slide and starts fighting to crawl back up to make one more request and when he thinks he is back where he wants to be, Santa takes his boot and pushes the kid down the slide.

    IN NJ, people will clawand fight to keep prices up but Mr. Market will use its boot to shove down prices.

  140. gary says:

    On the news this morning:

    Interest rates are going to 8% as the government will cease purchasing MBS and must ease the printing of money

    Fannie and Freddie have 7,000,000 foreclosures in the pipeline ready to hit the market

    Lenders only giving loans to those with excellent credit

    The 8,000 tax credit has been extended to June 30th if you are under contract by April 30th. Why, I don’t know. The execution is still going to happen regardless of the delay. Think about the effect of an interest rate going north of 7% despite the fact that it’s still low. Bill Gross stated that the 10 yr. Treasury rate will be at 5.5% sometime this year. Also, think about all those option ARM resets exploding this year when all the mines were planted at the height of the swindle back in 2005. How the fuck* can anyone not see this inevitable disaster clearly through the front window? Remember when those like Roubini and Santelli said not only are we not in the middle innings yet, we didn’t even start the game.

  141. gary says:

    Housing and other stuff in 2010:

    I just posted but don’t know where it went?

    Interest rates at 8% (this is what a lender said this morning on the news)

    10 yr. Treasury at 5.5% (Bill Gross)

    Option ARMs exploding from the toxic sh1t planted at the height of the market in 2005

    Fannie and Freddie to unleash 7,000,000 foreclosures

    Lenders giving loans to those whose FICO score is stellar, clean and sanitized

    US Govt. will cease buying MBSs

    You can draw your own conclusions although, the proletarians seem to have difficulty grasping simple money concepts.

  142. gary says:

    Oh, and by the way:

    system worked = mission accomplished

  143. Essex says:

    142. Down-Nesting: (D. Coupland)

    The tendency of parent to move to smaller, guest-room-free houses after their children have moved away so as to avoid children aged 20 to 30 who have boomeranged home.

  144. Schumpeter says:

    gary (145)-

    It is going to be 365 days of unmitigated hell on Earth.

  145. Shore Guy says:

    From CBS Neews, get a laugh at the last ‘graph. Democrats are going to try and make themselves look good for ’10 by making Rs look “cozy with Wall Street”? Egads! The current crew makes the Bush administration look like rank amatures compared to Timmy, et al.

    Fire Tim and put Volker in his place, then talk to us about putting Wall Street on a leash.

    010 Situation Grows More Difficult For Democrats

    Jan. 02, 2010

    WASHINGTON (AP) – An already difficult situation for Democrats in Congress is worsening as the 2010 political season opens.

    To minimize expected losses in next fall’s election, President Barack Obama’s party is testing a line of attack that resurrects George W. Bush as a boogeyman and castigates Republicans as cozy with Wall Street.

    Snip

  146. Shore Guy says:

    Neews, maight be a version of News where we squeal like pigs when we learn what the USG has planned for us.

  147. Schumpeter says:

    Here’s what’s coming this year:

    Global imbalances are cropping up like weeds in places like Greece, Spain, Vietnam, Iceland, Vietnam, Latvia, and Lithuania.

    There are massive property bubbles in China, Canada, the UK, and Australia.

    Japan is in a foolish fight against deflation and sinking further in debt

    Commercial real estate in the US is on the verge of bringing down hundreds of regional banks.

    Cities in the US are under massive pressure because of unsustainable pension plan promises.

    Global terrorism is on the rise.

    How long this mess hangs together without a huge crisis in a major currency is the question everyone should be asking. Sadly, most are oblivious to the widening structural cracks.

    http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/01/vietnam-halts-gold-trading-global.html

  148. Shore Guy says:

    Clot,

    Not to worry. When the Europeans stop buying our overpriced real estate, Somali pirates will pick up the slack. They will also help keep order in their new neighborhoods.

  149. Shore Guy says:

    Clot,

    From your link above, I never thought I would seean article about a dong under pressure or a devalued or beleaguered dong.

    “Dong Devalued

    In November, Vietnam devalues the dong and raises rates

    November 26 2009
    Vietnam devalued its currency by 5.4 per cent against the dollar yesterday and raised interest rates by a full percentage point in an effort to cut inflation and underpin the beleaguered dong.

    The dong has come under pressure recently “

  150. Shore Guy says:

    I don’t know to what extent our feelings reflect that of others who have been looking at second/third/fourh homes but here is a change we have experienced.

    We have gon from REALLY WANTING a certain place, to WANT, to “if the right place comes along at the right price we will pounce,” to “if the right place comes along at the right price and we are satisfied that the state and local governments are not going to tax us to oblivion we will pouncem,” to “if the right place comes along at the right price and we are satisfied that the state and local governments are not going to tax us to oblivion we will probably make a lowball offer,” to, “scr-ew it, we can hord our cash and take great vacations and let some other poor sap take the tax hit and bear the risk of a second crash.”

    I don’t know that I would want to be trying to sell a vacation property right now.

  151. Essex says:

    Everyone should have the pleasure of marrying a gorgeous woman.

  152. scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:

    Essex, #146

    My brother got married young, at 22, to his high school girlfriend (still married).

    The night before the wedding, my very petite and lady-like mother said to him: Well, it’s time for the baby bird to leave the nest. Just remember – if baby bird wants to fly back into the nest, mama bird is going to give baby bird a big kick in the ass.

    With age, I’ve come to appreciate how much my family and friends look forward to their kids leaving home so they can get their space back.

    My brother’s 2nd kid is moving out to an apartment this month. Just starting the moving process yesterday. They’re already planning to re-decorate the room.

  153. 3b says:

    #140 Oh frank, oh frank, inventory is always down this time of year.

  154. freedy says:

    gravel voice dotty herman is telling
    everyone that will listen , “the housing
    market is turning up”

    should i rush out for the spring selling season?

  155. safeashouses says:

    My predictions for 2010

    Christie will accomplish as much as Omama

    Starter homes in good towns will become affordable for median income people with 20% down. (although how someone can save 70k earning median income and raising 2 small kids is another thing)

    What should happen and what will happen are not the same thing in the financial and housing markets.

    John will get his own column for FHM and Forbes.

    Begarbe and Timmay will print money and keep talking about the strong dollar. Although this time students in Zimbabwe and Vietnam will laugh at them instead of China.

    Teepees make a comeback.

    Peasant style becomes the new hit TV show.

  156. freedy says:

    GM, and GMAC will repay the taxpayers.

    and give us great deals on our new SUV’s

  157. 3b says:

    #157 Dotty is a ho!!

  158. 3b says:

    Good towns become bad towns.

  159. 153 Shore

    That’s been our exact feelings in that exact order, except it’s for a first/only home.

  160. sas says:

    “Everyone should have the pleasure of marrying a gorgeous woman”

    everytime you see a gorgeous woman, remember, there is a guy somewhere tired of her crap.

    SAS

  161. sas says:

    for my 09 predictions, i will correct with the unemployment stats. but that was too easy. For my boldest prediction “Bush pardons Madoff”, obviously that didn’t happen. however, nothing surprizes me anymore.

    SAS

  162. chicago tan-talizer says:

    You are always so bad with the details. It would be 364 days, as we are already on day 2, and day 1 was pretty nice.

    147.Schumpeter says:
    January 2, 2010 at 9:51 am
    gary (145)- It is going to be 365 days of unmitigated hell on Earth.

  163. Fiddy Cents on the Dollar says:

    “The dong has come under pressure recently “

    Early nominee for Post of the Year. Oh John where art thou ? This is a line you can run with !!

  164. chicago tan-talizer says:

    WSJ
    HEARD ON THE STREET
    JANUARY 2, 2010

    OVERHEARD

    The deal of the decade?

    Capitalistpig Asset Management, a Chicago money manager, is selling 100 trillion Zimbabwe dollar bank notes for $7.99 on its Web site.

    You might as well buy Monopoly money. Zimbabwe’s currency is essentially worthless after the inflation-racked country suspended use of it earlier this year. That is a long fall from 1980, when Capitalistpig said a Zimbabwe dollar was worth more than its U.S. equivalent.

    The U.S., of course, is no Zimbabwe. But with the Federal Reserve’s printing presses humming to ward off deflation, there is a risk economic decision makers underestimate the dangers of inflation as they decide how quickly to withdraw stimulus measures. Perhaps, a Zimbabwe note would be worth the investment for Ben Bernanke , as a reminder of how hard inflation can be to contain once the genie is out of the bottle.

  165. Essex says:

    163…and another man ready to take up the mantle.

  166. cobbler says:

    shore [151]
    Pirates won’t be able to keep order as they can’t get the visas as per our new policies (visas automatically refused if one states piracy as a principal source of income in an application, see paragraph 4.2.7.F). They’ll have to hire the security people which should improve the unemployment situation. Eventually, as the rental income exceeds piracy earnings they’ll be able to come and check out the properties.

  167. Essex says:

    Yuppie Wannabe’s: (D. Coupland)

    An X generation subgroup that believes the myth of a yuppie life-style being both satisfying and viable. Tend to be high in debt, involved in some form of substance abuse, and show a willingness to talk about Armageddon after three dr inks.

  168. Al "The Thermostat" Gore says:

    Mortgages: 30 year fixed rates will rise by a full percentage point by the end of Q1 2010 as the FED stops buying mortage backed securities. If the Fed does not continue buying, by creating money out of thin air, support will be broken and yields could quickly move up to 5%, which would further destroy the retail housing market.

    Real Estate: Tax credit will be extended indefinitely suckering more fools into bag holder status like the rest of us.

    Conclusion: The US is in terminal decline. The dollar and all paper currencies will continue to fall against gold. Sovereign debt crises for countries who do not print their own currency will emerge first. US/UK risk credit downgrade if Bernanke doesnt start raising interest rates. If he raises rates the economy will dovetail into a ditch and we are back to square one. Municipal defaults likely as cash strapped states decrease municipal aid. California will the harbringer of whats to come for NY/NJ.

  169. Al "The Thermostat" Gore says:

    This is important but a bit off topic:

    Can anyone confirm this?

    “I went to my BOA branch right after work today and the following notice was posted,”Beginning Jan. 1, 2010 BOA will no longer participate in the FDIC’s Transaction Account Guarantee Program. Thus, after Dec. 31, 2009, funds held in non-interest-bearing transaction acccounts will no longer be guaranteed in full under the TAGP, but will be insured up to $250,000 under the FDIC’s general deposit insurance rules.” Insured but not guaranteed? “

  170. Fried Vampire Calamari Lover says:

    Re 172 Al “The Thermostat” Gore:

    What it means is the FDIC’s Transaction Account Guarantee Program was a program put in place when everything was going downhill that essentially guarantee the entire account (non-interest earning transaction accounts like Payroll & Accounts Payable)generally of small, medium, & large size businesses that have enough monies that routinely exceed the FDIC 250K insurance limit.

    When Wachovia was going to fail & was taken over by Well Fargo, a large amount of money fleeing the bank was from these type of accounts. And because any sizeable business usually has different types of accounts all over town with different banks, it was very easy for the controller/treasurer to move moneis around by click on a mouse.

    This program was to calm the fears of a controller of let’s say Johnson & Johnson who put $100 million in an account to meet monthly payroll or a hospital to pay account payables losing that money to bank closure.

  171. Al "The Thermostat" Gore says:

    175. Thanks for clarifying.

  172. DL says:

    Read this in the comments at Zero Hedge ref the debate on inflation vs deflation:
    The things you don’t need will get cheap; the things you need will get expensive.

  173. freedy (157)-

    Dotty Herman is a broken-down, old whore.

  174. Al "The Thermostat" Gore says:

    For 28k this could be your SHTF vehicle.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLayOGZfeSU

  175. Pat says:

    autoporn macht frei.

  176. Pat says:

    Autop0rn macht frei.

  177. Cindy says:

    Pat – HI…@94 you said you told us two years ago who RE was – missed that. What was your idea?

    How short are you? ( I’m not quite 5’2″.)

  178. chicago tan-talizer says:

    lisoosh:

    FYI – Marlboro (fka the satellite office for big hair Staten Island) has a Solomon Schechter.
    http://www.schechtergmc.com/

  179. Pat says:

    Every time I try on jeans, I wish I were 5’2″. 5’1/2″ – and that half is critical to my sense of self.

    Cindy, RE’s secret’s safe with me until he decides to fess up on his own. Once RE smacked me around a little, I developed a kind of allegiance.

  180. Cindy says:

    186 Pat “5’1/2″ – and that half is critical to my sense of self.” – I hear you! It’s all in how you “report” it.

    You’ll notice I said “almost 5’2″ ” instead of the obvious 5′ 1 1/2″.

    The secret is safe with you – no problem.

  181. Cindy says:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123103487.html?wprss=rss_business/economy

    California’s scary sneak preview

    “The lesson of California is that a political system too dysfunctional to avert crisis is also too dysfunctional to respond to it.”

  182. scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:

    Pat,

    You know who RE is?

  183. Cindy says:

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101196.html?hpid=topnews

    Check out the charts…

    “Aughts were a lost decade for U.S. economy, workers”

    “For most of the past 70 years, the U.S. economy has grown at a steady clip, generating perpetually higher incomes and wealth for American households. But since 2000, the story is starkly different.”

    “There was zero net job creation in the first decade of the new millennium, compared to healthy job growth in each of the previous six decades.”

  184. scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:

    Pat,

    You know who RE is?

  185. I guess I shouldn’t complain about being 5’4 but I do.

  186. Cindy says:

    Lost – You are a giant!

  187. Pat says:

    Ladies, ladies…first rule – don’t feed the R-Ego.

  188. Cindy
    I’m only a giant in my 7 inch platforms.

  189. mikeinwaiting says:

    Ok Lost in 7 in. platforms Hmmm…

  190. Pat says:

    What happened to waterbeds? Does anybody know? I never had one and was never able to sleep on them, but when did they disappear?

  191. mikeinwaiting says:

    “I never had one and was never able to sleep on them,”

    That was never their purpose.
    They are hanging out with the pet rocks,
    a much under rated pet.

  192. mikeinwaiting says:

    Pat 182 now that is a CAR.

  193. Pat says:

    That was never their purpose?

    Oh.

    You have to understand that I’m like a 46 year old virgin when it comes to stuff like this. I thought they were for orthopedic therapy or something.

  194. Pat says:

    182 I know. I can’t stop clicking on it.

    I’m closing my eyes and thinking of the first time I drove down to Venice and how much better it would’ve been in that car.

  195. mikeinwaiting says:

    Pat 200 did you miss the 70’s, oh sorry I did the math to young I don’t suffer from that, sorry to say.

  196. mikeinwaiting says:

    Pat Got one (a Car) today ,not that cool by far but I like it.

  197. Pat says:

    Any day you get a car is a good day, in my book.

  198. mikeinwaiting says:

    Pat so true.

  199. mikeinwaiting says:

    Pat did everyone go to bed!?

  200. Pat says:

    No, they’re eating and putting their kids to bed, I think.

  201. I’m watching Eddie Murphy Raw. :)

  202. scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:

    You ladies are making me feel like a giant at 5 4, which is still technically “petite.”

  203. mikeinwaiting says:

    Pat 207 bought the kids Chinese. we went out to dinner ate at bar in nice place talked to everyone at bar (eating also) good time. Wife’s Bday was the 26th first chance to get out alone, by the way car is hers.
    She will let me drive once in a while!

  204. Barbara aka B-Cat says:

    kinda OT but re: airport screeners and such technology….how are they going to handle screening children? I haven’t heard a peep about it.

  205. reinvestor101 says:

    17.safeashouses says:
    January 1, 2010 at 8:51 am
    I got a few right.

    I predict

    4) reinvestor101’s real identity will be revealed

    It’s this kind of crap that really pisses me off. Let’s get something straight, dammit, I’ve not hid my damn identify from one damn person here. There’s only one of me, dammit, and stop looking for anyone else because there’s not a damn thing to be revealed. Curiosity killed the damn cat, and guess what? You don’t have nine lives.

    Anyhow, here’s my damn predictions for 2010:

    1) I will be flipping houses again by mid year. Credit is finally loosening up and I can now start playing.

    2) I will definitely kill Clotpoll’s damn sniveling dog. The world won’t miss that mangy damn mutt.

    3) Pat’s identity will be revealed.

    4) The medical profession will come to its senses and revoke the license of the evil Still Looking.

  206. mikeinwaiting says:

    Hi Re 101 Happy New Year. Where you been?

  207. Pat says:

    Wow. Eating in a bar. Out.

    I remember that.

    We now live in a place in NW Montgomery County, MD with literally 4 small “restaurants” nearby (only one with a bar) and nobody eats out at them because everybody knows your business.

    It takes us half an hour to get anywhere, and usually involves mean dudes on a Ferry telling me to shut my F’n lights off. I think my husband moved me here to prepare me for a final move to Denali or the high Andes or some such remote location.

    Somebody please rescue me and bring me back to NJ. I need a pizza, a bunch of big hairs and a decent pork roll sandwich.

    BTW, I’ve been having a 2010 prediction premonition all day about a male poster with involvement with somebody named “Rose.”

  208. Pat says:

    RE! Save me! I just saw your post.

  209. mikeinwaiting says:

    Pat 214 Don’t feel so bad many places to go here but we don’t. This was a rarity.
    Mean dudes on ferry , whack them Jersey style.

  210. reinvestor101 says:

    94.Pat says:
    January 1, 2010 at 8:24 pm
    You guys with the RE101 predictions.

    I already told you – like two years ago – who RE was.

    Nobody ever listens to short chicks

    Lady, need I remind you of our agreement. When I’m on this damn board, you’re not to post. I will allow this one exception so you can respond to my query. Who the hell am I supposed to be?

  211. reinvestor101 says:

    213.mikeinwaiting says:
    January 2, 2010 at 10:53 pm
    Hi Re 101 Happy New Year. Where you been

    Some men in black helicopters have been after me. Something about serving me with some damn papers I don’t want. I had to lay low until the danger passed.

  212. mikeinwaiting says:

    Re 101 “Who the hell am I supposed to be?” You left yourself wide open there, but everyone is asleep or busy so you will get a pass.

  213. reinvestor101 says:

    215.Pat says:
    January 2, 2010 at 10:56 pm
    RE! Save me! I just saw your post.

    What are you drowning? Let me get you some water.

  214. Pat says:

    I guess I’m not drowning.

    Nite.

  215. reinvestor101 says:

    Hey get back in here and tell me who I am

  216. reinvestor101 says:

    No, I will not relax.

    You want to blackmail me and I’m not having it. Tell me who I am! I demand it!!

  217. I love it around here late at night.

  218. reinvestor101 says:

    Lady, if you think you’re gonna jerk my damn chain and get away with it, you gotta another think coming.

    I WANT TO KNOW WHO I AM RIGHT NOW!!!!!

  219. Shore Guy says:

    “What happened to waterbeds? Does anybody know? I never had one and was never able to sleep on them, but when did they disappear?”

    I had one all through college and I never slept better before it and have not slept as well since. After School, I ended up in places that did not allow them and then got married and had been out of one long enough it was off my radar screen.

    Best night’s sleep possible.

  220. reinvestor101 says:

    I want this board to note Pat’s silence. She cut and ran after I asked her numerous times to reveal to me who I am.

    As you can see, she used to the feeble excuse of having to go to sleep as a way to squirrel out of the commitment.

    The conclusion we can all draw from this is clear. She doesn’t know who I am and since I was relying on her to tell me, now I don’t know who I am.

    Dammit.

  221. Pat says:

    Right now, I think you were drinking. You’re letting me get to you.

    Rather easily.

  222. morpheus says:

    pat is petite? I love petite women. My wife is very petite.

    I go to Vt for a week and you all turn into jersey shore guidos? Wayne Brady is going to have to choke a bitch!

    Was on vacation. Will tell all when I become sober.

    Happy New Year RE 101.

  223. Pat says:

    And RE, I don’t sleep. Don’t infer from “nite” that I’m sleeping.

  224. reinvestor101 says:

    Chi,

    You’re scaring me man.

    Morph–Happy New Years to you as well.

    Pat–Nite meant you had to go and yes, that generally means that one has to go to sleep, particularly when one realizes that “nite” is derived from the term “nitety nite”, which is how most people get tucked into the damn bed.

    Don’t play games with me Lady

  225. reinvestor101 says:

    230.Pat says:
    January 2, 2010 at 11:42 pm
    Right now, I think you were drinking. You’re letting me get to you.

    Rather easily

    Also, who said I was a damn teetotaler? There nothing wrong with having some damn cognac every now and then.

  226. yikes says:

    random observation that may anger some: there are simply too many idiots out there for prices to fall much further.

    know a guy who is intelligent. going places. he and his wife bought what we think is a POS cape on a corner with a STOPLIGHT on it. yes, an intersection. in front of an elementary school.

    like many others who made bad decisions but wont admit it, said owner told me: “we plan on upgrading in a couple years.”

    clearly, they haven’t grasped the real estate reality yet. no way they’re moving up unless they show up with 75k at closing.

  227. Pat says:

    yikes, if inventory can continue to be massaged, then I’m not sure we’ll see more than a 5% reduction. Pacifistic.

    But if there is a push toward non-comp valuation, meaning a whole new way to value housing based on socio-economic variables inclusive of a “The Man” type actuarial analysis, then we’ll see a move down. Soon.

    The tax man needs to value. And comps ain’t payin the bills.

  228. Pat says:

    morph…you only love petite women like me cause you can carry us around like little dolls…until we start to make you do nasty jobs like cleaning the snow off of the middle tops of our cars (cause we can’t reach it) and putting the boxes up on high shelves and crap like that.

    Once reality hits, all you guys wish you had tall chicks.

    Been there, done that.

  229. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    …5′ 1/2″ yeah. being short sucks.

    Bad thing? Gaining 5 pounds looks like 10.
    Good thing? Losing 5 pounds looks like 10.

    Bad thing? Needing 5″ heels to look normal.
    Good thing? Wearing 5″ heels looks good (as opposed to being 6’2″ wearing 5″ heels.)

    sl

  230. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    So ReTard is at it again, eh?

    Did frank forget to save room for you under his rock? Maybe this year you can get your own rock to crawl under, ass-hat.

    Happy New Year, I hope Santa brought you a new pair of gasoline-soaked frilly panties….and a lighter.

    sl

  231. willwork4beer says:

    From the Times of Trenton via NJ.com:

    Trenton home prices seem to be recovering

    Sunday, January 03, 2010

    STAFF WRITER

    TRENTON – Housing prices in Trenton have dropped sharply over the past year and a half, but they appear to have begun recovering in the last few months. The average sale price of a single-family home in the city rose 11 percent in the second half of the year, according to MLS Trend data. The average had plunged 31 percent in the first half of 2009, compared to the same period a year earlier. Even with the recent increase, the figure remains well below last year’s average prices.

    http://www.nj.com/news/times/regional/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1262501129224960.xml&coll=5

  232. willwork4beer says:

    From the Allentown Morning Call:

    Brace for last-minute credit card fast ones

    Sun 03 Jan 2010

    Paul Muschick
    The Watchdog

    By now you’ve heard that credit card companies must obey new rules next month, designed to make them play fair.Nadine Cutshaw of Bath knew, which helped her fend off a last-ditch attempt to squeeze her for a few more bucks.

    Several new rules start in February. One prohibits banks from charging a fee if you exceed your credit limit, unless you ”opt in” to let your limit be extended for a fee.Some banks want you to opt in, so Cutshaw wasn’t shocked when Capital One called Nov. 5, though she was disgusted by its tactics.

    ”In essence the entire call, read mostly from a script, was couched in fear-based and negative terms towards the new regulations and attempted to paint Capital One as the good guys who would allow me, the consumer, to waive the new guidelines so Capital One could continue to charge fees,” Cutshaw told me by e-mail.

    She said the caller began by saying he wanted to discuss how ”the government was taking over my credit cards.””I quickly replied that the government wasn’t taking over my cards,” Cutshaw said. ”They were instituting consumer protections against predatory credit card issuers.”She said the Capital One caller rolled right along with the script, telling her if she didn’t opt in and was near her limit, she couldn’t use her card in an emergency and could be stranded with a flat tire.Cutshaw was ready for that one, too.

    ”Luckily, I’m not some dunce who hasn’t kept up with what has been going on regarding the new regulations,” she said, and she fired back. ”I don’t appreciate Capital One calling me with fear-based scenarios in an already scary financial climate in order to induce me into agreeing to allow them to continue charging their greedy fees.”

    http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a5_5dog0103.7097099jan03,0,2700605.column

  233. freedy says:

    if dot herman says buy , then its time.

    trenton, house prices up , right .

    lovely place.

  234. frank says:

    It feels like 2005 again, buy a home now, before a Somali pirate outbids you for a house.

    Cash-rich real estate investors trigger bidding wars, frustrate other buyers

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/02/AR2010010201844.html

  235. mikeinwaiting says:

    Yikes 235 “random observation that may anger some: there are simply too many idiots out there for prices to fall much further.”

    I have to agree to a point. Most people I talk to have no clue. They think they are getting a deal when a home that should be at 200k is at 270k because it was 320. These numbers sound low to most but my area WAS very affordable in the late 90s including taxes. Now taxes up 40% & a home (3bd2ba) purchased for 130- 150 then is still over 200k. Incomes have been flat so how the hell is that going to work out. As I said to a point, they will buy it will not work market will continue to decline. Just take longer this will drag out for years.

  236. freedy says:

    had a conversation last night about it.
    price lowered,, by lets say 60k , they think its a bargin. i say i should/could
    be lowered by another 50k ,, still may not be low enough.

    but dotty says, buy now. let the spring selling season begin

  237. reinvestor101 says:

    243.frank says:
    January 3, 2010 at 8:24 am
    It feels like 2005 again, buy a home now, before a Somali pirate outbids you for a house.

    Cash-rich real estate investors trigger bidding wars, frustrate other buyers

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/02/AR2010010201844.html

    Thanks for posting this. House flipping is makined a damn comeback much to the chagrin of the damn real estate terrorists here. They tried to move heaven and earth in an effort to derail the damn real estate markets, but their failure is now complete.

    Did anyone else try to post this? Hell no, but you have people like this terrorist Yikes who are moaning about people wanting to buy and pay fair prices rather than act like some damn vulture and swoop in on some poor unsuspecting seller and try to take their damn property on the cheap.

    The damn tide is turning and the real estate terrorists will once again find themselves with their damn noses pressed up against the damn window looking in on everyone else enjoying home ownership while they languish and sulk in a stinking apartment renting their miserable lives away.

  238. safeashouses says:

    #246 Yo 101

    Speaking of stinking apartments, you should have dropped by last night. I ate a whole head of roasted garlic.

  239. mikeinwaiting says:

    Safe vampire trouble.

  240. safeashouses says:

    #248 mikeinwaiting

    nah. I made roasted potatoes and garlic using whole garlic cloves. I ate one clove, then a few more and before I knew it there were only 3 or 4 cloves left. I figured I’m married, it’s the weekend, I already reak, might as well finish it off. I still have garlic breath so my wife will be taking littlesafe off to Chinese school today.

  241. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    246

    Oh… Reeeeiiiiii

    I have a nice piece of cold slab for you to rest on…. :)

    sl

  242. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    mmmmmmm garlic!

    sl

  243. reinvestor101 says:

    Yeah, I bet you do. Let’s get something straight Dr. Evil….

    LEAVE ME ALONE.

    250.still_looking aka Tan-Less says:
    January 3, 2010 at 9:42 am
    246

    Oh… Reeeeiiiiii

    I have a nice piece of cold slab for you to rest on…. :)

    sl

  244. crossroads says:

    244

    people read national #’s and apply it to their local market. the cost of gas has added to affordability in the out lying areas.

    I agree with Shiller that psychology hasn’t changed as much as you would think. people still feel the need to buy a house thinking its a great investment.

    I don’t understand why people don’t measure the cost of renting vs. buying.

  245. yikes says:

    whew, this thread isn’t over!

    Predictions:

    The highest point the down will reach this year: 11,500.

    Mortgage rates will top out at 6.25%.

    Bednar will be mentioned in the NY Times twice.

    I will sell my business and be extremely happy. (more wishful thinking than anything; it will happen or it wont this summer).

    At least 2 senators/governors in this country will be arrested in 2010.

    We will purchase 2 guns: a shotun and perhaps a handgun or rifle.

    The jets will make the playoffs.

    Yankees win the world series.

    Bi and Frank have their own GTG and end up liking each other so much, they begin dating.

  246. Pat says:

    How’s your head, re? Glad to see you up nice & early. Checked in for you on my way out at 6 into 13 degrees and 30 mph winds. But I figured you were all snoring and warm, so I let you be.

    http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20100102/BUSINESS/1020351/-1/rss

  247. mikeinwaiting says:

    cross 253 I agree with Shiller,what he doesn’t say is people are stupid. Can’t do the math so they buy. As far as gas goes that will not last long.

  248. Fiddy Cents on the Dollar says:

    What did I miss on here last night, with the ladies going back & forth ?? I’m 6′ 2″ tall, girls….you’re secrets are safe with me.

    And RE-101 re-surfacing ?? I’ve never seen someone work the word “damn” into every sentence the way he does. Just once, I’d like to see him use some different four-letter words. Swing out pal, try throwing in a “hell” just for the heck of it.

  249. safeashouses says:

    #253 crossroads,

    It is now possible to rent a 3 bedroom house in good shape for what it cost to rent a pos 2 bedroom townhouse in the same part of town 3 years ago.

    The rent vs buy spread has tightened a lot over the last 2 years in NJ. With a 20% DP you can buy for about 15% more a month than it costs to rent the identical house. (That’s if you pay full list).

  250. mikeinwaiting says:

    Pat about 11-12 degrees here with 17 mi gust & lite snow “F”en freezing.

  251. mikeinwaiting says:

    safe 258 20% DP 15% more than rent why would you want to do that.

  252. Pat says:

    We have a killer wind here.
    I started to jog around the park at the pool and could feel the skin on the back of my knuckles under my mittens begin to split.

  253. crossroads says:

    256 miw

    “As far as gas goes that will not last long.”
    As you said before incomes have been flat so the price of gas/heating oil has added to cost of living in far reaching areas where commutes are long and heating oil primary source for heat. also add in property taxes are up %50 or so over the last decade.

    “I agree with Shiller,what he doesn’t say is people are stupid”

    mike I think young people depend on advice from parents who happen to be boomers who benefitted greatly from home appreciation in their lifetime. I know my Uncle and father-inlaw both gave me the advice to buy as much house as I can that my income will catch up. My father-inlaws other child is in foreclosure.

  254. Fiddy Cents on the Dollar says:

    ww4beer :240….Trenton Home Prices Recovering.

    There are some new Townhouse projects (Cooper Crossings, for example), that are selling in the $160K range. At that price it would raise the average/median quite a bit, compared to the older row-homes in town.

    The developer of Cooper Crossings (Ryan Homes) was given the land by the City basically for free….Trenton just needed the ratables.

  255. safeashouses says:

    #260 mikeinwaiting,

    PRIDE OF OWNDERSHIP!!! /off sarcasm

    Mike, when we bought a townhouse in 2000, we put 10% down and were paying 10% less to own vs rent, even with PMI and HOA. That was a deal, would love to be able to repeat that this year.

  256. freedy says:

    anybody going to the auction today in
    emerson? 150k start was 418k.

    nice hit

  257. crossroads says:

    258 safehouse

    I would say %20 more a month to buy but you then have to part with %20 DP which in NJ is a lot of cash. I would think most buyers don’t have that DP and go the FHA rt. which then your paying almost %50 more a month. its still more expensive to buy vs. rent and there is no hope prices will go up in the next few years but property taxes will

  258. mikeinwaiting says:

    Cross It would seem some didn’t take their advice. YOU. I will advise my kids (I am A late boomer) not to but more than 25% of income PITI. I did very well over last 20 years on housing but the party is over.
    Realizing that it has changed & buying all the house you can squeeze out of your pay is financial disaster, doesn’t take a brain surgeon.
    With flat income more energy & taxes prices have only one way to go.

  259. mikeinwaiting says:

    but = buy

  260. mikeinwaiting says:

    safe 264 it may you never know. “That was a deal” & that is the only way to buy anything.

  261. crossroads says:

    267 miw

    I did well too. I sold in 06 and have been throwing my $ out the window renting ever since. I agree with safehouse on the pride of ownership thing renting sucks I’d rather own. I want my kids to have stability and memories of a childhood home. I’m on my second rental w/ 3 kids so I’ll be buying this spring. I think

  262. safeashouses says:

    Here’s a house in Basking Ridge listed for 5% over it’s 2002 sales price. And that’s after improvements and upgrades.

    http://www.trulia.com/property/1067015128-112-Galloping-Hill-Rd-Basking-Ridge-NJ-07920

  263. mikeinwaiting says:

    Cross 270 3 kids also, 3rd rental since I sold in 06 by choice, kept getting more house for less money. I don’t know about that money out the window , if I had bought when I sold would have lost a lot more than payed in rent. In my target area & home type prices went down 80-90 k over period I spent 37k renting I’m up.

  264. mikeinwaiting says:

    Safe 430 for a Bi-Level! lets see 20% DP
    need 85 -100k with closing cost inspection & such. Do you know taxes?
    Mortgage like 340k plus taxes. I think I’ll just rent.

  265. crossroads says:

    273 miw

    $7900 for taxes talk about throwing $ out the window!

  266. 3b says:

    #270 Memories can be had anywhere, rental or own. On a day to day basis what is the difference? Why id yo sell in the first place?

  267. safeashouses says:

    #273 mike

    2 bedroom, 20 year old townhouses that had never been updated were going for that price in 2006 and 07 in Basking Ridge.

  268. 3b says:

    #270 Sorry should have said why did you sell in the first place?

  269. Essex says:

    246. I predict a cable show for this clown. REAL ESTATE FLIPPING II – the foul mouffed jersey ‘merican.

  270. Leeds 1, ManU 0.

    The collapse continues.

  271. scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:

    I think I get this – finally.

    Pat is RE!!!!!!

    Am I slow or what?

  272. crossroads says:

    3b

    I moved from the area I grew up in to a more affordable area.
    Medford, NJ. Nice place houses were an easy 100k cheaper. I didn’t like the area so we sold. Moved to Sparta which we like and will eventually buy here. Memories have been had all over the state your right but I would prefer to own and have stability. of course if you can’t afford it there is no stability unless Uncle Sam continues to help out

  273. Essex says:

    Air Family: (Coupland) Describes the false sense of community experienced among coworkers in an office environment.

  274. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    Scribe, 281

    not convinced…. call me skeptical.. proof?

    sl

  275. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    Don’t think it’s TCCR/Clot either. Or Ket, or chifi, or grim, or Cindy, or Hype, or safe, or bi, or make, or even that f*ucking turd known as frank.

    sl

  276. gary says:

    Karen Weaver, Analyst at Deutsche Bank:

    Home values would need to decline another 29% just to restore prices to the point in New York’s history when housing was at its most affordable. Even if prices just revert to their affordibility levels, they would drop by 8%.

    Is anyone with any level of intelligence and common sense buying anything in the next 12 months? Use your f*cking head; be a little smarter than everyone else as it obviously doesn’t take much to out-maneuver the masses. Do I sound arrogant? Tough sh1t, the only one looking out for you, is you.

  277. reinvestor101 says:

    285.still_looking aka Tan-Less says:
    January 3, 2010 at 11:55 am
    Don’t think it’s TCCR/Clot either. Or Ket, or chifi, or grim, or Cindy, or Hype, or safe, or bi, or make, or even that f*ucking turd known as frank.

    sl

    Shlt. That damn near eliminates every damn poster on this board except YOU.

    Fess up dammit.

  278. scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:

    Still,

    Now that I think about it, I think Pat has been dropping hints … the demands from RE that she not post when “he” is around …

    And a while ago, it was widely agreed that RE is actually a woman … despite RE’s desire to date me for my retirement accounts …

  279. Pat says:

    Nope. Not me.

    On the other hand, RE does seem to show up whenever I have cabin fever and call him.

    He just seems there, ready to play.

    sl…could it be schizophrenia and I truly have no clue that I’m RE?

  280. scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:

    Pat … Sybil?

  281. Pat says:

    Just my luck. The personality hiding in my brain speaks like John Wayne with a stick up his butt.

  282. Schizophrenia is not multiple personality disorder. Now the 2 together would be pretty much impossible to treat. Like, which personality would admit he/she is hearing voices telling them what to do? :)

    Pat maybe Re is your sig other?

  283. safeashouses says:

    #287 101

    I’m not 101. I think I’m much better looking.

  284. chicago tan-talizer says:

    Too bad this Sunday. I need JJ here. Commentary on short chicks….he would tell you about hitting the back wall.

  285. Shore Guy says:

    “Like, which personality would admit he/she is hearing voices telling them what to do? :)”

    Lou Reid did a song about this, I think. Tht or the Ramones.

  286. Pat says:

    CF, great timing on the movie link last night. I was concentrating so intently to think of the name. It escaped me, and then you popped in.

    [Rolling eyes at the back wall…do you really need JJ around?]

  287. Sean says:

    It’s a balmy -5 in the midwest right now, it went down to -17 last night, I can see why they drink allot around here.

  288. BeachBum says:

    Dear all – Happy New Year!! Wishing you all health and happiness and lots of deals in 2010!!

    I’ve already gotten some info from you kind folks on this listing but would be interested in getting some more information on the following listing:
    MLS# 20934845
    For example, days on the market, original list price, anything else that’s interesting, any comparable sales for 2 bedroom houses in that part of Middletown (River Plaza), any other interesting informaiton.

    NJC, you’ve already given me the tax information – thanks so much!
    Linda

  289. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    gary says, “Tough sh1t, the only one looking out for you, is you.”

    Amen to that!

    sl

  290. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    I haven’t a clue as to who REinvestor is…. sure as shit ain’t me…

    If someone would pith frank, we would be able to see if it was him. Any volunteers? Schump? Gary? Kettle? Bueller? Bueller?

    sl

  291. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    Lost, Maybe frank is REinvestor’s split? You know, the sociopathic fu*ckup side? Who knows?

    sl

  292. 301 SL

    I guess anything is possible but I don’t see it.

  293. Sean says:

    Hate newark airport they are always delayed, they should daisycutter some space to make room for more runways, 2.5 hour delay again because newark airport sucks.

  294. syncmaster says:

    Sean, my wife and I flew to Florida via ACY a little over a week ago… very smooth, very timely, no rush at all.

    The only PITA was actually getting there.

  295. reinvestor101 says:

    still_looking aka Tan-Less says:
    January 3, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    I haven’t a clue as to who REinvestor is…. sure as shit ain’t me…

    If someone would pith frank, we would be able to see if it was him. Any volunteers? Schump? Gary? Kettle? Bueller? Bueller?…..Lost, Maybe frank is REinvestor’s split? You know, the sociopathic fu*ckup side? Who knows?

    sl

    You know what? Even my damn antenna is up based on these series of posts from Dr. Evil. Notice how she tries to move damn heaven and earth to divert everyone’s attention away from herself. She even refers to frank in an effort to obfuscate matters. Also, didn’t she talk about flipping a damn house a couple of months back?

    Mighty damn suspicious if you ask me.

  296. reinvestor101 says:

    still_looking aka Tan-Less says:
    January 3, 2010 at 2:45 pm

    I haven’t a clue as to who REinvestor is…. sure as shlt ain’t me…

    If someone would pith frank, we would be able to see if it was him. Any volunteers? Schump? Gary? Kettle? Bueller? Bueller?

    My recent post on this statement made by the good doctor here is in moderation. Notice how she quickly diverts attention away from herself and a quick denial. A sleight of hand move if I ever saw one.

    Looks mighty suspicious if you ask me.

  297. reinvestor101 says:

    Pat says:
    January 3, 2010 at 12:26 pm

    Nope. Not me.

    On the other hand, RE does seem to show up whenever I have cabin fever and call him.

    He just seems there, ready to play.

    sl…could it be schizophrenia and I truly have no clue that I’m RE?

    Another quick suspicious denial, linked again to the good doctor. Pat ALWAYS pops up at the same time I’m on the board and THEN asks the damn doctor about schizophrenia. What’s the common theme here? It’s that damn doctor.

    Again, it’s one of those damn things that make you go hmmmmmmm. They could be doing this in cahoots with each other.

  298. reinvestor101 says:

    scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:
    January 3, 2010 at 12:20 pm

    Still,

    Now that I think about it, I think Pat has been dropping hints … the demands from RE that she not post when “he” is around …

    And a while ago, it was widely agreed that RE is actually a woman … despite RE’s desire to date me for my retirement accounts …

    Hey baby, I didn’t realize you had a few greenbacks. Want to buy a house we can flip together? I know, I’m a real romantic.

  299. Cindy says:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/business/economy/04fed.html?hp

    “Bernanke Blames Weak Regulation for Financial Crisis”

    Atlanta – Regulatory failure, not lax monetary policy, was responsible for the housing bubble and subsequent financial crisis of the last decade, Ben S. Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, said in a speech on Sunday.”

    You’d think he’d keep his mouth shut….

  300. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    Hey, RE.

    The only place you will be flipped is into the nice shiny silver drawer…. complete with toe tag. :)

    sl

  301. Fiddy Cents on the Dollar says:

    Beach (you’re no bum) —

    “MLS# 20934845
    For example, days on the market, original list price, anything else that’s interesting, any comparable sales for 2 bedroom houses in that part of Middletown (River Plaza), any other interesting informaiton.”

    This one has been on market since 9/11/09, originally priced at $329,900. The listing says “HOUSE BEING SOLD IN “AS IN” CONDITION. LEAD PAINT BUT NO DISCLOSURE SINCE SELLER DOES NOT RESIDE THERE” Must be a rental.

    The home was purchased by the current owner in 20-07, looks like from a family member.

    This is located in River Plaza section of Middletown, with the fashionable Red Bank mailing address.

    Be careful of 2 bedroom ranches….limited resale potential.

    I’ll take a quick look for comps.

  302. Fiddy Cents on the Dollar says:

    There were 2 sales of 2-bed ranches in River Plaza since June 2009. $315K and $339K. Also a Short Sale of a Cape at $299K.

    There’s a very interesting 3-bed ranch actively listed….17 Jefferson — #20931522. It’s currently vacant and been on the market since August. Last List Price $355K

  303. scribe, The Princess of Paramus says:

    So …RE is still?

  304. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    Uh, no. I ran out of self hatred just after my teens… (you know, got curly hair, wanted straight….too short..wished I was taller….had the occasional zit… and forever wished I was 10 lbs skinnier.)

    I can’t take credit for Reinvestor… or should I say, “flea-infested”

    Sorry.

    sl

  305. reinvestor101 says:

    still_looking aka Tan-Less says:
    January 3, 2010 at 5:23 pm

    Hey, RE.

    The only place you will be flipped is into the nice shiny silver drawer…. complete with toe tag. :)

    sl

    The evidence continues to mount and points in one damn direction. Why in the hell would she want to kill off RE101? That’s a convenient damn way to cover one’s tracks because if I disappear, the damn questions stop. How damn convenient.

    Didn’t she talk about flipping a damn house a few months back?

    Pretty damn suspicious if you ask me.

  306. Fiddy Cents on the Dollar says:

    HA !!

    Flea-Infested….that nickname just might stick.

    sl, that’s the second time in a week that you made me laugh out loud. What was it last week were you cracked me up ??

    OH!! The Realtor who Googled the buyer’s Brain Cancer and suddenly became a Neuro-Surgeon with her diagnosis.

  307. Pat says:

    You are making me laugh a lot, you know. I picture Jimmy Cagney as a one-dimensional character in an old gangster movie.

    Just please don’t get swallowed up by it…but you must enjoy it.

  308. reinvestor101 says:

    :-)

  309. NJGator says:

    Sean – We’re 3+ hours delayed into Newark too. Stuck in the Dayton airport Starbucks, which seems like it is closing up for the night at 7. I have no idea what we’ll do for the next hour and a half until the Jets game starts.

  310. chicago tan-talizer says:

    Is this someone’s New Year’s resolution WTF? Jim could answer the question in a flash. Ask him….

  311. frank says:

    #286,
    “Is anyone with any level of intelligence and common sense buying anything in the next 12 months?”
    I am under contract right now, hoping to close this week.
    Buy a house now before 4 things happen:
    1. Rates go up
    2. Prices go up
    3. Existing inventory disappears
    4. Inflation goes up

  312. Gator (319)-

    Go to sleep. The Jets are as good as done.

  313. frank (321)-

    You’re not the alias of anyone here. Nobody- even heavily medicated- could channel your level of complete stupidity.

    Please die. Soon.

  314. Hey, frank- you’re a hedgie. Please read this, get back to us and discuss the ramifications in detail. You pea-brained imbecile.

    “The next time there is a market crash, and you try to withdraw what you thought was “absolutely” safe money, a back office person will get back to you saying, “Sorry – your money is now frozen. Bank runs have become illegal.” This is precisely the regulation now proposed by the administration. In essence, the entire US capital market is now a hedge fund, where even presumably the safest investment tranche can be locked out from within your control when the ubiquitous “extraordinary circumstances” arise. The second the game of constant offer-lifting ends, and money markets are exposed for the ponzi investment proxies they are, courtesy of their massive holdings of Treasury Bills, Reverse Repos, Commercial Paper, Agency Paper, CD, finance company MTNs and, of course, other money markets, and you decide to take your money out, well – sorry, you are out of luck. It’s the law.”

    http://www.zerohedge.com/article/government-your-legal-right-redeem-your-money-market-account-has-been-denied

  315. chi (322)-

    Why the hatred?

  316. gary says:

    The House Democrats have a $174,000,000,000.00 jobs bill on the table and here’s all you need to know regarding their sincerity and motive:

    Conspicuously absent from the House plan were President Barack Obama’s proposals to attack unemployment through tax credits for small businesses that create jobs and for homeowners who make their dwellings more energy efficient.

    They f*cking *suck. They… f*cking… *suck.

  317. Happy fcuking New Year. From Kunstler:

    “Even if we turned Afghanistan into Idaho-East, with Kabul as the next Sun Valley, complete with Ralph Lauren shops and Mario Batali bistros, Pakistan would remain every bit as chaotic and dangerous in terms of supplying the world with terrorists. And how long would we expect to remain in Afghanistan pacifying the population? Five years? Ten Years? Forever? It’s a ridiculous project.

    http://kunstler.com/blog/2009/12/forecast-2010.html

    What’s more, our presence there seems likely to stimulate more terror incidents here in the USA. We’ve been supernaturally lucky since 2001 that there hasn’t been another incident of mass murder, even something as easy and straightforward as a shopping mall massacre or a bomb in a subway. Our luck is bound to run out. There are too many “soft” targets and our borders are too squishy. Small arms and explosives are easy to get in the USA. I predict that 2010 may be the year our luck does run out. …”

  318. frank says:

    Cursing is the first sign of a failed RE agent, aka one that can’t sell anything.

  319. NJGator says:

    TCCR- The airport Starbucks is still open, so that leaves us something else to do. Discovered today that there is not much more to Dayton than the University,the USAF Museum (which Lil Gator loved) and chain restaurant h*ll. My SIL will be moving out of Cinicinnati and closer to here once her daughter finished out the school year, so now our trips here will be even less interesting!

    My New Year’s resolution is to hold onto anger, so I am going to write off my FIL completely. Totally justified since he didn’t remember Lil Gator’s name (misaddressed the Chanukah gift), sent Lil Gator the wrong gift and then made me take it away from him after he had opened it and then specifically excluded us from dinner on Saturday night because he apparently didn’t want to risk having to pay for us at the local chain restaurant even though he sees his grandson once or twice per year max. It’s a blessing really as I can’t listen to anymore stories about the 5 cats.

  320. frank says:

    #325,
    Since you hate this country so much, it’s time for you to find a better place to live, try Iran or Cuba for change.

  321. Pat says:

    This thread displays a marked lack of pomposity. As I re-read it, the tone is sexually frustrated at best.

    Either you all are too chicken nervous to make a pitch for what you think, or, like me, have accepted that the current variables in motion are a solar system composed of unstable ephemeral gaseous masses. Where they stop, nobody knows.

    I truly want to make a prediction, James. But it’s painful.

  322. Pat says:

    gator that’s horrible.

    I don’t know what would be worse, having no Grandpa’s, like us, or your situation.

    Do you want to give me Gramp’s e-mail?

    When I focus, I can do some serious damage.

  323. Pat says:

    http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aamYsXGvI_2o&pos=4

    This is a leading indicator. Kinda sorta the first one I’ve taken seriously this year.

  324. njescapee says:

    BREAKING NEWS: Newark Airport’s Terminal C in lockdown due to security breech, TSA says

    from msnbc.com

  325. NJGator says:

    Apologies if this has already been posted:

    Real Estate in Cape Coral Is Far From a Recovery

    FELLOW adventurers, refugees from winter and armchair archaeologists, we are here on this shiny green tour bus to embark on a safari of sorts. We’ll be exploring the local habitat, as upended and reconfigured by an epochal real estate fiasco.

    Our guide, Marc Joseph, stalks wildlife of the white-elephant variety. A real estate agent, he specializes in houses that proved financially disastrous for someone — the banker, the homeowner, the American taxpayer, often all three. Mr. Joseph’s bus is emblazoned with red letters spelling the name of this thrill ride: ForeclosureToursRUs.com.

    As we navigate this speculator’s paradise turned financial wasteland, Mr. Joseph stands at the front of the bus in a green polo shirt, highlighting specimens like this one: a white stucco house fronted by palm trees and topped by a Spanish tile roof on a canal emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. It last sold in 2005 for $850,000. Yours today for $273,000.

    “How much cheaper does it have to go before you say, ‘Well, that’s just craziness,’ ” Mr. Joseph beseeches as our tour group — mostly retirees from up North, basking in Bermuda shorts on another December day stolen from winter — examines the swimming pool and the Jacuzzi. “I’m telling you now, your opportunity is banging at your door.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/business/economy/03coral.html?pagewanted=1&em

  326. NJGator says:

    NJEscapee- Cr*p that is not going to help us to get home!

  327. njescapee says:

    STORY HIGHLIGHTS
    TSA: Man walks through wrong side of checkpoint exit
    Police seek the individual, who walked from the public side to the sterile side
    No flights allowed to leave from Terminal C Sunday evening
    Incident causes arrival delays and mainly affected Continental Airlines

    RELATED TOPICS
    Air Travel
    Newark (New Jersey)
    Continental Airlines Inc.
    (CNN) — A terminal at the Newark, New Jersey, airport was closed Sunday night after a man walked through the wrong side of a checkpoint exit, the Transportation Security Administration said.

    Police are seeking the individual, who walked from the public side to the sterile side, said TSA spokeswoman Anne Davis. No flights were allowed to leave from Terminal C Sunday evening, she said.

    Authorities are reviewing video from airport cameras. They are not sure whether the man was once on the sterile side and went back, or if he never went through screening, Davis said.

    Other travelers who had reached the sterile area after going through checkpoints are being moved back to the public area to be re-screened, she said.

    The incident caused arrival delays and mainly affected Continental Airlines, which is the airport’s largest tenant.

    Newark Liberty International Airport, which is located about 15 miles from Manhattan, is the second-largest hub for Continental.

    The airport handles roughly 35 million passengers a year.

  328. NJGator says:

    Stu wants to know how much we pay those incompetent TSA guys.

  329. Gator
    Did you fly Continental?

  330. njescapee says:

    wait, next they’re gonna unionize.

  331. mikeinwaiting says:

    Just go in the exit of a secure area. Boy those bad guys are crafty, we need 1000 million dollar machines to protect against that. What a bunch of clowns running that op.

  332. mikeinwaiting says:

    nj 341 Now that will solve the problem!

  333. NJGator says:

    Yup Lost. Flying Continental Express. De-icing as we speak. I’d like to thanks the cracker jack security staff in Newark for these extra hours in Ohio (you can never have too many of those). Sarcasm off…

  334. sastry says:

    Gator… Sorry about your predicament.

    I am sure the problem will be solved if they start strip searching all “non-repub” males between 12 and 50. And if they miss one, they can deplane everyone and search each and every plane (and cavity) again.

    On the bright side, at least this will result in some new jobs and more cars/car part sales.

    S

  335. gman says:

    Grim,

    I need some new years spirt. Give us some new comp killers!

  336. njescapee says:

    About the first decade of what was to be the Second American Century, the pessimists have been proven right.

    According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States began the century producing 32 percent of the world’s gross domestic product. We ended the decade producing 24 percent. No nation in modern history, save for the late Soviet Union, has seen so precipitous a decline in relative power in a single decade.

    The United States began the century with a budget surplus. We ended with a deficit of 10 percent of gross domestic product, which will be repeated in 2010. Where the economy was at full employment in 2000, 10 percent of the labor force is out of work today and another 7 percent is underemployed or has given up looking for a job.

    Between one-fourth and one-third of all U.S. manufacturing jobs have disappeared in 10 years, the fruits of a free-trade ideology that has proven anything but free for this country. Our future is being outsourced — to China.

    While the median income of American families was stagnant, the national debt doubled.

    The dollar lost half its value against the euro. Once the most self-sufficient republic in history, which produced 96 percent of all it consumed, the U.S.A. is almost as dependent on foreign nations today for manufactured goods, and the loans to pay for them, as we were in the early years of the republic.

    What the British were to us then, China is today.

    Beijing holds the mortgage and grows impatient as we endlessly borrow on equity and refuse to begin paying it down. The possibility exists of an eventual run on the dollar or even a U.S. debt default.

    Who did this to us? We did it to ourselves.

    We sold ourselves a lot of snake oil about the Global Economy, interdependence, free trade and “it doesn’t make any difference where goods are produced.” The George W. Bush Republicans ran up the deficit with tax cuts, two wars and a splurge in social spending to rival the guns-and-butter of the Great Society.

    Abandoning its role as the fellow who comes and takes away the punch bowl when the party’s getting good, the Fed kept the money flowing fast and free, creating the tech bubble that burst in Y2K and the stock and housing bubble that burst at decade’s end.

    To pull us back from the cliff’s edge, over which we were headed a year ago, the Fed doubled the money supply, while the administration ran up deficit spending to the highest level since World War II.

    Unlike World War II, however, there is no end in sight to these deficits.

    The stock market, which flat-lined over the decade, had to surge 50 percent in 2009 to retrieve the worst losses since the Depression.

    Everyone, it seems, except for Washington bureaucrats and Wall Street, for whom the bonuses never seem to stop, has been hammered by the sinking home values and shrinking portfolios.

    After Sept. 11, the nation was united behind a president as it had not been since Pearl Harbor. But instead of focusing on the enemies who did this to us, we took Osama bin Laden’s bait and plunged into a war in Iraq that bled and divided us, alienated Europe and the Arab world, and destroyed the Republican Party’s reputation as the reliable custodian of national security and foreign policy.

    The party paid — with the loss of both houses in 2006 and the presidency in 2008 — but the nation has not stopped paying.

    With nearly 200,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and another 30,000 more on the way, al-Qaida is now in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa, while the huge U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and Iraq serves as its recruiting poster.

    Again, it is not a malevolent fate that has done this to us. We did it to ourselves. We believed all that hubristic blather about our being the “greatest empire since Rome,” the “indispensable nation” and “unipolar power” advancing to “benevolent global hegemony” in a series of “cakewalk” wars to “end tyranny in our world.”

    After a decade of self-delusion and self-indulgence, we must stop deceiving ourselves. As Hurricane Katrina demonstrated, the “can-do” nation that won World War II in Europe and the Pacific in less than four years, that put a man on the moon in the same decade JFK said we would, is history.

    We have a government that cannot balance its books, defend its borders or win its wars. And what is it now doing? Drafting another entitlement program as we are informed that the Social Security and Medicare trust funds have unfunded liabilities in the trillions.

    At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the question is not whether we will preside over the creation of a New World Order, but whether America’s decline is irreversible.

    Mr. Buchanan is a nationally syndicated columnist and author of Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World, “The Death of the West,”, “The Great Betrayal,” “A Republic, Not an Empire” and “Where the Right Went Wrong.”

  337. PGC says:

    #330 Gator,

    Don’t get me started with Grandparents. Although one is about to board a cruise ship in this weather which does put a small smile on my face.

    Dayton is an interesting place. I ended up there with a load of friends as it had the only hotel availblilty we could find on the F1 weekend at Indy.

    The Air Force 1 collection was the coolest, but whole place can be summed up by the phone book. 14 pages of churches and two pages of bowling alleys.

  338. yikes says:

    sweet. one of my predictions will be right – jets in the playoffs!

  339. frank (329)-

    In your mind:

    all kinds of malinvestment = success

    Please die soon.

  340. I think TSA is unionizing.

    Great. Another pack of leeches to drain us dry.

  341. Outofstater says:

    #351 Maybe tomorrow frank will go back to his day job as an amoeba.

  342. Sean says:

    Just got home from terminal A, longest TSA line I have ever seen, way way around the corner down past the food court. Gonna be a few people snoozing in the terminal tonight I bet because they missed their flight.

    Poor suckers, sure my flight was nearly 3 hours late do to a 22 mph cross wind and some idiot TSA guard who was probably snoozing in terminal C, but the lines at the TSA looks like 2 hours.

    Just another reason to leave NJ for good a third world airport is better than the one we have in Newark.

    Seems we are a bit closer to Ragnarok, the Jets are spanking Cincy and Ochocinco may have to change his name back to Johnson.

  343. yikes says:

    pretty wild story here

    the lack of tourism leads to less trash leads to fewer jobs

    http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_14109065

  344. syncmaster says:

    Sean use atlantic city! There’s more to NJ than Newark.

  345. NJGator says:

    finally landed @ EWR but methinks it’s a bad sign when the flight attendant walks down the aisle and offers you water AFTER the plane has landed. I think this is going to be a very long night!

  346. NJGator says:

    Still stuck on tarmac. Sick passenger in front of us getting oxygen from flight attendant. Continental crew great. Newark ground staff not so much. No sign of any medical personnel to take this lady off the plane.

  347. yikes says:

    #
    sas says:
    January 2, 2010 at 11:53 am

    “Everyone should have the pleasure of marrying a gorgeous woman”

    everytime you see a gorgeous woman, remember, there is a guy somewhere tired of her crap.

    you botched it.

    “No matter how hot she is, somebody, somewhere, is tired of F-ing her.”

  348. sastry says:

    NJ: Enjoy your freedom to use the phone while it lasts. It sucks that they have to close an entire f’kn terminal. I think the TSA security folks are in thankless, underpaid job.

    S

  349. yikes says:

    Al “The Thermostat” Gore says:
    January 2, 2010 at 5:25 pm

    For 28k this could be your SHTF vehicle.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLayOGZfeSU

    early candidate for post of the month. just LMAO

  350. still_looking aka Tan-Less says:

    http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/runway-girl/2010/01/exclusive-tsa-agents-notebook.html

    this is not inspiring feelings of safety.

    from zerohedge.

    sl

  351. BeachBum says:

    #311 – Thanks Fiddy for your quick response. I’m going to check out that one on Jefferson.

    I was trying to figure out how to search using common sites for all homes for sale in a certain neighborhood. If you put in the zip, you get all of Red Bank, if you put in Middletown, you get all of Port Monmouth etc etc etc, and River Plaza doesn’t really exist (some would say shouldn’t exist, but whatever…)
    Thanks.

  352. You definitely need to know that this is my alltime fav blogs.

Comments are closed.