From Bloomberg:
Corzine Leaves $8 Billion Gap as N.J. Governor Readies Exit
Jon Corzine, only the second sitting New Jersey governor to lose a general election since 1947, makes his farewell speech tomorrow with the third-most indebted U.S. state facing spending cuts as steep as 25 percent to close a record $8 billion budget gap.
The one-term Democrat is leaving with tax revenue down 12 percent since taking office in 2006, local property levies up 9 percent to the highest-in-the-nation average of $7,045 and his Republican successor, former U.S. prosecutor Christopher Christie, proposing state-aid reductions that may force towns to fire teachers, close libraries and stop maintaining parks.
Corzine, 63, the former chairman of Goldman, Sachs & Co., vowed to use his Wall Street experience to repair the state’s finances after his election. After winning increases in taxes and proposing to raise highway tolls 800 percent, he faced mounting voter disapproval as the global recession that started in 2007 pushed New Jersey’s unemployment rate to a 32-year high.
The governor’s inability to erase chronic deficits and the economic slump have left chaos for his successor, said John Mousseau, who helps oversee $1.4 billion at Cumberland Advisors Inc. in Vineland, New Jersey.
“Governor-elect Christie has a hell of a problem ahead of him,” Mousseau said. “Were the expectations higher for Governor Corzine? Obviously.”
…
The governor “was unwilling to make the tough decisions he needed to make,” said Senator Kevin O’Toole, a Republican member of the Senate Budget Committee from Wayne. “There was this great hope that he’d be an imaginative, aggressive Wall Street genius who was going to fix state finances in New Jersey. Governor Corzine was ill-equipped to deal with Trenton and with state politics.”
…
Christie, 47, takes office Jan. 19 as New Jersey faces an $8 billion deficit in the fiscal year beginning July 1, more than a quarter of the budget and its biggest shortfall ever, according to the nonpartisan Office of Legislative Services. To narrow the gap, he asked state department heads to prepare scenarios for cuts of 15 percent to 25 percent.
From the Courier News:
Plainfield apartment management firm files for bankruptcy protection
Connolly Properties Inc. says tenants will be unaffected by the latest chapter in a continuing courtroom saga in which the company is fighting for its financial survival.
The city-based company, which manages more than 3,000 apartment units in approximately 60 different properties in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
From HousingWire:
Redefault Rates ‘Tragic’, Says Amherst
According to Amherst Securities Group, default and prepayment rates on non-agency, private-label mortgage-backed securities (MBS) were constant in November. However, re-performance rates, where payments return to less than two months delinquent, were down and re-default rates “tragic” in November, according to market commentary provided by the firm.
…
Re-defaults after modification were $12.8bn, or 10.9%, up from 10.5% last month.
Laurie Goodman of Amherst has said the fundamentals of certain modification programs put them at a disposition for unsuccessful modification. The Treasury Department’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), for example, is “destined to fail” as it does not address negative equity.
From the Daily Record:
Filling a $9.5 billion hole
AS A U.S. ATTORNEY, Chris Christie took on mobsters, crooked politicians and New Jersey’s infamous culture of corruption.
That seems simple compared to the task Christie now confronts: balance a state budget that is projected to be $9.5 billion in the red. That’s equal to about a third of the current budget.
When he is sworn in as governor Jan. 19, Christie will have less than two months to get the state’s fiscal house in order. He must present his first budget to the Legislature on March 16.
Unlike the federal government, which routinely spends more money than it takes in, New Jersey’s constitution mandates a balanced state budget.
“This is not a fun time to be governor, to say the least,” said James W. Hughes, a Rutgers University dean and public policy expert. “Just to survive, there are going to have to be significant budget cuts.”
“Just to survive, there are going to have to be significant budget cuts.”
Come now Prof. Hughes, budget cuts aren’t required.
You forget the trump cards, pension deferral and debt refinancing.
Why make the tough decisions when you can just leave it to the next guy?
no problem , lets sell Trenton to China
Or increase tolls on the GSP to $9.00
Pretty much nothing now will stop the state from ceasing to function and completely falling apart. The public sector employees will go berserk when they start seeing cuts to their bennies. They will then win when they take their complaints our soci@list courts (just like in CA right now), and the state gubmint will simply have no choice other than shutting down.
Personally, I look forward to Trenton only being open six weeks a year. Less opportunities for them to do even more damage.
The best part of oblivion will be no more Trenton.
when my mother-inlaw retired from teaching 2 years ago she said her pension would be Grandfathered and the state would never be able to cut back on it. I told her the Gubmint can do what ever they want and used airline pilots as an example of pension cuts
it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Oh wait – did’nt we already sell the Parkway??
From the Times of Trenton:
A tax revolt in New Jersey could spread nationwide
A couple of recent and very significant events occurred here in New Jersey that could lead to a national trend. New Jersey residents may be ready to revolt because of extremely high taxes. They appear ready to elect officials who promise to reduce their tax burden regardless of the consequences or even oust previously elected officials who don’t quite understand their view.
In November, incumbent Gov. Jon Corzine lost his bid for re-election despite his strong philosophical ties to the popular President Barack Obama. Or maybe he lost because of those ties. Gov.-elect Chris Christie campaigned on many issues, but he consistently stated that he would not raise any taxes and, indeed, would do his best to reduce them.
Perhaps more significant was something that recently happened in Wildwood. The small seasonal community, located at the shore near the southern tip of New Jersey, recalled both its mayor and a councilman who promised to keep property taxes under control and then raised them by more than 18 percent. Wildwood’s organized tax revolters said, “No more,” and both elected officials were handily voted out of office.
Could this be a national trend?
“Look, I am not a revolutionary,” a tax revolter may say, “I am just an average hard-working guy. But I am tired of working four hours a day for the government and only four hours for my family and me. I wish there were another way. I don’t like the idea of a tax revolution. I really don’t. But look at it this way: I worked hard to get where I am today. And nobody ever gave me anything. Now that I am here, I don’t get rewarded. What is the incentive?
Next thing to face extinction: jobs.
“If Boomers are leaving the full and part-time labor force voluntarily or otherwise at the historical percent of past cohorts going back to the early to mid-20th century, and Millennials’ participation rate holds to the historical average, the labor force may grow no faster than ~0.3-0.4% hereafter, which would mean no more than 460,000-620,000 net job entrants per year.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/01/reflections-on-boomer-demographics.html
However, there is the risk that people under 30 will continue to suffer disproportionately higher joblessness, as is the case at this stage in a secular depression.
If the unemployment rate for the cohort ages 16-19 and 20-24 persists at the average 15-16% to 29-30% today, the underutilized youth labor situation will mean that the decline in Boomers’ participation in the labor force will approximate the percent of young workers entering the labor force and finding employment, suggesting that the labor force will not grow much for years, if at all.
Note that Japan’s labor force has been shrinking for a decade.”
Look for municipal utilities to jack up the level of Proz@c in the drinking water.
Chef? Hoo hah! You can be a chef, making shit sandwiches for all. Or maybe you can learn 1,000 ways to cook millet, which is the US’ luxury food of the future.
From the article referenced in #12:
“When “fly-by-night” unaccredited “colleges” are advertising “a great medical career degree in just 12 months”, you know a bubble has formed.
Mish: Indeed. There is a massive bubble in education classes but it will probably get bigger yet. These colleges (and the Obama administration) both perpetuate the idea that we can train laid off welders to become productive Java programmers, and laid off Java programmers into productive welders. Want to become a “chef”? The Art Institute of Chicago says it is easy. OK but who will hire you when you complete the course?”
Judd Gregg on Squawk, making fun of Ron Paul.
It will be fun when this guy is back in NH, working on a road crew.
TCCR,
If the house next to you goes on the market will you let me know? I wanna be your neighbor when the shit hits the fan.
sl
@12 Clot
Steve Keen “So the government’s stimulus money will sit unlent in banks, whereas if it were given to the debtors, they at least would either spend it or repay their debts.”
Mish says..”Regardless of how the consumer credit report is revised, a tip of the hat goes to Steve Keen, one of the few economists in the world who understands just how flawed the “money multiplier” theory is.”
I recently read Steve Keen’s “Cavaliers of Credit” from February – very detailed – too hard for me to follow but I did glean this:
We are therefore not in a “fractional reserve banking system,” but in a credit-money one, where the dynamics of money and debt are vastly different to those assumed by Bernanke and neoclassical economists in general.”[10]
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2009/01/31/therovingcavaliersofcredit/
Steve Keen “DebtWatch #31 February 2009
“The Roving Cavaliers of Credit”
Oh great collective, I have a query for thee.
Have a friend looking at a condo complex in whitehouse NJ off of 22. Whats the best way to dig up the dirt on this place?
Whats the best way to find Hunterdon county mortgage records are they online somewhere?
JETS YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
#14 Code Red
I spoke with one of those culinary places in New York last month. The guy gave me his pitch and I asked what the starting pay was. $10 to $12 an hour. I told the guy that wouldn’t cover my daycare costs, have a nice day.
Cindy (17)-
Exactly. And, were there even some gubmental “mandate” to lend, the money to lend is not there, since LOANS ARE MADE FROM CAPITAL, NOT RESERVES.
The big banks are all insolvent, and the reserves are there to offset future losses…which these banks KNOW are coming.
hyde (19)-
Hunterdon stuff not online. You have to go to the courthouse.
If you’re talking about Whitehouse Village, it’s a good community. If it’s Cushetunk, beware…typical shit-quality KHOV construction.
safe (21)-
I could figure out a way to make being in prison more profitable than being a cook.
Dollar gonna get buggered today. QE will go until we throw up our hands in universal default.
Got shiny?
20.John says:
January 11, 2010 at 8:27 am
JETS YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JJ: On channel 4 they were asking the weatherman for the forecast for the weekend of 1/23, because the Jets are going to have a home playoff game…..
the taxpayers of NJ are probably to stupid
to revolt. besides its a welfare state.
http://www.tanga.com/products/jersey-shore-proper-fist-pump-technique-t-shirt
Deal of the day!
code red 24,
thats too easy!
Can a private seller list a home on MLS for a fee?
Bye, bye, DXY.
Under 77 and plunging.
#7,
How about you stop whining and move? just leave us alone, there’s enough whiners in state already.
hyde (30)-
Sure. Just find a flat-fee internet broker who offers a MLS plan.
BTW, this gambit no longer works. Being on the MLS means nothing, in and of itself. If the price isn’t right, buyers will stay away. Once the price IS right, buyers will lowball that, as they will try to pocket the seller’s perceived “savings”.
frank (32)-
Hows about you die?
DETROIT (Reuters) – Ford Motor Co swept the 2010 North American Car and Truck Awards at the Detroit auto show on Monday, marking only the third time in the 17-year history of the award that a single automaker has claimed both titles.
A panel of about 50 U.S. and Canadian automotive journalists named the Ford Fusion Hybrid the car of the year and the Ford Transit Connect the truck of the year.
The Focus beat out the Buick LaCrosse and the Volkswagen Golf/GTI for the car title, while the Transit Connect beat out the Chevrolet Equinox and Subaru Outback for the truck title.
The automakers typically use the awards, presented at the start of the North American International Auto Show, to market their vehicles.
“A couple of years ago — a number of years ago — we said we wanted to get back into the car business and we wanted to do it with vehicles that had great quality, great fuel efficiency, technology and safety,” said Mark Fields, president of the Americas for Ford.
#34,
I don’t want you to die, just move, whine in some other country, like Iran or Cuba.
I am praying we beat San Diego and Raven win. One last game at Giant stadium. I have four front row 2009 seats so I will have lots of friends if there is an AFC championship game. Also if Jets win AFC there are 17,500 tickets for Jets fans so you get on average one SB tickets for every four full season tickets in your name. Individual tickets and partial season plans dont count.
chicagofinance says:
January 11, 2010 at 8:46 am
20.John says:
January 11, 2010 at 8:27 am
JETS YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JJ: On channel 4 they were asking the weatherman for the forecast for the weekend of 1/23, because the Jets are going to have a home playoff game…..
Oh, those crazy guys at PIMCO…
What? This isn’t a joke? OHHHH NOOOOO!!!!
“And in addition to a neverending quantitative easing regime, Pimco thinks the following measure are applicable:
1. Explicitly promise there will be no exit from QE and no rate hikes until inflation is not just positive, but meaningfully positive. One way to do this would be to adopt a price level target rather than an inflation target, embracing the idea that past deflationary sins will not only not be forgiven but require even more aggressive reflationary atonement.
2. Buy unlimited amounts of the long-dated Japanese Government Bonds (JGBs) to pull down nominal yields, with an accord with the fiscal authority to absorb any future losses on JGBs, once reflationary policy has borne its fruits, generating a bear market in JGBs.
3. Working with the Ministry of Finance, sell unlimited amounts of Yen against other developed countries’ currencies, printing the necessary Yen.
Again, nobody really cares about Japan – the question is whether these are relevant for the US, and whether the proposed monetization and currency race to the bottom are applicable to that much bigger anti-deflationist Keynesian experiment: the US.
But as Mr. Bernanke intoned, no country with a fiat currency, which borrows in its own currency in the context of a current account deficit, should ever willingly embrace deflation.
So yes, look for endless QE, ever-increasing monetization and a much more worthless dollar in the US future very soon.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/pimco-discusses-failed-keynesian-japanese-anti-deflation-experiment-implications-us
frank (36)-
I fervently want you to die.
…or become butt-buddies with Orin Kramer.
The Ford Transit Connect is essentially the Honda Element in a hybrid. Now that’s American ingenuity right there.
John,
The odds of both Jets and Ravens win on the road against the Chargers and Colts are the same as the next stimulus bill producing a jobless recovery. Strengthening our USD and punishing gold bugs.
We’ve taught them well.
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) –” Dubai’s housing rout sent prices down 52 percent in the past year, prompting some homeowners to abandon their cars and mortgage payments and flee the country. Not one received a foreclosure notice.
Until now.
Barclays Plc won the sheikdom’s first foreclosure cases in court, clearing the way for lenders holding about $16 billion of Dubai home loans to take action when borrowers don’t pay. Islamic lender Tamweel PJSC, the emirate’s biggest mortgage bank, has several of its own foreclosure claims pending and estimates about 3 percent of its mortgages are in default.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a4TwfiSIfjdM
frank,
I’m still trying to figure what DSM-IV category you fall into.
Not sure where a self-loathing sociopathic douchebag who enjoys being hated by others lands you.
Whatever it is, rest assured your only way out is a dirt nap.
sl
Islamic lenders- who somehow don’t charge interest- begin to foreclose.
Gotta be a sign of the apocalypse.
TCCR,
Local 15 Union now ending self directed funding of 401-K. They now decide where the retirement fund monies are going…. Hmmm wonder where that would be. Should be interesting.
sl
The Condition-Code Red says:
January 11, 2010 at 6:46 am
The best part of oblivion will be no more Trenton.
they aint coming to bucks county. we’ll detonate the bridges and snipers will line the delaware river
Clot,
Dubai is just an amusing mess, cant wait to see what they do with the worlds largest empty building…
By the way the chinese RE mess is probably 2-3 orders of magnitude worse, the catch there is that they have the global supply of rare earth metals cornered. If the rest of the planets wants to keep its tech and build new stuff, we will probably be forced to bail them out somehow.
Most do not realize, but they have already placed a gun to the 1st worlds head and no one has realized it yet (at least not publicly)
surely Jets fans remember the last time they went into San Diego in the playoffs:
2005.
Jets were 6 point underdogs.
Chargers were 12-4
Jets won, 20-17 in overtime.
jets are 8 point dogs this time
#48 – Mr Hyde – Dubai is just an amusing mess, cant wait to see what they do with the worlds largest empty building
We’ve suggested paintball in the past for the Xanadu project. How `bout paintball & base jumping. Go all late `90s Xtreme sports retro with it.
re: “The Ford Transit Connect”
That is a truck?
http://www.fordvehicles.com/transitconnect/
make money says:
January 11, 2010 at 9:16 am
John,
The odds of both Jets and Ravens win on the road against the Chargers and Colts are the same as the next stimulus bill producing a jobless recovery. Strengthening our USD and punishing gold bugs.
look up the Colts history of choking in the postseason. 2 yrs in a row to SD. there was a loss to Pittsburgh.
also, their starters havent played a full game in 3 weeks.
John – Call off the bulldozers for now. If the Jets win this weekend and the Ravens topple beat the #1 seed the Colts guess what? The Jets would host the AFC Championship Game in the final game at Giants Stadium.
hyde (48)-
They should have Hu Jintao on that TV show, “Hoarders”.
http://www.aetv.com/hoarders/
Tosh,
forget base jumping. i want to do an orbital jump! Thats an extreme sport.
Imagine a jump from LEO (Low Earth Orbit)at an altitude of 6600 Km from the surface. the delineation of space is generally considered to be 6500 KM,
for such a jump your body would be carrying a specific energy of about 32 MJ/Kg,
If you jump from an orbiting platform (i.e. space shuttle space station etc) then you re-enter the atmosphere at about 15,000 MPH.
The closet thing to this was done by an air force pilot off of a baloon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD_cTnzU7fA
yikes (49)-
Jets don’t have Herm this time around (sarcasm off). San Diego wins and covers the number.
Jets need to have an old-timers’ day next year and bring back Kotite and Coslet.
hyde (55)-
I met that guy. Certifiable.
The airforce pilot accelerated from 0 to greater then the speed of sound during his free fall. It was the Kittenger jump from a balloon at 102,800.
#55 – Mr Hyde – I haven’t seen that video in a long time. Positively nuts. I don’t know how he walks with b***s that big.
tosh 55,
a large wheelbarrow that a bevy of scantily clad women follow him around with
sean (51)-
Looks like it might be good for hauling around small numbers of corpses in urban areas. Bet you could fit it with a refrigeration unit pretty easily.
I admire F. At least they are burning up investor $$$ instead of taxpayer $$$. In the end, they will fail.
#60 – The universe should be so just.
Tosh,
a prototype system for an orbital jump was designed in the 50’s by nasa and never tested. My uncle was an engineer for the apollo program and showed me the design specs for it. Crazy stuff. by all accounts it would have probably been successful with 50’s/60’s tech. should definitely be doable now.
hyde (63)-
Pardon me for asking, but what is the purpose?
Then again, what is the purpose of “Steven Seagal, Lawman”?
I am now going to pull my brain out my ears and toss it in the dryer.
http://www.aetv.com/steven-seagal-lawman/video/?bcpid=46881070001&bclid=36527476001&bctid=58931245001
Code Red
The purpose? many actually.
A last ditch bailout method from a spacecraft. As a sport. And has also been considered by the military for the rapid insertion of special ops personnel behind enemy lines.
In theory you could launch a person to about 6500 Km and have them on the ground anywhere on the planet in something like 4-6 hours. I forget the exact number but it was in that ball park.
It was also noted that it would be extremely difficult to intercept such an insertion ream even if you knew they ere coming given how fast they would re-enter. That was actually all calculated in the nasa design specs.
The original intent however, was for a method to escape a space vehicle in essentially nothing more then a space suit and survivably make back to the surface.
#63 – Ooooh! Your uncle had a cool job. There were lots of completely insane and incredibly interesting designs at that time; the Orion project, walking tanks for jungle warfare, etc. A great period for US engineering.
hyde (66)-
Please send me some of what these people are smoking.
Jump Force From Outer Space: Afghanistan.
Sounds like a great movie pitch.
Re #11 – “I am tired of working four hours a day for the government and only four hours for my family and me.”
I am not opposed to appropriate taxes if they provide useful things (fire stations, roads, schools, etc.) that benefit for my family and my society.
I seems so many people have gotten to the point that they think taxes are only a drain on them and provide no benefit whatsoever: that they are working “for the government” not for themselves AND their society.
(Granted, can be woefully inefficient, but would we really want to do without some of that infrastructure?)
re #68 – CodeRed you may get your wish, The NJ Assembly is voting today (their last day in session) on Medical Marijuana.
The Condition-Code Red says:
January 11, 2010 at 9:56 am
yikes (49)- Jets need to have an old-timers’ day next year and bring back Kotite and Coslet.
The impressive thing about Kotite is that the season before the Jets hired him, he was 7-2 with the Eagles before they lost their last 7 games. So if you count the two seasons with the Jets that immediately followed, he coached to 4-35 over 2 1/2 years…..genius…
Forget paintball and base jumping. Lets dig up Richard Dawson, re-animate him and let Xanadu be used for a real life running man. It could also be used as a stylish new prison. FYI Cabela’s is having a sale on 7.62, list in one of the sale catlogs I received. 400 rounds 259 bucks. I remember when you could get that crap round for the cost of an ammo can. Strange times
Tosh,
Its probably a big no-no, but when he died he left me all his old notes, page after page of crazy design specs from orbital escape methods to orion type projects. they are currently sitting in a storage locker as i have never had the tie to go through all of them. hundreds of pages….
For my 16th birthday, he gave me the operational manual for the space shuttle orbiter. the same one that the flight commander has to learn. still have it somewhere at my parents house.
orion is the answer to all of our current problems actually. We should just load up a 1-2 billion people into a small iron meteorite and attach 2 or 3 orion boosters, then off to alpha centauri!!!
orion is still very feasible of you didnt initiate the orion boosters before being outside the orbit of the moon. Use strap on conventional booster to reach escape velocity then fire orion at a safe distance. It would make a Europa mission a hope skip and a jump away.
Today’s installment of Soccer Bubble Collapse. Maybe Hicks could be persuaded to post here; he’d fit right in.
“Stephen Horner wrote to Hicks Jnr to express his concerns over the lack of transfer funds for boss Rafael Benitez. First, Horner was branded an “idiot”. Then a second response from Hicks jnr said: “Blow me, ****face. Go to hell. I’m sick of you.”
In a statement on their official website read: “Liverpool Football Club today announce that Thomas Hicks Jr has resigned as a director of both the club and its parent company Kop Holdings.
“Three new directors have been elected to the boards of both companies. These are Philip Nash, LFC Chief Financial Officer; Ian Ayre, LFC Commercial Director; and Casey Coffman, Executive Vice President of Hicks Holdings.”
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=723689&sec=england&cc=5901
Tosh,
http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:http%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fnews%2Fnewsitems%2F200606%2Fs1654796.htm+radiation+vaccine&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a
orion is ready to go!
Sean 51 how about sh*tbox.
Man U: we’re broke.
“Manchester United confirmed on Monday they will look to raise £500 million through bonds to restructure their debts.
The Premier League champions have been struggling under interest payments due on the debts which the Glazers ran up when borrowing in order to purchase the club. In the year up to June 30, 2009, they had to pay out £41.9 million in interest payments.
Although the club did record a pre-tax profit of £48.2 million, that figure includes the £80 million raised from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid. Without the sale of Ronaldo, the Red Devils would have been reporting a loss of £31.8 million. Turnover was up in the financial year, from £80.4 million in 2008 to £91.3 million.
The bond will be used to repay the “senior secured notes”. It was thought that the Glazers would be looking to finance the £175 million worth of payment-in-kind notes that are currently attracting 14.25% interest. However, this is considered personal debt and will not be refinanced through bonds.
“Manchester United today announced that it will be seeking to raise approximately £500 million aggregate principal amount from an offering of senior secured notes due 2017,” said a United statement. “The notes, whose proceeds will be used to refinance existing debt secured against the club, will be issued by MU Finance plc.”
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=723752&sec=england&cc=5901
tosh 67
take a group of young engineers, provide an unlimited supply of coffee, and tell them to solve a problem using any method they see fit so long as it provides consistent results, and you end up with some seriously crazy engineering feats.
this nation no longer has the cajones for that. the profit margin is to small.
Hyde we need to have a GTG (geek together). I would love to get into reading that stuff.
I met Kelly Johnson (designer of the SR-71) when I was a kid did really what a great treat that was until I was an adult.
sean (71)-
I think we can fix a lot of strip mall vacancy problems with about 1,000 or so medical marijuana stores.
#75 Clot
What Bubble? Sell a player for 80m and make 48m profit for the year.
Manchester United has said it plans to raise £500m through a bond issue in order to refinance its debts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8451848.stm
PGC (82)-
Too bad George Best is dead. If he wasn’t, the Glazers would try to sell him to somebody.
clot 81 I must open one of those. Money maker for sure. Forget gold sell pot.
PGC-
Big rumor is that Berbs and Vidic are as good as gone, too.
Every time Rooney steps on the pitch these days, his value goes down.
Leeds back in the Prem; Man U down to League 2!!!!
#79 – this nation no longer has the cajones for that. the profit margin is to small.
No it doesn’t, it’s a shame too.
mike (84)-
Nah. My peeps in CA say the way to go is to get a script for bud (tell your doc that your “chronic” back problems have flared up again), then become a “reseller” of the sacred weed.
No overhead, big margin.
Futures were up now all 3 down what up?
PPT take a day off.
Clot 87 I have chronic back problems with MRI to prove it Hmmmm.
Easier for the Fed to gun the markets off-hours.
Mr Hyde says:
January 11, 2010 at 9:56 am
Tosh, forget base jumping. i want to do an orbital jump! Thats an extreme sport.
Hyde: Explain to me how this guy doesn’t end up like Rotelli at minute 1:00 of this video?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXEvlXXvRko
NJ and You: Stoned Together
Coming soon to a currency near you:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126316619465423909.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories
Has anyone seen Steven Seagal shoot the tops of the q-tips off from twenty feet?
Chi,
No youtube access…
Clot 92
I love it very catchy.
.vix currently on medical marijuana.
mocha (94)-
Are you trying to set up some kind of Chuck Norris joke?
Mr Hyde says:
January 11, 2010 at 10:45 am
Chi, No youtube access…
Batman 1989 movie where Nicholson fries the gangster….
re: #87 – Clot these Marijuana legalization laws and now and example of the law of unintended consequences.
The California law allowed cooperatives specifically non-profit ones. However in LA County “entrepreneurs” A.K.A drug dealers setup roughly 1,000 dispensaries that are in the business of making lots of profit.
Technically the sale of marijuana is illegal under California state law, so law enforcement people and DAs and want to start a crackdown because the dispensaries are gaming the system they aren’t non-profits.
Sean (100)-
I’m just trying to figure out how to get a piece of this action.
If there is a God, this law will pass in NJ. It will also help our criminals become more imaginative and entrepreneurial.
I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up without a bong hit.
Move along, stress tests were fine.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=a4PnUdySIink
re #93 – Anecdotal, I shared a ski lift ride with a nice gentleman and his family from Venezuela who were enjoying the Holidays in Colorado. I didn’t even have to mention Chavez, they all said emphatically that he has to go since he is now nationalizing every business in his power grab. They are holding out for special elections this year to smooth things over.
Clot 101
“If there is a God, this law will pass in NJ. It will also help our criminals become more imaginative and entrepreneurial.”
And everybody says your all doom & gloom , that is a positive spin on it if there ever was one.
Note to self: restart subscription to High Times.
Chi
that’s easy. A minaturized zero point energy capacitor using a quantam phase distributor and a quark flavor modulator to prevent himself from getting cooked.
relo 103 No way they are letting that info see the light of day.
clot I will go with MAD Magazine great when stoned.
No joke Code,
http://tv.gawker.com/5428842/the-faux+zen-wisdom-of-steven-seagal
re: #101 – Clot the law will be strict in NJ. Two ounces per month per patient, you can’t grow your own plants. It must be purchased in New Jersey via a state licensed nonprofit growing facility.
Is this from the movie Back to Future?
Mr Hyde says:
January 11, 2010 at 11:04 am
Chi that’s easy. A minaturized zero point energy capacitor using a quantam phase distributor and a quark flavor modulator to prevent himself from getting cooked.
Sean 111 that comes out to about 3 joints per day depending how you roll them. You would be pretty much stoned all day.
#85 Clot
I read this and laughed.
“Concerns of the supporters are down to the fact that I haven’t moved in the transfer market. But that is nothing to do with the Glazers or with David Gill. It is simply because I am not going to pay £50million for a striker who is not worth it.”
At this point Berbs is cheaper to hold onto as they won’t get their 30m back for him.
clot: It has taken me years of review of your disturbed behavior, but I have finally achieved the ultimate “the end is nigh”…..you are messiah here to heal the real estates markets with your miracles akin to saving lepers et al. what do you think?
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%205:12-16;&version=TNIV;
Chi 112
Nope that just came out of my twisted mind
back to the future would require a 1.21 gigawatt power source and a transition velocity of 88 mph. I hear plutonium is a good fuel source
Could somebody help to list good real estate websites? e.g.,
http://www.realtor.com/
http://www.trulia.com/
http://www.zillow.com/
First they stopped buying our debt, now this:
China says missile defense system test successful
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100111/ap_on_re_as/as_china_missile_defense
Re: NORML
New Jersey returns to the Garden State !! Bergen County Gold, anyone ? Jersey Jack Flash for the peeps !!
If NJ passes the medical marijuana law, won’t that bring lots of people over the border from the surrounding states?
Tourism!
MTV Cribs: New York Yankees Style:
http://zellspinstripeblog.com/2009/12/28/cribs-yankees-style/
Clot, this one is for you. Just couldn’t resist…
Roxxxy the sex robot focuses on meaningful conversation instead of lifelike movement
By PETER SVENSSON AP Technology Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A New Jersey company says it has developed “the world’s first sex robot,” a life-size rubber doll that’s designed to engage the owner with conversation rather than lifelike movement. At a demonstration at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas on Saturday, the dark-haired, negligee-clad robot said “I love holding hands with you” when it sensed that its creator touched its hand. Another action, this one unprintable, elicited a different vocal response from Roxxxy the robot.
…
Since Hines is a soccer fan, it can already discuss Manchester United, he said. It snores, too.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEC_SEX_ROBOT?SITE=CAFRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
I never thought I would see the day when pot would be making a comeback – for tax purposes!!!!!
30 years from now, tobacco will be re-discovered for medical purposes…alzheimer’s and parkinson’s.
118,119 Doesn’t seem to be much downside to this legalization. Except maybe a good percentage of the populace running around stoned most of the time. LOL bread & circuses for all. This will pass,time to get out of Dodge.
[47] yikes
Google “Katrina” and “Gretna” about how one suburb of New Orleans dealt with that.
(hat tip to Kettle)
The really fun part would be this: If NJ devolved into anarchy and PA closed the bridges, and NJ took legal action against PA, the case has original jurisdiction in the US Supreme Court.
One court, one trial, for all the marbles.
Not gonna actually happen, but it makes for fun legal theatre.
chi (151)-
Were Jesus among us in NJ today, he’d tell the lepers to get a script for medical pot and chill.
[93] relo
Surprised that this is still a story. I went to Aruba right after Chavez got in, and the island was overrun with Venezuelans.
Basically, they were looking to spend their money before Chavez devalued it. And the capital flight from that country has been nothing short of breathtaking.
A lot of the moves Hugo is making,
accusing this company or that one of various things are actually mechanisms to keep them from pulling all of the capital out of the country. Unlike the current administration, they did not think to bar the door first.
Which is why I always maintained that the first sign of impending collapse will be currency controls and exit taxes. We have the latter, and are looking to implement the former.
that’s #115
fiddy (118)-
I bet NJ-grown pot is like Mexican headache weed.
Well, with medical marijuana, it looks like farming in NJ might be a “go” for us after all.
:)
sl
beer (121)-
I never did figure out where my wife was on Saturday night…
[121] beer
That gets an “ewwwwwwwwww.”
Ya know, it may be just how my mind works, but when I saw those first japanese robot prototypes, I thought, to what uses can they be realistically put right now, and how long until someone designs a sex version?
Bladerunner is closer than we think! And as deviant as I find this right now, in 50 years, it will be the norm. In 70 years, people will be marrying the damn things.
U.S. Postponed the Great Depression, Not Prevented It, Says Trend Forecaster Celente
Posted Jan 11, 2010 by Peter Gorenstein
A week into the New Year, the consensus among the Wall Street “experts” is the economy and the financial markets will continue to improve in 2010. Unlike last year, when we entered January with so much uncertainty, today pretty much everyone agrees the worst is behind us.
Gerald Celente does not agree.
Celente, the director of the Trends Research Institute, who’s been tracking trends for 30 years, thinks 2010 brings with it the Great Depression we narrowly avoided last year. Celente’s been making this prediction for several years, and as we know was nearly proved right.
Extraordinary government intervention helped prove him wrong, something he didn’t anticipate. “We never thought we’d be buying companies like AIG, we never thought we’d own parts of General Motors,” he tells Aaron in the accompanying clip. “The government’s never done these things before.”
Celente believes the bailouts have just postponed a depression — not prevented one: “The hand may change but the game doesn’t change.”
Celente says the recent signs of economic recovery are nothing more than a boost based on “a stimulus economy.” Once those measures are pulled back and interest rates rise, the economy will once again tank.
It’s not all gloom and doom. Eventually, Celente predicts, American ingenuity and innovation will drive a recovery.
The last paragraph in this one is good stuff.
Buy American: “Anti-China Backlash” Coming, Gerald Celente Says
Jan 11, 2010 by Aaron Task
Recent import/export data show China replaced Germany as the world’s largest exporter in 2009, and the U.S. as the world’s biggest auto market. In 2010, China’s surging economy is set to supplant Japan as the world’s second largest.
With the global economy still in trouble, especially in U.S. Europe, China’s rise is spurring a “real anti-China backlash,” according to Gerald Celente, director of the Trends Research Institute. “Those who have the gold rule [and] a lot of people don’t want to see China rule.”
In addition to U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires and rolled steel, Celente says there are already more than 200 different trade barriers erected globally, with more to come: “You’re going to see ‘Not Made in China’ become a slogan around the world,” he predicts. (Side note: on a recent trip to San Juan, I noticed a few stores in the old part of the city promoting their lack of Chinese-made goods.)
In part because of anti-China sentiment, Celente says the “buy local” movement is going to pick up steam in the coming years – and not just in the U.S. “We’re going to start seeing trade barriers go up more and more and more,” he says. “It’s not isolationism but survivalism.”
Unlike most mainstream economists, Celente does not, however, believe trade barriers are necessarily bad for the global economy, saying there really isn’t free trade today but the “dumping of products using cheap labor.”
TCCR :128
Based on any recent soil & air sample in this state….it would make a migraine feel like a good buzz.
Chronic, my a$$.
The whole planet is a fraud zombie.
“…Celente does not, however, believe trade barriers are necessarily bad for the global economy, saying there really isn’t free trade today but the “dumping of products using cheap labor.”
It takes heroic naivety to think the US housing market has turned the corner. The fuse has yet to detonate on the next mortgage bomb, $134bn (£83bn) of “option ARM” contracts due to reset violently upwards this year and next.
US house prices have eked out five months of gains on the Case-Shiller index, but momentum stalled in October in half the cities even before the latest surge of 40 basis points in mortgage rates. Karl Case (of the index) says prices may sink another 15pc. “If the 2008 and 2009 loans go bad, then we’re back where we were before – in a nightmare.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/6962632/America-slides-deeper-into-depression-as-Wall-Street-revels.html
Can’t wait to see the suggestions this guy comes up with.
Here’s a clue…stop spending money you don’t have. There’s your capital budget advice.
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Stu (137)-
You should apply for the job.
re: “Anti-China Backlash”
Especailly if they keep lacing kids toys with cadmium.
US consumer chief warns Asian firms on cadmium use
US consumer chief issues warning to Asian firms on use of toxic cadmium in children’s products
“I would highly encourage all of you to ensure that toy manufacturers and children’s product manufacturers in your country are not substituting cadmium, antimony, barium, in place of lead,” Tenenbaum tells an audience of children’s products manufacturers, exporters and regulators, according to a transcript. “All of us should be committed to keeping hazardous or toxic levels of heavy metals out of … toys and children’s products.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/US-consumer-chief-warns-Asian-apf-421751399.html?x=0
[133] veto
“In addition to U.S. tariffs on Chinese tires and rolled steel, Celente says there are already more than 200 different trade barriers erected globally, with more to come: “You’re going to see ‘Not Made in China’ become a slogan around the world,” he predicts. . . . “We’re going to start seeing trade barriers go up more and more and more,” he says.
Not for nothing, but readers of this blog have been hearing this for awhile now.
As usual, Grim doesn’t just ride the cutting edge, he is out in front of it.
#139 Sean
Try finding boxed juice that doesn’t contain apple juice from China. I’m getting more and more aggravated about giving littlesafe juice in his lunch box. Every time I buy boxed juice, I have to read the boxes because our lovely juice makers change the country of origination or won’t say where it’s from.
nom,
You’ve got mail. contains a link you should read from your home computer.
[133] veto,
and here is a conspiracy story SAS would love: Take the old Tom Clancy book Debt of Honor, and substitute the Chinese for the Japanese. The anti-japanese backlash that started the story was quite far-fetched, but imagine the fury that existed against the japanese in Detroit a few decades ago, and magnify it many-fold, and that is what we will see if there is a protracted double dip.
I expect to see the chinese buying up US companies and establishing some manuf. and support offices here so that it acts as a buffer to anti-chinese sentiment, just as the japanese did by setting up mfg plants here.
Bergen County taxes are the highest in NJ and they need this.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/81084322_Agency_runs_up_tab_to_attract_businesses.html
Another tax payer funded board that needs to go.
Anecdata from the road — went to N.E. PA this weekend, and stopped in at a Wal mart to get some supplies that are not easily obtained in NJ.
Observed that the ammo cases were nearly empty. .22lr and .223 were available, and the .22 was not very expensive, but the .223 is over .50 per round in a 50 ct. box.
Got FMJ?
Sean, safe
I have seen a number of raw material analysis that are unFing believable.
I saw a report on a batch of failed joint replacements in which the investigation turned up that the titanium that had been purchased from an “American” supplier (just to be safe quality wise) was actually made in china and bought by the american company that then marketed it as their own product. A full analysis including mass spec and electron microscopy revealed that the metal wasnt even close to the grade it was purported to be by both the US and chinese material certs.
anyone who trusts any product coming out of china is a fool. i have seen way to many incidents amongst different companies for it to be sample bias. I have seen it from medical grade metals to lab grade reagents to intermediate manufacturing components.
Apparently the chinese are good at knowing how much they can contaminate a product and still get away with it.
and it gets better,
some manufacturers will accept this as a cost of doing business in order to get their foot into the door of the chinese market.
RU,
BC EDC is a waste of tax money.
But remember one very important thing.
Joe Sanzari is NOT in the mob.
I’ve been to that Stony Brook Inn many of times. Guys kissing eachothers pinky rings all over the place. Dunnellos in river edge is another joint for the goodfellows.
in either of those places, its only a matter of time before Vito Corleone sneaks up behind you and bludgeons you across the back of the head with a loaf of day old semolina bastone.
I am calling it, last time you see a Ford Bond yielding over 10% till next recession.
Fitch upgrades Ford’s rating to ‘B-‘ from ‘CCC’
FORD MTR CO DEL DEB 9.98000% 02/15/2047
CUSIP 345370BW9
Price (Ask) 99.000
Yield to Worst (Ask) 10.082%
John (150)-
Does it count when the depression we’re in improves to being a recession?
Excellent book review on today’s topic:
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/books/87/8751books.html
POORLY MADE IN CHINA: AN INSIDER’S ACCOUNT OF THE TACTICS BEHIND CHINA’S PRODUCTION GAME, by Paul Midler, Wiley, 2009, 256 pages, $24.95 hardcover (ISBN: 978-0-470-40558-1)
http://www.economist.com/printedition/
Economist print edition has lead article on global bubble warning. Unfortunately one needs subscription to get it online.
Contrarian Investor Sees Economic Crash in China
What depression? I personally think the labor force between 1993 and 2008 swelled to excess. There were an abundance of work/life balance jobs that paid aix figures with good bonuses. I know several women who had work from home, flex schedules, no travel, telecomuting and diversity initivives that made working very smart in spite of having young kids. The ones that now work for companies that got rid of all this and want you to commute to city and work 50 hours a week who got laid off are now stay at home moms, do they really deserve to be counted as laid off? They are working harder than they ever had as staying home with kids is a hard job than sitting in an office sipping cappachino and flirting.
The Condition-Code Red says:
January 11, 2010 at 1:36 pm
John (150)-
Does it count when the depression we’re in improves to being a recession?
safeashouses says:
January 11, 2010 at 1:13 pm
#139 Sean
Try finding boxed juice that doesn’t contain apple juice from China. I’m getting more and more aggravated about giving littlesafe juice in his lunch box. Every time I buy boxed juice, I have to read the boxes because our lovely juice makers change the country of origination or won’t say where it’s from.
Read FAQ’s
http://www.appleandeve.com/our-juices/organics/sesame-street-organics/
They have Bird Juice; Punch Elmo and Bert and Ernie’s Mixed Man Milk
http://www.appleandeve.com/faq/#q406
Hyde no kidding and the joy is I’m going back to that communist craphole this year. the crap that comes out of there is stunning.
Or we can look at it as a bonus with all of the children innoculated with cadmium, we now have a natural resource for a hybrid cars electronics. : )
ChiFi:
It’s what Gator Jr drinks besides organic milk/chocolate milk, water (not often enough) and Apple & Eve fruitables.
I, on the other hand, prefer a good beer or diet soda.
Don’t the bulk of option ARMs reset to libor? Thats below 1% right now.
John (155)-
Give my regards to 1962. Is it warm there today?
chi (156)-
Any truth to the rumor that China has technology that injects lead into apples?
mocha (160)-
No. It’s LIBOR +++ some amount of margin, depending on the loan.
Many option ARMs also follow UST and cost-of-funds indices.
schumpeter the chinese grow apples, on the same land where they dump the nuclear waste from their power plants. Not only is the land cheap, but the apples grow super big!
I wish you could find a line of toys that are manufactured here that do NOT look like some kind of grandpa in the woodshed Sunday afternoon project from years gone by or hippy girl who likes to knit and owns a glue gun. That stuff has its place, but kids want the badass. I like to provide it minus the dangerous substances going into their bloodstreams, cause that too badass.
Schumpeter, in my small little circle of friends, relatives and co-workers I have noticed that the guys whose wive’s stay home with their kids regardless of how tight the money was at first make double the other guys. I have four brother-in-laws, three have steady eddie short commute type 9-5 pm jobs they just sit in and their wive’s work, one is unemployed and his wife works. Someone who has four kids to feed, a mortgage and a stay at home spouse will do almost anything to keep his job, travel, work late, skip lunch, brown-nose, attend all fuctions etc. The guy who is an AVP whose wife is a doctor or SVP making 300K a year won’t give you the extra mile. As you walk the hallways of corporate america most SVPs or above spouse don’t work yet most AVPs spouse work. The AVPs will tell you the SVPs wife can afford to stay home the SVP will tell you he made SVP cause his spouse sacrified and stayed home when he was AVP. Barack was lucky his wife sacrificed that silly little job she had so he could be president, no way was that gong to work otherwise.
Schumpeter says:
January 11, 2010 at 2:32 pm
John (155)-
Give my regards to 1962. Is it warm there today?
WHYoung said:
Granted, can be woefully inefficient, but would we really want to do without some of that infrastructure?
We already are. Have you driven the Garden State Parkway between milemarkers 154 and 159 (both ways) lately?
How would you like this guy charging at you with tongue out?
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Video-Shaq-hugs-kisses-a-Baldwin-brother?urn=nba,212723
barb
good luck with that
The badazz toys are all covered by intellectual property rights/trade marks etc and the cost of manufacturing them here in the US, even a limited run would easily be more then 3X the cost of asian manufacturing.
No mbig manufacturer is going to do that, there is no market where enough people will pay 3X for the same toy in its nontoxic version that they could get for 1X at walmart in the toxic chinese variety
Food for thought for Christie:
http://www.1010wins.com/Paterson—Ultimate-Fighting–Considered-in-New-Yo/6088033
Now to sign up some politicians to get in the octagon. For that, I’d help pay off the deficit.
chifi and stu
I bought some of that Apple & Eve organics yesterday. Country of origin was Turkey. Apple juice is in most kinds of boxed juices and apples very easily absorb pesticides so I refuse to buy any juice that doesn’t have country of origin listed on it.
169. Yeah I know, I used to work in the biz. Better off getting your kid to like drawing and crafting, and, ironically, video games as well as sports.
hyde, actually CA and the North East is about the only place non-toxic versions of the toys would sell well. Any place else you are probably right.
Jcer,
Even in those locations it would be a tough sell. I am one of the parents that would spend the higher $ for the nontoxic toy, but i would reduce my overall spending in line with my increased outlay. I know many of our friends with kids would do the same.
Barb,
my son has my old tonka trucks that have been cleaned up. those things were built like tanks. that and a giant sand pile covers a good portion of warm weather activities. but in the end its a b1tch to avoid Toxic Chinese Crap
Jcer barb,
Americans are way out of touch with the true cost of manufacturing. Chinese crap is so cheap because it is essentially subsidized by their slave labor and lack of environmental regulations.
The average american couldnt afford have the crap they usually buy if it wasnt being subsidized with 3rd world labor. From my experience products made in first world nations are easily 2-4X the cost of the same product made in china or 3rd world nations
I love parents who baby their kids, I want organic juice, low lactoise, stuff, lead free toys, vegan this etc.
What do I do with these people when they grow up. Lets see Lunch interview year 2029, bitching an moaning about country of orgins, looking for vegan dishes, asking if it is organic, are workers unionizd etc. Who wants these nancy boys, they will be 21 year olds and still in Huggy pull-ups playing their DS’s. Where have all the future men gone. They have been sissy-fied.
barb (165)-
Never discount the hours of happiness a child can have with his first gun.
Simple & practical. Teaches lessons that last a lifetime.
#175 hyde
I was trying to buy salted fish at an Asian grocer last week. Every type they had was from China or Vietnam. I passed.
safe,
where do i buy dried tuna flakes? whole foods used to carry them but stopped. it was in their asian food section
pasteur (170)-
Wake me up when Patterson approves Rollerball.
Safe,
I would love to see china’s REAL birth stats on defects and mortality as opposed to the OFFICIAL stats. I cant imagine what that level of pollution must do to pregnant women and fetuses.
stu,
This is CNBC, so it is merely rumor, but it seems to make sense.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34767717?slide=7
Can’t be good, can it?
John (176)-
Yeah, I know what you mean. Anybody can kick the “buy Chinese” habit, but it takes a real man to face a case of fatal lead poisoning.
“Where have all the future men gone. They have been sissy-fied.”
BTW, in the countervailing series, the one that shows greatest job growth in the coming decade?
Coming in the top 5, its state and local government.
[166] john
By John’s logic (which makes sense), I should stay home so that the wife can become a GC.
That may happen anyway, whether I want it to or not. If it does, I plan to write and promote Nompounds.
165 – clot, guns, kids
I would not mind target shooting and skeet which I love, but he is a little young. The toy guns in the late 50s-early 60s were surprisingly sophisticated, plastic ammo, great detail and range. Now you get mostly super soakers and that’s it.
also, I tried Wi archery for the first time last week, my 6 yr old liked it and so did I. Not bad option for the winter months.
Schumpeter says:
January 11, 2010 at 2:33 pm
chi (156)- Any truth to the rumor that China has technology that injects lead into apples?
I’ll show you some Chinese technology…….skip to minute 7:00
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT4U1InydNE&feature=related
“What do I do with these people when they grow up.”
That’s if they make it.
Cost of mass production in China is usually from 20 to 80% of what it is here, depending on how much labor v. raw materials is in the item. It mostly affects the (totally huge) mark-up the retailer has and the ability to dump the unsold stuff to TJMaxx without losing money. If you look even at sale prices at place like Sears there is nothing that can’t be sourced domestically and sold at a profit. From what Walmart gets paid for the Chinese stuff, probably 20% goes to pay the Chinese, 80% stays at walmart. If they sourced locally, it would be 40/60, and they don’t like it.
Mr Hyde says:
January 11, 2010 at 3:21 pm
‘Jcer barb,
Americans are way out of touch with the true cost of manufacturing. Chinese crap is so cheap because it is essentially subsidized by their slave labor and lack of environmental regulations.
The average american couldnt afford have the crap they usually buy if it wasnt being subsidized with 3rd world labor. From my experience products made in first world nations are easily 2-4X the cost of the same product made in china or 3rd world nations’
We are twice as fat as need be, we own 5 of everything. Its going to stop because it cannot be sustained economically, environmentally, physically, spiritually. It will find its level.
Maybe the problem is that the parents of those kids that “want the badass” need a fcuking lobotomy…..
Barbara aka B-Cat says:
January 11, 2010 at 2:46 pm
I wish you could find a line of toys that are manufactured here that do NOT look like some kind of grandpa in the woodshed Sunday afternoon project from years gone by or hippy girl who likes to knit and owns a glue gun. That stuff has its place, but kids want the badass.
barb (191)-
I like you better when you’re on this line of thought, rather than busting my chops. :)
“We are twice as fat as need be, we own 5 of everything. Its going to stop because it cannot be sustained economically, environmentally, physically, spiritually. It will find its level.”
These became the bane of my existence this Xmas. Get a job, kid.
http://www.uggaustralia.com/ProductsList.aspx?gID=k&categoryID=187&page=1
Mr Hyde says:
January 11, 2010 at 3:29 pm
safe, where do i buy dried tuna flakes? whole foods used to carry them but stopped. it was in their asian food section
Hyde: part of the government stimulus plan included subsidies to Proctor and Gamble to treat oceans with Head and Shoulders. Sorry…no flakes here!
relo (194)-
Those will do for Jersey Girls of the 21st century what big hair did for them in the ’80s.
schumpt,
but depending on the board, I get called a commie! When did conservative and sensible consumption intersect with collectivism-as a-form-of-government? I suspect once again that a whammy has been put upon us.
196: Yeah, speaking of parents who need lobotomies.
relo,
tell them this: “wonder what those $$$ lamb skins will smell like after a month of bare feet and activity? Oh, and you can’t launder them.” Uggs and crocs are evil footwear. Evil.
God’s will. Personally, I wish she’d just do some nekkid pictures, then go away:
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – Sarah Palin is taking her conservative message to Fox News. An attorney for the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate says Palin will provide some type of commentary for the cable network.
Attorney Thomas Van Flein declined to elaborate on the deal.
Palin is hugely popular with conservatives and has more than 1 million Facebook followers.
She stepped down as Alaska governor in July, 17 months before the end of her first term in office. Her resignation came less than a year after she vaulted to overnight fame as John McCain’s running mate.
Is it a reasonable excuse to walk up to a woman wearing said shoe, set it on fire, and apologize afterward by stating you “thought she was a shoe bomber and you wanted to be nice and give a favor?”
Schumpeter says:
January 11, 2010 at 4:07 pm
relo (194)-
Those will do for Jersey Girls of the 21st century what big hair did for them in the ’80s.
#179 mr Hyde
you can get dried fish at kam man and Asian food center. Usually in their snack or dried food aisle. They’ll be on a peg hook. We’ve bought the ones from Taiwan and japan.
192.
Bottom line, they mainstream toys are better designed. When I say badass, I don’t mean violent, I mean cool as sh#t. Rag dolls and wood blocks just won’t cut it.
they = the
If you buy a piece of land and build a house, do you typically get two separate mortgages or one that covers both?
Barb:
This stuff is badass…
the hammer was already used to break a bunch of Matchbox cars, walnuts, and put a nice dent in the car….
http://www.dandmewoodtoys.com/toys/Scripts/prodView.asp?idproduct=13
“Rather than busting my chops. :)”
Schumpt,
The great recession makes Barbara feel giddy and nostalgic.
I learned a long time ago that she is not to be fckd with.
Barb (197)-
The accusations come when we think that it’s somebody else looking to impose their own ideas of “conservative and sensible” on the rest of us. In the words of Phil Gramm, I have as many guns as I need…but not as many as I want.
“When did conservative and sensible consumption intersect with collectivism-as a-form-of-government?”
[194] relo
You and me both. D-1 wanted Uggs and an I-pod for Xmas.
Grandma gave her some money toward them, and wife, not wanting to cause Grandma’s promise to go unfulfilled, obliged her and ponied up the rest. Now D-1 wants to wear the Uggs everywhere
Damned IPod spends more time in my room where it sits because I confiscate it for bad behavior.
Worst part? D-1 is SIX!!!
Six years old, and wants and Ipod and Uggs for Xmas.
And got them.
Ugh.
Uh oh, the elephants are learning they are strong enough to easily pull the chains off their ankles.
La Go Go’s Growth Shows China Consumer Spending Power
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aMoJ.mYeo1cQ&pos=15
skep (205)-
One loan, of the construction-to-close variety.
Don’t bother checking around. They’ve gone the way of the brontosaurus.
206. chifi
those are cool, and my 6 yr old will “play” with our real tools (hammer, mallot) but you can’t deny that a three ft high marble maze kicks serious azz.
Chi,
barb was right, that stuff might be safe but it looks like it was made by ‘one flew over the cookoos nest’.
Now for the news that matters:
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) – Simon Cowell, the acerbic Brit who has helped give “American Idol” some of its sharpest – and nastiest – moments, will leave the popular singing show after this season. The cantankerous judge said that “The X Factor,” a show he created and is a hit in Britain, will join Fox’s schedule next year. Cowell will be on “The X Factor.”
Cowell’s decision is the biggest threat yet to what has been the country’s most popular TV program and a true cultural force. This season, original host Paula Abdul has been replaced by Ellen DeGeneres.
But Cowell, with his caustic commentary, has long been seen as the big star of “Idol.”
He said it would have been difficult for him to do both shows. While he makes a reported $36 million a year to be on “American Idol,” he owns “The X Factor” and could make much more if the show takes off.
36 mil for being tv’s biggest jacka$$, sign me up!
McGwire now says he did steroids.
Meh.
jcer (214)-
Amazing. What a no-talent closet case.
#210
“One loan, of the construction-to-close variety.
Don’t bother checking around. They’ve gone the way of the brontosaurus.”
********
apparently, FHA is insuring some segment of the construction loan market (with 3.5% down, of course). it is on the HUD website. trying to find out more info
Nurse Outduels IRS Over M.B.A. Tuition How One Woman Went to Tax Court and Won Deduction
A Maryland nurse accomplished two rare feats in her battle with the Internal Revenue Service: She defended herself against the agency’s lawyers and won, and she got a ruling that could help tens of thousands of students deduct the cost of an M.B.A. degree on their taxes.
The U.S. Tax Court handed Lori Singleton-Clarke her victory last month, saying the 47-year-old Bryantown, Md., woman had properly deducted nearly $15,000 in business school tuition. The Tax Court ruling should make it easier for many other professionals to deduct the expense of a Master in Business Administration degree.After getting word of the court decision, “I nearly yelled the roof off the house,” Ms. Singleton-Clarke says. “I still can hardly believe it.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/taxes/article/108550/nurse-outduels-irs-over-mba-tuition?mod=taxes-advice_strategy
Deplume. quit your job if you love your wife.
Schmuter playing with chinese toys has to be safer than “bombing” trains in the bronx, driving without car-seats and sleeping on the firescape along with leaving your house after lunch and being gone till 11pm on summer nights when you were 8 years old. All stuff we did as kids. Heck even snuck into the Bronx zoo and an R rated movie on the same day when I was 7. Heck when I was 5 my brother and I would shine shoes in bars near end of happy hour and got big tips then blew money on pizza, candy and soda. Kids today have little worries.
“Bones” Deplume says:
January 11, 2010 at 3:35 pm
[166] john
By John’s logic (which makes sense), I should stay home so that the wife can become a GC.
By Bill Fleckenstein
MSN Money
Wall Street, politicians still don’t get it
The gamblers and the clueless are leading this nation into the abyss. If only we could throw out all of them.
[Related content: Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, Alan Greenspan, financial crisis, Bill Fleckenstein]
By Bill Fleckenstein
MSN Money
There were many lists made of the “best” and “worst” of 2009. List-makers did themselves proud ticking off item after item.
But — understandably, because it’s a nonfinancial crowd — one item got away from them: The 30-year Treasury bond turned in its worst performance in 40 years, as the yield rose from about 2.7% to about 4.6%. (For the layman, yields rise as bond prices fall.)
Given all the deflation fears and all the money that has poured into the Treasury market, that factoid may come as a surprise.
We’re facing a protracted period when bonds deliver nothing but losses for folks — just as the funding crisis I’ve written about before (read “The next crisis has already begun”) is due to make itself visible this year. The only question is whether problems will erupt first in the bond market or the currency market. We’ll probably learn a lot more on that score between now and March, when Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke is expected to end quantitative easing, by which the Fed has pumped money into the financial system.
Of course, the fact that we’re going to have a funding crisis is a function of the Fed’s activities. And, wouldn’t you know it, the central bank’s chief gave a speech last week that Bloomberg covered under the headline “Bernanke says low rates didn’t cause housing bubble.” The fact that Bernanke is so deeply in denial shows that he really doesn’t understand the risks of printing money.
He is not alone on that score. It seems that all of those folks who inhabit Wall Street these days, as well as nearly all of our politicians, want to get back to business as it was and are trying to pretend 2008 never happened. If the Fed, in the form of Bernanke, cannot admit its mistakes, it is due to continue making them, exactly as his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, always did.
More from MSN Money
The Men of the Broken Decade
The rally may be running out of time
Why the Fed loves inflation
Dow 36,000? So much for predictions
10 lessons from a dismal decade
Worthy of bookmarking
Regarding the Fed, 2008 and the financial crisis, I’ve recently read almost all of the books released in the past year on that subject. I found Rep. Ron Paul’s “End the Fed” terrific. I have always agreed with the Texas Republican’s major points, except his tolerance for certain conspiracy theories, but before reading his book I had thought of him as a bit of a gadfly. I had not appreciated his true grasp of the underlying fundamentals of economics and money printing, and how “it all works.”
Paul’s book is mandatory reading for anyone wishing to understand how money printing makes the country worse off. (On the other hand, David Wessel’s “In Fed We Trust” struck me as essentially a waste of time.)
Meantime, while my book “Greenspan’s Bubbles: The Age of Recklessness at the Federal Reserve” and Barry Ritholtz’s “Bailout Nation” were early explanations of the problems created by the Fed and what’s evolved in the wake of its policies, most of the books written since then have focused on Wall Street. On that score, I enjoyed William Cohan’s “House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street” and Patrick Robinson’s “A Colossal Failure of Common Sense:The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers.”
‘Sellout’ is a strong ‘buy’
But the book I found most illuminating — almost shocking — and that made me quite angry was “The Sellout: How Three Decades of Wall Street Greed and Government Mismanagement Destroyed the Global Financial System” by Charles Gasparino.
This is another mandatory read. (Andrew Sorkin’s “Too Big to Fail” runs along a similar line, but in my opinion is quite inferior.)
How bond investing works
What Gasparino does so well is to describe the system that evolved in part due to — this is my opinion — the Fed “put,” meaning its policy (and the belief in that policy) of always bailing out those with financial troubles. What evolved was the leveraged beast, thought to be too big to fail but in fact too big to bail out without trillions of dollars of newly printed government paper.
Gamblers — some call them bankers — made leveraged bets on whatever interested them. For a few years, what interested them most was mortgage debt of all flavors and stripes, though they also got excited by leveraged-buyout debt and commercial-real-estate debt.
For them, it was a wonderful system, one in which gamblers collectively made hundreds of billions and individually made tens of millions. But when the system blew up, it cost the country trillions in obligations to be paid by the taxpayer or printed by the Fed.
What I find particularly outrageous is that even after the bailout of these entities, we aren’t yet seriously forcing them to skinny down, and they’re back to paying out bonuses of nearly the same magnitude as those in 2007.
Heads they win, tails we lose
I am a staunch advocate of capitalism, free enterprise and folks being able to make whatever they can by being honest and clever. But it seems to me that so much of the money the bankers “earned” was primarily a function of the massive leverage wielded by the institutions they worked for, rather than the result of any great decision making on their parts. (That’s not to say there weren’t certain guys and gals inside these institutions making brilliant decisions, but in the aggregate it was all about leverage.) And the money the institutions made last year was all about the government bailout. Starving the big banks
Go to msnbc
Thus they got paid for taking excessive risk and then paid again when that risk taking ended with the massive bailouts we’ve witnessed. I don’t know what the solution is, but I know that what has occurred is outrageous and that there’s going to be a huge backlash at some point. Most likely, that backlash will be unfairly delivered. I just don’t know how it will be unfairly delivered.
Meanwhile, the optimist in me (even folks with a bearish outlook are optimists; it’s just that we’re in denial less often than those in the perma-bull camp) found some hope in a Dec. 30 New York Times editorial headlined “Failed state,” which made the following case for throwing out the New York Legislature:
“New Yorkers should be appalled at their failed state government, particularly their corrupt and clueless Legislature. Scandal and irresponsibility have been Albany’s creed for decades. This year, the gang added another outrage to the list: complete fiscal incompetence. The only solace is this: The entire Legislature is up for re-election in 2010. And unless there is a sudden turnaround — and, so far, we see few signs of it — New Yorkers have no choice but to vote out all the lawmakers and start over.”
Now the only suggestion I would make to The Times is that they need to write that editorial about the U.S. government. We need to throw out all the bums. No exceptions, not even Ron Paul. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind leaving, if it meant the 534 other career politicians in Congress have to leave as well. That would be a sacrifice I’m sure he would gladly make.
My hope is that as we continue on this path of irresponsibility and business as usual, perhaps we’ll get to the point where people become angry enough to throw out all the bums and try to start over — and clean up the mess so our kids and grandkids have half the chance that we did.
Why do I feel Nom or Clot/Schumpeter/Code Red (or someone from this board) wrote this…
http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/mis/1539838256.html
re: #221 – I call BS on that story.
http://www.snopes.com/crime/justice/mugger.asp
sorry, didn’t mean to pass off as authentic, just something funny in the vernacular of some of the posters around here…
skep (213)-
FHA has a program for everything short of building yourself a house on the moon. Good luck finding an investor to actually underwrite the loans, though.
Get your prescription!
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/nyregion/12marijuana.html
sean (225)-
Spark one up, dude!
Gotta get me some of that gubmint weed!
Wow….these are the coolest.
http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/
re 142, Juce
Safe
Try this brand
http://www.rwknudsenfamily.com/
I buy ~10 bottles of Pear one a month for my kid @ Stop&Shop.
[218] db
I will have to review that ruling closely. My guess is that the IRS will not acquiese, and will challenge similar deductions.
As a rule, you cannot deduct education if it qualifies you for a new line of work. I am surprised at the TC decision and will have to scrutinize it.
One part of the story rang very familiar: I was also audited for the very same thing. And the examiner, claiming computer trouble, kept asking me the same thing over and over. And I kept reading my prepared text, taken directly from the private letter rulings, over and over.
That is a trick often used by prosecutors to elicit contradictory information. Eventually she gave up and gave me my approval letter.
[221] hawk,
Nope, not that imaginative, and never been to Miami.
But, if I ever do draw down on a bad luck mugger, the wallet, phone and shoes, I will have to remember.
a song for all you unemployed menfolk being kept by your wimmenfolk. Classic new wave/pub rock wait for the chorus to kick in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MuuTjT8AXs
For the artists on board, Pearl Paint is shuttering a number of locations:
http://pearlpaint.biz/eblast_stores_50.html
grim, wow, Philly closing. So many art schools in Philly, looks like Dick Blick will be getting a lot of orders.
Woodbridge still opened, yea! Hard to know whats left other than NYC.
barb, 233
paramus, rte. 17 still open
sl
234
I had no idea, kinda far for me but good to know.
Governor Corzine was ill-equipped to deal with Trenton and with state politics.
A failure. Another pretender who happened to be in the right place at the right time to collect millions at Goldman Sachs. No vision, no insight and strictly a member of the elite, ivory tower charlatan club with zero desire for innovation or growth. A colossal failure…
#228 firestormik
Thanks. I will try that brand.
#236 Gary
too bad he didn’t get to raise the parkway tolls 800%. That would have solved everything. /off sarcasm
Nom (182):
It’s happening already. Between obtaining news from the internet and the Kindle and related technologies, printing is basically dead in the water. Fortunately, I’m in the premedia area which will always be necessary regardless of the final medium.
tosh [67],
There were lots of completely insane and incredibly interesting designs at that time; the Orion project, walking tanks for jungle warfare, etc. A great period for US engineering.
Yes! As someone with and engineering and IT background, I was always fascinated by the pure genius of these guys! Remember when we were that kind of country? One with balls and ingenuity?
I’ve been making fun of the fuzzy boots (Uggs) for a couple years now. Just when I thought the pointy toed demi boots of the late 90s could not be topped, along come the damn fuzzy boots. Nothing looks more stupid then prepubescent girls walking to school in shorts and moon boots. No?
Essex [227]
This site has cool (some much bigger) houses as well:
http://www.countryplans.com/
I’ve thought about building something simple myself (helped my Dad build houses as a kid and chipped in on my sister’s place in Alaska), but I can only imagine the insane bureaucratic hoops I’d have to deal with here in the northeast.
hey, wait a minute. Corzine knocked off
Carla,, he ‘s get an A in is column for
screwing the horse face.
Stu, what fires me up are all the fabric boots pawned off as weather boots.
I cringe to think of little kids in fabric boots having to walk to school in the snow and ice, with wet, cold feet, because their STUPID AS SHEET parents put them on these 5 and 6 year olds. Poor things. Every marketer of those is going straight down the hell chute, and I mean that with all my prayers.
Thanks Terc, I enjoyed that.
Clot, if you’re around, can I ask you a team/coaching question that has to do with sunk cost?
Clot, if you’re around, can I ask you a team/coaching question that has to do with sunk cost?
Clot, if you’re around, can I ask you a team/coaching question that has to do with sunk cost?
Stu
They’re furry boots! (That sounds great with a Scottish accent btw.)
No offense Lisoosh.
I suppose it could be worse.
http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/031/211468031.jpg
Goldman seeks to block vote on pay, foundation says
Attempt to force Goldman to defend pay policies
http://www.reuters.com/article/idAFN1117245420100111?rpc=44
“Goldman cites ‘technicalities’ to explain move, group says”
250 Stu
Every time I see a girl wearing those I want to smack her.
Still_looking: Time to get the farm going. Let me be the first to offer venture capital for your “budding” idea!
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/nj_lawmakers_approve_bill_lega.html
Hawk, #221
Priceless!
My laugh of the day.
I want one, through I may wait for the Turbo and a price drop!
http://www.wimp.com/ecomobiletests/
PGC, I want one, I want one NOW, Daddy. I want it now!
pat (248)-
Fire away.
“Bones” Deplume says:
January 11, 2010 at 12:10 pm
[47] yikes
Google “Katrina” and “Gretna” about how one suburb of New Orleans dealt with that.
Well aware, Nom. Been talked about on here quite a bit. I don’t know how fast the national guard could be dispatched, and I don’t want to find out.
Hype.
from the link:
“I took every medication known to man before I took weed,” said Oliveri, 25. “I knew it was a risk … but it was a life or death matter.”
a risk???? weed is safer then Tylenol. There are no known deaths directly attributable to weed and for all intents and purposes it is physically impossible to overdose on weed. Its safer then alcohol and tobacco.
PGC 255,
i want to see them lease the gyro tech from the segway and replace the outriggers with a gyro system. Now that would be cool!
#185 Nom
Funny that a few friends of mine have started discussing what for a better word is a “compound” this is not from TEOTWAWKI but from a group of friends scattered all over the US and the world discussing the cold weather and that it was a cold Sunday moring and we were all lighting fires to keep warm. The thought came that wouldn’t it be nice to have a Cul-de-Sac of houses somewere. We could all get together a few times a year and let the kids play together and not have to worry who was around. Kids could run in and out of all the houses and play in the street.
I see this as very different from your Nompound, as there is no thought to “bug out” options.
MY problem with Nompounds and the like is that it will always fail on logistics. Someone posted last week a video of a guy buying his bug out vehicle, $28K for a APV. Very nice, but at probably 8MPG, he might make it 150miles with the fuel onboard and then he can park up and live in it. When TSHTF, diesel will be for gvmt and trucking only. Your 250Gal cache will not go far.
Also, with private islands and the like. One hurricane comes through and they are living of M&Ms in a few days.
Grim #261 in mod.
Back to the old days, respond to a Nom post that hits mod. Say F that and give up on the reply.
PGC,
wait, on second thought a gyro system wouldnt really work very well and would cause a lot of wrecks.
angular momentum is a b1tch
I feel some “muscle spasms” coming on…
If anyone from the NJ Chronic Board is reading this, I have some excellent strip mall spaces to show you.
New state song:
Can we get a motherfu^#in moment of silence, for
the small chronic break? A-hah, nigg@z be
brown-nosing these hoes and shit. Takin bitches
out to eat, and spendin money on these hoes,
knowhatI’msayin? I treat a bitch like 7-Up I never
have I never will I tell a bitch like this Bitch,
you without me is like Harry Melvin without
Bluenotes You’ll never go platinum Hey Daz, give
me a light nigg@
“Chronic Break”, Snoop Dogg
the fact that simon cowell is making $36 mil a year is reason enough to for someone to press the reset button on the planet.
american idol could go off the air tomorrow and nobody’s life would be worse or better.
what an f’ing joke
“Corzine “was unwilling to make the tough decisions”
Grim, you got the headline all wrong. Corzine made add the right decisions… just that it wasn’t for the people of NJ.
He made all the decisions for a small elite oligarchy.
and you and I ain’t in it…
SAS
I will pay one thousand dollars to anyone who can explain the song in #263 to me.
My 8 year old swims with a huge, overgrown ponzi-scheme team. 50 marginal kids like mine pay for the resources to keep the winners on top. Team is paid for for another three months, with only three meets left. Practice cost is 2 hours four days a week, door-to-door.
Problem is kid’s quality *seems* to be deteriorating. Faster, but crappy form. In soccer terms, like the kid is getting faster, but not performing moves appropriately.
Is it better to leave kid in (possibly risking additional costs for deprogramming later) or keep kid in and hope the summer with the good coach can fix the stuff.
NJ should just put an EZ PASS toll at the end of every driveway, it would save a lot of time.
“american idol could go off the air tomorrow and nobody’s life would be worse or better.”
that cause your not 16.
School & TV (mostly via ads)
own your children.. not you.
throw in the drugs either legal or illegal (someone going to be the drug dealer either the guys in the white coats or the govt)…and you mean nothing !!!
SAS
My next NJ Assemblyman:
http://tinyurl.com/y8tv79h
Clot, I’d translate the song for you, but then I’d have to treat you like 7-up and we’d never get to the chronic break.
“NJ should just put an EZ PASS toll at the end of every driveway, it would save a lot of time.”
hee..hee… good one.
I always thought they could rake in the money and make roads safer if they charge EZ by the time.
what I mean is.. if you drive down route 4 and make it from Paramus to ho ho kus in 60 seconds, you were obviously speeding. Figure time it took from point A to point B, and if the avg spped was over the limit, one gets fined according.
I have no problem with that. I drive the M5, and keep it 5 above the limit. It looks like I am the one driving Miss. daisy.
SAS
clot, have you any kevlar yet?
oops..end of 267… or should I pull her out and put her in one day a week private coaching.
“My next NJ Assemblyman:”
btw.. that snoop dogg is not the real thing. He gets is a brand.
actually, a co-brand, his counterpart is marjuana.
so, you makes it look “cool” or “gangster” smokin a bag of rag.
and who makes the money? yup, again, your dumb 16 year old buys the rag weed, and money gets laundered right to the banks, which they then do fractional banking.
SAS
I actually like that song.
Pat (267)-
I don’t know jack about swimming, but were this a soccer player we were discussing, the age of 8 is too young to be focusing on technique.
To me, the only thing that matters at this age is enjoyment of the sport. If the enjoyment and desire to go swim are there, I wouldn’t worry about the rest. If your child keeps swimming, I’d guess there will be limitless future opportunities to correct technique and begin to learn racing tactics and preparation.
Almost all youth sports that involve clubs are a Ponzi. Once you recognize that (and let the directors know that you know), it’s easier to work the system for what it is you want.
If you have the opportunity to get involved with a club that is not a Ponzi, it may be worth it if your child wants to do this badly enough and has the ability to make the cut. My experience is that groups of kids who are put together based solely on ability and motivation tend to have a much more positive, long-term involvement with the sport.
Leave it to sas to connect the dots between Snoop Dogg and fractional reserve lending.
yikes,
enjoy
http://www.pinnaclearmor.com/body-armor/dragon-skin.php
No Kevlar yet, yikes.
I hear Kevlar degrades over time and that even an unused vest loses its shielding power after a couple of years.
thanks, Clot. It’s difficult to get decent perspective from a bunch of zealot parents in a glass cage overlooking the pool.
She had a unique teacher when we lived “up north.” Old guy, retired, who focused on complete mind to body quality of stroke first. It was relaxing, and she loved the swimming. She was slow, but had the moves of a much older swimmer.
She’s still liking it, but the excitement and jumping up and down at the door to go have faded a bit. They put the boys in the lane with the girls, like ten in a lane, and the girls get pretty beat up. The whole drive home, I have to hear the grimy details of who ended up with a bleeding back and who got punched in the eye.
I guess I’ll just hope that there’s nothing irretrievable being done.
i one time, was going down an ol’ street in Harlem, above 125th one time. It was during the day so the trash men were out doing their work. They tend to take up the road when they do that. So, I was waiting patiently for them to be done.
but, that wasn’t good enough for the 2 snoop puppies in the Hummer behind me. They beeped at me, told me to move it. blah,,,blah,,,,
Finally, I had it, got out of my care and ask if they could refrain from beeping and screaming the F word every 2 seconds.
So, the one snoop puppy pulls his little pistol, points it sideways. Laughing at my situation, I slapped the pistol away. I was surprized, he actually had a loaded clip, and one in the chamber.
so, I emptied it. Gave him back his pistol, pocketed the hollows. Told him… next time point that thing down range… and not at me.
so, snoop puppy agreed I can take my time as I wait for the trash to finish being collected.
SAS
Memories of the Looting, updated:
“Argentina President Cristina Kirchner has attempted to seize control of the central bank. Kirchner fired central banker Martín Redrado for his refusal to hand over $6.6 billion in bank reserves. The matter is now headed for the Argentinean courts.”
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/01/constitutional-crisis-in-argentina.html
“points it sideways”
I don’t know why these dumb kids think its cool to hold it like that? cause you will always miss your target. and end up having unattended consequences.
SAS
am i the only one who sees this as good news?
“Wal-Mart to Close 10 Sam’s Clubs Stores in US
Wal-Mart to close 10 money-losing Sam’s Clubs stores, cut 1,500 jobs to save on costs”
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9534919
Not good. Watch for trends at superwally’s.
The path is not always cleared until the end, when the journey becomes obvious.
Madame Poot seems pretty confident when I ask if Wally’s plotting a path to charge a member fee.
Babs: you don’t need Chinese toxic crap…this is badazz….
231.Barbara aka B-Cat says:
January 11, 2010 at 6:43 pm
a song for all you unemployed menfolk being kept by your wimmenfolk. Classic new wave/pub rock wait for the chorus to kick in:
This is a Monty Python skit, yes?
246.Pat says:
January 11, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Clot, if you’re around, can I ask you a team/coaching question that has to do with sunk cost?
247.Pat says:
January 11, 2010 at 8:01 pm
Clot, if you’re around, can I ask you a team/coaching question that has to do with sunk cost?
248.Pat says:
January 11, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Clot, if you’re around, can I ask you a team/coaching question that has to do with sunk cost?
Yes. HyperMom fights Internet Explorer.
One woman enters.
I’m sorry…clot writing about enjoyment kinds of dulls my ability to focus on any other details. Clot who are you to be writing about enjoyment? It is analogous to me lecturing on managing a menstrual cycle….I thought you range of emotions was from sociopathic; through alcoholic rage; strident bickering; cynical abrasiveness; mild paranoia; and peaking in optimism with a lithium induced temporary amnesia…have I misjudged you?
277.The Condition-Code Red says:
January 11, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Pat (267)- To me, the only thing that matters at this age is enjoyment of the sport.
you = your
Re: #281 swimming… Consider Terry Laughlin’s Total Immersion DVD and book. He’s kind of guru for long distance swimming and triathletes. My girls both learned great technique by watching the video.
Wow. Thanks, Brian. You don’t even know how helpful that is.
Monty Python…
I haven’t seen this skit in maybe 30 years….still one of my favorites…I can still remember everything almost verbatim…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VokGd5zhGJ4&NR=1
Chi 294 classic, Ah I remember it well.
sas,
I like that speed check/toll idea….a lot. Its kind of brilliant.
Howdy nice design on the website really eye catching
Apple now has Rhapsody as an app, which is a great start, but it is currently hampered by the inability to store locally on your iPod, and has a dismal 64kbps bit rate. If this changes, then it will somewhat negate this advantage for the Zune, but the 10 songs per month will still be a big plus in Zune Pass’ favor.
I’ve been using the Internet to watch, research and discuss movies for a long, long time and love it when blogs like your posts good import. Consider it my payback to people like you – I made a movie site where you can watch free movies Online At 4Films, I created it kind of like you did your blog and man, I’ve got 26,000 live movie links up so enjoy.
I love supernatural! Keep up the good work and posting.
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Great post, thanks. I’ve enjoyed your blog for quite awhile and I should comment more.
Great post, thanks. I’ve enjoyed your blog for quite awhile and I should comment more.
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Keep up the great posting.
Can I buy this in the shop as well or merely online?
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Hey interesting post.
Conerning Volkswagen recalls, have you heard of the Volkswagen Phaeton? Did you know it’s nothing more then a reskinned Bentley Continental GT? Sad, but true.
The Volkswagen Phaeton was a unbelievable fail in my opinion, the worst vehicle made by Volkswagen!
Its Shocking: VW Phaeton is a total flop!
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