From the WSJ:
Tishman Venture Abandons Stuyvesant
A group led by Tishman Speyer Properties has decided to give up the sprawling Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town apartment complex in Manhattan to its creditors in the collapse of one of the most high-profile deals of the real-estate boom.
The decision comes after the venture between Tishman and BlackRock Inc. defaulted on the $4.4 billion debt used to help finance the deal. The venture acquired the 56-building, 11,000-unit property for $5.4 billion in 2006—the most ever paid for a single residential property in the U.S. The venture had been struggling for months to restructure the debt but capitulated facing a massive debt load and a weak New York City economy that has undercut rents and demand for high-priced apartments.
The property’s owners signaled they would be unable to reach a deal with lenders and instead decided to allow creditors to proceed with what amounts to an orderly deed-in-lieu of foreclosure, which means a borrower voluntarily gives the property back to lenders to avoid a foreclosure proceeding.
From the NYT:
Huge Housing Complex in N.Y. Returned to Creditors
The owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the iconic middle-class housing complexes overlooking the East River in Manhattan, have decided to turn over the properties to creditors, officials said Monday morning.
The decision by Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty comes four years after the $5.4 billion purchase of the complexes’ 110 buildings and 11,227 apartments in what was the most expensive real estate deal of its kind in American history.
The surrender of the properties, first reported by the Wall Street Journal, ends a tortured real estate saga that saw the partnership make expensive improvements to the complex and then try to rent the apartments at higher market rates in a real estate boom. But a real estate downturn and the city’s strong rent protections hindered those efforts, leaving the buyers scrambling to make payments on loans due for the properties, which have been a comfortable harbor for the city’s middle class since they opened in the late 1940s.
From the Courier Post:
Thrift stores thrive in sour economy
While many businesses are struggling to stay afloat, one Collingswood store is thriving in these harsh economic times.
Friends in Deed, a nonprofit thrift store on Haddon Avenue, went from $30,000 a year in sales five years ago to $96,000 in 2009.
“It’s a major shift,” said Arthur Dion, president and CEO of the AIDS Coalition of Southern New Jersey. “It’s partially a factor of what the economy has done to people. Thrift stores, in general, are doing really well right now.”
From the Record:
Real estate commission rebated ok’d in N.J.
New Jersey real estate agents are now allowed to offer buyers rebates on their commissions, opening the door to real estate companies that use the refunds.
A law allowing rebates was signed by former Gov. Jon Corzine just before he left office.
As a result, Redfin, a Seattle-based online real estate broker, plans to start operations in North Jersey soon.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman. “New Jersey is one of the most exciting markets we still haven’t entered.” Redfin refunds buyers up to 50 percent of their agent’s share of the commission, or 25 percent of the entire commission paid by the seller.
…
The New Jersey Association of Realtors opposed the rebate law.
“Potential buyers should focus on the service the real estate agent is providing, and not on any discounts or givebacks that they might receive,” said Jarrod Grasso, CEO of the association.
From the Daily Record:
Commuting: Christie camp eyes a gas tax for N.J.
Morris County member of new Gov. Chris Christie’s transition transportation team is offering some blunt talk on the state gas tax.
Even though Christie, in his campaign, opposed raising the gas tax, Morris Plains Mayor Frank Druetzler said Friday that “reality says you’re going to have to have a little increase.”
New Jersey’s gas tax of 10.5 cents is among the nation’s lowest and hasn’t been raised since 1988. The transition subcommittee on transportation, in its 18-page report, said the state should “consider” a public referendum on increasing the tax. It did not specify an amount.
“Reality says you have to do it, or else you’re not going to have a good transportation system, and without a good transportation system you’re not going to have the jobs here,” Druetzler, a Republican, said after Christie released all 21 transition reports evaluating virtually every aspect of state government.
From Bloomberg:
Wall Street Firms Cut Compensation, ‘Buckling’ to Washington
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s investment bank slashed their compensation in the fourth quarter, responding to political pressure that will probably persist as details of bonuses for their top executives emerge in coming weeks.
The three Wall Street firms set aside $39.9 billion for pay in 2009, below the 2007 record of $44.7 billion. The total fell short of the $46.1 billion five analysts expected this month and is almost $10 billion less than what some analysts estimated in October.
“There’s no question that Wall Street got the message from Washington,” said Michael W. Robinson, a senior vice president of Levick Strategic Communications and former head of public affairs at the Securities and Exchange Commission. “But positioning the big banks with big bonuses as the bad guys has played well for politicians, and they are likely going to keep coming back to it. To some extent, banks are just going to have to be prepared for that.”
did trenton get the memo?
Does Redfin have company cars?
Better watch those tires.
J-E-T-S Choke Choke Choke!!!
Ron Paul putting a smackdown on the CNBC stooges.
Ahhh Stuytown!
How sweet is your collapse?
Are you the Alpha or the Omega?
Knock, knock, knock, 20 Pine…
#4
I got a 5% increase in my bonus. I can’t complain, last year my firm cut salaries for most.
Make some time to read this today. Steve Keen, taking Bergabe apart, piece by piece:
“The US Senate should not reappoint Ben Bernanke. As Obama’s reaction to the loss of Ted Kennedy’s seat showed, real change in policy only occurs after political scalps have been taken. An economic scalp of this scale might finally shake America from the unsustainable path that reckless and feckless Federal Reserve behavior set it on over 20 years ago.
Some may think this would be an unfair outcome for Bernanke. It is not. There are solid economic reasons why Bernanke should pay the ultimate political price.”
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2010/01/24/debtwatch-no-42-the-economic-case-against-bernanke/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704509704575019504062222376.html?mod=rss_opinion_main#articleTabs%3Dcomments
A Debt-limit test
How about spending cuts instead?
Clot – Mish is covering Steve Keen’s argument @ his site today as well.
Of the 535 members of Congress, how many of them are cretins, who cannot understand this simple idea (I’d put that number at about 520)?:
“If the world were in equilibrium, with debtors carrying the equilibrium level of debt, all markets clearing, and all debts being repaid, this neoclassical conclusion would be true. But in the real world, when debtors have taken on excessive debt, where the market doesn’t clear as it falls and where numerous debtors default, a debt-deflation isn’t merely “a redistribution from one group (debtors) to another (creditors)”, but a huge shock to aggregate demand.
Crucially, even though Bernanke notes at the beginning of his book that “the premise of this essay is that declines in aggregate demand were the dominant factor in the onset of the Depression” (p. ix), his equilibrium perspective made it impossible for him to see the obvious cause of the decline: the change from rising debt boosting aggregate demand to falling debt reducing it.”
Cindy (12)-
Too bad that all we will get will be the Racist Mormon pulling a cloture vote, then this pluperfect retard getting another four years at the joystick to continue deep-sixing what tatters of the economy still remain.
I sincerely hope we get the Weimar-like inflation he so deeply craves. We deserve no less.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harvey-rosenfield/barack-obama-meet-gray-da_b_435055.html
Barak Obama, Meet Gray Davis
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2213936220100123
Babs is afraid of not being reelected so she has come out against Ben.
“It is time for Main Street to have a champion at the Fed.” Barbara Boxer
Can’t stop myself. More Keen:
“If this were just about the interpretation of history, then it would be no big deal. But because they ignored the obvious role of debt in causing the Great Depression, neoclassical economists have stood by while debt has risen to far higher levels than even during the Roaring Twenties.
Worse still, Bernanke and his predecessor Alan Greenspan operated as virtual cheerleaders for rising debt levels, justifying every new debt instrument that the finance sector invented, and every new target for lending that it identified, as improving the functioning of markets and democratizing access to credit.”
Cindy (16)-
I ruefully believe that Barbara Boxer is too stupid to even have a passing awareness of the basic elements of the current crisis. Her position is a rank political calculation…and no more than that.
http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/2009/01/31/therovingcavaliersofcredit/
Cavaliers of Credit – Debtwatch #31 February 2009
“We are therefore not in a “fractional reserve banking system” but in a credit-money one, where the dynamic of money and debt are vastly different to those assumed by Bernanke and neoclassical economics in general.” [10]
Mortgage markets set to lose federal aid
Federal aid ‘was necessary to stabilize the market,’ officials say
For more than a year, the government pulled out the stops to revive home buying by driving down mortgage rates.
Now, whether the housing market is ready or not, the government is pulling out.
The wind-down of federal support for mortgage rates, set to end in two months, is a momentous test of whether the Obama administration and the Federal Reserve have succeeded in jump-starting the housing market and ensuring it can hold its own. The stakes for the economy are massive: If the market again falls into a tailspin, homeowners could face another wave of trouble, and it would deal a body blow to President Obama’s efforts to get the economy on track.
Keeping the mortgage rates at historic lows, which required a commitment of more than $1 trillion, was viewed within the administration as a central plank of the economic strategy last year, senior officials said. Though the policy did not attract as much attention as rescue efforts to bail out banks, it helped revitalize home buying in some parts of the country and put money in the pockets of millions of homeowners who were able to refinance into lower monthly payments, the officials added.
“We did what we thought was necessary to stabilize the market, but we don’t think the government should continue special efforts forever,” said Michael S. Barr, an assistant secretary at the Treasury Department. “As you bring stability, private participants come back in. We do expect this now that the market has stabilized. I’m not going to say there will be no effect on rates, but we do think you are seeing market signs and market signals that there should be an orderly transition.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35053587/ns/business-us_business
Gator (20)-
The day that the Fed stops buying MBS will be an interesting one, as I don’t believe there are any markets for raw sewage currently trading.
Happy 50th birthday to one of NJ’s greatest contributions to modern society (and one of the few businesses that have not yet left our ‘great’ state – bubble wrap!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35046691/ns/business-us_business
I thought that the Boy Scouts was a known front for NAMBLA. Am I wrong?
81.sas says:
January 25, 2010 at 12:19 am
its too bad boy & girl scouts see to be losing popularity.
I think this is because of lack of parent involvement. Its easy for the TV and daycare to raise the kid, while the parent’s are on the bankers treadmill.
23 chifi
nothing worse than the troop leader who not only does NOT have a kid in the troop, but just plain has no kids….happens.
7.Dissident HEHEHE says:
January 25, 2010 at 7:44 am
J-E-T-S Choke Choke Choke!!!
HE: No choke man. They got steamrolled by a better team. I’ll be honest. Seeing the NFC game, it was clear to me that the Jets could have crushed both those patsies…Colts are going to mash the Saints to bits.
Join the troop; take it in the poop
24.Barbara says:
January 25, 2010 at 8:47 am
23 chifi
nothing worse than the troop leader who not only does NOT have a kid in the troop, but just plain has no kids….happens.
Gameplan for 2010:
Fed removes backstops. Markets tank. Fed bails out markets. Bergabe and the bought and paid for US government response is to exclaim see how much we need the Fed!!! We must give the Fed more power!!! Without them more people would be jobless and homeless!!!!
Of course anybody who points out the Fed caused all the disparities that resulted in people being jobless and homeless in the first place are shouted down as crazy wackjobs and conspiracy theorists.
Repeat in 2012, 2014…
12.Cindy says:
January 25, 2010 at 8:00 am
Clot – Mish is covering Steve Keen’s argument @ his site today as well.
of course; how else would clot know about it?
“We are in a surplus, that is an established matter of fact,” said Josh Zeitz, spokesman for former Gov. Jon Corzine.
Christie Cites Revenue Gap
Monday, January 25, 2010
By Michelle Kaske
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last week announced that state tax revenue through June 30, the end of fiscal 2010, are expected to come in $1.1 billion below budgeted estimates.
Conversely, the previous administration insists that after taking into account spending cuts, the state on Jan. 14 showed a surplus of $496 million.
“We are in a surplus, that is an established matter of fact,” said Josh Zeitz, spokesman for former Gov. Jon Corzine. “They are projecting a deficit. Those are two very different things.”
The governor announced the new projected revenue shortfall during his first day in office after signing several executive orders, including ones that aim to help generate business growth in the state, which now faces a 10.1% jobless rate.
Christie has pledged to curb spending to balance the budget and fill any revenue shortfall rather than raising taxes or implementing new ones.
“I will deal with it in a way that will not cause additional taxes to be put on the people of the state of New Jersey,” the governor said during a news conference on his first day.
In addition to the revenue announcement, Christie signed eight executive orders that will suspend proposed regulations and rules for corporations for 90 days, implement more competitive strategies for keeping existing businesses in the state and bringing in new ones, and establish a review panel to analyze current corporation regulations.
The governor’s expressed goal is to make the process of regulating and facilitating business industry more efficient.
Christie also signed an executive order to create an easy-to-use public Web site to access budget and financial information that would offer more transparency in how officials spend taxpayer money. Another order would limit campaign contributions from labor groups that have state contracts.
http://www.bondbuyer.com/issues/119_264/-1006366-1.html?ET=bondbuyer:e545:2202006a:&st=email
#1 grim
Thrift stores, in general, are doing really well right now.
I guess el chrome dome is right. There’s always a bullmarket somewhere.
its too bad boy & girl scouts see to be losing popularity.
Are they? IDK about the Girl Scouts, but I have a brother who is a lot younger than me (20 years) who was just awarded Eagle Scout. I was surprised at the number of kids in his troop, seriously surprised.
The steps Christie is taking seem like arithmetic. What was the big deal? Say – NO; say – CUT…..hard? WTF?
First of all Jets did not choke, nor got steamrolled by a better team. Jets needed to hold manning with a few minutes to go in the first half, then jets should not have gone for that stupid 52 yard field goal they missed setting up the Colts for good field position so they could score easy. I think that turned the momentum around in the colts favor. Jets got within 30 minutes of superbowl. Remember, this entire site laughed when I bought Jets tickets but I had a good feeling. Best single Jet ticket trade to go down in history, was my two front row season ticket seats Jets sold me for $2,100 and Jets bought back a pair off me for some big short for Dolphin game for $990. So in end I got two front row tickets for peanuts.
My daughters girl scout leader is a lesibian and does some meetings at her house with her live in lover. Her daughter is on the troop too. She only has the one kid. My wife said wow that most of have been one mean SOB ex-husband as he could not even get full or split custody of the kids after wife declared she is now gay, dumped in and moved her lover into her house.
Funny, boy scouts would not allow a gay troop leader to meet in his house unsupervised with a bunch of boys and his lover. But then again, lesbians I guess are more PC.
Dissident HEHEHE says:
January 25, 2010 at 7:44 am
J-E-T-S Choke Choke Choke!!!
“As a result, Redfin, a Seattle-based online real estate broker, plans to start operations in North Jersey soon.”
It’s about time someone starts to compete with the blood suckers, otherwise know as RE agents.
chi (28)-
With which parts of Keen’s report do you take issue?
How much better off is the economy today than in Fall ’08?
23
I had to look up the acronym and now feel ill.
My son does it and the pack leader is a women. At the cub scout meetings, a parent is required to stay the entire time. All events are planned by parents and all children are taken to events by their own parents.
Tishman. Speyer. Deadbeats.
If I put my son in Boy Scouts, can they teach him how to nail a head shot at 800 meters?
OT alert
I know we rag on the “sheeple” here, and with good reason, but there is hope that some are paying attention:
“Washington (CNN) – Nearly three out of four Americans think that at least half of the money spent in the federal stimulus plan has been wasted, according to a new national poll.
A CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday morning also indicates that 63 percent of the public feels that projects in the plan were included for purely political reasons and will have no economic benefit, with 36 percent saying those projects will benefit the economy. . . .”
[35] renter,
Now you know why so many Dads don’t get involved in things like Scouting or coaching. All you need is one false accusation from a disgruntled kid or a parent with an agenda to make your life a living hell.
If I had boys, I would want to be involved in Scouts with them (I was in Scouting). No boys so it is academic. And I would just LOVE to coach soccer, but it’s easier and safer to scream from the sidelines.
[37] Clot
They didn’t teach us how to shoot that well in Scouts. Basic gun safety and shooting at targets from 30 yards with .22s was about it.
Something tells me you’d be pretty scary as a scoutmaster.
39- re Scouting- I helped out when my child was young and held meetings at my house. One of the moms was so nasty and she kept following her child around my house. It made me very uncomfortable. The kids were great, parents not so much. Then she ended up calling my home and complaining and whining about how everything was being run. She never offered to help or hold mtgs. at her house though. That was it for me. I bowed out of the whole program. It just wasn’t worth the hassle.
OK….that’s about the third time in a week I’ve heard somebody on TV parrot the following –
“The banks were just doing what the Democratic Congress ordered them to do by giving loans to people they knew could never pay”
Some GreyBeard on CNBC this AM was spouting this non-sense. And I know I heard Sean Hannity on Friday say precisely the same thing.
Did Congress order the banks to drop all semblance of sound lending practices ??
Did Congress invent Pick-a-Pay Option Loans ??
Stated Income Loans ??
120% LTV ??
[31] tosh,
In Brigadoon, there is plenty of interest in Girl Scouts but not enough parent interest. Our daughter expressed an interest, and there was an effort to form a troop (?) in our area, but there was no parent interest whatsoever in leading it. My wife was coaching soccer and could not take on another commitment, and I wasn’t about to do it.
The parents proposed a weekly rotation, but my wife properly pointed out that it would not provide any semblance of leadership and would become a weekly daycare and cookie-selling klatch instead. So older D never became a brownie.
Clot
scouting and head shots…. Yes, if it’s a good troop
Nom, am an eagle scout myself, and will leave thechoice up to my son. The thing is that quality can vary significantly from troop to troop.
#39 – You know, Nom has a really good point. In the rabid media fed fear of pedo’s have we completely alienated a generation of fathers from their children’s lives? The fear he speaks of is absolutely real. Any adult male in this country of a certain age is constantly aware of the perception of themselves while they are around small children.
My dad was and still is involved in the scouts. He has been since I was a small boy. The older I get the more I realize that the things they teach you in Scouts are kind of important. It would be a shame to see this disappear.
43- Well, that’s why I posted in #41 that’s it’s too dicey to volunteer. Just takes one parent in the group to make your life miserable.
[42] fiddy,
“Did Congress order the banks to drop all semblance of sound lending practices ?? Did Congress invent Pick-a-Pay Option Loans ?? Stated Income Loans ?? 120% LTV ??”
Invent? No. Require in legislation? No, at least not in so many words.
But did individuals and committees Congress encourage the sort of lending that resulted in these programs? Yes.
And did the regulators task banks with coming up with new and innovative ways to fulfill its CRA requirements? Yes.
And did banks float or agree to these programs to essentially buy off community groups? Yes.
And are my fingerprints on some of these things, if only at the margins? Yes.
Heck, if I thought it would sell, I could research and write the book on that aspect of the housing bubble.
Something tells me you’d be pretty scary as a scoutmaster.
IDK, I can remember being 11 and practicing head shots would have been awesome.
plume (40)-
When TSHTF, you either have skills, or you don’t. If I was a scoutmaster, my crew would have the skills that pay the bills.
Of course, they’d also be armed to the teeth, more than a little paranoid and probably a shade too aggressive. :)
“Something tells me you’d be pretty scary as a scoutmaster.”
[44] ket,
“scouting and head shots…. Yes, if it’s a good troop”
Damn, and I thought we did pretty well in competitions. Guess we wouldn’t have made it in Scout Sniper School.
You should see how I coach.
Clot, Kettle and I should consider starting a TEOTWAWKI Survival Skills School. There are already a number of them out there, but I question if they are comprehensive enough.
Nom, 52
I can offer the hands-on first aid in a pinch with limited supplies course.
sl
plume (47)-
Funny thing about mass delusion and hysteria: everyone has a role to play in growing and feeding the beast; but, when the beast is slain, there’s no one person or group to take the brunt of the blame.
[45] Tosh,
When I was in law school in Mass, the case of Fells Acres Day Care was still raging.
If you have the time, you can google that case. It is the 1990s equivalent of the Salem Witch Trials, and the only man involved in the case is still in prison, even though the two women convicted in the case (on the same evidence) were pardoned because of the way that the case was prosecuted.
For me, the most egregious of all the accusations involved a “secret room” where abuse supposedly took place. They literally dismantled the building and bulldozed the property yet never found the “secret room.”
sl (53)-
Belt-as-tourniquet, tree limbs for setting broken bones-type stuff?
Cool.
[53] still,
The trick there would be to come up with a cirriculum on how to address common injuries or sicknesses in an environment with limited supplies.
Basically, how to be a medical McGyver.
Maybe she means how to use your iPhone properly.
Damn, I think I just came up with one way that the Nompound could be self-sustaining. In addition to developing the skills for the Nompound participants, the Nompound could also serve as the TEOTWAWKI Training School.
And do I sense tax exempt status as a possiblity here?????
I stand corrected on one point re: Fells Acres. Gerald Amirault was paroled (but never pardoned) in 2004.
Here is the house for all of you who want to be prepared for anything.
http://www.trulia.com/property/1096240402-66-Snydertown-Rd-Hopewell-NJ-08525
How many billions in commercial real estate jingle mail will it take before lenders stop doing non-recourse loans? Or are there too many fools willing to lend no matter what?
[61] renter
Nice, but not enough acreage and still on the wrong side of the Delaware.
Semi-OT:
If someone here told me this, I’d say they were getting their lariat yanked:
“The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in the US is considering packaging assets from failed banks into securities, the Financial Times reported Monday on its Web site.
The move would mark a milestone in government efforts to rid the banking system of troubled assets, as it will help restart the markets for mortgage-backed bonds, the paper wrote.
The FDIC has over $36 billion on its books from institutions that failed during the financial crisis, according to the FT.
The plan to use troubled assets to back securities is at a preliminary stage and a final decision will depend on finding a structure to provide a sufficient return, people involved in discussions told the paper.
The FDIC declined to comment to the FT.”
CONFESSION
We put in a bid on a short sale. My only consolation is that it is too low for prestigious blah blah blah. Our realtor told us that the Pennington’s, Hopewell’s, Princeton’s of our part of the world have hit bottom and we should bid more.
My husband said she is like “Realtor Barbie” ….pull the string and she says things like
“Charming and look at this nice closet”
64 Nom: I’ve heard of junk bonds, but this proposed FDIC junk is crazy. I suppose if the bond fails, you can still get paid in lollipops and coin wrappers.
Nom
You could create a “Little House” type utopia here…
http://www.trulia.com/property/1092416167-3450-N-Sugan-Rd-New-Hope-PA-18938
December home sales puke it up.
plume (64)-
Securitization of poop, finally in the literal sense.
renter (65)-
Wait ’til you have to deal with a Redfin “agent”.
You’ll wish that the gubmint had let the banks into the RE biz.
“The day that the Fed stops buying MBS will be an interesting one, as I don’t believe there are any markets for raw sewage currently trading.”
TCCR – It might be surprising what the ‘markets’ wind up digesting in their insatiable desire for yield.
Absent a new spike in mergers, markets might find lack of alternatives to that ‘raw sewage’ you so accurately describe.
70
I can’t imagine it being worse. At one point I started to make mental tally marks each time she uttered a platitude.
Sales of existing homes fell 16.7% in December as rush to cash in on homebuyer tax credit dries up – Realtors’ group.
Justin (73)-
“Sales of existing homes fell 16.7% in December, as a reliable supply of suckers has finally dried up.”
-Clotpoll
[67] renter
“You could create a “Little House” type utopia here…
”
I sure could. Would that I could afford it. Not to buy that house per se, just that I could afford it.
Anybody see that Obama is going to require that all small businesses offer a retirement plan? They do. It’s called Socail Security.
How the hell do they expect to create jobs if they continue to screw small businesses? I’m at the point that I want to take all of my money and buy a business because I have absolutely no faith in the markets. But now I have to worry about health care and retirement plans. I offer people jobs, not careers.
This is a back door method of forcing people to give money to Wall St.
[72] renter
“At one point I started to make mental tally marks each time she uttered a platitude.”
I see an opportunity for a new drinking game, based on the popular Bob Newhart game from college.
[76] d2b
D, as you well know, there’s ways around that sort of thing.
Nom-
Here is the AP link. There will probably be exemptions. But this administration seems to look beyond programs already in place to create their own. Must they pick fights with everyone?
Not every business owner is getting rich off the backs of exploited workers. The reality is that not everyone works for money and not every job is a career. It goes back to the minimum wage issue. Minimum wage is for unskilled starter jobs. The notion that the govt needs to raise it to protect exploited workers is absurd.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Obama-to-announce-aid-for-apf-3970217791.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=2&asset=&ccode=
Re: Scouting – Leaders are not permitted to be alone with a scout for any reason and the scouts are taught about “good touch – bad touch.” It’s taken very seriously. One of the best things about the Eagle ceremony I attended was the number of adults in Scout uniforms, at least ten by my count, all for one young man. There were another 30 people in attendance. All of my children were/are in scouting and I’ve been very happy with it. There is something about putting a kid in the woods and showing him/her to build a fire, cook food and create shelter that gives them a feeling of competence and independence.
PS: My son is now an excellent shot and he got his start at Boy Scout summer camp.
Minimum wage is for unskilled starter jobs.
increases in min wage = increases in unemployment
d2b, #79
From the end of that article:
Obama will also call for caps on some student loans, limiting a borrower’s payments to 10 percent of their income, and forgiving all remaining debt after 10 years of payment for those in public service work and 20 years for all others.
huh?
Isn’t it true that student loans can’t be discharged in a bankruptcy, and the rationale for that is that no lender would lend to an unemployed student without that guarantee?
Existing Home Sales Drop More Than Forecast
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/business/economy/26econ.html?hp
#61 renter –
Heh, I rented a house on Snydertown Rd. An old grain mill at the end of the road which had been converted into a house.
It’s beautiful hill country there. A pretty good place to have a “bad times” retreat – it’s near Rt 31, but such a narrow road that I think the bad ‘uns would be afraid to venture onto it (out of fear that they’d never be seen again).
Snydertown road is about 1 1/2 lanes wide and twists through the hills like an angry snake. (where the corner warning signs say 10 mph, you’d better believe it.) So naturally I visit there pretty regularly when I’m out on my motorcycle… :)
#84 Biggest decline since 1968.
Nom,
Your plan sounds interesting and i would like to subscribe to your news letter.
I had a former navy seal as one of the leaders in my scout troop…. he also taught us when to stab someone in the back so that you puncture their lung and they cant scream or call out. (only in self defense of course)
lets just say my troop had a “reputation” amongst the others.
The MacGyver medical knowledge and all the other sorts of info you need for your hypothetical school is al out there, all you have to do is collect it in one place and organize it.
Nom,
Back in my day Camp Daniel Boone in the North Carolina back woods had some great shotgun, rifle, and archery courses. i dont know how much or if that has been watered down do to liability and PC issues since i was there many many moons ago.
boy scouts bronx style is crazy stuff, I remember going camping for the first time at Alpine, we took the SI ferry and the older kids told me to go to front of the boat as they had something to show me something. I am just out of cub scounts so what do I know. They grab me hang me upside down by my ankles from front of SI Ferry, wow that is scary being upside down. Anyhow just the iniation everyone does it, in the bronz you have to “jump-in” to scouts. After I moved to LI did if for a few more weeks, but too many creepy creepy older guys in scounts uniforms leading the troop, I like the regular married guys leading it. When a grown man with no children dresses up in a little boys scouts uniform and wants to take us camping my gaydar is on full alert, run away run away.
Re 88
Just let me add: GET OFF MY LAWN YOU HOOLIGANS
[88] ket,
We should take this discussion to email. There is some serious need here I think, and the opportunity to put together something that is more focused on post-SHTF in urban and rural settings. Most survival training is hard-core, lost in the wilderness stuff. I am thinking of practical skills in survival and community building at the extended family-small community level, as well as the foraging, SERE, and other skills often taught in “survival” schools.
This would also be a great marketing tool for the Nompounds.
[91] redux,
Also, I figure that in a couple of months, I will have a lot of time to devote to planning this venture.
Nom,
I would image there have to be some long term consequences to the demonization of adult males interacting with children.
Ever as a dad with a young child i still get the ocassional glare or “look” if at group events with, just my son and I.
The last 20 years of “enlightenment” seem to have forgotten hat not all gender roles are misogynistic
Nom,
91,
hit me up. i may have interesting resources available.
83 Scribe
Before the bankruptcy laws changed, federal student loans could not be discharged. However, private student loans could be discharged in bankruptcy. I don’t know why it is, but it is.
I also am not sure of why or how lending institutions were able to make these loans but they used to be “guaranteed”. I don’t know what will happen if this new plan goes through. But this isn’t bankruptcy. This is forgiveness. Same difference?
“:#84 Biggest decline since 1968.”
Yet, nearly everyone thinks that housing is near a bottom. Just wait until that near trillion dollars of government stimulus for housing is removed.
Lookout below.
Dads and other people’s little boys don’t mix. There I said. A dad with a little girl coaching soccer is ok however, Dads with older boys ok too. But grown men alone with little boys. Creepy.
Nassau county policy automatically suspect something is up with an adult male and a boy in a car if they don’t have same last name. Stats say it is trouble.
Stu,
forget about the government stimulus. All it will take is a bump up in interest rates. The government can print money for a very long time and hand it out like candy, but they cannot stop Mr Market from forcing interest rates up for much longer.
#96 Just wait until that near trillion dollars of government stimulus for housing is removed.
Unless they don’t remove it???
#98 GS will not let that happen.
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/goldman-it'll-be-a-disaster-if-bernanke-raises-rates-411572.html?tickers=gs,dia,spy&sec=topStories&pos=5&asset=&ccode=
toyne,
GS is powerful and heavily connected, but not all powerful. Even GS has it limits.
My 2 cents –
a. Lots of survivalist stuff already out there.
b. If the idea behind the Nompound is partly secretive -occasional use holiday camp that just happens to double up as a compound, running a survivalist training school there would defeat the purpose.
Nothing like hundreds of overeager part-time survivalists all heading for the exact same spot in the hills.
My 2 cents –
a. Lots of survivalist stuff already out there.
b. If the idea behind the Nompound is partly secretive -occasional use holiday camp that just happens to double up as a compound, running a survivalist training school there would defeat the purpose.
Nothing like hundreds of overeager part-time survivalists all heading for the exact same spot in the hills.
#101 We will see.
The day the music died. DOJ approves merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
lost,
What would stop someone from making out $150,000 in student loans … to fund a degree that would lead to a lowly paid career … knowing that 10% would be equal to X …and X + would be forgiven?
Why would lenders lend?
Plus the time value of money over 20 years
“Wall Street Firms Cut Compensation, ‘Buckling’ to Washington”
what load of marlarkey.
Firms will just do off book accounting and backdating.
SAS
what? boy scouts NAMBLA…
no way. There are always bad apples. but Boy Scouts is a great organization.
SAS
scribe 106,
would people even consider that angle?
SAS
when are you coming to a GTG we have to chat sometime
“Did Congress order the banks to drop all semblance of sound lending practices? Did Congress invent Pick-a-Pay Option Loans? Stated Income Loans?
120% LTV ??”
By providing backstop to enable a market for these things, yes, government was very complicit.
Very few banks held these types of whole loans on their books. Without the Feds markets would not have existed for this crap and these loans could not have been originated.
With a viable market for the securities, however, banks filled their middleman brokering role to perfection, with astounding volume.
People misunderstand banks’ role and impose a fiduciary, in loco parentis obligation on the banks with respect to investment OUTCOME.
Banks have certain fiduciary duties, but evaluating the investment merits of bona fide securities they issue is not one of them.
Since at least 1940 it has been securities regulation that a 24 point, capitalized, and bold disclaimer that the government does not evaluate the securities appears on the cover of the prospectus and a smaller one appears on page two regarding the underwriter. Neither of the government nor the underwriter evaluate the investment merits of an investment on behalf of the issuer or investor solely as a function of issuing such securities.
That’s your money, your life, and your job.
Banks are like the Terminator – no emotion, no distractions just single minded focus on accomplishing the goal at hand. If there are willing buyers for a company that exists only on paper based on the number of ‘eyeballs’ when the NASDAQ is at 5,000 they will find and issue as much of that as the market can bear. Or junk bonds at 8x EDITDA. Or biotechnology at infinite P/Es. Or the MBS junk you describe above.
If there is a willing seller and a willing buyer they get in between. That is there function and purpose in making a market. Nothing more.
Anyone (investors or borrowers) using the line ‘the banks made me do it’ is either seriously misinformed as to where the responsiility for evaluating the financial soundness lie, is re-writing history to absolve themselves, or is angling for the soon-to-be announced NY gubernatorial candidate to bail them out of a bad personal decsion (as he did for auction rate securities holders two years ago).
[102 lisoosh,
Yeah, that had occurred to me.
Totally OT alert
You know how you meet someone and have a totally bad feeling about them? You just know that they are a bad seed?
I got into a fistfight with this guy in jr. high school, during a soccer game. We were on the same team so you can imagine how much bad blood there was already. I always considered him and his younger brother (who got into fights with my younger brother) to be total @ssholes.
Paradoxically, their father was a great guy, always asking about our family members. He deserved better.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/01/brother_of_nanc.html
“In the rabid media fed fear of pedo’s have we completely alienated a generation of fathers from their children’s lives? The fear he speaks of is absolutely real.”
I gave up coaching rec baseball for a variety of reasons, mostly the admin hassles imposed so the town could avoid lawsuits and the crazy parents.
One nice side benefit is the four hours a week I spent babysitting a lot of other peoples’ kids I didn’t even know I now enjoy with my boys. They still play rec but now we go to a local field on a nice day and have some quality time together, often with a handful of their friends.
[97] john
“Nassau county policy automatically suspect something is up with an adult male and a boy in a car if they don’t have same last name. Stats say it is trouble.”
I believe it. But that is downstate NY where everyone is a freak. Not necessarily true of broad swaths of the nation.
““Did Congress order the banks to drop all semblance of sound lending practices? Did Congress invent Pick-a-Pay Option Loans? Stated Income Loans?
120% LTV ??””
Just as a Mafia Don does not say aloud, “He, go out and kill Little Anthony because he stole from our bookmaking operation,” the congress also likes to implement certsin policies with winks and nods.
Towards the end of the Clinton Administration, the percentage of housholds who owned their on home, rather than rent, had leveled off. Policy makers of all stripe saw increasing home ownership as a good thing. The problem is tht the people who could qualify for a hokme loan under prudent lending standards already had; in large part, the people who did not have home loans were the ones who could not qualify. So, te USG pumped money into the system, and the Fed lowered interest rates and the combination of the money, and pressure from DC for banks to allow the excluded folks to buy into the “americn dream” helped jumpstart the move to exotic loans.
American, even
Nom,
Was the current chief on the force when your dad was chief?
John, this one is for you . . .
(from Shaughnessy’s Boston Globe coverage of the Jets’ loss)
“INDIANAPOLIS – The streets of Miami and Fort Lauderdale will be a lot more peaceful in the first week of February. They won’t have to count the silverware at Don Shula’s Steakhouse in Miami Lakes and there’ll be no nightly mayhem at South Beach.
The New York Jets and their marauding fans are not going to the Super Bowl. . . .”
Outofstater says:
January 25, 2010 at 10:37 am
Re: Scouting – Leaders are not permitted to be alone with a scout for any reason and the scouts are taught about “good touch – bad touch.”
Example of bad touch….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xat1GVnl8-k
[118] shore
Current chief’s name is unfamiliar.
“Obama will also call for caps on some student loans, limiting a borrower’s payments to 10 percent of their income, and forgiving all remaining debt after 10 years of payment for those in public service work and 20 years for all others.”
Liberals. Masters of the unintended consequence.
Student loan rates will move up substantially and volume will dry up for all but the most credit worthy.
I still remember when Schumer made a big public stink on all the networks locally a few years back about the $3 fee ATMs in Harlem charged and put up legislation to mandate free withdrawals. Machines disappeared overnight and everyone screamed about how they couldn’t access their funds without a subway ride.
When informed on camera he looked like a deer in the headlights. The neurons just didn’t connect that actions initiate responses.
“put up legislation to mandate free withdrawals. Machines disappeared overnight ”
How dare banks charge based on risk. What will that lead to?
[118] shore
Mark Kerrigan was a goon and that was all he was good for.
After her sister got attacked by Tonya Harding, he became her self-appointed bodyguard.
I am just sick about what happened to the father. A great guy. I barely knew him but my brother knew him pretty well (I think he coached my brother’s hockey team), and I expect I will get a call from him tonight.
#122 The govt can just lend the money.
[122] leftwing
“Student loan rates will move up substantially and volume will dry up for all but the most credit worthy.”
You are forgetting that for years now, the liberals wanted to get the private sector out of the student loan business, and go straight to government lending.
Don’t you think that this will hasten the process?
Did I just hear December home sales were down 17%?
Guys,
I was away for while but I have to tell you this boyscout story from about 13 years ago.
Went to a nearby estate sale with my BF, now husband. Large old house with an elderly couple-husband had died that year and wife was clearing out everything.
My husband and I are rummaging through the big detached garage and it becomes clear that the old man was hugely into scouts, wife said her was the regional leader or something. There were old badges, pamphelts, ribbons, sashes dating back to the 1940s and earlier. This stuff was worth some money so my husband and I made her an offer and she accepted.
As we were going through the boxes, hello….illustrated kiddie p@rn…..sick stuff, several books of it from about the same era. My husband told the clueless women while trying not to embarrass her, that she needs to destroy the stuff immediately, like now. She said she would. We left most of the scout stuff behind, I was too skeeved to take most of it and I just wanted to get out of there.
Sorry to perpetuate the stereotype but it happened.
Bubble wrap,
With every pop, we export a little bit of NJ air.
106 Scribe
“lost,
What would stop someone from making out $150,000 in student loans … to fund a degree that would lead to a lowly paid career … knowing that 10% would be equal to X …and X + would be forgiven?
Why would lenders lend?
Plus the time value of money over 20 years”
That’s a completely fraudulent thing to do. I’d hope there would be something in place that wouldn’t allow that. Something like a forced financial aid counseling.
I didn’t even read it that way. I imagined students couldn’t pay back more then 10% of their income a month. I guess I’m still naive thinking that people would actually try to pay their debts back.
NJC,
That TicketMasterNation is going to be hell, unless some decent stsartup comes along and gives folks an alternative, or uness venues (artists) start saying, thanks but no thanks, we will sell our tickets ourselves.
Nom/Toyne
You are correct.
If I were part of the tinfoil hat crowd I would see a grand conspiracy. Government is just too incompetent, however, to pull such a thing off.
One day our children will wake up in a country they won’t even recognize and everyone will ask ‘how?’
Death by a thousand cuts.
I’m tempted to go back to Europe. For all the socialization at least standards of behaviour are imposed. Here, there are handouts without any responsibility required on the part of the recipient.
So, Ali Hassan al-Majid is just hanging around Iraq for a final day.
“That’s a completely fraudulent thing to do.”
Sounds about right for our current standards of behavior. We need a new sheriff in town.
Some anecdotal stuff….
31 Glengarry West Windsor
Went to open house just to check it out. The Realtor was a piece of work. 3BR, 2Bath with unfinished basement where kitchen and all baths needed makeover. About 4-5 sign-in sheets were completely filled in….most if not all the names were Indian or Asian. Asking $525K and Realtor stated there were 4 offers already and have to bid over list price…..walked right out.
5 Dickinson Plainsboro
Asked my Realtor for some info. My Realtor replied that the house has had 60 showings in less than a week (is that even possible w/o an open house?!?!?) and 6 offers with one over asking price of $489K. I said wasn’t interested in bidding war especially when I thought price was high to begin with. Another 3BR ranch with unfinished basement.
I guess people are still delusional out there…..think I will keep waiting!!
I really can’t wait to see what happens in May/June after 8K incentive and Fed MBS purchases have ended.
“Student loan rates will move up substantially and volume will dry up for all but the most credit worthy.”
no worries BO already announced that govt will be taking over stundent loan function in future.
RUW,
Even at Jonestown, a few bright souls had the good sense to run away from the cool-aid. Let the others drink, the money they lose will not be available to outbid you when we reach the bottom of the next leg.
RU,
5 Dickinson Plainsboro – This last sold in Nov 2002 for $410k. No wonder they got 6 offers. $450K Is low/mid 2003 prices.
Thats actually a good price for west windsor. i still see comps selling in the 2004 range.
Shore,
Amen!….just seems like whole lotta cool-aid out there!!
Wondering if the next generation Indians and Asians will be turned off of real estate once the carnage is over.
Reminds me of the flock of 2nd Gen Indians and Asians that moved away from engineering with all the outsourcing that occurred a decade ago. Of course, many of them were also lured by the $$$$ on wall street!
actually, i see you said the high bid was $489. yeah thats about 2004 prices. Nothing to see here. thats par for the course in that town.
Bye the way, this is exactly what i complain about every day of the week. Except for last friday when i saw my first 2002-2003 sold comp in that area… ever.
Veto,
Yeah I knew it sold for $410K back in 02.
I still think that we’re headed back to 01-02 prices at least so while $489K is not obscene, I have no interest in a bidding war.
I know there is a “premium” for WW/Plainsboro area.
Yup…Let other suckers bid over ask!
Take a look at Zillow and at how many houses changed hands in the last 4 years. Anyone who bought and sold with a mortgage took a pretty good financial hit. Moving costs and mortgage closing costs alone take years to recover. I always wondered why so many people bought homes that they were not prepared to live at least 10 years in. It seems almost every other house we look at has 3 different owners in the past 5 years. Why wouldn’t these fools have considered renting? So to those families who are overextending themselves into a home in West Windsor or Plainsboro, there’s a pretty good chance that these same homes will be available to you for a lot less in 2 to 3 years. Hopefully FHA won’t be there and then you will finally get a fair crack at it.
Veto,
Offer was over asking price and must have been pretty significantly over if they are no longer accepting showings.
RU, My new policy is this.
Bid 1998 prices on everything. No matter what. When they say there is a bidding war, i’ll bid 1997 prices.
On top of this, I will require in the contract that they pay closing costs.
One day the sellers and agents will take the hint that this is not 2005 anymore.
“Offer was over asking price.”
We all know the asking price means nothing so offers above or below matter not.
But i know its frustrating in West Windsor. Real Estate in that town p’s me off.
Even in 2007, the week S&P hit 666, there were lines around the block to see this 3 br cape selling for high 400s. Weird.
or i guess it was 2008 when the S&P bottomed.
Whats the over/under on cs tomorrow?
My bet is that we see a bigger decline than we’ve seen in 6 month for NY Metro.
I thought I heard earlier that sales dropped 17% in December, was that possibly leaked CS data?
Veto,
Funny….I go by the same bid policy as well!!
I know exactly what you mean about WW….we’re both in the same boat!
lost (130)-
I’m just about 100% convinced that anyone who attempts to pay back loans is a fool.
Me included.
#139 Ironically many of the foreclosures in my are all have Asian names. The myth that they are savvy buyers,is just that a myth.
Poll reveals priorities of the American people for 2010:
http://people-press.org/reports/images/584-1.gif
Above chart from the following Pew poll
http://people-press.org/report/584/policy-priorities-2010
#135 I really can’t wait to see what happens in May/June after 8K incentive and Fed MBS purchases have ended.
They won’t be ended.
RU (148)-
What’s more attractive to you about your policy, the waste of time or the amount of personal angst you induce?
toyne (153)-
I tend to agree with you. Anything on gubmint life support will be extended until such point as civil society breaks down.
However, we have all the evidence we need now to know that the 8K tax incentive and the MBS purchases are 100% irrelevant.
The housing market is dead, and the corpse is beginning to rot.
I’m Asian and we’re spoon fed the “real estate is an investment” and “Don’t throw your money away renting when you can deduct your interest/taxes” BS like everyone else.
My theory is that most Asians live in a bubble and aren’t aware of what’s really happening in the world until after the fact. Worse, most of the info they get are from the nightly news!
I’m sure the others can relate…..objecting and/or contradicting with 1st Gen parents is like blasphemy! Knowing otherwise, I just bite my lip and take it.
#155 The housing market is dead, and the corpse is beginning to rot.
And yet there are still morons out there buying.
Makes no sense to me.
Toyne….that’s what I’m afraid of.
If they don’t, then I haven’t really lost much anyway.
“What’s more attractive to you about your policy, the waste of time or the amount of personal angst you induce?”
Clot, im an advocate of RUs policy. Whats attractive about it for me is the personal angst and the thought of a seller’s day being ruined because their asking price is too high.
Clot,
Neither, I don’t waste my time or other people’s time bidding yet because it hasn’t sunk in.
As for angst, I just remind myself that I don’t have to take care of home and I look at my cash/equity statements.
If i could just ruin one dilusional seller’s day per week for a year, i wouldnt even have a desire to win the lottery anymore.
Mr. Hyde, #106
I’ve seen stories about people who took out eye-popping amounts in student loans – like $150,000 – to fund arts degrees where they didn’t have any hope of ever repaying their loans. One had moved to France to avoid the collection calls.
The smart ones used home equity loans and then defaluted on those, instead of taking out student loans.
lost, #130
“walk away” mentality is starting to pervade everything.
I’ve also seen stories about people who were “considering” walking away on credit card debt … they didn’t realize the changes that had come about during the Bush era
149 Schump
I guess I’m a fool then. BTW, I like all your names. It’s like talking to personalities, but not. :)
“walk away” mentality is starting to pervade everything.
164 – Scribe, im hoping my wife doesnt catch onto this new phenomenom. If she ever checks the comps and does the cost benefit, i’m done.
164 Scribe
I think working with kids has made me lose a lot of the part of my personality that isn’t surprised easily. I guess I still live in a world where people don’t always try to get over. Wait. I live in SI NY. Nevermind.
anyone here have an info on walking away from credit card debt? forget the credit score , dont care,,
Freedy, arent you the one who just walked away your condo?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/25/nyregion/25towns.html?ref=realestate
Xana-done
And on Friday, a report prepared by the Christie administration’s transition team said that Xanadu “appears to be a failed business model” and that New Jersey needs to tell the owners to “open or surrender the property.”
It concluded: “There is no leasing plan making material on-site progress. The physical activities of construction are at a standstill, if not abandonment. The construction loan is out of balance. There are no monies readily available to finish construction of public areas or tenant improvements. Most, if not all, of announced major tenants have an ‘escape clause’ solely dependent on leasing — or lack thereof.”
168. http://www.billsbills.com/bankruptcy-blog/
veto (159)-
Still a waste of time. Sellers will not listen to you, and all you have left at the end is the angst you heap on yourself.
Unless you enjoy saying “I told you so” to strangers, IMO, you are wasting your time. The deals will be there in due course, but no rewards go to those who are not patient.
Freedy reminds me of those suicidal morons who decide to take others out with them, only it’s his creditors that are the victims. I absolutely love it and wish I was in such a financially strategic position to behave similarly. Only difference with me is I would somehow market my story in real-time to a cable network. The phone calls with the creditors would make for some riveting television. Think, Man vs. Bank.
I’ve found that one of the few things that registers on a delusional seller is a lis pendens duct-taped to the garage door…and sometimes, even that doesn’t break the denial.
Oh please . . .
An update from the Kerrigan story I posted earlier. . . .
“. . . Mark Kerrigan pleaded not guilty to all charges and was ordered held on $10,000 cash bail. He was described by his attorney as an unemployed plumber and an Army veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder who regularly receives counseling.
Just over two months ago — on Nov. 22 — Mark Kerrigan was released from the Middlesex County House of Correction where he had been imprisoned since May 2006, according to the records.
Mark Kerrigan served a portion of his military service in Egypt, but it was not immediately clear what his duties were, when he served, and what caused him to develop PTSD, which is usually associated with soldiers in combat.
“He denies any responsibility for this,” attorney Denise C. Moore, who was appointed to represent Mark Kerrigan, said of Daniel Kerrigan’s death. “He is quite distressed over his father’s death. He is grieving.”
PTSD???? Doesn’t explain why he was such a psychotic little fcuk in jr. high school. He was a nutjob from the start but his court-appointed mouthpiece says PTSD. Yeah, right.
I have now known three people that were alleged to have committed high profile violent crimes in Mass. In all three cases, I had knowledge that most people didn’t have, and could easily believe in their guilt, notwithstanding the protestations of their lawyers and friends.
Shore (163)-
Bingo. Next to healthcare payments, defaults on second liens used to pay tuition are the ones I see most.
The people who do this are also, uniformly, diabolical in the way the play the game. They inevitably string out lenders the longest, only to declare BK at the last possible moment.
yes, i walked from the condo,,cc are next
lost (165)-
Sort of “The Seven Faces of Schumpeter”.
i am getting a feeling that the administration
is going to try a program for credit cards and auto loans,, another bailout
and they are going to have to modify the
credit scoring (fico) soon,,
they are already starting that
177
When you start getting the collection calls from those degenerates might as well tape them and make a few bucks.
http://tinyurl.com/ykokv7n
Stu (173)-
You will love this. I know a lady (who was a short sale prospect some months back) who is pitching a project to Bravo today. This lady and her quack chiropractor husband are deeply in arrears on a massive mortgage, yet she has somehow gotten herself into culinary school in NYC. Now, she’s pitching a program called “Food Fight”, in which will go into people’s homes, toss out all the garbage food and teach them how to eat good stuff/lose weight/become good Hitlerjungen, etc.
It seems to me this show has been done before (I remember some strident, clench-jawed lesbi@n did this on Food Network), but the person who told me this story assures me that Bravo is really interested and wants to greenlight it.
Oy vey!
I would like to pitch a show to Bravo where I visit every manufacturer of whiskey on Earth.
178 Schump
Sure that works.
the guy’s a hero
To the question
Why is living in a rental for 15 years less stable then a house you hold the mortgage to?
Obviously nothing is different however the reality is that finding a clean stable house for rent is challenging. We have looked at 6 rentals in the last few months.
Two of them smelled like mold. One of them was beautiful even though it was on a major road but the guy has development plans and wanted to knock it down in three years. (We should have taken it.) The last three places were renting but the owner made it clear pretty quickly that they wanted to sell.
Maybe I am going about this all wrong. How do I find this stable rental?
“I would like to pitch a show to Bravo where I visit every manufacturer of whiskey on Earth.”
I don’t think the ratings would be too high. Jealousy tends to be a turn off.
“How do I find this stable rental?”
Quantity. The unit we rent out in our multi had a tenant who lived there for 40 or so years. Prior to our 5 years of lease there was only one other renter who only stayed for 1 year. The below market rent made it an absolute no-brainer.
There appears to be a lot more rentals available in our area than ever before so I imagine a prospective renter can be more selective. How about checking the tax databases to see how long the owners of these rentals have owned the place for. I would figure that anyone who bought more than ten years ago and has not sold by now would be unlikely to be selling anytime in the next ten years. Elderly owner occupied multifamily homes tend to be stable too as the owner isn’t playing games. They need the rent as their source for their fixed income.
I wonder how long it will be before they re-key the whole credit rating system. If no one can qualify and no credit is provided….the economy continues to drag….and Obama cannot say he saved us all.
apologies if already posted.
“Moreover, these emotional constraints are actively cultivated by the government and other social control agents in order to encourage homeowners to follow social and moral norms related to the honoring of financial obligations – and to ignore market and legal norms under which strategic default might be both viable and the wisest financial decision. Norms governing homeowner behavior stand in sharp contrast to norms governing lenders, who seek to maximize profits or minimize losses irrespective of concerns of morality or social responsibility. This norm asymmetry leads to distributional inequalities in which individual homeowners shoulder a disproportionate burden from the housing collapse.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/business/economy/24view.html
http://blog.youwalkaway.com/?p=451
Schump, I can assure you there are whiskey facilities you’d rather not visit. I’m thinking the whiskey the bums drink, you really can only buy it near housing projects and large numbers of homeless people, it is essentially grain alcohol with coloring, water and whiskey flavoring.
Otherwise the show sounds excellent but more likely something they’d put on discovery channel or the history channel.
Schump unless there is a gay guy, Bravo isn’t putting either of these shows one. Catty women and gays are key to bravo’s strategy.
Schump unless there is a gay guy, Bravo isn’t putting either of these shows on. Catty women and gays are key to bravo’s strategy.
Rekeying the credit system would be the last straw for me.
I would immediatelly buy a new home FHA 3.5 down, run up every line of credit I have (somewhere in the range of 300K), sell everything I bought with it on Ebay and would hide the cash. In 4 years, I would have enough cash to buy the same home outright. Actually, if this idea caught on, I would probably put much of that 300K in gold and would probably have a cool million as gold will accelerate if the banks took a Stu-style hit from too many folks simultaneously.
Forget the nom-pound…I would use my wealth to purchase protection.
jcer,
“unless there is a gay guy…”
Maybe Jamil would volunteer to host the show? Everyone already knows he moonlights as a male cheerleader for Drudge and Limbaugh.
Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. “The Goon Squad” says:
January 25, 2010 at 2:36 pm
‘I have now known three people that were alleged to have committed high profile violent crimes in Mass. In all three cases, I had knowledge that most people didn’t have, and could easily believe in their guilt, notwithstanding the protestations of their lawyers and friends.”
Uh, isn’t that the lawyers job?
What a surprise! /sarc off/
“WASHINGTON (CNN) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday the Obama administration is “looking at” the idea of allowing more legal immigration to the U.S. from Haiti.
Speaking to reporters at the State Department before departing to Montreal, Quebec, for a conference on international relief efforts for Haiti, Clinton said, “We are looking at every option that can provide a better future for the Haitian people.”
Some Haiti experts and non-governmental organizations say that allowing more legal immigration from Haiti would relieve some of the burden of providing earthquake relief efforts on the island.
The Obama administration, after the earthquake, allowed Haitians currently in the United States illegally to apply for temporary protected status for 18 months. That would allow them to work and send cash remittances back to help their families in Haiti. . . ”
So predictable. I wish I could bet on this stuff.
“Yeah. You know, it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.”
[195] lisoosh
No, the lawyer can simply keep his mouth shut.
In fact, I can easily foresee how such a tactic, designed to influence the potential jurors, backfires badly.
In reality, it is more about getting some camera time for their flagging practice.
And just because I am a lawyer doesn’t mean I support all lawyers’ tactics wholeheartedly. There is a lot my profession does that I cannot abide.
[197] stu
“Looking good, Billy Ray.”
company called Innovis is already selling
a credit scoring system. anybody here know anything about them?
Here’s a little nugget of reval information for anyone considering a move to beautiful Bloomfield.
ASI just posted proposed new assessments and their tax impact worksheet online. The 2009 equivalency tax rate is 2.85%. For comparison purposes the 2009 tax rate in Montclair was 2.387%. A $500,000 home in Bloomfield will come with a tax bill of $14,250. A comparatively priced home in Montclair will have a tax bill of $11,935. Who knew Montclair was such a bargain after all.
But don’t worry Bloomfielders. It’s all for the children, so they can attend the #181 high school in the state (2008 NJ Monthly)….which is an improvement over the 2006 ranking of 225.
http://asinj.com/revaluation.asp?p=current&id=174
“Catty women and gays are key to bravo’s strategy.”
Erin Gay Bra,
An Irish Lesbian goes lingerie shopping each week to the delight of straight men everywhere.
That number can’t be right Gator. The natives are gonna be restless.
freedy (200)-
What are they charging for a good credit score? :)
And, what would we consider to be a good price to pay for an impeccable credit score? I have a feeling that this is where we’re headed in the brave new world of Obamidiocy.
201: C’mon they moved up 45 spots. At that rate, the HS will will top 10 in a few years. Certainly worth the price of admission.
Vito & RU: If you know the face of the bulk of the buyer in a particular area, can’t you put on your thinking cap and arb it?
I knew where I grew up in Flushing, a condo tower couldn’t sell out the top floors. The sales guys were stumped. Then my buddy informed them that in Korea, most buildings on top floors ended up getting rain in from the roof, so it is common knowledge that you should never buy on a high floor unless you want to deal with problems (this was late-1980’s). There has to be equivalents here….there is always herd mentality, but Asians and South Asians make it an art form.
RUWaiting says:
January 25, 2010 at 1:45 pm
I’m Asian and we’re spoon fed the “real estate is an investment” and “Don’t throw your money away renting when you can deduct your interest/taxes” BS like everyone else.
My theory is that most Asians live in a bubble and aren’t aware of what’s really happening in the world until after the fact. Worse, most of the info they get are from the nightly news!
I’m sure the others can relate…..objecting and/or contradicting with 1st Gen parents is like blasphemy! Knowing otherwise, I just bite my lip and take it.
Asians are a funny people. Lucky numbers, they forget to do thinks like inspections, they only go to asian lawyers and banks and school district is so important, they also like to buy in good towns and shovel their walk in pajamas and hand their laundry on front lawn, but I tell you ever since my old neighbor hood went asian they no longer have a stray cat problem.
Bloomfield is a great place to dump bodies.
freedy should just change his name to freeloader and be done with it.
Schumpeter says:
January 25, 2010 at 2:47 pm
I would like to pitch a show to Bravo where I visit every manufacturer of whiskey on Earth.
strumpet: fcuk the whiskey tour; cool your jets here….
http://www.cellartours.com/spain/spanish-cities/jerez-de-la-frontera.html
John: the softer side of xenophobia.
chifi sold a 25 year NY muni with a 4.5 coupon today for 99. Who buys these things? I paid 75 in December 2008. I am dumping everything over 20 years in next few days with a coupon under 5% in munies and 6% in corporates. People are just loving it going long with a little coupon. I will go out 100 years at par with a 11% coupon, but 4.5 at par, nutso.
Chi, I don’t care how broke Spain is…if you put me in a town like Xerez, I will never, ever leave.
I in dump mode too…but of other stuff…..good goo boyeee
Isn’t xenophobia that place in meadowlands that just went bankrupt? Funny before I met my wife she had a place and her neighbors were jerks, always badmouthing her why a single girl owns a house and giving her evil eyes when she mowed her own lawn. Even watched her lug heavy things to curb while they sat and watched without helping, well she told realtor, highest offer when I sell I don’t care if it is a serial killer. Looked like a gang from compton bought that starter
free loader and proud of it ,, working the system. looking for free pse&g /reduced cable and free gym ,, got to look good
John, you’d be amazed how often I hear that.
“…highest offer when I sell I don’t care if it is a serial killer.”
very proud that i screwed Chase
Schumpeter says:
January 25, 2010 at 3:53 pm
Chi, I don’t care how broke Spain is…if you put me in a town like Xerez, I will never, ever leave.
strump: I don’t know…there is a limit to the amount of oxtail and paella I could stomach…….I still give credit to Granada for providing one of my favorite all time stories. The women there were so hot that one of my travel mates was stunned by this college girl’s posterior. She walks by him and he just helpless follows her past him with his eyes. So he doesn’t look in front of him and he completely wipes out on an elderly nun. I pissed my pants.
My limits for oxtail, paella, PX sherry, Cava, Rioja Crianza and asses you can put a beer down on have not yet been tested.
John says:
January 25, 2010 at 3:55 pm
and giving her evil eyes when she mowed her own lawn.
JJ: I would evil eye her too. If a guy is not going to do it, at least you could ask one for help.
xenophobia…is that like xanaduphobia?
Play it like a xylophone.
Dang…John beat me!
Stu & Gator,
Didn’t you once mention the possibility of you two running a property tax appeal seminar? Looks like you may have quite a few potential clients right around the corner.
Stu, Gator & freedy in a Stick It to the Man all-day marathon.
Yes Dink. Stu wants to do it. I told him I would teach it if he did the leg work in setting it up.
But for now I am busy debating my neighbors on the Montclair Watercooler (a good friend of mine made the recent observation that it would more appropriately be called the Whine Cooler) who feel that no one should appeal their taxes just because their values have dropped because it “will make your neighbors taxes go up” and “not everyone has the time and resources to appeal”.
[219] clot
“My limits for oxtail, paella, PX sherry, Cava, Rioja Crianza and asses you can put a beer down on have not yet been tested.”
Same here, but hold the oxtail.
we could also run a loan mod class/with the
attorney to go with it we could invite
BOA, JPM WFC and a few others
Loan mods are for suckers. Default, or get off the pot.
Speaking of which, my new issue of Default Servicing News is here!
yes, loan mods are for suckers but we have to deal with “the Moral hazard ” don’t you know
[226] gator
“no one should appeal their taxes just because their values have dropped because it “will make your neighbors taxes go up” and “not everyone has the time and resources to appeal”.
Some would argue that is precisely why you SHOULD do it.
gator
“will make your neighbors taxes go up” and “not everyone has the time and resources to appeal”.
And yet these are often the same people who had no problem bidding homes prices to the stratosphere using NINJA loans and now claim “No one could have known it was a bubble”….
Boo F’ing Hoo
chicagofinance says:
January 25, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Except they would stop and whistle and not help. She stopped mowing it and got lawnservice and put it up to market. I have one nice neighbor so I told my wife up to 5K less I will sell to a nice couple more than 5K I have to think about it. Guy I bought from got 15K less cause I was desirable, then again undesirables should pay more, tough to close to a crack dealer when you have to live in house 60 more days. My wife did meet all her neighbors the last day she sold, best was her nasty next door neighbor was screaming at her when the moving men were there, last words she said to her neighbor was “you should have helped me mow the lawn”.
John says:
January 25, 2010 at 3:55 pm
and giving her evil eyes when she mowed her own lawn.
JJ: I would evil eye her too. If a guy is not going to do it, at least you could ask one for help.
There was guy in NJ who actually was grieving his neighbors houses higher, he figured if there assessed values went up his taxes would go down.
Mr Hyde says:
January 25, 2010 at 4:35 pm
gator
“will make your neighbors taxes go up” and “not everyone has the time and resources to appeal”.
And yet these are often the same people who had no problem bidding homes prices to the stratosphere using NINJA loans and now claim “No one could have known it was a bubble”….
Boo F’ing Hoo
“Feeling good, Louis”
Great movie.
“Buy low, sell high. Fear? That’s the other guy’s problem. Nothing you have ever experienced will prepare you for the absolute carnage you are about to witness. Super Bowl, World Series – they don’t know what pressure is. In this building, it’s either kill or be killed. You make no friends in the pits and you take no prisoners. One minute you’re up half a million in soybeans and the next, boom, your kids don’t go to college and they’ve repossessed your Bentley. Are you with me?”
“Mortimer, your brother is not well. We better call an ambulance.”
“Fu@k him! Now, you listen to me! I want trading reopened right now. Get those brokers back in here! Turn those machines back on! Turn those machines back on!”
Nom 232 – I have looked at the sales figures from last year. I feel no guilt in aggressively challenging our assessments every year until the market stops declining. The town left a lot of potential tax base on the table with the low assessments that were given to many homes. We will not be willingly paying taxes on an assessment of 110-115% of our property’s worth when there are many homes selling that are assessed for less than 90%.
Despite the fact that we are making out like bandits doing this, we have repeatedly shown members of the town council that it would be more equitable for all taxpayers and more cost effective for the town to reassess everyone. That has fallen on deaf ears. Our council is too busy mandating complete streets and bike racks and marching us closer to financial oblivion to worry about little things like this.
I’ll let the members of Bike Montclair subsidize the rest of the town while will litigate so we can continue to keep rent affordable for our tenants and keep our overhead low enough so we don’t have to mail the keys to this place back to the bank.
And…
Randolph Duke: Now, some of our clients are speculating that the price of gold will rise in the future. And we have other clients who are speculating that the price of gold will fall. They place their orders with us, and we buy or sell their gold for them.
Mortimer Duke: Tell him the good part.
Randolph Duke: The good part, William, is that, no matter whether our clients make money or lose money, Duke & Duke get the commissions.
Mortimer Duke: Well? What do you think, Valentine?
Billy Ray: Sounds to me like you guys a couple of bookies.
What would Sue Adler do?
Comrade Nom Deplume, a.k.a. “The Goon Squad” says:
January 25, 2010 at 3:23 pm
[195] lisoosh
“No, the lawyer can simply keep his mouth shut.”
Ah, I see, it is the publicity/press stuff you object to, not the claims of innocence.
hey, bret says he’s not returning.
gator (237)-
FWIW, if I have to go to the mattresses, I’d want you and Stu next to me.
freedy-
The most reliable thing about Favre in his career is not the annual retirement announcement; it’s the fact that he invariably throws a killer pick at the worst times in the biggest games.
That pick yesterday would’ve gotten 25 NFL QBs put on waivers.
…and I don’t even like football.
Tell me the coach didn’t pull him aside before that series and say, “anywhere within FG range, pull it down/run it/throw it away/get what you can and slide”.
243: Which one?
NJRER Learning Annex?
Clot 239 – She’d stage something and then head off to pilates.
John 235 – Do you have some extra time on your hands to take this on as a project?
In my research I found 49 sales in Montclair for the 2009 tax year where the sale price was 100k or more
above the assessment. The highest variance was 614,900 above the assessment. 85 sales were at least 50k above the assessment.
It would be great if you could go after all of them to save me and Stu some dough, but we’d be happy even if you just went after the guy with the $614,000 break. There’s a good, imported beer at a future GTG for you if you’re successful.
freedy, #177
If you’re assuming that you can walk on your credit cards, better double check that one. There were serious changes during the Bush administration.
I know that this will be a disappointment for so many of you, but it looks like there won’t be another Biden in the Senate anytime soon.
Vice president’s son decides not to run for Senate
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100125/ap_on_re_us/us_beau_biden_senate
nom[38]
re. stimulus: whatever the survey says the only thing it confirms is the gullibility of the populus.
Two friends of mine (one at Columbia, another at Stony Brook) had their NIH grants approved thanks to the stimulus – so they got a chance to do some good science and to employ some associates.
Also, if the people who told the survey about wasted money were asked if their’s town policemen deserve to be canned for a lack of money [though I think mine are] the majority will say no way…
More immigrants from Haiti, who would figured. Then they will increase the numbers of all manner of other places, just to be fair.
[240] lisoosh
“Ah, I see, it is the publicity/press stuff you object to, not the claims of innocence.”
One can claim innocence, and there may be those claiming it who are. But if you claim to be innocent, and get your azz impeached six ways from Sunday, don’t be surprised if the court throws the proverbial book at you.
More distasteful to me is the abdication of responsibility. Note that he never claims he didn’t do the act, only that he was not responsible for his actions. To me that isn’t innocence—it is saying not guilty by reason of the M’Naughten Rule or something like that.
[251] cobbler,
There is no quibble with the fact that the stim $$ has either created some jobs or saved some jobs.
In each case you cite, who do you suppose should have been the payor? In the case of a locality, the citizens of that locality should pay police. If they want more police, let them pay for it. Yet now you and I are (we were before but now we pay more).
Further, in the case of the grants, how long will those jobs last? Have we stimulated our PRODUCTIVE economy? I see little if any of that.
Instead, we have propped up state and local governments and their workers. Hardly qualifies as rebuilding our productive economy in my book.
For the last time: it is not Stony Brook…..it is Stoney Land….
cobbler says:
January 25, 2010 at 5:21 pm
nom[38]
Two friends of mine (one at Columbia, another at Stony Brook)
I’m rooting for fiscal sanity here. Stu no doubt roots for the parasites?
“Reporting from Sacramento – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put organized labor squarely in his cross-hairs in 2010, opening a fight that will largely determine the shape of his final year in office.
Schwarzenegger’s proposals would cut the size of the union workforce, reduce pay, shrink future pensions and roll back job protections won through collective bargaining.
Labor and the unions’ Democratic allies are already girding for battle.”
The world just needs more ukulele.
Jamil, announcing his presence with a straw man vs Stu.
What an unlikely occurrence.
grim (257)-
Pass that spliff, mon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbOqRDrcLPc&feature=related
See Jamil, this is where you are wrong. I am about as anti-union as they come. And I also support gay marriage. I suppose I can’t be a member of either party now.
See how stupid your alignment with the Republican party is?
What did Drudge and Limbaugh have to say about Larry Craig?
Isn’t it amazing how they praise that douch Lieberman?
Go on. Send in your contribution. Rush needs another Oxycontin fix.
You can’t beat Iz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ltAGuuru7Q
And yes… 6’2 770 lbs.
I’m shocked, shocked. Who could have thought of this? Radical marxist in White House and it isn’t just post-racial bipartisanship?
Gallup poll: Obama most polarizing, divisive first-year President ever
http://www.examiner.com/x-19823-PostPartisan-Examiner~y2010m1d25-Gallup-poll-Obama-most-polarizing-divisive-firstyear-President-ever
stu = racist tea-bagger
261 Grim
So love that cover. We put it on our wedding video. But then, I guess lots of people do that when they get married in Maui.
Jamil, what are you going to do when Hannity comes out of the closet?
Didn’t that 770 lb guy buy it a few months ago?
(256) Jamil
I appreciate your politics most days but with all the pinkos on this board, you single out stu? I’d hardly describe him as a chum of big state labor.
260. Unions are fine. Without them most people would be exploited far more than they already are….and they already are.
Essex:
I don’t necessarily agree. As someone who has spent way too much of his working life with the blue collars, you would be surprised of their opinions of the helpfulness of their unions. I will leave it at that.
’97 I think
266 Clot
I’m pretty sure he passed on a while ago.
My union sucks. There I said it.
Rut ro:
South Carolina lieutenant governor compares poor to ‘stray animals’
By Andy Barr
Politico
Posted: 01/25/2010 5:40 PM
More Most Recent Stories >>
<>
South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has compared those on government assistance to “stray animals,” saying that the reason you stop feeding animals is that “they breed.”
Bauer is one of the leading Republican candidates for governor and gained national prominence after calling on Republican Gov. Mark Sanford to resign after his admission to an affair with an Argentine woman. But Bauer now finds himself in hot water for his remarks to a town hall meeting on Friday.
“My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed,”
Gator,
I actually like Biden and he was the other Democrat I would have voted for. The other was Hillary.
There was no friggen way I was votinf for Mr. Hope and Change. Listening to hime carefully, he was really relying on Hope and a Prayer.
hime= him.
apparently I am speaking Middle English today
267 nom: “I appreciate your politics most days but with all the pinkos on this board, you single out stu? I’d hardly describe him as a chum of big state labor”
I have typically left Stu alone, but after certain amount of constant harassament (often with violent threats) I decided to follow Stu’s lead. Why debate on the subject only? It is much more fun to go personal! It is the Stu way!
So you think unions have outlived their usefulness?
shore 273
i will get strung up for this; but on some level the guy has a point.
274: “I actually like Biden and he was the other Democrat I would have voted for. The other was Hillary.”
Yep, I also like Biden. It is not like he is a serial plagiazer or liar. Besides, he has been right in all major foreign policy issues in the last 25 years. Supporting Saddam in 1991 (with PLO, Libya and John Kerry), voting for Iraq war when it was popular, then opposing it when wasn’t popular etc are sign of not just expertize but also courage and moral vision. I know he will do what is best for the country. It is not like he was trying to position himself politically.
Stu just has an abundance of testosterone….thus the hairline and hockey fixation.
anyway, it is 1am here so need to continue tomorrow. Stu, waiting for the next death threat from you.
Hyde/Kettle
Did you see my post last night about the new Mini with AWD? I might have to wait on the Outback to see about this new Mini.
“i will get strung up for this; but on some level the guy has a point.”
Agreed, but delivery matters. Those comments will make for some viral YouTube.
If you tax something, you get less of it. If you subsidize it, you get more.
There are many things we are subsidizing…..
Expansion of the child care tax credit?
I’d expect this, at least at the margin, to pull additional workers back into the workforce as it becomes more cost effective to work as opposed to stay home caring for the kids. Unintended consequence, perhaps?
I’d think, as terrible as it may sound, a potential solution our high structural unemployment would be to eliminate these credits entirely for all but single parents.
Not only that, but I”d think that solution to reduce high childcare costs is to reduce demand for it, and not increase it. Unless of course, you parents out there have no problem when applying the concept of economies of scale to caring for your kids. No worries, the neck brace on the feeding trough is padded. Besides, the cattle like treatment will get them better prepared for the life ahead of them.
“Stu just has an abundance of testosterone”
Rock on, Gator!
Home sales plunged more than expected in December, raising fresh questions about whether the housing market can function without ample government assistance.
Does Susanne know about this?
“Two friends of mine (one at Columbia, another at Stony Brook) had their NIH grants approved thanks to the stimulus – so they got a chance to do some good science and to employ some associates.”
Heh, I’ve been around scientific research at the University for nearly a decade. NIH Grants are easily one of the biggest forms of waste and fraud in this country. Occasionally (less than 1% of the time), someone makes a break through discovery under one of them.
#286 – How was your b’day?
Wilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist at the turn of the previous century, discovered that 80 per cent of the wealth in the economy was controlled by 20 per cent of the population.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/horse-racing/making-a-change-for-the-bettor-2029370.html
A friend [288],
It was fine.. but I hate getting old. :)
#275 Middle English is just fine…
Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote…
Something that the folks who pay little attention will think is a great leap forward, but which will do as much for us as one of the Soviet five-year plans (as it involves, what, 15 % of the budget?):
President Obama to propose a three-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending, senior officials say
oh man… I have a really bad cold.
I missed work today and I have a meeting tomorrow am, going to miss that too. Its an important one, have a meeting with some eastern euros…
is it me, or is this cold season really harsh this year?
SAS
“These 22 Best Companies to Work For have at least 500 openings each, totaling more than 87,750 jobs. What are they looking for in a new hire? Before you apply, check out these excerpts from our interviews with HR professionals and others in the know.”
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2010/fortune/1001/gallery.bestcompanies_mosthiring.fortune/index.html
SAS
#293 sas – It’s a bad season. Mix up a little lemon juice with honey and bourbon and sip it til you fall asleep (or fall over, as the case may be).
#290 – You never felt old to me…:)
this would be catastrophic:
Mayor Bloomberg warned today that he would have to lay off nearly 19,000 city employees – including 3,150 cops — if the state Legislature cuts aid to the city.
“Let me tell you the voters of New York City aren’t going to take it,” the mayor declared in testimont before a legislative budget hearing in Albany.
Bloomberg’s possible doomsday cuts included:
* Layoffs for 8,500 teachers; 3,150 cops; 1,050 firefighters and thousands of others.
* Shutting 15 senior centers.
* Eliminating funding to 500 soup kitchens.
The mayor said the stood to lose $1.3 billion next year under a spending plan proposed by Gov. Paterson.
That was nearly double the $750 Paterson had estimated
” Mix up a little lemon juice with honey and bourbon and sip it til you fall asleep”
hey, thats a good idea. think I will make that cocktail right now.
thanks,
SAS
” Mix up a little lemon juice with honey and bourbon and sip it til you fall asleep”
good idea, I am going to make this right now.
thanks,
SAS
looks like no matter what your income level is, or nor where you, or whom you work for….we all depend on that govt paycheck. In one form or another.
how to break that addiction? its going to hurt, and keep money local, i.e don’t fall for the big bank or wall street intermediate.
SAS
sas
I am convinced you are Jesse Ventura.
SAS 299
first we need real money again as opposed to the current “debt as money” scenario.
THAT is what will hurt, as a large % of the worlds productive efforts over the last few decades has been directed at producing cheap plastic knicknacks. That and the available resources per capita on a global scale is looking quite ugly.
We wont see stability until a few billion die off.
Death threats Jamil?
Maybe if I served on the death panel that decided your fate, but death threats?
Now getting personal, that I will admit to. I am not a sticks and stones kind of guy. You can make jokes about my mom and I would gladly play along. I also don’t bruise easily. So go ahead Jamil, make it personal. I got a wedgie in first grade and somehow ended up a well adjusted adult. I really want to know what the 6th graders did to you. Perhaps you were a member of that widowed husband’s boy scout troop?
Lost
AWD MIni… interesting.
havent had time to follow up on the car issues at the moment.
AWD seems completely unnecessary in a Mini.
James Bednar, thanks for the peaceful music.
We were simultaneously having an outside inside discussion, and Iz’s music, which I forgot about, worked in nicely as we were doing the tea from the fancy teacup versus tea from the chipped old mug.
fortunately, she’s a kid who’s always been like her Dad – easy-going, accepting and very empathetic. Much more than I am.
So she watches the vid and says, “Wow, I feel great, like I just had a hot shower. When are WE going to Hawaii. I’ve STILL always wanted to go to Hawai.”
you guys seen Hurt Locker?
GREAT flick. guarantee a bunch of people on this site would like it. probably best war movie since Saving Private Ryan
304 Stu
It’s a little bigger then the regular Mini. I really like the outside. The inside is a little odd to me. I will have to drive it to see what its like.
Thanks, Yikes…was just looking at some movie playlists to try to find a good one for later.
I never drove a Mini, but I heard really good things about them.
257.grim says:
January 25, 2010 at 6:21 pm
The world just needs more ukulele.
How about Gary Numan ukulele?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAOWKs4dcPE
Surely knocks the crap out of this version…..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGSajAGg9h4
Wife has Mini. Zippy car nice to ride. Drawback is she’s been hit twice by cars and trucks that didn’t see her. Maybe the silver color is hard to see. Great to park.
Speaking of society’s general distrust of “predatory” men, these Broadview-Brinks home security commercials are not helping much. Geez, talk about fear driven ad campaigns.
Clot?
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/suspicious_virginia_man_had_we.html
ugh… just woke up.
Coast, 315. I think that is Reinvestor trying to get a bead on where Clot lives or works…
just sayin’
sl
coast (315)-
He got busted about 500 feet from where my first office was.
Damn. Coulda used his advice on my stuck grenade launcher. :)
What’s this world coming to?
clot: I know you would hate this music, but when I was 11 years old, this was the coolest ever. Listen to the description and lyrics. I was rebelling against mom’s Helen Reddy albums and my brother doing a 13 year old version of Tony Monero.
Down in the Park – Gary Numan
Lyrically the song crystallized the dystopian science fiction concept that was the basis of the Replicas album. Heavily influenced by such writers as J.G. Ballard and Philip K. Dick, it tells the chilling story of a futuristic park in which Machmen (androids with human skin) and machines rape and kill human beings for the delight of spectators who, along with their numerically-named robotic “friends” (“Down in the Park, with a friend called Five”), view the carnage from a nearby club (“Zom Zoms”).
Down in the park
Where the Machmen meet
The machines are playing `kill-by-numbers’
Down in the park with a friend called `Five’
I was in a car crash
Or was it the war?
Well, I’ve never been quite the same
Little white lies like I was there
Come to Zom-Zom’s , a place to eat
Like it was built in one day
You can watch the humans
Try to run
Oh, look, there’s a rape machine
I’d go outside if it looks the other way
You wouldn’t believe
The things they do
Down in the park
Where the chant is Death, death, death
Until the sun cries morning
Down in the park with friends of mine
We are not lovers
We are not romantics
We are here to serve you
A different face but the words never change
I like Gary Numan. Spent the summer of ’79 guzzling champagne from the bottle, skinny-dipping with my GF in our apartment complex’s pool and playing “Cars” over and over.
Here in my car
I feel safest of all
I can lock all my doors
It’s the only way to live
In cars
Here in my car
I can only receive
I can listen to you
It keeps me stable for days
In cars
That guy in SC is just channeling the zeitgeist. In the US, it’s a sin to be poor, and poverty is to be punished.
Hell, look at Brazil. The cops in Rio regularly round up street urchins, shoot them and bury them in unmarked graves.
319.The Condition-Code Red says:
January 25, 2010 at 11:40 pm
I like Gary Numan. Spent the summer of ‘79 guzzling champagne from the bottle, skinny-dipping with my GF in our apartment complex’s pool and playing “Cars” over and over.
Clot: I really got into the dystopian stuff: crashing airplanes; rape machines; fear the telephone; alienated men chain-smoking; emotional wreckage; screaming and suffering……
I think my mom was relieved when I got into Devo…..
ben [287]
Since NIH grants are almost only form of financing of biomedical research in the U.S. outside of the pharma companies, declaring them useless and wasteful implies that we don’t really need this work done. I guess, we could be just fine if research follows manufacturing to China.
Cobbler [323]
Already happening!
China has experienced the strongest growth in scientific research over the past three decades of any country, according to figures compiled for the Financial Times, and the pace shows no sign of slowing.
Jonathan Adams, research evaluation director at Thomson Reuters, said China’s “awe-inspiring” growth had put it in second place to the US – and if it continues on its trajectory it will be the largest producer of scientific knowledge by 2020.
Thomson Reuters, which indexes scientific papers from 10,500 journals worldwide, analysed the performance of four emerging markets countries: Brazil, Russia, India and China, over the past 30 years.
China far outperformed every other nation, with a 64-fold increase in peer-reviewed scientific papers since 1981, with particular strength in chemistry and materials science.
Financial Times – (limited access)
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7ef3097e-09da-11df-8b23-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
astroturf time!
Ellie Light, North New Jersey
Should you apply to medical school? Is a career as a doctor for you? Sure there are lots of pluses to being a doctor, first and foremost the prestige – you get to be called “Doctor” and everyone knows that you’re the best of the best because not only did you get into medical school, but you finished. But there it takes more to succeed in medical school than simply a desire to be called “Doctor.” Is medical school and a career in medicine for you?
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I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.
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