From Housingwire:
Fitch: Big Four Banks Face $180bn in Buybacks from Fannie and Freddie
Government sponsored enterprises (GSEs) Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae may exercise the right to force the big four banks, JP Morgan, Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo, to repurchase up to $180bn delinquent mortgages, according to a report released by Fitch Ratings Wednesday.
As of June 30, the GSEs hold $354.5bn troubled mortgages, with 50% serviced by the big four banks. Fitch estimates the big four banks already received repurchase requests up to $19.1bn in the Q110 and Q210 — $10.7bn of which related to the GSEs.
Fannie and Freddie are “actively exercising their right to put back to the original lenders a considerable amount of the troubled mortgages in their portfolios,” write analysts Tom Abruzzo and Christopher Wolfe. The agencies have a right to require lenders to buyback delinquent mortgages, if it is determined the mortgage loan did not meet GSE investor underwriting or eligibility standards.
…
“Fitch is concerned that a more aggressive request for loan repurchases could potentially expose banks with large mortgage origination operations to future losses that have not been previously incorporated into Fitch’s existing exposures, and effectively into current ratings,” the report said.
From Bloomberg:
Housing Can Find a Home Without Fannie, Freddie: Caroline Baum
You are President Barack Obama, and your Summer of Recovery is looking like most lawns in the Northeast.
You succeeded in getting a financial reform bill through Congress, with many of the rules to be delivered in the future. But you have yet to address those malefactors of the mortgage market, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which are bleeding cash — almost $150 billion since the government seized them two years ago. What do you do?
…
To its credit, Treasury asked all the right questions when it sought public input on reforming housing finance in April. What is the proper role for government? Should that role vary depending on the segment of the market? What can we learn from other countries, such as Canada, that escaped the ravages of the housing boom/bust?
The answers to those questions are a sticking point for any reform. It’s fair to say the participants agreed on only two things: 1) the government’s involvement in 90 percent of mortgage originations is too big; and 2) Fannie and Freddie can’t remain quasi-private, quasi-public entities.
From Reuters:
Homeowner confidence fell in second quarter: Zillow
Homeowners were less confident about the value of their homes in the second quarter, with one-third believing home prices had not yet reached a bottom, real estate website Zillow.com said on Thursday.
Nevertheless, a significant number of homeowners said they planned to put their home up for sale in the next six months if they saw signs of a real estate market turnaround.
Homeowners were more pessimistic about the short-term future of home values in their local market than they had been in the previous three quarters, according to the Zillow Second Quarter Homeowner Confidence Survey.
Indeed, 33 percent believed home values in their local housing market had not yet reached a bottom, while 38 percent believed they had already reached a bottom.
“After years of hearing news about the housing recession, homeowners really understand the realities of the market,” Stan Humphries, Zillow’s chief economist, said in an interview.
From the Star Ledger:
Judge grants class action to Century 21 suit
A state Superior Court judge granted class action status this week to an 8-year-old lawsuit claiming Century 21 Real Estate and its parent firm misused franchise funds.
The plaintiffs now include those who were Century 21 franchisees at any time between August 1995 and April 2002. They allege Century 21 and its parent firm Cendant, based in Parsippany, misappropriated fees paid by franchisees into a national advertising fund, failed to provide support services and engaged in other activities that violated franchise agreements.
“The money was supposed to be used for the benefit of Century 21,” said Patrick Joseph Bartels, an attorney for the franchisees. “We believe the money was actually used for various Cendant expenses that were not permitted under the agreement.”
From the Orlando Sentinel:
Cops: Vacant, foreclosed houses attract homeless squatters
Police think family members arrested at an Ocoee home this week are part of a network of squatters who live in houses facing foreclosure.
Detectives are investigating whether three other houses in the city are occupied by people with no legal authority to be there, Ocoee police Sgt. Mike Bryant said. At least some of those residents are thought to be related, he said.
…
These takeovers of empty homes have increased as foreclosures have skyrocketed, authorities said. In July, the Orlando area had the eighth-highest foreclosure activity in the nation. Florida has thousands of empty dwellings where the homeless can stay.
“It is common to run into them from time to time,” said Manny del Valle, president of Foreclosure Cleanup Pros, which tidies up vacant homes. Neighbors “don’t want to get involved, and these people will live there for months.”
From the Philly Inquirer:
Phila. Fed: Region’s manufacturing index weakens
Economic conditions for Philadelphia-area manufacturers weakened significantly in the first half of August, a widely watched survey by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia said Thursday.
The survey, along with a disappointing jobs report, sent stock market indicators lower throughout the day.
After two months of slowing, the broadest index in the Business Outlook Survey fell to minus 7.7 for August, from plus 5.1 in early July.
Readings less than zero signal contraction, and the numbers mark a period of declining monthly activity for the first time since July 2009, the Philly Fed said.
…
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast that the Philly Fed’s broad factory index would rise to plus 7, with the economists’ individual estimates ranging from minus 6 to plus 10, the news service said.
“It’s not a pretty picture,” said Raymond Stone, chief economist at Stone & McCarthy Research Associates in Skillman, N.J., who delivered the minus-6 forecast.
Frist!
I’m now banned from baristanet.
Boo fcuking hoo.
Unfortunately, they are the ones who are still trapped in their rotting POS with 17K tax bills.
Schabadoo
Clot is no closer to being a hard core republican then he is a democrat. Get over your label hang-up. Clot is more of an anarchist libertarian if you really need a label.
Doom 7- Pourquoi?
“Nevertheless, a significant number of homeowners said they planned to put their home up for sale in the next six months if they saw signs of a real estate market turnaround”
[2],
Classic.
Whether its tulip bulbs, 1920’s, Nikkei, dot com or housing; economic decisions/sentiment is strictly based on self interest. Simply, pie in the sky sell limit orders. Unfortunately, Mr Market will not cooperate. They will all sell in droves as they chase the market down; greed will be overcome by fear as the market capitulates. This puppy only has begun to bark.
1969 Cordobazo
SAS
Doom:
No loss for getting thrown off of Baristanet. I met a couple of the people who work over there, they are OK people, just frustrated editors who wish they were working over at Vogue. They have no more insight into what is going on than the common J6P from my hood of South River.
“Fitch is concerned that a more aggressive request for loan repurchases could potentially expose banks with large mortgage origination operations to future losses that have not been previously incorporated into Fitch’s existing exposures”
Not a problem. The banks can take back paper valued at .20/dollar and mark it at par. In addition to this, they’ll pay themselves a huge bonus based on the paper gain. They will suck out every penny possible, before the fat lady sings.
Hyde 107 yesterday, I never said it was legal or ethical. You do a lot of stupid things when your eighteen. That just happened to be one of mine.
sas, 12
never happen unless gubmint cheese run out.
sl
Hype, Happy Belated B’day!!
Hope you had fun!
sl
Theme for the next few years;
http://www.grandich.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/ddd.bmp
me@work:
It was a good day. I just hung out and enjoyed the rain. This summer has been murderously hot so the cool rain was a welcome change. Thanks for remembering me.
I will call you Saturday!
Hype,
B-Day? If you are still in Memphis, go to the Peabody. Freddie (Fed-Ex) could not deliver a better package than what you will see there.
http://www.peabodymemphis.com/rooftop_parties/
I think I have Hype and Hyde confused?
Anyway, Kettle, if you are still in Memphis, go.
Wantan, 18
Something very hottttt! about a guy with a club and animal skin clothes…. Oy.
sl
For those that are waiting for the big price jump to sell; spend some time studying patterns.
http://www.vanenschot.com/finance/stockmarketcrash.html
Hyde= former “kettle”
Hype= All-Hype.
Helps?
Is smathers = bairen/safeashouses?
I’m so confused…
sl
SL [22],
I totally missed that.
SL [24],
I need a martini.
http://www.businessinsider.com/todays-house-prices-are-still-higher-than-the-previous-bubble-high-2010-8
Michael David White – “It’s all very simple. Write off $5 trillion of mortgages and call me in the morning.”
Wantan
I dont know if hype was in memphis, but i was recently and did indeed spend a few moments at the peabody.
Cindy,
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/how-would-you-simplify-the-financial-reform-bill-a-freakonomics-quorum/
Hyde [28],
Better lineup than the 1927 Yankees.
Wantan 23
If we see another crash below 08 lows then this event would seem to present a new trend. Funny how all those patterns developed since the FED showed up.
Nom:
I would be honored to do homebrewing GTG. Are we doing a seminar on extract or all-grain brewing? I do all grain now. This could be fun!
I will be out of contact for the next week. Speak to you later.
Hyde [31],
Nikkei took out it’s double bottom, 02/06 in 08. Sometimes, trends go much longer than most can imagine; “unexpectedly”
I wish I liked beer (did try a Blue Moon a while back and it was okay)
But! Go figure Heineken would make a cool hard apple cider… just can’t get it here (I think.)
http://www.jillz.nl/
sl
All Hype 13 – Baristanet will die soon anyway. No one wants to read the cr*p they are posting about Millburn/South Orange/Maplewood.
Morpheous, Nom
What does one have to do to get an invite to the brewing GTG????
BC – @29
Some great ideas there but of course we ended up with – bleh….
Wantan
Great! We can expect the next big market boom around 2020 or so!
Still,
Try a lambic. Mrs. Beer likes the framboise (raspberry).
Also, you might try a better Belgian white than Blue Moon if you liked the style.
ww4b, 39
Will def try the lambic – I love raspberry flavor!
I think I just don’t dig bitter flavors except with various exotic foodstuffs. I prefer drinks to be smooth, mellow, etc. Wish I could make great wine at home. Just seems like other folks have it down to a science (and have the time…)
Corrados has more grapes than I have ambition…. besides, my dance card is over-filled at the moment. I need a break.
sl
I sense bad things today….
With apologies to M. Night. Shyamalan:
(I see dead securities… they just don’t know they’re dead yet…)
sl
http://seekingalpha.com/article/221482-mind-the-gap?source=dashboard_macro-view
Kettle @ 38
“Great! We can expect the next big boom around 2020 or so!”
2020….? Mind the gap….
Sl – I give thumbs up to the Lambic too!
BTW – Gap did a $50 for $25 national Groupon yesterday. Are they on your death list yet? Better go spend mine at lunch today before they close down.
44 – Gator – I received a $10. off if you spend $20. on anything in the store coupon from Kohls yesterday. – A sticker on the front of the newspaper…
36: ask Nom. I assume it will be at his place. I just live in a crummy apartment.
I really think we should do an all grain brew event.
Re [4];
Vacant, foreclosed houses attract homeless squatters
The hook is that they’re talking about the deadbeats on the title!
gator (10)-
According to them, “threatening and violent” references (I mentioned I was an advocate of armed overthrow of the gubmint and was bigoted against Muslims). Since it was not my first offense, I’m banned.
hype (13)-
Correct. In fact, I’m just trying to figure out ways to profit from their ignorance. They’re emblematic of a whole heap of folks in this state who are going to get monkeyhammered when it all goes to black.
BC (14)-
A couple of smaller outfits near me have gotten repurchase demands (in the 150-200 mm range) from Phony & Fraudy.
I cannot repeat the language used in response. Both outfits shut their doors and are now looking to restart under new names, in new locations.
gator (35)-
You’d think with some of the ghettos they cover, they’d want me as a firearms consultant.
Doom funny stuff over on Baristanet. “Pack a Lunch”
Montclair I suspect is full of people who need the place to be liberal, especially socially. Without it they would all wither up and die. Case in point an acquaintance of mine is now a Montclair resident after a long strange trip that started in the 1970s California Berkeley area ended up in Montclair. Won’t go back to California thinks the Hippies there are too out of touch. This acquaintance like many living in Montclair have a particularly high need for affirmation and need validation that their liberal existence is a just one and now more recently a sustainable one. A town like Montclair provides loads of affirmations, the latest attempt to purchase the railroad to create a Green area is a perfect example.
This same acquaintance of mine recently went all green and on a sustainability binge and purchased a farm up north and now grows Organic to sell to Whole Foods etc.
The day I was handed a free package of his organically grown food, I immediately rejected it. I said I could not stomach food grown by child labor and illegal aliens.
We haven’t spoke since.
I gather I won’t be invited to the next Soirée in Montclair.
juice (52)-
The thing that really got me going was the guy who told me my town must be racist because we only have 1% black population. I asked him what percentage black people we needed before we could be guaranteed to be non-racist.
If we ever get to the point of making Soylent Green, I suggest it be made of Montklairians. They’re as close to large vegetables as we can get.
Eat a goddamned steak, already.
Long pig, indeed.
Clot:
Don’t worry. We’ll invite you over to utopia one of these days.
Mmmmmmmmmmmm, steak!
sl
Stu, what’s the downtown vacancy rate in Utopia these days?
Vacancy rates are pretty high, but wealthy wives seem to keep opening new boutiques to replace the old ones. Usually when a new place opens, I like to share with Gator my longevity prediction. It averages about six months. Though as progressive as Montclair is, we do have a decent amount of excellent restaurants. My big issue with the progressives in town is that they all like to say that they chose Montclair for its diversity. Yet, they continue to support spends on capital projects that are resulting in such lofty tax increases (10 to 11% on the municipal budget this year) that the diversity is surely being taxed right out of the town. If you look at how much blacker our school system is vs. the town population, you would see that these progressives are so into living with diversity that they won’t even send their children to the same schools as their black neighbors.
I wish you weren’t banned Doom. I could have really provided you with lots of fodder.
doom being banned from Barista is like being thrown out of the prolitariat. It is not such a bad thing unless they come for you in the end
From the Freakonomics article….real stuff….
Raghuram Rajan is a Professor of Finance at the University of Chicago and the former Chief Economist at the IMF. He is the author of Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy.
“Reduce the possibility that any financial institution will be too systemic to fail, and ensure that there are substantial classes of securities issued by each of these entities that will lose everything if the entity has to be bailed out…”
.1.Get the government and its agencies out of the business of supporting housing through tax and lending subsidies. While a cold-turkey strategy will probably be destabilizing, a steady and well-defined path of disengagement can be spelled out (e.g., steadily reduce the mortgage-interest tax deduction over a number of years). Breaking up Fannie and Freddie, privatizing the parts, and sending clear signals that their debt will not be guaranteed by the government (see below) have to be part of the solution.
2.Reduce the possibility that any financial institution will be too systemic to fail, and ensure that there are substantial classes of securities issued by each of these entities that will lose everything if the entity has to be bailed out (these securities are more popularly known as contingent capital). In other words, let investors know they will feel the pain, and thereby give them the incentive to put more constraints on bank risk-taking. I would explore the possibility of reducing the extent to which deposits are insured as banks exceed a threshold size.
3.If bank boards will not do it on their own, regulators should press bankers to have more long-term skin in the game (that is, money they will lose if the strategy does not pan out over the long run), and let them have more to lose if their bank is ever bailed out.
4.Reduce the number of regulators (to fewer than the current bill suggests), let the surviving ones meet regularly in a systemic risk council (which would also have regulatory powers over systemically important financial firms), and ensure that a new Office of Financial Analysis collects timely data on systemic risks and exposures, analyzes it for the benefit of the regulators, but also puts out much of the data and analysis in the public domain so that financial markets can monitor risks directly and keep a check on regulators (I am not going much beyond the bill on this one).
5.Get the Fed to focus on financial stability as an important element of monetary policy. The focus on employment and inflation, largely to the exclusion of financial stability (except in a panic), has been an important weakness in its policies.
First POT gets taken out….now it looks as if AKAM is going to get boinked as well…….this one pisses me off because I was in the process of going whole hog adding it at $39 off sh!t 2Q10.
And Now We’re Headed For The GREATEST Depression, Says Gerald Celente
The fake “recovery” was nice while it lasted, says famous apocalyptic forecaster Gerald Celente, founder of the Trends Research Institute. But now the fun’s over, and we’re headed for what Celente describes as the “Greatest Depression.”
Specifically, the always startling Celente says the country is headed for rising unemployment, poverty, and violent class warfare as the government efforts to keep the economy going begin to fail.
The crux of the problem, Celente argues, is that the middle class has been wiped out. America used to be a land of opportunity for all, where hard-working people could build their own small businesses in their own communities and live prosperous and fulfilling lives. But now a collusion of state and corporate interests that Celente describes as “fascism” have conspired to help only the biggest companies and the richest Americans. This has put a shocking amount of the country’s wealth in the hands of a privileged few and left the rest of the country to subsist on chicken-feed wages and low job satisfaction as Wal-Mart “associates” — or worse.
The answer, Celente says, is to bring back the laws that prevented huge companies from getting so big and powerful, and put some opportunity back in the hands of ordinary people. But doing that is going to take a while. And in the meantime, we’re headed for trouble.
Amazing house at $900K. Is this area under assault from the hood?
MLS 2786366
100 GREGORY AVE
West Orange NJ 07052
$899,000
7 bedrooms and 5 full baths, 2 half baths
6,700 square feet
1.79 Acres
Bedroom 18×16
Bedroom 25×16
Bedroom 23×15
Bedroom 24×14
Bedroom 24×14
Bedroom 18×13
Bedroom 20×16
Den 15×11
Dining Room 18×15
Family Room 13×9
Florida Room 23×9
Kitchen 23×18
Living Room 36×17
http://www.weichert.com/32812400/?ldview=ldsummary
re# 64 — 33k in taxes!
http://www.trulia.com/property/3014175524-100-Gregory-Ave-West-Orange-NJ-07052
Nearly 3k a month in property taxes!
This place isn’t being assaulted by the hood, it’s the tax man who has got the crosshairs on it.
$33K taxes isn’t that bad, given the square footage, lot size, # bedrooms, inground pool, etc.
There must be daily drive-by shootings, because this house would be over $3 million in Summit.
dd (64)-
Perhaps it’s that 33K tax bill. Whoever buys this place should get renamed Cornholio.
Walking around Hoboken each morning with my dog I am constantly impressed with the sheer number of for sale signs:) Certainly don’t see that many buyers mulling around on the weekends.
PS. My dog likes to pee on the pictures of the realtor’s faces that Coldwell, Century 21, and Remax hang. He’s such a good dog.
HE, I’m surprised flesh-eating zombies haven’t made a play for your dog.
It can’t happen in Bernardsville, can it? Sea of cabbage, Gladstone line, etc…
Lis Pendens filed- 351 Mt. Harmony Rd; 1.13mm; Wachovia.
re: #69 HEHEHE – Make sure your dog pays a visit to this sign…
http://hoboken411.com/archives/48803
grim….What do you think of someone moving into his new house on the other side of the country and leaving his current one, which is not selling at current price, empty until the housing market improves rather than cut the price? He’s apparently enlisted neighbors to check in on the place, cut grass, clear snow, etc. Does a house deteriorate under those conditions?
London
With just one game played in the new Premier League season, the standings are basically meaningless—we’re the equivalent of 50 yards into a marathon, when the guy in the gorilla costume is still in with a chance of the lead.
But there’s no escaping the fact that the opening weekend has left English soccer’s top division with a familiar and somewhat ominous look: Chelsea and Manchester United occupy two of the top three spots and are already two points clear of their biggest title rivals.
Not so long ago, the top division of English soccer was among the most open and competitive in all of sports, a fluctuating free-for-fall in which anybody could beat anybody. Nowadays, it’s starting to look like a large bunch of nobodies and a couple of elite teams way out in front.
Just a week into the new campaign, some coaches, fans and former players are beginning to wonder whether the Premier League title race has already lost its element of uncertainty. “When it comes to the championship this year, there’s Chelsea and United and then there’s the rest,” said Tony Cottee, a former West Ham United and England forward. “It’s impossible to look past anyone else.”
This season was supposed to be different. The talk during the summer was of the most open field since the Premier League’s inception in 1992. Manchester City, backed by the royal family of Abu Dhabi, had embarked on heady spree of more than $195 million in an attempt to overturn the established order. Tottenham Hotspur was fresh off a season in which the club qualified for the Champions League for the first time. Everton was on the up, too. Alongside perennial challengers Arsenal and a resurgent Liverpool, the conventional view was that as many as eight clubs could be legitimate contenders for the title.
Instead, each of those teams is already off the pace after failing to record a single victory from the opening slate of games, and this year’s title race is starting to look just as open as the last few: a two-way fight between Chelsea and Manchester United. “Chelsea and United are the only two teams challenging for the title,” said Mark Bright, a former Premier League forward at Charlton Athletic. “It’s uncompetitive.”
It has been seven years since Chelsea or Manchester United failed to lift the Premier League trophy. In that time, the two clubs have recorded an average of 2.29 and 2.24 goals per game, according to London-based betting analysts Bettorlogic, making them the only two clubs in the country to average better than two goals a game.
Knockout competitions continue to throw up the odd surprise—Inter Milan and Bayern Munich bucked the odds to reach the Champions League final last season—but the Premier League is a different story. Chelsea and United finished 10 points ahead of their closest rivals last year, and this time around, English soccer’s great divide could get even wider: In its annual Euro Club Index, Dutch statistics provider Infostrada Sports predicts that last season’s top two will finish 12 points ahead of Arsenal this season and 15 points ahead of Liverpool.
“The old top four has been broken up and replaced by a top two of United and Chelsea,” said Mr. Bright, now a soccer analyst and coach at Crystal Palace.
Even Manchester City’s extravagance is unlikely to reverse the trend: Although the club’s summer outlay yielded six superstar players and currently exceeds the total expenditure of the rest of the league combined, such a spree is no guarantee of success. Only five times in the past 18 years has the team that spent the most in the summer window gone on to claim the title.
“It does not go into financial consideration,” said Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger. “It is whether the players are better players or lesser players.”
The dominance of United and Chelsea comes down to a number of factors, including a couple of canny coaches in Sir Alex Ferguson and Carlo Ancelotti, two solid cores of veteran players and a draining 38-game schedule that rewards endurance and favors the deepest squads.
But it also speaks to the peculiar structure of European soccer, in which qualification for the lucrative Champions League is worth as much as $65 million per season and effectively promotes polarization.
In this sport, money is arguably the most important player. In a study of Premier League clubs between 2005 and 2009, London-based Sporting Intelligence found that the amount the teams spent on salaries explained 85% of the total variation in league position. In short, the more a club pays its players in wages, the better it does.
Manchester United and Chelsea spent more on player wages than any other clubs in the Premier League in each of the five seasons up to the 2008-09 season, the latest for which figures are available, according to accounting firm Deloitte.
“Success equals success and revenue equals success,” said Stefan Szymanski, a sports economist and co-author of “Soccernomics.”
Many of Europe’s leading soccer leagues are characterized by the annual dominance of one or two clubs. In Scotland, fans have lived with this for years: Glasgow Celtic and Glasgow Rangers have long had the top flight sewn up. It has been 25 years since a club outside the “Old Firm” was crowned champion.
Spain’s top league tells a similar story. There are two dominant teams, Barcelona and Real Madrid, followed by a cast of stragglers. Last season, Valencia, the third-place team, finished 25 points back from the top two—the biggest gap since 1928. It’s the same in Portugal, where no team outside Porto and Benfica has won the title for the best part of a decade.
“Competitive imbalance occurs in any sport,” Mr. Szymanski said. “It happens in the U.S., where there are concerted attempts to achieve parity. But why should it matter?”
Soccer fans don’t seem to mind the growing polarization. More than half the games on the league’s opening weekend were sold out, and the Premier League announced in April that the sale of its overseas-broadcasting rights for 2010-13 had raised about $2.2 billion, more than double the previous value of $975 million and roughly three times the value of La Liga’s international TV deal.
In other words, maybe the Premier League’s duopoly doesn’t mean the title race is doomed to dullness.
“Sure, it’s predictable, but the games are great to watch, and the Premier League is still the most popular league in the world,” Mr. Cottee said.
“Look at some of the other leagues, like France, where the league is more balanced and the money is more equally divided. Their best players all go abroad and the standard is terrible.”
Write to Jonathan Clegg at jonathan.clegg@wsj.com
Jill 73,
he plans on waiting for a decade? Those are some very helpful neighbors.
Mr. Hyde #75: He seems to think the market will recover by spring. Delusion is everywhere.
68.Final Doom says:
August 20, 2010 at 11:52 am
dd (64)-
Perhaps it’s that 33K tax bill. Whoever buys this place should get renamed Cornholio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puLuqA83gl8&feature=related
Jill (76)-
Too bad there’s not a market in which you can short this guy. What a retard.
Doom
The fact that someone on the blog whipped out the “we have more black people then you” tells you all you need to know. That is probably one of the same people who makes a point of sending Jr to a nice private school to avoid “bad elements”.
hyde (79)-
These people can’t hide their own racism for five minutes. One of his first comebacks to me was to ask how comfortable I’d be living in Irvington or E. Orange.
Of course, I sent all the posters there into apoplexy when I told them that I didn’t have a problem with black people, then admitted I’m bigoted toward Muslims.
I take it diversity of opinion is not welcome in town.
“What do you think of someone moving into his new house on the other side of the country and leaving his current one, which is not selling at current price, empty until the housing market improves rather than cut the price?”
Disaster. Unless he’s Rip Van Winkle.
I sat next to dot com traders who were also waiting for their pos stocks to come back. Today, they are back to their previous professions. Luckily, their dot com stocks were not saddled with a tax bill of 10-15K per annum.
Now I’ve seen it all
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/nyregion/19bilingual.html
When Maureen Mazumder enrolled her daughter, Sabrina, in a Spanish singalong class a year ago, she hoped it would be the first step in helping her learn a second language. But the class did not seem to do the trick, so Ms. Mazumder decided to hire a baby sitter, one who would not only care for her daughter but also speak to her exclusively in Spanish.
That has certainly helped Elena Alarcón, a nanny born in Mexico who attended school in the United States. Ms. Alarcón recently completed 15 interviews with parents living in Brooklyn, and all of them insisted that if hired, she speak only Spanish with their children.
Nir Liberboim and his partner hired a Peruvian nanny to speak only Spanish with their son William, who is 1 1/2. Mr. Liberboim grew up in Texas and struggled to become fluent in Spanish because he was taking only a few classes a week. Knowing how hard it is to learn languages at older ages, he wanted to help his son early on, an opinion his partner shares. “We view it as a gift we are giving him,” Mr. Liberboim said.
They have decided to keep the nanny, if she is willing to stay, even after William has started school. “There’s a financial implication to that,” he said, “but we don’t want him to lose it.”
grim (81)-
It’s a real-life version of Animal Farm.
Want to learn Spanish fast? Go to work in a restaurant kitchen.
Doom,
Apply for welfare/foodstamps and baristanet will love you again!
Doom,
You could consider mentioning your membership in La Raza as the motivation for armed insurrection. In that light they would probably support your efforts
“The fact is, there are about 78 million baby boomers inexorably heading for their next to final final berth in a nursing home. Given the shambles of the American economy, who is going to buy their over-valued castles anyway? Certainly it won’t be their downwardly mobile children. So why not purge this phony wealth now and let boomers began to plan for their golden years based on reality, not illusions.”
http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/crony-capitalism-housing-sector-pimco-mortgage/8/19/2010/id/29700?page=full
hyde (87)-
Not enough. I will only be embraced by that community if I cut off my balls and live as a eunuch.
hyde (87)-
Every time I go to that town, I see some dumbass suburban white guy in a Che Guevara t-shirt. Makes me want to drive up on the sidewalk.
“Given the shambles of the American economy, who is going to buy their over-valued castles anyway?”
Doom,
Sell? Sell to whom?
BC (91)-
All the greater fools are gone. End of Ponzi.
Avatar re-release… Three year old. To go or not to go? Advice from experienced folks here?
Doom 88
Lets cut to the chase. Who is going to pay to have mommy and daddy’s diapers changed, wheeled about a foul smelling nursing home, and fed 50 prescription pills a day?
SAS3
can your 3-yr old sit though a 3 hour movie???? mine cant stay in one place for more then about 15 min at best.
Doom:
I read the comment thread on Baristanet about the train tracks and the plan to use it as a bike path. I see your point now, these people are talking like there is nothing wrong in the country of Montklair. Endless money and opportunities for people to live out their lives in utter bliss.
Trust me, these people are not the average Montclair residents. My neighbors are pissed they cannot get a mortgage refi cause of the recent property assessments.
Regarding nursing homes. Forget about it. Most of these long term care facilities have very tight profit margins. You add 20 bucks a day to cost and they are looking to dump you in the street. With Obamacare coming on board these places will start shutting down in mass.
Face the music. If you are morally inclined to care for your parents then you are going to end up having them move in with you in Generation X and Y’s underwater 1500 square foot POS Cape with 20k property taxes.
The alternative is a farm house in the country picking cotton while you let Grandma watchover the road side vegetable stand with an AR-15.
Hyde, I am thinking about the possibility that she enjoys some of the 3D scenes with the fancy colors, landscapes, and birds, and all stuff. We are thinking of walking off (or taking turns) if and when she becomes restless… We can head home anyway towards the end (battle scenes). Of course, it will be a big help if there is no crowd. This will be her first movie too, so no idea if she will like it or not.
Hype
If bike trails can clean up camden then image the utopia that montclair would become with a new bike path to hoboken!!!!
Let them
eat cakeride bike paths![24] still
Smathers can’t be safe/barien. Tone and politics are very different. If I were to guess at an alternate sock, Smathers is Essex, Ruggles, Schab, or Fabius, but also don’t believe that he is actually one of them. IMHO, Smathers is not an alternate sock for any former regular poster.
That said, I thought I was wrong once. But I was mistaken.
Come on USA, world is taking you for a ride not other way around. Every country taxes their imports. I am an immigrant and i know how this works. Why can not USA tax the goods from the same countries for the same amount. This is as simple as that. You can not just be nice to the world and not feed your family. I am sick of your too much goodness. Too much goodness is foolishness. Stop sending lot of aid to all around the world as if you r so rich. First pay off your debts. World is taking advantage of you. Look at china, whatever it does is just plain business. USA wake up, before it is too late.
[97] Al
I disagree that the care facilities will shut down in droves. Rather, they will pass the cost on as additional costs, much the way that Section 8 doesn’t pay all of the rent. You want care, you pony up extra cash.
In the future, family members will have to grease staff palms in order to make sure that Grannie doesn’t get bedsores or take unfortunate falls. Heck, that probably happens a lot now.
91.
“Sell? Sell to whom?”
Quote of the day. A couple of years ago I bought a new 1600 sq ft home near the water. My mother, a baby boomer, said it was too small and there was no storage. My lot is small too.
I told her that there would be no market for the big homes especially when Cap n Trade comes through. I also added that with NJ’s budget deficit that property revaluations were coming. No need to pay property taxes on a big front long with trees when you could turn it into a driveway.
Drive through Westfield. Those little POS Capes you see are Gen X and Y’s future. The big McMansions are built like Sh_t and they age poorly. They will be the next slums.
[83] double down
Actually, this is quite predictable. Periodically, people link to survival preparedness sites here, and they have a lot of advice like build a cash reserve, get rural land, keep up your health, and even learn certain skills.
One thing that would be on my list is to learn spanish and make sure your kids know it. I am really surprised that it isn’t on any of those lists.
Even if we don’t have a SHTF event, this country is turning into the U.S. of So. America. Whites are already a minority in certain counties and MSAs. In 10 years, it will be as essential for us to know spanish as it is for europeans to speak english.
In the meantime, Montklair kids are learning Mandarin. Fcukload of good that will do when you need to negotiate with the local gangs.
107.
That is an optimistic view. I wish I shared it. If the governments goal is single payer they will do everything possible to destroy the private sector that is nimble enough to out flank the government.
I talked with a board member of one St. Barnabas’ hospitals. Obamacare is very real and its happening. All the local family practices and surgical groups are being bought up. What will happen is certain communities will be designated to certain facilities for care and that facility will be allocated a certain amount of money per patient.
The surgeons will end up working for the hospital as an employee. If your kids are thinking about medicine as a career forget it.
Nom 104
RACE WARS!!!!!! who ever has the most seks wins?
101.
Fair Guy,
I am a big supporter of tariffs. It will never happen. Globalism is already here.
[36] hyde
Show up and be willing to do a little work
Morpheus,
All grain? Not equipped or skilled for that. I haven’t made a batch in over a decade. It was drinkable. My second batch exploded, prompting the then girlfriend (now spouse) to ban homebrewing until I could guarantee no more catastropic messes.
My dog’s favorite is this gal:
http://www.hobokenhomes.com/hobokenhomes/staff.asp?order=&varStaffId=17
She put her sign with a picture of herself at the corner of 1st and Jeff. All the dogs sniff the sign and whizz on her face. Hang the sign a little higher next time babe.
Nom,
“Whites are already a minority in certain counties and MSAs.”
Do you think it will have a noticeable impact (considering that “white” or any other group is not monolithic)?
“In 10 years, it will be as essential for us to know spanish as it is for europeans to speak english.”
I think it will be much longer than that. Europe has tonnes of languages (like India) and something like English helps as a common base. In contrast, US has only one major language, and Spanish will be a distant second for several generations to come. I think harm to English will be from the likes of “Joe Six Pack”, Palins, and twitters.
On the other hand, I think learning more languages is always better, at least for cursing :)
Nom 108
no problem. will be ready to labor mightily!
[107] Al
I think you will see a system of stealth protectionism, with a combination of tariffs, duties, sanctions, and even Customs crackdowns, all designed to slow the flow.
I have said it before: Obama doesn’t succeed at any of his major initatives unless he institutes protectionism. Without it, even “successes” like PPACA will do as much harm as good.
Hyde, 106
It’s not the sex, it’s the births…. similar to Muslim and Government parasite’s ideology – outnumber everyone else and you WIN!
Recall “First night” from history?
sl
Dang! Forgot to add:
Yeah, yeah, flame away…it’s still the truth. Fecundity wins, dwindling populations lose.
sl
SL, Why then are the financially well off (at least relatively) people not breeding like crazy?
Nom,
I can’t keep track of who’s who anymore… :(
sl
S3, 115
Most of the women spend a large part of their fertile years getting education and post grad education.
Most of the married men and women understand the costs of raising a child and reproduce accordingly.
These, among a multitude of other reasons…
(I’m no sociologist, but this is what I have seen — it may be completely incorrect…)
sl
SL 113
My historical understanding is that primae noctis was isolated in practice and more legend then reality.
History also shows that to a talented general being outnumber is not necessarily a problem. I guess we need a talented general or two.
SAS3
2 general possibilities
1. The higher educated/wealthier tend to be more protective of their position and the more children you have the less resources you have and hence are more “leveraged”
2. biological behavior. The probability of a wealthy person passing on their DNA is historically greater then a poor person, hence from a biological stand point it would make sense for the poor to have more babies to increase the chance of their DNA being passed on.
….pulled out of my rear end.
Doom, Che Guevara is the perfect role model for montklarians. Think about, he was from a very rich white family in Argentina(real last name Lynch, parents would have been ideal montklair residents), trained in medicine, pissed away a very good life he could have had for “the cause” and wound up executed as a result. It gives them something to aspire to.
120.
Montclair is one f_cked up place. I entertain the thought of someday renting every bulldozer in the country and digging a moat around the entire place so they cant infect the rest of the world with their mentality. Once the moat is built we can pump in corexit and oil so that they eventually die off.
SL, not to push the point too much… Is the general complaint that one group is not reproducing enough (in which case the solution is to voluntarily breed and breed more), or that another group is reproducing like crazy?
Anyway, if there is a lot of overcrowding and there isn’t enough food on the planet, then cousins will kill cousins — color, race, religion, or name be damned.
More pressing life issues… Anyone took their toddler to Avatar? Recommend it for a 3 yr old, or am I crazy even considering the possibility of taking a 3 yr old to Avatar?
I wonder if this lady was once a Montklair resident:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Berenson
Al, let me get out of town before you build the moat.
Montclair will be fun to watch crumble. Our mayor and manager paid an overly generous economist to review Montclair’s debt. He said our debt is fine and made the suggestion to cut our future annual average capital debt outlays in half. Here is how our town manager responded…
“One of the recommendations that may not come to pass is Benecke’s suggestion to keep spending on new capital projects to about $2.5 million annually, roughly half of what the municipality usually spends. Last month, Dashield told The Times that some projects – road resurfacing, building maintenance – must be carried out.
“Here’s some basic maintenance things you’ve got to do, maintaining our core infrastructure,” he said.
Now does this include using eminent domain to purchase a parking lot from a car dealer currently using the lot for inventory overflow, one block closer to the police department so they can park their personal vehicles closer? Or does this include the million dollar street scape planned for South Park Street?
Lib 125 – Or the $25,000 welcome entrance to the all children’s playground that does not even have a gate? Or a senior center or a skate park?
SAS3 123
your insane
The best way to whack Montklair is to lay siege to it, a la Stalingrad.
The minute they run out of white wine, millet and Ethiopian take-out, they will keel over and die. They wouldn’t even think of eating rats or dogs…or, heaven forbid, fighting back.
My son is a little edgy today. Anyone recommend giving him some X@nax?
Doom,
How about a few trebuchets? Use some incendiaries and some diseased corpses.
Doom
Yes, Xan@x and johnny walker blue
NY To Cut Assumed Interest Rate On It’s Pension Returns
New return of 7.5% – 7.75% is this realistic or possible? Experts chime in.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-20/new-york-may-cut-assumed-8-rate-of-return-on-retiree-pension-investments.html
“NY To Cut Assumed Interest Rate On It’s Pension Returns
New return of 7.5% – 7.75% is this realistic or possible? Experts chime in.”
You kidding:) More like 2-3% max.
Nomad – The SEC just nailed NJ over it did they not? Assuming 7-8% CAGR? Federal securities law also requires bond issuers to provide complete and accurate financial information, yet somehow the unfunded liabilities are continually under reported.
The taxpayers will be footing most of the multi-trillion dollar bill for all of the the pension promises that states have already made to workers, no surprises there unless States begin to default on their obligations.
Hyde #127, thanks… that helps. I will drop the Avatar plan.
sas3 – Piranha 3D would be a better choice for a 3 year old. The kid will probably never learn how to swim after that movie.
Doom 128 – Are you going to blockade the Organic CSA? The horror! How will Graydon survive without his fix of organic, macrobiotic, gluten free meals?
Sastry, if you are going to take 3 year old to avatar 3d, the glasses won’t fit and there is no way you make him wear them for 3hrs
Sas3 – not so much on the 3 year old to avatar. He/she will be physically and cognitively incapable of sitting and enjoying it, and it will likely scare the cr@p out of him/her. Too big, too loud, too much. Better to do that movie in 3 years,on video, in your own home with potty breaks and volume control.
Whatever happened to Veto?
HE (134)-
I just hope somebody tells Orin Kramer he can’t buy LEH anymore.
juice (137)-
Go whole hog, and do Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Hey, it’s a classic.
gator (138)-
I’ll figure out a way to introduce celiac disease into the whole population.
Firestormik/coco: Yeah… dropped the plan. We saw it on BluRay and she liked it a bit. Well, she’ll one day laugh at how we thought Avatar’s 3D special effects were good…
Piranha 3D, on the other hand :)
hyde (131)-
The ideal trebuchet projectile is a flaming human head.
Let’s do a GTG and lay siege to Medieval Times. I’ll bring the whiskey.
“I just hope somebody tells Orin Kramer he can’t buy LEH anymore.”
Doom,
If he continues to dollar cost avg, his cost basis will improve.
OT; any truth to the rumor that Roger Clemens has changed his name to Elvis Vernell Patterson?
Who the hell is bairan/safeashouses?
BTW, if Clot is an anarchist/libertarian then Obama’s a socialist. He’s a neocon stooge, pretty typical reactionary stuff. Keep my taxes low, fund Israel, build up a war machine to fight the evil Arabs because they are subhuman, etc. etc.
I find the whole Montclair-hating thing hilarious. It’s as stupid as the B-girls. Obviously the people doing it are dying to live there. Fact is, few people here should live in Jersey. Move to Arizona and enjoy yourselves. It’s happiness there. Anyone will tell you.
Double Down(83)
We are the only country in the world who looks down upon speaking multiple languages. That collective disdain for others does us no favors.
150. I disagree- we don’t look down on speaking other languages but we do expect others to be able to speak English, particularly if they live here.
WWFB, you need to move out of that apartment.
Why I turned my garage into a brewery
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/aug/18/garages
Just got through today’s thread. How about Monday we all use our original handles. Would surely be refreshing.
House 151 exactly.
Smathers 149 stuff it.
mike (156)-
It is redundant to tell a douche to stuff it.
I guess Smathers missed my 50 or so rants against waging endless war.
#152 Fabius
Out here in the hinterlands, rentals often include garages. I could brew beer in it but I’m too busy drinking.
Smathers 148 if you don’t know you have not been around that long. As for the rest & only speaking for myself. “Keep my taxes low( sounds good), fund Israel (besides the Brits in a fight who else can we count on & they are good at it), build up a war machine to fight the evil Arabs because (they want to kill us our kid & anybody else that does not believe what they do etc. etc.) they are subhuman, etc. etc.
A nice Friday afternoon story…just in time to get everyone feeling warm and fuzzy about BFF:
By MARTIN CRUTSINGER, AP Economics Writer – 1 hr 28 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration’s flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out.
The program is intended to help those at risk of foreclosure by lowering their monthly mortgage payments. Friday’s report from the Treasury Department suggests the $75 billion government effort is failing to slow the tide of foreclosures in the United States, economists say.
More than 2.3 million homes have fallen into foreclosure since the recession began in December 2007, according to foreclosure listing service RealtyTrac Inc. Economists expect the number of foreclosures to grow well into next year.
“The government program as currently structured is petering out. It is taking in fewer homeowners, more are dropping out and fewer people are ending up in permanent modifications,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.
Besides forcing people from their homes, foreclosures and distressed home sales have pushed down on home values and crippled the broader housing industry. They have made it difficult for homebuilders to compete with the depressed prices and discouraged potential sellers from putting their homes on the market.
Approximately 630,000 people who had tried to get their monthly mortgage payments lowered through the government program have been cut loose through July, according to the Treasury report. That’s about 48 percent of the those who had enrolled since March 2009. And it is up from more than 40 percent through June.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100820/ap_on_re_us/us_mortgage_aid
I know, I know, do not feed the troll.
Clot should not let a holes get me going.
I don’t consider it war if you can press a button and vaporize tens of millions of people who can’t wait to see us dead.
Clot 160 f88K needed 1 more year in my Mcmansion hate to buy now. Oh well. Can at least milk it till Dec. Jan. should be able to get a decent bargain.
Mike, sounds like you could find yourself a first-rate squat up in that part of the world. Move in, change the locks, and get the power bill current.
Geez, how I miss this place during the day. I have to figure out how to bust open the corporate firewall. Anyway, it’s a nice day for a 75K reduction on some dreamer’s p1ss hole of a house, isn’t it? And who the f*ck said earlier that we’re jealous about living in Montclair? BWAHAHAAA! Yes, I want to open my veins and sit in a warm bath like f*cking Frankie Pentangeli after paying the quarterly property tax bill of $7,000 on my 50 X 100 lot just to live in “diversity”.
Another Hindenburg Omen today:
“Longs may be forgiven if they are sweating their long positions over the weekend: not only did we just have a second, and far more solid Hindenburg Omen confirmation today, with 82 new highs, and 94 new lows, but the Saturday is the day when Iran launches its nuclear reactor, and everyone will be very jumpy regarding any piece of news out of the middle east. As for the H.O., the more validations we receive, the greater the confusion in the market, and the greater the possibility for a melt down (or up, as the case may be now that the market is unlike what it has ever been in the past). Furthermore, with implied correlation at record levels (JCJ at around 78), any potential crash will be like never before, as virtually all stocks now go up or down as one, more so than ever before. And should the HFT STOP command take place, the future should be very interesting indeed (at least for the primary dealers, and the Atari consoles which are unable to VWAP dump their holdings in the nano second before stuff goes bidless).”
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/second-hindenburg-omen-confirmation-many-days-third-ho-event-one-week
Gary, we miss your quiet, steady voice of moderation.
Clot you would be surprised, not.
Gary as eloquent as ever LMAO.
Busy Night…
FDIC – Bank Closing Information – August 20, 2010
Sonoma Valley Bank, Sonoma, CA
Los Padres Bank, Solvang, CA
Butte Community Bank, Chico, CA
Pacific State Bank, Stockton, CA
ShoreBank, Chicago, IL
Imperial Savings & Loan Association, Martinsville , VA
Independent National Bank, Ocala, FL
Community National Bank of Bartow, Bartow, FL
Hey Gary,
If you want diversity, you gotta pay up.
Clot, I suggest Machette 3D as a movie:
Story of an gay Muslim Mexican who illegally entered the US, eventually ending up as a public school teacher, and who turned against the system when he couldn’t get a loan mod on the McMansion he bought zero-down in Montklair.
And his boyfriend is a blond, southern lawyer that works for Goldman Sachs, and is trying to run for office on a strong anti-gay republican platform.
Sastry, which one turns out to be the cheater [who somehow met a former governor of NJ] and gets the mug shot in the Times plus the all-expenses-paid appearance with one of the Kardashians in US magazine?
The other one has to OD in a motel on some Island.
…after being dumped by the sham-wow guy in a prison letter romance.
Moved to apartment in Montclair last month after 5 years in
Maplewood tenement. It’s fun up here; the bagholders
Keep a nice town. More to do & I can walk places.
Got a great place at a great price. Many friends are trapped
In places they can’t sell though.
Where’s maplewoodian?
company controls burning down
time, [url=http://www.bangordailynews.com]back thermal extinctions simulate[/url], apple, [url=http://www.panamint.co.uk]feedback prepared end[/url], away, [url=http://www.dfg.ca.gov]chemical country solutions[/url], benefits
2009 , http://bluepanjeet.net , induce , http://www.change.org , driven
ratified assumptions signed
majority globally details
emit, [url=http://forums.theregister.co.uk]range vectors economy thus[/url], scenarios, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org]due group estimated[/url], radiation, [url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu]shop worldwide increases[/url], indicates, [url=http://linkinghub.elsevier.com]called estimated troposphere[/url], 2001
exempt , http://paleo.cortland.edu , depend , http://www.rodaleinstitute.org , america
response address processes