From the Atlantic:
Dear Treasury, Investors Can Fix the Housing Market
Dear Treasury Secretary Geithner,
First, kudos on your decision to stay on for the rest of your boss’s term. I know Goldman is aching to get you on board, but you’ll have plenty of time to make money when you’re in your 50s. Now that you’ve committed to another year, let’s talk for a minute about one of the most important problems you face: how to fix the housing market.
I’m glad to see that the Treasury has recognized two key facts about the housing market. For starters, the economic recovery won’t take off until housing has hit bottom and begun to rebound. And as far as what Washington has done to try to fix the market up to now, none of it’s working.
What Isn’t Helping
Let’s learn from those lessons, shall we?
Lesson #1: Be Aggressive — Little Carrots Don’t Work
Lesson #2: Stop Trying to Prevent Foreclosures — Mortgage Modifications Aren’t Working
Lesson #3: Ignore Consumers — They Can’t Fix This Problem
Lesson #4: Stop Pretending You Control Fannie and Freddie — You Don’t
…
Help the Private Market to WorkIdea #1: No Taxes on Rental Income for Five Years
Idea #2: Allow Crazy Flexibility with Rental Property Improvement Tax Deduction
Idea #3: Exempt These Investors from Real Estate Taxes through 2015
Good Morning New Jersey And Happy Friday!
“Any chance the listing realtor owns it [Tony Montata?]?”
Aon, thanks for comments from yesterday. Realtor does not own it. Was told my rent checks would go to bank so perhaps it is REO with little chance of selling without large loss. Could be a clean deal but more due diligence required.
From the Philly Inquirer:
Home Economics: Even though market is tough, some people have to sell
Given the level of economic uncertainty these days, even falling home prices and a 30-year fixed mortgage rate of 4.32 percent aren’t enough to reel buyers in.
Not the ideal moment to sell a house. So jumping into the real estate waters can be quite a leap of faith.
How can you know that this is the right time?
For Melissa Webb of Center City, it came down to getting more elbow room for her, her new husband, Rick, and Buddy, his 25-pound cockapoo, “who is just like another person.”
Webb, who works for a large bank in Delaware, bought her Clinton Street condo when she was unmarried. The single life ended on New Year’s Eve 2009, and the three have squeezed themselves into her place since March 2010, when Rick sold his Bucks County home.
“We just need more closet space, as well as more home-office space, as we both work from home frequently,” said Webb, who hopes to sell the condo before they close on their new, larger house in the city in November.
“I know it isn’t a great market,” she said, but the need for more space was more pressing.
…
Lifestyle changes such as Webb’s are a major motivator of sellers right now, said Mark Wade of Prudential Fox & Roach Real Estate in Center City.
“Most move due to need, be it a transfer out of town or a growing family,” he said.
“Medical students are in town for a set four-year period to finish their schooling, and they are going to sell regardless of market conditions. Others are selling because they have a low or nonexistent mortgage balance and can easily move.”
For them, Wade said, “resale value is not always the issue.”
Some sellers are “scaling down and moving to assisted living,” said John Duffy of Duffy Real Estate on the Main Line. “Empty-nesters are moving to smaller properties that are easier and cheaper to maintain, and the younger couple is selling their first home and moving to a larger property now that children have come along.
“We still have the estate sales, and, unfortunately, the divorce sales, and, in some very rare circumstances, people who sell because of affordability issues,” he said.
…
Jeff Block of Prudential Fox & Roach in Center City doesn’t believe in trying to anticipate what the market will do down the road.
“My clients who are putting their homes on the market now are doing it for one reason – because they want to sell their home now,” he said. “If I advise my sellers one thing, it is that you can’t time the market.”
The bottom line, Block said: “No one can predict the economy, so base decisions on what works for you.
“And if now is the time to put your home on the market and sell, then do it. If waiting makes sense for you personally, then wait.”
From the WSJ:
Judgment Call: Appraisals Weigh Down Housing Sales
William Maxwell is an expert in finance. He’s a professor at Southern Methodist University’s business school, has co-authored a book on high-yield debt and spent years calculating values of financial markets.
Yet there’s one valuation he can’t understand: the appraisal of his Dallas home.
In August 2010, Mr. Maxwell’s home was appraised at $790,000 as part of a mortgage refinancing. Yet this past spring, when he tried to sell the four-bedroom home for $756,500, the appraisal commissioned by the buyer’s lender, Bank of America Corp., came up with a value of $730,000. Mr. Maxwell said the appraisal killed the sale.
Weak appraisals are “driving down the real-estate market,” Mr. Maxwell says. Saying the appraisal process “borders on buffoonery,” he’s appealing his home’s valuation to the Texas regulator.
One of the conclusions from the housing bust: The appraisal system was broken. One of the conclusions some have drawn from the struggling recovery since then: The appraisal system is still broken, but in a different way.
There is little doubt that home values have depreciated sharply in recent years for the most basic of economic reasons: excess supply of homes on the market and weak demand. But some realtors, home-sellers and economists believe low-ball appraisals also are undermining a housing recovery.
Appraisals are supposed to be unbiased assessments of a property’s value. The housing bubble that burst a few years ago was inflated, in part, by overly generous appraisals. Now, lenders are pressuring appraisers to come in with lower estimates, some real-estate professionals say. Banks also are using less-experienced appraisers, who often don’t appreciate factors that make a home worth more, they say. And valuations are being heavily influenced by distressed sales priced at a discount to the rest of the market.
Lenders are “instructing appraisers to be a little conservative, and that responsibility on the one hand is seen as credit tightening and, on the other, as exacerbating the housing problem,” says Columbia Business School economist Chris Mayer. A research paper last year titled “How Much Is That Home Really Worth?” by economist Leonard Nakamura at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve also cited a downward bias in appraisals.
…
Not everyone agrees the appraisal system is broken. The Mortgage Bankers Association, an industry trade group, concedes that appraisals are conservative but says they need to be, partly to protect the banks from future problems with investors who buy mortgages. “There’s an extra note of caution,” said Steve O’Connor, a senior vice president at the association.
And some appraisers say homeowners are just having trouble facing reality. “It’s the market. It’s not the changes” in the appraisal process, says Charles MacPhee, a partner with Buttler Appraisals LLC.
Banks are more concerned that an appraisal should follow all of the rules and fit correctly in the little box they have created than they are about getting the value right. High, low or anywhere in between is fine as long as the comps are the right age, size, style and distance from the subject. It doesn’t have to be right, you just have to be able to justify the findings based upon the criteria.
Fewer sales means fewer comps. Less data to work with often leads to less accurate appraisals.
I would add if they allowed people to buy investment / second homes using 401K and IRA, that will help RE. No one is feeling secure by investing in stocks anyway….
Another controversial, but easy solution is, give conditional Green Card to any illegal immigrant. The condition could be he/she has to pay income tax for 3 year period continuously or so. That should at least top earning immigrants feel secure and go ahead and buy starter homes. The main issue is at bottom end of the market, this is where lot of buying will happen.
Especially rancid aromas in the air today…sorta like the stench of death.
RE is dead money, folks. Will be ever so for the next 50-100 years. Get ready to hit the road in your jalopies and warm yourselves by trashcan fires.
Some stinky cheese here.
“Earlier today, Europe’s fulcrum economy – France – whose AAA rating is all the matters for continued European solvency, as a downgrade would effectively derail the EFSF even before its launch as Zero Hedge has discussed extensively in the past, reported Q2 GDP which not only missed consensus estimates of 0.3% growth, but plunged from Q1’s 0.9% down to unchanged or 0.0% for Q2. The worry here is that, as Market Watch observes, “France’s economy, the second largest in the euro zone after Germany, recorded no growth in the second quarter, heightening concerns about the nation’s ability to achieve its deficit-reduction plan.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/big-miss-french-gdp-puts-further-pressure-its-aaa-rating-according-analysts
SG (6)-
Since the beginning of recorded time, what is the fate of nations who casually allow their borders to be overrun?
Title post;
Interesting ideas, but why limit the special bennies for slum lords? If, on balance, an OO will take better care of the place than a renter, become more involved with the neighborhood, etc., wouldn’t we want OOs in these distressed houses at least as much if not more than a renter? Why should an OO who buys a foreclosed house next door to an identical one bought by an investor in the same sub-development have to pay real estate taxes while the investor does not?
The mentality of that blog post is the same that leads to the farm subsidy problem – if we’re going to pay people to not grow certain crops, why don’t I get free government money too — I don’t grow any crops either.
I’m all for any program that turns Moose into a bitter renter for the rest of his life.
#4
His asking is 4.5% from the original appraisal.2nd appraisal was 8.2% from the original appraisal.
That is how much values were dropping in Dallas,10% a year.This guy calls himself an economist.
I don’t know how an illegal immigrant can afford to buy a house ,if he was given a green card.He can not be working for a big firm to make good money.There is a background check and the firm will not risk $10k penalty to hire an illegal.Most he will be working is the small business.
Even if he has his own business,he will not be able to show support of income because he does not pay taxes.Unless he was able to save enough to pay cash,he can not get a mortgage.
Years after getting the green card,after getting a good job.But16% of Americans are looking for those jobs now.
Debt: The Forgiveness Fix
For overburdened countries and consumers alike, erasing unpayable debt is a necessary step toward renewed growth
Why does this matter? Because debt—public and private, foreign and domestic—is the No. 1 issue of 2011. The perceived danger posed by debt dominates the political conversation in Washington and is the reason for the British government’s austerity program. In the absence of strong economic growth, debt burdens around the developed world will remain onerous for years to come—and yet while countries are single-mindedly focused on paying down their debts, it will remain harder for them to implement pro-growth policies. Getting the global economy moving again means accepting that some debts will never be repaid—and the sooner they’re forgiven, the better. “This will be the story going forward,” says Daniel Alpert, managing partner of Westwood Capital, a New York investment bank.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/debt-the-forgiveness-fix-08102011.html
# 3 Medical students are in town for a set four-year period to finish their schooling, and they are going to sell regardless of market conditions.
First how many medical school students are buying real estate while they are still in medical school.
Second Why would you buy something knowing that you were only going to be there four years.
I am just saying.
#4 So he is a professor of business and an author of a book on financial assets, and yet when it comes to his own house, it is personal.
I don’t mind them erasing debt so long as the people without any debt are compensated in a similar manner. If the average American say has 50K of debt that isn’t payable then throw me 50K too and I am cool with that.
#17 Exactly.
Silly savers, bend over, you know you are going to get screwed.
When do the austerity measures kick in here in the U.S.?
Grim (19): “Silly savers, bend over…”
This is exactly why I leveraged up and bought the 2nd home. My cash reserves are almost depleted. Even if I run into financial problems, Uncle Sam will take care of me. I mean, if Captain Cheapo has problems you know the overall economy has completely hit the fan. Keep on saving silly savers.
Re : #4 Appraisals
So Professor Maxwell, s Smart Dude from SMU, doesn’t understand what happened to his home value ??
This dope re-fi’s his home in August of 2010. Sales in the prior 6 months were juiced by the Tax Credit and there were sufficient recent comps. Of course, the Mortgage Broker that Prof Maxwell chose promised the lowest rate, without mentioning the exorbitant closing costs and this Mortgage Guy leaned on the appraiser to inflate the value to cover the Broker’s vig. “We really need to help Maxwell Smart out, he’s only making a Professor’s salary and he really needs this re-fi.” So the value was inflated by $10K (what’s 1.5% in the bigger picture anyway).
A scant year later, the Professor decides to sell his home. But wait, there’s no more Tax Credit, Lending Standards are now tighter than a gnat’s rectum, and Bank of America has decided that they really don’t want to be in the Mortgage business anymore. They’re not accepting Brokered Loans and their Appraisal Management division has chosen an appraiser based on the lowest cost (and highest profit margin to the division). They sent an appraiser from El Paso who accepted the job for $5 less than the local appraiser from Dallas. El Paso spends less time on the appraisal than the time it took to drive to the Subject.
The resultant appraisal is below the sales price (what’s 2% in the bigger picture anyway). And the Buyer’s Financing falls through. The Realtors scream that “a house is worth what a Buyer is willing to pay for it !!” Never mind that the deal was 3% down with 6% Sellers Concession for Closing Costs.
And the Appraisal Killed the Deal.
17&18 Count me in. I’ve spent my whole life living below my income in order to set money aside for the needs of my family and to be financially independent at the end of my life. What a chump.
You know that renting is the new black when the chuckleheads in government start cooking up grand designs for how renter will save the housing market.
Only a matter of time before the government starts pandering to that untapped block of potential deadbeats/voters and introduces some mandates “monthly rent reductions” so that, you know, renters don’t lose “their homes.”.
Then we can all be deadbeats, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
#15 Real Estate only goes up.Why not make some money while my kid is using it.
/Sarcasm off
EDISON — Authorities have charged Edison’s acting chief financial officer with theft and attempted theft of township funds.
Frank DeRosa began working in the post earlier this year.
The 64-year-old was Edison’s business administrator in the 1990s.
Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office spokesman James O’Neill told The Star-Ledger of Newark (http://bit.ly/nziCj9) DeRosa was released on $10,000 bail. It’s not clear if he has retained a lawyer
3b: WT update for you: The Bergen Ave. house has dropped to $399K; the fixer-upper on Crest Place is down to $269K, and photos of the Hickory St. house are up:
http://www.coldwellbankermoves.com/property/details/2655416/MLS-1131185/386-Hickory-St-Washington-Township-NJ-07676.aspx?WT.MC_ID=371810000000000&utm_campaign=OLDP-Trulia&utm_source=trulia&utm_medium=oldp&utm_content=listing
Another controversial, but easy solution is, give conditional Green Card to any illegal immigrant.
Good idea. When they take the bait and reveal their name and location, we can handcuff them, interrogate them and send them back to “their” country.
Moose #10 – Owner Occupants were always the primary target of sellers of REO. OO continue to get preferential treatment in negotiations from most sellers of REO for the simple reason that they can pay more.
The government will only f*ck matters up more than they already are by intervening in the housing mess. The entire concept of selling bulk pools of property to a select few with restrictions upon use (for rental only) stinks to high heaven. Will there be a deed restriction? Will the restriction be of limited duration? Will there be rent control? Do certain groups/classes of people receive preferential treatment (priority or rental assistance) in obtaining rentals?
It would be fair to assume that the bulk of these properties would be in the most undesirable areas. Who chooses which properties would be part of this rental only pool? The entire idea seems like it will be abused for greed and profit by a chosen few. Instead of fixing the real estate problem the government will f*ck up the rental market too!
“I don’t know how an illegal immigrant can afford to buy a house ,if he was given a green card.He can not be working for a big firm to make good money.”
Yome,
Not true. They become algo traders with Frank. Do you actually believe that fat fingers was a US citizen?
Faye Dunaway to fight eviction from New York apartment
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actress Faye Dunaway plans to fight a lawsuit aiming to evict her from her rent-controlled apartment in New York, her attorney said on Thursday.
Dunaway’s landlord filed a complaint on August 2 seeking to evict her from the apartment on East 78th Street, alleging it is not her primary residence.
A hearing scheduled for Thursday before Judge John Stanley in New York City Civil Court was adjourned. Instead, Dunaway’s lawyer Elizabeth Shollenberger met with the landlord’s attorney, Craig Charie of Rosenberg & Estis, in an effort to resolve the matter.
“We didn’t come to a settlement today,” Shollenberger said afterwards. The parties will return to court October 4. Dunaway, 70, is in California, and was not present.
Dunaway first signed a lease for the one-bedroom apartment in 1994, and her rent is $1,048.72 a month. In court papers, Henry Moses of 7 of 8 Realty Co. claimed Dunaway maintains a home in West Hollywood, California, where she is registered to vote and has a driver’s license.
Shollenberger told a crowd of reporters that the actress calls New York her home, and she is not voluntarily leaving the apartment.
“She has not moved out,” the veteran housing lawyer said, contradicting what Dunaway said in a phone interview on August 3, when she said she left the apartment in May.
Dunaway has expressed concern about the condition of the apartment, Shollenberger said.
“There’s water damage in the apartment that she said she’s been complaining about for years,” the attorney said. “For someone who is an older person, having water damage leads to all kinds of mold problems, respiratory problems.”
Dunaway will be able to keep the apartment and continue to pay rent while the case is pending, Shollenberger said.
http://news.yahoo.com/faye-dunaway-fight-eviction-york-apartment-002307923.html
NEW YORK (AP) — Aligning himself with a public fed up with economic uncertainty and Washington gridlock, President Barack Obama declared Thursday: “There is nothing wrong with our country. There is something wrong with our politics.”
Yes, it’s called Obamanomics, Obamacare, arrogance, hate America, hate Walmart, hate business, hate success, pessimism, utopian dreams, redistribution, petulance and class warfare.
#27 JC Thanks. I checked yesterday, and saw that the Hickory St house sold for 300K in December of 2007. It would appear form their asking Price they are hoping to get what they paid for it. Don’t think that will happen. We are waiting for my last one to go off to college in a couple of weeks (we started young), and then we will be out and about seriously.
I have to tell you though, not liking he drive to the train thing,still maing my peace with that.
Brooklynites Blessing the Hudson Valley With Hipness
“You can’t keep a good creative down,” as the old saying goes. When pushed out of their community by covert gentrification, overt invasion, and other insidiousnesses, good creatives will simply move elsewhere and establish new, even more authentic communities. This is how the Land of NoBro came to pass.
What and where is this magical place called NoBro? As the New York Times suggests, it is, in some ways, a state of mind—a mixture of 1980s SoHo, 1990s East Village, and 2000s Williamsburg, where one can find communion with the universe and like-minded spirits. In the tangible, physical world, however, NoBro is Beacon, N.Y., one of the many towns scattered about the Hudson Valley that has apparently witnessed an influx of migratory Brooklynites in recent years. “Call it the Brooklynization of the Hudson Valley,” the Times says (though we’d prefer it if you don’t!)—the process by which towns such as Beacon, Tivoli, Rosedale, Woodstock, New Paltz, and Poughkeepsie have come to acquire new and/or larger populations of “refugees,” as the Times calls them (I think it’s because many newcomers to the Valley crossed minefields and passed through suburban culture-deserts on horseback before reaching their pastoral destinations, but am not 100% sure).
So many refugee Brooklynites now inhabit Valley towns, it seems, that they have created a game in which they compare their old, New York City neighborhoods to their new communities:
For instance, Rhinebeck might be the Upper East Side, Woodstock the West Village, New Paltz the Upper West Side, Beacon the East Village, Rosendale and High Falls different parts of Williamsburg. Tivoli could be compared to Greenpoint, Hudson to Chelsea, Catskill to Bushwick, Kingston to a mix of Fort Greene and Carroll Gardens.
What does one give up by moving to NoBro and these other places? Aside from convenient access to the L train, not much, it appears. Because of the entrepreneurial spirit and foresight of many Valley newcomers, one can find most of the fundamental necessities of life at his or her disposal. Consider the diversity of Millerton’s economy, for example:
And yet there it is, everywhere you look: the old diner, renamed the Oakhurst and now serving gourmet curried chicken rolls, organic burgers and venison chili cheese fries; Eckert Fine Art, with its paintings by Eric Forstmann and Robert Rauschenberg; the fliers for the Buddhist Path of Fulfillment retreat; the sustainable agriculture benefit; the artsy, SoHo-esque Hunter Bee antiques; the three-screen Moviehouse on Main Street with its art gallery and cafe.
Does the Oakhurst offer vegan venison chili cheese fries, though?While we all wait for an answer to that important question, let’s consider some other advantages of the Hudson Valley lifestyle:
Towns like Hudson offer “the feel of SoHo decades ago,” as former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur describes it. Auf der Maur is from Montreal and too young to have experienced SoHo in its heyday, but perhaps she just knows.
More from Auf der Maur: “There’s the sense that it’s manageable, it’s beautiful, it has infrastructure that can inspire you and facilitate your needs and get you to feel like you’re part of a moment of discovery.” You can have still have moments of discovery in Williamsburg, but they’re expensive and someone drunk will probably puke on your shoes at some point.
Beacon, pictured above, offers the Dia:Beacon museum. Admission’s only $10, which is probably what you’d pay for a plate of those Bambi fries right now, how about it?
Instead of listening to trash trucks, you can “fall asleep and wake up to birds,” says an artist who used to make stuff with a chainsaw.
So far, the only identifiable hurdle to living comfortably in the Hudson Valley is that it probably takes a lot of hard work to convert what’s there—old factories, old farmhouses, old regular houses—into what could be: concert halls, art galleries, live/work spaces. But at least undertaking substantial construction projects gives you something job-like to do. Because as one local says, all those fancy side dishes and moments of discovery aren’t producing many jobs. But you should have expected that! The Hudson Valley might be magical in some ways, but it’s still in America.
http://gawker.com/5828428/brooklynites-blessing-the-hudson-valley-with-hipness
#33 JC Sorry It sold for 400k In December of 2007. Pictures indicate that the house appears to be in good shape. That rock wall in the living room would have to go though.
Brooklynites Blessing the Hudson Valley With Hipness
“You can’t keep a good creative down,” as the old saying goes. When pushed out of their community by covert gentrification, overt invasion, and other insidiousnesses, good creatives will simply move elsewhere and establish new, even more authentic communities. This is how the Land of NoBro came to pass.
What and where is this magical place called NoBro? As the New York Times suggests, it is, in some ways, a state of mind—a mixture of 1980s SoHo, 1990s East Village, and 2000s Williamsburg, where one can find communion with the universe and like-minded spirits. In the tangible, physical world, however, NoBro is Beacon, N.Y., one of the many towns scattered about the Hudson Valley that has apparently witnessed an influx of migratory Brooklynites in recent years. “Call it the Brooklynization of the Hudson Valley,” the Times says (though we’d prefer it if you don’t!)—the process by which towns such as Beacon, Tivoli, Rosedale, Woodstock, New Paltz, and Poughkeepsie have come to acquire new and/or larger populations of “refugees,” as the Times calls them (I think it’s because many newcomers to the Valley crossed minefields and passed through suburban culture-deserts on horseback before reaching their pastoral destinations, but am not 100% sure).
So many refugee Brooklynites now inhabit Valley towns, it seems, that they have created a game in which they compare their old, New York City neighborhoods to their new communities:
For instance, Rhinebeck might be the Upper East Side, Woodstock the West Village, New Paltz the Upper West Side, Beacon the East Village, Rosendale and High Falls different parts of Williamsburg. Tivoli could be compared to Greenpoint, Hudson to Chelsea, Catskill to B*shwick, Kingston to a mix of Fort Greene and Carroll Gardens.
What does one give up by moving to NoBro and these other places? Aside from convenient access to the L train, not much, it appears. Because of the entrepreneurial spirit and foresight of many Valley newcomers, one can find most of the fundamental necessities of life at his or her disposal. Consider the diversity of Millerton’s economy, for example:
And yet there it is, everywhere you look: the old diner, renamed the Oakhurst and now serving gourmet curried chicken rolls, organic burgers and venison chili cheese fries; Eckert Fine Art, with its paintings by Eric Forstmann and Robert Rauschenberg; the fliers for the Buddhist Path of Fulfillment retreat; the sustainable agriculture benefit; the artsy, SoHo-esque Hunter Bee antiques; the three-screen Moviehouse on Main Street with its art gallery and cafe.
Does the Oakhurst offer vegan venison chili cheese fries, though? While we all wait for an answer to that important question, let’s consider some other advantages of the Hudson Valley lifestyle:
Towns like Hudson offer “the feel of SoHo decades ago,” as former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur describes it. Auf der Maur is from Montreal and too young to have experienced SoHo in its heyday, but perhaps she just knows.
More from Auf der Maur: “There’s the sense that it’s manageable, it’s beautiful, it has infrastructure that can inspire you and facilitate your needs and get you to feel like you’re part of a moment of discovery.” You can have still have moments of discovery in Williamsburg, but they’re expensive and someone drunk will probably puke on your shoes at some point.
Beacon, pictured above, offers the Dia:Beacon museum. Admission’s only $10, which is probably what you’d pay for a plate of those B*mbi fries right now, how about it?
Instead of listening to trash trucks, you can “fall asleep and wake up to birds,” says an artist who used to make stuff with a chainsaw.
So far, the only identifiable hurdle to living comfortably in the Hudson Valley is that it probably takes a lot of hard work to convert what’s there—old factories, old farmhouses, old regular houses—into what could be: concert halls, art galleries, live/work spaces. But at least undertaking substantial construction projects gives you something job-like to do. Because as one local says, all those fancy side dishes and moments of discovery aren’t producing many jobs. But you should have expected that! The Hudson Valley might be magical in some ways, but it’s still in America.
http://gawker.com/5828428/brooklynites-blessing-the-hudson-valley-with-hipness
Brooklynites Blessing the Hudson Valley With Hipness
http://gawker.com/5828428/brooklynites-blessing-the-hudson-valley-with-hipness
Meat [11];
You obviously didn’t sleep in your new office last night… if you had ready access to large volumes of Knob Creek I’d expect you to be slightly less anti-social.
Retail sales up, consumer sentiment down. Lowest level sicne 1980 apparently.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/august-umich-consumer-sentiment-tumbles-to-549-2011-08-12
Professor Maxwell. An expert in finance. A glaring example of a know it all academic that has absolutely no idea how the real world works.
Anyone hear the census numbers on New Jersey multigenerational homes yesterday?
Data from the 2010 Census released today show Fernandez’s family lives in one of the state’s 159,323 multigenerational households, in which three or more generations of a family share a home. That number, which accounts for 5 percent of all households in New Jersey, rose about 10.5 percent from the 2000 Census.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/08/multigenerational_family_house.html
#32 – once again…truly fascinating.
What is the DSM-5 term for someone who is obsessed with something they claim to despise?
re: # 38 – BEN
An economist’s guess is liable to be as good as anybody else’s.
Will Rogers
seif – if you want to get taken apart you came to the right place.
[40] “What is the DSM-5 term for someone who is obsessed with something they claim to despise?”
Serf — the only people obsessed with him are the zealots who voted the empty suit into office thinking he was the Second Coming, because they liked the way the wavelengths of light scatter/absorb when they the Anointed One’s flesh.
Defects in chain of title are preventing REO sales:
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/08/another-real-estate-time-bomb-unsellable-vacant-homes.html#comment-443524
Omerta folks.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has asked credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s to disclose who within its ranks knew of its decision to downgrade US debt before it was announced last week, as part of a preliminary look into potential insider trading, people familiar with the matter say.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/44099845
No more junk mail?
Over the next four years, USPS wants to cut 220,000 jobs, and undo the pension promises. The unwinding is going to long and hard.
I suppose things have changed, the volume of mail dropping, so this adjustment was simply inevitable. Daily delivery may become a thing of the past. Three days a week might be more than enough.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-12/postal-service-seeks-exit-from-union-deal-to-prune-220-000-jobs.html
[46] Received a little notice from the USPS in the mail the other day, saying that I may notice a change in the time mail is delivered to my house, or in the person who delivers it, due to upcoming changes at the USPS. I think the notice also threw in something about “due to the massive reduction in business mail” or something like that.
I can’t say that I have really noticed a substantial drop in junk mail, however. But maybe that’s just because I’m among the few who haven’t declared bankruptcy or had my home foreclosed upon etc. Yet.
One of the guests on CNBC this morning noted that 75% of those 65 and older vote. Where do you think entitlement reform is going? Boomers are just now reaching 65 so the ranks of those receiving social security and medicare are going to be growing more quickly in the coming years. It just seems politically impossible for tptb to effectively deal with this problem.
HR [46];
I can’t say that I have really noticed a substantial drop in junk mail, however. But maybe that’s just because I’m among the few who haven’t declared bankruptcy or had my home foreclosed upon etc. Yet.
Actaully, one of the best ways to get more junk mail is to have your address listed on a lis pendens – tons of rescue scammers, BK lawyers, and secured credit card offers.
spare me the cyber-threats. if you want to “take apart” any of my views or thoughts about RE, I’m all for the debate.
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/
The almost $200,000 we’ve paid in over the last 40 years that they want us to just forget about doesn’t help either.
“One of the guests on CNBC this morning noted that 75% of those 65 and older vote. Where do you think entitlement reform is going? Boomers are just now reaching 65 so the ranks of those receiving social security and medicare are going to be growing more quickly in the coming years. It just seems politically impossible for tptb to effectively deal with this problem.”
#32: You mean like Marcus Bachmann’s obsession with Teh Gay?
seif only you can spare you from yourself
I repeat from our last debate give yourself a break already with or without the vaseline you are still getting screwed end of story in Real Estate
Coming to the USA?
Working Paper on Europe how Austerity leads to Anarchy
AUSTERITY AND ANARCHY: BUDGET
CUTS AND SOCIAL UNREST IN
EUROPE, 1919-2009
http://www.voxeu.org/sites/default/files/file/DP8513.pdf
agreed. i sold my NYC apartment in June 2009 and have been a renter in NNJ since…I have been patiently waiting for the levee to break…we are on the same page.
(49) seif
Lighten up Francis.
I am really proud that PPT did not step in this week and the Fed did not promise QE3. They let the market find its own bottom. When things get cheap enough people buy.
Lets hope they apply this lesson to Real Estate.
47, prtraders2000
I’d like to finish off your post.
“ One of the guests on CNBC this morning noted that 75% of those 65 and older vote. Where do you think entitlement reform is going? Boomers are just now reaching 65 so the ranks of those receiving social security and medicare are going to be growing more quickly in the coming years. It just seems politically impossible for tptb to effectively deal with this problem ” without monetizing debt
wooow, like your things over have power be possible investors cease to be fluid or volatile the housing mart? | newly come Jersey Real Estate Report
“They let the market find its own bottom. When things get cheap enough people buy.”
Funny. Keep ’em coming.
[57] Thanks for making me spill my coffee, which I don’t think I’ve done since that thread about red pleather sofas on Zillow . . . “let the market find its own bottom” ha ha good one.
Remember I get contacted when PPT is in town, you don’t. They let is swing up and down and tried to reassure investors but they never pumped liquidity into market like last time. Stocks like Bud under $50 at open yesterday were great bargains.
Stocks are still great. Think if you bought $490K Bud yesterday you could have sold it at $565K today. Compare that to the incredible effort and time required to buy a REO at $490K and selling it for a profit at $565. Americans just want to push a few keys and make money.
Since Friday I bought 75K worth of stock. It felt great doing something so patriotic and so rewarding. Taking pride in America. As opposed to taking advantage of someones misfortune by buying a distressed property. Medco, Coke, NYX, Boeing etc. remember, you owe me big time.
Funny part is Junk Bonds look on verge of a sell off. Sadly I am going on vacation so that opportunity hopefully will be thre when I get back.
I sold 75K worth of Munis this week, amazing I got bids back in a few seconds, buy to sell ratio is heavy on buy side. Sad to let them go, they are like my babies. Funny people are picking up 5K odd lots like they are candy. I bought a bunch of 5k odd lots in Jan when they were like as popular as an autistic red headed nose picking step child.
JJ = Great American
JJ = Great American
That should be on my tombstone. However, my Medco buy was a no brainer, buy out offer on table at $70 and people dumping at $50 in a panic when we are down over 600 points.
(57) Ben,
You forgot means testing. It is as sure a bet as one can make.
I’m confused. The Most Interesting Man in the World is an American?
“To restore the Postal Service to financial viability, it is imperative that we have the ability to reduce our workforce rapidly,” the USPS wrote.
The USPS is also asking Congress to change legislation that requires postal workers to get federal health care and retirement benefits. Instead, the Postal Service would replace them with its own benefit plans.
For the 147th time, I’ll say it again: eventually you will be offered no private or public benefits in your next job. In your current job, they will eventually retract your benefits package and/or offer you a job per diem. Within the next 5 to 10 years, this is how it will be. Currently, the cheapest health coverage I can find that protects merely against catastrophic health or long term hospital stay is $700/month for three people. That is with bare bones with many limitations. It’s merely to guard against losing our shirts in a matter of hours. That’s no prescription and no other types of care. I’m just giving you all a heads-up as someone who’s been doing contract work for the past three years.
Nom [64];
Doesn’t it then just become a game of who can hide the assets best? Give the money to the kids and hope they don’t blow it all?
Gary, I haven’t had RX bennies in 15 years. 700 a month for catastrophic for a family is cheap, who’s the provider?
erm, insurer.
I settled down after I won my Doomsday Land Rights when I single handly won the Battle of Hastings.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
August 12, 2011 at 12:45 pm
I’m confused. The Most Interesting Man in the World is an American?
Gary [66];
You may be right. But we got here because of the ridiculous kludge that made health insurance tax-deductable if provided by an employer, but not if purchased individually. If we get away from that, I think in the long run that will be a good thing for all involved.
In the short run, either because of — or simply using the excuse of — macroeconomic downturn, companies can cut a substantial cost of health benefits by hiring ‘contract’ workers, but pretend that they are not cutting compensation because the headline $/hr number is the same. If at the end of the Awesome Depression (because the first one may have been Great, but this one is simply AWESOME), people are buying their own health insurance, and that simply gets factored into market compensation, I think that is best for all concerned. It also eliminates a potential bias against family-breadwinner employees. Because providing health coverage to an individual is cheaper than a family plan, it is cheaper to hire a single. If there was simply a health care allowance, the employer no longer has any interest in the family obligations of their employees.
Appeals court rules against Obama healthcare law
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/appeals-court-rules-against-obama-healthcare-law-171829777.html
Bad week for Barry
Simple solution is eliminate all health insurance for everyone Everyone either pays or they don’t get any. Eliminating insurance and going to a cash basis, should drop the cost of healthcare significantly. People will only seek healthcare when they are Sick (the old way), and no one will persue the neveau form of Well Care (Fake contrived diseases like Cholesterol). Should be a healthier population given that current healthcare is a leading cause of Death.
Barbara {68},
Aetna… EPO plan.
Moose [71],
Well stated!
Barbara,
That’s for three people. For each individual, it goes up. This is not a family plan.
Moose,
The AWESOME depression! lol! How true! It goes in line with our awesome president!
objective
seif says:
August 12, 2011 at 10:21 am
#32 – once again…truly fascinating.
What is the DSM-5 term for someone who is obsessed with something they claim to despise?
Gary #66
Don’t you think that eventually this will bring consumers the option of purchasing health insurance anywhere in the country and subsequently consumers will aggressively shop price for all of their health care? Not saying this is good but it could create a true market economy for healthcare providers. In a few select places, employers are now giving their employees their own monthly healthcare stipend and it is up to them to shop for best coverage and price.
#77 gary: There is no recession, Larry the K told me so. It is just a patch, a slow patch, OK?? Did you not see retail sales were up slightly this morning, that means a patch, a slow patch, not a recession. Larry the K told me so.
Savers are getting average interest rates on 6-month certificates of deposit this week of 0.58 percent nationwide, down from 0.60 percent last week, according to Bankrate.com. Rates on one-year CDs fell this week to 0.86 percent, while 5- year CDs fetched 2.04 percent.
Ben is crushing the money market and CD crowd. Five year cds pay less per year than the dividend on a blue chip stock. Meanwhile taxable as ordinary income vs 15% tax rate and no chance of apprecitation. When factoring in inflation and taxes you are guaranteed a loss on a five year cd. Crazy.
There is no recession, repeat after me there is no recession. Short Hills Mall, Roosvelt Field, Broadway, Bars, Restaurants all packed. BMW and Mercedes and IPAD sales way up. I am on vacation next week and place is sold out. You have to book at $1,000 a night places at least 4-6 months in advance. There is no recession. It is a BULLLLLLL MARKETTTTTTTT!!!!! BUY BUY BUY. I watched Kudlow last night myself and he rubs off sometime.
3b says:
August 12, 2011 at 2:34 pm
#77 gary: There is no recession, Larry the K told me so. It is just a patch, a slow patch, OK?? Did you not see retail sales were up slightly this morning, that means a patch, a slow patch, not a recession. Larry the K told me so.
Your ideas sound like more government interference to me. The market needs to settle and rebound on its own.
[83] “I watched Kudlow last night myself and he rubs off sometime.”
Oh yes; he does.
The decline in oild prices will act as a tax break to consumers and encourage them to spend more. The striking down of Obama’s healthcare reform will cause corporations to spend more money. THIS RECESSION IS OVER!!! BUY! BUY!! BUY!!!
You want a prediction? Desperate to win re-election, BO will cave on Obamacare. In a rear-guard face-saving maneuver he agrees to gut it so that it will cover only the ‘uninsured’, and sells it to the country as ‘comprehensive Medicaid reform’.
“The Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage”.
http://news.yahoo.com/appeals-court-rules-against-obama-healthcare-law-171829777.html
It doesn’t matter if the rest of the law stands, you can’t afford platinum insurance with mandatory coverage and no pre-existing exclusions if people are allowed to start paying only when they get sick. The scheme absolutely requires that the healthy be forced into paying, and collapses under its own weight if they do not.
#82 JJ: AS far as the malls I was in Garden State the other night, picking up a macbook pro for my daughter, except for the Apple store, the mall was empty. And GS mall is a huge one. First time in an Apple store, a(s my 5 year old I-pod was bought in Best Buy) and I have to say I was impressed with the whole set up. After purchase they even set down and set the computer up. The reps appear very knowledgeable, almost like a religion for them they are so fervent and enthusiastic.
As far as I-Pads, don’t need one, but they look to be alto of fun. Just not quiet sure what to do with it.
JJ [82];
I watched Kudlow last night myself and he rubs off sometime.
The FCC lets CNBC show that on basic cable? (I won’t even pretend to be suprised that CNBC would air it.)
Michelle Bachmann: I wish the American media would take a great look at the views of the people in Congress and find out: Are they pro-America or anti-America?
Michelle Bachmann: I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back.
Michelle Bachmann: What we have to do today is make a covenant, to slit our wrists, be blood brothers on this thing. This will not pass. We will do whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t pass.
Michelle Bachmann: And what a bizarre time we’re in, when a judge will say to little children that you can’t say the pledge of allegiance, but you must learn that homosexuality is normal and you should try it.
Michelle Bachmann: Take a picture of “The Lion King” for instance, and a teacher might say, “Do you know that the music for this movie was written by a gay man?” The message is: I’m better at what I do, because I’m gay.
Michelle Bachmann: The big thing we are working on now is the global warming hoax. Its all voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax.
3b [87];
Did the store look like this: http://birdabroad.wordpress.com/2011/07/20/are-you-listening-steve-jobs/ ?
#82 JJ: OK I am just going to call it a patch, a soft patch, a real big and long soft patch. I wonder though if it is a patch, why did the Fed need to pledge to keep rates low all the way into the middle of 2013. They have never ever before in the history of the Fed showed their hand, and made such an explicit guarantee. Seems like something they would do for a recession, a long recession, a deep recession, an ugly recession, and not a patch, a soft patch, a real big and long and ugly soft patch.
#90 Nah it was legit. I wanted to grab one of the reps blue tee shirts with the little Apple on it. But more than a few of them looked like they had not bathed in a while.
#85 You mean the Patch is over!!
Remember when the Japanese bought up all that real estate here in the 80s?
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/14/realestate/wealthy-chinese-turn-to-new-york-for-luxury-condos-posting.html
I love a long soft patch
3b says:
August 12, 2011 at 3:03 pm
#82 JJ: OK I am just going to call it a patch, a soft patch, a real big and long soft patch. I wonder though if it is a patch, why did the Fed need to pledge to keep rates low all the way into the middle of 2013. They have never ever before in the history of the Fed showed their hand, and made such an explicit guarantee. Seems like something they would do for a recession, a long recession, a deep recession, an ugly recession, and not a patch, a soft patch, a real big and long and ugly soft patch
I watched just a minute or two of the Republican Debate last night. Just long enough to hear the audience cheering for Michelle Bachmann’s canned comments. The next speaker was Mitt Romney and his responses caused me to doze off.
If the Republicans aren’t very careful…..they are going to nominate someone who all but guarantees a second term for Obama.
Fiddy
http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-gop-strategy-involves-reelecting-obama-making,21113/
“Funeral for man entombed for 27 years in chimney”
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/08/12/general-us-body-in-chimney_8620553.html
My favorite quote from the above article:
“The stench of death was never detected.”
Surely our Dear Leader is hoping that he can be at least as successful as the folks in Abbeville, Louisiana, and stuff the rotting corpse of our economy up a chimney until after the 2012 elections.
Is it not the health care cost that is what driving us to the poor house?Let us start with medication.How come they pay much less in other countries for medication than the US?Is this not where they need to fix the problen first?Then you have the Providers that charges almost double of what other countries pay for ,not to mention the unecessary diagnosis a patient is sent for.Now MD’s have their own facilities.A patient that is in the hospital get sent to their facility instead of using the hospitals.In turn the hospital loose the business.The hospital is left with pennies of the cost of staying.But the MD get paid by the hospital while the MD stabbed their back.Then you have the MD’s that abuse the system.Extended stay by the patient because he knows he is still getting paid and the hospital is not.
If we can get our cost inline with other countries we will have surplass.Again it is greed.
3b, apple is run like swiss watch, the company is very efficient(there store employee training is crazy as well). If you reviewed their sales numbers in top grossing stores you’d find that per sqft they are selling more merchandise than almost anyone and handle the volume better than anyone. Maybe Steve Jobs could run for president, he could probably right the ship, he’d convince the chinese to just forgive our debt and make them think it was their idea!
HA !! Leave it to The Onion to identify the evil-doers intentions.
Truly, the candidate that got the most bounce from these debates was Rick Perry and he avoided it like Plague. He’ll make his announcement in South Carolina this weekend, but he got a lot of free publicity and faced very little scrutiny. I’d want to know more about this Religious order the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network.
And out of curiosity…..why do we give the citizens of New Hampshire and Iowa a head-start in determining our presidential candidates ??
It’s true that a win in these backwater states guarantees nothing. But a victory can propel a candidate, or at the very least help with national fundraising.
Robert Vietze, JetBlue Passenger, Pees On 11-Year-Old Girl On Flight (UPDATE)by AOL Travel Staff Subscribe to AOL Travel Staff’s posts
Posted Aug 12th 2011 08:00
UPDATE, 8/12, 1 p.m.: 18-year old Robert Vietze was a member of the U.S. Ski Team as it has been reported he was kicked off. He is (was) considered one of the most elite skiers in the nation.
The New York Post reports that Vietze was returning from a training camp at Oregon’s Mount Hood when the incident occurred. Vietze was in the running for the 2014 Olympics, but is name was removed from the team’s development roster on Thursday.
“We have no comment, nothing to say,” Vietze’s mother told reporters outside their Vermont home.
The kicker? Turns out the girl was with her father, a Stage 4 cancer patient, and sister on the way to visit her grandmother in Long Island for the first time since her father’s diagnosis.
PREVIOUSLY, 8/11: A drunk male passenger was caught peeing on a sleeping 11-year old girl on a JFK-bound JetBlue flight on Wednesday.
18-year old Robert Vietze of South Warren, Vermont was on a red eye flight from Portland, Oregon when he started peeing on a sleeping 11-year old girl who was traveling with her sister and father, the New York Post reports.
Vietze was drunk, having consumed eight drinks, and stumbled five rows behind him (presumably towards the bathroom?!) when he started peeing on the girl. The girl’s family was using the bathroom at the time.
“I was drunk, and I did not realize I was pissing on her leg,” the 6-foot-4, 195-pound Vietze told law enforcement.
The unidentified girl’s father caught Vietze peeing on his daughter and started screaming, “F— that kid! I don’t want him near my family!” a fellow passenger told the Post.
Flight attendants separated the father and Vietze, whom they moved to the back of the plane. They also tried to clean up the pee with soap from the bathrooms.
Yet the already exciting flight was far from over. An hour before the plane landed, another passenger started complaining of chest pains and vomited. The pilot addressed the plane, asking “Is anybody on this flight a nurse or doctor? We have a medical emergency.” Yet no one stepped forward so flight attendants worked to keep him calm.
A witness told the Post that the pilots “kept coming out of the cockpit to talk to the flight crew about what was going on.”
Six Port Authority cops greeted the plane when it landed at 6:30am. Two helped the sick passenger while four carted Vietze into custody.
Vietze has been issued a federal summons for indecent exposure.
Fiddy #101: This will tell you what you need to know:
http://www.texasobserver.org/cover-story/rick-perrys-army-of-god
JC —
THAT was downright scary. It’s a long article and I’ll digest it fully over the weekend, but a quick read thru it said one word to me, and that was “bonkers”
Makes Ms Bachmann look sane !
Goodnight everyone and have a great weekend!
see everyone one in two weeks, I am on vacation and out of the country!!!! Will report back on world news
Jefferson County commissioners will negotiate directly with their creditors to attempt to avoid filing Chapter 9. Drop dead date is Sept 16.
JJ have fun! Bring back good stories
105.Mike says:
August 12, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Goodnight everyone and have a great weekend!
Mike, what are you, a f*cking farmer? ;) Teasing!
NJ Toast [79],
That’s a great question. You tell me why Congress didn’t pass legislation that would open the State boarders to allow for health insurance competition. Why wasn’t this an option first before the unconstitutional marxist coverage was rammed down our throats?
Gary,
Can’t answer but what I believe insurance companies have said is that the patient populations will differ on a state by state basis.
With more healthcare options: pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, radiology, specialty MDs, there are more costs, not justifying how much the costs have grown as healthcare inflation is ahead of CPI.
Would be interesting to beta test some type of smart card that a segment of our population uses to purchase healthcare. Card could be automatically recharged monthly and the patient can use the funds for a designated menu of healthcare services. I am probably not going out on a limb saying people that comprise this this test group would spend the money more selectively and shop around a bit.
Once upon a time many years ago, one would never ask a Dr. how much they charge for their services but people for a long time have called up pharmacies to inquire about the cost of meds. Health insurance companies in general are quite profitable these days.
The rest of the world freeloads off of the U.S.’s pharma development: U.S. citizens pay the patent rent on new drugs we develop, the rest of the world gives us the finger and allows their citizens to buy it on the cheap.
Hence, Americans alone carry the high cost burden of paying for new pharma innovations (and other medical-related patent costs, such as devices etc.) for the entire world.
Oh well. File under: silver lining; this will be China’s problem once we are subjugated to our Chinese overlords and they come up with all the new stuff
Rent, we pay to police the globe as well. We could’ve had a nice safety net if we didn’t pay for All this crap.
112 & 113,
People are catching on;)
“You tell me why Congress didn’t pass legislation that would open the State boarders to allow for health insurance competition”
A part of it is there is no Federal regulator of insurance. It is regulated by the states.
Just let rental property enjoy accelerated deprecation of 150% years over 10 years …against ordinary income …hence a 500K rental property would get you 75K write off against income …housing market would rocket
71 – Moose
“If at the end of the Awesome Depression (because the first one may have been Great, but this one is simply AWESOME), people are buying their own health insurance, and that simply gets factored into market compensation, I think that is best for all concerned.”
In the race to the bottom, how can you think that the costs of health care will be “factored into market compensation”?
You can’t, you can’t think that!
There is no evidence for employers doing anything but trying to shed workers and cut costs, at best. At worst they’re looking for more cheap foreign labor to come here or to send your job overseas.
The only way to rational way to go is to get healthcare costs here to fall in line with what other First World nations pay, which is far less. Right now we’re at 17% of GDP and by 2020 we’ll be at 20%.
Amen to the comments that we spend money to keep the world safe for people who living better than we do.
Time to stop that. We can’t afford it. If we did that, plus as reduce the tremendous amount of additional money that no other nation on Earth spends on healthcare — we will remove two albrtrosses that we’ve placed on our own necks.
toomuch [117];
Then why don’t businesses just drop all health coverage now? Answer: those that did would drive away the best employees to others who pay more (or include health coverage).
My compensation does not (or did not) shift with the rise of the housing market, despite the fact that I need to buy housing just like I need to buy health care. As a result, since I wasn’t paid enough to finance the housing I wanted, in 2006 when the market was booming and my field was in demand, I changed employers to work for someone who paid more money (foolishly thinking I could out-earn the bubble, but that’s another story). There is ebb and flow, and we are in an ebb right now; the pendulum will swing back. For any given trade, there may be a broader trend pushing down wages through off-shoring and immigration, but the resilient respond by re-inventing themselves to become more valuable in the marketplace, or just content themselves with the gradual decline.
Too much [117];
The only way to rational way to go is to get healthcare costs here to fall in line with what other First World nations pay, which is far less. Right now we’re at 17% of GDP and by 2020 we’ll be at 20%.
I think the best way to do that is to go the opposite direction of single-payer like Chairman O and the communist choir want, but to put the price of things in front of the consume and let them make (sometimes hard) choices. There will still be a place for insurers, as negotiating agents on behalf of large pools of patients (their customers).
MLS # 2874675
05/05/2005: Sold @ $2,200,000
08/11/2011: Sold @ $1,785,000
Decline in Value: $415,000 (19%)
Any questions?
110 – Moose
“There is ebb and flow, and we are in an ebb right now; the pendulum will swing back. For any given trade, there may be a broader trend pushing down wages through off-shoring and immigration, but the resilient respond by re-inventing themselves to become more valuable in the marketplace, or just content themselves with the gradual decline.”
As I recall, you are a real free marketer, which I never have been. I know there’s a fairly wide gulf between us that will not be bridged but I do want to say in a nonhostile way that I believe the number of people whose live can “re-inventing themselves to become more valuable in the marketplace”, as a percentage of the population, is very small. Also the expectation that everybody else will be willing to “just content themselves with the gradual decline” may be wrong.
Americans have been astonishingly passive or have adapted in ways that have been self-injurious to economic realities over the past 30 years (i.e., indebting themselves up to their eyeballs and beyond just to buy an average or less house).
I think those days are over. I think we should consider carefully how what happened in England this week may be a warning to us.
I am middle aged and like a substantial number of Americans, grew up during a period of economic prosperity and political stability in which the overall differences between the two parties were not that large and the vast middle ground got along fine and worked things out between them on most issues.. My parents’ generation didn’t have economic prosperity but they did have political stability.
Consider how different the economic and political reality for today’s 30 and under generation is from mine. Think how different things have been for the 20s and under from the people just 10 years older than they are.
I don’t think we can assume that the passivity we’ve grown accustomed to will continue. What would the response of our government be if young people refused to accept offshoring and mass migration, if they said I demand a job and I demand a good paying job, too. Many things about the current situation are similar to those of a century ago and the response then was the rise of unions and the beginnings of labor laws that benefitted employees and restricted employers.
“What would the response of our government be if young people refused to accept offshoring and mass migration, if they said I demand a job and I demand a good paying job, too. Many things about the current situation are similar to those of a century ago and the response then was the rise of unions and the beginnings of labor laws that benefitted employees and restricted employers.”
Our prosperity and great middle class that we used to have was a byproduct of our enormous industrial manufacturing base. The challenge is that for those who demand a good paying job, there is someone in China who is willing to work for a pittance of what a US worker needs to earn to get by. How do you address that? I would suspect many would respond with “innovation” but give a few years, the chinese seem to be able to learn how to manufacture just about anything so if we spend the time and money to innovate, and the chinese can learn how to make the product we innovated at a much lower cost within a few years our the products commercialization, how can we compete?
give = given, forget the other errors but the wine was good tonight
“What would the response of our government be if young people refused to accept offshoring and mass migration, if they said I demand a job and I demand a good paying job, too.
They’d get trampled under foot and slapped like a red headed step child. They have no choice; none of us do. Prosperity and success is no longer achievable nor encouraged. The only thing to do now is secure as much comfort as possible and hope our children don’t suffer inordinately long after they toss our remains into a hole.
At no time in my life have I seen this level of anguish, bitterness, pessimism, misery, weariness and despair in this once great nation. If there ever was a time when a great leader and leadership needed to surface, now would be it.
30 Year (29)-
You forgot to mention that if the gubmint and investors work things exactly to plan, these bulk-sale communities will immediately become giant, dangerous ghettoes.
…thus cementing our Third World status permanently.
#126 Well, 1973-83 was pretty bad. We couldn’t do anything right, OPEC had cut off our oil, the steel industry disappeared, NJ was gritty, dirty and horrible, the cars we made were crap, and terrorists seized our embassy and took hostages. The mission to rescue them failed miserably in the desert. On the social scene, we had disco and ugly clothes. Things have looked bad before and people have been just as hopeless as they are now. This will not last forever; nothing ever does but a little “morning in America” would be nice about now.
I think the 1970s were pretty bad e.g., gas lines, odd even days. and let’s not forget the 60s i.e., viet nam war and race riots. but we had great music. :)
moose (36)-
Please die.
stater (129)-
“Morning in Amerika” was the last successful, pulled-out-the-ass extension of the Ponzi begun in 1913.
There will be no further significant extensions.
Next stop, final doom.
Remember when Blue Cross/Blue Shield were all “Not for Profit”, and “doctors made house calls”! That was “Not for Profit” Healthcare, where majority of dollars expended were for Healthcare, not shareholders.
#132 Yeah, but ya gotta admit it was a very effective ad and Reagan’s message that America’s best days were ahead of her was very refreshing and hopeful.
126 – gary
You are so right.
But who is out there who is both willing to say the truth and able to make us hear it?
While I believe the American people as a whole have been used and abused over the pat 30 years, it is also true that their unwillingness to accept and deal with reality has been a major reason we are where we are today.
Some of the lies we believed were about complex issues or things we could not know the truth about ourselves (eg, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq). Lots of the lies we believed as a people were obvious — and obviously false — as well.
Time for people of across the political spectrum to give up their political fantasies and wish lists and start to consider what is possible and what is not, what is reality and what is wishful thinking. Not that dreaming isn’t allowed — where would we be if prior generations hadn’t dreamed big dreams. No, I always hope Americans will dream. The thing that is killing us is the inability to make out fantasy from reality. That leads us to be gullible and make stupid decisions, as well as mistrust people who don’t agree with us.
seif takes it no vas.
stater (134)-
Yeah. First time I heard that speech, I went out and chugged some ketchup.
Almost better than a Gary rant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRmZ9zH-mYM
Globalization and disappearance of the middle class can’t be separated, at least when Randian mentality is riding high. Mid- to long-term there is no politically acceptable way to avoid “hot” class warfare (I am not talking about the sloganeering detracted as class warfare) except serious protectionist measures. Clearly, those will reduce the inflation-adjusted mean income; I am actually not sure about the median – it may even go up.
On the topic of today’s thread, we don’t need any fcuking investors; we need bulldozers. Buying 10 M homes at 60K each and tearing them down will cost less than what we spend annually on Medicare, and will kill the housing glut for good.
Thank you, I’ve recently been hunting for facts about this topic for ages and yours is the best I have found so far.
I love your ideas to drain some of this supply! Let’s hope some of our congress is smart enough to implement these types of ideas.