From the NY Times:
FOR whatever reason, homes sales picked up in New Jersey in the latter part of 2011. A new statewide market report shows contract signings increased in six of the seven months from May through November, compared with 2010.
Also, the inventory of homes for sale shrank every month since May, according to Jeffrey G. Otteau, an analyst, whose Otteau Valuation Group in East Brunswick does monthly reports for the real estate industry; he called the latest news a concrete sign that the market was “stabilizing.”
His December report was the first one in several years to sound a hopeful note. Until the state’s huge foreclosure backlog comes back on the market — and how fast that happens is important — the market may improve sometime this year to the point that prices stop declining and perhaps even modestly start to rise.
But that is the statewide picture. A great division in market fortunes between northern and southern Jersey — and urbanized areas close to Manhattan and more rural regions — became clear during the recent recession and remains stark in the fresh statistics. Mr. Otteau predicted that the gap would shape the timing and pattern of potential recovery, and several agents in the field agreed with him.
“Simply put,” said Dawn Rapa, a Coldwell Banker Elite agent working in rural Salem County, “the only people I’ve seen selling their houses recently are those who absolutely had to — because they were in financial disarray, a job change, divorce or death.”
Salem County, rich in historic houses and farmland but short on well-paying jobs or a quick commute to an urban center, has the largest inventory of all 21 counties surveyed: 44.5 months’ worth of houses, the preponderance of them priced under $400,000.
…
Several other counties in southern New Jersey have inventories about twice the size of the state average — 29 months’ worth in Cumberland County, 26 in Cape May County, and 24 in Atlantic County.In Cape May and Atlantic, the primary backlog is for more expensive homes, many of them built in the boom years to appeal to shoreline vacationers. Atlantic has just shy of six years’ worth of inventory in the $600,000-to-$1 million range.
For homes priced from $1 million to $2.5 million, the Otteau report predicted, it will take more than four years to sell the inventory in Atlantic County and close to seven years in Ocean County.
…
The market misery is not all concentrated in the south, however. In the northernmost county, Sussex, the inventory is 20 months. In the $400,000-to-$599,999 bracket, five and a half years’ supply is already on the market.In the town of Vernon, which is home to several popular ski areas, and where construction was booming in the mid-2000s, the average sale price of a home was $250,000 in 2007, according to the real estate Web site Trulia. Now the site has it at $100,000.
…
Nearby in the somewhat more affluent town of Sparta, a number of large houses built about a decade ago on one-acre or larger lots are now being offered at reduced prices or as short sales.“Houses are selling,” said Catherine Kut, an agent at Weichert Realtors in Sparta, “but they have to be in fabulous condition and still occupied, as a rule.
Did anybody see that article in yesterdays Ledger about the videos of Marines urinating on dead Taliban bodies. Talking about punishment for them. What exactly are we suppose to have a bunch of Cub Scouts over there protecting us!
Sorry Sussex, Cumberland, and Atlantic we get to pop the cork you don’t! No Unicorn for you guys.
ah crap!
“The market misery is not all concentrated in the south, however. In the northernmost county, Sussex, the inventory is 20 months. In the $400,000-to-$599,999 bracket, five and a half years’ supply is already on the market.”
1 – Mike
Yep. The trouble is, what they did is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, and probably rules set forth by the Marines. They’re toast.
It does seem unfair though. I’m sure the enemy is not following any rulebook. War is war. It’s never pretty.
“In the town of Vernon, which is home to several popular ski areas, and where construction was booming in the mid-2000s, the average sale price of a home was $250,000 in 2007, according to the real estate Web site Trulia. Now the site has it at $100,000.”
Been shouting to the roof tops on how bad it is up here, finally hits the print.
Mike,
That may be true in Susse-x but, “here things are different.”
War is war If we are going to send our men and women over their to do a job, Let them do it, I really don’t want to hear or know about the few that have a momentary lapse in what we call sanity, Give them a break, they are in a war zone with people trying to kill them, What happens in the field should stay in the field. Or let the Commanding officers deal with the offenders that really go off the deep end but don’t try these young men in the court of public opinion. There are to many bleeding heart, politically correct, assholes in this country and they have the right to voice their dumb-ass opinions because these soldiers are dying to protect their freedoms. Finally, Get rid of all the Lib reporters that bring this shit home.
Good Morning Mike & New Jersey
In the $400,000-to-$599,999 bracket, five and a half years’ supply is already on the market.”
That means the true value of those homes are 300K to 450K, Lower the prices and that 5 1/2 year supply will sell.
1 & 4: They were dead, what exactly was the purpose of urinating on them.?These Marines were supposed to be the best of the best. And we as a nation are supposed to be better than that. It is disgraceful.
Probably not a lot to do in Vernon NJ.
#7 funnel: I agree these guys are in a miserable situation, but what they did is still not acceptable. As far as them over there dying for our freedom, sadly that is not the case. They are over there dying for nothing. Bring them home, bring all of our troops home.
I don’t know I guess if some of my buddies got blown up by IEDs, I’m 19 and just finished a successful caveman with rifles hunting, trip i’d probably urinate on them also. Problem is it doesn’t fit the narrative people want for the military, especially marines. Compassionate and just liberators. In the end they are just kids in a really stressfull jobs, most likely from low income upbringing, who don’t know any better nor should they have too. They are getting f*cking shot at for American adventurism Washington style.
gary: This one is for you much more realistically priced.
http://www.njmls.com/listings/index.cfm?action=dsp.info&mlsnum=1201459&dayssince=&countysearch=false
#1
It totally reflects lack of Class. It shows that our soliders are no different from Taliban.
Whatever happened to the slogan “we are the best”
Shore 6 they will be drinking Champipple (ginger ale & ripple)
May God help us all! Where is the country headed? Unbelievable. you gotta watch. And they want to raise our taxes for this kind of nonsense?
Oh, how sad our system is. CBS removed this video from YouTube, but here’s another copy – watch it quick before it’s gone and send to all. You have to watch this video of Judge Judy before it’s removed – it’s actually a guy from St Paul, MN . It will tick you off especially after our government had it shut down. This is why our taxes should be raised? Come on! Watch quickly before it disappears. More importantly – pass it on. Multiply these morons by many millions and that’s what this country is up against.
http://revolutionarypolitics.tv/video/viewVideo.php?video_id=15915
“Finally, Get rid of all the Lib reporters that bring this shit home.”
Exactly!If a Military Court needs to deal with it,let it be.I never hear of Military court hearing publicized by the media.Keep this Internal.
9 – funnelcloud
I’m so irritated with Sparta right now. They’re sorta doing this crap to themselves. They killed a road upgrade project here when every surrounding township supported it, as it supports their plans to bring businesses and jobs to the area. They’re so out of touch. I got in an argument on a forum with one of them recently in which they were so pleased with themselves that they killed the road upgrade project. They made comments like “we don’t want those people from bergen county up here ruining the area”. It’s years of work and planning down the tubes.
http://www.strausnews.com/articles/2011/12/03/township_journal/news/3.txt
Houses at 1x income!!! We all know you NJ people all make 500K a year!
Brian says:
January 13, 2012 at 7:54 am
ah crap!
“The market misery is not all concentrated in the south, however. In the northernmost county, Sussex, the inventory is 20 months. In the $400,000-to-$599,999 bracket, five and a half years’ supply is already on the market.”
20 – JJ
This one’s more my price range. I especially like the water damaged ceilings in the finished attic.
http://www.trulia.com/property/3067647573-25-W-End-Ave-Newton-NJ-07860
“His December report was the first one in several years to sound a hopeful note. Until the state’s huge foreclosure backlog comes back on the market — and how fast that happens is important — the market may improve sometime this year to the point that prices stop declining and perhaps even modestly start to rise. ”
Is this where turning them to rentals keep them away from the market?
Bloomberg story on skyscraper construction as a leading negative indicator. And not only is the tallest building in the world coming on line, China has a massive skyscraper boom going on. By that metric, we are utterly doomed.
HeyJJ JP Morgan had some ugly numbers this morning, I guess banks may not be back as you said yesterday.
“Otteau called the latest news a concrete sign that the market was stabilizing.”
2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and now 2012… same statement. And let’s leave that little side distraction called property taxes alone and hope it doesn’t get noticed.
#22 First hopeful note!!! Mr. Otteau has been saying every year for the last 3 or 4 years, that the bottom was in, and real estate would recover in the Spring.
The bank side is doing great, it is the trading revenue side at JP Morgan that took a hit in 4q as vol was way down.
3B says:
January 13, 2012 at 9:00 am
HeyJJ JP Morgan had some ugly numbers this morning, I guess banks may not be back as you said yesterday.
And another thing about war
That the purpose of fighting a war is to kill enough of the enemy so you can negotiate a truce on your terms. If we don`t do that then we shouldn`t be there.
The old difference in war was the winners got to write history, the losers were either prosecuted or taking a dirt nap. The politically correct way of waging war is your both the winner and the loser.
#JJ My friends on the bank side tell me, that many of the big banks are considering shutting branches, and there are not even interested in getting new retail customer accounts; the irony of ultra low rates I would suspect.
I know a marine who recently came home from Iraq who is having a lot of trouble being around children including his nieces and nephews. One day, while on patrol, as he was giving out candy to a young a child, the child took out a knife and stabbed him nearly fatally. He blew that kid to smithereens as the kid walked back to his mother who witnessed the whole thing. Of course the mother went ballistic. After recovering from his wounds in Germany, he was sent back to Iraq. Just a couple of weeks later, a fellow marine pushed him off a twenty five foot watchtower when he heard the buzz of an IED. The soldier who pushed him died in the blast. He was lucky as he only ended up with two broken legs. This is a 100% true story.
My intent is not to defend the marines who pissed on the corpse of some enemies. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s really not a big deal. Unless of course, you feel that the mother who sent her child out to stab my buddy was justified. Sadly, I’m sure this story is quite typical of the experience of the average soldier. Most have so much pride that they wouldn’t dare share such stories with the press. Ever wonder who decided to share the corpse pissing photos with the press?
Individual deposits to banks is a liability on their bottomline.A 1% paid interest in deposits and a 3x loan to the number of depositors,return of 300 basis points on each loans,seems they want to hold on to new customers.
3B says:
January 13, 2012 at 9:10 am
#JJ My friends on the bank side tell me, that many of the big banks are considering shutting branches, and there are not even interested in getting new retail customer accounts; the irony of ultra low rates I would suspect.
Congress needs their own skin in the game. For every soldier who loses a limb to IED’s in Afghanistan, remove one limb, by lottery, from a member of Congress. I gurantee the troops will be home after the first surgery.
#31 yo: Seems they would rather get paid o.25 form the Fed without the head ache of more retail customers; only telling you what I am being told.
#30 Lib: All the more reason we should not be over there.
[29] 3b,
Utterly predictable (readers here knew that). A leading indicator there was the lack of M&A activity (aside from FDIC shotgun marriages): Banks that aren’t merging don’t need to maintain good CRA ratings. Further, small depositors are drags on earnings, and the ways in which banks can make money have been deemed illegal (and more to come). So banking for the unbanked and for the marginal communities will get a lot harder. And just because subprime is being killed doesn’t mean that the LMI borrowers will get market rate loans. It means they get no loans.
In fact, I was thinking about my old firm that gets a good chunk of its RE business from Chase. Chase was opening new branches like gangbusters a couple of years ago, and I had considered that utter folly (it is far cheaper to acquire branches from another bank rather than grow them). I expect that book of business has dried up or will do so soon, and my old firm will lose even more attorneys.
Td is paying half a point of savings deposit of up to $25,000.You are basically letting them hold your money for free, so they can make loans
Picture one of your fellow partner, soldier, commrade and buddy being skinned alive and then thrown out in the snow. Picture this happening to a member of your family. Now, tell me how you feel about those soldiers p1ssing on the enemy. Any questions?
Look at this house, look at the price, price per square foot, and the taxes, and then tell me why paying NJ prices makes any sense at all?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/greathomesanddestinations/what-you-get-for-675000.html?WT.mc_id=RE-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M236-ROS-0112-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click&adxnnl=1&WT.mc_c=177814&adxnnlx=1326465029-l26yjM7+EXdyK3/4iuqR4w
How bad is the Frank-Dodd for the banks bottomline?I am reading BA is planning to close branches too.It does not make sense.
3B says:
January 13, 2012 at 9:27 am
#31 yo: Seems they would rather get paid o.25 form the Fed without the head ache of more retail customers; only telling you what I am being told.
This comes from a very unscientific poll but the results are consistent with my predictions. JJ, does the bond analysis comport with what you expect?
“Investors with $1 million or more [liquid assets excluding r.e.] are among the least likely to expect significant tax increases next year, but they are the most likely to take steps to protect themselves from taxes. More than 20 percent of millionaires plan to invest in municipal bonds to reduce their tax burden. The interest paid by municipal bonds is traditionally lower than corporate bond yields, but the income is exempt from federal taxes and, in some cases, exempt from state taxes, as well. Only about 4 percent of investors with less than $100,000 plan to invest in municipal bonds.
Millionaires also express greater interest in tax-free bonds in general. Nearly 30 percent of millionaires plan to invest in tax-free bonds next year in an effort to protect themselves from taxes, compared to about 6 percent of investors with less than $100,000.
About one-fourth of millionaires plan to create a trust as a means to shelter assets from taxes, compared to less than 4 percent of investors with $100,000. More than 20 percent of millionaires plan to increase charitable giving, compared to about 17 percent of investors with less than $100,000. The IRS allows taxpayers to deduct contributions to qualified charities from their taxable income.
Less affluent investors are much more likely than millionaire investors to increase their contributions to employer-sponsored retirement plans, such as 401(k) and 403(b) plans. More than 30 percent of investors with a net worth of $100,000 up to $1 million place to increase contributions to these defined-contribution plans. 401(k) and 403(b) plans enjoy a tax-deferred status that allows investment gains to grow tax free until they are withdrawn. Many employers provide matching contributions, giving a significant boost to employees’ ability to save for retirement.
More than 11 percent of investors with $500,000 to $1 million plan to establish or increase contributions to a 529 college savings plans. The plans grow tax free and are not subject to taxes when they are used for qualified educational purposes . . .”
All in all, this is good for me.
As an aside, and my 2012 prediction, look for a downdraft in the market after Obama is reelected, especially if he takes the house with him. Lots of tax selling of appreciated portfolios and of industries targeted by democrats for more taxes (or de facto nationalization). This should carry into January as investors with loss positions hold them until 2013 in order to shelter gains from higher rates. This will give a boost to tax receipts in 2012 but at the cost of future tax receipts, which will drop as the top quintile reduces its tax exposure.
[39] yo,
Dodd-Frank is an attempt to roll back the effects of GLB and Reigle-Neal, and return commercial banking to the state it was in when the 3-6-3 rule was in effect and banks were essentially public utilities.
I predict that, if this continues under a second Obama term, you will see CC lines continue to disappear, de facto “redlining” will be back because of the inability of LMI borrowers to qualify for loans, and the US will continue to lose IB to London, Toronto, Dubai, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
As for investors, there’s no way you should own a US bank unless you know it is going to be bought out. And there isn’t much of that going on, judging by the Fed’s H.3 reports.
Nom,
Back to the future?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq__Z-Z_Ofs
Interesting reading from WSJ yesterday.
http://online.wsj.com/article/best_of_the_web_today.html
I especially liked the analysis of the DNC’s attack poodle.
[42] shore
Only in democratic machine cities. Everywhere else, the good comrade commisar would develop a fatal case of lead poisoning unless the armed forces don the red star instead of the silver one.
Investing more on 401k’s and IRA makes alot of sense for less affluent investors.Though this are taxable at your current tax rate at retirement,if planned properly they can be tax free during retirement.You can name beneficiaries if not all used.Not to mention the 50 cents to every dollar contribution up to 6% some employers match.
Less affluent investors are much more likely than millionaire investors to increase their contributions to employer-sponsored retirement plans, such as 401(k) and 403(b) plans. More than 30 percent of investors with a net worth of $100,000 up to $1 million place to increase contributions to these defined-contribution plans. 401(k) and 403(b) plans enjoy a tax-deferred status that allows investment gains to grow tax free until they are withdrawn. Many employers provide matching contributions, giving a significant boost to employees’ ability to save for retirement.
Gary 37 Thank You
Re 40, the rich can’t increase 401K contributions, they all do the max already. People under 100K income are often plain ignorant of muni bonds. In 2011 for instance you could easily get a tax free quality medium term mini in 5k increments paying 5% tax free. At same time bank cds were paying 1%, yet they let money sit in bank, they also avoid things like risk free Ibonds paying 3% or investment grade bonds. People at under 100K often don’t have wills or trusts etc. Rich Dad/Poor Dad shows rich reallly do think different. Since 2008 starting at zero muni bonds I now have 350K muni bonds. At 350K the difference between 5% tax free and 1% taxable is huge. I was forced into munis when they slashed bank cd rates. Munis are now my risk free investment instead of bank cds. The poor or middle class just let their money in bank fall to almost zero interest. I don’t think it is about rates more likely ignorance.
JJ
Muni’s were paying 5% yield due to the risk Whitney brought.A middleclass having a hard time putting bread on the table will not risk life savings to gain 4% more on an FDIC insured 0.5% interst baks gives.If Whitney was right you will be singing a different story.
Another day in hell.
3b #10 & #12
Just a question? Whats acceptable in war? These turds Attacked our country, They hang our soldiers from bridges, behead civilians, kill innocent people and each other in the name of god, they’re a bunch of animals, I agree with you on the bring them home issue, problem is, like it or not, They have to be their to protect our countries (big investors) oil interest, They should be allowed to WIN the war and come home instead of being long term targets for these jack-asses, My friends kid has served three tours (1 in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan) and he talked about the frustration of having these rags smile at you one day and try to kill you the next, He’s been in the shit and has had close friends killed and unfortunately the young man has had to take lives. War brings out the best and worst in people, I’m just saying they shouldn’t be judged and we do not really need to know about incidents like this, I blame reporters that want to stir up emotions over a bad situation One last thing< Think about how you might react if you were in a true "life threatening" situation, protecting a friend or family member, When you were young did you Ever get into a fight and after it was obvious that you won, give the kid an extra punch or two just for good measure, If so ,,Why did you do that???? You should be better than that. Food for thought.
As far as those soldiers go, with all the terrible things that go on in a war that is what we are worried about. Zack lack of class in a war, what planet you on?
Meat “Another day in hell.” if we attribute that statement to those kids in Afghanistan I think you have something.
The miscreants who, while wearing Marine uniforms, urinated on corpses of the vanquished are scum. They have tarnished the reputation of the Marines, they have set back our counterinsurgency efforts (perhaps destroyed them), and have provided fodder for our enemies; they acted dishonorably and they knew what they were doing was wrong — they looked around to verify that the coast was clear — and yet they felt compelled to videotape their reprehensible behavior. Yea, bad things happen in war. No, this is not acceptable. They will likely spend some years in a brig and then be dishonorably discharged.
I am certain that all of the Marines who are preparing to deploy to Afghanistan are pi-$$ed off at this small group for doing what they did, as they will be the ones to bear the brunt of any retribution, not the jerks who taped themselves.
Once one kills the other guy, it is over. At least for professional soldiers.
Wife:Good you are home
Husband:Just following my boss recommendation “go to hell”
Meat are you home?
There Went Meat says:
January 13, 2012 at 10:06 am
Another day in hell.
First of all Whitney knows zero about the muni bond market. Individual muni bonds can’t be bundled At one point I saw a St. Johns University Dorm Bond at 6% in the craziness.
Think about it, 40K a year to go to SJU, they own the campus outright, they have a huge endowment, long waiting list to get in, millions and millions in contracts and big east revenue. Bonds were 100% backed by New York State, Collateralized by Buildings and St. Johns can’t declare BK as they own multiple campus and have been in business forever. Oh year and the Catholic Church is backstopping the whole thing.
So if New York State goes bk and USA does not bail them out and people stop watching college basketball and students stop enrolling in SJU and the Catholic Church goes broke all within ten years till maturity of bond you could lost maybe 5-10% of principal as muni recoveries are usually very high.
It was insanity. I know at least 1,000 times what Whitney knows when it comes to Munis. That is not saying much cause Whitney knows practically nothing about munis. Heck I even know more about Banking than whitney. She was only half right.She told you when to sell common stock of big banks. Big Deal. But she did not tell you when to get back in. She should have been screaming buy citi at a buck a share, screaming buy Citi bonds when they were 40 cents on the dollar, she told you to sell and then what. I need to know what to do with the cash. For instance Muni yields are at an all time low today, most likely time to take some profit off table. But what good is that information if I don’t tell you what to do with that cash.
yo says:
January 13, 2012 at 10:05 am
JJ
Muni’s were paying 5% yield due to the risk Whitney brought.A middleclass having a hard time putting bread on the table will not risk life savings to gain 4% more on an FDIC insured 0.5% interst baks gives.If Whitney was right you will be singing a different story.
Before heading off to the salt mine, this observation: When we got UBL, we missed a golden opportunity to declare victory and get out. Had we done so, the urination photos never would have come to light because the incident would not have happened.
Examining a uncivil act like war through a prism of civility is nothing more than foolish hubris. Is it wrong yes, so is dropping multitudes of ordinance on people or shooting someone.
If a massive military force was here occupying the US would our popluation react any differently. guerilla wars are effective in that you bleed the aggresssor enough were it becomes untenible for them to stay esspecially in cases where the guerillas have finacial suppor and access to weapons. It is how we beat England, viet cong disposed of us, Afghans got rid of the Soviets. The usual reaction by most traditional militaries is to lower themselves to the same level of barbarism as the occupied. human nature is what human nature is.
Shore 53 Surely taking the high road on this one. I am not so quick to judge these kids.
Shore 56 Agree on that one.
Pain 57 Bingo!
Brian says:
January 13, 2012 at 7:57 am
1 – Mike
Yep. The trouble is, what they did is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention, and probably rules set forth by the Marines. They’re toast.
Um, I hate to be the fact police here but I’m a veteran and I have read and studied the Geneva convention rules regarding ethical treatment of prisoners of war, medical/religious personel and civilians and NONE of them relate to corpses. I’m not saying what they did was awesome but I don’t think that they broke any rules by pissing on dead combatants. I’m pretty sure that “prisoner of war” label only applies if you are alive.
I understand that there is an ethical and moral dillema presented by their actions but unless you were there, engaged in the fight, I’m not certain that any of us are capable of judging them. I think it was wrong of Hillary to condemn these troops for their actions but I realize that she has an obligation to apologize in the best way possible as Taliban reconciliation talks are underway with the Afghan government.
In recent trade in New York, the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was 16/32 higher to yield 1.879%, according to Dow Jones Newswires, while the 30-year bond was 30/32 higher to yield 2.928%. The two-year note was flat to yield 0.229%.
This is what is driving old folks crazy. They want to buy savings bonds, cds, money markets, savings accounts, treasuries bills cause they are risk adverse, but they can’t.
This is what is driving old folks crazy. They want to buy savings bonds, cds, money markets, savings accounts, treasuries bills cause they are risk adverse, but they can’t.
Sure they can, but they will only be paid the associated yield for their purchase. If you are suggesting that old folks would like to de-couple risk from return, then that is a different story all together.
[47] JJ,
Agreed that the rich get no additional benefit from 401(k)’s, but that is not where the story ends. I have predicted an increase in DB plans for self-employed and small employer professional groups.
The problem with DBs (and to a much lesser extent, DC plans) is the compliance (notably nondiscrimination) and paperwork, but for very small employers and solos, these make a lot of sense as the regulatory burden is much less (nearly nonexistent for very small DC plans).
I did this for myself, and I am now seeing advertisements for entities that set up small DB and DC plans, something I had not seen in the past.
Fabius may get his blue country and tax rates on the “wealthy” will rise, but will tax receipts rise, or will progressivity steepen? Possibly not.
[62] redux,
In fact, I foresee the potential for a new tax dodge in the future: Pension fraud from small employers setting up DB plans, deliberately underfunding them or causing them to engage in collusive transactions to avoid PT rules, and letting them fail.
Just another form of equity stripping.
#50 funnel: It is an emotional subject so I won’t say much more, only to say that the combatants were dead, urinating and then filming it, is not supposed to be the American way. We also play into the hands of those 12 century lunatics over there, and we should not be there, nor should we still have troops in Japan and Germany, bring them all home.
My final issue is the constant (Fox is a huge guilty party on this count) nonsense that those men and women over there are dying to preserve our freedoms, and our way of life.
The reality IMO, is that they are dying for nothing, but as long as they are for the most part of a lower socio-economic scale who cares. Lets bring back the draft, so that everyone gets to protect our freedoms and way of life.
Several years ago O’Reilly (during the height of the Iraq war) had a guest on his show (forget who), and the guest asked if there was a draft would he encourage his son to go to war. O’Reilly refused to answer the question, and said he himself would go. Typical and cowardly IMO.
Make that 1.85. I love the smell of a refi in the morning.
If we can get 1.60, then I cut another 4 years off my multi for free. Screw the old people JJ. Who needs interest when you are massively leveraged in real estate.
Just received an order from a bank client to provide a broker price opinion on 1006 Unicorn Way, Clifton.
Gary, did you steal that unicorn from 3b?
Military war is just another tool TPTB use to wage war against the average Amerikan.
Wish somebody would shoot Pelosi or McConnell and piss on them.
Why shoot them first Clot?
30 year,
Unicorns are extinct in Clifton! :)
#66 30 year: gary can have the Unicorn. I plan on moving from the land of Unicorns.
Nom there is the other tool of the high salary corporate employed which I did not become aware of until crossed 6 figs, deferred compensation. You make 300K a year but take 150K and defer the rest until after retirement. Sweet deal when you get into upper six ranges as you basically extend your salary into your retirement years while lowering your effective tax rate.
re # 50- “These turds Attacked our country”
Err no. Those flying the planes were not illiterate goat herders from Afghanistan far from it.Here is a little PBS education on the subject of the denizens of the afghan wastelands.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/july-dec11/afghans9_11_09-02.html
Also, there were no US Soldiers hung from bridges in Iraq. They were Blackwater Mercs sent into Fallujah to perform all kinds of deeds our US Soldiers were not allowed to do there. They were caught and killed by Iraqi insurgents and not Al Queda most likely Al-Sadr men, the Mercs you see were sent in to silence Al-Sadr’s newspaper and other dirty deeds. Al-Sadr was a wanted man by the US Troops with shoot to kill on his head, he fled to Iran. Well guess what he is back and Al-Sadr now controls the largest bloc of the Iraqi parliament. He is the “terrorist” who is responsible for the deaths of the Blackwater Mecs and many US Troops yet he walks around a free man now, for you see he has an hold on the Iraqi people and therefore is more useful to us alive than dead.
I don’t blame the troops for whizzing on the dead. I blame the politicians for keeping them there. It is high time we brought them home it has been 10 years now and pretty much anyone in Afghanistan who even was a member of Al-Queda or the Taliban on 9/11/01 is long long dead or in hiding somewhere in Pakistan.
Did anybody see that article in yesterdays Ledger about the videos of Marines urinating on dead Taliban bodies. Talking about punishment for them. What exactly are we suppose to have a bunch of Cub Scouts over there protecting us!
If you pee on them while they’re alive they keep moving.
I can assure you that Unicorns are very much alive. While none have been seen recently there is undisputable proof that unicorns do still exist.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Unicorn-Poop/
Lead article – This is what I’ve been talking about. Families have washed out to the suburbs for generations now, now they’ll be washing back in. Price of oil will attenuate or amplify the waves of the tide coming back in but will not, IMO, reverse it.
59 –
Thanks for your service. I by no means mean any disrespect. My point was to say I am worried they will be railroaded. I probably wouldn’t have acted any differently had I been in their situation.
Article 15. At all times, and particularly after an engagement, Parties to the conflict shall, without delay, take all possible measures to search for and collect the wounded and sick, to protect them against pillage and ill-treatment, to ensure their adequate care, and to search for the dead and prevent their being despoiled.
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/geneva1.html
http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/dead-and-wounded/
3b & Shore guy
Just a difference of opinion. That’s what blogs are for, Civil debate, Onward to a new topic.
Old folks don’t understand inflation risk. They sell to think the 3/4 of one percent yield in a FDIC insured savings is risk free, but a muni bond is risk.
At 3% inflation even in their 15% tax bracket they are automatically losing 2.5% of their money each year in the FDIC insured CD. The longer low interest rates go on, we are in year four the more the risk. We are in year four of near zero % yields in savings. A 5% munis bought four years ago vs. near zero in bank means you are out almost 20% by now. Plus there is nothing to reinvest. Plus the retiree is now drawing principal as interest payments are not enought. I am not saying go all in on one thing, but people like my motherinlaw roll one year cds and keep money in savings account. They should have at laest bought five year cds in 2008 and 2009 to extend duration, Ibonds, 2-5 year treasuries and some munis and investment grade bonds or govt backed MBS over last five years as one year cds matured. Now nearly everything is near zero percent interest unless you take a lot of risk. 50 years of age is peak investing ability for the average person according to studies, you have the experience and knowledge to invest. The mind slips and slips for most people and by 75 you have no clue what you are doing and old folks dont want their kids doing it.
Problem is these people want to complain about zero interest rates but when you offer to help they dont want it. They really like to complain.
My old brokers people about old people was they are always scared of duration. He would tell old people buy 10-30 year bonds and get highest coupon possible as you live off interest and never plan on touching principal. Meanwhile he has old folks who kept going 2-3 years out and now they are blowing through principal as they have no cash stream. Imagine if someone opened an account in 1982 just bought a 10 year treasury every January 1st. instead of leaving it in savings for 30 years?
homeboken says:
January 13, 2012 at 10:33 am
This is what is driving old folks crazy. They want to buy savings bonds, cds, money markets, savings accounts, treasuries bills cause they are risk adverse, but they can’t.
Sure they can, but they will only be paid the associated yield for their purchase. If you are suggesting that old folks would like to de-couple risk from return, then that is a different story all together.
#78 funnel: Agreed.
Lib (65) – The way I see it, it’s a race to see if the Fed kills the US economy to drive the rate down quicker than Montclair kills the remaining equity in the house. I’d say it’s too close to see who’s going to win that race at this point.
There are ways to show that the Will is the actual instrument that a deceased person made when the personal representative and estate planning attorney initially…what is estate planning
“Civil debate, Onward to a new topic.”
Indeed. Now lets discuss why you are wrong (just kidding). Our loss of ability to have reasoned debates about serious topics, without descending into ad hominem attacks, has done this nation, and our posterity, a real disservice.
Gator,
Equity is just a tool of the Kulaks to control the masses. Once your equity is gone and all you have is debt, then you will be free to enjoy the proletarian spring ushered in by Chairman O.
re #83 – Shore – “Our loss of ability to have reasoned debates about serious topics”
Farenheight 451 written back in 1953. Other than the book burning, it is our Dystopia. The author Bradbury has stated that the novel is not about actual censorship via book burnings, but is really a story about how television destroys interest in reading literature, which leads to a perception of knowledge as being composed of factoids, partial information devoid of context.
30-yr [66];
Bring your hip-waders.
I am a huge Bradbury fan and and read all of his work as a kid. Our companies COO is named Rick Atterbury. About eleven years ago, during a major conference call, I accidentally referred to Rick as Ray Bradbury. Not funny at the time, but pretty hilarious looking back at it.
US public edumacation = drone factories
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFlvkwXCQco&feature=player_embedded#!
Article 15. At all times, and particularly after an engagement, Parties to the conflict shall, without delay, take all possible measures to search for and collect the wounded and sick, to protect them against pillage and ill-treatment, to ensure their adequate care, and to search for the dead and prevent their being despoiled.
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/geneva1.html
http://www.crimesofwar.org/a-z-guide/dead-and-wounded/
I appreciate your thanks Brian and I didn’t mean to come across as implying that you were disrespectful. I was merely stating the complexities of calling this a war crime.
The geneva conventions are very, very, VERY hard to apply to this situation on so many levels, an issue that I will get to later.
One thing the Geneva treaties are clear about is that you have to treat wounded and sick with great care, as if they were one of your wounded. You also have to provide them food and protection. Fortunately (unfortunately?) these combatants were dead. The geneva conventions are clear about “despoiling” (stealing from dead people) such as removing gold teeth and taking precious religious artifacts (gold neckchains/crosses for example).
I think that the only avenue for applying the Geneva convention to prosecure a war crime is to say that they are trying use the corpses to incite the enemy. Akin to dragging bodies through the streets, hanging them from bridges, putting heads on sticks. I believe that they were taking photographs for personal reasons (however sick they might have been) and those photos got out of their control.
There are additional complexities because the Geneva conventions only apply under certain circumstances. The US is a signatory of the Geneva conventions and thus we must adhere to the treaties. If we are in a conflict with other signers of the Geneva convention then the treaties are in full force. If we are in conflict with a non-signer of the Geneva convention then they are STILL in full force for our side…that is until the other side breaks the Geneva convention.
We have seen a terrible war where tenants of the Geneva convention have not been upheld. They do not wear uniforms but dress as civilians. They do not respect the dead as there have been numerous “corpse bombs” where the dead are mutilated and IEDs implanted so that when we attempt to adhere to the Geneva conventions that our soldiers are killed. We have seen beheadings and other public acts of deplorable nature on our soldiers which have been published on the internet.
Tell me then…do the Geneva conventions apply in this case in the first place? You have an enemy in civilian clothes, rule number one of the Geneva conventions. At this point you have no basis for prosecution under a war crime in my opinion.
I won’t post again on war crimes and Geneva convention treaties. If you can’t see that no treaty was broken or that the treaty doesn’t apply to an enemy that doesn’t adhere to it then perhaps I will never convince you. I think what they did was deplorable and I would have expected more from my troops but I don’t think that what they did was a crime.
Shore guy
Did you have the same English teacher as Dennis Miller ????
You are a orally entertaining, well versed, Witty bastard!
That”s a compliment.
Shore guy is “orally entertaining”, can I do a Beavis and Buthead thing now.
funnelcloud says:
January 13, 2012 at 12:45 pm
Shore guy
Did you have the same English teacher as Dennis Miller ????
You are a orally entertaining, well versed, Witty bastard!
That”s a compliment.
Mets Owner: ‘We’ll Be Fine’ .
By BRIAN COSTA
PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz.—Back in New York, he faces heavy debt, staggering losses and a potentially crippling lawsuit. But here, at a lavish mountainside resort, Fred Wilpon was at peace.
The embattled Mets owner smiled broadly Thursday as he shook hands with other executives on his way out of Major League Baseball’s quarterly owners meetings. And in his first extended public comments since last spring, it was evident just how much he values his place in this exclusive club—and how determined he is to keep it.
Wilpon said he understood why many fans hope he’ll sell the team, but he remained adamant about his desire to maintain majority control. And he expressed confidence in his ability to do so.
A self-made real-estate magnate from Brooklyn, Wilpon owns the Mets along with his brother-in-law, Saul Katz, the team president; and his son Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer.
“How could anybody deny that it’s been a challenging time?” Wilpon said. “But I came from nothing. I meet the challenges. So does Saul and Jeff and our whole family. We’re meeting the challenges and I think we’ll be fine.”
It has been a dismal year for the Mets, who had their third consecutive losing season in 2011, lost roughly $70 million and recently lost their best player, Jose Reyes, to the Miami Marlins, who lured him away with a lucrative free-agent contract. But Wilpon may yet have reasons for optimism these days.
For one thing, the Mets expect to complete the sale of at least five minority stakes in the team within the next month, according to a person familiar with the matter. That will provide an infusion of at least $100 million, more than half of which will be used to pay off a $25 million debt to MLB and a $40 million bridge loan to Bank of America. The Mets still hope to sell an additional five to seven stakes after that, the person said, with the goal of raising roughly $200 million.
Also, MLB commissioner Bud Selig, a staunch ally and longtime friend of Wilpon, agreed Thursday to remain in office for another two years. So the game’s highest powers are unlikely to pressure Wilpon to sell.
Selig said he was encouraged by the progress the Mets have made in the sale of minority stakes—none of which are complete yet—and reiterated his support for Wilpon.
“He’s been a great owner,” Selig said. “Loves his team. He’s everything you’d want in a local owner. He’s had some economic problems, not caused by himself, and I have a lot of faith in him that he’s working his way through them.”
Wilpon, 75, declined to discuss the sales process in detail. Nor would he discuss the lawsuit filed against him and Katz by the trustee representing victims of the Bernard Madoff fraud. The case, in which Wilpon and Katz could be liable for up to $386 million, is set to go to trial in March.
But Wilpon spoke at length about Reyes, who signed with Miami last month for six years and $106 million.
“Reyes was 17 years old when I met him,” Wilpon said. “He spoke pretty good English at that time, too. He said to me, ‘Can you give me some advice?’ I said, ‘Yeah, never wipe that smile off your face.'”
When asked if Reyes’s departure was difficult for him, Wilpon said, “Certainly.…I’m a fan. I understand it, but I’m still pained about it.”
Of course, Wilpon isn’t just a fan. He could have doled out the money to retain Reyes. And in another time, he might have. But with the Mets in the midst of a payroll purge and questions about Reyes’s durability, Wilpon was in no position to do so. The payroll is set to drop from $143 million on Opening Day 2011 to less than $100 million this year.
“I think we have to get the fans back at the stadium,” Wilpon said. “That’s a necessity. That’s the lifeblood. And to do that, we have to have a good team. We have to be careful that we don’t make some of the mistakes that we made in the past, having long-term contracts that didn’t work out.”
The Mets averaged 30,161 fans at Citi Field in 2011, according to Stats LLC, nearly a 7% drop from 2010 and down 22.5% from 2009.
Given how low the expectations are for the team this year, it will be difficult to reverse that trend soon. But Wilpon remained optimistic.
“I think we’re going to be better than you think,” he said. “We would hope that Mets fans enjoy going to the ballpark and give this team a try.”
Even if things break right for the Mets, though—they settle the lawsuit, bring in $200 million from investors and pay off loans to MLB and Bank of America—there’s still $375 million debt due in 2014 looming, according to a person familiar with the team’s finances.
“This is a tough time,” Wilpon said. “We’re bearing up, I can promise you that.”
FUKC YOU YOU SMUG FCKK!
“Wilpon said he understood why many fans hope he’ll sell the team, but he remained adamant about his desire to maintain majority control. And he expressed confidence in his ability to do so.”
Shoreguy=Keith Olbermann=You are a orally entertaining, well versed, Witty bastard!
????
JJ,
You’re right. 0.25% on money market is a total ripoff funding the banks, engineered by the Fed. If one had a few hundred K to invest in munis, who should one go to and how should one start? Can one use Fidelity? I think one would want to buy short-mid maturity, do only one transaction per bond (buy & hold to maturity).
Or should one just use a muni bond fund?
chi (93)-
Wilpon was in on the Ponzi with Madoff.
GOOD NEWS
Homeless whiz kid will get a new home
Long Island teen is a semi-finalist in the National Intel Science
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45987883/ns/technology_and_science-science/
Wilpon asked Jose Reyes to get in on the stealing, but Reyes pulled his hammy on the first try.
As a Mets fan I constantly wish and uncomforable STD on Wilpon for the crap MLB team the trot out every year. So much so that I don’t even bother to watch baseball until the playoffs any more. Watching the mets is an excercise in anger management.
The Mets are the reason I now hate baseball.
It’s all Mike Hampton’s fault.
Or Vince Coleman’s…I can’t decide.
Two words: Mel Rojas.
#95 # to 7 year muni’s max. No way I would lock up money for 10 years or more at these low rates. At some point we will have high (normal) rates in the future. No sense being further out on the curve.
#03 Sorry should have said 3 to 7 year muni’s max.
Who has informed opinions about Pingry School? Thinking about starting my kid in 6th grade. It’s very close to where we live.
On the other hand, there are more creative and possibly more productive ways to “invest” ~ $250k in a kid over a 7 yr period. Buy a Starbucks franchise and make her manage it? Make her invest it in equities and venture capital schemes? While going to decent public school that we’ll be paying for whether we use it or not.
3B,
Agreed. 3-5 years is the max maturity I’d want to lock in.
ChiFi #92: I refuse to pay any attention to this team until the Wilpons are forced to sell. Yes, I’m geeked about watching the Patriots make mincemeat out of
the baby JesusTebow and watching the Giants game, but I don’t follow basketball. This time of year I should be thinking “In just over a month pitchers and catchers report”, but this year I don’t give a rat’s @ss.For buy and hold people, fidelity has good inventory. 3-7 sounds good. But I also like “kicker” bonds. The concept is this, lets say you get a 20 year bond issued 2000-2011 when rates were high that is callable at ten. The bonds trades for much less a prem that a 20 year non-callable as you can get called at ten. So if rates rise worse case is bond won’t get called but bond won’t fall in value as it pays a higher rate, if rates stay the same and you hold to maturity bond may not get called and you got a higher rate of return than a non callable bonds. Also bonds passed their call date rarely move much from par. Remember states can call at par anytime. Also states are not that smart. I have a 7.75 and a 6% bond that were callable three years ago I got at par. Bond sold at par as people assumed they would be called right away. The extra yield I am getting while paying par is the kicker.
Also Guam, Puerto Rico and Virgin Islands are also tax exempt in all 50 states. Guam is dicey but a GO of PR or VI under ten years is pretty safe, just would not put more than 10-20% in them. The issue with them is lack of liquidity not default.
Open a treasury direct account and I bonds, only up to 5k a year per SS number in household can be bought but pays over 3% and interest is exempt from state taxes and in many cases if used for college exempt from federal too.
But the golden days of January 2011 when it was impossible not to buy a good bond is gone. Now you have to look through inventory for a week or two just to find one good bond.
A.West says:
January 13, 2012 at 1:03 pm
JJ,
You’re right. 0.25% on money market is a total ripoff funding the banks, engineered by the Fed. If one had a few hundred K to invest in munis, who should one go to and how should one start? Can one use Fidelity? I think one would want to buy short-mid maturity, do only one transaction per bond (buy & hold to maturity).
Or should one just use a muni bond fund?
Meat I see your Vince Coleman and raise you a Bobby Bonilla
(105)
Pingry is fine, but not exceptional. There are better private schools in the near area, though. If you are in a miserable school district, go for the move. On the other hand, if your district has many high school graduates going to top colleges, chances are that he/she will do fine, too. The most important factors are getting the kids to understand that you have expectations of them, follow through with oversight, and hold them accountable. All private schools, just like public have their share of dopeheads, et al . Private schools have the option of booting them out, though, if caught.
My three kids went to same public schools in Hunterdon. One graduated Ivy. Second graduating Ivy in May and third is going baby Ivy this fall. My brother, on the other hand, sent his kids to a Catholic school near Jersey shore. Oldest is Ivy, second one may go to Armed Force academy. Both of us banged into our kids the premise that they are accountable for all their actions and consequences, good or bad, remain for life.
[107] Jill,
Whatever your motivation, welcome to Patriot Nation, if only for a week.
#08 JJ: Did not think there were too many kicker bonds still out there, but I would agree.
[72] pain,
Def comp is not really practical or advisable for small or at-risk businesses.
Nom I know but in my world of stability (made myself chuckle with that one) the folks look at it as a sound investment strategy. I consider being out of debt the soundest investment strategy.
Jill the atheist in me wants to see Teebow mamed, but in a world of currupt and me first athletes he seems like a pretty down to earth guy. Now if Belicheck could employ a line or two on the front 4 the irony would be most excellent.
also Jill, hockey is a perfectly acceptable winter sport go to a game you might like it.
line = lion stupid blackberry
[114] pain
I wish def comp was easier but it isn’t, notably for qualified deferred comp plans, the only ones worth having.
When doing Fidelity search do 2015-2035 for maturity, click callable only, click min coupon 4 and then click up to a price of 103. Something like that and they pop up now and then.
3B says:
January 13, 2012 at 2:07 pm
#08 JJ: Did not think there were too many kicker bonds still out there, but I would agree.
[105] A. West.
I am not planning to finance my childrens’ educations. Instead, a nongrantor trust that will be able to buy a business to employ them later, or property for them to manage later, is a much better idea. With the future that Meat is expecting, the only jobs out there for them will be what we give them. In my case, it will be perimeter guard and tractor driver at the nompound.
[17] mike
“Multiply these morons by many millions and that’s what this country is up against.”
Zombie leeches, to be sure.
They tend to be concentrated, so when Meat’s oblivion happens, they will largely kill each other off and plague the surrounding hinterlands. The nompound will be beyond the area affected by the zombie leeches. But I plan to keep a large slit trench in the woods with bags of lime under a tarp nearby. The few that make it out to the nompound will make great fertilizer someday.
BTW with tax rates rising in 2013 deferred comp is not making much sense this year. Plus what makes you think you will have lower taxes in retirement. No kids, no mortgage, no deductions really, just taking standard deductions. Plus forced to pull money from IRAs, 401k and interest income and dividends. If you have two million in retirement accounts at 70 and want them all out by even 100 when you factor in the money keeps compounding and earning interest you have like four million to withdrawl and pay taxes on. Then SS is taxable and what about pensions.
I have a girl who works for me who graduated college spring of 2002 and was lucky to get a good job right away with a company with a really good match in 401K, at 31 her 401K is already large. She had 2002-2011 for most part stocks were cheaper and she was plowing money away. If she leaves workforce even at 35 for good, that will be a huge amount of money at 70. As much as I am shocked at people who do nothing, people who give little I also see people like this girl who was doing 20% of her salary at 22 for retirement. Some accounts are huge. Now with dual income couples with dual matches and a 67 year retirement age we can get 90 years of 401K contributions from one couple. Crazy.
Pingry is the edumacational equivalent of it’s-different-here-unicorns-and-skittles. They do, however, offer the parent excellent practice in paying through the snout for a rapidly-deflating asset.
Painhrtz – I ain’t dead yet says:
January 13, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Jill the atheist in me wants to see Teebow mamed, but in a world of currupt and me
first athletes he seems like a pretty down to earth guy.
Pain: not true; he’s an arrogant prick with a pious veneer. I will maintain that he needs to bow in prayer whether he scores a touchdown or a pick-6. Do you think G-d gives a sh!t whether the Broncos win? In Tebow’s world the answer is yes……meaning G-d chose him over others…..pure arrogance mixed with hubris……
How much is elementary school tuition?
There Went Meat says:
January 13, 2012 at 2:39 pm
Pingry is the edumacational equivalent of it’s-different-here-unicorns-and-skittles. They do, however, offer the parent excellent practice in paying through the snout for a rapidly-deflating asset.
Tebow is not actually religous in my mind. He is a home schooled born to some kooky missionary parents while they were enlisting people to join their cult in the Philiphenes. Oddly the Phiphines are like 99.999% Catholic so what the heck is the missionary doing down there trying to convince people to join his kooky cult.
He is more a Kook than a Christian, I hope the jews or muslims claim him as their own cause I certainly don’t think Jesus likes kooky cult religions.
The douche rich kid from Pretty in Pink went to Pingry. He Started drinking at 12 yrs old.
Nom,
Pats – 44
Tebow -9
Economists at the fed don’t know economics and this is news
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-fed-2006-coming-crisis-124207691.html
Chi i will agree it is over the top. Maybe we will get lucky and satan wins the day. So glad I believe in swordfish. Would hate to think the invisible sky wizard picks winners and losers
14 point spread for the Broncos/Pats game. Seems the gamblers are putting their money on Brady.
http://www.housingwire.com/2012/01/13/fannie-mae-economists-see-2012-home-sales-up-3-5-to-4-72-million?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+housingwire%2FuOVI+%28HousingWire%29
Breaking /Housing up in 2012 so they say
Pain #122: “Jill the atheist in me wants to see Teebow mamed, but in a world of currupt and me first athletes he seems like a pretty down to earth guy. Now if Belicheck could employ a line or two on the front 4 the irony would be most excellent.
also Jill, hockey is a perfectly acceptable winter sport go to a game you might like it.”
Read what ChiFi said about Tebow. It’s spot on. In South Florida, where they worship all Aggies (even expat liberals from NJ), there are actually people who believe he isn’t just a pious religious guy but the Actual Second Coming in the Flesh. This is not his fault, but I don’t see him denying it either. Hubris, @**hole, etc.
As for hockey: So is figure skating an acceptable winter sport but it stopped being interesting when Michelle Kwan retired and Jeremy Abbott couldn’t gain any consistency.
re: # 127 – Scary huh best and brightest? Turbo is busy flying around telling the rest of the world this week they should not buy oil from Iran (with a considerable discount). We will be lucky if that nucklehead do not single-handedly start a trade war with China.
Paging Libtard:
Did you like your mortgage broker on the multi?
Moose 132 – Our mortgage broker is great. We’ve used him and will continue to use him on both properties.
[128] juice,
More likely it is because the action is so heavy on the Pats that the bookies have to increase the spread so that it equalizes the betting.
The last time the Pats were favored by 14 (vs. the Bills), I considered betting against them. Good thing I didn’t as the Pats covered the spread.
But it is pretty brass to assume that the Pats will cover a 14 point spread. Better bet is to view this as a crowded trade on the Pats and take the Broncos and the points.
Right or wrong Americans have always believed to the victor go the spoils …American mutilation of Japanese war dead…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_mutilation_of_Japanese_war_dead
[126] gary
from your lips to God’s ear.
Yes. Carl is da man. Although we did have one unexpected snafu last time that cost us the loss of our Heloc. But we really didn’t need it anyway. Who needs a Heloc when the credit card companies will give you $20,000 at 0% interest for 16 months.
#29 and 2011, and 2010, and 2009, and so on, and so on, on so on.
Thought so. Can you pass contact info, here or to john_doebinski (at) yahoo (dot) com?
http://m.nbcnewyork.com/nbcnewyork/pm_107633/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=aVtZqAYo
Nom…The Broncos D is good at getting to the bad quarterbacks. They won’t touch Brady. BB will see to that. The fact the NE has no defense doesn’t matter as the Broncos have nothing but a mediocre defense.
Moose. Google Mortgage Masters Carl Nielson. Tell him Stu sent you.
http://www.mortgagemasterinc.com/LoanOfficers-detail.cfm?ID=864&alpha=
Nom – last meet up w Pats 3 weeks ago they won by 18 in Denver with allot of QB running by Tebow. He only completed 11 passes and made up for it by running and scoring two of their touchdowns. I think Brady is going to light it up and Tebow won’t be running around as much Belichick plans to keep him out of the end zone and let them field kick into a bigger loss this time.
Wow. Next to this guy, Krugman is a moderate. And another Nobel in economics. Guess we know what the committee’s political persuasion is.
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000067347
BTW, if this guy gets his wish, don’t stand in front of the exits, or the entrance to a US foreign consulate office.
What is crazy is the cheese heads defense is ranked next to last. Cruz may be very busy celebrating.
3B and JJ
I was checking out the fidelity municiple bonds, I have a 401K with fidelity and online trading, never bought bonds other than what was offered through my 401K. Am I reading them wrong or do most bond investments require 25K to get involved???
My company cut my 401K benefits this year. OK, they really didn’t cut them, I still get a 7% salary match, but they won’t let me contribute 90% of my gross anymore. HR told me I can only put in 70% until I max out at $22.5K this year. I’m surprised they let me bang in at 90% the last two years, actually.
Depends on bond types. Munis the smallest increment is a 5k bonds. Corporates the smallest increment is a 1k bond. Dealers don’t always like to deal in odd lots so if they have 10k or 25K to sell they someimes make it the min.
Fidelity also does new issues of munis. But we are at historic lows this week in yield so new issues are being issued as they want to lock in low yields, but do buyers want to buy at historic lows. If you are in NJ lots of small towns have good yields in small lots as market does not really understand them and very few financials filed. Sometimes the small investor knows these local towns well and can find gems to buy and hold.
funnelcloud says:
January 13, 2012 at 4:27 pm
3B and JJ
I was checking out the fidelity municiple bonds, I have a 401K with fidelity and online trading, never bought bonds other than what was offered through my 401K. Am I reading them wrong or do most bond investments require 25K to get involved???
Funnel you don’t want to buy tax free munis for your 401k because that defeats the purpose, but there are taxable ones available with higher rates that make more sense. As far as a minimum it probaly depends on the offering and the broker usually 10k
Buy Bank Trups, Junk Bonds, GMAC bonds etc for 401k. You want highest yielders possible to be in 401k/IRA.
Munis, Treasuries, Ibonds, Savings Bonds anything with very low yields or tax free or partial tax free should not really be in an IRA or 401k.
Or by the Fidelity Capital & Income Fund, it is a high yield bond fund that had a rough 4q but historically has amazing long term yields. You can diversify with that.
10 Year #7 out of 238 High Current Yield
10 Year average yield. 9.98
Mike says:
January 13, 2012 at 4:34 pm
Funnel you don’t want to buy tax free munis for your 401k because that defeats the purpose, but there are taxable ones available with higher rates that make more sense. As far as a minimum it probaly depends on the offering and the broker usually 10k
Just fired up the new computer and this is the first place I visit.
Says something about my life, huh?
[150] JJ
That seems like a solid, thanks. Chifi, care to weigh in?
Nom,
Birds of the same feather flock together.That is a good thing.I feel surrounded by smart people when I am here.
Went to I-Bond web site – looks like $10k / year max but this board and others have also said 5k is max JJ can you confirm which
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/indiv/research/indepth/ebonds/res_e_bonds_eecomparison.htm
Also site mentions you can buy another $5 k in paper bonds w tax refund.
Nom 151 You chose this blog over your favorite porn site. You are a nice person
Bernanke didn’t see the bubble? I’m shocked shocked………..
By JON HILSENRATH, LUCA DI LEO and MICHAEL S. DERBY
In his second meeting as chairman of the Federal Reserve in May 2006, Ben Bernanke heard a Fed governor warn about the nation’s mortgage market. But Mr. Bernanke described the cooling of the housing boom as a “healthy thing.”
“So far we are seeing, at worst, an orderly decline in the housing market,” he said.
WSJ’s Jon Hilsenrath has details of 2006 Federal Reserve transcripts that reveal the Fed did not forsee the coming housing bust and resulting economic downturn. Photo: REUTERS/Jason Reed
Mr. Bernanke’s words were contained in 1,197 pages of transcripts released Thursday of closed-door Fed meetings from that year. The transcripts paint the most detailed picture yet of how top officials at the central bank didn’t anticipate the storm about to hit the U.S. economy and the global financial system.
A handful of Fed officials warned of trouble brewing. But, for the most part, officials were expecting a manageable slowdown in the housing sector, with little damage to the financial system or broader economy, the transcripts show. Mr. Bernanke predicted a “soft landing” for the economy as 2006 ended, not a housing bust that would trigger the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
Mr. Bernanke has acknowledged the Fed’s failings as a bank overseer before the crisis, and he has vowed to do better now that the Fed has emerged from the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul with more supervisory power. A Fed spokesman Thursday pointed to Mr. Bernanke’s earlier comments on the matter.
Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed, said Thursday that once the economic turmoil hit in 2007, “the Fed did react to the crisis in a most effective way. That has now been proven. Whether we were, as a group, late to get on the stick is of course debatable.”
More
Highlights: Choice quotes from officials
View the transcripts on the Fed’s website
Governor Cautioned Fed About Mortgages
Economists Split on Action
The transcripts show Fed officials offering praise for outgoing Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, who attended his final Fed meeting in January 2006. Timothy Geithner, then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and now Treasury Secretary, playfully offered this forecast about Mr. Greenspan’s legacy: “I think the risk that we decide in the future that you’re even better than we think is higher than the alternative.”
Mr. Greenspan’s reputation subsequently was tarnished by the financial crisis.
The Fed is under attack by some Republican lawmakers, presidential candidates and other critics who say its easy-money policies, particularly under Mr. Greenspan, fueled the credit bubble that led to the crisis. Mr. Bernanke has said that while bad regulation contributed to the crisis, the Fed’s interest-rate policies did not. On Tuesday, supporters of Republican presidential hopeful and Fed critic Ron Paul celebrated his second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary by chanting, “End the Fed!”
The transcripts have the potential to fuel the criticism. “This reads like a broken record,” said Allan Meltzer, an economist who has written a history of the Fed through 1986. The Fed, he said, “One, gives too much weight to short-term forecasts; two, never discusses the medium-term consequences of its decisions; and three, ignores without any discussion warnings such as those that others tried to bring up.”
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Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke
There is no doubt that Mr. Bernanke and most of his Fed colleagues were concerned about the growing weakness in the housing market in 2006, which led them to pause that August after raising interest rates for two years. Mr. Bernanke often noted that housing looked particularly uncertain.
Home prices peaked in May 2006, according to an S&P Case-Shiller home-price index, and have since fallen 33%. Very few economists, either inside or outside the Fed, imagined at the time that such a steep decline was possible.
The transcripts suggest the Fed underestimated the extent to which the housing boom had strained the financial-services industry, particularly through exotic mortgage securities. “We have not seen—and don’t expect—a broad deterioration in mortgage credit quality,” the Fed staff said in a June 2006 report to policy makers.
The transcripts also suggest that Fed officials misgauged the potential for housing problems to spill over into the broader economy.
“Our recent financial-market data don’t, in my view, provide a convincing case for a substantial increase in the probability of a much weaker path for growth going forward,” Mr. Geithner said at a meeting in December 2006.
Over the ensuing six months, subprime-mortgage lenders began failing and investors shed risky mortgage debt. “Secretary Geithner was an early source of initiative at the Fed to reduce risk and make the financial system more resilient even before 2006,” Treasury spokesman Anthony Coley said Thursday.
On Thursday, after the transcripts were released, some analysts expressed sympathy for the Fed. Pierpont Securities chief economist Stephen Stanley said the Fed’s view at the time “was a pretty consensus view” among analysts.
The Fed spent the first part of 2006 raising short-term interest rates, a process begun under Mr. Greenspan, but that did little to increase long-term interest rates or tame the housing boom.
The transcripts show some Fed officials suggesting markets understood the risks of the housing slowdown.
“As one CEO told me, the only subject that has been more analyzed than the housing situation is the birth of Brad Pitt’s baby,” Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher said in a September 2006 meeting.
On Thursday, Mr. Fisher said he wasn’t dismissive of the housing threat. In that same September meeting, he noted that he was more pessimistic about the housing outlook than was the Fed’s economics staff in Washington. The previous month, he noted that one home builder said the housing correction was the “roughest and most sudden” he had seen.
Susan Bies, a former banker who served as a Fed governor from 2001 until 2007, comes across in the transcripts as the most attuned to the brewing trouble. In May 2006, she warned that households were taking on so much debt that they might be vulnerable to financial shocks, such as layoffs or medical problems. She expressed dismay about the exotic mortgages that banks were offering to borrowers, particularly those in which debt grew, rather than got paid off, over time.
Later in 2006, she warned about exotic mortgage securities. “A lot of the private mortgages that have been securitized during the past few years really do have much more risk than the investors have been focusing on,” she said.
Janet Yellen, the Fed vice chairwoman who headed the San Francisco Fed in 2006, warned the slowdown could become an “unwelcome housing slump.”
Economists disagree about what the central bank should have done had it decided to be more aggressive about the housing bubble.
Mr. Bernanke has said he favors using regulatory tools to fight future bubbles. Some economists say the Fed should use higher interest rates.
Many Fed officials acknowledge, however, that prior to the crisis their economic models and their own world views gave too little weight to how strains in the banking sector could spill over into the broader economy.
Write to Jon Hilsenrath at jon.hilsenrath@wsj.com, Luca Di Leo at
No matter what you’ve heard to the contrary, “there is QE3, the Fed is pumping money into the system,” says legendary investor Jim Rogers, disregarding most every Federal Reserve statement over the last six months. In the attached video Rogers explains his lack of trust (read: contempt) for the Federal Reserve and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Rogers has been a critic of the Fed’s quantitative easing programs and artificially low interest rates, pointing to the latter as something akin to QE3 in drag.
“They’re lying to us,” he says of the Fed. “One reason the markets are holding up so well is that they are printing money as fast as they can.”
As asserted on Breakout regularly, the Federal Reserve is operating in an almost complete leadership void due to an unprecedented level of gridlock among the the elected politicians charged with setting fiscal policy. Unless and until the public acts on their many vows to “throw the bums out” of D.C. the Fed will be free, indeed forced, to act alone in regards to doing something to change our economic condition.
In a pyrrhic victory for America, Rogers believes things will eventually get so bad that Americans will finally vote for real change and economic progress. Alas, the measures he feels are needed to cure our economy are so harsh that those same officials will also get tossed out when voters realize just how harsh the road back to prosperity is.
Regardless of the necessary suffering, spending cuts are needed in order to save the most fiscally responsible citizens, those whose savings are funding this disaster.
“What the Federal Reserve is doing now is ruining an entire class of investors,” says Rogers. By forcing rates down and keeping the economy on a flatline, he believes the Fed could cause another lost generation of investments. Suffice it to say, vaporizing those who faithfully accumulated savings over the years is no way to restore confidence in our financial markets
***You can purchase an additional $5,000 in paper I Bonds per Social Security number using your IRS tax refund.
Which means unless you have a 10K refund and are a joint filer you can only buy 5K per ss number in house.
#154…feds just increased the i bond max to $ 10 k….+ as jjbmentions, your tax refund.
Taibbi always an fun read.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/everything-you-need-to-know-about-wall-street-in-one-brief-tale-20120113
#30 – Lib
Thanks for that post.
I think it’s really helpful to hear real life stories – helps to put it in perspective.
Euro failure weekend?
(156) confused,
Rogers likely has his paperwork done and a series of backup appointments with US consulates around Asia.
When the timing is right, he will walk into a consulate somewhere, hand over his US passport and be done with us.
Plume, what’s your opinion on faking your own death and taking up residence under a false identity in a sunny Third World country?
No problem TCM. Others here said it best. We are in no position to judge the actions of our soldiers.
re: Buying 5k of I-bonds per SSN w/ tax refund;
I have no opinion about the quality of I-bonds as a CD-substitute investment vehicle, but I have been of the impression that if you had that kind of tax refund as a matter of course, then you’ve been doing something horribly wrong. Even making the conscious choice to do so parks your money in an untouchable savings account at 0% for the better part of the year as a prelude to the purchase.
BTW, thanks, Lib.
Go ahead. Buy your crica 76 sh_t box. Go defend the sand box of Israel. We all know Israel killed hundreds of US sailors in 1967 on the USS Liberty. Let me digress. Let me for a moment stick my head in the sand and pretend everyting is going to be alright.
When the sh_tf the sides will be chosen. Those that stand for liberty and the victims.
I am anxiously waiting the day.
Has anyone had any dealings with reputable realtors in the North NJ lately (Sussex / Morris Areas)? I know the topic comes up here every once in a blue moon, but I cannot seem to search this site through Google like I used too.
I was just speaking to a realtor who told me I could currently write off the entire mortgage (principal and interest), and that I had to act fast before congress removed that provision so I could be grandfathered under current law.
I just want someone intelligent (and honest).
Cheerful story to end the day.
(NEWSER) – An appeals court in Illinois has decided that a dead Chicago teen can be sued for injuries caused by his own flying body parts. The 18-year-old almost-passenger ran in front of a train in an attempt to catch another train and was hit by an Amtrak going 70mph. A big chunk of his body was thrown onto a platform 100 feet away where it knocked down a 58-year-old woman, breaking her leg and wrist. The court decided that the teen’s death was “reasonably foreseeable” and allowed the woman to sue his estate, the Chicago Tribune reports.
The woman’s lawyer says that while details of the case are “very peculiar and gory and creepy,” it is a clear case of negligence. “If you do something as stupid as this guy did, you have to be responsible for what comes from it,” she says.
Meat [163];
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Darwin_disappearance_case
(168) NJ
As for the tax provision, the guy who told you that should be reported. If I did that, I’d be disbarred.
(163) meat,
For ethical reasons I can’t condone it. Especially in a public forum.
In practice, there’d have to be enough money to make it worthwhile.
A. West – Pingry
It is little doubt the school provides good education and significantly improves the kid’s chances of getting to the Ivies, if they have the potential. One can argue the value of this, though. Two other factors frequently overlooked are the non-academic ones – (1)Pingry alumni are overall quite successful and tend to help out other group members, and (2) depending on what you are doing for living, knowing other Pingry parents and networking with them may potentially be very good for your business.
Feb. 15th just got sunnier in Tampa. Guess Cashman couldn’t pry Felix. Oh well, such is life. Not bad as consolations go.
FTC Investigating Google:
http://news.yahoo.com/ftc-expands-google-antitrust-probe-source-234826312.html
Or as I like to call it – shaking down a cash rich company for campaign donations. Guarantee once the checks are written this goes bye-bye.
So much for picking up a shore house for pennies on the dollar. I went to grammer school with the owner of this property. When I saw her last summer and she told me what she listed the house for I just laughed. I guess she got the last laugh.
http://www.app.com/article/20120113/NJBIZ/301130067/Jeff-Sutton-New-York-real-estate-mogul-buys-Deal-oceanfront-mansion-22-6M?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage
WASHINGTON — As the housing bubble entered its waning hours in 2006, top Federal Reserve officials marveled at the desperate antics of home builders seeking to lure buyers.
The officials laughed about the cars that builders were offering as signing bonuses, and about efforts to make empty homes look occupied. They joked about one builder who said that inventory was “rising through the roof.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/inside-fed-2006-coming-crisis-124207691.htm
NJ NVNDK [168],
Has anyone had any dealings with reputable realtors in the North NJ lately…
Why not just go to the back room of Nicky’s Pork Stork and ask Vinny the Beak for some financial advice. Here’s my advice: don’t take any advice from a realtor.
from the article posted in 177
Germinsky said he had three other offers for the property. “I think it probably would have brought more had the market not been what it is,” he said.
This is quite possible the dumbest statement I’ve heard
Mark Bavaro doing the Tebow, in Denver, before Tebow was born:
http://neighbors.denverpost.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=19216400&start=80&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&sid=7aa84039b117971e239c1aa6ceb3a502
#177 I guess I have the wrong attitude. To me, that place looks just like the assisted living facility a couple of miles from me.
Aon Corp going offshore. Relocating its HQ from Chicago to London.
That didn’t take long.
Speaking of shakedowns, the PBGC is going after AMR in bankruptcy court. Don’t know details but I suspect they want AMR to sweeten pensions or they will tie up any reorganization. This is a game of chicken with three cars as the secured and mid-priority creditors will flip, and AMR also has the nuclear option of converting to chp 7 and letting the creditors and gov fight over the body.
The main reason Im looking for a realtor is because of my lack of knowledge in the house sale process.
I have no problem doing the leg work myself (besides finding time), but I am concerned about make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed.
Yikes I wonder if the band kept playing? 4,000 on board too.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/01/cruise_ship_runs_aground_in_it.html
Tebow
http://sports.neswblogs.com/2012/01/14/jimmy-fallon-presents-tebow-bowie-tebowie/
#87 See John run, run John run!!
See Jane run, run Jane run!!
See spot play, play spot play!!!
NJC,
With an original list price of $35mm and a sale price of $22.6mm, one could describe this sale as a low ball of epic proportions. Of course, your childhood friend is laughing all the way to the bank.
See bot post.
Post bot, post.
Post, post, post.
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A hacker who goes by the name of ‘Yama Tough’ threatened Saturday to release next week the full source code for Symantec Corp’s flagship Norton Antivirus software.
“This coming Tuesday behold the full Norton Antivirus 1,7Gb src, the rest will follow,” Yama Tough posted via Twitter.
In the past week Yama Tough has released fragments of source code from Symantec products along with a cache of emails. The hacker says all the data was taken from Indian government servers.
..COMMENTARY | According to a Reuters report, the U.S. has announced it wants to give close to $1 billion to Bangladesh over the next five years to alleviate poverty and malnutrition, help with family planning and infectious diseases, research farm productivity and address climate change. We’ve already given that country $5.7 billion as of 2011, the report states.
It always shocks me when I hear — amid all the noise about how broke our government is — that we’re giving billions to help other countries. It’s not that I’m against helping, mind you. I tend to think charitable giving is something better left in the hands of private organizations, with private dollars, however. But it isn’t. What’s more, according to a June Fox News report, we’re giving hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to countries we’re borrowing billions of dollars from, including China, Brazil, Russia, India, Mexico and Egypt. As a side note, I did not realize we were borrowing money from Mexico, but according to the report, it holds $28.1 billion of U.S. Treasury bonds.
The Fox News article states much of this money is going to preventing tuberculosis and AIDS/HIV, combating weapons of mass destruction and counterterrorism. But that’s not all. The Census Bureau compiles foreign aid information, with reports that can be found in PDF format on its website. According to the 2012 statistical data, in 2009, the U.S. provided almost $45 billion in foreign aid, including about $34 billion in economic aid and a little over 11 billion in military aid.
Of the U.S. economic aid in 2009, the largest recipients were Afghanistan and Iraq, followed by Pakistan and Sudan. The West Bank/ Gaza tops of the list of the five countries receiving the most economic aid from the U.S., with a little over $1 billion worth. In military aid, more than $5.7 billion went to Afghanistan. Over $2 billion went to Israel. Egypt received more than $1 billion. Did you know we were sending military aid to Egypt?
The list of countries we send our money to is daunting. The amount of money we send to them is crazy. According to the figures, since 2001, that amount has increased from $16,836,000,000 to $44,957,000,000. And we don’t have enough to pay our own bills. And we listen to our Congress talk about cutting our spending. I think we need to cut down on the high-priced gifts and loans we’re giving to everyone else.
We should give Bangladesh a couple of airburst tactical nukes. Same for the Pakis.
Money shuffling off to Bangladesh, and money shuffling off to Buffalo, too:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204409004577156603296740624.html
By STEVEN MALANGA
Why do cities like Buffalo decline, and what role should government play in promoting recovery?
In his State of the State Address this month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced $1 billion in incentives to attract new investment to the beleaguered city by Lake Erie. “We believe in Buffalo,” he said, “and we’ll put our money where our mouth is.” Too bad Mr. Cuomo ignores the factors that help keep areas like Buffalo inhospitable to new investment—namely steep tax rates and the high cost of government.
This is an old story for Buffalo. Ever since the city began losing its manufacturing base in the 1950s and gradually declined into one of America’s poorest cities (the poverty rate today is nearly 29%), the federal and state governments have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into subsidized redevelopment schemes that have yielded few tangible benefits.
Buffalo may be the paradigmatic example of why expensive government revitalization efforts often fail. Back in 2004, the Buffalo News estimated that the city had garnered more federal redevelopment aid per capita than any other city in the country, a total of more than half a billion dollars since the 1970s. Yet, the paper noted, the city had virtually nothing to show for the money.
snip
Sometimes these schemes have done real harm. In the 1970s, the federal government decided to invest $530 million to build a 6.2-mile light-rail system through downtown Buffalo. It was supposed to further spur redevelopment, of course.
Opened in 1985 and anchored by a transit mall that banned cars, the rail line fell well below ridership projections—and downtown businesses suffered mightily from the lack of traffic. As Buffalo landlord Stephen P. Fitzmaurice wrote in 2009: “Walk down Main Street on the transit mall; aside from a few necessities like drug and cell phone stores, blight dominates.” Last month the city received a $15 million federal grant to restore traffic to Main Street.
These massive investment subsidies failed partly because officials were ill-suited to select the right projects and often instead gave money to favored insiders. Even former Mayor Anthony Masiello described the federal government’s redevelopment funds as “a politically motivated system trying to please everybody.”
But Buffalo also struggles because it remains among the highest-taxed localities in the country. According to Cato Institute scholar Dean Stansel, a Buffalo resident pays 25% more in income taxes than does the average resident in America’s 100 largest metro areas. Buffalo’s 8.75% sales tax, according to the Tax Foundation, is the fifth highest among the country’s 120 cities with more than 200,000 residents. And the property-tax burden in Buffalo and surrounding Erie County ranks in the top 10% nationwide.
These taxes have gone to support a spendthrift local government that nourishes itself at the expense of the private sector. In 2003, then-Gov. George Pataki appointed a financial control board to audit Buffalo’s finances. The Buffalo Fiscal Stability Authority accused city government of financial mismanagement, inadequate oversight, and fragmented record keeping. It detailed numerous wasteful practices in city government, including loading employee contracts with expensive provisions.
The city’s virtually insolvent school district, for example, paid for elective cosmetic surgery for its teachers and other staff. “Buffalo must have the best looking teachers in the country,” says John Faso, a former member of the control board, which lobbied unsuccessfully to have the perk ended. It continues today, to the tune of some $6 million a year.
snip
#207 Buffalo’s reason for existence disappeared when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened in 1959. Until then, Buffalo was a major transshipment point for Great Lakes cargo and was a thriving city with lovely houses and beautiful country clubs. Now it has the university, Roswell Park Cancer Center and that’s about it.
Sounds like Buffalo should have a couple of tactical nukes airburst over it.
Mapgpies take the three points. Wankers struggling against Swansea.
Life is good.
Swansea gives the Wankers a hiding. Today has been a good day.
Working people frequently ask retired people what they do to make their
days interesting. Well, for example, the other day my wife and I
went into town and went into a shop. We were only in there for
about 5 minutes. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a
parking ticket. We went up to him and said, “Come on man, how
about giving a senior citizen a break?”
He ignored us and continued writing the
ticket. I called him a Nazi pig. He glared at me and started
writing another ticket for having worn tires. So my wife called
him a sh…head. He finished the second ticket and put it on the
windshield with the first. Then he started writing a third
ticket. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused
him, the more tickets he wrote… Personally, we didn’t care. We
came into town by bus and saw the car had an Obama sticker… We
try to have a little fun each day now that we’re retired.. It’s
important at our age.
Have another Sports Direct Brown ale and celebrate your great victory.
When you look at that new V1rgin logo on yor shrits, it should remind you that you’ll always be more like Madonna than Maradona!
(198) meat,
Losses by Giants and Ravens would make it a complete weekend for me.
(200) fabius
Swansea??? Seriously??? And after leading too.
Pathetic.
Hey Gator,
How’s that Tebow thing working out for you?
Hey Nom…On the bright side, Denver’s perfromance last night gave me some extra sleep and more time for Words with Friends.
Go Ravens.
(204) Gator,
Pfffffffttt!!!
gluteus (200)-
This, from the fan of a team that couldn’t hold a 4-goal lead against us last year.
Chose a hail mary and connected!!
Nom,
Giants – Patriots rematch in the big game?!!
(210) gary,
I just want to get there. I’d prefer it not be the Giants cuz I don’t want to hear from their fans.
Nom,
Both the Pats and Giants will be facing two very tough defenses next week. Whatever happens, we both get to enjoy the buzz this week.
#206 Clot,
I think that must have been the highlight of your season.
#210 Gary,
You haven’t got a ticket to the prom yet, and my Niners will have something to say about that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xneDY8BJ_M
AKA; Pete Gogolak
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M12S1-TEJ9c
Giants, two more wins this season would be good.
GIANTS !
new for me, very interesting post
Excellent blog, I always come back, THX!
any comment is superfluous
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