From Reuters:
Foreclosure starts jump 28 percent in January : LPS
Starts on U.S. home foreclosures shot up 28 percent in January, data provider Lender Processing Services (LPS.N) said on Tuesday in a report that suggested paper backlogs that had clogged the system were rapidly clearing.
U.S. lenders had cut back on foreclosure after accusations of faulty foreclosure practices had surfaced in late 2010.
Last month, five big U.S. banks reached a $25 billion settlement with the federal government to end a national investigation into claims of flaws in their foreclosure process, including allegations of so-called “robo-signing” of documents.
“One-month anomalies do occur, but make no mistake about it, this is a larger move than we’ve seen since the late 2010 period when the process reviews and moratoria really took hold,” said Herb Blecher, senior vice president at LPS Applied Analytics, a unit of the Jacksonville, Florida-based company.
…
LPS also said foreclosure sales, which it defined as a bank repossession of a home from the borrower or in some cases the completion of a short sale, surged 29 percent in January from the previous month.Mortgage delinquencies were down more than 25 percent from their January 2010 peak, according to the report. The delinquency rate stood at 7.97 percent in January, down 10.5 percent from a year earlier.
From the Daily Record:
NJ Democrats offer property tax plan
State Democratic leaders counterattacked on Tuesday Republican Gov. Christie Christie’s call for an across-the-board 10 percent income tax cut by offering alternative property tax plans for the upcoming state budget.
Two separate Democratic proposals call for income tax credits based on property taxes paid for households that earn less than $250,000 a year.
“This is a very simple plan. It’s not complex,” Democratic state Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-Gloucester, said Tuesday. “It’s taking numbers the governor says are available, and putting them on the tax that’s the most pressing tax to the people of New Jersey, the property tax. Not the income tax.”
…
Meanwhile, the Assembly Democrats, who control the other house of the Legislature, were ready to talk about raising taxes again. They offered a plan that would include a millionaire’s income tax surcharge and a property tax credit for households under $250,000.
That would bring the tax rate on income above $1 million to 10.75 percent from nearly 9 percent. Democrats estimate it would generate $800 million in revenue.
From Fitch:
Fitch:U.S. home prices inching closer to sustainability
Home prices in the U.S. remain overvalued in many parts of the country, but the gap is narrowing, according to the latest quarterly update from Fitch Ratings.
Fitch’s SHP model results show that home prices are now on track to fall an additional 9.1% nationally, lower than the 13.1% the rating agency forecast last quarter. The projected decline shrinks to roughly 6% when considering the impact of inflation.
The main reason for the improved projections is the ongoing correction in home prices, which resulted in a 1.8% decline throughout the last quarter. Another positive is improving macro indicators such as unemployment and GDP growth, which are continuing to strengthen, albeit mildly.
That said, there remains a long and difficult road to get back to pre-recession levels. Though home prices are falling nationally, price movement in some regional markets is still quite volatile due largely to the volume and pace of distressed sales being processed.
Good Morning New Jersey
From the WSJ Developments Blog:
Are More New Foreclosures a Good Thing?
The freeze on new foreclosures is starting to crack, a report out today says.
Foreclosure starts – or when a lender files paperwork to begin the foreclosure process – jumped 28% in January compared with December, although starts were down 11.5% from the same month in 2011, according to data firm Lender Processing Services.
At the same time, foreclosure sales, or sales by banks of homes repossessed by lenders, jumped 29% in January.
Most of the increase in starts came from judicial states, where foreclosures must be approved by courts. These include Florida, New Jersey and New York. According to LPS, these states saw twice the increase in foreclosure starts than states with a non-judicial foreclosure process, which include California, Arizona and Nevada.
Of course, this data only represents one month of foreclosure activity, but the size of the jumps in starts and sales seems significant in light of recent events. Since late 2010, foreclosures have been largely stalled in many judicial states by the outbreak of the “robo-signing” scandal, which revealed that loan-servicing companies were signing mortgage documents without having looked at the necessary paperwork.
…
“We’ve been waiting for a sign that the foreclosure pipeline is beginning to clear,” says Mitch Cohen, an LPS spokesman. “This is pre-AG settlement movement. And it’s the biggest movement since the fall of 2010.”
From Bloomberg:
N.J. Democrats Proposing Dueling Middle-Class Tax-Credits
New Jersey Democrats are proposing property-tax credits for residents earning as much as $250,000, countering Republican Governor Chris Christie’s plan for a 10 percent across-the-board cut in income-tax rates.
Senate President Stephen Sweeney today called for giving middle-class families a 10 percent property-tax credit on their income-tax returns, which he said would alleviate a pressing burden. Assembly Democrats today proposed doubling that property-tax credit to 20 percent.
Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature, have said Christie’s plan favors the wealthy and that he should focus on easing residents’ property-tax burden. Christie has said he’s managed to “turn Trenton on its head” by forcing Democrats to debate cuts in a state that raised taxes and fees 115 times in the decade before he took office.
…
Sweeney’s plan would give residents with incomes as high as $250,000 a credit of 10 percent of the first $10,000 in property taxes paid. A family earning $50,000 would get an average credit of $600, while a family making $100,000 would see $800, he said.
The Assembly Democrats’ plan also applies to income as high as $250,000 and would provide a 20 percent credit. A family earning $100,000 that pays $8,000 in property taxes would get $1,600. That compares with $275 under Christie’s plan, according to Assembly Democrats.
New Jersey residents pay the highest property taxes in the U.S. Their bills averaged $7,759 in 2011, up 2.4 percent from 2010, according to the state Department of Community Affairs.
From MarketWatch:
Mortgage-application volume off 1.2%: rates steady
The number of mortgage applications filed in the U.S. last week fell 1.2% from the prior week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Wednesday, as interest rates registered little change.
Refinance activity fell 2%, according to the MBA’s weekly survey, which covers more than three-quarters of all U.S. retail-residential mortgage-applications. Purchasing increased by a seasonally adjusted 2.1% during the week ended Friday.
Mortgage activity has fallen for four straight weeks as low interest rates fail to gain traction with many potential buyers. Rates have reached historically low levels in recent months, but still-oversupplied housing markets, tougher lending requirements and stubborn unemployment in some areas continue to dampen demand for new purchases.
#1 – what about households that earn more than $250K????
7 – Clearly, if you make $250k or more, you can afford to pay it. If you are making that much cash, you probably don’t have a mortgage, you buy cars for cash, and you’ve paid off all your debt (school or otherwise). Hell, you probably shop online to avoid sales tax, and you probably use coupons too (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/clipping-coupons-on-wall-street).
I’m sure you charge up more than your property tax bill on your AMEX Platinum every year, on travel and dining alone.
The $18k you pay in property taxes a year is a pittance compared to what it would cost you to send Graydon and Ellery to private school.
So, pay up sucker.
More than 250k? Heck your rich like JJ. Can I borrow some Grey Poupon JJ?
Graydon goes private, without a name like that he could NEVER go to public! Ellery goes to a more progressive school in the mountains.
with…not without
This guy is 2 nanoseconds away from lighting a fuse on class warfare and racial divide like the USA has not seen since the 60’s.
He has no shame……or moral compass. Anything to be reelected.
Can you imagine Gingrich, Santorum or Romney putting out a call for all the white brothers and sisters to vote for him because he’s white and so are they? http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_
The main reason for the improved projections is the ongoing correction in home prices, which resulted in a 1.8% decline throughout the last quarter. Another positive is improving macro indicators such as unemployment and GDP growth, which are continuing to strengthen, albeit mildly.
Having two part time jobs at $9.50 per hour at Target and Stop N Shop shouldn’t be considered job growth and is not a recipe for house price stability; not in Mississippi and certainly not here.
Mike [12],
That link doesn’t work. Who is it?
“Graydon goes private”
So true!
Franky, Nicky and Johnny would kick Graydon’s a$$ all over the public school yard. Thank God mom and dad can send their child to the Montclair Kimberly Academy for 30 grand a year.
Actually in NYS the STAR program School Tax Aid Relief that goes to middle class families in the form of a tax break on your real estate taxes goes up to 500K income.
In NYS anyhow someone who earns 499K a year is middle class. Also 250K is an extremely low bar. Anyone as a couple could earn that amount. Not to difficult. Work in fiance, sales, IT, over paid govt job, pharma, type fields and a dual income 35 year old couple it is hard to imagine with income, interest, dividends and cap gains added in anyone can make under 250K a year. Heck with 3 kids in BC you need that much just to live in a shack, shop at BJs and keep two ten year old cars on the road and take a vacation each year.
I’m glad to see the Dems finally make a counter offer to Christie’s 10% income tax cut. I imagine the negotiations and public bellyaching will continue on both sides for a while. In the end, hopefully, it will result in a property tax break for the regular working stiff. Christie’s jedi mind trick on the Dems is nearly complete.
1.grim says:
March 7, 2012 at 5:58 am
From the Daily Record:
NJ Democrats offer property tax plan
(13) Gary should have a talk with (12) Mike.
The (13) Gary economic reality meets (12) Mike who’s drinking the kool aid and following a scapegoat instead of actually looking at the problem first and then a solution – which is always work, is much easier to drink the popular kool aid and go after someone.
Look at the problem of moving our manufacturing, our know-how, our R&D, to other parts of the world in search of profits, not pay taxes on those profits, and telling your countrymen to man up and asset their new peonage and debt serfdom and its quality of life.
Try it again http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_
Not working for me either, wonder if it got banned already?
One more time http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BdjoHA5ocwU
Interesting article in todays WSJ about how people ten or less years out of college took brunt of salary decreases. I can see why. The boss can’t fire himself. The boss does not want to take a huge paycut. The staff who graduated college from 2000-2007 joined the work forced in good times. Spromg of 2000 and 2001 had high starting salaries for college graduates. Granted Spring 2002 and 2003 had lower starting salaries. But since Spring 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 economy was humming along those folks got good raises. Now the door slam shuts in 2008 till around 2011. Many of these staff should have been promoted to manager, VP, Supervisor but promotions were killed. So I am seeing resumes of people stuck in junior roles since 2006/2007 and now they are way overpaid for that level. But they are not the next level. When I interview for a position at junior level where I want someone at 2-4 years out of school I am seeing these trapped people who are 2001-2007 graduates. They earn 30K more than junior people and now are pushing their early 30’s and you know the drill. Flex time, child care issues, commuting issues, time off for leave, etc. etc. Meanwhile there are hungry kids who graduated in 2009 who were the top of their class settled for third rate jobs with long hours looking to finally get their first real job in 2012. They live at home, they share an apt in city. They have low expenses are single can work OT and are willing to work and be very happy at a 75K junior job that the older 31 year old wants to get paid 120K to do. It is absolutely insane that age descrimination exists for Spring 2000 to Spring 2007 college graduates. But it does. They came to the work force in boom times with big salaries but before they could get promoted to a level that would suport their salary the job market collasped. Plus like a dog in a shelter that has never been trained you have a lot of bad habits to undo. The Spring 2008 to Spring of 2010 graduate with 2-4 experience is a hard working hungry guy. Interestingly with baby boomers staying in work force longer the Spring 2008-Spring 2012 graduates will be taken our jobs when we retire. The 2000-2007 graduates are in no-mans land. Plus who wants them snipping at your heels. The 50 year old boss who hires a nice hard working 2009 graduate when he retires at 65 can give the job to the junior person. The 50 year old boss who hires a 2001 Graduate knows by the time he is 55 that person will stab him in the back. Timing and the economy is key. Most workers from good college the peak years of 30-45 when you get bulk of your promotions must be good. These group is aging in their peak years.
Ipsy factor [18],
Since the mope in the White House has accomplished nothing but division, diversion, pessimism and apology, perhaps it’s time for this experiment to end. Since the so-called middle class has done nothing but scramble to protect whatever assets, dignity and liberty they have left, maybe the Bellman from Chicago needs to go get a pack of smokes and try his hand at something else.
12 – get a grip
#23 JJ They have low expenses.
Oh yeah, and how many have student loan debt?
[25] seif,
Who was that directed to? Sounds like Mike took issue with a yahoo calling for racial division and you’re against him. Not the reaction I would expect from one of the board liberals.
whoever said this needs to get a grip and stop projecting:
“This guy is 2 nanoseconds away from lighting a fuse on class warfare and racial divide like the USA has not seen since the 60’s.
He has no shame……or moral compass. Anything to be reelected.
Can you imagine Gingrich, Santorum or Romney putting out a call for all the white brothers and sisters to vote for him because he’s white and so are they?”
[28] seif,
Now that I have seen the actual clip, I stand corrected. Of course it is the exclusive province of the left candidates to call for like-skinned voters to rally around the racial flag. Mike obviously doesn’t understand the new reality, which has been the reality for some time now. Perhaps re-education is in order.
But insofar as I am getting closer to serious shovel-in-the-ground progress in the prepper business, that can only help.
Boy, between Obamacare and the DSAesque fiscal, tax, and economic policy, I am really starting to like this president. He really is good for business. Mine at least.
[b][url=http://www.tusul.com/story.php?title=Identity-Access-Resources-90
]Risk Management
[/url][/b]
And I am serious about the prepper business. The NatGeo channel series can only help and while some of the preppers are probably working a nice tax angle into their prepping, the vast majority are doing it as a really expensive hobby. They fail to see the ways in which prepping can be made financially viable. After all, it is a lousy hobby if the world doesn’t end.
I plan on focus on the segment of the market that wants to seriously prep but is turned off by the seemingly high cost and mind-numbing list of considerations in prepping, and who see the promise of prepping as an investment and not as a hobby.
Like-minded entrepreneurial types, you know where to find me.
[18] ipso
“Look at the problem of moving our manufacturing, our know-how, our R&D, to other parts of the world in search of profits . . ”
Okay, we’re looking. And what exactly should we be seeing? Is there a proposed solution implied there besides telling multis that profits are evil and that they should cut their own throats?
29
“Now that I have seen the actual clip, I stand corrected. Of course it is the exclusive province of the left candidates to call for like-skinned voters to rally around the racial flag.”
It is anyone’s province to attract anyone to their tent…the right just chooses to distance minorities and people of color instead of bringing them into the fold. They opt for racial dog whistles and pandering to right -wing religious extremists. I don’t have an issue with Obama reaching out to his groups or the right to their but to write:
“He has no shame……or moral compass. Anything to be reelected.
Can you imagine Gingrich, Santorum or Romney putting out a call for all the white brothers”
no shame or moral compass…say anything…that is how REPUBLICANS are describing newt and romney! santorum is bat-shit crazy but he has conviction in his warp beliefs.
[33] seif,
You didn’t ask him if he felt similarly to the racial division politics you attribute to the right.
For that matter, it still sounds as if you feel it is okay for Obama to rally the blacks to the racial cause, it isn’t okay for Santorum to rally whites. Can you clarify your position?
Or not. This is a real estate blog after all. Back to comps, taxes and nompounds for me.
23 – JJ
Over time, I’ve learned that my number one role in my job is to make my boss look good. No matter how much he screws up or is unquailified, it is my duty to make him look brilliant in front of his boss. That’s really all a manager wants. He’s got way more on his plate than he can handle, and I’m there to make his life easier and take work off his plate.
Personally, I don’t really fit into any of the categories you’ve described but, if you’re looking for a new employee, no matter when they went to college or when they were born, this is the one single most important quality in an employee you should be looking for. They take care of you and you take care of them. Once you’ve had somebody like that working for you, you’ll want to reward them with flex time raises, bonuses or whatever.
Once I realized this as a staff employee, my own life really got easier.
he wrote:
“Can you imagine Gingrich, Santorum or Romney putting out a call for all the white brothers”
Uh..THEY DO. If one doesn’t see that then the apparently do not believe there are racial division politics from the right side.
I wish neither would do it…have an issue with someone seeing one side of it but not the other
I shoot for CUNY graduates, who worked during college who still live at home. They are by far the best. Somone who did Accounting or Finance graduated on time for a good CUNY school while living at home and working is graduating with zero loans. They also have zero monthly rent. They also have mommy taken care of stuff and they can concentrate on work. You can pay them 75K to start and bump them to 100K after 2-3 years and they will be estatic. They get raises and bonuses soley based on work. Not I have nanny, commuting, student loan, mortgage payments, older parents I am caring for song and dances to guilt you into a no win situation. I love the hungry ones. Grew up in a rich town, went to expensive college, have tons of student loans expensive designer clothes and a shinny brand new 15K engagement ring on finger you know you are getting trouble. Unlike show 2 Broke Girls these girl ain’t going to wake up and become a worker.
3B says:
March 7, 2012 at 9:17 am
#23 JJ They have low expenses.
Oh yeah, and how many have student loan debt?
#37 JJ: Well you have to keep your stories straight. The so called elite firms are not hiring CUNY graduates, or at best they will bet a back office postilion along with the graduates form the local 40 to 50K private colleges in the NYC metro area. Only good thing is the CUNY kids don’t have all that debt.
Story is straight the top notch jobs are not being filled now. The guts of wall street, accounting, finance, operations, audit, operations, trade settlement, market operations, hr, IT, etc. Infrastructure jobs that must be done in good times and bad are hiring. The high end schools and overqualified graduates will settle for these jobs. However, you can’t get work out of them. No work ethic and they demand big salaries. I want someone to process my month end financial statements I want a CUNY Accounting graduate with a 3.9 cum over a Harvard Accounting Graduate. The fact of the matter on wall street there are ten times the amount of junky jobs. In wall street they may be junky buy I know plenty a HR, Finance, IT person making 350K a year that a IVY league grad in these last three years would take. But overqualified self entitled people it is not in their DNA to work. They want to make power points, go to steak dinners and get face time all for 799K a year.
3B says:
March 7, 2012 at 10:38 am
#37 JJ: Well you have to keep your stories straight. The so called elite firms are not hiring CUNY graduates, or at best they will bet a back office postilion along with the graduates form the local 40 to 50K private colleges in the NYC metro area. Only good thing is the CUNY kids don’t have all that debt.
to (32) Comrade:
Answer: Define Citizens’ National interest vs. International Corporations’ interest.
Profit is not the problem. Destroying your country for profit it is.
I think that JJ is making the point that, in his experience, good worker bees are best found among the “poor, smart, and hungry” as Gordon Gekko once put it.
That requires work to find the gems. Most would rather hire based on school prestige because it is an accepted proxy for intelligence and no one ever got dinged because the guy they hired from Harvard didn’t work out.
This is how it works in law. Funny thing is that they know it doesn’t really hold but they do it anyway, primarily for the defensive rationale.
#41 Com: Oh I agree, I was just pointing out the reality as you noted. The problem is today it is very difficult (if not impossible) for grads without the Ivy League degrees to get to the revenue producing spots on the street; that ended in the late 80’s
[40] ipso,
That’s a policy statement. It doesn’t tell me how you intend to implement it.
I said years ago that everything Obama wants to achieve will require, ATEOTD, for the US to go protectionist. He acheives nothing lasting unless he can keep foreign goods out. Is this what you advocate? If not, then what?
[36] seif,
“Uh..THEY DO. If one doesn’t see that then the apparently do not believe there are racial division politics from the right side.”
I am not aware of any overt calls (and some of my FB “friends” are on the left-wing fringe and would let me know), so you must be referring to the so-called “code words” that the left often uses to describe and characterize republican talking points.
Examples may include calls for voter id to prevent voter fraud, which the left calls a disguised attempt to disenfranchise blacks, or welfare reform to prevent fraud, which the left describes as a disguised attempt to impoverish and enslave blacks.
Am I on the right track here? Or was there something a bit more overt?
The poor the smart and hungry did it themselves without paid SAT tutors and people to complete their college application and write their resume.
I had a guy with a Harvard degree working for me once who I wanted to write some memos for me. He said I did not go to Harvard to be a typist dont we have a secretary to do this? I was like well if you don’t do it I have to do it and I am your boss. He was gone in a few weeks. Thank god before I could fire him. My first job on Wall street HR told me you job is do whatever your boss tells you as long as it is not illegal, unethical or imorale. Type the memo cuase I said to type the memo. And I like hot butter on my toast and milk in my coffee.
I think that JJ is making the point that, in his experience, good worker bees are best found among the “poor, smart, and hungry” as Gordon Gekko once put it.
I’ll take a hungry guy over a silver spoon any day of the week. Pat Bateman
Its an early spring. Even HOV is showing green shoots!
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-07/u-s-stock-index-futures-rise-before-payroll-report-apple-mako-advance
Grim (8)
Yes to all but one – we still have a mortgage, but have chopped it down to less than half the value of our house. Property tax now greater than mortgage payment. Child not named G or E, but not named after someone mentioned in the Bible, either.
Looks like we will be paying up until we can escape from NJ where we are required to pay for everyone else’s buffet. Just because we can afford to pay doesn’t make it right.
7 – Clearly, if you make $250k or more, you can afford to pay it. If you are making that much cash, you probably don’t have a mortgage, you buy cars for cash, and you’ve paid off all your debt (school or otherwise). Hell, you probably shop online to avoid sales tax, and you probably use coupons too (http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-03-01/clipping-coupons-on-wall-street).
I’m sure you charge up more than your property tax bill on your AMEX Platinum every year, on travel and dining alone.
The $18k you pay in property taxes a year is a pittance compared to what it would cost you to send Graydon and Ellery to private school.
So, pay up sucker.
(43) Comrade – It’s a policy statement. But I don’t think will have to do anything to implement it.
Nature, following it’s “nature abhors a vacuum” analogy is doing its job.
Slowly, by inflation transmission to the world because of the USD currency status. So eventually half way down the road a $50,000 income in the US will be equivalent +- the same in China.
Rapidly – if we have a tick for tat with China. One of their strategic advantage will be an export embargo.
And will see what happens then. But as always is better to be prepared and have foresight than not. With our present Boomer generation in the corporate and government world, preparation will not be one of our strategic advantage.
19K RE taxes is like only 5% of the average income of a rich BC person.
“giving middle-class families a 10 percent property-tax credit on their income-tax returns,”
All this will do is reduce the pressure on towns to lower property taxes.
44 – yes, i was referring to the racial dog whistles
The latest report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York shows how dire the financial situation has become for college students with outstanding loans.
According to numbers released by the bank this week, 1 in 4 borrowers with outstanding student loans had a past-due balance in the third quarter of 2011. Those figures are higher than most previous estimates because, in its recent calculations, the New York Fed deliberately left out borrowers who are temporarily exempt from making payments, like those still in school or within the usual six-month period after graduation when they’re not required to make payments.
Read more: http://moneyland.time.com/2012/03/07/student-loan-situation-is-worse-than-we-thought/#ixzz1oSKl4Aoz
#51 Shore:All this will do is reduce the pressure on towns to lower property taxes.
Or even raise them!!!
#50 Except In the really affluent towns as opposed to the wannabees the taxes in many cases are lower.
Bad news for you JJ, one less place to go and hang out.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/secrets_of_mommy_madam_daw0oOrk5DdYfR8oLLKFPJ/0
Angry White Man, If you think you are angry now wait until tommorow’s article in the Star Ledger comes out about the former police chief of Cranford who is black and supposedly has another job with the town. For whatever reason the phone calls from years back were played and they have him on a recorded line talking to his son who called to see how everything was going and he than stated “so far so good I haven’t killed any white people today”
Please ignore the above I forgot this is a real estate blog
JJ,
I take your “type this memo story” and I up you one “type this memo story”.
At the time I’m a recent graduate with a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. I’m on the job a few days and I notice that there are plenty of unused office space around the boss’s desk. It is prime location but no one is sitting in it so I ask if I can locate myself here, everyone says “sure go ahead”.
Not but a few hours later the boss walks out of his office and says “you don’t look like you are doing anything, type this memo”. I say “sure thing boss, but don’t you think someone else would be more suited to this task?” I proceed to type the memo and then when I’m done I bring it back to him and he says “I won’t need that typed after all” and proceeds to throw away the memo that I just typed for him.
I realized then that the hallmarks of a bad manager. Arms-length management, missalocation of resources, and poor decision making skills.
He would task the first person that he saw that wasn’t doing something at that moment. So everyone stayed out of sight of the boss and always pretended to be busy. He didn’t understand the capabilities of his team and grossly mis-used resources based on convenience. He failed at being able to make decisions far enough in advance to not to waste resources committing to errant procedures.
I shortly moved my desk on the opposite side of the building from his so that I wouldn’t ever see him again. I didn’t get asked to type any more memos.
JJ,
I don’ think you have a realistic view of backoffice finance or IT. They are not hiring as you stated. They loading everyone up to the eyeballs so they streamline then outsource the functions. I started at my current WS firm 5 years in my early 30s and now in my late 30s. It has been cut after cut. You might be humbled by the former directors in late 40s who are happy to have that 120k job. Wall Street is not the same as 6-7 years ago. You must work a magical company impervious to the new normal. We are about surviving not thriving.
I would volunteer to help outsource jobs, volunteer to stream-line processes or help in the reduction of force, or even work in vendor managment. When a train is coming you either get on or get run over. Chaos is opportunity. I can say that in 1989, 2001-2003 and in 2008-2009 I got the biggest raises and promotions. I fact I got promoted in October 2001. Hard to shine when morale is high and everyone is a happy camper. When morale is lowest the worker who keeps working has a straight line up, the workers around him fall and when economy recovers you are moving on up.
I recall in late 2001 and early 2002 people went all compound and left wall street and went to suburbs rethought life and made decisions on what was important to them. I was doing presentations to people with paper name tags on mazes of cubicles of displaced workers. And I was not even that aggressive. My buddy got the acting CFO job of a firm in WTC on 9/14/2001. That was his career changer.
Type the memo, drink the koolaid and run toward the burning building. And remember and incompetent boss is the best boss. Befriend him, manager your mangager, make him shine. Like the boss on WKRP in Cincinatti.
I have not lasted on wall street for 25 years without ever getting laid off due to luck. And unlike payton manning luck ain’t taking my job.
Bystander says:
March 7, 2012 at 2:03 pm
JJ,
I don’ think you have a realistic view of backoffice finance or IT. They are not hiring as you stated. They loading everyone up to the eyeballs so they streamline then outsource the functions. I started at my current WS firm 5 years in my early 30s and now in my late 30s. It has been cut after cut. You might be humbled by the former directors in late 40s who are happy to have that 120k job. Wall Street is not the same as 6-7 years ago. You must work a magical company impervious to the new normal. We are about surviving not thriving.
JJ,
I hear ya. You are unique. We have had 3 management changes in 5 years though. New guys bring their own guys regardless of your seniority or skill. Feel like strategy changes every year while money pool shrinks. I assume you have not stayed at one company for 25 years. I look around and see plenty of bright 45 year old VPs. I am seeing 50 year olds finally making director. This is scary as many 50 year olds used to retire from Wall St. Feel like carrot is moving further out the longer economic slump lasts. Surviving layoffs for 5 years perhaps makes me more marketable. Sometimes you have to test new waters.
We have C suite management changes every two to three years. Same story different clowns, they bring in their cronies to surround them and protect them all the while spinning yarns about how great they are, and then they leave as soon as things being to unravel. Latest bunch have tight deadlines imposed and they are squeezing to get things done, the proletariat here are leaving in droves and aren’t being replaced but outsourced. We have an army of 20 something consultants who are so wet behind the ears they cannot even get an extension on their contract and end up getting shipped home. Some even from as far away as Hawaii!! Imagine that commute.
I really don’t care if and when the chopping block comes for me. I have cash, investments and the only debt is my zero Interest car loan.
Can you make a living in Belize day trading and fishing?
#65 Juice: You can fish in the mighty Hackensack, and live in you know where.
Well many here said it would happen, and it looks like it might!! QE 3!!! And this version is called sterilized quantitative easing!!!
watch.com/story/fed-said-to-weigh-new-form-of-bond-buying-2012-03-07?dist=countdown
3B – As a kid in BC I used to fish off the bridge on Oradell Ave. Caught plenty of sunnies and the occasional large carp from the mighty Hackensack. I drove by a while ago and saw a “No fishing off bridge” sign there now. Just another reason why I won’t ever buy in BC.
#67 http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-said-to-weigh-new-form-of-bond-buying-2012-03-07?dist=countdown
#68 Fishing would not sit well with Oradell residents now; they would think it would reflect negatively on their town!!! After all what would people say???
re: # 67- 3B – What ever happened to those reverse repos for the junk the FED already had on their balance sheet? Just more p*issin in the wind. Here comes 2% mortgages folks. Might as well dust off the Vapors.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEmJ-VWPDM4
JB, come on down no fishing license needed in FL if you fish from on shore and you can actually catch fish.
#71 Juice: Yep!!! And it looks like Lib may get his second re-fi on the multi!!!
I worked at 8 different firms in 25 years. Got to keep shufflin. Actually I move in good times when I can get a bump, never been forced out in bad times.
Back in my consulting days I worked from Bermuda to Tokyo, visited 23 states and many countries. Consulting is good. I don’t make fun of consultants too much as I got plenty a call on Friday evening be some where in a different state on Monday and looked over stuff on plan ride. I actually consulted once on the mating habits of salmon, design of airplane bathrooms and seats and the lumber industry one day in Seattle after learning industries on the plane ride. I do say my funniest was nuclear solutions and sushi business consulting. I felt that that consulting show on showtime. What state, what industry and what country are we in. It is all the same. The guy in seattle had nerve to ask me what I know about sushi industry. I told him the boats come in out of montak point, race down LIE and onto planes out of JFK to Tokyo and I have been to all of those places which makes me an expert. JC Now fish mating habits he did not question as it was obviously mating with things that smell fishy i am an expert with.
Bystander says:
March 7, 2012 at 3:05 pm
JJ,
I hear ya. You are unique. We have had 3 management changes in 5 years though. New guys bring their own guys regardless of your seniority or skill. Feel like strategy changes every year while money pool shrinks. I assume you have not stayed at one company for 25 years. I look around and see plenty of bright 45 year old VPs. I am seeing 50 year olds finally making director. This is scary as many 50 year olds used to retire from Wall St. Feel like carrot is moving further out the longer economic slump lasts. Surviving layoffs for 5 years perhaps makes me more marketable. Sometimes you have to test new waters.
re #72 – njescapee – what is the annual cost of living down there 50k? I can get by in Belize on perhaps 20k a year.
O video is out, but apparently missing some stuff. Did they edit out the part where he said get whitey?
Breitbart.com contends that this video has been “selectively edited”:
The video, which Kaczynski says was “licensed from a Boston television station,” shows a young Barack Obama leading a protest at Harvard Law School on behalf of Prof. Derrick Bell, a radical academic tied to Jeremiah Wright–about whom we will be releasing significant information in the coming hours.
However, the video has been selectively edited–either by the Boston television station or by Buzzfeed itself. Over the course of the day, Breitbart.com will be releasing additional footage that has been hidden by Obama’s allies in the mainstream media and academia.
Filmmaker and friend of Breitbart, Steve Cannon said earlier this week the video would be released on the Hannity show tonight.
Party on Garth:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-03-07/january-consumer-borrowing/53401334/1
Shore Auto and Student loans, not credit cards? Heck I financed my new truck with a zero down zero interest loan Ally aka GMAC loan. They first offered me a 4.5% 7 year loan with I think Valley Nat Bank. I quickly corrected the finance manager and explained what I did for a living and how he had to now knock off more on the truck for insulting me and told him to write up the Ally zero interest loan.
Now I feel like going out and buying that million dollar McMansion, hey why not rates are what 3.75% and heading down to perhaps 2%. With all of the inflation coming might as well lever up with lots of free money. Maybe I will run out and buy two homes. Donald Trump says been a better time to buy. He would not steer me wrong now would he?
Thanks as a GMAC bond holder for putting money in my pockets. I always thought car loans were silly. If you have 1k buy a 1k car, if you got 10K buy a 10K car. Why borrow even at zero interest to buy a vehicle. Crazy. Plus JB you are a BSD we all know you can buy a car on a paycheck. You just messin with the dealer man.
Juice Box says:
March 7, 2012 at 4:39 pm
Shore Auto and Student loans, not credit cards? Heck I financed my new truck with a zero down zero interest loan Ally aka GMAC loan. They first offered me a 4.5% 7 year loan with I think Valley Nat Bank. I quickly corrected the finance manager and explained what I did for a living and how he had to now knock off more on the truck for insulting me and told him to write up the Ally zero interest loan.
Now I feel like going out and buying that million dollar McMansion, hey why not rates are what 3.75% and heading down to perhaps 2%. With all of the inflation coming might as well lever up with lots of free money. Maybe I will run out and buy two homes. Donald Trump says been a better time to buy. He would not steer me wrong now would he?
JB actually in early 2009 I bought GMAC bonds at 27% interest. Since they did not go bk I have been earning that ROI for 3 years now. I think that beats a zero loan.
How a company that borrowed at such high rates and lend out at such low rates did not go bk is amazing. Some of the bonds they issued from 1999-2008 had 8% coupons and were 30 year non callable bonds. Crazy.
The one great thing about having Ivy League degrees is you don’t have envy about not having an Ivy League degree. After people make a lot of money in the US, what do they then want? CLASS. The super rich and famous still get in despite low IQ’s ( witness Bush). The super rich can still get in but the bar is pretty high if you’re only rich. As a kid from an intellectual blue collar family ( a category that doesn’t exist in the US anymore.) there was nothing funnier at Yale than watching rich kids get driven up in limos to the admission office. One problem .Grayson was too stupid to get in and even daddy’s wealth wasn’t great enough to overcome that
I was at plenty of rich folk house in the day. But I has street cred. And you know what rich folk need is street cred. I can’t compete on books smarts or old money. The bushes came over on mayflower. But I was a playa milking the street kids stuff. Funny time I remember in 1989 pulling up to a three million dollar estate on six acres with 11 bedrooms etc. in my 1969 dented plymouth. I charmed the pants off mom and she said hey my treat want to see a movie. We go out to driveay and although she had a brand new caddie she goes I had a car like yours back in the day lets take yours. So funny part is drivers door jammed a lot as it got hit near hindges so she and daughter had to go in on drivers side. Thats street cred. And it was a dukes of hazzard car with a nice dent, the two door model. Robert Merril, the Macenroes and the Heinkeen empire founder and owner of computers associates were neighbors and here I was going all dukes of hazzard in my 69 Plymouth. I don’t pretend. But man it is a fresh of breath air. BTW the Kennedy’s don’t like people parking on their front lawn, they get uppidity. I would have not lasted long at Harvard the near riot I caused at my first college cause people just cant take a joke was enought that PC nonsense at Harvard and Honor codes would have killed me. I would have been out the door in amonth.
Soccer Dad(aka Deep Throat) says:
March 7, 2012 at 5:06 pm
The one great thing about having Ivy League degrees is you don’t have envy about not having an Ivy League degree. After people make a lot of money in the US, what do they then want? CLASS. The super rich and famous still get in despite low IQ’s ( witness Bush). The super rich can still get in but the bar is pretty high if you’re only rich. As a kid from an intellectual blue collar family ( a category that doesn’t exist in the US anymore.) there was nothing funnier at Yale than watching rich kids get driven up in limos to the admission office. One problem .Grayson was too stupid to get in and even daddy’s wealth wasn’t great enough to overcome that
Solar Storms Thursday
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/03/huge_solar_flare_storm_heading.html
New Joe Bonamassa show at Beacon on PBS tonight at 11pm
Yes 3b and Juice…the 2nd refinance is on!
Refinance with a bullet.
Five goals for Messi today. Yeah, it was just Leverkusen, but still impressive.
NJE,
Thanks for the heads-up. I’m sorry to say I saw the post two hours too late.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204795304577223632111866416.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_News_BlogsModule
Bad News for Boomers
Demographic trends will depress portfolio returns, this researcher warns
If you’re a baby boomer, you’ve got a big problem when it comes to the investment returns you can expect in retirement: It’s the sheer number of other boomers who are also getting ready to leave the workplace and rely on their portfolios to help pay the bills.
snip
The problem in a nutshell: The ratio of retirees to active workers in the U.S. will balloon. As retirees sell stocks and then bonds to support themselves, there will be fewer younger investors to buy those securities, keeping a lid on prices. Meanwhile, strong demand from boomers and a limited supply of workers will boost the prices of goods and services the boomers need.
snip
Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent. Jim Rohn
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From yesterday, but I think it needs to be reposted. Fed considering QE 3 Sterilized quantitative easing!!!
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-said-to-weigh-new-form-of-bond-buying-2012-03-07?dist=beforebell
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