From the Press of Atlantic City:
Second wave of foreclosures starts to rise in New Jersey, region
The long-expected second wave of foreclosures in states where courts delayed their processing appears to have begun in New Jersey and area counties, with filings jumping in the second quarter from a year ago.
Foreclosure filings in Atlantic County were up 80 percent from the second quarter last year. Increases were seen of 33 percent in Cape May County, 53 percent in Ocean County and 66 percent in the state overall, according to RealtyTrac.
New Jersey is among 22 states that make foreclosure a judicial process, and from 2010 to fall 2011, foreclosures were largely halted by the courts in response to reports of processing irregularities in this and other states.
Rick Cammarano, 55, a broker-associate with Century 21 Alliance in Wildwood Crest who handles a lot of foreclosures and other distressed properties, said the push to a new peak in foreclosures is just starting.
“I’m doing a lot of bank inspections for preforeclosures and short sales, 25 to 35 a week. That’s probably double last year at this time,” Cammarano said.
Such inspections indicate the number of people behind on their mortgage payments or headed for the foreclosure market in the next six months, he said.
“The foreclosure inventory is starting to increase a little bit. We’re expecting a wave of foreclosures within the next six months, once the banks start to let loose the backlog they have,” Cammarano said.
…
Cammarano and many others in the real estate industry believe that working through the inventory of distressed homes is the key to returning to a normal housing market.“We have to go through this foreclosure market and once that happens, you’ll see the home market come back,” he said.
Richard J. Shaffer III, broker/owner of Resorts Ltd. agency in Egg Harbor Township and past president of the Atlantic City & County Board of Realtors, said it would be better to get the backlog of foreclosed properties into the market and get them sold.
“We will not see any substantial housing price increases until we can greatly reduce the inventory of these bank-owned properties,” Shaffer said.
At times during the housing slump, distressed-property sales have accounted for more than 40 percent of overall home sales, putting tremendous downward pressure on home prices. That may happen again as foreclosures head for a second peak, probably next year.
“It will definitely put more pressure on prices,” said Gregory Laubert, an agent with ReMax Atlantic. “I don’t look at it as a positive, unless you’re a buyer. If you’re a seller, it’s a negative.”
Since we turned this into the NJ Deck Report blog for the past few weeks, I might as well end it by posting some snapshots of the finished deck:
Deck 1
Deck 2
Deck 3
Deck 4
Tenafly Comp Killer
Sold in Tenafly after four years on the market and a few price reductions:
5 Kenwood Rd, Tenafly NJ
East Hill, busy street corner, 0.27 acres
Center hall colonial, 4br, 2,659 sqft
NJMLS #1142437
Purchase price: $675,000 (4/2001)
Early list price: $1,195,000 (3/2008)
Reduced price: $1,099,000 (6/2008)
Relisting price: $867,000 (4/2011)
Reduced price: $845,000 (5/2011)
Reduced price: $825,000 (7/2011)
Reduced price: $768,075 (9/2011)
Reduced price: $750,000 (11/2011)
Reduced price: $727,500 (1/2012)
Sale price: $680,000 (7/2012)
Tax assessment: $804,700 (2011)
Taxes: $18,154.03
Having bought in early 2001, the owners were fortunate to be able to sell their house at all. What will happen to the famed Tenafly schools if more and more houses can only be sold significantly below assessed value?
Tenafly Tall Grass Tour
Meanwhile, this Tenafly property on the same street, but a few lots inside the cul-de-sac, has gone under contract after many weeks of attorney review. Closing is scheduled for August 1st. Has what appears to have been an attempted house-flip become a distressed sale that requires lender consent? If so, will the buyer pay the lender’s price?
1. Killer. Very, very nice.
Good news for the economy:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-23/spanish-recession-deepens-with-0-4-gdp-drop-bank-of-spain-says.html
Grim,
What was the total cost and which things did you do yourself?
Shore 5 check out Euro markets on news not to mention our futures, Asia took a dump last night also
Howard Dean on CNBC: “we are going to go over to the fiscal cliff, I think that’s a good thing.”
He also thinks the economy is fine.
Dean is a putts.
Nom,
Having all the tax cuts expire is likely the only thing that will prompt congress to act on some form of tax legislation that does not try to cherry-pick one group or another to scr-ew. Right now, the focus, at least on the part of Dems, is to stick it to one small group. What we need is major reform, which will not happen should most people believe they can get off without any cost and some other schlub will be forced to pick up the tab.
“check out Euro markets ”
Scre-w that, who was voted off the island last night, what did you think of Christina Hendricks’ dress, and who will the bachelor(ette) choose for his/her first wife/husband?
It’s all over but the crying. Flip the channels, and watch the fools.
Guns, ammo, shiny. Beyond that, not much of value.
My father, brother and I did everything but the concrete work. I dug the 12 pier holes, but I had my mason come and pour because I added the sidewalk to the driveway at the same time.
I don’t have the exact number for materials, but I’d say around $7,500 or a touch more. I could have done it cheaper but I went with top of the line materials (Azek, Transcend, etc), and built it freestanding (another set of posts and girder). I figure I saved at least another $7,500 in labor. Maybe a little bit more since we did the two-tone picture framing (light & dark gray), hidden fasteners, and have two sets of Azek wrapped stairs. It’s pretty big at 25×16 (400 sq.ft.), but not enormous.
Not sure when I’ll get around to adding the lattice on the bottom.
BTW, Italy’s next. Then, the vigilantes hop the pond.
Thanks.
Howard Dean’s finest moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjPTdJ2auj0
Shore 11 so true I would like to discuss but would be talking to myself. Was at local restaurant with bar (real nice place not a dive) two TVs going at bar some dribble or other. So I ask the bartender to put CNBC on one so I can see market close (350pm), he complies. The few people there looked at me when it came on like I had two heads. The bartender who I know looks at screen has no idea what numbers mean (40ish man) , I try to explain to no avail. I see him getting fidgety as others will feel same so as soon as it closed”I’m done Jerry” he was relieved.
Created from thin air,can be destroyed like magic.Now you got $2.3T debt,Now it can be gone if FED choose to do so.
The central bank bought $2.3 trillion of mortgage and Treasury debt from 2008 to 2011 in two rounds of so-called quantitative easing, seeking to stimulate the economy. The benchmark rate has been in a range between zero and 0.25 percent since December 2008.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-23/treasury-10-year-yield-touches-record.html
He was talking about another round of fighting about the budget by congress.
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
July 23, 2012 at 7:51 am
Howard Dean on CNBC: “we are going to go over to the fiscal cliff, I think that’s a good thing.”
Nice work brothers Grim and dad!
The benchmark 10-year yield fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 1.40 percent at 7:54 a.m. in New York. The 1.75 percent note due in May 2022 rose 16/32, or $5 per $1,000 face amount, to 103 5/32. The yield fell to as low as 1.3960 percent, with the five-year rate dropping to 0.5411 percent and the 30-year yield sliding to 2.4752 percent.
I love the smell of a 1.3960 ten year bond in the morning.
US 10 year HIT RECORD LOW 1.409%
can we hit Japan 10year 0.728% ?
NJC,
You need for the Brothers Grim to come down and build one of those off the cabana, with a trophy case for the high-stakes games that go on all summer.
10 year treasuries
Germany 1.14%
UK 1.43%
Australia 2.8%
Brazil 9.30% 9 year bond
US 1.409%
Japan 0.728%
China 3.29%
I think the most unexpected expense was fasteners. Probably spent around $850 on nails, screws, hidden fasteners, bolts and brackets. 6×6 Simpson adjustable post bases aren’t cheap when you need 12.
Does your wife like your deck? It looks big….
grim says:
July 23, 2012 at 6:44 am
Since we turned this into the NJ Deck Report blog for the past few weeks, I might as well end it by posting some snapshots of the finished deck:
At some point I may be able to use this…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QGkOGZubQ&feature=fvwrel&NR=1
clot: this should carry your through the AM today….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECx-42Wlho&feature=endscreen&NR=1
Looks good. Should be there for the next 100 years.
#25- fasteners- when I built my house my architect insisted on stainless steel for all the fasteners and X bracing because of salt air corrosion. Ouch. I’m still flying with reward miles from that bill.
grim looks good, what I worry about is how a synthetic deck is going to hold up to a large dog. Have heard horror stories about them scratching them to hell. Fasteners are a huge expense which we found out whne we built the shed.
The End Is Nigh (JJ Edition):
You go, girl – out to ’burbs for real romance
City women head for LI, Conn. & NJ for guys who can commit
By TARA PALMERI
Gorgeous single women are ditching the Manhattan dating scene in droves — and are increasingly looking for sex and love in the suburbs.
Some of the city’s most eligible bachelorettes told The Post the trend developed when they grew fed up with immature city men who aren’t willing to commit.
Instead, the women would rather hop on the commuter train to Westchester County, Greenwich, Conn., Nassau County and New Jersey hot spots that are now teeming with available mates.
“Greenwich guys have gotten a lot younger,” said raven-haired Megan Glynn, 30, who lives in the East Village and is a visual-presentation coordinator for jewelry company David Yurman.
“It used to be all families, but now it’s more of a business mini-mecca.”
Women like Glynn took the advice of dating experts, who for years have been telling city women to look in the suburbs.
“If you look, you’ll see these single guys advertising online, ‘Come out here, come date me,’ ” said relationship expert Heidi Banks.
“Don’t just look at the radius of NYC. You don’t know who you are going to meet outside of the city.”
Glynn often takes a 30-minute ride on Metro-North after work on Wednesdays or Thursdays to meet mature men with established careers at banks and hedge funds.
Most New York men, she said, are too obsessed with appearances.
“Guys in New York City are constantly emasculated when they have to buy a bottle to get into a club or they take a girl back to their apartment that they share with five other guys,” she said.
It also helps that there’s less competition.
“There’s not a lot of attractive females,” Glynn bluntly said about Connecticut clubs.
“If you’re smart and witty and you go out to Greenwich, you can do well.”
On her most recent trip last Wednesday, she settled in at the waterfront restaurant and lounge L’Escale.
She quickly found Doug Bookbinder, a 28-year-old finance entrepreneur.
The two flirted on a bench and later exchanged phone numbers.
“Everybody’s doing it,” said Anna Rothschild, an Upper East Side divorcee in her 40s who takes a car service to Greenwich several times a month.
“I have friends who go up there all the time for drinks after work,” she told The Post at Greenwich hot spot J House last week. “There’s so many guys! I don’t know which way to look,” she said, settling down for the night with Tim Mehnert, an actor and model.
Another professional woman said she goes to the suburbs because the men are “preppy, not pretentious.”
“Ugly guys in Manhattan, they think they’re hot stuff,” said Robyn Kassner, a 35-year-old owner of branding firm Haute PR who lives on the Upper East Side.
“In Connecticut, they’re just very normal, very sweet, very unassuming. They don’t have game. They’re steak-and-potatoes American. They don’t care about fashion, they’re not metrosexual,” said Kassner, who hopped on a train to Stamford, Conn., on July 12 for an outdoor concert featuring alt-rocker Matisyahu in order to meet a decent guy.
High-end matchmakers said it’s a matter of time before heading to the suburbs is no longer considered a trend — and becomes the norm.
“I don’t see it going away,” said Bravo’s “Millionaire Matchmaker” Patti Stanger.
“The men are not in the city; they’re buying houses in a down economy. If you want to get married, you have to go to where the men are. You have to think: location, location, location.”
Where the boys are
Tips from “Millionaire Matchmaker” Patti Stanger and VH1’s Siggy Flicker:
Connecticut hot spots:
L’Escale in Greenwich
Valbella in Greenwich
Round-trip by train: $34
Round-trip by car: $150
Long Island hot spot:
Toku in Manhasset
Round-trip by train: $20
Round-trip by car: $170
New Jersey hot spot:
Axia Taverna in Tenafly
Round-trip by car: $200
Best advice:
* Stay at the local bed and breakfast.
* Join the local country club.
* Ask the bartender who’s single.
* Try online dating focused on an area.
There’s still a lot of confusion over QE and its actual economic impact despite some pretty clear-cut evidence about what the policy does. A brief recap might help.
Just to be clear – QE in the USA does not work by “funding” the spending of the US government. I know this is a rather unorthodox perspective, but the government does not have trouble funding itself. It procures funds by requiring the Primary Dealers to bid at auctions. There has been zero evidence in recent years that the Primary Dealers are foregoing this requirement. Therefore, the fact that the Fed is buying bonds should not be viewed as a funding operation. It is instead a form of standard monetary operations similar to what the Fed does with the overnight interest rate at the short end of the curve.
The keys to understanding QE is in the following points:
Because the USA is sovereign in the US Dollar, the government is always able to procure funds by harnessing the Primary Dealers to bid for bonds. Therefore, the idea that QE is monetization is a myth. Rather, QE serves as an interest rate operation that serves to lower long-term rates in a manner very similar to the way monetary policy works at the short-end of the curve. See this article for more.
QE in Europe can actually “work” because it is essentially a form of fiscal policy that actually helps to fund the countries in Europe (or at least help them avoid losing funding). This would be like the Federal Reserve buying municipal bonds from states in distress who can’t find Federal funding (this would essentially be a form of fiscal policy and would be “money printing”).
QE in the form of buying back government debt is not “money printing” or “monetizing the debt”. It is a swap or a change in the composition of private sector financial assets. No net new financial assets are being added. The private sector gets reserves, the Fed takes the bonds. The net loss is in the difference in interest income. But the private sector is not left with “more money”.
Banks never lend reserves so more reserves don’t mean more lending. Loans create deposits. The money multiplier is a myth. This is why QE1 and QE2 did not cause a surge in loans or inflation.
The wealth effect in equities is a myth. The flaw in QE is that it reduces the number of specific securities so it can force investors out of one asset and into another. This can drive up prices, but does not necessarily drive up the fundamentals. It’s not unlike a stock buyback and its immediate effects which drive up price, but have no impact on the underlying corporation.
The portfolio rebalancing effect of QE can cause substantial disequilibrium in the economy. We saw this in QE2 when I repeatedly predicted that QE was causing an imbalance in bond and commodity prices. And when the air came out of that 2010 nearly turned into a nightmare….
http://pragcap.com/a-quick-quantitative-easing-primer
So, Eddie Robinson is back to having the most victories.
I have a general trend question for the Westfield/Cranford area and I’m hoping somebody can help me. We were listing our house for sale in Westfield 2 years ago and came up with a number we think was fair at the time. Since then we put that sale on hold for reasons unrelated to the market, but now am thinking about trying to sell again.
Would the number from 2 years ago (assuming it was reasonable then) still be reasonable today or have things trended up or down since then? I’m just looking for an overall pattern as I know you can’t provide specifics without more details.
EVERY Friend of mine who lived in Manhattan married a girl from burbs, remember the girls in NYC who wear black, have no food in their tiny studio fridge, smoke and drink who are no birth control are certainly not marriage material. Men and Women who live in surburbs who dress nice, have their own place, a nice car who live near where you want to end up. Garden City, Manhasset etc. Make sense. I only had four girls I considered marrying. All four lived in LI. Manhattan girls always felt dirty. Plus a small population of single girls who are right age, right religion, put out, goes to our parties, our hampton circles which means every girl you did pretty much someone in your clique did at one point. Better to branch out. For instance my friend who bedded at least 200 women in city and was a real mail whore, when he was pushing 40 found a nice girl from Masapequa ten years younger and was down the aisle in no time, pretty much he having slept with 200 skanky NYC girls marrying another skanky NYC girl who shagged 100 guys means their wedding the priest, the flower girl and ring bearer might be only 3 people in room who had not either slept with bride or groom.
chicagofinance says:
July 23, 2012 at 9:14 am
The End Is Nigh (JJ Edition):
You go, girl – out to ’burbs for real romance
Grim, beautiful deck, really nice work!
Thought this would get a few people riled up…
Part-time employee of six N.J. towns called in sick at one job on days he worked at others
Published: Sunday, July 22, 2012, 5:26 PM Updated: Monday, July 23, 2012, 9:33 AM John Heinis/The Jersey Journal By John Heinis/The Jersey Journal The Jersey Journal
WEST NEW YORK — A town employee who called in sick to his 25-hour-a-week job in West New York a total of 33 times in 2010 and 2011 worked a majority of those days at five other New Jersey towns where he is also employed part-time, public records show.
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2012/07/west_new_york_employee_calls_i.html
Wow, wonderful blog format! How long have you ever been blogging for? you made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is magnificent, let alone the content!
Grim – nice job not quite what I expected after looking at your kitchen reno pics.
I was expecting Deck Pron!
http://www.atlantalaborjobs.com/remodel/albums/userpics/10002/normal_deck3.jpg
That poor lonely grill.
Useful info. Fortunate me I discovered your site unintentionally, and I am stunned why this accident didn’t came about earlier! I bookmarked it.
[19] yo
Yeah, I got that from the general gist of the conversation. Also, everyone calls the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and automatic sequestration the “fiscal cliff.”
Dems are playing chicken; Patty Murray held a presser and said that the dems were willing to let the fiscal cliff happen if they didn’t get a tax hike on the rich.
Brigadooner,
According to Zillow trends, Westfield is about the same as 2 yrs ago. I suspect the value now is similar to two years ago. Only buyers can tell you what it’s worth though. These days, the single most motivated buyer sets the price. For some properties, there will be many potential buyers, for others, you may need to find the buyer who fits a very specific category, which could take longer. And it’s getting late in the house-hunting season. A pro with knowledge of the local area could give you a better list price strategy than anyone on the board could.
The benchmark 10-year yield fell four basis points, or 0.04 percentage point, to 1.42 percent at 10:27 a.m. in New York. The 1.75 percent note due in May 2022 rose 10/32, or $4.38 per $1,000 face amount, to 103. The yield fell to as low as 1.3960 percent, with the five-year rate dropping to 0.5411 percent and the 30-year yield sliding to 2.4752 percent.
There is no fiscal cliff. Politicians only change their ways when they cannot find out they can borrow cheaply. The Fed is enabling cheap government borrowing, so politicians will keep running up debt. Someday interest rates will rise, and that will be the cliff.
More hope and change, Stasi style:
“This column has already told the story of Frank VanderSloot, an Idaho businessman who last year contributed to a group supporting Mitt Romney. An Obama campaign website in April sent a message to those who’d donate to the president’s opponent. It called out Mr. VanderSloot and seven other private donors by name and occupation and slurred them as having “less-than-reputable” records.
Mr. VanderSloot has since been learning what it means to be on a presidential enemies list. Just 12 days after the attack, the Idahoan found an investigator digging to unearth his divorce records. This bloodhound—a recent employee of Senate Democrats—worked for a for-hire opposition research firm.
Now Mr. VanderSloot has been targeted by the federal government. In a letter dated June 21, he was informed that his tax records had been “selected for examination” by the Internal Revenue Service. The audit also encompasses Mr. VanderSloot’s wife, and not one, but two years of past filings (2008 and 2009).
Mr. VanderSloot, who is 63 and has been working since his teens, says neither he nor his accountants recall his being subject to a federal tax audit before. He was once required to send documents on a line item inquiry into his charitable donations, which resulted in no changes to his taxes. But nothing more—that is until now, shortly after he wrote a big check to a Romney-supporting Super PAC.
Enlarge Image
Close
Zhang Jun/Xinhua/ZUMAPRESS.com
.
Two weeks after receiving the IRS letter, Mr. VanderSloot received another—this one from the Department of Labor. He was informed it would be doing an audit of workers he employs on his Idaho-based cattle ranch under the federal visa program for temporary agriculture workers.”
/snip
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577537233908744496.html?mod=ITP_opinion_0
[43] West,
I think that things have improved slightly in the Brig, but not so much that I am getting offers. Been about 10 days, lots of showings, but nothing to show for it.
Learned that the house behind me went UC and is probably close to closing. Last list had a 6 handle and it probably went for under 699 so that is a harsh comp. Could have gone for 100K less than my ask; it is smaller, not updated, and on a smaller lot but that is still harsh.
Astonishingly, one couple told the realtor that they wanted a bigger yard. Must be Mormons with 8 kids or someone who wants his own driving range because I have one of the larger yards in town for houses under $1MM. In fact, I wish I had less yard.
Thanks for your replies!
For those Pascack Valley oracles – any reason why River Vale homes seem to be priced ~15-20 percent less than similar homes situated in Woodcliff Lake or Montvale (and perhaps even Upper Saddle River and Old Tappan)? A realtor told me that with the relocation of a large temple from RV to WCL 10+ years ago that a large portion of the Jewish community migrated from RV to WCL and that WCL is now more of the “desirable” area. Could this effect account for the discount? Is there something more to this pricing disparity that one should know about? The high schools seem to be a wash for the most part.
On a separate issue: is having a cell tower nearby…I’d say roughly about 50-75 yards away across a street – something to be concerned about? I have children…youngest being 5.
Comrade,
I wish I had a bigger yard. I have 4 acres, but it’s either hilly or forest, not even a flat grassy area big enough for a volleyball game. Good for deer-watching though.
What feedback are you getting from lookers besides the one wanting a bigger yard? Price or features?
When I sold my Scotch Plains house 2 yrs ago, I sold into the end of that government homebuying bonus. So we used a lower price to draw lots of visitors. First weekend we got one bid at list, and one bid $10k below. Closed with the first bidder. Our house was priced $50k less than a never-renovated piece of junk across the street, listed by clueless folks that hadn’t heard of the housing downturn, so that made our house really stand out. Took them another 2 yrs to figure out how to cut their price another $150k. I think the main question is determining whether one’s house should be sold like a commodity, or a specialty product. Former needs low pricing to sell. My old house was a commodity, my current is a specialty. It will be more complicated to sell.
Meat said a couple years ago if you don’t get an offer in the first couple weeks, the price is too high.
Grim #1: Looks good. I wasn’t crazy about the Transcend when I saw it at the lumberyard, but yours looks good. I went to Behnke on Saturday, they have a Solstice (Clubhouse) cellular PVC with wrap on all sides…tongue-and-groove, the Ipe color is GORGEOUS. I will probably go with that. I think any of these are a crapshoot at this point.
Mike #9: That’s spelled “putz”.
3b: Did you go to the open house at that Beech St. house on Sunday? There is also that little house on Mountain Avenue — the brown one — that they must really want to sell now because it dropped from $414K to $389K…so I’ll bet they’d listen to offers. Not much to look at outside, but it has a nice little redo on the kitchen that’s especially interesting to me because mine has the same layout. I was wondering if I could put a range with the side against an outside wall, but apparently you can.
I quickly came to the conclusion that deer are just giant rural rats that can give your kids ticks and can cause instantaneous damage to your car up to and including totaling it. Bring on the hunting for bambi…..I actually believe it is humane give the carnage I see on the side of the roads in Colts Neck…..there is about one deer kill bi-weekly year-round, and that is only the roads that I observe, it must be every few days township wide.
A.West says:
July 23, 2012 at 11:14 am
Comrade, I wish I had a bigger yard. I have 4 acres, but it’s either hilly or forest, not even a flat grassy area big enough for a volleyball game. Good for deer-watching though.
49 Ponderer
Woodcliff Lake and Montvale are train towns, River Vale is not. Upper Saddle River and Old Tappan are I believe considered more blue ribbony than RV. RV maybe similar to Westwood, Emerson. Nice town.
re: # 45 – MIC is out lobbying heavily.
“The report for the Aerospace Industries Association said that direct and indirect job losses resulting from spending cuts mandated in the Budget Control Act of 2011 could top 2 million jobs nationally.”
“We are just a few short months away from economic Armageddon” said Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton (lots of jobs to be lost there)
And now for something completely different…
Goldman Sachs Sees ‘Strong’ Recovery Starting for Housing
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-23/goldman-sachs-sees-strong-recovery-starting-for-housing.html
“The super cyclical housing market has turned and a strong recovery in new-home sales is ahead,” the Goldman Sachs analysts wrote. “Over the last year a number of risks to the housing market have abated, giving us confidence that rising home prices will drive a 3-7 year up-cycle in the U.S. market.”
We are not in a recession at all. People are buying new trucks, cars, going on vacation and buying homes. Problem is unemployed people, underemployed people and people who were overly leveraged in RE at bubble peak can participate. They are moaning and groaning so much the newspapers love to quote them.
39 – Ipe and aluminum rails, nice.
I don’t like those one step multi tier decks, yes they look nice, but theyare drunken trip hazards.
We considered a floating octagon off one side (roofless gazebo kind of thing), but scrapped it since we’d need another 4 posts and 2 girders.
We left the paver patio, I’ll redo that to have a fire pit with some seating.
We did try to bend some transcend using a conduit pipe heater, to get those cool leaf shapes they show in the ads. Damn near impossible to get it to bend right. Probably need a dozen jigs and a walk-in oven to end up with good looking results.
tongue-and-groove
Careful if you use this on deck without a roof, your pitch needs to be perfect to ensure runoff and no standing water.
Last thing you want is water pooling at the base of your door, or up against your flashing. Likewise, standing puddles will make for extra cleaning as the puddles will leave dirty spots.
re # 55 – GS calling a bottom in home builders?
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/HOUST/
“tongue-and-groove”
Cue JJ.
#53 POS Cape,
Thanks for your thoughts. Really? Is that what you think the River Vale haircut boils down to….trains? Well, if that’s what it is then it’s somewhat of a relief. I was wondering if there was something or some issue more onerous, shall we say, underlying the trend of increasing price disparity amongst the towns. I have looked into the area a bit and I wouldn’t necessarily lump RV with Westwood, Emerson, or Hillsdale. RV seems its more on par with WCL and Montvale just that the high school differs from the other two (and the difference in rankings are neglible). Thanks again!
I am not familiar enough with RV to answer, but to be clear, for someone moving from NYC, it is a complete deal breaker…..it makes a difference….
Ponderer says:
July 23, 2012 at 1:32 pm
#53 POS Cape, Thanks for your thoughts. Really? Is that what you think the River Vale haircut boils down to….trains? Well, if that’s what it is then it’s somewhat of a relief.
Another exciting Obama/Biden Change he doesn’t talk about?
..U.S. Poverty About To Hit Highest Level In 40 Years
..By Henry Blodget | Daily Ticker – 43 minutes ago
The percentage of Americans living in poverty is about to hit its highest level since the 1960s, according to a new survey by the Associated Press.
The latest Census numbers won’t be released until the fall, but economists surveyed by the AP project that the poverty rate will climb from 2010’s 15.1% and reach a level as high as 15.7%. This will mean that more Americans are poorer than at any time since 1965.
The 2010 definition of “poverty” is annual income of just over $11,000 for an individual and $22,000 for a family of four. These figures will likely rise modestly this year.
When the next income demographic of “near-poor” is included, a huge percentage of the country is now leaving below or close to the poverty line. This is a bummer for these folks, obviously. But it’s also a big problem for other Americans and the economy as a whole.
AP spoke with a number of individuals who face a deteriorating standard of living, including Laura Fritz who grew up in a wealthy Denver suburb of Colorado. “I grew up going to Hawaii every summer. Now I’m here, applying for assistance because it’s hard to make ends meet. It’s very hard to adjust,” Fritz, 27, of Wheat Ridge, Colo, told the AP. Fritz’s parents suffered dramatically from the housing bust, her college fund disappeared and eventually the family ended up on food stamps.
Over the past few decades, as manufacturing and other solidly-paying jobs have moved overseas, they have been replaced with low-paying “McJobs” at companies like Walmart (WMT) and McDonald’s (MCD). Although these jobs are better than no jobs–which is another big problem right now–these jobs also leave many full-time workers poor or near-poor. And the problem with that, economically speaking, is that, unlike high-wage earners, low-income folks spend all the money they earn. And that spending becomes revenue and earnings for other companies and people in the economy.
Addressing the extreme inequality that has developed in the U.S. in recent years will be critical to truly “fixing” the U.S. economy. And the sustainable solution to the poverty problem is not more government handouts and social programs: These may lessen the pain of poverty, but they won’t take poor people and near-poor people and make them middle class.
The answer lies in changing the priorities of private sector, so that companies feel compelled to share more of their wealth with their employees.
Right now, American corporations are earning the highest profits as a percentage of GDP that they have ever earned.
Meanwhile, the same corporations are paying their employees the lowest wages as a percentage of GDP that they have ever paid.
Walmart, McDonalds, Starbucks (SBUX), and other gigantic corporations, meanwhile, generate billions of dollars of profit per year but pay some of their employees so little that these employees live near or below the poverty line.
There’s nothing illegal about that–all these companies pay well above “minimum wage.” But there is something self-defeating about it, at least with respect to the economy as a whole.
Henry Ford was famous for voluntarily paying his employees more than he had to to keep them–so they could afford to buy his cars. This, it turned out, was a smart move for Ford. And it was also a smart move for the country
Chi – on our convo yesterday. It seems all of Canada is for sale.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/cnooc-to-buy-nexen-for-15-billion/?ref=global-home
Chifi [52];
I anticipate becoming proficient with a compound bow and night vision goggles — quiet, clean kill under cover of darkness. It would be even better if the SOB runs with the arrow sticking out of him off my property and goes to die in the woods somewhere.
What’s the saying… shoot, shovel, shut up.
49 – Ponderer, Cell Towers
Are Cell Towers Dangerous? I do not believe so. The wavelengths are non-ionizing and there is no scientific reason for health concerns. There is plenty anecdotal evidence, but assuming they did find a connection, we would have no idea why it was happening. It is quite possible there is something else at play that may be associated with the towers but not the radiation itself, or it could be the radiation itself. There is a lot of literature on the studies to date on the subject.
But more importantly, if given the choice, why on Earth would I choose to live next to one? Death Rays or not, they are eyesore.
Cell towers – I too believe there is no evidence that they cause health problems, but you eliminate a lot of potential buyers when you try to sell your house who also think that vaccinations cause autism and that when you swallow bubble gum it stay is your stomach forever. Be wary. There are a lot of stupid people out there.
Confused that bodes well for Chairman O since with that many folks on the government dole it is not like they are going to vote to lose their benefits
TLC – Four Houses Competition “Best of Jersey”
Tatted up broad is Snooki in a few years.
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/four-houses/videos/best-of-jersey-sneak-peak.htm
That poverty data sure is damning, to George Bush. That bad ‘ol Bush is responsible for everything bad. I hear he personally let the Asian Carp into the Chigago River and released the Japanese Crabs into the surf off Jersey. I hear he even has a big fan that he uses to blow holes into the ozone layer.
63 – ChiFi,
Thanks – I’ll keep that in mind. Although RV has the Hillsdale and WCL train stations nearby (~5 mins depending on where one lives in RV) so not sure if that is such a dealbreaker and worth such a discount.
67 – AHB,
Yes, I’ve done a bit of research since and doesn’t look like anything deleterious thus far. But you are right…why than rather even if…. Aesthetically, it is one of those towers camouflaged as a tree so I didn’t even know it was there until it was pointed out to me. A buddy had told me that one was going up or had gone up around there. I think the tower is far enough from the house from what I’ve read so far. One bene is that I suppose I don’t have to worry about dropped calls!
Cell towers an eyesore? mmmh, maybe, but 99.99% of us walk to the curb to see a bunch of fat electrical wires, THOSE are an eyesore. OTOH, my house is in a spot with shitty reception. I hope that when we (finally) put it in the market prospective buyers do not try their smart phones. What is worst, you think, an eyesore or no 4G?
Shore: I am going to some gratis conference in National Harbor in Sept…..one of the keynotes is W……I don’t know how I actually feel about it…..actually, I am curious about the audience, since it is going to be full of small-minded brokerage types. I am sure the anti-O sentiment will be high….but still, W. is a half-step up from one of the impaired guys in the supermarket parking lots they use to collect carts. I think it will be as seeing Bob Allen former-CEO of AT&T make a speech. Shut up forever, just go into your bunker like Saddam Hussein, and die in there…..
Shore Guy says:
July 23, 2012 at 2:19 pm
That poverty data sure is damning, to George Bush. That bad ‘ol Bush is responsible for everything bad. I hear he personally let the Asian Carp into the Chigago River and released the Japanese Crabs into the surf off Jersey. I hear he even has a big fan that he uses to blow holes into the ozone layer.
Is a cell phone tower any more dangerous than your cordless phone base or wifi router? I’m no electrical engineer, but doesn’t the 2.4gHz WiFi/Cordless band run pretty close to where 4g is (even overlapping if we’re talking about the newer 5.8gHz routers)?
Let’s throw in the trusty inverse square law for good measure, since that router or other wifi device (laptop, printer, tv) is much closer to your brain than the transmitter on the tower.
Where is Kettle when you need him.
Grim,
That’s always been my argument. Eventually, we’ll find out that rays from the sun are more dangerous than anything else on the electromagnet scale.
[64] confused,
Does Blodget explain River Rouge?
“W. is a half-step up from one of the impaired guys in the supermarket parking lots they use to collect carts.”
It is amazing what “the right family,” and “gentlemen’s Cs” can do for a person.
Chifi, ask him what is the difference between Barbara Bush and Barbara’s Bush
The most dangerous thing about cell phones is some yutz texting while he adjusts his radio while turning left across three lanes of traffic while not looking to make sure all is clear.
This article is almost surreal……I am half-laughing/half-crying…..
WSJ
POLITICS
July 22, 2012, 7:34 p.m. ET
Obama’s Burn Rate Worries Some Democrats
By PETER NICHOLAS and DANNY YADRON
The Obama campaign has been spending heavily on payroll, television ads and polling for months, hoping to tarnish Republican challenger Mitt Romney in the eyes of voters at an early stage of the general-election showdown.
But some Democrats worry that the overhead built by the Obama camp over the past 15 months will prove impossible to sustain. Unless fundraising picks up, the Obama campaign may enter the season’s final stretch confronting hard choices: paring salaries, scaling back advertising or pulling out of swing states in a bid to control costs, these Democrats say.
The president spent twice as much as Mr. Romney in June, as his campaign purchased more TV ads, paid more than twice as many employees and spent millions of dollars on public-opinion polls, federal records show.
June was the second month in a row that Mr. Obama’s campaign dipped into the red, while the president was outraised by the Romney campaign. In May and June combined, the Obama campaign spent 20% more than it took in, records show.
Mr. Romney and his party have now socked away more money than Mr. Obama and the Democratic National Committee. Mr. Romney banked $170 million as of June 30, compared with $147 million for the president.
Mr. Romney also stands to benefit from spending by independent super PACs, which are free to collect contributions of unlimited size. These outside groups are expected to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for TV ads attacking Mr. Obama.
“The burn rate—the investment in infrastructure and polling—is great if you’ve got the resources to follow through,” said Douglas Schoen, who was a pollster for former President Bill Clinton. “It’s unclear to me whether the president has the resources.”
Mr. Obama is betting that by airing anti-Romney ads now, he can cement an impression of the Republican as someone who is unfit to lead. Mr. Romney’s image as a smart businessman who can revive the weak economy has suffered under a blizzard of negative ads, particularly in swing states.
“Since we knew from the outset that Republican super PACs would likely outspend us on the air, we made a decision to invest early in building the largest grassroots campaign in history so that our supporters could engage in 500 days of persuasion with their networks,” said Ben LaBolt, the Obama campaign press secretary.
The Romney campaign didn’t comment. It has argued in the past that the negative ads haven’t been effective.
Henry Barbour, a Romney fundraiser and Republican National Committee member from Mississippi, said: “Given my druthers, I’d rather outspend someone in September and October than June and July. I think they [the Romney campaign] are putting themselves in a strong position to outspend Obama in the fall.”
Some 778 Obama campaign staffers received a payroll check in June, accounting for $2.9 million in wages before tax costs, records show. To date, Mr. Obama’s camp has spent more than $25 million on payroll.
It spent $38.2 million on media buys last month, bringing its total this election to more than $72 million. The campaign spent $2.6 million on polling in June. The campaign has invested some $4 million in polling this election, with the DNC chipping in $11.3 million on opinion surveys since the start of 2011.
Mr. Romney spent just $10.4 million on ad buys in June, and $1.3 million on payroll for 272 employees. Since launching his campaign, Mr. Romney has spent $1.6 million on polling and $33 million on ad buys.
A former Obama White House aide said the campaign’s spending runs “the risk of less money at the end and not having the money to do the level of advertising” given that the campaign has “an enormous paid nut every month.”
In its mature phase, the Obama campaign has never been run on the cheap. Mr. Obama relies on paid field aides who recruit volunteers to fan out across neighborhoods, registering voters and drawing in more people to promote the cause.
Dick Harpootlian, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party, said the campaign has had as many as eight or nine people working in his state, even though South Carolina is considered a strong bet for Mr. Romney. The Obama campaign says it has four paid field staff based in South Carolina and that they also perform campaign work in North Carolina, which is expected to be hotly contested.
Joe Trippi, who managed Democrat Howard Dean’s campaign in 2004, expects the Obama campaign to retrench in coming months. “I don’t think any campaign can stay up in as many places as they are,” he said.
More of the non-profit/government mindset at play…..
To reiterate……you cannot merely create an appropriation for revenue…..
WSJ
THE OUTLOOK
July 22, 2012, 5:27 p.m. ET
Tough Times for Colleges—and College Towns .
Schools have been trying to plug the gap by jacking up tuition at rates that aren’t sustainable. The result is a fiscal hurdle that dozens of second- and third-tier public and private schools won’t be able to clear. Hundreds of schools—including some of the most prestigious institutions in the country—have tightened their belts. That is bad news not just for the schools and their students but for the communities that depend on them for jobs.
This pain is already being felt in places like Pullman, Wash., home to Washington State University. The city has 30,000 residents, of which 24,000 are either students or school employees. In the past four years WSU has eliminated 581 positions—more than a tenth of its workforce. State aid has fallen by $240 million over the same period. The school raised tuition by 49% in the past four years to make ends meet, boosting undergraduate tuition from $6,290 in 2007 to $9,374 in 2011—with the figure rising to $10,874 for the coming academic year.
The effects have rippled across the local economy. Housing prices declined and housing starts fell to a 20-year low, in part because laid-off workers moved away. Students spent less and the city’s sales-tax revenue fell by 15%. In response, the city this year slashed its budget by 6%.
“When I first heard that there was going to be major cutbacks my reaction was panic,” said John Sherman, Pullman’s city supervisor. “A hiccup at WSU can become a crisis in the rest of the community. … We’re a one-horse town.”
Other cities are feeling similar queasiness. The University of Miami’s medical school endured $21 million in federal cuts and eliminated 550 positions in recent years. The University of Kentucky—which has seen state aid trimmed by $50 million, cut 300 positions. As the university has grown in recent decades, its home, Lexington, has become more dependent on it, and “now our interests are almost completely aligned,” said Lexington Mayor Jim Gray. “As their business goes, so goes ours.”
The outlook isn’t good. Bain, which markets its consulting services to universities, and Sterling Partners, which invests in education companies, examined the balance sheets from 2006 to 2010 of schools in their report. They found many schools operating on the assumption that the more they build, spend and diversify the more they will prosper. They have become overleveraged, with long-term debt increasing at an average rate of about 12% a year and average annual interest expense growing at almost twice the rate of instruction-related expense.
Among the weakened schools are Harvard, Yale and Duke. But they boast large endowments and prestige that gives them pricing power, so the danger to Cambridge, Mass., New Haven, Conn., and Durham, N.C., is limited. Not so for cities that are home to second- and third-tier public and private schools with limited endowments. Schools such as Voorhees College, a historically black school in tiny Denmark, S.C., or William Carey University, a Christian school in Hattiesburg, Miss., or the State University of New York at Oswego, a liberal arts public school, have all seen their balance sheets wilt, according to the report.
For a lot of college towns this is new terrain. Most weathered the recession in better shape than businesses throughout the country. Many are regional health-care hubs and boast skilled workforces, factors that have insulated them somewhat from economic downturns. Indeed, academe has been one of America’s greatest growth industries since World War II. Since 1958 the number of teachers at the nation’s four-year colleges and universities has increased 330% to 1.6 million as wave after wave of new customers have matriculated, beginning with G.I.’s and continuing as doors opened wider for women, African-Americans, Latinos, and, most recently, Asians.
Meanwhile, teaching jobs at junior colleges have more than doubled to 100,000 since 1990. These schools have seen a 22% rise in enrollment since 2007.
That enrollment growth spurred many schools to expand and let them defer tough budget choices. In the past 15 years, an arms race for bigger recreational facilities, fancier student programs—and for growing ranks of administrators to run them—drained some schools of cash before the crash.
Bain’s prescription: consolidate, outsource and focus on core strengths. That may be bitter medicine for some college towns but it could also create new business opportunities. More critically, it may help schools hold the line on cost and make them accessible for more students.
And to the residents of college towns facing these changes, John Burkhardt, director of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, offers this advice: Do everything you can to welcome the growing number of overseas students with open arms. If they’re comfortable and they tell their friends, the job they save might just be yours.
q
More of the non-profit/government mindset at play…..
To reiterate……you cannot merely create an appropriation for revenue…..
WSJ
THE OUTLOOK
July 22, 2012, 5:27 p.m. ET
Tough Times for Colleges—and College Towns
Schools have been trying to plug the gap by jacking up tuition at rates that aren’t sustainable. The result is a fiscal hurdle that dozens of second- and third-tier public and private schools won’t be able to clear. Hundreds of schools—including some of the most prestigious institutions in the country—have tightened their belts. That is bad news not just for the schools and their students but for the communities that depend on them for jobs.
This pain is already being felt in places like Pullman, Wash., home to Washington State University. The city has 30,000 residents, of which 24,000 are either students or school employees. In the past four years WSU has eliminated 581 positions—more than a tenth of its workforce. State aid has fallen by $240 million over the same period. The school raised tuition by 49% in the past four years to make ends meet, boosting undergraduate tuition from $6,290 in 2007 to $9,374 in 2011—with the figure rising to $10,874 for the coming academic year.
The effects have rippled across the local economy. Housing prices declined and housing starts fell to a 20-year low, in part because laid-off workers moved away. Students spent less and the city’s sales-tax revenue fell by 15%. In response, the city this year slashed its budget by 6%.
“When I first heard that there was going to be major cutbacks my reaction was panic,” said John Sherman, Pullman’s city supervisor. “A hiccup at WSU can become a crisis in the rest of the community. … We’re a one-horse town.”
Other cities are feeling similar queasiness. The University of Miami’s medical school endured $21 million in federal cuts and eliminated 550 positions in recent years. The University of Kentucky—which has seen state aid trimmed by $50 million, cut 300 positions. As the university has grown in recent decades, its home, Lexington, has become more dependent on it, and “now our interests are almost completely aligned,” said Lexington Mayor Jim Gray. “As their business goes, so goes ours.”
The outlook isn’t good. B-in, which markets its consulting services to universities, and Sterling Partners, which invests in education companies, examined the balance sheets from 2006 to 2010 of schools in their report. They found many schools operating on the assumption that the more they build, spend and diversify the more they will prosper. They have become overleveraged, with long-term debt increasing at an average rate of about 12% a year and average annual interest expense growing at almost twice the rate of instruction-related expense.
Among the weakened schools are Harvard, Yale and Duke. But they boast large endowments and prestige that gives them pricing power, so the danger to Cambridge, Mass., New Haven, Conn., and Durham, N.C., is limited. Not so for cities that are home to second- and third-tier public and private schools with limited endowments. Schools such as Voorhees College, a historically black school in tiny Denmark, S.C., or William Carey University, a Christian school in Hattiesburg, Miss., or the State University of New York at Oswego, a liberal arts public school, have all seen their balance sheets wilt, according to the report.
For a lot of college towns this is new terrain. Most weathered the recession in better shape than businesses throughout the country. Many are regional health-care hubs and boast skilled workforces, factors that have insulated them somewhat from economic downturns. Indeed, academe has been one of America’s greatest growth industries since World War II. Since 1958 the number of teachers at the nation’s four-year colleges and universities has increased 330% to 1.6 million as wave after wave of new customers have matriculated, beginning with G.I.’s and continuing as doors opened wider for women, African-Americans, Latinos, and, most recently, Asians.
Meanwhile, teaching jobs at junior colleges have more than doubled to 100,000 since 1990. These schools have seen a 22% rise in enrollment since 2007.
That enrollment growth spurred many schools to expand and let them defer tough budget choices. In the past 15 years, an arms race for bigger recreational facilities, fancier student programs—and for growing ranks of administrators to run them—drained some schools of cash before the crash.
B-in’s prescription: consolidate, outsource and focus on core strengths. That may be bitter medicine for some college towns but it could also create new business opportunities. More critically, it may help schools hold the line on cost and make them accessible for more students.
And to the residents of college towns facing these changes, John Burkhardt, director of the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, offers this advice: Do everything you can to welcome the growing number of overseas students with open arms. If they’re comfortable and they tell their friends, the job they save might just be yours.
WSJ
THE OUTLOOK
July 22, 2012, 5:27 p.m. ET
Tough Times for Colleges—and College Towns .
Schools have been trying to plug the gap by jacking up tuition at rates that aren’t sustainable. The result is a fiscal hurdle that dozens of second- and third-tier public and private schools won’t be able to clear. Hundreds of schools—including some of the most prestigious institutions in the country—have tightened their belts. That is bad news not just for the schools and their students but for the communities that depend on them for jobs.
This pain is already being felt in places like Pullman, Wash., home to Washington State University. The city has 30,000 residents, of which 24,000 are either students or school employees. In the past four years WSU has eliminated 581 positions—more than a tenth of its workforce. State aid has fallen by $240 million over the same period. The school raised tuition by 49% in the past four years to make ends meet, boosting undergraduate tuition from $6,290 in 2007 to $9,374 in 2011—with the figure rising to $10,874 for the coming academic year.
The effects have rippled across the local economy. Housing prices declined and housing starts fell to a 20-year low, in part because laid-off workers moved away. Students spent less and the city’s sales-tax revenue fell by 15%. In response, the city this year slashed its budget by 6%.
“When I first heard that there was going to be major cutbacks my reaction was panic,” said John Sherman, Pullman’s city supervisor. “A hiccup at WSU can become a crisis in the rest of the community. … We’re a one-horse town.”
Other cities are feeling similar queasiness. The University of Miami’s medical school endured $21 million in federal cuts and eliminated 550 positions in recent years. The University of Kentucky—which has seen state aid trimmed by $50 million, cut 300 positions. As the university has grown in recent decades, its home, Lexington, has become more dependent on it, and “now our interests are almost completely aligned,” said Lexington Mayor Jim Gray. “As their business goes, so goes ours.”
The outlook isn’t good. Bain, which markets its consulting services to universities, and Sterling Partners, which invests in education companies, examined the balance sheets from 2006 to 2010 of schools in their report. They found many schools operating on the assumption that the more they build, spend and diversify the more they will prosper. They have become overleveraged, with long-term debt increasing at an average rate of about 12% a year and average annual interest expense growing at almost twice the rate of instruction-related expense.
Among the weakened schools are Harvard, Yale and Duke. But they boast large endowments and prestige that gives them pricing power, so the danger to Cambridge, Mass., New Haven, Conn., and Durham, N.C., is limited. Not so for cities that are home to second- and third-tier public and private schools with limited endowments. Schools such as Voorhees College, a historically black school in tiny Denmark, S.C., or William Carey University, a Christian school in Hattiesburg, Miss., or the State University of New York at Oswego, a liberal arts public school, have all seen their balance sheets wilt, according to the report.
73 – Grim
Actually, there is something called the skin effect. The higher the frequency, the less the radiation can penetrate into the object.
With really high frequency radiation like the Gigahertz stuff, it barely penetrates the skin. 5.8 GHz energy is dissipated in the first millimeter of skin.
WSJ LETTERS
Many Disagree With the President’s Take on Success
If Obama can cry, “you didn’t build that,” someone needs to tell the president, “then you didn’t kill bin Laden.”
Maura Schreier-Fleming
Dallas
Regarding your editorial “‘You Didn’t Build That'” (July 18): I would like to pose a question to President Obama. If we assume that you are right, Mr. President, and the lion’s share of my success in business is due to the help I got from the government more than what is due me because of my willingness to work harder than others, take risks that others did not want to take, being more resourceful and inventive than others were, then how come not everybody took advantage of that government help and became successful entrepreneurs?
I came to this country 30 years ago with practically nothing. I always believed that the difference between the U.S. and other countries is that everybody has better opportunities in this country than anywhere else. I am sorry to learn that you, my president, don’t share that point of view.
Ruben Mirensky
Jacksonville, Fla.
I want to thank you and your ilk, Mr. President, for my success in starting eight million-dollar businesses since 1974. And since you are responsible for my success, then you must also be responsible for my failure. While you were wasting your first two years ignoring the economy, I was unable to get financing for my last business and lost $1.5 million of which $750,000 was personally guaranteed by me, and by you, I hope.
Please give me a call, Mr. President, and I will tell you where to send the check for your fair share.
Dick Raddatz
Mequon, Wis.
President Obama doesn’t recognize the power of personal initiative and responsibility. I fear that if asked why some fail, the president will not confront shortcomings, but will offer excuses. He won’t admit that some fail because they have a lousy work ethic, flunked out of school, were chronically late, took drugs—the list goes on. He would explain failure based on something being unfair. Many times the reason for failure is an individual’s own fault. Mr. Obama’s comment reveals a serious flaw in his ideology. He would eliminate personal responsibility and replace it with big government. That view is the antithesis of what built this country and is a recipe for disaster.
Guy Randolph
Savannah, Ga.
The president’s remarks clearly illustrate his jealousy and disdain for those who have made it on their own, and, they fall right in line with his mentality of parasitic entitlement.
Bob Franklin
New Hyde Park N.Y.
What would be the reaction if President Obama had said: “I’m always struck by highly paid sports stars who think, well, ‘I’m successful because I was just so talented.’ There are a lot of talented people out there. ‘It must be because I worked harder than other players.'”
Or what might happen in Hollywood if he said, “I’m always struck by famous movie actors who think, ‘well, it must be because I was just so attractive and talented.’ There are a lot of attractive and talented people out there. ‘It must be because I worked harder than other actors.’ If you’ve got a valuable brand name in the music or film industry, you didn’t build that. Someone else made that happen.”
By the way, Mr. Obama, government is funded by tax revenues, and since taxes are primarily generated from businesses and high-wage earners, they are the ones who pay taxes for the government to coordinate the building of infrastructure—tangible, legal and regulatory.
Matt Forrester
Austin, Texas
If you hold an elected office, you didn’t build that. Someone helped you get there. Maybe it was a teachers union whose compulsory dues paid for a negative ad for your campaign. Maybe it was a venture capitalist with an interest in a solar-energy company who bundled funds for you. Or maybe it was programmers who figured out how to use the Internet to create critical mass for raising small amounts from many donors. Or, quite possibly, you got help from employees of a private-equity firm whose success you vilify but whose dollars you gladly accept.
Mike Walsh
Chicago
President Obama’s belittling the success of smart, hard-working people is so telling. It makes one wonder about how much “help” he received in achieving his own success through affirmative action and preferences. We’ll never know, however, because he refuses to release his college or graduate-school records.
Crawford C. Campbell
Windham, N.H.
If I didn’t build my business, please find the “somebody else who made that happen” and begin taxing them.
Tom Marini
Racine, Wis.
chi [74]
I listened to W’s keynote speech last March. As much I disliked him as President, I have to admit that his talk had been excellent, and I think the group’s membership money had been well spent.
W’s dinkleberries are smarter than our current prez
A Home Buyer (84),
What you described is not the ‘skin effect’ phenomenon.
The skin effect may be observed as charge seeks the the path of least resistance/best conductance. As a conductor heats up from the friction of charge that preceded it in its path, that charge travels outward from the center of the conductor and towards the ‘skin’ of the conductor. The skin is the part with the insulation.
Handle w/ care,
Buzz Lightyear
OK I got a real estate question. The bank I had the REO bid in and had the highest offer got an offer in directly from a buyers broker, the bank went and accepted an offer 15K higher than my offer without giving me time to counter. Plus offer was with financing mine was cash and 15K more to deal with mortgage falling apart is not worth it. However, I would have matched that offer or went slightly higher.
Anyhow bank wont let me counter, but said if that person cant get financing or if that deal falls apart house goes back in market and they will let me counter.
Here is question. How do I bust up that deal? I mean I am kinda pissed this person put in a bid after NY business hours on a NY property and since the REO group was in a midwestern time zone got it approved while my listing agent was closed.
Now he is the rub, I dont know who the people are, who there realtor is and what bank they are using. How can I bust up this deal? I was in mix and they jumped in, so I feel they busted my deal so I feel I should not let them just get house so easy. But I have no clue how to do this. The listing agent would be all for me busting up deal, as if I win they get full commission. If I bust it I can move forward and bank gets more, listing agent gets more and I get home. It is win, win win, the people whose deal gets busted, they should get busted, who asked them to jump in. I mean they busted me.
So what type of discount, if any, should one apply for a cell tower that was erected earlier this year? Probably about 50-75 yards across a wide street and down a bank. As I stated before, aesthetically not an issue as it completely blends in with the trees. Figured I’d ask as I see that certain local citizens protested against the cell tower vis-a-vis lowering property values – so, another item I could perhaps bring up during the negotiations.
erected?
Ponderer says:
July 23, 2012 at 5:10 pm
So what type of discount, if any, should one apply for a cell tower that was erected earlier this year? Probably about 50-75 yards across a wide street and down a bank. As I stated before, aesthetically not an issue as it completely blends in with the trees. Figured I’d ask as I see that certain local citizens protested against the cell tower vis-a-vis lowering property values – so, another item I could perhaps bring up during the negotiations.
49 I don’t buy the jewish temple thing. If that were the case than the orthodox jews would have emptied out of teaneck years ago. Non orthodox jdws would not have moved simply because the temple moved. Part of the reason may be that wcl and montvale are train towns as opposed to river vale. Also wcl and montvalw have lower taxes. It may also have to do with mt laurel issues as wcl and monmtvale have met their requirement. Not sure about river vale.
89: JJ,
Sounds like the fix is in. Have at it, but you’re tilting at windmills. Find another place.
JJ – I should have known that would trigger a comment from you. It is a 13-14 story pole from what I can gather. I’m sure you must have a good story along those lines….
91. raging bull jj says:
July 23, 2012 at 5:14 pm
erected?
89: Or, get some Pagan biker chicks to torch it.
Hah, So I stand corrected; I only remember certain fragments of class so Ill take your word on it (after I open my ElectroMagnetics book and confirm it!). While my terminology may be wrong, the effect is still the same. High Frequency radiation has limited penetration depth.
3B – not sure I buy the temple thing either. Taxes – perhaps, although not a major difference between the towns from what I’ve seen. ChiFi mentioned the trains too – ok, to some extent I suppose – although RV residents can get either to the Hillsdale or WCL stations with a 5-10 minute drive. No idea on the Mt. Laurel.
92 3B says:
July 23, 2012 at 5:29 pm
49 I don’t buy the jewish temple thing. If that were the case than the orthodox jews would have emptied out of teaneck years ago. Non orthodox jdws would not have moved simply because the temple moved. Part of the reason may be that wcl and montvale are train towns as opposed to river vale. Also wcl and montvalw have lower taxes. It may also have to do with mt laurel issues as wcl and monmtvale have met their requirement. Not sure about river vale.
90, Ponderer
http://data.opi.mt.gov/legbills/2011/Minutes/House/Exhibits/feh38a02.pdf
The same but different. Consider 1-10% of an appropriately priced house as a starting point.
I dugg some of you post as I thought they were very beneficial very beneficial
98 A Home Buyer – thanks for the article but I think in this case its really not the same and quite different. High Voltage Transmission Lines vs a single camouflaged cell tower that you can’t pick out unless you really look. Still, something to keep in mind I suppose…maybe I’ll reference it tangentially and have the seller make up for the mansion tax!
Since JJ does not work past 5PM, I’ll stand in here……”high frequency erection?”
A Home Buyer says:
July 23, 2012 at 5:51 pm
Hah, So I stand corrected; I only remember certain fragments of class so Ill take your word on it (after I open my ElectroMagnetics book and confirm it!). While my terminology may be wrong, the effect is still the same. High Frequency radiation has limited penetration depth.
Jill 51 You say potato I say potahto.
Urban Dictionary: putts
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=putts
1. putts. a man with a extremelly small ……..
I’ll let Kettle know he is missed.
97 Ponderer:
Woodcliff Lake does not allow non-resident parking at the station so it could be a deal breaker. Montvale allows it in 1 of the 3 lots. This info can be found on the NJ Transit website.
From the NYT (Maximum penetration depth):
A Closer Look at Middle-Class Decline
For the first time since the Great Depression, middle-class families have been losing ground for more than a decade. They, and the poor, have struggled particularly badly since the financial crisis led to a global recession in 2008. The idea that living standards inevitably improve from one generation to the next is under threat. Many of the bedrock assumptions of American culture — about work, progress, fairness and optimism — are being shaken. Arguably no question is more central to the country’s global standing than whether the economy will perform better in the future than it has in the recent past.
This thought concerning the cell tower. It matters less whether it bothers you than whether you are able to persuade the seller that it is a huge deal for you and it will take concessions for you to get over it and buy.
100 – Ponderer,
Understood, I was coming at it from a different angle. If a massive Steel Lattice High Voltage Tower (both EMF emitting objects) yields a 10% price drop at most, a disguised cell phone tower which you can easily argue the safety of cannot be more than that. In fact probably closer to the lower end of 1%-5%.
The real isue is that a tower will discourage anyone who feels it is not safe, and you will never convince a person of its safety until they are ready to be convinced it is safe. The buying pool would be greatly restricted in today’s hypochondriac culture, perhaps giving you an edge if the property has sat a while.
But this is just my 2 cents.
Grim
Someone passed your question along
Is a cell phone tower any more dangerous than your cordless phone base or wifi router?
Short answer. Assuming you don’t live within 100 meters of a tower/emitter, then probably not. A newer 4g phone pressed against your skull for half the day is a bigger risk.
Measurable effects have been documented in literature closer to emitters (I.e a cell emitter/ transmitter on your office roof). However from a risk perspective there are a broad range of equivalent risks you encounter every day and probably don’t know or care about. Avoid extended time in close proximity to cell tower emitters if possible. But the benzene and mercury in your soda probably posses a similar risk level.
Back to my little pocket dimension for me ;)
Ponderer
Not an electrical engineer, just a janitor who read some physics books…..
is there risk/ impact from the RF/EMF? Yes, BUT the long term impacts are not well quantified and are probably not very different from the risks you expose yourself to when the exterminator sprays around your house. It comes down to the immediate effect being minor to negligible.
At the distance you’re talking about it is probably more of an effect than a router or phone (phone at 2-3 w/m2) , cell emitter 50 – 100 w/m2. The math can be a little complex as the emitters are directional where a phone or router are not.
If it doesn’t bother go for it. Any long term effects would most likely be indistinguishable from 100’s of potential sources you are exposed to daily.
I’ll stop back by in a few years, and see if this joint is still up. Cheers
[89] raging bull jj
Turns out you know Realtor and buyer that are giving you grief. They are friends, a couple of skanky Manhattan Girls dressed in black who never have any food in their tiny studio fridge. You shagged both of them. They have been lurking on here to shag you back. Shagging you financially would give them the greatest pleasure. And it goes round.
swing In fact, the superior products will also demonstrate an aerial view of the whole hole! This is excellent if the study course you are using is different to you.
Re: Cell Tower – thanks to one and all for the input. Especially provided the resurrection of the incomparable janitor, GOK1! I think I’m good with all the frequencies -penetrating or not (JJ?), that come with the tower. Who knows…it may well bump up my testosterone and I can finally come up to the standards of this forum’s most interesting man (JJ?).
Worst candidate EVER!
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/48278662#48278662
ROMNEY: You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power. For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities.
You understand therefore considerably relating to this topic, produced me individually imagine it from so many various angles. Its like women and men are not involved except it is one thing to accomplish with Girl gaga! Your personal stuffs excellent. Always deal with it up!
85 – chifi…hug it, cling to it, love it
(you are either being intellectually dishonest, have poor reading/listening comprehension skills or are as bright as you describe GWB earlier.)
Star of Romney Ad Based On Lie…received “help” from Government
“The business owner, Jack Gilchrist, is featured in the Romney ad hitting Obama for allegedly claiming that business owners “didn’t build” their own businesses.
According to the Union Leader, Gilchrist received $800,000 in tax exempt revenue bonds issued by the state to build a plant — bonds that are partly supported by the federal government — and also received several recent Navy and Coast Guard contracts.
Gilchrist told the paper that the bonds were ultimately a “loser” for the company because of associated legal fees. But he insisted that his acceptance of defense contracts didn’t conflict with his criticism of Obama’s comments. And this from Gilchrist jumps out:
“Defense business is a good way to help the economy. But the President wants to cut the crap out of the defense budget.”
That would appear to mean that the star of Romney’s ad believes federal spending — on defense, at least — is good for the economy. That would make him a “weaponized Keynesian,” i.e., someone that does believe federal spending creates jobs and is good for businesses, but will only say so when it concerns defense.”
United Water to take over operations of Bayonne’s water system………
The Bayonne Municipal Utilities Authority has struck a $150 million deal with United Water to have the private company take over operations of the city’s water and sewerage system for the next 40 years.
Once the agreement is ratified by both parties, city residents will be socked with immediate 8.5 percent hikes on both their water and sewerage bills…….
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2012/07/united_water_to_take_over_oper.html
Ket,
Good to hear from you. The old timers miss your contributions. Hope all is well at home.
Now where’s SAS?
71 Shore
Now you understand… Bush, who starved the country’s coffers but spent like a drunken sailor then left when the bill came due. I would also add the Repub congress who has us stalled in place and blocks any and all initiatives. Even ones they previously advocated.
And yes O got quite a bit accomplished prior to ’10 elections.
The Tax Justice Network’s report estimates that unreported offshore wealth held in tax havens has reached at least $21 trillion, and possibly as much as $32 trillion. That wealth means that the problem of inequality in wealth and income is actually worse than suspected, the group says.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/07/22/tax-justice-network-wealth-held-in-tax-havens-skyrockets/
? Just because I posted WSJ readers’ opinions does not equate to me agreeing with what is written. Regardless, I found some of them thought provoking and others clever……
seif says:
July 23, 2012 at 9:49 pm
85 – chifi…hug it, cling to it, love it
(you are either being intellectually dishonest, have poor reading/listening comprehension skills or are as bright as you describe GWB earlier.)
85 – chifi…hug it, cling to it, love it
Also, O-man committed a serious gaffe. It was really bad and it stung. Do not casually dismiss it as if it is nothing. You will see. It is going to stick in the craw of a lot of independents….again regardless of what was said, people want to see him go off script to really get a feel for his preferences…..
BOOOOYA!
Flood was the producer of Violator and Songs of Faith and Devotion.
Dave Gahan on new project…
“You know, Martin and I, we collaborated on a song recently. He did what Rich does actually – he gave me a piece of music and said “have you got any ideas? I don’t really know what to do with it from this point…” And I took it away, and hopefully it will end up as something on the record. Depeche is different: we’ve got about twenty songs on the go at the moment, and we’ll keep going to a certain point. We’ll look at them and decide which ones will end up on the record. Flood’s going to be mixing the album as well. There’s a plan with it.”
“Each record that you make definitely has an influence on the next, so the simple answer to that question is yes, I think it does. I believe that this record we’re making now is the 13th studio album. That’s a lot of records. We’ve all got a really good feeling about it – everyone who’s heard tracks that we’ve recorded so far has come back with, you know, “this is going to be a good record”. It’s got a good feeling about it, and as long as we don’t mess around with it too much, which is what we’re doing right now – that’s the indulgence of having too much time – I think it will have a quality to it, a rawness to it and something that we missed out on the last album, which was very lushly produced and detailed. I hope this album is going to be less detailed and hit a bit more of a raw nerve, in terms of the production. It feels like that, but it’s still early days. But I do think the new songs are of a higher quality, somehow. They’re different, there’s something about them. Martin is writing from a different place and the songs that I’ve written are too. It just feels like we’re coming together. There’s something good happening.”
[121] chi fi
Don’t fall info trying to argue with schabadoo, a.k.a seif. His method of obfuscation fools only the faithful. When I rebut him, I’m not trying to enlighten him. I’m trying to enlighten everyone else. Convince the jury cuz you’ll never convince your opponent.
He reminds me of an attorney in Tenn I know of who no longer practices law. After listening to his rants, I want to ask him why he got disbarred. His usual response to those sorts of questions is to insinuate that I’m psychotic, then accuse me of stalking him. Quite amusing really.
124 – awww. did i hurt your wittle feelings?
don’t worry about giving directives to chifi, he can handle himself. i noticed that the other day when you posted something like “is it me or him…somebody please tell me i’m not crazy..”…………….no one responded to you. take a hint, buddy.
P.S. thanks for another war story that basically starts “i’m a lawyer..did i everyone hear me? i’m a lawyer.”
Good article and right to the point. I am not sure if this is in fact the best place to ask but do you guys have any thoughts on where to employ some professional writers? Thanks in advance :)
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