From the Federal Reserve:
Beige Book – March 6, 2013 – Second District–New York
Economic activity in the Second District has continued to expand at a moderate pace since the last report. Business contacts report some pickup in input price pressures but relatively few say they are increasing their selling prices. The labor market has shown scattered signs of improvement: manufacturers report an upturn in hiring, and a major employment agency notes increasingly strong demand for temps. Retailers report that sales have generally been strong and ahead of plan in January and early February. Auto sales in upstate New York were also described as robust since the beginning of the year. Tourism activity has been mixed but generally strong thus far in 2013, with hotels getting an additional boost from displaced residents and recovery workers in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy. Both residential and commercial real estate markets showed signs of improving since the last report. Finally, bankers report increased loan demand, no change in credit standards, further narrowing in loan spreads, and lower delinquency rates on commercial loans and mortgages.
…
Construction and Real EstateResidential real estate markets in the District have shown signs of improvement in recent weeks. A major appraisal firm reports that New York City’s co-op and condo market has remained surprisingly active in early 2013, following an exceptionally strong fourth quarter. Apartment sales are up strongly from a year ago, and tight inventories are starting to nudge up prices across the board. One contact notes that year-end inventory levels were the lowest he has seen in more than 12 years. The apartment rental market, however, has leveled off; after rising at a roughly 5-10 percent rate in 2012, rents on apartments in both Manhattan and the outer boroughs are estimated to be running just 1-2 percent ahead of a year ago in early 2013.
An expert on northern New Jersey’s housing market reports a pickup in activity and an improvement in the general tone of the market, describing the current season as the best since 2007. Residential builders are reported to be increasingly optimistic–they anticipate a substantially better year than 2012 and are investing more heavily in new projects. Single-family construction is seen as picking up, as multi-family construction retains momentum. While there remains a large overhang of foreclosed and distressed properties, many of these are expected to be snapped up by investors. Realtors in the Buffalo area report continued favorable conditions in the housing market: prices have risen steadily at a moderate pace, inventory levels are fairly low, and sales activity has been steady.
Fristanista!!!!!!!!!!
Grim “best since 2007”
Permits are still bouncing along the bottom.
Disclaimer all Real-estate is local, so GFYS
http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/NEWY636BP1FHSA
To expand on Chi and Clot’s previous point(s).
Big money snapping up anything that isn’t bolted down by house campers for yield.
This will end badly if you are a SERF….and you are a SERF..
Anecdotal – Dodd Frank implementation is “now” making those “with” POed.
Expect pain, at the pumps and anywhere else you spend.
Yield MFers…
Anecdotal – I still drink wine….
Wine is fine, but liquor’s quicker.
Yield must be paid, mf’er.
Good Morning New Jersey
Ewr not a horrorshow this morning.
I’m thinking there is logic to your posts. I appreciate such an outstanding blog.
How did Rand Paul manage to filibuster for almost 13 hours? That bladder must hold a lot. I salute the guys control atleast holding the pee
Beige book also reports employers in several districts are curtailing head count or hours in response to Obamacare and taxes.
I know, unexpectedly, right?
Had he won, most ppl here would had said that this was thanks to Romney
The Breakfast Briefing
For clues of where the stock market is heading, investors might want to look back to when Ronald Reagan was president, Thriller topped the charts and Pacman was all the rage.
Ah, the 1980s.
Some analysts say the current four-year rally resembles what transpired beginning in 1982. Back then, unemployment was high, economic growth was slow and trust in the market was subdued. That also marked the beginning of an 18-year secular bull market, which concluded with the bursting of the tech bubble.
Fast forward to the present and stocks are back at record levels even as skepticism is running high about the sustainability of the rally. Unemployment remains elevated and economic growth is anemic.
“It’s not the ’82 bull market, but it sure does look like it,” said Richard Bernstein, chief executive of Richard Bernstein Advisors, a New York-based independent investment adviser managing $1 billion in assets.
Back in the 1980s, when Larry Bird’s short shorts were in vogue, investors failed to fully embrace that bull market until it was already several years in the making.
“This cycle has certainly been no different,” said Mr. Bernstein, the former chief investment strategist at Merrill Lynch.
The S&P 500 has jumped 128% from the March 2009 lows, yet investors remain wary about what’s coming next. Two big crashes over the past decade have left lasting scars on investors’ psyche. Only recently have mom and pop investors started putting more cash back into stocks.
Yet if the market truly is in the early stages of a new secular bull market, investors could be primed for years, and possibly decades, of double-digit gains.
“We have thought for some time that the current bull market might be one of the strongest of our careers, and could potentially rival the 1980s bull market,” Mr. Bernstein said.
He has three indicators that he follows that suggest a bear market is nearing – a Fed that tightens too much, a market that’s too overvalued and an investor mindset that’s too euphoric.
“None of those three signs are evident today,” he said.
Others share a similar mindset. “The current cyclical recovery continues to track near the recovery that began in 1982,” said Stuart Freeman, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo Advisors in St. Louis, which manages $1.2 trillion.
Mr. Freeman expects the S&P 500 to finish the year somewhere between 1525 and 1575. He anticipates the market will generate 8% annualized returns over the next three years.
“It’s not the 100% return during the first leg of the rally, but it’s also a number you don’t want to miss,” Mr. Freeman said, while predicting stocks will be more attractive than cash or fixed income over the next several years.
“A lot of the dark clouds over the past 12 to 18 months have been lifted,” he said. “Investor sentiment is finally starting to notice.”
From Pimco
Federal Reserve officials have said several times that among other benefits, its quantitative easing (QE) programs have helped boost U.S. equity prices.Based on our analysis, QE has not been the driving force behind rising equity prices in recent years. We found that since 2009, corporate profits have had a more direct relationship to stock prices.For clues on where the equity market is headed, we suggest investors focus on corporate earnings, dividends and cash flows and pay particular attention to valuations.Federal Reserve officials have said several times that among other benefits, its quantitative easing (QE) programs have helped boost U.S. equity prices.Based on our analysis, QE has not been the driving force behind rising equity prices in recent years. We found that since 2009, corporate profits have had a more direct relationship to stock prices.For clues on where the equity market is headed, we suggest investors focus on corporate earnings, dividends and cash flows and pay particular attention to valuations.
http://www.pimco.com/EN/Insights/Pages/Is-the-Fed-Driving-or-Along-For-the-Ride.aspx
[12] anon,
probably, but not for anything he actually did. Rather, it would have been based on hope. Ironic, huh?
Someday, some economist is going to do a study, much like those done by the Romers, and conclude that (1) GDP and this market would have gone higher but for some Obama policies, and (2) nearly all the credit for the equity run up goes to Bernanke.
Heresy, I know, but its what I see, and I usually have been right (even if I wasn’t convinced at the time).
[13] yome,
Much as I respect Pimcos analysis, I think it minimizes the effect that QE had on asset classes other than equities. It is the least ugly girl at the dance. And not all are convinced insofar as the rotation hasn’t been as strong as it should have been. I don’t know that Pimcos is ignoring this, but to say corp fundies are strong when demand is still lagging seems a bit specious.
“If we are going to credit the Fed for lifting the stock market, however, we should examine how monetary policy can actually impact equity prices. Bernanke himself in an October 2003 speech at Widener University identified three key factors that should impact stock prices: “First, news that current or future dividends will be higher should raise stock prices. Second, news that current or future real short-term interest rates will be higher should lower stock prices. And third, news that leads investors to demand a higher risk premium on stocks should lower stock prices.”
“Have you ever met anyone who has grown rich just by saving? Probably not. But you may well have met someone who has grown rich looking after other people’s savings. That dark secret lies at the heart of ‘Pound Foolish’, Helaine Olen’s excellent book, a contemptuous exposé of the American personal-finance industry.”
—The Economist
Bernanke argues that pumping money into the system has kept the economy from falling into deeper recession. In theory, quantitative easing spurs borrowing by companies that use it to create jobs; say, to build a new plant that needs workers. Or individuals borrow more and have more money to spend, which fuels economic growth generally. (Cost isn’t the biggest issue. The Fed often makes money on the transactions.) The expectation is that Bernanke will continue buying sprees until the economy is healthy enough to prop up markets and jobs alone, although even sympathetic economists are beginning to question how much more QE can help. A disappointing jobs report published since his reiteration of this policy makes everyone believe that QE-continuing is certain.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ycharts/2012/09/11/why-bernankes-quantitative-easing-loathsome-to-many-actually-boosts-the-stock-market/
Permits adds inventory, more supply = lower prices. Home prices in places like AZ or Florida are better off if builders are not throwing up thousands of new spec houses each day.
Manhattan Condo/Coop sales were on fire in December for tax reasons. Now prices are going way way up. So much inventory absorbed at once and now no one is in a rush to sell.
Juice Box says:
March 6, 2013 at 9:48 pm
Grim “best since 2007″
Permits are still bouncing along the bottom.
Those who are critical of the Fed’s QE efforts thus far must remember that just as easily as they were able to put money into the system, they are able to remove it from the system. To do so, the Fed would reverse the effects of QE by selling the bonds that they currently hold on the open market and withdrawing the cash. To the extent that the Fed is holding Treasury bonds, they would simply force the banks to buy them and remove that cash from circulation. As such, if you believe that the Fed’s flooding of the economy with cash is a negative, the argument could easily be made that the positives far outweigh the negatives. But if the Fed doesn’t retire that cash and take it from the monetary system at some point in the future in an effort to shrink the money supply, it would undoubtedly be inflationary and would decrease the value of the dollar.
http://blog.rollinsfinancial.com/2011/08/q-series-quantitative-easings-effect-on.html
Is this supposed to rhyme? Because it doesn’t.
Scrapple Cannon says:
March 6, 2013 at 11:39 pm
Wine is fine, but liquor’s quicker.
Yield must be paid, mf’er.
Fcuk you too fried chicken breath……
Essex says:
March 7, 2013 at 8:10 am
“Have you ever met anyone who has grown rich just by saving? Probably not. But you may well have met someone who has grown rich looking after other people’s savings. That dark secret lies at the heart of ‘Pound Foolish’, Helaine Olen’s excellent book, a contemptuous exposé of the American personal-finance industry.”
—The Economist
BTW if you count dividends reinvested the Dow is actually at around 15,000. Amazing.
If one had 20/20 hindsight. It would be all in stocks, margin to max then between Thanksgiving and News Years sell your stocks at low cap gains rate and buy a highly appreciated NYC Condo or Southhampton beach house being sold in a fire sale.
Cap gains went from 15% to 23.8% overnight on 1-1-2103 Easy to nab a discount as sellers were going to have to pay an extra 8.8% taxes once the clock strikes midnight
Next big thing to pop is Jersey Shore!!! We make it through this summer, no hurricane this fall, then DOW works its way to 15K, infrastructure gets built out of next 12 months and come Spring 2014 buyers with fat stacks of cash will be buying.
As a fellow financial services professional I would like to apologize for Chifis comment.
Sleeping on stacks of cash and pounds of gold at night makes him cranky in the morning.
Big Ben told you October 2008 his strategy was to stabilize, money markets/Banks, then move to investment grade bonds.MBS, then to Junk Bonds/Pref Shares then move to Equities and then that will trickle down via wealth effect and continued low rates into housing.
Folks who sold stocks, stayed in cash, did bear market funds were fighting the Fed. You dont fight the Fed. Did you see me fighting the Fed.
GMAC bonds 27%, Citi Bonds 16%, Etc. TBTF made these Cash Equivalents. Uncle Same grabbed you by neck shoved you face into your brokerage account and said buy Citi Stock at a buck a share. Buy Ford Bonds at 15 cents a share, Buy Trups at 25% yield and you said no I want .0000001% in my Chase Money Market.
Ouch. The Fed wrapped sandpaper on its Monetary Tools and rammed it up your butt repeatedly for four years now and finally retail investors are coming back in.
chicagofinance says:
March 7, 2013 at 8:36 am
Fcuk you too fried chicken breath……
Essex says:
March 7, 2013 at 8:10 am
“Have you ever met anyone who has grown rich just by saving? Probably not. But you may well have met someone who has grown rich looking after other people’s savings. That dark secret lies at the heart of ‘Pound Foolish’, Helaine Olen’s excellent book, a contemptuous exposé of the American personal-finance industry.”
—The Economist
JJ you should have your own show on cnbc.
Everyone should read this NY times article
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/the-war-on-entitlements/?hp
[26] yome,
I agree, a good read. But it is an op-ed (as is the rest of the NYT), so it should be read with filters on.
[25] Brian,
JJ is holding out for a permanent spot on “manswers”.
“A disappointing jobs report published since his reiteration of this policy makes everyone believe that QE-continuing is certain.”
Yup, so QE is an epic failure (for the little guy who needs a job)… so of course, it shall continue unabated.
yome says:
March 7, 2013 at 8:12 am
Bernanke argues that pumping money into the system has kept the economy from falling into deeper recession. In theory, quantitative easing spurs borrowing by companies that use it to create jobs; say, to build a new plant that needs workers. Or individuals borrow more and have more money to spend, which fuels economic growth generally. (Cost isn’t the biggest issue. The Fed often makes money on the transactions.) The expectation is that Bernanke will continue buying sprees until the economy is healthy enough to prop up markets and jobs alone, although even sympathetic economists are beginning to question how much more QE can help. A disappointing jobs report published since his reiteration of this policy makes everyone believe that QE-continuing is certain.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ycharts/2012/09/11/why-bernankes-quantitative-easing-loathsome-to-many-actually-boosts-the-stock-market/
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/07/185091/easy-to-move-in-tough-to-leave.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=news
easy to buy difficult to sell the over 55 scam
(26)
yome,
If you raise the cap on the SS tax, do you raise the benefit payouts to those paying it?
Home Prices Sag, but Not Enough for Many
By ALLAN R. GOLD
Published: August 10, 1991
As home prices dropped on Long Island, Thomas and Patricia Nolan of Farmingdale scoured the real estate ads for a house in their price range.
They are still looking. Prices are lower, but not low enough for them to be able to get together a down payment and get out of the apartment they are renting.
“I could probably afford a mortgage, but how do you get the down payment?” asked Mr. Nolan, a New York City transit police officer with two children.
Despite the much-touted drop in housing prices, thousands of low- and middle-income residents like the Nolans throughout the metropolitan region are still cut out of the market, housing experts say. On Long Island in particular, where median housing prices are the 10th highest in the nation, listings would have to fall thousands of dollars more before such residents could afford a house.
Their best hope for homeownership rests with low-cost housing programs run by government or nonprofit organizations for people or families whose income is between $20,000 and $60,000. But there are not nearly enough units planned or under construction to meet the need, despite aggressive efforts by some Suffolk County towns and the interest of private builders looking for any work they can get during the recession.”The price decline hasn’t done anything,” said Peter J. Elkowitz, program administrator of the Long Island Housing Partnership, a not-for-profit group in Happauge. The three-year-old organization has planned or developed hundreds of single-family homes and town houses for first-time buyers at subsidized prices under $80,000.
Partnership officials could not estimate how many Long Island residents continue to be priced out of the housing market. But “everytime we advertise, we get swamped,” Mr. Elkowitz said.
A 72-home development planned by the Partnership for the community of North Amityville in Babylon has attracted more than 300 applications. Other subsidized housing programs on Long Island are routinely oversubscribed.
The Town of Islip’s College Woods development in Central Islip, the largest suburban affordable housing program in the state, attracted more than 1,100 applications for 100 homes in June 1990, said George Gatta Jr., who is the executive director of Islip’s Community Development Agency. This year, it received more than 900 applications for 150 homes.
“It’s still absolutely, definitely the American dream, and they’re all, one way or another, trying to find it,” said Nancy C. Manfredonia, executive director of the Central Islip Civic Council, a nonprofit organization deeply involved in College Woods. Plenty of Work
Strong demand for low-cost single-family housing continues throughout New York State.
“We could spend $50 million with no problem,” said Juan Villanueva, director of the New York State Affordable Housing Corporation. The agency now distributes $25 million annually for housing subsidies statewide, and has supported construction of nearly 1,100 units since 1985. In all, about 1,400 such units have been built in Long Island since 1985, the Long Island Regional Planning Board estimates.
The reason the recent price declines have offered such scant relief is that they are falling from such heights. Median home prices on Long Island fell 10.5 percent between 1988 and 1991, to $156,100 from $174,400, according to the National Association of Realtors, a Washington-based trade group.
But the median income for a family of four on Long Island is $54,500. Since a common rule of thumb is that a family cannot support a mortgage that is more than twice its gross income, many people remain well out of range.
“Once you get over $100,000 or $110,000, you’re dealing with people on my waiting list,” said Nina Stewart, East Hampton’s housing director.
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/06/30/realestate/buying-a-home-is-still-an-american-goal.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/12/nyregion/about-long-island-house-sellers-looking-for-house-buyers.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
http://www.nytimes.com/1991/11/20/nyregion/at-a-tax-auction-on-long-island-opportunity-and-anguish.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
Great stuff all the 1991 articles about that real estate crash. Just change dates to 2011 and you could reuse all the articles
Credit Suisse analysts conduct a monthly survey of real estate agents in 40 housing markets across the U.S. to get a ground-level view of the market around the country.
The results from their latest survey are out, and Credit Suisse analyst Daniel Oppenheim writes in a note to clients that “the breadth of strength in both pricing and traffic at the start of spring selling season” is “unprecedented in [the] survey’s history (dating back to ’05).”
Oppenheim says real estate agents are “widely citing increased buyer urgency due to the combination of persistent inventory shortages (driving prices higher) and signs of mortgage rates moving higher.”
The data showed that prices rose in all 40 markets last month – the first time that’s ever happened in the history of the survey. Credit Suisse’s home price index, derived from the survey data, increased to 79.3 from 74.6 in January.
The strongest price increases were observed in California, Florida, Austin, Las Vegas, San Antonio, Seattle, Denver, and Phoenix, according to Oppenheim.
It’s all hurtling toward a bridge abutment at 140 mph. All bets are off. It is the end of days. Woe unto us; there will be gnashing of teeth as the empire crumbles to dust.
“I could probably afford a mortgage, but how do you get the down payment?” asked Mr. Nolan, a New York City transit police officer with two children.
It is called saving you dolt. How much you wanna bet she drives a 50K SUV with a 1K monthly nut, has a minimum of 15K in CC debt, and student loans to boot.
29 Joyce
The biggest failure of QE is due to the uncertainty in Washington. Banks held more money in excess reserves instead of the money flowing into the economy and Companies held over 2 trillion dollars cash instead of reinvesting and hiring.
31
No.The way it is set up now is regressive.The person that makes more pays less percentage wise and benefit receive is more due to higher payments.
That piece was from 1991, not sure there was a $50k SUV back then.
Markets are cyclical.
#35
add cable, smart phones for everyone in the family,high speed internet
“How much you wanna bet she drives a 50K SUV with a 1K monthly nut, has a minimum of 15K in CC debt, and student loans to boot.”
35. He should consult with ChiFi. Betcha between the two of you mouth breathers could really put him on the right track…..
22 years ago? No cellphones.
41 – funny, if JJ changed the date, that story is just as relevant today as it was then. It always changes and it always stays the same.
That’s right,it is from 1991.
Two $50k car is worth as the house.Guy making $50k is probably making $150k to $200k.
He could have gambled on 3x pay house and salary catch up and have a house worth $700k today.
I always like to play it safe 2x pay was for me too.
Yome,
To summarize the NY Times article : nobody need be hungry if we are willing to eat an unpopular minority of our population.
The whole idea of hiding an income tax hike inside of medicare and social security is fundamentally dishonest. These are just alternative, less well understood channels of income redistribution, and are not even remotely “insurance” programs. The left likes them because there are no exemptions or deductions. I could pay in a cumulative $5mn into social security, and yet by the time I am able to receive it 1) I won’t get paid any more than someone who paid in $100k, 2) politicians will probably means test my benefits, meaning I actually will receive less than someone who paid in 1/100th as much.
So F U, pickpockets of the left. Perish in your own void.
Yome do you seriously vote Republican? Because you don’t seem to support anything they stand for.
#44 Ragnar
Exactly what the article said how the right will respond
[31] Joyce,
No, the top 5% are essentially going to be sliced and diced. And it will be No Soup For You when it comes time to collect for anyone in that cohort presently under 55. At least that’s my prediction.
Fact is, this scenario has been building forever. Everyone has seen it and been discussing it for the past 20 years (at least I have). And the fact that this cohort will be the one gutted is beyond debate: They are unpopular, they don’t have the votes, and much of the money available to the fisc is immoveable. So while there will be furious tax planning to avoid this, the effect will be marginal and while some in the 5-2% cohort will avoid some or all of the effect, there will be many who get gored. Of course, we won’t weep for some; think Larry Ellison will miss SS payments? But some will essentially be paying even higher taxes and getting nothing for it ATEOTD.
Another reason that this is a foregone conclusion is that raping the wealthy option passes the Occam’s Razor analysis rather easily, and for the reasons I lay out above.
Anyone with substantial assets or substantial income needs to start planning for this.
Yesterday.
I’m serious.
[46] yome,
that’s a gross overgeneralization. Even the article points out that (some) republicans have sounded this populist message in the past, and some still do.
Those on the right opposing it do so because it flies in the face of the sort of meritocracy we supposedly espouse here; risks causing distortions that threaten both growth and tax revenues; and, importantly, violates the compact made with the public when it was created. Remember, the left constantly says it isn’t a tax; but they always argue tax in the alternative when defending it (both SS and Obamacare were defended, and upheld, as proper exercises under the Govenrment’s taxing authority) and they treat it exactly as if it were a tax.
Brian
I did until the market collapse.For me,both sides should worked heal the economy not a division of ideology.I have seen the elephant want to hurt the poor and protect the rich.Before the collapse,I did not see this.The middleclass had jobs,able to provide for their family.After the collapse,I saw the elephant ready to live out the middleclass.No help for them.Sandy is an example.
I voted for the 2 Bushes, not my vote meant anything in NJ.I agreed with the Tea parties ideology when they first came out,I dont agree of not working and reaching an agreement in the middle of the aisle.Too far right is not working for me.I have seen the donkey move to the middle and the elephant move farther to the right.
You are right.Thinking of changing to the blue team.I wonder how many registered elephant is thinking the same way
49 –
Since we’re on the subject….something that I can never forgive the donkeys for is the fact that they were busy ramming healthcare legislation down our throats while the unemployment rate was at its highest in 26 years.
Seems like their priorities were fcucked up. Jobs and the economy were the one main thing on the minds of nearly every American at the time. They should have been more concerned with that.
Nom
The only party that says the trust fund is a myth is the red team.They know the only way to fund the 3 trillion dollars on the trust fund is against their ideology.
1.Borrow more money
2.Raise taxes
3. Monetized the debt put it on the Fed balace sheet
Their answer
Cut benefits.extend the age to collect.They will be against raising the cap on payroll tax
What happens if this is passed? More money will flow into the Trust Fund that they can deny existed.
No difference if entitlements goes private.Money collected will be the same only difference is the politician can not touch it.Pass legislation hands off
whoops guess I did not see the date.that what happens when I do board drive bys. Probably just as relevant today
Brian
I agree.That was not the right time to push for health care reform.It was not the reform I expected too.
I totally agree with the NY Times piece. Thanks Yome.
Also read the recent excellent Time article “Bitter Pill” http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
The evidence laid out there supports why Medicare is better and cost effective than private insurance or no insurance (and how hospital profits are beyond belief).
I don’t know if many contributing here realize how hard it is for senior citizens to exist on just Social Security, minimal savings, and no pension. Social Security is a life saver for many, but it doesn’t give more than a minimal existence.
Since a common rule of thumb is that a family cannot support a mortgage that is more than twice its gross income, many people remain well out of range.
So in 1991 it was 2x income and then as incomes increased greatly between 1991 and 2005 we made it to around 5x income.
Now opposing plunder and confiscation is considered “radical right”. Compared to the typical NY Times editorial writer, it is. They hate the concept of individual rights including property rights. Amongst themselves, that view of rights is already totally discredited, and are only interested in “positive rights” i.e. free stuff paid for by “somebody”. Now that “somebody” actually needs to pay more and more for free stuff, they’re getting cranky that their favorite sacrificial lambs aren’t voluntarily lining up for the slaughter
Hughes Rules of Public Comportment
Ax-wielding maniac goes medieval on Dunkin’ Donuts shop
By MICHAEL BLAUSTEIN
Who knew that donuts and coffee could turn a man into a berserker?
Apparently that’s the case because a disgruntled patron got so upset about being booted from a Connecticut Dunkin’ Donuts that he later returned to the shop wielding an ax.
Wilfred Levine, 63, was loitering in a New Britain sweets shop when two employees told him that he had to leave, according to FoxCT.
A short time later Levine, returned wielding a full-sized ax, jumped over the counter of the shop and demanded to see the two employees.
Wisely, the employees hid whereupon Levine “smashed the inside of the store with his ax” before proceeding outside and destroying the store’s front window, according to New Britain police.
When cops arrived Levine turned his attention to them, raising his ax as if to strike them down.
Unfortunately for Levine, the officers could defend themselves with more than just medieval shields — they tasered the onrushing assailant and took him into custody.
Levine faces charges including criminal attempt to commit first-degree assault, two counts of criminal attempt to assault police, two counts of first-degree criminal mischief, first-degree criminal trespass, possession of a dangerous weapon, interfering with police, second-degree breach of peace and first-degree reckless endangerment.
Bail was set at $750,000.
Yome,
Here is a rather short analysis on means-testing done by CEPR, which is hardly a right wing group by any stretch of the imagination. The conclusion surprised me, not because they concluded that the means-testing would have to hit the middle class, but because I would not expect CEPR to be against means-testing.
http://www.cepr.net/documents/publications/ss-2011-03.pdf
Housing Market Getting Hot? Mutiple Offers and Packed Open Houses in Montclair, Maplewood
http://www.baristanet.com/2013/03/housing-market-looking-up-montclair-maplewood-real-estate/#comments
And Roberta Baldwin, the realtor interviewed is honest when it comes to the housing market. When we were searching, she easily admitted that the market stunk and it was definitely a buyers market at the time. She is no Sue Adler.
Looks like we might have nailed the bottom.
http://s442.beta.photobucket.com/user/stuw6/media/LibtardLiving_zps57fa5124.png.html
Check out that $ in a circle.
Going out to look at houses now. Don’t know why, just that it isn’t costing me anything.
[51] yome
The trust fund is a legal entity. Economically, it is more akin to what we call a disregarded entity.
So your point is that form trumps. The right’s point is that form is immaterial.
joyce: I was going to post a similar comment earlier. I am all for increasing taxes, but without fiscal responsibility, go to hell.
What makes the NYT Op-Ed a specious argument is that SS benefits maxes out at $30,396 a year. It is why a max income subject to social security becomes an acceptable construct. Anyone willing to point and say ….oh there is money there, let’s just take some of it…..is just vacuous…..
joyce says:
March 7, 2013 at 10:01 am
(26) yome, If you raise the cap on the SS tax, do you raise the benefit payouts to those paying it?
ChiFi: ” I am all for increasing taxes, but without fiscal responsibility, go to hell.”
Exactly!
Joyce (29):
“Yup, so QE is an epic failure (for the little guy who needs a job)… so of course, it shall continue unabated.”
QE is specifically to benefit the following groups:
1. Banks – They need to re-captialize cause they are all insolvent
2. People with substantial money in the markets: This includes banks and hedge funds as well as individuals. All that free money gotta go somewhere!
3. Gubbmint: They need the money just to keep the lights on.
If anyone thinks QE is designed for banks to lend to small business and home owners is sorely mistaken. There are not that many credit worthy borrowers out there.
The only concern regarding your 401k and brokerage account balances is when the money printing goes from 85 billion to over 100 billion a month. That will drive the DOW to 20k.
Folks who who borrowed heavily in leverage are only ones who had an issue with their houses these last few years.
But funny, I never heard of a bail out in 2000 of folks who borrowed on margin to buy internet stocks.
Who bought, you lost money, so what. Whats next a bail out of Jets PSL owners, lots of folks lost money there. Heck my pair of shoes I bought is worth almost nothing.
Anybody know what this means (when appealing taxes)? Does this mean comparable sales must have taken place from between 7/1/2011 through 6/30/2012?
“Transfers deemed not to have taken place within the sampling period. Sampling period is defined as the period from July 1 to June 30, inclusive, preceding the date of promulgation, except as hereinafter stated. The recording date of the deed within this period is the determining date since it is the date of official record. Where the date of deed or date of formal sales agreement occurred prior to January 1, next preceding the commencement date of the sampling period, the sale shall be nonusable”
http://www.njactb.org/pdf/NU%20Sale%20Codes%202006.pdf
chicagofinance,
So, how do we get the retarded yome’s of the world to understand arithmetic?
chicagofinance says:
March 7, 2013 at 1:03 pm
joyce: I was going to post a similar comment earlier. I am all for increasing taxes, but without fiscal responsibility, go to hell.
What makes the NYT Op-Ed a specious argument is that SS benefits maxes out at $30,396 a year. It is why a max income subject to social security becomes an acceptable construct. Anyone willing to point and say ….oh there is money there, let’s just take some of it…..is just vacuous…..
joyce says:
March 7, 2013 at 10:01 am
(26) yome, If you raise the cap on the SS tax, do you raise the benefit payouts to those paying it?
All Hype,
Precisely. QE’s stated goal is an epic failure. QE’s true goal is working very well.
All Hype – Mr. Oil, Mr. Gas, Mr. Coal says:
March 7, 2013 at 1:36 pm
Joyce (29):
“Yup, so QE is an epic failure (for the little guy who needs a job)… so of course, it shall continue unabated.”
QE is specifically to benefit the following groups:
1. Banks – They need to re-captialize cause they are all insolvent
2. People with substantial money in the markets: This includes banks and hedge funds as well as individuals. All that free money gotta go somewhere!
3. Gubbmint: They need the money just to keep the lights on.
If anyone thinks QE is designed for banks to lend to small business and home owners is sorely mistaken.
yome,
If someone pays $14 million dollars in taxes and this comes to 1% of their income… and someone else pays $14,000 dollars in taxes and this comes to 10% of their income… that is unfair? (note: I am closer to the latter, not the former)
This is the mindset that the government owns everything and it let’s you keep a portion of it… so shut up and be grateful.
You are so clueless it’s hysterical.
yome says:
March 7, 2013 at 11:24 am
29 Joyce
The biggest failure of QE is due to the uncertainty in Washington. Banks held more money in excess reserves instead of the money flowing into the economy and Companies held over 2 trillion dollars cash instead of reinvesting and hiring.
Sima,
1) Regarding social security, is it possible the people relying on it now would be better off now having kept all the money they were taxed for? Would it be a bad idea to trend back towards the concept of taking in family members that need physical/financial assistance?
2) In my opinion, you missed the point of the health care article. The point was to ask why are the bills so high regardless of payment method. See my next post…
Sima says:
March 7, 2013 at 12:22 pm
I totally agree with the NY Times piece. Thanks Yome.
Also read the recent excellent Time article “Bitter Pill” http://healthland.time.com/2013/02/20/bitter-pill-why-medical-bills-are-killing-us/
The evidence laid out there supports why Medicare is better and cost effective than private insurance or no insurance (and how hospital profits are beyond belief).
I don’t know if many contributing here realize how hard it is for senior citizens to exist on just Social Security, minimal savings, and no pension. Social Security is a life saver for many, but it doesn’t give more than a minimal existence.
We got this way because:
•McCarran-Ferguson, 15 USC 1011-1015, specifically exempted insurance companies from anti-trust law so long as there is a state regulatory apparatus related to insurance is in place. In other words anti-trust laws are severely limited as applied to insurance companies; unless there is no state regulatory code related to that firm the Sherman, Clayton and Federal Trade Commission Acts do not apply to these companies. These acts prohibit acts that restrain trade, including collusive practices that fix prices — but they do not apply to insurance companies generally, as all states have some regulatory apparatus on insurance firms.
•EMTALA, a 1980s era law signed by Ronald Reagan, forced the provision of care to people who had no ability to pay for it at the closest facility where it could be reasonably provided. Prior to this law if you had a medical emergency and could not pay you would be taken to a charity hospital for care. This might not be close to you, however, and you might bypass several other facilities that only took patients who could pay in some form or fashion. A few dozen high-profile incidents were someone was having a heart attack, stroke, or had suffered a traumatic injury and died led to the passage of this law. There were over six hundred charity hospitals in the United States, many operated by the Catholic Church, prior to this law being passed. Today there are effectively none. The result is that the mandate of unfunded care was forced, by federal law, upon health care providers.
•The pharmaceutical and medical device industries got federal laws and regulations passed to prohibit the transport of legally-owned drugs and devices across international borders and to restrain trade even within the United States. This turned the concept of the ownership of property on its ear and by doing so the drug and device makers were able to charge grossly-disparate amounts of money for the same thing — often by a factor of 10 or more — simply based on where or to whom it was sold. Absent these laws you could drive into Mexico and buy 100 doses of scorpion anti-venom for $100 each from the factory that made it and then return to the US and sell it for $200, a nice 100% profit. You could do this because the current price in the United States at a hospital for that same anti-venom is $39,652 — each. It’s even worse, of course, in that the hospital paid 1/10th of that amount; if you simply sold the dose directly to the stung individual the savings would be even greater. This sort of pricing disparity exists only because of specific federal and state laws that make the operation of a free market and the opportunities that it affords impossible.
•There are no basic consumer protection laws that operate to prevent price-gouging and intentional financial******by everyone up and down the line in the medical field. You can’t take your car in for service without being provided a written estimate, and you must provide approval before the charge can typically exceed 110% of that estimate — which you may decline without harm to yourself (e.g. without having your engine ripped into pieces on the floor of the shop with no way to reassemble it.) There is no other field in the United States where you can get away with not quoting a price at all for a procedure, but it happens tens of thousands of times every single day in the medical world. In fact, according to JAMA, more than one half of the top 20 hospitals for a given procedure they surveyed couldn’t provide a price at all for a routine surgical procedure after five separate attempts!
•So-called health “insurance” is not actually insurance, and yet this fraud upon the public is neither stopped or prosecuted. Insurance is a pooling of funds by a group against a statistically-unlikely event (or series of events) over a given period of time, with the pooled funds used to pay claims by those who are unfortunate enough to have the bad outcome occur. Health “insurance” violates every premise of an actual insurance contract because health care is not an “unlikely” event (especially routine and diagnostic health care) and in addition alleged “health insurance” requires that you keep paying even after the adverse event happens. You don’t continue to pay a fire insurance policy on your house after the fire; the company pays you. Yet if you contract cancer while having health insurance (the adverse event) you must keep paying premiums, and in fact potentially pay ever-escalating amounts of premium, even though the adverse event already happened!
•Should you arrive in a hospital under emergency circumstances you will be forced to pay in whole or part for those who cannot cover their medical expenses in the same hospital, provided you are either able to pay privately or through your alleged “insurance.” If you have assets and refuse to pay you will be relentlessly pursued and sued for that payment, a large part of which — in fact the majority of which — is not paid for your treatment. (Hospitals collect as little as 18% of what they bill. So, in fact, when they come after you for the full amount only about one dollar in six is for your treatment!) There is no other area of commerce in which you can be compelled to pay someone else’s bill that is in arrears with no ability to refuse.
Notice that exactly none of these circumstances arose due to natural market forces. Every one of them occurred because of special privileges granted to firms in the medical field by government. Many of these “privileges” are outright and literal theft of your funds to pay someone else’s bill.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=218233
51 nom
Exactly my point only the right is claiming.
What is really unsustainable?
The entitlements are designed to provide for themselves.They collect their own taxes.Not a dime of help comes from the federeal tax it collects. SS can survive without doing anything till 2030 with payments from tax collected plus principal and interest on interest bearing account. It will be able to pay 75% of itsobligation until 2080.Almost the 70 years life span the right is targeting.
What is not sustainable is federal tax collected in the future will be diverted more and more to pay principal plus interest on the existing 2.7 trillion that the government owes the taxpayers through the trust fund.
As I have said the elephant is the only party that is saying the trust fund is a myth because the solution is against their belief. They would rather screw the middleclass than do the right thing.
A (trust) fund full of cash and a (trust) fund full of IOU’s is very different. If you can’t understand that, you are beyond helping.
F the right… F the left. Keeping people in the ponzi is screwing them too.
If anyone can scroll past Joyce’s and Yome’s SS posts to my real estate post and help….preesh….
Joyce:
1) With smaller families being the norm, there frequently is noone to take in older family members with financial/physical problems. (And it will get worse in the case of only children having only one child – thus no cousins, uncles, aunts)
Also, bad luck or medical emergencies or chronic illnesses can easily wipe out any savings. I think Social Security is a wonderful program (rather than just relying on private savings – as you suggested).
2) I understood the Time article and esp. wildly inflated hospital billing.
However, we disagree on the role of Medicare (which I support). I also support the magazine’s conclusions.
joyce says:
March 7, 2013 at 2:30 pm
Sima,
1) Regarding social security, is it possible the people relying on it now would be better off now having kept all the money they were taxed for? Would it be a bad idea to trend back towards the concept of taking in family members that need physical/financial assistance?
2) In my opinion, you missed the point of the health care article. The point was to ask why are the bills so high regardless of payment method. See my next post…
sima,
Yup, we disagree on a lot. I bet you agree stealing from or forcing your neighbor to do something is wrong. But as long as the ‘govt’ does it, than it’s fine. I’ll never understand how one person or group of people are just as ordinary as you or me… but when they have uniforms, badges maybe, and govt titles they become so smart and wise. We grant them all this power and are shocked when abuse is common or the well-connected benefit at the expense of the poor.
The articles suggestions are:
– tax hospital profits at 75% … that will just force them to spend the money each year, increased compensation, junkets, supplies, expansion
– tax surcharge on all nondoctor hospital salaries that exceed, say, $750,000… that is an unconstitutional bill of attainder (if that matters)
– outlaw the chargemaster… OK, won’t change much
– amend patent laws to prevent monopoly abuse, etc … i like, lot of details to work out
– price controls are certain tests … will have bad unintended consequences
– medical-malpractice reform … i like, lot of details to work out
Joyce top men and f*ck you that why. Any action that can steal your liberty or property is force government or otherwise. Government interference in free markets always tends to make them less free. Unfortunately, most folks see the government as something benevolent which it never was and never will be.
Brian correct 7/1/2011 through 6/30/2012
Actually comparable sales for NJ tax appeals must be before October 1st of the prior year, not June 30.
Admittedly I’m just trolling the board by posting this, but here goes anyway…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/dow-36-000-is-attainable-again.html
So they miss all the cheap sandy sales in the comps. I am grieving my house at current market value of 180K, screw them. I am sick of my tax dollars going to feed the homeless,
Brian correct 7/1/2011 through 6/30/2012
Ottoman says:
March 7, 2013 at 4:02 pm
Actually comparable sales for NJ tax appeals must be before October 1st of the prior year, not June 30.
The cheap Sandy sales won’t be eligible anyway. A code gets tacked on any sale that’s considered distressed making it unusable as a comp.
Code 26 is notorious for squelching tax appeals because its a catch all for anything the town doesn’t want used.
From last year –
In growing numbers, municipalities across Bergen and Passaic counties are restricting the pool of “comparable” sales homeowners can cite to contest their property assessments — the key to a successful appeal and the tax relief that comes with it.
Specifically, the evidence suggests that some local tax assessors are overusing a section of the state tax code that allows them to selectively disqualify properties they believe were sold under financial duress.
The issue has caught the attention of authorities in Trenton. The state reversed 15 percent of these so-called Code 26 exclusions made by assessors in Bergen and Passaic counties from 2009 through mid-2011, after reversing none in 2007 and 2008. Statewide, 11 percent were reversed in the more recent time period, compared with 3 percent in 2007 and 2008.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergen/bergen_news/032412_More_tax_appeals_denied_as_towns_reject_data_on_low-priced_homes.html
re# 26 – Yome – Heath Care is now 17% of GDP. If the retiring Boomers think that they are entitled to extraordinary health care and to live to 90 + years old in the lap of luxury they have another thing coming and it’s called Soylent Green. Specifically the Government run assisted suicide centers as featured in the movie. Pretty much every Boomer knows of the movie. When Bebo and the death panels rule your cannot get that liver transplant because you drank your liver away or you cannot get a new heart because you smoked, it will be off to the Soylent Green Assisted Suicide center to get “treatment”.
That is stupid. How do they know your house is not distressed. Say I have a run down estate sale, short sale pending, flood prone house I am grieving. I should only be compared to those houses.
I am going full monti this year and next grieving. I have a feeling property values may start shooting up eventually, most places have a limit on how much they can jack assessed values at one time.
NYS has a rule your assessment cant rise more than 6% in one year or 20% over five years. Rule was passed during bubble to keep old folks from being quickly taxed out of house. What folks should be doing is grieving like crazy while their are low comps.
If I can get my house down to like 250K, even if a bubble starts again it would take them the rest of my life to get it back to market rate taxes.
Laugh if you want, but if folks in shore can really really grieve hard on Sandy houses, then get them fixed without permits. A few years from now when Shore prices come back they will be worth more than non damaged houses.
Place I am buying, I have a low comp near it that is closing in a few days. I plan on grieving the taxes on my new place before I own it. Yep that is allowed. If I dont buy and win, heck I just helped out the couple. If I buy and win, it is great for me. The place that is closing is a crappy unit going for less. I want to attempt to grieve and win a lower assessment than my purchase price and that is best done pre-purchase.
Ottoman says:
March 7, 2013 at 4:29 pm
The cheap Sandy sales won’t be eligible anyway. A code gets tacked on any sale that’s considered distressed making it unusable as a comp.
Code 26 is notorious for squelching tax appeals because its a catch all for anything the town doesn’t want used.
Am I to be “punished” for diligently saving like a fool all my working life? Perhaps I should have blown all my $$ on better vacations and cars. Means testing of those of us who were raised to take care of ourselves will now backfire on us? Wow. I cannot imagine this happening but, hey, what do I know? I agree with the NY Times opinion that this is the Republicans way of swaying public opinion against SS. Another welfare program it would become. And the Democrats motivation is to please the lower and middle class.
This is really discouraging.
joyce (71)-
Please don’t taunt the monkey.
[86] whine,
Discouraging? Yes, yes it is.
But you’ve been warned. Plan accordingly.
Yome is morphing into the 2013 Donald.
I still remember when writing “Donald” would throw you into moderation……I wonder if grim will some day have to designate yome for the same treatment……
[90] chifi
I don’t remember Donald, he was a bit before my time. Buy I prefer yome to some of the folks here who were either partisan prevaricators or simply deluded.
Thanks for every other informative blog. The place else may I am getting that kind of information written in such an ideal means? I have a undertaking that I’m just now working on, and I’ve been at the look out for such info.
Breaking News U.S. adds 236,000 jobs in February; unemployment rate falls to 7.7%, government says
Rally on
anxiously awaiting zerohedge blog post spinning it into bad news.
Stocks and Bonds are way way way up in last 4 years, if you have to give back an extra 8.9% of your 130% gains so be it.
HouseWhineWine says:
March 7, 2013 at 5:32 pm
Am I to be “punished” for diligently saving like a fool all my working life? Perhaps I should have blown all my $$ on better vacations and cars. Means testing of those of us who were raised to take care of ourselves will now backfire on us? Wow. I cannot imagine this happening but, hey, what do I know? I agree with the NY Times opinion that this is the Republicans way of swaying public opinion against SS. Another welfare program it would become. And the Democrats motivation is to please the lower and middle class.
This is really discouraging.
分析得很深刻.不错
Nom
Thanks for the kind words
94. The bad news is the average time that someone is unemployed.
17 months is the average someone is out of work. That is unprecendented.
Medicare and Medicaid services spent $1.053 trillion in FY2012. We took in just $201 billion in Medicare taxes. That is, the government is spending 5x what it is taking in on health care.
For Social Security (including disability) the government took in $572 billion in FY2012. But the government spent $773 billion on both retirement and disability, or 35% more than it taxed.
That’s not the only shocker. We gave $77 billion to people in the form of Earned Income and Child credits in excess of tax liability — that’s the amount that we literally handed out in welfare for simply being alive.
We can survive the Social Security problem. We cannot possibly survive spending five times what we take in via Medicare taxes and lying about interest cost will blow up in our face as well.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=218486
Holder admits megabanks are ‘too big to jail’
http://articles.marketwatch.com/2013-03-07/commentary/37519298_1_brown-and-grassley-financial-stability-big-banks
Brian (94):
Here is your Zero Hedge article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-08/february-multiple-jobholders-rose-record-full-timers-dropped-part-timers-increased
Donald was the best……we would have 600 posts in a day on some threads……he was trying to sell some split level piece of crap in Cliffside Park or something. He was really pissed off and channeled his anger into diarrhea of postings. Between him and Pretorious (disgruntled Weehawken owner) we had liftoff…..
Comrade Nom Deplume says:
March 8, 2013 at 7:46 am
[90] chifi
I don’t remember Donald, he was a bit before my time. Buy I prefer yome to some of the folks here who were either partisan prevaricators or simply deluded.
Meaningless stat Normally, folks milk it till unemployment is almost up. We had 18 months unemployment. If we went back to six months those folks would have found work after 5 months.
last layoffs every working dual income mom with with kids in day care and a working husband milked it for the full 18 months. They got paid more to stay home.
Essex says:
March 8, 2013 at 9:08 am
94. The bad news is the average time that someone is unemployed.
17 months is the average someone is out of work. That is unprecendented.
I think people will blame restarants holding back hours in order to avoid having to provide health insurance (Obamacare) for the uptick in multiple job holders more than a weak economy.
So, what percentage of the jobs added are multiple job holders? That’s the important statistic in detirmining the quality of the jobs added.
101.All Hype – Mr. Oil, Mr. Gas, Mr. Coal says:
March 8, 2013 at 9:22 am
Brian (94):
Here is your Zero Hedge article:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-08/february-multiple-jobholders-rose-record-full-timers-dropped-part-timers-increased
[97] yome,
Wasn’t going for kind, just trying to moderate things with a bit of clarity. But you’re welcome.
However, in the words of Gunny Highway, that doesn’t mean we’re gonna take long, hot showers together.
Brian (103):
I would like to see in the upcoming months the number of people forced to take multiple part-time jobs. That would be a clear trend that corporations are giving workers the boot or switch them the part-time status.
However, this graph from Zero Hedge is most concerning as the high paying jobs are being lost and workers are forced to accept lower wage positions.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-06/chart-day-minimum-wage-non-recovery
“17 months is the average someone is out of work. That is unprecendented(sic).”
That’s awfully close to the 18 months of charity the gubmint gives you. I suppose, most are able to find a job in the final month of free money.
I think I will trust the trustee report better
http://www.ssa.gov/oact/TRSUM/index.html
106. Unemployment compensation doesn’t seem to be enough to cover most bills and it is taxable. Kind of a double whammy.
Yome – no worries. —> It is all locked up nice and safe.
http://www.fatwallet.com/static/attachments/32084_bush_holding_ss_bond.jpg
SS + DI
Payroll Taxes $482.4 +81.9
Taxes on Benefits 22.2 + 1.6
General Fund Reimbursement 87.8 + 14.9
Interest Earnings 106.5 +7.9
Total 698.8 + 106.3 Total the Fund took in $805.1
Outlays
SS + DI
Benefit Payment $596.2 + 128.9
Railroad Retirement 4.1 + 0.5
Adminstrative Expenses 3.5 +2.9
Total 603.8 +132.3 Total outlay $736.1
Surplass $805.1- &736.1 = $69 billion
Juice to me it does not matter.I will not be here.I got my retirement funded. I feel bad for the stupid people taking this up their *.Because the right is spinning this
brain (94)-
Thanks for establishing that you look forward to the gubmint lying to you every Friday.
Yome —> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GSXbgfKFWg
Unemployment does have a practical benefit. It allows one to live within one’s means. Sadly, if the formerly employed person collecting the benefit spent at the same level he/she becomes forced to living on the dole, they would have had the savings necessary to weather their unemployment much more comfortably. Nah, gotta have the latest gadgets and drive the fanciest cars.
In other news, Lightning McQueen keeps on kicking. And she’s excellent in the snow.
By the way, if anyone’s in the area. We are having a massive fundraiser to resurface the street hockey rink in Glen Ridge (off Carteret Street) today. Jim Dowd (former Devil) will be there, the snack bar is loaded with adult beverages and entrees, there’s a dj, silent auction and a whole lot more. Hockey games run from 3:30 to 9:30. I’m in charge of halftime skills competitions as well as the shot speed and accuracy contest for adults. Winner gets a signed Devils puck.
re # 111 – Yome I have my retirement funded too, I just hope they don’t take it all away over the next 25 years.
And by take it away I mean inflation.
MetLife, the largest U.S. life insurer, is set to close a facility in the Somerset section of Franklin Township as part of a broader plan to consolidate 2,600 jobs across the country at two new sites in North Carolina.
The number of jobs leaving New Jersey as a result was not immediately known, said MetLife spokesman John Calagna. But the moves will affect administrative positions for the insurer’s retail business and information technology workers, he said. These positions will be relocated in phases between now and 2015, he said.
Some “critical managers” will be asked to relocate, while others have the chance to apply for a job at the new sites, which are in the cities of Charlotte and Cary, or for other positions within the company for which they qualify.
Ivy Zelman being bullish on housing…..I used to make this distinction several years ago, so I will make it now. Housing is strongly related to publicly traded housing stocks, but they are not the same, so make sure you read through this distinction as you listen to commentary. Also housing in New Jersey is distinct from national housing figures.
OMG she is good looking (sorry THAT is my type). Please recall, she was literally the first major housing analyst that went bearish in 2005.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100533720
114. That actually sounds fun. Today is the day that i try out my XC skis.
On the taxes front, our town planned to build a few extra classrooms off of our two elementary schools. They had already moved the playgrounds when they found out the bids were too expensive. The expansions are now on hold until a cheaper solution can be found. Glen Ridge does not take on debt. In Montclair, when the questionable need (school age population hasn’t increased significantly in the last 100 years) for more space in the elementary schools, they decided to bond 36 million for the construction of the new school. Now there’s talk of closing down one of the older ones.
When the question of turfing the football/baseball field was put to referendum, the locals (most are pretty wealthy) turned it down.
I’m so glad I moved.
117. She’s a bit manish ChiFu. But then I am not surprised.
Clot are you allergic to Bees?
http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/25061.aspx
Medicare
HI + SMI
Total asset end of 2010 $271.9 + 72.1 =$344 billion
Income 228.9 + 301
outgoing 256.7 + 292.5
Net Increase in asset -27.7 +8.6
Asset end of 2011 $244.2 + 80.7 = $324.9 billion
Decrease of $19.1 Billion in asset ending 2011
Not a single dime Fed paid from Fed tax went to pay for Medicare
By PEGGY NOONAN
I read a piece by Mort Zuckerman, who’s emerged as one of the most persuasive and eloquent critics of the president’s economic policy. The unemployment picture is worse than people understand, he explained in U.S. News & World Report. The jobless rate, officially 7.9%, is almost twice that if you include those who have stopped looking, work part time, or are only “marginally attached” to the workforce. “The labor force participation rate . . . has dropped to the lowest level since 1984,” Mr. Zuckerman noted. “It is harder to find work today than it has been in any previous recession.”
Meanwhile, the president is stuck in his games and his history. He should have seen unemployment entering a crisis stage four years ago, and he did not. At that time I was certain he’d go for public-works projects, which could give training to the young and jobs to the experienced underemployed, would create jobs in the private sector and, in the end, yield up something needed—a bridge, a strengthened power grid. He instead gave his first term to health care. And now ObamaCare is being cited as a reason employers are laying people off and not hiring, according to a report from the Federal Reserve.
What a mess.
Conservative media should stop taunting the president because he spent the past month warning of catastrophe if the sequester kicks in, and the catastrophe hasn’t happened. It hasn’t happened yet. He can make it happen. He runs the federal agencies. He can decide on a steady drip of catastrophe—food inspectors furloughed on the 15th, long lines at the airport on the 18th, sobbing children missing Head Start on the 20th, civilian contractors pointing to a rusting U.S.S. Truman on the 25th.
He can let them happen one after another, like little spring shoots of doom. And it probably won’t look planned and coordinated, it will look spontaneous and inevitable.
And you have to assume that’s the plan, because that’s kind of how he rolls.
But what is the sequester about? At the end of the day it’s about fewer jobs or fewer hours. In the midst of what is already a jobs crisis.
Right now his attention has turned to dinner with Republican senators and meetings with members of both parties on Capitol Hill. He is trying to show, after a hit in the polls, that he can reach out. He’s trying to convince America he’s capable of making a deal.
The new engagement may work if in the past few days the president has changed his political style, approach and assumptions. But people don’t usually change overnight. On the other hand there’s plenty of reason for him to make a cosmetic reach-out in order to show that whatever happens it’s not really his fault, and if the sequester causes pain at least the responsibility is shared. He didn’t stiff the opposition, he treated them to lamb at the Jefferson Hotel.
It is interesting that almost at the same time as the dinner the president’s people once again begun warning of doom. A blast email from Organizing for Action, signed by Stephanie Cutter, used these words: “Devastating,” “obstructionism,” “destructive,” “this is real.” It claimed 100,000 “teaching jobs” will be cut, along with “70,000 spots for preschoolers in Head Start, $43 million for food programs for seniors, $35 million for local fire department,” and nutritional assistance for “over half a million women and their families.” All this because of loopholes “for millionaires and billionaires” who want their “yachts and corporate jets.”
They aren’t dropping the Frighten Everyone strategy.
Their whole approach is still stoke and scare—stoke resentment and scare the vulnerable into pressuring Republicans.
***
Barack Obama really is a study in contrasts, such as aloof and omnipresent. He’s never fully present and he won’t leave. He speaks constantly, endlessly, but always seems to be withholding his true thoughts and plans. He was the candidate of hope and change, of “Yes, we can,” but the mood of his governance has been dire, full of warnings, threats, cliffs and ceilings, full of words like suffering and punishment and sacrifice.
It’s always the language of zero-sum, of hardship that must be evenly divided, of constriction and accusation.
It’s all so frozen, so stuck. Just when America needs a boost, some faith, a breakthrough.
Mr. Obama is making the same mistake he made four years ago. We are in a jobs crisis and he does not see it. He thinks he’s in a wrestling match about taxing and spending, he thinks he’s in a game with those dread Republicans. But the real question is whether the American people will be able to have jobs.
Once they do, so much will follow—deficits go down a little as fewer need help, revenues go up as more pay taxes. Confidence and trust in the future will grow. People will be happier.
There’s little sense he sees this. Dr. Doom talks about coming disaster when businessmen need the confidence to hire someone. He’s missing the boat on the central crisis of his second term.
Metlife. I grew up on that street in Somerset. Left decades ago. The town sought ratables in every corner of the township. Turned Franklin into Edison, farmland into industrial ghettos.
Parts of that township were paradise growing up in the 60’s and early 70s – Griggstown, Blackwells Mills, East Millstone, Middlebush.
Ok I need real estate advice!!!
Duplex Condo I am buying is near identical to the unit that just sold. Square footage, both upper units.
Main difference. Is the unit I am getting has a six by 10 covered outdoor patio on main level that belongs to unit. On master bedroom above unit has a six by 10 balcony that is the top of the covered patio.
Also my unit was remodeled around 7 years ago. Basic grade home depot stuff, but still new kitchen main bathroom, floors windows etc. It does not need any work. Other unit is dated from around 1980, wall to wall carpeting, old appliances, pink bathroom etc.
The dated condo without a patio/deck is selling for 235k, post Sandy price.
Question is how much extra would you pay for a move in unit ready unit with the patio/terrace vs. the same size unit all original with no outdoor space?
10k more, 50K more 100K more. Hard to tell, units sell infrequently so hard to compare to past prices.
Start low and work your way up JJ. (like dating)
Same Data MIW used to post. Did you give him the same lip service?
112.Scrapple Cannon says:
March 8, 2013 at 10:45 am
brain (94)-
Thanks for establishing that you look forward to the gubmint lying to you every Friday.
Nom [91];
partisan prevaricators or simply deluded.
Where is Dope/Seif, anyway? Apparently, he hasn’t been around in a while.
That I know, just trying to figure out, appraisal wise how much someone would assign a value in a condo complex to units with decks/balcony’s vs units without decks/balaconys
Libtard in Union says:
March 8, 2013 at 11:19 am
Start low and work your way up JJ. (like dating)
The government shold never get into the business of giving people “free stuff” because if it ever gets taken away it turns into a disaster. Obama mocks this as the “you’re on your own” economy. I remember when Americans used to be proud of standing on their own two feet. In contrast, Obama and the collectivists now celebrate the human centipede form of society – and of course make sure that they are at the front of the centipede.
129. What’s the view like?
xolepa (124)-
At least they got a brand new high school that looks like a supermax prison.
…complete with turf fields.
[128] moose,
Perhaps he’s busy (not like this is the focus of our lives here, much as it seems to be at times), or perhaps he felt a bit raw after the bruising he endured (I’ve felt that way in the past). Perhaps there are unfortunate turns in his life; don’t wish that on anyone but it might explain his absence.
Either way, I don’t much worry about that. I do miss the guilty pleasure of just opening up on someone, but I don’t miss the snark or the maddening lack of reason or logic. Otherwise, I hope he is doing fine wherever he is.
[122] yome,
You keep pounding these facts. No one disputes them. But facts like the last one is what we like to call a distinction without a difference.
We know what the problem is. We need to solve it.
[123] chifi,
Seems that Obama missed the chance to take a page out of Reagan’s book and proclaim that it is “morning in America. Again”
Nom
When you read an article not saying the whole picture is not fair for readers that do not have time to recearch the facts.
I do not disagree we need to do something with entitlements,it is not as bad as being spinned
“For Social Security (including disability) the government took in $572 billion in FY2012. But the government spent $773 billion on both retirement and disability, or 35% more than it taxed.”
Gotta say peace out for the weekend. Off to Wildwood, and not for the beach or funnelcakes. Instead, two days at this:
http://www.spiritbrands.org/2012/07/mid-atlantic-national-championships.html
Pray for my soul, everyone.
On the plus side, I found out that the Event Manager at the convention center is a former Bay Statah and fellow Sawx/Pats/C’s/Broons fan!
Not a single dime is being spent by the Fed from the Fed tax collection,Entitlements are designed not to take a single dime out from their assets.
Not as being spinned
Seems I need one of these for the weekend:
http://www.zazzle.com/fdic_flat_broke_daughter_is_cheerleader_tshirt-235541342827345369
And the rest of you need this one:
http://www.cafepress.com/mf/4117808/uncle-sam-8x10_tshirt
Pacific Investment Management Co.’s Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest bond fund, said gross domestic product in the U.S. may expand 3 percent this year, an increase from his firm’s most recent growth estimate of less than 2 percent.
The U.S. is “moving towards a 3 percent real GDP growth rate” this year, and a nominal growth rate of 5 percent, Gross said today in an interview with Tom Keene on “Bloomberg Surveillance”. Pimco said in December that the U.S. would grow between 1.25 percent and 1.75 percent in 2013.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-08/gross-raises-u-s-economic-growth-forecast-to-3-in-2013.html
New industries that will experience growth.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-07/investors-embrace-climate-change-chase-hotter-profits.html
It is a shame that our Social Security Trust Fund has had the United States Congress as it’s Trustee. It has been used, borrowed, misappropriated, commingled and hijacked. A trust fund in the private sector managed as this one would have the trustees in jail. The Lock Box is rhetoric over substance because the Fund remains part of the General Fund in the The United States Treasury. Our Government continues to use the current and temporary Social Security surplus to credit our National Debt by commingling the Social Security Trust Fund with the General Fund. This is smoke, and mirrors and our legislators Republican and Democrat alike know this. Yet still they use this hocus pocus accounting to push their own political agenda’s.
Just grieved taxes. Paid 280K for house Feb 2000, went for 137,800 assessed value.
Sandy is going to cause a nightmare in tax grievances. Brian will be proud.
Just more victims of the fed and wall st. The company can’t invest money safely with ZIRP so to make up for it they they start gambling in derivatives and fcuk over a bunch of long time employees.
Essex says:
March 8, 2013 at 10:52 am
MetLife, the largest U.S. life insurer, is set to close a facility in the Somerset section of Franklin Township as part of a broader plan to consolidate 2,600 jobs across the country at two new sites in North Carolina.
The number of jobs leaving New Jersey as a result was not immediately known, said MetLife spokesman John Calagna. But the moves will affect administrative positions for the insurer’s retail business and information technology workers, he said. These positions will be relocated in phases between now and 2015, he said.
Some “critical managers” will be asked to relocate, while others have the chance to apply for a job at the new sites, which are in the cities of Charlotte and Cary, or for other positions within the company for which they qualify.
Did you hire an appraiser? My biggest problem has been finding comps. I live in a small town and there hasn’t been a lot of turnover of homes similar to mine.
146.JJ says:
March 8, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Just grieved taxes. Paid 280K for house Feb 2000, went for 137,800 assessed value.
Sandy is going to cause a nightmare in tax grievances. Brian will be proud.
#129 JJ
I think the value is actually zero. In condo calculations for the likes of maintenance fees outdoor space is not considered. So when working out your share of the building, outdoor space and common space is not included. It is all driven off living space from the studs in. If there is a specific calculation it would be in the Bylaws and original offering statement. Most people don’t read those before buying, when they actually should. They should also review the buildings finances before signing.
http://www.townshipjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130306/NEWS01/130309937/Abandoned-homes-trouble-Byram
Condo CC charges on older buildings are the same for all units. It suprised me that some condos ground level one bedrooms pay the same CC as upper 3 bedrooms.
Coop charges is based on square footage. Bigger pays more.
Fabius Maximus says:
March 8, 2013 at 1:41 pm
#129 JJ
I think the value is actually zero. In condo calculations for the likes of maintenance fees outdoor space is not considered. So when working out your share of the building, outdoor space and common space is not included. It is all driven off living space from the studs in. If there is a specific calculation it would be in the Bylaws and original offering statement. Most people don’t read those before buying, when they actually should. They should also review the buildings finances before signing.
#145 Joyce
You are getting closer to showing that there is two different discussions to be had on the is topic. The biggest issue is that people discussion one side and people answer from the other.
Can SS fund itself, the answer is yes.
Is SS stuffed full of IOUs, yes it is.
The IOUs do not negate the fact that SS is a self supporting model.
Its like a kid saving up for a bike with their piggy bank. The kids keeps putting in every week to build up the total. If the parents keep dipping into the bank and leaving IOUs does that say that the kid is not capable of saving? The issue is as you rightly point out that the parents should not be able to borrow as easily and when the total gets to the point were the kid can buy the bike, the parents better be able to make the purchase.
5 Huge Myths About Social Security
by Ilan Moscovitz, The Motley Fool, Oct 15th 2012 1:23PM
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/10/15/5-huge-myths-about-social-security/
Social Security has been providing Americans with old age, disability, and widow and orphan insurance for as many as 77 years. But like so many of today’s crucial financial topics, it’s also shrouded in myth. Here are five big ones.
Myth No. 1: Social Security is going bankrupt
The biggest misunderstanding out there relates to Social Security’s financial challenges. (A Google search for “Social Security bankruptcy” turned up 50 million hits.) But the fact is that Social Security isn’t going bankrupt, nor is bankruptcy really possible as the system is currently set up.
Here’s the source of the confusion: Historically, Social Security has collected more than it paid out. The extra money built up in a trust fund that collects interest. But due to demographic and economic changes (more on that in a minute), it’s expected that insurance payments will begin to exceed income in 2021. Around 2033, the fund will run out.
But even then, the revenue Social Security collects each year would still be enough to pay out about three-quarters of scheduled benefits as far as the eye can see.
Source: Social Security Administration.
In short, to say Social Security is going bankrupt, you have to ignore its revenues. But by such a weird standard — ignoring revenues and seeing how long it would take expenses to drive tangible net assets to zero — the average member of the Dow would go “bankrupt” in just under three months. (Fascinating bonus trivia: At nine months, Microsoft would survive the longest, while United Technologies wouldn’t last two hours, and eight Dow blue chips – DuPont, Boeing, IBM, Pfizer, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, and Verizon — would already be bankrupt. Again, that’s because ignoring revenues doesn’t make sense.)
Of course, doing nothing would mean that Social Security won’t be able to meet its full obligations two decades from now. But it’s not going bankrupt.
Myth No. 2: Meeting Social Security’s future shortfall is really hard
We only need to come up with about 0.9% of GDP in order to make Social Security’s revenues match up with its expenses for the next 75 years. To put that into perspective, 0.9% is close to the cost of unemployment insurance, the high-end Bush tax cuts, or one-fifth of the Defense budget. That’s not insignificant, but it’s hardly apocalyptic.
There are two basic ways to close that gap. We could increase payroll tax revenue by raising the cap (currently any personal income beyond $110,100 is exempt from Social Security payroll taxes) or raising the rate. Or we could cut benefits by lowering payments and/or raising the retirement age. Other strategies could include things like allowing more immigration to reinforce the population of working-age citizens or paying for it out of the general fund, but they aren’t discussed as often.
Generally speaking, polls tend to show more support for revenue increases than benefit cuts, though there are plenty of different options. To get a sense of what they are, here are a bunch of different tweaks the Congressional Budget Office examined that could help us reach that 0.9% threshold:
Source: Congressional Budget Office.
Myth No. 3: Social Security’s financial challenges are due to rising life expectancies
This one’s only partially true. For the past few decades, there have been about three workers for every Social Security beneficiary. It’s estimated that ratio will fall to around two by 2035. Since Social Security’s revenue is generated by workers, a rising proportion of beneficiaries to workers puts a strain on the system. The idea that it makes sense to cut benefits by raising the retirement age naturally arises out of the fact that life expectancies are rising.
However, three things are important to keep in mind. First, a declining proportion of workers to beneficiaries doesn’t automatically mean Social Security can’t support its beneficiaries because workers become more productive over time. Since 1980, productivity per worker has increased by 78%.
Second, although it’s true that life expectancies at birth have risen quite a bit over recent decades, the more important metric — life expectancies for 65-year-olds – have only risen by about two years since 1980. What’s more, the same seniors who don’t have sources of income besides Social Security haven’t seen the same gains in life expectancy and often work in physically demanding jobs that are harder to perform at 70.
Finally, there are other, perhaps more significant reasons for the projected shortfall, including declining birth rates and rising income inequality over the past several decades.
Myth No. 4: Social Security adds to the deficit
Social Security can’t add to the deficit, because it has its own funding source (Social Security payroll taxes) and isn’t allowed to spend any money it doesn’t have. Much of the confusion comes from the fact that under federal accounting practices Social Security is represented in the consolidated federal budget, as well as from the fact that Social Security’s trust fund, like many insurance funds, invests in Treasury bonds. (Bonds are debt investments.)
The exception has been the payroll tax holiday, which lowered payroll taxes starting in January 2011 in order to stimulate the economy. During that period, the federal government made up the lost revenue to Social Security that would have been collected. The holiday is expected to end next year.
Myth No. 5: Social Security only provides retirement benefits
Social Security isn’t a retirement savings plan. It’s actually a universal insurance program that helps protect workers, retirees, and their families from life’s unknowns. Most Social Security benefits do support retirees via old-age insurance, but some also provide insurance in case people become disabled, widowed, or orphaned.
Source: Social Security Administration.
Keep in mind…
Social Security makes up the majority of income for two-thirds of all retirees. And it will continue to be around unless we decide to eliminate it.
At the same time, Social Security was never meant to cover our full income needs during retirement. The average retirement benefit last month was $1,235 — an important chunk of income — but probably not enough by itself to live off of comfortably. Retirement experts generally estimate that maintaining a preretirement lifestyle requires about 70% of preretirement income.
So, if you’re still in your working years and have paid off any high-interest debt, make sure that you’re setting aside and investing some money each month. When it comes time to retire, you’ll thank yourself.
Most would agree that today’s jobs report was a welcome one. U.S. companies added more jobs in February than most economists expected.
However, ECRI’s Lakshman Achuthan sees it differently. He just posted on ECRI’s website:
Year-over-year growth in nonfarm payroll jobs has now dropped to an 18-month low, and household job growth has dropped to a 16-month low. Following this morning’s jobs report we have updated the jobs growth charts in our recent presentation, Recession in the Yo-Yo Years, that illustrate the role of skewed seasonal factors in the economic data.
Here’s more from the presentation he references:
Indeed, these pictures of job growth shown by both the establishment and the household surveys are quite similar, and affirm that job growth is rolling over rather than improving. The so-called “improving trend” in job growth is largely illusory, according to both the establishment and household surveys. Quite simply, U.S. job growth is worsening, not getting better.
Achuthan believes this reinforces his thesis that the U.S. economy is currently in recession.
Damnit. Everything I want to use is a foreclosure or has that code 26 on it. Bastards.
http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/sr.cgi?&district=1915&ms_user=&srnum=3827133&block=2.02&lot=2&qual=
82.Ottoman says:
March 7, 2013 at 4:29 pm
The cheap Sandy sales won’t be eligible anyway. A code gets tacked on any sale that’s considered distressed making it unusable as a comp.
Code 26 is notorious for squelching tax appeals because its a catch all for anything the town doesn’t want used.
Unusable code 13
http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/sr.cgi?&district=1915&ms_user=&srnum=3479516&block=17.01&lot=53&qual=
Unusable code 26
http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/sr.cgi?&district=1915&ms_user=&srnum=3479041&block=4.04&lot=9&qual=
Unusable code 13
http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us/cgi-bin/sr.cgi?&district=1915&ms_user=&srnum=3479516&block=17.01&lot=53&qual=
What the he11?
Code 26 baby.
Brian [155];
Definitely funny business going on in the tax-assessor’s offices. I recently found out my sale was classified an non-usable for comp purposes. Kind of makes me feel good. I must have gotten a deal if the tax assessor doesn’t want anyone else using it as a comp.
By the same token, it seems that well over half the recent sales in my town are classified the same way. Easy to win tax appeals if the assessor gets to hand-pick what can be used as evidence. (They MUST have been distressed… why else would they sell so low?)
Code 26. Sales which for some reason other than specified in the enumerated categories are not deemed to be a transaction between a willing buyer, not compelled to buy, and a willing seller, not compelled to sell;
What the heck is that supposed to mean?
technically any seller who bought in the years between 2004-present is a code 26. As is any buyer. Obviously they are selling under duress, in these upside down times who but a crazy person would be willing to buy and since only a crazy person would be willing to sell and lose their expected value on a house. Estate sales code 26 since the grieving are not willing sellers. Our proximity to NY and all the area has to offer could not make somone rationally sell their home. To be honest with you no person knowing the value of a home and the anchor they are to communties would dare sell unless forced. Therefore all real estate transactions must be code 26. Well how do i find any comaprables to appeal my taxes? That is the beauty of it my boy, there aren’t any.
hat tip Joseph Heller. code 26 NJ’s version of catch 22.
Brian you really think the ramp up in appeals these towns were not going to find some all encompassing code to keep us serfs from appealing. WE are mearly instruments to provide for the glorious civil servants of this workers paradise. We should be glad they let us live here at all.
Assuming a lot of things (such as Social Security is constitutional, and is a good program for everyone, and should exist)… yes social security can be tweaked to last a very long time in some shape or form. And by that I mean with slightly higher FICA taxes and less benefits by raising the age or means-testing or a combination of all three.
Now to your points. The IOU’s do not affect the program’s hypothical model, but they do represent a problem because trillions of dollars that should be there, aren’t anymore cause the FedGov stole them and spent them immediately rather than leaving them there for future SS payments. So the coming wave of boomers without this built up nest egg does represent a problem for the program’s viability.
Your analogy… The Parents (gov) should never be able to borrow/steal from a dedicated funding source if we’re going to have something like social security. And you do hint at the program, The Parents (gov) can NOT make good on their promises now (in full) that it’s time to buy the kid a bike.
The Yome’s of the world openly advocate for borrowing/printing to make up the short fall which negatively affects everyone now and in the future who had no part in the original theft.
152.Fabius Maximus says:
March 8, 2013 at 2:22 pm
#145 Joyce
You are getting closer to showing that there is two different discussions to be had on the is topic. The biggest issue is that people discussion one side and people answer from the other.
Can SS fund itself, the answer is yes.
Is SS stuffed full of IOUs, yes it is.
The IOUs do not negate the fact that SS is a self supporting model.
Its like a kid saving up for a bike with their piggy bank. The kids keeps putting in every week to build up the total. If the parents keep dipping into the bank and leaving IOUs does that say that the kid is not capable of saving? The issue is as you rightly point out that the parents should not be able to borrow as easily and when the total gets to the point were the kid can buy the bike, the parents better be able to make the purchase.
Given that you can’t eat or fuel up your car with stock certificates, it’s important to remember that we all live in an inflation-adjusted world. And that there are serious, serious consequences to out of control money printing by central banks.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-08/reality-check-dow-jones-industrial-average-vs-bananas
Raise SS full retirement age to 68…end of story……raise Medicare to 66….end of story….is it a big deal…abosolutely not….anyone who says differently is a panderer or fcuking liar….
joyce says:
March 8, 2013 at 3:59 pm
Assuming a lot of things (such as Social Security is constitutional, and is a good program for everyone, and should exist)… yes social security can be tweaked to last a very long time in some shape or form. And by that I mean with slightly higher FICA taxes and less benefits by raising the age or means-testing or a combination of all three.
You want inflation? With an EZ Pass discount with off-peak pricing, to pay JUST TOLLS from Colts Neck to the NYC side of the Holland Tunnel and back is $23.45.
joyce says:
March 8, 2013 at 4:52 pm
Given that you can’t eat or fuel up your car with stock certificates, it’s important to remember that we all live in an inflation-adjusted world. And that there are serious, serious consequences to out of control money printing by central banks.
Anyone watch this one tonight?
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/inside-secrets-real-estate-agents/story?id=18677976
High five for all the programmers. Chris Bosh went up several points in my book.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dU1xS07N-FA