From the NY Times:
Future Takes Shape for Bell Labs Site
Decades before the first smartphone, researchers at Bell Labs in central New Jersey developed the technology that ushered in the digital age.
Now, the building that is as magnificent in its design as the discoveries that were made here will have another chapter in its storied life.
Late last month, Somerset Development bought the mirrored glass building, completed in 1962, and its pastoral grounds from Alcatel-Lucent for $27 million after the Township of Holmdel approved an ambitious redevelopment proposal that includes plans for a health care center, residences, a hotel and retail space.
While the sale ends a protracted debate over the fate of the vacant structure, set on 473 acres in a wealthy rural community, filling 1.9 million square feet of space may prove difficult. New Jersey is saturated with aging office parks like this one, where geese roam an empty ring road and old signs still eerily point to vacant parking lots overgrown with weeds.
…
The work once done in Bell Labs helped to foster this new era. James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers, pointed to the advancements that have allowed employees to work remotely. “When the iPhone came out and then the iPad, workers became untethered,” Mr. Hughes said. “They don’t need the office workplace umbilical cord anymore.”Somerset has enlisted an architect, Alexander Gorlin, to help overcome that hurdle by lining the building’s striking five-story, quarter-mile-long atrium with urban amenities, so that an office worker on an upper floor can walk downstairs to a coffee shop, restaurant or bank. But the building needs a critical mass of commercial tenants to support that retail presence.
“It’s a very difficult building for adaptive reuse,” said Suzanne Macnow, a broker for CBRE. “It’s set up with this gigantic center area, like the Mall of America in Minneapolis. It doesn’t make sense to me.”
The building was designed by the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, who also designed the Gateway Arch in St. Louis and the T.W.A. building at Kennedy Airport.
…
Signs of decay at the mammoth building are quite visible — plastic buckets catch water leaking from the glass roof under which scientists developed satellite communications. In 2007, Preservation New Jersey listed the building as one of the state’s top 10 most endangered historical properties.“Personally, I find it difficult to drive by it and see it abandoned. I worked there. My friends worked there,” said Janet Jackel, a physicist who worked at Bell Labs. “You see it as representing the American forward-looking attitudes of the last century, and that’s all been abandoned.”
The redevelopment plan, which would cost well over $100 million, could transform the former Bell Labs building into a commercial center for Holmdel, a community of about 17,000 people. With no downtown, most of the town’s retail properties now sit along busy Route 35.
Some info from Mr. Otteau:
NJ Home Prices Increase for 3rd Consecutive Quarter
The combined effects of rising demand and tight inventory continue to drive home prices higher. Median home prices in New Jersey rose by 4.1% in Q2 compared to one year ago. This marks the largest rise since the housing recovery began and is the 3rd consecutive quarterly increase. The median home price in New Jersey increased to $299,140 in Q2 up from $287,401 one year earlier. Also, the number of homes being offered for sale in New Jersey now stands at its lowest level in 8 years while the pace of sales is the highest in 6 years.
The combined effects of the higher home prices coupled with rising mortgage interest rates caused the affordability of home ownership to decline for the 2nd consecutive quarter. The affordability index in New Jersey declined to 116% in Q2, its lowest level since Q2 2011. This means that a home buyer today earning the state’s median income of $62,338 is able to afford a home that is priced 16% higher than the state’s median home value of $299,140.
#48 JJ (previous thread)
Damm your 1986 Camaro IROC with t-roofs and a whale tale is going to be tough to replace
Funny I’ve been searing for a 1985 Grand Prix with T-Tops for Mrs Fab. Its a tought search. They either want outrageous money for Grandmas POS or its one of these.
http://cars.oodle.com/detail/1983-pontiac-grand-prix/3363526225-lancaster-oh/?cm_mmc=OODLE_PREVIEW-_-www-_-NA-_-NA
Reminds me of this story:
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/08/abandoned_bell_labs_could_make.html
[2] fab,
Think that’s hard? Try finding mid-70s.
Bell Labs is so 1970.
Apple and NSA rule the world.
Word.
Buy an American car made in the 70s or 80s? You can’t possibly be serious.
From HousingWire:
Mortgage application filings tumble 13.5%
Mortgage application filings fell 13.5% from a week earlier during the survey period ending Sept. 6, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported Wednesday.
Mirroring this downward trend, the MBA refinance index also dropped 20% from the previous week, reaching its lowest level since June 2009.
Overall, the refinance share of mortgage activity dropped to 57% of all mortgage applications, down from 61% a week earlier. The refinance index alone has fallen 71% from its recent peak in early May, and is now at its lowest level since June 2009.
What could possibly go wrong here? From the Record:
The Bergen County Improvement Authority is seeking state approval to float as much as $800 million in bonds on behalf of Triple Five, the private developer behind the American Dream project in the Meadowlands.
An application approved on Tuesday by the county’s financial arm details a complicated plan involving three public agencies working together on a financing structure that would provide Triple Five with much of the working capital it needs to bring the long dormant retail and entertainment project to life.
Bonds issued by the BCIA could produce as much as $524 million backed by future tax payments due to East Rutherford and $276 million backed by sales and corporate-income taxes due to the state, documents show. Both the borough and the state have indicated they would agree to forgo those payments so the money can instead be used to repay bond holders. In both cases, the repayment funds would come from revenues generated by the project itself.
The $800 million is set as a maximum, allowing enough flexibility to accommodate fluctuations in capital markets. The application lays out a scenario calling for $738.5 million in bonds, including nearly $15 million to cover the costs of issuing the bonds, the application shows.
Only two cars I would want from the 80s Buick Grand National or the 25th anniversary trans am. both can be turned into beasts with a little tuning. Nothing liked getting smoked by grandmas cutlass
anything past 1971 is pretty much worthless though
whoops regal need my morning inspiration
6 – I like mustangs from that era. I had a 1987 Mercury Cougar with the 5.0 Liter V8. I was looking for a mustang at the time and stumbled onto it. Miss that car. Sold it to a college kid who I saw driving it as recently as the mid 2000’s…
Only thing I didn’t like was that the cruise control shorted out from time to time and caused the car to accelarate by itself. Other than that…no big deal.
Thought they were planning to release a new Grand National/GNX this year.
inflation anyone? inflation is dead.
@WSJ: The bottom 20% of earners in the U.S. make on average 4% less, after tax, than they did in 2008. http://t.co/f5icwKOyEj
heard it was going to be all wheel drive but a 4 door so I don’t know how I feel about that and seeing how GM failed mserably on the relaunched GTO and couldn’t sell the 4 door corvette G8 I’m not holding my breath.
Personally if I was going to get a modern american performance car with some practicality it would be CTS V wagon. 580 HP grocery getter.
I dont know. $252 sounds kinda cheap for LI. I know NJ gives less. I mean I see blue collar folks regularly take their family to Jets and Giants games where tickets are $140 each and with parking and food/beer that is almost a 1,000 day if you have good seats. Then to turn around and give $252 is kinda crazy.
I was guessing maybe same as a wedding. $50 per person I think was going rate in Long Island when I was in Junior High.
On LI at Bar and Bat Mitzs and even weddings very often I see folks write amount during dinner on check. I know their is not a direct correlation between cost and check but you should attempt to cover your plate unless you are young or low income.
I have to do the 18 divisible. It is in the temple and I am going to ceremony since girl is one of my kids best friends.
Unless I can borrow the car from back to the future and get a fro and a gold chain to wear and go back to 1973 I dont know if $50 will fly.
BTW last Jewish big deal wedding I went to the Dads on both sides had all their business associates attend. The going gift was 5k a couple. And that was 20 years ago. I recall the father of bride gave groom a brand new 560sl as a wedding gift and father of groom gave couple a mansion in Five Towns on the water as a wedding gift. Couple was 22. That was some wedding. Cigars, jagermeisters, we have curtain across room and on my side all the men plus non-jewish girls. My date knew her from college, casually. My date was a bit of a tramp to be honest. But man. five foot seven, 115 pounds, blonde hair and blue eyes like a model. The orthodox men were loving her legs crossed, nice fat cigar in mouth doing shots of jagermeister while eating prime rib. Place was across the street from a three hour hotel on Jericho tpke by route 110. Stupid Lowes bought place a few years ago and tore it down.
Jews throw a great party. But they throw us middle class gentiles off as we rarely go to all out weddings.
Libtard at home says:
September 10, 2013 at 11:19 pm
JJ: One does not gift on the fanciness of the affair unless it is completely informal. And I’ve been to a few of those crazy lavish affairs. I usually give about $50 per person invited, but to be stupidly traditional, make the final amount divisible by 18. So, $252 in this case. If it’s a business associate, give a little more.
When I bought my BMW the week of Lehman collapse at auction. My friend had a chance to buy me a 2007 STS V series Caddie. The caddie with the vette engine that goes 200 miles per hour and seats five and even has car seat holders.
My wife was like why do you need to go 200 miles an hour on way to train. I am like why wouldnt I?
Then I try to explain South Beach Florida is 1,000 miles a way. I could put all five in the car, strap the baby in the car seat and throw all the luggage in the trunk and be there in five hours. We could go for weekend. Then I tried to explain, DC, Boston, Philly, at 200 mph with Philly 90 miles away we could be there in 25 minutes.
Women dont understand.
Painhrtz – Disobey! says:
September 11, 2013 at 8:46 am
heard it was going to be all wheel drive but a 4 door so I don’t know how I feel about that and seeing how GM failed mserably on the relaunched GTO and couldn’t sell the 4 door corvette G8 I’m not holding my breath.
Personally if I was going to get a modern american performance car with some practicality it would be CTS V wagon. 580 HP grocery getter.
JJ: VZ? $49B……unfcukingbelievable…..I’m speechless
I’ve got to imagine fuel consumption at 200mph has got to be close to a gallon a minute.
Chi – From the WSJ piece on this:
Verizon has received more than $90 billion worth of investor orders for the debt, said the people familiar with the matter. The company initially expected to sell about $20 billion of debt this week but repeatedly increased that target over the past week as orders kept flowing in.
grim: just recall that AAPL’s all-time record deal was $17B, and that amount is insane to try and move…this one is 3x?!?
2 things….the $90B is not a real number….investor estimate a percentage of their order that they will receive and bid accordingly. If they want $50M and think they will be filled at 40%, then they will order $125M…..if the deal starts to get messy, then they get filled at 80, 90, 125 and they may balk……
It appeared to be a multi-currency, multi-market deal, but it was so oversubscribed in the U.S. that they pulled it off the table….
rather unlikely that the bunch of uncultured teatards around here read the New Yorker, but the latest cover is funny and very much apropos with this blog.
manhattan. knocked up mom perusing the real state listings on a street window while dad standing next to her,carrying a crying baby, stares towards the tunnel and the big sign
“78 Holland Tunnel
New Jersey”
Awesome
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/09/cover-story-adrian-tomine-crossroads.html#slide_ss_0=1
[21] anon,
Better an uncultured teatard than a useless, effete, elitist. Besides, why read propaganda when we have you to summarize it for us?
Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to supporting all your taker friends.
funny yes but wow now we are uncultured. Didn’t realize I had to read the New Yorker to be properly inculturated. I guess my years of reading art history, classical literature and listening to classical music have been a total waste. Thank you arbiter of what right thinking people should read. I’ll promptly report to my re-education camp.
From Reuters:
Recession risk gone in all US states but 1: Moody’s Analytics
All U.S. states except for Delaware have escaped the possibility of falling back into recession, as they reap the rewards of strong private-sector employment and a burgeoning energy sector, according to an analysis released on Tuesday.
Moody’s Analytics, which tracks state and metropolitan economies, added Illinois, Wisconsin and Alabama to its list of states in recovery. That left Delaware alone in its “at risk of recession” category.
Moody’s Analytics, a unit of Moody’s evaluates economics and financial risk around the world. A separate unit, the credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service, recently said the outlook for states is now stable, after five years of being negative.
[22] grim,
Pretty spot on, that. But doesn’t the screaming rugrat look a little big to be carried around in Daddy’s Bjorn?
They can do 50 billion. Remember lots of Banks and Insurance companies and Pension funds dont even do mark to market accounting. They care about coupon to match future obligations.
Also lots of folks doing Duration Bar Bells. Lets say you have a fund that does 7-10 year bonds and you think rates are rising. You can by 20% very long and 80% very short and your average duration can be 7 and you protected 80% of assets.
Plus VA is a long term blue chip bond and unlike Apple flash in the pan at low rates. VA has a better coupon and a company that will be in business 30 years from now unlike Apple which could end up like Blackberry, Trio and Palmpilot.
VZ is a buy buy buy for retail investors for remaining odd lots in brokers dust bins later this week. Once pricing is firm, we had a few days of seasoning and brokers have 5k to 25k scraps sitting around they will knock 100bp off to unload.
Chifi bottom line you are losing your religion. Pray to the almightly bond gods, kneel mofo kneel
http://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2013/09/number_of_empty_stores_in_cent.html#incart_m-rpt-1
Hope and change is on the way
Chifi, you can quote me on why Apple stock has crashed.
“Too many cooks, spoil the broth. In this case, one Cook is too many”
Anon [13];
inflation anyone? inflation is dead.
Non sequitir. Just because incomes decline under Obama, doesn’t mean the buying power of the dollar is not being diluted.
Is this the Hope, or the Change?
Fab [2];
I’ve now got the mental image of you driving the pictured car home after buying it. Thanks for the chuckle. ;-)
30 – Load of poo poo.
Teenage girls – Love iPhones – Hate Android (android is for pimply geek sysadmins who think “rooting” is cool, DUDE I CAN SFTP MY PGP FILES RIGHT FROM MY PHABLET, DUDE DID YOU HEAR GUMMY WALRUS 5.7.1 IS IN BETA)
Teenage girls love 80s day glow neon colors.
Apple makes day glow neon iPhone with retro 80s case – Score
Teenage boys love teenage girls – so they’ll want these by association.
Lumia? Please, you want to see a 13 year old flip her shit, get her a Nokia Lumia and try to justify it. Put the hot poker in the fire before you give her the phone, about 5 minutes in you’ll be begging to burn your eyes out with it. She is right too, she’ll almost immediately be an outcast because of it. Think of the money you’ll need to waste on a Shrink for trying to save fifteen dollars.
Every kid in high school will have one of these come Spring recess.
Gold iPhone? Genius – Every baller on the street is going to want to be rocking a phone that matches their grille. Forget about that Movado or Breitling – This is the new street jewelry. Will be the hottest fashion accessory this fall, no doubt at all. Gold iPhone sales will be out of control in Asia.
Laugh all you want, this space is all about marketing now. Beats by Dre will do close to $1.5 billion this year, read that again, $1.5 billion dollars. You think image doesn’t matter? You are dead wrong.
I own no AAPL directly, it’s a small component of some of the funds/indexes I hold, not material. I have no vested interest in their success of failure.
Apple’s stock has crashed due to their inability to introduce new products. Since Jobs passed, not a single new product has been released. Just updates to current products. Jobs replaced the music store and walkman with iPods and iTunes. Jobs single-handedly put the smart in smart phone with the IOS in the iPhone. He then went on to eliminate the laptop with the iPad. Not to mention the one piece computer he developed earlier in the iMac (which was really just a reintroduction of the Mac Plus from the 80s). Since he croaked, Apple has done nothing but reduce or increase the size of their iPads and iPhones to try to keep up with what is being offered more cheaply on the android platform. I sold the remainder of my Apple shares in the 600s, though my investment club still has some. We are three months away from our drop dead date to unload them. We started building our position in the mid 2000s so we are fine. Sadly, Apple is drastically undervalued based on current sales and earnings. But their impossibly low p/e for historic growth only makes sense in light of their complete lack of innovation since Jobs passing.
Grim,
I agree with you about the fashion over functionality issue with the teenage and college set, but on the commuter train, in the past two years we have gone from 90% iPhones to about 80% android. They are cheaper, bigger, faster and easier to hack than jailbreaking an iPhone.
Incomes have been declining / stagnating / declining in real terms for a very long time.
Anon E. Moose says:
September 11, 2013 at 10:26 am
Anon [13];
inflation anyone? inflation is dead.
Non sequitir. Just because incomes decline under Obama, doesn’t mean the buying power of the dollar is not being diluted.
Is this the Hope, or the Change?
How much money has the govt provide you with directly and indirectly over the years?
Comrade Nom Deplume, unpacking boxes for the foreseeable future says:
September 11, 2013 at 9:53 am
[21] anon,
Now if you will excuse me, I have to get back to supporting all your taker friends.
but on the commuter train, in the past two years we have gone from 90% iPhones to about 80% android
IMHO – If their fingerprint technology isn’t interwoven with a strong push towards corporate IT security – they missed the train. A major component of IOS 7 should have been the necessary security and configuration technology necessary to integrate it into the corporate workplace seamlessly.
With Blackberry basically dead at this point, and Nokia going to be in limbo for the next year, at least, they had a perfect window to attack it.
In addition – I continue to question why they haven’t made a stronger push towards taking over the automobile space, I recall a few news stories about Apple making a push into automotive electronics – this is a NO BRAINER – they could have easily had first mover here. However, it’s clear that in order to do this, they need to partner with a select group of manufacturers.
‘Tard – globally teenagers (or adults behaving like teenagers) are a much bigger market than professionals commuting to the City.
The bulk of the eight-part offering is skewed toward the long end of the yield curve, with Verizon selling $15 billion in the 30-year tranche, $6 billion in the 20-year tranche, and $11 billion in the 10-year tranche, The company is also selling $4.25 billion in 3-year notes, $4.75 billion in 5-year notes, and $4 billion in 7-year notes; additionally, it will sell $2.25 billion in 3-year floaters and $1.75 billion in 5-year floaters.
If folks are so broke how come VZ can sell 50 billion in bonds in one day?
[37] Joyce,
Not nearly as much as I have provided to them.
If you want to get into the weeds on a tax and welfare policy debate, I am game.
But not right now. Right now, I am on a conference call discussing whether or not to modify the form and regulations for reporting real estate transactions on Form 1099.
What a train wreck Wiener is. He simply can’t come to grips with the prospect of working in the private sector and actually having to do something useful for a living. Especially now since he’s made his wife a pariah in the Hillary camp.
Flips off reporters after conceding defeat in NYC Mayoral Primary.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/10/anthony-weiner-middle-finger_n_3903886.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
42 – Sure that was his finger?
cobbler,
I hear what you are saying, but would argue that outside of the first world, Apple is nearly non-existent due to price. Apple will continue to sell lots of iPhones, but their margins are slipping as is their growth. Forget the car stuff Grim. Apple should revolutionize TV which is a natural progression for them, but I’m not talking about another NetFlix or Roku. TV should be truly interactive. I’m surprised it is not. Especially when you consider how much TV talk there is at the watercooler at work. The STB is dying for a better interface. Fios has made some strides in this area, but Apple (the masters of the interface) could hit a homerun here. Unfortunately, the post Jobs Apple seems content to continue to bunt.
Dude, you are way off. Apple succeeded because Steve Jobs made us want stuff we didn’t even know we needed. When products were released, they turned industries upside down. Everyone was trying to play catch up.
You’re right, they have some people hooked into their eco system who will never want to get out. They are certainly here to stay. But they can’t grow their business by re-releasing the same products with faster hardware or new do-dads. The whole charm of apple products was that nobody gave a sh1t what processor or harware was in it anyway….it just worked.
33.grim says:
September 11, 2013 at 10:41 am
30 – Load of poo poo.
Teenage girls – Love iPhones – Hate Android (android is for pimply geek sysadmins who think “rooting” is cool, DUDE I CAN SFTP MY PGP FILES RIGHT FROM MY PHABLET, DUDE DID YOU HEAR GUMMY WALRUS 5.7.1 IS IN BETA)
99% of people don’t even know how many “bits” their OS is. Frankly, they don’t care either.
#28 JJ
Big difference between VZ and APPL is Hard Assets!
But they can’t grow their business by re-releasing the same products with faster hardware or new do-dads.
So, how exactly, are Samsung and HTC going to be successful in this space? What you’ve described is essentially the core of the Android model, almost every device is identical save for processor, memory, and screen size. The curse of Android is the commoditization of their space, differentiation in the Android space is almost entirely around brands and screen sizes (and useless bloatware too). Give it a year or two and Android is going to become a lag on hardware innovation (for the same reason you never saw hardware innovation in the Microsoft-based PC space either – a single shared OS breeds commoditization).
Frankly, if Microsoft can pull off the Nokia acquisition and integration properly, they might be the biggest threat to the space. There is something to be said for owning both the hardware platform *AND* OS when it comes to innovation flexibility.
Joyce most likely pays little taxes.
A relative who is a state work whose husband is unemployed had the balls to question why I got $31,900 from FEMA even though I had no flood insurance.
Meanwhile her whole salary, pension, medical and husbands unemployment is ok.
I had some stocks vest a few weeks after my FEMA pay out and they witheld almost 50K from it for taxes.
Folks with kids, old folks, folks with financial aid, folks on welfare basically drains on GDP who pay very little taxes always complain the rich pay no taxes. Back in 2009 when I was trading like crazy I got hit with a ton of taxes which I paid.
Funny I took all the risks, did all the work, busted my butt on those trades and the baby mamas reached in my pocket and took 50% in my taxes and complained they did not get the other 50%.
libtard [44]
In the land of the hairy crabs, it looks like the two symbols of success (usually present together) are a foreign-brand car and an IPhone, though usually 4 or 4S. And right now, China is the world’s biggest new car market…
If you use VZ on your Apple phone to looked at porn videos you do end up with a hard asset.
Fabius Maximus says:
September 11, 2013 at 11:32 am
#28 JJ
Big difference between VZ and APPL is Hard Assets!
If you use VZ on your Apple phone to looked at p0rn videos you do end up with a hard asset.
Fabius Maximus says:
September 11, 2013 at 11:32 am
#28 JJ
Big difference between VZ and APPL is Hard Assets!
I think the goal is to make your computing experience similar over multiple hardware platforms…phone/pc/tablet. We’ll see if they can pull it off.
“Frankly, if Microsoft can pull off the Nokia acquisition and integration properly, they might be the biggest threat to the space. There is something to be said for owning both the hardware platform *AND* OS when it comes to innovation flexibility.”
Apple should revolutionize TV which is a natural progression for them, but I’m not talking about another NetFlix or Roku. TV should be truly interactive. I’m surprised it is not.
I have an Apple TV and have spent at least $120 bucks in the last month serial watching Breaking Bad. That’s more than I spend on cable in a month, and more than I paid for the device.
Look – Tell me if I’m wrong here – But when innovation is being driven by the Operating System – the consortium of manufacturers don’t stand to individually gain from this benefit.
If Android 4.5 introduces some new must-have feature, call it Feature X, every halo phone from every manufacturer is going to include Feature X, it’s not an option.
This is what I mean by innovation being handcuffed by an OS that is predicated on commoditization. Sure – as a whole the consortium stands to gain over non-consortia rivals, but that’s entirely a different matter, and it’s not the individual manufacturer that stands to gain.
All this breeds is a dozen of nearly identical phones from various manufacturers.
It might not be Android and it might not even be a phone. The fact that we’re talking about a phone that came out in 2007 is the problem. What’s the next device? Fancy smart phones are so 2007.
“So, how exactly, are Samsung and HTC going to be successful in this space? What you’ve described is essentially the core of the Android model, almost every device is identical save for processor, memory, and screen size. The curse of Android is the commoditization of their space, differentiation in the Android space is almost entirely around brands and screen sizes (and useless bloatware too). Give it a year or two and Android is going to become a lag on hardware innovation (for the same reason you never saw hardware innovation in the Microsoft-based PC space either – a single shared OS breeds commoditization).”
I’ll dub it product “smear”, and it’s the antithesis of differentiation. I bet the average consumer on the street is thoroughly confused by Android.
Can someone tell me what the difference between these are?
Droid Moto X
Droid MAXX
Droid Razr
Droid Razr HD
Droid Razr MAXX HD
Droid Ultra
Droid Mini
Are you kidding me by stating that all Apple can do is release the same product? In the current lineup – you have at least 7 almost identical devices, which are almost identical to the previous suite of products.
Apple is going the way of Blackberry. All hail Android and Google and Glass!
Comrade,
“Right now, I am on a conference call discussing whether or not to modify the form and regulations for reporting real estate transactions on Form 1099.”
Discussing with whom? govt agency, lobbying group, other?
I am game to repeat what has been told to JJ several times considering he has no memory. Well, just one quick example… all of your “gains” and what not the last few years, not to speak of the majority of the finance industry would still be in shambles if it wasn’t for the gov/fed et al bailout / print fest.
Try again
JJ says:
September 11, 2013 at 11:35 am
Joyce most likely pays little taxes.
A relative who is a state work whose husband is unemployed had the balls to question why I got $31,900 from FEMA even though I had no flood insurance.
Meanwhile her whole salary, pension, medical and husbands unemployment is ok.
I had some stocks vest a few weeks after my FEMA pay out and they witheld almost 50K from it for taxes.
Folks with kids, old folks, folks with financial aid, folks on welfare basically drains on GDP who pay very little taxes always complain the rich pay no taxes. Back in 2009 when I was trading like crazy I got hit with a ton of taxes which I paid.
Funny I took all the risks, did all the work, busted my butt on those trades and the baby mamas reached in my pocket and took 50% in my taxes and complained they did not get the other 50%.
JJ,
You are a government worker. You pay no taxes, you merely remit part of the “income” the government provides you with.
You’re not getting it. Apple has a fantastic phone. Nobody can dispute that. A majority of people might even argue it is the best smart phone. But we’ve been talking about phones since 2007…….
Apple was the company that came out with the ipod…and it turned the music industry on its head. Dominant players died….(Tower Records?)
Then the iphone…and they turned the smartphone business on it’s head. Dominant players are suffering a slow death….(Blackberry?)
Then the ipad….who the hell wants a laptop anymore?
We’re waiting for them to come up with something else….
56.grim says:
September 11, 2013 at 11:50 am
I’ll dub it product “smear”, and it’s the antithesis of differentiation. I bet the average consumer on the street is thoroughly confused by Android.
Can someone tell me what the difference between these are?
Droid Moto X
Droid MAXX
Droid Razr
Droid Razr HD
Droid Razr MAXX HD
Droid Ultra
Droid Mini
Are you kidding me by stating that all Apple can do is release the same product? In the current lineup – you have at least 7 almost identical devices, which are almost identical to the previous suite of products
Apple is on top of the world right now. If they want to stay there, they have to keep it going. They have to look at something each and every one of us does everyday and come up with a device that makes that task more fun or easier.
Want an example of a technology company that experiences rapid growth and innovation then sits on it’s laurels? Look no further than the Bell Labs building in Holmdel.
62 – If what you are talking about is disruptive innovation, frankly, I’ll put my dollars on that innovation to come out of the United States than the Far East.
Does anyone really expect this kind of disruptive innovation to be released on an annual basis, like clockwork? It’s an amazing feat for a company to have done it only once.
Juice Box says:
September 10, 2013 at 7:25 pm
Solar for the house, we are getting and estimate this week? Does it increase value?
—-
Research the replacement cost of the storage. I started looking around, and even the die-hard solar-fan forums are pretty down on the outlook right now until something awesome happens on the technology front. The battery costs are enormous and neverending.
Stu: Sounds like a bit of revisionist history……remember your bets from last fall?
Libtard in the City says:
September 11, 2013 at 10:47 am
I sold the remainder of my Apple shares in the 600s, though my investment club still has some. We are three months away from our drop dead date to unload them. We started building our position in the mid 2000s so we are fine. Sadly, Apple is drastically undervalued based on current sales and earnings. But their impossibly low p/e for historic growth only makes sense in light of their complete lack of innovation since Jobs passing.
I see the Iphone going the way of the Mac. Beautiful technology, but in order to maintain control and profit margins, they end up being priced into a corner, as generic androids provide similar functionality for significantly less.
Samsung is more than happy to take 90% market share with thin margins, that’s their entire business model.
The battery costs are enormous and neverending.
There are no economical solutions for on-site power storage, grid-tie is the *only* option. A cheap generator is wildly more cost effective than solar and batteries.
I state again – there is zero payback on resale for solar – ZERO – You will not get a penny back.
Also – Keep in mind that the cost per watt for Solar cells is dropping precipitously. If you pay $30k for your solar cells this year, in 7-10 years the cost for similar technology will likely be half, or less than half, and the new technology will be much more efficient.
If you are having a third party installing this – You will get screwed on labor costs.
Lastly – factor in the cost of replacing your roof before you do this – placing new solar cells over a roof that only has 10-15 years of life left is a stupid plan. The cost associated with removing the cells, replacing the roof, and reinstalling the cells in the future (in addition to doing the roof, and having the ham-fisted roofers bust half the cells) would probably make you cry.
Brian[62]
The only reason Bell Labs existed at all was Ma Bell being a national phone monopoly. Since its profit margin (like the one of utility) had been regulated, it had been free to spend whatever it wanted on various things, including massive support of fundamental R&D in sciences. Essentially, ratepayers were involuntarily financing Bell Labs. Once AT&T was broken up and forced to compete, the Labs had no chance for survival; all the NSF, DOE and DOD grants they had couldn’t support even a quarter of the organization, and the newfangled Lucent had as much knack for anything with payoff over the horizon as any other corporation in a cutthroat environment (=zero). Summary: if you like low telecom prices AND want fundamental science, ask your Congressman to increase its funding…
ChiFi: Don’t remind me. It’s been a while and I’ve bought and sold Apple a sh1tload of times over the past ten years. I know I predicted they would go to 1,000, but this was based on the expectation that Apple would actually release something new periodically.
It’s funny, in the half a decade before Cook took over, I would say that half of Apple’s product release announcements contained something completely unexpected and frequently the product was well received. Since Cook took over, everything that has been released has been expected.
There is one thing about Jobs that I never understood though. His refusal to split the stock (not that I personally think it makes any difference), and his refusal to issue dividends. Anyone know why he took these positions?
Does everyone remember when their laptops and iMacs stopped shipping with floppy drives. Everyone predicted it was the dumbest mistake Apple had made to that day. He really was an amazing mind.
#57 JJ
If you look at it on your wife’s Verizon IPhone you get No Assests!
Anon (21):
I read New Yorker magazine cause the wife gets a free subscription. It is mostly liberal elitest drivel and my wife agrees with my opinion.. Be hip and read New York Magazine, unless you like being these people…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FAI_-woNh4
Since Cook took over, everything that has been released has been expected.
So … was it just that Jobs did a better job at managing product leaks? Wasn’t he notorious for firing people (or having people fired at suppliers) for leaks? I recall some anecdotes. I haven’t heard anything about Cook having legs broken – Surely that’s something easily done in China these days. I recall Jobs once saying that he would terminate the relationship with a major supplier should a leak be traced back to them. Imagine the cost implications of such a thing? This isn’t wrist slapping, this is a billion dollar an*l raping.
IMHO – If Jobs was around – the fingerprint reader and the motion processor would have been heralded as revolutions, groundbreaking, setting the stage for hundreds (if not thousands) of new apps and app updates. Jesus, just think of all the possibilities. The guy could make the masses drool over a pile of turds. Tim? Tim’s not a religion the way Jobs was. Ashton Kutcher is not going to be playing Tim Cook in 10 years time.
Perception is a bitch, eh? Instead of Cook presenting the next release – Why not a digital rendering of Jobs giving the presentation, voice and all, and have the whole thing powered from an iPhone. Instead of Siri being an annoying chick – it should be Jobs – head and all – Max Headroom style. Bet it would be better received by the masses.
From the WaPo:
Apple’s culture of secrecy is breaking down
One of the hallmarks of a Steve Jobs keynote was the “one more thing” he often unveiled at the end of a presentation. This closing flourish depended on the element of surprise, and so it only worked because Apple was an extraordinarily secretive company.
Tim Cook has pledged to continue that legacy. “We’re going to double down on secrecy on products,” Jobs’s successor as chief executive said at a conference last year.
But if Tuesday’s announcements are any indication, Cook hasn’t succeeded. In her rumor roundup, posted a few hours before Cook’s keynote, our colleague Hayley Tsukayama predicted that Apple would unveil iOS 7, the iPhone 5S and the iPhone 5C. She reported that the new iPhone would include a fingerprint scanner.
She even got the colors right. She knew Apple would add gold to its traditional white and black color options for high-end phones. And she wrote that the company is “expected to release the 5C with a variety of candy-colored backs.”
[58] joyce
Federal advisory committee. And I think that change is unlikely.
[71] all hype
I think anon does like being one of those people. So he probably doesn’t get where you are coming from.
You are not elitist if you get the New Yorker for free. You MUST pay for it.
[6] & [11] grim & Brian,
I’m with grim. Any American car later than ’72 is crap until the very recent past, but I’ll give special dispensation to ’73 Olds Delta 88s, ’75-’85 being the crap epicenter. My wife had an ’86 Mustang convertible, a graduation present from her parents bought new, and it was crap too. My ’74 Buick Limited with the 455 was OK, but still crap for reliability. My ’77 Camaro was great after my friend, as the previous owner, spent $8K and a lot of time rebuilding the engine and T-10 tranny, but it was crap from the factory too. I never owned an 80’s American car myself, and was never inclined toward any either because they were all crap, crap, crap. The only good American Cars you could buy in the late 70’s and early 80’s were built in the 60’s. A friend of mine bought a spotless ’67 Cutlass convertible in 1978 for $500. That was a car. We have a completely restored ’72 El Camino in the garage, that’s a nice car too. ’73 and beyond was the worst crap ever built (again, except for ’73 Olds 88s – my family owned several of them, most bought in the early 80’s)
Buy an American car made in the 70s or 80s? You can’t possibly be serious.
6 – I like mustangs from that era. I had a 1987 Mercury Cougar with the 5.0 Liter V8. I was looking for a mustang at the time and stumbled onto it. Miss that car. Sold it to a college kid who I saw driving it as recently as the mid 2000′s…
Only thing I didn’t like was that the cruise control shorted out from time to time and caused the car to accelarate by itself. Other than that…no big deal.
From Bloomberg:
JPMorgan Removes Lending Barriers in Booming U.S. Markets
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), the nation’s largest bank by assets, is easing mortgage lending standards in housing markets hard hit by the crash where prices are surging.
The bank lowered some down payment requirements in Florida, Nevada, Arizona and Michigan because they will “no longer be considered distressed states,” it informed smaller lenders it buys loans from in July. The second-largest U.S. mortgage lender also loosened underwriting requirements for a refinancing program for Federal Housing Administration borrowers.
As the economy rebounds and home values climb at about the fastest pace since 2006, lenders including the largest, Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), JPMorgan, Bank of America Corp. (BAC), and mortgage insurers are easing the tightest credit conditions in two decades, lifting restrictions put in place after the worst real estate bust since the Great Depression. Banks are being forced to compete harder for customers after a spike in borrowing costs from near-record lows slowed refinancing by more than 70 percent and curbed what had been record profits.
“Historically, you make underwriting as tough as possible when people are lined up at the door and when the lines go away, you start loosening underwriting to get people back,” said Guy Cecala, publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.
Chevy Novas were OK until they went away forever in 1979, just not really exciting in the final years.
[78] It’s like Déjà vu all over again.
[18] I had an ’84 Honda CRX race car, bone stock engine. 35mpg getting to the track 13mpg on the track. That was a 76hp engine in an 1800lb car that only went ~110mph down the straight. A gallon a minute, or 3.33mpg, is probably a generous estimate for a two ton gross weight car with 580hp, what with wind resistance rising with the square of velocity and all. Might be closer to 2 gallons a minute.
I’ve got to imagine fuel consumption at 200mph has got to be close to a gallon a minute.
Nothing to do with NJ but everything to do with the date.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/11/2-million-bikers-roar-dc-honor-911-protest-muslim-/
Wikipedia lists the following for the Bugatti Veyron at top speed:
3 miles per U.S. gallon (78 L/100 km; 3.6 mpg-imp), or 1.4 U.S. gal (5.3 L; 1.2 imp gal) per minute
[83] good find grim, I’ve been looking. I think the Cadillac would fare considerably worse (compare the Cadillac frontal area to the Veyron). Also, the Cadillac Northstar, for instance (and many others) have programming in them to run pretty lean at high power for about 10 seconds. This is to meet the emissions requirements. After those 10 seconds, however, the plugs are about ready to melt and it goes to an incredible 10 or 11:1 AFR (very rich) to keep things happy.
84 – If the fuel injection systems are anything like the imports (I’m pretty familiar with Subaru), you end up in a position where the fuel injector solenoids just can’t keep up with the duty cycles being requested – and essentially run full open (aka go static) after a certain point, and the AFRs go rich as the injectors are essentially just dumping fuel. I’m sure this is going to be highly dependent on the kind of injector, the size, the computer, etc etc. In my experience, once you hit 80%, you were essentially at 100%, so if your maps assumed a specific fueling at 85%, and you were really at 100%, you get the point. Increase the injector size to fix this issue at the top end, and you tend to get really shitty low speed driveability and rough idle.
ATEOTD, I think all the outside money that floods into small, local races is largely wasted. This is true of both sides.
http://nation.time.com/2013/09/10/colorados-civil-war/?hpt=hp_bn18
If you are going to try to influence a small race, it doesn’t look good being an outsider. In fact, if you can keep a low profile, you can generally exploit the anticarpetbagger vote.
Speaking of Olds ’88s. Here’s a song by guy who really loves his 88, albeit the ’66-’67 variety.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBXBgz2pOms
Nope could not have predicted this
http://news.yahoo.com/study-wind-farms-killed-67-eagles-5-years-160226373.html
Greenies won’t be happy until we are all luddites
No Va is Spanish for No Go so not a good name.
In the 80s I would say only the Ford Taurus, Mercury Grand Marquis, Chevy Impala and Jeep Wrangler were good running cars. Not sexy but they ran good.
The Original NJ ExPat says:
September 11, 2013 at 2:00 pm
Chevy Novas were OK until they went away forever in 1979, just not really exciting in the final years.
#67..all great points, plus , how many screws, bolts or general holes are punched in the roof to install those panels? What are the odds that some are not sealed perfectly? I can see a day when the solar panel is really a film built into the actual roofing shingle, that ,may work….
Despite the size of the Verizon note sale, investors showed strong demand for the attractive yields on the debt, with buyers bidding up prices immediately after the bonds were allocated.
CHIFI you were wrong!!!!!
#91..Pension funds
My 09 Bullitt Mustang will spank all ya’ll’s little crapass imports. Yo.
…and look and sound better doing it…..!!
Just put some giant cages around those wind farm fans…you know like a fan at home…keep the eagles safe…
one bond desk soliciting offers for the 10 year at 103.00……I literally wrote back “INSULTING”
JJ says:
September 11, 2013 at 4:19 pm
Despite the size of the Verizon note sale, investors showed strong demand for the attractive yields on the debt, with buyers bidding up prices immediately after the bonds were allocated.
CHIFI you were wrong!!!!!
condo you were saying
http://www.dowpowerhouse.com/index.htm
That is 3% for one day. around a 1,000% annual yield.
You either get on a train or get run over.
chicagofinance says:
September 11, 2013 at 4:45 pm
one bond desk soliciting offers for the 10 year at 103.00……I literally wrote back “INSULTING”
JJ says:
September 11, 2013 at 4:19 pm
Despite the size of the Verizon note sale, investors showed strong demand for the attractive yields on the debt, with buyers bidding up prices immediately after the bonds were allocated.
CHIFI you were wrong!!!!!
The nicest system I’ve seen was a combined metal-roofing system, where the solar panels clamped onto the metal roof seam lines. Absolutely zero additional roof penetration. The roof will easily outlast the panels (and probably you).
Solar makes sense in newbuilds – surely if they’re designed in its cheaper as you dont need regular roofing or fancy frames. In any case makes more sense in the South West.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-10/solar-panel-is-next-granite-countertop-for-homebuilders.html
“In the next six months, homebuilders in California and the expensive-energy states will be going solar as a standard, and just incorporating it into the cost of the house like any other feature,” Jim Petersen, chief executive officer of the PetersenDean Inc., the largest closely held U.S. roofing and solar contractor, said in an interview.
@CNBC: [Exclusive] Carl Icahn tells @MariaBartiromo he bought quite a bit of $AAPL shares today; thinks Apple is a no-brainer & extremely cheap.
U.S. Open Tennis (JJ Edition):
http://nypost.com/2013/09/03/check-out-supermodel-kate-upton/#1
I would rather own a case of Marcal than Verizon paper.
I’ve been calling the NYT “Pravda” for years. So this seems only natural.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/12/opinion/putin-plea-for-caution-from-russia-on-syria.html?_r=0
How is this publicly traded company not headquartered in Montklair?
http://www.mimedx.com/products
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