From the Record:
FHA faces more pressure to reduce borrowers’ annual fees
After more than doubling home buyers’ annual fees in the wake of the housing bust, the Federal Housing Administration is facing pressure to roll back the fees, especially now that its insurance fund is in the black again.
The homeowners affected are typically lower- and moderate-income borrowers because FHA loans allow for lower credit scores and lower down payments than other mortgages.
The annual insurance premium paid by most FHA borrowers has risen to 1.35 percent, up from 0.55 percent in 2010 — or more than $300 a month on a $300,000 mortgage. The higher premiums helped to shore up the FHA insurance fund, but they also push up the cost of buying a home, and industry groups say that has slowed the real estate recovery.
Both the National Association of Realtors and the Mortgage Bankers Association have called on the FHA to consider lowering the annual premiums. They were recently joined by the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based progressive group.
…
The National Association of Realtors estimated that last year, nearly 400,000 creditworthy borrowers were unable to buy homes because of the higher FHA premiums.“By lowering its fees, FHA could provide greater access to homeownership for historically underserved groups,” the group said.
In response, the FHA issued a statement saying it is “regularly evaluating a number of factors to ensure our premiums are at the right levels.”
“As a result of the most recent annual report, we are looking through new information and will use that to inform any future decisions,” said a statement from the FHA’s parent agency, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The FHA’s annual report, released recently, said its mortgage insurance fund has a $4.8 billion surplus, after two years of having a balance below zero because of loans gone bad. But, at 0.4 percent of the total FHA insurance outstanding, the fund is still below the 2 percent level required by law. The fund is an extra safety cushion, required by Congress, on top of the annual reserves set aside each year to cover the loans insured in that year.
Say it ain’t so, from HousingWire:
Most homebuyers believe they are better buyers because of online listings
Online listings work and Americans are just plain addicted to them.
Okay, it’s not that bad, but according to a new survey by Discover Home Loans, fully 78% of homebuyers have spent time at work looking at online listings.
“In fact, two-thirds of buyers say browsing properties online has even reached the point of becoming addictive,” the report says.
But it’s not all bad news. Three-quarters of homebuyers feel technology made them smarter and 69% said it made them more confident in the home search process.
It’s like an advent calendar of murder in Newark.
6 murders in 6 days
Err 7 in 7.
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/12/man_shot_and_killed_in_newark_monday_citys_7th_murder_in_as_many_days.html
Very funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I_3kDsbYFA&list=UUHdos0HAIEhIMqUc9L3vh1w&index=133
From yesterday, Redistribution.
Ragnar,
yes, redistribution is happening. Upwards, of course.
@SenSanders: From 2009-2012, the richest 1% of Americans captured 95% of all new income
@ianbremmer: Global Net Worth
85 Richest People: $1.7 Trillion
3.5 Billion Poorest: $1.7 Trillion
Bergen vs Morris. Having lived in both, I would take Bergen every day and twice on Sundays. I like the Blue light laws. If I need something, I take a drive to New York. While you get more house in Morris, the commute is soul destroying. 78 and 80 and and 287 in between is a disaster at rush hour.
Maybe the 3.5 billion poorest people should try harder to create and grow massive enterprises dedicated to providing valuable goods and services to millions of people around the world.
They didn’t build that, did they?
You can also blame the central planners at central banks, who decided to target “aggregate demand” via massive financial market manipulation upwards.
Traffic? Commute? Bergen is equally a disaster during rush hour, and for most of the month of December the 4/17/Parkway intersection becomes the driving equivalent of Mogadishu. God help you if you need to do any kind of east-west traverse of Northern Bergen County, the complete lack of any major east-west corridor pretty much guarantees your trip is going to have another 45 minutes added on to it, except in December, where you might actually die on the trip, I believe the Oregon Trail would have been an easier commute. The Rt 46 corridor from Saddle Brook to Ft. Lee is one of the best examples of deteriorating infrastructure in NJ. Bergen’s rail infrastructure is no better than Passaic County, and subpar compared to Morris and Essex. Chatham, despite being further from NYC than say, Ridgewood, has a shorter commute by train by 10 minutes, and requires no transfer.
Does anyone have an opinion on the NJ town of Sterling?
Living in NJ is soul destroying.
[10] essex
Was there once for a wedding reception. Struck me as semirural, bedroom community without much “there” there. But I think that can be said for much of that area.
[11] toxic
Depends on where you are, what you do, and your tolerance for it all. Living in NJ didn’t completely suck–There are some aspects to life in NJ that I miss.
Though not very much.
[9] grim,
Have to agree. From what I remember of driving in both counties, I hated Bergen with a passion. Always seemed to be worse. As for blue laws (light? KMart?), that’s a personal choice; if I don’t want to shop, I don’t.
At first I thought this number is too low, but then I remembered that I haven’t caught the Mexicans who towel dry my car at the car wash on Zillow yet.
Okay, it’s not that bad, but according to a new survey by Discover Home Loans, fully 78% of homebuyers have spent time at work looking at online listings.
Who needs a laugh? Apparently Ferguson, MO is planning . . .
wait for it . . . .
Bike paths!!!
http://www.fergusoncity.com/498/Long-Range-Planning-Documents
[15] expat,
There are mexicans in Brighton?
And this from the NYT is priceless!
“In 2010, this small St. Louis suburb was in the running to be named an All-America City by the National Civic League. It just missed the cutoff because it did not have a youth association, said Brian Fletcher, a former mayor and chairman of the “I Love Ferguson” committee that sprang up after the August unrest.
“I suspect,” Mr. Fletcher said on Sunday, the night before the rioting on West Florissant, “we’ll be filing another application to see if we’re worthy of the award.”
Would love to see that application!!!
[6] Both ways. You cannot maintain a functioning society unless you give the poor enough money not to riot and the rich enough money not to leave. Someone probably needs to re-examine welfare rates in Ferguson, btw.
yes, redistribution is happening. Upwards, of course.
[17] Nom – of course not, you silly goose. I get my car washed near work in Waltham.
[15] expat,
There are mexicans in Brighton?
diedinhouse.com
a must visit for all homebuyers…
Grew up in Bergen County. Blue laws are archaic. There’s no point and the only town that still wants it is Paramus and towns directly connected to it. Everyone is always like “oh I love that there’s no traffic”. What the hell for? So you can go drive to a place that is closed for the day?
Also, I work in the Morris/Somerset area. The traffic is definitely worse in Bergen County.
And since this is a housing blog, what is the effect of unrest on the real estate market?
“From Aug. 9, the day Wilson killed Brown, to Monday, the day of the grand jury announcement, agents closed on 27 homes in Ferguson. That’s down from 40 homes during the same period last year, according to an analysis by St. Louis-based MORE Realtors. And since the shooting, sales are down 32% in Ferguson, more than the 13% drop for all of St. Louis County.
“Prices are way down relatively and homes are not selling,” one real estate agent said, “and we could see a 10% to 15% correction from here.”
I can see investors on the sidelines, waiting for crushing drop so they can buy up at Detroit prices ahead of the 263 million in Obama money that is promised.
[7] FabMax – I haven’t been in a while, but I think they have the same specials at Morris County K-Marts.
Bergen vs Morris. Having lived in both, I would take Bergen every day and twice on Sundays. I like the Blue light laws. If I need something, I take a drive to New York. While you get more house in Morris, the commute is soul destroying. 78 and 80 and and 287 in between is a disaster at rush hour.
[20] expat,
Why didn’t you say Waltham? That goes without saying. Last time I drove through downtown Waltham, half the signs were in spanish.
Fond memories of Waltham. Tried and won my first two civil cases there. And I wasn’t a lawyer yet.
With the rare exception of our midnight run down to NJ in the wee hours of last Wednesday, I go back and forth never getting on route 80 anymore (or driving outside of Sussex and Warren counties, for that matter), the traffic is just horrible and twice as horrible west of 287. One of the silly things on my bucket list is to one day drive the new section of route 21. I used to love that road because there were rarely any cops and some challenging curves once you get to triple digit speeds, but I’ve never been on it since it was extended past Parker Ave.
Stirling is a little place. I’ve never lived there or known anyone living there, unsurprising given its smallness. Despite being in another county, it would more or less feel like living in rural Warren, also in between Basking Ridge and Berkeley Heights. It’s got a train station, but check the schedule to make sure it works for you. Apparently Sterling kids go to the Warren/Watchung high school because Sterling is closer to that high school than even most of Warren/Watchung is. We used to go to a Thai restaurant “Thai Thai” in Gillette a few miles away.
I don’t know what kind of taxes or services residents get, but location-wise, it’s nestled in a decent place, assuming a house isn’t located too close to a noisy train track.
Only places I get stuck in traffic is New Jersey and the Bronx. Going to Jets games I dont know how folks stand it out there. The traffic is horrific. Actually the Jets are horrific but that is another story.
I live in Somerset county is great for someone like me with an 8 minute commute with only one traffic light, and drives though roads that aren’t generally congested where I live. Not great for people commuting to NYC.
Believe it or not, some people in NJ choose towns/houses independent of their commutability to NYC.
NY’s Finest….
A Queens police officer who once won his precinct’s “Cop of the Year’’ award has been busted on cocaine-trafficking charges, sources said Tuesday.
Officer Philip LeRoy, who works in the 114th Precinct, was nabbed just before midnight Monday in Sunrise City, Fla., with two other men while allegedly buying 10 kilos of cocaine, sources told The Post.
LeRoy — the son of a retired detective — allegedly drove from New York with the intent to buy drugs in the Sunshine State and had his off-duty weapon on him at the time.
“Sunrise PD does this thing called forfeiture, which are like reverse drug-deal stings, where cops pose as dealers selling very cheap cocaine. They’re known for these kind of big busts,” a police source said.
“You got to be pretty stupid to do this deal in Sunrise.”
LeRoy, 28, was charged with felony weapons possession, cocaine trafficking and conspiracy to traffic cocaine, according to court records. His bail was set at $250,000.
The NYPD suspended the cop early Tuesday, authorities said.
He is in jail awaiting formal charges to be brought by state prosecutors, which could take up to 21 days, said an official at the Broward County Clerk’s Office.
Two years ago, LeRoy was picked from more than 100 officers in his precinct to win its “Cop of the Year” award, according to a report at the time.
“As a member of the anti-crime unit, P.O. Leroy has made more than two dozen arrests so far this year for things like robbery and gun possession,” said then-Police Commissioner Ray Kelly in praising the cop.
‘YOU GOT TO BE PRETTY STUPID TO DO THIS DEAL IN SUNRISE, [FLORIDA].’
– Police source
LeRoy, who lives in Queens, racked up 188 arrests between January 2009 — when he joined the NYPD — and June 2012.
On Facebook, the disgraced cop has posed for photos with a flashy black Infiniti and some featuring his chiseled abs while he’s surrounded by voluptuous women.
In one picture from 2012, he stands next to a wall emblazoned with the NYPD shield and the words “The Greatest Detectives.”
His family didn’t return messages seeking comment.
A woman who answered the door at his Queens Village address said the family didn’t live there.
LeRoy’s alleged accomplices, Richard Quintanilla and Brian Espinal, are accused of negotiating the deal, sources said.
Quintanilla, 35, and Espinal, 27, were each charged with trafficking cocaine and conspiracy to traffic cocaine.
Dude…you live on LI….that place is a sh!tbag for traffic….every fcuking everywhere sucks a massive moosec0ck….
jj says:
December 3, 2014 at 9:01 am
Only places I get stuck in traffic is New Jersey and the Bronx. Going to Jets games I dont know how folks stand it out there. The traffic is horrific. Actually the Jets are horrific but that is another story.
[28] JJ
There’s traffic at Jets games?
There’s only one home game left, and that’s against the Pats. The Pats, and yet there are cheap seats available and lots of them. In fact, the only other Jets game with more seats available is the game vs. Minnesota. That crowd is gonna look like a WNBA crowd.
Having lived in both, I think LI and NNJ are pretty similar, but you actually need to live in each to appreciate the benefits. We all know people who’ve only driven the NJ Turnpike and they think they’ve seen all of NJ. Same thing goes for the LIE or the Northern. When I first started working in LI I went out on a couple of my lunch hours to try and “see” LI; it seemed like I could spend a whole hour driving and never get out of the office park. If you just take a cursory glance at houses you would ask yourself why would anyone want to live on such small and expensive properties. Once you live there you find out that the small properties make everything closer. Density of great restaurants is tops (but the service is generally lousy, no poor people to wait tables, only entitled teenagers). The commute to NYC is so much better. Now if you think relish the diversity that a Paterson, Passaic, and Newark brings you, you won’t like it. There aren’t any cities like that. It’s also really, really, weird to commute in and out of the city and always have the sun behind you.
Yes, the traffic during major sporting events is representative of 24/7
jj says:
December 3, 2014 at 9:01 am
Going to Jets games I dont know how folks stand it out there. The traffic is horrific.
Here is a nice write up on Long Island
http://geeksjourney.com/why-i-hate-long-island-with-all-my-heart-and-soul
rut roh, time to dust of my Geiger counter?
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/accident-reported-ukraines-zaporizhye-nuclear-power-plant-pm-says-n260506
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaporizhia_Nuclear_Power_Plant
I think Waltham, MA is similar to Hauppauge, LI (where I also worked) in that there are lot of white collar jobs in both towns, but hardly any white collar residents. Blue collar housing and white collar office parks.
I love the Basking Ridge area. I would pony up in a second but the mere mention of it to the family is met with a barrage of excuses why it’s ridiculous to even mention moving there. Bergen County makes more sense for a number of reasons. But, again, asking 600K plus for a house with 10 x 10 bedrooms and one that requires a hazmat suit is never, never going to make me capitulate.
Juice – You know that write-up is from a weird 30 something kid who lives with his parents, right?
Here’s his bedroom:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxspErdsJCE
Here’s what he says about himself:
So who am I? Well, I’m a geek. Maybe. Perhaps a suave geek with… anti-social qualities. I’m also a Christian, single, in my thirties, addicted to hot chocolate, Apple products, and the open road. I feel more at home in a wilderness of my own making (hence the name) than I do with the human race in general, whether it’s hiding out in my home while tweeting on my iPad or sipping delicious hot chocolate on a mountain in Colorado away from everyone and everything.
Here is a nice write up on Long Island
http://geeksjourney.com/why-i-hate-long-island-with-all-my-heart-and-soul
[32] redux
this is priceless also. Sorry JJ,
Sun, Dec 14 @ Tennessee
4:05 PM CBS 4,956 available from $9
Nine bucks. I think the last time I saw a football game ticket go for $9, the Patriots were still playing the Titans in the AFL.
Newark now 8 for 8. A deafening silence from the police brutality crowd.
http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2014/12/son_of_newark_police_officer_gunned_down_in_citys_north_ward.html#incart_river
[41] NWNJ
A black life matters, but it only seems to matter when it is taken by a white person.
Kind of like being worth more dead than alive, a la George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
It leads to the macabre conclusion that black lives have no value except propaganda value, and the killings in Newark aren’t providing any of that.
Seriously, I don’t know what these guys are worried about. Any prosecution is gonna come from Eric Holder.
http://newsninja2012.com/new-black-panther-party-cry-frame-up-bold-face-lie-on-members-arrested-for-bomb-plot/#.VH81Syi4_mo.facebook
I plan to stay up for the DoJ press conference on this one. Gonna need a lot of Red Bull.
New York’s plot to gut the second amendment
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/12/new_yorks_plot.html
The Newark murder record is 11 days straight, which was set in the summer of last year.
[43] redux
Seriously, you just cannot make this stuff up.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/11/27/two-black-panther-members-unable-to-buy-bombs-because-ebt-card-didnt-have-enough-money/
As one commenter put it “What happened to the good, old days when honest, hard working terr0rists bought their own b0mbs?
Having lived in Bergen County Paramus, and Hillsdale then moving to Morris County and travelling most in Morris. Morris blows Bergen County away. They drive better, more Churches, less slug, more space, nicer housing stock, better values, lower tax, more family oriented, drive better, no Schmutzy, no illegals as bad, no bagels and nail and stip malls all over. Its just so much better. Its really more of the Wealth Belt from Chatham to Harding to Chester, and upper Somerset County its just flat out so much better!!! You got to be Jewish to love Bergen County.
From the lead article:
“Both the National Association of Realtors and the Mortgage Bankers Association have called on the FHA to consider lowering the annual premiums.”
Price Pumpers(TM)!
Also kind of odd that there is no mention of risk in the article. Seems to me lowering premiums would be very dependent on there being a decreased risk of default. I guess if your livelihood depends on it, buying is always better than renting.
Irony Alert:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/police-suspects-fatally-shot-california-teacher-article-1.2027162
The victim was an author for the Southern Poverty Law Center who is credited with being an early writer on “white privilege” and publicly condemned the notion that whites should be afraid of minorities in Oakland.
At least he put his money where his mouth was.
Georgetown Student Gets Robbed, Says He DESERVED IT Because of ‘White Privilege’
http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/12/01/georgetown-student-gets-robbed-says-he-deserved-it-because-white-privilege
I feel like mugging this kid myself.
Marilyn,
No Schmutzy! lol! You know I love that! :)
You have to kill yourself scrimping and saving to send your kid to college so that he or she has even a shot at getting a job….for what? So they can fill his head with crap?
Excuse me while I hop the next train into NYC and mug a banker, it’s only fair.
Toxic,
This guy probably walks around campus perpetually bent over waiting to take it cuz he deserves it.
Reminds me of this scene:
http://southpark.cc.com/clips/154682/born-a-whore
Last weekend, my housemate and I were mugged at gunpoint while walking home from Dupont Circle. The entire incident lasted under a minute, as I was forced to the floor, handed over my phone and was patted down.
And yet, when a reporter asked whether I was surprised that this happened in Georgetown, I immediately answered: “Not at all.” It was so clear to me that we live in the most privileged neighborhood within a city that has historically been, and continues to be, harshly unequal. While we aren’t often confronted by this stark reality west of Rock Creek Park, the economic inequality is very real.
Year after year, Washington, D.C., is ranked among the most unequal cities in the country, with the wealthiest 5 percent earning an estimated 54 times more than the poorest 20 percent. According to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, just under 20 percent of D.C. residents live below the poverty line.
What has been most startling to me, even more so than the incident itself, have been the reactions I’ve gotten. I kept hearing “thugs,” “criminals” and “bad people.” While I understand why one might jump to that conclusion, I don’t think this is fair.
Not once did I consider our attackers to be “bad people.” I trust that they weren’t trying to hurt me. In fact, if they knew me, I bet they’d think I was okay. They wanted my stuff, not me. While I don’t know what exactly they needed the money for, I do know that I’ve never once had to think about going out on a Saturday night to mug people. I had never before seen a gun, let alone known where to get one. The fact that these two kids, who appeared younger than I, have even had to entertain these questions suggests their universes are light years away from mine.
I come from a solidly middle-class family, and, with relatives in Mexico City, certainly don’t consider myself entirely shielded from poverty. And yet I’d venture to guess that our attackers have had to experience things I’ve never dreamed of. When I struggled in school, I had parents who willingly sat down with me and helped me work through it. When I have a problem, I have countless people who I can turn to for solid advice.
When I walk around at 2 a.m., nobody looks at me suspiciously, and police don’t ask me any questions. I wonder if our attackers could say the same.
Who am I to stand from my perch of privilege, surrounded by million-dollar homes and paying for a $60,000 education, to condemn these young men as “thugs?” It’s precisely this kind of “otherization” that fuels the problem.
Young people who willingly or unwillingly go down this road have been dealt a bad hand. While speaking with a D.C. police officer after the incident, he explained that he too had come from difficult circumstances, and yet had made the decision not to get involved in crime. This is a very fair point — we all make decisions. Yet I’ve never had to decide whether or not to steal from people. We’re all capable of good and bad, but it’s a whole lot easier for me to choose good than it may be for them to.
If we ever want opportunistic crime to end, we should look at ourselves first. Simply amplifying police presence will not solve the issue. Police protect us by keeping those “bad people” out of our neighborhood, and I’m grateful for it. And yet, I realize it’s self-serving and doesn’t actually fix anything.
When we play along with a system that fuels this kind of desperation, we can’t be surprised when we’re touched by it. Maybe these two kids are caught, and this recent crime wave dies down, but it will return because the demand is still there, and the supply is still here. We have a lot, and plenty of opportunities to make even more. They have very little, and few opportunities to make ends meet.
The millennial generation is taking over the reins of the world, and thus we are presented with a wonderful opportunity to right some of the wrongs of the past. As young people, we need to devote real energy to solving what are collective challenges. Until we do so, we should get comfortable with sporadic muggings and break-ins. I can hardly blame them. The cards are all in our hands, and we’re not playing them.
Oliver Friedfeld is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.
http://www.northjersey.com/news/new-jersey-s-high-school-graduation-rate-is-up-slightly-1.1145376
New Jersey’s high school graduation rate rose to 88.6 percent last spring, up about one percentage point from the year before, according to state data released Wednesday.
Minorities and low-income students had larger gains than the average student, but the achievement gaps remained wide.
Among students who started ninth grade in the fall of 2010, 79.6 percent of low-income students graduated, compared to 92.4 percent of wealthier students.
Among African-American students, 78.9 percent graduated, as did 80.6 percent of Hispanics, and 95.9 percent of Asians.
[49] Nom – Did you look at the sketches of the suspects? They look like Dorian Johnson and Big Mike.
Irony Alert:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/police-suspects-fatally-shot-california-teacher-article-1.2027162
The victim was an author for the Southern Poverty Law Center who is credited with being an early writer on “white privilege” and publicly condemned the notion that whites should be afraid of minorities in Oakland.
At least he put his money where his mouth was.
Libturd,
I was thinking of opening a new credit card. I have credit cards that give cash back (3 – 5%) on different specific categories (gas, supermarket, department stores etc). I’ll open airline cards over time to get a special (cancel them, and maybe reopen year or two later if I’m eligible again for the special incentive). You get the idea.
I got an offer in the mail for a 5% cash back on everything (on first 5k in spending) and 2% back on everything after that. I believe you said the other day you have a 2% cash back card, correct? Any fine print in there I might be missing? I don’t want to open another card just for them to change the terms 8 months later.
re # 45 – re: “The Newark murder record is 11 days straight”
Heard it from one of their residents today, not from the internet from a person who lives in the hood in Newark.
They are playing a game called “The Purge”.
I kid you not.
[57] expat,
Did not make that connection.
As for the G’twn student, he wants a position in the State Department. So he has to toe the party line. They don’t hire moderates in the Federal Triangle.
Reading between the lines…..there is clearly another agenda at play here….either this guy is an opportunist (very possible) or else what was taken had no real personal value to him…….I am going to bet the former, and he will try to parlay this situation into something, or else, he is so rich of his a%% that maybe someone needs to hack into his trust fund…….you would hope his iPhone contents get posted to the web……
“The millennial generation is taking over the reins of the world, and thus we are presented with a wonderful opportunity to right some of the wrongs of the past. As young people, we need to devote real energy to solving what are collective challenges. Until we do so, we should get comfortable with sporadic muggings and break-ins. I can hardly blame them. The cards are all in our hands, and we’re not playing them.
Oliver Friedfeld is a senior in the School of Foreign Service.”
Oliver Friedfeld has bought into what his teachers, preachers, and politicians have taught him over the years. He’s turning the other cheek. Butt cheek. And opening it wide for p3n3tration. Collective guilt. Obsession with inequality. The sacrifice of values to non-values. And like most collectivists, constantly uses the terms “we” and “ours.”
Chifi, I’d assume his motivation is much the same as those of politicians and professors spouting the same lines. He believes it, he wants to spread the word, he wants to gain status in the collective that share these beliefs. Now he can proudly add another line of victimhood to his resume.
POLICE LAUGH AT REPORTER Who Published Darren Wilson’s Address After She Requests A-List Protection
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/12/police-laugh-at-reporter-who-published-darren-wilsons-address-after-she-requests-a-list-protection/
Rut Roh
http://nypost.com/2014/12/03/cop-cleared-in-eric-garner-chokehold-death/
[58] Joyce – I just got this one. $200 for spending $1500 in first three months, plus 0% for 18 months (that was the offer they sent me, not 12 months like on the web page). They only gave me a $5500 credit limit, but I’ll take their 0% and max it out over the next 6 months, then make the minimum payments and pay it all of in June 2016 when the 0% runs out.
http://creditcards.citicards.com/usc/thankyou/Preferred/2014/Nov/PS/default.htm?BT_SC=J.PB.BgI.vy.GiV.ais.h8r.A.OzY&BT_TRF=156351&m=XSGO111111W&cmp=KNC~01~110901~CRDACQXX~Google&BT_MKWD=smueEgtUy%7Cdc_pcrid_58389227005_pmt_e_pkw_citi+thankyou+preferred&ProspectID=ED79C9BAC89F4886A40C9908D0DA7B10
Pressure to roll back FHA fees | New Jersey Real Estate Report
wkgvfnbioo http://www.gkx48183gw83yx82ub36ef5y01mzwn95s.org/
[url=http://www.gkx48183gw83yx82ub36ef5y01mzwn95s.org/]uwkgvfnbioo[/url]
awkgvfnbioo
Oliver Friedfield isn’t getting a job on Wall Street anytime soon. And notwithstanding the Purga going on in some agencies, notably the DoJ and DoD, most gov screeners aren’t going to look favorably on someone who holds views that suggest he might be another Snowden. So that Foreign Service degree isn’t getting into the intel community or any other “hard major” department.
Is this 2014 or 1965….WTF is going on?
[42] “A black life matters, but it only seems to matter when it is taken by a white person. . . . It leads to the macabre conclusion that black lives have no value except propaganda value, and the killings in Newark aren’t providing any of that.”
Very well said. It’s insane, but true.
NOT INDICTED: Grand jury decides not to charge NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo, who placed Eric Garner in fatal chokehold, as Staten Island braces for Ferguson-like riots
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-eric-garner-chokehold-death-not-indicted-article-1.2031841
Does NYC still have what it takes to riot?
Please, God — let it happen in Williamsburg.
I know it can be locally-sourced, but can a race riot be artisanal?
They really should have indicted that cop. If ever there was a case for police brutality….that was it….on video.
The irony…a teenage thug can get a job as a GOP staffer
Lauten, pictured above, was arrested in December 2000 for misdemeanor larceny, according to court records. Lauten, then 17, was collared for stealing from a Belk department store in her North Carolina hometown.
Because Lauten was a first-time offender, her case was handled via the District Court’s deferred prosecution program, which resulted in the charge’s eventual dismissal after the future scold stayed out of trouble for a prescribed period.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/Elizabeth-Lauten-arrest-786543#.VHymFdSr_MI.facebook
[70]
Not surprised, the officer simply has to state he feared for his life and it’s justified. No indictment.
Expat
http://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/partnerships/buypower-card/
wait, that’s the wrong link… credit card / car offer
Body cameras on cops solves nothing.
ChiFi [30];
“Sunrise PD does this thing called forfeiture, which are like reverse drug-deal stings, where cops pose as dealers selling very cheap cocaine. They’re known for these kind of big busts,” a police source said.
Tangentially, this is part and parcel of the civil forfeiture racket. They’re not the least bit interested in getting the drugs off the street; the advertise for buyers, who show up with cash. Buyer gets arrested, city and PD keep the cash.
Many, many stories of innocent people getting caught up in civil forfeiture kangaroo courts; people with any amount of cash on them getting traffic stopped in the Midwest by badge-wearing pirates and have their money seized without so much as an arrest for drug activity.
And we wonder why rich people are rushing for the exits — its not just the taxes.
FKA [74];
Not ironic at all that a Dem staffer is an admitted rapist.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/03/democratic-aide-donny-ray-williams-sexual-assault_n_6261110.html
Good thing you’re always here, Moose, to balance out the left-right pendulum.
[80]
That doesn’t suprise me either. Former President Bush snorted coke and President Obama smoked mary jane. The point I’m making is someone who could be characterized as a “thug” actually went on and had a productive life.
Wow….the Reagan years were interesting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_federal_politicians_convicted_of_crimes
Con’t [80];
But hey… teenage shoplifting, rape … same-same to you, right?
Could also see this happening more frequently.
An officer who was involved in a Monday shooting that left a man hospitalized turned off her body camera just before the incident.
http://www.wtvm.com/story/26283883/officer-involved-in-monday-shooting-had-body-cam-turned-off
Deblasio will now drum Pantaleo out of NYPD and Pantaleo will sue and retire to Florida with a cool 10 million.
@eenayo:
Eric Garner’s death shows exactly why you can’t just put a body cam on a cop and call it a day
[83]
Teenage shoplifting like stealing cheap cigars? Ted Kennedy and the Chappaquiddick death. Does that trump shoplifting and rape?
I see no difference between a democrat and a republican, they both want to spend $1.25 for every $1, they just spend it on different things.
Give the NYPD nets.
“like stealing cheap cigars? ”
Nope – that’s assault.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2z5-H8NSGA
Anon, I see the Dem rapist’s official title was “staff director”.
Doesn’t JJ also sometimes talking about directing his staff into various orifices?
[89]
shoplifting < assault < rape < homicide
Got it. And despite that, you can still go to DC and work for the gov't
“And despite that, you can still go to DC and work for the gov’t”
You’re surprised? If a criminal background were a bar to working for the government, where would the government get its quota of “DMV-clerks”?
@bencasselman: “If the prosecutor wants an indictment and doesn’t get one, something has gone horribly wrong.”
@jessicalustig: NYPD has banned chokeholds since 1993. Policy came after Federico Pereira was killed by police–5 officers charged: http://t.co/MoFks55nwj
@chrislhayes:
The law is supposed to be binding constraint on Power, rather than just a tool of it. Or that’s what I was taught, anyway.
“The law is supposed to be binding constraint on Power, rather than just a tool of it.”
Coming from him/you… that’s just pathetic.
Happy [89];
Actually, it was a strong-arm robbery because of the violence to the shopkeeper. Larceny (petit larceny at that) is a property crime, while robbery is a violent felony.
But they can find any manner of moral equivalence when it suits the narrative; just like they ignore it when it does not.
(59) Great. Going to Newark with family this weekend for a Devils game.
By HOLMAN W. JENKINS, JR.
Dec. 2, 2014 7:04 p.m. ET
Saudi versus shale? That’s been the theme of countless stories on the business wires in recent months. The case is overstated. The Saudis aren’t stupid. They can’t kill America’s shale revolution and it’s pointless to try.
Yes, there will be (figurative) blood, even bankruptcies, if oil tumbles into the $60-per-barrel range for a while. But pain for a few individual overextended companies will be opportunities for others. For one thing, America’s shale companies are much quicker and more flexible in slashing costs and sponsoring innovations in response to a falling oil price than are the state-owned oil companies of OPEC.
Secondly, shale wells tend to be short-lived and much of their production is front-loaded. That means investors face less uncertainty in relation to costs and revenues than do traditional drillers, and can more easily lock in a price for their eventual output before they start drilling.
As well, much of the shale revolution in the U.S. was founded on natural gas. Natural-gas prices have been back up above $4 for most of the year. Lately gas prices have been erratic as expectations for the winter heating season bounce around but natural gas still remains all but unlinked from now-falling oil.
A supertanker near the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. ENLARGE
A supertanker near the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. REUTERS
Big new chemical plants are being built in the U.S. by American, European and South American investors to consume our homemade feedstock. Liquefied-gas exports are a rising opportunity for U.S. producers and unaffected by the price of oil. Germany and Japan are reducing their reliance on nuclear and coal, as are China and India. Europeans are trying to reduce their reliance on Russian gas.
All these factors are likely to sustain the U.S. energy revolution in the long run even as domestic entrepreneurs adjust to a lower oil price. If new drilling slows up in the short term, as it likely will, the shale resources will remain in the ground until higher prices justify renewed investment.
Oil prices took a big dip late last week after an OPEC meeting in which the overrated cartel failed to cut output. Whether anyone should have expected a cut is arguable, but since there was a meeting the possibility necessarily had to be priced into the market. When a cut didn’t materialize, prices dropped below $70 for West Texas Intermediate for the first time in five years.
Of course, when we talk about an OPEC cut, we really mean a Saudi cut, since other members are neither disciplined enough nor influential enough in markets to find it worth risking their own revenues in a common effort to prop up prices.
The Saudis have played this role previously but they understand now that the shale revolution has diminished their sway and greatly increased the cost of any effort to divert prices from their natural market-clearing path for any length of time.
The Saudis learned long ago that a strong price for their chief export comes from strong growth of the world economy, sadly lacking today. A failed global recovery is the deeper reason for the collapse in oil prices from $110 barely five months ago. Yet despite much confused rhetoric out of Japan about how a lower oil price undermines the government’s battle against deflation, nothing benefits Japan like lower oil prices. Japan imports most of its energy. One of Japan’s biggest exports is cars, which more consumers can afford to own and operate at a lower price of oil.
A lower price can only do so much, of course, to pull Japan and Europe out of their sloughs, since so much of their domestic retail price of gasoline consists of taxes. But a lower oil price doesn’t hurt.
Understandably arousing suspicion in the U.S. oil patch was a sudden shift in Saudi behavior in recent weeks, from discounting to protect its Asian market share to discounting to win more business from domestic U.S. refiners. Even here the signal may be more about underlining Riyadh’s strategic alignment with the U.S. despite skepticism about the Obama administration, especially as a Republican Congress begins to make itself felt.
Saudi Arabia cares about Saudi Arabia, and its biggest strategic challenge now isn’t coping with $70 oil but meeting the geopolitical unraveling of the Middle East. No matter who the U.S. president is, only America can deploy military power to make a meaningful difference. And unlike local powers, America is deemed relatively disinterested. In not fighting the oil market, these are the considerations that matter to the Saudi leadership right now.
Cheaper oil benefits the U.S. economy, U.S. animal spirits and U.S. confidence and willingness to lead. It undermines Iran and Russia. Upping U.S.-bound exports via the Red Sea also underlines Saudi Arabia’s ability to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, an oil-shipment chokepoint vulnerable to Iranian military action.
Bottom line: America’s hunt for a dark cloud behind the silver lining of lower oil prices is overdone.
MORGAN STANLEY: Here Are The 16 Best Stocks For Playing The American Shale Boom
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/morgan-stanley-shale-gas-stock-picks-2014-10?op=1#ixzz3Ks9RcBku
04/13/2007 Sold for $1,480,000
03/31/2011 Sold for $1,304,000
04/07/2014 Sold for $1,104,000
http://www.trulia.com/homes/New_Jersey/Woodcliff_Lake/sold/21970369-15-Taft-Ct-Woodcliff-Lake-NJ-07677
The very first one I clicked on. What’s interesting is the drop from 2011 to 2014. A sea of f.ucked muppets.
Any questions?
[98] Re: Prudential Center . . . I don’t know, “beaten unconscious in front of his son” isn’t my idea of quality family time.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2012/05/newark_police_arrest_final_suspect_in_assault_and_robbery_after_prudential_center_concert.html
The End Is Nigh (Bomma Phone Edition):
Sadly funny
The Post story about two members of the New Black Panther Party charged with plotting to blow up the St. Louis Gateway Arch contained this gem. The suspects “bought what was believed to be a pipe bomb and tried to acquire two more — but couldn’t until the welfare-benefits card of one of their girlfriends was replenished, the sources said.”
“What’s the problem? If you have to ask, you are part of it.”
The more he talks, the more Mayor Bill de Blasio sounds as if he’s talking in code to aliens. Emerging from the White House on Monday, he told reporters, “We have to ensure that all our children are safe and living in justice.”
We know what “safe” means, but what the hell is “living in justice”?
Welcome to progressive-speak, the language of another planet, one where Al Sharpton is a respected civil rights leader, looters and arsonists are victims, and cops are the problem.
It’s the planet where Occupy Wall Street’s fetid, crime-infested encampment in lower Manhattan was an example of “civil rights” and rousting it was “morally wrong.” It’s a planet that uses the “tale of two cities” to argue that success is always abetted by fraud and privilege.
Progressives also believe that charter schools are the devil and the teachers union the angel. And if you don’t agree, you are a racist, the immaculate accusation because it can never be disproved.
Aliens, indeed.
Long gone are the days when being mayor meant picking up the garbage, putting out the fires and doing your best to represent all law-abiding New Yorkers. Now it’s about using power to reward favored groups and punish others. It’s all done openly, obscured only by semantic tricks that temporarily screen the malevolence.
Consider how the word “justice” has been appropriated by the radicals in our midst. To them, it’s a meaningless noun unless modified by “social” or “economic” or “environmental” or another adjective that is a dog whistle to the committed.
You are a proud supporter of the concept of blind justice? That just proves you are part of the problem.
What’s the problem? If you have to ask, you are part of it.
And so it goes, as established norms and the people who subscribed to the cherished New York concept of the melting pot are trashed as biased, unfair, unjust. In the revolutionary rush to flatten society and overthrow the past, merit must be abolished because not every ethnic and racial group prospers equally.
Standardized tests are bad because some children don’t pass them. Teacher evaluations are gutted in the name of worker solidarity (not to mention the union’s willingness to deliver money and votes). Diversity is code for racial and ethnic quotas.
Police officers will wear body cameras because, de Blasio said, “It’s one of a number of strategies we have to use to create trust between police and community.”
Note that the burden of creating “trust” goes in one direction only. And “community” is another code word — did you ever hear it used as a synonym for whites?
Crime is just a cry for help, an understandable reaction to oppression, and soon we’ll be back to discussing the “roots” of race riots. This pathology, where people inexplicably burn down their own neighborhoods, is an accepted form of expression because America never delivered “social justice.”
It is no exaggeration to say that the two decades from 1994 to 2013 marked a Golden Age in Gotham. The era reflected two simple dynamics: Crime went down, prosperity went up.
Perfection was nowhere, but progress was everywhere. Old neighborhoods were reclaimed and new ones created based on the truths that public safety is the most important civil right and that a job is the best social program.
The two mayors involved, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg, were different in many ways, but shared a fundamental understanding that crime is a scourge that must never be excused and that work is essential to individual happiness.
That era has passed and New York is now run by a man who has a very different agenda and value system. Bill de Blasio is part of a rabid political movement in America, one estranged from the nation’s ideals of tolerance, moderation and respect.
He, like Sharpton and their soul mate in the White House, are driven by resentment and that deepest of maladies, the desire for unchecked power.
They use class and race as wedges, claiming they will heal society even as they pour gasoline on its fires. They help nobody except themselves and their cronies.
History has seen their kind before, yet too often fails to recognize the danger of demagogues until the damage has been done. Will this time be different?
Will New York wake up in time to save itself?
#69… Happy Renter, false equivalence. Extending that logic, silly conclusion like children’s lives are valuable only when Newton happens, or Americans’ health is only important when CNN scares us about ebola… There is a systemic bias against the poor (right from how the justice system is setup — a guy with millions to throw around can out-lawyer a township; while a poor guy that can’t pay the fines ends up in prison). There is an entitlement mentality and lack of accountability among many government agencies — I hate to sound like a Republican, but the unions are a major source of trouble here.
I would be surprised if the NYPD/NYC doesn’t end up shelling out millions to the Garner family.
If many people are able to confidently say, “move on, nothing to see here” with a case like Eric Garner’s, then it is indicative of a bigger problem. Looks like many are happy with the non-stop entertainment, a few extra bucks in wages and stock market gains, and are completely oblivious to how things can go bad. Imagine the tech companies colluding with billionaires and corrupt government agents to basically impose some rich guys’ will on the country. Anyone speaking against will have a ton of copyright cases slapped against them – East Germany, here we come!
A prosecutor, prosecuting a cop from his own district in the most pro-cop borough of NY is a conflict of interest.
For NY & NJ, what are the rules/requirements for when a prosecutor has to convene a
grand jury vs when they can bring or not bring charges all on their own?
Blue Privilege
http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2014/11/darren-wilson-and-reality-of-blue.html
[105] McDullard
There is a systemic bias against the poor (right from how the justice system is setup — a guy with millions to throw around can out-lawyer a township; while a poor guy that can’t pay the fines ends up in prison).
Move on, there truly is nothing to see here. A good lawyer is plays an integral part in the disparities between getting probation/going to rehab and doing hard time for the same crime. If you depend on a court appointed lawyer, better hope you have a passionate one.
104. Standardized tests are bad because they reward pencil necks like you ChiFi. Nuff said.
At a former employer two coworkers used to joke and say “This is Planet of the Apes and we’re the astronauts!”. Like in the movie I was the last one left and….’escaped’ (to another employer…whew).
Where I’m at now is going to be my last job in Corporate America – By choice, while I still have one. Just a few years to go…
It’s become a jungle out there!
live stream Eric Garner protest NYC
Mostly white people yelling
http://new.livestream.com/accounts/124908/events/3634145
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBQn6Ry_la0
Essex says:
December 3, 2014 at 6:11 pm
104. Standardized tests are bad because they reward pencil necks like you ChiFi. Nuff said.
@HuffingtonPost: A grand jury did indict one person involved in Eric Garner’s killing — the man who filmed it
@cjwerleman:
CIGARETTES? It’s not like Eric Garner was selling credit default swaps he knew were worthless.
115 – Ask Holder what the issue is.
Mariah Carey is at 30 rock performing live the protestors should try and interrupt the live broadcast on NBC.
Get rid of Broken Windows and NYC heads straight back to the 1970s.
Bet duh nyc mayor would love to back to in the70s. His ole lady looks like she’s right out of one those blackploitation flicks.
Justice means I get what I want, duh.
#9 grim.
Garden State plaza is in a bad location and that is the traffic nightmare. However is it any worse than the junction of 78 and 24. There you get the dumbasses getting t-boned as they try to cut over three lanes of traffic to try and stay on 78.
The parkway is its own animal. It only gets really backed up if someone has dumped on RT80 in Patterson and people are trying to detour. Or something down in Passaic Union happens and you end up with a 12 mile tailback. Parkway on and off at RT 17 has filter lanes that keeps the rest flowing. Ex Pat nailed the worse problem with Morris. In LI the sun is at your back. In NJ its in your face both ways and the low winter sun is the worst.
Regarding Eric Gardner, are there any news articles stating the probable cause the police had for suspecting of illegally selling cigarettes?
#44 Toxic
OMG the ULTRAS are coming!
Why do you read that Wingnut garbage? Michael Bloomberg as an Ultra-Leftist.
“Ex Pat nailed the worse problem with Morris…In NJ its in your face both ways and the low winter sun is the worst.”.
Did a Rockaway Township, Morris County, NJ commute to NYC for seven years. I felt the pain (not financially though two bumper thumps cost a bit). Decembers were the worst.
Got a job offer at Goldman a few years later…turned it down (now I wish I hadn’t…just a few years there with those bonuses’…! I didn’t believe it – just like I didn’t believe in ghosts, either).
#47 Marilyn
Schmutzy? You better be careful or PC Chi-Fi of the Tribe Police will label you anti-Sem1tic.
The profiles of both counties are similar with BC having a bigger Asian populations. Morris does have its low ends, in places like Dover and Wharton. As for strip malls, while BC does have bagels, Morris is juts overrunning with Bad Pizza joints.
BC also has its own wealth belt that stretches from Alpine to Franklin Lakes.
Also can anyone explain Roxbury High School to me. All that open space and low density housing and you build a school with no windows?
#99 Chi
How are the economics of Tar Sands looking at $60 a barrel?
#124 NJT
I have a few friends went the GS route and ended up in Utah for their troubles. Its hard to switch from Steak and Barolo and Big beers in Jeremy’s to a state where its hard to even buy good beer.
[127]. Ultra
Then you haven’t been there lately. Not cheap but easier and better than PA
Feminine Estimates as well as WordsTherefore you plan in order to enhance your own space as well as are looking for a few truly adorable estimates as well as words in order to embellish the actual wall space. Or possibly you would like a few well-known estimates in order to rapidly memorize after which rely on them inside your discussion in order to make an impression on somebody. Or even, you’re using a ladies particular date as well as wish to study away several humorous estimates as well as w