From HousingWire:
TransUnion: Mortgage delinquency rates continue rapid decline
The mortgage delinquency rate — the rate of borrowers 60 days or more delinquent on their mortgages — continued its rapid decline, falling to 2.72% in Q2 2015, according to TransUnion.
The delinquency rate dropped 20% in the last year (3.42% in Q2 2014) and has contracted by half in just the last three years (5.39% in Q2 2012). Millennials led the overall decline in mortgage delinquencies as those consumers under the age of 30 experienced a yearly drop of 26.9% from 2.32% in Q2 2014 to 1.70% in Q2 2015.
Forty-eight states and all of the top 10 largest major metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) saw double-digit year-over-year declines in seriously delinquent balances. Miami (down 40% from 8.87% in Q2 2014 to 5.31% in Q2 2015) and Los Angeles (down 29.1% from 2.62% in Q2 2014 to 2.07% in Q2, 2015) experienced the largest percentage declines.
“This is the lowest mortgage delinquency level we’ve seen in several years – down from a peak of nearly 7% in early 2010,” said Joe Mellman, vice president and head of TransUnion’s mortgage group. “This is largely due to foreclosures and other seriously delinquent accounts continuing to work their way through the foreclosure process, as well as a reflection of the high credit quality of recent originations.“
Good Morning New Jersey
Americans Waiting Longer Than Ever To Buy A House http://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-americans-waiting-longer-ever-070132848.html
http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/16/politics/donald-trump-iowa-state-fair/index.html
‘I am Batman,’ Trump tells boy on helicopter ride
The Bowman family had driven from the western suburbs to see Trump and his helicopter. Neither David nor Sarah Bowman had resolved to vote for Trump, at least not yet, but they had four little boys, and this chance was too good to miss.
Into the helicopter went William, 9; Sean, 6; Brendan, 5; and Henry, who just turned 3. Their mother went with them. Henry got scared just before takeoff and left the aircraft to be with his father. The other boys remained. William brought a GoPro camera to capture the experience; a clip later wound up on Facebook.
“Mr. Trump,” he said, aiming the camera at his benefactor.
“Yes,” Trump said, pulling on the lapels of his jacket.
“Are you Batman?” the boy asked.
“I am Batman,” Trump said.
The helicopter roared to life, causing another windstorm, hurling more dust at the people outside. William looked out the window, marveling at the power of the machine.
@ianbremmer: Latest GOP National Poll (Fox)
Trump 25%
Carson 12%
Cruz 10%
Bush 9%
Huckabee 6%
Walker 6%
Fiorina 5%
Kasich 4%
Rubio 4%
Carson will never make it, too much egg on the face of the gop leadership to put an inexperienced player in the white house. If you remember, criticism of Obama’s experience was a major talking point, it would be too obviously hypocritical.
Cruz looks too slimy to be president.
Huckabee will never win.
So you have about 50% of the vote basically unaccounted for. Which still means, anyone’s game.
Carson did fetal tissue research earlier in his career as a neurosurgeon. Evidently, almost all neurosurgeons do this. His attempts to square his earlier actions with his current stance are reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy first saw him (‘pay no attention to that man behind the curtain’).
Campaign over for Carson.
$750,000PRASAPRRevenue bonds08/18/159am ET
CHFI- Puerto Rico is selling new bonds today, just hit dealers at nine am, it is the PR water bonds, what is word on the street? Can they pull it off.
It is good for BPOP as they plan on paying back a line of credit due 8/31 with part of the bond
[6] Grim
Carlson too inexperienced to put in the White House. They put Palin on the ballot! I can see Russia from Alaska Palin. Carlson wouldn’t make the ballot for other reasons plus he stumbled in the first debate with the exception at the end.
Amazon is not for hipsters or mamma’s boys. Grown men leaving conference rooms crying?
Amazon experiments with how far it can push workers
SEATTLE — On Monday mornings, fresh recruits line up for an orientation intended to catapult them into Amazon’s singular way of working.
They are told to forget the “poor habits” they learned at previous jobs, one employee recalled. When they “hit the wall” from the unrelenting pace, there is only one solution: “Climb the wall,” others reported. To be the best Amazonians they can be, they should be guided by the leadership principles, 14 rules inscribed on handy laminated cards. When quizzed days later, those with perfect scores earn a virtual award proclaiming, “I’m Peculiar” — the company’s proud phrase for overturning workplace conventions.
At Amazon, workers are encouraged to tear apart one another’s ideas in meetings, toil long and late (e-mails arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why they were not answered), and held to standards that the company boasts are “unreasonably high.” The internal phone directory instructs colleagues on how to send secret feedback to one another’s bosses. Employees say it is frequently used to sabotage others. (The tool offers sample texts, including this: “I felt concerned about his inflexibility and openly complaining about minor tasks.”)
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/08/17/amazon-experiments-with-how-far-can-push-workers/2B8Kr6aHYLNZ5rcVo4BM3M/story.html?p1=Article_Trending_Most_Viewed
Attention RE Agents. This is how you sell a house and get people to visit.
‘House for sale by owner because my neighbor’s a douchebag’ sign raises stakes in Texas feud
A front-yard sign calling a neighbor a “douchebag” may not be the best way to change the neighbor’s behavior.
But for one frustrated Farmers Branch family, it’s at least getting a lot of attention.
James and Lisa Price — who have a sign in their yard that says “‘House for sale by owner because my neighbor’s a douchebag” — have appeared on Dallas TV and now say they’re getting calls from New York news outlets.
The sign went up Aug. 7, after months of tension between the Prices and their nextdoor neighbors culminated in the Prices getting a $121 ticket from the city over their dogs, James Price said Friday.
http://www.chron.com/homes/article/House-for-sale-by-owner-because-my-neighbors-a-dou-6444496.php
re: # 10 – Their subsidiary Zappos is even more Machiavellian, everyone in their Corporate Holacracy is equal except ofcourse the CEO.
http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-hsieh-zappos-holacracy-management-experiment-2015-5
Palin had at least been Governor for two years, Carson has held no office.
The entire problem with Washington is that it’s filled with career politicians. I don’t want people that have held office.
12 – Rumor I’ve heard is the attrition is not due to the holacracy aspect, but a new related process where employees bid for schedule (Open Market Wages).
Bidding for a high-availability slot means you take home lower pay, bid for a low availability slot, take home higher pay. These pay slots can change from week to week. For people who require a consistent schedule (think students or parents), this model typically means lower take home pay than a single individual with 100% schedule flexibility.
Today’s Privileged News: A good attorney or accountant can always find a “legal” way around a new law.
JPMorgan Salary Package Grows as Pay Limits Are Thwarted
Dimon made more when factoring in bonuses and awards such as stock options in addition to his $1.5 million salary. But Pinto, the CEO of JPMorgan’s corporate and investment bank, took home a $7.4 million salary, 10 times more than he did in 2013 and the highest such payment from a U.S.-based public company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Pinto’s raise includes a “cash fixed allowance” while his bonus went to zero from more than $8 million in 2013, the bank said in a regulatory filing.
Pinto, who works in London, and other European-based executives in the industry are getting more in fixed-cash salaries and less in bonuses after European Union policy makers tried to discourage excessive financial risk-taking by limiting performance-based rewards. In the U.S., legislators took the exact opposite tack to stem compensation by using a tax law to rein in managers’ salaries. That’s been foiled by rising performance-based pay.
“This is an example of government actions and unintended consequences,”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-14/jpmorgan-salary-package-grows-as-pay-limits-are-thwarted
[13] Grim
Palin….seriously? I would say that her inclusion on the ballot is probably why there are so many people vying for a spot right now. She lowered the bar significantly to the point where anyone with a pulse can run.
Back to making the donuts.
Trump wants to repeal the 14th amendment, I thought he was a clown up till now but he’s got my attention.
I’m not saying she isn’t an idiot.
I’m saying the GOP look like hypocrites when the best candidate they can muster is someone with no political experience at all. Especially when it was a huge criticism of Obama, his policies, and his performance.
I think the Democrats have much more flexibility in this regard than the Republicans.
15 – And when I say lower pay, I mean in comparison to local market wages.
NJ denies Department of Defense civil employee gun permit, despite credible threats
http://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/department-of-defense-civil-employee-denied-gun-permit-despite-credible-threats/
18 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli
Anyone fly on United with the new lightweight seats? What a fail! They are so uncomfortable. Additionally, in order to watch movies, you must have downloaded and installed their app before getting on the plane (yeah right). But it didn’t really matter as none of the movies worked anyhow. Then you get in at 1am on Sunday night where every gate is empty and they park the plane in a downstairs gate where there’s a broken up escalator and the walk to the ground transportation is almost as long as the flight. You would think their incompetence was planned.
Yeah, kills me that the new planes have no seat power, wifi, or entertainment. Nearly impossible to get any work done on a flight.
New Dreamliner seats are also tiny in comparison. Always laugh when I connect from a 777 to a Dreamliner. I go from having room in the seat to having my hips touch the arm rests.
Honestly I heard Fiorina talk and she is smart. She seems to me to be able to do a good job. I think she is actually smarter and better than Trump. Maybe Im wrong but she holds herself very well.
Amazon is so full of it. They are a retailer not a tech company, and policies like this will just hurt them as competition for engineers is fierce. I was friends with someone who was an engineer there 6-7 years ago and some of the stories I heard made them sound very inept. I cannot imagine that a culture like that is healthy for building the best products. For the most part they are not the best, merely the cheapest, 21st century walmart minus the profits.
25 – There are many who would argue that she may have been one of the worst CEOs of all time.
Her business activities at HP make her unlikely to be elected:
1) Laid off tens of thousands of employees
2) Moved tens of thousands of jobs offshore
3) Compaq merger was a disaster, it was a poor decision, she moved forward with it despite advice against it, and then essentially doubled down on it when it went south. HP subsequently dumped most of it when Hurd took over, so it was all worthless.
4) She was fired, yet took home a massive bonus, this will not resonate well with many.
5) She left with a $21,000.000.00 cash and $19,000,000.00 stock golden parachute, one of the largest in history.
6) Most of her business success talking points are cherry picking, and are easily rebutted in a way that even a lay person can understand.
7) Her maiden name is Sneed, which makes her sound like someone from a Dickins novel.
Prototypical 1 percenter.
23. Worst airline ever….I hate flying United. Most uncomfortable seats, surliest flight crew, worst airplane food(yes theirs is worse than others), unfortunately that hate is not as strong as my hatred of JFK airport so I am forced to fly them. The old Continental looks really good in comparison. Virgin is much better as is Swiss and Lufthansa which all fly from Newark, even BA is leagues better, I’d go as far to say that Air Berlin or even Alitalia are better and that is pretty scary.
I fly enough to have status on both United/Continental and American/U.S. Airways. I will also occasionally fly Delta and Southwest.
There is little difference, everyone sucks, even status is largely worthless.
For the best experience, get the credit card that gives you some perks, it’s basically equivalent to the lowest status tier with little to no effort. Free checked bag and early boarding is about as good as you are going to get these days.
Trump also wants to increase the prevailing wage for H1Bs, as well as calling out Rubio for putting his campaign for sale. Damn this guy can sell.
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2970928/it-outsourcing/donald-trump-zingers-and-all-emerges-as-sharp-h-1b-critic.html
#26
AWS is a juggernaut, Q2 revenue was $1.8B. Growth projects have revenue at $20B or higher annually by 2018. Add in Kindle, Prime media content, Amazon as a platform for third party sellers, of course it’s a tech company. The tech will dwarf the consumer retail within a few years.
27, yep squandered any tech advantage unique to Compaq/HP/Dec.
On the bright side, they did give me the entire can of Diet Pepsi.
I agree, that all of the major hub and spoke carriers suck, but I’ve had a ton of luck with Delta. Not sure why. I often will drive out to JFK to fly on Virgin America or Jet Blue, though Jet Blue will hold up an entire plane for one passenger who would miss their connection. My track record with United is so flawed.
United..I am a “loyal” Continental/United flyer since 1992 (some card I have says so), however,now that we do WebEx’s I fly less, but still annoying to be in boarding group 5 (with carry on) while every “retiree/tourist” is boarding in group 2 because they use the United credit card (I am on an Amex Biz account).
#27 Ohh my God , Thank you!! I had no idea. Scratch that one off. I guess you really got to research and not fall for the I ran a Corp. bullcrap. I had no idea it was that bad.
back to Trump.
I’m not as negative at United, as they’ve often gone out of their way to get me home, including rebooking on alternate carriers, even flying out of the origin (which is rare).
Frankly, I find a bigger difference having to do with the airport and the general demeanor of the ticket and gate agents. Major metros all tend to suck – Canada takes the cake as the rudest airports of all time in my book.
Midwest non-hubs tend to be fantastic from an experience perspective. I am rarely ever charged to make a flight change on-site, never much of a wait to get through, and if you do get delayed, rebooking to an alternate carrier is much more likely.
18.
Agreed.
Maybe he could look into this also…
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/chinese-653483-california-china.html
good thing the govt no longer regulates them as much as before
free market improves everything
grim says:
August 17, 2015 at 10:39 am
I fly enough to have status on both United/Continental and American/U.S. Airways. I will also occasionally fly Delta and Southwest.
There is little difference, everyone sucks, even status is largely worthless.
Really don’t think I want the government mandating how macadamia nuts are served.
grim says:
August 17, 2015 at 9:50 am
18 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jus_soli
Youngest born (legally) in London and resided there for three subsequent years. Still did not qualify for UK citizenship/passport.
Very weird sometimes hearing the US citizenship debate. Hottest commodity around, yet we essentially give it away for free relative to other countries.
Now that China is weakening its currency, maybe I could get some cheap solar panels for my house. You know, something that is ACTUALLY USEFUL.
Naah, we put a tariff on those. To protect special interests. Funny that we did not tariff the lead infused toys or the melamine laced dog treats…..
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/17/business/energy-environment/-us-imposes-steep-tariffs-on-chinese-solar-panels.html
The girl who wants to go to Washington.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-congressional-kid-how-a-millennial-plans-to-make-it-to-the-capitol/2015/08/14/cec02162-3f62-11e5-9561-4b3dc93e3b9a_story.html
And next November awaits Rep. Pat Meehan, the district’s three-term incumbent — a 59-year-old conservative Republican and a former U.S. attorney.
None of this seems to faze the 24-year-old Li.
“She told me, ‘The seat is mine.” “They don’t know what they’re dealing with,”
Maui, bitchez
F U
AWS is HUGE in the Cloud and DOD and SEC use them, buy on the dips
44 – Ugh. Who in their right mind wants to aspire to be a career politician.
AWS has legs, it’s really good.
But the most astonishing news came when the couple learned that the alleged source of the false reports was one of the state’s own social workers who lived with her fiancé in the apartment below theirs, neighbors they barely knew.
Beth A. Bond, 37, then a social worker in Hardin County with the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, and her fiancè, Joseph W. Applegate Jr., 42, are charged in Hardin District Court each with six counts of complicity to call in false reports. They were charged May 27 following an investigation by Elizabethtown Police.
Bond and Applegate made the false calls to the cabinet’s social service “intake,” or abuse hotline, between April 1 and May 23, according to court records. Police said it was because of a “verbal dispute” with the other couple, a dispute Chaney and Rodgers deny ever happened.
The only motive they know of is that Bond allegedly told police she found her upstairs neighbors “too loud,” Rodgers said.
http://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/08/14/etown-couple-shaken-social-workers-false-reports/31736247/
26 Re Amazon:
” I cannot imagine that a culture like that is healthy for building the best products.”
They don’t build anything, just sell stuff. Yet they act like they sent a man to the moon when they delivered an Elsa doll in 23 minutes, per the original article.
50 – Joyce
I was wondering how they still had the Child after the first or second call. But alas this is Kentucky and not New Jersey so that makes more sense.
49 AWS is a great, but how much margin do they have in a product like that and there is competition all over and there is not significant differentiation between the major cloud vendors. Obviously the cloud is huge because most organizations cannot manage data center operation the way google or amazon can, also their distribution network for content is pretty impressive. I’m not saying they aren’t producing good products but they aren’t particularly innovative, the Fire phone is emblematic of what is broken in Amazon’s culture, no real new ground was tread. Amazon is 21st century Walmart minus the profits.
I don’t know, Amazon can get a package on my doorstep on a Sunday, ordered on a Saturday. Walmart can barely get an online order right, and those idiots think that I want to pick my package up from a locker in the lobby, like this is some sort of benefit to me.
Seems like they are doing something right. Especially now that companies like Sears and Walmart are attempting to mimic their online marketplace strategy, almost identically (but doing a shit job of it).
Completely aside, they also did for books what apple did with music. Anyone who claims Kindle isn’t absolutely revolutionary, is blind.
Did they name it Kindle because one could use their physical books as kindling?
Grim they are very efficient at logistics and have a distribution network setup for e-commerce. Walmart is not an internet retailer, they compete but it isn’t the same. Walmart can barely get you your order but they make a profit and are cheap. The e-book concept way predates amazon, amazon wasn’t a twinkle in Bezos eye when sony was developing e-book technology. Again the locker concept is the retailer trying to save costs by using an existing distribution network. They could all give you free shipping but what happens if you actually expect to profit from your sales? If you build out the infrastructure and automate your warehouses, work with logistics companies who can do same day delivery it becomes a reality. I use amazon all the time, I like the product, convenience etc. But they could disappear tomorrow and it wouldn’t be a huge problem. They also ship fast but do make a lot of errors, I have received empty boxes, they have botched returns, etc but they treat the customer well. Unfortunately from the sounds of it they are a bad employer.
i.e I take advantage of their razor thin margins. If they aren’t the cheapest or close to it I won’t buy from them.
Check out this article from USA TODAY:
High-paying jobs outpacing others in recovery
http://usat.ly/1TONTnW
The e-book concept way predates amazon, amazon wasn’t a twinkle in Bezos eye when sony was developing e-book technology.
Sony who?
And what did Sony do with it? Nothing. It’s one thing to have an idea, another to be able to execute and capitalize it.
Just wait until I corner the designer adult diaper market. Is adulturddotcom taken?
I mostly use my kindle for candy crush and angry birds. Books are for wimps.
Marilyn (25)-
Fiorina sounds great until you remember that she nearly offed HP.
“Honestly I heard Fiorina talk and she is smart. She seems to me to be able to do a good job. I think she is actually smarter and better than Trump. Maybe Im wrong but she holds herself very well.”
Anarchy in place of presidency!!!!
DFENS (61)-
Books are sentimental little amusements that make people weak and soft.
stu (60)-
No, but it opens you up to a world of sc@t p0rn that’s guaranteed to make you vomit bile.
“Just wait until I corner the designer adult diaper market. Is adulturddotcom taken?”
Nom, nice. Saw PADI a while back. Dive yet?
Not yet. Doing that on big island. Been working on skills in hotel pool (mask clearing drills)
[23] Lib,
After downloading the United app on snail-fi at O’Hare, we find out the flight from Chicago to Maui has no internet or entertainment. United promised us some freebies. Haven’t checked them out yet.
First dibs on burglarizing the current nompound.