From the WSJ:
Rising home prices are starting to catch up with buyers and may be leading some to put off buying for a little longer.
Existing home sales tumbled 4.8% in August to a 5.31 million seasonally adjusted annual rate, the National Association of Realtors said Monday, the steepest month-to-month decline since January, when they fell 4.9%. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected August sales would drop 1.1% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.53 million.
Behind the decline were particularly big drops in the West and the South, two areas where prices have risen particularly sharply. In the South, where the median home price is up 6% over a year ago, month-to-month sales fell 6.6%. And in the West, where the median price rose 7.1% over the year, sales were down 7.8%.
Nationwide, the median home price hit $228,700 in August, a 4.7% increase over a year ago.
…
Analysts said they weren’t particularly troubled by the monthly decline, noting that year-over-year sales were up a robust 6.2%.“Even with the decline, I believe we are comfortably set for the best home sales year in eight years,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at NAR.
…
J.P. Morgan economist Daniel Silver said he maintained “a relatively upbeat view on the housing market,” based on low inventory levels and a decrease in foreclosure sales.“The August lull in existing home sales should prove short-lived because the fundamentals for housing remain highly supportive,” wrote Deutsche Bank economists Joseph LaVorgna, Brett Ryan and Aditya Bhave.
Gregory Daco, head of U.S. macroeconomics at Oxford Economics dismissed the August number as a “hiccup” in a note to clients.
“Rising employment, slowly accelerating wage growth, rising housing demand, slowing home price inflation and mortgage rates at historical lows will underpin greater housing demand and in turn sales through the remainder of the year and into 2016,” he wrote.
@MMFlint:
If YOU cheated the IRS, you’d probably be on your way to jail.
“Coca-Cola cheats IRS out of $3.3 billion in taxes”
Bear-resistant trash can bill moves out of Senate committee
http://www.njherald.com/story/30083868/2015/09/21/bear-resistant-trash-can-bill-moves-out-of-senate-committee
Posted: Sep 21, 2015 11:35 PM EDT
Updated: Sep 21, 2015 11:35 PM EDT
By BRUCE A. SCRUTON
bscruton@njherald.com
TRENTON — A proposed law to require those living in bear country to use bear-resistant garbage containers was voted out of a state Senate committee on Monday, but faces an uncertain future before the full Senate.
Sen. Steve Oroho, who sits on the Senate’s Economic Growth Committee, was not present at Monday’s committee meeting for health reasons but said, “Had I been there, I would have voted ‘No’ as I did last session.
In the 2012-13 session, a similar bill was never brought to a vote before the full Senate and a companion bill never got out of committee on the Assembly side of the Legislature.
“I’m against the mandatory part,” said Oroho, whose 24th Legislative District includes Sussex County and part of Warren and Morris counties and is in the zones where bear hunting is allowed in New Jersey.
He listed several reasons for the opposition, including the increased costs residents would have to pay for the stronger cans, increased costs in collection because “it would become much more manually intensive” to unlock or otherwise open the cans, and because, he noted, “there are bears in all 21 counties of the state.”
An Internet search turned up garbage cans, all of which claim to be bear-resistant or “critter proof,” ranging in price from $50 to several hundred dollars.
Oroho said the bill contains no definition of “bear-resistant” and the state does not have the funds to test and grade every type of garbage container on the market.
“And even those labeled bear-proof don’t work,” he said. “I’ve had people show me pictures of practically new cans that the bears have beat up and got them open.”
The regulations would also extend to state and privately owned campgrounds to provide not only trash containers, but bear-resistant food boxes.
Fines could range from $50 to $1,000 and could mount on a daily basis.
The Senate measure is S687, with a companion Assembly bill of A4017 which sits before that body’s Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee.
The bills also propose changes to the section of the law which prohibits feeding bears, chiefly eliminating the current requirement for a formal, written warning prior to issuance of a ticket.
Other changes would eliminate the “unintentional feeding” language in the current law.
The chances of the bill going to a full vote in the Senate are small, Oroho said, and fellow legislator Parker Space said there’s less chance for the bill to reach a vote in the Assembly.
Space, who holds one of two Assembly seats from the 24th District, sits on the Assembly’s agriculture committee and said that body, where every member faces election in November, is in recess until after Election Day.
The current session ends in late January when the new Assembly is sworn in.
“My feeling is this law is being promoted by people who don’t live in bear country and don’t know that most people who live in bear country do pay attention to their garbage,” he explained, adding that there doesn’t seem to be enough support on the mandatory trash cans to muster a vote on the Assembly floor.
He believes such a requirement is not needed since “one time of having trash all over your lawn is usually all it takes” for people to learn to wait until the morning of collection day to put out trash.
He said he believes the numbers of trash-related incidents are going down as more people become more educated as to proper handling of garbage.
The monthly report from the Division of Fish and Wildlife given to the state’s Fish and Game Council show the number of total bear calls and Category II calls, which includes bears getting into trash containers, were about half of the 2014 numbers for the period of July 21 to Aug. 20.
In 2014, the division received 254 Category II calls, while there were just 117 such calls this year.
Overall, the division has received a total 1,464 bear calls from Jan. 1 to Aug. 20 this year, compared with 1,836 total calls in 2014.
The number of calls received in a month varies widely over the course of the year as well, depending on the seasons, whether bears are active and the amount of natural food available.
Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said he was encouraged by the Senate committee’s action.
He said that because bears have a ready supply of garbage, “which they consider a source of food,” the bruin birthrate goes up.
He said many of the bear-related complaints “can often be attributed to a singular nuisance bear within a region,” and said the state is lax in its education of humans efforts as well as cutting back on the number of conservation officers to handle bear complaints and conduct education.
Video of bear opening “twist on” style trash can in sussex county….much like the ones used in West Milford.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIvf0Cj2Uzc
Is that a subjective cheat or an objective cheat. I suspect in the case of the latter, Coca Cola would be prosecuted and fined.
That is clearly a republican in a bear costume
The Internal Revenue Service said on Friday that Coca-Cola owes them $3.3 billion.
In a filing with the SEC on Friday, Coke disclosed that on Thursday it had received a notice from the IRS seeking $3.3 billion, plus interest, after the service completed a five-year audit of its tax years running from 2007 to 2009.
In 2014, as a point of reference, Coke’s tax bill was $2.2 billion and its net income totaled $7.1 billion.
http://www.businessinsider.com/irs-coca-cola-tax-bill-2015-9
Wait, so how many and which years did they audit?
Christie Orders National Guard To Meet Fitnesses Rquirements After Pentagon Reprimands Commander For Being Overweight http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/09/christie_orders_nj_national_guard_leader_to_meet_fitness_requirements.html?ath=e48193b1505a73e67f7874531301093d#cmpid=nsltr_strybutton
3rd DUI, killing two people, including one of his comrades… I wonder if we can fire him now?
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/09/21/cop-pedro-abad-wrong-way-crash-charges/
Lawyer will try to push the blame on the establishment giving him drinks
Sierra Club opposes hunting completely no matter how many bears there are. We hunted them out of NJ a hundred years ago, then the bears migrated here from PA. Dogs bite, maim and kill more people every year than bears have in 100 years in New Jersey and if it wasn’t for the stupidity of those hikers in West Milford last September taking pictures and close enough for selfies with the bears there would have been no confirmed instance of a person being killed by a bear ever in New Jersey.
Hunt the Dogs not the Bears.
He was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence in Roselle, New Jersey, in January 2011 after his car “put a hole completely through the building” housing a supermarket, a police report said. Abad was issued a summons for driving under the influence and reckless driving, but apparently the case didn’t conclude in any citations or violations, the state Motor Vehicle Commission said.
The entire department should be shut down.
10
Don’t worry, there will be an internal investigation (ala Bloomfield) and they will find no policy violations.
Well, the Linden Police Department reaps what they sowed.
Ugly market opening coming.
I prefer mornings to dusk…..
Splat What Was He Thinking says:
September 22, 2015 at 7:42 am
Hoard valuables and await the end of days.
The End Is Nigh (clot Haute Cuisine Edition):
Last week, food fans were outraged when they missed a chance to buy Olive Garden’s second annual Never Ending Pasta Pass.
Two thousand passes, which cost $100 for an individual or $300 for a family of four, enables users to dine at any Olive Garden location as many times as they want during a seven week period.
But the online promotion that’s developed a cult-like following ended almost as fast as it began this year. That’s because the passes sold out in less than a second. Yes, you read right. Less than one second.
The passes caused uproar last year when the promotion, designed to drum up excitement and demand, backfired after Olive Garden’s website crashed. When people finally got through, the 1,000 passes that went on sale were sold out in 45 minutes and—adding insult to injury, quickly showed up on sites like eBay and Craigslists for double, even triple the original price.
After last year’s fiasco, we question how the passes could disappear in less than one second. Was this a scam or was it a legitimate?
Sam Cinquegrani, CEO of ObjectWave Corp, a company that builds e-commerce sites for retailers, says that says it’s not unusual for a sophisticated computer server to be able to process tens of thousands of transactions per second.
While not knowing Olive Garden’s system, he says that the chain likely anticipated the high demand for the passes.
“A second in computer time is actually pretty long,” Cinquegrani told FoxNews.com, adding that some trading sites he has built in the past are able to handle up to 18,000 transactions in 600 microseconds. “So selling out that quickly doesn’t surprise me, it actually means their technology was up to task.”
Another thing that had us scratching our heads is that least two lucky Olive Garden fans claim they were able to score more than one pass—even after seeing the “Sold Out” banner on the screen. How was that possible? Are they hackers, or just lucky?
“I doubt they could figure out something this complicated in a minute with so many people logged on. No website is perfect so it’s very likely that the sold out sign was their exception handling …or someone had the pass in their cart and decided to change their mind,” Cinquegrani said, noting that the likelihood of someone scoring a second pass was probably extremely low.
This year, just a handful of passes are being sold eBay so far — although there are a few out there. This shows that it’s unlikely that any one individual was able to hack into the system to buy multiple passes — and that the ones up for sale are just those trying to profit on the passes they scored.
But, like last year, Olive Garden fans – at least those without their finger on the mouse — have a bad taste in their mouths over the execution of the promotion.
“People don’t necessarily understand how these types of promotions work so it’s really important that they [Olive Garden] just be as transparent as possible to neutralize the situation,” says Elizabeth Friend, senior food service analyst with the research firm, Euromonitor International.
So far the chain has simply said that their “system allowed in the first 2,000 guests to purchase the available Pasta Passes, which occurred in less than a second.” But Friend thinks they could have done more to make it seem fairer to loyal fans.
“Knowing the demand they faced last year, it might have been better if they went with a lottery system or they could have made it into a playful social media contest, like hashtag Never Ending, with people posting videos showing how much they wanted a pass,” Friend says, adding that either way, not everyone is going to win.
To ease the pain, Olive Garden last week offered a printable 10 percent coupon off one adult entrée at any Olive Garden location and has hinted that they will be giving away more Never Ending passes to people following the chain’s social media accounts.
This type of outreach, according to Friend, is likely to smooth some ruffled feathers.
But sometimes, the buzz– and even anger– created over a highly coveted promotion is exactly what companies want.
“Luxury Brands build scarcity into their marketing strategy which means they are always trying to build this mystique around certain items,” says Robin Lewis, a retail expert who runs his own blog The Robin Report.
Lewis says the “gotta have it” mentality may anger customers but it still fuels excitement. And doing it mostly by worth of mouth saves the company marketing expenses.
“It’s an incredibly intelligent marketing strategy,” said Lewis. “The strength of that promotion—I mean millions of people logging on at once to buy pasta that’s available everywhere? Pretty genius.”
The idiot pleads not guilty.
I heard rumors that 4 Linden police officers were in court supporting the officer. What f*cking sense does that make?
Why is nobody asking how he was permitted to keep his job as a police officer if his license was suspended for 210 days? After the suspension was over, did his patrol car also include the breathalyzer interlock that he was ordered by the court to have installed for 180 days?
A review of Abad’s Twitter messages over the past several months offer conflicting images. A recent post makes reference to dropping his cocaine in the snow. Other Twitter messages, in which Abad is pictured wearing his police uniform, reference prostitution, drinking and drugs. Other messages mention serving in the police honor guard for a New York City police officer shot in the line of duty and participating in former Union County Sheriff Ralph Froehlich’s funeral.
This is a good editorial on the topic:
http://www.silive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/09/why_such_secrecy_in_the_abad_c.html
All we know for sure is that an average Joe who did this would already be serving jail time, and rightfully so.
Can anyone figure out what happened in this story?
http://patch.com/new-jersey/lacey/s/fa3aq/911-calls-ex-cop-ran-over-man-in-fight-over-officers-extra-marital-affair
What about the (off duty) state trooper in Sparta who stood in the street and shot at the teenagers who accidentally knocked on his door instead of their friend’s house next door. That story disappeared from the headlines….
If you or I had done that, we’d be in jail. That dude is probably still on the job.
Business Insider: “Target is planning to test robot workers”
This is what happens when you keep raising labor costs.
http://www.nj.com/morris/index.ssf/2015/07/listen_trooper_followed_teens_after_shooting_teen.html
http://www.nj.com/sussex-county/index.ssf/2015/07/teen_off-duty_trooper_fired_at_us_but_we_were_trea.html
^^(second link is no longer available) Nice
QE4 baby!
[15]HFP – High Frequency Pasta?
[5] Because it’s not a left-hand thread?
That is clearly a republican in a bear costume
[23] planning to test? They’re getting paychecks right now.
Business Insider: “Target is planning to test robot workers”
[21] I was able to follow the story pretty easily.
Married cop pushing 40 bangs 21 year old a bunch of times.
21 year old’s Dad and sister get all liquored up and beat up the “impressionable” girl.
Cop shows up to save his girlfriend, Dad goes ballistic on cop who gets back in his car.
Dad punches out the cop’s window and runs him over with his SUV.
Cop calls 911 and says, btw, I didn’t run over him, but he fell down pretty hard.
In South Jersey do you know what they call the above situation? Tuesday.
Can anyone figure out what happened in this story?
http://patch.com/new-jersey/lacey/s/fa3aq/911-calls-ex-cop-ran-over-man-in-fight-over-officers-extra-marital-affair
Re: Coca Cola
Typical transfer pricing case. They are simply trying to move money where it is taxed less.
No different than you putting money in an IRA or 529 rather tha keeping it in a regular account for retirement or education.
If Coke is guilty of ‘cheating’ the IRS, then so are you.
Re: ‘Bear proof’ containers. There’s only two I know of: A safe or a garage protected by an owner with serious firepower.
*I used to live in an NJ township with the highest concentration of bears in the world
(habitat was great but it was the #1 place where ‘problem’ bears were ‘relocated’ by
NJ fish and wildlife that made them so numerous). Many of the bears had double ear tags (three strikes and they are euthanized).
The bruins got so brave I had to walk the kids next door (armed). Had one sit in the middle of our street and refuse to move despite BIG trucks honking at it (was eating a dead animal of some sort – turkey vultures stayed away).
Despite determined opposition from a few fanatics the hunting season is being expanded and more weapons allowed.
Before we moved I saw a sow with EIGHT cubs!
*Ursus Americanus wasn’t the primary reason we moved, it was the property taxes and a neighbor who was the leader of the local SSS (Shoot, Shovel and Shut up) brigade died then his second in command retired and moved.
There are so many bears there you can see a few everyday if you want to by just driving around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMYEkAFhJuw
16 Grim,
What would and off duty police officer do if they saw a drunk civilian driver?
Would they have reported that?
Why didn’t any of the officers report their fellow drunk officer?
Isn’t there a sworn legal duty to do so? Did they make an exception?
Were there any weapons in the vehicle?
Why is it the taxpayers that always get the bill?
Professional liability insurance should be required for these types of things, the payouts are too expensive for the taxpayers to shoulder the burden. Or better yet, have the losses deducted from the pension plans themselves.
Here’s a scary thought: Does anyone imagine this would NOT have been swept under the rug if the accident had NOT happened over the bridge in NY? I suppose the public is lucky they decided to go to Curves and not Satin Dolls.
“…Satin Dolls.”
That place is still open!? (worked nearby back in the 90s).
23 All you have to do is make the robots pay taxes. They are workers. Either that or exempt all workers from paying tax, robot or not…
Lookers is still going. My friend used to DJ there. We had his bachelor party there, naturally. Skank heaven!
Such a high quality and objective document without a sales pitch…..I’m stunned actually….. https://www.oppenheimerfunds.com/advisors/doc/Compelling_Wealth_Management_Conversations.pdf?dig_asset_metrics=done&cb=64535545648
Re: [8];
Man, another one. Are there no copy editors left?
A New Jersey police officer is free on bond After pleading pleaded not guilty Monday to charges he was drunk behind the wheel in a wrong-way crash that killed two passengers, including a fellow police officer, and critically injured a third.
Copy editor was replaced by a robot, much cheaper. Small power surge detected….
I should have said that I followed what was reported but it seems they just repeated word for word and didn’t ask any questions. Like who can actually punch out a window with their fist? And I didn’t recall reading anything about booze.
The Great Trumpkin says:
September 22, 2015 at 12:00 pm
[21] I was able to follow the story pretty easily.
joyce: They said it took place in Wall, right?
And I didn’t recall reading anything about booze.
Anything below Monmouth County is Mississippi.
Technically, the Mason Dixon line never bisected NJ, although it sure feels that way.
lol…yup
Fast Eddie says:
September 22, 2015 at 1:55 pm
Anything below Monmouth County is Mississippi.
Rt 70 is the Mason Dixon Line.
“Rt 70 is the Mason Dixon Line.”
I’ve heard that uttered before.
Yes we are japan.
From last week.
“One catalyst for the market gyrations is that Ann Saphir, a reporter for Reuters, boldly asked Fed Chair Janet Yellen at Thursday’s press conference what has been on many minds for more than a year: is the Fed ever going to raise interest rates or are zero rates here for the rest of our lifetimes. This was the exact exchange:
Ann Saphir: “Ann Saphir with Reuters. Just to piggyback on the global considerations, as you say, the U.S. economy has been growing, are you worried that given the global interconnecting this, the low inflation globally, all of the other concerns that you just spoke about that you may never escape from this zero lower bound situation.”
Janet Yellen: “So, I would be very– I would be very surprised if that’s the case. That is not the way I see the outlook or the way the committee sees the outlook. Can I completely rule it out? I can’t completely rule it out. But really that’s an extreme downside risk that in no way is near the center of my outlook.”
The Chair of the U.S. Central Bank admitting that she can’t completely rule out that the U.S. may never escape from its zero bound range of interest rates is very likely the most unnerving utterance to escape the tongue of a Central Banker since time immemorial.
It was two simple sentences from Yellen: “Can I completely rule it out? I can’t completely rule it out.” That was the honest academician speaking. And, given that Japan, one of the largest economies in the world, has been hovering between zero and one-half percent interest rates for the past 20 years, has plied its economy with Quantitative Easing and has now moved into desperation mode, buying up exchange traded funds and real estate investment trusts, Yellen’s answer was forthright.”
LOL. WVU Students brought down VW.
http://triblive.com/news/allegheny/9132064-74/emissions-carder-wvu#axzz3mUiCJNwo
Their report has been out there since May 2014 for anybody to read. The bad news for VW starts on page 62:
http://www.theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/WVU_LDDV_in-use_ICCT_Report_Final_may2014.pdf
Board GTG……. grim…let’s do it!
http://www.whiteprivilegeconference.com/index.html
I felt my burden in utero ….. I was born a fascist imperialist and I am plead for forgiveness……
“Whites need to acknowledge and work through the negative historical implications of ‘Whiteness’ and create for ourselves a transformed identity as White people committed to equity and social change…To teach my White students and my own c
hildren…that there are different ways of being White, and that they have a choice as White people to become champions of justice and social healing.”
48, I thought Punkin already declared every state south of NJ a wasteland. How could they do anything to advance one of his causes. One can only speculate that WVU admitted a bunch of NJ expats.
Juice Box,
Did Janet Yellen say that or was it a bowl of moldy cottage cheese animated by an investment banker ventriloquist? It’s so difficult to tell the difference.
#37…don’t let Clot review, too optimistic for him….
ESPN announces as many as 300 employees to be layed off.
Chi (15)-
Any dolt who willingly eats at an Olive Garden deserves whatever happens next.
1987 (53)-
I got skooled on Oppenheimer in 1988 by going all in on their biotech fund (with the traditional usury Oppenheimer load, natch).
That was the first fortune I made- and lost- in my life.
I’d love one minute in a locked room with any Oppenheimer manager…just me, him, a table and a ball peen hammer.
1989 and 1990 were not great wealth building years for me.
Thanks an assload (emphasis on load), Oppenheimer.
Then again, Oppenheimer taught me that people who smile and treat you nicely might be planning to butt rape you…
I wouldn’t use the paper of an Oppenheimer ‘report’ for as much as a quick asswipe.
Too much chance that paper would magically get served to me as filet mignon.
Oppy was good before all the buyout activity. Same for the other older firms, Alex Brown etc, and the specialty ones (H&Q etc) before acquisition.
Re: Oppy post buyout, Henry Blodgett, ’nuff said.
Interviewed there once, mid 90s. Glad they didn’t take me in hindsight.
Springsteen in da house. Wonder if he’ll get on stage with Jackson Browne.
Oppenheimer is a (below average) brokerage company….there is no connection to Oppenheimer Funds, which produced the deck I linked…..
leftwing says:
September 22, 2015 at 10:06 pm
Oppy was good before all the buyout activity. Same for the other older firms, Alex Brown etc, and the specialty ones (H&Q etc) before acquisition.
Re: Oppy post buyout, Henry Blodgett, ’nuff said.
Interviewed there once, mid 90s. Glad they didn’t take me in hindsight.