From the WSJ:
Lopsided Housing Rebound Leaves Millions of People Out in the Cold
The housing recovery that began in 2012 has lifted the overall market but left behind a broad swath of the middle class, threatening to create a generation of permanent renters and sowing economic anxiety and frustration for millions of Americans.
Home prices rose in 83% of the nation’s 178 major real-estate markets in the second quarter, according to figures released Wednesday by the National Association of Realtors. Overall prices are now just 2% below the peak reached in July 2006, according to S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Indices.
But most of the price gains, economists said, stem from a lack of fresh supply rather than a surge of buyers. The pace of new home construction remains at levels typically associated with recessions, while the homeownership rate in the second quarter was at its lowest point since the Census Bureau began tracking quarterly data in 1965 and the share of first-time home purchases remains mired near three-decade lows.
The lopsided recovery has shut out millions of aspiring homeowners who have been forced to rent because of damaged credit, swelling student loans, tough credit standards and a dearth of affordable homes, economists said.
In all, some 200,000 to 300,000 fewer U.S. households are purchasing a new home each year than would during normal market conditions, estimates Ken Rosen, chairman of the Fisher Center of Real Estate and Urban Economics at the University of California at Berkeley.
“I don’t think we are in a normal housing market,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of Realtors. “The losers are clearly the rising rental population that isn’t able to participate in this housing equity appreciation. They are missing out on [a big] source of middle-class wealth.”
…
While economists expected the homeownership rate to begin edging up this year, the rate fell to a 51-year low of 62.9% in the second quarter from 63.4% in the same quarter last year.The rate could fall to 58% or lower by 2050, according to a recent prediction by housing experts Arthur Acolin of the University of Southern California, Laurie Goodman of the Urban Institute and Susan Wachter of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
Long-term declines could erase gains made by middle-class Americans since World War II. Owning a home provides protection against rising rents and has been a key component of retirement saving and wealth creation.
“The default savings mechanism for American households has been homeownership,” Ms. Wachter said. “Today we have historic lows for young households in terms of ownership so they’re not getting on this path.”
Good Morning New Jersey
Look at Larry go, cheerleading like a champ. I wonder who stuck the pompoms up his ass.
Lawrence Yun still has a job.
That, alone, explains a helluva lot.
Are people ‘still’ putting 20 % down or is that B.S.?
asking for a friend…
I had to put 40% down. Fannie Mae rules on conventional mortgages are too tight. They only take into account income and not savings or other assets. According to the rules, someone putting 20% down with $0 left in the bank afterwards is more qualified than someone putting 20% down with enough money in the bank to pay off the loan in full if the former person makes $2k more a year.
I see FHA loans with 3.5% down and give backs for closing costs closing all the time. What your friend has to put as down payment depends upon credit worthiness and what is being purchased.
Pretty sure the rationale isn’t just willie nillie, and that there are numerous statistical studies that point to income being more highly correlated with propensity to pay and lower default levels than pure savings account balances.
For savings to be material, I would assume that they would need to be pledged as collateral in a trust account. Real skin in the game. Realistically, savings balances could be vaporized instantly, thus represent no real reduction in risk if income is not adequate.
we’ll never qualify for FHA – income in excess of – well….lets just say a lot
Get more popcorn…
Preet Bharara making one last push and investigating the Clinton foundation?
Hillary won’t commit to reappointing him, and he has been investigating Cuomo, Deblaszio etc?
Only poor people should get low interest no down-payment loans, and if they cannot make they payments. Well they should get a free house too it is only fair after all.
On that note the new FHFA program for principal reduction.
Some local stats on who they are reaching out to, the poor folks who haven’t made a payment in five years, they are set to get a haircut on their loan.
In New Jersey, the 6,257 potentially eligible borrowers have an average loan balance of $171,403, an average LTV of 163%, and are an average of 1,791 days delinquent, which is almost 5 years.
There are a few houses in my town for sale with the asking price being what they paid for it 10/11 years ago. So no equity gains there. Just saying.
What does your income have to do with anything if you’re asking for a friend?
And I don’t think income is part of FHA loan requirements, but I’ll defer to others here.
k joyce – t’anks … for a friend was a joke you humourless —
NFL decides it has more thug fans nationwide than it has police fans in Dallas — NFL denies Cowboys’ request to wear decal honoring fallen Dallas officers
2009 proved that the poor are inconsequential in this equation.
my taxes will bail out the lender and pay the banker’s bonus.
it is only fair after all.
Juice Box (busy digging his own grave) says:
August 12, 2016 at 9:21 am
Only poor people should get low interest no down-payment loans, and if they cannot make they payments. Well they should get a free house too it is only fair after all.
Everyone here wanted the banks to fail, crash and burn, and not be bailed out.
Nobody here wanted a bailout, and everyone here wanted prosecutions. Hell, we wouldn’t have even argued against public executions.
Unfortunately, Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, had other ideas, and prosecuted no one.
Yet, we’re the bad guys.
You might want to check your privileged assumption.
Doesn’t the NFL deny all of these requests?
Anon E. Moose, Second Coming of JJ says:
August 12, 2016 at 11:54 am
NFL decides it has more thug fans nationwide than it has police fans in Dallas — NFL denies Cowboys’ request to wear decal honoring fallen Dallas officers
Grim,
I wouldn’t say everyone, but the majority for sure.
“2009 proved that the poor are inconsequential in this equation. my taxes will bail out the lender and pay the banker’s bonus. it is only fair after all.”
Is that Hillary’s motto? Because last I checked, the Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton (super PACs dedicated to her raised $38 million from her top 100 donors). I’m sure much of this came from banker’s bonuses.
There were a few here who felt the banks needed saving. And there were many progressive economists who these lefties like to quote, who also supported it. Krugman comes to mind.
“Unfortunately, Obama’s Attorney General, Eric Holder, had other ideas, and prosecuted no one.”
To this day I am convinced that Eric Holder does not actually exist in human form but was a pixelated character like Jar Jar Binks.
I blame the #nevertrump ‘ers
The same week as “Joe the Plumber”, I was doing a project with other men from my very racially diverse church. I was painting a wrought iron around the church with a guy I knew pretty well, a very upper middle class black guy, big house in good neighborhood, management consultant for a big firm, etc. He brought up “Joe the Plumber”, asking me if I saw it. I said I had. He said, “That guy’s a racist!” The conversation drifted to the housing crisis and that’s when he said words that will be seared into my brain forever. “Those people were promised houses!”
Only poor people should get low interest no down-payment loans, and if they cannot make they payments. Well they should get a free house too it is only fair after all.
As I was saying just yesterday…All summer, kids have been hanging out in front of the Morris Park Library in the Bronx, before opening hours and after closing. They bring their computers to pick up the Wi-Fi signal that is leaking out of the building, because they can’t afford internet access at home. They’re there during the school year, too, even during the winter — it’s the only way they can complete their online math homework.
Last year, the Federal Communications Commission reaffirmed what these students already knew: Access to broadband is necessary to be a productive member of society. In June, a federal appeals court upheld the commission’s authority to regulate the internet as a public utility.
The court’s decision is a partial victory. While the ruling ensures that the information superhighway can be maintained for the public interest, it doesn’t help anyone who simply can’t afford to have access to it. As many as one in five Americans remains in the digital dark. To start to tackle that problem, the F.C.C. has recently expanded its Lifeline program to provide subsidies for broadband access..
Here in the world’s information capital, New Yorkers are still scrounging for a few bars of web access, dropped like crumbs from a table. With broadband costing on average $55 per month, 25 percent of all households and 50 percent of those making less than $20,000 lack this service at home.
People line up, sometimes for hours, to use the library system’s free computers. Go into any library in the nation and you’ll most likely see the same thing. They come to do what so many of us take for granted: apply for government services, study or do research, talk with family or friends, inform themselves as voters, and just participate in our society and culture — so much of which now takes place online.
Communities should create buildings filled with books, quiet areas to study, computers connected to the Internet, and other learning materials. Let’s call them “Libraries” and put one in every town across the land.
In Montclair…the Library had a budget of 4 million annually. For a town of 38,000, that’s $105 per resident. I’m sure the average household has at least three people in it. The poorer households, probably 4. For $440 a year… we should close down the library and send every family a check. Broadband issue solved.
In fact, we are now producing such an abundance of these productive members of society that baby boomers are now hoarding them in their basements for future use.
Access to broadband is necessary to be a productive member of society.
[25]Tywin – You do know that books and computers are harder to obtain than Glocks, right?
Communities should create buildings filled with books, quiet areas to study, computers connected to the Internet
So we’re still blaming Bush?
I blame the #nevertrump ‘ers
Dial up is still very common – we support the two remaining major dialup providers. It’s a difficult business. We also support the satellite internet providers – but they are not inexpensive if you are rural.
I believe in Internet as a public utility.
A number of the low cost players are using 2g/3g mobile devices as a quasi dial up in the rural areas. It’s not awful, and the cost is decent if you can kill your copper pots line cost.
Don’t try to stream something though.
New discoveries about the sun are unwelcome for climate scientists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sh_nlz43Pc
GWPF Interview: New Solar Research Raises Climate Questions, Triggers Attacks
Published on Aug 9, 2016
Recent research by Professor Valentina Zharkova (Northumbria University) and colleagues has shed new light on the inner workings of the Sun. If correct, this new discovery means that future solar cycles and variations in the Sun’s activity can be predicted more accurately. The research suggests that the next three solar cycles will see solar activity reduce significantly into the middle of the century, producing conditions similar to those last seen in the 1600s – during the Maunder Minimum. This may have implications for temperatures here on Earth. Future solar cycles will serve as a test of the astrophysicists’ work, but some climate scientists have not welcomed the research and even tried to supress the new findings.
[30] grim – Remember those two competing standards of 56K modems at the turn of the century? For one Summer my wife and I rented a 120 year old house in Cambridge, MA and I had the best modem performance ever at that place. I don’t know if it was proximity to a a switching station or old school thick copper wire, but I used to get a reliable 53K …except when it rained, then I would get 48K. Nutley, Long Island, New Hampshire I used to get no better than 42K, IIRC (maybe 38.6K often, too?)
When I would travel on business back then, I used to look up the local numbers for my ISPs (I had a couple) and connect from my hotel. I used to stay connected, sometimes for 3 days straight at a charge of 25 cents for a single local call. I had my cell phone for voice, so I just plugged my laptop in, made one connect and kept it until I checked out. Activity such as this overwhelmed the telephone switches of many big hotels and forced them to put in broadband earlier than most other businesses as the phone switch in a hotel could probably only handle about 30-40% of the rooms simultaneously. If all of the ports were being held by laptops, no one could make a phone call from the other rooms.
Dial up is still very common – we support the two remaining major dialup providers. It’s a difficult business. We also support the satellite internet providers – but they are not inexpensive if you are rural.
I believe in Internet as a public utility.
About 10 years ago I had no problem administrating servers around the world using 3g mobile technology. We would often travel from Boston to NJ with my wife driving while I was working in the passenger seat. I had a Verizon 3G EVDO PCMCIA card in my computer and if that failed in certain areas I would switch to a USB tether to my Sprint Blackberry. Over nearly 300 miles I might have to switch providers twice, maybe three times. It was pretty impressive for back then.
A number of the low cost players are using 2g/3g mobile devices as a quasi dial up in the rural areas. It’s not awful, and the cost is decent if you can kill your copper pots line cost.
32 – So we need the global warming?
[34] We would also sometimes take a couple weeks vacation in Rye, NH or Wells, ME while I worked using the same connectivity.
Yeah same here, remember one night at about 3 in the morning, the power had gone out during a late night change, took my modem and laptop down the street to my parents house and broke in to dial in.
GSM 2G was 9.6kbps in 1999.
GPRS 2G was 53.6 kbps in 2000
EDGE 3G was 470kbps in 2003
WCDMA 3G was 394 – 2048kbps in 2005
The latest is 160 Mbit/s 4G TD-LTE not fully rolled out yet.
Heck…my first connected computer was a Kaypro. Had a 300 baud modem I think. Was good enough for MUDs. Was eon’s better than my TRS-80 which lacked even a floppy drive. Had to load and save programs from a cassette. Lost 1000s of hours of programs due to the short lifespan of a cassette tape. Those were the days!
Strange. Why did I make eons possessive?
@pourmecoffe
Sarcasm is probably the most important trait in the leader of the world responsible for communicating with hundreds of disparate cultures.
According to Wikipedia EV-DO topped out at 3.1Mbps down 1.8 Mbps up. I used to pay $2000 per month for T1 speeds (1.5Mpbs) in 1998 from Cable & Wireless at our office. I could have gotten cheaper, but I also had a full class C IP range that I didn’t want to give up.
On the odd occasion that our Comcast cable goes out, I use my Verizon 4G LTE iPad(3 years old now) as a hotspot and I don’t really notice a difference.
GSM 2G was 9.6kbps in 1999.
GPRS 2G was 53.6 kbps in 2000
EDGE 3G was 470kbps in 2003
WCDMA 3G was 394 – 2048kbps in 2005
The latest is 160 Mbit/s 4G TD-LTE not fully rolled out yet.
[41] twitiot
No, the ability to have the sarcastic killed is far more important a leadership trait.
It’s a Philly thing. I guess.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2016/08/philadelphia_tells_residents_to_cut_it_out_with_th.html?cmpid=outbrain_phillygeneral_desktop
PwC faces three major trials that could put firm out of business – MarketWatch
https://apple.news/Aq5bi4y19R0SIku4uwhttFQ
45- “Beyond the $5.5 billion sought, the case is unusual because the plaintiff is the trustee of the entity that committed the fraud and is suing, not its own audit firm, but the audit firm of the institution it defrauded,” he said. “The trial has the potential to influence public perception of auditors, as well as strategies used by the plaintiff lawyers that try cases against them, regardless of the eventual verdict.”
Check out Drudgereport.com
Goodnight NJ
Trump: Clinton will only win Pennsylvania if ‘they cheat’
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/donald-trump-pennsylvania-hillary-clinton-226978
Umm No!
The reason Hillary will win PA is here.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/pa/pennsylvania_trump_vs_clinton-5633.html
What will be fun, is watching Trump trying to save face. “The Election is rigged”, will only get him so far. I still put Hillary around 360 in the Electoral College.
“(The Pirate Party, leading into the polls) wants no limit on individuals’ rights to express their views and share information, unless doing so violates others’ rights, and proposes to decriminalise drugs, raise taxes on the rich, and pursue internet freedoms and copyright reform.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/12/polls-suggests-icelands-pirate-party-form-next-government
Good comment on this issue.
“Read up on what happened to the Pirate Party in Germany.
I suspect the Pirate Party in Iceland will have identical problems, and they will discover that they have to compromise a LOT of that “Transparency” that the more fanatic members propose.
Also… Idiots and Morons in the USA stupidly pushing for a New Party are going to be using this to further fuc! up things in the USA.
And…. That’s right: Idiots, Morons, Stupid.
I used those words because “Ignorance” can no longer apply to the situation we face in the USA over the fact that we are a Two-Party System, and the existence of Third Parties is damaging to our Government and Society.
It erodes our ability to direct government to new problems, and it leads to increasingly Totalitarian Views.
Which is what it is when you refuse to Compromise and demand a Party that is 100% in Alignment with those views.
That is literally the definition of Totalitarian.”
Add this to the list of Clinton policies that turned into unmitigated disasters: “A single piddling act—one that was hardly presented to the public and passed with overwhelming support in both the House and the Senate—has put thousands of people out of work, destroyed entire industries, and cost you thousands of dollars for shitty internet and substandard cell service”
http://www.avclub.com/article/telecommunications-act-1996-gave-us-shitty-cell-se-240874
52- Degregulation/privatization are not always the answer. Sometimes it leads to no competition with no rules in place to check prices or power. You people crying for everything to be privatized better be careful what you ask for. Some things are better off privatized and some things are better off being publicly owned.
Control. When the general public is filled with anger, the rich have two options; either throw them a bone, or create a divisive issue that will occupy people’s minds away from the real problem. The rich love dividing the public. It relates to this article. They control the news, so they put out what stories they want people to hear. Now you have this cop/racist bs occupying people’s minds. So instead of worrying about improving the economy, or making your life better, you are focused on cops and racism.
Rather brilliant plan of controlling the public’s anger and resentment. Let them focus on racism instead of the rich guy sticking it in their a$$.
49 you take great delight in trumps foolishness and ignorance and gloss over all that is distasteful shall we say about Clinton. She is no better and in many respects worse than trump. And yet you liberals will still happily vote for her. That’s what is really sad.
grim says:
August 11, 2016 at 10:34 am
Proof will be in the pudding, we need to check school enrollments to see if there is a trend. I would imagine we would need to see a growth in enrollment that is in excess of the population growth, or at least equal to.
ouch…..check out grade 8 versus grade 1…… K and pre-K are not complete population yet….
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3RXvPWVD6YHTlh4SmttNmhTN28/view?pref=2&pli=1
hey, 3b
@nytimes
50 GOP officials sign a letter declaring that Trump
“would be the most reckless president in American history”
not an unfair allegation…..
GOP’s broken (the good one) says:
August 13, 2016 at 10:32 am
hey, 3b
@nytimes
50 GOP officials sign a letter declaring that Trump
“would be the most reckless president in American history”
Pumpty unmasked….
http://nypost.com/2016/08/12/cruel-judge-bans-pizza-prankster-from-ever-getting-delivery-again/
@washingtonpost
What makes America great? Team USA is showing us
“Through the first week of the Rio Games, it’s been moving to see so much of what’s lately been generating anxieties at home contribute so powerfully to U.S. preeminence on the international stage.
If race, gender, immigration and even our definitions of success are dividing us as citizens and voters, they’re uniting us, if only temporarily, as fans of Team USA.
In a political context, reactions to our country’s increasing diversity, the prospect of female leadership, the presence of immigrants and contested ideas about what constitutes genuine success have congealed into a moment of extraordinary ugliness.
Yet when we measure ourselves against other nations, we see the beauty and strength in inclusivity and integrity.”
Those Dem phone numbers are real. I exchanged a few texts with Albio Sires this morning LOL!
Libturd and anyone else who would like to chime in…
What’s your favorite weather app on your phone ?
I found an interesting way to look at the leaked contact info by sorting the spreadsheet by PAC Fundraiser and then “Term”. Interesting pattern of seniority and concentration of seniority:
Advanced Network Strategies/Yuichi Miyamoto – 9 Seats including two 10-termers, two 9-termers, two 6-termers.
Angerholzer Broz Consulting – 13 Seats with two 10-termers, 1 9-termer, the rest 4 terms or under.
Dynamic SRG – 1 seat, 20-termer Charlie Rangel
Mike Smith – 1 seat, 12-termer Nancy Pelosi
Lots more interesting data in there.
Pretty sure the rationale isn’t just willie nillie, and that there are numerous statistical studies that point to income being more highly correlated with propensity to pay and lower default levels than pure savings account balances.
For savings to be material, I would assume that they would need to be pledged as collateral in a trust account. Real skin in the game. Realistically, savings balances could be vaporized instantly, thus represent no real reduction in risk if income is not adequate.
There’s no doubt one should have more weighting than the other. The problem is, the weighting on liquid assets is 0% as far as they are concerned. On what planet am I a risk of default if I can pay the entire 30 year loan off tomorrow? That hypothetical person that earns an extra $2k per year would catch up to me in 150 years.
If anyone ever ordered pizza to my house as a prank, I’d be pleasantly surprised and tip the driver extra. I’m too lazy to pick up the phone and order it myself anyway.
62. My Radar
Ben – Don’t worry. Domino’s has you covered.
Once everything is set, simply opening the “Zero Click” app will order said pizza.
…
The app is the latest attempt by Domino’s to remove both human contact and the faintest stress from the pizza-ordering process.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/6/11377860/dominos-pizza-zero-click-app-easy-order
If anyone ever ordered pizza to my house as a prank, I’d be pleasantly surprised and tip the driver extra. I’m too lazy to pick up the phone and order it myself anyway.
Dark Sky – fo sho.
My Radar is pretty good for radar.
Really though. Everything you need to know is at weather.gov
The best forums are https://www.americanwx.com/bb/forum/11-new-york-city-metro/
I haven’t eaten Dominoes in 22 years. I went to try to revisit my youth and get Taco Bell one day last year. Big mistake.
56/57 no argument from me on that. However voting for Clinton should bring no glee to anyone if they were honest. And as far as ‘reckless goes I believe Hillary will get us involved deeper in the middle east. Of course liberals will rationalize it as she had no choice it’s Bush s fault. I will not be voting in this election.
Essex,
Looking at it now, does it have heat index (and wind chill) next to the temps? I’m not seeing it. The wind/jet streams is really something.
Pulling the lever for Jill Stein. Don’t really like her much, but she’s honest and not owned.
Voting for either Shrillary or drumpf means you’re complicit with the grift.
73 perhaps I will do the same.
71. That I cannot say, it is rudimentary, but very useful!
Does anyone know the veracity of these claims?
Daniel Henniger
The onslaught of political correctness that overwhelmed American campuses the past year may not come up in the presidential debates. But for many voters the campus pillaging of free speech symbolizes a country off the rails.
The New York Times recently ran a piece describing how colleges and universities are experiencing a pull back in alumni giving because of the PC madness. Donations at Amherst fell 6.5% in the last fiscal year. A small-college fundraising organization named Staff reports that giving in fiscal 2016 is down 29% from the year before.
Enraged alumni vent frustration throughout the piece, but one in particular asks, “Where did this super-correctness come from?” There is an answer to that question.
A Clinton victory will empower, for a very long time, the forces now putting at risk one of the country’s incomparable strengths, its system of higher education.
What happened can be explained in one word: diversity.
This is an idea that degraded into a set of destructive obsessions. Those obsessions then became official, destructive federal policy.
At its inception a few decades back, “diversity” described American social structures absorbing new immigrants, alongside blacks and women via affirmative-action commitments. Yes, the immigrant influx is part of the presidential debate, but it is not the subject of this column. Only one political mess a week.
When the schools’ presidents began to create offices of diversity affairs, alumni and trustees waved them in as the right thing to do. Bureaucratize an idea, though, and what do you get? More of it than any normal person could want. It is not an overstatement to say that diversity offices are now running American higher education.
Higher-ed’s trade newspaper, the Chronicle of Higher Education, publishes a yearly supplement called “Diversity in Academe.” Its May cover story was “Who Sets a College’s Diversity Agenda?” The most telling piece inside was: “Auditing Diversity: An interest in assessments is rising as officials strive to show they are committed.”
The National Center for Education Statistics reports the U.S. has more than 7,000 postsecondary Title IV institutions serving some 21 million students. All university administrators know their next job depends on showing evidence of achieving diversity metrics. So they push them, relentlessly. In 20 years, diversity went from an idea to an industry.
Enter the Obama presidency and the cultural left on steroids. In 2011 the Obama Department of Education sent a “Dear Colleague” letter to all higher-ed schools, providing “guidance” on creating sexual-abuse surveillance systems. This is the letter that shut down traditional due process for college students.
For the presidents of these institutions, the “guidance” notice had one key passage. It said that “if a recipient does not come into compliance,” the federal government may “withdraw federal funding.”
Readers of this newspaper do not need more dots connected to understand why nominally sensible college presidents are rolling over like trained puppies to the PC mobs. Resist and Washington will terminate their federal cash flow. None will. All comply. That is raw power.
Jersey Strong..
http://tinyurl.com/homy452
Interesting.
http://newmediacentral.net/is-hillary-clintons-handler-dr-oladotun-okunola/
76, chifi,
A lot of the money that has poured into the system is designated for improving women and minorities in science and engineering. All of the graduate school fellowships that I was aware of had those provisions attached to them.
I know at one point, the university that I was working at had trouble finding women or minority candidates so they just started bringing in graduate students to do a 2 semester rotation over from the University of Puerto Rico. They claimed them as their minority students.
I tell all my female students who are very scientifically gifted that if they want to enter the field, the red carpet is going to be rolled out for them. Graduate school is science is generally tuition free either way, but a lot of time, they’ll give them a 35k cash stipend, health insurance, and no requirement to TA a class. They will also be accepted to whatever program they want and have a job waiting for them when they leave. The idea that there is some sort of fictitious gender barrier from entry into these fields is laughable.
Check out 226 Fairview Ave, Verona using the Monmouth County site. “Click Here for More History” and notice who were the original owners of that house. They sold it less than 2 years later for a $325,000 loss.
What a shit hole. And trump and his followers think America has problems.
Ryan Lochte and Three Teammates Robbed at Gunpoint – The New York Times
https://apple.news/AhX04AcHKR4WOZ4lsIP3qIA
81- The black lives movement should pay attention to this. You think our police system is messed up, how about this. Ship them to Brazil and show them what a weak police state looks like. Anyone bashing cops here in America should be sent to places like Brazil so they can realize how stupid they are. Taking for granted the safety our police state provides, so show them what a weak police state is like.
They are lucky they didn’t get kidnapped and held for ransom. They should have had bodyguards.
[83] No guns, no glory.
They are lucky they didn’t get kidnapped and held for ransom. They should have had bodyguards.
I think we might see a significant crime reduction in the US if we outsourced our prisons to some other countries. $10K per prisoner per year would be a huge cost savings over present expenditures. Something tells me that Pakistan would be able to homogenize all the gang affiliations out of the prison system.
Anyone know if there are any other options to get around cablevision? They have no competition in my area, and really pissed me off. Internet isn’t working, and they said they will have someone here by tuesday. They will not reimburse me for the service I’m paying for and not receiving. This is total bs. Private industry run better than govt businesses my ass. This is what happens when they get so big and lack competition. Totally stick it to you. Verizon too, their customer service is a joke. They just do whatever they want.
Anyone know if there are any other options to get around cablevision? They have no competition in my area, and really pissed me off. Internet isn’t working, and they said they will have someone here by tuesday. They will not reimburse me for the service I’m paying for and not receiving. This is total bs. Private industry run better than govt businesses my ass. This is what happens when they get so big and lack competition. Totally stick it to you. Verizon too, their customer service is a joke. They just do whatever they want.
Who granted them their monopoly in the first place? Grow some balls and cancel your service and a file a small claims lawsuit. They’ll give you whatever you want when you do.
87- Verizon screwed nj. They signed a contract to provide access to their fios service across the entire state. Of course they set up shop in all the lucrative locations and reneged on their contract with the citizens of nj on providing access to the rest. It was nice watching the competition between cable vision and Verizon, of course they stopped competing and instead worked together to inflate pricing. Human nature is a bi!ch!
Deserves repeating
Ben says:
Who granted them their monopoly in the first place?
Joyce, check out this article.
• Lifted the limit on how many radio stations one company could own [and] made possible the creation of radio giants like Clear Channel, with more than 1,200 stations…
• Lifted from 12 the number of local TV stations any one corporation could own, and expanded the limit on audience reach… These changes spurred huge media mergers and greatly increased media concentration.
• Deregulated cable rates. Between 1996 and 2003, those rates have skyrocketed, increasing by nearly 50 percent…
• Permitted the Federal Communications Commission to ease cable-broadcast cross-ownership rules… Ninety percent of the top 50 cable stations are owned by the same parent companies that own the broadcast networks, challenging the notion that cable is any real source of competition.
http://www.avclub.com/article/telecommunications-act-1996-gave-us-shitty-cell-se-240874
90- The taking away of deregulation actually hurt us. Sometimes it’s better when they are a monopoly controlled by the govt(aka the people).
“As Common Cause notes, the Telecom Act Of 1996 also helped deregulate cable rates, meaning that the act is the reason you’re paying $100 a month for what you could probably get online for “free” if you were just willing to sit through a few Honda ads. That kind of deregulation can seem confusing for those who advocate for the free market. Why, for instance, couldn’t some company decide to offer cable to a town or region at a fraction of the cost of what Time Warner might charge? Let McChesney explain:
The principle behind the ’96 act was, “Well, we created all these cable monopolies [before 1996] because you can only have one company ripping up the roads and putting in their cable wires… The ’96 act was when the internet was going to change everything, so [the thought was that] now telephone companies can use their wires to transmit television shows. Suddenly, [the thought was] we’ll have at least two companies in every market competing… and then [people] said, “If those guys can do it, maybe the electric utility can send stuff over the electric wires, and pretty soon we’ll have wireless companies who will utilize new technologies, so there can be all sorts of people competing. [In reality,] their wires weren’t as good and there wasn’t enough money in it.
At this point, it’s just not economically feasible or smart to set up a cable television operation, meaning more companies are either resorting to using satellite dishes or just focusing on streaming, à la Hulu (a company that’s jointly owned by NBCUniversal, Fox, Disney, and Turner Broadcasting, by the way) or iTunes. Now, as Common Cause notes, “Roughly 98 percent of households with access to cable are served by only one cable company,” and that company can pretty much charge what it wants. That’s especially true if that company is able to offer more and more channels—all generally owned by the same five parent corporations—thus giving the cable provider reason to claim that, since it offers more than what you might get on regular old broadcast TV, it can charge more. And like idiots, we all pay it, because that’s what cable costs”
Verizon screwed nj. They signed a contract to provide access to their fios service across the entire state. Of course they set up shop in all the lucrative locations and reneged on their contract with the citizens of nj on providing access to the rest. It was nice watching the competition between cable vision and Verizon, of course they stopped competing and instead worked together to inflate pricing. Human nature is a bi!ch!
I dunno what you are talking about. I pay the same amount prior to fios ever being available. If they have you paying for days in which you are not being provided service (which is illegal), you have no negotiating skills. I woulda had them out first thing tomorrow morning.
*taking away of regulations
92- Ben, when fios came out, you were able to switch providers and get a huge discount. Did it many times.
Maybe my negotian skills suck, I was literally going at it with them for 2 hrs. You want to know how they played it, they told me, technically, I still have access to the Internet. He said the signal is still going through, therefore I am still receiving service even though I can’t access it. It’s obviously a broken router or modem, but I guess that’s my fault, even though they provide both.
Like I said, actually cancel your account…see how fast they change their tune.
I’m beginning to like that the Great Pumpkovsky won’t leave. It has it’s benefits.
1. Fewer people post.
2. After skipping over the Great Pumkovsky posts, it only takes about 4 minutes to read the entire daily thread.
Good work Plumpsky!!!!
#80 Ex Pat
Wow, I think you are holding onto this just a little too tight. Time to let go a little before you go full Gil Renard.
#55 3b
Clinton is the last adult standing in the room. She gets my vote in a heartbeat.
You can only blame Trump for so much. If it wasn’t him, the rest of that field of 17 would be still losing, just not by these numbers.
Don’t blame me for the fact you have no one to vote for. Jill Stein is a cop out. The founding fathers had one request for you, Vote the president. If you really hate Hillary, you have to pull the lever for Trump. And vice versa. Other wise you give the winner a mandate to do whatever they want.
If we got rid of deferred income, this would not be an issue.
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/tim-cook-says-apple-wont-183800408.html
98
How will a third party gain traction with your infallible logic?
Not sure, but maybe this one could help (a bit): http://www.repairsurge.amazon-certified.com