If its Tuesday, This Must Be Afternoon Reading
By the time you read this, I will (hopefully) be airborne somewhere over the mid-west. I’m on my way to a WSJ panel discussion in Chicago tomorrow. Its for investment advisors, and I am speaking on the panel with Jack Ablin and Pete Najarian, and WSJ managing editor Dave Kansas.
Meanwhile, some reading for your afternoon pleasure:
• The Pinocchio Recovery (Market Talk)
• Fed Growth Effort May Be Undermined by ‘Tight’ Credit (Bloomberg)
• Households’ net worth rises for first time in two years (Marketwatch)
• What’s Really Wrong With Wall Street Pay (economix)
• Homeowners who ‘strategically default’ on loans a growing problem (LA Times)
• 50 things that are being killed by the internet (Telegraph)
What are you reading that you find: a) interesting b) persuasive and c) off the beaten path ?
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September 22nd, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Can’t remember who was trying to tell us that the SF Bay Area housing market was on fire –
apparently not
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2009/09/bay-area-median-price-sales-drop.html
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:10 pm
from the LATimes link Homeowners story .. (Opinions tab) a story penned yesterday on Flatter / Flat Tax ..
$109K saved for the wealthy vs. $4 for $40-50K earners … does anyone (not talking their book) think the 109K will do more for the overall economy in the ubber pocket …. other than a couple world tour vacations for that ubber
of course there is the thought .. if ubber don’t get things his way .. he’ll pick up his marbles and go play over there
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
“Before last year’s meltdown it was considered heresy to question the wisdom of growth. Now economists are coming out of the closet and doing exactly that: openly proclaiming infinite growth cannot be sustained on a finite planet. This is the most far-reaching, penetrating paradigm shift imaginable – a monumental mindshift on par with what Einstein’s relativity did to physics. It points to what is perhaps the most exciting and intractable problem of our time: how to create a sustainble economy that does not feed off nature. It heralds the beginning of a debate that will occupy the best minds on the planet for centuries to come: How to manage our planetary household – how to live and be happy – without crashing Gaia?” – Kalle Lasn
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Speaking of the LA Times story. My partner is in the process of doing exactly this. Has two homes, a large one he’s been trying to sell, and a smaller one he has been renovating. The real estate market has dropped so far in Palm Springs that he’s decided to take the hit on his credit and save himself 48K a year in house payments.
I’ll let you all know how that goes. I’m very curious to see how long WFB will take to foreclose on the property.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
“US backing for world currency stuns markets
US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner shocked global markets by revealing that Washington is “quite open” to Chinese proposals for the gradual development of a global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/5050407/US-backing-for-world-currency-stuns-markets.html
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
@ Thor:
The CA housing market is on fire…. With people burning down their houses!
http://tracypress.com/pages/full_story/push?article-Husband%20and%20wife%20suspected%20of%20Fagin%20Drive%20arson%20&id=3618351-Husband&
HCF
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm
“Homeowners who ’strategically default’ on loans a growing problem”. Quid pro quo with a negative slant. Good for them.
“Households’ net worth rises for first time in two years”. That is all about the stock market and property values which are being either manipulated or supported by the USG (us). Real wealth is what you can lay your hands on….right now.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:42 pm
HCF – HAH! The stupidity of people never ceases to amaze me.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:43 pm
@Thor – “Can’t remember who was trying to tell us that the SF Bay Area housing market was on fire”
You are funny, thanks for the laugh :)
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:49 pm
“Before last year’s meltdown it was considered heresy to question the wisdom of growth.”
Heresy by whom? Growth as measured by what?
If you measure growth as “volume of stuff produced” – then I’d say a conclusion that permanent growth is not sustainable (or even desirable) would be a big “no duh”.
If you measure growth as “increased quality of living”, then it very much is sustainable, since quality of life can be improved without consuming more stuff (e.g. better software, higher quality goods, etc.). However that’s something that’s not easily measured in a lot of cases.
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
@ jr
Well sure Timmy is “for the gradual development of a global reserve currency run by the International Monetary Fund.” It might help to protect the USD from replacing the Yen as the funding currency for carry trades. I guess that’s one (offhanded) way of supporting the dollar…
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:53 pm
thor-
smart move-
people should have zero sense of obligation to the banks- they have proven to everyone that they are more than willing to bankrupt themselves to chase high returns via high risk- no-one should have a second thought about giving the house back to the bank-
look at it as a patriotic duty
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
packman-
exactly! you make my point very well- well Kalle Lasn’s point- but I agree 100%
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:57 pm
jr/pat g-
that story re the reserve currency is from several months ago- pretty sure he back pedaled on that since then
September 22nd, 2009 at 4:58 pm
F420 – you caught that eh? :P I may not be feeding the trolls, but I can throw scraps of meat outside their cage.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:01 pm
US book value
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/3/658dccca-a77f-11de-9467-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1
@Thor read 12:13pm
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/09/when-will-real-estate-recover-its-losses/
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Thor, I’m sorry. I should have known….
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
companies that might be headed to bankruptcy?
http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/article/336235/Ten-Big-Companies-That-Are-Veering-Toward-Bankruptcy?tickers=AMD,LVS,S,M,GT,MYL,HTZ
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:16 pm
plans to fix for TBTF needed?
http://moneywatch.bnet.com/economic-news/blog/macro-view/why-we-need-plans-to-break-up-too-big-to-fail-banks/1061/
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:22 pm
People known to LB have been “in denial” over their debt situation for a year but, like others, are now filing BK:
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/09/bankruptcy-filings-approach-2005-highs.html
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:25 pm
speaking of Housing/Foreclosures/Law, this:
“Here it is. On August 28, 2009 the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas rendered an opinion based calmly on existing law and relentlessly applying it to the chagrin of all participants in the securitization scheme. MERS was the appellant seeking to invoke due process rights which it said were violated when they failed to get notice of the fact that their “interest” was being wiped out. The Court said simply that MERS — or any nominee” didn’t have any interest and proves its point by reference to simple statements in the documents and the simplest of laws and interpretation of the role of MERS and the requirements of recordation. The splitting of the note and mortgage creates an immediate and fatal flaw in title…”
http://livinglies.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/kansas-supreme-court-sets-precedent-key-decision-confirming-livinglies-strategies/
has the potential to create some, more, sore spots..
~~
and, this: “It is rather startling that so little focus has been given to job creation. 21 full months into the recession and there is still no concerted effort on stemming the massive unemployment problem. This issue is directly tied into the weak consumer demand. The American consumer is not in a spending mood. We can expand the access of credit available to banks but the access to credit is limited if they have no viable customers to lend to. Apparently banks now realize that giving money to those with no income history or capacity to pay debt back was a bad move. So why are they asking for so much liquidity even though they refuse to lend? The answer unfortunately is that they are borrowing liquidity to patch up their own problems. The American consumer is on their own…”
http://www.mybudget360.com/breaking-the-consumer-exporting-empty-containers-declining-consumer-credit-is-contracting-at-rapid-pace-is-the-consumer-treadmill-showing-signs-of-exhaustion/
and the stories, on that page, under ‘most viewed’, should give one a clearer understanding that “The American consumer is on their own.”.
There are, simply, other agendas afoot, beyond the Sketch that the MSM-peddled “Happy Talk” sketches for us..
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sketch 3.c/2.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:37 pm
13) Memory
When almost any fact, no matter how obscure, can be dug up within seconds through Google and Wikipedia, there is less value attached to the “mere” storage and retrieval of knowledge. What becomes important is how you use it – the internet age rewards creativity.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/6133903/50-things-that-are-being-killed-by-the-internet.html
while I agree with its inclusion on the List, I’d posit ‘Memory’ is, a little, more important than portrayed.
IOW, that take is completely FOS.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Thor: That article supports the point that selected areas are doing fine – Marin County’s median price was up 5.6 percent the past year.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:50 pm
ET – Yes, and that’s because foreclosures in Marin county are now hitting the higher end homes bringing the median price up. You also stated this weekend that the higher end neighborhoods in San Francisco (NOT Marin County) were going up.
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Eric – once again you have the statistical sophistication of a 7 year old who isn’t very bright. Median price is going to rise in a lot of areas (e.g. Marin) as the Prime Jumbo Housing Ponzi scheme, I mean market, begins to crack. Increasingly we will see distressed sales of more expensive properties start to dominate the marketplace, as the lower end has begun to clear and wealthier homeowners feel the pinch – this obviously feeds into the median price.
NEXT!
September 22nd, 2009 at 5:58 pm
MEH-
hoffer- interesting link – “50 things . . .”
for instance- i sold my watch on Ebay a few years ago (a whole $800) when i realized- “what the hell am i wearing a watch for?”- same with the phone books delivered to my house- immediately to the trash can- i don’t even have a printer any more at my house- last one finally broke- but barely used it- and newspapers- old news- why bother-
interesting stuff
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:09 pm
@ Ahab:
Infinite growth is cancer. I have good reason to know that it is not a good thing…
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
MEH – Was “attention span” in that list? I managed to make it to 20 before something shiny distracted me.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
@LB and median home price, I knew that picture was fuzzy, thank you for putting into focus.
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:16 pm
shiny – where ,where………..
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
Thor,
good Q:, not, specifically( that I recall ). though many entries were in that ‘meme’..
ahab,
just to clarify, the link was from the Post– • 50 things that are being killed by the internet (Telegraph)
420d,
Right? (;
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
TC-
agreed – i want things to shaken up a bit on what constitutes a “good” economy- and that growth always = good is not necessarily the best starting point- I am inclined to believe that if we don’t change our ways- it will be like the movie “Road Warrior”- survival and search for fuel as the only two thoughts that make up your day
thor-
perseverence my friend
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Ben, aren’t you bearish Macy’s?
September 22nd, 2009 at 6:45 pm
“Households’ net worth rises for first time in two years” …Come on now, anything better than a negative number looks promising. Can we raise the bar a little please? Look at the Japanese, Germans or even Chinese…
“What’s Really Wrong With Wall Street Pay” …Like we already don’t know.
“Homeowners who ’strategically default’ on loans a growing problem” …Ya think?
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Jingle mail – sophisticated homeowners are way underwater in non-recourse state and then they see forecasts that they won’t be above water for another 15 -20 years? If they believe that then there’s no reason for them to make another mortgage payment. And if MERS foreclosures are deficient like mark Hoffers posting says then a lot of people can stop paying their mortgages AND continue to live in their homes for a long time.
Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (“MERS”) is a proper party that can lawfully foreclose as the mortgagee and note-holder of a mortgage loan.
Not according to this months Kansas court ruling!
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Interesting (but long) writeup about MERS and the possible ramifications of the Kansas court ruling (MERS is the “straw man” for 60 million mortgages).
http://www.opednews.com/articles/LANDMARK-DECISION-PROMISES-by-Ellen-Brown-090921-894.html
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Thor – that’s not at all what I said – I said selected neighborhoods and areas were doing fine and the Marin data support that – you and your fellow anonymous pal leftback seem to have all the answers here – what is your real estate investing experience and expertise in N. CA besides possibly knowing where to find it on a map?
September 22nd, 2009 at 7:42 pm
Eric,
let me understand this better, you’re, currently, buying RE in those ‘selected neighborhoods’?
and, if not, what’s your point? you know, the ‘lesson’ that you’re sharing (?)..
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
Are Children Next Targets for Toxic Meals?
Washington, DC July 13, 2009: Citing serious health conditions due to high levels of soy, inmates in the Illinois prison system are suing for a permanent injunction against the substitution of soy for meat in prison meals.
The soy-based prison diet began when Rod Blagojevich was elected governor of Illinois in 2002. Beginning in January 2003, inmates began receiving a diet largely based on processed soy protein with very little meat. In most meals, small amounts of meat or meat by-products are mixed with 60-70 percent soy protein; fake soy cheese has replaced real cheese; and soy flour or soy protein is now added to most prison baked goods. Blagojevich received substantial campaign contributions from Archer Daniels Midland, the main supplier of soy products to the Illinois prisons.
Soy is touted as a way to save money and to provide a diet lower in calories and saturated fat. However, soybeans contain plant estrogens and other toxins and anti-nutrients that make soy products unacceptable as a source of nutrition except in very small amounts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) lists over 200 studies showing toxicity of soy in its Poisonous Plant Database (http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~djw/pltx.cgi?QUERY=soy). Although the FDA allowed a soy-prevents-heart disease health claim in 1999, the agency is considering revoking that claim in the face of evidence that soy does not lower cholesterol and does not prevent heart disease.
http://www.westonaprice.org/press/press-13jul09.html
http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=ADM+campaign+contributions
and, yes, b4 one gets all ‘it’s just prisoners’, one should check the ingredient labels of the CPG that they have in their ‘pantry’, you know, purchased at the Supermarket ..
http://www.rtsautomation.com/?node=5
September 22nd, 2009 at 8:16 pm
hi call me ahab,
I posted the article from March 25, 2009 for perspective, I thought the joke was obvious but I am easily amused. As you probably know, the US dollar index hit its 2009 low today. Look at the dollar index the past 6 months since those comments:
http://quotes.ino.com/chart/?s=NYBOT_DX&v=d6
==============
From the March 25, 2009 article:
“Mr Geithner later qualified his remarks, insisting that the dollar would remain the “world’s dominant reserve currency … for a long period of time” but the seeds of doubt have been sown.
The markets appear baffled by the confused statements emanating from Washington. President Barack Obama told a new conference hours earlier that there was no threat to the reserve status of the dollar.
“I don’t believe that there is a need for a global currency. The reason the dollar is strong right now is because investors consider the United States the strongest economy in the world with the most stable political system in the world,” he said. ”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/5050407/US-backing-for-world-currency-stuns-markets.html
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:08 pm
jc:
Great link. Thanks.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:10 pm
The LA time story highlights the debtor revolt going on….
There is less and less stigma with going BK nowadays….It’s a small part of the debt jubilee/repudiation that’s got to happen….
http://andystechnicals.blogspot.com/2009/09/steve-keen-we-need-debt-jubilee.html
There’s simply too much debt. It’s difficult to envision ways this might end well. I really try to see one, but it sure is hard to imagine.
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:34 pm
@MEH: The MERS info is fascinating.
Could take decades to sort out now that the legals have locked on. Quick easy way to restore past owners’ rights.
What a bunch of arrogant numnuts.
May be that’s why foreclosed properties are being held off the markets.
Title challenge. Or trying to plug the gap before a sale occurs.
Lots of luck with that one.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:11 pm
USD finally broke through 76.00 traded at 75.97 (after hours). Freefall has begun. BUT because the closes have been modestly lower the reversal is only a 0.8% higher close at 76.68 (per TLB). USD TLB daily chart: http://tinyurl.com/l6bxvq
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:26 pm
alfred e,
it’s a helluva tale, I remember the NYT busting this story, open, back in ’006, Nyet.
for more, see: Who owns your house???
Forecasting the future of any market whether it’s real estate or the stock market requires good financial analysis and a little bit of luck. Not if you are on the MERS Bandwagon, the real estate market changes every the day…. Even the Past..
The Mortgage Electronic Registration System, asset backed securities and trustee deed foreclosures are the name of this game. First In………First Out………….! In Clark County Nevada, (Las Vegas) and Maricopa, Arizona, an average of five thousand documents are recorded every day. The two municipalities even brag about the “State of the Art” of their recording technologies. Online, Anytime.. In Maricopa County you can view the Unofficial Documents to any public recording on line. If you want the official document, you will have to order it and they will mail it to you. Chances are, it’s not going to be the same document you viewed on line. Remember, it’s the unofficial recordings as opposed to the Official Recording. Good, but not as good as Clark County Public Recorders Office….”
Submitted: Friday, June 11, 2004
Modified: Thursday, November 15, 2007
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Banks/MERS/mers-aka-mortgage-electronic-r-yyb9e.htm
http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=MERS+Mortgage+Registration+Legal
“Could take decades to sort out now that the legals have locked on”, Truly, or We could give Keen’s suggestion some consideration, and go Jubilee..
I wonder how many more, of the herd, the Jackals will be allowed to carry away..
then, there’s always this side of the Fence: “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear-kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor-with the cry of grave national emergency. Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it …”– US General Douglas MacArthur, 1957
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:41 pm
EricTyson – Nice try. I was born and raised in the SF Bay Area, my family has lived there since 1886, my grandparents were in real estate for 40 years on the peninsula. My uncle, as well as three of my cousins sell real estate in the Bay Area (It’s a family thing). I owned two homes up there before I moved to LA in 2004, all of my friends and two of my siblings live in San Francisco. My brother and my cousin both own homes in the “select” neighborhoods you keep trying to tell us are “doing fine”. I know first hand how the market is doing up there. You very clearly do not. Your posts on the real estate market in San Francisco are a joke. Do yourself a favor and quit now before you scare even more people away from reading your “books”.
September 22nd, 2009 at 10:47 pm
Andy T – Debt Jubilee – Hah! You need to trademark that one, is it yours?
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:10 pm
I’m reading “Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA” by Tim Weiner. It’s scary, interesting, very well written, names names and pulls no punches. It’s a long book (702 pages) broken up into small, easy to digest chapters.
It paints a very ugly picture of small, petty people playing life and death games with nearly unlimited power and money. Henry Cabot Lodge, for example, purposely outed a covert agent in Vietnam because his office was bigger than Lodge’s. That’s just the beginning of one chapter. It gets progressively worse over the entire history of the CIA. And since there’s been no CIA pushback, it’s probably all true.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:12 pm
thor-
Jubilee has been around for centuries- Biblical -
“Jubilee- a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon.” – Wiki
the idea of a debt jubilee has been around awhile- not sure who coined it however
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Ahab – I did not know that. I’ve heard it in reference to a celebration. Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee . . .
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:20 pm
thor-
i’m with you my friend- when i started hearing “debt jubilee” cast about i dug into it to find out what it meant-a jubilee always sounded like a party to me
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:37 am
EU and US diverge on the most important issue at the G20. Yes again!
I cannot see the world ever dealing with the crisis in one voice unless one of these guys steps down.
EU and US diverge
fresbee
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:39 am
Asia going the EU way. Am expecting a one Asian currency soon. It could be either YEN or Reminibi or both combined. There is a good chance that Asia may start trading in EUROs rather than dollar given the price stability of EURO.
Asian EU
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 am
Mark-
I can thank you enough for bringing this case to my attention. From the recent decision:
12. The Due Process Clause does not protect entitlements where the identity of the alleged entitlement is vague. A protected property right must have some ascertainable monetary value. An entitlement to a procedure does not constitute a protected property interest. [not likely a favorable ruling for the MB dicers and slicers]
and this:
The relationship that MERS has to Sovereign is more akin to that of a straw man than to a party possessing all the rights given a buyer. A mortgagee and a lender have intertwined rights that defy a clear separation of interests, especially when such a purported separation relies on ambiguous contractual language. The law generally understands that a mortgagee is not distinct from a lender: a mortgagee is “[o]ne to whom property is mortgaged: the mortgage creditor, or lender.” Black’s Law Dictionary 1034 (8th ed. 2004). By statute, assignment of the mortgage carries with it the assignment of the debt. K.S.A. 58-2323. Although MERS asserts [*23] that, under some situations, the mortgage document purports to give it the same rights as the lender, the document consistently refers only to rights of the lender, including rights to receive notice of litigation, to collect payments, and to enforce the debt obligation. The document consistently limits MERS to acting “solely” as the nominee of the lender.
Indeed, in the event that a mortgage loan somehow separates interests of the note and the deed of trust, with the deed of trust lying with some independent entity, the mortgage may become unenforceable.
“The practical effect of splitting the deed of trust from the promissory note is to make it impossible for the holder of the note to foreclose, unless the holder of the deed of trust is the agent of the holder of the note. [Citation omitted.] Without the agency relationship, the person holding only the note lacks the power to foreclose in the event of default. The person holding only the deed of trust will never experience default because only the holder of the note is entitled to payment of the underlying obligation. [Citation omitted.] The mortgage loan becomes ineffectual when the note holder did not also hold the deed of trust.” [*24] Bellistri v. Ocwen Loan Servicing, LLC, 284 S.W.3d 619, 623 (Mo. App. 2009).
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 am
I can’t thank you enough–sorry
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:47 am
Also this about MERS:
Sovereign is a financial institution that putatively purchased the Kesler mortgage from Millennia but did not register the transaction in Ford County. The relationship of MERS to the transaction [*15] is not subject to an easy description. One court has described MERS as follows:
“MERS is a private corporation that administers the MERS System, a national electronic registry that tracks the transfer of ownership interests and servicing rights in mortgage loans. Through the MERS System, MERS becomes the mortgagee of record for participating members through assignment of the members’ interests to MERS. MERS is listed as the grantee in the official records maintained at county register of deeds offices. The lenders retain the promissory notes, as well as the servicing rights to the mortgages. The lenders can then sell these interests to investors without having to record the transaction in the public record. MERS is compensated for its services through fees charged to participating MERS members.” Mortgage Elec. Reg. Sys., Inc. v. Nebraska Depart. of Banking, 270 Neb. 529, 530, 704 N.W.2d 784 (2005).
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:22 am
Mark: The point is that real estate is very much a local business…clearly some markets that were overheated have suffered large declines but many markets have suffered much smaller declines.
This just released PDF has the details on regional differences. Most regions have seen declines of a few percent or less the past 12 months.
http://www.fhfa.gov/webfiles/14979/MonthlyHPI92209.pdf
Thor: I speak regularly to investors and many others…as I said before, CA has clearly been among the harder hit states but some neighbors and communities have done much better than others.
You of all people should appreciate the long-term returns from real estate since you’ve personally benefited from the investments that your parents and grandparents made! This graph since 1970 puts the recent decline in perspective (and the BA has clearly done better than the statewide graph suggests)
http://www.research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/CASTHPI
September 23rd, 2009 at 9:00 am
home buyers .. unUSA is rebalancing to a new world labor force from supremacy position post WW2
we did some super things in those years .. great recording industries in film and music .. the automobile age .. brought in the computer age …. those industries/days are mature
I suppose the super military is one for the list .. but used poorly becomes a thorn
September 23rd, 2009 at 10:40 am
Eamonn Fingleton’s “in the jaws of the Dragon” and Chalmer’s Johnson’s trilogy. I still can’t evaluate Jaws but it is compelling.
September 23rd, 2009 at 11:25 am
I’m reading lots of K’s and Q’s and noticing that over the last year banks have been swapping subordinated debt/term loans for senior debt in company after company..
Shareholders don’t seem to care that they have dilluted in order to be demoted…
At least not yet….
SPX failed just under 1750 again yesterday…
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:06 pm
@Thor
I don’t think EricYyson’s really been there long enough to know wtf he’s talking about. If he did, he wouldn’t be an “investor” in that region. Is he really able to pay the notes on the investments that he’s renting out for a joke? Maybe he thinks he’s going to flip them (giggle) to a guy like Wanger.
@EricTyson
“Real estate is very much a local business…”
BS! Not anymore its not. Not after the deregulated U.S. finance industry, organizations issuing MBSs and the internet got done with it. It’s gone worldwide. Houses EVERYWHERE in the Bay Area are still way overinflated and need to come down across the board to make any sense. Marin County, Los Gatos, Lamorinda-Walnut Creek-Alamo – areas like these that appeal the most to families are no exception (who wants to have kids downtown where you can pay more than half a million and still have your kids going to bottom 100 schools where the where he or she will learn to read and write English starting in the 6th grade and spend after school time modifying his low rider Honda Civic.)
In the early 1990s during the recession, I remember hearing about people getting tossed out of their houses by the banks in all of the “preferred” neighborhoods which sold for discounts later. There is no immunity to the oversupply problem at any level, especially this time around. In fact, it takes more time to sell in those nice areas than in more affordable ones, since after all, even in the Bay area not everyone has the 1.5 million to buy your overpriced Mill Valley cracker box with a driveway.
“…benefited from the investments that your parents and grandparents made”
Benefited from them? Most of we younger Californians who could no longer can afford to live there, or simply left because they were tired of California BS, did not benefit from the “good” investments PROP 13 AND EASY MONEY, negligible foreign competition, more job stability and an ever expanding economy allowed our parents and grandparents to make.
Now old mom, dad, grandma and grandpa want to leave the rest of us kiddies holding the bag, paying 9 or 10x our annually incomes for the privilege of owning their crappy 1950s ranch houses with no yard or basement in neighborhoods with shitty schools, bad roads, broken bridges AND NEWLY ASSESSED property taxes for their dumps – because they never saved a dime and are done milking the value of the house they bought in their jackpot refys from 2001-2006 – or are ready to cash in and retire to cheaper digs in Oregon, Arizona or Montana.
September 23rd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Eric,
I’m not sure which, of the following, should accompany your posts, you know, the ones with the link-through to your site..
1.) I am the Author of a series of “Finance Guides” “for Dummies”.
or
2.) Consider all of these EricTyson.com Membership Benefits…each of which on its own is worth far, far more than the $18 annual membership fee:
(If you only like FREE websites, please keep reading and be sure to click this).
past that, I appreciate your response, and thank you for the overweening generalities..
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/overweening
not def. #1.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Mark E Hoffer: It’s quite peculiar that your nose is so bent out of shape from my last post wherein I linked to two non-profit data sites that have nothing to do with me…your response speaks volumes about you…might it be due to your website ranking of near 13 million th place?
I was under the impression that the folks posting here are intelligent and open-minded and interested in intelligent dialogue but that’s clearly not the case with you and some of your ilk
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Eric,
simply, like, Wow~ GL w/that..
September 23rd, 2009 at 4:30 pm
50 things that are being killed by the internet
The art of polite disagreement
… The most raucous sections of the blogworld seem incapable of accepting sincerely held differences of opinion; all opponents must have “agendas”.
At least here at TBP, we try to do our part to maintain the level of civil discourse (right?)
Also, a POV I’ve often thought to inject when the topix hereon turn to “whence is the growth to come?”
“Before last year’s meltdown it was considered heresy to question the wisdom of growth. Now economists are coming out of the closet and doing exactly that: openly proclaiming infinite growth cannot be sustained on a finite planet. This is the most far-reaching, penetrating paradigm shift imaginable – a monumental mindshift on par with what Einstein’s relativity did to physics. It points to what is perhaps the most exciting and intractable problem of our time: how to create a sustainble economy that does not feed off nature. It heralds the beginning of a debate that will occupy the best minds on the planet for centuries to come: How to manage our planetary household – how to live and be happy – without crashing Gaia?” – Kalle Lasn
doh. not in our time, where “our” equals humankind’s time.
September 23rd, 2009 at 5:15 pm
A “debt jubilee” being the main objective of Tyler in Fight Club… Too bad it’ll never happen. Our Glorious Elites would prefer our country completely fall apart then have to take a write-down on their personal accounts.
P.S. EricTyson, as an impartial observer of this conversation… please just stop. Especially after this: “might it be due to your website ranking of near 13 million th place?”. Quite possibly the lamest thing I’ve ever read on the intarwebs, and that includes all the time I used to spend on 4chan. Dude, just stop. And pray that your inane comments here don’t get indexed higher than your website for the “Dummies” books.