This isn't golf, the higher the number the better.

Got a loan mod offer in the mail for the second on the investment property. Tossed it. Don't care to bother with positions that are economically dead. They offered 4% on 67 cents on the dollar. Um, no. Try 10 cents fools- I don't want or need any more credit, and quite frankly don't give a damn about my credit rating anymore. Now the first has to try and come up with something, meanwhile I sit and do nothing- after all I don't even live there, and quite frankly don't care as long as property values keep falling.

So, what is the purpose of HAMPing when they can't even do a writedown correctly and come up with a decent deal- do they really think I am that stupid? Of course they do.

Treat me like a moron, and I will reciprocate.

Both ASC and SLS fall into that category- BTW, Uncle Warren, you should sell your Wells Fargo stock- they is acting mighty dumb.

Someday this war's gonna end...

"Populism"?

I like the warm fuzzy feeling I get from PRE-revision reporting... propaganda

That means only banks or credit unions can accept deposits, says Arthur Wilmarth, a professor at George Washington University Law School in Washington who has testified before Congress about banking regulations.

If a prosecutor pressed an insurance company, retained- asset accounts could be outlawed because insurers say they deposit money into these accounts and don’t have bank charters or banking regulation, Wilmarth says. MetLife also offers its own version of certificates of deposit.

“If it swims, quacks and flies like a duck, the court could decide that it is indeed a duck,” he says. “You then potentially could have a criminal violation.”

...

“There’s more than $25 billion out there in these accounts,” Baxter says. “A run could be triggered immediately by one insurance company not being able to honor its payout.

aren't these plans simply the equivalent of really crappy MM accounts? If the accounts aren't "demand," then the federal law doesn't apply.

I feel his confusion...

[a Fitch analyst's forecast that 75 percent will re-default]

More evidence that the taxpayer is getting systematically fleeced. When can the taxpayer say ENOUGH?

Need to shutdown or severely curtail FNM, FRE, FHA, HUD & Obama.

With DTI's like that, the 'good' outcome for those people is defaulting. Pull out the thorn in the paw, one quick yank.

That just screams "re-default".

CR, we luvs your understatements. "Screams" is for the rabble in the commentariat.

Ah memories...HAMP was so much fun for me. I broke the first rule and talked though...

In Connecticut, where 106 insurance companies are based, state insurance department manager for market conduct Kurt Swan also says that retained-asset accounts are kept in banks, with FDIC coverage.

“I think they’re just trying to offer some flexibility to the beneficiary,” he says. Swan and his colleague, William Arfanis, the department’s principal financial examiner, both say the insurers don’t profit from the retained-asset accounts. That too is wrong. The companies do earn investment gains on death benefits.

Can you say capture? Although why the insurance industry would want to capture a "regulator" dumb enough to get quoted with a stupid lie in Bloomberg is beyond me. Oh, those hundreds of millions in criminal enterprise gains...

WF is taking over the Wachovias here right now.

Rob Dawg wrote:

WFC is dead bank

They have nice looking tellers and the interiors of their banks are really fancy. Isn't that worth anything?

DTI of 63%.... What are these people going to eat? A side benefit might be shrinking waste lines and less trips to the doctor?

If we want to have some real fun, we can get actual loan level data (minus any personal info). Then, we could independently check the data, and slice and dice it. For example, we could show default rates by debt to income ratio, or current loan to value ratio.

Outsider wrote:

If you strain your ears, you hear echoes of "filing bankruptcy" in there.

Borrowers? Lenders? Servicers?

all of the above mentioned...

This time they probably will be promoted.

I remember the government actuary who determined that medicare part D would cost more than $100 billion than first reported was told to sit on it by higher ups till after the '04 election.

63.7%!!! How bad was the DTI BEFORE modification? Why would anybody be under the illusion that the FBs had the capacity to service these kind of debt levels?

If I listen closely I hear the echos of 'not my problem' kicking around the system from the days of yore.... Oddly enough it is now my problem....

I really appreciate their thorough interpretation of the script - the baldfaced lying about statistics is a key component.

付けが回ってくる

So trickle down was a huge success? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Right. Just couple that screed with this one.

The political genius of supply-side economics | Martin Wolf's Exchange | FT.com 

Citi has done an analysis which I was working on, but had not completed.

"July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Twenty-four of Europe’s biggest banks would fail the region’s stress tests and show a combined capital shortfall of 15 billion euros ($19.4 billion) if the exams included losses on sovereign bonds held on lenders’ banking books, according to Citigroup Inc." Twenty-Four Fail Banking-Book Test, Citigroup Says - BusinessWeek

This doesn't even include any actual sovereign defaults. It only includes marking the banks' investments in sovereign bonds to market as they are downgraded and spreads rise.

CalculatedRisk wrote:

Re-default or bankruptcy ... either way it sure can't be fun with little discretionary money.

Bankruptcy - For Dummies

Mortgage demand dips on rising rates - Business - Real estate - msnbc.com

The problem with HAMP is at the highest level. There is a public mission and a real mission. The public mission says the goal is to keep people in their houses. The real mission is to keep people (or somebody) paying these mortgages. HAMP exists because there are tangible real mission successes.

It has always been only about the banks.

After a federal judge in Boston dismissed a policyholder suit claiming that Chattanooga, Tennessee-based insurer Unum Group was stealing account earnings from survivors, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit overruled the lower court in 2008. It reinstated the case.

“The euphemistically named ‘Security Account,’ accompanied with a checkbook, was no more than an IOU which did not transfer the funds to which the beneficiaries were entitled out of the plan assets,” the three-judge panel wrote.

Borrowers? Lenders? Servicers?

Shakespeare never warned us about the third one.

3 NJ teens charged with videotaped immigrant death - Yahoo! News

SUMMIT, N.J. – Dusk fell around Salvadoran immigrant Abelino Mazaniego as he sat on a bench on a promenade in an upscale New York suburb after finishing his restaurant shift. As night encroached, so did a group of teenagers, including one with a cell phone videocamera at the ready.

Then, authorities say, they beat him unconscious, with the camera rolling.

Days later, the 47-year-old father of four was dead — but not before the video had been circulated among teenagers in Summit, N.J., authorities say. And not before a nurse in the emergency room where he was taken the night of July 17 was accused of pilfering several hundred dollars from his wallet.

Political fruits are beginning to ripen...

It always is... for the tricklers. For those trickled upon... not so much.

See "oats and sparrows" from GD1...

Let Them Eat Losses

This had nothing to do with the so-called “Trickle Down” theory. This was “Gush Up.” In Bush/Obama economics, the richest and biggest that had lost billions through bad investments, or were in danger of going bust, had to be rescued. If the Über-Rich weren’t saved, there would be nothing left to trickle down to the population below. By government decree, those taxpayers who had never felt any trickle to begin with, now had to finance the failed financiers.
.....
In the dying American Empire, there was no longer a place for the small:

• The Mom & Pop shop was as passé as the corner candy store.
• The family farm — penalized by big government’s “Get Big or Get Out” policies that subsidized factory farms — had become a quaint curiosity.
• The village hardware store was hammered by Lowe’s and Home Depot; Staples and Office Depot stomped out the stationery store.
• Across the spectrum… finance, defense, insurance, health, news and entertainment… virtually every business sector had been commandeered by the Bigs.

.....

Not only was there no hard evidence demonstrating that saving the “too big to fails” was necessary to save the economy, the rescue plans themselves violated the most cherished tenets of capitalism, which hold that:

• Failures should be allowed to fail.
• The best will succeed.
• Competition is healthy.
• Market voids created by failures will be filled by competitors.

Cinco-X wrote:

they battled a system that itself was seen to be oppressive to everyday people.

Two words: Prop 19.

some investor guy wrote:

Two words: Prop 19.

Five words: Proposition two and a half

some investor guy wrote:

Lobbyists are rented, not owned.

Good point.

Technical Indicators Favor Stocks But Fundamentals Send Warning Signals - Barrons.com

It does seem odd that JD Hooker was not an attorney or a lobbyist, but a botanist.

Georgian econ. minister is the one in the center

The photograph which was allegedly taken in a Vancouver nightclub, with Kobal...

some investor guy wrote:

Lobbyists are rented, not owned.

More like buying SRS. The further from your most recent refunding the less they are worth.

ATA truck index down 1.4% in June, first back-to-back sequential decline since March-April 2009.

yagij wrote:

Here is your invoice. Thank you for using SIG Consulting.

Mercenaries are the highest aspiration of capitalism, and the winners.

22 Statistics That Prove The Middle Class Is Being Systematically Wiped Out Of Existence In America

Black Star Ranch wrote:

No wonder we are an international embarrassment

If only we were more like Italy.....

I'm fairly shocked myself scone. When I spoke with the branch manager yesterday she wanted the receipt that showed hubby had deposited my check on Saturday. Of course Hubby didn't have it because he cleaned the car out Sunday. I guess she figured dealing with me in the lobby today wasn't going to be worth the 34 dollar fee. It was their error and they know it. One of the account reps had to force the deposit through yesterday and last night it was STILL listed as pending.

"Nickel and Dimed" is a great book that shows how the working poor live their lives.

Externalized Costs wrote:

Good chart illustrating why the Bush Tax Cuts need to be allowed to expire. Check out the corporate taxes line of the graph.

Did Supply Side Work? « Rortybomb

Ruth Marcus - Why Congress should let the Bush tax cuts expire
Bush tax cuts: Keep some, allow others to expire - latimes.com

Anyone I've spoken with that is trying to do a mod via BoA has had NO luck whatsoever. I have not heard of ONE modification being approved.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

"Nickel and Dimed" is a great book that shows how the working poor live their lives.

Excellent book. The author and I share a hometown.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

I'm fairly shocked myself scone. When I spoke with the branch manager yesterday she wanted the receipt that showed hubby had deposited my check on Saturday.

To me, it sounds like somebody got ahold of the regional manager and read them the riot act, or at least threatened to do it. I usually either threaten to go upstream, or mention my lawyer. That generally gets quick results. Middle managers are always weasels who will go whichever way is easiest, with maximum cya. Still, credit unions might be better.

Boeing CEO to cut costs in military unit - MarketWatch

" Boeing is also bulking up in government growth areas"

Well, this was just a screw up on a deposit to my account but if they did that with all the other folks who have checks from this Payroll Mgmt company then yeah, they had a shitstorm. They are the largest payroll mgmt company in the area.

REBear wrote:

" Boeing is also bulking up in government growth areas"

Hmmm... I thought my wallet was feeling lighter...

not sure how big of a factor it could be, but there are probably many cases where owners' DTI does not reflect other help, whether from renting out a room or two, or other family members contributing/renting, etc., in addition to non-reported income.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

When I spoke with the branch manager yesterday she wanted the receipt that showed hubby had deposited my check on Saturday.

I got the same reasoning from my bank when I accused them of sitting on a deposit after they said that they would transfer the money as soon as they got the request from the other bank. They wanted me to prove that the other bank didn't delay the request. I think it's up to the bank to show what they did, not up to me.

It's up to your bank to prove when your hubby made the deposit. It seems to me either they can't or don't want to.

Interesting post by Gross, but I can scarcely believe that he left out the influence of increasing oil prices / energy into the leveraging up of consumer expenditure.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

They offered 4% on 67 cents on the dollar.

You were right to toss that offer - ridiculous.

Though, I'd bet some fools take them up on it.

ghostfaceinvestah wrote:

Honest to God, how hard is it to measure the re-default rate?

Not hard. Just like it wouldn't be hard to measure unemployment via the IRS.

You're assuming someone wants an accurate count.

As hard as you want to make it..making it complicated allows you to manipulate numbers!

Ah, yes! That was an unexpected bonus although dear Sister Sam still hasn't sent me any money...

Warren Buffett is political cover.

Rob Dawg wrote:

The real mission is to keep people (or somebody) paying these mortgages.

Exactly. Every day I still read stories about morons dipping into their retirement accounts to pay the mortgage.

The sheeple are easily mislead.

Re: "Treasury has retained a third-party consultant to provide additional review and validation. "

Goldman takes over again.....

ghostfaceinvestah wrote:

Exactly. Every day I still read stories about patriots dipping into their retirement accounts to pay the mortgage.

No, I haven't but I did see her discussing it on Bill Mahers show. It looked interesting. Being a "doomer" I quite enjoyed what she had to say on those cheery people with perpetual smiles plastered on their faces.

While everyone is fixated on Europe, China is quietly imploding.

“It’s much easier than working every day to make money,” Wang said. “I work very hard and compete for my so-called career every day, but I don’t make that much money from work.” In November, he bought two more apartments.

Not that anyone would know, because China is a black box.

Analysts say the apparent success of the clampdown on lending disguises a worrying new trend that involves banks co-operating with lightly regulated trust companies to keep loans off their books
China and bust? « naked capitalism

"I don’t make that much money from work.”

We are definitely exporting our culture to china.

Good.

c'mon, economies of scale

FBI director defends bureau over test cheating - Yahoo! News

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

Oligopolies rule.

here is a table with a market share estimate:
MortgageStats

they have the top 4 at 69.4%.

ghostfaceinvestah wrote:

mortgage insurance is deductible today, but only through the end of the year, it will be interesting to see if they let that lapse. they should. the last thing the tax code should be encouraging is greater than 80ltv mortgages.

And because mortgage insurance is a way to cause all kinds of other problems. It concentrates credit risk. It also leads to the mortgage insurers' standards dictating much of what happens with loan modifications. I have seen the standard procedures for one of them, and it specifies that loans must be in default before offering mods. I think I can find a link to an online copy.

JD<

This HAS to be Mrs. Delinquent!
Kayak Redwoods

I found this report from Bloomberg staggering:

“Chinese banks may struggle to recoup about 23 percent of the 7.7 trillion yuan ($1.1 trillion) they’ve lent to finance local government infrastructure projects” and that “The China Banking Regulatory Commission has told banks to write off non-performing project loans by the end of this year”. The report notes that “Commission Chairman Liu Mingkang said this week borrowing by the so-called local government financing vehicles may threaten the banking industry.”

These financing entities were apparently set up to circumvent legal limits on local government borrowing. So these sums are in addition to the certainly large debts incurred through normal processes. If the Bloomberg source is accurate, these off balance sheet losses would be equivalent to roughly one third of China’s foreign currency reserves.

75% haircut on Chinese SIV's?? They just threw that money away. Perhaps China will have a hyperinflationary experience.

Jonathan wrote:

Interesting post by Gross, but I can scarcely believe that he left out the influence of increasing oil prices / energy into the leveraging up of consumer expenditure.

Older people work less and consume less, hence fewer car trips, stuff made of plastic, etc. And at some point, I expect a lot of retirees will migrate to buy distressed condos with lower heating costs.

But the big point is, if the depression goes on for a very long time, the "rate of decline," so to speak, might accelerate in the developed world. Note that I'm talking about rates of growth or decline-- the population is still going to grow, but the rate of growth is already slowing down. If it slows down enough, we may finally go into actual decline in absolute numbers. Bill makes the point that capitalism has not really dealt with such a decline on a huge time scale, so we could see some rather large changes going forward, especially after the currently midlife American, European, and Chinese folks die.

What Could Go Wrong wrote:

so who is getting more that $70-80k of benefit?

No one. But this is a neat little way to make a really big dent in the deficit by hitting the middle class, rather than cutting programs/spending.

We had Siamese-twin plastic surgery done on us, and it was a complete success.

Bill's a stealthy guy, the opening toilet gambit was to imply, that the economy is in it...

Austerity increases standards of living, sure it does. And I have a bridge to sell.

Another contradiction in that thesis appears to be the impact of those higher standards of living in the developing world - the marginal value of almost anything is greater there, hence the price they would be willing to pay - outbidding the inhabitants of the USA at basically every turn...

does having 3 LCD's, as opposed to 2 plasmas, indicate a higher standard of living?

Rob Dawg wrote:

the TBTF 19 that would be thrown under the bus if necessary.

The CEOs and boards of those 19, are a veritable, who's who of the American Oligarchy. In what kind of scenario do you imagine them being thrown to the

"ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello said that the two sequential decreases reflect an economy that is slowing. Furthermore, growth in truck tonnage is likely to moderate in the months ahead as the economy decelerates and year-over-year comparisons become more difficult. Nevertheless, Costello believes that tonnage doesn't have to grow very quickly at this point since industry capacity has declined so much. "Due to supply tightness in the market, any tonnage growth feels significantly better for fleets than one might expect."

Note on the impact of trucking company failures on the index: Each month, ATA asks its membership the amount of tonnage each carrier hauled, including all types of freight. The indexes are calculated based on those responses. The sample includes an array of trucking companies, ranging from small fleets to multi-billion dollar carriers. When a company in the sample fails, we include its final month of operation and zero it out for the following month, with the assumption that the remaining carriers pick up that freight. As a result, it is close to a net wash and does not end up in a false increase. Nevertheless, some carriers are picking up freight from failures, and it may have boosted the index. Due to our correction mentioned above, however, it should be limited. "

The stock mkt is down, what's with that

I'm pretty sure he isn't standing in a soup line nor living in a cardboard box.

Basel Too wrote:

does having 3 LCD's, as opposed to 2 plasmas, indicate a higher standard of living?

You'se guys haven't switched to LED sets yet?

energyecon wrote:

Another contradiction in that thesis appears to be the impact of those higher standards of living in the developing world - the marginal value of almost anything is greater there, hence the price they would be willing to pay - outbidding the inhabitants of the USA at basically every turn...

I just had breakfast at the local greasy spoon, and a friend that works @ the lodge in the National Park tells me tthat 40% of the rooms are sold to European tourists this summer, even with the plunge in value in the euro~

I still have a non flat screen dinosaur of a JVC that weights about half a ton. Has great sound and picture still and it's 9 years old.

josap wrote:

To the qoute you posted. Regarding our ever increasing standard of living.
It struck me as funny. Someone things our standard of living is increasing at this point.

My standard of living now compared to that of my parents in the '60s is vastly greater, and in any event, I believe he was referring to the average standard of living throughout the world. There's plenty of room for improvement there...

eg:

While world population growth will slow over the next few decades, there's still massive room for people in developing nations to achieve higher living standards. Higher living standards come through increasing people's productivity, and while this is extremely challenging in a developed nation like the U.S. since productivity is high and thus requires new innovations to take it further, in a developing nation people can achieve rapid productivity growth simply by using the same technology and knowledge which is already used in higher-productivity-per-capita developed nations. Witness China.

I didn't have any mtg insurance closings for years before the bubble maxed out. Too many idiots were willing to make 80-20 loans.

Of course, all the 2nds are wiped out.

lawyerliz wrote:

The stock mkt is down, what's with that

It can't go up all day, everyday. The Dow has risen over 800 points in the past two weeks. (Remember when the world was about to end?)

Well, he put a lot of assets in his wife's name.

He gets a salary, and presumably a bonus, from some hedge fund. Are you concerned?

but 1080p has to be an increase in living standards compared to 720p. the colors are much more vibrant.

Man hit by six meteorites is being 'targeted by aliens'
| Metro.co.uk

whodathunk that advanced aliens would be off target by as much as 6 time zones?

Basel Too wrote:

but 1080p has to be an increase in living standards compared to 720p.

Not at my age....

1 currency now -yogi wrote:

He gets a salary, and presumably a bonus, from some hedge fund. Are you concerned?

We should all be concerned with the fate of such a shining exemplar of the genius of modern finance capitalism.

Hu knows how worthless paper money can be, after 1949.

heads up signs of jumping

justaskin wrote:

Steal brand new landmass from natives. Get capitol from overseas, then rebel/default. Be at forefront of oil age. Did I miss anything?

Drop the bomb.

Probrecito.

We are all in AREA 451 now...

splat wrote:

But prices were ALWAYS going to rise ? I don't understand..... my modeling software showed prices hitting infinity by 2014, how could it have gone wrong.

In USD it may be too early to say you are wrong.

Rob Dawg wrote:

I see a confluence of desperation. The political need to appear tougher on the FIRE sector

Yet they can't actually get tougher on the FIRE sector, since it bought/rented them. So it has to appear to be doing something useful while actually just serving the same special interests. Quite a dilemma, but they're lawyers and went to Harvard/Yale

Oh, no, quit worrying you guys.

In fact, a program he handles was extended for 2 years. Unexpectedly.

And he wasn't worried before that even.

And he's 67+, so could retire.

But I appreciate your concern.

And thanks for the cat food info.

justaskin wrote:

Steal brand new landmass from natives. Get capitol from overseas, then rebel/default. Be at forefront of oil age. Did I miss anything?

Capital, not capitol although L'Enfant might disagree.

Anyway, survive two world wars with your infrastructure intact, stable unobtrusive government, merchantist then capitalist as required, export economic model, on and on.

Where the most concentrated UE pain is: City Unemployment: Vegas, Washington at Opposite Ends - Real Time Economics - WSJ

I see John Kerry will not be getting the Invitation to the parties for the remainder of the summer months.

I thought we'd already worked out that not even a single TBTF bank can be so much as breathed on without threatening the entire system. Wells Fargo would certainly constitute a threat to our entire civilization!

shill wrote:

I see John Kerry will not be getting the Invitation to the Fat Cat parties for the remainder of the summer months.

He's tainted. He actually paid taxes. What if it is contagious?

Why did Texans make for the best astronauts?

They took up space in school

he'd probably be happier if he had the option of choosing between the regrown limb and the payments made to the medical complex.

I can get a whole chicken, potato salad and bread for $8.99 @ the supermarket, I think you're getting ripped off, BSR.

Jonathan wrote:

I thought we'd already worked out that not even a single TBTF bank can be so much as breathed on without threatening the entire system.

That is a tough needle to thread. To be so big and over-connected as to be essential and integral to the system, but yet not so big that they'd be worthy of some additional regulation and oversight.... Being insolvent probably does not help much either.

how many people on here has ever paid the state use tax for items ordered tax-free from the Internet?

traderwalt wrote:

The Dow has risen over 800 points in the past two weeks.

Right. Don't you remember all the bad economic news? It's reasonable to expect that the market would have propelled itself higher.

Anyway, survive two world wars with your infrastructure intact,

How many realize how decisive that has been over the past 90 years, in terms of infrastructure and society?

Basel Too wrote:

how many people on here has ever paid the state use tax for items ordered tax-free from the Internet?

I know of one person that paid it. That is out of a pool of several hundred individual tax returns. He had previously been caught not paying and was charged penalties and interest, so now he pays every year.

Double Dip? New Normal? No Fun Either Way: Frank Aquila - BusinessWeek

While falling prices might seem to be a good thing for consumers, the reality is much more complex and in fact rather painful. Deflation makes money more valuable and everything else less valuable.

==> I sure the F don't see prices falling ... WTF is going on???

Basel Too wrote:

but 1080p has to be an increase in living standards compared to 720p. the colors are much more vibrant.

1080p is an increase in resolution; it won't make anything look rosier, but it will make problems more clear.

scone wrote:

No wind in the sails one way or the other, unless we get a Black Swan or a herd of slavering Wheres MY pony? Wheres MY pony? Wheres MY pony? on government Hopium

Nice slumcast.

How are you breaking the law by taking advantage of interstate sales-tax laws that work in our favor?

Doc Holiday wrote:

I sure the F don't see prices falling ... WTF is going on???

Housing, to some extent. Outside of that, not so much

Basel Too wrote:

how many people on here has ever paid the state use tax for items ordered tax-free from the Internet?

In MA, they have a "standard payment" for that; you can choose to itemize and possibly be audited, or you can make the payment....

ghostfaceinvestah wrote:

Honest to God, how hard is it to measure the re-default rate?

Very difficult, if your solution set is limited to "Only report good news".

Bank of England's Mervyn King warns over inflation - Telegraph

Mr King also suggested the US has been wrong to prioritise growth over cutting debt levels.

"All countries need to have a credible medium term plan within which they can demonstrate that they will get back to a position in which structural deficits are eliminated and there is a sustainable path for the long-term public finances," he said.

"Not spelling it out is, I think, a problem."

Juvenal Delinquent wrote:

How are you breaking the law by taking advantage of interstate sales-tax laws that work in our favor?

You aren't. That's the point. Dangerous precedent that obeying the law and avoiding taxes could have been set.

how many people on here has ever paid the state use tax for items ordered tax-free from the Internet?

So are you trying to compare $500,000 to a internet tax? Dope comment if there ever was one.

HomeGnome wrote:

Taxachusetts.

"The Pay State."

When they decided to be a commonwealth they meant that literally.

This is the bank that took over my old bank (FDID pizza party). It is Hancock Bank out of Miss. They fixed it but I'm going to be certain to ask the teller this week when I make the deposit that it is being deposited THAT day.

CBO Warns of Greek-style U.S. Debt Crisis

The CBO estimated that the cuts needed to be taken now must be “equivalent to roughly 20 percent of all of the government’s noninterest spending this year.”

.. the United States will have a 110 percent debt-to-GDP ratio before the end of next year, the same level Greece had in 2008.

shill wrote:

Must be nice to write out a check for $500,000 and not even breath hard about it....Must be real nice.

Based on some of your previous comments, I'd think you'd admire another tax dodger. Or is it just Democrat tax dodgers you despise?

Comrade Kristina wrote:

This is the bank that took over my old bank (FDID pizza party). It is Hancock Bank out of Miss. They fixed it but I'm going to be certain to ask the teller this week when I make the deposit that it is being deposited THAT day.

For what? Two years we've been begging you to get a Credit Union. What's stopping you?

Based on some of your previous comments, I'd think you'd admire another tax dodger. Or is it just Democrat tax dodgers you despise?

No your my true admiration MB....When I grow up I want to be just like you.

Or is it just Democrat tax dodgers you despise?

I despise all democrats

Basel Too wrote:

how many people on here has ever paid the state use tax for items ordered tax-free from the Internet?

If they're ordered tax-free, there is no state use tax. The Congressional ban still applies, as long as there is no physical presence in the state.

The hassle I suppose. We just had hubby added to account which involved taking a day off from work so we could go in person with our "papers" to prove we weren't domestic terrorists. That and having to change all my auto pay information.

.. the United States will have a 110 percent debt-to-GDP ratio before the end of next year,

Do you think default can be delayed until the end of the world in December 2012?

JD<

What's wrong with fondling a fern every now and then?

Re: HAMP Re-default Rate incorrect

FYI: U.S. banks, insurance companies, and mutual funds held approximately $1 trillion worth of U.S. debt as of the first quarter of 2010. See Department of the Treasury, Financial Management Service, "Ownership of Federal Securities," Treasury Bulletin (June 2010), Table OFS-2.

Basel Too wrote:

how many people on here has ever paid the state use tax for items ordered tax-free from the Internet?

I was not aware that the several States had been granted the right to regulate interstate trade?

"the United States Congress shall have power "To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes"."

Doc Holiday wrote:

Re: HAMP Re-default Rate incorrect

FYI: U.S. banks, insurance companies, and mutual funds held approximately $1 trillion worth of U.S. debt as of the first quarter of 2010.

It's almost as if you are implying the two are somehow related.

Rob Dawg wrote:

He actually paid taxes

Was it Kerry or Heintz money that "actually paid" the taxes.

pavel.chichikov wrote:

Grenada was a morale booster.

Which in turn inspired the all-time film classic, Heartbreak Ridge.

Heartbreak Ridge (1986)

Mr Slippery wrote:

Are you still doing new development?

That might mean different things. There's almost always a module for what I'm doing, which is why I like perl -- everything is already written, cataloged and out on CPAN.

I wouldn't call it "doing new development" tho. Very easy scripting and database query.

pavel.chichikov wrote:

Don't despise anybody. You could be pulling opposite oars in the same galley.

And therein lies the rub for tolerance and liberalism, it's not as forceful as the hand of the righteous.

Rob Dawg wrote:

The rent to own ratio here is still so outrageous I don't understand how these people got into a position where they qualify for $1m houses.

Well, if it's anything like west LA it's because:
A-Everyone is rich
B-Rich foreigners will buy anything, always.
C-Dual income families all make upwards of 2-300k
D-it's special, everyone wants to live here
E-first time buyers all get $$ from their parents, who are rich.
F-They're not making any more land.

Now, this is obviously . However, all these reasons are still trotted out daily to explain the "resiliency" of the market.

I'm curious about mp's take on this article. He seems to be up on manufacturing. I also find it interesting that China and currency manipulation are being addressed.

Daily Kos: For the Strength of Rosie the Riveter: Make It in America

She said the strategy is to pass "one bill after another" supporting American manufacturing. The House started last week with two, one to ease American industries’ access to raw materials and parts and another to improve specialized workforce training.

In addition, Speaker Pelosi said, House leaders want to address currency manipulation – the deliberate undervaluing of currency to make a country’s exports artificially cheap and imports into that country artificially expensive. Currency manipulation by China, for example, is believed by both conservative and liberal economists to be adding as much as 40 cents to every dollar of the cost of U.S. products exported to China and discounting Chinese goods sold in the U.S. by 40 cents on every dollar.

...and their increase in standard of living will not increase our standard of living - as they become more productive, purchasing power increases - and the marginal value of just about everything is greater due to greater scarcity in the developing world - so as the USA experiences flat economic improvement in aggregate, with poor income distrubution we will see lower decile income earners (say, 80th percentile and down) experience declining earning power and price increases for those things the developing world is outbidding them on...which contradicts the POV the article was trying to present.

shill wrote:

Yes he ( supposedly ) paid it, but he still is a glorified Tax dodger. Must be nice to write out a check for $500,000 and not even breath hard about it....Must be real nice.

His wife paid it...

was for me, got the 720p set for 50% off cash price

MB wrote:

“equivalent to roughly 20 percent of all of the government’s noninterest spending this year.”

That will leave a mark. In other words, it will never happen.

Doc Holiday wrote:

.. the United States will have a 110 percent debt-to-GDP ratio before the end of next year, the same level Greece had in 2008.

Greece was fine in 2008.
US has the :printingpress:.

N.B. Ken that's a hint.