LawyerLiz:
I don't know, but the bank agreed to take it in this case. And if the bank refuses is there some way the hotel owner can keep the hotel and not owe any money in the future?
lawyerliz, interesting question. What if it costs more to operate than the income? That is possible with occupancy rates plunging. Sometimes they just close off whole floors and shut down services - but that is self defeating. I suspect this hotel has positive cash flow for the bondholders (since they pay no interest).
They can always sue on the note--only worthwhile when the Borrower/entity owns something else worth levying on. Usually corporations are separated so this doesn't happen. Of course, there are personal and other guarantees.
I'm sure there are many, many banks in this same position who are extending terms of debt, despite broken covenants, because the hit to their balance sheets would be huge if they were to assume the collateral.
According to another WSJ article, Extended Stay America is currently in default. Perhaps this is the beginning of the hotel implosion. I was wondering why, with REVPAR running 20% below last year more hotels weren't going under.
In my drive-bys i've seen something i've never seen before...
Billboards advertising that I can buy milk cows on the cheap as beef. From what I understand old Bessie probably ends up as a burger, rather than a recognizable cut of beef.
On the tiny scale, I repeat my client with the houses is in technical default, since he hasn;'t paid off the loan on the houses, but pays the interest and they leave him alone. It's still a performing
debt. The interesting question is how long can you do this before a useful waiver argument becomes worth arguing.
My family has been in the small lodging business for three generations, and quite frankly, nobody has been coining money for decades.
Just like when the Moneystore was handing out SBA loans to anybody capable of fogging a mirror in the early 90s, once again folks have to find out that lodging is cyclical and subject to overbuilding.
Gee, hoodanode?
W is a stupid rich kid brand for snobbish folks and trustafarians.
As far as I am concerned, so what.
Now, there will be a ton more soon.
Revpar has once again began sinking.
Now, once again, we will have tons of empty hotel space moldering.
I for one am not surprised at all. That industry is run by some crazy people, who tend to act like Steve Wynn- add cheap money to the mix, and you get the every clover has four cheap franchises.
Now you will see once again the horrors of unmaintained properties used for homeless housing.
Faugh. There is a reason why I decided to run far and fast from Hotel Management- I had enough over the 10 years I worked in the biz to fill a lifetime.
I would contemplate buying in about four years, as the worst of the excess is burnt off- quite literally- I imagine.
No, just shoot me instead.
From what I understand old Bessie probably ends up as a burger, rather than a recognizable cut of beef.
my city-boy understanding of the beef/dairy industry:
beef (steers) for whole-cut eating is pretty young in age - 9 months to 18 or something. Dairy cows go for years in production and end up only good for burgers and dog food.
Ever wonder why udders aren't on sale in beef markets?
The reason some of you are picking up beef on the cheap, is most every rancher is busy culling their stock, as the drought is taking it's toll, along with people switching to mac & cheese, combined with the price they receive per pound dropping like a stone and feed costs going up...
Recently, my father and I were discussing the state of the world. I related my impression of Japan and my experiences while visiting that country. In particular, I was struck by the fact that despite decades of economic stagnation, and high (for them) unemployment, Japan was still a pleasant, well maintained country.
He retorted that the last time the US had a long period of elevated unemployment (1970's through mid 1980's), much of the urban landscape became a war zone. He then retold some of hist stories of NYC in the 1970's. I have a feeling that much of the gentrification that has occurred over the last few years is about to be undone.
Am I the only one who notices not a single snarky comment here about the "immorality" of these investors? I mean, they borrow money and refuse to pay it back just because its no longer in their interest to do so. So "walking away" is okay for the rich, immoral for the homeowner?
Nuke, it was the early 90s- the Moneystore and it's ilk literally financed anybody with a patch of dirt and interstate access until the world was covered in cheapo motels.
Ye gawds, look up HFS and look at their corporate history and how they built a huge money machine on the backs of the Indian community.
Then they got cute and bought a timeshare promoter- one huckster conned by another. It was beautiful.
This pattern has been going for a long time. My parents just finished with three years of fighting in bk court with their buyer- who then found another sucker to make him and my folks whole.
Eight more years and the note is paid and we are finally finished with hospitality ownership ( after 3 generations and 40 years)!
I am not interested in competing with folks who will drag things down to the third world level at the first sign of crisis- been there and done that.
Let's just say my wife ignores my bitching about rooms, but I do complain if anything I view as necessary is not clean enough, and management had better respond.
Further, I prefer to stay at non HFS chains.
The only one on a national scale that keeps paying attention is Marriott, but that is the result of the founder culture.
I just viewed my time from 21 to 30 as lessons learned.
There is no financial incentive for Treasury to float more long-term debt.
I don't think you have this right. The reason the Treasury needs long-term debt is the same reason people need long-term mortgages. To fix the cost of borrowing over a long period of time. If the Treasury had to finance everything at the short end of the curve, our entire national debt would be the equivalent of an ARM mortgage that resets every 30-days to 1 year.
That works out fine as long as interest rates are low, but if short term rates spiked in that scenario, the interest on the debt could become instantly unsustainable. That is not a good situation for a government. I think they need long-term debt to keep the cost of the debt workable.
It would be prickishly fiendish to go to haughty taughty hotel bars, and spread the rumor that corporation XY or Z was most definitely going to save them, allowing the bartender to spread insider information to the beleaguered maids & maid men.
lawyerliz, the statute of limitations for a written note is four years from breach. So you could argue that four years after technical default, the bank can't sue on the note. But the statute for excercise a private power of sale under a deed of trust is 40 years and I've never seen a case finding the right was waived by inaction.
Housing has enormous psychological complications for the average joe- commercial real estate, well, anything with Donald "How many times have I bk'ed projects?" Trump for a poster child has no scruples.
My creditors had better be praying that I maintain my employment, or they might see my inner Trump too;-P
258 rooms X .69 occupancy X $153 = almost $15 million on $65 million debt... They dont say what the interest rate is on the debt, or what the cost of operating is... Those numbers are from the end of 2008 though so it's probably a lot worse now... Does anyone have any numbers on the cost of operating a hotel? Was this thing profitable at those numbers posted?
It would be prickishly fiendish to go to haughty taughty hotel bars, and spread the rumor that corporation XY or Z was most definitely going to save them, allowing the bartender to spread insider information to the beleaguered maids & maid men.
We went to an open house today. Probably 5 couples looking at it. It was on the way home from the grocery store about 5 blocks from where my parents lived. This was not my parents house. 1.5 million. 5/4 on a 1/2 acre.
This is O/T, but on topic for you. You are often talking about the dollar as a symbol that is losing its meaning. A series of unrelated events this weekend led me to this hypertext: Semiotics for Beginners. Semiotics is the study of signs, which encompasses linguistics, speech, writing, and other visual signs. Some of the concepts fit quite nicely with your hypothesis, and with an elastic currency.
The problematic diseases are very easy to prevent.. syphilis is essentially non-existent in the hetero population and pretty much everything else can be prevented with protection. Herpes and warts are too widespread among the normal hetero population anyway.. not much you can do about it other than avoid those with any sores.
//If you hire sex workers, Luci, aren't you worried about diseases for your own personal body's health.//
June 7 (Bloomberg) -- Sales at U.S. retailers probably rose in May for the first time in three months as demand for automobiles picked up, economists said before a government report this week.
Purchases climbed 0.5 percent, according to the median of 61 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of Commerce Department figures due June 11. Another report may show the trade gap widened in April, reflecting an increase in the cost of imported oil.
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Former Bank of England policy maker David Blanchflower said the central bank may expand and widen its program of buying assets with newly created money as the British economy keeps shrinking.
Hehe, Coinz, my kinda link. Roland Barthes' Empire of Signs is a good attempt at a cross-cultural reading. Nihonophiles generally find it facile, but it was one of the first of its kind.
Lucifer (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 5:58 pm
The invisible hand of the marketplace at work.. pun intended.
Now tell me, why should I care about sex workers making less? or women living shitty lives in general.. Why should I care?
You'll reap the benefits here... more innovation and specialization to raise their premium, and a general wage spiral lowers your costs. The ones with violent pimps, addictions to support, and few options... not so much.
Given your recent interest in semiotics (which I just heard for the first time) and the handle you use on this board, I've got some signs for you relating to the dollar:
The dollar bill. Why do we still print them?
Most every other country with currency similar to ours uses coins for the purchasing power of $1, $2 or even $5. Sure, the Mints also make dollar coins, but no one uses them because the paper is easier. Plenty of studies have shown that people will not use coins if paper money of the same denomination is available.
The quarters and dimes beginning in 1965. Why do they look silvery?
You know the minor coinage used to be 90% silver and thus looked like silver. When we took the silver out of our coinage, why did we keep the size, weight and designs the same and, on top of that, use a copper-nickel alloy that looked a little like worn silver?
The one cent piece. Here we are 100 years down the road and Lincoln is still there.
But in 1982 we took all the copper out of the one cent pieces, yet offered up, once more, the same size, weight and design in a copper-plated zinc piece.
The answer to all three rhetorical questions is the same. They have used the visual signs of familiar paper and coinage in their ongoing effort to persuade us that what passes for money in our daily lives remains the same it has always been.
It isn't of course, but for that you have to look behind the signs.
"I hate to say this but, people deserve the consequences of their actions (even if those consequences anhilate them)."
Perhaps they do if the acts are committed freely, without coercion, and in full conscious knowledge of their nature. Otherwise, anyone who walks under a falling icicle that brains him would be considered deserving of the injury.
$2.2 million
2,500-square-foot house with two bedrooms and two baths, carport and pool
Prudential California Realty
The 2,500-square-foot house in Los Angeles.
DETAILS: In West Bel-Air, the home has views of the city and the Pacific Ocean.
ARCHITECTURE: Designed by the late Hal Levitt, a noted L.A. architect, the home was recently remodeled, with spaces opened up to create a free-flowing floor plan. “I think [Mr. Levitt] would have been very excited,” says architect David Thompson, who helped lead the remodeling.
CAFFEINE FIX: A Starbucks in the Brentwood Village shopping district, about half a mile away.
TODAY’S FORECAST: Mostly cloudy, high 62 degrees
SOURCE: Billy Rose, Rose + Chang, 310-650-2999, billy@billyrosedesign.com; Realtor.com
Go to any new car dealer, let the salesmen descend upon you, and meekly inquire if they could let this or that car go for sticker?
Hem and Haw for 15 minutes, tell them you have to think about it, and then give the dealership the first name and phone number of somebody that done you wrong, in lieu of giving them yours.
Mr. Pitts Lacks a Mailing Address But He's Got a Computer and a Web Forum
By PHRED DVORAK
SAN FRANCISCO -- Like most San Franciscans, Charles Pitts is wired. Mr. Pitts, who is 37 years old, has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. The tough part is managing this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.
"You don't need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper," says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. "But you need the Internet."
Mr. Pitts's experience shows how deeply computers and the Internet have permeated society. A few years ago, some people were worrying that a "digital divide" would separate technology haves and have-nots. The poorest lack the means to buy computers and Web access. Still, in America today, even people without street addresses feel compelled to have Internet addresses
JD, I saw a spot on Fox news reporting that milk prices are falling and dairy cow owners are bringing their cows to slaughter. I don't understand b/c the price of milk is (according to Fox) returning to prices they used to be at before Milk spiked last year. Seems like an extreme solution.
I'm not a big steak eater and wondering how big a difference there is between steak from a male or female cow.
JD, I saw a spot on Fox news reporting that milk prices are falling and dairy cow owners are bringing their cows to slaughter. I don't understand b/c the price of milk is (according to Fox) returning to prices they used to be at before Milk spiked last year. Seems like an extreme solution.
I'm not a big steak eater and wondering how big a difference there is between steak from a male or female cow.
"Lucifer (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 7:46 pm replyIgnore userThey do.. they are called "normal" women. Unfortunately, the deal comes with many strings and hidden costs.. lots of bait and switch too."
sportsfan wrote:
The answer to all three rhetorical questions is the same. They have used the visual signs of familiar paper and coinage in their ongoing effort to persuade us that what passes for money in our daily lives remains the same it has always been.
It isn't of course, but for that you have to look behind the signs.
Yes, the sign appears the same, but content of the sign, the signifier, has changed. In 2010, the penny, having already been debased from copper to zinc, will be changed again to steel with a copper-colored zinc coating. Even zinc is too expensive to mint a penny. Really, pennies are a nuisance and I try to shed them immediately.
I remember coming to terms a long time ago with the separation of a word and the thing it signifies; that there is nothing tree-ish about the word "tree", but it is refreshing to see a serious study of the topic. My colleagues and I sometimes debate whether math is discovered reality or is simply a descriptive language. I lean toward language but I am far from settled on that opinion. Anyway, fun stuff.
Nuke;
"Extended Stay America is currently in default."
I think that outfit is another kettle of dead fish. They cater to companies that have to place employees in temporary quarters out of town for periods of weeks or months. Same economic drivers killing them, though.
From Semiotics for Beginners:
"As John Sturrock points out, 'a one-term language is an impossibility because its single term could be applied to everything and differentiate nothing; it requires at least one other term to give it definition' (Sturrock 1979, 10). Advertising furnishes a good example of this notion, since what matters in 'positioning' a product is not the relationship of advertising signifiers to real-world referents, but the differentiation of each sign from the others to which it is related."
This concept works for the relative values of real estate, stocks, bonds, commodities and floating currencies. Sometimes the relative differences in the symbols that matter more than what the symbols signify.
Uh oh, thread registers a half-Godwin. Seems to recover.
Anyhow, in trading rooms far, far away ... Asia futures up, NZX is already open and tracking at least the Aus futures, dollar inching up against USD; Aus inverse, futures kermit, dollar slipping slightly. Could be some interesting Japan banking read-outs later. Japan, Australia Futures Gain on Yen Slump, U.S. Jobs Data - Bloomberg.com
There was an odd report or two during the day about AIA looking for advisors for upcoming sale/IPO and ditching some biggies. Previous reports were of not taking the deal to market until early next year, so it could be a play for grand and thorough due dilly and a trail of crumbs for many months as the advisors and suitors line up.
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- The biggest price swings in Treasury bonds this year are undermining Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to cap consumer borrowing rates and pull the economy out of the worst recession in five decades.
Speaking of coins this story from the Canadian mint might be making loonie holders wonder about their investment. My first impression was there is gold missing but after 4 months of internal investigation it only refers to a discrepancy. Refusing to bring in the police to investigate makes me think the mint has something to hide.
How do you know your gold coin really is 99.9999 percent pure? Who really take their freshly bought coins and runs a specific gravity test? Very few would be my assumption.
Wells Fargo, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania. Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as “mud people” and to subprime lending as “ghetto loans.”
“We just went right after them,” said Ms. Jacobson, who is white and said she was once the bank’s top-producing subprime loan officer nationally. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches, because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.”
HT: Atrios
Asset management companies have been around for years and you just have to find one that will be able to deliver what you require of them. Before you select one, do some research on your own to see who are the clients and what have they done in the past because you surely don’t want to entrust your assets just to anyone who gives you a call.
Asset management companies help you accumulate wealth by using their expertise.
Gee I wonder if Sunstone Hotel Investors had an asset management company
lawyerliz (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 4:54 pm replyIgnore userLuci, try calling yourself Diogenes!! He was looking for an honest man.
I have ignored Luci long enough, no?
Why specifically do you hate women?
I have Lucifer blocked...but that's not enough.
He might be a pedofile...didn't he say one time he thought a girl was old enough to have sex with if she had pubic hair? I am a girl and I first got pubic hair at 10 years old.
Must find another financial blog...I'm thinking Mish...and Naked Capitalism.
Cliff diving in Acapulco is too risky nowadays, i'd suggest you just stick to financial indices instead...
Actually spent some time in the state of Guerrero recently (where Acapulco is located). Heavy police/army presence, and a politically literate populace.
Was invited to a fund raising event (play, food, music) organized by some local Marxists, for a child care center. A good time was had by all!
He might be a pedofile...didn't he say one time he thought a girl was old enough to have sex with if she had pubic hair? I am a girl and I first got pubic hair at 10 years old.//
Groucho Marxists or the other kind?
The other kind, although they do have a tendency toward humor.
As Emma Goldman pointed out: "If I can't dance, I want no part of your revolution".
@Lucifer: Trash talking the other sex is unproductive at best. If there were more women on CR, I imagine we would be deluged with similar complaints about men.
My guess is that article did not accurately portray the ACLU's position. The problem with public high school prayer is the captive audience.
I wouldn't want to be asked to pledge allegiance under God to a flag (like Jehovah's Witnesses) because my "god" doesn't favor a particular flag. In high school, I wouldn't want to have to stand silent while the pledge is recited, or leave the room. On a personal level, those kids who recited a prayer en masse exhibited insensitivity to minority feelings, probably without any such intent. Legally, I wouldn't stop them at all, but I would take every precaution that no teacher or administer encourage or help them in any way.
It might not be easy for you to see my perspective, but when I visited Peru I saw a giant cross on the highest point overlooking a city. It was intimidating, and the historical and political implications it brought to my mind actually brought physical revulsion.
In defense of Civil Unions, Im on my first Domestic Partner......8 years.
I'm on 10+.
Marriage was always a property thing, wives, along with the cattle and sheep, were socialized as male property.
Of course, I'm anarchist, and institution turns me off.
Uh oh, thread registers a half-Godwin. Seems to recover.
That will likely cost the thread points on overall score, although there is always hope the judges may have been momentarily distracted by the failed moral hazard argument and the shiny new costumes.
Externalized Costs, the XRF (X-ray fluorescence) machines are getting cheap. The global switch to RoHS, (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) i.e. no lead electronics, has even spawned a market for hand held machines to detect contamination.
In centuries past merchants had charts that told them how much any give coin should weight and what purity it should be. Then they had to assay it to for authenticity and quality (clipped/filed/etched?). If we ever start to use PM on anything like a regular basis, expect to see coin analyzers that look like today's that change machines. They could value any metallic disk in seconds, even report cladding thicknesses. It wouldn't be too different from the UVF devices that I've built it the past.
Thread awaits triple-contra signifier on gender relations. That'll put them right back in the game. Even the surly Lithuanian judge may concur, although she's been chewing stray hairs for the last several rounds.
Is anybody here following the aftermath in Iceland? They seem to be ahead of us on this curve - would like to know what their situation foretells for our future.
Respectfully, Liz, if you 100% understood, you'd not interact with him either.
They usta just use female names, remember? For hurricanes.
And long ago, they didn't use names, but names (signs?) were useful in making
specific hurricanes memorable. Really bad hurricanes get their names retired.
I don't know what you mean by that, Juvenal. I'm asking about Iceland because they've dropped out of the headlines, yet there was great magnitude to their problems. I'd like to know what's transpiring there. Will browse for news in a bit.
I've never watched more than 5 minutes of any reality show, except the losing weight one and the improve the appearance one, and for that i only watch the befores and afters. I like befores and
afters. I guess it's a sign of oldness that in the fashion mags I pick up at the drs, I like the befores better!!
I don't think you have this right. The reason the Treasury needs long-term debt is the same reason people need long-term mortgages. To fix the cost of borrowing over a long period of time.
Comrade,
You are not totally wrong. But you are not taking into account the weird nature of the Fed. The Fed, which is nominally independent of the Treasury, sets the rates at which the Treasury borrows. But, in normal times and using conventional tactics, only on the short end of the curve.
The Fed has basically given Treasury the opportunity to sell short-term debt, at least for awhile, at below market rates, due to its dropping and holding the fed funds rate at zero. But on the long end of the curve, the Fed has less influence, and it's coming unglued.
The only way Treasury can influence yields on the long end of the curve is by not floating long-term deb over an extended period of time.
In my opinion, QE will not work and will drive long-term Treasury rates higher, rather than lower, due to the global backlash against it.
That's why I bought and hold TBT. I'm betting against QE.
"It might not be easy for you to see my perspective, but when I visited Peru I saw a giant cross on the highest point overlooking a city. It was intimidating, and the historical and political implications it brought to my mind actually brought physical revulsion."
Would you make it illegal for churches to ring bells? Would you make it illegal for Muslims to proclaim publicly the confession of faith and the call to prayer? Would you make it illegal for Catholics to form a Corpus Christi procession in a public street? Would you make it illegal for Jews to close public streets in their neighborhoods to wheeled traffic on the Sabbath, or demand that women wear modest clothing when passing through the neighborhood?
Would you make it illegal for people to display the Cross or the Crucifix on their clothing in public, or pray the rosary in public? Would you make it illegal for atheists to purchase space in public advertising advocating atheism? Would you make it illegal for people to hand out religious literature or distribute Bibles, the Koran or religious tracts in public, or preach in public? Would you make it illegal for Muslims to pray in a public street? Would you make it illegal for atheists to hand out atheists tracts in public? Would you make it illegal for people to hold public debates on religion versus atheism, in the event that believers might have some good arguments?
Not to speak of anyone personally, but I'm beginning to believe that atheists have become the new puritans of the late 17th century.
lawyerliz (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 7:50 pm
Heeheehee. Luci didn't come up with any really evil female names either!
Hurricane Bobbitt? Though John did get at least his 15 minutes of fame from that. Brutal, megalomaniac world leaders is an area where men are clearly superior, if superior is the word. Not that they don't exist in female form, too, of course.
When the W first opened up, they had the "beach bar" on the roof and it was the hot, happening spot for downtown for quite a while. But was a terrible location (6+ blocks outside the Gaslamp area), and it was doomed when all the other new boutique hotels opened up (Ivy, Hard Rock, Solamar, Keating, Se, etc) all with their own hot, happening spots but all located right in the middle of all the action.
By SANDY B. LEWIS and WILLIAM D. COHAN
Published: June 7, 2009
WHETHER at a fund-raising dinner for wealthy supporters in Beverly Hills, or at an Air Force base in Nevada, or at Charlie Rose’s table in New York City, President Obama is conducting an all-out campaign to try to make us feel a whole lot better about the economy as quickly as possible. “It’s safe to say we have stepped back from the brink, that there is some calm that didn’t exist before,” he told donors at the Beverly Hilton Hotel late last month.
Hmmm, there was that woman, Elizabeth Bsomething who killed all those handmaidens to
bathe in their blood to prevent aging. But damn, even I can't remember her name.
Oh yes, would you make it illegal for Muslim women to cover their hair in public, or for Sikh men to wear the turban and carry the dagger? Would you make it illegal for Christian religious to wear clerical clothing in public?
Would you like to remove art showing religious subjects from public museums? Would you churches to remove the crosses or crucifixes from their steeples?
"Consumer based economies can collapse to the point that accumulated money will be worthless."
As a means of storing wealth, money is over with. Still will function as a medium of exchange, and maybe even a commodity (you can always make jewelry out of metals), but forget storing wealth.
This was a secular occasion, and I find it perfectly reasonable that it stay secular.
But there is such a thing as common sense, and the ACLU had dived off the deep end.
lawyerliz (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 8:00 pm
Oh, yeah.
Did the reattachment take?
yes, I believe so. I guess he spun the entire incident into a lot of publicity with humorous takes on the whole situation.
There was Lizzy Borden... crazy spinster, suspected of murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet. But that is "just" within the family, and two people. Nothing like the Green Rver Killer or Dahmer. It just seems the megalomaniac world dictators and notorious serial killers tend to be men, or at least men are more historically recognized in these roles for whatever reason.
So many Christians, so few Lions---"
It may come to that again.
I was speaking of population densities, and ecosystem health.
We need apex predators to cull the herds--
There was that woman that preyed on truckers and such in the southeast that they
made a movie of. We are really reaching here. I can't remember her name either.
--nearly did a Godwin.
We are being parasitized by a meme that is protecting itself--
If you can't mention Hitler, you can't analyze certain events.
A very interesting phenomena--
No they haven't Pavel. We are top predator now, but there was a time when hungry lions and wolves, don't forget wolves ate us. Sharks and alligators still give it a go occasionally.
Liz, I dare say that many more people die of infections each year than are killed by other people. However, we could be in the running if worse comes to worst.
Calm down Pavel. At first glance, I don't have a problem with any of your examples. The most interfering with others' freedom is the Jewish street closing, and this continues to be a source of friction in Israel.
Maybe my description wasn't clear. The hill in Peru with the giant cross was unimproved, presumably public land. It was a permanent display. The message to those natives with a vague notion of Christianity as conveyed by the Conquistadors was unmistakeable: We are in power; people can be nailed to these things.
I would have absolutely no prob with the dollar falling 30%. That is the best of
all possible worlds. I see some sort of unknowable event horizon before us.
"The message to those natives with a vague notion of Christianity as conveyed by the Conquistadors was unmistakeable: We are in power; people can be nailed to these things."
You know this for a fact? Are you implying that the people who put up the Cross identified themselves with the torturers and crucifiers of Jesus? Somehow...
Won't inflation help homeowners to pay their mortgages?
Only if the inflation was reflected in wages. If we get a stagflation, a higher probability in my mind, then stuff just costs more while incomes remain stagnant or fall. That doesn't help homeowners pay their mortgages, it causes more of them to default.
Jackrabbit says,
Won't inflation help homeowners to pay their mortgages?
A few years of "healthy inflation" and we're OK.
If that means the dollar falls by 30% so be it.
ummm....I doubt inflation will help anyone since deflation is what is gripping us right now...Yeah spectulators and GS are pumping oil up to pacify the SWA's and middle eastern countries but inflation won't help the homeowners and won't help the general populace at all....
ask the guy who's home is worth $300,000 instead of 600K how that inflation is treating him....
Other things may go up, but I think, if we are lucky, we will stabilize at 50 cents on the dollar,
with prices starting to go up 5-10 years from now. Even with 30% inflation. Course that means the real fall is greater. . .
And I will always stand up for the Free Exercise rights of Atheists, who are entitled to equal protection of the law, and have every bit the same worth, spirituality, and moral fiber as the holiest saint or monk.
Allen requests that we atheists take religious belief seriously. We do; it's hard not to take seriously a bizarre collection of antiquated superstitions that are furiously waved in our faces in our schools, on television, in our politics and even on newspaper editorial pages. That we take the intellectually bankrupt beliefs of religion seriously is precisely why we do question it, and will continue to question it, in our boring way: by simply speaking out.
PZ
pavel-- you seem like a smart, well intentioned fellow, but i must speak out against ignorance---
I sure your have a different perspective--
If people and companies typically do things they've done before...
Citibank had banks in Argentina in 2001-2, when the Peso was devalued literally overnight by 2/3rds, and they not only didn't allow their account holders access to their money via ATM, but also closed down all branches.
A sneak preview of the future from the past perhaps?
And I will always stand up for the Free Exercise rights of Atheists, who are entitled to equal protection of the law, and have every bit the same worth, spirituality, and moral fiber as the holiest saint or monk.
I don't judge anyone's spiritual worth and assume we are all equal that way. Let's have free exercise rights for everyone, as long as they are not anti-social. If you want to recite an Atheist Creed at a graduation, why not? If other people want to say the Lord's Prayer, why not that? Even the Unitarians in our area finally figured out that when someone dies you have to do something to commemorate them. They had been reduced to saying: "Isn't it too bad that Fred died? Nice fellow." Somehow, it didn't feel adequate to the occasion.
A graduation is a solemn rite of passage. Let people commemorate it in a suitably solemn way, according to their beliefs. If you evacuate all belief from the public sphere you will have nothing left for people to sacrifice tor, to love, and even to die for.
Of course not. It's easy to claim wonderful motives when you hold political power. Noblesse oblige, White Man's Burden... Keep your displays of "faith" modest, or to yourself. Otherwise you are sticking it in my nose, and people of my faith have been burned alive for rejecting yours, so I must be on guard.
"it's hard not to take seriously a bizarre collection of antiquated superstitions that are furiously waved in our faces in our schools, on television, in our politics and even on newspaper editorial pages."
Poor babies. Some I know about almost destroyed a great country. Sensitive souls.
A graduation is solemn, but it is secular. The ceremonies are suitably impressive (or boring) without religion. They are more impressive than saying poor Fred is dead.
I repeat, if I were gonna graduate from something, and the prayer thing came up, I would be greatly tempted to chant ommm in a mysterious rumbly way.
@ mmckinl (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 6:38 pm
But ... Obama is married to the banksters ... and they will bring us all down ...
They will never relinquish their monopoly on the creation of currency and credit ...
Yes so sad....
Obama really cares about just two things
1) pumping up great chunks of the Big Shitpile that's essentially worthless unless the peak real estate values of the bubble can be miraculously restored with his Wall St bought and paid for economic team so he can
2) get the US economy back to 'normal" ( IMO no way those days are over ) and restore the American dream ( a mirage ) so he can get re-elected
I read a bit of that Iceland post.
Very depressing. When they start talking about having not enough food (as opposed to how cheap or expensive steak is), you know it's very bad.
Not that simple. Some say who you fuck or marry is a religious question. Or when a woman can terminate her pregnancy. I want to depict the historical Mohammed, analyze bones at ancient Native American burial sites, do stem cell research. Tear up a picture of the Pope on TV (Sinead O'Connor, who has never hurt a fly)....
Some would want to smoke pot at the graduation ceremony, beautiful poets who make beautiful music.
From the Iceland blog:
"Sometimes I start thinking .. why does the public have to pay for the debts of the wealthy .. Why am I in debt for what they did, while they just walk away from the mess? Is that fair? Is that really how things work? If I manage to create 1.000 billion króna debt somewhere, will I so be able to just walk away and continue what I do? Why is it possible to do this. How is it possible .. Is it because the wealthy who were able to start this snowball were smart enough to get trough the system and actually use the public as the responsible individuals for these investments? Is that the case?"
I think a lot Americans will be feeling this way in due time.
All, negative comments about women, minorities or any other group will be deleted. Any comment that mentions "nazis" will be deleted. repeat offenders will be banned.
All, negative comments about women, minorities or any other group will be deleted. Any comment that mentions "nazis" will be deleted. repeat offenders will be banned.
Please PLEASE ... show a little discipline.
THANK YOU CR!
This is your blog and we are your guests. May we be respectful and remember that.
Just drop off they key, Lee
And set yourself free
Rats, 2nd.
Like dude, what were they thinking naming it the "W"?
When there were 25 much less offensive letters available...
What if the bank refuses to take it?
Banks cant own anything.....worth owe-ING.
LawyerLiz:
I don't know, but the bank agreed to take it in this case. And if the bank refuses is there some way the hotel owner can keep the hotel and not owe any money in the future?
'Luxury" anything is a debt plan walking...
lawyerliz, interesting question. What if it costs more to operate than the income? That is possible with occupancy rates plunging. Sometimes they just close off whole floors and shut down services - but that is self defeating. I suspect this hotel has positive cash flow for the bondholders (since they pay no interest).
best wishes
They can always sue on the note--only worthwhile when the Borrower/entity owns something else worth levying on. Usually corporations are separated so this doesn't happen. Of course, there are personal and other guarantees.
Yeah, the word luxury is fast acquiring negative connotations. A good thing,
I think.
Dare I mention that a hotel named "W" is poorly branded for the late 2000's, with GWB still hovering in the 20's on approval?
Besides, the W hotels are all done in hyper-modern, in a time when folks are probably hankering for something more like Colonial Williamsburg.
I'm sure there are many, many banks in this same position who are extending terms of debt, despite broken covenants, because the hit to their balance sheets would be huge if they were to assume the collateral.
According to another WSJ article, Extended Stay America is currently in default. Perhaps this is the beginning of the hotel implosion. I was wondering why, with REVPAR running 20% below last year more hotels weren't going under.
Boutique hotel with extreme decor, now dated. It's an odd duck.
The QE machine hasn't yet been spun up to its resonant frequency. Gonna have to get that baby really hummin if stuff like this continues.
In my drive-bys i've seen something i've never seen before...
Billboards advertising that I can buy milk cows on the cheap as beef. From what I understand old Bessie probably ends up as a burger, rather than a recognizable cut of beef.
Dr Munch:
To answer your question:
Zombie Loans Give Life to Blockbuster Amid Defaults (Update1) - Bloomberg.com
On the tiny scale, I repeat my client with the houses is in technical default, since he hasn;'t paid off the loan on the houses, but pays the interest and they leave him alone. It's still a performing
debt. The interesting question is how long can you do this before a useful waiver argument becomes worth arguing.
drive by anecdotals...
rural 25 acres of prime golden whine vines and boarded up farmhouse.
My family has been in the small lodging business for three generations, and quite frankly, nobody has been coining money for decades.
Just like when the Moneystore was handing out SBA loans to anybody capable of fogging a mirror in the early 90s, once again folks have to find out that lodging is cyclical and subject to overbuilding.
Gee, hoodanode?
W is a stupid rich kid brand for snobbish folks and trustafarians.
As far as I am concerned, so what.
Now, there will be a ton more soon.
Revpar has once again began sinking.
Now, once again, we will have tons of empty hotel space moldering.
I for one am not surprised at all. That industry is run by some crazy people, who tend to act like Steve Wynn- add cheap money to the mix, and you get the every clover has four cheap franchises.
Now you will see once again the horrors of unmaintained properties used for homeless housing.
Faugh. There is a reason why I decided to run far and fast from Hotel Management- I had enough over the 10 years I worked in the biz to fill a lifetime.
I would contemplate buying in about four years, as the worst of the excess is burnt off- quite literally- I imagine.
No, just shoot me instead.
Someday this war's gonna end....
Gosh, Liz, I think the word 'luxury', like a lot of other things, has been debased almost completely.
If Hotel George V is luxury, then W San Diego just can't be.
From what I understand old Bessie probably ends up as a burger, rather than a recognizable cut of beef.
my city-boy understanding of the beef/dairy industry:
beef (steers) for whole-cut eating is pretty young in age - 9 months to 18 or something. Dairy cows go for years in production and end up only good for burgers and dog food.
Ever wonder why udders aren't on sale in beef markets?
You can read WSJ & FT subscriber articles for free and it is legal.
I tried it and it works
How To Read The WSJ For Free Online (NWS)
Thanks to Tyler Durden of ZeroHedge. Spread the word.
Citizen AllenM:
When was the last big bust and what were the outcomes? Was it post-911 o0r early 90'?
No Jim, I can't say as I wondered that.
I don't think I want to think about it.
Boarding Hotels seem a given in the future...
Like "Boarding Rooms" of a century ago. They'll compete with apartments-same clientelle.
CalculatedRisk,
Why are you worrying about quaint concepts like income, cost or customers. We live in a new world where everything is real even if it is not.
//What if it costs more to operate than the income? //
I'm thinking....W-shaped recovery.
Yeah, they can make up the difference in the future because real estate only
goes up!
I'll call it, the Warped recovery.
Artificial, unsustainable up, then down until a real recovery on sound fundamentals
--//What if it costs more to operate than the income? // --
Easy, the shortfall is made up by theft.
that type of fear would certainly help the US bond market, jackrabbit.
Jackrabbit,
See.. the problem is that you believe in a "recovery".. aka reversion to the status quo. I am not so sure about that..
//I'm thinking....W-shaped recovery//
The reason some of you are picking up beef on the cheap, is most every rancher is busy culling their stock, as the drought is taking it's toll, along with people switching to mac & cheese, combined with the price they receive per pound dropping like a stone and feed costs going up...
Let's get those hookers off the street: dedicated former-hotels for cash-paying sex sellers and buyers:
Floor 2: fems 4 rent
Floor 3: studs 4 rent
Floor 4: couples 4 rent to males
Floor 5: couples 4 rent to females
Floor 6: orgies
Floor 7: S&M
Floor 8: seniors for seniors
Floor 9: medical clinic for stds
Floor 10: Mickey D's
dont you believe it,
Have you ever considered a job opportunity with "investment banks"?
Easy, the shortfall is made up by theft.
They'll steal the towels from themselves!
wow jim, really climbing the wall or worry worts.
Recently, my father and I were discussing the state of the world. I related my impression of Japan and my experiences while visiting that country. In particular, I was struck by the fact that despite decades of economic stagnation, and high (for them) unemployment, Japan was still a pleasant, well maintained country.
He retorted that the last time the US had a long period of elevated unemployment (1970's through mid 1980's), much of the urban landscape became a war zone. He then retold some of hist stories of NYC in the 1970's. I have a feeling that much of the gentrification that has occurred over the last few years is about to be undone.
Am I the only one who notices not a single snarky comment here about the "immorality" of these investors? I mean, they borrow money and refuse to pay it back just because its no longer in their interest to do so. So "walking away" is okay for the rich, immoral for the homeowner?
Nuke, it was the early 90s- the Moneystore and it's ilk literally financed anybody with a patch of dirt and interstate access until the world was covered in cheapo motels.
Ye gawds, look up HFS and look at their corporate history and how they built a huge money machine on the backs of the Indian community.
Then they got cute and bought a timeshare promoter- one huckster conned by another. It was beautiful.
This pattern has been going for a long time. My parents just finished with three years of fighting in bk court with their buyer- who then found another sucker to make him and my folks whole.
Eight more years and the note is paid and we are finally finished with hospitality ownership ( after 3 generations and 40 years)!
I am not interested in competing with folks who will drag things down to the third world level at the first sign of crisis- been there and done that.
Let's just say my wife ignores my bitching about rooms, but I do complain if anything I view as necessary is not clean enough, and management had better respond.
Further, I prefer to stay at non HFS chains.
The only one on a national scale that keeps paying attention is Marriott, but that is the result of the founder culture.
I just viewed my time from 21 to 30 as lessons learned.
Someday this war's gonna end...
Whoops I forgot Floor 11: random assignment
-- Have you ever considered a job opportunity with "investment banks"? --
Did five years in Zúrich. Now I consult for a govt. dept (unrelated to finance).
rich wrote (in previous thread):
There is no financial incentive for Treasury to float more long-term debt.
I don't think you have this right. The reason the Treasury needs long-term debt is the same reason people need long-term mortgages. To fix the cost of borrowing over a long period of time. If the Treasury had to finance everything at the short end of the curve, our entire national debt would be the equivalent of an ARM mortgage that resets every 30-days to 1 year.
That works out fine as long as interest rates are low, but if short term rates spiked in that scenario, the interest on the debt could become instantly unsustainable. That is not a good situation for a government. I think they need long-term debt to keep the cost of the debt workable.
The invisible hand of the marketplace at work.. pun intended.
Now tell me, why should I care about sex workers making less? or women living shitty lives in general.. Why should I care?
Recession means tough times for sex workers
Falling prices for services 'causing a lot of misery' and raising fears prostitutes will take more risks
Jun 07, 2009 04:30 AM
Recession means tough times for sex workers - thestar.com
It would be prickishly fiendish to go to haughty taughty hotel bars, and spread the rumor that corporation XY or Z was most definitely going to save them, allowing the bartender to spread insider information to the beleaguered maids & maid men.
lawyerliz, the statute of limitations for a written note is four years from breach. So you could argue that four years after technical default, the bank can't sue on the note. But the statute for excercise a private power of sale under a deed of trust is 40 years and I've never seen a case finding the right was waived by inaction.
goodrich4bk,
that's business.
period.
Housing has enormous psychological complications for the average joe- commercial real estate, well, anything with Donald "How many times have I bk'ed projects?" Trump for a poster child has no scruples.
My creditors had better be praying that I maintain my employment, or they might see my inner Trump too;-P
Someday this war's gonna end...
Robbing a few hundred gets you jail.. robbing billions makes you hank paulson.
So "walking away" is okay for the rich, immoral for the homeowner?
258 rooms X .69 occupancy X $153 = almost $15 million on $65 million debt... They dont say what the interest rate is on the debt, or what the cost of operating is... Those numbers are from the end of 2008 though so it's probably a lot worse now... Does anyone have any numbers on the cost of operating a hotel? Was this thing profitable at those numbers posted?
Chaneling Jim Cramer?
It would be prickishly fiendish to go to haughty taughty hotel bars, and spread the rumor that corporation XY or Z was most definitely going to save them, allowing the bartender to spread insider information to the beleaguered maids & maid men.
Longer in Florida.
If you hire sex workers, Luci, aren't you worried about diseases for your own
personal body's health.
ok ponzinators of the commentariat....
is UNG worthless or a unique buying opportunity?
Yours In Service,
The Shoeshine Boy.
We went to an open house today. Probably 5 couples looking at it. It was on the way home from the grocery store about 5 blocks from where my parents lived. This was not my parents house. 1.5 million. 5/4 on a 1/2 acre.
The insanity will never end.
For what it's worth...
Any hotel where you feel out of place dressed in blue jeans in the lobby, is usually good for cougar sightings.
Looking doesn't mean buying.
@lawyerliz,
This is O/T, but on topic for you. You are often talking about the dollar as a symbol that is losing its meaning. A series of unrelated events this weekend led me to this hypertext: Semiotics for Beginners. Semiotics is the study of signs, which encompasses linguistics, speech, writing, and other visual signs. Some of the concepts fit quite nicely with your hypothesis, and with an elastic currency.
Juvenal,
You should go to Paris. It is the city of cougars.
What are cougar sightings?
brb
The W Hotel in Scottsdale went into default a couple of months ago. They seemed to be owned by a different outfit though:
Phoenix Bears the Brunt of Hotel Market's Steep Downturn - WSJ.com
Cougars are older single women who are looking for action, if you know what I mean...
Some of the single guys on my boat used to go cougar hunting while we were in Hawaii. Waikiki is the best preserve, IMO.
The problematic diseases are very easy to prevent.. syphilis is essentially non-existent in the hetero population and pretty much everything else can be prevented with protection. Herpes and warts are too widespread among the normal hetero population anyway.. not much you can do about it other than avoid those with any sores.
//If you hire sex workers, Luci, aren't you worried about diseases for your own personal body's health.//
I've been de-clawed for a long time now, but I still like to go on the prowl for quadragenerian eye-candy.
Liz, please chk your email for a top secret transmission from me
@Lucifer: no recovery? You burst my bubble.
Jackrabbit ,
Is it really possible to go back to that system?
There's no going back. But the world doesn't end either.
I agree.. but the changes will make many unhappy
//But the world doesn't end either.//
So we stopped and picked up a heifer and had the dairy strap it to the hood of the car, just like we had just bagged a deer...
If its any consolation, Lucifer, the devil's in the details.
It always is!
//If its any consolation, Lucifer, the devil's in the details.//
Jackrabbit,
I hate to say this but, people deserve the consequences of their actions (even if those consequences anhilate them).
"Some of the concepts fit quite nicely with your hypothesis, and with an elastic currency."
Now there's a useful idea - rubber money!
Green shoots.. or a rounding error/ noise
Retail Sales Probably Rose on Auto Demand: U.S. Economy Preview
Retail Sales in U.S. Probably Rose, Sparked by Auto Bargains - Bloomberg.com
By Bob Willis
June 7 (Bloomberg) -- Sales at U.S. retailers probably rose in May for the first time in three months as demand for automobiles picked up, economists said before a government report this week.
Purchases climbed 0.5 percent, according to the median of 61 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey ahead of Commerce Department figures due June 11. Another report may show the trade gap widened in April, reflecting an increase in the cost of imported oil.
In Australia & NZ fiat money is made out of plastic.
Blanchflower Says BOE May Expand U.K. Money-Printing Program
Blanchflower Says BOE May Expand U.K. Money-Printing (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
By Elliott Gotkine and Brian Swint
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- Former Bank of England policy maker David Blanchflower said the central bank may expand and widen its program of buying assets with newly created money as the British economy keeps shrinking.
Hehe, Coinz, my kinda link. Roland Barthes' Empire of Signs is a good attempt at a cross-cultural reading. Nihonophiles generally find it facile, but it was one of the first of its kind.
C
Lucifer (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 5:58 pm
The invisible hand of the marketplace at work.. pun intended.
Now tell me, why should I care about sex workers making less? or women living shitty lives in general.. Why should I care?
You'll reap the benefits here... more innovation and specialization to raise their premium, and a general wage spiral lowers your costs. The ones with violent pimps, addictions to support, and few options... not so much.
C. Coinz,
Given your recent interest in semiotics (which I just heard for the first time) and the handle you use on this board, I've got some signs for you relating to the dollar:
Most every other country with currency similar to ours uses coins for the purchasing power of $1, $2 or even $5. Sure, the Mints also make dollar coins, but no one uses them because the paper is easier. Plenty of studies have shown that people will not use coins if paper money of the same denomination is available.
You know the minor coinage used to be 90% silver and thus looked like silver. When we took the silver out of our coinage, why did we keep the size, weight and designs the same and, on top of that, use a copper-nickel alloy that looked a little like worn silver?
But in 1982 we took all the copper out of the one cent pieces, yet offered up, once more, the same size, weight and design in a copper-plated zinc piece.
The answer to all three rhetorical questions is the same. They have used the visual signs of familiar paper and coinage in their ongoing effort to persuade us that what passes for money in our daily lives remains the same it has always been.
It isn't of course, but for that you have to look behind the signs.
"I hate to say this but, people deserve the consequences of their actions (even if those consequences anhilate them)."
Perhaps they do if the acts are committed freely, without coercion, and in full conscious knowledge of their nature. Otherwise, anyone who walks under a falling icicle that brains him would be considered deserving of the injury.
People do not learn!
WSJ Error Page - WSJ.com
LOS ANGELES
$2.2 million
2,500-square-foot house with two bedrooms and two baths, carport and pool
Prudential California Realty
The 2,500-square-foot house in Los Angeles.
DETAILS: In West Bel-Air, the home has views of the city and the Pacific Ocean.
ARCHITECTURE: Designed by the late Hal Levitt, a noted L.A. architect, the home was recently remodeled, with spaces opened up to create a free-flowing floor plan. “I think [Mr. Levitt] would have been very excited,” says architect David Thompson, who helped lead the remodeling.
CAFFEINE FIX: A Starbucks in the Brentwood Village shopping district, about half a mile away.
TODAY’S FORECAST: Mostly cloudy, high 62 degrees
SOURCE: Billy Rose, Rose + Chang, 310-650-2999, billy@billyrosedesign.com; Realtor.com
Rotten Tricks 101:
Go to any new car dealer, let the salesmen descend upon you, and meekly inquire if they could let this or that car go for sticker?
Hem and Haw for 15 minutes, tell them you have to think about it, and then give the dealership the first name and phone number of somebody that done you wrong, in lieu of giving them yours.
canucks are a good example..
//Perhaps they do if the acts are committed freely, without coercion, and in full conscious knowledge of their nature.//
The insanity will never end.
But it will change focus,....something to look forward to.
The free market is great.. arbitrage macht frei!
You'll reap the benefits here... more innovation and specialization to raise their premium, and a general wage spiral lowers your costs.
arbitrage macht frei
What an awesome nick that would be. And I say that even though I'm Jewish. Hell, maybe because I'm Jewish.
On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired
On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired - WSJ.com
Mr. Pitts Lacks a Mailing Address But He's Got a Computer and a Web Forum
By PHRED DVORAK
SAN FRANCISCO -- Like most San Franciscans, Charles Pitts is wired. Mr. Pitts, who is 37 years old, has accounts on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. He runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, reads news online and keeps in touch with friends via email. The tough part is managing this digital lifestyle from his residence under a highway bridge.
"You don't need a TV. You don't need a radio. You don't even need a newspaper," says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. "But you need the Internet."
Mr. Pitts's experience shows how deeply computers and the Internet have permeated society. A few years ago, some people were worrying that a "digital divide" would separate technology haves and have-nots. The poorest lack the means to buy computers and Web access. Still, in America today, even people without street addresses feel compelled to have Internet addresses
JD, I saw a spot on Fox news reporting that milk prices are falling and dairy cow owners are bringing their cows to slaughter. I don't understand b/c the price of milk is (according to Fox) returning to prices they used to be at before Milk spiked last year. Seems like an extreme solution.
I'm not a big steak eater and wondering how big a difference there is between steak from a male or female cow.
JD, I saw a spot on Fox news reporting that milk prices are falling and dairy cow owners are bringing their cows to slaughter. I don't understand b/c the price of milk is (according to Fox) returning to prices they used to be at before Milk spiked last year. Seems like an extreme solution.
I'm not a big steak eater and wondering how big a difference there is between steak from a male or female cow.
bobn,
The death camps had "Arbeit macht frei" . The american middle class was told "Arbitrage will make them rich". At least the nazis were more honest..
I am not sure about that myself.. though almost hooved species have a very large penis.
//I'm not a big steak eater and wondering how big a difference there is between steak from a male or female cow.//
Maybe "sex workers" need to go door to door and expand business that way.
"Hey, this is Jen, I give great bleep for a discount, may I come in and demonstrate my services?"
This was not my parents house. 1.5 million. 5/4 on a 1/2 acre. The insanity will never end.
People go insane quickly, in groups, but they only regain their sanity one at a time, over long periods.
Same rules for housing, here for example at $54/sq ft: 77525 California Dr, Palm Desert, CA 92211
Just when we thought we had licked our problem getting rid of Hummer to the Chinese, the deal is being shopped Around The World.
They do.. they are called "normal" women. Unfortunately, the deal comes with many strings and hidden costs.. lots of bait and switch too.
//Maybe "sex workers" need to go door to door and expand business that way.//
and that would require women to be honest.. seen an honest woman.. ever?
//"Hey, this is Jen, I give great bleep for a discount, may I come in and demonstrate my services?"//
bobn,
The death camps had "Arbeit macht frei" . The american middle class was told "Arbitrage will make them rich". At least the nazis were more honest..
I know the history. The Nazis were not really more honest - in their camps, work made you dead.
However, the comparison of the I-Bank officers with Nazis (or at least with Krupp) does not bother me.
Juvenal Delinquent,
A hummer with salad tossing.. now you are talking.
"Lucifer (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 7:46 pm replyIgnore userThey do.. they are called "normal" women. Unfortunately, the deal comes with many strings and hidden costs.. lots of bait and switch too."
LOL. Nice.
sportsfan wrote:
The answer to all three rhetorical questions is the same. They have used the visual signs of familiar paper and coinage in their ongoing effort to persuade us that what passes for money in our daily lives remains the same it has always been.
It isn't of course, but for that you have to look behind the signs.
Yes, the sign appears the same, but content of the sign, the signifier, has changed. In 2010, the penny, having already been debased from copper to zinc, will be changed again to steel with a copper-colored zinc coating. Even zinc is too expensive to mint a penny. Really, pennies are a nuisance and I try to shed them immediately.
I remember coming to terms a long time ago with the separation of a word and the thing it signifies; that there is nothing tree-ish about the word "tree", but it is refreshing to see a serious study of the topic. My colleagues and I sometimes debate whether math is discovered reality or is simply a descriptive language. I lean toward language but I am far from settled on that opinion. Anyway, fun stuff.
They did not promote "arbeit macht frei" with such PR finesse. Most inmates in those camps had no illusions about their fate.
Americans on the other hand..
// in their camps, work made you dead.//
counterpointer wrote:
Roland Barthes' Empire of Signs
I'll check it out. Thx.
Later-day Willy Lomans loom large.
Nuke;
"Extended Stay America is currently in default."
I think that outfit is another kettle of dead fish. They cater to companies that have to place employees in temporary quarters out of town for periods of weeks or months. Same economic drivers killing them, though.
"Boutique hotel with extreme decor, now dated. It's an odd duck." [W]
It's cache^ is nowhere to be found.
Coinz.
Behind again.
There is a dialog of Plato where this is explored.
I read part of that semiotics thing. I think I will chaw stuff in my own mind for a
while. There was bricolage again!
Nova, I am at a different email. Will try to figure out again how to get my ofc email.
"Boutique" and "Organic" labels are good for about a 50% mark-up, I figure.
Luci, try calling yourself Diogenes!! He was looking for an honest man.
I have ignored Luci long enough, no?
Why specifically do you hate women?
bobn I agree, but Juvenal needs to keep the creative juices flowing anyway.
He will be the wandering poster...
Nuke
Marriott stock (MAR) has been going up.
.actually acting is for Closers....
Sorry nova, don't remember my password in Miami.
Maybe Luci was married?
The James Gang
Walk Away
Dailymotion - The James Gang - Walk Away - une vidéo Musique
and here
YouTube -
Yeah baby !
16 killed in a shootout @ an Acapulco Resort Hotel, 3,000 shots fired-50 grenades exploded..
As if Mexico has a tourism business anymore~
lawyerliz,
I do not hate women. I just do not care about them..
I cannot treat them any better than they have treated me... whether the reasons are race, status, money.. it does not matter.
Treating others as second class makes them want to treat you as third class or less
From Semiotics for Beginners:
"As John Sturrock points out, 'a one-term language is an impossibility because its single term could be applied to everything and differentiate nothing; it requires at least one other term to give it definition' (Sturrock 1979, 10). Advertising furnishes a good example of this notion, since what matters in 'positioning' a product is not the relationship of advertising signifiers to real-world referents, but the differentiation of each sign from the others to which it is related."
This concept works for the relative values of real estate, stocks, bonds, commodities and floating currencies. Sometimes the relative differences in the symbols that matter more than what the symbols signify.
I am not that stupid. What is in for me anyway?
//Maybe Luci was married?//
Cliff diving in Acapulco is too risky nowadays, i'd suggest you just stick to financial indices instead...
lawyerliz,
Wonder why he never even tried looking for an honest woman?
//He was looking for an honest man.//
Am seeing more and more "short sale" listings in my area. Redfin's site now has this:
This home is flagged as a short sale. We're sorry, we don't tour or write offers on short sales because of the slim chance that you'll get the home.
Uh oh, thread registers a half-Godwin. Seems to recover.
Anyhow, in trading rooms far, far away ... Asia futures up, NZX is already open and tracking at least the Aus futures, dollar inching up against USD; Aus inverse, futures kermit, dollar slipping slightly. Could be some interesting Japan banking read-outs later.
Japan, Australia Futures Gain on Yen Slump, U.S. Jobs Data - Bloomberg.com
There was an odd report or two during the day about AIA looking for advisors for upcoming sale/IPO and ditching some biggies. Previous reports were of not taking the deal to market until early next year, so it could be a play for grand and thorough due dilly and a trail of crumbs for many months as the advisors and suitors line up.
C
form the aMF story:
"One hotel across from the street from the shootout offers three-hour stays for 30 pesos, roughly $2.25."
who has the first right of refusal on the bomb shelter?
Bernanke Conundrum Threatens Housing on Rising Mortgage Rates
Bernanke Conundrum Threatens Housing on Mortgage Rate (Update3) - Bloomberg.com
By Liz Capo McCormick and Dakin Campbell
June 8 (Bloomberg) -- The biggest price swings in Treasury bonds this year are undermining Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to cap consumer borrowing rates and pull the economy out of the worst recession in five decades.
Speaking of coins this story from the Canadian mint might be making loonie holders wonder about their investment. My first impression was there is gold missing but after 4 months of internal investigation it only refers to a discrepancy. Refusing to bring in the police to investigate makes me think the mint has something to hide.
How do you know your gold coin really is 99.9999 percent pure? Who really take their freshly bought coins and runs a specific gravity test? Very few would be my assumption.
Mint can't account for missing gold
Mint looks for gold, freezes worker bonuses
Australia can't keep their supply safe from internal pilferage.
Mint security lapse amazes judge - National - smh.com.au
Of course the decades long question if Fort Knox really has gold and if so how much is a cause for concern.
Is there any gold inside Fort Knox, the world's most secure vault? - Times Online
"folks are probably hankering for something more like Colonial Williamsburg."
You have got to be kidding, talk about sooo 200 years ago.
Wells Fargo, Ms. Jacobson said in an interview, saw the black community as fertile ground for subprime mortgages, as working-class blacks were hungry to be a part of the nation’s home-owning mania. Loan officers, she said, pushed customers who could have qualified for prime loans into subprime mortgages. Another loan officer stated in an affidavit filed last week that employees had referred to blacks as “mud people” and to subprime lending as “ghetto loans.”
“We just went right after them,” said Ms. Jacobson, who is white and said she was once the bank’s top-producing subprime loan officer nationally. “Wells Fargo mortgage had an emerging-markets unit that specifically targeted black churches, because it figured church leaders had a lot of influence and could convince congregants to take out subprime loans.”
HT: Atrios
If say for the glodbugs wet dreams sake, there wasn't a grain of glod in Fort Knox, despite all claims to the contrary?
Would the price Krakatoa, east of Jersey?
Love the venn diagram Bobn
Additionally on the CRE front, here's some running away (from my neck of the desert) -
Bloomingdale's, Macy's pull out of CityNorth
There's also sqauwk the few current tenants in recently opened Phase I (which as been a total bust) are planning to close up shop and leave real soon.
Maybe he found lots of honest women, so didn't need to look very hard!!
What do Asset Management Companies Do ?
What do Asset Management Companies Do | Information for life!
Asset management companies have been around for years and you just have to find one that will be able to deliver what you require of them. Before you select one, do some research on your own to see who are the clients and what have they done in the past because you surely don’t want to entrust your assets just to anyone who gives you a call.
Asset management companies help you accumulate wealth by using their expertise.
Gee I wonder if Sunstone Hotel Investors had an asset management company
lawyerliz (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 4:54 pm replyIgnore userLuci, try calling yourself Diogenes!! He was looking for an honest man.
I have ignored Luci long enough, no?
Why specifically do you hate women?
I have Lucifer blocked...but that's not enough.
He might be a pedofile...didn't he say one time he thought a girl was old enough to have sex with if she had pubic hair? I am a girl and I first got pubic hair at 10 years old.
Must find another financial blog...I'm thinking Mish...and Naked Capitalism.
Cliff diving in Acapulco is too risky nowadays, i'd suggest you just stick to financial indices instead...
Actually spent some time in the state of Guerrero recently (where Acapulco is located). Heavy police/army presence, and a politically literate populace.
Was invited to a fund raising event (play, food, music) organized by some local Marxists, for a child care center. A good time was had by all!
how can you put the words "honest" and "women" next to each other.. never mind..
//Maybe he found lots of honest women, so didn't need to look very hard!!//
Groucho Marxists or the other kind?
How can you put "honest" and "man" next to each other?
Battle of the Sexes #6079460054950607349607
Why women are not honest.
Exhibit A
//Firlight2012,
He might be a pedofile...didn't he say one time he thought a girl was old enough to have sex with if she had pubic hair? I am a girl and I first got pubic hair at 10 years old.//
In defense of Honest women, I am on my first wife! 39 years!
I am on my first husband. 42 years!!
Because honesty is a function of objectivity. Women are subjective, not objective.
//How can you put "honest" and "man" next to each other?//
Groucho Marxists or the other kind?
The other kind, although they do have a tendency toward humor.
As Emma Goldman pointed out: "If I can't dance, I want no part of your revolution".
In defense of Civil Unions, Im on my first Domestic Partner......8 years.
@Lucifer: Trash talking the other sex is unproductive at best. If there were more women on CR, I imagine we would be deluged with similar complaints about men.
Pavel: on school prayer.
My guess is that article did not accurately portray the ACLU's position. The problem with public high school prayer is the captive audience.
I wouldn't want to be asked to pledge allegiance under God to a flag (like Jehovah's Witnesses) because my "god" doesn't favor a particular flag. In high school, I wouldn't want to have to stand silent while the pledge is recited, or leave the room. On a personal level, those kids who recited a prayer en masse exhibited insensitivity to minority feelings, probably without any such intent. Legally, I wouldn't stop them at all, but I would take every precaution that no teacher or administer encourage or help them in any way.
It might not be easy for you to see my perspective, but when I visited Peru I saw a giant cross on the highest point overlooking a city. It was intimidating, and the historical and political implications it brought to my mind actually brought physical revulsion.
I think you did say something about hair at one point, but I don't really remember.
If you just don't care, why do you keep bringing it up?
Methinks the demon doth protest too much.
That is why I prefer to not start it..
//@Lucifer: Trash talking the other sex is unproductive at best.//
But you did start it!
The responses, excuses and lies amuse me.
//If you just don't care, why do you keep bringing it up?//
Forked tales come with the territory, deviled ham.
Prayer-wise I suggest a deep cleansing breathe and Ommmmmmmmmmmm.
In defense of Civil Unions, Im on my first Domestic Partner......8 years.
I'm on 10+.
Marriage was always a property thing, wives, along with the cattle and sheep, were socialized as male property.
Of course, I'm anarchist, and institution turns me off.
Uh oh, thread registers a half-Godwin. Seems to recover.
That will likely cost the thread points on overall score, although there is always hope the judges may have been momentarily distracted by the failed moral hazard argument and the shiny new costumes.
Scroll up and see for yourself.
I was commenting on the efficiency of market pricing for prostitution. You asked me about diseases and prostitutes.
//But you did start it!//
I didn't get a "Yes Dear" wife by any means. Marriage is only as good as you see and respect it.
I am not that stupid.
I didn't mean to say you were. But that graphic perfectly encapsulates the way I hear a lot of (seemingly happily) married guys say about their wives.
The current laws do an even better job.
//Of course, I'm anarchist, and institution turns me off.//
If only Obamanov had a tell-tale blood mark on the top of his noggin, we could be sure he's the second coming of Gorby...
You don't ignore me---why?
When people say "under glod" in the pledge, I just don't say anything.
With school kids it would be different.
bobn,
Yes, and I could not live like that.
//But that graphic perfectly encapsulates the way I hear a lot of (seemingly happily) married guys say about their wives.//
Externalized Costs, the XRF (X-ray fluorescence) machines are getting cheap. The global switch to RoHS, (Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive) i.e. no lead electronics, has even spawned a market for hand held machines to detect contamination.
In centuries past merchants had charts that told them how much any give coin should weight and what purity it should be. Then they had to assay it to for authenticity and quality (clipped/filed/etched?). If we ever start to use PM on anything like a regular basis, expect to see coin analyzers that look like today's that change machines. They could value any metallic disk in seconds, even report cladding thicknesses. It wouldn't be too different from the UVF devices that I've built it the past.
Cool double E
km love those James G cuts.
Art Eclectic - pffsshhht! LOL.
/mops keyboard.
Thread awaits triple-contra signifier on gender relations. That'll put them right back in the game. Even the surly Lithuanian judge may concur, although she's been chewing stray hairs for the last several rounds.
C
Ironic that you treat them only as objects.
lawyerliz,
Because you are willing to accept that you are not perfect and omnipotent. For a white woman, that is quite impressive.
//You don't ignore me---why?//
50% hair cut for CRE ...
Irony isn't worth a bucket of warm piss nowadays.
Schiller expects home prices to keep falling...
Economist's View: Shiller: Home Prices May Keep Falling
But who here at CR didn't ...
Any guesses here as to when nominal home prices bottom ?
Lucifer the skin pigmentation nonsense is really beneath you.
Irony isn't worth a bucket of warm piss nowadays.
~~~~~
certainly the bucket is worth more ...
He doesn't ignore you, Liz, because he's a narcissist and you feed his ego by paying attention to him.
Liz picks herself off of floor from chair she just fell out of. Luci said. . . something nice?
Based on my experience and observation, it seems to matter a lot. I simply cannot accept anything other than equality..
//Lucifer the skin pigmentation nonsense is really beneath you.//
Does anybody here expect to see a complete retracement
to the real home prices seen in 2007?
Try 1997..
//Does anybody here expect to see a complete retracement to the real home prices seen in 2007?
Poo-y. Shiller has not yet noticed that people are territorial?
After Andrew, people who had insurance money chose to stay in a less wrecked portion of
their wrecked houses. This wasn't rational either.
I think there is something worth interacting with there, Ness.
If you don't wanna interact with him i certainly 100% understand.
Lucifer
Try 1997..
~~~~
Real not nominal ...
Is anybody here following the aftermath in Iceland? They seem to be ahead of us on this curve - would like to know what their situation foretells for our future.
Respectfully, Liz, if you 100% understood, you'd not interact with him either.
I'm glad I bought in 96 then!!
Err, late 96.
It we get back to 2007 non-inflation adjusted prices, lots of older people are screwed! Inflation and fixed income do not work well together...
//Real not nominal//
Instead of maligning perfectly good names, why not name potentially ruinous hurricanes after people with no reputation to uphold?
Atilla
Genghis
Ivan the Terrible
Caligula
Shiller has not yet noticed that people are territorial?
~~~~
What if people don't have any money ... ?
No, last I heard about Iceland, they were blowing up their SUVs for the insurance
money. What's up with Iceland?
Juvenal Delinquent,
What about
Hank Paulson
Angelo Mozillo
Harvey Blankfein
Timothy Geithner
etc..
//nstead of maligning perfectly good names, why not name potentially ruinous hurricanes after people with no reputation to uphold?//
I don't know either - that's why I was asking.
Absolute certainty is a sign of mental illness or belief in a religion.. not that it matters
//Respectfully, Liz, if you 100% understood, you'd not interact with him either.//
Iceland was just a carry-trade liability thrown to the wolves, and i'm surprised there aren't more of them...
They usta just use female names, remember? For hurricanes.
And long ago, they didn't use names, but names (signs?) were useful in making
specific hurricanes memorable. Really bad hurricanes get their names retired.
Andrew is retired.
I note you mention no female names.
"It we get back to 2007 non-inflation adjusted prices, lots of older people are screwed!"
~~~~
Yes ... and your point is ?
Isn't that the game plan ... ?
Someone is going to get screwed ....
it won't be the banksters ...
nor the MIC ...
nor it looks like, the Health Care Industry ...
Who's left?
Heeheehee. Luci didn't come up with any really evil female names either!
I think Liz knows how to discount the boilerplate bluster and find some residual value.
Consumer based economies can collapse to the point that accumulated money will be worthless.
//Yes ... and your point is ?
Isn't that the game plan ... ?//
Thanks Yogster.
I don't know what you mean by that, Juvenal. I'm asking about Iceland because they've dropped out of the headlines, yet there was great magnitude to their problems. I'd like to know what's transpiring there. Will browse for news in a bit.
Oh.. just use the names of these fine gentlemen's wives. Or any female reality TV star, or any one on "bridezilla"
//Heeheehee. Luci didn't come up with any really evil female names either!//
Let us know what you find.
"Consumer based economies can collapse to the point that accumulated money will be worthless."
~~~~
Do you mean economies that use fractional reserve banking ... and have to de lever but won't ... ?
I've never watched more than 5 minutes of any reality show, except the losing weight one and the improve the appearance one, and for that i only watch the befores and afters. I like befores and
afters. I guess it's a sign of oldness that in the fashion mags I pick up at the drs, I like the befores better!!
Comrade,
You are not totally wrong. But you are not taking into account the weird nature of the Fed. The Fed, which is nominally independent of the Treasury, sets the rates at which the Treasury borrows. But, in normal times and using conventional tactics, only on the short end of the curve.
The Fed has basically given Treasury the opportunity to sell short-term debt, at least for awhile, at below market rates, due to its dropping and holding the fed funds rate at zero. But on the long end of the curve, the Fed has less influence, and it's coming unglued.
The only way Treasury can influence yields on the long end of the curve is by not floating long-term deb over an extended period of time.
In my opinion, QE will not work and will drive long-term Treasury rates higher, rather than lower, due to the global backlash against it.
That's why I bought and hold TBT. I'm betting against QE.
Gee, if the yield curve is steepening, is that a green shoot?
Yep and add the complexity of a globalized technological society to that.
//Do you mean economies that use fractional reserve banking ... and have to de lever but won't ... ?//
"It might not be easy for you to see my perspective, but when I visited Peru I saw a giant cross on the highest point overlooking a city. It was intimidating, and the historical and political implications it brought to my mind actually brought physical revulsion."
Would you make it illegal for churches to ring bells? Would you make it illegal for Muslims to proclaim publicly the confession of faith and the call to prayer? Would you make it illegal for Catholics to form a Corpus Christi procession in a public street? Would you make it illegal for Jews to close public streets in their neighborhoods to wheeled traffic on the Sabbath, or demand that women wear modest clothing when passing through the neighborhood?
Would you make it illegal for people to display the Cross or the Crucifix on their clothing in public, or pray the rosary in public? Would you make it illegal for atheists to purchase space in public advertising advocating atheism? Would you make it illegal for people to hand out religious literature or distribute Bibles, the Koran or religious tracts in public, or preach in public? Would you make it illegal for Muslims to pray in a public street? Would you make it illegal for atheists to hand out atheists tracts in public? Would you make it illegal for people to hold public debates on religion versus atheism, in the event that believers might have some good arguments?
Not to speak of anyone personally, but I'm beginning to believe that atheists have become the new puritans of the late 17th century.
lawyerliz (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 7:50 pm
Heeheehee. Luci didn't come up with any really evil female names either!
Hurricane Bobbitt? Though John did get at least his 15 minutes of fame from that. Brutal, megalomaniac world leaders is an area where men are clearly superior, if superior is the word. Not that they don't exist in female form, too, of course.
Mmc, that will affect the rich the most!!
Bobbitt?
3-Letter-Monte players continue to count coup on Wall*Street, but as it's all denominated in dollars Americano...
Why bother?
Oh, yeah.
Did the reattachment take?
Oh, yeah.
Did the reattachment take?
When the W first opened up, they had the "beach bar" on the roof and it was the hot, happening spot for downtown for quite a while. But was a terrible location (6+ blocks outside the Gaslamp area), and it was doomed when all the other new boutique hotels opened up (Ivy, Hard Rock, Solamar, Keating, Se, etc) all with their own hot, happening spots but all located right in the middle of all the action.
Atilla
Genghis
Ivan the Terrible
Caligula
George
Arnold
Ronald
Bill
Just a basic outline---
The Economy Is Still at the Brink
OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS; The Economy Is Still at the Brink - NY Times
By SANDY B. LEWIS and WILLIAM D. COHAN
Published: June 7, 2009
WHETHER at a fund-raising dinner for wealthy supporters in Beverly Hills, or at an Air Force base in Nevada, or at Charlie Rose’s table in New York City, President Obama is conducting an all-out campaign to try to make us feel a whole lot better about the economy as quickly as possible. “It’s safe to say we have stepped back from the brink, that there is some calm that didn’t exist before,” he told donors at the Beverly Hilton Hotel late last month.
Hmmm, there was that woman, Elizabeth Bsomething who killed all those handmaidens to
bathe in their blood to prevent aging. But damn, even I can't remember her name.
There were some death camp women. . .
Messina!!! Really tho, she was small scale. . .
Oh yes, would you make it illegal for Muslim women to cover their hair in public, or for Sikh men to wear the turban and carry the dagger? Would you make it illegal for Christian religious to wear clerical clothing in public?
Would you like to remove art showing religious subjects from public museums? Would you churches to remove the crosses or crucifixes from their steeples?
"Consumer based economies can collapse to the point that accumulated money will be worthless."
As a means of storing wealth, money is over with. Still will function as a medium of exchange, and maybe even a commodity (you can always make jewelry out of metals), but forget storing wealth.
It is true that there isn't a grain of silver in Ft. Knox.
lawyerliz,
I think that the wife/ mistress of every tyrant was just as bad as the man.
Would you make it illegal for Christian religious to wear clerical clothing in public?
So many Christians, so few Lions---
Pavel you are now hyperventilating. . .
Deep breathe. OOOOOOoooooommmmmmmmmm.
This was a secular occasion, and I find it perfectly reasonable that it stay secular.
But there is such a thing as common sense, and the ACLU had dived off the deep end.
Elisabeth Bathory.
Just a legend.
As for gold storing wealth, it always has.
There is a reason why hoards of gold and silver are continuously being found.
Someday this war's gonna end...
The whole harem of G. Khan was evil???
"Would you make it illegal for Christian religious to wear clerical clothing in public?
So many Christians, so few Lions---"
It may come to that again.
I'm disappointed. I thought she was the real deal.
Hmmm, I still think she was the real deal.
lawyerliz (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 8:00 pm
Oh, yeah.
Did the reattachment take?
yes, I believe so. I guess he spun the entire incident into a lot of publicity with humorous takes on the whole situation.
There was Lizzy Borden... crazy spinster, suspected of murdering her father and stepmother with a hatchet. But that is "just" within the family, and two people. Nothing like the Green Rver Killer or Dahmer. It just seems the megalomaniac world dictators and notorious serial killers tend to be men, or at least men are more historically recognized in these roles for whatever reason.
So many Christians, so few Lions---"
It may come to that again.
I was speaking of population densities, and ecosystem health.
We need apex predators to cull the herds--
@ 1 currency now -yogi (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 5:34 pm
km love those James G cuts.
Why Joe Walsh bailed on James Gang to join the Eagles is beyond me and many others ????
James Gang one of most talented 3 person bands ever!
The James Gang - The Bomber(Live 1971)
YouTube -
The James Gang - Funk #49
YouTube - The James Gang - Funk #49
Luci, you actually think---oops, nearly did a Godwin.
1950's Reds: Commies
2000's Reds: Conned Evangelicals
"Mmc, that will affect the rich the most!!"
~~~
The rich will lose the most money but retain all their assets ...
The poor will lose food and shelter ...
"We need apex predators to cull the herds--"
These have always been microorganisms.
There was that woman that preyed on truckers and such in the southeast that they
made a movie of. We are really reaching here. I can't remember her name either.
--nearly did a Godwin.
We are being parasitized by a meme that is protecting itself--
If you can't mention Hitler, you can't analyze certain events.
A very interesting phenomena--
No they haven't Pavel. We are top predator now, but there was a time when hungry lions and wolves, don't forget wolves ate us. Sharks and alligators still give it a go occasionally.
Anyway Eva B was orders of magnitude less evil than her he-who-cannot-be named-boyfriend.
"No they haven't Pavel. We are top predator now"
Liz, I dare say that many more people die of infections each year than are killed by other people. However, we could be in the running if worse comes to worst.
"The Economy Is Still at the Brink"
~~~~
Most everyone here knows that ...
Cheering up people with no money
no job and no future prospects ...
still leaves $50 trillion in unserviceable debt ...
Because she did not sign the orders?
//Anyway Eva B was orders of magnitude less evil than her he-who-cannot-be named-boyfriend.//
Calm down Pavel. At first glance, I don't have a problem with any of your examples. The most interfering with others' freedom is the Jewish street closing, and this continues to be a source of friction in Israel.
Maybe my description wasn't clear. The hill in Peru with the giant cross was unimproved, presumably public land. It was a permanent display. The message to those natives with a vague notion of Christianity as conveyed by the Conquistadors was unmistakeable: We are in power; people can be nailed to these things.
Well of course. More wildebeests prolly die of infections than lion chomps too, but that
doesn't prevent them from being lion's prey.
Won't inflation help homeowners to pay their mortgages?
A few years of "healthy inflation" and we're OK.
If that means the dollar falls by 30% so be it.
I'd guess about 5 years for the economy to right itself, a few more years for the Fed to tackle inflation expectations.
In Godwin we trust
This period we are going through right now is very reminiscent of 1939-40's "Phony War"
I would have absolutely no prob with the dollar falling 30%. That is the best of
all possible worlds. I see some sort of unknowable event horizon before us.
"The message to those natives with a vague notion of Christianity as conveyed by the Conquistadors was unmistakeable: We are in power; people can be nailed to these things."
You know this for a fact? Are you implying that the people who put up the Cross identified themselves with the torturers and crucifiers of Jesus? Somehow...
I mentioned that I had a phony war feeling about the whole thing weeks ago.
Agreed.
Jackrabbit wrote:
Won't inflation help homeowners to pay their mortgages?
Only if the inflation was reflected in wages. If we get a stagflation, a higher probability in my mind, then stuff just costs more while incomes remain stagnant or fall. That doesn't help homeowners pay their mortgages, it causes more of them to default.
Jackrabbit
Inflation without wage inflation will only worsen the situation ...
There is every sign that wages are going down not up ...
Bathory- Elizabeth Báthory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dahmer was a top predator, as was Michael Milken.
One of them is still around causing trouble.
I think I will go to dinner shortly.
That sexism stuff is for the birds, Lucifer.
Liz, I have called this the Phony war in a post about four months ago;-}
Someday this war's gonna end....but first dinner!
Jackrabbit says,
Won't inflation help homeowners to pay their mortgages?
A few years of "healthy inflation" and we're OK.
If that means the dollar falls by 30% so be it.
ummm....I doubt inflation will help anyone since deflation is what is gripping us right now...Yeah spectulators and GS are pumping oil up to pacify the SWA's and middle eastern countries but inflation won't help the homeowners and won't help the general populace at all....
ask the guy who's home is worth $300,000 instead of 600K how that inflation is treating him....
Other things may go up, but I think, if we are lucky, we will stabilize at 50 cents on the dollar,
with prices starting to go up 5-10 years from now. Even with 30% inflation. Course that means the real fall is greater. . .
And I will always stand up for the Free Exercise rights of Atheists, who are entitled to equal protection of the law, and have every bit the same worth, spirituality, and moral fiber as the holiest saint or monk.
Allen requests that we atheists take religious belief seriously. We do; it's hard not to take seriously a bizarre collection of antiquated superstitions that are furiously waved in our faces in our schools, on television, in our politics and even on newspaper editorial pages. That we take the intellectually bankrupt beliefs of religion seriously is precisely why we do question it, and will continue to question it, in our boring way: by simply speaking out.
PZ
pavel-- you seem like a smart, well intentioned fellow, but i must speak out against ignorance---
I sure your have a different perspective--
If people and companies typically do things they've done before...
Citibank had banks in Argentina in 2001-2, when the Peso was devalued literally overnight by 2/3rds, and they not only didn't allow their account holders access to their money via ATM, but also closed down all branches.
A sneak preview of the future from the past perhaps?
I can't wait for another puff-piece from 60 Minutes...
Anytime they say "We've been granted amazing access" tells you the jig is up.
Bernake's interview was repeated.
He worked at South of The Border as a youngster.
Hahahqahahahhahahah
And I will always stand up for the Free Exercise rights of Atheists, who are entitled to equal protection of the law, and have every bit the same worth, spirituality, and moral fiber as the holiest saint or monk.
I don't judge anyone's spiritual worth and assume we are all equal that way. Let's have free exercise rights for everyone, as long as they are not anti-social. If you want to recite an Atheist Creed at a graduation, why not? If other people want to say the Lord's Prayer, why not that? Even the Unitarians in our area finally figured out that when someone dies you have to do something to commemorate them. They had been reduced to saying: "Isn't it too bad that Fred died? Nice fellow." Somehow, it didn't feel adequate to the occasion.
A graduation is a solemn rite of passage. Let people commemorate it in a suitably solemn way, according to their beliefs. If you evacuate all belief from the public sphere you will have nothing left for people to sacrifice tor, to love, and even to die for.
"You know this for a fact?"
Of course not. It's easy to claim wonderful motives when you hold political power. Noblesse oblige, White Man's Burden... Keep your displays of "faith" modest, or to yourself. Otherwise you are sticking it in my nose, and people of my faith have been burned alive for rejecting yours, so I must be on guard.
Huffpo is running vid of Fareed Zakaria interviewing Michael Lewis:
Michael Lewis: Wall Street Made This Mess And Is Making Fortune Cleaning It Up (VIDEO)
C
I could tell some stories.
"it's hard not to take seriously a bizarre collection of antiquated superstitions that are furiously waved in our faces in our schools, on television, in our politics and even on newspaper editorial pages."
Poor babies. Some I know about almost destroyed a great country. Sensitive souls.
A graduation is solemn, but it is secular. The ceremonies are suitably impressive (or boring) without religion. They are more impressive than saying poor Fred is dead.
I repeat, if I were gonna graduate from something, and the prayer thing came up, I would be greatly tempted to chant ommm in a mysterious rumbly way.
"I can't wait for another puff-piece from 60 Minutes..."
~~~
Anything to keep the Ponzi Scheme balloon pumped up ...
The real damage will be when it all falls apart and they were shown to be liars
and no one believes them ... then the anger really begins ...
If Obama were smart instead of a schemer he would tell the people the truth
and then maybe Congress could be made to pass real reform ...
But ... Obama is married to the banksters ... and they will bring us all down ...
They will never relinquish their monopoly on the creation of currency and credit ...
"Otherwise you are sticking it in my nose,"
In a multi-cultural society with free speech your nose will have to put up with it, as we all do.
@ mmckinl (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 6:38 pm
But ... Obama is married to the banksters ... and they will bring us all down ...
They will never relinquish their monopoly on the creation of currency and credit ...
Yes so sad....
Obama really cares about just two things
1) pumping up great chunks of the Big Shitpile that's essentially worthless unless the peak real estate values of the bubble can be miraculously restored with his Wall St bought and paid for economic team so he can
2) get the US economy back to 'normal" ( IMO no way those days are over ) and restore the American dream ( a mirage ) so he can get re-elected
"I would be greatly tempted to chant ommm in a mysterious rumbly way."
Why not? As long as you don't giggle.
I don't my it being stuck in my nose. I like to give the religionists a run for their theological money.
So few know enough theology to compete.
Ahhh, there never was any normal.
I will giggle only if someone else does first.
EEngineer- Great point. Could be a manufacturing niche here in the states to produce those handheld units.
Feckless Ness- I follow Iceland from this bloggers site and news translation service. Things are bad in Iceland.
Click the "my news site" under the main menu on the right.
Home | Surviving Iceland
Corporate law in this country is nothing more than an orchestrated conspiracy of legalized fraud on the american public and its pensions.
km4
I think they know by now that the shitpile restoration is unworkable ...
They are buying time for the banks to earn, through government giveaways
and accounting gimmicks, out of their hole ....
The problem ...
The hole is getting deeper faster than they can fill it ...
Ahhh, there never was any normal.
And consequently, there never was any log-normal.
hoops, i agree, especially in combination with tax and modern antitrust law.
I read a bit of that Iceland post.
Very depressing. When they start talking about having not enough food (as opposed to how cheap or expensive steak is), you know it's very bad.
Not that simple. Some say who you fuck or marry is a religious question. Or when a woman can terminate her pregnancy. I want to depict the historical Mohammed, analyze bones at ancient Native American burial sites, do stem cell research. Tear up a picture of the Pope on TV (Sinead O'Connor, who has never hurt a fly)....
Some would want to smoke pot at the graduation ceremony, beautiful poets who make beautiful music.
@ mmckinl (profile) wrote on Sun, 6/7/2009 - 6:45 pm
The hole is getting deeper faster than they can fill it ...
Yup !
Sex and marriage is regulated by all the religions I have ever heard of.
Not very successfully, but the attempt is made, and guilt imposed all around.
Welcome to the club, Hoops.
Enuf.
Gonna go off and either read a trashy novel, or a book I bought about the Ruin of the Roman Empire.
Prolly trashy novel.
nitey-nite.
Ahhh, there never was any normal.
As Bruce Cockburn so eloquently stated:
The trouble with normal, it always gets worse"
Give us a fable, we'll use our imagination.
Hoops, and this is normal for the last 35 years.
So?
All I can say is the folks responsible had better be prepared with deep deep bankerdomes.
The idiots who think they can skate like in Argentina are going to find a really really really angry populace.
Just try to touch that federal civil service pension or the post office- oops- postal employees!
Reason number one not to be a politician in this country.
Remember the Grey Panthers? The Boomer Panthers are going to be utterly and absolutely ferocious.
Someday this war's gonna end...
Taxes ?
The best tax author in the country David Cay Johnston
wrote
Perfectly Legal
and
Free Lunch
Indispensable reads when talking about taxes ...
Oh Great, a repeat of sedated happy Ben on 60 Minutes...
(maybe 'shrooms?)
From the Iceland blog:
"Sometimes I start thinking .. why does the public have to pay for the debts of the wealthy .. Why am I in debt for what they did, while they just walk away from the mess? Is that fair? Is that really how things work? If I manage to create 1.000 billion króna debt somewhere, will I so be able to just walk away and continue what I do? Why is it possible to do this. How is it possible .. Is it because the wealthy who were able to start this snowball were smart enough to get trough the system and actually use the public as the responsible individuals for these investments? Is that the case?"
I think a lot Americans will be feeling this way in due time.
Jackrabbit (if you're still here),
You should read this in re your W recovery notion - http://web-xp2a-pws.ntrs.com:80/content//media/attachment/data/econ_research/0901/document/us0109.pdf
DUBYA
January 20, 2009Northern Trust
All, negative comments about women, minorities or any other group will be deleted. Any comment that mentions "nazis" will be deleted. repeat offenders will be banned.
Please PLEASE ... show a little discipline.
best to all
"All, negative comments about women, minorites or any other group will be deleted. "
~~~~
Does that include Republicans and Neocons ... ?
also banksters and their political cronies ...
Perhaps you could simply put in place a filter that changes all instances of BUNNIES to bunnies.
How bout just get rid of lucifer?
.
Lucifer is now warned.
He Fell and didn't learn much. Good luck.
All, negative comments about women, minorities or any other group will be deleted. Any comment that mentions "nazis" will be deleted. repeat offenders will be banned.
Please PLEASE ... show a little discipline.
THANK YOU CR!
This is your blog and we are your guests. May we be respectful and remember that.
Keep reminding us, please.