"Nope these folks dont want to civil servants - then again the pay might have something to do w/ it "
Didn't you hear that they have recently created new pay grades for U.S. civil service:
Bankster grade is GS-1000 - current annual rate == ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
And Broward that statement about Larry Summers by Paul Samuelson was the definition of damning with faint praise. In academic circles the phrase "while I have great respect for..." always precedes a b**ch slap.
HomeGnome, not to bag on the military, but I think his budget experience must have been particularly invaluable at B of A. Spend too much? Just tell the government things will go to hell if they don't give you more! Perfect crossover really.
in honor of bank failure friday, I went to the sec filings of my regular candidate a west coast closing- temecula valley bank. Back on June 2, they announced a "non-binding letter of intent" with an investor who would essentially take 95% of the stock for about $200 million.
Apparently this wasn't enough for the FDIC, which sent them a nastygram on June 15, saying basically you have until July 15th to either sell yourself or sell enough stock to become "adequately capitalized" (the bank is currently considered "significantly undercapitalized". Oh, and the FDIC says "nor shall the Bank pay any bonuses to, or increase the compensation of, any director or officer of the Bank without prior written approval from the FDIC."
"The future course of events is maximally uncertain."
Depends. The sun will rise tomorrow. No one is going to get out of this life alive. I don't know much about Iran, but so far it looks as if the regime is secure, at least in the short run. Once again, it depends most probably on the Pasdaran. Althought Karoubi is an ex-RG commander, it looks as if the Guard is loyal to the regime.
In these societies, in some ways so alien to us, it is practically impossible for an outsider to really understand the inner complexities.
Seems like a Red State Bank Day.
Maybe some Jack and a good listen to Rush would be in the spirit of the moment.
Thrice divorced abusive former drug addicts are often insightful, at lest to the red state crowd.
......geeze......BFF takes on a whole different flavor with splayed fresh meat. You guys sound like a backyard full of gleeful 8-year olds anxiously awaiting the disintegration of a low-hanging pinata - pass the stick, please.
"Pavel, that is a nice yiddish term I think ... complainer is the literal meaning?"
So far as I know it's German for 'crap.'
My wife, who knows a lot more German than I do, agrees, but says it's sometimes translated as 'nonsense', but that crap is a good way to understand it.
bsr
i think its more like watching the bullies get beat up by the wimp. they are banks that can fail. unlike the ones really responsible for what we are in now.
so they are bullies by proxy.
I don't believe that even together the BRIC countries have the economic throw weight, I don't think the Russians and Chinese trust each other as far as you can throw the Great Wall; India is a mess. Brazil? A long way from achieving potential, if ever. Nor does it seem to me that any of these countries is interested in the triumph of communism. Under communism even the leadership was poor. Why would they want to go back to that?
OK, so two thumbs down on Nyquist. I thought the writer, though doom-mongering, made some good points.
Like this one:
The problem we face today is best described in the words of Cato the Younger, when he characterized the Roman Senate in the midst of a plot to destroy the state as “each waiting for someone else to act.”
That pretty much sums up our current crop of politicians, doesn't it? Congress abdicating authority to an illegitimate and out of control Fed, all in the name of covering their sorry asses.
"That pretty much sums up our current crop of politicians, doesn't it?"
the problem is that the political power of the boomers only expands as their economic power withers. old people vote. so we're stuck in that paradigm - an attempt to recreate 1982-2006 "good times" by any means necessary - for the near and long-term future.
"The problem we face today is best described in the words of Cato the Younger, when he characterized the Roman Senate in the midst of a plot to destroy the state as “each waiting for someone else to act.”
That pretty much sums up our current crop of politicians, doesn't it? Congress abdicating authority to an illegitimate and out of control Fed, all in the name of covering their sorry asses."
~~~
The pols are actively covering their asses ... They are all hoping this catasrrophy will blow over ...
DC is actively taking care of their special interests ... the MIC, the banksters, big pharma and health insurance inc ...
We here, at CR, do know that these measures are only bound to extenuate the crisis and crush the poor, working poor and middle class ...
while I'm waiting for more "financial road kill" to dot my tires,
Census Questions? FORGETTABOUTIT!
"Outspoken Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's so worried that information from next year's national census will be abused that she will refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household. "We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that." Shelly Lowe, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau, said Mrs. Bachmann is "misreading" the law.
yuan - "while I have great respect for..." SLAP is a good one.
I heard a couple of good ones the other day in a roundtable:
"Our colleague, who is well versed in the finer details of xyz..."
[SLAP - the discussion was big picture]
"... of course maintains a consistent point of principle..."
[SLAP - has been bloody-minded on this for years]
"...and while open to the possibility that over time we might have a meeting of minds on xyz..."
[SLAM - we will not buy that sh!tpile at any price].
"Over the past year, we have seen how the actions of a small number of unscrupulous and exploitative investors can hurt innocent people and cause economic chaos. We cannot allow the world's poorest countries to be exploited by these bad actors."
-Maxine Waters
The BRIC countries are within their rights to demand more input into
the running of the IMF and global trade policy ...
They do match up rather well ... Brazil and Russia are commodity rich
While India and China have the growing markets ..."
They match on paper, perhaps. India, though, is still abysmally poor and misgoverned, and from what I know the size of her middle class has been greatly exaggerated. China is also still poor, and her corruption, mis-government and crime on the local level and higher, and her environmental problems seem to foretell possible instability in the future. And even now. Russia? As always, great potential, but her dependence on commodities and her demographic deficits do not bode well. Brazil?
I have some tenants that must have wanted to avoid answering the questions during the last census. One census taker was going around knocking on doors asking about the tenants he could not find at home. After a few complaints, we finally had to point out that if he could not find the residents, it was his problem, and not everyone else's problem, and the tenants could tell him to get lost. As I recall, he finally gave up after a few weeks of pestering people.
I really do not understand why the government wastes money on a census anymore. All they need to do is check the SS records to get a more accurate count. They would probably even get most of the homeless that way, although they would get the address of their drop box rather than their bridge abutment.
So how many are still of the opinion that there is no revolution in Iran and what does it mean for oil? I said almost a week ago this was coming. Tomorrow will be the breaking point.
Scone, I've never been asked to fill one out either.
They seem to focus on heavily populated swing districts. Especially if there is a new elected position at stake. Last time, they were literally looking under bridges and in riverbeds around here, trying to scrape up a few more pops.
"......12 cities and paid taxes on 2M in income......"
.........at least the taxes WERE paid. I don't mind the number of people in household question, but the rest - screw 'em, it's none of their business. It used to be a $100 fine.
the problem is that the political power of the boomers only expands as their economic power withers. old people vote. so we're stuck in that paradigm - an attempt to recreate 1982-2006 "good times" by any means necessary - for the near and long-term future.
Lets be honest- it is in almost ever-ones interest to keep this illusion going as long a possible, from the con-man on Wall Street, to the clueless 20's gen what ever financing his jet ski---
Everyone is in for some reality therapy soon, I hope thy can learn gardening skill fast, and know how tho shoot a shotgun rater than a Mac10.
Sorry, I apologize for the poor sentence construction on the last post.
I often use the Microsoft method of posting, and let the market straight it out.
"it is in almost ever-ones interest to keep this illusion going as long a possible"
no, it is emphatically NOT in the interest of anyone who plans on paying taxes in the 2020s or later (or plans on buying food and energy at that point) to stack on additional trillions of debt with no particular effect except letting the dance go on for one more day.
Come now Hollywood---
Do you think any resemblance of the current economic paradigm is going to be in place in 5 years, let alone 2020?
You are like the Austrians in 1913 arguing who their next Hapsburg ruler is going to be.
I agree, one cannot dismiss this debt, and one either has to renege, inflate, or move on.
All these have serious consequences, but will pale and probably not be top of the list.
It's sort of double edged for people under 30 (or so). They barely own any property so expending huge sums to support current property prices (and pushing the bill to later) doesn't help them, but if they're old enough to have some serious student loan debt serious deflation isn't going to help them either. Young people with no debt and no assets though seem like they'd clearly benefit in the long term, if not in immediate employment, from deflation instead of inflation or default.
I vote renege, as I don't want to pay it and I sure as hell don't want future generations to pay it either. What good is a fiat currency if you can't inflate it away???
Bank failure. Bond market gyration. Kennedy bearer bonds equivalent to most nation's GDP in a false bottomed valise and carried by Fu Manchu types. Sigma X and SPARC computer trading dominating markets. What fun!
Games, games within games, Go and Shogi and Chess and Russian cacooning dolls with computer algorithms. Arbitrage and political risk and currency risk with sovereign debt risk making serious moola for the insiders.
Gotta lova casino, I especially like blackjack. That 21, like all the solstice days of 21. A numerologist's sweet dreams.
This precipice upon which we stand reminds one of the 14th century, ebbing of Dark Ages and the cusp of Renaissance. But an invader of grain (staff of life) carrying winged parasites made communion of the blood of man, vermin, locust. The result was an aberration. Just a bubole. An unfortunate rash in the groin. The center of reproduction experienced but a pustule. It would go black. It was called God's wrath. The pustule would not heal and became gangrenous. The victim was viewed as having hard judgement manifest in flesh.
A stain nearly the same has spread in wayward man's society. Buboles forming upon the productive capacity of economies. Froward and untoward use of the creative power finds the victim stricken with plague in the loins. God's mark. The cunning and corrupt slipstreaming within secret society wherein they use injudicious rigour to subjugate their fellow man. Festering and gangrenous greed. It will resolve them to the earth and their creator and judgement. Flesh going into a furnace.
Like so many things, the truth is in the open to see. Inscribed on the coin of the realm, "In God We Trust", but not really. Not in the gov't service, not in the pay grade of uncle sam--it is said without conviction. Instead we trust in the arm of flesh and our prize winning and accoladed high priests of moneychangery. No humility, or bended knee, or honor of tradition, but rather dropping ink upon fabric paper to pledge our highest devotion to repayments when such repayments are mathematically impossible. Studied plunder. Special sacrifice not to anyone on high, but to silly caprice and meaningless consumption.
Man will be consumed by this bubole, this highly infective virus. His addiction to gain without true creation, his thirst for subtlety, intrigue, and secrecy to exploit his fellows has ample precedence. He will have pleasure and conquest for a season, but sooner or later justice will cut him down.
Good thing the commanders of the economy have made such fine spur decisions in containing economic catastrophy. Afterall, it surprised the entire professional community, right? Names like Blackrock, or Cereberus; or the fact that the present Chairman Mr. B Shalom was a preeminent depression scholar, would never indicate that this episode was foreseen. Purely cooincidental, along with power grabs by violators of black letter law, along with wealth extraction from an enraged public against all signal and suffrage by their representatives to reward the engineered bank failures of last year.
Freedom was a brief flame. It will be taken from you by debt bondage, censorship, disarmament, false accusation, extortion, pogroms, and vice. Turn your back on Ninevah, leave the city of S & G, and touch not the unclean things.
1 Kings 8:37
"If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; 38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: 39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;) 40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers."
mmckinl,
Ever been to India? India, like Brazil, has potential. It always has potential. It also has a crumbling infrastructure...their trains date largely from the raj, for example...truly terrible government,especially on the local level, a horrible judiciary, really poor educational system, especially on the secondary level, and almost unimaginable poverty. Mumbai and Delhi appear to be modern cities, with miles and miles of shantytowns of desperate poverty. Pavel is right...there is a thin veneer of prosperity stretched across an abyss of deprivation.
And don't discount the water and power shortages that are a feature even in the major cities, and the stunning air pollution...especially the fecal "snow' .
Incidentally, for those who want to know - the Shadow Bunker has been on Ubuntu Linux for some time now, with no problems, and most everything has been converted to Open Office etc... One program - an old version of Quickbooks - is running fine on Wine... But the Garmin web update program would not run on wine - So Shadow discovered a free VM called Virtual Box... So there is one instance of XP that is available on demand now for the sole purpose of updating the Shadow GPS devices...
All is well, and all will be well, in the garden...
Indeed, most people who invest in the stock market get poorer. Look at Japan, Korea and Taiwan: Even though their per capita incomes have risen enormously over the past three decades, investors in these stock markets lost money. Economic growth is a necessary but not sufficient condition for investors to make money in the stock market. Most countries, unfortunately, don't possess the conditions for stock markets to reflect economic growth. The key is good corporate governance. It requires rule of law and good morality. Neither is apparent in most markets.
Also he acknowledges the creation of the latest bubble:
The world is setting up for a big crash, again. Since the last bubble burst, governments around the world have not been focusing on reforms. They are trying to pump a new bubble to solve existing problems. Before inflation appears, this strategy works. As inflation expectation rises, its effectiveness is threatened. When inflation appears in 2010, another crash will come.
If you are a speculator and confident you can get out before it crashes, this is your market. If you think this market is for real, you are making a mistake and should get out as soon as possible. If you lost money during your last three market entries, stay away from this one – as far as you can.
Considering how much CR uses census data, perhaps you might reconsider your stance?
And considering how much the government depends on it, perhaps we should help those poor benighted census takers.
ShadowInventory (profile) wrote on Fri, 6/19/2009 - 9:05 pm
So Shadow discovered a free VM called Virtual Box... So there is one instance of XP that is available on demand now for the sole purpose of updating the Shadow GPS devices...
VirtualBox is excellent. I use it for an instance of XP as well as I am still tied to MS Office versus OpenOffice and like to do funky things with VBA, solver and so forth... Gentoo on two boxes, soon to be three, OpenWrt on the router.
Gentoo? Wow, a patient person you are. And a custom router flash. Good for you. I used to have time for that. I stick to CentOS these days (recompiled Red Hat Enterprise) and Macs.
ac - the guy knows what he's talking about. I used to touch with base with him when he was at MS in Hong Kong. Calls out BS when he sees it. Occasionally gets fired for it.
I have run CrunchBang Linux from the cd, and I am thinking of taking one machine and loading it as the base OS, then running everything else in Virtual Box on top of it... Or maybe FreeBSD, or a barebones Linux with no gui at all... just something to handle the hardware, and with a firewall, .... Nice thing about running VM's, you can clone them and try something and then delete them if it doesnt work... I did quite a lot with VMware but their product has become really bloated and too expensive for a personal user... Virtual Box is just the ticket...
I won a free copy of the complete Visual Basic package at a MS seminar in 1999... At the time it retailed for about $1800... I love programming in it but too bad it's full of holes for hackers... just like all the other MS software... I was always expecting some big corp user to sue them for ad fraud or non-merchantability of product or something... Win32 has just about everything a user could want, except stability, security, quality... Back in the mid-90's I was doing a lot of VB in Access and I could just zone out with that... want to print forms from a select statement - just scan the form and use it as a background image... What a deal... ah I was in heaven... but then it turned out that their programming was total crap underneath the hood... Well what would you expect from 3rd world programmers who were born into dirt streets with no utilities and in a few years they were writing OS code...
BTW, this is also a good quote from that Andy Xie article above:
Stagflation in the 1970s spawned the development of rational expectation theory in economics. Monetary stimulus works by fooling people into believing in money's value while the central bank cheapens it. This perception gap stimulates the economy by fooling people into demanding more money than they should. Rational expectation theory clarified the underpinning for Keynesian liquidity theory. However, as they say, people can't be fooled three times. Central banks that tried to use stimuli to solve structural problems in the '70s saw their stimuli didn't work. People saw through what they tried again and again, and began behaving accordingly, which translated monetary stimulus straight into inflation without stimulating economic growth.
Rational expectation theory discredited Keynesian theory and laid the foundation for Paul Volker's tough love policy, which jagged up interest rates and triggered a recession. The recession convinced people that the central bank was serious about cooling inflation, so they adjusted their behavior accordingly. Inflation expectations fell sharply afterward.
I detoured through the neighborhood that you mentioned yesterday (North of Douglas Park between California and Idaho) to have a look around. (Since I almost never drive, I had to charge the battery on a car, but I digress...)
I had forgotten that Franklin Elementary is right smack in the middle of that neighborhood, which makes it a young family magnet.
The area looks pretty good, not many For Sale signs, and still a few scraper/remodels in progress. Less condos than I remember, but still quite a few. I also saw a couple of apartment buildings, which also had escaped my memory. Even though the apartment stock is old, it's a potential gold mine because people will pay almost anything to send their kids to Franklin. I'll make a note to put in an offer as prices fall.
Anyway, that nabe look like it will hold up better than most areas South of Montana, but appearances can be deceiving. Clearly a lot of money was sunk into upgrades over the last ten years or so, so I'm guessing that there was a lot of borrowing going on. Those are great streets with limited access so it's quite and serene once you get a block or so away from the school, no through traffic, and speed bumps on the major streets - that usually means that someone with a lot of political pull lives there. Not as bad as the completely blocked streets farther South (the pols actually blocked intersections with planters down toward Colorado).
So IMHO that nabe will hold SFH prices better than any place SOM with the usual exception of the streets numbered lower than seven and North of Wilshire, and the stuff on top of the hill by the big water tank (Franklin, as I recall).
This exercise has got me thinking about buying more apartments again, something I have not considered since 1992. Now if it wasn't for rent control.... Oh Well, Nevermind.
Comrade Coinz (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 6/19/2009 - 9:12 pm
Gentoo? Wow, a patient person you are. And a custom router flash. Good for you. I used to have time for that. I stick to CentOS these days (recompiled Red Hat Enterprise) and Macs.
LOL - yeah, I caught the bug when I was still in grad school and had free time. Now not so much But still need to maintain my systems, hehe. It's a great way to really learn though, without giving too much in the way of training wheels, but the scripting work behind the scenes makes you feel much smarter than you actually are! I get a kick out of the Gentoo ego trips people get on! OpenWrt is pretty straightforward but very nice; once upon a time I was interested in getting Gentoo on the beast but the project kind of fell by the wayside.
ac - the guy knows what he's talking about. I used to touch with base with him when he was at MS in Hong Kong. Calls out BS when he sees it. Occasionally gets fired for it.
C
That's why I like Gary Shilling - you can trust an economist who's been fired from major investment banks for predicting recessions.
BTW, I'm surprised to hear that Microsoft has already relocated to Hong Kong. I knew they were planning to move their headquarters out of the US due to tax considerations, but I wasn't expecting it so soon.
Indeed, most people who invest in the stock market get poorer. Look at Japan, Korea and Taiwan: Even though their per capita incomes have risen enormously over the past three decades, investors in these stock markets lost money.
I am still very puzzled by the fact that so many people I meet, some are streetwise, some are quite analytical, still believe that "in the long term equity markets go up and beat any other type of investment". They still remain 100% invested in equities.
It is as if people got something into their heads when they were in college, and no amount of contradicting evidence will make them start doubting that idea. Sorta like the idea that the water circles the drain in opposite directions in Northern and Southern hemispheres. People just believe that no matter what.
yes, sm, i picked that neighborhood for a reason - who knows, possibly the best example in the lower 48 of how various factors can conspire to keep prices at 10x income. that's why the drip down will take seemingly forever.
Ok back to the economics... I am still fascinated by the SP500 chart with a 200 day ma and 50 day ma converging... and the fact that we spent several days right at the 200day level but never really penetrated it (OK Broward, there's your opening)... So anyway I'm still looking at this chart as a converging pennant and I'm thinking this sucker has no where to go but down... I'm still waiting for at least 600 to buy - I sold some GNMA in January but didnt buy anything at the March lows... Still waiting and meanwhile earning the magnificent sum of .35% in the mmf... I hear my train a-comin' but I dont know when it's gettin' here...
finally? i've tried to be exposed to commodities since '02. too bad my ung was such a turd in the punchbowl today, it really damaged what was a nice week (largely thanks to fxp).
Monetary stimulus works by fooling people into believing in money's value while the central bank cheapens it. This perception gap stimulates the economy by fooling people into demanding more money than they should. Rational expectation theory clarified the underpinning for Keynesian liquidity theory.
Yes. Rational expectation theory is really John Stuart Mill vintage utilitarianism dressed up in a lot of math IMHO.
ac - good point. I guess Stiglitz was fired for being annoying during a financial crisis, albeit picking contraction, so that's probably why he's not on my equivalent list...
Hey tarp I started on minis with paper tape and card decks in 1972 - but I have an uncle who started with plugboards at Westinghouse in the 40's? I think... anyway he is almost 90 and still writing code - kept up the whole time - I suppose he is doing AJAX now... I worked at DEC from 74-76, mostly writing device drivers and some customer apps, then spent several years at M&M/Mars writing factory automation software - it was a good gig - minimum wage, but all the candy you could eat and all the machine time you could suck up...
We're running an entire server farm ( 2 full racks plus our office servers) on CentOS. I just put up a couple of instances of VMware on a few servers so that we can run XP and Server 2008 in a safe cage under CentOS for people who want disaster recovery support.
Unfortunately we still have to run XP on office machines because we use Photoshop and compile apps for Windoze Server (contract work). Also, there still is not a first rate email client for the Linux desktop, since Thunderbird effectively became abandonware. And then there's Quickbooks, because there is still no mature accounting program for Linux.
Linux on the desktop is still waiting for a market to develop in the user apps space. But I would never voluntarily run Windows on a server - it just sucks too much for someone who knows computers.
signed for a garnishment order today for a man that never even worked at the company....its a small community, and thats not gonna get ya thumbs up around town.
said individual owes 6200 fiat dollars on a 1994 Ford .
ShadowInventory (profile) wrote on Fri, 6/19/2009 - 9:43 pm
I'm 65 - 66 in October and then you suckers can pay my SS.... hehe....
LOL. You're older than my dad by almost a decade ... I'm glad at least some of that SS money will go to a good cause! I think anyone under 40 can reasonably expect to outlive SS.
""you'll like him, he knows hex, assembly, and microcode!""
You would have loved me 20 years ago back when I could compile assembler in my head.
Unfortunately, most things fail with age and disuse. That among them. But I can still make sense of an SSE instruction, and know how to write threaded code that won't crash. Does that count?
Oh I think SS will be around - what it will buy is another matter, but I'm not depending on it for complete support... If worst comes to worst I'm going to seek out some gold hoarders and rob them... hehe....
Landlord - I always thought that Netware was one of the top server OS - I have 2 MCNE certs and did a lot of benchmarking on it... too bad Novell was such a management disaster... Netware 6 had a lot of nice features - you could run the server console in a web browser for example... I suppose it is dead now but I think I still have some cd's somewhere... Oh well, I like them all, big or small, I think I'm up to about 15 different OS now... lost count... I'm fully retired so I have plenty of time to dabble, and when you can run several OS simultaneously on a laptop in VM's, it makes for a little interesting diversion while monitoring CR and CNBC....
Off to amuse myself singing some karaoke at a local watering hole within walking distance... karaoke is a low art form but hey, it's all about do what you can with the medium
Re Xie: "the guy knows what he's talking about. I used to touch with base with him when he was at MS in Hong Kong. Calls out BS when he sees it. Occasionally gets fired for it."
C, I haven't had the pleasure, but yes, S'pore was none too happy he called out a primary function of their economy, namely laundering regional hua qiao's cash. I prefaced that part of the story to give my wife incentive to read the caijing orig in Chinese.
Hey Scone we are going to be up in Medford and Grants Pass in about a week - we have saved all our major purchases until we get into Oregon - more computers, a new recliner etc... Not paying the Ms. Bass sales tax premium in CA.... and in November, we hope that Navistar will have re-opened the Monaco service facility in Harrisburg so we can go spend some more money there... Usually whenever we start south we go to Coburg and get all the service work done on the rv - this year we are going to get some interior improvements done too - new carpet, a little cabinetry, laundry upgrade... I want those people in Coburg and Junction City to stay in business... I need them as much as they need me...
How do you default on a 15 year old truck you bought for 5 grand, never make a payment, lie on the loan application to a Thrift in a small community, and even try create an environment around your life that makes any sense whatsoever?
What's to say about the economy? It needs to wash out. The politicians (both parties) and the bureaucracy, not to mention the dependency recipients, all want to keep the status quo. That wont happen, but they can stretch it out for a while. Meanwhile, nothing is being done to encourage business or to reduce the dependency. Conservatives cant get elected in a majority due to the gerrymandering. So things must get worse until the majority of the electorate realizes that the only way to success is work. The end.
sm_landlord, if you care there are a couple of decent bubble blogs about Santa Monica: Santa Monica Distress Monitor and Westside Bubble. Prices have definitely come down even if it's a slow march.
@liz - no picture hunt coming from here, but my wife would vote for Vin Diesel (she and the girls love the Pacifier); Johnny Depp; Patrick Swayze; Richard Gere
I'm trying not to visualize slightly paunchy, graying nerds talking about porn, actually. It's like the Do's and Don'ts column on Vice magazine-- you really have to step away from that shit if you want to age gracefully, otherwise it comes off as creepy geezer perv.
I hereby and forthwith declare a beefcake contest.
Contestants are encouraged to post pictures of sexy men. Or
what they think women of the straight persuasion would find sexy.
What do you need the rest of us for? Ya already got a pic of broward in his wranglin' outfit!
(Sorry brobama, ya ain't likely to live that one down so easily)
We're running an entire server farm ( 2 full racks plus our office servers) on CentOS. I just put up a couple of instances of VMware on a few servers so that we can run XP and Server 2008 in a safe cage under CentOS for people who want disaster recovery support.
Last computer/software comment tonight I promise.
We just finished migrating almost all of our servers to Virtual Iron, a Xen-based VM with nice GUI wrappings. It was less than half the cost of VMware. So far, so good. Balancing and failover work better than expected. The bad news is that they were just purchased by Oracle and are in the process of being gutted.
I made a career choice at the end of the 90s, kind of risky at the time, to move full time into Linux and open source web development. It really paid off and I got me out of a life of being a Microsoft reboot monkey.
You never heard of cheesecake? I didn't think the term was obsolete.
By the way, says you had the word strigel (strigil?) on, and nobody seemed
to know what it meant. Of course you weren't supposed to. The next mystery
word was gloze. One word I didn't know at the time was frass. Now I seem
to hear it all the time. It means termite poop.
I popped in "dry powder" and "knife catcher" to the glossary. We don't seem to use them much round these parts, but, "dry powder" grates on my very soul and "knife catcher" seems so relevant during these times, I just couldn't help myself.
Where was the sharp right turn into creeper geezer perv? - cc
It's an attitude. trying too hard to be hip doesn't work when you have a paunch and jowls... I mean, it's one thing for grandma to like Rage Against the Machine, it's another to actually infest their gigs...
Blackstone keeps yapping about how they've got billions in dry powder for 2009-2010. only problem is that institutions supposedly anteing up aren't going to be able to honor the commitments.
Yeah, I get that on my RSS feed, but it's thinner on analysis than the other two. Either way it's all out of my league, though I do like to window shop and enjoy some schadenfreude now and then. Like everywhere else in greater LA, inventory above the jumbo limit is just too big to clear without major price corrections. Pacific Palisades seems to be moving faster in this respect though.
I keep hearing about vulture funds that are gonna simply snap everything up once
the mkt drops enough, but I'm not seeing it yet. There is competition on low price housing in
South Dade, but nothing over 275ish is moving.
My developer buddy who has 2 houses for sale for 2 years now, and wanted over a mil
for each one, finally got some about half price offers.
Sporty conservatives cant get elected partly because of gerrymandering, but more from the ignorant electorate believing they can get something for nothing from the thieves (whatever other label they use - liberal, progressive, communist, marxist - they are all thieves)
Comrade Coinz;
"It really paid off and I got me out of a life of being a Microsoft reboot monkey. "
Good for you. The primary problem with MS OSs is that they are unmaintainable - if something breaks or they get slow, you have to reinstall from the metal - there is no other choice. The secondary problem, of course, is that app software is expensive and not well supported. App software cannot be well supported on MS OSs, because no one understands how the OS works, including Microsoft. Especially including Microsoft. I used to consult for them, some of my subcontractors have consulted for them, and we all agree that they are clueless.
The only reason that we still deal with MS OSs is for legacy reasons - installed base, inertia, app lock, and all that.
sdtfs (profile) wrote on Sat, 6/20/2009 - 2:08 am
And considering how much the government depends on it, perhaps we should help those poor benighted census takers.
Census data are the chicken entrails for public policy.
the reason M$ exists is a function of legacy POS systems suporting dealerships via price changes to macro for excel to UNIX based arrays....but hey I work in transportation services.
Would it be fair to say that if a general description of the state of housing in the US one could describe this as a symptom of deflation?
Deflation, yes, but also the fact that $275K is probably the GSE/FHA conforming limit for Dade County, which means that there are no private lenders in her neck of the woods and that the government is the mortgage market.
Here's a scary thing re: non-group health insurance policy holders in Meeeechigan.
Blue Cross seeks quick rate hike for 400,000 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has asked the state to let it immediately raise rates for 400,000 people who buy their own health insurance outside the workplace....If granted, monthly premiums for non-group policy holders would be increased 44.4%, compared to the 56% that Blue Cross eventually wants for those plans.
An emergency price hike of 44.4% for 400,000 people paying insurance out of their own pockets in the state with the highest unemployment. Yeah, that's gonna work.
Some newbies over at BubbleInfo were amused by the terms "permabull" and "permabear". I checked and they're not yet in the Glossary. Someone want to do the honors?
Speaking of nerdy, I tried to upgrade to the 3GS Iphone today as I got my 3G Iphone less than a month ago so upgrading is only a $20 restocking fee. Given that I have to upgrade by Tuesday to be within the 30 day free upgrade period I decided to stick out the long line. After an hour and a half in line and putting my name on a list I got to the front to find out the guy in front of me had gotten the last phone. But I did get $90 back for standing in line, and still get the phone in another week. Talk about deflation baby! Woohoo
sm and HH I couldn't believe it the other day when Douglas park was mentioned. I grew up a couple of blocks from there in the 50's. A couple on months ago I when by the old place on 26th st. (2 houses north of California) and they're putting a second story on. Otherwise the house looked the same. I can assure you that house wasn't worth >$1M then. It really takes me back to when Santa Monica was a great place to raise kids.
"I think it's still well within the top 10 selling albums of all time. "
it is the all-time champ for continuous weeks spent in the billboard top 200 album chart - it was only kicked off after 17 years when it was reclassified as 'catalogue'
Hey homie! So if you were here for HS, you were a Viking!
Santa Monica is still not a bad place to raise kids, as long as you buy into the vibe here. At least the schools are very well funded, including the local junior college, which is particularly well funded.
If you have not been following it, the RE scene here has been crazy nuts. Vacant lots going for $millions. Most of the older houses scraped and rebuilt as McMansions, especially North of Montana, but everywhere now.
Check out the links in the posts above for details.
Yeah, good old Samohi. My wife and I both went there. She went to her 50th reunion while I was in the UCLA hospital in May. She also went by Samohi and said they have built a wall around it with guards checking IDs on everyone going in.
I remember 20 or 30 yrs ago the house across the street from her folks (16th st. south of San Vicente) sold for something like 500k and the new owners just came in and demoed it.
...there is a thin veneer of prosperity stretched across an abyss of deprivation
True, but every year the prosperity increases a bit and a fraction of the population climbs of out poverty. i have seen this first hand. Besides not all the states are poverty stricken! Have you ever visited Kerala? IMHO The biggest problem India faces are water shortages and inequality (which is getting to be a big issue here too ). The latter can be remedied but i am not sure how India is going to deal with water shortages.
Meanwhile here in the US which while still very rich, prosperity seems to be decreasing and poverty increasing. No? Of course with a (sic) more equitable society, there need be no deprivation here.
I guess they're not in Kansas anymore.
Glad I chose beer
Quickpigged!
Got pigged! I Had to repost this comedic link. If you're not from L.A., you'll be astounded...
OT, but while we wait on the FDIC, please visit this comment thread on a L.A. real estate blog for some serious comic relief.
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4846814498283585105&postID=5834041789129887122&isPopup=true
nobody said soylent green is people had the afternoon off...
give up the H/ku.
oh oh I didnt order enough pizza..........
Welcome to Trifailistan. Gateway to Quadbankafailburg.
3477 and every single bad loan that was out there 39 banks ago is still stinkin' up some bank balance somewhere. This is progress?
"Credit is the gateway drug to financial failure."
"I learned it by watching you, Dad."
"Don't Do Credit"
This message brought to you by the GnomeAd Council.
scone...thats three down the hatch, pace yourself
More BOA directors go, guess the pay sucks:
Bank of America’s Prueher and Franks Exit From Board (Update2) - Bloomberg.com
More BOA directors go, guess the pay sucks
Nope these folks dont want to civil servants - then again the pay might have something to do w/ it
maybe they just want to distance themselves from boa
"Nope these folks dont want to civil servants - then again the pay might have something to do w/ it "
Didn't you hear that they have recently created new pay grades for U.S. civil service:
Bankster grade is GS-1000 - current annual rate == ONE MILLION DOLLARS!
/snark
Corus!
Corus!
Corus!
And Broward that statement about Larry Summers by Paul Samuelson was the definition of damning with faint praise. In academic circles the phrase "while I have great respect for..." always precedes a b**ch slap.
No!!!! Not Tommy Franks! How are they going to run B of A without him?
repost: is there a plotted map of where all the failed banks have been so far? along with the size of the fail?
@sanity
How much bonus do I get if I'm willing to kill a million Iraqis.
Jacks or better to open, trips to win...
FDIC closed 3 banks today (19 June)
65 banks failed since 2008, 25 in 2008 and 40 in 2009 till now.
Friday means FDIC is in action on some bank.
Check the list of all the failed banks at :
http://portalseven.com/Failed-Banks-2009
And on google map see where the banks are failing at :
http://portalseven.com/finance/Failed_Banks_Map_2009.jsp
Some statistics about the bank failures :
Southern Community Bank, Fayetteville, GA :
38th bank to fail this year in USA
7th bank to fail this year and 12th since 2008 from Georgia state.
Georgia has the maximum bank failures in USA
As of May 29 has $377 million in assets and $307 million in deposits
United Community Bank of Blairsville, Ga., will assume all of the deposits.
Cooperative Bank, Wilmington, NC :
39th bank to fail this year in USA
2nd bank from North Carolina to fail this year
As of May 31 has $970 million in assets and $774 million in deposits
First National Bank of Anthony, Anthony, KS :
40th bank to fail this year in USA
2nd bank from Kansas to fail this year
As of March 31 has $157 million in assets and $142 million in deposits
Scrooge McDuck;
I don't know of one that exists, but there is a Heat Map API available online - you can make your own:
HeatMapAPI.com - Home
Example are linked from the home page. Broward might find this interesting as well.
Re, Iran: "The future course of events is maximally uncertain." David Brooks
OP-ED COLUMNIST; Fragile at the Core - NY Times
Can I have his job? I can spout middlebrow pseudo-profundity way better than that. I can even fake the low budget prepster look, too.
@pravin404
Very cool! Thanks!
is there a plotted map of where all the failed banks have been so far? along with the size of the fail? - SM
Here you go- someone here gave me the link-- sorry, can't remember who...
Bank Closure Map
@sm_landlord
Cool heat map API; I'll take advantage of it. Perhaps plot where all the failed bankers live.
HomeGnome, not to bag on the military, but I think his budget experience must have been particularly invaluable at B of A. Spend too much? Just tell the government things will go to hell if they don't give you more! Perfect crossover really.
scone;
"I can even fake the low budget prepster look, too."
Oh, my - don't tell me that traditional cotton shirts with button down collars are out of fashion again.
Dust in the wind....
All we are is dust in the wiiiiind...
in honor of bank failure friday, I went to the sec filings of my regular candidate a west coast closing- temecula valley bank. Back on June 2, they announced a "non-binding letter of intent" with an investor who would essentially take 95% of the stock for about $200 million.
Apparently this wasn't enough for the FDIC, which sent them a nastygram on June 15, saying basically you have until July 15th to either sell yourself or sell enough stock to become "adequately capitalized" (the bank is currently considered "significantly undercapitalized". Oh, and the FDIC says "nor shall the Bank pay any bonuses to, or increase the compensation of, any director or officer of the Bank without prior written approval from the FDIC."
FDIC notice is at http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1172678/000115752309004516/a5990638ex99-1.txt
Oh, my - don't tell me that traditional cotton shirts with button down collars are out of fashion again. - sm landlord
Since Diana wore Laura Ashley, actually. Yet, somehow, the Italians can still carry it off-- check it, best blog on men's fashion in the galaxy:
The Sartorialist
Regrets to Kansas
Carry on my wayward bank...
Now, dust in the wind
by Soylent Green is People
-bow down before soylent green is people.
I scream
You scream
The chorus screams
For Corus creamed
I was going to post heatmap of CA foreclosures...
but it melted my keyboard.
What's the matter with Kansas?
"The future course of events is maximally uncertain."
Depends. The sun will rise tomorrow. No one is going to get out of this life alive. I don't know much about Iran, but so far it looks as if the regime is secure, at least in the short run. Once again, it depends most probably on the Pasdaran. Althought Karoubi is an ex-RG commander, it looks as if the Guard is loyal to the regime.
In these societies, in some ways so alien to us, it is practically impossible for an outsider to really understand the inner complexities.
How long to the point of no return?
Hmmmm. Perhaps this padewan is too young to remember... A great band from the 70's.
How long to the point of no return? - cs
Take a gander at these equations:
Catastrophe theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Still 45 minutes left on the west coast... Can I hear a hambone? (bowler's term for a 4-bagger)
I have a big old beefy pick-you-up-by-the-short-and-curlies cab ready to roll.
kansas
dust in the wind
two for the show.
FO SHO !!!!
YouTube -
The latest from JR Nyquist:
Past Global Analysis - J. R. Nyquist "Why Most Things Do Not Matter" 06/19/2009
(Best read sitting down, with a Grey Goose and Tonic or perhaps a fine cigar, while the 70's prog rock plays in the background)
"http://financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2009/0619.html"
Well, I'm no deep thinker, but for what it's worth I think this is kvatsch.
Does FDIC go by lobby hours or drive-up teller hours? Corus' drive-up doesn't close till 9:00 CT.
pavel.chichikov
"http://financialsense.com/stormwatch/geo/pastanalysis/2009/0619.html"
Well, I'm no deep thinker, but for what it's worth I think this is kvatsch.
~~~~
ditto ... south side of a northbound horse ...
Seems like a Red State Bank Day.
Maybe some Jack and a good listen to Rush would be in the spirit of the moment.
Thrice divorced abusive former drug addicts are often insightful, at lest to the red state crowd.
The Kansas song was "Point of Know Return".
Pavel, that is a nice yiddish term I think ... complainer is the literal meaning?
......geeze......BFF takes on a whole different flavor with splayed fresh meat. You guys sound like a backyard full of gleeful 8-year olds anxiously awaiting the disintegration of a low-hanging pinata - pass the stick, please.
Pavel--
Agreed.
I don't see "kvatsch" in the glossry, maybe you could add it!!
"Pavel, that is a nice yiddish term I think ... complainer is the literal meaning?"
So far as I know it's German for 'crap.'
My wife, who knows a lot more German than I do, agrees, but says it's sometimes translated as 'nonsense', but that crap is a good way to understand it.
Great article for the inflationistas out there ...
Flow of Funds Report Offers Hard Evidence of Deflation
Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Flow of Funds Report Offers Hard Evidence of Deflation
All that money and no place to go ...
"kvetch"
bsr
i think its more like watching the bullies get beat up by the wimp. they are banks that can fail. unlike the ones really responsible for what we are in now.
so they are bullies by proxy.
mmckinl & Slick Dog, glad we agree.
I don't believe that even together the BRIC countries have the economic throw weight, I don't think the Russians and Chinese trust each other as far as you can throw the Great Wall; India is a mess. Brazil? A long way from achieving potential, if ever. Nor does it seem to me that any of these countries is interested in the triumph of communism. Under communism even the leadership was poor. Why would they want to go back to that?
One could go on.
In case you missed it ...
Flow of Funds Report Offers Hard Evidence of Deflation
Economist's View: One Third of the Prices within the CPI Fell Last Month
Pavel--
Agreed.
I don't see "kvatsch" in the glossry, maybe you could add it!!
Slick dog, I'll have to look into that.
OK, so two thumbs down on Nyquist. I thought the writer, though doom-mongering, made some good points.
Like this one:
The problem we face today is best described in the words of Cato the Younger, when he characterized the Roman Senate in the midst of a plot to destroy the state as “each waiting for someone else to act.”
That pretty much sums up our current crop of politicians, doesn't it? Congress abdicating authority to an illegitimate and out of control Fed, all in the name of covering their sorry asses.
First National Bank of Anthony, Anthony, KS
Could be worse. First National Bank of Guido & Carmine? "We promise to vigorishly pursue your business."
pavel.chichikov
The BRIC countries are within their rights to demand more input into
the running of the IMF and global trade policy ...
They do match up rather well ... Brazil and Russia are commodity rich
While India and China have the growing markets ...
The author of that article is just pumping up paranoid rhetoric ...
Bush, with his "my way or the highway" foreign policy has spun off many negative consequences ...
"That pretty much sums up our current crop of politicians, doesn't it?"
the problem is that the political power of the boomers only expands as their economic power withers. old people vote. so we're stuck in that paradigm - an attempt to recreate 1982-2006 "good times" by any means necessary - for the near and long-term future.
"The problem we face today is best described in the words of Cato the Younger, when he characterized the Roman Senate in the midst of a plot to destroy the state as “each waiting for someone else to act.”
That pretty much sums up our current crop of politicians, doesn't it? Congress abdicating authority to an illegitimate and out of control Fed, all in the name of covering their sorry asses."
~~~
The pols are actively covering their asses ... They are all hoping this catasrrophy will blow over ...
DC is actively taking care of their special interests ... the MIC, the banksters, big pharma and health insurance inc ...
We here, at CR, do know that these measures are only bound to extenuate the crisis and crush the poor, working poor and middle class ...
while I'm waiting for more "financial road kill" to dot my tires,
Census Questions? FORGETTABOUTIT!
"Outspoken Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann says she's so worried that information from next year's national census will be abused that she will refuse to fill out anything more than the number of people in her household. "We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that." Shelly Lowe, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau, said Mrs. Bachmann is "misreading" the law.
Me too!
Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann ...
They haven't committed her yet ?
yuan - "while I have great respect for..." SLAP is a good one.
I heard a couple of good ones the other day in a roundtable:
"Our colleague, who is well versed in the finer details of xyz..."
[SLAP - the discussion was big picture]
"... of course maintains a consistent point of principle..."
[SLAP - has been bloody-minded on this for years]
"...and while open to the possibility that over time we might have a meeting of minds on xyz..."
[SLAM - we will not buy that sh!tpile at any price].
C
"Over the past year, we have seen how the actions of a small number of unscrupulous and exploitative investors can hurt innocent people and cause economic chaos. We cannot allow the world's poorest countries to be exploited by these bad actors."
-Maxine Waters
US bill would outlaw vulture funds |
Business |
guardian.co.uk
-good thing Im not a sitting member on a House Financial Committee or my spouse wouldnt be able to get contracts consulting Thrifts.
"@ mmckinl
pavel.chichikov
The BRIC countries are within their rights to demand more input into
the running of the IMF and global trade policy ...
They do match up rather well ... Brazil and Russia are commodity rich
While India and China have the growing markets ..."
They match on paper, perhaps. India, though, is still abysmally poor and misgoverned, and from what I know the size of her middle class has been greatly exaggerated. China is also still poor, and her corruption, mis-government and crime on the local level and higher, and her environmental problems seem to foretell possible instability in the future. And even now. Russia? As always, great potential, but her dependence on commodities and her demographic deficits do not bode well. Brazil?
Well, no Corus this week. I still think soon ...
We still might see a west coast bank go down.
best to all
pavel.chichikov
The BRIC countries have a commonality of interest ...
They are beginning to work around the US- EU banking and trade monopoly ...
Yes , they have their faults, but doesn't every country now ?
First National Bank of Anthony
It's real good that you wished that bank into the cornfield, Anthony. It's a real fine thing you've done there, son.
(Billy Mumy smiles.)
I have some tenants that must have wanted to avoid answering the questions during the last census. One census taker was going around knocking on doors asking about the tenants he could not find at home. After a few complaints, we finally had to point out that if he could not find the residents, it was his problem, and not everyone else's problem, and the tenants could tell him to get lost. As I recall, he finally gave up after a few weeks of pestering people.
I really do not understand why the government wastes money on a census anymore. All they need to do is check the SS records to get a more accurate count. They would probably even get most of the homeless that way, although they would get the address of their drop box rather than their bridge abutment.
"It's real good that you wished that bank into the cornfield, Anthony. It's a real fine thing you've done there, son."
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
Good One!
.......if I find the questions unreasonable again, I'll not answer them. What do they do about "No Trespassing" signs, mad dogs and bee hives?
All they need to do is check the SS records to get a more accurate count.
You're kidding, right?
I've never filled out a census form, not that I'm hiding or anything, they just never drop by. They don't write, they don't call.
Not really - even illegal immigrants have SS numbers now.
Right?
All they need to do is check the SS records to get a more accurate count.
Then they'll find out that a Jose Lopez with SSN #123-45-6789 lives simultaneously in 12 cities and paid taxes on 2M in income.
So how many are still of the opinion that there is no revolution in Iran and what does it mean for oil? I said almost a week ago this was coming. Tomorrow will be the breaking point.
Scone, I've never been asked to fill one out either.
Basel beat me to it.
And that Jose already collected 22 years of benefits and died in 1993.
"They don't write, they don't call. "
They seem to focus on heavily populated swing districts. Especially if there is a new elected position at stake. Last time, they were literally looking under bridges and in riverbeds around here, trying to scrape up a few more pops.
"......12 cities and paid taxes on 2M in income......"
.........at least the taxes WERE paid. I don't mind the number of people in household question, but the rest - screw 'em, it's none of their business. It used to be a $100 fine.
"Then they'll find out that a Jose Lopez with SSN #123-45-6789 lives simultaneously in 12 cities and paid taxes on 2M in income."
But of course the IRS would never notice that in a million years...
Being a census taker is just such a patently shit job. One step up from selling blood. So how reliable can it be?
I had never heard of Soylent Green. I googled it tonight and am about to barf. How does one keep track of the economy, philosophy and reality?
Soylent Green Shoots?
i can't believe that one didn't pop up earlier.
damned dirty apes.
Soylent Green eats shoots and leaves?
It's all about the Cult of Personality: YouTube -
the problem is that the political power of the boomers only expands as their economic power withers. old people vote. so we're stuck in that paradigm - an attempt to recreate 1982-2006 "good times" by any means necessary - for the near and long-term future.
Lets be honest- it is in almost ever-ones interest to keep this illusion going as long a possible, from the con-man on Wall Street, to the clueless 20's gen what ever financing his jet ski---
Everyone is in for some reality therapy soon, I hope thy can learn gardening skill fast, and know how tho shoot a shotgun rater than a Mac10.
Sorry, I apologize for the poor sentence construction on the last post.
I often use the Microsoft method of posting, and let the market straight it out.
I am thinking that we need a BFF drinking game.
I'm not really smart enough to think up all the rules though....
Stuff like "Cost to the FDIC > $100m = Take a drink"
lubecpat (profile) wrote on Fri, 6/19/2009 - 8:22 pm
I had never heard of Soylent Green. I googled it tonight and am about to barf. How does one keep track of the economy, philosophy and reality?
Remember The Matrix?! It's kinda like that. Just watch it and mentally substitute "the market" every time they say "The Matrix"
Pavel,
Do you think that the west had anything to back up it's claims of economic superiority? Seriously, what does the west have anyway?
Maybe it sells dreams.. and this business model only works until others belive in those dreams.
"it is in almost ever-ones interest to keep this illusion going as long a possible"
no, it is emphatically NOT in the interest of anyone who plans on paying taxes in the 2020s or later (or plans on buying food and energy at that point) to stack on additional trillions of debt with no particular effect except letting the dance go on for one more day.
"no, it is emphatically NOT in the interest of anyone who plans on paying taxes in the 2020s or later"
Guess HH is a "Mellon".
What would be the opposite of a "Mellon"? A Chainsaw Juggler??
Come now Hollywood---
Do you think any resemblance of the current economic paradigm is going to be in place in 5 years, let alone 2020?
You are like the Austrians in 1913 arguing who their next Hapsburg ruler is going to be.
I agree, one cannot dismiss this debt, and one either has to renege, inflate, or move on.
All these have serious consequences, but will pale and probably not be top of the list.
HH - motivated more by vengeance than pleasure.
It's sort of double edged for people under 30 (or so). They barely own any property so expending huge sums to support current property prices (and pushing the bill to later) doesn't help them, but if they're old enough to have some serious student loan debt serious deflation isn't going to help them either. Young people with no debt and no assets though seem like they'd clearly benefit in the long term, if not in immediate employment, from deflation instead of inflation or default.
'I often use the Microsoft method of posting, and let the market straight it out"
At a price nobody likes and a reliability factor thats begs for updates
I vote renege, as I don't want to pay it and I sure as hell don't want future generations to pay it either. What good is a fiat currency if you can't inflate it away???
USG debt is a small part of the problem ...
The real problem is personal and corporate debt ...
They are underwriting banksters with USG debt ...
Over 12 trillion and counting to keep the chainsaws in the air ...
Soylent Green is people. Tastes like chicken.
Bank failure. Bond market gyration. Kennedy bearer bonds equivalent to most nation's GDP in a false bottomed valise and carried by Fu Manchu types. Sigma X and SPARC computer trading dominating markets. What fun!
Games, games within games, Go and Shogi and Chess and Russian cacooning dolls with computer algorithms. Arbitrage and political risk and currency risk with sovereign debt risk making serious moola for the insiders.
Gotta lova casino, I especially like blackjack. That 21, like all the solstice days of 21. A numerologist's sweet dreams.
This precipice upon which we stand reminds one of the 14th century, ebbing of Dark Ages and the cusp of Renaissance. But an invader of grain (staff of life) carrying winged parasites made communion of the blood of man, vermin, locust. The result was an aberration. Just a bubole. An unfortunate rash in the groin. The center of reproduction experienced but a pustule. It would go black. It was called God's wrath. The pustule would not heal and became gangrenous. The victim was viewed as having hard judgement manifest in flesh.
A stain nearly the same has spread in wayward man's society. Buboles forming upon the productive capacity of economies. Froward and untoward use of the creative power finds the victim stricken with plague in the loins. God's mark. The cunning and corrupt slipstreaming within secret society wherein they use injudicious rigour to subjugate their fellow man. Festering and gangrenous greed. It will resolve them to the earth and their creator and judgement. Flesh going into a furnace.
Like so many things, the truth is in the open to see. Inscribed on the coin of the realm, "In God We Trust", but not really. Not in the gov't service, not in the pay grade of uncle sam--it is said without conviction. Instead we trust in the arm of flesh and our prize winning and accoladed high priests of moneychangery. No humility, or bended knee, or honor of tradition, but rather dropping ink upon fabric paper to pledge our highest devotion to repayments when such repayments are mathematically impossible. Studied plunder. Special sacrifice not to anyone on high, but to silly caprice and meaningless consumption.
Man will be consumed by this bubole, this highly infective virus. His addiction to gain without true creation, his thirst for subtlety, intrigue, and secrecy to exploit his fellows has ample precedence. He will have pleasure and conquest for a season, but sooner or later justice will cut him down.
Good thing the commanders of the economy have made such fine spur decisions in containing economic catastrophy. Afterall, it surprised the entire professional community, right? Names like Blackrock, or Cereberus; or the fact that the present Chairman Mr. B Shalom was a preeminent depression scholar, would never indicate that this episode was foreseen. Purely cooincidental, along with power grabs by violators of black letter law, along with wealth extraction from an enraged public against all signal and suffrage by their representatives to reward the engineered bank failures of last year.
Freedom was a brief flame. It will be taken from you by debt bondage, censorship, disarmament, false accusation, extortion, pogroms, and vice. Turn your back on Ninevah, leave the city of S & G, and touch not the unclean things.
1 Kings 8:37
"If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar; if their enemy besiege them in the land of their cities; whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness there be; 38 What prayer and supplication soever be made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: 39 Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;) 40 That they may fear thee all the days that they live in the land which thou gavest unto our fathers."
So I can buy Rage Against the Machine at a big discount? Cool, I'm off to the mall!
Chart porn
CHART OF THE DAY: Credit Card Loss Rate At All-Time High
mmckinl,
Ever been to India? India, like Brazil, has potential. It always has potential. It also has a crumbling infrastructure...their trains date largely from the raj, for example...truly terrible government,especially on the local level, a horrible judiciary, really poor educational system, especially on the secondary level, and almost unimaginable poverty. Mumbai and Delhi appear to be modern cities, with miles and miles of shantytowns of desperate poverty. Pavel is right...there is a thin veneer of prosperity stretched across an abyss of deprivation.
And don't discount the water and power shortages that are a feature even in the major cities, and the stunning air pollution...especially the fecal "snow' .
"I often use the Microsoft method of posting, and let the market straight it out."
LOL. I prefer the Google method, in which my post always remain in beta.
As long as you have the edit button... Beta it is...
The Microsoft method - This post will be unintelligible until at least SP2....
Incidentally, for those who want to know - the Shadow Bunker has been on Ubuntu Linux for some time now, with no problems, and most everything has been converted to Open Office etc... One program - an old version of Quickbooks - is running fine on Wine... But the Garmin web update program would not run on wine - So Shadow discovered a free VM called Virtual Box... So there is one instance of XP that is available on demand now for the sole purpose of updating the Shadow GPS devices...
All is well, and all will be well, in the garden...
Dont you just love blogging during happy hour....
Some interesting words of wisdom from Andy Xie:
Indeed, most people who invest in the stock market get poorer. Look at Japan, Korea and Taiwan: Even though their per capita incomes have risen enormously over the past three decades, investors in these stock markets lost money. Economic growth is a necessary but not sufficient condition for investors to make money in the stock market. Most countries, unfortunately, don't possess the conditions for stock markets to reflect economic growth. The key is good corporate governance. It requires rule of law and good morality. Neither is apparent in most markets.
Also he acknowledges the creation of the latest bubble:
The world is setting up for a big crash, again. Since the last bubble burst, governments around the world have not been focusing on reforms. They are trying to pump a new bubble to solve existing problems. Before inflation appears, this strategy works. As inflation expectation rises, its effectiveness is threatened. When inflation appears in 2010, another crash will come.
If you are a speculator and confident you can get out before it crashes, this is your market. If you think this market is for real, you are making a mistake and should get out as soon as possible. If you lost money during your last three market entries, stay away from this one – as far as you can.
Andy Xie: Tight Spot for Fed, Blind Spot for Investors
Considering how much CR uses census data, perhaps you might reconsider your stance?
And considering how much the government depends on it, perhaps we should help those poor benighted census takers.
ShadowInventory (profile) wrote on Fri, 6/19/2009 - 9:05 pm
So Shadow discovered a free VM called Virtual Box... So there is one instance of XP that is available on demand now for the sole purpose of updating the Shadow GPS devices...
VirtualBox is excellent. I use it for an instance of XP as well as I am still tied to MS Office versus OpenOffice and like to do funky things with VBA, solver and so forth... Gentoo on two boxes, soon to be three, OpenWrt on the router.
I'm now of the opinion that Corus goes down July 2nd without a buyer; if they had one by now they would have pushed these back a week.
Gentoo? Wow, a patient person you are. And a custom router flash. Good for you. I used to have time for that. I stick to CentOS these days (recompiled Red Hat Enterprise) and Macs.
ac - the guy knows what he's talking about. I used to touch with base with him when he was at MS in Hong Kong. Calls out BS when he sees it. Occasionally gets fired for it.
C
I have run CrunchBang Linux from the cd, and I am thinking of taking one machine and loading it as the base OS, then running everything else in Virtual Box on top of it... Or maybe FreeBSD, or a barebones Linux with no gui at all... just something to handle the hardware, and with a firewall, .... Nice thing about running VM's, you can clone them and try something and then delete them if it doesnt work... I did quite a lot with VMware but their product has become really bloated and too expensive for a personal user... Virtual Box is just the ticket...
I had never heard of Soylent Green. I googled it tonight and am about to barf.
That happens here a lot. I speak from experience. If you see a bizarre expression you don't know, you're usually better off leaving it that way.
I won a free copy of the complete Visual Basic package at a MS seminar in 1999... At the time it retailed for about $1800... I love programming in it but too bad it's full of holes for hackers... just like all the other MS software... I was always expecting some big corp user to sue them for ad fraud or non-merchantability of product or something... Win32 has just about everything a user could want, except stability, security, quality... Back in the mid-90's I was doing a lot of VB in Access and I could just zone out with that... want to print forms from a select statement - just scan the form and use it as a background image... What a deal... ah I was in heaven... but then it turned out that their programming was total crap underneath the hood... Well what would you expect from 3rd world programmers who were born into dirt streets with no utilities and in a few years they were writing OS code...
If you see a bizarre expression you don't know, you're usually better off leaving it that way.
Yes.
LIke "CrunchBang" and "Gentoo".
Scary stuff.
BTW, this is also a good quote from that Andy Xie article above:
Stagflation in the 1970s spawned the development of rational expectation theory in economics. Monetary stimulus works by fooling people into believing in money's value while the central bank cheapens it. This perception gap stimulates the economy by fooling people into demanding more money than they should. Rational expectation theory clarified the underpinning for Keynesian liquidity theory. However, as they say, people can't be fooled three times. Central banks that tried to use stimuli to solve structural problems in the '70s saw their stimuli didn't work. People saw through what they tried again and again, and began behaving accordingly, which translated monetary stimulus straight into inflation without stimulating economic growth.
Rational expectation theory discredited Keynesian theory and laid the foundation for Paul Volker's tough love policy, which jagged up interest rates and triggered a recession. The recession convinced people that the central bank was serious about cooling inflation, so they adjusted their behavior accordingly. Inflation expectations fell sharply afterward.
Could someone please point me to the calculated risk economics blog? I seem to have stumbled into codersRus.
Gratuitous thread music for banking end times ... John the Revelator
YouTube - Blind Willie Johnson - John the Revelator
C
Hey tarp be careful or you might get your kernel recompiled here...
Hollywood Hack, if you're still out there;
I detoured through the neighborhood that you mentioned yesterday (North of Douglas Park between California and Idaho) to have a look around. (Since I almost never drive, I had to charge the battery on a car, but I digress...)
I had forgotten that Franklin Elementary is right smack in the middle of that neighborhood, which makes it a young family magnet.
The area looks pretty good, not many For Sale signs, and still a few scraper/remodels in progress. Less condos than I remember, but still quite a few. I also saw a couple of apartment buildings, which also had escaped my memory. Even though the apartment stock is old, it's a potential gold mine because people will pay almost anything to send their kids to Franklin. I'll make a note to put in an offer as prices fall.
Anyway, that nabe look like it will hold up better than most areas South of Montana, but appearances can be deceiving. Clearly a lot of money was sunk into upgrades over the last ten years or so, so I'm guessing that there was a lot of borrowing going on. Those are great streets with limited access so it's quite and serene once you get a block or so away from the school, no through traffic, and speed bumps on the major streets - that usually means that someone with a lot of political pull lives there. Not as bad as the completely blocked streets farther South (the pols actually blocked intersections with planters down toward Colorado).
So IMHO that nabe will hold SFH prices better than any place SOM with the usual exception of the streets numbered lower than seven and North of Wilshire, and the stuff on top of the hill by the big water tank (Franklin, as I recall).
This exercise has got me thinking about buying more apartments again, something I have not considered since 1992. Now if it wasn't for rent control.... Oh Well, Nevermind.
If you see a bizarre expression you don't know, you're usually better off leaving it that way. - b
Or google it, so you don't ask "what's a ____?" and look like a complete noob.
Comrade Coinz (homepage, profile) wrote on Fri, 6/19/2009 - 9:12 pm
Gentoo? Wow, a patient person you are. And a custom router flash. Good for you. I used to have time for that. I stick to CentOS these days (recompiled Red Hat Enterprise) and Macs.
But still need to maintain my systems, hehe. It's a great way to really learn though, without giving too much in the way of training wheels, but the scripting work behind the scenes makes you feel much smarter than you actually are! I get a kick out of the Gentoo ego trips people get on! OpenWrt is pretty straightforward but very nice; once upon a time I was interested in getting Gentoo on the beast but the project kind of fell by the wayside.
LOL - yeah, I caught the bug when I was still in grad school and had free time. Now not so much
easy there Tarpy, this here's a room full of coders finding out whos trading quatloos to bagowners.
ac - the guy knows what he's talking about. I used to touch with base with him when he was at MS in Hong Kong. Calls out BS when he sees it. Occasionally gets fired for it.
C
That's why I like Gary Shilling - you can trust an economist who's been fired from major investment banks for predicting recessions.
BTW, I'm surprised to hear that Microsoft has already relocated to Hong Kong. I knew they were planning to move their headquarters out of the US due to tax considerations, but I wasn't expecting it so soon.
"....or plans on buying food and energy at that point"
....beautiful - you're finally getting it. Now prepare. The End Is Nearer........
@shadow, bank - friday night - only kernels here are getting popped, and I've been coding since fortran and punch cards.
Hey tarp be careful or you might get your kernel recompiled here...
Or your core dumped if you're really reckless.
What's a "noob"?
What's a "noob"?
The sound of a woman getting steamrolled.
Indeed, most people who invest in the stock market get poorer. Look at Japan, Korea and Taiwan: Even though their per capita incomes have risen enormously over the past three decades, investors in these stock markets lost money.
I am still very puzzled by the fact that so many people I meet, some are streetwise, some are quite analytical, still believe that "in the long term equity markets go up and beat any other type of investment". They still remain 100% invested in equities.
It is as if people got something into their heads when they were in college, and no amount of contradicting evidence will make them start doubting that idea. Sorta like the idea that the water circles the drain in opposite directions in Northern and Southern hemispheres. People just believe that no matter what.
yes, sm, i picked that neighborhood for a reason - who knows, possibly the best example in the lower 48 of how various factors can conspire to keep prices at 10x income. that's why the drip down will take seemingly forever.
Ok back to the economics... I am still fascinated by the SP500 chart with a 200 day ma and 50 day ma converging... and the fact that we spent several days right at the 200day level but never really penetrated it (OK Broward, there's your opening)... So anyway I'm still looking at this chart as a converging pennant and I'm thinking this sucker has no where to go but down... I'm still waiting for at least 600 to buy - I sold some GNMA in January but didnt buy anything at the March lows... Still waiting and meanwhile earning the magnificent sum of .35% in the mmf... I hear my train a-comin' but I dont know when it's gettin' here...
"....beautiful - you're finally getting it."
finally? i've tried to be exposed to commodities since '02. too bad my ung was such a turd in the punchbowl today, it really damaged what was a nice week (largely thanks to fxp).
a noob's a noithing glodberger. mr horne.
I'll cut yer heart out for a balogna sandwich...
The friends who introduced me to my future husband said, "you'll like him, he knows hex, assembly, and microcode!" They knew I would be impressed.
ac (profile) wrote on Fri, 6/19/2009 - 9:23 pm
Monetary stimulus works by fooling people into believing in money's value while the central bank cheapens it. This perception gap stimulates the economy by fooling people into demanding more money than they should. Rational expectation theory clarified the underpinning for Keynesian liquidity theory.
Yes. Rational expectation theory is really John Stuart Mill vintage utilitarianism dressed up in a lot of math IMHO.
ac - good point. I guess Stiglitz was fired for being annoying during a financial crisis, albeit picking contraction, so that's probably why he's not on my equivalent list...
C
Hey tarp I started on minis with paper tape and card decks in 1972 - but I have an uncle who started with plugboards at Westinghouse in the 40's? I think... anyway he is almost 90 and still writing code - kept up the whole time - I suppose he is doing AJAX now... I worked at DEC from 74-76, mostly writing device drivers and some customer apps, then spent several years at M&M/Mars writing factory automation software - it was a good gig - minimum wage, but all the candy you could eat and all the machine time you could suck up...
"I stick to CentOS these days"
We're running an entire server farm ( 2 full racks plus our office servers) on CentOS. I just put up a couple of instances of VMware on a few servers so that we can run XP and Server 2008 in a safe cage under CentOS for people who want disaster recovery support.
Unfortunately we still have to run XP on office machines because we use Photoshop and compile apps for Windoze Server (contract work). Also, there still is not a first rate email client for the Linux desktop, since Thunderbird effectively became abandonware. And then there's Quickbooks, because there is still no mature accounting program for Linux.
Linux on the desktop is still waiting for a market to develop in the user apps space. But I would never voluntarily run Windows on a server - it just sucks too much for someone who knows computers.
I'll cut yer heart out for a balogna sandwich...
Perhaps if you cut my heart out...
you were already have a balogna sandwich.
Can the hub be a GS1000?
Ok, three down; that's more like it.
liz, you're supposed to say.
"I'm here!"
fixed it for the spelling illinios nazi'
"you'll like him, he knows hex
Ahhhh, so he's a Wiccan?
I know the Wiccans well, been cursed by a dozen of them.
Liz you know you love it when we talk tech...
SI,
Damn, didn't realize you were OLD!
I missed it thank Glod; wearing my usual hole in I-95.
I'm 65 - 66 in October and then you suckers can pay my SS.... hehe....
I'll do an anecdotal for the crowd:
signed for a garnishment order today for a man that never even worked at the company....its a small community, and thats not gonna get ya thumbs up around town.
said individual owes 6200 fiat dollars on a 1994 Ford .
SI,
Get it while they've still got it!!!
ShadowInventory (profile) wrote on Fri, 6/19/2009 - 9:43 pm
I'm 65 - 66 in October and then you suckers can pay my SS.... hehe....
... I'm glad at least some of that SS money will go to a good cause! I think anyone under 40 can reasonably expect to outlive SS.
LOL. You're older than my dad by almost a decade
said individual owes 6200 fiat dollars on a 1994 Ford . - bf
Bada bing! I'm here 'til Thursday! Try the veal!
""you'll like him, he knows hex, assembly, and microcode!""
You would have loved me 20 years ago back when I could compile assembler in my head.
Unfortunately, most things fail with age and disuse. That among them. But I can still make sense of an SSE instruction, and know how to write threaded code that won't crash. Does that count?
Oh well....
Too bad he didn't owe it on a GM or C - he could have just countersued that he was keeping the money in lieu of future risk of defect liability.
But I can still make sense of an SSE instruction, and know how to write threaded code that won't crash. Does that count? - sl
There are girls who are into that sort of thing.
Oh I think SS will be around - what it will buy is another matter, but I'm not depending on it for complete support... If worst comes to worst I'm going to seek out some gold hoarders and rob them... hehe....
Landlord - I always thought that Netware was one of the top server OS - I have 2 MCNE certs and did a lot of benchmarking on it... too bad Novell was such a management disaster... Netware 6 had a lot of nice features - you could run the server console in a web browser for example... I suppose it is dead now but I think I still have some cd's somewhere... Oh well, I like them all, big or small, I think I'm up to about 15 different OS now... lost count... I'm fully retired so I have plenty of time to dabble, and when you can run several OS simultaneously on a laptop in VM's, it makes for a little interesting diversion while monitoring CR and CNBC....
Off to amuse myself singing some karaoke at a local watering hole within walking distance... karaoke is a low art form but hey, it's all about do what you can with the medium
You guys are encouraging me to go to bed.
Religion? Philosophy? Squirrels? Or, bankz?
Anything but software.
Re Xie: "the guy knows what he's talking about. I used to touch with base with him when he was at MS in Hong Kong. Calls out BS when he sees it. Occasionally gets fired for it."
C, I haven't had the pleasure, but yes, S'pore was none too happy he called out a primary function of their economy, namely laundering regional hua qiao's cash. I prefaced that part of the story to give my wife incentive to read the caijing orig in Chinese.
I'd really like to meet him someday.
Oh I think SS will be around - what it will buy is another matter, but I'm not depending on it for complete support...
"That's your monthly handshake sir, now get a move on. You weren't expecting a hug were you?"
liz,
With I.T. guys software's the next best thing to sex, so if you want to change the subject...
Hey Scone we are going to be up in Medford and Grants Pass in about a week - we have saved all our major purchases until we get into Oregon - more computers, a new recliner etc... Not paying the Ms. Bass sales tax premium in CA.... and in November, we hope that Navistar will have re-opened the Monaco service facility in Harrisburg so we can go spend some more money there... Usually whenever we start south we go to Coburg and get all the service work done on the rv - this year we are going to get some interior improvements done too - new carpet, a little cabinetry, laundry upgrade... I want those people in Coburg and Junction City to stay in business... I need them as much as they need me...
serious question:
How do you default on a 15 year old truck you bought for 5 grand, never make a payment, lie on the loan application to a Thrift in a small community, and even try create an environment around your life that makes any sense whatsoever?
There was a mention of Melons above. Or was that Mellon?
Anak - bingo. Bingissimo.
C
/ edit - knew it'd be around somewhere, here's the text:
Asia Sentinel - A Banking Star’s Inconvenient Singaporean Truth
I hereby and forthwith declare a beefcake contest.
Contestants are encouraged to post pictures of sexy men. Or
what they think women of the straight persuasion would find sexy.
What's to say about the economy? It needs to wash out. The politicians (both parties) and the bureaucracy, not to mention the dependency recipients, all want to keep the status quo. That wont happen, but they can stretch it out for a while. Meanwhile, nothing is being done to encourage business or to reduce the dependency. Conservatives cant get elected in a majority due to the gerrymandering. So things must get worse until the majority of the electorate realizes that the only way to success is work. The end.
@ ShadowInventory
Just beware of the famous Coburg Black Hole Speed Trap, they throw you into a dungeon...
sm_landlord, if you care there are a couple of decent bubble blogs about Santa Monica: Santa Monica Distress Monitor and Westside Bubble. Prices have definitely come down even if it's a slow march.
Conservatives cant get elected in a majority due to the gerrymandering
No, conservatives can't get elected because no one is impressed with their 19th century thinking.
I declare chicks like my wife that do taxes as sexy bitches.....
sho me the sexy tarted up IRS inqisition...whips, chains, double entry accounting stuff......you know what I'm talkin bout.
is larry summers a "beefcake"? i've never heard that term before...
is larry summers a "beefcake"? i've never heard that term before...
He's more of a turkey neck. Gobble gobble you sexy beast.
Just in case you aren't snarking Basel, beefcake is the male equivalent of cheesecake.
@liz - no picture hunt coming from here, but my wife would vote for Vin Diesel (she and the girls love the Pacifier); Johnny Depp; Patrick Swayze; Richard Gere
Good enough start?
I'm trying not to visualize slightly paunchy, graying nerds talking about porn, actually. It's like the Do's and Don'ts column on Vice magazine-- you really have to step away from that shit if you want to age gracefully, otherwise it comes off as creepy geezer perv.
An Ode to Billy Joel
on the end of his third marriage
Billy Joel - Piano Man
Yes, sometimes celebrity news infiltrates the regular news stories.
I hereby and forthwith declare a beefcake contest.
Contestants are encouraged to post pictures of sexy men. Or
what they think women of the straight persuasion would find sexy.
What do you need the rest of us for? Ya already got a pic of broward in his wranglin' outfit!
(Sorry brobama, ya ain't likely to live that one down so easily)
Liz,
Um, I.T. guys generally aren't going to go for beefcake either. Now, if you want opinions on stellar examples of the fairer sex...
No, I don't.
@bank - not that I'm doubting you, but that's seriously too much info.
for some reason, beefcake seems derogatory to me. never heard of "cheesecake" used to describe women, but the urban dictionary confirms.
broward, "denying his essence since he last played pocket pool"...horne...
sm_landlord wrote:
We're running an entire server farm ( 2 full racks plus our office servers) on CentOS. I just put up a couple of instances of VMware on a few servers so that we can run XP and Server 2008 in a safe cage under CentOS for people who want disaster recovery support.
Last computer/software comment tonight I promise.
We just finished migrating almost all of our servers to Virtual Iron, a Xen-based VM with nice GUI wrappings. It was less than half the cost of VMware. So far, so good. Balancing and failover work better than expected. The bad news is that they were just purchased by Oracle and are in the process of being gutted.
I made a career choice at the end of the 90s, kind of risky at the time, to move full time into Linux and open source web development. It really paid off and I got me out of a life of being a Microsoft reboot monkey.
sanityclause;
I already follow westside bubble, - thanks! Have you seen WestsideREmeltdown ?
I check in on the Real Meme by Broward Horne on occasion..but hey that how I roll...
That's it-- poor old Bro in his leather pants, definitely a Vice "don't."
Ahhhrggh. I thought I changed the subject.
You never heard of cheesecake? I didn't think the term was obsolete.
By the way, says you had the word strigel (strigil?) on, and nobody seemed
to know what it meant. Of course you weren't supposed to. The next mystery
word was gloze. One word I didn't know at the time was frass. Now I seem
to hear it all the time. It means termite poop.
. . . never heard of "cheesecake" used to describe women, but the urban dictionary confirms.
What's really funny, Basel, is the thought of you consulting the urban dictionary.
Glossary now edited to include the term 'kvatsch.'
I thought it was kvetch?
Sorry, I've spelled it phonetically - in German it should be spelled 'kwatsch.' Oh well, it will become, perhaps, a special term here.
I thought it was kvetch? -ll
Yep, this shiksa says 'kvetch.'
kvetch may or may not be right, but it's the most common usage I've seen over the years.
And I guess kvetch is a different word. German or Yiddish for bitch, complain?
Where was the sharp right turn into creepy geezer perv?
"I thought it was kvetch?"
That's Yiddish for 'complain'. Kvatsch, or kwatsch (same pronunciation), is German for 'crap.' 'Nonsense.'
cmon coinz.....like yer some kinda alt-bro who is going to Design Skool next year...
I popped in "dry powder" and "knife catcher" to the glossary. We don't seem to use them much round these parts, but, "dry powder" grates on my very soul and "knife catcher" seems so relevant during these times, I just couldn't help myself.
Where was the sharp right turn into creeper geezer perv? - cc
It's an attitude. trying too hard to be hip doesn't work when you have a paunch and jowls... I mean, it's one thing for grandma to like Rage Against the Machine, it's another to actually infest their gigs...
Last for the night, since it's getting seedy round here, thread muse from pj harvey:
YouTube - PJ Harvey-Long Snake Moan
nytol
C
I have no paunch and no jowls, but I still try too hard to be hip and of course it doesn't work.
Blackstone keeps yapping about how they've got billions in dry powder for 2009-2010. only problem is that institutions supposedly anteing up aren't going to be able to honor the commitments.
Where was the sharp right turn into creepy geezer perv?
Not sure, but creepy geezer perv to me suggests a yearning for a long ago lost youth.
As in . . . The Class of 1959:
Billy Joel - The Longest Time
Anyone doing a 50th this year?
@C,
I like "Down by the River" better. Big Fish, Little Fish, swimming in the water...
anyone want to peruse the first draft of the new health care reform bill?
PDF warning: 850 pages
http://edlabor.house.gov/documents/111/pdf/publications/DraftHealthCareReform-BillText.pdf
Yeah, I get that on my RSS feed, but it's thinner on analysis than the other two. Either way it's all out of my league, though I do like to window shop and enjoy some schadenfreude now and then. Like everywhere else in greater LA, inventory above the jumbo limit is just too big to clear without major price corrections. Pacific Palisades seems to be moving faster in this respect though.
I keep hearing about vulture funds that are gonna simply snap everything up once
the mkt drops enough, but I'm not seeing it yet. There is competition on low price housing in
South Dade, but nothing over 275ish is moving.
My developer buddy who has 2 houses for sale for 2 years now, and wanted over a mil
for each one, finally got some about half price offers.
I wish.
Sporty conservatives cant get elected partly because of gerrymandering, but more from the ignorant electorate believing they can get something for nothing from the thieves (whatever other label they use - liberal, progressive, communist, marxist - they are all thieves)
Tired. Nighty nite.
We are all geezers and geezettes now.
"There is competition on low price housing in
South Dade, but nothing over 275ish is moving."
Would it be fair to say that if a general description of the state of housing in the US one could describe this as a symptom of deflation?
anyone want to peruse the first draft of the new health care reform bill?
I just consulted on that very subject with my good friend, Jack. He said "Nah."
Comrade Coinz;
"It really paid off and I got me out of a life of being a Microsoft reboot monkey. "
Good for you. The primary problem with MS OSs is that they are unmaintainable - if something breaks or they get slow, you have to reinstall from the metal - there is no other choice. The secondary problem, of course, is that app software is expensive and not well supported. App software cannot be well supported on MS OSs, because no one understands how the OS works, including Microsoft. Especially including Microsoft. I used to consult for them, some of my subcontractors have consulted for them, and we all agree that they are clueless.
The only reason that we still deal with MS OSs is for legacy reasons - installed base, inertia, app lock, and all that.
Sorry Liz.
"I just consulted on that very subject with my good friend, Jack. He said "Nah."
Jack's all right.
sdtfs (profile) wrote on Sat, 6/20/2009 - 2:08 am
And considering how much the government depends on it, perhaps we should help those poor benighted census takers.
Census data are the chicken entrails for public policy.
hey, don't hate, we didn't start the fire,
YouTube - Billy Joel We Didn't Start The Fire
the reason M$ exists is a function of legacy POS systems suporting dealerships via price changes to macro for excel to UNIX based arrays....but hey I work in transportation services.
"I just consulted on that very subject with my good friend, Jack. He said "Nah.
""Do all you people in Austin think you're gonna go to Willie's house when you die?"
/crowd erupts
"I talked to Willie last night and he said...eh"
-Waylon Jennings
sm_landlord,
Agreed on the whole Microsoft experience. I feel bad for people who have to maintain that crap.
Gotta go. nytol.
hey, don't hate, we didn't start the fire,
World, keep on turnin'. Fire, keep on burnin'.
Would it be fair to say that if a general description of the state of housing in the US one could describe this as a symptom of deflation?
Deflation, yes, but also the fact that $275K is probably the GSE/FHA conforming limit for Dade County, which means that there are no private lenders in her neck of the woods and that the government is the mortgage market.
200 to 42
224 ignores 14
Basel, I'm not sure there are many private lenders anywhere for RE with the exception of the hard money guys.
Hey bANK fAILURE,
I have never understood these posts of yours. Any way that a glossary entry would elucidate?
Dark Side of the Rainbow Series Again!
YouTube
- Broadcast Yourself.
sportsfan,
Go look up ahansen over at the HBB.
"Dark Side of the Rainbow Series Again!"
Dude, you got any blotter?
smlandlord.
occasionally, I will note the :users to guests: and :comment number to my ingored comments:
Ive been a regular for some time.
Here's a scary thing re: non-group health insurance policy holders in Meeeechigan.
Blue Cross seeks quick rate hike for 400,000
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has asked the state to let it immediately raise rates for 400,000 people who buy their own health insurance outside the workplace....If granted, monthly premiums for non-group policy holders would be increased 44.4%, compared to the 56% that Blue Cross eventually wants for those plans.
An emergency price hike of 44.4% for 400,000 people paying insurance out of their own pockets in the state with the highest unemployment. Yeah, that's gonna work.
Some newbies over at BubbleInfo were amused by the terms "permabull" and "permabear". I checked and they're not yet in the Glossary. Someone want to do the honors?
Go look up ahansen over at the HBB.
sm_landlord, the last post on the Housing Bubble Blog is September 2005.
Where should I look? More to the point, what would he be saying?
Dude, you got any blotter?
I think the country is ready for tune-in and drop-out, except they are being forcibly dropped-out. Tuning in is an after the fact decision...
bANK fAILURE;
Yes, I have seen your posts. I just have trouble making sense of them.
OK, so now I see what you're looking at: users/guests. So you are counting the number of guests that do not respond to your comments?
It seems like an odd metric, since guests cannot respond., by definition.
smlandlord...
you are confusing responses to "my" comment.... with ignored comments by me.
I profile the ignores by being a "user" of the comments..and then I see what is missing.
OT: Apparently, the MSM is shifting tactics on RE. Since housing is so incontrovertibly in the crapper, try to focus 3 years out:
Where Housing Will Be in 2012
I think the country is ready for tune-in and drop-out,
As every fan of Timothy Leary can attest, that would be "tune-in, turn-on and drop-out"
BTW, I've been living the modified, limited drop-out for years now. It's peaceful.
"sm_landlord, the last post on the Housing Bubble Blog is September 2005. Where should I look? More to the point, what would he be saying? "
Ah, you missed the transition or the forward is facacta. Look for this URL: The Housing Bubble Blog
And he's a she. She loans money to not-so-F'd buyers.
As every fan of Timothy Leary can attest, that would be "tune-in, turn-on and drop-out"
OK, it's just the reverse of that now. It's involuntarily dropped-out, voluntarily turned on and then MAYBE tuned in. There.
Ah, you missed the transition
Apparently so, but I can't wait to hear Pink Floyd do Somewhere Over the Rainbow.
The best 'Over the Rainbow' ever - Jane Monheit...
YouTube - Jane Monheit - Over The Rainbow
Speaking of nerdy, I tried to upgrade to the 3GS Iphone today as I got my 3G Iphone less than a month ago so upgrading is only a $20 restocking fee. Given that I have to upgrade by Tuesday to be within the 30 day free upgrade period I decided to stick out the long line. After an hour and a half in line and putting my name on a list I got to the front to find out the guy in front of me had gotten the last phone. But I did get $90 back for standing in line, and still get the phone in another week. Talk about deflation baby! Woohoo
sm and HH I couldn't believe it the other day when Douglas park was mentioned. I grew up a couple of blocks from there in the 50's. A couple on months ago I when by the old place on 26th st. (2 houses north of California) and they're putting a second story on. Otherwise the house looked the same. I can assure you that house wasn't worth >$1M then. It really takes me back to when Santa Monica was a great place to raise kids.
regards
"Apparently so, but I can't wait to hear Pink Floyd do Somewhere Over the Rainbow."
Hehe. Unfortunately, Rick Wright passed away last year, so the Floyd is officially dead and buried.
And I'm currently shedding another tear about that. Lots of memories...
Grantchester Meadows:
YouTube - Pink Floyd - Grantchester Meadows
yet another nail into "green shootz parade" coffin:
"GE Vice Chair Rice Sees No ‘Green Shoots’ in Orders (Update3)"
GE Vice Chair Rice Sees No ‘Green Shoots’ in Orders (Update3) - Bloomberg.com
so much for using bailout money to update the power grid, the infrastructure, etc.. dXmX bureaucrats, what a shame...
sm_landlord, Floyd will live as long as I do.
Dark Side of the Moon is one of the most phenomenal albums ever released.
I'm listening to it now (ht Doc).
I think it's still well within the top 10 selling albums of all time. I know I've bought my share.
"I think it's still well within the top 10 selling albums of all time. "
it is the all-time champ for continuous weeks spent in the billboard top 200 album chart - it was only kicked off after 17 years when it was reclassified as 'catalogue'
BTW, the DVD released a year or two ago where Pink Floyd did the album live in concert in the 1990s is quite good.
The clarity of the video is not perfect (they literally taped it), but the music is there, along with the incipient geezers.
Mendobruce;
Hey homie! So if you were here for HS, you were a Viking!
Santa Monica is still not a bad place to raise kids, as long as you buy into the vibe here. At least the schools are very well funded, including the local junior college, which is particularly well funded.
If you have not been following it, the RE scene here has been crazy nuts. Vacant lots going for $millions. Most of the older houses scraped and rebuilt as McMansions, especially North of Montana, but everywhere now.
Check out the links in the posts above for details.
occasionally, I will note the :users to guests: and :comment number to my ingored comments:
And here I thought they were the latest Cricket scores and attendance figures.
Yeah, good old Samohi. My wife and I both went there. She went to her 50th reunion while I was in the UCLA hospital in May. She also went by Samohi and said they have built a wall around it with guards checking IDs on everyone going in.
I remember 20 or 30 yrs ago the house across the street from her folks (16th st. south of San Vicente) sold for something like 500k and the new owners just came in and demoed it.
You go to Samo too?
"You go to Samo too?" Yes.
It was already being locked down by the early 1970s when I attended. It turned into a fortress soon after.
My 40th is coming up soon.
About India from above..
...there is a thin veneer of prosperity stretched across an abyss of deprivation
True, but every year the prosperity increases a bit and a fraction of the population climbs of out poverty. i have seen this first hand. Besides not all the states are poverty stricken! Have you ever visited Kerala? IMHO The biggest problem India faces are water shortages and inequality (which is getting to be a big issue here too ). The latter can be remedied but i am not sure how India is going to deal with water shortages.
Meanwhile here in the US which while still very rich, prosperity seems to be decreasing and poverty increasing. No? Of course with a (sic) more equitable society, there need be no deprivation here.