At the same party I attended last night I heard two people talking about a couple of local businesses getting rid of the older workers because "they are killing us with insurance costs"
You can fool em' most of the time sure enough, but once they figure out they've been hoodwinked, most every last one of 'em is A.R.M.ed to the teeth, and a few even have guns.
After months of playing pretend, the Treasury Department conceded last week that the Home Affordable Modification Program, its plan to aid troubled homeowners by changing the terms of their mortgages, was a dud.
. . . .
It’s time for the government to acknowledge the flaws in its program and create one that might actually succeed. Only then will the supply of homes for sale, and the pressure on prices associated with that overhang, be reduced.
Gretchen's latest in today's NYT
Last night, I canceled my home delivery subscription of the Times (after 20 years) before I saw this piece. Now I'm really glad I did. Let the Sulzbergers et al. pick the tab for this kind asset bubble nostalgia.
According to the BLS, there are a record 5.887 million workers who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks (and still want a job). This is a record 3.8% of the civilian workforce.
Unfortunately, there is a $442 billion reason that wiping out second liens is not high on the government’s agenda: that is the amount of second mortgages and home equity lines of credit on the balance sheets of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup.
These banks — the very same companies the Treasury is urging to modify loans that they service — have zero interest in writing down second liens they hold because it would mean further damage to their balance sheets.
This is why I keep saying that we need to lock the banks in a room and make them trade paper. They don't get let out until they've consolidated loans.
Worth at most 200m and maybe a whole lot more than
that. We were counting total losses for a while and seem
not to be doing it any more. what are the total losses on
Real estate mtges so far. Just mtges, 1st and 2nd?
2T? 2 1/2T? 3T?
I'm still reacting to the hammer to the side of the head news over at Jim Sinclair's site.
His reader, Richard B, reviewed the average hit the FDIC is taking on each of 5 of the 6 banks that were closed on Friday.
The average loss is 25% of stated asset value.
Extrapolating, and being a bit biased, as this fiasco of declining RE values is not over yet, the impact on the society, now valued at the margin, recognized and realized, is 25% of the total stated assets on all but international bank balance sheets.
That's how many trillion? For real?
It's obvious that the USG can monetize that. But will it come at no cost, as it has so far?
When does hyperinflation kick in? Or is it a Mish'ean reality filled only with deflation?
Excerpts:
The total cost to the DIR of closing this week’s failed banks exceeds 25% of their total deposits. By contrast, the FDIC was only required to make up about 5.7% of insured deposits in connection with the three banks it closed in 2007, at the beginning of this crisis.
The details of this week’s closings also point out some troublesome discrepancies between the value of assets stated on the banks’ balance sheets and their perceived market value. Five of the six acquiring banks this week required the FDIC to enter loss-share agreements as a condition of their purchasing the assets of the failed institutions.
Insisting upon a loss-share agreement indicates the prospective buyer is so worried about the value of the assets it is purchasing, it is unwilling to alone bear the risk that their value will turn out to be lower than anticipated. In the case of the three banks closed in 2007, none of the acquiring banks required that the FDIC enter into a loss-share agreement.
...
This week’s bank closings continue to warn of U.S. banks’ deteriorating balance sheets and of the FDIC’s inability to resolve troubled banks before they cause extraordinary losses. Nationwide, banks are going broke much faster than the FDIC can close them. This creates a domino effect whereby the FDIC loses the ability to mitigate losses at the same time it exhausts its capacity to pay claims.
As of November 12, 2009, the DIF had fallen into deficit and in order to replenish it, the FDIC ordered banks to pre-pay three years’ worth of deposit insurance premiums, amounting to about $45 billion. In the three weeks since then, the FDIC has been forced to acknowledge another $3.394 billion in liabilities – more than 7.5% of the new revenue it is attempting to raise by way of the pre-payments. Very soon the entire $45 billion will be wiped out and the U.S. Treasury will become the FDIC’s sole source of funding for years to come.
Any suggestions that U.S. federal deficits will be reduced, quantitative easing will be curbed or the Fed will attempt to drain liquidity from the financial system need to be evaluated in this context.
At the same party I attended last night I heard two people talking about a couple of local businesses getting rid of the older workers because "they are killing us with insurance costs"
One of the things I think a lot of folks miss is that many companies, including every employer I've had for the last 20 years, underwrite themselves. A such, it isn't some mysterious insurance headquartered in some faraway state that ends up denying coverage to someone ill, it's actually the company that they work for. The insurance companies themselves handle administrative costs and also help distribute risk by writing policies with other insurers to cover major cost overruns.
At the last company I worked at, which was quite small, one older employee got cancer, and his bills roughly equaled everyone else's bills combined. That combined with some poor inventory management and consequent write offs resulted in a 10% layoff, and in the remaining employees having their out-of-pocket insurance costs nearly tripled (they had previously only paid about 10% of actual costs), 401k matching restricted to 3% of salary, and other things. I was laid off, but fortunately the job market was still decent, and I ended up getting a much better paying job with better benefits. I really dodged a bullet, since just last year they had a 20% layoff. Their benefits had been quite good for the years I worked there, but no more.
Ahh, such a nice morning, I had to stop by here for some doom and gloom just to even things out.
Forget the smell of cookies, I just mashed in 15 lbs of grains to make a blonde beer. Talk about a great smell!
Japan May Ban Manufacturers From Hiring Temporary Employees - Bloomberg.com
After reading the article, it sounds as though the Nipponese are intent upon extending their string of bad financial choices, and guaranteeing that any new work will be outsourced to China, and yet another lost decade-
It is a good policy that came oh 15-20 years too late.
The idea is to make more Nipponese had full time jobs, and I think it will fail, and even the part time jobs will end up leaving the country. Maybe they'll ship some here
HomeGnome - I live in an apartment, so no ability to mulch or anything to use it on. Right now it goes into a trash bag.
Someday I may be able to afford a SFH, but it is looking more and more like that will mean leaving Hawaii.
China and Japan are more interdependent than they were 20 years ago. There is probably more unity between the two countries than at any time after WWII.
Its the US-Japan ties that are coming apart at the seams
The weird X-Factor with Japan and China is that little sticky fortnight from 1931 to 1945.
What's true for China and Japan is also true for Korea and Japan, Taiwan and Japan, Thailand and Japan..........yet the Nipponese have outsourced work to those countries as their internal costs have risen.
MOF, I don't know what Willie thinks. I guess I could look. But my calls are my own. I've allowed Sinclair into my consciousness. The rest is my read off the publicly available long term and daily charts. The patterns always repeat. The most recent gap days in gold followed by a 60 pt 24 hour drop prove the point.
I used to think that at the time I was studying this, 91-92, full time, that predictive programming, neural networks, would change the dependability of historical truth. Then I decided that was a bogeyman. We're human. We always do the same thing during high anxiety moments. The S&P and gold are reflections at times of the entire world. Hence, the markets move in the same ways they've done historically. That was a giant relief for me to conclude that some years ago.
Not for humans, but you can bake some really great dog biscuits with them.
I know a lot of people that put it out for the birds and deer to eat.
They are great for mulch etc but none of those options for me.
"Within a week, Kashkari and his wife put their belongings into "indefinite storage." They moved to a cabin near the Truckee River in Northern California. "Off the map," he told his friends. He threw away his business cards, and made a list of the things he wanted to do: "
. A case in point has been the discussion over relocating the unpopular Futenma Marine Corps Air Base off the southern island of Okinawa. American officials have pressed Tokyo to honor a 2006 agreement to relocate the base to a less populated part of Okinawa, but Japan’s Democrats pledged during the campaign to relocate the base off Okinawa or even out of Japan altogether.
Even after President Obama’s feel-good visit to Tokyo last month, the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has begun an inquiry to expose secret cold war-era agreements that allowed American nuclear weapons into Japan and has conducted a rare public review of its financial support for the 50,000 United States military workers based here
I would cast it all into .45 caliber bullets (and pass them out to disgruntled sorts). Then, when the EMTs came to the rescue of the fallen , I'd laugh myself sick as the EMTs dug out the bullets, then tossed the worthless shits back onto the sidewalk. Could be some good pay-per-view or a reality series out of that.
I was talking to a friend in the jewelry making business. He said they are melting down a lot of gold jewelry just to generate cash. It is 18k so they get about 75% of the bullion price.
He said that if his company got a big order from a retailer, it would create a dilemma. There is so much late pay and bad debt that they can't be sure how long it would take to generate cash from the order, if ever. He said the late pay and bad debt cuts across all size and sectors of retail customers. There aren't any sure credits left in the jewelry biz.
They are basically in runoff mode, liquidating what stock they have left. When I asked which big jewelers looked solid, he couldn't name one. He said Zales may be in trouble.
(AP) - As the recession hit, an Athens, Ga., couple received some unusual help as they struggled to make ends meet without it hurting their relationship.
Jeremy and Kelly Field participated in a study at the University of Georgia aimed at merging the realms of therapy and financial planning. The couple walked away applauding the blended approach, which is being tested at Kansas State University as well.
A Nashville therapist and his son also have started writing about the subject.
Jeremy Field was searching for work when they participated, and the loss of his job meant a huge cut in wages.
He says things were tense but the therapy "definitely helped."
The research results were published recently, and Kansas State University hopes to publish its first batch in the next few months.
The social worker who worked at the senior residence when my mother was there (God bless her soul), is now available for work around our neighborhood for snow shoveling.
Willie has developed into some kind of nut. At one time he was a quite excellent analyst. In the last few years though he got increasingly nuttier. I believe his livelihood is dependent on his subscriber base which may explain, in part, his rather severe change. If not he has simply lost it. Might be the Costa Rican air.
That helps explain why shoppers who phone customer service at online retailer Moosejaw Mountaineering get Scott Beebe, a trained engineer with two postgraduate degrees and eight years of experience in product development for General Motors.
**
So in the meantime, he's taken a temporary job at Moosejaw's call center in suburban Detroit. He's making $8 an hour.
edit: oh pavel, you beat me to it. Gotta be quick around here.
The "area under the curve" on the Percentage Job loss chart is interesting. Assuming we start a recovery now, and recover at the same rate as we lost, there will be very roughly two and a half times the pain.
It's getting to the point where we hope to get jobs as good as the ones we got as teenagers.
I'll never forget my first job - at Burger King, while I was in high school. Each shift I got a complimentary whopper, onion rings, soda & hot apple pie. I thought that was a great benny back then.
If I have to apply at BK again, at least I can put that prior experience on my application. It may give me an edge over the engineers.
Credit enema is coming -
Every time I see your handle I'm picturing Jack as the Joker in Batman saying:
"What this town needs is a credit enema"!
So true.
I find it encouraging, in a twisted way. One of the points in the article is that the stores are getting much much better help,...yea!. The guy with two post docs is working to fill up his time, with a buy out from GM, I doubt he's seriously cash constrained yet. And as more people have to depend on the social support network, it'll change a few attitudes on what a great society is all about.
Cold blooded? Yes, but since we're going through this turmoil, it'll be nice if something good comes from it.
"You must be able to deal with abnormal conditions like removing ice from the control-surfaces of the plane, because it got frozen over night. In Africa, we had to change tires because the Lions chewed through them!"
I feel so sorry for Kashkari. Stuck in Lake Tahoe now. 80% pay cut to run a $700 billion program...hates big gubmint intervening in markets...but if he and cronies are in charge...and it helps banks...
I have found the workers at McD's have no sense of humour.
Different times. When I was a teenager McDonald's was a great place to work. The new McDonald's in town got the pick of the high school students,...three or four of the top ten students from two high schools were there. It was fun. Very intelligent people don't mind the "drudgery" because they can do the job and think about anything else. Although with high schoolers I think it was mainly um, inter personal relationships.
I thought that, too, when I first read him several years ago.
But then he zeroed in on target a few times.
Now he's gone overboard again and I'm not sure how to judge him.
Very few buyers at all I'm marking all the loose diamond down 10 to 30 percent today ..
How you you price them in the first place? There's the "guaranteed to retail price" and there's the wholesale price that you pay in retail shops and there's the market price dealers pay each other.
Me too, but the assumption that 100% of these people are now underemployed isn't correct. Some were OVER employed previously.
After the 2001 tech layoffs, Best Buy found lots of former IT people working there, mostly in the computer or Geek Squad type area (not sure it was called that back then.) My experience with them was that 70-80% were way underemployed and made me wish my company could hire them, and that 5-10% were way over employed at Best Buy despite their IT pasts. The rest were on the fence.
I don't see how the non IT guys could get a foot in the door unless they were there previously, or really good and know how to standout.
"I have found the workers at McD's have no sense of humour. "
Cry-babies...one could be in charge of french fries pool in no time! And then Worker of The Month and maybe rise up to become overworked work-shift manager! Lousy pay but workers mainly work for pleasure, right?
The "area under the curve" on the Percentage Job loss chart is interesting.
The inflection point is, too.
Looks like March, 2009, which is a trailing indicator to the "green shoots" meme.
I wouldn't be surprised if the big spike in January triggered the inflection, at least partially.
We price less then wholesale . It's that with most jewelry made overseas(india) there almost no wholesale market for diamond under a 1 ct in this country .
Actually I think the changes that McD's has been going through has put a good amount of stress on the people who work and manage them.
There seems to be a significant amount of pressure there even if most people consider them "McJobs".
We started to design and manufacture to try and create a market for them . In talks with Carnival Cruise line about opening a store on the cruise dock in Honduras
There seems to be a significant amount of pressure there even if most people consider them "McJobs".
Well, there are McCorpCo stores and franchises. The corporation stores are soulless, the franchises vary with the operator. There are both within a couple miles of me. It shows.
And fast food was one of the few ways someone with only a high school education could work up to a six figure salary.
Some investment 'analysts' speculate about what will happen to gold or RE and the line in the sand seems to be doubting that markets work honestly which is a point which might spook buyers of whatever asset is 'hot' at the time...imagine if RE/CRE investors were spooked by bad talk three or four years ago...that would have interfered with the sales effort and hurt the market and we don't want to do that...
Or order at the drive through and then pull off before paying and getting your food.
Or some great, glorious monkey wrench version of BOTH of our devious ideas.
Global Warming/ Climate Change Debate Summary from last week:
Is to.
Is not.
It has indeed moved on to a meta-discussion. That's why we've generally stopped talking about it during day posts unless there's a housing/economy tie-in.
'...mountains of new money are wasted and paid to failed bankers.'
'...economies are not responding to stimulus.'
'...home foreclosures and job losses continue unabated.'
-Jim Willie
Yeah thaT JIM wILLIE IS REALLY A WINGNUT!
Climate change "is maybe"
I'm still wondering why the Vikings called Greenland green land.
Oh, because at the time it was warm, then the planet got colder.
Maybe we need to warm up even more?
Or order at the drive through and then pull off before paying and getting your food.
The powers that be (fast food division) got wise to you, and you are locked in for the ride in many an outdoor eatery, once you place your order in that little speaker, where upon the voice asks you to pay at the first window, because they don't trust the 2nd one, as far as handling money is concerned.
CR - If the payroll revision of 824k is included (and say added today), where does that put the percent job losses for this recession?
And I don't know if energyecon is around, but word is that Zardari has a lot of pressure on him and may be on his way out. However, he will try to placate everyone first by giving in on certain political issues (the nuclear handover to Gilani was the first step), but it won't be enough. Speculation is that he is currently making backup plans to adopt the Sonia Gandhi model and put in Aiztaz Ahsan as President on the condition that Bilawal Bhutto is put in line for the PM position when he turns 35 and gets Ministerships along the way.
He's trolling for a climate change/ GW discussion.
Why do you say that? It sounded to me like he was complaining about the lack of genuine reporting by the MSM. They just continue to report what TPTB tell them to report. They wouldn't want to draw attention away from BHO or his message while he's at the climate conference in Copenhagen. Sounds like a legitimate beef-
BTW, nice call on the Hendrix. Did I ever mention that I met both Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell?
Obamachev knows the ins and outs of Copenhagen now, and i'd like him to ask the crafty Danes how they can sell those metal tins of butter cookies for next to nothing?
I'm still wondering why the Vikings called Greenland green land.
FWIW, they also traded with Eskimos "beyond" the areas of northern Canada where ships could pass for the last few hundred years. That's back when the Northwest Passage actually existed during the warm months.
Grant is a proponent of making currency convertible into gold, because it's the only way he can see to impose discipline on the managers of monetary policy. I think that has too many problems (arising mostly from the inability of gold supply to keep up with the growth in world GDP), but it is refreshing to hear someone discuss the basic store-of-value function of currency and its importance. No one amongst the PTB, and few amongst the public, place this function of the currency near the top of our economic agenda, where I think it belongs.
Good afternoon everyone. Waiting for the Giants-Cowboys game. Should be interesting to see which qb shows up. It is cold in DFW today. Not cold enough to snow but the air feels cooler to me today than when it was snowing the other day. Very weird. I was shivering by the time I got back from the forced road march to wear out my boys before nap time. I think it backfired. I am worn out and cold, and they are all wound up. Mrs. is baking, and I am making some beef stew. Nice Sunday afternoon.
Hi Vonbek.
Mrs. Gnome baked cookies this morning and now we've got a corned beef brisket cooking.
And I just finished my first extra spicy bloody mary.
Nice Sunday indeed.
Or order at the drive through and then pull off before paying and getting your food.
Or some great, glorious monkey wrench version of BOTH of our devious ideas.
Great! Now put your devious minds to work discomforting the CEOs of the large banks instead of minimum wage workers.
"Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that he planned to introduce legislation next year raising the maximum F.H.A. loan by $100,000, to $839,750."
"Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that he planned to introduce legislation next year raising the maximum F.H.A. loan by $100,000, to $839,750."
Wow, I just may be able to afford that outhouse with a 3.5% down payment now!
I don't understand the economics of unemployed Professionals taking low-wage retail jobs, considering unemployment benefits they are losing, and the waits until they get benefits again.
Yes we have cookies and pumpkin bread cooking. She is making her normal office holiday bake goods. Most people start checking out of the office starting next week so they get all the holiday stuff out of the way early. Makes the house smell good and we get samples!
considering unemployment benefits they are losing,
ahem.
Some people aren't collecting benefits.
I've only collected unemployment once, for two weeks in 1989.
I realize now I should have played the game like everyone else, though.
"Venezuela Widens Purge Of Bankers With New Arrest "
Venezuela: My fantasy land.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Sunday widened a police sweep against executives from seven troubled banks shut down despite their links with top government officials -- a move likely to win support for leftist President Hugo Chavez.
Police arrested the director of the Banco Real, Giuzel Mileira, bringing to six the number of bankers in custody.
The detainees include the brother of a senior minister close to Chavez and a businessman who made more than a billion dollars partly by selling corn to government-subsidized supermarkets.
"These bankers should be shown for what they really are to the public: vulgar robbers, thieves in ties, pickpockets and obstinate kleptomaniacs," Chavez said in a newspaper column published on Sunday.
Venezuela last week closed the seven small banks for diverse regulatory breaches including capitalisation problems and unexplained funds, causing market turmoil as Chavez threatened to nationalize the financial system.
Most analysts agree Chavez is unlikely to risk instability via a widespread nationalization of the country's mostly well-capitalized and profitable banks.
The rise of a new mega-rich elite during his decade in office has been a liability for Chavez, who wants to build a socialist society in Venezuela and took office in 1999 promising to end corruption.
The arrest of executives widely considered corrupt because of rapid increases in wealth and government ties is likely to be popular with Chavez's supporters ahead of key legislative elections in September. More detentions can be expected -- authorities have issued 27 warrants including 9 requests to Interpol for international arrests.
Opponents say the sweep is merely a sign of infighting within the government and will not touch any top officials.
"Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that he planned to introduce legislation next year raising the maximum F.H.A. loan by $100,000, to $839,750."
Wow, I just may be able to afford that outhouse with a 3.5% down payment now!
I don't understand the economics of unemployed Professionals taking low-wage retail jobs
According to the article, working was paying better than unemployment.welfare. It makes me suspicious about what those "professionals" were professing about their former salary.
But it's more than the $400 a week she'd been collecting in unemployment benefits.
"These bankers should be shown for what they really are to the public: vulgar robbers, thieves in ties, pickpockets and obstinate kleptomaniacs," Chavez said in a newspaper column published on Sunday.
You will NEVER hear an Elephant or an Ass President say this.
''....thanks to someone here re. AGW, the website HERE was PERFECT for a dummy like me. Spelled it out from both sides with links rather well.''
Some blog dude is more reliable than scientists? WTF? He doesn't even link to real sources.
Remember the old WWII posters with the legend "If you drive alone, you ride with Hitler?" A modern version might have "If you spout denialist trash you work for Exxon and Big Coal."
Yes, it's a vast conspiracy of bankers to bring all world governments crashing down in chaos, in order to build the Global Plantation out of the smoldering remains. And China and Russia are in on it, too.
I don't understand the economics of unemployed Professionals taking low-wage retail jobs, considering unemployment benefits they are losing, and the waits until they get benefits again.
Arizona unemployment maxed out at $212 the last time I was on it, IIRC. That was pre-tax, per week.
$400 is $10/hour after-tax for a 40 hour week and with no costs for travel to work, lunches. How much are seasonal retail workers making after-tax and after those expenses?
patientrenter:" it is refreshing to hear someone discuss the basic store-of-value function of currency and its importance. No one amongst the PTB, and few amongst the public, place this function of the currency near the top of our economic agenda, where I think it belongs."
When does the "I think for myself" part come in?
All of those people have proven themselves wrong in the past. It's from a position of emasculation that I think you write those words. It's emotionally the diametric opposite that should be in place.
Assuming the comute wasn't too bad, and it didn't interfere with interviewing for a "real" job, I'd rather work. It gets you out of the house and gives you the potential of networking with other people. Modern job hunting takes up only a couple of hours of online time per day anymore.
Here's my problem. I hate the fact that global warming has become another doctrine fight, where the science comes second place to what you believe. I get lumped in with the anti-global warming crowd all the time, and I personally don't feel I belong in that category either. Philosophically, I am a skeptic. I actually agree with a lot of the pollution concerns....I feel the planet is overpopulated...but I do not feel the ends justify the means. You can't advance mankind through fear. It always backfires IMHO. Now as I have stated personally, I feel an ice age is coming. But that belief is based on a series of dreams I had when I was younger. I take my dreams seriously because of personal experience but I sure as hell don't expect my dreams to be proof for anyone else to accept my belief that an ice age is coming. This is how I approach religion too. It is sort of a modified agnostic stance. It is hubris for me to believe that my personal experience (whether real or imagined...doesn't matter since it seems 'real' to me) could be grounds for anyone else to 'believe' in anything. A person should seek out their own understanding and own experience. We rely too much on others for what we believe. This is a form of spiritual voyeurism and is dangerous in my opinion. Back to my rantings on personal responsibility and liberty...we leave too much to experts for our own good. It is not just a matter of questioning everything...our founding fathers were for the most part, farmers...but their interests were across the spectrum. If you look at the questions and subjects they talked to each other about in their letters...it is amazing....it was a new age of philosophy. Now, one must specialize to the extreme due to 'complexity' but in so doing we have lost the bigger picture in my opinion. Enough ranting. Sorry.
It's the best way to go, if you want to max-out on return.
It's worth it just to keep the would be scammers out of the shop. And I think if he gets the one with the printout he can get a lot of negotiating leverage because then the seller isn't as suspicious that he's being ripped off when told his precious is 14kt and not 18kt.
"I dare just one of the 286 guests to make a comment."
... and do so for attribution.
I was thinking of an economic comment, but was diverted by the account creation request that I state my political position on a left-right continuum. This a false premise. At least it didn't require a response. So here I am Liz, comment and all, to prove that I am real.
Willie's interpretation of the conspiracies at work are too well-coordinated and assume too many shared goals.
It's a bunch of guys in different groups pursuing different goals, and sometime there's an alignment of interests and actions. There's implied and explicit conspiracies. A lot of what's happening is the implied behavior you see from oligopolies, concentrations of power - they take their cues from the actions of their competitors and often work in concert at a tactical level.
Some blog dude is more reliable than scientists? WTF? He doesn't even link to real sources.
Hey Pal.........all the links worked - with the exception of one moved WITHIN the link location. Due to the Hitler reference, you obviously also must be a scientist AND an idiot.
Babbling is an art. A lost art I might add. Hard to find that clever mix of cryptic and lunatic. It is important to appear harmless at all times though. Personally I like Socrates...yet he didn't hold sway with the secret sects either...applied his rapier wit equally to all. Why did he drink that poison? Personally I think he was hoping it was the red pill.
Well there was that spot in Colorado early this year.. burned the soles of the little girls feet off. Right through the shoes. Never heard whether that was an underground fire or what...but the surface temperature was incredible.
Wow, how much does one of those puppies set you back? Is it really worth the effort to test- or is it that you want to have a faster way to process all of the stuff rolling in? At some point is it worthwhile to process it fully yourself- or is that still too enviromentally prohibitive?
The other question I have is why is there no sorting and reselling operation skimming those smaller stones back to india?
I have noticed the price of silver is starting to impinge the operations of the big native american jewelry makers in the southwest, even the Manila benchmade fake stamp stuff is coming in too expensive for the flea market price points seen in the retail market/ weekend show folks.
I did pick up some quality Navajo work this weekend from a consignment shop source and was amazed how low she priced it for retail and the fact it hadn't moved yet. Quality collector stuff including signed Hopi work of a large kachina dancer pendant nearly 6 inches tall- paid 3x melt for it, not including the necklace, which was not original and only worth $50 on a good day. Got a stunning signed turquoise disc necklace for $120- vintage- at least 30 if not 40 years in immaculate condition, even on today's crappy market easy $300 plus.
Everything is on markdown here in Arizona, we truly are entering into a depression.
Time to put up the xmas lights.
The white metals are tough to test ( silver , Platium , Palladium ) with acid . The small stones are not the same color clarity ect so sending them back the offers are $15 a caret for mix goods . The machine cost 31k but with 5 stores it spend sorting up and save around 3% percent . There also alot of industial metal coming in that 40 to 60% silver that I need a better way to figure what it is ?
I heard two people talking about a couple of local businesses getting rid of the older workers because "they are killing us with insurance costs
Many of the things you might do to exclude people based on real or expected medical costs are illegal. A very significant one is not: excluding smokers.
Wow- just 15 a carat?
Somebody is getting fricking rich off of that spread.
I would guess that I could pay $20 and get a bunch of classifiers to recycle it into proper categories.
Jewelry has too many middlemen in the mix, with margins that are too high.
I wonder how long the industrial stream is going to continue.
I find that I can tell silver fairly well, as long as it has not been recently polished. The oxidation smell and look are dead giveaways. I also find a lot of the old stuff is only coin silver or worse (old meaning over 40 years)- but with the handmade stuff that is not a surprise.
I guess that palladium making a nice run is making it worthwhile.
5 stores? What do you do with the native american stuff? Ebay or just strip and melt?
I'm a big fan of cougars. Well, when I was in my late 20's.
Reasons:
- good in bed
- usually have kids, who will have good video games
- usually have money and will pay for good dinners / expensive drinks
- good gifts
Reasons:
- good in bed
- usually have kids, who will have good video games
- usually have money and will pay for good dinners / expensive drinks
- good gifts
So basically you were a gigolo-
-good work if you can get it....
CR OT but on earlier story
Fill strongly about Temp workers vs their older privileged workers here is a story from Japan which is like looking into future of the US. .
Japan May Ban Manufacturers From Hiring Temporary Employees - Bloomberg.com
A 'squeeze of alfalfa', is 4 tons.
Funny amount for such a demanding word...
4tons per cow?
For a herd of maybe a dozen, or so.
Still thinking about that lady at wal mart, eh Liz?
you have no idea of what they have planned for us
representational democracy
is best managed by fooling the sheeple...and its so easy
I didn't see any "ladies" in those photos?
I wasn't until you reminded me.
At the same party I attended last night I heard two people talking about a couple of local businesses getting rid of the older workers because "they are killing us with insurance costs"
You can fool em' most of the time sure enough, but once they figure out they've been hoodwinked, most every last one of 'em is A.R.M.ed to the teeth, and a few even have guns.
We older types are not worthy to live.
HomeGnome wrote:
your parties attract some of the nicest people
7.62 * 39mm
Liz<
Fresh baked chocolate chip cookies still warm from the oven.
Gretchen's latest in today's NYT
Last night, I canceled my home delivery subscription of the Times (after 20 years) before I saw this piece. Now I'm really glad I did. Let the Sulzbergers et al. pick the tab for this kind asset bubble nostalgia.
Missing Tanta more than ever . . .
apparatchica liz,
Are you past a particularly prime number?
wasn't my party volker.
Ours is on Dec 12th.
Keg of Guinness Stout.
Plus we invited a couple of our chef friends!
GO SAINTS!
All my numbers have been prime!
Oh the irony of chowing down some Toll House cookies!
Are you going to be a stand in for those Walmart people?
apparachica liz, et al
I do worry about you going on a prime-spree, maxing out your credit-cards and such.
Liz<
Nope.
I could gain 10 lbs and still be in my "optimal weight range".
But Mrs. Gnome is trying to fatten me up.
Tim, thanks. I doubt that would ever happen in the U.S.
Thanks for the article
best wishes
JD<
Classic.
As always.
:hat tip icon:
Why would a flight-risk ever set foot on an airplane?
jd
the squeeze has to do with compacting the alfalfa,right?
Unfair. Sheesh.
Taking
from the 
keeps me fit.
Weight lifting with
bars?
And I think it is going to get worse.
I dare just one of the 286 guests to make a comment.
And chasing Mrs. Gnome around.
I try to corner her in the kitchen.
,rad Gnome,
Thanks for the kind words and worry not, I have an endless supply of the inane, about a squeeze-full.
Here, have a virtual squeeze, Juvie.
So poor Gretchen gets one right:
This is why I keep saying that we need to lock the banks in a room and make them trade paper. They don't get let out until they've consolidated loans.
lawyerliz wrote:
They can't because they're not real people.
GroupHug!
apparatchica gabyjan,
That is my understanding, yes.
Uh, oh, CR posting phoney figures??
Nah.
But the way there is a house for sale in Brevard County
on Pony Circle.
4 squeezes and what do you get?
a restraining order?
We used to be a mom-and-pop shop. But after 4 years of kvetching incessantly, I got downsized. Not I'm just a temp, tossed aside like a used hankie.
Cookies and Blood Marys?
jd
is it 16 tons?
She's here with us virtually, so i'd like to include her to make it a Bair hug, if that's ok with you?
another day older and deeper in debt?
Nearly half a trillion in 2nds, hunh?
Worth at most 200m and maybe a whole lot more than
that. We were counting total losses for a while and seem
not to be doing it any more. what are the total losses on
Real estate mtges so far. Just mtges, 1st and 2nd?
2T? 2 1/2T? 3T?
16 tons, and whadayou get
another day older and deeper in debt.
a squeeze:
Udderly impossible to determine
16 will get you 20 in most states, but 15 will get you $50 in Wisconsin, funny that.
shure
lawyerliz wrote:
I sold my soul to the credit card companies.
I'm still reacting to the hammer to the side of the head news over at Jim Sinclair's site.
His reader, Richard B, reviewed the average hit the FDIC is taking on each of 5 of the 6 banks that were closed on Friday.
The average loss is 25% of stated asset value.
Extrapolating, and being a bit biased, as this fiasco of declining RE values is not over yet, the impact on the society, now valued at the margin, recognized and realized, is 25% of the total stated assets on all but international bank balance sheets.
That's how many trillion? For real?
It's obvious that the USG can monetize that. But will it come at no cost, as it has so far?
When does hyperinflation kick in? Or is it a Mish'ean reality filled only with deflation?
Welcome To Jim Sinclair’s MineSet 12/05/09
Excerpts:
The total cost to the DIR of closing this week’s failed banks exceeds 25% of their total deposits. By contrast, the FDIC was only required to make up about 5.7% of insured deposits in connection with the three banks it closed in 2007, at the beginning of this crisis.
The details of this week’s closings also point out some troublesome discrepancies between the value of assets stated on the banks’ balance sheets and their perceived market value. Five of the six acquiring banks this week required the FDIC to enter loss-share agreements as a condition of their purchasing the assets of the failed institutions.
Insisting upon a loss-share agreement indicates the prospective buyer is so worried about the value of the assets it is purchasing, it is unwilling to alone bear the risk that their value will turn out to be lower than anticipated. In the case of the three banks closed in 2007, none of the acquiring banks required that the FDIC enter into a loss-share agreement.
...
This week’s bank closings continue to warn of U.S. banks’ deteriorating balance sheets and of the FDIC’s inability to resolve troubled banks before they cause extraordinary losses. Nationwide, banks are going broke much faster than the FDIC can close them. This creates a domino effect whereby the FDIC loses the ability to mitigate losses at the same time it exhausts its capacity to pay claims.
As of November 12, 2009, the DIF had fallen into deficit and in order to replenish it, the FDIC ordered banks to pre-pay three years’ worth of deposit insurance premiums, amounting to about $45 billion. In the three weeks since then, the FDIC has been forced to acknowledge another $3.394 billion in liabilities – more than 7.5% of the new revenue it is attempting to raise by way of the pre-payments. Very soon the entire $45 billion will be wiped out and the U.S. Treasury will become the FDIC’s sole source of funding for years to come.
Any suggestions that U.S. federal deficits will be reduced, quantitative easing will be curbed or the Fed will attempt to drain liquidity from the financial system need to be evaluated in this context.
Help! I've fallen and I can't get up.
This is what you call :Suboptimal Dismal Performance. or SDP for short.
HomeGnome wrote:
One of the things I think a lot of folks miss is that many companies, including every employer I've had for the last 20 years, underwrite themselves. A such, it isn't some mysterious insurance headquartered in some faraway state that ends up denying coverage to someone ill, it's actually the company that they work for. The insurance companies themselves handle administrative costs and also help distribute risk by writing policies with other insurers to cover major cost overruns.
At the last company I worked at, which was quite small, one older employee got cancer, and his bills roughly equaled everyone else's bills combined. That combined with some poor inventory management and consequent write offs resulted in a 10% layoff, and in the remaining employees having their out-of-pocket insurance costs nearly tripled (they had previously only paid about 10% of actual costs), 401k matching restricted to 3% of salary, and other things. I was laid off, but fortunately the job market was still decent, and I ended up getting a much better paying job with better benefits. I really dodged a bullet, since just last year they had a 20% layoff. Their benefits had been quite good for the years I worked there, but no more.
lawyerliz wrote:
After all, it IS our fault we're a drag on society, right?
Slumdog,
What do you think of Jim Willie's analysis?
http://www.apmex.com/Resources/Catalog%20Images/Products/55106_Obv.jpg
I would sell this or have it melted into 400 1 oz immediately if I had it.
CalculatedRisk wrote:
Here in the US, we're all temporary workers-
,rad Bosch,
The SDP map, vaguely looks like the USA.
The left part is California, and the Red streak down the middle, divided the have religion, from the have nots.
CR
Did you mean the labor market will never resemble Japan?
or
The Us will never ban hiring temp workers?
gabyjan wrote:
Into silage?
Into soil lent green.
Depending on the squeeze, your silage may vary.
Hyperbole?
Gold...as 'battlefield for global control of the financial world'?
Gold Nexus for Powerful Struggle Underway for New Global Financial World Order :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website
A piece of the true relic?
Ahh, such a nice morning, I had to stop by here for some doom and gloom just to even things out.
Forget the smell of cookies, I just mashed in 15 lbs of grains to make a blonde beer. Talk about a great smell!
Tim waiting for 2012 wrote:
After reading the article, it sounds as though the Nipponese are intent upon extending their string of bad financial choices, and guaranteeing that any new work will be outsourced to China, and yet another lost decade-
Cinco-X
It is a good policy that came oh 15-20 years too late.
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
Do you malt it, or use it straight?
All pre-malted, or else it will not convert to sugar.
Kahuna<
No disagreement here.
I compost my brewing "waste".
What do you do with yours?
The weird X-Factor with Japan and China is that little sticky fortnight from 1931 to 1945.
Anybody care to chime in how you've seen it on display in-between the 2 ex-adversaries nowadays?
Tim waiting for 2012 wrote:
The idea is to make more Nipponese had full time jobs, and I think it will fail, and even the part time jobs will end up leaving the country. Maybe they'll ship some here
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
Do you do your own malting, or buy it that way?
Off to the driving range to watch the hub hit
golf balls.
HomeGnome - I live in an apartment, so no ability to mulch or anything to use it on. Right now it goes into a trash bag.
Someday I may be able to afford a SFH, but it is looking more and more like that will mean leaving Hawaii.
So is Jim Sinclair for the 'just print' your way out option...if he thinks withdrawing QE is not an option...
JD
China and Japan are more interdependent than they were 20 years ago. There is probably more unity between the two countries than at any time after WWII.
Its the US-Japan ties that are coming apart at the seams
Do they have Tiger Woods mannequins to aim at, liz? That could be amusing.
Cinco-X - I buy it pre-malted. It takes a good amount of space to malt and quickly dry large amounts of grains. Space is a premium here.
Juvenal Delinquent wrote:
What's true for China and Japan is also true for Korea and Japan, Taiwan and Japan, Thailand and Japan..........yet the Nipponese have outsourced work to those countries as their internal costs have risen.
ET Al Speaking of Liqour
Is it true that Olde English is called Colonial Bastard in the UK?
Tim waiting for 2012 wrote:
Huh?
lawyerliz wrote:
another big day in wrinkle city
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
Make friends with a chicken or pig farmer; you might get free eggs or a suckling pig in exchange-
MOF, I don't know what Willie thinks. I guess I could look. But my calls are my own. I've allowed Sinclair into my consciousness. The rest is my read off the publicly available long term and daily charts. The patterns always repeat. The most recent gap days in gold followed by a 60 pt 24 hour drop prove the point.
I used to think that at the time I was studying this, 91-92, full time, that predictive programming, neural networks, would change the dependability of historical truth. Then I decided that was a bogeyman. We're human. We always do the same thing during high anxiety moments. The S&P and gold are reflections at times of the entire world. Hence, the markets move in the same ways they've done historically. That was a giant relief for me to conclude that some years ago.
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
Got'cha; I was just wonderin'-
RD
Japan refusing requests by US Army to move bases. Winding down US treasury purchases. Its here and there
Yes, it seems like the US has inherited the European tradition of hold grudges. Of course Africa, and the middle east seems really good at is also.
Kahuna<
Wet grain smells absolutely horrible when it is first composting.
Whew!
Cinco is right.
Makes great feed.
Rob Dawg wrote:
I think this may be a reference to rumors of the Nipponese selling dollars and T-bills-
deleted
Slumdog<
I saw that and it has been noted.
Not for humans, but you can bake some really great dog biscuits with them.
I know a lot of people that put it out for the birds and deer to eat.
They are great for mulch etc but none of those options for me.
We don't all feel a need to blabber endlessly off topic...
2 minutes in the penalty-box for cross-checking.
Slumdog - Well put, instincts still rule us and everyone seems to be fearful and greedy in differing extremes.
'The $700 billion man' turns reclusive.
The $700 billion man - washingtonpost.com
"Within a week, Kashkari and his wife put their belongings into "indefinite storage." They moved to a cabin near the Truckee River in Northern California. "Off the map," he told his friends. He threw away his business cards, and made a list of the things he wanted to do: "
Those GS bonus's come handy repairing bad karma!
MEMO FROM JAPAN; Japan’s Relationship With U.S. Gets a Closer Look - NY Times
. A case in point has been the discussion over relocating the unpopular Futenma Marine Corps Air Base off the southern island of Okinawa. American officials have pressed Tokyo to honor a 2006 agreement to relocate the base to a less populated part of Okinawa, but Japan’s Democrats pledged during the campaign to relocate the base off Okinawa or even out of Japan altogether.
Even after President Obama’s feel-good visit to Tokyo last month, the government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has begun an inquiry to expose secret cold war-era agreements that allowed American nuclear weapons into Japan and has conducted a rare public review of its financial support for the 50,000 United States military workers based here
http://www.apmex.com/Resources/Catalog%20Images/Products/55106_Obv.jpg
I would cast it all into .45 caliber bullets (and pass them out to disgruntled sorts). Then, when the EMTs came to the rescue of the fallen
, I'd laugh myself sick as the EMTs dug out the bullets, then tossed the worthless shits back onto the sidewalk. Could be some good pay-per-view or a reality series out of that.
That's one hellova 'cabin'.
I hope smearing himself with honey, putting on a salmon bandolier and going for a hike was on his list.
700Billion, a figure pulled out of the air. What a Country.
tim
got link?
Slightly OT. Somalia is America.
Pirate ransoms drive prices up in Somalia
'Those who control the gold control the global banking with all its trappings.' - Jim Willie
Gold Nexus for Powerful Struggle Underway for New Global Financial World Order :: The Market Oracle :: Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting Free Website
Yes! 5% of 14T.
Those pics remind me of the Chimp clearing brush on the "ranch".
Just your average Joe.
ARGH is a strong buy.
Somali pirate stock-market: "we've made piracy a community activity." Boing Boing
It's a funny story, cash-n-carry.
He came out of nowhere, last year, a curious choice everybody thought.
And then he was gone...
Must read opinion piece by David Malpass in WSJ on how ZIRP policy is hurting the US
Fund My Mutual Fund: David Malpass: Near Zero Rates are Hurting the Economy
Are there grizzly bears in those woods?
Last Griz went down in 1926, in Ca.
MaryAnn wrote:
Wasn't that the rounded off amount allotted for TARP?
Willie thinks a lack of gold inventory will be revealed and lead to GLD shares selling at 'discounts' of 40% and then 80% after lawsuits.
A gold suckerplay like the RE/CRE suckerplay bubble?
thanks tim
I was talking to a friend in the jewelry making business. He said they are melting down a lot of gold jewelry just to generate cash. It is 18k so they get about 75% of the bullion price.
He said that if his company got a big order from a retailer, it would create a dilemma. There is so much late pay and bad debt that they can't be sure how long it would take to generate cash from the order, if ever. He said the late pay and bad debt cuts across all size and sectors of retail customers. There aren't any sure credits left in the jewelry biz.
They are basically in runoff mode, liquidating what stock they have left. When I asked which big jewelers looked solid, he couldn't name one. He said Zales may be in trouble.
Juvenal Delinquent wrote:
Cinderella story, about to become,... the greatest Santa Claus in history,...
Jobless professionals vie for holiday sales work - Yahoo! News
sdtfs
yeah with one shop stopping
The next bubble: Financial Therapy.
(AP) - As the recession hit, an Athens, Ga., couple received some unusual help as they struggled to make ends meet without it hurting their relationship.
Jeremy and Kelly Field participated in a study at the University of Georgia aimed at merging the realms of therapy and financial planning. The couple walked away applauding the blended approach, which is being tested at Kansas State University as well.
A Nashville therapist and his son also have started writing about the subject.
Jeremy Field was searching for work when they participated, and the loss of his job meant a huge cut in wages.
He says things were tense but the therapy "definitely helped."
The research results were published recently, and Kansas State University hopes to publish its first batch in the next few months.
The social worker who worked at the senior residence when my mother was there (God bless her soul), is now available for work around our neighborhood for snow shoveling.
Willie has developed into some kind of nut. At one time he was a quite excellent analyst. In the last few years though he got increasingly nuttier. I believe his livelihood is dependent on his subscriber base which may explain, in part, his rather severe change. If not he has simply lost it. Might be the Costa Rican air.
Has anyone posted this yet? I find it particularly disturbing:
Jobless Professionals Vie for Holiday Sales Work - ABC News
That helps explain why shoppers who phone customer service at online retailer Moosejaw Mountaineering get Scott Beebe, a trained engineer with two postgraduate degrees and eight years of experience in product development for General Motors.
**
So in the meantime, he's taken a temporary job at Moosejaw's call center in suburban Detroit. He's making $8 an hour.
edit: oh pavel, you beat me to it. Gotta be quick around here.
The "area under the curve" on the Percentage Job loss chart is interesting. Assuming we start a recovery now, and recover at the same rate as we lost, there will be very roughly two and a half times the pain.
Cinco, probably, so many billions I forget who did what and when, brain fried from age and work.
HomeGnome wrote:
Ahhh, one of my wife's favorite shows, Arrested Development. Financial Analysis and Therapist==Financial Analrapist
Has anyone posted this yet?
Same story at 3:07.
yeah, I just saw that pavel and edited.
You are quick.
X-mas Jewelry sales at the Pawnshop I own are down . Almost every customer is selling gold not buying it
RE,
Have to look at Willie's recent calls to see his track record. Has he been way off lately? Gold bugs should know.
C. 1980 Vintage 14.50 ct. t.w. Diamond and 2.75 ct. t.w. Emerald Necklace In 18kt White Gold 16" - #243581 | Ross-Simons
Credit enema is coming wrote:
What are the hot selling items this year?
It's getting to the point where we hope to get jobs as good as the ones we got as teenagers.
I'll never forget my first job - at Burger King, while I was in high school. Each shift I got a complimentary whopper, onion rings, soda & hot apple pie. I thought that was a great benny back then.
If I have to apply at BK again, at least I can put that prior experience on my application. It may give me an edge over the engineers.
Credit enema is coming -
Every time I see your handle I'm picturing Jack as the Joker in Batman saying:
"What this town needs is a credit enema"!
So true.
Outsider<
They don't sell Big Macs at Burger King.
--Fail.
snafu
thanks for the link to the wapo article
700 billion dollar man
inciteful
Thank you homegnome for not hitting reply, I was able to edit.
That would really hurt my chances, eh?
No doubt.
Hey, I walk into BK all the time and order a big mac, just to mess with their minds.
Very few buyers at all I'm marking all the loose diamond down 10 to 30 percent today ..
kauai_kahuna
...order a whopper at mickey ds?
Outsider wrote:
I find it encouraging, in a twisted way. One of the points in the article is that the stores are getting much much better help,...yea!. The guy with two post docs is working to fill up his time, with a buy out from GM, I doubt he's seriously cash constrained yet. And as more people have to depend on the social support network, it'll change a few attitudes on what a great society is all about.
Cold blooded? Yes, but since we're going through this turmoil, it'll be nice if something good comes from it.
I have found the workers at McD's have no sense of humour.
Here is one job possibility:
"http://thetravelersnotebook.com/travel-and-adventure-jobs/how-to-become-a-bush-pilot/"
"You must be able to deal with abnormal conditions like removing ice from the control-surfaces of the plane, because it got frozen over night. In Africa, we had to change tires because the Lions chewed through them!"
Here biiig kitty kitty, eat some Goodyear!
kauai
yeah i know bummer isnt it?
I feel so sorry for Kashkari. Stuck in Lake Tahoe now. 80% pay cut to run a $700 billion program...hates big gubmint intervening in markets...but if he and cronies are in charge...and it helps banks...
Scumbag.
,rad credit,
What's the most liquid, easy to sell item wholesale, in your pawnshop?
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
Different times. When I was a teenager McDonald's was a great place to work. The new McDonald's in town got the pick of the high school students,...three or four of the top ten students from two high schools were there. It was fun. Very intelligent people don't mind the "drudgery" because they can do the job and think about anything else. Although with high schoolers I think it was mainly um, inter personal relationships.
RE wrote:
I thought that, too, when I first read him several years ago.
But then he zeroed in on target a few times.
Now he's gone overboard again and I'm not sure how to judge him.
Credit enema is coming wrote:
How you you price them in the first place? There's the "guaranteed to retail price" and there's the wholesale price that you pay in retail shops and there's the market price dealers pay each other.
Juvenal Delinquent wrote:
I'll be disappointed if it isn't Elvis memorabilia.
I'm heavily invested in my first extra spicy bloody mary of the day.
Outsider wrote:
Me too, but the assumption that 100% of these people are now underemployed isn't correct. Some were OVER employed previously.
After the 2001 tech layoffs, Best Buy found lots of former IT people working there, mostly in the computer or Geek Squad type area (not sure it was called that back then.) My experience with them was that 70-80% were way underemployed and made me wish my company could hire them, and that 5-10% were way over employed at Best Buy despite their IT pasts. The rest were on the fence.
I don't see how the non IT guys could get a foot in the door unless they were there previously, or really good and know how to standout.
CNN just reported evidence of GW is strong and solid. Next piece 4" of snow in Louisiana.
tg<
You are aware this is a No Trolling area, aren't you?
"I have found the workers at McD's have no sense of humour. "
Cry-babies...one could be in charge of french fries pool in no time! And then Worker of The Month and maybe rise up to become overworked work-shift manager! Lousy pay but workers mainly work for pleasure, right?
I don't know if anyone follows this blog, today he has some good reading.
ZIRP, failing modifications, etc.
Fund My Mutual Fund - Stock Market, Economic, Equity Analysis - Via A Model Mutual Fund
Disempowered Paper Pusher wrote:
The inflection point is, too.
Looks like March, 2009, which is a trailing indicator to the "green shoots" meme.
I wouldn't be surprised if the big spike in January triggered the inflection, at least partially.
Global Warming/ Climate Change Debate Summary from last week:
Is to.
Is not.
Which is surprisingly like the
debate.
We price less then wholesale . It's that with most jewelry made overseas(india) there almost no wholesale market for diamond under a 1 ct in this country .
If somebody asks WWJD @ a McDonalds, usually he makes the quarter-pounders.
Actually I think the changes that McD's has been going through has put a good amount of stress on the people who work and manage them.
There seems to be a significant amount of pressure there even if most people consider them "McJobs".
What would Jimi do?
YouTube - Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix (High Quality)
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
Responsibility without authority.
The malady of the large corporation.
That's what sucks about IT contracting, too.
We started to design and manufacture to try and create a market for them . In talks with Carnival Cruise line about opening a store on the cruise dock in Honduras
MaryAnn wrote:
Ya', I know; a billion here, a billion there.......
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
Well, there are McCorpCo stores and franchises. The corporation stores are soulless, the franchises vary with the operator. There are both within a couple miles of me. It shows.
And fast food was one of the few ways someone with only a high school education could work up to a six figure salary.
Some investment 'analysts' speculate about what will happen to gold or RE and the line in the sand seems to be doubting that markets work honestly which is a point which might spook buyers of whatever asset is 'hot' at the time...imagine if RE/CRE investors were spooked by bad talk three or four years ago...that would have interfered with the sales effort and hurt the market and we don't want to do that...
Do yourselves a favor and STOP eating the fast "food".
HomeGnome wrote:
Yes I will go back under my bridge, sorry
YouTube - Holy Grail - Killer Bunny
Ever want to throw a spanner in the fast-food works?
Order a dozen regular hamburgers, each without something or another. Like one w/o catchup, one without pickles, one without mustard, etc.
Credit enema is coming wrote:
Are you still buying tools, or have you stopped?
What is the drop through rate for pawn?
Hope everything else is going well.
Someday this war's gonna end...
Or order at the drive through and then pull off before paying and getting your food.
Or some great, glorious monkey wrench version of BOTH of our devious ideas.
HomeGnome wrote:
It has indeed moved on to a meta-discussion. That's why we've generally stopped talking about it during day posts unless there's a housing/economy tie-in.
,rad Dawgma,
Why do you revel so, in your climate Luddite ways?
HomeGnome wrote:
For what do you suggest he is trolling?
On the other hand there is a shortage of physical gold at the major online bullion dealers. Most of them are out of stock on several items
'...mountains of new money are wasted and paid to failed bankers.'
'...economies are not responding to stimulus.'
'...home foreclosures and job losses continue unabated.'
-Jim Willie
Yeah thaT JIM wILLIE IS REALLY A WINGNUT!
He's trolling for a climate change/ GW discussion.
Don't get started or I will pull this car over and turn right around!
No vacation for you.
Climate change "is maybe"
I'm still wondering why the Vikings called Greenland green land.
Oh, because at the time it was warm, then the planet got colder.
Maybe we need to warm up even more?
The powers that be (fast food division) got wise to you, and you are locked in for the ride in many an outdoor eatery, once you place your order in that little speaker, where upon the voice asks you to pay at the first window, because they don't trust the 2nd one, as far as handling money is concerned.
New Orleans may have to work up a sweat today...
CR - If the payroll revision of 824k is included (and say added today), where does that put the percent job losses for this recession?
And I don't know if energyecon is around, but word is that Zardari has a lot of pressure on him and may be on his way out. However, he will try to placate everyone first by giving in on certain political issues (the nuclear handover to Gilani was the first step), but it won't be enough. Speculation is that he is currently making backup plans to adopt the Sonia Gandhi model and put in Aiztaz Ahsan as President on the condition that Bilawal Bhutto is put in line for the PM position when he turns 35 and gets Ministerships along the way.
........try that while I'm preparing the food order........hehehehe.......
....thanks to someone here re. AGW, the website HERE was PERFECT for a dummy like me. Spelled it out from both sides with links rather well.
MoF<
Tell me about it.
I might be losing some coin today.
Who said anything about eating it?
HomeGnome wrote:
Why do you say that? It sounded to me like he was complaining about the lack of genuine reporting by the MSM. They just continue to report what TPTB tell them to report. They wouldn't want to draw attention away from BHO or his message while he's at the climate conference in Copenhagen. Sounds like a legitimate beef-
BTW, nice call on the Hendrix. Did I ever mention that I met both Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell?
---Those mockingbirds do sing.
I wonder if their place is on Donner lake...
Obamachev knows the ins and outs of Copenhagen now, and i'd like him to ask the crafty Danes how they can sell those metal tins of butter cookies for next to nothing?
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
FWIW, they also traded with Eskimos "beyond" the areas of northern Canada where ships could pass for the last few hundred years. That's back when the Northwest Passage actually existed during the warm months.
JD<
Do you have any good hush puppy recipes?
Black Star Ranch wrote:
I thought we weren't going to have that discussion today!?
I had Donner kabobs when I was last there with HP Loancraft, and they told me it was lamb, hmmmm...
Nice article in the WSJ, from James Grant, one of my favorite financial thinkers:
From Bear to Bull: James Grant on Recession and Recovery - WSJ.com
Grant is a proponent of making currency convertible into gold, because it's the only way he can see to impose discipline on the managers of monetary policy. I think that has too many problems (arising mostly from the inability of gold supply to keep up with the growth in world GDP), but it is refreshing to hear someone discuss the basic store-of-value function of currency and its importance. No one amongst the PTB, and few amongst the public, place this function of the currency near the top of our economic agenda, where I think it belongs.
alybaba wrote:
alybaba,
two quick questions:
1. Marines moving tanks into A'stan. Do you know what route?
2. Where in P'stan are the drones bases?
Thanks!
merchants of fear wrote:
You neglected his "vast conspiracy' theory and the New World Order.
homeGnome
i love fast food,maybe once a month.loved it before mickey ds came on the scene.hamburgers,hot dogs cheese dogs oh yes. give me
Good afternoon everyone. Waiting for the Giants-Cowboys game. Should be interesting to see which qb shows up. It is cold in DFW today. Not cold enough to snow but the air feels cooler to me today than when it was snowing the other day. Very weird. I was shivering by the time I got back from the forced road march to wear out my boys before nap time. I think it backfired. I am worn out and cold, and they are all wound up. Mrs. is baking, and I am making some beef stew. Nice Sunday afternoon.
Aints looking so good ,rad Gnome.
from above x 3 .....",,,,Global Warming/ Climate Change Debate Summary....)
what debate..its over, right?
scientist at a university in england stifled debate and perverted data
doesnt matter what the japanese, the germans, or even, nasa , noaa are doing
all climate issues dead...guilt by association
kinda like republican family values...
once sanford cheated on his wife and mark foley messed around with congressional pages
all family values issues are dead
forget that there are good republicans who care about keeping families in tact
forget that there are diligent and honest climatologist who have evidence CO2 is wasting the planet
we can wreck families and still have a stable society
we can pour 30 billion metric tons of CO2 into the air no problem
List of countries by carbon dioxide emissions - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hi Vonbek.
Mrs. Gnome baked cookies this morning and now we've got a corned beef brisket cooking.
And I just finished my first extra spicy bloody mary.
Nice Sunday indeed.
HomeGnome wrote:
Great! Now put your devious minds to work discomforting the CEOs of the large banks instead of minimum wage workers.
I just found this article in the NYT from late November, giving us an idea what's in store for FHA loans next year:
BACK TO BUSINESS; Easy Loans in Expensive Areas - NY Times
Here's the look-ahead part:
"Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that he planned to introduce legislation next year raising the maximum F.H.A. loan by $100,000, to $839,750."
JD<
Tell me about it.
You have any paper bags I could borrow?
If it will sell on ebay we take it outside of gas engine stuff ( Fire dept ) . 90% jewerly
HomeGnome wrote:
HomeGnome, how did you find that gem, Mrs Gnome?
1 electric drill
3/32nds spade bit
salt
done.
,rad credit,
Do you make dore bars out of your scrap jewelry, or sell it outright as-is?
"Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said in an interview that he planned to introduce legislation next year raising the maximum F.H.A. loan by $100,000, to $839,750."
Wow, I just may be able to afford that outhouse with a 3.5% down payment now!
I don't understand the economics of unemployed Professionals taking low-wage retail jobs, considering unemployment benefits they are losing, and the waits until they get benefits again.
Yes we have cookies and pumpkin bread cooking. She is making her normal office holiday bake goods. Most people start checking out of the office starting next week so they get all the holiday stuff out of the way early. Makes the house smell good and we get samples!
SNAFU wrote:
Are you working for "Al Qaeda" ?
Usually, when one resorts to a brown paper bag, it's a rather pathetic attempt to act like they aren't drinking in public.
It's a secret.
PastTense wrote:
ahem.
Some people aren't collecting benefits.
I've only collected unemployment once, for two weeks in 1989.
I realize now I should have played the game like everyone else, though.
"Venezuela Widens Purge Of Bankers With New Arrest "
Venezuela: My fantasy land.
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela on Sunday widened a police sweep against executives from seven troubled banks shut down despite their links with top government officials -- a move likely to win support for leftist President Hugo Chavez.
Police arrested the director of the Banco Real, Giuzel Mileira, bringing to six the number of bankers in custody.
The detainees include the brother of a senior minister close to Chavez and a businessman who made more than a billion dollars partly by selling corn to government-subsidized supermarkets.
"These bankers should be shown for what they really are to the public: vulgar robbers, thieves in ties, pickpockets and obstinate kleptomaniacs," Chavez said in a newspaper column published on Sunday.
Venezuela last week closed the seven small banks for diverse regulatory breaches including capitalisation problems and unexplained funds, causing market turmoil as Chavez threatened to nationalize the financial system.
Most analysts agree Chavez is unlikely to risk instability via a widespread nationalization of the country's mostly well-capitalized and profitable banks.
The rise of a new mega-rich elite during his decade in office has been a liability for Chavez, who wants to build a socialist society in Venezuela and took office in 1999 promising to end corruption.
The arrest of executives widely considered corrupt because of rapid increases in wealth and government ties is likely to be popular with Chavez's supporters ahead of key legislative elections in September. More detentions can be expected -- authorities have issued 27 warrants including 9 requests to Interpol for international arrests.
Opponents say the sweep is merely a sign of infighting within the government and will not touch any top officials.
'WHOEVER FALLS, FALLS'
Kauai_Kahuna wrote:
Anything in there about allowing no-doc loans?
PastTense wrote:
According to the article, working was paying better than unemployment.welfare. It makes me suspicious about what those "professionals" were professing about their former salary.
Broward,
BUSH Sr. Mentioned the NWO too.
You will NEVER hear an Elephant or an Ass President say this.
Broward,
How are your powers of observation?
''....thanks to someone here re. AGW, the website HERE was PERFECT for a dummy like me. Spelled it out from both sides with links rather well.''
Some blog dude is more reliable than scientists? WTF? He doesn't even link to real sources.
Remember the old WWII posters with the legend "If you drive alone, you ride with Hitler?" A modern version might have "If you spout denialist trash you work for Exxon and Big Coal."
next week we are buying a xrf machine ( RoHS Compliance and Lead Screening, Environmental Testing and Mining Applications Using Handheld XRF ) We will then melt into a homogeneous mix bar send it in. Currently we just sort it and ship it
Cinco-X wrote:
Grow up. Believe me, Al Q'da knows, T'baan knows, Pakistanis know, Indians know.
NO is in trouble...
merchants of fear wrote:
Yes, it's a vast conspiracy of bankers to bring all world governments crashing down in chaos, in order to build the Global Plantation out of the smoldering remains. And China and Russia are in on it, too.
PastTense wrote:
Arizona unemployment maxed out at $212 the last time I was on it, IIRC. That was pre-tax, per week.
Kinda like releasing the "torture photos", no?
I'm sorry "harmless frat party pics".
My apologies to Rush.
Guess he can't hear me though.
Junkie.
$400 is $10/hour after-tax for a 40 hour week and with no costs for travel to work, lunches. How much are seasonal retail workers making after-tax and after those expenses?
It's the best way to go, if you want to max-out on return.
patientrenter:" it is refreshing to hear someone discuss the basic store-of-value function of currency and its importance. No one amongst the PTB, and few amongst the public, place this function of the currency near the top of our economic agenda, where I think it belongs."
When does the "I think for myself" part come in?
All of those people have proven themselves wrong in the past. It's from a position of emasculation that I think you write those words. It's emotionally the diametric opposite that should be in place.
Don't freak out just yet, MoF.
"I dare just one of the 286 guests to make a comment. " - LL
" Stoop down, pick up your brother, do not question whether he is deserving, because in the end, none of us are. " - Hoopajoops LTD
Excellent, Hoops!
Assuming the comute wasn't too bad, and it didn't interfere with interviewing for a "real" job, I'd rather work. It gets you out of the house and gives you the potential of networking with other people. Modern job hunting takes up only a couple of hours of online time per day anymore.
Here's my problem. I hate the fact that global warming has become another doctrine fight, where the science comes second place to what you believe. I get lumped in with the anti-global warming crowd all the time, and I personally don't feel I belong in that category either. Philosophically, I am a skeptic. I actually agree with a lot of the pollution concerns....I feel the planet is overpopulated...but I do not feel the ends justify the means. You can't advance mankind through fear. It always backfires IMHO. Now as I have stated personally, I feel an ice age is coming. But that belief is based on a series of dreams I had when I was younger. I take my dreams seriously because of personal experience but I sure as hell don't expect my dreams to be proof for anyone else to accept my belief that an ice age is coming. This is how I approach religion too. It is sort of a modified agnostic stance. It is hubris for me to believe that my personal experience (whether real or imagined...doesn't matter since it seems 'real' to me) could be grounds for anyone else to 'believe' in anything. A person should seek out their own understanding and own experience. We rely too much on others for what we believe. This is a form of spiritual voyeurism and is dangerous in my opinion. Back to my rantings on personal responsibility and liberty...we leave too much to experts for our own good. It is not just a matter of questioning everything...our founding fathers were for the most part, farmers...but their interests were across the spectrum. If you look at the questions and subjects they talked to each other about in their letters...it is amazing....it was a new age of philosophy. Now, one must specialize to the extreme due to 'complexity' but in so doing we have lost the bigger picture in my opinion. Enough ranting. Sorry.
Juvenal Delinquent wrote:
It's worth it just to keep the would be scammers out of the shop. And I think if he gets the one with the printout he can get a lot of negotiating leverage because then the seller isn't as suspicious that he's being ripped off when told his precious is 14kt and not 18kt.
merchants of fear
why is n o in trouble? weather? gop coming to town? why?
Think we are talking football, saints.
Vonbek777 wrote:
... Lack of paragraphs, Vonbek
vonbek777
yeah i think so too, in fact i was just going to edit for the saints(?)
yes of course. form is always more important. I mean our whole society if proof of that. I do apologise for the strain on the eyes.
vonbek is more of a stream of consciousness type of guy, IMO.
"I dare just one of the 286 guests to make a comment."
... and do so for attribution.
I was thinking of an economic comment, but was diverted by the account creation request that I state my political position on a left-right continuum. This a false premise. At least it didn't require a response. So here I am Liz, comment and all, to prove that I am real.
barfly, ha ha! I hate it when I write cool stuff late into near-pigged threads.
Willie's interpretation of the conspiracies at work are too well-coordinated and assume too many shared goals.
It's a bunch of guys in different groups pursuing different goals, and sometime there's an alignment of interests and actions. There's implied and explicit conspiracies. A lot of what's happening is the implied behavior you see from oligopolies, concentrations of power - they take their cues from the actions of their competitors and often work in concert at a tactical level.
Darn, did I miss the Satanic Babbler secret internet call to order again?
kennard<
Welcome.
Comrade Short Bucky wrote:
Hey Pal.........all the links worked - with the exception of one moved WITHIN the link location. Due to the Hitler reference, you obviously also must be a scientist AND an idiot.
Black Star Ranch wrote:
BSR please, he's a multi-tasker
Babbling is an art. A lost art I might add. Hard to find that clever mix of cryptic and lunatic. It is important to appear harmless at all times though. Personally I like Socrates...yet he didn't hold sway with the secret sects either...applied his rapier wit equally to all. Why did he drink that poison? Personally I think he was hoping it was the red pill.
Wow, it must becoming a fanatical religion, Hitler has already been cited.
Got any popcorn?
Just thinking that high levels of unemployment and underemployment may serve the purposes of the elite.
Power Elite Agenda
Kahuna<
.....I apologize, short bucky...........I don't in fact know that you are a scientist - I take it back.
Vonbek777 wrote:
Two words: Insurance scam.
Late to this thread. Has it been decided if inflation or deflation will win out yet ?
Wait, I though Socrates last words were really "I drank what?"
sporkfed
yes
"Has it been decided if inflation or deflation will win out yet ? "
it'll be deflation as long as the goods hold out, then inflation will skyrocket
sporkfed wrote:
Depends on whether global temperatures will rise enough to melt all the gold.
sporkfed<
I'll pick (C).
Not enough information to answer the question.
Hmm... you might be on to something. Plato's school was a front...Philosopher flimflam men...he did keep trying to sell that map to Atlantis.
Black Star Ranch wrote:
still chuckling, BOOYAH!
.........even I admit if it gets hot enough to melt gold, it IS GW........
Well there was that spot in Colorado early this year.. burned the soles of the little girls feet off. Right through the shoes. Never heard whether that was an underground fire or what...but the surface temperature was incredible.
I wish you goldbugs would give it a rest. The fable of king Midas came into being for a good reason. What did all that Inca gold do for Spain, eh?
Vonbek777 wrote:
don't leave out the recent cattle mutilations in that same region
more on dubia
Dubai cash dries up in Cape - Mail & Guardian Online: The smart news source
Credit enema is coming wrote:
Wow, how much does one of those puppies set you back? Is it really worth the effort to test- or is it that you want to have a faster way to process all of the stuff rolling in? At some point is it worthwhile to process it fully yourself- or is that still too enviromentally prohibitive?
The other question I have is why is there no sorting and reselling operation skimming those smaller stones back to india?
I have noticed the price of silver is starting to impinge the operations of the big native american jewelry makers in the southwest, even the Manila benchmade fake stamp stuff is coming in too expensive for the flea market price points seen in the retail market/ weekend show folks.
I did pick up some quality Navajo work this weekend from a consignment shop source and was amazed how low she priced it for retail and the fact it hadn't moved yet. Quality collector stuff including signed Hopi work of a large kachina dancer pendant nearly 6 inches tall- paid 3x melt for it, not including the necklace, which was not original and only worth $50 on a good day. Got a stunning signed turquoise disc necklace for $120- vintage- at least 30 if not 40 years in immaculate condition, even on today's crappy market easy $300 plus.
Everything is on markdown here in Arizona, we truly are entering into a depression.
Time to put up the xmas lights.
Someday this war's gonna end...
Didn't realize that was the same area. The mind boggles.
old: Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, or bye-bye
new: Dubai, Mumbai, Shanghai, bye-bye
justaskin wrote:
Yup, it all has a curse on it, even Das Rheingold, the only way to invest is in paper gold, with paper curses.
D-Fence!
Credit enema is coming wrote:
You and every other cheaps**t souvenir vender in the known world. Cruise ship trip == eat 20/7, buy cr&p 4/7.....gag me with a spoon
I read about a "Cougar Cruise" this morning but can't remember where I read it.
ah, here it is.
International Cougar Cruise
dey gwynne row the Poulousse
The white metals are tough to test ( silver , Platium , Palladium ) with acid . The small stones are not the same color clarity ect so sending them back the offers are $15 a caret for mix goods . The machine cost 31k but with 5 stores it spend sorting up and save around 3% percent . There also alot of industial metal coming in that 40 to 60% silver that I need a better way to figure what it is ?
Going on a cruise is about the easiest way to get folks together in a confined space for about a week, in which to spread some disease or another...
'skins just missed a 23 yard FG!!!
Rock<------------------------------------------->Hard Place
Carnival’s Fun Ship Elation, departing from San Diego and visiting Ensenada
What!? Coming back into port on the 7th? I've got just enough time to shave and get down to the docks.
HomeGnome wrote:
Many of the things you might do to exclude people based on real or expected medical costs are illegal. A very significant one is not: excluding smokers.
Wow- just 15 a carat?
Somebody is getting fricking rich off of that spread.
I would guess that I could pay $20 and get a bunch of classifiers to recycle it into proper categories.
Jewelry has too many middlemen in the mix, with margins that are too high.
I wonder how long the industrial stream is going to continue.
I find that I can tell silver fairly well, as long as it has not been recently polished. The oxidation smell and look are dead giveaways. I also find a lot of the old stuff is only coin silver or worse (old meaning over 40 years)- but with the handmade stuff that is not a surprise.
I guess that palladium making a nice run is making it worthwhile.
5 stores? What do you do with the native american stuff? Ebay or just strip and melt?
Someday this war's gonna end...
BOOOOOOYAH!
Touchdown!!!
Was it over when the Germans bombed as a loan harbor?
Hell no!
kennard wrote:
Anyone else think that Kennard is a dangerous free thinker? Or maybe he just doesn't know which is which because he's ambidextrous, he goes both ways.
FD: I voted for Kotos.
Interception HG...
I'm a big fan of cougars. Well, when I was in my late 20's.
Reasons:
- good in bed
- usually have kids, who will have good video games
- usually have money and will pay for good dinners / expensive drinks
- good gifts
Heh heh. Good times!
Woot!!!
Just who is the Joy stick?
I dare just one of the 286 guests to make a comment. " - LL
"Stoop down, pick up your brother, do not question whether he is deserving, because in the end, none of us are. " - Hoopajoops LTD
Excellent, Hoops!
Hearing you, brother Hoops!
Jonathan wrote:
So basically you were a gigolo-
-good work if you can get it....
Who doesn't love a sudden debt over time game?
gabyjan wrote:
Freudian slip?
Cinco-X wrote:
Any work is good work, so take what you can get.
comrade millie wrote:
Lean over, take the money out of your neighbor's pocket, and then stoop down.......yada yada... and then put a little of the money in your own pocket.