Q5. How much US taxpayer money is currently residing on European bank balance sheets?

Question 5. Will I be re-appointed?
Yes.

" poic wrote:

32-hr workweek in the U.S. for more equitable redistribution of work
Which then allows a 25% cutback in gov't jobs & spending "
But how will I be able to afford all the utterly useless crap I don't need?

Jobs are already fairly distributed by giving them to the best workers. "

Looks like someone doesn't work in IT I presume?

Angry Saver wrote:
Comment by Angry Saver from thread 'Tim Duy's Fed Watch: Structural and Cyclical'

Increasing transactions increases the skim. But the bigger issue is derivatives which financial institutions use to disguise lead as gold. When lead looks like gold, you can put it in the vault and take the real cash for yourself.

This reminds me of an old joke:
There's three "men of the cloth" from different denominations that all attended a funeral of a common friend named Eddie. The first opens his wallet and throws a $100 bill in the coffin and states "that's so Eddie will have money for a room when he gets to Heaven", The second does the same, but the third takes the money out and replaces it with a check for $300 and says, "we wouldn't want Eddie to loose that money on the way, would we"

poic wrote:

Jobs are already fairly distributed by giving them to the best workers. "

Jobs go to the best manipulators at the moment, not the best workers.
And there has to be a mechanism for distribution when work is highly leveraged and concentrated into the hands of a few.

poic wrote:

Looks like someone doesn't work in IT I presume?

No, just somebody with a religious ideology and no quantitative background or knowledge of history.

Corporations are having relatively little difficulty raising funds in the bond and stock markets, stock prices and other asset values have recovered significantly from their lows, and a variety of indicators suggest that fears of systemic collapse have receded substantially.

Nothing to see here. As long as we can blow the bubble back up everything will work out just fine. Right? What good is a near collapse if we don't actually learn something from it and make some real structural changes. All this extend and pretend is just making the next fall that much worse. It's sad when you have to root for a collapse to actually get some real reform.

Translation from BB Speak: I'm going to tell you things are getting better, so I can get out of the room alive. But I'll mutter about headwinds for a while so that I'll have an out next year when TSHTF.

"homebuilders have somewhat increased the rate of new construction"
Not in my neck of socal, we've got tracts where almost finished homes have been boarded up.
New construction is flat if not dead.
One can buy a relatively new home for less than a builder can build another one.

I agree with broward. Too many workers, not enough necessary work. And the worst part is that our highest paid workers (financial industry) are actually counter-productive.

Do we really need 10X as many lawyers per capita as Japan? Also, we spend more per capita on health care than any other country and yet we are less healthy than dozens of other countries.

Apparently likes what BomberBen has to say...

I can see why so many people care about what Bernanke thinks- he has been so right in his forecasts.

Although we will continue to monitor inflation closely, on net it appears likely to remain subdued for some time.

Translation: 0% for 2010.

JimPortlandOR wrote:

There is no quick fix for this problem. In the mid-eighties and 90's we had technology.

I think we had a lot more- a free market, an efficient capital market, access to venture capital and effective enforcement of contract. This was the essence of American mojo. It is not that we have lost these (except for the free market which has been moving to crony capitalism) but other countries have gotten them too. Venture capitalists no longer look for opportunities in just the US but they are prepared to go anywhere. As the threat of unilateral government nationalization recedes it becomes safer to invest overseas. However, as long as we continue to believe in our foundation myths- "we are not just exceptional but unique, Americans can do anything etc etc" we will continue to be in trouble.

I believe for all the talk about losing the manufacturing base we are still producing more than we were 30 years ago- we are just doing it with fewer people. As consumers we accept our share of the responsibility. Our cheap throw away culture has driven manufacturing into a low cost low value added low price model. If we decided that we were prepared to pay more for high quality that would last for years- we would increase income for labor and save ourselves money in the long run.

broward wrote:

How's that "free market" stuff working out so far, Dawg?

Impatiently waiting its turn after we first try everything else.

I heard poncho villiain called his old employer and asked if he could get his job back, south of the border.

James Grant Mourns the Loss of the Gold Standard - WSJ.com

Decent Article.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Impatiently waiting its turn after we first try everything else.

Free enterprise is fine. It's the free enterprisers that are the problem. Just seems like when one of them gets on top he wants to burn the bridge behind him for all the others -- with the help of gov't or quasi-gov'tl trade associations. Been the story for 150 years.

"Apparently In glod we trust likes what BomberBen has to say... "

Hey I'm a great contrarian indicator for gold it seems! Right after my post gold rocket rides lol

" Where's all the bleating

Seems like you've got that covered. Gold is down $2 today. Oh, the humanity. "

Nahh, bleating isn't one comment on gold. That's more the shilling that goes on for hours on end as gold moves up.

If it takes that much to answer the first question I'm pretty sure I don't want to read the rest...

Ciao
MS

Here's some Gold Schilling for you:
Austria 100 Schilling gold coins on sale

What if the "credit crunch" was planned and everything is going along according to that plan?

HomeGnome wrote:

What if the "credit crunch" was planned and everything is going along according to that plan?

We might not like the plan, but it would be reassuring to know someone was in control-

Executive Order 6102 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course, the FEDGOV would never try something like that again, right?

gold is down $100 in what 3 days?

Where's all the bleating about get in now or be priced out forever that was going on ad nauseum for weeks on end on this board? That and all the gold ads popping up everywhere were the best indication that we were due for a good pull-back.

You were thinking housing I am sure....cause my genius memory tells me I do not recall anyone saying " Priced out forever "....None the less, I wish it would go down to $600, I am a buyer.

broward
it's not new news, but stats analysis of wikipedia demonstrates peak wikipedia
I guess a thousand virtual emperors with their own agendas chased out the millions that made wikipedia
Augmented Social Cognition: wikipedia

NBER’s Hall Says Recession May Be Over, Month Unclear (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

The improving labor market indicates the deepest U.S. recession since the 1930s may have ended, though it is too soon to say precisely what month it stopped, said the head of the group charged with making the call.

Payrolls fell by 11,000 workers in November, less than the most optimistic forecast among economists surveyed by Bloomberg, figures from the Labor Department showed today in Washington. The jobless rate declined to 10 percent.

“Today’s report makes it seem that the trough in employment will be around this month,” Robert Hall, who heads the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Business Cycle Dating Committee, said in an interview. “The trough in output was probably some time in the summer. The committee will need to balance the midyear date for output against the end-of-year date for employment.”

Among the top indicators the group uses is payrolls, according to its Web site. In the third quarter, the economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual pace after a yearlong contraction.

Ben speaks and all I hear is .....Buy Gold and Silver.....Buy Gold and Silver.

" gold is down $100 in what 3 days?

Where's all the bleating about get in now or be priced out forever that was going on ad nauseum for weeks on end on this board? That and all the gold ads popping up everywhere were the best indication that we were due for a good pull-back. "

Do you need help with a good site for quotes? Because your facts appear to be wrong.

BB at the Econ Club DC:
He used the word 'inter-connectedness' to describe the 'complex' economy today and said the Fed needs to take an 'inter-disciplinary' approach...economics is not enough to tackle these problems...

"You were thinking housing I am sure....cause my genius memory tells me I do not recall anyone saying " Priced out forever "....None the less, I wish it would go down to $600, I am a buyer."

You're right it wasn't priced out forever.

It was various lines such as:

We'll see $1250 before we'll see $950.
Gold is different
There's no difference between paper gold and physical gold
We're hyper-inflating dude, get on the gold bandwagon.

jobs are going to the workers bosses can squeeze the most

rosethorn wrote:

“If you look at GDP growth, then China looks like a new engine driving the global economy, but if you look at how growth is being created here by so much wasteful investment you wouldn’t be so optimistic.”

They also count automobile sales as they roll off the factory floor. Their gasoline consumption indicate they aren't being driven. Wow, imagine the weirdness if millions of cheapo economy cars flood the third world crushing the US and Japanese international investments in those areas.

Ben speaks and all I hear is .....Buy Gold and Silver.....Buy Gold and Silver. All my Mining stocks are making day highs hahahah! you sold to early shills......man some people never learn.

There are nearly 20 million ounces of the barbarous spread far and wide, unwanted across the country. Some pools of these have gone stagnant, and mosquitos are a real problem. People talk of potential bandoism and/or vandalism in the future, as in some neighborhoods, every other one is empty.

And hire more lawyers...BB also said Audit the Fed is a bad idea...

ETF China Real Estate

CLAYMORE/ALPHASHARES ETF Chart - Yahoo! Finance

HG,

My favorite law firm is Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds.

Don't pull the (liquity) rug out on me baby....

China stocks rise in Shanghai, U.S. open subdued

A Claymore, ,rad Gnome?

EHP, that info re: China was from a couple of days ago. It's insane there with real-estate again.

BB seems like a harmless Fed Chief academician who studied about the Great Depression and learned 'lessons' of how to prevent it from ever happening again...hopium with coffee...smell test?

Bob Dobbs wrote:

It's the free enterprisers that are the problem.

Free-enterprise only works in a laboratory setting. You've got to put it in a container and suck all the reality out. Then it works perfectly.

Kinda like cold-fusion.

poic wrote:

It was various lines such as:

We'll see $1250 before we'll see $950.
Gold is different
There's no difference between paper gold and physical gold
We're hyper-inflating dude, get on the gold bandwagon.

In truth if you are buying gold as a speculative investment to benefit from its price appreciation there is no difference between the two. On the other hand if you are buying it for the doomsday scenario then clearly there is a difference.

I was thinking old school...

http://www.cbswords.com/images/0500940_L_000.jpg

Politics and influence isn't just for little league base ball. In the end if a business is to survive the best will get the jobs. Not there yet.

point taken.

Summary of Ben's Solution:

Banks write bad loans; get huge payday until market collapses
Fed exchanges bad assets for cash to fix banks
Treasury covers Fed losses

Will someone please explain to me how this is different than just giving banks a ton of money? Or how this solution is fair? How are people in this country willing to let this happen? This is theft, pure and simple.

And how long can this solution work? Until they collapse our currency? Until our population wakes up?

until the next crisis

touché

No the best will replace the failed business as the replacement if there is a real market in need of the service or product. In the long run it is performance that counts.

The main problem with Bernanke is that he's poisoned the position to the point where only a cretin like Larry Summers would want the job. And would Obama even be able and willing to listen to the next Volcker should he/she come along? What sane person would want the job of unwinding the absolute mess created by all the Fed programs Ben put in place?

Expect taunting worse than Sebastian got for this shallow analysis and unidirectional, full speed ahead gold calls
Even rich sold a significant portion of his gold after $1200

I will be sure and wear my anti-taunting spray when it begins....and unlike Sebastian, I can dish it just as good as I receive it....keep that in mind....so let the taunting begin.

I respect Rich, and I am sure he is sorry for selling his position, maybe he needed cash, what ever the purpose, I am long and holding deep into 2010.

Gavshire Hathaway wrote:

Or how this solution is fair?

Fair to who?

How are people in this country willing to let this happen?

Do they even know about? They've been kinda distracted for the last 30 years with the crisis of the fornicating-harlots, the proper placement of the male 5th appendage, and - of course - the next stupendous bowl.

dum luk wrote:

I thought we all agreed this was a kleptocracy.

I'm leaning toward a KAKISTOCRACY: "Government by the least qualified or most unprincipled ..
Our most undesirable people are now in control, but capitalism rewards sociopaths.

'What is the credit crunch was planned...'
It was predicted by some based on many 'financial/currency crisis' studies..and common sense...

What if...

dum luk wrote:

I thought we all agreed this was a kleptocracy.

No. Most people have agreed that the other political type has ruined everything. A political type 1 and 2's brain is basically unable to admit that their own leaders aren't working in the best interests of "the people". This is fundamental requirement of being a true-believer. Next season, it'll be different.

shill wrote:

I respect Rich, and I am sure he is sorry for selling his position, maybe he needed cash, what ever the purpose, I am long and holding deep into 2010.

I'm with you shill. What a man does with his stash is his business. So's mine. Let's strap up, slap on, and get ready to ride.

What shock happened 68 years ago?

merchants of fear wrote:

Climate Change conference update...crackdown on greenhouse gases coming...EPA ready to act...another 'green' shoot(down) for the eCONomy...

right now if the regulations were tough it would be shot in the arm for the economy as companies are forced to spend money on upgrading their plants and buildings- at 69% capacity utilization and empty buildings there sure is no need for them to build new ones. Plus this might also force them to shut down plants that don't warrant the upgrade reducing the over capacity problem.

So, if say the wheels were to come off the U.S. Economy today, in a shock similar to what happened 68 years ago, how would rank and file hoi ploy react?

YouTube - Animal House - All Is Well!

Pearl Harbor

Juvenal Delinquent wrote:

Let's strap on, slap up, and get ready to ride.

I hope you picked out something cute to wear.

Until our population wakes up?

• The fact remains that most people in this country are idiots and don't think for themselves! They receive their gubment cheese, checks, food, housing and are content. They want to be taken care of and not have to "worry" about anything. I actually heard that from a woman on the news today who was being interviewed about her government "assistance". It made my blood boil....
  Then while eating lunch, CNN, which I knew I shouldn't be watching whilst eating lunch, has a story about scams regarding gov't stimulus money. Some guy would have people send him money and he would fill out the necessary paperwork to receive gov't "grant" money! Told this woman and her sappy husband that they should receive about 75K from the government. Here's where it gets good. She then runs out and hires a contractor to do all this work in her house that she had dreamed of for years....new cabinets, kitchen, and other work. When they found out they had been scammed they couldn't believe it! They couldn't believe it!!! How GD dumb do you have to be to fall for this!
  So, as for our population waking up, this won't happen for the multitudes of people who are dumb, content, and suckling on the teat of government! That leaves it up to the rest of us to have to work our asses off and stress out so we can pay taxes out the wazzoo to pay for parasites like the people I see and hear of everyday! In many other countries they would be dead in the streets within a month. I don't wish that upon anyone...I just resent people who don't want to "worry" and who want to be taken care of by the government. We won't last long as a nation as we rot from the inside out!
  I had to get this off my chest....thank you

4 Frequently asked questions of Bernanke
1. Do you lie?
2. Do you lie about lying?
3. Are you lying right now?
4. Do you define "white" lies, obfuscation of facts, and omissions of the truth as truthiness or lying?

Charles Kiting wrote:

What sane person would want the job of unwinding the absolute mess created by all the Fed programs Ben put in place?

why do people persist in this idea that the Fed has a hard time unwinding its policies. The Fed has the easiest time of any Fed in the last 20 years last 50 years if you exclude 1975-1981. The Feds policies will automatically unwind without them having to take any visible action like raising the funds rate. Just bleeding off their assets will cause mortgage rates to start to increase and the yield curve to steepen - both of which will have a restraining effect on the economy.

"This is not a drill"

crazyv wrote:

Climate Change conference update...crackdown on greenhouse gases coming...EPA ready to act...another 'green' shoot(down) for the eCONomy...

Why don't we just sort this out on the other side of the wall we are about to crash into, and just party on--
I'm ready to ride, but don't know about some of that routine, and I lived in Montana!

Lobbyist Ben Dover wrote:

I could have made tons more playing the screw you game.

You will never be an immoral scumbag then, you are doomed. Sorry.

NOTaREALmerican wrote:

The Political Type 3's and 4's would be on here bitching about how "illogical" and "irrational" human are.

Let me be the first.

tncubsfan wrote:

what??

it's okay, all better

crazyv,
Green workers to make industry green...sounds like a green shoot...how many workers can the green stimulus afford...do we have a green stimulus?
Hey make the banking brown stimulus into green stimulus...that'll work.

HomeGnome wrote:

Do you need a "time out"?

Not at all, I'm in a most ebullient mood.

shill - CGR could eat through all its cash and go BK well before an ounce of that stuff leaves the ground.

Not with Kinross Gold on board...we shall see...I will log the post for the " I told you so's later on "

He did such a good job for the Treasury that PIMCO hired cash n carry
PIMCO Hires Neel Kashkari - Dealbreaker - A Wall Street Tabloid - Business News Headlines and Financial Gossip 

tncubsfan wrote:

The fact remains that most people in this country are idiots and don't think for themselves!

the worst part is that they think they are smart - because they got a prize for coming in 10th in a 10 person race. as the old adage goes " he who knows not that they know not is a fool - shun him" Whether Obama's Afghan policy is right or wrong the idea some person who probably couldn't spot it on a map is asked about is just absurd. First, question a pollster should ask is do you know where Afghanistan is and second question is where do you get you information on it - if they say no or say the MSM they should be ignored.

The Fed will have no problem unwinding what it has.........when you see and understand where the actual loss(s) flows thorough.

Ciao
MS

excellent synopsis...

tncubsfan,
Focus on the BIG welfare money going to the Federal Reserve System banks...not just the piddling welfare to the masses...Focus, focus, focus...

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Good Bye! The Reappointment Of Bernanke Is Too Much To Bear
by Nasim Taleb
What I am seeing and hearing on the news -- the reappointment of Bernanke -- is too hard for me to bear. I cannot believe that we, in the 21st century, can accept living in such a society. I am not blaming Bernanke (he doesn't even know he doesn't understand how things work or that the tools he uses are not empirical); it is the Senators appointing him who are totally irresponsible -- as if we promoted every doctor who committed malpractice. The world has never, never been as fragile. Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific.

Yup that's how bad it is folks...America is one giant clusterfuck of a ponzi scheme

"And I have already mentioned what appear to be improving conditions in housing, consumer expenditure, business investment, and global economic activity."
.
Lets be honest about this for a change! What "might" be good for the economy is BAD for J6P. Purchasing a home at over-market prices and never realizing the vast profit run-up that used to be the case and spending more vs. less of your paycheck on toys, etc., is a sickness. It is what got us into this mess and it's what our "caring & benevolent government" would like for us to continue - much to our personal detriment. The fact a man like this NEVER says anything positive OR TRUTHFUL in THAT regard, makes me believe he is no better than a wet cow-shit pie wedged between the heel and toe of my old boot. The Mrs just told me to be nice...... and I just told her I WAS - otherwise I'd tell you what I REALLY think about the old snake.

The unwinding and unplugging the economic/monetary life support system will bring the Greatest Dump after the Greatest Pump ever...Focus on the Ball...

Thanks for the feeback regarding my rant! I'm starting to relax

Nasim Taleb is pulling an Atlas Shrugged. Where is his hidden valley ?

Speaking about coming 10th out of 10 people here's a true story from when I was growing up.

Years ago I was in a piano competition.  Back then you had to score a minimum 80 out of 100 to take 1st through 3rd position.

One category had only one entrant and the poor kid ended up in 4th position.

Juvvie D
recently OZ Minerals signed a deal here to mine in Mondolikiri province what they say are
a potential 1 million ounces of gold. conservationalists also say that there are at least 80 tigers
in that region. nobody I have talked to on the ground will come close to that figure. best guesstimate?
about 26-30 tigers. but here's the deal - rich people love to give money to save tigers.
...
EHP
are you a complex Turing Machine that even Allan would be taken aback by?

The Sierras gain is PIMCO's loss.

Interesting Times wrote:

Nasim Taleb is pulling an Atlas Shrugged.

He's an idealist. Like Mish. And the windmill dude.

I respect Rich, and I am sure he is sorry for selling his position, maybe he needed cash, what ever the purpose, I am long and holding deep into 2010.

I don't need cash. I sold about half my GLD when it hit a $1,200 price target that I set almost a year ago. I'd be looking to buy back in under around $1,050. I'd be looking to lighten up further at around $1,300.

I kept all my SLV and SLW because it hasn't hit my $20 price target for both. But I did sell off other miners (PM and base) on the way up, all at a profit, and big profits on AA and FCX.

Yes, I'm crying my eyes out.

If you are trying to time anything in this market, you're either a gambler or a fool. There really is no hurry to profit on gold and silver. The opportunities will be there for a long time, although probably not again soon much under $900 in gold or $12 in silver.

Cash N Carry's moving into CR's world, huh?.........He must have gotten finished with that shed building party off the Truckee.......

volker the viking wrote:

well organized ponzi scheme

A ponzi scheme worshipped and promoted by the very peasants it's been screwing for the last 40 years. (Country first! Survival of the fittest, dude!!!)

noob<
OTTAWA — The value of building permits jumped far above expectations in October, led by both single-family and non-residential units, amid growing signs in Canada of an economic recovery.

Statistics Canada reported Monday that permits were up 18 per cent during the month to $6.1 billion, with values increasing in six provinces, led by Alberta and Ontario.

Most economists had expected permits to rise by just one per cent in October.

Residential permits rose 3.8 per cent to $3.4 billion, the third consecutive monthly increase, Statistics Canada said. "Ontario and Quebec accounted for much of the growth seen at the national level," it said.
Building permits soar in October

Get on the SRS train! Up almost 3% today.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

the most disturbing part of the whole debacle

just like Amway

I had posted this in earlier thread but didn't get a response

Are retail sales and retail hiring being affected by the survivor bias? As many chains have gone out of business presumably some of their sales moved to the surviving retail chains. In addition if one assumes that the small business sector has been severely hit by the credit crisis many small retailers have also gone out of business. Also as some of the surviving chains cut stores some those sales will also move the surviving stores - both these would tend to boost the year on year comparisons. The same thing is true for retail hiring- the surviving chains will hire more than their normal quota to reflect the market share gained from the bankrupt chain stores and small retailers.

Does anybody have an idea of how the government adjusts their sampling for this kind of phenomenon. Given the credit driven downturn of this economic downturn it seems reasonable to assume that the co-relation between large firm and small firms has to be different than in previous cycles (3 out of 4 new jobs in 2007 was in small businesses.) This is also what makes the whole b/d model suspect as well.

1:59pm

Obama: can use bailout money to reduce deficit.

Kudos to those that blew out of their paper pyrite positions, bloody good show.

merchants of fear wrote:

The unwinding and unplugging the economic/monetary life support system

Like that will ever happen.

An allegation of misleading investors ... but the real problem for the economy was making loans that could only be repaid if house prices continued to rise sharply. How do they prosecute that?

Add Bear Stearns analyst Scott Coren's name to that list. He put a buy recommendation on NEW when everything there was falling apart.

He scared the hell out of me.

crazyv wrote:

Are retail sales and retail hiring being affected by the survivor bias? As many chains have gone out of business presumably some of their sales moved to the surviving retail chains.

Possibly factor the Internet into this? As competitors go out of business, often the ones that survive are the largest discount-mode stores, with the least level of service. At that point, for certain items, it can make more sense to go to the Internet. Lower prices, no tax, often no shipping.

CalculatedRisk wrote:

It is raining today ... so much for the weather.
Maybe Kashari brought it with him.

Will he keep it here now that he's accepted a new job at a vastly expanded PIMCO? This does not bode well. The has spawned. Repeat, the has spaw... ##%*^@... [carrier lost]

Bespoke Investment Group: Bespoke's Commodity Snapshot
Garlic beats gold as China's hot new asset

Bob Dobbs wrote:

Possibly factor the Internet into this?

A B2C project from several years ago reduced our sales headcount by at least 50%.
A lot of technical analysis, pricing, discounts, tax info pushed into software rules.

CalculatedRisk wrote:

Those two were doubly toxic!

and, effectively, they may still be lurking in more than scattered number

rich wrote:

Get on the SRS train! Up almost 3% today.

Unless you're day trading with a crystal ball, SRS is a sucker bet. If you want to bet that the REIT index will fall over the next year, just buy in-the-money JAN 2011 puts, you can choose your leverage and avoid all the volatility of 2x bear funds.

"the worst part is that they think they are smart - because they got a prize for coming in 10th in a 10 person race. as the old adage goes"

Capitalism finds there the NEED to satisfy stupidity, making things even worse. Why is Fox News so popular? Because it makes the J6Ps to feel good in his shitty life, working his ass off for some Wal-Mart or similar crappy company.

Free market is NOT equipped with self-sustaining balance, it is like an unicycle. 90 percent of people will just get their nose and knees bloody and give up but the rest 10 percent will learn to ride it. The problem is the 10 percent will own everything eventually and sooner or later the majority will revolt violently. I'd bet somekind of revolution will happen before 2020 in the US.

So Bear Stearns should definitely NOT have been saved because they were toxic? Who else that WAS saved should have not been saved? GS?

Nice, anodyne comments from BB, as always.

His thoughts and those of Prof Duy discuss US conditions, absent global considerations - at least in these two examples - and I find that unhelpful, interesting as they may be as theory.

With apologies for adding to PM discussion, the recent increases in Au/Ag had the appearance of an unwind, perhaps partial. Current valuations aren't far from those of only two weeks ago. I don't understand why this is treated in comments here either as confirmation or as capitulation. Volatility, under the circumstances, is to be expected.

HomeGnome wrote:

OTTAWA — The value of building permits jumped far above expectations in October, led by both single-family and non-residential units, amid growing signs in Canada of an economic recovery.

Statistics Canada reported Monday that permits were up 18 per cent during the month to $6.1 billion, with values increasing in six provinces, led by Alberta and Ontario.

Both of those provinces were hard hit by the crisis: Alberta saw oil fall from $150 to $50, and Ontario saw automobile production--the provinces manufacturing lifeblood--almost cease. Oil has since recovered, and C4C juiced auto sales. So the sustainability in the rise of building permits is dependent on just how permanent you think those two dynamics are.

But I mentioned it a few days ago: the situation in Canada is nothing--so far--like the situation I'm hearing about in the USA. We're still in a bit of a bubble.

Ontario's economic vitality is forex dependent. Alberta and Saskatchewan's are commodity-dependent.

The rest of the country gets their money from Ontario and Alberta.

Was at a commission hearing on appraisers.

Appraisers who screwed up during the boom apparently
actuall have complaints filed on them by lenders.

From what I heard, they did truly horrible things.

But the punishments handed out seem too little too late.

Nobody was punished by having their license pulled.

My guy's complaint was for under not over appraising.
All he really did was try to ignore their request for his files.
There was nothing actually wrong with the files.

If Bear Sterns assets were toxic, how come Maiden Lane I is performing spectacularly » Maiden Lane LLC

Natural gas surged more than 8% on cold weather in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest.

volker the viking wrote:

garlic..... seeems like a lot of work needing some key people complicated, like our financial system

Yeah, but it's "value-added".

Vampires shouldn't be an occupational hazard

Sure, he's got some catching up to do, but is Tiger the new Wilt?

Bob Dobbs wrote:

Possibly factor the Internet into this?

that is quite true- but that just translates the survivor bias into the online sales numbers. Much of that probably first goes to the most visible of the online merchants (presumably those surveyed by the government) . And again their increase in sales might not have the same co relation to the sales of the the ones not surveyed as it did in the past.

broward wrote:

Yeah, but it's "value-added".

because it travels well

Jaxport cargo down 19% in October - Jacksonville Business Journal:

The news seems awfully light on how well Christmas Selling season is doing. I could have sworn that last few years you'd be hearing a lot more in the news on how well consumers are doing.

If it's bad, it didn't happen.

poic wrote:

The news seems awfully light on how well Christmas Selling season is doing.

well, duh! what with all the other important stuff we need to keep up on

Demand for £50 notes 'fuelled by lack of faith in banks' - Telegraph

Ciao
MS

LoserBeachBum wrote:

I'd bet somekind of revolution will happen before 2020 in the US.

I will take that bet- not because there shouldn't be - but revolution requires people to get off their butts. Americans are just too fat (literally) and lazy to get of their butts. As mass control tool - worthless calories have great value. Instead they will just watch Fox or the left wing equivalent and think that they are revolutionaries. I don't believe that there was a mass uprising by Romans against their Emperor's even as they were going down the tube. Roman Emperors learned that as long as you can put food in the belly and something to distract the masses control is possible.

How are Benjamins doing?

Interesting that faith remains in cash.

Takes two to tango...

Bob Dobbs (homepage, profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Mon, 12/7/2009 - 2:06 pm

But "gov't workers feeding off the public trough" is a great way to place blame for the fact that there isn't enough funding for the things that you think need doing.
Most of the outrage over government workers is misdirected. It is only a small fraction of folks, generally in administrative/executive positions, that are soaking the taxpayer and/or their organizations. We have a complex physical infrastructure and can't afford to cut from the bottom up without painfully affecting the level of service.

noob goldberg wrote:

The rest of the country gets their money from Ontario and Alberta.

Don't listen to noob golderg, he's just looking eastward from Ontario. It was an official policy, and may still be in the back office, to have all the banks/factories in Ontario and they could treat everything West as their own liltle colony. Between hosting government protected monopolies, and hosting most of the Federal government's spending (not just federal office jobs, BC doesn't even have an army base any more, closest thing is a summertime camp for cadets in the interior and the local coast guard lost the hovercraft it needed for rescues at the airport. Good luck closing a base in Ontario or the Maritimes). To that effect NAFTA was made by and for Ontario (just as all of Canada paid for GM and Chrysler's bailout, even though Chrysler is on track to go bankrupt again in 2010, while the factories are only in Ontario), at the expense of other provinces. Now the aphorism "be careful what you wish for" is coming into play.
Canada really needs to re-evalute who has power of what why. We are directionless, and accepting of sub-par as adequate (not talking about healthcare, talking about expensive cell phones and banking)
edit: noob, if I'm being too much of a regionalist partisan just tell me to cool it. if it makes any difference, I blame the Atlantic provinces for being the marginal support to every vote for inefficiency. Then it's not their voters I blame, but the hereditary holding of political seats where business/family/cronyism has strong lines through the generations

Mortgage reps didn't always fill out the forms right either...

liz-

My take is that the "public" see no other alternative and that cash is the only place to be. The average person wouldn't know where to buy PM's either......so they put the effort into the only thing that is readily available to them.

Ciao
MS

poic wrote:

The news seems awfully light on how well Christmas Selling season is doing. I could have sworn that last few years you'd be hearing a lot more in the news on how well consumers are doing.

Anecdotal - just returned from the local Westfield Center. Parking a bit tight, but no circling cars as last year. What was peculiar was the absence of talk. Silent shoppers, no chat, not a laugh or a smile. Not grim, mind you.

Volker,
Use protection?...I give up...

MS wrote:

so they put the effort into the only thing that is readily available to them.

well, perhaps one day it will briefly warm them

So consumer credit for October is out at 3 PM EST...did the rate of decline accelerate from September or no?

energyecon wrote:

So consumer credit for October is out at 3 PM EST...did the rate of decline accelerate from September or no?

Most likely

crazyv wrote:

I will take that bet- not because there shouldn't be - but revolution requires people to get off their butts.

And, who's to say that the system that we have now in Merica and China aren't keeping the peasants happy? If the peasants do have enough food and entertainment, what else should the system provide? The top 10% own 90%; so what? Nothing in "the constitution" against that. In the end, this "constitution" stuff only applies to the malcontents anyway (and we know who THEY are... GET A JOB YOU HIPPIES!!!)

Beer and circus games.

Was that voice mail really his?

I quick check of the NY Post brings new meaning new meaning to my earlier comment about rich mad people trying to save tigers, ok, how about a rich, mad tiger trying to save slatternly women with 8 x 10 headshots?
...
and based on my earlier scribblings are there more tigers in Cambodia then Tiger ...

I thank my lucky stars he led me towards an expensive Tag Heuer watch, that by some miracle or another tells exactly the same time as the quartz watch you get for free in a kid's happy meal, @ McDonalds.

Comrade Kristina wrote:

Pffft...alls you need is green baby...

and confidence (?). With confidence, all things are possible.

How about "Don't." And "don't."

volker the viking wrote:

It's a line from Kirk Douglas

Was this movie before the turn of century?

If I remember correctly, at several critical points the Roman congress did the same as now - a bailout / payoff to keep the most of the middle class bought off and complacent.

Think about how much longer their Empire would have been able to string that game along if they hadn't actually had to engage in physical debasement of their currency to afford the cost of those penam et circenses, but instead could just conjure the additional funds up from thin air. By clicking on a few buttons, as it were.

Pushing back the cliff simply makes it higher.

Blackballed from what?

they had dialogue like that in a John Wayne movie?
I'm taking my poster down

They had a way of expressing themselves.

I'm sure he will. Didn't slow Kobe down any or Tom Brady etc. etc. etc. How many women did Magic J. claim to have slept with? Tiger is just a little embarrassed right now and I'm sure busy picking out a nice five carat or so ring to subdue wifey.. just like Kobe did.