"What's in your Charge-Offs? "

Roughly 4% in share price today......

Ciao
MS

Walk away from your house, car and credit card, Starve a bankster!

Foreign Demand for US Treasurys Takes Record Fall - CNBC

Tic Tic Tic

Credit card defaults have historically tracked unemployment.

You know what was/is creepy about the Capital One credit card commercials, is it seemed like they spent a lot of money on production and airing, when there weren't any other tv commercials for credit cards going...

That airtime isn't cheap.

Any more news out of the Reichstag today?

"I really feel sad for the younger generations. They will own Ben's & Obama's selfish legacy. "

This is a multi-generational problem.....with the lead up caused by many different people..I think those two will be remembered for having the last chance at actually doing something about it bit instead of that they elected to punt.

Ciao
MS

nova wrote:

I thought over 7% meant doom....

No such thing as doom for industries backed by the taxpayer.

Good news! (For me.) The consumer and merchant charges are going to have to rise to the point where those of us who can be cash buyers will benefit from offered discounts. Then we win again as this encourages an informal economy. Of course there will be losers. Credit cards are "easy credit" just like every other form that got us where we are today. Without the "just charge it" option tens of millions will start living within their means. That's bad? It sure is if you are collecting taxes on GDP and expecting a consumer led recovery.

How are those stress test predictions holding up?

Report: Record Credit Card Charge-offs 

...der consumer ist kaput

Rob Dawg wrote:

It sure is if you are collecting taxes on GDP and expecting a consumer led recovery.

I'm more worried about Chinese consumers. How do you spell pergraniteel in Cantonese?

mock turtle wrote:

dirty rotten puss pocket filled stinkin banksta

Skunks are unpleasant, but not that bad-

And the Bureaucrat-in-Chief is on the teevee, again.

from: Trade deficits: Give China a break | The Economist

[O]ver half of America's currenct account deficit can now be attributed to net petroleum imports. And meanwhile, America's trade balance has continued to improve.... In December, American exports to China were up just over 60% from the previous December, while imports were just 6% higher. And yet, were you to google "American imbalances", the results would overwhelmingly focus on China and its currency policy, rather than on America's reluctance to tax petrol or carbon.

iceman wrote:

Credit card defaults have historically tracked unemployment.

Is unemployment a "leading" indicator for credit card defaults? You'd think it would be. In fact, one might think there was actually a causal relationship there.
BTW, I thought the current meme was to stop paying your mortgage, and try to keep up on your minimum CC payment so that you could finance your grocery bill; no?

Juvenal Delinquent wrote:

how do you tell em' they have to go back to the farm, after they've had a taste?

Red Army.

Cinco-X wrote:

Is unemployment a "leading" indicator for credit card defaults?

YES - hence why some of us here kvetch about the eternal "UE is a lagging indicator" blather - not in a a balance sheet recession...

Rich Getting Richer Rewards as Credit-Card Law Refutes Bankers - Bloomberg.com

.....

Credit-card write-offs, or loans deemed uncollectible, jumped 59 percent to $89 billion last year from $56 billion a year earlier, according to R.K. Hammer Investment Bankers, a Thousand Oaks, California-based adviser to card issuers. Banks may lose $5.5 billion in interest income because of the legislation this year and $11 billion in 2011, based on estimates by R.K. Hammer.

‘Precious’ Rewards

While lenders will need to find ways to make up the lost income, they won’t reduce affluent cardholders’ “precious” rewards, said Samir Kothari, co-founder of BillShrink.com, a company in Redwood City, California, that compares pricing and terms offered to consumers for about 170 credit cards. Issuers may introduce charges such as inactivity fees for customers who don’t use their cards, he said.

“It’s a real high-wire act: charge enough to restore severely sagging profits, while at the same time not chasing off the customers you need to grow,” said Robert Hammer, chief executive officer of R.K. Hammer.

....

The card-services units of Charlotte, North Carolina-based Bank of America Corp., the largest U.S. lender, and New York- based JPMorgan Chase & Co., the biggest U.S. credit-card issuer, posted combined losses in 2009 of $7.78 billion. U.S. credit- card write-offs remained above 10 percent in December for the eighth straight month, as measured by Moody’s Investors Service. Write-offs typically track the U.S. unemployment rate, which fell in January to 9.7 percent.

.....

In August, JPMorgan created the Chase Sapphire card, which targets households with incomes exceeding $120,000and rewards holders with a point for every dollar they spend. Sapphire cardholders have been redeeming rewards for travel, and the card is meeting JPMorgan’s expectations for performance, said Laura Rossi, a spokeswoman for the bank, in an e-mailed statement.

JPMorgan also offered new customers 100,000 airline miles in November for spending $2,000 on a co-branded British Airways Signature Visa card within the first three months of signing up for the card.

...

“Over-the-limit fees is a huge revenue generator, so if card companies can’t make a profit from these customers, they’re not going to extend credit to them,” Papadimitriou said.

Lower Credit Scores

Consumers with lower credit scores may also see membership fees introduced on their cards as a way of compensating for the risk in lending to them, he said.

Obama: Well ladies and Gentlemen the teleprompter just told me to tell you....were all screwed.

Good day and God bless.

Cinco-X wrote:

BTW, I thought the current meme was to stop paying your mortgage, and try to keep up on your minimum CC payment so that you could finance your grocery bill; no?

In the big bubble states - why this information should transmit additional concern - if CC are the last debt to be defaulted upon...

They kept the price low in consideration of the scrap metal that was coming back the other way in the hold of the shift.

Nanoo-Nanoo wrote:

while at the same time not chasing off the customers you need to grow

Well make up your metaphorical mind already. Is it a potted plant or a herd animal? You just can't have thundering herds of pot plants rolling over the horizon. That won't do.

What really makes these chargeoff levels more shocking is the amount of current borrowers in all these portfolios is shrinking, soon there will be no one left to charge off, I suppose that will be viewed as a green shoot.

energyecon wrote:

Is unemployment a "leading" indicator for credit card defaults?

YES - hence why some of us here kvetch about the eternal "UE is a lagging indicator" blather - not in a a balance sheet recession...

Where's my :rhetorical-question: icon

mock, it was all unobtainium credit cards.

19 banks on a debtmans chest

:jolly-roger:

Vonbek777 wrote:

but the Krispy Creme shop that opened a few years ago by my sons dentist was out of business.

And that arrangement had so much synergy! It's hard to imagine....

"BTW I got an AMEX Black card offer......don't need or want it however they want $400 a year for the "exclusivity" BS."

Amazing what some fools will pay for annual credit card fees.

A lot of people really bad at math in this country.

I wonder how well the credit industry would do if high school math scores were on par with Asian countries?

A cooperative group of really good hair stylists up here did away with credit card payments and the blasted fees associated with it...interestingly enough, their business didn't wither and die..it remained the same which is good in this economic climate.

NateTG wrote:

The other half of that story is that all-cash means more losses to the secret employee bonus program.

And the "third half" of the story is a new "flag" for the IRS...

Vonbek777 wrote:

More local |greenshoot| news. I'm sure its been closed for a while from the look of it, but the Krispy Creme shop that opened a few years ago by my sons dentist was out of business. This is a street that has a mall on it... across from a Wal-mart. Several other buildings empty now too...but the kicker is they are still building more retail sites...

Oxnard? That's exactly what's going on there. I see Boston Markets going Tang Uniform all over the area. Still, it won't be a real recession until Starbucks retrenches.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Still, it won't be a real recession until Starbucks retrenches.

Interestingly, the Starbucks in my area seem to be doing quite well. Perhaps that's partially the result of being co-located with Barnes&Nobles that have free wi-fi-

Thought they stuck to Extended and Pretended Stay.

Once again, the lack of is

I kept asking the New York Fed staffer, "where will this money come from?"

energyecon wrote:

Gasp - will they close the Starbucks inside the restroom of the Starbucks?!!

Perhaps Nemo will write a script that continuously checks the Onion for verification of such an event.....
Could we rig our stockbroker accounts to trigger an automatic sale of all equities on notice or such?

from up thread

""two dudes and a garage" type of shop, bill came to $330, I started counting off the twenties, dude said "oh, a cash transaction, let's just make it $300, you don't need a receipt, do you". Nope, sure didn't."

next day..managers office

i come here to sell yoose sum protection

i gots 45 vids and related secret recordings of you accepting cash transactions and not remittin sales tax

for a small pacentage say 5%, thats half

i can assure you these recordings will neva find their way into the wrong hands

Cinco-X wrote:

What so many like this author forget is that the expensive fighter planes and attack submarines are the reason we're not going to be fighting a conventional war

Ya know, I would just love to ask these chumps if they carry homeowners/car/... or flood insurance. Just because you didn't have a fire in your house yesterday doesn't mean you won't have one TODAY.

ha...so...I didn't 'elect' them to shape my world. I may really need to cut up my credit card now and go Greece on them. YEEHAW!

Investment Banker

from the Princeton review

A Day in the life of a Investment Banker

.....

At the profession’s highest level, investment bankers serve as crucial figures in the shaping of the American and world economies, managing mergers of multibillion-dollar corporations and handling the privatization of government assets around the world.

....

Still, the work is extremely interesting, and those who stay in the profession report high levels of job satisfaction. Investment bankers spend large amounts of time traveling, to pitch ideas to prospective and current clients or to examine the facilities of companies being purchased by their clients.

In the office, they spend their time developing strategies to pitch to clients, preparing financial analyses and documents, or working with the sales forces of their banks in selling the bonds and stocks which are created by the investment-banking department’s activities.

Cinco-X wrote:

the expensive fighter planes and attack submarines are the reason we're not going to be fighting a conventional war

One recent example: I've long thought that the British would never have had to fight in the Falklands if they'd had a nuclear attack carrier.

bearly wrote:

Ya know, I would just love to ask these chumps if they carry homeowners/car/... or flood insurance. Just because you didn't have a fire in your house yesterday doesn't mean you won't have one TODAY.

Which chumps? My eyesight's going, and I have a hard time reading between the lines sometimes

2005 in that graph looks like this:

http://www.vegas-dreaming.com/images/monument_valley01.jpg

Jim A. wrote:

Tightening the bankruptcy laws just enabled the CC companies to make even sketchier loans before they came back to bite 'em in the @ss.

Nice insight; did they securitize these CC loans and buy CDS' as well? That could be telling-

Cinco-X wrote:

What so many like this author forget is that the expensive fighter planes and attack submarines are the reason we're not going to be fighting a conventional war, just as the strategic nuclear triad was a big reason we have not fought a nuclear war, at least not since 1945...

Thanks for your opinion, got any data to back it up?

Cinco-X wrote:

My Mom says that down South, folks are pissed at Starbucks for "not supporting the troops". Not too sure what that's about, but she seemed quite adamant about it-

Snopes calls it False:

snopes.com: Starbucks Refuses Marines

Would you like some conscientious objection in your coffee?

mock turtle wrote:

and now you know il ducie made the trains run on time

Well, he said he did anyway....

Rear Window: Making Italy work: Did Mussolini really get the trains running on time? -
Opinion - The Independent

Yalt wrote:

I think that we can conclude that trying to discourage people from going into debt by tightening the bankruptcy laws as a complete failure.

I think you've badly misconstrued the purpose of that bill.

Yes, but he nailed the end result on the hear-

12th Percentile wrote:

coming to a sky near you

Skynet is real

When he's finished with his handiwork, Benito Bernakelini will able to say that he made the banks run on time...

tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock

12th Percentile wrote:

And I'm sure coming to a sky near you shortly. You can't see 'em, or hear 'em and then can drop in a laser guided hellfire whenever they want.

I think I heard somewhere that they're going to start using them for patrolling the border for drugs.

tg wrote:

The Golden Truth: FDIC Leases Massive Space in Chicago - This is Not Good

Those offices are really close to O'Hare. Thus, the FDIC will be flying United. A number of bank failure fridays could turn into bank failure saturdays.

If we wanted banks closed on time, they should have located next to Midway, where Soutwest flies.

Yalt wrote:

"Bitten on the ass" wasn't quite right though...the d's and o's got a few extra years of massive bonuses out of it and what do they care if the long-term result is shattered companies on the government dole?

Yet another unintended consequence. Good point-

It really is quite stunning MS and I might add the tightening by China, anemic bond sales, etc. aren't adding up well.

Financial reform? Health Care reform? Legislative reforms....we don't need no stinking reforms. We should trust the best and brightest to do their best without question.

Fighter planes are a thing of the past. this is the first year there were more pilots flying drones than real planes in the USAF. And they are making new drones as fast as they can.

As soon as the flight automation got lighter and cheaper than a human, this was inevitable. As the technology improves, we'll start seeing more and more telepresence on the surface, and under the water. Probably different than what we expect in all kinds of important and subtle ways... Skynet won't take over the world with nuclear power, but by manipulating the financial markets.

OT: Gold
Gold again is moving in gaps, the second day in a row.
The Great Doubling is now Free Money.

Whoever doesn't get that fiat is under assault is spending too much time on their hookah.
Fiat under assault is the same as inflation, and soon, in opposition to The Great Doubling, hyperinflation.
Everyone here's now heard my Heads Up enough to know I'm a broken record.

While the US economy is showing a slight recovery, the question of whether this is the beginning of a recovery or a bump in the road is not a question as much as a red herring.
Jim Sinclair is even more strident than am I; but when Yra Harris joined him last night, and there's blood in the fiat waters, it's time for the last of the reticent to enter the water or wither in the financial desert now blooming everywhere in the West.
Nothing other than gold and silver, easily fungible, anywhere, makes sense to me, when defining the store of value at this generational window in time.

Amazing how the RE holders believe they're not wearing the double albatross, but the Baby Boomers will decimate savings and toss RE onto the streets the same way they've indulged themselves since the 60's.
What's left? Aggressive businesses serving depression-expanded markets, as a source of income, and parked in the PM's awaiting The Great Doubling.
These certainly are interesting times.

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Federal Reserve expects to get full repayment from its 2008 emergency loans to rescue insurance giant AIG and back the purchase of brokerage Bear Stearns, chairman Ben Bernanke said Wednesday.

Bernanke, in remarks prepared for delivery to a congressional hearing, said the two bailouts left the Fed holding loans of around 116 billion dollars, or around five percent of the central bank's balance sheet.

"The Federal Reserve expects these exposures to decline gradually over time," Bernanke said. "The (Federal Reserve) Board continues to anticipate that the Federal Reserve will ultimately incur no loss on these loans as well."

Bernanke expects Fed to get repaid by AIG, Bear Stearns - Yahoo! News

Mr Chairman: the New York Fed is writing off about $4 billion in Bear Stearns losses for Maiden Lane, according to the Financial Times. Did you miss that? Not important to include in your testimony?

nanoo-

As I told my wife over the weekend our system has already failed and collapsed....the ramifications of those events will not be realized until the right people can profit immensely from that action. She's become more and more aware of her surroundings and over the last few weeks has simply been amazed that it has not fallen apart already...now we all know it's happened but it's nice to see that the realization of all of this is really starting to show it's head to people who really never paid attention....hence my response to her when questioned why it's still glued together.

Ciao
MS

So much for 'mericans don't need no stinkin jobs. Give'em credit cards and helocs. The plan never included walking away as a variable.

*Better than $250 Million fighter planes against million dollar ground to air missiles. *

Good point! Plus no downed pilot hostage situation.

$4 Billion is less than 1/8th of a Enron Unit, I wouldn't bother with such trifles...

12th Percentile wrote on Tue, 2/16/2010 - 9:38 am

"fighter planes are a thing of the past. this is the first year there were more pilots flying drones than real planes in the USAF. And they are making new drones as fast as they can."

--

another career opportunity closed by automation and- or cheap foreign labor

just wait till they use the terminators, robo cops and the drones to keep us all "in line"...

the blankfeinds, demons and hanky panky paulsons of the world soon have no need us us rabel

the flotsam and jetsam of humanity, prepare for your doom

you fear and hate the federal government...just wait, it will be destroyed and replaced by

free market, king of the hill corporate supremacy which will allow a great new and glorious future for the homeland

where the most deserving and wonderful elite can finally rid themselves of the vermin called the common man

which before they had to hold their nose and tolerate

so their mines and factories and fields could be filled and their house servant positions staffed

the best part of the debacle will be watching the 10s of millions of upper middle class

who fancied themselves as necessary...professionals... upper crust.... slowly destroyed as the proles and pawns before them

the true elite will only have need of a select few

welcome to the future

Maybe the FDIC is just trying a new trick to prop up CRE...'If we just pay the banks a load of rent we won't need to close them.'

Waiting for the world to hit the reset button.

Keep the kool-aid flowing...and MOVE YOUR DANG MONEY unless you want this BS that got us in this mess to continue. Starve the beast.

Citigroup's plan: profit from the next crisis David Weidner's Writing on the Wall - MarketWatch

Citigroup Inc.our taxpayer-funded national bank, is readying a new credit derivative, the CLX. Basically, the CLX is systemic risk insurance that will pay out in the event of a financial crisis.The basic premise is to allow investors to hedge against a spike in funding costs.

......

But a lot of finance pros have looked at this and they say the way CLX is laid out, there doesn't seem to be any specific party responsible for paying on the contracts. If it's Citi, what happens if Citi can't pay? Under proposed reforms, Citi would be too big to fail and get a bailout if it ran into CLX trouble.

......

bearly wrote:

Must have missed it - Was there another bailout or enormous WallSt giveaway announced today ?

The can was kicked for another month. all around!

then not so very long from now...skynet will start evaluating the desirability of individual citizens.

TIFIFY

some investor guy wrote:

they should have located next to Midway, where Southwest flies.

Having worked for da gov for many years, I have little doubt Sheila will make 'em go fly Southwest.

I've watched a documentary where they talk about how they have systems already that eliminate the human element from the decision making process.

They had that incident in South Africa last year where a program glitch had an automatic weapon start firing on troops. I think 9 people died.

I've been watching the drug wars go in the Sierra Nevada, the cartels doing everything on the cheap, maybe it'll cost them $100k to bring in a 20,000 plant crop if all goes well, while on the other side, our law enforcement spares no expense in trying to capture them, using as much high-tech stuff as humanly possible...

David the grower vs. Goliath the corporation

That can that was just kicked fell over and spilled crap all over my srs.

Noob, why are you not just parked in gold and waiting for the Doubling? Without leveraging risk, 100% return, now 90%, is darned good. Do you need more? If you're gambling short term, what are your probabilities that you'll get it right every time, or nearly so? Your postings are knowledgeable and bright. So, this trading activity doesn't compute. What's the motive? Steal a few bucks?

Well this sounds like a positive trend:

Economy prompts fresh look at North Dakota's socialist bank

noob goldberg wrote:

The can was kicked for another month.

But it really wasn't. They just said they would think about kicking the can in a month, but for now they don't feel like doing anything.

I mentioned this before but several of the Federal Reserve banks installed computer operated dual gatling super cooled super guns. The barrels are independent of each other and can track multiple targets at once. Supposedly human controlled or supervised, but they come with a target everything mode... backup generators and who knows how much ammo...again why do banks need this much firepower and who are they expecting to show up in mass?

Nanoo-Nanoo wrote:

nobody wants to be a mechanical engineer or a chemical engineer or a civil engineer. They want to be a financial engineer.

If physics had paid better, I would have done that. Instead, I'm a physicist doing financial engineering.

Vonbek777 wrote:

That attitude has changed considerable. My dad was a pilot. This new generation is already tied at the hip with technology. One of the missions he flew...some glitch knocked out the gps. Everyone panicked...none of the younger kids could fly eyes only with terrain and maps...scary stuff.

Things have changed, but let me assure you that using maps while flying a fighter plane is IMHO nearly impossible. I remember doing orienteering by map in an APC in Germany back in the early '80s, and it's really hard, even at 30 MPH, and I was just "navigating", not driving. You get accustomed to it, but it's not easy, and of course, now one was shooting at us at the time. I believe that the way these missions were done in the old days was you either memorized the route, or you had a gunner that doubled as a navigator. Even then, you didn't get the precision expected on today's battlefield.
I'll admit that there was something special about those old "seat of the pants" pilots, but I'm not sure the comparison is fair today. Too many decisions take place outside of the range of vision, and the choices have to be made too fast. I could never do it.

damn socialists

Bank Of North Dakota: America's Only 'Socialist' Bank Is Thriving During Downturn
By DALE WETZEL | 02/16/10 04:27 AM | AP

(found at hufpo) Bank Of North Dakota: America's Only 'Socialist' Bank Is Thriving During Downturn
"Bank Of North Dakota
But now officials in other states are wondering if it is helping North Dakota sail through the national recession.
snip
The Bank of North Dakota serves as an economic development agency and "banker's bank" that lessens the loan risks of private banks and helps them finance larger projects. It offers cheap loans to farmers, students and businesses."

"The bank had almost $4 billion in assets and a $2.67 billion loan portfolio at the end of last year, according to its most recent quarterly financial report. It made $58.1 million in profits in 2009, setting a record for the sixth straight year. During the last decade, the bank funneled almost $300 million in profits to North Dakota's treasury."
snip
Founded in 1915 by A.C. Townley, who became a Socialist Party organizer after he went broke raising flax in western North Dakota, the NPL advocated state-owned banks to provide low-interest farm loans, along with state flour mills, grain elevators, meatpacking houses and hail insurance.

"Supporters gained control of the legislature and the governorship within five years. The movement's power quickly waned, but two of its state-owned businesses survived – the Bank of North Dakota and a state flour mill and grain elevator in Grand Forks."

Cinco-X wrote:

BTW, I thought the current meme was to stop paying your mortgage, and try to keep up on your minimum CC payment so that you could finance your grocery bill; no?

but once you are done with not paying the mortgage the credit card is next. What's the bet that most of the people who stopped paying their mortgages didn't use the money to pay down their credit card bills? When you think about it makes perfect sense- if you are going down why not have the best time of your life before you file for bankruptcy. It wouldn't surprise me if some of the bounce that we have seen from the economy is exactly this kind of behavior. y home is several hundred thousand under water, my job is gone or at least paying a lot less, I have a credit card bill I am never going to retire- only logical thing to do is to have the best party of my life before blowing up., Choice is blowing up now or blowing up later after a great deal of sacrifice.

MS wrote:

The only FOREX I did, last year...would have resulted in a big fat "zero" had I let it continue to run.....short Euro, long yen. I stay away from any of it now as I have no idea when or where Ben is going to play his push/pull game with swaps.

My problem is that I have no choice but to play Forex, seeing as I'm in a different country. Which adds an entirely different variable to my calculation, and really is a giant PITA.

12th Percentile wrote:

They had that incident in South Africa last year where a program glitch had an automatic weapon start firing on troops. I think 9 people died.

But at least nobody has it on their conscience.

Yes, the engineer admitted he got the ideas from Aliens actually. This was back in 1999....during the Y2K scare...he was having to justify that his baby wouldn't glitch and start shooting people. Motion tracking technology has come so far during my lifetime...it is amazing. Sometimes I think we will have to do a reset just so we have a chance.

noob goldberg wrote:

My problem is that I have no choice but to play Forex, seeing as I'm in a different country.

I'm not sure I've followed enough of this to comment, but if you just want exposure to other currencies, why can't you just buy certificates of deposit in those currencies, or at Everbank?

What would a rhetorical question icon look like?

Vonbek777 wrote:

Sometimes I think we will have to do a reset just so we have a chance.

Once folks realize there is a tactical impasse like the Minié ball, trench warfare, tactical nukes, or whatever, it makes war pointless until that impasse is overcome. We're lucky when that's realized before 1/2 a million soldiers are killed.

Yancey Ward wrote:

What would a rhetorical question icon look like?

Was that a rhetorical question?

Sometimes I think we will have to do a reset just so we have a chance

I gave up thinking we had a chance.

"It wouldn't surprise me if some of the bounce that we have seen from the economy is exactly this kind of behavior."

I'm with you on that......got to account for some of it, if not a very large chunk. I'm so close to shit-canning my mortgage (still working on the wife with that) and intentionally racking up one of my high limit cards and just saying "it wasn't my fault" like so many others get away with. You just have to realize that if you do not expect a credit event it actually may not hurt you too bad. Seeing how bullet proof credit scores don't mean a thing now.....

Ciao
MS

They are fighting some provisions in the Obama administration's broad industry-overhaul proposal, especially a plan to create a consumer protection agency to oversee financial services.

Why would you want to protect consumers? That would violate your obligation to the shareholders to violate consumers.

noob goldberg wrote:

volume is still pretty weak,

A master of understatement. It's the weakest of a long run of weak days.

This is actually what I am worried about...I have already seen some backlash against federal employees...if conditions deteriorate and class warfare erupts openly, there are a whole list of occupations that I would think about retiring from immediately. Bank president is near the top, but not at the top. I would be real worried if I was a police chief. Remember a few years ago when there was some chatter about whether Al Qaeda had infiltrated MS-13. Some of the stuff talked about was there was intel showing police chiefs home addresses and extended family members addresses. They were already targets.

Aha, the Bank of North Dakota can be taxed on those profits to pay for Maiden Lane/NY Fed/Bear Stearns losses and Jamie Dimon's bonus.. They probably don't pay much in bonuses anyway...

This "recession" has become the social equivalent of an infectious disease pandemic. We need the financial equivalent of the CDC.

mock turtle wrote:

""two dudes and a garage" type of shop, bill came to $330, I started counting off the twenties, dude said "oh, a cash transaction, let's just make it $300, you don't need a receipt, do you". Nope, sure didn't."

Now, that's a real rewards program. One I can believe in.

The power of cash in this economy is truly amazing.

""I fully and enthusiastically agree that we have to put 'too big to fail' behind us," said Gerald Corrigan, a senior executive at Goldman Sachs."

An enthusiastic and whole-hearted *uck you to.

comment made in the spirit of mocks post as I know this all too well.

Ciao
MS

One of the big successes of drones was when Isreal used them to make SAM sites reveal themselves so that they could be taken down by the following planes.

from: Simon Properties Offers to Buy Out General Growth | Business Pundit

The nation’s largest shopping mall owner, Simon Property Group, made a $10 billion hostile bid Tuesday to acquire its ailing rival, General Growth Properties.
The deal would allow General Growth, the No. 2 owner of shopping centers, to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. General Growth filed for bankruptcy last year after buckling under the weight of billions in debt it racked up during a massive expansion effort fueled by cheap credit.
....
The deal, if accepted by General Growth’s board and approved by its creditors and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper, would combine two of the largest and oldest mall owners in the U.S. into a colossus with 550 malls—at least a third of the entire U.S. market. Such heft would give Simon unrivaled clout in lease negotiations with retailers and in financing talks with its lenders.

Do I have to get a shot? I pass out when I see needles...just to warn everyone. Have taken out two doctors and three nurses in my career as a fainter.

Not sure I understand your point, Pavel.

I meant it as irony, Yalt.

mock turtle wrote:

the peeling off of the 20s story i copied from upthread, and i dont endorse tax evaision

Hey, if some guy wants to give me 10% for foregoing a receipt, that's fine with me. The tax part of it his problem, not mine.

Sorry, Pavel, I realized that as I read down the thread but it was to late to pull my post.

War's the one subject on which I can't seem to summon a sense of humor.

being self-employed I welcome ANY and all receipts. Send them to....

JK

Ciao
MS

He meant that they don't expect any losses on the loans they don't mark down.

I was hoping for a candy flavored oral medication personally...my fear of needles is high though so that is a tough choice...

IL is throwing the grandma librarian under the city bus. Nice job! snark/

War's the one subject on which I can't seem to summon a sense of humor.

I don't blame you. My ironic comment wasn't intended to be humorous. Irony is in a class of its own, neither funny nor entirely serious. I think it's probably a socially acceptable displacement of anger.

shill wrote:

If new houses aren't built soon in the U.S., there won't be enough next year.

Forbes.com writer has never been to East St. Louis, Detroit, Memphis, or Birmingham?

Vonbek777 wrote:

I was hoping for a candy flavored oral medication personally

That's what you've been getting for years now, and it has obviously only made matters worse...

That's what happens when you put hopium in the medicine. I'm an addict, I need my fix!

Forbes.com writer has never been to East St. Louis, Detroit, Memphis, or Birmingham?

Or Massachusetts, plenty of " For Sale " signs or just empty houses around.

Lobbyist Ben Dover wrote:

Walk away from your house, car and credit card, Starve a bankster!

Move out of the US....starve states of their taxes (depends on the state) and state employees of their pensions.

Rob Dawg wrote:

I particularly liked the assertion that all the college kids and boomerang adults represent backed up demand.

Yeah something is backed up alright, this is nothing more than the same constipated thinking.

I met a young free-market finance type in the early 90's who had retired to Lake Tahoe at about 30 just from flipping Resolution Trust assets. He had no qualms. Perhaps there was a public bidding process. But it didn't pass the smell test.

Forbes is going broke and, with articles like that, there's no wonder why.

mock turtle wrote:

did i "make my sale"
about the debacle in 87 as theft

Probably not, but that's in part because I've always viewed the Crash of '87 as a one time event. I personally think the S&L Crisis is the prequel to today's troubles, and it's been the constant pulling forward of demand and policy of loose money to help the banking industry "grow" out of that which has brought us to this point. Perhaps if I knew how the Crash of '87 was causally linked to these matters, I'd be more in tune with your view.
Unfortunately, I must go now.

Rob Dawg wrote:

I particularly liked the assertion that all the college kids and boomerang adults represent backed up demand.

They will, when (and if) the economy recovers, they pay off their college loans and accrued interest, and they finally decide to settle down and have families......not imminent-

EvilHenryPaulson wrote:

haven't been around a lot, Olympics are fun

I am deeply envious of your proximity to the games, EHP. I wasn't engaged in them leading up to the opening ceremonies, and I actually spent most of the ceremonies playing video games or being similarly distracted, but since watching the entire Jen Heil competition I've been deeply hooked. I am really looking forward to the hockey game tonight! Enjoy yourself!

mock turtle wrote:

look up neil bush and silverado bank

Ahh, Michael Wise. That brings back some memories:

Denver News - Wise Gal - page 1

Reports: Silverado figure Wise leaps to his death

Simon Johnson posted about it this weekend in a blistering piece.

Greek Swaps Information Demanded This Week in EU Investigation - Bloomberg.com

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told Greece to submit the swaps data by Feb. 19. The probe comes as questions arise about how long European officials have known that Greece may have used derivatives to conceal the extent of its budget deficit, and whether other EU countries used similar techniques.

“In case there is a reason to expect that this kind of technique has been used by other member states, not only Greece, then we shall request information” from those nations, Rehn said today after a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels. “We need further enquiries on this,” Luxembourg Treasury Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said.

Greece turned to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in 2002 to get $1 billion in funding through a swap, Christoforos Sardelis, head of Greece’s Public Debt Management Agency at the time, said in an interview last week. EU officials today fielded questions about how long they knew about the swaps and whether other countries used such instruments to mask the size of their debt.

Only the master ponzis actually have the audacity to sell something as "Maiden Lane I, II, and III."

And it wasn't pure and innocent to begin with...

MS wrote:

I'm so close to shit-canning my mortgage (still working on the wife with that)

If you find a winning strategy, please share it with me. I hit a brick wall in that negotiation.

shill wrote:

It seems when one says the word " Trillion " it has this casual " Ho Hum " feel to it.
Trillion is a might big word, and multiple trillions is, well mind numbing.

Small compared to the total values of derivatives contracts out there-

EvilHenryPaulson wrote:

the source said, because the quota has not changed since AP laid off 10 percent of its staff last year.

It seems that the theme of the global economy these days is to 'make it up in volume'.

mock I agree that these bailouts are crimes. Not equivalent to crimes, but equal to.

Instead of being thrown in jail where these banksters belong, they get richer, while everyone else gets sent to the slaughter. Nobody's doing anything about it. Even President Obama has done nothing other than pay lip service.

I guess somewhere up high it was deemed critical that people keep borrowing to keep the charade going. But you couldn't couldn't keep the borrowing going without: 1) lying to the public, and 2) the cooperation of the banksters. Today's moral Hazard is born.

Small compared to the total values of derivatives contracts out there-

Yes Cinco....big time.

Tic Tic Tic.....And yet the sheeple, continue on like nothing is wrong.

Sometimes I am very grateful to have my eyes wide open, but then there are days when I wish I did not have Eyes at all.

Marginal Revolution: Was Alaska a Good Buy?
and I'm out

Eric wrote:

Taxpayers (state and federal) == bagholders.

True of course, but what I am really asking I guess is can they be given a haircut with no recourse? If it is not in any sort of legal contract, why couldn't they reduce the pension pay out to become solvent?

Not to worry, Buffett wrote those long-term swaps against the DOW. He's good for it. I trust him as a counterparty. He's such a pleasant man.

CaptainMorgan wrote:

True of course, but what I am really asking I guess is can they be given a haircut with no recourse? If it is not in any sort of legal contract, why couldn't they reduce the pension pay out to become solvent?

Depends on the state/locality. In New York State - pension benefits, once granted, cannot be reduced for public employees. This is part of the state constitution and gives rise to the notion of "tiers" for state workers. Older workers have better benefits than newer workers.

I believe NYS is up to tier 5 now, with each subsequent tier getting a reduced benefit. Of course there are probably still hundreds of applicants for each opening...

Likely because they didn't keep up with inflation in the first place for those pension payees and I say payees as they paid their careers into this system. Not all of them are operated via unions contracts, depending on the state.

Each state handles TRS's differently including actuary calculations, payouts, etc. Texas is in big trouble too because their TRS pays out nearly 100% of their last earnings but others only pay out 50% of earnings. Conservative plans did better but like everything else, diversified into real estate and other investments so guess what...even if you paid big into these retirement funds over an entire career and it was conservatively managed, you're still in big trouble.

LoserBeachBum wrote:

As an engineer would put it: "Pilot is a piece of useless meat between two turbines with 9G restriction".

Engineers don't make good pilots because they don't consider the laws of physics to be mere suggestions. Pilots don't make good engineers for the reverse reason.

Forbes counts Ben Stein as an "economic light".....

What is a magazine for $400 alex....

Ciao
MS

scone wrote:

I'm more worried about Chinese consumers. How do you spell pergraniteel in Cantonese?

Anybody who missed the NPR spot on a Chinese buying club, internet organized, buying ceiling fans en mass for their new apartments missed a real eye-opener.....

Better than $250 Million fighter planes against million dollar ground to air missiles. Added bonus: in addition to lower platform costs, pilot training to replace downed pilots is needed less, and the potential pool of pilots is greater, since 20/20 vision is no longer a requirement.

The conundrum with drones is that manned aircraft have a local target, the pilot. Hit the plane, kill the pilot revenge accomplished, locally. Drones are controlled from remote sites, Las Vegas etc. So guess where you got to go to get the sob who killed your family?

If the CC companies jack up their rates, and those are then charged-off, are those called jack-offs?

crazyv

i would grant you that corrigans (and phelan ,nyse and greenspans) actions were 'reasonable

i question if they were morally justifiable

and btw i see similar causal events at work then and now

excess leverage,
speculation prompted by recyling of dollars back to us from investors who advanced us credit in return for our purchasing their goods
over speculation in real estate
fraud
risk of dollar devaluation

12th percentile
you forgot irans drones, google iran drones
i gave up links for lent so i cant do it.