Loan servicers ... seem to have "nearly exhausted the supply of plausible candidates for loan modifications" and will find that many loans are "unredeemable," [a] S&P study says.

I'll say it... Hoocoodanode?

Comrade Alexei Mikhailovich wrote:

Is it me or is Simon's bid on GGP a sure sign that there's another bubble?

May be an M&A bubble coming.

Bite the bullet. Kick Greece out of the euro | Ruth Lea - Times Online

Okay Eurozone readers; this isn't me talkin'.......it's one of you, or at least could be-

The SPG deal almost makes me want to buy SRS. Almost.

officials now say they are looking at unemployment options and more incentives to borrowers to keep paying

Maybe they could issue the unemployment checks directly to the bank as mortgage payments?

Cramdowns, cramdowns cramdowns. . .will be avoided until they
can't be any more.

And those Detroit houses--how bout paying someone to take them
off the owner's hands?

M wrote:

Main page, under news headlines, in the middle of the page, it shows the dow as up (1.68%) and the NASDAQ as down ( -99.8% ) Ouch.

For several years I kept a printout of yahoo finance, as it mistakenly showed the DOW change as the price. It got lots of questions hanging in my cubicle, some dumb, some funny.

But they're current on their HEMP payments

--99%? Somebody doesn't know what % is.

"That's why officials now say they are looking at unemployment options and more incentives to borrowers to keep paying on trial modifications and on loans that are significantly "underwater" with respect to the property value."

What is the point? So they are going to pay the mortgage for unemployed borrowers who are underwater?

Just push the short sales and get it over with, we are going to be dealing with a stagnant economy for another decade as it is, let's throw in the towel and not make it twenty years.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e8/Cloture_Voting%2C_U.S._Senate%2C_1947_to_2008.jpg

Some may find this chart useful, interesting, or whatever.

"And why would they think someone $200,000.00 underwater would keep paying on something that will never reach the loan amount? "

exactly, what is the point? There is no point. Just wasting more money we don't have.

I am pretty non-partisan, but these idiots can't get out of the Administration fast enough, you could put a pack of dogs in there and do less harm than these clowns.

Mortgage delinquencies tick higher in 4th-qtr 2009 - Yahoo! Finance

Disillusioned Bayh advocates electoral “shock” to broken system - Yahoo! News

In an interview on MSNBC this morning, newly retiring Sen. Evan Bayh declared the American political system "dysfunctional," riddled with "brain-dead partisanship" and permanent campaigning. Flatly denying any possibility that he'd seek the presidency or any other higher office, Bayh argued that the American people needed to deliver a "shock" to Congress by voting incumbents out in mass and replacing them with people interested in reforming the process and governing for the good of the people, rather than deep-pocketed special-interest groups.

Not a fan of Bayh but agree with him 100% on this

ghostfaceinvestah wrote:

Just push the short sales and get it over with, we are going to be dealing with a stagnant economy for another decade as it is, let's throw in the towel and not make it twenty years.

Agree. If they don't push the short sales through those houses will be forclosures. Either - Or. I don't see any middle ground.

Hemp.

lawyerliz wrote:

I have plenty of clients who would make the payments if you crammed
the price down.

How do you prevent everyone from wanting a cramdown?

I'm not saying there isn't a good way to prevent it, but I just don't see how. Especially not on the scale we are talking about in CA and FL.

lawyerliz wrote:

If they had done little ones, with lowered rates year and half ago, the death
spiral would be over.

Sorry lliz, that ain't so. Too much debt sucking at too little money in the "system". Little write/cramdowns aren't going to do it.

km4 wrote:
Disillusioned Bayh advocates electoral “shock” to broken system - Yahoo! News
Interesting observation and choice of words.... ECT anyone?
Electroconvulsive therapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remarkable similarities to some degree between the status quo and a pathologically non-functioning psyche... obliterating the failing parts, almost a reset switch of a sort for a human brain that's become unworkable?

ghostfaceinvestah wrote:

Just push the short sales and get it over with, we are going to be dealing with a stagnant economy for another decade as it is, let's throw in the towel and not make it twenty years.

If we keep the interventions going, we can stay in a permanent depression, which eliminates the business cycle!

AKA the dark ages.

That is a good one, and would work quite well I imagine.

lawyerliz wrote:
AKA the dark ages.
We'll call them something else, of course... and it will be suitably Orwellian. Probably already being decided in committee, actually.

Bayh wants current incumbents voted out and replaced with people who will be more cooperative with Obama and vote for his policies. He's not leaving because we're throwing government money around left and right. He's leaving because those nasty Blue Dogs are keeping him from throwing even more money around.

aHHH, Feudal, did you enjoy your dark ages. (Ireland wasn't dark, by
the way.)

I am redeemed! I am redeemed! Redeemed by the Blood of the HAMP!

(not!)

I passed underwriting in lightning speed apparently. I'm set to close a week early.

In my case, the bank is going to recoup less then 39% of the 2005 purchase price after they pay off the tax liens and cover my closing. My recorded sale price will be 7330 below 1993 price. This deal keeps getting weirder and weirder but that's sacramento for you. I think the bank was just happy to see a owner/occupier. We've become a rare bird in these parts.

Here is the part that will make CR readers flip out. The current owners are retired state workers and the husband is a vet. They plan on renting for 2 years and then buying again with 0% down. They've learned nothing from all this.

FYI Oxtail - Bayh is a blue dog

Congrats, Jane, congrats.

Well, you really think someone will offer a deal like this?

When did they buy? Did they heloc all the value out?

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

Many would prefer the sacrifice of the HAMP as a sin offering.

Wha? You want to see the blood of the HAMP a-squirtin' and a-spittin' and a-oozin' about? LOL

"The Treasury-Reserve: When David Blaine's magic shows are just too short"

I should go into marketing... hey Hoopajoops if you're still looking for a career change, I recently entertained the idea of being a person who takes pictures of beautiful women... no idea what kind of career it is, hell of a hobby though

lawyerliz wrote:
aHHH, Feudal, did you enjoy your dark ages. (Ireland wasn't dark, by the way.)
Winter follows fall every year. We've clearly not broken the cycle this time, either. The time of 'rest' or nescience isn't all bad, however, just very different than that to which we've been accustomed to regard as life in the past, epic, boom, and a necessary corrective, like passing out after too much drink.

Here is the part that will make CR readers flip out. The current owners are retired state workers and the husband is a vet. They plan on renting for 2 years and then buying again with 0% down. They've learned nothing from all this.

They learned a lot. They learned you can game the system and suffer no real consequences. How much cash did they extract over the years?

Deflationary Jane wrote:

They plan on renting for 2 years and then buying again with 0% down. They've learned nothing from all this.

I think that is part of TPTB plan. After 3 years from a forclosure or short sale you can buy through FHA. So if they can drag this out long enough for the first wave to buy again .... at cheaper prices and feel like they are getting a deal everything will work out.

Has David Blaine ever held his breath for a year and a half?
beginning to worry about Bernanke's brain cell

Now that was mean.

Funny, but mean.

You need at least 2 to rub together.

Sale prices were 135k in 1993, 195k in 1999, 325k in 2005, and a heloc in late 2005 to push the loan up to 362k. They used the heloc to buy another property in east Sac. The husband is nice but kinda clueless. The wife was and still is huffing HGTV glue.

My piti will be the same as the rent on a 1br apt down the street but sellers are still asking for 250 to 300 sqft for REO flips. That's how off this whole scenario is.

unirealist wrote:

Like I said, watching the film is a bittersweet experience.

Dude, life is a bittersweet experience.

Deflationary Jane, your house isn't by a levee is it?

So you paid about 125k. Cooool.

And you said 30% down? less than 500 p & I. Super congrats.

Bob Dobbs wrote:
We didn't need as much stuff done/made for us in those days -- but we were taught to need more and more as the wealth allocated to society become less and less.
An unintended consequence of the specialist/expert society that embeds so much of that expertise into its technology and lifestyle is our growing and nearly utter dependence on those with that specialized knowledge just to live a normal modern life. This suggests that 'normal modern life' is a pretty radical deviation from normality

what part of Sactown? congratulations......

EvilHenryPaulson wrote:

I interpret Keynesianism as "saving during the good times to pay for smoothing out the bad times"

I think that short changes Keynes. The crucial Keynesian concept is "uncertainty". Not risk, which can be measured and assigned a number, but something about which no probability can be assigned. Uncertainty forces you to think about liquidity premiums and leads to hoarding of cash.

See, people still want to buy a house. . .even guys.

It's genetic.

And population fell severely in Europe when Rome fell.
Not fun for those who starved.

The Brits was no able to make it back to were they were
before they were conquered.

It's not a good idea to get too complex.

Mr Slippery wrote:
Not risk, which can be measured and assigned a number, but something about which no probability can be assigned.
LOL... indeed. Risk is mathematical; Uncertainty is behavioral The "unknown unknowns" of Herr Rumsfeld.

It was a toss up between cash and 20% down. I did 20 and that left a nice cushion for repairs and some upgrades.

ghostfaceinvestah wrote:

booms and busts, didn't Obama say he wanted to avoid those

The only way to do that is to go to a command economy, and many of us (though they might not be well represented here) definitely do not want that. See the old Soviet Union for all the reasons why not...

But savvy Jamie Dimon earned his $17 million, leading genius Ben down the primrose path to Maiden Lane.

Then Maiden Lane II. Then Maiden Lane III. Do Princeton prof's think you get to be a maiden thrice?

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

An unintended consequence of the specialist/expert society that embeds so much of that expertise into its technology and lifestyle is our growing and nearly utter dependence on those with that specialized knowledge just to live a normal modern life.

The growth of the two-income family also caused us to need more services -- all the things that would have been done withint the family, but for which there was no longer time. I'm glad for women's rights, but that whole two-earner thing was a poison pill concealed by a thin layer of virtue. If it ever was simply "you can," it quickly turned into "you have to."

Cinco-X wrote:

The only way to do that is to go to a command economy,

fractional lending <> market economy

EvilHenryPaulson wrote:

I don't think of this as Keynesian. Since Keynes is dead and can't speak up, I interpret Keynesianism as "saving during the good times to pay for smoothing out the bad times", you have to remember that Ricardian Equivalence used to be all the rage at one time

That's little more than a caveat of Keynesian-ism. Keynes' primary "contributions" to economics revolve around government deficit spending and transfer payments.

Bob Dobbs wrote:

I dunno, Rob, I always though Oxnard was an obscure nickname for a variety of animal feces. "Watch out, don't step in the ox nard!"

When the city fathers got together to form the city the Oxnard brothers were the only ones who didn't show up to the meeting.

greenchutes wrote:

Lucas had a really light touch for a very young kid. Fresno is still not the wealthiest city in California, which explains some of that ambience.

I thought that movie was based on his youth in Modesto-

And I always think of that star Trek episode, tho the guys name
wasn't Oxnard.

Yup there is MUCH more on the way. I have a friend who's got a job offer out of state, better money, better employer, better job.
Problem is he has an underwater house, so he's going for a short sale. If that doesn't work, and it's really unlikely, he's moving and the bank can just foreclose, he'll take the pain on his credit report. I wonder how many more people in this situation.

~splat

ot-

Mavericks was held this weekend...it's the annual big wave contest where inland creatures come to learn how little they know about the ocean..see here....

Set waves clean up surf fans at Maverick's Contest; three people hospitalized | SURFLINE.COM

some people are just forrest gump in real life without the luck....

Cinco-X wrote:

I thought that movie was based on his youth in Modesto-

Modesto, Fresno, Sacramento, Oxnard, it's all the same to an outsider.

ResistanceIsFeudal wrote:

This suggests that 'normal modern life' is a pretty radical deviation from normality

What is normality in this context ? A hunter-gatherer society, pre-industrial revolution or post apocalyptic ?
~splat

unirealist wrote:

But didn't that do wonders for the GDP?

Hurricane Andrew also did wonders for GDP-

Not if you know what the delta breeze is. Then they are very different.

VDARE.com: 02/15/10 - America–A Country of Serfs Ruled By Oligarchs

It is a different situation today. Layoffs result from the jobs being moved offshore and from corporations replacing their domestic work forces with foreigners brought in on H-1B, L-1 and other work visas. The U.S. labor force is being separated from the incomes associated with the goods and services that it consumes. With the rise of offshoring, layoffs are not only due to restrictive monetary policy and inventory buildup. They are also the result of the substitution of cheaper foreign labor for U.S. labor by American corporations. Americans cannot be called back to work to jobs that have been moved abroad. In the New Economy, layoffs can continue despite low interest rates and government stimulus programs.

Why Politicians Can't Create Real Jobs - Yahoo! Finance

Rick Newman, On Tuesday February 16, 2010, 11:19 am EST
The history of recessions offers some unwelcome news for all those in Washington who think they have the power to boost hiring.
Jobs used to return quickly after recessions. After the downturn that ended in 1975, it took only two months for the unemployment rate to peak and then start falling. In 1982, unemployment peaked the very same month that the recession ended and then dropped as sharply as it had risen. That was when the U.S. economy was less globalized and more self-contained. Foreign companies found it difficult to compete with American ones. When recessions ended, things went back to normal and many employers simply rehired the people they had laid off.
That's not how it works anymore. After the 1991 recession, it took 15 months for the unemployment rate to peak and net job growth to resume. After the 2001 recession, it took 19 months. Technology is one reason; it allows firms to be more productive with fewer workers and put off hiring once a recovery begins. Globalization also allows firms to replace expensive American workers with cheaper ones overseas, and there's no better pretext for paring labor costs than a grueling recession.
Jobless recoveries are now the norm. And that's what we're in right now. The official arbiters haven't yet declared when (or if) the recession has technically ended, but many economists date the end of the recession to around August 2009. The economy is growing again, following the steepest decline since the Depression--but it's not adding new jobs. And the recent recession was obviously far worse than the fairly mild ones in 1991 and 2001. So the politicians are on the case, with plans to spend billions more to encourage firms to start hiring. (More)

lawyerliz wrote:

Stinking mudflats?

What are you talking about?

Yep...lliz I took the little lady to Gualala, Mendencino coast this wknd and adults were letting kids hang out near the water line with 20 ft swells pumping in....stupid is, stupid does.....10 people died there last year, swept away.....

tg wrote:

They are also the result of the substitution of cheaper foreign labor for U.S. labor by American corporations. Americans cannot be called back to work to jobs that have been moved abroad.

Not news to anyone who worked, or tried to, in Silicon Valley these past ten or so years.

Normally, the old perceive changing times as abnormal. Then they realize it's the meme chose.

I believe most humans 10,000 years ago assumed they were living in the most quickly evolving technological generation ever, and that everything had been invented already..

"There is nothing new under the Sun."

---King David, (oral tradition).

But he never witnessed a back-double-full at high speed in the middle of a mogul course.

lawyerliz wrote:

serfs.

serfin usa

Without growth in consumer incomes, the economy can go nowhere. Washington policymakers substituted debt growth for income growth. Instead of growing richer, consumers grew more indebted. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan accomplished this with his low interest rate policy, which drove up housing prices, producing home equity that consumers could tap and spend by refinancing their homes.

from article

The waves in Brevard are wimpy, but just once they were
very powerful and scary. Took me a bit to figure out which
way to jump--straight in. When a wave takes you, you go with it.

And then there are people who think it's a good idea to feed
the bears, or have the kids feed the bears.

D-Jane

Under their circumstances, a 30 year fixed is simply a fixed rent;-}
Not bad if you get it cheap enough.

I still argue that houses are going to be in surplus until 1955 + 76 years=2031. So no real returns to housing until half the boomers are in the grave.

Ugh. That really does depress me. Well, now, Bennie old boy, how about some real inflation?

I felt very lonely betting today on a decline in oil prices this week.

Usually give me a better chance that I am right though.

The herd is thundering north- tomorrow the herd thunders south. GS points out the direction.
Boring. Simply boring. The entire market is just waiting for a mythical dawn of a new era, without fixing the problems of the old.
Har.

More foreclosures will happen, including the knifecatchers of 2007-8- has everybody forgotten about them?

Someday this war's gonna end....

Which reminds me EHP. I thought Jean-Luc Brassard got screwed a few turns back. But he took it in stride, not like those whining figure skaters.

lawyerliz wrote:

So Cinco, is there a Smoot Hawley in our future?

Good question; I doubt it. If you think the drop in GDP was bad last year, then wait until we put up trade barriers (Real GDP would be crushed, though we'd probably try to inflate it away). World wide GDP goes in the tank, the probability of war with China becomes much more probable. It's much better for all of us to have our interests link than to think we can go it alone. We just need a better exchange rate for the Yuan.

5,500 apply for 190 jobs at restaurant...

More than 5,000 apply for jobs at new restaurant | restaurant, jobs, people - News - The Orange County Register

In Canada, squash is not a banker's only sport. Which is why they had a world no. 1, but the USA never.

1 currency now -yogi wrote:

There are 10 JPM branches within a half -mile of my apartment, not counting Wachovia.

If they close all the extra branches, how many are out of a job?
Banks are on everyones S-list. If they start laying off lowly tellers they are just digging a deeper hole.

EvilHenryPaulson wrote:

I don't think of this as Keynesian. Since Keynes is dead and can't speak up, I interpret Keynesianism as "saving during the good times to pay for smoothing out the bad times", you have to remember that Ricardian Equivalence used to be all the rage at one time

R.E. is one of the reasons why I don't have a PhD after my name. I told a tenured Prof that any equilibrium system that included a sufficient proof of R.E. as an outcome would end up useless for any macro work. I think the last fifteen years, especially the Bush tax cut has proven R.E. is pretty much dead, unless most of you have saved up wealth over the last nine years to pay the tax increase starting next year.

Sometimes it is far far far better to be proven right, than lick the boots and tell them sweet lies.

Someday this war's gonna end...

Djane,
I'll put in a call to my friend in elk grove....I know he's backed off doing any work because he's taking care of wife full time who has MS...She immobile right now....does great work....used to be foreman at Granite...odds are he won't do it...he is 24/7 taking care of her....
he's actually a hero to me....

Bob Dobbs wrote:

The growth of the two-income family also caused us to need more services -- all the things that would have been done withint the family, but for which there was no longer time. I'm glad for women's rights, but that whole two-earner thing was a poison pill concealed by a thin layer of virtue. If it ever was simply "you can," it quickly turned into "you have to."

Great summation of the issue. I'm filing this away for future reference

Anonymous Bosch wrote:

190 jobs? That's not a restaurant, it's an edible foodlike substance factory. No wonder it's called manufacturing.

There's a restaurant here in town that employs 150, and it's not that big. But there's a bar/dance venue, the dining room, the banquet room. And most everybody works part-time; some, seasonally. If everybody worked full time, the number would probably collapse down to less than half that --- maybe much less.

Jamie Dimon can open up a lot of restaurants with his $17 million, but who can afford a table?

Bob Dobbs wrote:

There's a restaurant here in town that employs 150, and it's not that big. But there's a bar/dance venue, the dining room, the banquet room. And most everybody works part-time; some, seasonally. If everybody worked full time, the number would probably collapse down to less than half that --- maybe much less.

But hiring part timers gets around the requirement to pay benefits, plus it also means you almost always have someone that is already "cross trained" to step in when an employee gets tired of working for peanuts and walks...

Pawn shops come to mind as more useful to society. Or better yet, mini library branches.

Lots of surplus banking premises. My second payoff of 17 cents is heading to the investor after the BPO- which, I giggle, they told me would cost $110- well if there is no deal, then good luck collecting suckas. The BPO is going to read like the location of the Titanic.

D-Jane, I said real returns, which doesn't mean a house bought cheap enough and lived in won't have decent returns, just in real constant dollar terms they will suck. Thought about buying some dirt the other day, it was down to $2k an acre, but still too much. Still tempting to flip it on the come line with a land contract and a monthly nugget.

Someday this war's gonna end...

Cinco-X wrote:

It's much better for all of us to have our interests link than to think we can go it alone. We just need a better exchange rate for the Yuan

But Cinco, do you really think that a more favorable exchange rate will ever happen? S/H was the last in a series of tariffs (which the US had used since its inception to fund the government and to support domestic industry) it wasn't the cause of GD1. If the US was to institute a S/H or selective series of tariffs (say, linked to environmental destruction), how exactly is the US harmed in the long term? In the S/H analysis, we're not the exporting powerhouse that's going to be retailiated against.

Alternatives to tariffs might be a more thorough inspection regime -- e.g. let's check that all of the paint on all of the toys doesn't contain lead. Or it could be an equalization tax that would force the yuan to level that we feel is appropriate.

We're in an economic battle in which we are fighting using a different set of rules from our opponents (and those rules aren't to our advantage). It just seems like the solution from too many people is well, we can't do anything except wait for China to revalue the Yuan. Revaluing the Yuan will only happen when it benefits China...................

Cinco-X wrote:

But hiring part timers gets around the requirement to pay benefits, plus it also means you almost always have someone that is already "cross trained" to step in when an employee gets tired of working for peanuts and walks...

Well, yeah. That's why a restaurant with 190 workers is not a prodigy for the world to see. When I was a kid I worked in a restaurant operation not much larger than a good-sized Starbucks. But there were 30 employees, only 4 or five full-timers, only two of those with benes. And that was in "the good old days."

I got out because I was too reliable; they were calling me in to sub for everybody who walked on a moments notice or stayed home sick with a joint. And I never got a raise or any recognition. If I had, I might have stayed for the management training program. Now that woulda been a mistake: assistant manager meant fixed salary and unlimited work week.

Cinco-X wrote:

If you think the drop in GDP was bad last year, then wait until we put up trade barriers (Real GDP would be crushed, though we'd probably try to inflate it away). World wide GDP goes in the tank, the probability of war with China becomes much more probable.

Conjure says, "War with China is already baked into the cake and is not a question of if, but when."

"US and Chinese strategic interests in Asia will collide."

Lot of people call Sacramento - PsychoTomato

Ed S. wrote:

We're in an economic battle in which we are fighting using a different set of rules from our opponents (and those rules aren't to our advantage). It just seems like the solution from too many people is well, we can't do anything except wait for China to revalue the Yuan. Revaluing the Yuan will only happen when it benefits China...................

Some of China's moves earlier today actually appear to be the beginnings of a revaluation; foreign interests in US Treasuries drops anybody?
Foreigners cut Treasury stakes; rates could rise - Yahoo! Finance
When others stop buying our money, it's value drops, and on a relative basis, the value of theirs increases.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

Roughly where? I'm curious....

Ash Fork AZ- bankerdome trailer land.

I see; just curious where $2k/acre land still existed.

mp wrote:

Conjure says, "War with China is already baked into the cake and is not a question of if, but when."

A nuclear exchange? I think that probably won't happen. It'll almost certainly be a proxy war of some sort. Perhaps not even a hot war per se.....

Oxtail wrote:

Which is why it's odd that he blames GOP partisanship for stalling legislation in congress.

Funny man....we all know the GOP is the party of yes.....Bwahahahaha

Jonathan wrote:

Interesting article on 'brownouts' in manufacturing. Or 'grey-shifts'.

That's nothing, counterfeiting is a real issue as well. That or stealing reject units headed for scrap or recycling and selling them as good units.

1 currency now -yogi wrote:

put in spinning bikes

I was thinking of exercise equipment that would pump water uphill so it could flow down through a turbine and generate electricity... The machines could have a card reader (like the casino slots have) to record the amount of energy credited to the operators account. Generate enough energy to earn your welfare check...

Government may need to be the employer of last resort, but the taxpayers should get some labor in return.

Giving up on small town life

Coal fire holdouts

I wonder how many small dying towns are out there.

lawyerliz wrote:

See, people still want to buy a house. .

I'm waiting to get a six pack of them at Costco. That way I can choose who my neighbors are.

My spinning studio plans to have generators hooked up.

Citizen AllenM wrote:

Pawn shops come to mind as more useful to society. Or better yet, mini library branches.

I used poker as an example of an almost completely "non-productive" activity yet more productive than JPM.

What are people really saying when they call for a revaluation of the Yuan?

"I want all of the cheap crap at wal-mart to go up in price by 30%... though this will make the already-shattered working class that much poorer, it will magically cause our low-value manufacturing sector to emerge from the ashes, and suddenly michigan will have millions of new industrial jobs, and NC millions of new textile jobs, PA millions of new steel jobs, as flying spew in the streets from their nether regions..."

I think they should require prisoners to pump water for power the same way - power the prison with prisoner labor.... keep them busy and tired so they dont have the time or energy for mischief...

Keynes said the govt should build pyramids - that was sort of what the WPA and CCC were in the 30's although we got some nice parks and buildings out of it.... But I still like the power generation idea... there could be small gyms all over the place - the water could be pumped into an overhead tank with a small turbine... Some engineer can work out the details but it solves 2 problems - gives the unemployed work and gives society something back in exchange, and it keeps the unemployed out of trouble too...

One of the more clever bits of futurism from "Soylent Green".

Politicians make plenty of wind power but that costs a lot more then 10 cents an hour!

Go down that road long enough, and you'll start becoming a bug, and we can't have that!

Citizen AllenM wrote:

mini library branches

I have been to three different combo bars and libraries in three different cities.

mp wrote:

"US and Chinese strategic interests in Asia will collide."

Afghanistan and global dominance Pt2

http://www.fpri.org/orbis/5401/kraska.navalwar2015.pdf 

Funny thing about letting the greediest people in the world run things, there's not a lot left for everyone else.

some investor guy wrote:

I was about to mock this statement with "qualified to be a cook or waiter"?

I'm sure there are plenty of way overqualified people in there as well.

The definition of qualified does depend on the environment. In this kind of environment, why would you consider somebody with no previous experience when there are multiple candidates with experience? It's not like the case of wait staff making less because they are young and inexperienced.

It's a pretty high turnover field as well, and no reason to risk losing even more people since they didn't realize what the job was going to be like and quit.

But my point is that the x,000 per job numbers that keep getting thrown out may or may not accurately reflect the job situation. I suspect it shows desperation on the part of job seekers, and that is understandable.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is pursuing comprehensive transformation from a mass army designed for protracted wars of attrition on its territory to one capable of fighting and winning short-duration, high-intensity conflicts along its periphery against high-tech adversaries...

The PLA is also developing longer range capabilities that have implications beyond Taiwan. Some of these capabilities have allowed it to contribute cooperatively to the international community’s responsibilities in areas such as peacekeeping, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and counter-piracy. However, some of these capabilities, as well as other, more disruptive ones, could allow China to project power to ensure access to resources or enforce claims to disputed territories.

Over the past several years, China has begun a new phase of military development by beginning to articulate roles and missions for the PLA that go beyond China’s immediate territorial interests, but has left unclear to the international community the purposes and objectives of the PLA’s evolving doctrine and capabilities. Moreover, China continues to promulgate incomplete defense expenditure figures and engage in actions that appear inconsistent with its declaratory policies. The limited transparency in China’s military and security affairs poses risks to stability by creating uncertainty and increasing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation.

http://www.defense.gov/pubs/pdfs/China_Military_Power_Report_2009.pdf

I feel like a vegetarian who has just been taken on a tour of a slaughter house.

Digging more deeply into the foreclosure/securitization issue—I stumbled on to information today that I am having a hard time grasping. I am hoping someone here on CR can tell me if I am understanding this correctly.

Per Wikipedia's description of asset-backed securities, “Discrete trusts consist of a fixed or static pool of receivables that are tranched into senior/subordinated bonds.” I get the tranching thing. But does the “static” in the phrase “fixed or static pool of receivables” mean what I think it means?

That an issuer (lender) compiles a huge pool of mortgages, has a public offering, thereby selling them into a trust. Now there is a trust out there with these mortgages. But—if I understand this correctly—if it is a “static” pool, the lender gets to pull particular mortgages in and out of such trusts on a monthly basis for up to 3 years. So—theoretically, one mortgage could have been pulled out of and shoved into 36 different trusts over a period of 3 years?

I need someone to tell me this isn't so. Please.

greenchutes wrote:

Aggression in the Spratleys or Formosa could be a response to internal pressures if their housing bubble and/or stock bubble dramatically unwinds.

Conjure and I have said all we're going to say on this subject.

Rob Dawg wrote:

2 hours flat out at 70% efficiency = 10¢ retail. We aren't there... yet.

[I also do bar mitzvahs.]

50 spinners losing unsightly pounds in 7 one-hour shifts= about $500/month. My rent just went down. But efficiency is gaining on the combusto's.

greenchutes wrote:

Aggression in the Spratlys or Formosa could be a response to internal pressures if their housing bubble and/or stock bubble dramatically unwinds. Nothing like a Great Patriotic War to remind people to get in line and not question their superiors.

Aggression in the Spratlys or Formosa could be a response to internal pressures when their housing bubble and/or stock bubble dramatically unwinds.

So what equities go up when RE goes down?
When high unemployment lasts a long, long time?
What could benefit from protectionism?

Looks like I'll be buying some sin stocks....

After all these years, sorta funny. XXX Federal, that I used to
represent kicked out the law firm, (I got fired) and went bust low these many years
ago. 20 years? The spot where my desk was was filled with exercise bikes
for a while. I think there is something else there now.

Chinese invasion of Taiwan means nuclear Japan. That's when the fun really starts.

lawyerliz wrote:

I think there is something else there now.

rats.

one way or another.

Is 燒賣 the chinese characters for ground up dog balls?

Liz you will like this one...

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Jackson Healthcare Union Faces Widespread Layoffs

EvilHenryPaulson (profile) wrote on Tue, 2/16/2010 - 6:09 pm replyIgnore user"The Treasury-Reserve: When David Blaine's magic shows are just too short"

I should go into marketing... hey Hoopajoops if you're still looking for a career change, I recently entertained the idea of being a person who takes pictures of beautiful women... no idea what kind of career it is, hell of a hobby though
.
Eh, what? The Women of the Central Banks?

greenchutes wrote:

Thank god he's going far, far away from anything resembling public office.

Another spineless blue dog. He hasn't ruled out working as a lobbyist...just like his wife.

Nobody knows how to do wifely stuff anymore.

The term wife got contemptified.

You guys want wives back, we get some respect for being wives.

I can't tell you how many times I've been treated differently at a
party when people thought I was merely a "wife" vs a lawyer.

lawyerliz wrote:

You guys want wives back

Hmm, no thanks.

hey Hoopajoops if you're still looking for a career change, I recently entertained the idea of being a person who takes pictures of beautiful women...

The judge told me I had to stop doing that

I've been a receptionist. Being women's work it is implicitly mocked.

It takes some intelligence, however.

Wouldn't it be nice to have some more receptionists instead
of those glod-awful machines?

Liz:

You're cranky about being called merely a wife?

Try being introduced to a large group of people as the good Doctor's wife.

I do wifely stuff damned well but I look like s**t in a dress.

LL,

Machines cost less and don't call in sick, take breaks, etc. The younger generation is taking over and are accepting of machines.

Oxtail wrote:

Anyone ever have a Chinese pork pump? It's pretty yummy.

I used to eat them all the time until I found out they were full of melamine.

Scientists create hottest temperature since Big Bang - 250,000 times more scorching than our Sun

What kinda of pot holder do you need when your're working with stuff that hot in the kitchen?

Vonbek777 wrote:

What kinda of pot holder do you need when your're working with stuff that hot in the kitchen?

I usually tell her she looks good in that apron.

I find it interesting that the greek bomb exploded outside of the JPM offices. Given the involvement of GS in advising the greek government, I'd have thought that the bomb would target GS instead.

Hmm...

I'd say something else, but I have to take the brandy and cigars to the wife and her friends in the study and then go polish the silver.

lawyerliz wrote:

Ok, you want somebody whom you support, but who cleans the house,
cooks the food, washes the clothes, runs the errands, makes the curtains,
waxes the floors, takes care of the kids and bottles the root beer?

Nope.

Just sex and a show.

TransUnion: Mortgage Delinquencies at All Time High

Citizen AllenM wrote:

So much production is gone from America- and it will only return with tariffs or a destroyed dollar.

I have thought a lot about why certain types of jobs left the US, why others stayed, and why some grew.

One reason isn't discussed a lot. Our healthcare system has led to fewer jobs that:A. Tend to be taken by smokers (because on average they need more healthcare). B. Are filled by people with less education (because on average they need more healthcare). C. Are physically demanding (because on average they need more healthcare, especially work-related injuries). D. Are unionized (because they tend to negotiate broader and richer healthcare benefits).

Here is the odd part. To a large extent, the healthcare costs are being rearranged. Depending on the circumstances, the costs are moved to Medicaid, indirectly added to the cost of other private insurance or healthcare, or sent to the largest catastrophe healthcare plan in the US (bankruptcy court).

LL,

I guess I do every thing wrong. My wife was a stay at home mom and got a Benz, jewelry, and an early retirement with me.

lawyerliz wrote:

I'm sure there was some more nefarious stuff going on

Hi Lawyerliz--did you see this FL foreclosure case that was dated last Friday--BAC Funding Consortium v. US Bank? It was just about summary judgments, but what I thought was so ironic was that it was two banks fighting over the issue of who held the mortgage! Too funny.

lawyerliz wrote:

The spot where my desk was was filled with exercise bikes
for a while. I think there is something else there now.

I worked with an attorney who was laid off due to a merger. He got a new job quickly with another firm. They moved into the space vacated by his old firm. Didn't even change the decor. They offered him his old office if he wanted it. He declined, on the grounds that it would just be too weird.

Anonymous Bosch wrote:
They also don't buy houses, cars, clothes, food, or flat screen TVs, to name just a few items don't don't buy.
We can engineer robots that aren't self-sustaining though And give them a drive for power that is very difficult to override. Unfortunately we can't use sexual selection as a behavioral conditioning aid, but maybe the need to eat and to control others will be enough.