Pavel, whenever I hear someone say this I always ask "Which ones?" They never have an answer.

CK, it may be that they're repeating something they've heard from sources that prefer not to be specific. Maybe they think the FDIC is part of a socialist conspiracy. Maybe they think that George Bailey is the president of GS.

Looks like spending is up, but topping out at a much lower level than a few years ago. The situation is very unstable as well since any change in the status quo, such as another downleg in the market or jobs would shock the system again.

More to the point, we still have a ways to go before we get back to 2000 levels.

I for one will welcome The Recovery™, specially if it includes massive amounts of steel framed buildings. Those can keep stair and handrail specialists busy for a long time.

jd
and did she force those obscene bonuses on them? it was her,with her cherubic smile,not them.oh we have wronged them.poor darlings, poor babies. and they didnt say anything.

Maybe they think that George Bailey is the president of GS.

.....most won't know who he "was", pavel.........

Good morning!

A little on import traffic and rail road lay offs.

http://www.nptelegraph.com/articles/2010/03/13/news/60005830.txt

....LOL.....and gabyjan.......you are one of the more honest....

I'm organizing a legal defense fund for Jamie and others, to enable them to get back control of their respective corporations, but Christina knows that possession is 9/10's of the law on the high seize, so she's not going to be an easy nut to crack...

Anonymous Bosch wrote:

Four* bank closings for the week ending 12/3/2010

Old school I see!

Uuuhhh, yep. And unfixable now that you've replied.

I went to the Mall here in San Diego

In the weather's defense, it was a beautiful day here in America's Finest City® yesterday.

.....we're in for interesting morning. A local "upscale" residential development with bunches of CC&Rs is having their yearly neighborhood garage sale this weekend. This is a semi-gated housing tract that was finished just as the bubble burst - many houses are now empty and 30-families are selling their possessions today. It'll be interesting to see what kind of construction/building materials are available (bathtubs, counter-tops, wiring, fixtures, etc.) vs. the typical sale stuff.

I'm waiting for BFB -- Bank Failure Bingo. There could be hourly prizes. Just think of how many more CRers would jump in if the prizes were plentiful and non-stop.

Uncle Ar wrote:

In the weather's defense, it was a beautiful day here in America's Finest City® yesterday.

Talking about good weather, in the 70's here this coming week(San Jose, CA).

weird dupe

SNAFU wrote:

Anonymous Bosch wrote:

Four* bank closings for the week ending 12/3/2010

Old school I see!

12th of March 2010. That darn EU way of writing dates that actually makes sense.

Comrade Alexei Mikhailovich wrote:

I gotta, say, it looks as if the recession is over and this is the new normal; 10% off the old highs, below trend growth as far as the eye can see with the chance of a double dip for the 2nd half.

No jobs, no recovery. More job losses, double dip. We are right on that cusp and instead we are occupied with health care reform that regardless of importance, can wait. If the economy doesn't improve this administration will own it all rather than just an inherited share.

Robert Reich: The Sham Recovery

"Business cheerleaders naturally want to emphasize the positive. They assume the economy runs on optimism and that if average consumers think the economy is getting better, they'll empty their wallets more readily and -- presto! -- the economy will get better. The cheerleaders fail to understand that regardless of how people feel, they won't spend if they don't have the money."

Google lies. They won't leave China. This is posturing to hide continued surveillance and censorship.

They do censorship work for governments. It is their business plan. They censor their results here in the land of the free continually. Who are they kidding?

Blackhalo wrote:

Business cheerleaders naturally want to emphasize the positive.

Some different analysis:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/physics/papers/0606/0606002.pdf

A somewhat different take of the same story [LA Ports] - from Logistics Management:

POLA Director of Media Relations Phillip Sanfield told LM that there continues to be a continued strong demand for U.S. exports, as evidenced by the POLA’s strong January export numbers.

“This is a trend we’ve been seeing for several months, since last October or November,” said Sanfield. “This is attributed to the lower value of the dollar, which helps our exports, as well as the rebound in Asia. Most of what we export is raw materials...that are being used for finished products that remain in Asia or inventory that is hopefully built and then comes back to the U.S. as finished products.”

Sanfield added that the inbound side is less promising than exports; however, over the next six months, the POLA is forecasting for flat to 5 percent growth.

“Our imports are all about U.S. consumer spending,” he said. “The more consumers spend, the more imports come here. We’re not quite seeing it yet. However, we’re expecting to see some improvements in the next couple of months. Slow and steady is how we expect this to happen over the next several years.”

Rob Dawg wrote:

we are occupied with health care reform that regardless of importance, can wait.

They are not doing health care reform. It is a back door bailout for the insurance companies that exclude the sick from medicine.

Public health is not a public liability. It is a national resource. These insurance companies we are about to re-subsidize are harvesting the health of the nation.

There is no reform that includes the word "insurance".

Get finance out of medicine! All they could give us is a Holocaust with 60 million uninsured out of 300 million alive.

When are doctors going to stop being the pawns of finance?
..........................................................................................................

Miami-Dade Hospital in "Death Spiral"; County on the Hook for Union Salaries

Big Miami-Dade hospital system nears insolvency - Yahoo! Finance

"The major hospital network Miami relies on for trauma care is close to insolvency and could be cut off by suppliers. Executives for Jackson Health System surprised its governing board Tuesday by saying the nonprofit is near or already in a "death spiral" as it runs low on cash.

Chief Operating Officer David Small says any day he could hear from a surgeon without enough supplies to operate. The hospital system is the only Level 1 trauma center set up to provide emergency care around the clock in Miami-Dade, which is Florida's most populous county and the 8th largest in the nation."

................................................................................................................

Deathcare

Half of hospitals in the red, study finds

March 02, 2009|Lisa Girion
The economic decline is continuing to ravage the nation's hospitals, with half of them operating in the red and many planning service and staffing cuts, two new reports show.
Hospitals are ailing because of a number of problems hitting in close succession. First, hospitals' investment incomes plummeted -- like everybody's -- eliminating a cushion for operating budgets and curtailing capital spending.

Healthcare - Los Angeles Times

........................................................................................................

Invoking KD:

THE HOSPITALS ARE GOING BROKE WHILE THEIR CUSTOMERS DIE ON THE STREET.

otishertz wrote:

They are not doing health care reform. It is a back door bailout for the insurance companies that exclude the sick from medicine.

Exactly - just like 'stimulus' was all about banks... HC 'reform' is all about insurers & for-profit providers [big pharma included]. So when am I ever going to get MY ?

Big Miami-Dade hospital system nears insolvency - Yahoo! Finance

Disempowered Paper Pusher wrote:

Big Miami-Dade hospital system nears insolvency - Yahoo! Finance

Privatize it - that should solve the problem - then they can close the trauma center and quit losing money [for now].

dryfly wrote:

otishertz wrote:
They are not doing health care reform. It is a back door bailout for the insurance companies that exclude the sick from medicine.
Exactly - just like 'stimulus' was all about banks... HC 'reform' is all about insurers & for-profit providers [big pharma included]. So when am I ever going to get MY ?

My bad. Of course it is health insurance reform. Berkshire Hathaway stock needs about $60,000 per share of reform before their schemes blow up. IMO the insurance/reinsurance sector of FIRE is worse than the banks and ready for their turn. That's why the administration is in such a hurry. And just like Berkshire's Goldman "investment" the results will be made to match the expectations.

otishertz wrote:

They are not doing health care reform. It is a back door bailout for the insurance companies that exclude the sick from medicine.

Bingo!

Everything seems to be in the same transit financially as during the GD, with an added bonus of a good many not only being dead broke, but in debt up to their ears...

The Dow lost about 90% of it's value top to bottom back then. If only they had computers in the dirty thirties that would have never happened~

The future is now.

"We look at the present through a rear-view mirror. We march backwards into the future."

~Marshall McLuhan

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/au...mcluhan_4.html

He meant the future is now. If you want to see the way the future looks then look around you right now. Perception lags reality. The future already happened. We haven't realized it yet. We haven't yet admitted to the present. The present is grim.

Take for example the Health Care Holocaust. Nobody, save Otis, is calling it a Holocaust. But it is a Holocaust. The future will see it as a Holocaust.

Everyone is waiting for the world to end or laughing at those who think it will. The span of a Human life is too short to be concerned with the world ending.

Best to concern ourselves with the gap between perception and reality. Reversion to the mean is a given, reversion to reality is an eventuality.We need to get out of the soup of bitter irony, reconnect cause and effect, talk about what is real and happening in the immediate environment, and make choices based on facts, not the way the wind is blowing across the Athenian Agora or some fukin TV desk that has a full time hairstylist.

The cheerleaders fail to understand that regardless of how people feel, they won't spend if they don't have the money."

We have now reached a point in the sham where people don't even need to spend more as long as the cheerleaders can dig up new excuses.

This morning The Today Show was working the east coast rain pretty hard. All I could think of was 'Hhmm, are they buttering up the couch potatoes for early april when TPTB use the rain excuse to explain away the bad march numbers?'

February--->snow. March----->rain. April---->??

Calvinbonds?

L.A. becomes a test case in battle to undo interest rate swap deals - latimes.com

otishertz wrote:

When are doctors going to stop being the pawns of finance?

When are doctors going to stop being the fawns of finance?

Fixe dit.

otishertz wrote:
I have been saying this forever. The problem is industry wide. The industry is Finance.
Finance is a virus that is attempting to kill off its own host in the naive belief it can survive on its own.

black dog wrote:

February--->snow. March----->rain. April---->??

Early Easter distorts April sales figures. You heard it here first.

They were all in the same business: banks, insurers, pension funds, hedge funds, college endowments.

I remember talking to a banker a few years ago when things were still humming along. He mentionned a CRE project they bidded on for the financing ($10million @6.5%) and an insurance company came in and blew'em away @5%.

otishertz wrote:

When are doctors going to stop being the Luv Goats of finance?
Whaddya think?

Let's see, go into debt for six digits for the training. Take out monster loan to equip an office you rent in a medical building owned by a REIT. Pay a plurality of your income in malpractice insurance. Take out a jumbo loan for a house commensurate with your position in the community. I'd say the FIRE has the doctors right where they want them, indentured.

otishertz wrote:

When are doctors going to stop being the Luv Goats of finance?

Whaddya think?

When med school costs less that business school?

Rob Dawg wrote:

indentured.

Exactly. Finance even has doctors complicit in the scheme of secret prices and price discrimination. US glamor docs are so enamored of their big bills and big cars that they cannot see their involvement with the Finance Holocaust is becoming more and more indefensible.

indentured.

Exactly.

Indentured like a rich Son.

otishertz wrote:

Finance even has doctors complicit in the scheme of secret prices and price discrimination.

Most lawyers avoid "legal insurance" with a passion. Only the bottom accept it as a matter of practice.
.
I wonder if anyone ever wondered why the lawyers didn't get on the insurance train...

...the Hollowcaust

Juvenal Delinquent wrote:

hollowcaust

Urban Dictionary: holla-caust

1. holla-caust

When a nazi tries to holla.
1) "Man, is that nazi yelling at you?"
2) "Naw, he jus' holla-caustin'."

lawyerliz wrote:

There is no normal, as implied by the mere phrase "new Normal".

YouTube - Bruce Cockburn live The Trouble With Normal

,rad Dawgma,

It would appear that Tijuana-adjacent is in the same fiscal shape as Phoenix...

The bonds will be secured through seven city-owned properties, in what’s called a leaseback financing transaction. The properties include San Diego Police Department headquarters, the Scripps Ranch Branch Library and three hotel properties on Mission Bay.

The City Council voted 7-1 to approve the bond refinancing.

Councilwoman Donna Frye cast the dissenting vote, arguing the city is issuing debt on property that’s already owned by the taxpayers without a public vote.

“This financing scheme defies logic,” she said.

Yeah, Miami has a sports stadium thing going on while Jax is nearly bk.

A lot of people did fight quite hard against it. Of course, at the time Jax
was successfully hiding the problem.

Juvenal Delinquent wrote:

Councilwoman Donna Frye cast the dissenting vote, arguing the city is issuing debt on property that’s already owned by the taxpayers without a public vote.

OPM is the best kind of money.

Since it's Saturday and there is no such thing as OT how about this data point.

The neighboring county just reached an agreement with the police union. New officers get a lower starting salary but by year 6 are earning $108,000 sans overtime. Another straw just got piled on the camel's back.

County Executive Steve Levy called the award "totally unjustified," given the "lofty salaries" officers now earn with overtime and other benefits that can escalate their compensation to as high as $150,000 a year. Levy also called for an end to binding arbitration because it is "destroying the taxpayers' ability to live in this state."

Jeff Frayler, Suffolk Police Benevolent Association president, said, "There's a little bit of pain on both sides, but we think the arbitrator did a fair job."

How's this for some logical reasoning,

In making the ruling, arbitrator Arthur Riegel said he considered both salaries in comparable communities and the county's ability to pay.

"I am persuaded the county is facing a serious fiscal crisis at this time," he said, but he added, "Despite the severity of the economic recession. . . . The county does have the ability to pay for smaller increases."

Oh the smaller increases?

Some officers who have not yet reached the six-year top step will come out better, seeing pay raises as 26 percent.

Back pay of $12 million - owned as part of the total $18.5 million cost of the package - will be deferred under an earlier agreement and will be paid out as officers retire. This amount represents $7,164 per officer (Nice can kicking exercise eh?)

Cops' contract to pay $108G for 6 years on job

IMF Official: World's Regulatory Supervision Shockingly Inadequate

The latest I could find for Norfork traffic was january.

Norfolk -- The Port of Virginia in January handled 149,003 TEUs, an increase of 11,009 TEUs or 8 percent, when compared with the same month in 2009. January's total also tops that of December 2009 by 805 TEUs.

Also in January, the port handled 15,563 tons of breakbulk cargo. The port's January trade balance was 59 percent exports and 41 percent imports.

Port of Virginia Blog: February 2010

Rob Dawg wrote:

Let's see, go into debt for six digits for the training. Take out monster loan to equip an office you rent in a medical building owned by a REIT. Pay a plurality of your income in malpractice insurance. Take out a jumbo loan for a house commensurate with your position in the community. I'd say the FIRE has the doctors right where they want them, indentured.

100% right on.