If only those bloggers weren't spewing information.

---
Like, you could, like, totally, you know, what type of car, you know, like, broward, is getting and stuff.

Bill and Ken<

Fine work, gentlemen.

Congrats, CR, on being the first name out among 'the top blogs.'

"They" made their name in 2005??? Who was on your team then?

Bernanke goes for broke... literally.

bernanke wants to eliminate reserve requirements completely: Tech Ticker, Yahoo! Finance 

He even looks a little crazed in the photo. Nice touch.

Wants != "is possible". And it was a footnote.

As an aside, never believe a headline from an organization that would hire henry, let alone put him in charge of it.

SNAFU wrote:

California home with basement? Yet to see one.

A good friend in Thousand Oaks has one. The house was a custom built for a LDS family.

JP wrote:

Wants != "is possible".

Clearly, you did not watch the last presidential election.

I think Steve is a er

REBear wrote:

I think Steve is

---not old enough to drink.

actually, homedad, he was a babe too. Or no, maybe a dude. Or whatever.

Yeah, I knew the writing thing wasn't easy but jeez...

Course, Bill's got the Fed, SEC, FDIC, TBTF, etc. writing the scripts so there's no dearth of material.

No offense, CR.

We've just got one honkin' great posse of clowns riding around, tossing pies like no tomorrow.

Garrison wrote:

Can I get me one of them ANALyst jobs?

---It's a dark hole; where we are going.
Boom!

SNAFU wrote:

California home with basement? Yet to see one.

Yeah, why is that? I've always wondered....

I can safely say that I've never been in a house in Canada that didn't have a basement.

I take that back; there are a few 1950's wartime houses that were slapped together with only a crawl space under them, but those are awfully rare. But I was in one of them.

I never would have guessed the WSJ even knew the West Coast existed never mind some guy in a plaid bathrobe and in Orange County.

Skeptical? check.
Snarky? check, at times.
Spewing information? I would think I tend to chug it down, while CR presents good information in a formats that even this monkey can understand.
Nice that you got some props CR, you deserve them.

noob goldberg wrote:

Yeah, why is that? I've always wondered....

Don't know for sure noob, got to do with the lack of subzero winters; I am guessing.

You could, like, totally, you know, like, send Veronica, like an email, and stuff, like, you know, dude.

veronica.dagher@dowjones.com

OT
This story is being picked up all over the world:
Final destination Iran? - Herald Scotland
| News
| World News

Final destination Iran?

Exclusive: Rob Edwards
0 comments

Published on 14 Mar 2010

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The Sunday Herald can reveal that the US government signed a contract in January to transport 10 ammunition containers to the island. According to a cargo manifest from the US navy, this included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.

Experts say that they are being put in place for an assault on Iran’s controversial nuclear facilities. There has long been speculation that the US military is preparing for such an attack, should diplomacy fail to persuade Iran not to make nuclear weapons.

Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971. The agreement led to 2,000 native islanders being forcibly evicted to the Seychelles and Mauritius.

The Sunday Herald reported in 2007 that stealth bomber hangers on the island were being equipped to take bunker-buster bombs.

Older homes,and those not in coastal California frequently have basements.Hard to find a house in lovely Yreka or Bieber without one.

homedad43 wrote:

The WSJ reporter was a babe.
She's probably reading this?

And I'm in my basement spewing ... information ... with a snarky tone.

Four more wars!
Four more wars!

OT: Forget tungsten worry about fake carbon instead.

Page not found « Watts Up With That?

Europe’s emissions trading system was in uproar yesterday amid a mounting scandal over “recycled” carbon permits.
Two carbon exchanges were forced to suspend trading as panic hit investors fearful that they had bought invalid permits.

BlueNext and Nord Pool, the French and Nordic exchanges, suspended trading in certificates of emission reduction (CERs) when it emerged that some had been illegally reused.

Concern that used and worthless permits were circulating caused the spot price of the certificates to collapse, from €12 per tonne of carbon to less than €1 .

Tom Stone wrote:

Just who in the MSM has done anything like the quality of reporting that CR and other blogs have?

No one. We know that already.

I think the real reason Steve likes CR is the commentariat.

Sorry HG, but that's a little scary. I'll pass.

SNAFU wrote:

Hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs are being shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The conclusion I think we came to here a few nights ago was that the reason they had made this public was just to put a bit more pressure on Iran and put them in there place. As one commenter noted, it was akin to parking an aircraft carrier just outside the nautical boundary of a country.

If war was actually intended, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't put "Bunker-Buster Bombs" on the manifest. Or ship them privately, for that matter.

Tom Stone wrote:

Just who in the MSM has done anything like the quality of reporting that CR and other blogs have?

Kramer and Kudlow.

shill wrote:

The nuts are running the Asylum

The Nuts are running the Ass Slum.

*noob goldberg wrote:

The conclusion I think we came to here a few nights ago was that the reason they had made this public was just to put a bit more pressure on Iran and put them in there place. As one commenter noted, it was akin to parking an aircraft carrier just outside the nautical boundary of a country.*

Missed that discussion. Sorry for the repeat.

broward wrote:

Kramer and Kudlow.

Broward, quit stealing Liz's percocet. She's an invalid, for goodness sake.

SNAFU wrote:

Missed that discussion. Sorry for the repeat.

Oh no worries, it was brief an an overnight affair, if I recall. I'm pretty sure every topic is discussed at least three or four times here, just to catch all the different timezones

Took percocet once and hallucinated like no end. Ghastly ones, too.

No thanks. I'll pass.

reusing things is green. right.

just had a big fight to get my perkocet. I won. local med types not used to people who don't take no for an answer.

Good day HD

lawyerliz wrote:

just had a big fight to get my perkocet. I won.

My wife went home from surgery with a sizeable bottle. She's 100 lbs, so it was really a large pile of pills for her.

The internet claims that the street value was $25/pill. If true, we could have turned a profit on her surgery with the leftovers.

(Note to Feds: That was A JOKE!)

noob goldberg wrote:

SNAFU wrote:

California home with basement? Yet to see one. Yeah, why is that? I've always wondered....

I've seen basements in California, all are older houses that are built on hillsides. Newer houses on hillsides tend to be built on stilts.

The way it was explained to me by my mother was that when you build a house the foundation has to extend two feet below the frost line or the freeze thaw cycle will damage it and the house. In the north east the frost line is deep enough that it makes sense to make a full basement out of it. Where in California the frost line is nil.

Older houses in California have crawl spaces, newer ones are built on a slab because it takes less labor and material.

lawyerliz wrote:

surely I am unworthy of being in such distinguished company

Your credit card has already been billed.

Greenspan blames Russia for The Crash.

Alan Greenspan traces housing bubble to collapse of the Soviet Union - The Globe and Mail

Wow. Mr. Magoo, indeed.

Comrade Gibbon wrote:

The way it was explained to me by my mother was that when you build a house the foundation has to extend two feet below the frost line or the freeze thaw cycle will damage it and the house. In the north east the frost line is deep enough that it makes sense to make a full basement out of it. Where in California the frost line is nil.

Older houses in California have crawl spaces, newer ones are built on a slab because it takes less labor and material

Thanks, CG. Where we are, code is at least 4 feet below grade, which is half a basement anyway. Make sense.

But you all don't know what you're missing having that dark, humid, smelly hole just off the kitchen. Actually it's not that bad, I'm currently typing in the basement as we speak. It doubles the size of the house, gives a place for the utilities off the main floor, and keeps my beer chilled in the cold-storage. The problem is always groundwater (sump pumps are electric) and humidity in the summer, of course.

both NorCal and Socal have very different cultures not even taking the east/west divide into account,Dawg talks about the 8 Californias for a very good reason.Google Yreka,riverbank,oxnard.Then Carlsbad,San Luis Obispo and San Francisco finish with Bieber,South Lake Tahoe and Lake elsinore.Toss in Marysville/redbluff and Oakland for spice.

i YELLED AT NURSE THEN MADE NICE. Was tempted bur did not call her nurse RATCHED. sERIOUSly, THE AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT DOCUMENTING the unimPORTANT is absurd. andthe more documentation the less trust there will be

Liz,if you are on them long enough for physical addiction,try a good acupuncturist and avoid the withdrawal symptoms.I was on synthetic heroin for several years after my back injury and acupuncture worked like a charm.

i may do that. a good chinese med place close to where I LIVE.

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

Victoria ... I think it's because it's mostly solid rock.

Fair enough, the ones I was in on the lower mainland all had basements (but I've only been in a few houses there).

We have solid rock everywhere here in Ottawa too, but they just blast through it. They're doing sewer repairs about a half-mile down the road, and periodically the house bangs and rattles like one of the kids just fell down hard. Spooks me every time, but it's just them blasting out rock.

YEAH I WAS IN DILAWHATEVER TOO

NO HALLUCINATIONS FOR ME. rats

Liz,

There are a few basements in Southern Florida. I had read an article about expensive intracostal waterfront properties where the owners wanted to expand but had nowhere to go... but down. They were spending a fortune building their own little seawalls.

Wow, those guys with the National Train Day should give CR a little bonus for the extra exposure.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Here in SoCal we have "MiniStor" warehousing for our special crap.

Are people living in those things yet?

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

Are people living in those things yet?

I rented one for a short time a couple of years ago, and there was a clause in the contract that forbid it... Also the manager kept his locks on all the vacant units to keep the squatters out... In spite of all that, there was a story about some woman had moved into one and then someone put a lock on the door and she spent about 30 days in there before someone found her...

Lots of internet articles about turning shipping containers into housing, and at one time I think in Stockton there was a homeless camp where people were living in those steel boxes...

Albuquerque has very few basements and a high water table is NOT the problem Slabs, I assume, are much cheaper.

US eCONomy continues to fail to recover.

FedEx Profit Doubles, Aided by Strong Business in Asia - NY Times

Led by exports from Asia, FedEx reported an 18 percent jump in volume from its International Priority business. But average daily domestic package volume rose just 1 percent, reflecting the weak American economy.

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

Are people living in those things yet?

Around here people use them for band rehearsal space. Live, no; hang out, yes.

If I was going homeless and I still had some cash, I'd buy a gym membership in a place with lockers and long hours. You keep clean, have a home base most of the day, and a place to keep your stuff. Saw a guy do it once, two lockers down from mine. Took me months to figure out he was living out of his locker.

mhdoc wrote:

Slabs, I assume, are much cheaper.

Do those slabs have axles?

http://fadein.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/trailer-trash-hi-rise11.jpg

SNAFU (profile) wrote (in reply to...) on Thu, 3/18/2010 - 8:00 pm

California home with basement? Yet to see one.

The 'rents home near Pasadena has one. House was built in '31. That's the only one I've seen.

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

What's the deal with the American's health care

Like we can afford another govt program - or that it would even work at all... the poor have medicaid, the elderly have medicare, the working population for the most part has medical coverage at work. If you dont, you can buy a plan from any number of providers - It's not cheap, but we are talking about health care of today with MRI's and CT scans, miracle drugs, longer lifetimes, prosthetics... If you want to consume it you had better figure out how to pay for it....

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

What's the deal with the American's health care brouhaha?

Article 1, Section 7 of the US Constitution.

Rob Dawg wrote:

Article 1, Section 7 of the US Constitution.

People are pissed at how the bill originated, not with the bill itself?

Hi Rob -

Just found a few minutes of "econ time" and put in a comment on your poll. I don't think the mortgage and treasury market spreads are going to change overly much when the Fed finally takes its foot off the gas pedal. But I think as the last years' stream of fresh, fungible cash dries up, and yet the underlying debt-deflation continues, we'll see all the markets struggle, including the stock market.

Meanwhile, I've run the unemployment claims for 1998-2005 through my graphing tool to see whether 2010 resembles 2004, and it does (in the sense that claims haven't yet returned to "boom" levels, and are stuck midway between the prior boom and the prior bust), except with higher numbers.

Investing for Sustainable Gains has the details.

Bubblisimo Gerkinov wrote:

People are pissed at how the bill originated, not with the bill itself?

No, how Pelosi is planning on using a non-recorded "deemed passed" process to provide cover from the fallout.

Congrats on the story, from member 360.

Can I please take my poll down now? What was I thinking... does anyone know? ?

Our old house in MD had a basement. The previous owner was an alcoholic housepainter who'd left dozens of half-empty paint cans underneath the basement stairs. Cool, I thought when we moved in, free paint.

A week later it rained like hell, a solid vertical column of water for hours and hours while we were away. When I got back, I went down into the basement to see if it had flooded. Ohhhh, yes, about a foot deep. Turns out that some of the old cans of paint were rusted and broke open when they all got jostled in the tide, so to speak. The water was covered almost everywhere with big dirty rainbows of oil-based housepaint, floating on the surface...

Now that was a mess, all right.

No, that's not underwater. This is: Hello Down There! | Hoocoodanode?

YouTube - Booker T & the MG's - green onions - mod classic 60s

kcoop - Hello Down There!

Now that is a nice picture. But You really would want a tunnel driveway in.
It's a real pain to scuba your groceries down, salty breakfast cereal just does not taste right.
If I'm going to dream, might as well dream big. Of course your never get the building permits past the tree hugers.
But in any case, this would not be nice to see waking up.
http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo33289.htm

sdtfs - Yes, now that I would call underwater.
That is really nice.

Got to get some rest for BFF.

Mr Slippery wrote:

Any WEP network in range is yours -- in minutes (or so I've been told)
Nytol

Yes. That is all...

Man I STILL don't understand the secret second payment thing from yesterday. A second holder using their power to deny a short sale to ask for for money is a reasonable and legal way of trying to get something back from their stupid loan. But asking for it to be kept off of the HUD form transforms it into a federal crime. So what is their motivation to turn tough negotiation into criminal behavior? I just don't see how their bargaining position is changed by whether the payment that they're asking for is on the HUD closing form or not. "Pay us and we go away, don't and you can't sell." So why open themselves up to criminal prosecution?

Good Morning, kiddies. This'll probably get as soon as the daily disasters start rolling off the presses, but...

Engineering News Record -- Construction Fell 26% in 2009

It’s “official”: 2009 was a really bad year. The dollar value of new construction starts last year fell 26%, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s December data. This follows annual declines of 13% in 2008 and 7% in 2007. Adding a new twist to the downward cycle was a 33% decline in the non-residential building market, which was even deeper than the 31% decline registered by the home building market. Despite a massive influx of stimulus spending, the non-building market finished last year 9% below 2008’s total. In the non-residential building market, the commercial sector was down 47%, stores and shopping centers were off 42%, and warehouse construction tumbled 62%. However, the largest year-to-year decline was 66% for hotel and motel construction.

edit: I read this article at the Hall this morning. I'll look to see if there are newer issues that point out the 2010 forecast. It's behind a paywall online.

Mmm. The non-building market.

I'm pretty sure that would be things like dams, bridges, power plants, highways and so on.

Despite a massive influx of stimulus spending, the non-building market finished last year 9% below 2008’s total.

This doesn't bode well for my prospects this year.

In the non-residential building market, the commercial sector was down 47%, stores and shopping centers were off 42%, and warehouse construction tumbled 62%. However, the largest year-to-year decline was 66% for hotel and motel construction.

The overhang in CRE is at least not getting precipitously bigger. I was talking with someone recently who suggested that in a couple of years building will again pick up its pace since tenants don't like to move into "used" digs.

Anonymous Bosch wrote:

The overhang in CRE is at least not getting precipitously bigger. I was talking with someone recently who suggested that in a couple of years building will again pick up its pace since tenants don't like to move into "used" digs. Quest

I think they would be surprised what long term depressed revenue and earning will do to a company.

Good ning, Gnome. You're going to love this...

Congratulations CR Registered User #5000 - cipherex

Rents Expected to decline through 2011 in Seattle