Recent comments by albrt
Did you think "Idiocracy" was about the future?
You were mistaken. It already happened.
Intelligence
- Were the Victorians cleverer than us? The decline in general intelligence estimated from a meta-analysis of the slowing of simple reaction time
I worried about nukes a lot in the 70s, and especially that Reagan was going to get us all nuked at the end of the 70s, which was one of the reasons I didn't bother going to college at that time. I didn't learn to estimate megatonnage from the height of a mushroom cloud and plot the fallout until about 1989 though.
I can't get used to not worrying about nuclear war - much easier than worrying about the fact that all elected members of both political parties are psychopaths, really.
You really don't have a choice of going with Fannie and Freddie - they don't make loans. You borrow from somebody else.
You can either borrow directly from a bank or you can work through a broker who has some type of relationship with one or more banks. Some of the "brokers" are technically making loans, but they are still fronting for banks because the brokers don't have a ton of capital and they need to sell the loan right away.
After the loan is made the lender sells it to Fannie or Freddie for packaging into a security which will be sold to your pension fund. The lender keeps the servicing rights for itself or sells those too.
Nothin' ain't worth nothin', but it's free.
It was just for one year. The last year of an epic 17 year undergraduate saga.
I did piss off some people but not my high school guidance counselor (that I know of).
This is basically correct.
However, the fact that the loan ends up with Fannie or Freddie doesn't mean much to you as the borrower because you will be dealing with a servicer who is not Fannie or Freddie, usually a TBTF bank.
Capital won. Do you expect that to change in your lifetime?
No, not since early 2009. That's why I quit the democrats and I don't give them money anymore. I'll keep it for myself until I have enough to buy a president like Penny Pritzker did.
Labor has lots of value.
The value just happens to belong to the rentiers under our system, not the laborers.
But as we can all see, extracting value from labor takes too long so that system is in decline.
Much better to extract all the value up front - for example, raise tuition until the kids are paying the entire value of their education up front. Then you don't care whether they ever get a job or not.
Big opportunity coming up in Syria. Don't miss out!
Are you talking about job opportunities for 70-year-olds, or can't-miss opportunities for risk averse investors?
Perhaps both?
Who knows what we can accomplish if we believe in Hope and Change!
Conservatives make mistakes and back off.
Interesting thought, but I don't believe I have seen it happen in my lifetime.
I will concede the point if meaningful immigration reform passes the House, but I don't think that will happen.
edit: Even then I have a hard time envisioning Republicans "backing off" any more vigorously than Obama and the Democrats backed off from bankruptcy reform, the public option, and everything else they said they would do for the last six years or so.
Not so much immobilize as eliminate.
Effluent professionals?
Somebody here pointed out a while back that President Obama's portrait poses are reminiscent of Mussolini.
I thought the idea was quite compelling.
Googling "obama mussolini" tonight it seems to have become a meme, but mostly among people with DSM5 diagnoses somewhere along the severe-gun-fetish / developmental-disability spectrum.
Here is a relatively harmless one to make the point.
No. Forward.
Win The Future.
Chilling, but probably a pretty good indication of how the man thinks.
I disagree.
I think the people will not institute an ordinary corrupt government, they will institute a redneck taliban corrupt government with all the high-tech spying and droning capabilities of Obamafascism.
I hope I'm wrong too, but that is my considered judgment based on the evidence to date. It is not intended as hyperbole.
I don't think Obama ever had any interest in change. He is a whore, pure and simple. Well, except the part about how he seems to enjoy killing children with drones - that part is not so pure and simple.
Anyway, I think Obama absolutely would have taken the money from Adelson - it would save him the trouble of "earning" the money from his banker pals after he is out of office.
My peace of mind is based on the fact that things usually turn out better than I expect, and I am living on bonus time as I figure it. I expected Reagan to get us in a nuclear war in the '80s, and that didn't happen.
Obama is by far the biggest exception to things turning out better than I expected in my entire lifetime, but perhaps he won't end up doing any more harm than Reagan.
I wish you and your kids the best. Based on history the doomsayers are always wrong, eventually.
I think the Sheldon Adelsons always exist. The question is whether there is anyone who can resist them effectively, or wants to.
As for me, I'm doing pretty well and saving a lot of money by not donating to Democrats anymore.
I still come here and read a lot more than I post, hoping someone can point me to something to be hopeful about.
So far nothing. Oh well, at least I don't have kids to worry about.
Unfortunately, I think that is about the level of optimism that is needed at this point.
Too bad about the current Corrupter in Chief having destroyed the concept of "Hope" for a generation.
And too bad Sheldon Adelson didn't offer him $100 million not to run again.
Cathy O'Neill (mathbabe) is pretty cool, but I am having trouble forseeing any impact from their activities.
Alternative Banking news (#OWS): Left Forum, Citigroup coverage, Occupy Finance | mathbabe
This administration is very good at co-opting technicians if they ever start to have an impact.
But her friend Marni is certainly hot.
I don't even see any unrealistic radicals who are worth a damn.
Do you know of any?
Tanta was definitely a good writer and an extraordinary person. The internet makes it likely that such a person will speak up and find an audience if there is an opportunity.
What worries me now is that I don't even see an opening for an extraordinary person to do something that would make a difference before things fall apart.
Of course, it's very likely that an extraordinary person will emerge after things fall apart, but the odds are not good of it being another Roosevelt.
The glory days of Calculated Risk were based on a unique situation where a single line of business spun out of control on a scale never seen before. If that sort of situation arose again there's a good chance somebody who understood the business could step up and do at least part of what Tanta did. Really, the surprising thing was how few of the tens of thousands of mortgage drones did anything similar.
The current situation is much harder to explain and deal with - generalized corruption and malaise everywhere you look. Malaise is tough. Ask Jimmy Carter.
You think he would do it for $400,000 a year plus all the banker checks he can stuff in his pockets after he leaves office? That's the current deal as I understand it.
If by "fundamentals" you mean corrupt trading practices by TBTF banks and other Wall Street oligarchs, then yes.
Nothing to see here citizen, move along.
Those of you who were stopped out of positions can send your complaints to Eric Holder. He'll get right on it.
Hmmm - but I think you will find Covington and Burling has no one specializing in those areas either.
I can understand why a person with a reasonably secure job living in a non-recourse state who has been waiting several years to buy a house would buy now and lock in a low fixed interest rate.
But that doesn't seem to be who's buying.
I am a little more skeptical about investors buying now at these prices, as opposed to three years ago when they mostly weren't buying at much lower prices. But I guess an optimistically projected 3-5% return on a rental looks pretty good compared to getting .001% on your bank account and bearing the risk of whatever bail-in scheme the feds are cooking up.
Careful - I don't think Covington and Burling has anyone who specializes in porn, marijuana and steroids.
Which is presumably why those are the only things this administration will prosecute.
Aaack! That looks a little too much like me for comfort.
I have a Chromebook now. I browse in "guest" mode with a post-it note over the little camera lens.
That makes me completely untraceable, right?
I thought 2-3 years ago was a pretty auspicious time to buy houses.
Now is probably OK if it's your principal residence, and you can find a deal, and you can make the payments on a fixed rate, and you're confident you will be employed nearby making at least the same amount of money for at least 10 years.
Several people in the US should qualify on those terms. Not sure what the others are thinking.
Nemo posted that twitter feed here in real time last night.
I say we institute a "blowhard tax" to balance the budget. Fire all the useless media blowhards and just take their salaries.
Better pictures coming out.
New, Higher-Resolution, Image of Boston Marathon Suspect Emerges - NYTimes.com
This shouldn't take too long, unless this kid is a lot smarter than he looks.
Q: Is it a "train wreck" that they're not going to implement Obamacare as written, or that they are going to implement it?
A: Yes.
Perhaps Apple was threatening Purina with a patent infringement lawsuit for using rectangular dog food bags.
Asking for a 10% premium isn't too surprising. Let me know when they are offering a 10% premium.
"Any responsible individuals and groups will feel the full weight of justice."
Unless they are bankers.
Goes without saying.
Literally.
It usually means the guys who knew where the stops were are about to make a bunch of money.
Unless they have Ina Drew in charge of their hedges.
I am not feeling too pressured to sell the physical gold and silver that I might or might not have stashed somewhere.
My biggest investment is the houses I bought cheap a few years ago, so I figure I'm playing with house money now.
I think that is mostly pecuniary emulation. The investment component is a post-hoc rationalization based on questionable research by someone named Christine.
"Wealth" and "sophistication" are different concepts?
Interesting.
Are you in this country legally?
Owning a house is an epic struggle, but as long as I have the ability to walk away on reasonable terms I figure I am winning.
Those who are sophisticated enough to know what speculation is have been treating houses as speculative investments for a long time. I recently reviewed an article on Shakespeare's real estate investments. The social outlook on real estate was very different, but the element of speculation was definitely there.
I bought my house under the delusion that I would be the master of my domain. I like moving dirt around and fixing things. So far it's working out. I'm a socialist so I don't mind the taxes.
Of course it's unsafe to use google.
Why don't you just watch whatever the TV tells you to watch, young lady?
Of course, the other branches of government could put money into the economy through different routes if they wanted.
Wow, it's almost like the other branches of government are also run by bankers!
Perhaps slowing the bond buying would signal confidence.
It's all about signaling now, isn't it?