|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
|
 Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:12 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
| mises wrote: |
| The bailouts took many forms. Asset purchases, direct injections of cash, guarantees on assets and accounting rule changes. The injections, purchases and guarantees all impact the average man. He may not have opened his wallet, but his state is directing capital to the banks. His state holds toxic assets (risk is now public, profits are still private). |
I have utter contempt for redistributive thievery of all stripes. Those who subscribe to the politics of free lunches courtesy of the rich can have little complaint.
| Menino80 wrote: |
| Do you really have a college education, or are you just jealous of those that do? |
A monkey could get a degree. Even if I did not myself possess one, why in the name of Mighty Lucifer would envy be my stance towards those who possess something that's of negligible value and requires next to nothing in the way of skill and intelligence? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Those who subscribe to the politics of free lunches courtesy of the rich can have little complaint. |
Individuals who have added value to the economy are not the focus of angst. Bankers are. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:49 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| mises wrote: |
| Individuals who have added value to the economy are not the focus of angst. Bankers are. |
It's too bad the bankers need the pig-ignorant parasitic rabble to survive. Maybe more natural disasters can perk things up:
| Quote: |
From Sean Corrigan of Diapason Securities
Rather than pretending to a level of insight into the scale of Japan's problems which neither we nor anyone else truly possesses at this stage of the disaster, we think it might be worth while instead to run through some general considerations of what ramifications might be felt in its aftermath.
Before we do, however, we cannot abstain from expressing our utter contempt for the many idiots who have already begun parroting the standard Keynesian nonsense that this calamity will ultimately 'prove positive for GDP', or that the rebuilding efforts can only redound to the nation's well-being to the extent that they shake it out of its ongoing 'deflation'.
As is their wont, such imbecile Cargo Culters are once again making a fetish of a coarse-grained statistic which is supposed�however imperfectly�to offer a rough measure of material progress being made in the real economy and not the converse, leading them to lose all focus on what is actually happening to people's living standards and wealth accumulation. |
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/sean-corrigans-letter-all-idiots-who-believe-japanese-calamity-will-prove-positive-gdp |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 9:59 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| caniff wrote: |
| mises wrote: |
| Individuals who have added value to the economy are not the focus of angst. Bankers are. |
It's too bad the bankers need the pig-ignorant parasitic rabble to survive.
|
| Quote: |
Because I have ten thousand pounds I sit upon my stern,
And leave my living tranquilly for other folks to earn.
For in some procreative way that isn't very clear,
Ten thousand pounds will breed, they say, five hundred every year.
So as I have a healthy hate of economic strife,
I mean to stand aloof from it the balance of my life.
And yet with sympathy I see the grimy son of toil,
And heartly congratulate the tiller of the soil.
I like the miner in the mine, the sailor on the sea,
Because up to five hundred pounds they sail and mine for me.
For me their toil is taxed unto that annual extent,
According to the holy shibboleth of Five-per-Cent.
So get ten thousand pounds, my friend, in any way you can.
And leave your future welfare to the noble Working Man.
He'll buy you suits of Harris tweed, an Airedale and a car;
Your golf clubs and your morning Times, your whisky and cigar.
He'll cosily install you in a cottage by a stream,
With every modern comfort, and a garden that's a dream>
Or if your tastes be urban, he'll provide you with a flat,
Secluded from the clamour of the proletariat.
With pictures, music, easy chairs, a table of good cheer,
A chap can manage nicely on five hundred pounds a year.
And though around you painful signs of industry you view,
Why should you work when you can make your money work for you?
So I'll get down upon my knees and bless the Working Man,
Who offers me a life of ease through all my mortal span;
Whose loins are lean to make me fat, who slaves to keep me free,
Who dies before his prime to let me round the century;
Whose wife and children toil in urn until their strength is spent,
That I may live in idleness upon my five-per-cent.
And if at times they curse me, why should I feel any blame?
For in my place I know that they would do the very same.
Aye, though hey hoist a flag that's red on Sunday afternoon,
Just offer them ten thousand pounds and see them change their tune.
So I'll enjoy my dividends and live my life with zest,
And bless the mighty men who first - invented Interest. |
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/18542-Robert-W-Service-Five-Per-Cent |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Menino80
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Location: Hodor?
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:47 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Sergio Stefanuto wrote: |
I have utter contempt for redistributive thievery of all stripes. Those who subscribe to the politics of free lunches courtesy of the rich can have little complaint.
|
Taxes are not thievery any more than private property is thievery.
I'll ask you again, define ignorance and give examples of how the middle class are ignorant while the rich are not.
Also, tell us why wages are staying flat in the US when our productivity is #1 in the world per hour, WITHOUT falling back to your fantasy theories written in 1755.
I'd say the owners are the parasites. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 3:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Menino80 wrote: |
| Taxes are not thievery any more than private property is thievery. |
When a group of men force a man to make regular payments and the man acquiesces but would otherwise not freely make them, it is thievery. When the state does it, it is taxation. But where the former is illegal, the latter is the basis of an entire culture.
but thieves keep all the money for themselves whereas a government provides services!!
A thief that makes some attempt at quid pro quo is no less a thief than one that simply makes off with the loot. He is, I agree, a nice thief, but nevertheless a thief, since a payment involving no theft is a payment freely given; a payment acquired by force and acquiescence, that one would be unlikely to otherwise freely give, constitutes theft. At best, taxation is nice theft.
but people do freely give payments of taxation at the ballot box!!
At the ballot box, one has a choice between two or three parties that practise theft. Little wonder the rich employ every trick in the book to avoid taxes.
but everybody benefits from taxation!!
I don't disagree, but that is irrelevant to the question of whether taxation, broadly speaking, constitutes theft. If I am correct that people acquiescing to payments because they are forced to pay them, but would not otherwise freely give them, constitutes theft, then taxation constitutes theft.
but a civilized society wouldn't be possible without the "theft" of taxation!!
Shame on those who venerate the way of life of the flea, the tick, the louse and the leech. Just because pleasant results occur due to taxation, it does not follow that taxation isn't, basically, theft. Espousing the politics of entitlement to government services - services to which you make a negligible contribution yet reap the full benefit (thanks to the employment of force to arrogate the wealth of the rich) - is to essentially espouse a form of kleptocracy.
| Menino80 wrote: |
| I'll ask you again, define ignorance and give examples of how the middle class are ignorant while the rich are not. |
Say what you like about the rich, but at least they aren't sponging off the unborn. Who is it that voted themselves $112 trillion in unfunded liabilities? Certainly not the rich.
| Menino80 wrote: |
| Also, tell us why wages are staying flat in the US when our productivity is #1 in the world per hour, WITHOUT falling back to your fantasy theories written in 1755. |
I've never studied it.
| Menino80 wrote: |
| I'd say the owners are the parasites. |
Come on, cheer up. You're not as poor and desperate as you think. Stop complaining and get on your bike. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Menino80
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Location: Hodor?
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2011 4:32 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Again, define "ignorance" and "rabble" and link to definitions and examples that illustrate these definitions.
Cheaper bells and whistles and rising wages in a rapidly shrinking sector do not a brave new world make. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Sergio Stefanuto
Joined: 14 May 2009
Location: UK
|
| Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 8:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Ooh, define this. Ooh, define that. I defined what it is to be a member of the pig-ignorant, parasitic rabble ad nauseum in the Ayn Rand thread.
Dan Mitchell interviews Dambisa Moyo: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Moyo
Greece is your future. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Menino80
Joined: 10 Jun 2007
Location: Hodor?
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 6:11 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Yes but if you can't define ignorance and parasitism, you're flying blind, and you have no authority to speak on such matters. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:40 am Post subject: |
|
|
Anyway...
Nearly 20% of Florida Homes Vacant
| Quote: |
| On Thursday, the Census Bureau revealed that 18% -- or 1.6 million -- of the Sunshine State's homes are sitting vacant. That's a rise of more than 63% over the past 10 years. |
Thinking of buying a house in Naples?
| Quote: |
Celia Chen, a housing market analyst for Moody's Analytics, is also downbeat in her forecasts for Florida. Not only will prices fall another 11%, she said, but the bottom won't hit until mid-2012, about a year later than the nation as a whole. Some metro areas won't get back to their pre-recession peaks until long after the present owners are old and gray.
She doesn't expect Naples, for example, to come all the way back until the late 2030s. Other Florida metro areas with a 20-year wait or longer include Punta Gorda, Palm Bay and North Port. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:19 pm Post subject: |
|
|
The old folks live in Tampa, and their parents live in Naples.
| Quote: |
| She doesn't expect Naples, for example, to come all the way back until the late 2030s. |
A sizable % of the homeowners there would have to be preserved in cryogenic stasis to ever see 2030. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Fox
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 10:58 pm Post subject: |
|
|
From caniff's article:
| Quote: |
| �Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism,� U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins said. �While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country.� |
This seems like a ridiculously broad definition of terrorism. Whether or not what this man did is legal, it's not terrorism. That's ridiculous, the word becomes completely meaningless when used in such a fashion. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
|
| Posted: Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:07 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| This seems like a ridiculously broad definition of terrorism. |
It seems ridiculous, but that's only because it is.
| Quote: |
| That's ridiculous, the word becomes completely meaningless when used in such a fashion. |
Ridiculous is the new black and is expected to be very in vogue this spring. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mises
Joined: 05 Nov 2007
Location: retired
|
| Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 6:30 am Post subject: |
|
|
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/03/fannie-and-freddie-hiding-over-100-billion-of-losses.html
| Quote: |
As the GSE warehouse of delinquent and defaulted loans grows by billions of dollars each month, there is still no demand for payment from the MIs by the FHFA. As we noted in an earlier comment, we figure that there is as much as $200 billion in defaulted loans sitting on the books of Fannie and Freddie at cost � that is, close to par value
Loss severities are now running at 70%. They are only going to rise as housing prices are forecast to fall further in most markets and more borrowers are fighting foreclosure, which increases the cost of foreclosing. But if you take Whalen�s $200 billion top estimate and take a conservative 70% in loss severities, that gets you to $140 billion in unreported losses at the GSEs. So an estimate of north of $100 billion seems plausible.
Whalen also tells us how the latest round of stress tests are even more divorced from reality than the first iteration:
�.we review the Fed�s latest stress test exercise and discuss what it means for the banking industry and the US economy. While the US central bank did not provide results for specific institutions, the assumptions in the Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) are more instructive than the Big Media seems to notice. Indeed, a close reading of the CCAR document provides a compelling argument for why the Fed should not be supervising financial institutions.
For example, the Fed has a down 6% for housing prices in its �stressed scenario,� but that is about where we are now. Incredibly, the central bank also has a down 5% for HPI [housing price inflation] in 2012, again in a �stressed� scenario. This implies that the Fed�s �normal� estimate for HPI is positive for 2011-2012? Hello?
I�ve said it repeatedly, but it seems I can never say it enough: the financial power that be have long ago ceased being in the business of anything remotely connected with reality. They honestly seem to believe if they can get enough people to believe their propaganda, reality will come to conform to it. |
100 billion +
The economy is held together with duct tape and spit. There has not been meaningful reform.
http://dailybail.com/home/why-is-the-wall-st-journal-so-afraid-of-elizabeth-warren.html
| Quote: |
Zack Carter started a bit of a commotion recently, when he identified the Wall St. Journal's Mary Kissel - a former Goldman Sachs executive - as one of the people behind the recent attacks on Elizabeth Warren and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). It would be one thing to attack Warren on ideological grounds, or even for partisan political reasons, but Ms. Kissel and the WSJ are simply making things up.
They claim, for example, that the CFPB, under Warren's command, "is trying to extend its reach by extorting billions of dollars from private mortgage servicers, regulating their business by fiat, and stalling a U.S. housing market recovery."
The reality is, that neither Warren herself, nor the CFPB, is "extorting" anyone. Nor, as Warren testified to Congress this week, does she or anyone from the Bureau have anything whatsoever to do with any direct negotiations with the banks and mortgage servicers regarding any kind of settlement. The DOJ and Treasury have asked people who are involved in setting up the Bureau, including Warren herself, for advice, but there is no evidence that anyone associated with the CFPB has done anything more than that. If the WSJ had evidence to the contrary, they would produce it, because it would be one of the biggest scoops of the year. But there is no such evidence.
Furthermore, the CFPB, once it's up and running, will not regulate anyone or anything, including mortgage servicers, "by fiat." Unless, of course, "by fiat" means enforcing the actual laws, already on the books, pertaining to mortgages and mortgage servicing -- something which the Fed, the OCC and the OTS spectacularly failed to do in the years leading up to the financial crisis. Earth to the WSJ, that's why they came up with the CFPB in the first place -- the existing agencies were too captured by Wall St., or simply incompetent, to enforce the law and so enforcement of consumer protections is now being consilidated under the jurisdiction of the Bureau. Now, just to be sure, let's make this clear, so that even someone from the WSJ editorial board can understand it: the CFPB is charged with enforcing the law, the existing laws which are already on the books, not new laws that Elizabeth Warren makes up ex nihilo.
...
Further, both the WSJ and Ms. Kissel in her radio interview with John Batchelor explicitly conflate the leaked 27-page settlement docs put together by the state AG's with the activities of Elizabeth Warren and the CFPB. The Journal writes:
They've sent a proposed 27-page "settlement" to the banks that would, among other things, force mortgage servicers to submit to the bureau's permanent regulatory oversight; impose vast new reporting and administrative burdens; mandate the reduction of borrowers' mortgage principal amounts in certain circumstances; and force servicers to perform "duties to communities," such as preventing urban blight. We warned during the Dodd-Frank debate that the new consumer bureau would become a political tool for credit allocation, and here we already are.
In the radio interview, Ms. Kissel and John Batchelor further suggest that the "settlement" is being worked out by Warren herself with the aim of shaking down the banks and servicers for money that they will then give away to poor people who are delinquent or underwater on their mortgages. |
^ Read the whole post.
The banks are so greedy they're not working in their own interests. If people do not get modifications, they default. If they default the holder of the first mortgage has recourse (the house) and second loans get nothing. The first note is almost always held by a GSE and the second by the banks. Without mods, the banks are (more) screwed.
| Quote: |
| Beyond the criminal and civil fraud liabilities that the settlement appears to absolve the banks and servicers of, the treatment of second liens in the settlement is an outright gift. This is something that has been discussed extensively by others, that most mortgages are owned by Fannie and Freddie or other MBS investors, not by the banks. However, many second liens (like home equity loans) are held by the banks themselves. Batchelor and Kissel are just aghast that some dead-beat homeowner might get a mortgage mod, but what they don't seem to understand is that without the terms proposed in the settlement, the banks would be getting ZERO from most of those underwater and delinquent borrowers because the proceeds of any foreclosure sale would go first to pay off the first mortgage (which the banks don't own), leaving nothing for the second. Zip. Nada. Some analysts have even suggested that some of the large banks would be completely wiped out if they had to write down those second liens to what they are really worth. The proposed settlement represents an enormous boon to the banks on this score. Do the WSJ and Mary Kissel really not know any of this? |
People who are underwater should walk away. That is what rich people do. Trump does it. A loan is not a contract with God. It is a business arrangement. If it is not good business to stay in the contract, you break it, and suffer the agreed upon penalty.
Green Shoots!! (where'd that go?):
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/recovery-hopes-surge-record-home-sales
| Quote: |
Recovery Hopes Surge On Record New Home Sales
...Just the wrong kind of record. At just 250,000, this was the lowest annualized new home sales number ever. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
