patrick.net

Islands and especially Island Countries have very limited resources.
Especially THAT particular Island. They sould have invaded Haiti last century and stopped them from laying their whole green ecosystem into a baron dirt wasteland.

It's good that you looked at them with a judgmental eye.

When I go to those countries, I see a different perspective than folks like you do. I don't see us as superior and them as inferior and on the shitty end of the stick.

I see that in spite we're immensely more wealthy than those countries, and our poor people look like their middle class, and their rich looks like our poor.

Elitist like Obama parade around the country trying to make uninsured poor in this country seem like some travesty.

What do you give Poor people who have everything?

More shit to whine about.

bob2356 says

New Renter says

From the NHTSA:

Air bags are the NHTSA's baby, lots of paper pushers jobs depend on "proving" air bags saving lives. Gee I wonder what the NHTSA would say?

Over half the cars in 2002 had airbags yet the number of people killed PER YEAR was about the same as 1994 when almost no cars had airbags. What don't you understand about the math involved in this? I put up the wrong ilnk before www.scienceservingsociety.com/p/155.pdf

What don't you understand about the math involved in this?

From your link:

It is known with high confidence that when a crash occurs, the presence of an airbag reduces fatality risk to drivers, whether belted or unbelted.

Apparently I'm not the only one having a hard time understanding your maths

Also:
The data on which this paper is based are overwhelming on the older airbags that constituted most of those on the roads in 2003. In recent years different “depowered” and “smart” airbags have appeared. These will have different probabilities of causing and preventing harm, different costs to purchasers, and different fleet annual replacement costs, especially for passenger airbags. It will be many years before we know near as much about the effectiveness of newer
airbags than even the meager knowledge we now have about the older ones.

The author points out the available data on airbag safety is "meager". The author also focuses on the cost effectiveness of airbags as a safety technology and points out these conclusions are based on the meager data obtained from the first generation of bags. Most tech gets better and cheaper with time, especially as the initial R&D costs are amortized.

Well if inventory is at or near record lows and 43% of purchases are all-cash then a lack of mortgage applications reflects more on those two factors than a lack of buyer interest doesn't it?

CaptainShuddup says

Elitist like Obama parade around the country trying to make uninsured poor in this country seem like some travesty.

I knew could work Obama into a post about travelling in DR. I think I'll post a thread about sunspots and see what creative way you can come up with to blame sunspots on Obama. You really need to see a mental health professional about your obsession.

It shows a lack of "natural" interest in home purchases. All-cash purchasers aren't generally planning to inhabit the house themselves, so their buying is a speculative bet on either (1) natural buyers coming back to the market or (2) more demand for rentals.

I think what everyone seems to miss is that the value of housing is inseparable from the capacity of natural occupants of such houses to pay. Right now the natural purchasers of houses, particularly Millennials, are getting kicked in the ass economically. OTOH, the consensus seems to be that it's only a matter of time before "household formation" picks up and there is demand for housing.

Basically, people assume that house prices dropped because the market was illiquid during the bust and natural buyers were unable to come to market. There's certainly some truth to that view, but every year that goes by with real incomes dropping, youth unemployment remaining elevated, and student loans increasing, you have to question whether the effect was temporary or permanent.

I don't know why people treat housing differently than other consumables. You don't see people on TV talking about speculating in laundry detergent or cornering the hot dog market. People understand that you cannot become a "hot dog baron" because the value of your hot dog horde is only what the natural consumers of hot dogs have to offer after higher priority expenses are paid (e.g. taxes, student loans).

marcus says

Never cease to be amazed at how simple everything is to Mish

What'd you expect, Mush never leaves his hut due to the non-stop blog posts that he trys to somehow pass off as a news feed, and from the stupid shit he constantly spews, sounds as though he learned what little he knows of the real world AND Chicago by watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

CaptainShuddup says

My point is, we'll be bailing out Pepsi and Coke before we know it.

The to big to Gulp act.

We already do with SNAP(food stamps).

New Renter says

Apparently I'm not the only one having a hard time understanding your maths

The writer didn't have any trouble with his math, you just have trouble acknowledging it. Let's do this slowly. In 1995 hardly any cars had airbags with 41,817 fatalites. In 2003 half the cars had airbags with 42,882 fatalities. All for a cost out of pocket to car buyers of only 54 billion 1993 to 2003. Am I going to fast for you?

Fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles went down 2% in the 50's. 0% in the 60's, 1.5% in the 70's, 1.3% in the 80's, .5% in the 90's, .4% in 2000's and up .03% 2011-2013. Where is the big decrease in the last 20 years from airbags, abs, and esc? I don't see it, could you point it out?

New Renter & Bob, wasn't this thread about young adults living with their parents?

How did it turn into an automotive safety debate?

It's all Obama's fault!!!

The Internet is about outrage, plus taking everything in as negative and personal a light as possible.

And, yes, that's an outrage! Can you believe what those bastards did - is there no justice?!

When were charts ever wrong?

Eggheads!

What the hell did they ever know?

Interesting report, what took you to Santo Domingo was this pure leisure?

HEY YOU says

Bush/Republicans bailed out the TBTF.

God damn It! I just knew I could count on you!
So we're in agreement that there's no difference between Bush and Obama. Good point!

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/02/14/home-prices-must-drop-40-more-to-reach-normal-affordability-lev/
http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-10/cheap-mortgages-are-hiding-the-truth-about-home-priceshttp://www.mybudget360.com/buying-a-home-in-america-today-is-expensive-thanks-to-the-banking-sector-examining-income-and-home-prices-from-1950-to-the-present-can-home-prices-fall-another-38-percent/
Or, if you don't believe what is posted on line or historical graphs, ask dad. That's right ask dad, mom, grandpa, grandma your in-laws or any friend who bought before the ninties. Ask if they spent somewhere around twice their income. I dare you. You are not going to like the answer. I asked dad, grandpa and my great-grandma, they all answered without guile: a little over or a little under twice their income.

In the words of my grandpa, "Only fools, gamblers and trust fund babies buy above twice their income!". Well, grandpa, sorry to report that we must have a lot of people who fall into those three groups. Don't trust national or census statistics? Don't trust the internet? Fine, I take them all with grain of salt myself, but you really can't trust dear old dad or grandma? Now that would be sad. I dare you all, ask them.

upisdown says

CaptainShuddup says

My point is, we'll be bailing out Pepsi and Coke before we know it.

The to big to Gulp act.

We already do with SNAP(food stamps).

And corn subsidies that make HFCS cheaper than sugar, which is why sodas in the US market have HFCS while the same brand in other countries has sugar.

Why does Coke and Pepsi charge more for to not put all of the other ingredients that Makes Coke, Coke or Pepsi, Pepsi.

You pay more the inert ingredient Water than you do with all of that other crap.

I quit drinking Soda over the last 10 years with out really ever trying. I just phased it out by finding my self drinking it less and less. When I do drink a soda, which is rarer than once or twice a year. I find them so sweet from the HFCS, that I can't stand them.

Those Pepsi brand throw backs they distributed a few years back. Tasted more like what I remember soft drinks tasting like. Light and refreshing. More fizz up your nose, than sweet slimy phlegm in the back of your throat. A thirst quencher and not dehydrator.

I would drink those or brands like it, if they just used plain cane sugar instead.

I imagine pretty soon most Cane sugar will be replaced with HFCS, or they will blend the two to make a cheap disgusting sweet like substance that supposed to be Sugar, but everyone will know it's a piss poor example of Sugar. We'll be given some schpeil about how cane sugar is so expensive because all of the cane plantations around the world. Have been developed for Chinese summer homes. So our consumption of HFCS will rise, and so will our obesity and diabetes rates, in spite of quadrillion a year we'll be pumping into "education", "Preventative" and "Propaganda" and blah blah blah what all else, you guys like to use for excuses as to why Healthcare costs are rising.
But in the meantime some Corn based sweetener company will be as big as Google, and the Government will give them trillions every year. TO make sure that more poison gets pumped into the food supply, that they can then Sin tax to death.

thomaswong.1986 says

Once you get into Tech, you find your not the only kid on the block and Tech employers are global with distributed workforce... which we compete and sometimes loose to DRAM Business is all Japanese control... it was otherwise only true in the 80s we had all our workforce locally, the number of employers and employees is shrinking...

Are you saying the DRAM business is controlled by Japanese companies? Here's a recent article describing how 90% of DRAM market share is under three companies:
http://www.dramexchange.com/WeeklyResearch/Post/2/3600.html
Those three companies are Hynix (South Korean), Samsung (South Korean), and Micron (US). The standards body that represents DRAM is JEDEC, which has members from all over, but the biggest pull is probably from Intel (US). I agree that it's a global marketplace, but it just seems weird to have you describe DRAM business as under Japanese control.

hrhjuliet, ... Yes!
See here what the establishment will keep out of sight of the people.
The Public Be Suckered
http://patrick.net/?p=1230886

hrhjuliet says

In the words of my grandpa, "Only fools, gamblers and trust fund babies buy above twice their income!". Well, grandpa, sorry to report that we must have a lot of people who fall into those three groups. Don't trust national or census statistics? Don't trust the internet? Fine, I take them all with grain of salt myself, but you really can't trust dear old dad or grandma? Now that would be sad. I dare you all, ask them.

What dear old Grandpa doesn't seem to understand is:

Its Different This Time!

Oh yeah, I forgot to drink the kool-aid because it's different this time. Oh it's different this time alright. Welcome to the destruction of the middle-class. Enjoy the show, I personally am not buying a ticket.

Dominican Republic actually has very high tax rates:

16% VAT tax
25% income tax
1% asset tax
25% asset transfer tax

On top of that DR has a history of high inflation rate and rampant corruption.

It's easy to see how someone trying to run a legit business buying and selling goods and services can get taxed to death under those terms, and run high risk of not getting the initial investment back, never mind profits. So the result is widespread duplicity when it comes to dealing with laws.

sbh says

The capital class and the entrenched pols chap my ass too.

Say what? Are you sure you are not a "skinhead reactionary" of your own description?

But the question is: If the outcome of our structure (representative government) sucks for us regular folks, should we abandon the structure entirely?

Who said anything about abandoning what structure entirely?

If I have more money and better guns than you, I don't even have to "initiate violence" to coerce you. And even if I were to initiate violence, I could buy off the private court.

So why did slave owners keep lobbying for slave return laws that would have government hunting down run-away slaves for them at taxpayer expense? Just because you have more money and better guns doesn't mean you have the time or energy to fight every fight or even hunt down every run-away slave. Having the government enforce the injustice for you at taxpayer expense makes the injustice financially worthwhile for you.

Nah, anarchy is total shit, but at least under our current structure, shitty as it is, you could vote for Skinhead Realty as your fuhrer.

Fuhrer as a title only has meaning when the leader has coercive power.

So what you're saying is they all look alike??

CaptainShuddup says

I see that in spite we're immensely more wealthy than those countries, and our poor people look like their middle class, and their rich looks like our poor.

One of the first things LBJ as Assasi-Prez did was give J Edgar a lifetime appointment and first dibs on runway dresses at New York fashion shows.

It, sadly, appears to be somewhat like that in Sri Lanka now as well - private toll roads running from the airport and down to Galle, empty except for a handful of cars (despite being 'only' 400 rupees ($3 or so) down to Galle). There has also been the seemingly typical further vast concentration of wealth in the hands of the ruling elite in the last decade care of all the reconstruction money that was pumped into the country after the tsunami. Same old, same old with the rich exploiting the poor and corruption rampant.

They catch on fast! I wrote about this back in April last year http://smaulgld.com/student-loans-and-unemployment-are-holding-back-the-economy-and-real-estate-market/

A country where the rule of law is not enforced by the state has nothing to do with Austrian economics. Maybe read up on Hayek?

Call it Crazy says

Homebuilder Confidence in U.S. Slumped in February

It's still February.

Yep. When the bankers are suiciding, that tells you even they don't know how to game the system...

It's if though we are approaching some cataclysmic event!

Capital controls now coming to the States.....remember Cyprus!!!

http://patrick.net/?p=1238635#comment-1054372

Q: What do you call 5 banksters committing suicide?

A: A good start.

I'm still alive.

anonymous says

Why do so many people pay money to visit countries in the Caribbean etc. where conditions are so dire their own people risk death to escape?

Presumably because they are very smug, and want to look at a bunch of poor blacks since they think that will make them feel better about themselves.

they are reporting it as stress, seems more like they knew something

Call it Crazy says

smaulgld says

they are reporting it as stress, seems more like they knew something

Yeah, the stress of knowing too much.....

Call it Crazy, some will call a spade a spade but I'll just call it what it is " an Omen is an Omen"

Call it Crazy says

We're glad you can read a calendar... I guess you did learn something in
school after all...

Apparently you can't.

Isn't slumped a past tense form of the word slump, which would then mean that Feb. is in the past also?
You're quite the beacon of knowledge, or it seems now that you have some sort of crappy and cracked, crystal ball.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

Shorts are long term my boy.

And getting longer and longer as the weeks go by. What is the market up by since you made up your fantasy claim of your biggest ever short, followed soon after with a claim of a double-down? It's about 3-400, isn't it?

Call it Crazy says

I guess you didn't read the link in the OP to see where the title came from,
just jumping into the end of the thread, as usual....

Why would I, considering that the title of the post contained this word:

Call it Crazy says

Slumped

So, Feb. isn't even over, and was what, maybe 2/3s past when the article was 'researched' and written, so is it really an accurate description of confidence, especially Feb.? And then claim that it did anything?
Never mind, I forgot for a moment who I was responding to(you can beat a drum, but you can't drown a fish).

zzyzzx says

anonymous says

Why do so many people pay money to visit countries in the Caribbean etc. where conditions are so dire their own people risk death to escape?

Presumably because they are very smug, and want to look at a bunch of poor blacks since they think that will make them feel better about themselves.

Such people don't need to travel outside our borders to do THAT.
A quick trip to your local prison will do just fine.