patrick.net

Lies! All lies!
Trickle down voodoo economics through 11? tax increases
has saved the economy.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

One man said he was told that he should get his watch battery changed at a pawnshop since no one there knew how to do it.

Changing a watch battery? How quaint!

I hope he picked up a buggy whip, there's one free in every pack of tube socks.

FWIW it's been years since I've seen a STAFFED jewelry counter that could change watch batteries in Target stores either.

Tax increases are the best thing ever happened. We can give the money to bankers, realtors and deadbeats! Bullish ;)

You may be right. But I'm an example of a change in thinking. Long 30 mortgages, even at "low" interest rates makes these shacks look like a gigantic outlay to me. It all just looks like renting from the bank with some tax perks thrown in. I have plenty of cash to buy and yet I don't. I won't say "never will", but I just don't. I have always rented well. Big nice places in great spots for much less than owning. But it's true that I avoid California however possible.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

Long checkout lines. Consumers from stores all across the country complained about check out times.

In a Consumer's Report of large department stores a year or so ago, Wal-Mart was consistently ranked last in check-out satisfaction. I found that true in ours--it has 33 check-out lanes but never more than about ten are ever open. They even removed six self-checkout stations over a year ago, but recently put in eight and made it much easier. I wish H-E-B would follow their example. They had four self check-outs, but removed them over a year ago and have not replaced them. Plus, they changed several "10 items or less" to "25 items or less" stations. "25 items" is not express, express is roughly what you can carry in your hands. A new H-E-B is opening tomorrow and I'll be interested to see if it uses a feeder line like so many places do today to eliminate the annoying problem of trying to guess which line will move fastest.

This list might actually mean something had it not been for the fact that the cause of pretty much all of this was created by the reckless decisions made decades ago by the Reagan administration in the 80's and which have been religiously upheld by every single Republican president after him, which is to more or less encourage more money for those at the top, and less money for those in the middle and the bottom via the ill-planned after effects of poorly written tax policy, careless loosening of various financial and industrial regulations, and an overall insistence on the limitation, or elimination of social programs that again- are geared towards helping those that form the majority of the country's population.

So what does this list "prove"? It proves that you can't fix over 30 years of bad Republican policies in less than five years. It also proves that the GOP has perhaps been pretty effective at blocking most forms of legislation that could actually turn things around: any and all forms of taxation, financial regulation, or socially beneficial programs have been met by their kicking and squealing the whole time.

So instead of trying to lamely blame the President who is trying to do his job, the blame instead goes not only the the GOP and their policies, but the current GOP in power whom have prevented the President from doing his job in the first place. So I am not at all surprised by these numbers. But its not the President's fault by any means.

I think what he's saying is Refinances have been the mortgage market for the last 8 years.

To the OP:

Is it really Obama's fault that the economy has been so bad? Or was it the collapse of a massive housing bubble combined with excessive risk-taking in the financial sector?

And to be fair: does Bill Clinton really get credit for the great economy in the 90's? Or was it the PC/internet revolution?

When it comes to the economy, Ben Bernanke probably has much more power than Obama.

Bush Sr. didn't cronitize the rebuilding efforts in the myriad of disasters during his presidency. That was why the economy was starting on the right path when Clinton came in office.

There was Andrew, Flooded mid western states and several other Hurricanes in the coast of Carolina.

It was an awesome time to be a self employed contractor in the building industry. I was 18-21 and it was the most money I ever made installing carpet. In fact every construction worker I knew at the time, had ample money to pay their bills, have a new(ish) work truck and a new car for their wife. Many construction workers I knew were also buying houses. The only reason I didn't was because credit rules were strict back then, and I didn't have any credit history.

Clinton didn't do anything to fuck the budding economy nor did he do anything to jeopardize the budding tech industry.

Bush Jr. Came to office and his cronies and patsies changed everything. Starting with prohibitive legislation that placed a bigger burden on the sub contractor workers to remain independently employed. Now if you want to do that you have 3 different insurances you have to carry, license, and a LLC type of corporation set up.
It was to drive people out of independence and to work for half the going rate using big carpet shops insurance and license, basically it turned most capable contractors into meager employees.

It's been one big ole Buttfuck every since then with no end in sight.
Especially when Mr. Hope and Change entered the scene.

There must be a race angle to this. if not, can't we at least work in some sort of narrative of national or social decline, wherein we confuse the aging and deterioration of our own bodies with the decline of society in general?

Facts don't mean anything to cheerleaders who rustle their pom poms little harder and blow their bullhorn a little louder in order to drown out the noise. Bush and Clinton had their share of cheerleaders, but I don't think we have ever seen a president to date with this many blind supporters walking around(many of whom are quite intelligent but have no common sense, are isolated from reality in their situation or are motivated by a single agenda) in blissful ignorance with a finger in each ear, singing, "nah nah na na nahhhh I can't hear you"

JH,
Of course you are right. But the ones who come here without money don't matter, because there are enough of the ones who come here WITH money.

And, because of the cultural imperatives they bring with them including peer pressure, many of the ones coming here without money will hustle to do whatever it takes to borrow so they can live beside the one who DO come here with money. Sometimes that doesn't work out so well, like in the SiPort matter.

Goran_K says

Does the Walmart near you guys have fresh produce and other perishable foods on sale?

Perishable, yes. Fresh, no.

Vicente says

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

One man said he was told that he should get his watch battery changed at a pawnshop since no one there knew how to do it.

Changing a watch battery? How quaint!

Do it yourself for less than one tenth the cost. Batteries are cheap, but you'll pay $10+ to have it done at a kiosk in a mall.

Call it Crazy says

CaptainShuddup says

I think what he's saying is Refinances have been the mortgage market for the last 8 years.

Refinances are 63% of applications, so what was the other 37% for??

http://patrick.net/?p=1228190

Smoke and mirror lies.

Call it Crazy says

Right, he's only had 5+ years to work his magic and lead the country... I guess he needs a few more..

Guess you didn't read my entire response. Sure- Obama has had 5 years but from day one the GOP has basically shut down any effort to work with him and so why are you confused as to why there's so much that doesn't get done? Of course this is also partially due to outside lobbys and industrial interests using the GOP to get what they want in the form of fake grass roots organizations like the Tea Party and so on. So not only do you have an uncooperative GOP, but a GOP overrun by politicians more or less stuck into power via clever astroturfing techniques.

Do you ever wake up in the morning and wonder if perhaps you're cheerleading for the wrong party because they certainly aren't there to look out for your best interests. They're there to serve as puppets for their corporate masters.

Yes, and the depression was FDRs fault.

I wonder, if a new government was put in place in hiroshima after it was bombed, were there people that tried to blame that new government for the bombing ?

Call it crazy:

Talk to us when you understand what a liquidity trap is.

Let us know, when was the last time that lowering interest rates to zero and doing massive QE was barely stimulative enough to get the unemployment rate below 10, and without hardly a hint of inflation.

You might hate Obama. I'm pretty sure you did before he was elected.

You and many retards out there want to compare Obama to presidents that were in office at a time when lowering the fed funds rate to 5% would have caused the economy to overheat big time.

In other words you're a world class idiot that doesn't even know how things work. You should get along well with Captainknownothing.

lakermania says

I don't think we have ever seen a president to date with this many blind supporters walking around(many of whom are quite intelligent but have no common sense, are isolated from reality in their situation or are motivated by a single agenda) in blissful ignorance with a finger in each ear, singing, "nah nah na na nahhhh I can't hear you"

I'll think this one over during lunch, which is just down the Ronald Reagan highway, past the exit for the Ronald Reagan Rest Area and Interpretive Center near Reagan Hospital

Sure, multiple investments can lead to wealth, but not one. What I described however, would make me retire technically a millionaire, so that's cool. But then I'll give it to my kids...which is also cool. But not wealth, per say.

I would argue that you forgot something: maintenance and/or property mgmt at 1% a year (VERY conservative, especially if this goes beyond 10 years). Let's subtract that $10,000. Now we have $30k to $87k in 10 years. If instead, I invested that $30k with a 5% rate of return (and rolled in the $100/mo of maint/mgmt costs), I would net $65k. It would take an 8.3% return (compounded monthly) to hit $87k with that investment. That's not likely in the long run, but neither is home appreciation that is well above the rate of inflation. IMO, it's only worth the investment if you can do maintenance and mgmt yourself cheaply. Otherwise, fuck it...just throw the 30k in an investment and enjoy reading your quarterly statements without getting calls about clogged toilets.

However, I completely agree with you regarding the positive cash flow. A savvy investor will not start out with negative or neutral...although it works as you pointed out...it's just slower.

haha holy hell. winning bid 132k.

where did you get the screen shots? is that public?

i like the open loan at 172k.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

the revert to mean will really suck for many people.

And awesome for others :-)

Call it Crazy says

Obama campaigned for the job of president. He WANTED the position!!! Unfortunately, when you get that job it means you have to bring both parties together to work towards the common goal.

The Republicans were more than willing to reach out.

I remember when Obama proposed a health care bill taken directly from the research of the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank - indeed, a health care bill identical to Mitt Romney's plan enacted in Massachusetts, and well to the right of that proposed by Nixon in the early 1970s - the Republican caucus, one and all, supported him enthusiastically. Right-wing AM hate radio, Fox, and the entire Republican establishment have continued to support Obamacare since, never scaring their adherents with any "Boo - socialism!" stories or any distortions.

Seriously: If Obama proposed abolishing all federal gun-control restrictions, the Republican House caucus would oppose it by 233-0.

ttsmyf says

compelling and invaluable

Once this QE is terminated , these charts will make more sense to the senseless!!!

Taper is announced, and begins, September with the first reduction in monthly purchases of $15 billion ($10Bn cut in TSY purchases, $5BN cut in MBS), eventually tapering to nothing in June 2014 when the Dealers believe QE formally ends... Big banks came to some agreement on taper in their meeting with the fed. Looks like Ben is herding his banks to the bomb shelters while "US" commoners stay outside!

It's his thread. Just ignoring it is an option.

These things aren't actually Obama's fault, except in the sense that he has failed to fully reverse the situation. It all happened under Bush, during the Wall Street economic coup that took place in 2008, and caused the Great Recession. This is as plain as the nose on your face. People don't want to admit that the US became a Plutocracy almost overnight, and remains that way today. It might shock right-wingers to learn that the transition to more part-time employment all took place at the end of Bush's second term, and was not a gradual process under Obama:

The US economy was plundered in 2008, and the middle class was subsequently decimated.

I think the biggest mistake the federal government has made is bailing out bad debt, both corporate and individual. The economy is now entirely smoke and mirrors. But I can't imagine that things would have been any different in a McCain or Romney administration. If anything, the Republicans are MORE beholden to their Wall Street overlords.

The tragedy that has befallen this nation is that, even with all that, Obama beats the alternative. And that is seriously bad news.

Call it Crazy says

So, does the Dem controlled Congress that took over in 2006 hold any affect or blame on your quotes???

Oh, I see. So if something happens on Obama's watch, it's Obama's fault, but if it happened on Bush's watch, it's Congress' fault.

Nice...

HydroCabron says

when Obama proposed a health care bill taken directly from the research of the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank - indeed, a health care bill identical to Mitt Romney's plan enacted in Massachusetts, and well to the right of that proposed by Nixon in the early 1970s - the Republican caucus, one and all, supported him enthusiastically.

Your memory is off slightly. It was the Democrats who lined up in support of that plan. Even stranger, they present its Republican pedigree as an endorsement, and simultaneously a sign that the Republican side is unreasonable. Nancy Pelosi said, "Don't trust the insurance companies," then voted to make everyone pay all they could afford to those very same companies and trust them with their lives. Supporters of that plan have convinced themselves that they're much smarter than the majority, who oppose it, and I think it must take some special kind of intelligence to believe in it, because I can't understand how that makes any sense.

But here's the thing: no matter how badly things might go with Democrats, the Republicans campaign on being even worse, as in an Alice-in-Wonderland reverse auction. It is an auction, in a way, where the lobbyists (what FDR used to call "special interests") are bidding against the public interest, and power goes to the highest bidder.

finehoe says

The tragedy that has befallen this nation is that, even with all that, Obama beats the alternative. And that is seriously bad news.

Exactly. The country's in terrible shape, and the guy running against Obama just outright insults 47% of the population. I mean, how fucking stupid do you have to be?

And the same rhetoric goes on year after year..............Dems fault, no Reps fault. All of these overpaid, talk a lot, do nothing politicians are to blame. The arguments are so tired and stale at this point. These people have no shame that we are actually paying their salaries.

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Shostakovich says

A tax cut will fix everything.

I don't think that goes far enough. We also need to increase corporate tax shelters, and give government backed incentives for higher executive pay.

Eventually it will trickle down.

Call it Crazy says

And nice pant suits...

Dude, back in the day she was a hottie.

Homeboy says

finehoe says

The tragedy that has befallen this nation is that, even with all that, Obama beats the alternative. And that is seriously bad news.

Exactly. The country's in terrible shape, and the guy running against Obama just outright insults 47% of the population. I mean, how fucking stupid do you have to be?

Yep, the Republicans could have won that election easily if they had a clue.

Call it Crazy says

And Obama outright insults the other 47%.... so isn't it standoff then???

Uhh... no.

This isn't political correctness, because it's wingnuts.

It's a civil war in Syria, it isn't our war. If US gets involved, it won't be over the murders, it'll be over some tangible financial benefits.

You know how it goes, if pension funds don't earn their 6%+ we go to war.

No one has yet proven if nerve gas was used. And no one has proved by whom, if it indeed has been used.

The last time a similar story like this ran, the UN said it was the rebels who used the gas.

Blurtman says

Threat to who exactly?

To certain someone's credibility.

Maybe we should keep the US corporate profit enforcement division (US military) out of this and mind our own business?

Let the UN handle it; that's what it's for.