patrick.net

There's gold in them thar hills!

Oops, forgot a keypoint - thanks sbh for the sociopath analogy.

Walmart stores began cannibalizing sales from other Walmarts, too.

Wallyword is a dying business. Even with all the preferential local tax treatments (localities often got into bidding wars, making all other businesses pay full tax with old infrastructure, while promising Walmart no property taxes and improved infrastructure for car traffic), the full bore PR campaign, all the CATO and Heritage help, it got too greedy and pissed off the customer.

Increasingly, Wallyworld is getting the bottom rungs of consumers; whereas before they had a much more diverse (and profitable) customer base. With that bottom rung base comes more security problems, as well. Walmart Parking Lots are often huge black spots in otherwise crime free locales.

Why did Walmart never sell real estate?

thunderlips11 says

Wallyword is a dying business.

Really? Their financials say otherwise. Are you also considering their business OUTSIDE the US? This is where they will find very good growth moving forward.

You may not like Walmart as a consumer, or for moral reasons; but you can't deny it as an investment juggernaut....

thunderlips11 says

When did Walmart begin the downward spiral?

If a company is in a downward spiral, why do they keep raising their dividends? One of the best dividend growth companies, and they are in a downward spiral? What am I missing?

It's listed in the MLS.

NAZI 2.0 aka Obamageddon.

bg.. you really hit a new low.

When she says her listing includes an acre, she's talking about her butt.

When she asks her husband, "Does this make my butt look fat", he runs and hides for days.

When she asks the photographer to take a picture of her next to her listing, he asks her if she wants an aerial shot.

I wanted to buy the dip but didn't have the cash. It was back above $1300 before I made my purchase - three Kangaroos. So far so good though.

She's pulling it off. But she needs to do something about the puss on her face though.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/897zysJHE74

sbh says

Which is why your observations are worth considering, unlike some posters, on other matters, who will deny the tape and keep saying just wait.....just wait....just wait. One wonders if they really even make trades or have money bet on their line. The tape is all that matters.

His observations aren't worth crap when it comes to gold. He may have gotten lucky with housing (thanks only to Benny and the Inkjets), but he's thinking like a HFT algo when it comes to gold. That no longer applies. And yes, I've put my money where my mouth is in this case.

sbh says

AverageBear says

why do they keep raising their dividends?

Because, as with most publicly traded companies, the only thing that matters is the stock ownership. Wealth in America doesn't come from labor, it comes from ownership. That's been the case for a long time, so nobody is surprised. The hard part is watching the whole economy re-balance and retool around an impoverished population of mainstay consumers. We all know that a large component of their fate is their own responsibility, but it's like watching a slow moving train wreck as these new crap jobs flesh out the new crap business model of crap American wages.

SBH,

Sooooo, your argument has mutated into a broad rant about the macro economy, that has nothing to do w/ my original comment about Walmart being a in a downward spiral and its overall fiscal heath.

But you are correct in one aspect: as with most (ie, ALL) publicly traded companies, the only thing that matters (or more correctly, the first or most important thing) is making money. It's why they exist, and it's called self preservation.

Blaming one company (and its success) on our nation's 'crap' business model/wages/etc, is a pretty narrow view of things.

Walmart is one of the elite dividend payers in a sea of American companies. It helps retired folks (rich and poor, and every one inbetween) live better off the fixed income stream (dividends) that Walmart provides. Do you have a problem with this aspect of Walmart as well?

your turban too tight bg? craving those 72 virgins?

there is only one way Isreal becomes a threat to a country: When that country is infected by islamuslamists who try to harm Isreal. If the crazy arabs would just concentrate on murdering eachother and leave all non-arabs out of their target list, the world would be a much saferand happier place.

A world full of Jews is a calm and quiet world. A world full of islamuslamists is a constant war.

SBH, OK, I wasn't sure were you were going on the topic: economy vs WMT vs capitalism. I see what you are saying about those that work and shop in Walmart, or really any retail chain for that matter.

Not to sound depressing, but working in retail is supposed to suck. It requires no skill, and pays the least. It should be a 'negative reinforcement' experience to get the hell outta there, and find better work, or work on improving your skillset to get that better job. And depressing as it is to go into a store (walmart or otherwise) and experience the lowered standards as time marches on, it is what it is. I'd like to think that there were the same zombie-like, unattentive,people in the 60s/70s/80s that worked in retail. Maybe we just put those bad retail experiences out of our minds over time? Maybe the retail experience is different by location?

Not to get too political, but our welfare 'goodie quotient' has expanded big time the last 20+ years (under BOTH parties), so the pool of hungry, motivated workers has shrunk or disappeared.

I'm going to teach my kids to attack each menial/shit job like his life depended on it. Make it a game to see how fast they can get out of it (via promotion or a bounce to a better job), within that company or somewhere else. I want them to experience that work as I did, and appreciate and use your skills to improve yourself, so that retail/shit work will be a faint memory in the rearview mirror.... Kinda goes against the grain of those fast-food workers that went on strike last week, eh?

One final note (and story)... I took my kids to McDonalds last Friday night (I know, unhealthy, blablabla; it's a treat I give them about 5-6 times a year)... Anyway, I had a tray of garbage I was trying to throw out, into the tiny-slotted garbage can. I spilled everything on the floor, even a good amount of milk left in a bottle. I cleaned it up, and got napkins to clean up the spilled milk. The cashier was nice, and told me that they'd clean it up, but i did it anyway, feeling bad about them cleaning my mess. I checked on my kids (5 and 8), then went back to get shakes. The cashier didn't charge me for mine (1 of the 3) because she saw that I cleaned my mess myself. She was pleasant when i picked up my food before my spaz event, and she was pleasant during, and after. I thought that was a cool move that I didn't even expect. Moral of story? Sometimes you'll find people that really care, or are nice in places you'd never expect (retail)....

yep, mccain is junk.

The Jews are DEFENDING themselves from crazy arabs that whack-off with thoughts of chopping off Jew heads. The arabs are just tanned NAZI.

I've come to believe bgamall is the son of Kommadant Klink, or Sargent Shultz...one of the two...

APOCALYPSEFUCK is Comptroller says

Fibbing? Really? In international politics?

once again, pow-zoom-right to the moon, Alice!

bgamall4 says

I suppose, Softshell and Bap that you forgot the images of people falling to their deaths out of the towers. I haven't forgotten and I know who to blame, oil men, neocons, and militant Zionists.

Rather than the people who actually flew the planes into the towers...

yea .... that one little fact slipped past

It doesn't matter.
It shouldn't matter.
That's your problem. You look at ethnicity, not individual people.

but...if you must know....

bgamall4 says

SoftShell says

I've come to believe bgamall is the son of Kommadant Klink, or Sargent Shultz...one of the two...

And who are you the son of softshell, a crab or a lobster? Tell us what your ethnic background is. I would like to know.

yeah yeah yeah blah blah blah...
u sound like a broken record....

bgamall4 says

I suppose, Softshell and Bap that you forgot the images of people falling to their deaths out of the towers. I haven't forgotten and I know who to blame, oil men, neocons, and militant Zionists

Sounds like the time honored tradition of black marketing government goods.

Yossarian's Milo, anyone?

When you are trained by education and temperament to be a parasitic entity with no long term moral horizon, you just do what comes naturally.

National Association of Rodents

Shostakovich visited U.S.; Comptroller traveled to other cities

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19590717&id=OeQeAAAAIBAJ&sjid=ySUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4810,3639589

http://www.youtube.com/embed/U7o_3aBIeyU

Weep no more
http://www.youtube.com/embed/0FF4HyB77hQ

Schoenberg was a REALTOR!

JustInTime says

I wanted to buy the dip but didn't have the cash. It was back above $1300 before I made my purchase - three Kangaroos. So far so good though.

If you believe the Elliot Wave Theory, this is the fourth wave. There will be another downside move to $900 - $1,000 on the 5th wave. The time to buy gold will likely be summer 2014.

Of course, we will have to wait and see. Good luck.

E-man says

JustInTime says

I wanted to buy the dip but didn't have the cash. It was back above $1300 before I made my purchase - three Kangaroos. So far so good though.

If you believe the Elliot Wave Theory, this is the fourth wave. There will be another downside move to $900 - $1,000 on the 5th wave. The time to buy gold will likely be summer 2014.

Of course, we will have to wait and see. Good luck.

I try to time my entries / exits somewhat intelligently but for the most part I don't really sweat it.

RentingForHalfTheCost says

unlike many of your houses. Taxes, maintenance, upkeep, etc. etc.

You forgot to mention deadbeat tenants, evictions, vacancy, etc. Let the losers own houses. Winners rent and can move anytime they want to. Yes, renters occasionally have to move on the landlord's terms, but the trade-off is so worth it. Why buy when you can rent and have a much better qualify of life. Let the losers service the mortgage for the next 30 years.

Welcome to Renter Nation.

E-man says

RentingForHalfTheCost says

unlike many of your houses. Taxes, maintenance, upkeep, etc. etc.

You forgot to mention deadbeat tenants, evictions, vacancy, etc. Let the losers own houses. Winners rent and can move anytime they want to. Yes, renters occasionally have to move on the landlord's terms, but the trade-off is so worth it. Why buy when you can rent and have a much better qualify of life. Let the losers service the mortgage for the next 30 years.

Welcome to Renter Nation.

Yes, it also is a step out of the black hole of debt that this country attempts to suck as many people as possible into. Let's see credit cards left right and center, auto loans, student loans, HELOC, loans available at any major store, the opportunities for debt are endless.

Those numbers look about right. I just pulled up the numbers ended in July 2013 comparing to July 2013. Didn't pull up the "to date numbers" like you did. :)

Yep, the rate of decline in inventory is pretty steep. I still believe the rate of housing appreciation will moderate a bit in 2014. :)

I've seen a lot of people go full out for broke via credit binge. Between home loans, business loans, credit cards, store credit cards, autoloans...some people are just really savvy at convincing the world to let them borrow money and they pull it off for a good 15 years while living like kings. Hell, some of them are still living in their homes for free because the bank refuses to foreclose on them.

Again fuel within planes create black smoke when ignited.
Again plaster of paris creates white smoke when building infrastructure collapses.

In case anyone doesn't comprehend the above, this is for you:

http://www.cesarsway.com/training/socialization/How-Daddy-Chose-Junior

bgamall4 says

Again, the planes created black smoke. Demolition and the white smoke took over as the buildings imploded. That is fact

Say hey! This was in the Wall Street Journal on March 30, 1999:

Holy cow/interesting/compelling ...!

And where is it up to date??? Right here ... see the first chart shown in this thread.
Recent Dow day is Tuesday, September 3, 2013 __ Level is 94.8

WOW! It is hideous that this is hidden! Is there any such "Homes, Inflation Adjusted"? Yes indeed, go here:
http://patrick.net/?p=1219038&c=999083#comment-999083

E-man says

Yep, the rate of decline in inventory is pretty steep. I still believe the rate of housing appreciation will moderate a bit in 2014. :)

"moderate".. don't think so...

kmo722 says

E-man says

Yep, the rate of decline in inventory is pretty steep. I still believe the rate of housing appreciation will moderate a bit in 2014. :)

"moderate".. don't think so...

You haven't been thinking so in the recent years so there's no surprise