2009 archive
Is It Really February in Delaware? 2
Temperature in the high 50 Fahrenheits, mostly sunny, 45 mph wind gusts.
When All You Believe in Is Hammers 0
Everything is a nail.
Of course, there is other stuff in the tool kit besides a hammer. There’re pliers and wrenches and Allen keys and screwdrivers and splining tools and all sorts of neat things.
But Republicans don’t believe in them. Therefore those implements do not exist.
Harold Meyerson on the Republican Party’s belief that cutting taxes for the rich is The One True Faith (emphasis added):
Home Prices: Sinking to Where They Belong? (Updated) 0
Note that almost half of these sales were “distressed“:
The NAR said distressed sales, which includes foreclosures, accounted for 45 percent of transactions in that quarter, dragging down the national median price of existing single-family homes to $180,100.
I suspect the sellers were also distressed, worrying whether their vehicles are big enough for their families to live in.
Prices may be close to bottoming out; the early 2000s was apparently when the just-busted bubble started to inflate (see graph here).
Criswell predicts that prices are going to stay flat for a long time. Persons fearing pay cuts and unemployment do not buy houses. Or cars. Or washing machines. Or anything they don’t have to have.
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
Atrios thinks that housing prices will slide significantly further.
He’s got a Ph. D. in economics and has taught in some of the finest universities in the world.
I don’t have a Ph. D. and have taught persons how to carry trays in dining cars.
We will see if my “it’s not rocket science” contention holds up.
If it doesn’t I will forget about this update.
Must Be That Pesky UAW Again 0
Yeah, I know it’s absurd. No UAW in either Japan or the consumer electronics industry.
So too are Republican attempts to blame their mess on honest working persons.
Bushonomics: The Hangover 0
No wonder “first-time claims” dipped a bit. The pool of employed persons subject to being fired keeps getting smaller.
The number of initial claims in the week ending Feb. 7 fell 8,000 to 623,000, a level that is 84% higher than the same period in the prior year. The four-week average of initial claims rose 24,000 to 607,500 — the highest level since November 1982 and up 76% from the prior year. The four-week average for claims draws the attention of economists and investors because it smoothes out distortions caused by bad weather, strikes or the timing of holidays.
Take the Day Off 0
Without pay.
I do not envy the governors, mayors, county supervisors, and their colleagues faced with balancing budgets because the bottom has fallen out of the economy, therefore cutting their revenues off at the knees.
Furloughs are among many options, including reductions in employee benefits, large cuts or possible tax increases listed as measures that could be used to put the state in the black. But Gov. Jack Markell has noted that, when laying off 1,000 state employees would save just $50 million, simple furloughs would make a minimal dent in the money gap.
A typical work year contains 260 or 261 work days.
Twenty-six unpaid days = 10% pay cut.
I Get Voicemail 0
And more and more of them are like this (*.wav, 27 seconds, edited to remove name and phone number).
No, I’m not calling him back. Given the terms of my mortgage, he can’t do any of the things he promises to do.
You Can Bank on It 0
The Masters of the Universe aren’t.
Stray Thought 0
This bozo causes me to be ashamed of being a Virginian.
Bankruptured 0
Shorter Adam Posner: Let grown-ups run the banks. Time to consider
. . . nationalizing or come close to nationalizing part of the banking sector . . .
Via TPM.
Teh Stupid 0
P. Z. Myers, via CC.
I Get Mail 1
From the L. A. Times, an advertisement for
(Follow the link above to bid. Yeah. Right.)
Here’s the details:
Location: Phoenix AZ 85048
Details: 3 bed / 2 bath; SFR
List Price: $234,900
Starting Bid: $70,470Location: Peoria , AZ 85382
Details: 5 bed / 3.5 bath; SFR
List Price: $379,900
Starting Bid: $113,970
I find it interesting that the “starting bids” are about 30% of the “list prices.” Wonder whether they’ll even get their starting bids.
(Aside One: You’d have to pay me as much as an investment banker’s bonus to get me to live in Phoenix. I’ve spent far too much time in Phoenix already. Nice people, but without air conditioning, it would be just another rickety town in a just another Clint Eastwood western.)
(Aside Two: The Los Angeles Times does not abuse the privilege of having my email address. I get about one email from them every three months or so. And they usually give me the blogger’s biggest need: material.)
Over There 0
Tom Ricks on Fresh Air discussing the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq:
Follow the link to listen to the interview.
From the Dept. of Tautology Dept. 0
Discussion of TARP (you know TARP, the big green blanket that get$ thrown over a pile of tra$h to hide the stink).
About 40 minutes into the interview:
Diane Rehm: But that can’t tell whether they’re happy with the management until they go down . . . .
The guest went on to say that that “depends on how skilled an investor you are.”
Nothing about the truthfulness or integrity of the organization.
Classic blame the victim.
Follow the link above or click here (Real) to listen.
________________
*I couldn’t figure out which guest and I was too lazy to listen all the way through a second time, but I think it was Robert Hartheimer.
Corporate Citizenship 0
No. Really.
Back in the olden days, when I was a beardless boy, it was taught that the purpose of a business in a capitalist system was to provide goods and services of value, act as a responsible corporate citizen, and, in the process, make a profit.
That has morphed into provide goods and services of value, act as a responsible corporate citizen, and, in the process, make a profit.
“Pay for Performance” 0
Incompetence is not its own reward.
The bonus reward for destroying a company: $121,000,000.00.
In all, Merrill “secretly and prematurely” awarded $3.5 billion in bonuses, with Bank of America’s “apparent complicity,” Cuomo said in a Feb. 10 letter to Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House Committee on Financial Services.
Pay for performance my anatomy.
Oh, My. 0
This is beyond disgusting.
Report from the Field 0
In yesterday’s local rag:
The colonel finally relented and turned over a battered prisoner to me, saying, “This man knows a lot, but he will not talk to me.”
We treated the prisoner’s wounds, reunited him with his family, and allowed him to make his first visit to Saigon. Surprised by the city’s affluence, he said he would tell us anything we asked. The result was a flood of actionable intelligence that allowed us to disrupt planned operations, including rocket attacks against Saigon.
Torture is not an “interrogation technique.”
It is pornography for sadists.