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Kend - There you go again, rattling off some nonsense about comparing China's slave labor force and the hard working Americans who have seen their jobs shipped off to the land of dictatorship and enslavement. Just to open your eyes a little about owning a home here in Southern California, oops did I give away my location, yes. In the area where I reside the average small three bedroom home that is on average about 25 years old, sells for around $575,000, if you can find one that cheap. New homes average around $750,000 for about the same sq. footage, maybe a little larger. Which interprets into a monthly mortgage payment of approximately $6,000 for a new home, after a large down payment. And, believe me, as far as getting into a home for zero down, it must be a really shit of a house or it is a scam. I grant you that prices are a little higher here, but so are wages for professional white collar workers. You really think the average guy that works for a living with a two income family of four (wife working also) can afford a monthly payment like that? The same houses that are selling for $575,000, sold for $39,000 when they were new, I know I was there! Unless you are living in the past, today's prices have jumped out of the range of the average family here. Wages for the average worker have not kept pace with the increase of housing costs for the last 25 years. (Wages have stagnated for the last 25 years; employers can hire cheap labor with our borders wide open for everyone to enter, like the people you hire) You really have a way of getting under my skin with your non-thinking statements. You might have a great banking system, but who the hell wants to live in a frozen waste land, where you have to go to a desert community in a backwards thinking state like Arizona to relax!( Homes in Az. are half what they are here, and there is good reason for that) .Not this guy! So if you want to make idiotic statements about wages and buying a home, check the facts first. I really am trying not to be the heavy when rebutting someone's statements, but you make it really difficult. Have a good evening, I know under all that snow lays a good guy at heart. K.W.
[Reply to post #8; not #9]
Kend, I'm not going to argue with your closing statement, addressed to me. I happen to think the whole system of rental housing stinks. Having also been in the cleaning business for years, I've seen it from both sides. As a tenant I had to deal with a procession of negligent, greedy, deadbeat landlords who never took care of their responsibilities as landlords or fulfilled their end of the bargain. As professional cleaners, my husband & I saw the messes left by tenants who live like pigs, leaving a trail of filth and ruin behind for others to clean up. The system brings out the worst in people whether they are landlords or renters. I'm tremendously relieved to have found us an escape hatch from the whole disgusting racket.
I really wish more people could own their homes. Housing is such a basic need we all have, for sanity as well as survival. My sympathies lean towards tenants for one simple reason: 99.999% of those who rent their homes do it because they have no better options and are forced by necessity. However landlords become landlords by choice, not by necessity. Of all the landlords I've had in my life, I can't recall a single one I left on good terms. They all sucked; every goddam one of them. - Aliceinwonderland
Kend, kend, kend.... you think we're paid well here, eh? Like people LOVE working three jobs just to be barely making ends meet, and going to food banks... And wasn't it generous of Walmart to ask for donations from customers, just so their employees could afford a turkey for Thanksgiving! It really warms my heart to know our taxes are covering the benefits Walmart refuses to pay their employees (and that's just one example).
What planet are you from, anyway? It seems not a word of Sandlewould's post even got through to you. - AIW
I don't know saddle you get paid pretty good there. Just ask some one in India or China. Yes banks do like debt that's how they make there money. . Americans have more TVs , cars, and RVs etc. than any one else in the world. Just maybe you live beyond your means.
Let me echo the Richard Wolff plug. He has, among other things, a monthly series on YouTube that makes economics very understandable AND entertaining. BTW, if you got the usual economic stuff taught in most colleges for the last thirty years prepare to be jarred. He also notes what is working economically outside the U.S. Which, of course, the corp-media won't cover.
KW- If you are interested, I posted a diagram of the mortgage crisis pyramid which was begun in 1868 by The Corporation of Foreign Bondholders in London.The Corporation formed to protect patent relationships and advance the interest of preferred stockholders through two centuries of railroad bankruptcies and war betweenpatent and interest holders. The modus operandi was casting bonded debt into the future with time devices such as 99-yr leases, against which money was borrowed, and 100-yr- gold mortgage bonds which are held between banks but not necessarily satisfied. In 1904 railroad mortgage bonds were allowed to be counted as "deposits" in banks.
The Corporation Directors included Fried.Krupp, Robert Fleming, Samuel Hanna (Union Pacific RR grantee, Hugh McCulloch, both President of Fort Wayne (National City Bank) and Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, E.R. Harriman, and later C.E. Barnett, of the Barnett Bankers which funneled many goodies to Bank of America following the Florida Land Crash and other of our forerunner robber barons.
It is important to know that when Johnson "sold" our federal national mortgage securities in 1968, the empire of Alfried Krupp defaulted on its numerous loans from German Banks with the abolishment of Lex Krupp, a law which had exempted the sole proprietorship of the weapons manufacturer from taxation. Krupp incorporated, to gain tax advantages, and Republic Film Corp. in the U.S. was bought by the entity, later becoming Republic Steel. It was within the next few years that the northern steel towns became waste areas as our former steel industry was systematically shut down.
Of course all employers should have PAID sick days. Its the cost of doing business. Even machines breakdown and need repair. If a business cannot afford a few PAID sick days for employees, they should not be in business.
Point well taken, Brian E. I concur. And Fox's takeover of your progressive station sounds absolutely infuriating. Insult to injury, indeed. - AIW
that was #11 not #10 -- c8
SHFabian -- You call it an insult, I would call it democracy; that is, we tried it and didn't like it. (reply to #10 by c8)
Alice, in my rural area outside of Portland OR, we got our ONLY progressive / left / non-Tea Party spewing radio station shut down by Clear Channel monopolists, and you know who they have on that station now? Fox Sports. Talk about insult to injury!!!
Yes, I still have a little NPR, OPB, but really, KPOJ was awesome! Now it's just another distraction... I don't listen to sports, especially Fox Sports.
We have the internet, and we could pay for some rags, but really, free airwaves have been available for many decades, and now, they are ALL bought up by giant corps whose bread is buttered by the uber wealthy who are trying to change us into a full blown oligarchy.
We need to remind the FCC that We the People own those radio waves, and NOT the corporate lessors. Stop the Corporate Lobbies from writing ANY more legislation for us.
We should think about the Commons, and what can and cannot be taken away from the Commons by the Corporations. We lose our grasp of control with the loss of the Commons. This is NOT Socialism, nor Communism that I am speaking of. Just simply the airwaves, the air, water, and to a degree, the power grid.
Take back America!
AIW -- We agree on "no excuse". Do we agree on blaming Thom? It does kind of feel good to keep the old blog topcis going.
J Jonik - Personally, I feel you are ALMOST right about a lot of your (quite long) response to the issue, however...
You kind of miss the point a little. In politics today, you have to work across the aisle to get something (anything) done, and have some flaws in it that the opposition can take advantage of (like GOP Governors following the Party Line on killing the ACA by NOT allowing medicare to kick in for the poor who cannot afford the fees). In the case of this donut hole, I hope what we see is a strong voter response, and a Democratic majority after the mid-term elections. This "take-over" will be a coupe for the current administration, and they should take advantage of the situation to "fix" the problem that the GOP has provided. So, as a foot in the door move, we have an essentially imperfect ACA that will need a major overhaul. That overhaul can (SHOULD) be the one payer resolution getting pushed through, and everyone (except those who opt out for higher paid insurance) can benefit from it. This is all dependant apon a strong sensible voter turnout in November... I have my hopes, and my doubts...
Politics is a magic trick; You have to provide some misdirection to get your trick to come off properly.
Hey you Republican Asshats... Over there! Look! They are selling birth control pills! Go get em! Maybe you can get the women arrested for "pre-child" abuse! (wish I was kidding...).
His point is really just to tax the source of problems to take care of it.
These issues primarily effect the middle class, which spent so many years demanding deregulation. It would be an insult to restore the regulations that they so strongly opposed.
Kend
We go into debt because, we don't get paid enough to save for anything and because the banks make it cheaper to buy than to rent. We have to own cars ‘cause our public transit sucks, and THEY are expensive. The banks LOVE our debt. Ever hear economist Richard Wolff on the subject? He discusses how corporations realized they could lend us our wages, instead of paying them to us... it started with the advent of the credit card. Many manufacturers literally invested the wages they held back from workers in banks that then those banks issued credit to the very workers who were denied adequate pay. I worked three jobs(one was my own business, but couldn’t afford health insurance so had to work) and still only had about $5,000 in an IRA when I lost my job. I was a landlord and if it wasn’t for the equity in my home when I sold it would have nothing now. Our entire economy is based on debt, it’s all we have available to us. The other BIG reason we’re in so much debt is our F’D up health care system...that’s THE biggy.
Ken
Me thinks you take me too literally. By 'engineered' I meant: Step 1. Deregulate (repeal of glass steagal) Step 2. Create "exotic" financial "instruments" Step 3. utilize algorithms and computers to generate massive quantities of trades per second. Step 3. When the system crashes (and we know it will) Make sure you have the right legislators and fed chairs in place to do our bidding; i.e. buy our toxic debt and steal from the average tax payor to bail us out, threatening global financial catastrophe if you don't. I'm sure there are steps 4- at least 10, but that is the limit of my understanding... Those in positions of most power took advantage of the bankers' greed. Maybe the money managers just thought the feeding frenzy would go on forever, but those at the helm knew exactly what would happen.
Well said Ken W. I have never seen it described better.
With all due respect your banking system is horrible. I am blessed to be in a country that has probaly the best system in the world. On my last trip down to AZ I was shocked to see they are offering mortages with almost nothing down again. Are you kidding me that is what got you in so much trouble in the first place. I just don't understand why Americans get so far in debt. If you can't afford it don't buy it. Maybe SAVE the money first. I think you can right off the interest but doesn't it just offset the interest you are paying?
Alice, for every bad thing that happened to you as a renter I can tell at least ten that happened to me as a landlord. I would tell you a few now but I don't want to spoil your dinner.
ckrob,
Reading Naomi's book was satisfying, because for 20 years people had been telling me I was crazy, but also horribly sad because I so desperately wanted to be wrong. GREAT book...and great accompanying lecture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWI4p8KuJfs
Should any reader think sandlewould exaggerates, read Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine." Big money has been practicing the cannibalization of other countries for years and now they turn what they learned to the biggest prize of all, us! Klein provides chapter and verse about how they are doing it.
Could you explain to me how the crash of 2008 was engineered? It is my understanding that mortgage based securities or derivatives sold to investors was the lynch pin of the crash. In simple terms the sub-prime mortgage crisis began to affect the investment banks that backed these mortgages coupled with the derivatives that were also backed by these bogus mortgages began to fail. Faith in the Stock Market and the banks caused the Market to begin its nose dive over the next several months. Unemployment began to soar upward and the demand for houses and goods dropped drastically in the coming months, causing more failures. The mortgage backed derivatives also affected Europe, which had a great effect on the multi-national Investment Banks running out of money to cover their losses. And, there are several more factors that caused the investment banks to fail, the greatest being they could not absorb the losses from the debt swap derivatives and the failing mortgages that affected the mortgage backed derivatives. The government felt it was necessary to bail these banks out, starting with Bear Sterns, and the bailouts ended up costing $700,000,000,000. The whole mess is more complicated than what I have noted, and it would take a couple of pages to explain the technical realities that caused the Stock Market, Investment Banks and jobs to crash. After reading several articles I found on the internet by using Google, it appears the main ingredient in this whole mess that almost brought the U.S. and Europe into a complete financial melt-down was GREED on the part of the INVESTMENT BANKERS. The greed allowed the banks and third party loan evaluators to grant mortgages to people who simply could not afford to buy homes. The scheme that was put together by the Investment Banks to sell as many mortgages and mortgage backed derivatives as possible and lie about the risk involved in these complicated derivatives was a matter of simple greed and the ideology that making a quick profit was more important than maintaining a secure banking system. Greed is the culprit that almost brought us all down and may still do so in the future, since the same upper management of these failed banks remains basically the same! http://useconomy.about.com/od/Financial-Crisis/a/Stock-Market-Crash-2008.htm has an interesting article about how this crisis began. K.W. (I cannot get the link to copy correctly so you could just click on the website and be there. It must be Hartmann’s website that will not allow this procedure.)
Bobbler (Comment #8)
I know you mean well, but…
The NSA “spying” is to keep those at the top of the heap safe from the rest of us (aka, the “rabble below”).
By knowledgeable accounts, Al Qaeda is a construct of the CIA.
911. Please go to “Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth” to learn that 911 was an inside job.
As for getting liberals into office… you do know, don’t you, that with computerized voting machines, there is no way to verify the voters’ intent, and that it is really easy to “flip” the results of a vote?
Mutual Funds are engineered consent...
Mutual Funds give Average Joe/Jo America tiny pieces of many pies. Avg Joe/Jo is investing, most likely, in his/her retirement. If those mutual funds include microscopic bits of Mobil Exxon, Monsanto, Dow, MIC contractors, etc., it is in Avg Joe's best (financial) interest to be on the side of the environment destroyers and labor-exploiting corporations.
Yes, there may be a handful of "green" mutual funds, but they are not in the majority.
Therefore, Avg Joe, in order to keep his retirement intact, silently goes along with corporate agendas.
In the words of Chuck Schumer; "...Frankly, they own the place." ..and I don't think he just meant 'own' in the sense of simply buying politicians, but in cooperation with companies like Stratfor and Booz Allen Hamilton, the financial industry can hold whatever they want over law makers' heads. The economic hit men have come to America. The crash in '08 was engineered. They knew exactly what they were doing. What better way to raid the US treasury than to engineer a crash and then cry 'too big to fail'? Of course the crash did not stop them, it only wet their appetites for the next one. If an American turns on it's Government, it's called treason. What is it called when America's legislators and leaders turn on Americans knowing that if they don't, these mega-corporations will ruin them, or worse? They will not stop until they've sucked every last dime out of our pockets and raided our commons, then they will cannibalize each other. As I write, waiting for Thom to come on, I am listening to the woes of National Parks. These rangers and biologists, thrown out of jobs because of 30 years of cuts, think it was because governments wanted to save money. No, the 2-fold mission of the mega-corporations who 'own' the politicians is this; to syphon $$$ out of the commons and into the troughs of the rich first, then weaken the commons to such an extent they can the swoop down and log, drill, frack and mine the parks into oblivion for more profit. God-dess save our parks!
We have one persistent woman to thank for the CFPB, Elizabeth Warren! You can send her money for her good deeds. Other polititians will notice if we non-corporate persons reward good work. Off topic - People leaving a job because of Obamacare is not the same as a disappearing job. The position simply opens to someone else looking for work. Sounds like a good thing. Additionally, businesses will soon see it will benefit them and their employees if they move to the larger risk pools afforded by Obamacare. Everyone benefits except the insurance companies.