Earth to Washington, D.C. Earth to Washington, D.C. Come in Washington, this is Earth. Over.
Calculated Risk quotes Campbell Surveys on plunging house sales
According to the survey firm, Campbell Communications, buy-side agents responding to the survey indicated a 19% drop in completed transactions between the months of September and October. Declines were especially severe for sales of non-distressed properties in states where home prices have fallen rapidly during the past year, agents indicated. For example, buy-side agents indicated a 22% decline in non-distressed sales in Florida, a 32% drop in California, and a 51% drop in Michigan.
Washington, D.C., we’ve got a situation here.
The Columbian reports that foreclosures have spiked again in Clark County, which had previously (sorta kinda) weathered the storm okay.
Local foreclosure rates had appeared to be leveling off in September, when 144 foreclosures were filed in Clark County, up just 3 from the same month the year before. But the lull — down from more than 290 foreclosures filed here in August — was short-lived.
The number of Clark County homes in foreclosure in October jumped by more than 63 percent over September numbers.
The county’s foreclosures in October accounted for 5.5 percent of the 4,278 foreclosures filed statewide. Washington had the 17th-highest foreclosure rate out of 50 states, according to RealtyTrac, which incorporates data filed during several stages of foreclosure. Oregon ranked No. 16.
Washington, D.C., you need to stop fooling around now. You there, Washington, D.C.?
Naomi Klein spells things out in an article for Rolling Stone.
Unfortunately, many of the banks appear to have no intention of wasting the money on loans. “At least for the next quarter, it’s just going to be a cushion,” said John Thain, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch. Gary Crittenden, chief financial officer of Citigroup, had an even better idea: He hinted that his company would use its share of the cash — $25 billion — to buy up competitors and swell even bigger. The handout, he told analysts, “does present the possibility of taking advantage of opportunities that might otherwise be closed to us.”
And the folks at Morgan Stanley? They’re planning to pay themselves $10.7 billion this year, much of it in bonuses — almost exactly the amount they are receiving in the first phase of the bailout. “You can imagine the devilish grins on the faces of Morgan Stanley employees,” writes Bloomberg columnist Jonathan Weil. “Not only did we, the taxpayers, save their company…we funded their 2008 bonus pool.”
Uh, Washington, D.C., we got a lot of citizens starting to turn blue here. Copy?
Reuters reports on higher than expected job losses.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose last week to 516,000, the highest level since the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Labor Department reported on Thursday.
U.S. imports fell by a record 5.6 percent in September and exports suffered their steepest drop since September 2001, narrowing the monthly trade deficit slightly more than expected, a U.S. Commerce Department report showed on Thursday.
Come in, D.C. Don’t know if you copy but it looks like people are starting to think about taking matters into their own hands. Situation critical. Repeat. Situation critical.
What would happen if a bunch of people just stopped paying their mortgages in order to get a better deal? Irvine Housing Blog relays admittedly anecdotal evidence from an acquaintance who is a real estate agent:
My friend, a very smart person, math thesis of the year award winner in college, with a masters degree in math, vice principle at a high school making excellent money, expresses to his neighbor that he is upset that his home is worth $100,000 less than he paid for it, however his neighbor then explains that he received a $100,000 principle write down by not paying his mortgage and negotiating a loan modification. Stopping by his house a few weeks ago on the way back from Las Vegas my friend explained this to me and said he thinks that he is going to get a modification as well.
I hope you copy D.C.
Everyone on board, prepare for impact.
Earth out.
The Predator State in action….see Jamie Galbraith for the details.
I’m looking at the Mayan calendar right now…
re 1: Good Tip! Found this informative review of the book: http://economistsview.typepad......or-st.html
This just in from the Repiblican Governor’s conference:
Louisiana Governor Jindal blamed the administration and congressional leaders for cutting taxes without cutting spending and for not offering solutions besides “the other side’s worse,” and he said the party must “stop making excuses for corruption.” He named Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who has been convicted of unlawfully accepting gifts but whose reelection race is very tight.
Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska was ready to take Jindal up on the challenge. “I think he ought to resign today,” Heineman said of Stevens, and asked his fellow governors if they wanted to make a similar statement. “Do we have the courage to do that?”
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There was silence at the table.
You are moderating my comments? Just like over at the Seattle Times where they moderate comments to shape the thread’s overall opinion. Way to go HA. Bring Frank Blethen onto the board.
Please remember this you assholes. The Democrats control Congress and Congress is in control of this bullshit.
Please also remember that the Democrats were instrumental in creating this crisis and now they can’t figure out what to do. Now that’s government!
The market is imploding on the basis of the Obama administration delivering on every one of it’s campaign promises. People are getting out.
If you don’t believe me, call your money guy and ask him. Obama could cure most of the problem with the right 10 minute speech but it ain’t gonna happen because it’s all about you sacrificing for your government. Poor gets “spread around” too. Kinda like a reverse Joe the Plumber.
This problem is bigger then what any party can do. The shit will keep coming. The real question is which party will help pick up the pieces? Who will benefit? The Republicans have already demonstrated their strategy: do nothing. So, let’s give the new guy a chance.
The conditions for the marking imploding were being set long before Obama began running for prez. The conditions for recovery have no chance of getting off the ground pre- 1/20/09.
@5: “Obama could cure most of the problem with the right 10 minute speech…”
Yeah, right. He’s not even the fucking president yet, you idiot. Send your proposed remarks to Prez George W. Bush. Maybe he can do just ONE thing right before he rides off to polish the turds of his “legacy”, but somehow I doubt it.
Jiggy @ 5: “Obama could cure this problem with the right 10 minute speach….”
Uh, sure. And if it’s so easy, why don’t you explain it to Bush, since he’s still the President for the next couple of months. He could give the same 10 minute speech, right?
Or maybe he should close his eyes, click his ruby slippers together three times, and repeat: “there’s no place like home”. If it’s still there.
Why can’t Jindal just conduct an exorcism? He says he’s done that before, and successfully too! I hear he kisses a little statue of Francisco Franco every night before he goes to bed.
Paulson and Bush demanded of Congress that they give Paulson wide authority to handle an immediate crisis which, they said, could turn into the second Great Depression overnight if they didn’t act within hours. Congress gave him the authority, with a few restrictions which Bush fought but ultimately gave into, although nobody liked the plan and both Democrats and Republicans voted for it despite the bad taste it left in their mouths.
Now Paulson is going back on every assurance he gave Congress when he was begging for their help, and dolling out the money without any assurances of how it would be spent, and has completely abandoned the “assurances” he gave Congress and the American people that we would be buying assetts which would pay most of the money back to the Treasury after a few years. Instead, he’s decided not to give the taxpayers any equity at all for the money they are giving out.
It’s one last attempt by the Republicans to loot the treasury (actually taxes paid by FUTURE taxpayers – out children and grandchildren) for the benefit of their country-club bankers and buddies.
This has to be the most currupt and scandelous administration in the history of the U.S.
Tell the recipients of the imaginary money that it no longer exists.
That’s the beauty of fiat money: It’s always there when you need it and magically disappears when you don’t…..
Earth to Washington, I’m a liberal and my giant vagina hurts. Please send a giant tampax this way!
This is the Liberal way, reward failure. They do it in school, business and marriage (ask Goldy)
re 13: Whereas the conservative reaction to failure is a promotion or a medal of freedom to the failure.
If that doesn’t work, take some personal initiative and gumption and blame it on FDR, Harry Truman, LBJ, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, or Obama — who has yet to even take office.
A better moniker for you would be Uncle Asswipe – the conservative shrunken penis.
Republican strategy (applies to all goverment action, including military, financial, law enforcement, etc.)
(a) declare victory (in the face of all reasonable evidence to the contrary) and then retreat;
(b) call the Democrats “surrender monkeys” for calling for a withdrawal without first pretending it’s a victory;
(c) give lots of medals to everyone responsible for the mess, and pretend that it went well;
(d) make sure lots of Republicans make a lot of money from the American taxpayer in the process;
(e) As Democrats are cleaning up the mess created by Republicans, blame them for the mess, and start a campaign to make another mess as soon as the Democrats clean up the first mess.
It makes people who worked hard all their lives and paid off their mortgages feel like saps, doesn’t it? Oh well, at least I got my Starbucks stock free, thanks to splits (I recouped my original investment in SBUX years ago).
More proof that Whack-O-Nomics doesn’t work because nothing trickles down through the sticky fingers at the top. Oh well, at least this silliness will come to an end after the socialists leave office in January.
@13 “This is the Liberal way, reward failure. They do it in school, business and marriage (ask Goldy)”
ROGER RABBIT QUIZ
Which party is still in power, concocted these bailouts, and is shoveling taxpayer money to the likes of AIG and Morgan Stanley execs in the same fashion they shoveled it into contractors’ duffel bags in Iraq?
[ ] 1. Republicans
[ ] 2. Democrats
[ ] 3. Libertarians
[ ] 4. Socialist Workers
[ ] 5. Little Green Men From Mars
(Hint: Only 1 of these answers is correct! The other 4 answers are obvious throwaways, so this quiz is a gimme!)
I still can’t listen to that person’s voice or see his picture without cringing but the president elect is our next chief executive. Sometime in the next couple of months I’ll reconcile myself to that person and honor the office, if not the man. I’ll even try to keep an open mind and see some good in his performance of the office, if it is there to see. Already I can say that if Americans stop contemplating how awful things are all the time that is an advantage I’ll cheerfully lay to his charisma. If they start thinking about how good it is to be an American on a false assessment of his worth that is still an advantage. If a president makes people feel optimistic and hopeful and proud even based on a lie the country can’t help but do better.
When I’ve moved on with my life all of the anxious little people here will still be pontificating about how evil the Republicans are and what terrible people Sarah Palin and George Bush are. (Just so you know, she got beaten, and is unlikely to bother with the egregious and very personal abuse for a presidential office with little thanks and less value. You can stop being afraid of her now.) You will likely still be blaming all your failure to succeed or pay your bills or feel good about yourselves or whatever on capitalists or George Bush or something, anything, but yourselves.
Good luck folks. Radical ideology on either side is a miserable place to live but I really wish you the best. What I most wish is that you will realize that your problems are yours. The best lessons I ever learned were from tuly stupid things I did, and more importantly the costs I paid for the errors. Not my parents or my friends or my government, but me. Hopefully some day you will reach that level of maturity. Until then, best of luck and best wishes.
@19 Dear Lost
Yup – you are STILL lost and you have not figured out what this election means. This means the American people are rejecting the half-baked drivel the republicans have offered us over the last 20 years.
In fact, democrats have won the popular vote in 4 of the last 5 elections (2004 with a war on and a sitting President was the only one we lost). This is a resounding repudiation of Bush, of neocons, of unnecessary wars and of a poltical philosphy of free market solving everything (something that Teddy Roosevelt repudiated over 100 years ago).
Yup – Democrats control the Presidency and congress with large majorities. Face it, people want the government to solve rpoblems and have hired the adults to do it. No more cronyism, corruption, Abaramoff/Delay?Rove led lobying schemes.
As far as Palin – bring her on. I hope she is the last best hope for republicans. She is woefully uninformed and self-centered. Good luck with her at the helm of anything. No wonder she was frantically searching for her clothes – she can take her bridge and failing Alaska economy and her energy “expertise” with her on her bridge to nowhere – or was that britches to nowhere?
The chimp in chief proclaimed today that the present economic crisis is not a failure of the free market system. And puppy dogs have wings.
Executive bonuses? Yeah, no doubt…and I’d look for the fancy hotel chains to stay fat and happy for a while filling their high-end suites with these same high potentates of the financial world for “critical business meetings”.
All on your dime and mine, pal.