It was just a few weeks ago that I wrote
about some evidence that I was seeing that suggested the real estate
market in my neck of the woods (North of NY on the Hudson) was
stabilizing. I was aware of a number of transactions for upper end homes
that looked encouraging. To be sure this price action was at levels
that were about 40% below the froth of 2007. Supply and demand seemed to
be leveling out at around 2002 values. So we have had a lost decade. But I was a bit encouraged by what I saw as evidence of increasing demand.
Now the update. Two of the deals I referred to have cratered. The
reason? No mortgage money? Not the case, these were all cash buyers.
Sellers remorse? Hardly, not after two years on the market.
The reason for the busted deals? It was the Indian Point Nuke that did them in.
Both of the deals I know of (and apparently a few others) had the happy
buyers walking as the homes in question were inside of the ten-mile
radius of a 40 year old and badly flawed nuke. Apparently the events in
Japan have caused some re-thinking.
Some RE agents are taking the issue head on. Rather than hiding the fact that there is a nuke nearby they are highlighting it as an “Upside”. They provide a copy of the following story suggesting that Governor Cuomo will soon close IP and when it does all that depressed real estate is going to pop by 20%.
Proving once again that real estate agents, like car dealers and bankers, have no shame.
Cuomo’s comment from New York Magazine:
"It should be closed. This plant in this proximity to the city was never a good risk."
I have been pounding the table over the issue of banking secrecy for
some time. I don’t like when Potentates can stash huge dollars in secret
accounts. I don’t like it when drug dealers, pirates, dirty politicians
or anyone else has a convenient and safe place to hide money. I think
these policies work against the common good. When a guy like Ghaddafi
can stash the odd $20 billion in US banks there is something wrong.
I have been amazed at the level of opposition I get on this theme. There
is a large group out there that believes that no regulations are good
regulations. I am no fan of regulations, but it is equally clear to me
that we need some rules that are followed. If we don’t, we just promote
and encourage lawlessness. Sorry.
For those that think I am off in left field with this notion I provide you with a letter from those good folks at the American Banking Association.
They are doing everything they can to keep foreign accounts in the
dark. So those that think secret accounts are such a good idea are
actually in bed with the likes of the ABA. I think both of them should
change their tune. At a minimum they ought to consider who they are
sleeping with.
Link to letter. Some snippets:
The Baltic Dry index has bounced 50% from 1000 to 1500 in the past
month. Other indexes have followed suit. I asked a friend in shipping if
this a true turnaround or just a dead cat bounce in an index that fell
75% (peak to trough) in 10 months.
I got an interesting response. In this fellow's opinion the improved
outlook can be attributed to a big deal by the Carlyle Group (DC hedge
fund). Bloomberg link
The Carlyle Group, the world’s second-biggest private equity fund, said it’s forming a venture to buy more than $5 billion in container, dry bulk, and tanker vessels as well as other shipping assets.
So is this a good sign for the industry? Yes and no was the answer.
Anytime an entity commits big capital like this it will affect the whole
industry. Pure supply and demand suggests ships are gong to up in
value. So that seems like good news.
But the other side from the Greek shipper:
“For
years we have all made a fortune shipping raw materials and other goods
to and from China. The Chinese know this. The China/Carlyle deal will
create competition that now does not now exist. I am afraid that our
biggest customer will no longer need our ships. Long-term this will be
bad for us.”
Chinese dominance of the global economy is growing every week. Nothing is going to slow that ship down. It's written in stone.
FUTILE
Ok, Zero Gov't, I'll try:
I do data analysis and write SAS code while linking together all kinds of new and old databases. I'm good at it. I used to do this for a major financial institution (until 2008). I primarily helped "new product development" which can be translated as figuring out new ways to shave a basis point or two here and there from cash flows without customers complaining. Better yet, sometimes they liked whatever value add we stapled on. That was private sector and by your definition, good.
Now I support medical researchers working on some childhood diseases. The docs I work with are getting pretty wound up with excitement, because we are apparently close to understanding some new stuff. But, now I'm funded by the gov't (i.e., your tax dollars). By your estimation, however, what I'm now doing is bad. However, since there is no profit in this for anyone, nobody will fund it.
Oh, since you and yours always seem to think we're blood sucking understand this: I do this at approximately half the salary I used to make.
Sorry, I don't buy this whole simplistic private = good, public = bad tripe. I doubt anyone else does either. At least not anyone who's reflected on who paves their streets, removes their snow, catches stray dogs, puts out house fires, drives the ambulance, etc etc.
"I have been amazed at the level of opposition I get on this theme. There is a large group out there that believes that no regulations are good regulations. I am no fan of regulations, but it is equally clear to me that we need some rules that are followed. If we don’t, we just promote and encourage lawlessness. "
Right on.
This encourages concealment of corruption (crime and in government). Also, it suggests/promotes money as above the law.
I can't buy a cigar with tobacco grown in Cuba, but fraud street can do business in the billions with terrorists, dictators and thugs at taxpayer expense and soldiers' lives. Banks are pathetic, Bruce, and one has to ask themselves "for whom?"
It's not the absence of shame- it's big business and top 1% that absolutely doesn't give a damn.
Bruce, Great work.
I thought you might find this U.S. Vetrans, recorded speech, inspiring.
CuzMan
From WRH.com
*************************************
AMAZING SPEECH BY WAR VETERAN Tags:- AFRICA
- IRAN
- IRAQ
- WAR/DRAFT/VETERAN AFFAIRS
- WHITE HOUSE
Webmaster's Commentary:"It'll be the first thing that I do. I'll get our troops home, and bring an end to this war." -- Barack Obama, Oct. 27, 2007
One day soon the Chinese exports will be too expensive to buy in the USA, trade barriers or not.
The dollar has dropped 10% in one year, only going to go lower.
Question to anyone:
Why do these Chinese state-owned entities need to go through the PE firm Carlyle Group to buy shipping tankers? Is there some sort of security arbitrage the Chinese are trying to bypass?
Okay, so whenever Carlysle group (the ultimate MIC insider trading club) gets up to something it always makes me curious..what's their angle? On the other hand, 5b in the world of big fucking vessels ain't much so maybe it's no big deal, unless we're talking about down payment/aquisition cost in which case hmmm. I guess the real tell would be how many vessels will they control (20-40?) and what type exactly? Knowing that might provide a starting point for imagineering what those kooky, lovable rascals are up to now. (Somebody is going to be shipping a fuckload of borax and concrete components to Japan in the not to distant future...I might start imagineerin' right there).
Energy and transportation, the two biggest points for control. Well, food is the biggest, but I'm not certain that they're going to be able to pull that one off (not enough force available to control everyone's land- hence the, piss-poor, attempts via GMOs).
Should be clear to everyone the desperation, and that this demonstrates where NOT to go. Dead end ahead, get off the path!
Here is a quicky.. I just returned from Orange Beach where I spent a few days with a managing director of JP Morgan. I saw his new beach house and listened to his further plans. I returned home, googled his name found he is accused of scamming 2.3 million with another partner and currently under indictment from the SEC.
This pillar of the community has the biggest house- it dwarfs the homes of the CEO's of the oil companies, yet he produces nothing.
I really wish I could convey more about the family's extravagances but I guess you get it.
Bottomline, this skumbag got bailed out from Bear Sterns and the got another chance with JP Morgan and it was not enough. He defrauded investors via presumed protection in an insurance company then he and another sold their shares and misappropropriated funds- 2.3 millon worth for personal uses. How this skum gets multiple chances and will walk free once again blows my mind.
I wish someone would produce a list of the directors under indictment. I wish it would have pie charts etc showing the different investment groups. Something must be done to expose these skums.
I hope you refused to do business with him and JPM ?
Thanks for the comment, good insight.
The more prudent question to be asked about residential RE is who will the lender be after the eventual demise of Fannie & Freddie? Given the bleak economic outlook for the next 5-10 years, who will be willing to accept the risk associated with a 30 year note on an asset that might depreciate further?
Think 1932 instead of 2012 and do the math, which does not look good.
Sorry about your house situation. like anyone needs more bad news these days
The US has learned nothing. The banks are bigger than they were before, thanks to Congress. The real estate dealers, car dealers, and banks are using the same tactics as they were just prior to the collapse to get sales and make money. The Central Banks across the world are leveraged now even worse than the TBTF.
The world is in for another major collapse, that will hurt guess who? The people living pay check to paycheck will be in more tents and out of work.
"The banks are bigger than they were before, thanks to Congress."
It's all a Ponzi Scheme, would happen with or without a "Congress!"
As long as the "people" accept paychecks from the System they are hitched to it. Because the wagon is now seen as going over the cliff we pretend as though its course was somehow magically changed (by Obama, Bush, unicorn-haters...). We need to all look in the mirror and say: "Design failure!" then ask what we're going to do about it, what should be done to keep us from finding ourselves in this same position- I'm thinking that concentration of power and the belief that endless growth on a finite planet is good aren't views that we should go forward with...
A bit OT, but many transactional occupations will one day go the way of the horse and buggy and the telephone booth. Book, music and movie rental ops are the latest victims. Wholesale-to-buyer is baked into the cake called the digital age. Gubermints will struggle to impose sales tax schemes that can capture lost revenue from sales through sovereign entities.
One more reason I see a big fat VAT in the USA's future. Probably sooner than later.
"Wholesale-to-buyer is baked into the cake called the digital age."
But... that cake only bakes given the energy to do so. My circles paint a picture that's 180 out- direct producer-to-buyer is coming. The days of the "middle man" (which seem to coincide with the "middle class") are rapidly expiring.
The revolution has already occurred. We're still in the fog of war. When the fog lifts we'll see who has been swimming naked...
Brucie 'baby' Krasting
You can lead a donkey (retard) to water (knowledge) but you cannot make him drink (increase his IQ)
You are one of the educated brain-dead pinheads this very wise saying was built for. Because even when the 'rules' are failing miserably all around you, you still want them. Namely even when they don't work you can neither work out why nor does the penny drop they won't. You are the donkey (village idiot).
Let's go through it for you, step by step, see if you can follow this lesson. For the sake of speed let's call/label your expensive corrupt joke of Government, politicians, Constitution, Laws, rules, judiciary, lawyers, regulators, regulation and legislation a "Sack of Shit". And let's call/label my libertarian free market and free society mechanism the "Free Market".
How has your Sack of Shit prevented banking mortgage fraud? ....Answer is it hasn't. 'Prevention' is a nonsense.
How has your Sack of Shit prosecuted banking mortgagae fraud? ....Answer is it hasn't. The 'Law' is a nonsense.
How has your Sack of Shit behaved during the mortgage fraud crisis? ....it has denied, swept under carpets, bailed out the WS criminals so that the criminals (Big Banks) have got even bigger. Your system, the Sack of Shit system, has made the criminals bigger and more powerful. Your Sack of Shit has rewarded criminal behaviour. In fact your Sack of Shit is allowing the Big Bad Banks to take over other banks creating an even bigger industry wide systemic problem than the one we had.
Are we absolutely crystal clear so far Brucie Baby, are you able to keep up with the reality in front of your nose?
So how about my Free Market system? How would that have fared?
Well right from the get-go it is free. The free market costs nothing ($0.00) to administer. Your Sack of Shit system costs $100's of Billions to administer in bankrolling Govt, politicians, judiciary, lawyers and Govt Departments stuffed with useless dribbling zombies. What a huge advantage over your rule based Sack of Shit eh?
Next the free market allows mistakes to be made, and probably would have allowed a credit binge on mortgages. But in no way would it have become so large in a free market or gone on so long. It was the US Govt in cahoots with the Feds free money policy, Wall Street and Govt quangos like Fannie and Freddie etc to pump the US property sector with insanely low interest rate credit. This bubble was a Govt quango created sham show. So again the Free Market beats your Sack of Shit because it prevents the truly perverse (bubbles) happening as higher interest rates (rather than the Feds 2-4%) in a free market would have deflated this monster bubble far earlier.
Finally when the shit did hit the fan the Free Market would have allowed the shit (WS, Fannie Freddie etc) to go to the wall. Your Sack of Shit propped it up at a further cost of $1 Trillion. Your expensive to administer Sack of Shit added even more costs to society compared to my Free Market free system.
The free market, which is ($0.00) free, beats your system from ANY ANGLE you care to look at it.
Your want rules? You've got rules coming out of your f'ing dumb arse. There's already enough laws to fill a warehouse and enough crones (politicians, regulators, judges etc) to fill Atlanta Stadium. You want more?????????????????????????????????????
The free market works far better and it's free. It beats any other system known to man. Reality Brucie Baby. Have you ever met?
Concentration of power!
Belching out, repeatedly, that "govt is the problem" MISSES this fundamental. Govt is the conduit of bad behvior (good also exists, but greed tends to win out, for the short-term that is).
Slavery exists on both the govt and non-govt sides of the fence. There is no green grass!
As George Carlin pointed out, the government IS us, it's made up of the best that we have to offer. It's the same DNA running around in corporate offices.
Anyone blindly proposing to eliminate something is either a tool or a shallow-thinker.
NOTE: go ahead and flame/spew, but know that it'll be of no affect on me- I'm an anarchist (who understands reality, understands that "no govt" isn't any panacea, and that the people of the world aren't grown-up enough to be their own babysitters... [hence governments or religion- mechanisms whereby people can "feel" protected by giving up their power]).
Seer
You're living in LaLa delusion Land like Brucie Baby with no sense of reality or historical and current perspective i'm afraid. Govt is not "made up of the best of us". Govt has always been a parasites system made up of wasters, windbags, idealists, criminals and murderers. It has always, from every Dept, produced crap (choose any country anytime in history) and has always been the toilet of societies worst (Hitler, Mao, Gordon Brown, Blair, Bush, Obumma, Van Rompuy, Burruso etc etc etc)
Check American history for how a small number of parasites manufactured a murderous civil war so that they could force nationhood but more importantly national parasitical Government down the throats of the Southern States who just wanted self determination. Who the fuk did Abe Lincoln and his sponsors think he was to force his Govt/opinions down Southerners throats with a murderous fuking civil war?
Americans were Europeans escaping the same suffocating authority (ie. Eurozone Royalty and 'democratic' Govt). Nobody wanted a nation State or Govt except the parasites, the vested interests behind warmongering scumbag Abe' Lincoln who forced it on the people
And the same goes for Law, Judiciary and Regulation telling a free society how to behave and run their business. You've got to be a complete asshole to tell other adults how to behave and think you can enforce rules (hardly likely from a toilet called Govt that turns everything it touches to crap)
I am a little confused with your "no Law" attitude. So, if I put an RPG through your front door, while you are eating supper, walk in and help myself to anything that survived, there should be no law against that? A different concept for sure.
JimS - if you walk into my house you bare the risk of me breaking your teeth. that's natural Law. A few robbers can get away with it for a while but eventually they piss off enough people in the community that it fights back. This is how human history has worked for 100's of thousands of years (literally).
Having the Law has not prevented or stopped robbers or rapists has it? Nor is it very good at catching them is it? Whatever the State does is 2nd or 3rd rate (see healthcare, education and you can include the Police).
Natural law (pack or herd instinct) is far faster and far more effective than the pile of clunky crap the State erects to try to mimmick natural law. The State in fact preys on your worst fears, promises you resolution (protection) in trade for robbing your pocket 24/7 and then delivers you shit.
If we need security (rarely) we can buy it private sector. Many have already given up with State delivered service (crap) evidenced by the growth in private security for offices, warehousing, clubs and shopping malls and homes. That's because the State is not only unresponsive and incompetent in everything it does but also because it cannot be trusted to deliver on anything it promises.
The State is a sack of non-performing shit (always is and always will be). We as adults and as communities can resolve our own problems which are usually few and far between. Nobody needs the Govt or the Law which does not perform anyway. We can sort out our own shit when we need to
You and anony are the only two people in creation who think Lincoln was a megalomaniac that should have been assassinated a month BEFORE he was elected.
After reading "Team of Rivals", as favorable to him as it is, and a dozen other books and articles about him, I come away with these overriding thoughts: 1) that slavery would eventually have died a very natural death, without the loss of 700,000 and another 700,000 maimed and 1.4 million more families who were made destitute, as well as the destruction of Atlanta, Richmond and Savannah and, 2) the division of the United States into two separate entities would only and could only in the long run been one of the best things to ever happen in North America. The Lincoln felt it necessary to have millions killed to stop that is a stain on this country as great as slavery.
And the raw anger that Lincoln fomented 200 years ago still thrives to this day in the minds of so many in the south is testament to the idiocy of his vision. The Democrats at that time favored a split into two nations and wanted no war. However did they lose that argument but by the persuasive personality of Lincoln?
Thank you for framing it better than I could. He goes down in my book as one of the worst Presidents in our history, which is replete with 'leaders' who are made into heros by the Media and to what end? It has to be a conspiracy from the very top that allows these myths to proliferate.
Already, Maureen Dowd is pretending that Chris Dodd is some kind of really neat guy because he has taken Valenti's place as chairman of the Academy of Motion Pictures, as if he shouldn't already be serving a life sentence.
Anony
I agree Lincoln was a murderous thug. I had always thought of him as a hero, a history taught the unitiated like me over here in Europe until literally 2 weeks ago. I read something on the murderous American Civil War and wondered what the hell it was all about!
My Google search came up with some official sites on the war that just appeared to be absolute dross. Then I found some better stuff and within 2 hours the penny dropped. Lincoln wanted to force a Govt, his Govt, on the Southern State. That was it. Nothing else held water. And I read here in ZH from a poster despite the spin on Lincolns anti-slavery morality he actually couldn't care less if the Southeners had kept their slavery system.
Lincoln was a murderous parasite who killed 10's of thousands so that he could force his Govt across the country. And these murderous parasites are STILL at it in US and European Govts now across in Arabia.
It won't stop until we stop the parasite system that is Govt. It stops when we stop paying taxes to The Parasite Club and starve the tape-worm. Give it 1 to 2 years and we'll have millions ready to sign up to a civil freedom/disobedience movement for Zero Tax
Lincoln was a railroad lawyer, and he railroaded this once free nation into the hands of the money grubbers
once you declare war on your own people, you become one with the dark forces
Sherman brought total war to North American soil, which means he was a tool of the money grubbers
this country has devolved since into one big disneyland/pirate ship, and now as collapse draws near everyone is pointing the finger at everyone else
yes the BP's and banksters are at the pinnacle of this great Ponzi, but don't forget the sheep benefited also and now they will not
we need free markets and free people, but we will have just the opposite according to the bible
Yits - thanks for the info that Lincoln was a lawyer.... says it all really! Very pleased we agree on so much. Pitchforks ready, our time for pay-back and ridding ourselves of this parasitical conspiracy of Western 'democratic' (no 'parasitic') Govt is approaching ;)
anony:
Who wrote that book?
And yes, it has taken me years to figure out why my Southerner friends will say "War of Northern Aggression," let alone to research why and come to agree.
And curious/Freudian why you bring up MoDo in the same post.
- Ned
Doris Kearns Goodwin.
WADR, does it matter or is there a point you are making that I don't get? Perhaps that Doris is a raging liberal?
Because in spite of Christopher Dodd's complete and utter failure to do his best for the people instead of his bankster buddies in Connecticut, (and being thrown out by his own constituents, albeit too late after the enormous damage he has done and has perpetuated with his stupid new law), MoDo writes in this Sunday's paper a softball piece about him as it he is some kind of innocent waif.
Already, with her the spin it begins to turn this scum sucking pig into a human being.
The way people write history and rehabilitate, lie, otherwise ignore the monstrous damage these former politicians have caused and that lives on long after them, is the reason I cited her piece.
Instead of the media mavens pounding it into the people's brains that guys like Lincoln and Dodd are sociopaths, with nothing redeeming about their tenure, they constantly try to whitewash the travesties, tragedies, and disasters they have perpetrated.
Clear?
why does it seem like powerful politicians end up on the wall street global banks payroll, sooner or later?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-508157/Tony-Blairs-time-bank-job...
Not so. Some go on to Fantasyland, a much more fitting venue.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/03/chris-dodd-senator-to-head-mpaa.html
Moth to a flame...
As I said in the piece there are those that think I am off base. This comments speaks for itself.
Zero Government you are in bed with the ABA. Sleep tight.
Bruce, you really shouldn't be giving this insulting, disingenuous joker the time of day. Just scroll through.
Brucie
Second time you tar libertarians with the despot brush. By all means try to connect the dots between a free marketeer like me and Gadaffi having a US SEC regulated bank account in a US SEC regulated US bank?
Makes a total nonsense and a fuking mockery of your love for regulation and rules doesn't it village idiot?
The free market costs zero ($0.00) per annum to staff and administer. How much does your Sack of Shit full of over-paid useless, corrupt midget-porn surfing retards cost?
How has your beloved Sack of Shit system with its warehouses full of your beloved rules prevented Gadaffi from having US accounts? Weren't you ranting recently about Swiss Banks needing stricter US-style legislation? How does your expensive over-manned system work pinhead?
Surely it is your system that is stacked high with shit until it stinks. Your system not only bails out criminal frauds, ignores all the Laws, regulations and rules you love but actually REWARDS them??? Your system of regulation makes matters worse and in fact contrary to the free market costs a fuking fortune while failing on all its promises, indeed showing contempt for its own rules.
If anyone should be tarred with the brush of shit, it should be you. It's right under your nose it doesn't work. You just haven't met reality have you you delusional Pro law, Pro regulatory crone
Tell you what. We'll ask a Libertarian. There are quite a number out there. Some in the Senate, some in the House. Some are academics, others well know writers. I can think of quite a few. All well respected.
You name one or two that you like. I will write them and get a response. I'll publish the results right here at Zero Hedge.
So let us know. Who's opinion do you respect?
Credit to you Bruce for not answering with the same vitriol to these unnecessary insulting phrases. Whoever happens to be correct.
try Peter Schiff or Ron Paul ..neither supports bailouts and i know Schiff is anti-regulation, his biz is suffering from the usual costs these fascist controls are designed to add to small biz competitors
But you haven't replied to my main arguments.
1. Regulation, Law etc does not work (nor do all the crones who administer the system)
2. the Free market does work much better at stopping growth of fraud, theft and 'dumb' and kills it quicker once discovered
3. Regulation and law is expensive whereas the free market is er, free
You are still clinging to an old failed corrupt system.. you're still promoting rules that do not work. You do not respond to the main thrust (hypocracy) of your own article that despots would somehow run free under a free market model when in fact it's your regulated system that is the corrupt system.
Regulation and Law does not work. Period. Indeed it is a protection racket and promotion racket for criminals and big monopolists (vested interests of Govt). How do you answer those 3 points???
ZeroGovt---
Do you really think Peter Schiff is the best guy to ask?? Maybe to get the answer you so desire, but I believe his father is currently serving a 13 year sentence for federal crimes. Not exactly a neutral observer on the issue, would you say?? I suppose you have excuses for him to??
ZeroGovt--You should also let us know when you refuse to use public roads, public bridges, and the day you or family members refuse your fire and ambulance service. Should prove to be an interesting day for your children.
Maybe the National Rifle Association will jump in to save you from cardiac arrest???
Or maybe you trust the teenagers at McDonald's to keep your food clean???
ZeroGovt---I feel pity for blow-hards like you and Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh's highest paying job he had in his entire life was in the U.S. Army (a federal job). I wouldn't be surprised in the very least if the case was the same with you ZeroGovt and the thought hasn't even dawned on you yet.
TedK
Yes i'd say Peter Schiff is the best guy around, wouldn't you? He called the problem before 2005. Who would you call, Ben Bernanke, Barney Frank, Greenspan, Bush, Obumma who not only created the problem but couldn't see it coming.
I had no idea Peters father was indited. He called the sham Washington was creating too. Seems to me the wrong people are in jail don't you think?
Public services are 2nd-3rd rate shit. The Govt managed roads are congested (not fit for purpose) and falling apart despite motorists paying many times over for their upkeep. Sooner private roads compete the better that we have to suffer this State extortion and incomptence any longer
Who are the "blow hards"? Nobody blows more than Benny the Bean. Nobody jawbones more than Govt. There's no bigger bunch of useless fuking windbags than the entire corrupt incompetent clown show that is the political profession
I've never needed one of these assholes in my life. The sooner the failed profession of politicians fuk off out of my wallet and have to earn a living the better. Govt is surplus to societies requirements. An expensive criminal comical joke. Have you ever met the truth?
hum...so you mean when the free market guy with a gun breaks into your house and takes all your wife's and your gold jewelry, and rapes your daughter, burns your house, shoots your horse and dog, and steals your nice new Mercedes convertible two seater...you ain't gon'a beg for law and order from the "system"?
You are a bit of an screw ball until you need what you hate.
Meme Iamfurst
Hey buddy boy, how did your favoured vast army of regulators and warehouses full of regulations stop the financial rape of America, the banking crisis or help with the resolution???
Even if you're completely delusional it's hard to argue the free market would not have prevented the bubbles better, stopped the cancer growing faster and resolved (killed the crap) over 3 years ago already. And in place of the vast expense and vast armies of nodding zombie crones the free market would have done it better on all 3 counts for FREE.
How did your beloved warehouses full of Laws, the State Police, the FBI and CIA either prevent or catch the 9/11 terrorists, OJ Simpsons wifes killer or deliver justice for the 60-100 million people killed worldwide by a preventable disease (Malaria) because of a US Govt EPA ban of the solution, pesticide DDT spraying, and follow-up worldwide blackmail (withdrawel of foreign aid) for the biggest genocide in human history?
Before you knock the free market and a free society ask yourself what your warehouses full of rules, expensive multi-layered bunch of crones has delivered you first?
Because by any measure and from any angle the current legal and regulatory (civil and commercial) system with its armies of staffing is the biggest pile of non-performing shit society has ever had the misfortune to have to support. It's expensive, it's complicated, it's useless and it doesn't work.
Zero Govt, or should I call you pin head? I will respond to your completely fucking retarded "main arguments".
- Regulation, Law does not work: answer it depends on the regulation/law. Example, Glass-Steagall: works.
- The free market does work much better at stopping growth of fraud... This was the argument for getting rid of Glass-Steagall. Even Alan Greenspan admits this was wrong.
- Regulation and law is expensive whereas the free market it er free. Dead Wrong. While regulation and law can be expensive, depending completely on the free market to implement these services is prohibitively expensive. This is easily demonstrated by the difference between third world economies and advanced economies (note: we are moving in the wrong direction). In advanced economies, legal frameworks enable parties to reliably engage in contracts that they can expect a certain results and can look to a legal system to enforce those results. This requires regulations. Third world economies noticeably lack these frameworks, and therefore are much more risky to engage in business.
In summation: Zero Govt, you've got Zero sense.Armchair
Stay in your armchair, eat your chips and die of a heart atack you fuking retard. You're as delusional of reality and ignorant of actual experience as Brucie Baby.
First off "regulation and law can be expensive". Where do you get CAN from shit face? It's massively expensive... in commercial Law you need to be a millionaire to even start court proceedings (where parasitical lawyers have a field/fee day orgy). Then there's the entire Judiciary and Court system, buildings, crones etc. The Law has as much to do with justice as a shopping mall. It's one vast fuking money machine for a vast army of useless twats. Law could be dispensed from a laptop, instead it's a massive Empire of Clowns and parasites.
Regulation is a total failure wrapped in broken promises coated in a colossal fuking clown show. Another complete sham from the sham machine that is Govt. It's No.1 role was to stop systemic risk, stop a run on the banks. It failed spectacularly, miserably. AIG alone had no less than 130 regulators worldwide. The political solution proposed by the US and Britain? 1 More. 131 regulators, am unelected international one. Fuk me they were only 1 away from Nirvana. 130 wasn't quite enough, just 1 bunch of useless fuking midget-porn pervs away, we need 131.
There is no example of regulation working. The entire fascist sham is to screw competition and the free market. New York has been shuttering out of town competitors to favour their Wall Street criminals for decades. The US Govt and Feds have got precisely the system they built. A sack of criminal in-bred shit. You must be one of the retards coz you're too dumb to see what's infront of your nose.
As for Glass-Steigal like Brucie Baby you think rules deliver. Despite there being 1,000's that don't. Nor does Glass-Steigal address the core problem. That is a monopoly money system. The US Govt and The Fed. What we need is not more of your stupid fuking rules or more legislation separating retail and financial banking but a free competitive market in money and banking. Only the free market can resolve what does and doesn't work. Glass-Steigal can't. Nobody can. Only the market can. Period.
The free market is the most effective regulator known to man. It works if you let it. It works for free. It works better than Glass-Steigal because it doesn't depend on a bunch of political cunts to enforce it. Competition kills shit. Anything Govt runs/administers, including your stupid dumb GS legislation will fail. 100% guaranteed.
Now go eat your chips like a good little crone, it's something you can see in front of your nose (if nothing else)
I am guessing you have never done any real business in your life. You have also probably never had to engage in commercial legal proceedings. You simply have no knowledge.
You call regulation "massively expensive", yet you provide no effective example of how to do business without it: just the magic of free markets. The cost you cite occurs when there are disagreements as to the performance of contracts. You seem to forget how much business occurs with virtually no legal costs due to the fact that both parties understand their obligations and that a legal framework exists to enforce those obligations. The cost you cite is rarely required. I have been involved in commercial lawsuits, so I do understand that it is sometimes required (and I am not an attorney that benefits from such lawsuits). Finally, the absence of such a framework is far more costly. I have done business in jurisdictions where I did not have confidence in the legal environment (less confidence that contracts can be enforced). It is far more difficult and costly. That is your free market.
Your reason for Glass-Steagall not being a rule that worked was that it did not "address the core problem". So, by your standard no law can be considered effective unless it addresses "the core problem." That is ridiculous. A law's effectiveness should be judged by how well it address what it is trying to address; not whether it addresses "the core problem".
"What we need is ... a free and competitive market in money and banking." OK. There is some wishful thinking.
"The free market is the most effective regulator known to man." That is absolutely retarded. "Competition kills shit". What you do not seem to understand is that in a completely free market, you do not have competition.
Zero, you are complete fucking idiot. I have no doubt that you somehow think you are not. You will probably go through the rest of your life not understanding just how much of an idiot you are. I am afraid this is probably not going to help.
Armchair
Your are so delusional simply because you are a lawyer steeped in the self-importance of your own clique (industry). The real world (reality) is escaping you, history escapes you, knowledge escapes you.
Delusion from reality (in the corporate, legal, political and even academic systems) comes from being removed from 'the street' (the ruff and tumble of society). Big businessmen, bankers and politicos cushioned from society by layers of staff, surrounded by yes-men, crones and courtiers step by step go into their own delusional world and up their own rectums.
Free society like free markets are a self-regulating mechanism. They keep peoples egos in check. Elites build their own delusional worlds removed from societies checks and balances to ego running amuck.
Check the history books, corporate and political, and see how many times an elite becomes deluded in its own pomp and devoid of any worth to the society it lives in (Roman Empire, French and Russian Revolutions, Venetian demise, British Empire and now the American, UN/IMF and European wide political establishments who are truly in LaLa Land right now and have been for some time).
The Law and Judiciary have also become delusional corrupt elites many times over in history. Check 6 centuries of English legal history for how many times the Law system has become, just like Govt does, delusional from society and then cancerous needing to be culled
Now you know how delusion happens (too many layers from the checks and balances of the street/society) let's deal with yours;
"You call regulation massively expensive.." What would you call the regulatory and legal (civil and commercial) Law, cheap? I don't call it expensive, it is expensive as a matter of fact. Justice now needs a huge wallet which only Big Biz and Big Govt posses to enforce. We're back where we started, Law has become an elitist only occupation, not a provider of value to society
"..you provide no effective example of how to do business without it.." Have you ever been in a shopping mall, farmers market or traded internationally? No you're too deluded! Consumers walk in off the street every day and conduct trade worth 100's of Billions in goods and services (not that you'd noticed?!!!) and without any contract or Law. I've done millions of pounds of business with companies I've never signed a contract with, just bought straight off their pricelists. Check your history books and that's how 95% of business has been conducted through history: chat, agree, handshake, no contract. Reality oh delusional lawyer. For centuries.
"The cost you cite occurs when there are disagreements as to the performance of contracts." The disgreements happen BECAUSE of the contract. The main issue is time and change. Contracts are long and set (rigid) terms when business change happens much faster than anticipated
"...business occurs with virtually no legal costs due to the fact that both parties understand their obligations.." Precisely. It is down to 2 business people understanding their obligations, nothing whatsoever to do with a piece of paper called a contract (which is worthless). When any one party believes the deal is not in their best interests they should be able to end the or renegotiate business, but the contract holds them into the old underestanding and creates a dispute rather than just the tidy ending or renegotiating. Business factors change every month, contracts are usually for 1 year or more. The rigid contract is of itself dumb because change cannot be forseen. Best do business in short time periods for no longer than a few months (or like consumer to business buy every few days which is the ultimate market throughout history).
"...and that a legal framework exists to enforce those obligations.." the legal industry exists to enrich itself by creating complexity (see also tax and auditing code -which don't work - for accountants enrichment), not to dispense justice. You're deluded (and naive) at Laws ability to perform, it's an expensive ineffective clown show
If you want to see a free market in operation go to a shopping mall. Even better for a true free market see the multi-billion Dollar black market for drugs. No legislation, consumer law, no contracts, no lawyers or bankers, just consumer and supplier running Billions of good hi-quality product to happy consumers for centuries which has been running rings around the State and all its laws, legal system, police and everything official and officious.
The free market works miracles at no cost of enforcement. Regulated markets are like moving through treacle and always inferior, always slow, rigid, expensive, always unresponsive to consumers and a non-performing clown show (banking, housing, transport)
That's enough. You need to look at commercial history and look around you at reality before you open your in-bred legal trap again. See how the real world around works and has worked for centuries. The Law and regulations are a liberal, academic, self-important delusional industry that fails to perform and does not add any value whatsoever to business (or society)
Let me make it clear that I am 100% on your side on this particular issue Bruce. But I think you might be surprised if you were to write Rand Paul a letter or even write a letter to a man who would quicker label himself Republican than a Libertarian---Dick Shelby of Alabama, what their response would be. I would guess a form letter which evades the question---because neither one of those two would cross the American Bankers Association (ABA), and yet neither of the two men want their redneck constituents to know they support harboring Gaddafi's money (or other criminals) in American banks.
I live here. Abide by the rules. For the life of me I can't imagine why a potentate from an Arab state (or a pirate) should be subject to a completely different set of rules than every American does.
Read the ABA letter. They say it clear. This is about the money. You're feeding the beast.
+10 blibits!
Proving once again that real estate agents, like car dealers and bankers, have no shame.
rather generous of you to elevate bankers to that level.
Thanks Bruce, nothing like a quickie on a Sunday morning.
Real Estate: Has to be a long term sell. Demographics.
Banking secrecy: Big banks and big money like it when we are all afraid of our government. Government is the only thing standing between the banks and the Carlyles of the world and the last bit of wealth any of us has. We lament the lack of regulations on the banks, but are always eager to defund government. Where else can every adult in this country provide input to how things are done, if not at the ballot box? Yet we fall victim to the impulse to cut govt. "Because that will let private enterprise grow". It will let private enterprise grow, but will it let private enterprise create a better world for the most people? That is debatable, when it "takes money to make money". Small enterprise that employs local people is desirable. Deregulation of big business crowds out the little guys.
In short, defunding govt and deregulations tend to exacerbate the concentration of wealth....
Yes, unfortunately, I do believe that in a world of resource shortages socialist policies will have to be the answer. Not corporate welfare, but a democratic type of socialism driven by a general co-operative social conscience. We may have to hit bottom hard before such a change of paradigm happens in this country however!!!
Cheers,
gh