By The Tim on March 25, 2011
Here is your open thread for the weekend beginning Friday March 25th, 2011. You may post random links and off-topic discussions here. Also, if you have an idea or a topic you’d like to see covered in an article, please make it known.
Be sure to also check out the forums, and get your word in the user-driven discussions there!
Posted in Open Thread | Tagged open_thread
Tim Ellis is the founder of Seattle Bubble. His background in engineering and computer / internet technology, a fondness of data-based analysis of problems, and an addiction to spreadsheets all influence his perspective on the Seattle-area real estate market.
Real estate lobby hard at work. The distorters are hard at work to hide the truth.
Mish: Appraisal Madness in Illinois, Maryland, Missouri and Nevada
Read the rest here: Appraisal Madness in Illinois, Maryland, Missouri and Nevada
[edited by The Tim to include shorter quotes]
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RE: Pegasus @ 1 – I agree that this legislation shouldn’t go through. An appraiser should have enough common sense not to use a foreclosure as a comp, unless that is necessary due to the nature of their appraisal (e.g. they’re trying to determine how much the property would bring at a foreclosure sale).
BTW, Pegasus, do realize you’re violating copyright law by copying an entire article? Just a sentence or two describing the article and a link is all that’s needed.
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By Kary L. Krismer @ 2:
The appraiser should use all sales as that is a large and increasing part of the market. Those chosing to eliminate certain parts of the market are self-serving attempts to deceive buyers into a false reality.
I did not copy the entire article although I copied more than usual to cover the meat of the article much like the writer copied the original piece but thanks for your continued attempts to smear me and my facts that conflict with your “reality”.
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By Pegasus @ 3:
That’s absurd. Foreclosures have always brought less money than regular sales, and there are far fewer buyers for foreclosure sales, which is why they bring less money. It’s similar to why short sales bring less money, only more extreme.
Also, appraisers don’t tend to use comps if the comp requires too much of an adjustment in price to get to the property being adjusted, and to match up with the other comps. That’s because such a property isn’t a comp, by definition. Given that, it would be very difficult for an appraiser to use a foreclosure as a comp, except in very unusual situations.
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By Kary L. Krismer @ 2:
Without going into all the factors to be considered in determining copyright infringement, there’s no black letter law that states that. That being said, it probably leans toward infringement.
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RE: Fran Tarkenton @ 5 – There are very few, if any cases, where copying a complete work is considered “Fair Use.” The Disney/Sony VHS case is the only one I’m aware of.
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Here is the law Washington passed last year relating to appraisers, or more specifically, appraisal management companies. The main issues it attempted to address were appraiser compensation and geographic competency. As to the latter the complaint was that an AMC would send the same appraiser out to do an appraisal on Vashon Island, Bellevue and acreage in Skagit County.
http://search.leg.wa.gov/pub/textsearch/ViewRoot.asp?Action=Html&Item=0&X=325081608&p=1
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Does anyone know if there is such a thing as “rebate” that some home-owners qualify for when they pay off their mortgage? There are some businesses targeting Canadians who sell properties in the US (and pay off their mortgages as a result), telling them they might qualify for rebates and suggesting they use their services to get this money for them.
This sounds fishy to me and I was just wondering if anyone else has heard of this kind of thing.
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What Illinois, Maryland, Missouri and Nevada are proposing is nothing more than what the major banks are doing.
“FASB staff said banks should only disregard transactions that aren’t “orderly,” including situations in which the “seller is near bankruptcy” or needed to sell the asset to comply with regulatory requirements. The staff said in a report today it was not FASB’s intent “to change the objective of a fair-value measurement.”
I would like to know how anyone can be underwater in their home as FASB 157 was suspended?
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RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 7 –
I’m at a loss about your point.
Pegasus has brought up an excellent point. You may believe that foreclosure, or short sale are apparitions in today’s market place, but they are quickly becoming the norm. Appraisals will be a huge liability in the courts, to home owners who are going underwater as soon as they close escrow.
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By Kary L. Krismer @ 6:
You know I did not copy the entire article. Anyone with a brain can see that. You are once again misrepresenting the truth and distorting the facts. The fact is you lied once again.
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When people talk about using Foreclosure prices as comps does this include REOs (i.e. properties that have ALREADY been through the foreclosure process and are now bank sales)?
If it is inappropriate to use REO sales as comps how should appraisals be done in areas where there haven’t been anything but REO sales in the last couple years? Should appraisers go back to sales from 2007 if those are the most recent non-REO comps?
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RE: Pegasus @ 11 – No you didn’t copy the whole thing but it was a large portion of it, and in keeping with my past policy on similar comments, I have shortened the quote, both to keep the comments from getting too long and to steer clear of possible copyright issues.
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Seattle Wage Degradation, Almost All Aerospace/Automotive [MSFT Too] Stop Work Imminent With Current Japanese Part Shortages MSM Barely Addresses, IMO
Yes, the closed mouth on safety issues Japanese are [maybe] admitting breach on a reactor….don’t play with words [I'm a Nuclear Engineer], call it what it is…..MELTDOWN.
Article in part:
“….”If the current situation is protracted and worsens, then we will not deny the possibility of (mandatory) evacuation,” he said….”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_japan_earthquake
The news article isn’t talking about the other two reactors with likely melted fuel rods too, let alone the likely empty spent fuel rod pools they were frantically spraying sea water on [BTW, that makes it worse, fissile and hotter,with no Boron in it]….Hades, they don’t have a clue what’s going on in all three reactors until they go in and take a look, then kiss their lives good-bye. What really get’s me about Japanese nuclear power safety planning is their COMPLETE lack of backup electrical generators….Hades, even our hospitals have them.
OK, what’s this got to do with Seattle RE prices you say?
PLENTY…..Japan’s already announced they will immently CLOSE ALL 13 TOYOTA PLANTS in America due to part shortages [that Toyota Quality method of Just in Time Parts is a COMPLETE curse now]. American Nissan, Honda and even Ford were mentioned as closing soon too. How about Boeing? I figure when the inventory of Japanese parts reaches zero the manure hits the FAN for almost all commercial and defense companies [worldwide too, Volvo just stopped work, no Japanese navigation parts]….when will the stop works because of lack of Japanese parts hit us in Seattle at a theater near you?
I’d say we have months maybe weeks of denial…..
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RE: softwarengineer @ 14 – You are incorrect about the backup generators – they absolutely did have them. The reason why they didn’t operate was that the above-ground (and next-to-shore) fuel tanks were swept away by the tsunami.
The parts shortage issue is going to become more serious as time goes on, as we will see in the coming months. Japan invented “just-in-time” which does not allow for natural disasters such as this. And another big issue is how the Japanese are going to replace the lost power generation so they can get all of their factories back on line. Rolling blackouts are not good for production plants!
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RE: softwarengineer @ 14 –
Japan will give Bernanke the excuse he needs to initiate QE3 since he is getting so much negative public sentiment over QE1 and QE2.
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RE: redmondjp @ 15 –
You Agree With Me Then
No backup generators. An inadequate eartquake and flood sealed area is ABSOLUTELY no excuse….ask our own American NRC if you don’t believe me….
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Just a Rolling Black-out Problem for Japanese Parts Production? Try Shutdown.
Article in part:
“….Three of the country’s biggest brands — Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co. and Sony Corp. — put off a return to normal production due to shortages of parts and raw materials because of earthquake damage to factories in affected areas.
Toyota and Honda said they would extend a shutdown of auto production in Japan that already is in its second week, while Sony said it was suspending some manufacturing of popular consumer electronics such as digital cameras and TVs….”
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/power_lines_hooked_up_to_all_6.html
Couple this with a vastly underestimated cost to cleanup the destroyed Island’s buildings [IMO], let alone the “unknown” radiation areas to date….I’d say we’re looking at years not months of parts shutdown….
Misery likes company, but I say its high time to start building the parts in America and Europe now, not wait and destroy our own advanced planning on vague undefined promises and reports from Japan that could destroy us too. When/if they get going again, they can compete with our new parts manufacturing in America.
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RE: Pegasus @ 16 –
Bernanke Already Said Today We Need No QE3…LOL
Article in part:
“…The U.S. economic recovery is on solid ground, making it unlikely the Federal Reserve will extend its bond-buying stimulus program…”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Feds-Lockhart-sees-high-bar-rb-2831538669.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=4&asset=&ccode=
Do any of these bozo attorneys and economists politicians and such have a clue what to do for future manufacturing parts shortages from Japan….LOL, a lion’s share of their campaign money came from Japan?
Nope, we need real private industry folks with VAST manufacturing systems engineering experience running the show and making sure Boeing gets parts for the 767 Tanker [15% of it is Japanese]….not our current crop of government bureacrats, paid off by foreign lobbyists, to sit on their hands in denial and do nothing.
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By David Losh @ 10:
Pegasus brought up legislation being considered in other states that deal with appraisals. I’m bringing up the legislation that Washington passed last year that dealt with appraisals. I stated above I was against what the other states are doing. I didn’t take a position on the Washington law, but I do think it was a good law to pass.
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By Pegasus @ 11:
Sorry I didn’t count the words–it sure seemed like you copied the entire thing. Now that Tim trimmed it I simply don’t know.
Again though, you don’t understand simple English because you don’t know the meaning of the word “lied.” Amazing how often you can demonstrate that.
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RE: redmondjp @ 15 – I’m not sure Japan invented just in time–it’s a common business practice with improved transportation.
Also, I’ve mentioned this before, but I believe most US reactors now have backup steam generators powered by the reactor itself, as a third backup option. It seems sort of silly to rely on diesel for backup power when you have a huge energy source right there!
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RE: softwarengineer @ 18 – I posted this before too, but an earthquake above 6 can automatically shut down some of the electronics (semiconductor) manufacturing, and they’ve hardly gone a day without one of those (although the distance to the factory likely makes a difference there, such that not all 6+ would shut them down).
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Can we get a Kary vs. Pegasus thread please? You guys just make both of you look bad with your endless back and forth.
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By Sniglet @ 8:
I’m thinking it might be getting the balance of your escrow account for taxes and insurance. Not sure why that would require any assistance.
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By Sniglet @ 12:
If the person knows what they’re talking about, “foreclosures” would not include “bank owned” or “REO.” They are two separate things that generate two different values. I didn’t bother to read the statutes proposed to see how they were defining the term “foreclosure.” Statutes can define terms however they want. For example, “person” can include “corporations” if the drafter of the statute so chooses.
As to your other question, I doubt an appraiser would go back that far in time. They’d probably go a further distance and/or perhaps a bit further back in time. They could also possibly get creative, but I’ve never seen that. For example, let’s say you’re dealing with a condo where every sale in the past year has been a short sale, but in another condo the short sales sold for 20% less than the normal sales. Seemingly you could make that adjustment if for some reason the sales in the other condos didn’t qualify as comps. Again though, I’ve never seen an appraisal do that, so I don’t know if that’s something an appraiser would do.
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RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 23 –
True Kary, In America
In Japan too? But even if they were shut down, no coolant pumps [elecricity] and you have melted fuel rods and meltdown, once legally proven by visually checking the pressure vessel out, then dying later from a massive dose of radiation.
The pressure vessel is 8 1/2″ of stainless steel thick….but with loss of coolant and melted fuel rods, it can melt through too [you have to visually inspect to assess properly]….then the breach of moten radioactive goop starts melting into the earth and spewing radiation everywhere…Chernobyl still has a ghost/dead area the size of Switzerland.
One of the “likely” melted fuel rods reactors has plutonium….if that spews out the theroretical Switzerland sized deadzone lasts billions of years. Cesium isotope 30 years.
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Let’s Assume the Worst Case Scenario on Implementing Government Contracts Replacing Japanese Parts With American/European Producers Right Now
The worst case is we build domestic parts manufacturing back up again in America to compete against the Japanese, possibly rebuilding within a year or two.
The best case is we saved Boeing and the Big Three from shutdown forever in an ASAP mode.
Its time to get off our _utts.
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RE: softwarengineer @ 27 – The scarey thing is they’re building these things in China too. There the concrete probably doesn’t have enough rebar and the containment vessel is probably made of of lead. ;-)
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RE: softwarengineer @ 28 – It’s yet another reason why you need second sourcing. Although I think it was the second sourcing that got Toyota in trouble with the accelerator pedals. You do increase your chance of defects by having a second source.
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RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 30 –
Yes
I picked this article up just now from an AFL/CIO source….WOW….it blows my mind. Article in part:
“….The Energy Department used airborne and ground-based monitors to detect radiation that exceeded 12.5 millirems per hour, or 1,200 millirems over a four-day period, in areas outside the 12-mile evacuation zone surrounding the Japanese disaster. Under U.S. guidelines, if exposure to radiation exceeds 1,000 millirems — a standard unit for measuring radiation — over four days, then the Environmental Protection Agency recommends protective action, an Energy report this week said….
….A day before the monitoring began, NRC already had urged U.S. citizens and military personnel to move at least 50 miles away from the Fukushima plant. Japanese authorities ordered people within 12 miles of the plant to evacuate….”
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=47407&printerfriendlyvers=1
The Nuclear Regulatory Comission (NRC) is American, not Japanese….the French already labeled the Japan nuclear disaster a “6″…..Japan calls it a “4″….Chernobyl was a “7″….
The French are FAR more technically skilled at nuclear power [IMO] than Japan [US too], they’ve had advanced working “liquid metal fast breeder reactors” for years…America and Japan don’t.
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By Kary L. Krismer @ 22:
I was taught that it was (Japanese) back in the late 80′s and early 90s. They used the Kanban system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiichi_Ohno
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_Production_System
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RE: EconE @ 32 – Interesting. Thanks!
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RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 26 –
Foreclosure is the process that generates bank owned, or short sale. It’s a correct term.
I’m still at a loss about your point.
Foreclosures are happening, it’s a fact of today’s Real Estate market place. You can discuss the semantics all you want, but no amount of legislation concerning appraisal practices will stop the foreclosure process.
The price of housing units is falling.
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RE: EconE @ 32 –
Correct. We tried where I used to work here; what a fiasco!!! I dealt with Japan in the past. Trains run to the second (not the minute like the Germans).
What is happening in the nuclear plant is a huge international embarrassment for them. And they are hiding a ton of info. Bad news is kept inside (as long as they can).
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By David Losh @ 34:
A foreclosure sale does not generate short sales. The failure to timely approve short sales does generate foreclosure sales.
A foreclosure sale will generate an REO listing, but that does not mean that an REO listing is a foreclosure sale. That would be like arguing that a generator is electricity.
Finally, the discussion of appraisals has noting to do with stopping foreclosures. What it has to do with is making appraisals more accurate. The Washington legislation meant appraisers got to keep more of the money paid for the appraisal, which allows them to spend more time on each one. That will make them more accurate. It also provides that they have to have some familiarity with the area. That will also make them more accurate. That’s a good thing, right?
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RE: Cheap South @ 35 -I remember asking one of my professors…”What happens if one of the machines breaks down?”
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RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 36 –
“Foreclosure is the process.” That was my statement.
Foreclosure sales is a different term altogether.
I don’t know what you are doing, or trying to say, but at this time foreclosures, the foreclosure process, the resulting short sales, and REOs are the Real Estate market place.
I’m kind of getting to the opinion an appraiser should only be looking at foreclosed properties as comparable sales.
This is getting to be one of the weirdest conversation that I have lately with Real Estate professionals, attorneys, and vendors. The price of property has a long ways down to go. We by passed the 30% below peak pricing concept last year when QEII did nothing. It drove up the price of commodities, but the back lash to that will be severe as the summer progresses.
If a lender is lending today they must be aware that prices will drop at least 10% within a year. Do they really want a bloated appraisal? Do they really want to risk stock holder money?
In my opinion lenders should want to be as conservative as possible, and that means recognizing the reality of the foreclosure process in today’s Real Estate market place.
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By David Losh @ 38:
Why should they look at non-comparable sales? That would be the inverse of a bank demanding 100% of a normal sale in approving a short sale.
I really think more could be done by having appraisals adjust more for the condition of the property. That has always been their shortcoming, or at least I was noting that back in 2007. These REO properties you see in horrible condition today, well for many of them 80% of that bad condition existed back when the last loan was made, but the appraisers didn’t adjust, or didn’t adjust enough. They’re too focused on features and size.
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RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 39 –
Whoa, you really are not getting the market.
I did some numbers for a property today concerning condition. It will probably go back to the bank. The property had passed through a builders hands, and four years ago there was some viability to tear down and rebuild. Today a builder would be lucky to net 10%, if it sold.
Our bid, just to trash the property out is between $7200 and $11K, that’s just the trash out. The seller was concerned that repairs would run up to $50K. They bought the place for $147K in 2002, the water bill is $552 in arrears, electricity can’t be far behind.
At 10% selling costs, carrying costs, water, electric, trash out, and repair they need to sell for $220K. They probably need to be below $200K.
If they bull doze at the original price they paid of the $147K and rebuild they would need to sell at $500K. These are the best case options that they have. Cracker box at $200K, bigger cracker box at $500K.
It’s a no win situation, either way these people are out of pocket money. It’s the third one in two days that I’ve looked at. All are within a one mile radius. I could do this all day every day.
In other words, it’s a blood bath out there. Legislating appraisals is a waste of time. Talking about condition is a waste of time. All properties need to be repaired. We repair hundreds of properties a year. This year, however there is no upside that I can see.
I can’t say that if you put in $5K you will get a return, or even promise the property will sell.
The best thing any one can do to sell is to clean it, and lower the price until you can an offer that can close.
Foreclosed, bank owned properties are going to be the market place for the next year. After the buyer gets the best deal they can then they can factor in the price of repairing the condition, and they will need to pay cash for those repairs, or put it on a credit card.
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By David Losh @ 40:
I’m not seeing the market, but you think all properties are in such bad shape that they need five figures to clean them out and another 5x that amount to fix them up?
Ignoring that, you’re also apparently looking at this one step too late–at the stage of people having bought from the bank (seemingly for too much money in your explanation of things). I’m focusing instead on the bank that loaned $270,000 two years ago on a house that is only worth $160,000 today. If their appraiser had not found the house to be worth whatever in excess of $270,000 it took to make that loan for $270,000, the bank would not be in so deep today, if at all. If the appraiser had taken condition more into account, it could have been the prior bank’s problem two years ago, for some lesser amount, and a higher value.
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RE: Sniglet @ 8 –
I suspect that these folks are referring to the prepaid mortgage insurance that many purchasors bought as a condition of the original financing. I don’t remember how it all works, but there has been a small contingent of folks who beat the brush finding the owners of these “forgotton” funds who collect a percentage as a fee….along the lines of folks who locate rightful owners of lost funds held by the state and collect a portion for doing so.
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By EconE @ 37:
The “just in time” philosophy applies to the raw materials for manufacturing. Critical spare parts for emergency repair machinery are kept on site.
Again, Japan is a small country with incredible infrastructure, work ethics, and until recently, most everything was supplied domestically.
I was in a Lithium processing plant about 1 hours from Antofagasta, Chile some 15 years ago (coincidentally, replacing equipment damaged in an earthquake). The site was in the middle of the northern dessert. My contact and I drove quite a few times to town to get parts. He kept on dogging they were running out of supplies. “That crap works in Japan; not here” he would say.
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Rules for Discussion.
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/A-Flowchart-to-Help-You-Determine-if-Yoursquore-Having-a-Rational-Discussion.jpg
Pfft, please read. Especially “If one of your arguments is shown to be faulty, will you stop using that argument.”
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RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 41 –
That is exactly the point. The property is worth $160K. It was worth $160K when it appraised at $270K, based on sales data. On the way back down, in pricing, to actual value appraisers need to use real market data. They should not be held to the sales price some other idiots are paying.
The market place, today, is properties in foreclosure, going into foreclosure, and being sold as bank owned properties.
My point about condition is just this, all properties need repair. I have thousands of stories about multi million dollar properties, to tear downs. Some tear downs are worth repairing, and some mansions, as they are called, need to be torn down to get a viable property onto that location. It’s a separate argument.
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The hits keep coming. “Oh, did I forget to tell you that the incredible investment opportunity was built to fail? Ooops, gotcha, suckas.”
Pension Funds Lead Goldman Sachs Investor Lawsuit(Reuters)
A Manhattan federal judge on Friday named three pension funds as co-lead plaintiffs in an investor lawsuit against Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) to recover losses tied to the Wall Street’s bank’s alleged misleading statements about Abacus, a product linked to subprime mortgages.
U.S. District Judge Paul Crotty designated the Arkansas Teachers Retirement System, the West Virginia Investment Management Board, and the Plumbers and Pipefitters National Pension Group in Alexandria, Virginia to lead six consolidated lawsuits against Goldman and various of its officers and directors.Crotty said the funds had the largest financial losses connected with the case of any of the proposed plaintiffs.
The funds are represented by the law firms Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP and Labaton Sucharow LLP.The litigation arose after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission last April 16 sued Goldman and Fabrice Tourre, one of its vice presidents, over Abacus, a 2007 collateralized debt obligation transaction.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/26/pension-goldman-lawsuit_n_840970.html
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Wow, all these new listings showing up in my inbox. Too bad a lot of them are old listings that expired and are back for round two.
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RE: Cheap South @ 43 –
Ok…I understand what you mean. If I remember correctly, the example that was given to us in class was one of an automobile manufacturing line where we discussed the different parts that would go on the car (brake calipers for example). That’s why I asked what would happen if the (brake caliper making) machine broke down. How many extra calipers should be in backup mode while they fixed the machine. If they were running things so leanly, wouldn’t it basically stop production?
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Mutant Dogs Roaming Oregon Beaches
Radioactive Fallout from Japan Terrorizes US Coastal Communities.
As Japan’s nuclear reactors continue leaking radiation into the atmosphere and, in turn, have obliterated centuries-old fishing ports in the Tsunami-hit city Kamaishi, this news has prompted growing fears here in Newport and other coastal fishing towns that radiation could find its way here. For example, a hard wind blowing post-Tsunami wind came sliding down over the Newport beach Saturday morning greeting a lone bike rider on usually packed beaches that are now filled socked in waste from Japan. The woman biker said she’s fears rabid dogs that are roaming the low sand dunes called “denes” where toxic water and dead sea life collect along sandy tracks. And, this against a backdrop of zero Spring Break tourists being seen on what’s traditionally the busiest Saturday of the early spring season.
http://www.huliq.com/10282/japan-radiation-killing-sea-life-warning-oregon-coast-fishing-industry
“Crawling down the alley on your hands and knee
Im sure you’re not protected, for it’s plain to see
The diamond dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees
Hunt you to the ground they will, mannequins with kill appeal
(will they come? )
Ill keep a friend serene
(will they come? )
Oh baby, come unto me
(will they come? )
Well, she’s come, been and gone.
Come out of the garden, baby
Youll catch your death in the fog
Young girl, they call them the diamond dogs
Young girl, they call them the diamond dogs”
RIP the brilliant Mick Ronson.
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By BillE @ 47:
Why is that a bad thing? Such sellers might be more likely to deal.
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This is what happens to people who read too many non-credible websites and believe what they read: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sundaybuzz/2014592912_sundaybuzz27.html
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Why not mortgage principal write-downs for everyone? Would not that stimulate the sconomy?Mortgage Principal Reduction in PlayThe four AGs say they are concerned, “The term’s sheet’s principal reduction proposals may also have unintended consequences. These proposals do a disservice to homeowners who, despite an economic downturn, have worked hard to maintain their mortgages.”Essentially they’re making the slippery-slope/moral hazard argument that principal reduction “rewards those who simply choose not to pay their mortgage—because they can simply take advantage of lenders’ obligation to honor virtually automatic principal write-downs.”http://www.cnbc.com/id/42256146
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Someone here (not Pegasus) commented a while ago that you only needed to worry about a Tsunami if you were within 10 feet of sea level. This video should dispel that belief! (Watch the buildings in the background and note how tall they are at the beginning.)
http://cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/world/2011/03/27/japan.kesennuma.flooding.cnn.html
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From greed, to recognition, to capitulation.
Bought for $430,000 in 2004.
Listed for sale for $1,000,000 three years later in 2007.
Then $875,000, then $599,000.
Finally sold for $443,000 in 2009.
Now back on the market for $535,000.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4610-E-Lake-Sammamish-Pkwy-NE-Sammamish-WA-98074/48761950_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-address}
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It’s a good time to buy in California!
The California median home price peaked in March of 2007 at $484,000. Four years later the median price is $244,000. This is a 49 percent drop in four years. That means in order to recover the peak price of March of 2007 home prices would have to go up by 100 percent. Does anyone really see this happening when the state unemployment rate is over 12 percent and the underemployment rate is closer to 23 percent?
http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/california-home-prices-50-percent-off-march-2007-peak-why-california-home-prices-will-be-impacted-by-multi-year-state-budget-deficits/
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RE: Blurtman @ 55 –
…and 20% of homes in FL are vacant.
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I am not sure if anyone posted this already.
“Why I will never own a home again.”
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/437726_homeowner25.html?source=pimail
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RE: Cheap South @ 57 –
You can’t have it both ways, to say housing stocks are a good investment, but owning the property is a bad investment.
Owning stocks has proved to be an internet darling because many people buy, sell, and trade online. Housing, or Real Estate sales online has proved difficult, at best.
So yes, the guy is pushing stocks, that’s his business. I can demonstrate that owning Real Estate is a good investment because that is my business. It’s a matter of perception.
And yes, Real Estate is an investment, is only an investment, and any other considerations are pure sales talk.
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RE: Cheap South @ 57 –
Hillarious. This is a “journalist” recapping someone else’s blog and levering on his reputation. She does provide a link to the original blog post which is worth reading. Here is the first sentence of the final paragraph:
“By the way, this is going to sound like a contradiction: but I think housing is a great investment right now.”
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RE: Blurtman @ 49 -”…usually packed beaches that are now filled socked in waste from Japan.
“What the he** does that even mean? Might have been an interesting article, but it’s so full of inaccuracies it must be dismissed as false.
“Usually packed” beaches in March? Never. Wind chill must be in the 30′s. Personally I’ve been to Newport OR in August and never seen more than 1 person per square 100 yards of beach.
Tsunami waste littering the beaches? Where are the photographs or any credible evidence? Litter washed out by the tsunami wouldn’t even be radioactive because the nuclear plants didn’t heat up and explode until several days after the tsunami.
Weird looking radioactive skies? Does the author even realize the horizon is only 60 miles?
Fear mongering article with no reason to believe it.
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RE: Macro Investor @ 60 – Packs of radioactive mutant dogs are on the loose in Oregon. Take shelter now!
“Radioactive rain in Mass.
State health officials said the fallout from crippled Japanese nuclear reactors has unleashed a radioactive rain over the Bay State ….”
Mutant, flesh-eating Red Sox fans! “Yankee Brains! Yankee Brains!”
It’s the end.
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By Kary L. Krismer @ 53:
Not that I’m arguing with you, but that video does not support your argument. Those buildings may be far more than 10 feet tall but the point where the waves undermine them is near sea level.”
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RE: Macro Investor @ 62 – That’s true, but that wave just kept coming. It’s really more of a tide than a wave and it probably didn’t stop until it got to things 20-30 feet above sea level. So my point was more how high it got, not how close the area was to sea level.
I read today that it doesn’t even take that strong of a quake (a 9.0) to make that large of a wave. A 7.5 could do it in the right circumstances. It’s all about how it moves the earth. One of the 6+ today in Japan set of a warning, which is the first I’ve heard of that despite their having had probably at least 50 6+ since the big one.
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