NOTE: If you are subscribed to Seattle Bubble’s RSS feed and are seeing these open threads in the feed, please switch to our official feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/SeattleBubble Thanks!
Here is your open thread for the weekend beginning Friday May 11th, 2012. 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!
Honey Badger update: I was not aware that Harry Potter references the honey badger, however, I discovered the following:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsYWT5Q_R_w&feature=relmfu
Honey badger reference at 2:29.
Original honey badger (I believe this is referred to as the Canon) at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg
Hmm, how to reference Seattle real estate for the unenlightened? Oh, let’s call out historical 30-year interest rates? U-3 or U-6 unemployment rates? Ah, screw it, the background music to the Honey Badger segment (Bach unaccompanied Cello) is so cool no one could possibly complain.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Retirement Planning the New Extinct Dinosaur in Seattle?
“…Most investors (69%) between the ages of 21—50 plan to work either part-time or full-time during their retirement years….”
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/retirement-not-happening-182610172.html
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Jobs for College Students in Spokane, Made Seattle Local News Headlines
Its warehouse work, probably lower paid and on your feet all day….but hey, it pays for burgers on the table….
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018186589_apwacaterpillarwarehouse.html?syndication=rss
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: softwarengineer @ 3 – Nice: “The state provided $235,000 to help recruit Caterpillar and train workers.” – I wonder if they check for US citizenship?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: ChrisM @ 4 – They would have, but they were afraid of being sued by the Obama Administration.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: softwarengineer @ 3 – I have a nephew in Spokane. Young guy. He does not make much, but he lives a pretty good life. Part of his quality of life comes from the fact that he and his wife were able to buy a pretty decent home for $80K. I will take heat for this, but in some regards, if I was a guy in my 20′s I’d much rather be living in a place like Spokane than dealing with the cost of living in Seattle.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: wreckingbull @ 6 –
Don’t get me wrong, I am a firm believer that a young couple can buy a place, in Spokane, or anywhere, and pay it off much easier than buying in city.
The appreciation dollars come much easier the more you buy, the bigger the mortgage, if we have appreciation. Properties have a higher chance of appreciating in city, than rural, or suburb.
I was talking with a couple today, who moved here from Florida, to work for a large company that they have both worked for over twelve years. They rent, here, but own in Florida. For the same lay out, in similar walkability, the mortgage in Florida is half what they pay in rent here.
By the time they move back to Florida, they will be well on the way of amortizing that loan down.
There is nothing wrong with the quality of life if you have the work. They both moved here to keep their jobs.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: David Losh @ 7 – I don’t think he really cares about appreciation. He values a home for more traditional reasons – a safe, stable place to live and raise a family. By the way, you might want to visit Spokane. They have their problems, but many interesting things going on in that city these days. And yes, it is a city. They even have a movie theater. Rumor has it they may have even hosted a world’s fair.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
for those not in the other thread.
By Kary L. Krismer @ 347:
because socieity benefits from a strong safety net and from making investments in education and infrastructure. If the rich have a little less it doesn’t matter but at the lower end people who are poor spend their money(and often in poor areas with poor workers).
The Reality of Raising Taxes at the Top, Part 5: Can Tax Increases Help Economic Growth?
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/the-reality-of-raising-taxes-at-the-top-part-5-can-tax-increases-help-economic-growth/
Tax Cuts and Job Growth: They’re Just Not That Into Each Other
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/tax-cuts-and-job-growth-theyre-just-not-that-into-each-other/
Big governments, big people?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/big-governments-big-people/2011/07/11/gIQAyladaI_blog.html
FLASHBACK: In 1993, GOP Warned That Clinton’s Tax Plan Would ‘Kill Jobs,’ ‘Kill The Current Recovery’
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2010/08/10/173450/1993-quotes/
The biggest driver of income inequality: capital gains
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/the-biggest-driver-of-income-inequality-capital-gains/2012/01/02/gIQA181EWP_blog.html
The Reality of Raising Taxes at the Top, Part 4: Would Tax Increases Affect Small Businesses and Entrepreneurship?
http://www.offthechartsblog.org/the-reality-of-raising-taxes-at-the-top-part-4-would-tax-increases-affect-small-businesses-and-entrepreneurship/
Study: States With Higher Taxes Are Better For Children
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/01/19/406378/study-states-with-higher-taxes-are-better-for-children/
A More Complete Look at Inequality and Immobility
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/a-more-complete-look-at-inequality-and-immobility/
Inequality and Mobility, Revisited
http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/inequality-and-mobility-revisited/
that should keep you busy.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By Kary L. Krismer @ 5:
really?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-9_(form)
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: pfft @ 9 – Are you a totally humorless individual? Or are jokes like everything else in the world to you—something you don’t understand?
Which is it? Those are your only two choices. You can pick both, because both are apparently true.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: wreckingbull @ 8 –
I have been to Spokane, and it is very nice. There are also huge swaths of urban area set for development.
No one is going to get appreciation in today’s market place so it is much wiser to find a place to live where you have the ability to get the property paid off quickly.
I’ll also say that for livability there is a lot to do in Spokane.
My point is actually about jobs, and keeping jobs.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: Kary L. Krismer @ 11 –
“Are you a totally humorless individual?”
I have noticed that many of the liberals I know have no sense of humor. What is up with that??
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By pfft @ 9:
True, in theory. Unfortunately, the federal gov doesn’t work that way. All they do is waste the taxes on bailouts OF THE RICH… the military lobby, the health care lobby, jobs for cronies, vote buying, etc…
Infrastructure? Let it crumble. Hey the bankers lost a few trillion. We can’t have that now can we?
What the federal gov does is make it too expensive for lower income people to live decently. Thousands to see a doctor, college out of reach, inflation in food/gas/rent. Hey, let’s bubble up housing again. Obama can give us all a tent to live in!
Keep digging Pfft. See if the BS goes all the way to China.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By Kary L. Krismer @ 11:
it’s tough detecting sarcasm on the internet. it’s doubly tough when someone has views that always seem like a joke…
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By Macro Investor @ 14:
god you are so wrong. most of that which you speak is what I am advocating against.
“What the federal gov does is make it too expensive for lower income people to live decently.”
that’s just wrong.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Living up to the Pirate’s motto.
Take what you can, give nothing back
Facebook Co-Founder Saverin Gives Up U.S. Citizenship Before IPO
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-11/facebook-co-founder-saverin-gives-up-u-s-citizenship-before-ipo.html
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By pfft @ 17:
He would be a fool to stay here and be bilked by uncle fraud. Next November we all get to vote for the banker crony from the blue team, or the banker crony from the red team. Or rather, we don’t have a vote. It’s been determined for us ahead of time.
You work hard and save something for retirement. Meanwhile they print trillions and make your savings worth less and less. That’s what I call a good deal. /sarc
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By Macro Investor @ 18:
without saving the banks nobody would have anything left. they just didn’t do it the right way.
if anyone disagrees Sweden bailed out it’s banks in the early 90s and there hasn’t been a bigger crash in Sweden nor bailout since. explain doubters…
Rate this comment:
0 
0
a profile in courage.
‘Bully’ Documentary Director: Romney Should Lead On This Issue
http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/05/mitt-romney-bully-lee-hirsch-documentary.php?ref=fpa
once a bully always a bully…
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By pfft @ 19:
Many people fall for that lie because they don’t understand bankruptcy. When a business fails, there is always another one eager to buy it’s productive pieces and take on it’s customers. What we have is socialism — where the state allows losing businesses to continue. It’s favoritism. The weaker dinosaurs are allowed to choke off the smaller more efficient competitors. Gee, I wonder why jobs aren’t growing /sarc
Then you complain when rich people get fed up and leave. I’m sure very few would complain about taxes if they were actually spent on improving society. Instead, they are forced to pay for this reverse darwinism. I’ll bet you laughed about central planning in Russia, without realizing that’s exactly what’s happening here.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By pfft @ 20:
Do you think there is any meaningful difference between republicans and democrats? You seem incapable of independent thought, just regurgitate talking points. Once and idiot, always an idiot.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Take what you can, give nothing back
It’s good to be rich in America, in two graphs
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/its-good-to-be-rich-in-america-in-two-graphs/2012/05/11/gIQAky66HU_blog.html
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: pfft @ 20 –
“Once a bully alway a bully.”
Bullying is just part of human nature Pfft. People often remark that children can be cruel. Making rules to stop bullying will never work.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
A Generation Hobbled by the Soaring Cost of College
Kelsey Griffith graduates on Sunday from Ohio Northern University. To start paying off her $120,000 in student debt, she is already working two restaurant jobs and will soon give up her apartment here to live with her parents.
Ms. Griffith, 23, wouldn’t seem a perfect financial fit for a college that costs nearly $50,000 a year. Her father, a paramedic, and mother, a preschool teacher, have modest incomes, and she has four sisters. But when she visited Ohio Northern, she was won over by faculty and admissions staff members who urge students to pursue their dreams rather than obsess on the sticker price.
“As an 18-year-old, it sounded like a good fit to me, and the school really sold it,” said Ms. Griffith, a marketing major. “I knew a private school would cost a lot of money. But when I graduate, I’m going to owe like $900 a month. No one told me that.”
“I readily admit it,” said E. Gordon Gee, the president of Ohio State University, who has also served as president of Vanderbilt and Brown, among others. “I didn’t think a lot about costs. I do not think we have given significant thought to the impact of college costs on families.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.html?pagewanted=1
Rate this comment:
0 
0
California budget hole deepens to $16 bln – governor
California’s budget deficit will swell to nearly $7 billion greater than expected due to weak tax revenues and slow progress in cutting budgets, Governor Jerry Brown said on Saturday.
Brown said the projected shortfall for the fiscal year ending on June 30 now stood at $16 billion, up from a previous estimate of $9.2 billion made in January.
“We are now facing a $16 billion shortfall, not the $9 billion we thought in January,” Brown announced in a video posted on YouTube. “This means we will have to go much further and make cuts far greater than I asked for at the beginning of the year.”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/13/california-deficit-idUSL1E8GD07D20120513
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: Macro Investor @ 14 –
“What the federal gov does is make it too expensive for lower income people to live decently. Thousands to see a doctor, college out of reach, inflation in food/gas/rent. Hey, let’s bubble up housing again. Obama can give us all a tent to live in!”
Hey, we agree on something! All government makes it too difficult and expensive to start a business, build simple shelter, repair what you have, keep basic transportation, on and on.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
Something evil this way comes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6QOscKvUjU&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: Natalia Orinko @ 28 –
BTW..I’m not taking a political position on this. I just thought it was interesting.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
austerity is not really working out that well. so much for the old saying “take the hit now” right people?
‘This Week, In Athens, I Saw My First Sieg Heil’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/9260339/This-week-in-Athens-I-saw-my-first-Sieg-Heil.html#ixzz1uoJPSN6T
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By Macro Investor @ 21:
yeah that sounds great on paper. not so good in real life.
how’d that work during the great depression? by the time FDR declared a bank holiday it wasn’t a big deal because most states had already declared a bank holiday.
when banks fail there are no other good banks to buy them up. they are all worried about failing themselves. Where were the buyers of Bear or Lehman?
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By Macro Investor @ 22:
yes. didn’t that article make it clear? it’s like you people don’t pay attention at all to politics.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
By Scotsman @ 27:
complete nonsense.
Rate this comment:
0 
0
RE: pfft @ 33 – When you don’t understand basic supply and demand, it would be impossible for you to determine what the impact of government is on the cost of anything. You still don’t understand why government has made both healthcare and education more expensive. Those are both pretty easy situations to understand.
Rate this comment:
0 
0