Eighty-five percent of our alumni stay in the region, contributing their talents to the economic recovery of our cities [...]Haynes did not give the percentage of CSUSM graduates living with their parents and thus contributing to household laundry efforts.
Politically, a Tyranny of the Majority comprised of those who draw direct transfers/benefits from the Federal government, is ruled by the top ½ of 1% financial aristocracy who own the majority of income-generating assets. The minority, who pay most of the taxes (the 24.5% between the majority and aristocracy), will see their taxes rise as the aristocracy buys loopholes and exclusions [WCV note: not just loopholes and exclusions, but immensely profitable government contracts and bailouts!] while the bottom 50% pay no income tax.It is obviously not sustainable and will end very badly, but that is a discussion for another day.
Financially, the Federal government’s spending has outrun the tax revenues being collected. Structurally, Federal expenditures for entitlements (Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Veterans Administration, etc.) will rise as Baby Boomers retire en masse over the next 15 years, while tax revenues will stagnate along with earned income.
There is no way to square these circles.
The political foundation of America is starkly unjust. An entrenched financial Aristocracy buys the complicity of the bottom 50% and retirees with Federal transfers – a Tyranny of the Majority. The 24.5% below the Aristocracy who pay most of the Federal taxes are dominated by this alliance. This may be legal, but is it just? Even more critically, is it sustainable?
Lauren Dollard, a 26-year-old assistant at a nonprofit in Houston, said her low credit score had helped to stall her romantic plans. Her boyfriend is wary of marrying her until she can significantly pay down the more than $150,000 she owes in student loans and bolster her credit score, she said.While the article focuses on credit scores, singles would be wise to pay attention instead to the type of debt. Credit card debt is like gonorrhea or chlamydia: it can be easily eliminated with the wonder antibiotic of bankruptcy (and who hasn't run up $20K at Macy's or screwed a stranger unprotected in a bathroom stall?). Student loans, however, are immune to bankruptcy just as herpes and AIDS are incurable. Avoid student debtors like you'd avoid a needle-using Haitian prostitute.
Ms. Dollard’s credit score is so low, around 600, that she hasn’t been able to qualify for a car loan. She sympathizes with her boyfriend’s position because he “doesn’t ever want to be accountable for the irresponsible financial decision I made,” she said.
Phil Spector (the producer for the Crystals, Ronettes, etc.) promised Love that He's a Rebel as well as follow-up singles would be released under her name, but Spector reneged on that promise and instead released all of Love's hits under the Crystals name.Watch Darlene Love on Letterman here:
In 1964 the "British Invasion" began (Beatles, Herman's Hermits, Rolling Stones, Dave Clark Five, etc.). The "British Invasion" coupled with the "Surf Sound" (Beach Boys), and the "Motown Sound" (Supremes, Temptations, etc.), marked the end of the line for the traditional girl groups from the early 60's. Darlene Love never got the recognition she deserved.
According to cops, Varone became irate on November 30 after he “found his sandwich had cheese on it which was not what he ordered.” After he was provided a second hamburger--which also had cheese--Varone parked his vehicle and entered the McDonald’s.There's a reason the West Coast Varones gave up meat.
Inside the restaurant, Varone allegedly began yelling at workers (one of whom he called a “fucking bitch”) and demanded a refund. After getting his money back, Varone knocked over a trash can and “picked up a children’s high chair, hoisted it above his head and threw it towards another dining table” in the crowded restaurant.
As Varone departed the eatery, McDonald’s manager Kathy Vazquez followed him out to the parking lot in an attempt to copy down his license plate number. When Varone realized he was being tailed, he allegedly grabbed Vazquez, placed her in a headlock, and grabbed a cordless phone from her hand and smashed it on the ground.
When a second McDonald’s worker confronted him, Varone reportedly warned that he would fight the employee if he tried to stop him from leaving the parking lot.
Vazquez suffered a sprained knee and a fractured tibia during the scuffle with Varone, according to a medical diagnosis provided to a Springettsbury Township Police Department officer.
In addition to the two misdemeanor charges, Varone was also cited for criminal mischief for damaging the $50 cordless phone belonging to McDonald’s. A preliminary hearing date has yet to be scheduled for Varone.
"Just know one thing, Rick Snyder: You sign that bill, you won’t get no rest. We’ll meet you on Geddes Road. We’ll be at your daughter’s soccer game. We’ll visit you at your church. We’ll be at your office. Because Michigan workers will not take it laying down — by any means necessary!"
Three people were found shot to death in a Riverside County home and investigators suspect a double murder-suicide.The home was purchased in March 2003 for $170,000, was Zillowed up to $399,000 in the bubble, and is now back to $175,000.
Cathedral City Police Lt. Charles Robinson says officers were called to the house in Cathedral City late Wednesday morning.
They discovered a woman and her adult daughter shot to death in a bed. In another bedroom, the body of the older woman's common-law husband was found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Investigators say the woman had been recently diagnosed with a terminal illness, and her common-law husband was upset over her plans to divide her assets after her death.Killing over the assets of the dying, murdering for the last scraps in a desperate America. That's what the Greenspan-Bernanke Fed have brought us to.
The daughter was visiting from Florida to help put her mother's affairs in order.
As the clock ticks toward a tax hike on all Americans in 20 days, President Obama predicted Republicans would join Democrats to extend current rates for 98 percent of earners before the end of the year.
"I'm pretty confident that Republicans would not hold middle class taxes hostage to trying to protect tax cuts for high-income individuals," Obama said today in an exclusive interview with ABC News' Barbara Walters.
Thanks to an odd loophole in current law, the U.S. Treasury is technically allowed to mint as many coins made of platinum as it wants and can assign them whatever value it pleases.Yeah, the ceiling is no longer an issue. The fact that the U.S. is still running trillion-dollar deficits and printing money out of thin air to fund them? Kinda still an issue.
Under this scenario, the U.S. Mint would produce (say) a pair of trillion-dollar platinum coins. The president orders the coins to be deposited at the Federal Reserve. The Fed then moves this money into Treasury’s accounts. And just like that, Treasury suddenly has an extra $2 trillion to pay off its obligations for the next two years — without needing to issue new debt. The ceiling is no longer an issue.
(k) The Secretary may mint and issue platinum bullion coins and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe from time to time.Ostensibly, this was an oversight and they thought they were just giving Treasury the power to make commemorative coins for sale for a few hundred or thousand bucks, and they never intended to let Timmy go Full Zimbabwe. Cynics might say the bill's author knew exactly what he was doing.
“I like it,” says Joseph Gagnon of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “There’s nothing that’s obviously economically problematic about it.”
In theory, this is much like having the central bank print money. But, says Gagnon, the U.S. government would simply be using the money to keep spending at existing levels, so it wouldn’t create any extra inflation.Joseph Gagnon of the Peterson Institute for International Economics has shit for brains. Running 7% GDP deficits and printing the money out of thin air "wouldn't create any extra inflation?" How does that work, Joe?
Speaker John A. Boehner initiated today a small purge of rebellious Republicans — mostly conservatives — from prominent committees; it’s the latest instance of the Ohio Republican’s clamping down on his fractious conference.As a new Washington Post poll confirms, the MSM wing of the Democratic Party has the masses primed to blame Republicans for any breakdown in talks. Obama knows this, so he is negotiating in bad faith and offering nothing. Boehner knows this too, so he is preparing to unconditionally surrender just as he has at every other opportunity.
The decisions were made by the GOP Steering Committee at a Monday meeting, which reviewed a spreadsheet listing each GOP lawmaker and how often he or she had voted with leadership, three sources said.
Reps. David Schweikert of Arizona and Walter Jones of North Carolina were booted from the Financial Services Committee. Reps. Justin Amash of Michigan and Tim Huelskamp of Kansas were removed from the Budget Committee.
According to a source, Schweikert was told that he was ousted in part because his “votes were not in lockstep with leadership.”
[...]
All of the lawmakers other than Jones were rebellious right-wingers. Huelskamp and Amash, for instance, both voted against the budget proposed by Budget Chairman Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin in committee and on the floor, because it did not cut spending fast enough. They also voted against the current continuing resolution that is funding the government through the end of March.
In 2008, after millions of dollars in advertising, Californians were persuaded to pass Proposition 1A and provide $9.95 billion in bond seed money for the high speed bullet train, despite the fact was no hard evidence supporting any the claims made about ridership, pollution reduction, or job creation — and apparently forgetting the interest ($9.5 billion) costs of the bonds. Furthermore, the realities of construction have tripled the initial cost estimates and the first train won’t be running until 2033.It's not just the high-speed train to nowhere. Municipalities and school districts are piling up billions in debt, all so they can keep spending recklessly today and leave the bill to the next generation.
The first winter was disasterous - nearly half of the Pilgrims died of starvation, pneumonia and tuberculosis. Many claim that Bradford's first wife perished that first winter, but that is not quite true - she actually fell off the Mayflower quite close to land and drowned, never making it to Plymouth (he later remarried.)
During the first two years the colony lived under what could only be called Communism, enshrined in the Mayflower Compact. Each person was accorded a "share" of the totality of what was produced at the colony, and each person was expected to do their part in working toward the common good. The land, and that upon it, was owned by the colony as a collective.
It not only did not work out, it nearly killed them all.
William Bradford wrote in his diary "For in this instance, community of property (so far as it went) was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment which would have been to the general benefit and comfort. For the young men who were most able and fit for service objected to being forced to spend their time and strength in working for other men’s wives and children, without any recompense. The strong man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, etc., than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter the other could. This was thought injustice.”
After the second winter, realizing that the colony had survived only through the friendship and largesse of the native Americans, and would soon perish if changes were not made, Bradford tore up the Mayflower Compact. He instead assigned each family a plot of land to be their property, to be worked as the family saw fit, and with the fruits of that land to be their own. It was the beginning of private property rights in the New World.
The result? Again, from his diary: "It made all hands very industrious, so that much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been by any means the Governor or any other could devise, and saved him a great deal of trouble, and gave far better satisfaction.”
From the very day that Bradford tore up the Mayflower Compact, Plymouth began to prosper. Within a year the colonists found themselves with more food than they could eat. Flush with a bountiful harvest far in excess of their need for food and having bartered for all the goods they needed to get through the winter, they had a feast of thanks with their Indian trading partners.
Police in Phoenix are investigating what they believe to be a murder-suicide after a couple was found dead in their bedroom.Debra Fernandez is listed at 4421 N. 53rd Lane, Apartment 1.
Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sgt. Steve Martos said investigators believe the victim, Debra Fernandez, 46, and the 52-year-old suspect, Thomas Fernandez, got in a fight late Sunday night over financial issues.
Fernandez's two adult children in their 20s were in the home and heard "popping" sounds but didn't realize they were gunshots. Martos said five small children, all under the age of 5, were also in the home near 4400 N. 53rd Lane.
Today it was announced that Hostess is closing its doors, the grocery stores shelves will be absent another childhood memory. Gone are the sweet treats purchased by Dad at some out of the way gas station on Sunday drives through the Michigan country side. Gone will be the lesson, a rite of passage if you will, of standing in the school cafeteria line faced with the choice all teenagers must face, will it be the plastic wrapped sugar high or the school lunch which contained food sources of unknown origins. Missing from the back seat of your first car the empty wrappers of long ago devoured Dolly Madison cakes eaten on the way home after a long soccer practice. Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Snow Balls will no longer be seen as a quick fix to the hunger program that used to strike us at 3 a.m. after a long night out while on the way back to the dorm.
Wonder Bread, oh Wonder Bread, crusts on or crust off, rolled and squashed into squares and or balls of doughy, puffy goodness. Nothing flew a more accurate path than Wonder Bread when hurled at a sibling over morning breakfast. Served with Peanut Butter and Jelly stuffed into brown bags for those long day trips to some museum or factory where some poor kid with a healthy minded Mom would beg you to trade. On those days you were home sick from school grilled with American cheese to simple perfection by a Mom who made you feel like you were the only person in the world that mattered, was there ever a better meal?
Lost will be the smell coming from their small town commercial bakeries, where bleached flour, sugar and chemicals none of us could articulate were being blended, molded and cooked into tasty treats that had shelve lives longer than human life spans. Lost will be the clutter that gathers along the side of empty city streets, and in that clutter there smiling up at us would be Dolly, gently reminding us of simpler times and pleasures.
~EE
The Federal Housing Administration's projected losses hit $16.3 billion at the end of September, according to an independent annual audit to be released Friday, a much larger figure than had been forecast earlier.The losses relate to loans made after the bubble burst, in 2008 and 2009.
The report strongly suggests the FHA will require taxpayer funding for the first time in its 78 years, though that won't be decided until early next year.
The FHA is required to maintain enough cash to pay for projected losses on the $1.1 trillion in loans that it guarantees. Last year, the independent audit said the FHA would have $2.6 billion after covering estimated losses.
FHA is the new subprimeThese asshats in Washington either couldn't see, or didn't care, that making 3% down loans to deadbeats in a collapsing market would create huge losses for the taxpayer. They should all be run out of town on a rail.
More precisely, FHA is the new put-option mortgage. As we said way back in January 2007 with Countrywide stock flying high around $40:
The mortgage industry calls them pay-option ARMs, because the buyer has the option to pay a full mortgage payment or a lot less. In reality, they are put-option ARMs, because the buyer is really getting a put option on the real estate market. If the market goes up, the buyer refinances or makes fully amortized payments on the loan. If the market goes down, the buyer makes minimal payments to live in a nice house for a period, and then hands the underwater house back to the lender. A no-lose proposition for the smart buyer!Well, they're not ARMs any more. They are ridiculously low (~5%) 30-year fixed-rate loans. And the sucker is not a sleazy outfit like Countrywide. It's the FHA. That means you, the taxpayer.
The yen hit its lowest level against the dollar since late April on Thursday and looked vulnerable to more losses after the head of Japan's main opposition party called for a move towards negative interest rates.So you borrow a million dollars from the bank, put it in a vault, and after a year, you give them back $990,000. Yeah, that will fix the economy!
The euro rallied to a two-week high against the yen and also rose against the dollar, despite data showing the euro zone slid into recession in the third quarter of 2012.
Shinzo Abe, the head of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party and frontrunner in next month's election, wants the Bank of Japan to consider sub-zero interest rates and reverse the yen's strength.
The man who voices the puppet of Elmo on Sesame Street has taken leave amid allegations he had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy.When Romney proposed cutting government subsidies to multi-million-dollar public broadcasting, was he also proposing cutting subsidies to a multi-millionaire child molester?
Kevin Clash, 52, has taken a leave of absence from the popular children's show after the programme's lawyers were contacted by a 23-year-old man who claims he had a sexual relationship with the puppeteer seven years ago, when he was aged 16.
TMZ, who reported the allegations, said that Mr Clash had admitted he had a relationship with the man, but only after the accuser was an adult and said the accusations were both false and defamatory.
Fifty-three-year-old Amaia Egaña jumped four floors to her death as bailiffs prepared to kick her out after she failed to stay current on her mortgage payments. She is the second person in less than three weeks to commit suicide in the face of an impending eviction.And of course the solution from just about every corner is to stop evictions:
Ending evictions is a great idea, because it would immediately end mortgage lending. And that would be a great first step in ending debt slavery.
A Spanish savings bank has halted all home-owner evictions after a ruined client threw herself out a window to her death, unleashing anti-bank street protests.
The weekend decision by Kutxabank, a lender in the northern Basque Country, was unprecedented in Spain, where banks and homeowners have been financially crushed by a 2008 property crash.
It was the second suicide linked to the eviction of a financially distressed home owner in 15 days.
Right-leaning Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy promised on Friday to offer proposals to ease the pressure on homeowners on Monday in talks with the opposition Socialists.
[...]
Rajoy said on Friday he hoped the talks with the opposition would include discussion of a 'temporary halt to the evictions which are hitting the most vulnerable families.'
Afforded extensive access by General Petraeus, his mentors, his subordinates, and his longtime friends, Broadwell embedded with the general, his headquarters staff, and his soldiers on the front lines of fighting and at the strategic command in Afghanistan to chronicle the experiences of this American general as they were brought to bear in the terrible crucible of war.
Some low-wage employers are moving toward hiring part-time workers instead of full-time ones to mitigate the health-care overhaul's requirement that large companies provide health insurance for full-time workers or pay a fee.If I've got a restaurant and I have 30 employees working 40 hours a week, I'll have to pay $60,000 in ObamaCare fines. Or I can just change the schedule and have 40 employees working part-time at 29.5 hours a week and I'm home free. National chains such as Darden Restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Yard House, etc.) are already doing the math.
Several restaurants, hotels and retailers have started or are preparing to limit schedules of hourly workers to below 30 hours a week. That is the threshold at which large employers in 2014 would have to offer workers a minimum level of insurance or pay a penalty starting at $2,000 for each worker.
So I did what any good self-respecting blogger without a pre-paid legal team behind her would do; I removed the post. Obviously this guy was a tool but who has time for those headaches? I know I don't. I have way bigger fish to fry. But I made sure to take advantage of my prime Google real estate for his "client's" name by replacing it with an editor note about how this bully punked me into taking a very innocent post down:It has been nearly a month since our last communication. I have given you ample time to remove the damaging article aimed at my client Francis Koenig.I have advised you in writing that this article is outrageous, entirely untrue, and slanderous. I have provided you with evidence showing my client has been cleared. Yet you continue to display this article on your website.Your article starts by saying Koenig left Wall Street to "skeeze on the potential in alternative investments" and then references Bernie Madoff as a comparison! These are your baseless and egregious words.Your acknowledgement of my prior notice is clear and undeniable evidence of your awareness of the harm your article is causing my client; Your actions in writing the article; The ample time I have provided you to remove this article; And your failure to remove the article after having been advised of the real and punitive damages this article is causing, is further evidence of your intent to continue to harm my client.I have advised you of my intention to proceed with both real and punitive damages to the fullest extent.I am now writing to inform you that we are preparing to file a lawsuit which will name you personally, your website, and your company, along with others who have also received my warning notice and have failed to take action.I am further advising you that your continued failure to remove the article will provide us with continued evidence of your intention to damage my client, and such failure will continue to add to the costs and damages which you have already caused. We intend to pursue these damages to the fullest extent available.
Editor note: due to bullying by the lawyer for Francis Koenig, the previous post here has been removed. Should you be interested in reading it, I have saved an archive copy and can email it to any interested parties, just get in touch.
Mr. Koenig's lawyer stated in his initial communication with me that he and his client were "engaged in a full scale to wipe clean the defacing press that has been costly to Mr. Koenig" and "will do whatever means necessary in order to restore the reputation of Mr. Koenig in the shortest time possible," later following up with a threat to name me and this website in a lawsuit seeking costs and damages "to the fullest extent available." Not once was I asked to simply issue a correction.
This is an all-out assault on the First Amendment - as no defamation was intended in the original piece - but because this website is a hobby of mine, not the kind of money-making venture that could withstand harassment by some lawyer who finds it at all appropriate to demand removal of content, I have removed the post. I have also published all communications from the lawyer and will be in touch with the SEC to secure any and all documents related to AdultVest to independently investigate that matter further.
Earlier discussions of the alleged fraud can still be found elsewhere on the Internet:
Porn Hedge Fund Founder Defends Investment Decisions
Porn Hedge Fund Accused Of Fraud, Exonerated
Adrienne, I responded to you a few minutes ago. In answer to your question, the bar number of the lead litigation attorney filing this case would provided on the lawsuit, however Mr. Koenig has requested that you are to be withdrawn from the case.
Sincerely, Chris
What should asset allocation be for people in their 30's and 40's given a stagnant economy, 8% GDP deficits, negative real interest rates, and Zimbabwe Ben promising to print money indefinitely?If you've been reading this blog over the years, you know that my answer is and has been to buy real assets, stocks, and gold; have a little bit of cash, and don't touch a long-term Treasury with a 10-foot-pole. I'm still of the view that the only way out of this mess is a dollar devaluation money-printing orgy.
Fascism is forever descending upon the United States, but somehow it always lands on Europe.Please see another immigrant's view of America at Left Coast Rebel's related post on Thomas Peterffy, and check out our San Diego Tea Party blogger friends the SLOBs.
According to soon-to-be-published research from professors at Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh, browsing Facebook lowers our self control. The effect is most pronounced with people whose Facebook networks were made up of close friends, the researchers say.
[...]
People who spent more time online and who had a high percentage of close ties in their network were more likely to engage in binge eating and to have a greater body mass index, as well as to have more credit-card debt and a lower credit score, the research found. Another study found that people who browsed Facebook for five minutes and had strong network ties were more likely to choose a chocolate-chip cookie than a granola bar as a snack.
In a third study, the professors gave participants a set of anagrams that were impossible to solve, as well as timed IQ tests, then measured how long it took them to give up trying to solve the problems. They found people who spent more time on Facebook were more likely to give up on difficult tasks more quickly. A Facebook spokesman declined to comment.
Why are we often so aggressive online? Consider this recent post to this column's Facebook page, from someone I don't know: "Why should I even bother writing you? You won't respond."
We're less inhibited online because we don't have to see the reaction of the person we're addressing, says Sherry Turkle, psychologist and Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of the social studies of science and technology. Because it's harder to see and focus on what we have in common, we tend to dehumanize each other, she says.
