Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Wild Hoss]

I worked on bank fraud from 2002-2006 for the FBI. The untold story was that appraisers routinely over-appraised property under the CRA. If an appraiser did not over-appraise the homes, the banks went outside the area in order to find "accurate" appraisers, meaning those who would tack 25% or so onto the real value of the homes. Then, the "sales" that were over-appraised became the "comparables" for new appraisals.

I can top that. In Kansas, the list of certified appraisers was kept online...so what happened? People went out and copied their identities of course, then made forged appraisals, and their buddies would get tens of thousands of dollars over actual value. I saw one, that was literally an abandoned crack house, get appraised at over $80K.

The USA has long since stopped seeking restitution in these cases here, as most of the "victims" were fly-by-night mortgage companies, over-leveraged beyond all comprehension, that have disappeared like smoke in wind.

[Wild Hoss]

This is actually the type of recovery that the GOP has preached about, private sector jobs have rebounded and drove the recovery.

It is very much a Trickle-Down recovery...you'd think the GOP would be delighted.

[entropy]

You mean politicians are more interested in party politics than a consistent philosophy? I'm shocked!

[Wild Hoss]

You mean politicians are more interested in party politics than a consistent philosophy? I'm shocked!

Well...most people are the same way. Our politicians are a reflection of us.

[entropy]

Well...most people are the same way. Our politicians are a reflection of us.

so, you look like Hillary.

[Wild Hoss]

::::kills entropy:::

[hack]

I think another factor to consider is that job growth now doesn't make up for the damage done before. Wages are one factor. In a capitalist system the real progress comes when you have capital.

[The Oracle]

My question: why is this even an issue?

Thank you!

[entropy]

http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/20/technology/china-social-media-fake-posts-strategy/index.html

fake tweets in China a gov't strategy

[hack]

LOL. The Ministry of Fake Stuff surely is the most dynamic of all government departments over there.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Israel's Defense Minister abruptly resigned today, denouncing Netanyahu, and with a warning that extremists have taken over the Likud Party

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israels-defense-minister-abruptly-resigns-in-protest-of-growing-extremism/2016/05/20/c5a3d99b-bc00-4143-a4e7-15c17c9ae05d_story.html

His replacement is possibly going to be a far-right ultranationalist who has previously stated that he thinks all Arab Citizens of Israel should move to the West Bank.

Netanyahu also plans to demand the US raise its aid package to Israel from $3B to at least $4B a year

[Da Geezer]

Hoss. I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't edit my posts to change their meaning. When I brought up the mortgage crisis, I was agreeing with you about the loss of real estate jobs that you pointed out.

You can have your opinion, but not your own facts. In the same article from Wikipedia where you got our chart, it says clearly that ARMs were about 80% of the subprime mortgage market. You make a point of saying that subprimes were less than 25% of all mortgages, but then blame it on ARMs, which had to be less than the subprimes.

Further, during the Bush years, the rate for 30-year fixed mortgages fell from around 7% when he took office to something over 6% in January of 2009. And, frankly, I don't know what greed has to do with interest rates. Interest is the price of money, and following the bust in 2008, there was less demand for money. Interest rates fell.

https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=NUh

We have now had 90 consecutive months of virtually zero interest rates; by far the longest time in US history. I don't know how you and froot can say that this is in any way "trickle down". Wealth is declining overall in the US., and the zero interest rate is the medicine prescribed by the political elites. It is simply a transfer of wealth from the savers to the borrowers. And the biggest borrower is the US Government.

The crisis in 2008 was primarily caused by a real estate bubble that burst. All the fly-by-night mortgage companies are gone now, but those junk mortgages were purchased by Freddie and Fannie. This was the result of governmental intervention through the CRA.

[hack]

Israel's Defense Minister abruptly resigned today, denouncing Netanyahu, and with a warning that extremists have taken over the Likud Party

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israels-defense-minister-abruptly-resigns-in-protest-of-growing-extremism/2016/05/20/c5a3d99b-bc00-4143-a4e7-15c17c9ae05d_story.html

His replacement is possibly going to be a far-right ultranationalist who has previously stated that he thinks all Arab Citizens of Israel should move to the West Bank.

Netanyahu also plans to demand the US raise its aid package to Israel from $3B to at least $4B a year

Avigdor Lieberman is a nightmare. Just grotesque. Israel isn't what it once was. The people in charge are different. On the path toward rogue-state status.

[hack]

So this is interesting: pressure from Congress to get back at Saudi for 9/11 leads to Treasury releasing country-by-country data on who owns its debt: http://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt. China and Japan hold more than rest of the top 10 combined.

[Rocky Bleier]

I don't trust government statistics. It's all in the way they measure things. Has unemployment really dropped? Who knows? How do they count the unemployed? I do know that people have less money than they used to. It's the same with the CPI. It's calculated differently than it used to be, and, of course it is skewed so that prices aren't really increasing as much as your lyin' eyes tell you they are.