Reason Number 1,427 Why I Want Elizabeth Warren to Run for President

This is Senator Elizabeth Warren questioning banking regulators about illegal foreclosures. From the sound of things, the regulators look out for the banks, not citizens. And Sen. Warren draws that out meticulously. If Hillary Clinton won't run, get this lady to run! And Hillary does run, I want to see Clinton/Warren 2016!

Gov. Scot Walker (R-WI) Using Forclosure Settlement to Balance Budget

Gov. Wanker. Image from Think Progress

Honestly? It seems like prominent Republicans (particularly the Governors and Presidential candidates) are trying to out dick each other, doesn't it?


[Excerpt]


Gov. Scott Walker To Use Foreclosure Settlement Money To Balance His Budget, Not Help Homeowners 

Yesterday, 49 states joined the federal government in announcing a $26 billion settlement with five of the nation’s biggest banks over the banks’ foreclosure fraud abuses. The money from the settlement is meant to aid homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure or who find themselves underwater, meaning they owe more on their mortgage than their home is currently worth. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Nevada Economy Worst in the Nation?

Photo from source, Las Vegas Now

I suppose I should stop whining about having had a cut in hours at work. I need to be happy that I still have a job, and that the roof over my head is in no danger of being snatched away. While I knew that Las Vegas was feeling a pinch--my company surely is--I didn't know it was quite this bad.

[Excerpt]

Nevada's Economy Ranked Worst in the Country

A report by the Rockefeller Institute of Government shows Nevada's economy has declined more than any other state since January of last year.

While its bad now, experts fear the worst is yet to come. . .

Well that's just great.

Read more at: Las Vegas Now

Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for the link.

Another Rough Day on Wall Street: -449 Points

I've already confessed that--like John McCain--I don't know a whole lot about the "fundamentals" of the economy. I never have really understood Wall Street, or exactly what is going on when stocks rally or crash. I sorta get it, but nowhere near will enough to write authoritatively about it.

But today, I installed one of those desktop tickers, just out of curiosity. As you know, Monday was the worst day on Wall Street since September 11, 2001. Yesterday, stocks went up a bit, enough for FOX "News" to try and put a smiley face on it. So, I was interested what would happen today. After installing the widget, I very quickly became obsessed. . .and verklempt.

My God, how do stock traders with actual money and careers on the line do it day after day? I watched the stocks go down--they never went above the opening number all day--to minus 150, minus 200, minus 229, minus 275. . . Sometimes only seconds went by, and suddenly, minus 350. They bounced around a while, I think getting all the way "up" to minus 125 or something, then took a steeeep dive to minus 449!

I realize that a day like today is rather extrodinarily bad, but I don't think I could take that as a career.

[Excerpt]

Wall Street plummets after AIG bailout fails to ease jitters

US shares went into a new freefall Wednesday after the Federal Reserve's massive bailout of insurance giant AIG failed to calm a financial market storm and investors rushed for safe haven assets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 449.36 points (4.06 percent) to end at 10,609.66 in the second massive loss in three sessions, and as global markets saw more turbulence. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

What, Me Worry? Bad Economy is All in Your Head!

This certainly seems to be the message that the John McCain campaign is sending out. High gas prices? The sub-prime credit crisis? Home foreclosures? All in your head! Psychological! If you believe that, McCain is your man!

The New Hoovervilles: Bushvilles

Photo from source, Fire Dog Lake

Wow. I had no idea it had gotten this bad. Scary stuff. And many of us are only a few paychecks away from being in the same predicament. I wonder how any new President will fix all of the problems our nation faces, Republican or Democrat.

[Excerpt]

FDL Late Nite — Bushvilles: The Latest Fashion In Meltdown Housing

Harvey now works part time for $8 an hour, and she draws Social Security to help make ends meet. But she still cannot afford an apartment, and so every night she pulls into a gated parking lot to sleep in her car, along with other women who find themselves in a similar predicament. . .

Read more at: Fire Dog Lake

Foreclosures Lead to Bus Tours

Photo from source, Dallas News

Yesterday, I went yard saling with my friend Denny, known around here as Stupid Monkey Planet. It was a gorgeous day here in Las Vegas, possibly the first good yard saling Saturday this year. Unfortunately for us, people didn't know it would be nice, and there were slim pickings for us.

We actually pondered if we'd see more sales because of all the foreclosures--or impending ones. One of the first things I did years ago, when I lost my job was to sell of a bunch of unneeded belongings; such as a cube refrigerator, boom boxes, old stereo, spare TV. I fortunately only had to sell off what I wasn't using. My limited experience of this foreclosure wave has been a little different.

Some people try to get a jump on things before they go bad by getting a second job, and cutting back on other expenses. But many live on in a sort of denial, seemingly surprised when that day finally comes. Like it couldn't really happen. I can't really blame them. I had a "head-in-the-sand" for years about my credit card debt.

Anyway, what we did find while out looking for yard sales was a whole freakin' lot of houses for sale. Sometimes several in a row. Cracker boxes, starter homes, 3,000-footers, even McMansions. Many of them were labeled "foreclosure" or "bank sale," and I suspect most of them were. It's all very sad. But of course, that misfortune has started to be turned into a business opportunities. And this is only one of several stories from around the country with bus tours. Check it out.

[Excerpt]

Foreclosure bus tour gives buyers a different view of shaky real estate market

Every Saturday morning, Ms. Langevin and several real estate colleagues load up a 22-seat bus with clients and set off on a sightseeing tour that reflects today's shaky economic times.

[snip]

"It gives you a different perception of the foreclosures," Demetria Newkirk, a Carrollton city employee, said Saturday after viewing an elegant two-story North Dallas home recently marked down from $1.1 million to $795,000.

"I wouldn't even think that kind of house would be a foreclosure," she said. . .

Read more at: Dallas News

Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch Faces Foreclosure

Photo from source, Raw Story

Who knew the housing bubble was this bad? Seriously though, this story is particularly sad for me for a couple of reasons. Growing up as I did in the early 1980s, I'm old enough to remember when Thriller came out, and quite literally changed the world of music. I'm also old enough to remember standing in a K-Mart, looking at the LP cover, and feeling vaguely embarrassed. I didn't want anyone to notice I was looking. It was akin to admiring the Osmonds or the Carpenters' new album.

Then Thriller took off, with a huge string of hits, and was largely responsible for putting MTV on the map (along with Duran Duran, Culture Club, Pat Benatar, Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, of course). Michael Jackson was almost a deity from late 1982 to some time in 1984. And along about that time, he started getting weird--weirder. All sorts of bizarre rumors, strange behavior, the flaming Pepsi commercial. He didn't get unpopular, exactly, but it wasn't as cool to like him.

Then came Bad, which heralded another wave of Michael love, but in a more contained and more compressed time frame. His eccentricities shone through during they heyday of Bad, so much so that he answered the tabloid stories with an extra cut called Leave Me Alone. The cycle continued with Dangerous, which was also hugely popular (especially Black or White), and the coolness factor was even shorter.

At around this time, a friend of mine who worked for Michael (long story) asked me to come work at Neverland for a famous celebrity's wedding. Being in the area at the time, I jumped at the chance (as did several of my friends). In all, I got to go to the ranch twice, and even tour Michael's house. It was all spectacular, in a simultaneously ostentatious and understated way.

Let me just say that if I had Michael Jackson's fame and fortune back then, I could only have dreamed of creating such a place. It was flat-out amazing. I'd never want to leave. Due to legal documents I signed, I really probably should leave it there, other than to say if you've ever been there, you wouldn't find it crazy. Here in Las Vegas, I've seen some of the "secret rooms" in casinos that they reserve for Arabian Shieks and such--those are crazy. Neverland Valley Ranch was cool.

So, sorry Michael. I'm sorry your dream has come to this. I'll always remember it fondly.

[Excerpt]

Michael Jackson faces forced sale of Neverland

Michael Jackson's famed Neverland Valley Ranch in California will be foreclosed and sold on March 19 unless the pop star pays a balance of nearly $25 million, property records showed on Tuesday. . .

Read more at: Raw Story

Foreclosures Foretell Future Slums?

Photo from source, The Atlantic

One of the trends, back when there was still a building boom in Las Vegas, was to squeeze as many homes into a plot of land as possible. Some of the developers used creative, but attractive techniques to make the most of what they had. Others just piled rows of boxes upon each other, with a minimum of space around and between them. Some of these developments contained homes that had 1-car garages, no sidewalk, no driveway, no yard, walls directly around three sides, and one spot on the whole property big enough for a patio set. And they weren't apartments or condos, they were fully detatched homes.

The Other Half and I joked that they looked so much like future slums that all they needed was a row of concertina wire around the top of the walls to complete the look. If this story is accurate, we may see that come to pass, along with nicer neighborhoods, and who knows, maybe our own. . .

[Excerpt]

The Next Slum?

Strange days are upon the residents of many a suburban cul-de-sac. Once-tidy yards have become overgrown, as the houses they front have gone vacant. Signs of physical and social disorder are spreading.

[snip] In December, after a stray bullet blasted through her son’s bedroom and into her own, Laurie Talbot, who’d moved to Windy Ridge from New York in 2005, told The Charlotte Observer, “I thought I’d bought a home in Pleasantville. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that stuff like this would happen.”. .

Read more at: The Atlantic

Ouch! Foreclosures Up 79% in 2007

Photo from source, CNBC

That is dramatic. Of course, living in Las Vegas, Nevada, it is also obvious. I personally know several people who are very worried about being able to keep their houses, with ballooning payments in their very near future. I've even know of one friend who went through foreclosure. I'm surprised with all of this going on, that the economy isn't in worse shape than it is.

[Excerpt]

Home Foreclosures Were 79% Higher Last Year

The number of U.S. homes that slipped into some stage of foreclosure in 2007 was 79 percent higher than in the previous year, a real estate tracking company said Tuesday.

Many homeowners started to fall behind on mortgage payments in the last three months, setting the stage for more foreclosures this year. . .

Read more at: CNBC

Bush Unveils Plans for Mortgage Crunch

Photo from RawStory.com

It hasn't been so long ago that everyone in Right-wing World kept saying "home ownership is at an all-time high!" This was supposed to be confirmation that the economy was booming. Unfortunately, some chickens have come home to roost, and we haven't heard that line much lately. Finally, President Bush has laid out a plan.

Fearless leader:

[Excerpt]

Bush unveils aid for mortgage-strapped homeowners

"The holidays are fast approaching and unfortunately this will be a time of anxiety for Americans worried about their mortgages and their homes," said Bush, flanked by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson. Calling on Congress to do its part in providing some immediate relief, Bush said the steps were needed "so we can keep the economy healthy and the American dream alive."

Read more at: Los Angeles Times