Here in the searing desert of Victorville, California is a creative and fresh theme for the $1 trillion stimulus package and those much ballyhooed infrastructure projects in the Golden State. The Tear Down Corps -- a hasty, handy way to buoy housing prices by removing oversupply. Calculated Risk features a Youtube clip from a collection by an intrepid SoCal reporter who has discovered that the town of Victorville has forced a local bank to tear down new model homes or face mounting daily fines. "It was Matthews Homes(right)... It was Guaranty Bank of Irvine who was paying for the destruction of these homes... The story is there were found model homes and twelve almost finished homes.... The bank was being fined daily by the city of Victorville for the unfinished home, and they decided to destroy the homes... The guy who's running this machine here told me (the reporter) that they've got another twenty homes in Temecula, California... That's about an hour from here ... The location of this site is Victorville, California, on Fair Valley Road and the 395..."
The Senate Rejects Cramdown.
While the Guaranty Bank wreckers were busy in California, the Democratic dominated Senate refused the White House request for a so-called cramdown that would permit bankruptcy judges to reduce dramatically the value of houses. Mortgage lenders and banks opposed the cramdown as unneeded and overwhelming government intervention in the marketplace. The complaint is that the foreclosure process works and that the government is damaging small lenders who did not cause the national crisis. Enough senators agreed wuth the small lender argument so that the measure failed 45-51. A rare and surprising setback for the Obama administration and its rescue of American housing prices. Now the wreckers can go back to work stabilizing house prices with a backhoe. There are many ways to cram down a house to save the village. A CR poster comments with serene irony:
"Lot of model homes are really bad to live in - whatever makes them a good model works against the eventual owner... But here - a huge development with all the underground work already done... in an area where it is just plain butt ugly... what the heck were they thinking - oh now I remember - create more MBS..." ShadowInventory (profile) wrote on Thu, 4/30/2009 - 6:03 pm
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Well, why not offer these models up for any takers who would pay the penalties and fines in perpetuity. Maybe throw in another 10- 12%. What a deal for everyone. Let the banks destroy them on their paper and make the adjustments without any repercussions. Start a Public Awareness campaign and justify the program under the green banner. How many trees were sacrificed to construct all these homes? Hire a Native American with lots of wrinkles and isn't allergic to eye drops for the PSA.
Or, I might suggest an Amendment to the Constitution that enables a majority of other States to force the secession of another State that offends the majority. (Hey, look at the comments coming from the people on JB's piece Last Repubs 12.) No, no Governor can offer his own up... only secession by "Well, you just don't have any choice. See ya!"
I feel confident that most Americans could care less about the Constitution and this could be inserted somewhere during the middle of the night and become law before anyone realizes what has happened.
Freedomland... who doth protestes, eh? (sobbing Clear Red Eyes)
This is like plowing under one's crop; deliberately spilling milk and letting it soak into the ground. This is a sin. It's a continuation of what government forced to happen in the first place: build up excess housing inventories. In the Army it would be the equivalent of first digging a hole; then filling it. It's government interference in the free market and killing it.
What kind of signal to the world? What is this thing called "socialism"? It is this: waste and corruption; an uncle in the 'Tear Down Corps'. It's hungry people staring at empty supermarket shelves; it's homeless people staring hungrily at freshly dug graves.
According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis:
- The January change in personal income was boosted by several special factors. Pay raises for federal civilian and military personnel boosted government wage and salary disbursements and cost-of-living adjustments to several federal transfer payment programs boosted personal current transfer receipts.
- Pay raises for federal civilian and military personnel added $9.7 billion to government payrolls in January.
- Private wage and salary disbursements decreased $25.8 billion in January, compared with a decrease of $27.0 billion in December.
- Goods-producing industries' payrolls decreased $13.0 billion in January.
- Government wage and salary disbursements increased $12.9 billion in January.
- Employer contributions for government social insurance increased $3.1 billion in January, in contrast to a decrease of $1.8 billion in December. The January increase reflected an increase in the tax rate paid by employers to state unemployment insurance funds and an increase in the social security taxable wage base.
Translation: Private industry is being taxed higher and killing jobs so that the federal government can shift the monies to government employees and people on welfare (transfer programs). In other words, if you don't want to participate in the economic downturn - find a government job! While the rest of us are cutting back, they are giving raises!
Welcome to the dystopia of Atlas Shrugged. This has been bothering me since it was announced - that personal consumption expenditures (PCE) were up 2.2% in the first quarter, when we know that sales of everything is down and unemployment was accelerating.
Also, take note of the Dow 30 - volumes are between 50-70% of the 10 day moving average as the index rises. There is no conviction buying.
A crash is coming - this is unsustainable.
Yep, it's bad all over... *excerpted*:
'A plan to replace Soviet-era Russian military uniforms with ones by a leading fashion designer has been abandoned because of a lack of money.
The new designs for the army uniforms came from Russia's leading fashion designer, Valentin Yudashkin.
They build on the uniforms of imperial Russia, with strong emphasis on red and blue colours, together with polished brass adornments for parade dress.
The report that the new uniforms have fallen victim to Russia's own credit crunch suggests financial difficulties greater than those publicly acknowledged.'
Darnit, I hate those hats!!!