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An entertaining collection of news paper clippings.

Headlines (Page One)

janelane wrote:

Four states — Arizona, California, Florida and Nevada — accounted for about 89 percent of the foreclosures, a disproportionately high amount of the newly reported figures. Those regions have suffered the sharpest price drops.

That makes more sense. Before, the article says that 1 in 10 homeowners is foreclosing or delinquent on their payments, and I couldn't believe that about Georgia.

-janelane

Hrm... Article says 39% but you quote as 89%. Lots of foreclosures in Atlanta.

Real Estate is local but lending is global. There are lots of people in this town who have purchased homes that they can't afford on the presumption that appreciation will generate enough equity to cover their interest rate resets. Now people like that can't get those loans anymore, and so there are fewer buyers, which caused prices to drop, which screwed the assumptions built into other loans, which reset and went into foreclosure, which is causing further price decreases, which is what is going on everywhere.

There hasn't been the kind of speculation that other markets saw... There were people flipping houses but not as many of them and not as aggressively. (And home prices in California were already GaGa before the real speculation started.) So Atlanta hasn't seen the kind of price increases that other areas have seen. Furthermore, Atlanta is growing (and due to oil price increases likely to become more dense) and that has some real updraft on real estate prices other than in the exurbs. But things are certainly out of whack in general in this town and prices are correcting down right now.

There has also been a lot of investment by builders, particularly in luxury condos and all those "from the low 800's" townhome developments. That stuff bothers me. It remains to be seen whether there is going to be enough demand from baby boomer empty nesters looking to downsize to actually fill up all of this inventory. Certainly, a lot of developments are on hold or are having trouble obtaining financing.

The bottom line is that there are problems and risks in Atlanta. Of course, I just bought. I have a complex set of considerations for that, but chief among them is that I needed a place to live, and I bought way less house than the real estate industry says I can afford (closer to 2x income rather than 3-4x), and so I should be able to continue saving money in spite of having a mortgage. I would certainly recommend that people exercise extreme caution in regard to buying in this market. I am concerned that devaluation will eat away at my principal and create a financial liability that is difficult to recover. At best I think I've set up a liability that I can manage. If I make money, then thats a bonus. I do not consider it an expectation. This is another case where the normal financial opportunities for people our age have been squandered by the irresponsible behavior of our next elders. This won't be the last...

RE: Nearly 1 in 10 Homeowners Face Loan Problems - NYTimes.com

A recent survey (German) by the well-known German Forsa institute now showed the social effects of this data retention law: Communication habits are indeed changing.

1.002 individuals have been questioned on May 27th and 28th. These are the results:

* 73% know about the data retention
* 11% said that they had already abstained from using phone, cell phone or e-mail in certain occasions
* 6% believe to receive less communication since the beginning of the data retention
* 52% said they probably would not use telecommunication for contacts like drug counselors, psychotherapists or marriage counselors because of data retention

And the sad fact: 48% still think that data retention is a necessary step for crime prevention.

Data Retention Effectively Changes the Behavior of Citizens in Germany « Creation Noise

When liberal blogs picked up the story that McCain had moved to the left on wiretapping, the McCain campaign issued a letter insisting that he still supported unconditional immunity, as well as new rules that would expand the nation's spy powers.

The campaign's response was consistent with McCain's past positions and votes. But it riled Andrew McCarthy at the conservative National Review Online, who read the campaign's position as a disavowal of Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, and a wimpy surrender of executive power to Congress.

That's when the campaign issued the letter explaining McCain's new views of executive power, and revealing that McCain would, in certain future circumstances, rely on the same theory of executive power in wartime.

The closer we get to election day:
1. The harder it will be to know whether or not the candidates are lying.
2. The more authoritarian the candidates will act.

So it is now completely impossible to know what McCain actually thinks, but it is worth noting that the legacy of Bush's creative approach to the separation of powers is that Republican party now openly wants a candidate who won't let trite things like the Constitution and the Oath of Office get in their way, and they want their candidates to come out and say this publicly.

I do not see any reason why any libertarian would continue to be associated with the Republican party. There comes a point where you have to take a stand for something other than lowering taxes or you are not really a libertarian, and what better time than when your political party has become openly hostile to the Constitution?

McCain is shifty on spying

For just $40 a year, believers can arrange for up to 62 people to get a final message exactly six days after the Rapture...

The e-mails will be triggered when three of the site's five Christian staffers "scattered around the U.S." fail to log in for six days in a row -- a system that incorporates a nice margin of safety, should two of the proprietors turn out to be unrepentant sinners or atheists.

Exploitive? Yeah, but its still nicely executed.

Website Lets You Send a Post-Rapture E-Mail to Friends 'Left Behind' | Threat Level from Wired.com

A series of attacks on dyed-hair, eye-makeup-wearing emo kids began in early March when several hundred people went on an emo-beating rampage in Querétaro, a town of 1.5 million about 160 miles north of Mexico City.

The next week, shaggy-haired emo teenagers were harassed again by punks and rockabillys in the capital, prompting police protection and a segment on the TV news. Most recently, a Mexican newspaper reported that metal heads and gangsters have warned Tijuana's emo kids to stay away from the town's fair next month.

"It's a great clusterfuck for the American mind's idea of Mexico," Arellano said. "This teaches the rest of the world that Mexico is not just a bunch of cactuses and sombreros."

Anti-Emo Riots Break Out Across Mexico | The Underwire from Wired.com

The Unhealthiest Drink in America
Baskin Robbin’s Large Heath Bar Shake (32 oz)
2,310 calories
266 g sugar
108 g fat (64 g saturated)

11: The number of Heath Bars you would have to eat to equal the number of calories found in one Baskin Robbins Large Heath Bar Shake.

DAMN!

America's Unhealthiest Drinks Exposed on Yahoo! Health

"This place is really nice and tranquil."

What a good message for the children...

At home on Pablo Escobar's ranch

I noticed this news article and was amazed by the attached photograph, row after row after row of trailers. Apparently that many brand new trailers in one place is toxic and they are tearing these down. I could not find a higher resolution photo... Once again I suspect neither political party wants wide spread discussion of the implications of Katrina or how they are being managed.

Nearly three years after the Hurricane Katrina made thousands of victims, leaving thousands others without houses, the Federal Emergency Management Agency succeeded to meet its deadline and close all six trailer parks by Sunday, but said it would still take a few more days to move everyone into apartments or motels.

The decision to close the parks came after an investigation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between Dec. 21 and Jan. 23 found that formaldehyde fumes from hundreds of trailers and mobile homes were on average about five times what people are exposed to in most modern homes.

Formaldehyde AKA "new car smell."

FEMA Trailer Towns

The symphony of Manhattan Island, composed and performed fortissimo daily by garbage trucks, car speakers, I-beam bolters, bus brakes, warped manhole covers, knocking radiators, people yelling from high windows and the blaring television that now greets you in the back of a taxi, is the kind of music people would pay good money to be able to silence, if only there were a switch.

The other day, in a paint-peeling hangar of a room at the foot of the island, David Byrne, the artist and musician, placed his finger on a switch that did exactly the opposite: it made such music on purpose.

I know what I want to see during hope...

David Byrne’s New Band, With Architectural Solos