most people are short sighted and dont understand what a house is..homes are not an appreciating asset any more than a car or other durable is, & they are no more like to "recover" to their former high prices than are dutch tulip bulbs going to recover to the prices they sold for in 1637...houses deteriorate over time & eventually are torn down, just as automobiles deteriorate & are eventually junked...originally, the reason houses seemed to appreciate in value was the inflation of the 70s; because money depreciated faster than houses, houses went up in price...if inflation was 100% per year, cars would appear to go up in price every year too; you could then buy a car & drive it three years & sell it for more than you bought it for...with core inflation at record lows, inflation expectations falling below 2% on the possibilitly of QE withdrawal, and disposable personal income stagnant, there is no reason for homes to go up in price..
Tech workers tend towards libertarian style politics and this is a result. I thought it was ironic that it was the AFL-CIO standing up for tech workers. That union would be laughed out of any tech workplace that I've worked at. How long will it take us to learn our lesson?
I've personally gone to great pains to be accurate on statistics. I've called up experts when I cannot nail something down and on productivity, you have no idea what a pain I was to the BLS in order to ascertain CPI-U-RS vs. CPI-U.
I have pointed out errors with many who ignore significant digits in calculations, especially intermediate calculations.
I hand calculate extensively, from raw data series, dig out data series, derive data and all of that original number crunching actually should be for white papers for it takes a lot of time and effort to do so.
There are others who do this, Chinn does.
So, we maybe less famous, but we sure do try on this site to be extremely accurate, but it does not "pay" in terms of readership and traffic.
Many people simply cannot read any number, their mind goes numb. Out Congress relies on that fact as do many corporations!
month in and month out i see article after article quoting just the census headline housing numbers as if they were gospel...and even well known bloggers, who must know better, ignore that wide margin of error...if they'd just acknowledge it once in a while, then they could go on reporting what census says and i wouldnt blame them...but in continually pretending that these reports are accurate, they lose creditablity in everything else they write...
Ah, the BIS. This was the money laundering machine the Nazis used to move profits from looting the Jews and others. BIS continued to operate as an independent entity for the duration of WW2, facilitating funds transfers between Fascist Europe and the Allies. Many interesting stories about that if you dig a little. So now they continue their service on behalf of the plutocracy. A pox on them.
I think we are the only financial site which amplifies the margin of error on housing statistics and the same with the advance report on Durable Goods. Wall Street just blindly jumps on the number, which is almost always revised.
I think the reason, beyond the financial press, that traders just jump on the number with brain dead zeal is HFT.
HFT utilizes these figures and has algorithms automatically trading on them. This also explains the insane rush to obtain the number and why the release time is held down to the second.
Anyone who gets a jump on the number has a trading advantage but the thing is....how stupid is all of this?
It becomes trading on just numbers with no comprehension on what things mean, simply because a host of HFT algos trade on those figures as do regular traders.
So, we get mind numbing nothing when we have a statistical release which has a margin of error often larger than the reported number of housing starts!
Sigh, they need to ban and regulate HFT, it's become a game of router hop delays instead of any indicator on the future profits of that business.
Yes and they collect the benefit while the family gets nothing. I think 60 Minutes covered that, but of course, nothing happened.
If the NSA is spying on people to the point they know your underwear label, well, they assuredly know about all of the corporate crime being committed yet do nothing.
These things happen, but the corporate press won't cover it. Never heard of how a company could take out insurance on its own employees without them knowing about it, but then we heard about "Dead Peasant" insurance. ID theft happens all the time, HR departments are filled with people that couldn't pass background checks themselves, visa recipients, outsourced HR, etc. Too easy for all our info. to go to the cheapest labor, and some, not all, but some of those people really don't have the best intentions. Especially considering they were hired because they worked for less, of course extra $ directly or turning it over to someone else is an option. It's completely logical. Especially since bank employees themselves have been busted in ID thefts and stealing from bank customers, it's just to easy for them to have friends and accomplices in big companies that also have access to signatures, payroll info., etc. No one is looking out for the employees and customers, it's all "turn over everything for a job or account, and if you get screwed, oh well, no recourse." We are completely unprotected. The FBI cares more about a celebrity tape or photo being released than they do about the average citizens getting screwed through lax security, outsourcing, etc.
I've never heard of a case where an employer did anything with that information, or say took out money they put into the account.
But these days, where satellites can zoom in to see your clothing label, honestly, do you think they do not already have your personal data?
To get a job, you have to give your social security numbers, unless of course you are illegal, then our Congress has deemed it perfectly fine to use other people's social security numbers.
Guaranteed business for banks. Direct deposit used to be an option, now it's mandatory. Now along with SSN and everything else, best hope no one in any company anywhere knows how to use bank account numbers and other personal info. to rip off employees' $. At some point personal info., $ info., and every single personal detail of every person in the working world in return for a job = too much trouble and crime for too many people. Now, piss into that cup, give me a blood sample, give me 20 people that have known you for 10+ years, give me your fingerprints where you bank, eat, drink, socialize, etc. in return for a paycheck. Sound good? It's just too much, way too much, especially when it was done so well without all this nonsense for so long.
People get paid faster, there is less paper, i.e. no paper checks, but most employers give the option to receive a paper check.
There are no fees associated with direct deposit, unlike payroll cards and prepaid cards. They take money from accessing an ATM in many cases, "inactivity fees" and the biggest is non-sufficient fund fees.
Gotta wonder what kind of money they split in the boardrooms and in secret agreements to pull this off. Creating wage and forced banking agreements that bone employees = business as usual for people that will never work anywhere for under $10 million/year because they truly believe they are something special.
Come on, crap like this was predictable. Why does every level of govt. and why do most private employers force direct deposit? People are now forced to bank with TBTF (although small banks still exist, but smaller numbers). They force support of TBTF - how's that capitalism or free market choice? It's not, it's guaranteed business for big companies forced on employees with no negotiating power. Same could be said of 401(k)s and pension plans that force investments into funds selected by administrators that pour hundreds of billions of $s into funds run poorly by banksters that make billions for losing $ and not breaking a sweat doing it.
Company towns, being paid in cigarettes and gum, being paid less than earned wages, etc. it's been done here and goes on overseas too, nothing new - history repeats itself all the time, so what are we going to about it because the people renting our politicians love this system and the puppets in the media and politics love it too.
McDonald's will probably pay people in their food only soon. "Loyal" employees would not complain because the bosses would explain it would help McD stock and good employees support their employers at all costs. If they died from eating only McDonald's 24/7, McDonald's would turn around and claim it was only meant to be part of a balanced diet and the employees were to blame. And the politicians would echo that claim and say anything else their corporate paymasters demanded while dining on $100 lunches with filet mignon. Wish I was wrong, but I'm not.
Back in the day, neighborhoods were built on semi-corruption free government, almost everyone in your neighborhood, town, city, and state working jobs that could support a wife and 2 kids, and being able to do so on 40-50 hours/week. Now, it's all a shell game of bullsh* and headline chasing noise. What's the Fed up to? What's gold at? What's Abe up to in Japan? Will Jamie Dimon take a 24 karat dump or 18 karat only? Will Ben Bernanke work at Government Sux or JP Morgan after he leaves the Fed? Will the feds and states claim unemployment at 7-8% and dropping while everyone in the real world knows we're at 20-30% and stagnating or rising?
Home sales are just another rigged market. NAR and big bansktas want prices to go up, they'll limit supply and voila. And vice versa. What's really funny/insane is all of this crap destroys any faith in markets, government, banks, realtors, big business, education, honesty, etc. This nonsense destroys society. The long-term effects are obvious - things have been getting worse for most people for a long time now.
Jobs and good salaries used to be the sole determining factor of a nation's welfare. Now we have to see if Zuckerberg is ripping off more people and invading more private lives for $ to see how the US economy is doing. Are more corporations making $ in sweatshops in Somalia and Bangladesh? Are people laundering more $ in real estate? Will a foreign country get exclusive access to our national defense systems because "our corporations" and "our government" met in Davos and decided that was good for quarterly profits, and patriotism is so 18th Century?
Who would have thought that Republicans just might save the day for U.S. labor by refusing to pass this bill?
Folks, you need to keep writing your Congressional representatives but the GOP in the House are the only hope to stop this labor disaster.
Also, the illegals are simply being used, this is a 13 year process with all sorts of hoops so frankly if I was here illegally looking at that deal, it's not good. It basically allows the illegals to turn into exploitable workers and then wait forever to really get rights.
Lobbyists, pundits are simply using the illegals, playing the race card and so on to pass this cheap labor disaster. Lobbyists and cheap labor agenda hide behind the illegals, pathway to citizenship, to try to claim if you are not for flooding the U.S. with an unlimited labor supply then you are against the illegals obtaining rights and that just simply is a lie for this bill delays those rights for so long and has so many gotchas to obtain them.
Well, frankly I don't believe a word Obama says but in terms of profiling people by corporations, private business it is way more worrisome to me than the NSA. Yes, I know the NSA could lead to jail and being blown up by a drone and what not, so clearly that's a huge problem, but being profiled by employers, by credit agencies, banks, etc. could destroy one's life almost to the level of jail and being murdered.
One must wonder though, we know the government is doing some sophisticated AI, data mining, pattern profiling, face recognition and so on, so why is it, Drug cartels are running around with impunity.
Congress is corporate lobbyists these days so having them pass a bill sounds like the fox in the hen house for corporations.
most people are short sighted and dont understand what a house is..homes are not an appreciating asset any more than a car or other durable is, & they are no more like to "recover" to their former high prices than are dutch tulip bulbs going to recover to the prices they sold for in 1637...houses deteriorate over time & eventually are torn down, just as automobiles deteriorate & are eventually junked...originally, the reason houses seemed to appreciate in value was the inflation of the 70s; because money depreciated faster than houses, houses went up in price...if inflation was 100% per year, cars would appear to go up in price every year too; you could then buy a car & drive it three years & sell it for more than you bought it for...with core inflation at record lows, inflation expectations falling below 2% on the possibilitly of QE withdrawal, and disposable personal income stagnant, there is no reason for homes to go up in price..
Tech workers tend towards libertarian style politics and this is a result. I thought it was ironic that it was the AFL-CIO standing up for tech workers. That union would be laughed out of any tech workplace that I've worked at. How long will it take us to learn our lesson?
Kudos. Well said.
Senator Jeff Sessions for President.
I've personally gone to great pains to be accurate on statistics. I've called up experts when I cannot nail something down and on productivity, you have no idea what a pain I was to the BLS in order to ascertain CPI-U-RS vs. CPI-U.
I have pointed out errors with many who ignore significant digits in calculations, especially intermediate calculations.
I hand calculate extensively, from raw data series, dig out data series, derive data and all of that original number crunching actually should be for white papers for it takes a lot of time and effort to do so.
There are others who do this, Chinn does.
So, we maybe less famous, but we sure do try on this site to be extremely accurate, but it does not "pay" in terms of readership and traffic.
Many people simply cannot read any number, their mind goes numb. Out Congress relies on that fact as do many corporations!
month in and month out i see article after article quoting just the census headline housing numbers as if they were gospel...and even well known bloggers, who must know better, ignore that wide margin of error...if they'd just acknowledge it once in a while, then they could go on reporting what census says and i wouldnt blame them...but in continually pretending that these reports are accurate, they lose creditablity in everything else they write...
Ah, the BIS. This was the money laundering machine the Nazis used to move profits from looting the Jews and others. BIS continued to operate as an independent entity for the duration of WW2, facilitating funds transfers between Fascist Europe and the Allies. Many interesting stories about that if you dig a little. So now they continue their service on behalf of the plutocracy. A pox on them.
I think we are the only financial site which amplifies the margin of error on housing statistics and the same with the advance report on Durable Goods. Wall Street just blindly jumps on the number, which is almost always revised.
I think the reason, beyond the financial press, that traders just jump on the number with brain dead zeal is HFT.
HFT utilizes these figures and has algorithms automatically trading on them. This also explains the insane rush to obtain the number and why the release time is held down to the second.
Anyone who gets a jump on the number has a trading advantage but the thing is....how stupid is all of this?
It becomes trading on just numbers with no comprehension on what things mean, simply because a host of HFT algos trade on those figures as do regular traders.
So, we get mind numbing nothing when we have a statistical release which has a margin of error often larger than the reported number of housing starts!
Sigh, they need to ban and regulate HFT, it's become a game of router hop delays instead of any indicator on the future profits of that business.
Yes and they collect the benefit while the family gets nothing. I think 60 Minutes covered that, but of course, nothing happened.
If the NSA is spying on people to the point they know your underwear label, well, they assuredly know about all of the corporate crime being committed yet do nothing.
These things happen, but the corporate press won't cover it. Never heard of how a company could take out insurance on its own employees without them knowing about it, but then we heard about "Dead Peasant" insurance. ID theft happens all the time, HR departments are filled with people that couldn't pass background checks themselves, visa recipients, outsourced HR, etc. Too easy for all our info. to go to the cheapest labor, and some, not all, but some of those people really don't have the best intentions. Especially considering they were hired because they worked for less, of course extra $ directly or turning it over to someone else is an option. It's completely logical. Especially since bank employees themselves have been busted in ID thefts and stealing from bank customers, it's just to easy for them to have friends and accomplices in big companies that also have access to signatures, payroll info., etc. No one is looking out for the employees and customers, it's all "turn over everything for a job or account, and if you get screwed, oh well, no recourse." We are completely unprotected. The FBI cares more about a celebrity tape or photo being released than they do about the average citizens getting screwed through lax security, outsourcing, etc.
Is not good.
I've never heard of a case where an employer did anything with that information, or say took out money they put into the account.
But these days, where satellites can zoom in to see your clothing label, honestly, do you think they do not already have your personal data?
To get a job, you have to give your social security numbers, unless of course you are illegal, then our Congress has deemed it perfectly fine to use other people's social security numbers.
Even Big Mac lovers should take a week off in protest.
Guaranteed business for banks. Direct deposit used to be an option, now it's mandatory. Now along with SSN and everything else, best hope no one in any company anywhere knows how to use bank account numbers and other personal info. to rip off employees' $. At some point personal info., $ info., and every single personal detail of every person in the working world in return for a job = too much trouble and crime for too many people. Now, piss into that cup, give me a blood sample, give me 20 people that have known you for 10+ years, give me your fingerprints where you bank, eat, drink, socialize, etc. in return for a paycheck. Sound good? It's just too much, way too much, especially when it was done so well without all this nonsense for so long.
People get paid faster, there is less paper, i.e. no paper checks, but most employers give the option to receive a paper check.
There are no fees associated with direct deposit, unlike payroll cards and prepaid cards. They take money from accessing an ATM in many cases, "inactivity fees" and the biggest is non-sufficient fund fees.
Gotta wonder what kind of money they split in the boardrooms and in secret agreements to pull this off. Creating wage and forced banking agreements that bone employees = business as usual for people that will never work anywhere for under $10 million/year because they truly believe they are something special.
Come on, crap like this was predictable. Why does every level of govt. and why do most private employers force direct deposit? People are now forced to bank with TBTF (although small banks still exist, but smaller numbers). They force support of TBTF - how's that capitalism or free market choice? It's not, it's guaranteed business for big companies forced on employees with no negotiating power. Same could be said of 401(k)s and pension plans that force investments into funds selected by administrators that pour hundreds of billions of $s into funds run poorly by banksters that make billions for losing $ and not breaking a sweat doing it.
Company towns, being paid in cigarettes and gum, being paid less than earned wages, etc. it's been done here and goes on overseas too, nothing new - history repeats itself all the time, so what are we going to about it because the people renting our politicians love this system and the puppets in the media and politics love it too.
McDonald's will probably pay people in their food only soon. "Loyal" employees would not complain because the bosses would explain it would help McD stock and good employees support their employers at all costs. If they died from eating only McDonald's 24/7, McDonald's would turn around and claim it was only meant to be part of a balanced diet and the employees were to blame. And the politicians would echo that claim and say anything else their corporate paymasters demanded while dining on $100 lunches with filet mignon. Wish I was wrong, but I'm not.
They have created a society of masters and slaves, the elites and the serfs and this government is out to make it worse.
Sorry I'm been short on the articles. Just having disaster after disaster that takes priority.
Back in the day, neighborhoods were built on semi-corruption free government, almost everyone in your neighborhood, town, city, and state working jobs that could support a wife and 2 kids, and being able to do so on 40-50 hours/week. Now, it's all a shell game of bullsh* and headline chasing noise. What's the Fed up to? What's gold at? What's Abe up to in Japan? Will Jamie Dimon take a 24 karat dump or 18 karat only? Will Ben Bernanke work at Government Sux or JP Morgan after he leaves the Fed? Will the feds and states claim unemployment at 7-8% and dropping while everyone in the real world knows we're at 20-30% and stagnating or rising?
Home sales are just another rigged market. NAR and big bansktas want prices to go up, they'll limit supply and voila. And vice versa. What's really funny/insane is all of this crap destroys any faith in markets, government, banks, realtors, big business, education, honesty, etc. This nonsense destroys society. The long-term effects are obvious - things have been getting worse for most people for a long time now.
Jobs and good salaries used to be the sole determining factor of a nation's welfare. Now we have to see if Zuckerberg is ripping off more people and invading more private lives for $ to see how the US economy is doing. Are more corporations making $ in sweatshops in Somalia and Bangladesh? Are people laundering more $ in real estate? Will a foreign country get exclusive access to our national defense systems because "our corporations" and "our government" met in Davos and decided that was good for quarterly profits, and patriotism is so 18th Century?
And of course this is one thing of benefit to real buyers, so pop it goes.
june sales & prices should be interesting..the Fed seems to have lost the handle on the interest rate pump..
Who would have thought that Republicans just might save the day for U.S. labor by refusing to pass this bill?
Folks, you need to keep writing your Congressional representatives but the GOP in the House are the only hope to stop this labor disaster.
Also, the illegals are simply being used, this is a 13 year process with all sorts of hoops so frankly if I was here illegally looking at that deal, it's not good. It basically allows the illegals to turn into exploitable workers and then wait forever to really get rights.
Lobbyists, pundits are simply using the illegals, playing the race card and so on to pass this cheap labor disaster. Lobbyists and cheap labor agenda hide behind the illegals, pathway to citizenship, to try to claim if you are not for flooding the U.S. with an unlimited labor supply then you are against the illegals obtaining rights and that just simply is a lie for this bill delays those rights for so long and has so many gotchas to obtain them.
Well, frankly I don't believe a word Obama says but in terms of profiling people by corporations, private business it is way more worrisome to me than the NSA. Yes, I know the NSA could lead to jail and being blown up by a drone and what not, so clearly that's a huge problem, but being profiled by employers, by credit agencies, banks, etc. could destroy one's life almost to the level of jail and being murdered.
One must wonder though, we know the government is doing some sophisticated AI, data mining, pattern profiling, face recognition and so on, so why is it, Drug cartels are running around with impunity.
Congress is corporate lobbyists these days so having them pass a bill sounds like the fox in the hen house for corporations.
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