FedUpUSA

Archive for February 18th, 2010

Uh, This Is Not Good

Posted by Karl Denninger

Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure

Man Says Actions Intended To Send Message To Banks

MOSCOW, Ohio – 

Like many people, Terry Hoskins has had troubles with his bank. But his solution to foreclosure might be unique.

 Hoskins said he’s been in a struggle with RiverHills Bank over his Clermont County home for nearly a decade, a struggle that was coming to an end as the bank began foreclosure proceedings on his $350,000 home.

 ”When I see I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone decides they want to take it – no, I wasn’t going to stand for that, so I took it down,” Hoskins said.

 Bulldozed Home Photos

Hoskins said the Internal Revenue Service placed liens on his carpet store and commercial property on state Route 125 after his brother, a one-time business partner, sued him.

 The bank claimed his home as collateral, Hoskins said, and went after both his residential and commercial properties.

 Hoskins said he’d gotten a $170,000 offer from someone to pay off the house, but the bank refused, saying they could get more from selling it in foreclosure.

 Hoskins told News 5′s Courtis Fuller that he issued the bank an ultimatum.

 ”I’ll tear it down before I let you take it,” Hoskins told them.

 And that’s exactly what Hoskins did.

 Man Says Actions Intended To Send Message To Banks

The Moscow man used a bulldozer two weeks ago to level the home he’d built, and the sprawling country home is now rubble, buried under a coating of snow.

 ”As far as what the bank is going to get, I plan on giving them back what was on this hill exactly (as) it was,” Hoskins said. “I brought it out of the ground and I plan on putting it back in the ground.”

 Hoskins’ business in Amelia is scheduled to go up for auction on March 2, and he told Fuller he’s considering leveling that building, too.

 RiverHills Bank declined to comment on the situation, but Hoskins said his actions were intended to send a message.

 ”Well, to probably make banks think twice before they try to take someone’s home, and if they are going to take it wrongly, the end result will be them tearing their house down like I did mine,” Hoskins said.

This Is How It Begins (Wanton Violence)

Posted by Karl Denninger

This is not the sort of thing you want to report on.

But I need to, because what looked like an accident originally – a horrible accident, with a plane on approach that had some sort of mechanical problem – now looks to be something else.

AUSTIN, TX (myFOXaustin) – A small aircraft plane has crashed into a 7-story office building in North Austin near Mopac and 183. The plane crashed into the Echelon building around 10 a.m. Thursday morning. Police have blocked off access roads around the building.

….

According to Corp. Scott Perry with APD several federal offices were located inside the building that was struck by the plane.  Officials with NTSB say that IRS offices were some of the federal offices.

CNBS is reporting that there is “no indication that this was an act of terrorism or otherwise intentional.”  Oh really?  Then how come CNBC is claiming on-air that the man involved set fire to his own house first?  Oh, and Fox News just stated that the name of the pilot was…. Mr. Joe Stack.

Uh…. what’s this?

I know I’m hardly the first one to decide I have had all I can stand.  It has always been a myth that people have stopped dying for their freedom in this country, and it isn’t limited to the blacks, and poor immigrants.  I know there have been countless before me and there are sure to be as many after.  But I also know that by not adding my body to the count, I insure nothing will change.  I choose to not keep looking over my shoulder at “big brother” while he strips my carcass, I choose not to ignore what is going on all around me, I choose not to pretend that business as usual won’t continue; I have just had enough.

I can only hope that the numbers quickly get too big to be white washed and ignored that the American zombies wake up and revolt; it will take nothing less.  I would only hope that by striking a nerve that stimulates the inevitable double standard, knee-jerk government reaction that results in more stupid draconian restrictions people wake up and begin to see the pompous political thugs and their mindless minions for what they are.  Sadly, though I spent my entire life trying to believe it wasn’t so, but violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.  The cruel joke is that the really big chunks of shit at the top have known this all along and have been laughing, at and using this awareness against, fools like me all along.

I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different.  I am finally ready to stop this insanity.  Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let’s try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well.

Eek.  That’s a homicide note folks, as distinct from a suicide note in that he has declared that the acts to follow are intended to kill others.

I have archived the entire screed, as I fully expect it to “disappear” very soon.  If it does, I’ll fix the link with one to my archived copy.

Oh, the domain registration?

Registrant:
 Embedded Art
 925 E Hwy 80
 287
 San Marcos, TX 78666
 US

 Domain name: EMBEDDEDART.COM

 Administrative Contact:
    Stack, Joe  dns.5.sgmail@dfgh.net
    925 E Hwy 80
    287
    San Marcos, TX 78666
    US
    1.3215649879
 Technical Contact:
    Stack, Joe  dns.5.sgmail@dfgh.net
    925 E Hwy 80
    287
    San Marcos, TX 78666
    US
    1.3215649879

 Registrar of Record: TUCOWS, INC.
 Record last updated on 16-Sep-2006.
 Record expires on 05-Jun-2010.
 Record created on 05-Jun-2003.

Where is San Marcos? 

Just south – by about 20 miles – of Austin.

Any questions?

Stop lying you media whores.  It took me 30 seconds to uncover this – this is a raw claim of an intentional act published on the Internet - an act of a desperate man taken with the claimed intent of provoking a reaction and ultimately armed violence.

Let me make myself clear: this sort of “political statement” is exactly what this nation does not need.

I have repeatedly warned about the probable response if the population decides that the government is a felon instead of the cops.  Among some of the points I have made:

Should the people come to the conclusion that The Government is in fact a felon – should there be no enforcement at the state level, no real move to “take back” authority vested in The Constitution, returning it to the states and to rein in the crooks, subjecting them to the just desserts for their crimes, there is a very real risk that The People will decide that there is only one way to obtain justice: through the actions of their own hand.

Lest you think this is an unrealistic view, I direct you to Mexico, where the police have become so corrupt that the people are now catching burglars and torturing them on their own.  Vigilante justice is swift, certain, and brutal.

But it is the logical and expected outcome when the people reach the breaking point.  Those who believe it “can’t happen here” are deluded – it both can and will if our government does not stop condoning and in fact conspiring with the crooks that have robbed the people of this nation. 

And by the way, this is not just some “crackpot Internet blogger” saying that the nation has been looted.  How about William Black, a recognized national expert, one of the people who prosecuted the fraud in the S&L Crisis, and who has said, in part:

WILLIAM BLACK: In the savings and loan crisis, where the national commission finds that the typical large failure fraud was invariably present, we had over 1,000 convictions of senior insiders, what the FBI referred to as priority cases. At this stage among the subprime lending specialists, we have zero convictions. We have zero indictments.

PAUL SOLMAN: So, what would you do?

WILLIAM BLACK: I would prosecute the felons.

So, in September 2004, the FBI began publicly warning that there was — quote, unquote — “epidemic” of mortgage fraud, and it predicted that it would produce an economic crisis, if it were not dealt with. The FBI has also said that 80 percent of the mortgage fraud losses occur when lender personnel are involved. So, Fitch looks at a small sample of these loans, finally, in November 2007.

PAUL SOLMAN: Fitch is one of the ratings agencies?

WILLIAM BLACK: Yes. It’s the smallest of the big three.

What did they find? They said, the results were disconcerting, in that there was the appearance of fraud in nearly every file we examined. And they said that normal underwriting would have detected all of those frauds.

History tells us what the response is to “Let them eat cake”, and I do not wish to witness a repeat of that ugly episode in the United States!  Our Constitution and system of laws is supposed to make that impossible, but as we have seen, it doesn’t seem to have worked all that well over the last two decades, has it?

STOP THE LOOTING AND START PROSECUTING!

America—A Country of Serfs Ruled By Oligarchs

By Paul Craig Roberts 

The media has headlined good economic news: fourth quarter GDP growth of 5.7 percent (“the recession is over”), Jan. retail sales up, productivity up in 4th quarter, the dollar is gaining strength. Is any of it true? What does it mean?

The 5.7 percent growth figure is a guesstimate made in advance of the release of the U.S. trade deficit statistic. It assumed that the U.S. trade deficit would show an improvement. When the trade deficit was released a few days later, it showed a deterioration, knocking the 5.7 percent growth figure down to 4.6 percent. Much of the remaining GDP growth consists of inventory accumulation.

More than a fourth of the reported gain in Jan. retail sales is due to higher gasoline and food prices. Questionable seasonal adjustments account for the rest.

Productivity was up, because labor costs fell 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter, the fourth successive decline. Initial claims for jobless benefits rose. Productivity increases that do not translate into wage gains cannot drive the consumer economy.

Housing is still under pressure, and commercial real estate is about to become a big problem.

The dollar’s gains are not due to inherent strengths. The dollar is gaining because government deficits in Greece and other EU countries are causing the dollar carry trade to unwind. America’s low interest rates made it profitable for investors and speculators to borrow dollars and use them to buy overseas bonds paying higher interest, such as Greek, Spanish and Portuguese bonds denominated in euros. The deficit troubles in these countries have caused investors and speculators to sell the bonds and convert the euros back into dollars in order to pay off their dollar loans. This unwinding temporarily raises the demand for dollars and boosts the dollar’s exchange value.

The problems of the American economy are too great to be reached by traditional policies. Large numbers of middle class American jobs have been moved offshore: manufacturing, industrial and professional service jobs. When the jobs are moved offshore, consumer incomes and U.S. GDP go with them. So many jobs have been moved abroad that there has been no growth in U.S. real incomes in the 21st century, except for the incomes of the super rich who collect multi-million dollar bonuses for moving U.S. jobs offshore.

Without growth in consumer incomes, the economy can go nowhere. Washington policymakers substituted debt growth for income growth. Instead of growing richer, consumers grew more indebted. Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan accomplished this with his low interest rate policy, which drove up housing prices, producing home equity that consumers could tap and spend by refinancing their homes.

Unable to maintain their accustomed living standards with income alone, Americans spent their equity in their homes and ran up credit card debts, maxing out credit cards in anticipation that rising asset prices would cover the debts. When the bubble burst, the debts strangled consumer demand, and the economy died.

As I write about the economic hardships created for Americans by Wall Street and corporate greed and by indifferent and bribed political representatives, I get many letters from former middle class families who are being driven into penury. Here is one recently arrived:

“Thank you for your continued truthful commentary on the ‘New Economy.’ My husband and I could be its poster children. Nine years ago when we married, we were both working good paying, secure jobs in the semiconductor manufacturing sector. Our combined income topped $100,000 a year. We were living the dream. Then the nightmare began. I lost my job in the great tech bubble of 2003, and decided to leave the labor force to care for our infant son. Fine, we tightened the belt. Then we started getting squeezed. Expenses rose, we downsized, yet my husband’s job stagnated. After several years of no pay raises, he finally lost his job a year and a half ago. But he didn’t just lose a job, he lost a career. The semiconductor industry is virtually gone here in Arizona. Three months later, my husband, with a technical degree and 20-plus years of solid work experience, received one job offer for an entry level corrections officer. He had to take it, at an almost 40 percent reduction in pay. Bankruptcy followed when our savings were depleted. We lost our house, a car, and any assets we had left. His salary last year, less than $40,000, to support a family of four. A year and a half later, we are still struggling to get by. I can’t find a job that would cover the cost of daycare. We are stuck. Every jump in gas and food prices hits us hard. Without help from my family, we wouldn’t have made it. So, I could tell you just how that ‘New Economy’ has worked for us, but I’d really rather not use that kind of language.” 

Policymakers who are banking on stimulus programs are thinking in terms of an economy that no longer exists. Post-war U.S. recessions and recoveries followed Federal Reserve policy. When the economy heated up and inflation became a problem, the Federal Reserve would raise interest rates and reduce the growth of money and credit. Sales would fall. Inventories would build up. Companies would lay off workers.

Inflation cooled, and unemployment became the problem. Then the Federal Reserve would reverse course. Interest rates would fall, and money and credit would expand. As the jobs were still there, the work force would be called back, and the process would continue.

It is a different situation today. Layoffs result from the jobs being moved offshore and from corporations replacing their domestic work forces with foreigners brought in on H-1B, L-1 and other work visas. The U.S. labor force is being separated from the incomes associated with the goods and services that it consumes. With the rise of offshoring, layoffs are not only due to restrictive monetary policy and inventory buildup. They are also the result of the substitution of cheaper foreign labor for U.S. labor by American corporations. Americans cannot be called back to work to jobs that have been moved abroad. In the New Economy, layoffs can continue despite low interest rates and government stimulus programs.

To the extent that monetary and fiscal policy can stimulate U.S. consumer demand, much of the demand flows to the goods and services that are produced offshore for U.S. markets. China, for example, benefits from the stimulation of U.S. consumer demand. The rise in China’s GDP is financed by a rise in the U.S. public debt burden.

Another barrier to the success of stimulus programs is the high debt levels of Americans. The banks are being criticized for a failure to lend, but much of the problem is that there are no consumers to whom to lend. Most Americans already have more debt than they can handle.

Hapless Americans, unrepresented and betrayed, are in store for a greater crisis to come. President Bush’s war deficits were financed by America’s trade deficit. China, Japan, and OPEC, with whom the U.S. runs trade deficits, used their trade surpluses to purchase U.S. Treasury debt, thus financing the U.S. government budget deficit.

The problem now is that the U.S. budget deficits have suddenly grown immensely from wars, bankster bailouts, jobs stimulus programs, and lower tax revenues as a result of the serious recession. Budget deficits are now three times the size of the trade deficit. Thus, the surpluses of China, Japan, and OPEC are insufficient to take the newly issued U.S. government debt off the market.

If the Treasury’s bonds can’t be sold to investors, pension funds, banks, and foreign governments, the Federal Reserve will have to purchase them by creating new money. When the rest of the world realizes the inflationary implications, the US dollar will lose its reserve currency role. When that happens Americans will experience a large economic shock as their living standards take another big hit.

America is on its way to becoming a country of serfs ruled by oligarchs.

Paul Craig Roberts [email him] was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during President Reagan’s first term.  He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal.  He has held numerous academic appointments, including the William E. Simon Chair, Center for Strategic and International Studies, Georgetown University, and Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University. He was awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Francois Mitterrand. He is the author of Supply-Side Revolution : An Insider’s Account of Policymaking in Washington;  Alienation and the Soviet Economy and Meltdown: Inside the Soviet Economy, and is the co-author with Lawrence M. Stratton of The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name of Justice. Click here for Peter Brimelow’s Forbes Magazine interview with Roberts about the epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct. His latest book, How The Economy Was Lost, has just been published by CounterPunch/AK Press.

The Fed Has A “Goal” Of Lawful Behavior?

Posted by Karl Denninger

Santelli: No Need to Stir ‘Tea Party’ Pot

By Phil Rosenthal

It was part Howard Beale, the “mad as hell” movie newsman, and part Howard Jarvis, the anti-tax crusader for fiscal responsibility. CNBC editor Rick Santelli’s self-described rant on live TV from the trading floor of the CME Group helped bring this nation’s “tea party” movement to a boil.

Yet Santelli has been content to let the party go on without him.

“So many outlets … seemed to acknowledge that the movement began with those four minutes of airtime, about 8:35 (a.m.) Eastern on Feb. 19,” Santelli, 53, said Wednesday, two days ahead of the one-year anniversary of his “Squawk Box” call for a Chicago tea party “dumping … some derivative securities” into Lake Michigan. “We were a lightning rod, and it sparked a groundswell.

“Tea parties and these movements have been around, obviously. I think it did find a moment of clarity and maybe I helped bring that about, but it was not through any actions of mine I did post-Feb. 19. … I have no desire to be its leader, but I’m proud as hell … to have been a part of creating it.”

Still unchanged are Santelli’s core beliefs — the ones that made the former trader a multimedia sensation with broadband speed with his complaint the federal government was “promoting bad behavior” through mortgage bailouts, alluding to communist Cuba. Those tenets also include investing in what you know rather than speculating for a quick buck. That may explain why Santelli elected not to parlay the popular sentiment he so effectively tapped last year into lucrative new gigs as a political commentator or talk-radio host or a quickie book deal.

Rather than take the lead of what initially was dubbed “Rick’s Revolt,” he accepted his footnote in the movement and signed a multiyear renewal with CNBC, where he has been a full-time on-camera editor offering multiple daily dispatches since 1999.

He has received a few more varied speaking invitations than before and he’s recognized with greater frequency (especially in Chicago’s western suburbs, where he lives), he said. He also about eight weeks ago quit the smoking habit he picked up as an undergrad at the University of Illinois.

Otherwise, life for Santelli, a commentator once little known beyond the business crowd NBC Universal‘s cable financial network targets, is as it was. He still goes off on an occasional tear, but nothing has caught fire the same way. Of course, the White House has not questioned whether he knows what he’s talking about since then, either.

“In hindsight, those could have been the best four minutes of my life, but I think we all know what we’re good at in life,” Santelli said. “My passion’s what I did before Feb. 19, and what I’ve continued to do since then and hopefully will continue to do for many more years. I love the markets.”

The tea party movement has snowballed in the interim, a political force borne of distrust of what the government and its priorities have become, giving those who feel disenfranchised a sense of empowerment.

“It doesn’t need an explanation. It just needs a voting booth,” Santelli said. “I identify with the philosophy … that this country is about entrepreneurship, capitalism, individualism, speaking up, having an opinion.”

Nonpolitical fallout of Santelli’s railing against the feds included Comedy Central‘s Jon Stewart‘s methodical takedown of CNBC and analyst Jim Cramer for insufficiently challenging the business leaders whose missteps played a role in the economic downturn. Then a report on Playboy.com charging Santelli’s rant was a premeditated agitprop abruptly vanished without a trace, clarification, correction or explanation in the face of vehement denials.

“It’s very disappointing when you are the one person who knows the facts of a situation and you read something that is blatantly untrue,” Santelli said.

Santelli today is working on a book, just not one rushed out for the maximum payday. “If I write something, it’s not going to be about four minutes in my life,” he explained.

Much of what he struck a nerve with last year, he said, “rings very true to the conditions we find ourselves in” and yet he doesn’t feel he missed out by not trying to become the next Glenn Beck. He didn’t have to be steeped in the tea party movement. Blowing off steam was enough.

philrosenthal@tribune.com