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The Wheels Are Coming Off
Just wanted to put in writing a list of the events that are currently occurring in this country and around the world just 3 short years after the financial crisis and subsequent bailout of the banksters. It will illustrate that absolutely nothing was fixed and the only beneficiaries of the bailouts and stimulus were the bank executives via record bonuses.
GREECE IS SET TO DEFAULT AFTER $110 BILLION RESCUE – Banks are trying to save the country but there is no hope as everyone is protesting and the people of the country that actually do the work have all said enough is enough.
DOT COM BUBBLE NUMBER 2 IS BURSTING RIGHT BEFORE OUR EYES – Pandora went public yesterday and less than a day later is below the IPO price of 16. LinkedIN is in the same boat. Groupon is next.
CALIFORNIA IS STILL BANKRUPT AND BUDGET IS A JOKE – As goes California so goes the US. Oh, and the economic news is horrible in Philly too.
NUCLEAR DISASTER IN JAPAN CONTINUES – If the lies and ineptitude that have been exposed during this crisis (not to mention the rods) don’t put an end to nuclear energy then we all deserve to become radiated.
GOLD HOVERS JUST BELOW ALL TIME RECORD PRICES
SMALL BUSINESSES BEING CHOKED TO DEATH BY BANKS
FEDERAL RESERVE OWNS $2.8 TRILLION IN US DEBT – the size of Germany’s economy is only $3.3 Trillion.
WE WENT OVER THE LEGAL LIMIT OF OUR DEBT SO WE TOOK MONEY FROM RETIREMENT ACCOUNTS – The ceiling will be raised and we will continue to have our politicians spend all the money they get and we will ask for another increase. Until one day the whole thing falls in on itself.
CONGRESSMEN HAVE TO SUE THE PRESIDENT FOR STARTING A WAR IN LIBYA WITHOUT APPROVAL FROM CONGRESS – Shouldn’t they just impeach him? And why is this not in the main street media?
Weekly Update
This week is the NAR Mid-Year Legislative Conference. There is a big stir going through the ranks of the REALTORS regarding a forced contribution to RPAC. RPAC is the REALTORS contribution to the corruption of government officials via campaign contributions. It is how America now works. You must buy (read bribe) legislators to get bills passed that benefit your membership.
The problem is our leadership is too dumb to ask for things that actually help the real estate market, homeowners and REALTORS. So it is a big waste of money. Last year it was money for tax credit for first time buyers. That did absolutely nothing but waste $22 Billion and create a temporary short lived blip in the housing market that has since been completely wiped out as is evidence here, here and here.
I am completely redoing the website for my real estate business. There is a reason for this and I will tell you about that at a later date but one of the reasons was for aesthetics. I found a wordpress theme that I really like and I applied it to this blog as well. Let me know what you think (only if it is positive).
I will be doing some President-Elect stuff at the NAR Mid-Year as well. Still spending a good amount of time on DAAR things. I enjoy the leadership aspects of being a Board member and member of the executive committee. It makes me more thoughtful in my actions and how they will influence the lives of others. I recommend it for every agent who wants to own a company or be a leader of people.
Next week is real estate marketing and lead conversion.
But the Dips in Silver
There was a massive drop in the price of silver last week when the COMEX successfully created a sell off by increase the margin requirements 5 times in 8 days. This obvious manipulation has given savvy investors a tremendous buying opportunity. I picked up silver on Friday at around $35.50 an ounce. This morning it is trading near $38.50. Check out. live silver prices at Kitco.
The fundamentals still hold for silver and gold. There is more demand for the actual silver than there is silver produced. Here are some articles discussing silver that will give you an idea of how to analyze the market regarding silver and what to look for. Or you can just subscribe to this blog and get updated on a weekly basis.
SLV Silver Holdings Jump 3% From 2011 Lows
So About That Speculative, And Undisputed, Silver Bubble…
And So It Continues: Another 92 Thousand Ounces In Physical Silver Withdrawn From Comex Despite Historic Paper Collapse
CME Hikes Silver Margins By 17%: 4th Hike In 8 Trading Days
I would advise everyone to do what the reserve banks of countries around the world (except for the idiots running our banks) are doing and that is buying silver as protection against a collapse in the fiat currency system now in place. It happens every 40 years or so. It is not a rare occurrence and you should be prepared for it.
You can buy Silver and Gold in your IRA in case you were wondering.
Click here to buy silver where I get my silver, Apmex.
Real Estate News
There are lots of stories about real estate in the news and there is a little something for everyone, whether you are are buyer, seller, investor, REALTOR, lawyer, politician, statistician or bankster. Here is what I am seeing and how it will affect us Americans.
NAR wants to make political donations mandatory.
If you are a REALTOR and if you are interested in the continued corruption in American politics, this story should interest you. The NAR, of which I am a reluctant member, is considering passing an “initiative” to make every REALTOR give $40 to the REALTOR Political Action Committee. This would mean about $40 Million set aside to buy Americas finest politicians. Actually, not all would go to the corrupt officials that make our laws but a lot would. And it would be directed by NAR officials that do things like push for tax credits instead of real reform. Tax credits that were abused to the tune of $513 Million and created no additional sales. If you read the comments at the end of the sales promotion for the forced contributions, you will get an idea of just what the members think about this initiative. And you will see that the actual directors who will vote on it are not returning any phone calls or emails from the members. They seem to have taken a page out of the book of leadership that our US Congressman use. Here is an example of one members response:
This no more then a contest to see who can raise the most money to funnel to politicians that got us into this mess in the first place. Lobbying is already the biggest part of the NAR budget. With this picking of agents pockets over 50% of dues will go to soft money campaigns. It’s pure BS. If this is approved this RPAC Sterling R donor will never give to RPAC AGAIN.
Foreclosures Off 30% this year.
You would think this was good news but you would be wrong. In fact, this is horrible news because people aren’t defaulting less and less people are not falling behind in payments. It is just that banks have been illegally foreclosing on people and courts are ruling the foreclosures are not valid. This has happened in New York, Massachusetts and now Alabama. Major foreclosure mills that perpetrated the robo-signing frauds in an effort to foreclose on everyone no matter if it was valid or not have either been sued and/or shut down. The entire servicing and foreclosure industry is so rife with fraud it is a wonder there are any foreclosures currently happening because almost every one could be reversed in the future by a judge or jury that actually enforces the property rights of the defendants in any foreclosure case. At this point in time, any one who is in foreclosure or has been foreclosed on has a pretty good chance to get their house back or sue the bank for damages, as these cases illustrate.
The bad news is the mess is only getting worse and that means the recovery in housing is not going to happen any time soon.
Banks are settling with SEC, AGs and others for frauds they committed.
SEC settlement on mortgage bond fraud. For pennies on the dollar I am sure.
Regulators slap banks on wrist for mortgage fraud. Look for these regulators to be working at the very banks they investigated and charge nothing for the frauds they committed.
State Attorneys General from all 50 states were going to punish the banksters but that collapsed when it turned out that Tom Miller, AG of Iowa, was more interested in a job at the national level as the obvious stepping stone to being a bankster himself.
Other frauds and laws broken by banks:
Goldman Sachs executives lie to Congress. This will go no where because Goldman Sachs runs the Treasury.
And who has gone to jail so far? No one. Why?
Department of Justice doesn’t fell like it.
And still doesn’t feel like it.
They would rather go after poker sites.
Zillow just announced it will be going public. Look for this to be a good indication of a market top in online real estate sites. They are now a commodity and their values will plummet just like the values of online stock brokerage firms did.
Silver Update
My first reference to silver was on December 3rd on my Facebook wall and then on December 14th I said “Go Long Silver” when it hit $30.68 based on JP Morgan finally saying they were going to cover their short position. Since then you had many opportunities to make purchases in the high 20′s as well as at or near $30.00. This is no longer the case as silver has now broken out over $40 and sits at $42+. That is a $12.00 profit on a $30.00 investment in 4 months.
The fundamentals still point to higher prices as demand continues to far outstrip supply and major investment banks continue to sell their clients silver but never really have any silver to sell. They can do this as long as their clients don’t ask for physical deliver of the metal. The US Mint has run out of silver for all intents and purposes. And each week more and more news points to low supply and high demand.
Here are a couple from this week:
Bolivia might nationalize their silver mines – if this happens private money disappears and actual production of silver drops off a cliff – decrease in supply
US Mint Silver Proof Sets Suspended as Silver Prices Break $40 – US Mint has trouble finding silver
164 Tomahawk Missiles fired in Libya have 500 oz of silver each inside – that is more than $20,000 in silver
And a couple stories about GOLD:
Did Gold hit a tipping point last week? – University of Texas told delivery of $1 Billion in gold. I read the story but delivery was to a vault in New York, not shipped to Texas so who really knows if it exists and was in fact delivered.
$1 Billion of Gold Bars Taken Delivery Of By Pension Fund Due to Risk of COMEX Default and Shortage
And as the US Dollar continues to be worth less and less compared to everything else, putting your money into precious metals gets an added boost as paper money (really linen and cotton) buys less and less thanks to the Fed.
If you want to buy some silver or gold to protect yourself, you can do so by following these links:
US Government Sells Citizens Down the River – Banks pay Nothing
Once again, the government has really handed it to the banks. The got them to follow the laws that already exist. Stop foreclosing on people illegally. Stop forging documents. Stop kicking soldiers families into the streets. Wait. Those are already laws. What else do they have to do? Nothing.
Way to go government. Complete and utter sham. How much are these people getting paid to let the banks destroy America?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42569410/ns/business-real_estate/
Obama Definition of Change
If you give me $1.00, I will promise you change of 25cents. I am listening to the man that said he would cut the deficit in half during his first term and has actually doubled it. Oops. But now he is going to cut $4 Trillion in 10 years. How will he do that you ask? By increasing the budge to $10 Gajillion….or is it $10 Bazillion. Either way it is a made up number just like this promise of cutting the deficit is a made up promise.
Metro to Loudoun County in Jeopardy of being Derailed
So the Board of Directors of the MWAA, who somehow has control over the metro, gets to decide how to spend everyone else’s money and does so against the wishes of everyone. Here is what this Board of Idiots did. They decided to put the metro stop at Dulles Airport underground thereby adding $300 Million in costs and 6 months in time to the project. Everyone else wanted it above ground because it was more fiscally responsible.
And what reason did these morons give for the underground station? It would protect the riders from the elements and be closer to the airport terminal. Really? $300 Million for that. Here is an alternative to wasting $300 Million – Umbrellas and walking shoes. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the MWAA Board of Corruption is somehow making a ton of money by wasting $300 Million of other peoples money to keep train riders dry and fat. Is it any surprise this board is appointed by politicians that are all too experienced at spending other peoples money while taking “contributions” from PACs, lobbyists and other special interest groups. But that is what our government has evolved into as explained in this very good paper on how the US government now works.
Jamie Dimon Forecloses on Soldiers Illegally
There is a law that protects soldiers from having their homes taken from them. It is called the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. JP Morgan, the bank that is run by Jamie Dimon, broke that law on 14 occasions by kicking the families of soldiers out onto the street. And then they applied their predatory tactics on 4000 other servicemen and women by charging them interest rates above what the law allows.
And what was the banks response? We feel bad. We will give them their houses back. That is just awesome. What about the harassment that went on for years due to your mistakes in calculating a mortgage rate? One couple fought the bank for almost 5 years. Do they get that time back? Do they get compensated for the harassing phone calls at 3am? Why does it take a lawyer and the threat of a lawsuit for the bank to do what it is legal responsible to do?
And what does Congressman Richard Shelby say in response to this complete disregard for the law? I expect them to make this right. Is that all you have?
Well I expect you to hold someone accountable for once, Mr. Shelby. Do you have the spine? Do you have the ability to refuse the deep pockets of the banks and instead protect your constituents?
Someone needs to go to jail. They broke the law and they need to be punished. If not, they will continue to do the same thing over and over because there are no consequences. Send a message and send Jamie Dimon to jail!!!