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[sc0la]

The drop after the stimulus makes you wish it had been bigger or more frequent.

Or more narrowly focused. More spending, less tax incentives, bump it to 1T would have been nice.

 

[Rocket Scientist]

Vote him out of office, and vote in Mitt "corporations are people" Romney? Romney would've made an even worse deal.

He knows he'll have to vote for obama anyway. Let him cool his, justified, anger for now. I just realized that I haven't heard the words bank or foreclosure been uttered by the republicans candidates, but maybe I've just missed it. Has it been a subject during the debates or in their commercials? This would strike me as incredibly odd since their voters must have been affected by what happened too. Are they not going to demand justice from their candidates.

Edit: And yea definitely less focus on tax incentives. Really wish they'd gone with the full 1.2T too.

 

[gcubed]

UE claims reach their lowest levels in four years:
http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/09/10361363-jobless-claims-continue-to-improve

so whats the reasoning for thinking labor participation is going to stay low? UE benefits? With all the positive job news lately i find it hard to believe participation isn't going to increase

 

[The Librarian]

Mr. Schneiderman was able to win significant concessions from the banks in recent days.

In the agreement’s expected final form, the releases are mostly limited to the foreclosure process, like the eviction of homeowners after only a cursory examination of documents, a practice known as robo-signing.

The prosecutors and regulators still have the right to investigate other elements that contributed to the housing bubble, like the assembly of risky mortgages into securities that were sold to investors and later soured, as well as insurance and tax fraud.

Officials will also be able to pursue any allegations of criminal wrongdoing. In addition, a lawsuit Mr. Schneiderman filed Friday against MERS, an electronic mortgage registry responsible for much of the robo-signing that has marred the foreclosure process nationwide, and three banks, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, will also go forward.

Along with how broad the releases would be, California’s attorney general, Kamala Harris, also pushed for her state to be able to use the state’s False Claims Act. That would enable state officials and huge pension funds like Calpers to collect sizable monetary damages from the banks if officials could prove mortgages were improperly packaged into securities that later dropped in value.

Etc., etc.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/b...deal-for-homeowners.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&hp

 

[Rocket Scientist]

so whats the reasoning for thinking labor participation is going to stay low? UE benefits? With all the positive job news lately i find it hard to believe participation isn't going to increase

It depends on who stopped participating. If it's young or other people who decided to start or prolong their education, that could mean they would have a longer time between re-entry for example.

There was a report about it from jp Morgan recently, no? I think it said participation wouldn't start increasing significantly until 2013. Not sure what their reasoning or models look like myself.

 

[gcubed]

It depends on who stopped participating. If it's young or other people who decided to start or prolong their education, that could mean they would have a longer time between re-entry for example.

There was a report about it from jp Morgan recently, no? I think it said participation wouldn't start increasing significantly until 2013. Not sure what their reasoning or models look like myself.

yeah thats the report i was mentioning, but i dont remember it giving any reasons why. I did think about people jumping back into school during the down market... maybe older are close to retiring and they moved things around to retire early, etc. I'm assuming with the baby boomer generation moving faster towards retirement we are going to have lower standard participation rate between the generations.

 

[Lucky Forward]

43% Say Random Choices From Phone Book Better Than Current Congress

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 43% believe a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree with that assessment, while another 19% are not sure.

 

[Zzoram]

I'm considering doing a PhD because my field is starving for jobs right now. If I don't get a job by late spring I'm applying for PhD programs. I wonder how many other people are doing this, getting extra degrees while the economy is bad.

 

[Rocket Scientist]

yeah thats the report i was mentioning, but i dont remember it giving any reasons why. I did think about people jumping back into school during the down market... maybe older are close to retiring and they moved things around to retire early, etc. I'm assuming with the baby boomer generation moving faster towards retirement we are going to have lower standard participation rate between the generations.

Those two reasons alone could definitely have such a big impact I would think. Tired people eager to retire and having a hard time finding anything and students investing in being more competitive in their fields. But yea it'd be interesting to see the exact reasoning behind the estimates. Going to look it up more at home.

 

[gcubed]

i do love how calculatedrisk is basically a pure doomsayer blog. When shit is bad they have 5 page write ups, back patting and doom and gloom. When its good news its "here is the news, kthxbye"

 

[maximum360]

Hopefully Obama shows some balls and doubles down on this conservative attack on contraceptives. America will support him and the GOP will look ridiculous.

Also, found this funny George Carlin monologue about Republicans:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsBfqrNoFXQ

He should probably come out in front of the issue, give a speech clarifying the decision and where they plan to go from here. If he doesn't, the GOP will just continue distort with false accusations and sensationalize the issue and the media will be all too happy to oblige.

 

[Evlar]

i do love how calculatedrisk is basically a pure doomsayer blog. When shit is bad they have 5 page write ups, back patting and doom and gloom. When its good news its "here is the news, kthxbye"

This is truth, heh. It's a good aggregator for domestic economic reports, particularly news on real estate, but I wouldn't feel comfortable solely using its coverage as an accurate picture of the state of the economy.

 

[gcubed]

He should probably come out in front of the issue, give a speech clarifying the decision and where they plan to go from here. If he doesn't, the GOP will just continue distort with false accusations and sensationalize the issue and the media will be all too happy to oblige.

i really dont think anyone cares besides the most staunch conservatives, of which Obama shouldn't cater to

 

[GhaleonEB]

so whats the reasoning for thinking labor participation is going to stay low? UE benefits? With all the positive job news lately i find it hard to believe participation isn't going to increase

Here, with a follow up analysis here. Short version: a natural structural shrinking of the participation rate (due partly to an aging population) might offset discouraged workers re-entering the workforce.

i do love how calculatedrisk is basically a pure doomsayer blog. When shit is bad they have 5 page write ups, back patting and doom and gloom. When its good news its "here is the news, kthxbye"

Yup, their UI posts truncated to the point of hilarity. Whole oft-repeated paragraphs of doom nipped out replaced with nothing.

The UI drop this morning is great news, very good sign for the February jobs report.

 

[Skiptastic]

43% Say Random Choices From Phone Book Better Than Current Congress

Jokes on them if they're young. Cell phone numbers aren't in the phone book, so the new Congress would naturally skew older! And it's one of those funny things where people hate Congress yet continually re-elect those who are already there. Guess they hate everyone that ISN'T there own official.

Post this on all your FB pages pls:

http://i.imgur.com/TwhmT.png

All of those things only work against the idea that "I've never taken a cent from the government." That is naturally wrong and it doesn't take a comic to explain it. Doesn't work against the Tea Party idea that government is too large. Just saying.

And isn't this about two years too late? lol

 

[gcubed]

Here, with a follow up analysis here. Short version: a natural structural shrinking of the participation rate (due partly to an aging population) might offset discouraged workers re-entering the workforce.



Yup, their UI posts truncated to the point of hilarity. Whole oft-repeated paragraphs of doom nipped out replaced with nothing.

The UI drop this morning is great news, very good sign for the February jobs report.

thanks i was looking for that on CR but couldn't find it. So its not all bad news, some of it's just an aging population advancing retirement that is offsetting.

That being said, if the unemployment rate is 7.5% for election time, this is going to be a boring thread

 

[ToxicAdam]

Even if the rate stays at 8.5, it's going to be a boring thread. Almost all the swing states are doing better than they were when Obama took office. Obama has this.

I mean, I'm sure there will be a post-convention bump that will make it seem like a race, but the underlying reality of the electoral map is going to remain the same.

 

[RustyNails]

I'm considering doing a PhD because my field is starving for jobs right now. If I don't get a job by late spring I'm applying for PhD programs. I wonder how many other people are doing this, getting extra degrees while the economy is bad.

PhD's are double edged swords...It's good to have that degree, but you will be incredibly overqualified for 90% of the positions. If you see your future in academics, then I would say go for it. Otherwise, just get another Bachelor's or a Master's in a different program, like management. That not only makes your resume look good, but it boosts you past other candidates looking for similar positions. You now have both the hard skills and the soft skills.

 

[Chichikov]

Even if the rate stays at 8.5, it's going to be a boring thread. Almost all the swing states are doing better than they were when Obama took office. Obama has this.

I mean, I'm sure there will be a post-convention bump that will make it seem like a race, but the underlying reality of the electoral map is going to remain the same.

You never know, Obama can always get caught fucking a white woman.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Oh god, we need to create a multi-verse viewing machine to make this happen. The country would implode. They would have to create entirely new cable networks just to discuss it.

 

[RustyNails]

The UI drop this morning is great news, very good sign for the February jobs report.

Dare I say, we might see UE rate falling by another point or two come next month?

 

[gcubed]

I'd love to see him start hanging around with scientologists.

 

[Dr. Pangloss]

Those wondering about the bank settlement, Matt Yglesias has a good write up:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/02/09/the_five_things_you_need_to_know_about_today_s_foreclosure_settlement.html

Schneiderman (NY Attorney General) is pursuing a seperate lawsuit against MERS which banks have been relying on in the foreclosure process, and that hasn't been folded in to the big settlement. Kamala Harris has preserved her right (and CALPERS' right) to undertake separate litigation under the California False Claims Act. Martha Coakley out of Massachusetts also has some other litigation that's staying open. Private rights of action about foreclosure fraud remain intact. So rather than settling the whole thing, the banks have settled some large piece of the thing. The best news for them, legally speaking, is that this cuts off some further lines of investigation. Typically when you see this much smoke, you naturally wonder if there's fire, but a settlement will make it difficult to ever fully know the facts.

The bottom line is that a range of struggling homeowners should have a few thousand dollars of help coming their way either in the form of direct settlement checks, principle modifications, or enhanced ability to refinance. This is a drop in the bucket compared to the total quantity of lost wealth, but in practical terms thousands of dollars today can be worth a lot more to a family than the hope that years of highly politicized litigation will pay off bigger in the future.

As we know, the Obama administration puts a great deal of emphasis on "credit channel" theories of financial crisis and recovery. Their big hope was to use the litigation as a lever to deliver some assistance to families and some improvements in foreclosure processes without threatening the basic solvency of major banks. They also want to get the cloud of legal uncertainty off from the banks' heads so they can engage in their normal operations. As they see it, this is win-win-win for the economy. Banks will pony up money, but not more money than they can afford, and they'll be able to operate on a forward-looking basis and maintain the flow of credit. The alternative of suing banks into insolvency and then needing to bail them out again was not an appealing alternative.

One man's bug is another man's feature, of course, and since at least 2008 there's been a constituency of people pushing for a real fundamental change in the nature of American finance. At times that's meant refusing to appropriate TARP or insisting on nationalization of Bank of America or pushing for the Safe Banking Act. Once the banks were caught engaged in widespread misconduct, that created an opportunity to try to litigate the megabanks to death which is very much not what this settlement represents.

Basically if you wanted to hurt the banks till they failed, then this settlement is not for you. If your goal is to break up the big banks into smaller ones, then I would suggest you do it through political activities rather than legal. Much more controlled that way. But it also is not likely to happen due to the banks' influence on the political process.

 

[ToxicAdam]

USPS announced another 3.3B in losses for the quarter. Hopefully Congress finally agrees on some reform this year.

 

[DasRaven]

You never know, Obama can always get caught fucking a white woman.

Love ya Michelle, but this was too fitting to not post.

 

[GhaleonEB]

Those wondering about the bank settlement, Matt Yglesias has a good write up:

Basically if you wanted to hurt the banks till they failed, then this settlement is not for you. If your goal is to break up the big banks into smaller ones, then I would suggest you do it through political activities rather than legal. Much more controlled that way. But it also is not likely to happen due to the banks' influence on the political process.

Thanks for the link, that was a good read. It fits with Obama's approach to working within the existing systems, rather than actually improving or reforming them. Seems it will make a tangible but insufficient impact.

I may have missed it, but what is there to assure the banks don't just go right back to doing what they've been doing? I don't see oversight or enforcement (nevermind accountability). It sure looks like they simply got away with it.

 

[empty vessel]

USPS announced another 3.3B in losses for the quarter. Hopefully Congress finally agrees on some reform this year.

Why? The USPS is a government program. It is allowed to cost money. This isn't to say that reform of some kind may be good (it's always good to improve things), but I don't see what the bare fact of its costing 3.5B has to do with it.

 

[Dr. Pangloss]

Thanks for the link, that was a good read. It fits with Obama's approach to working within the existing systems, rather than actually improving or reforming them. Seems it will make a tangible but insufficient impact.

I may have missed it, but what is there to assure the banks don't just go right back to doing what they've been doing? I don't see oversight or enforcement (nevermind accountability). It sure looks like they simply got away with it.

Not sure on accountability. I would assume that the settlement does not cover any future illegal acts that the banks commit. If it was found out that they did continue to fill out forms fraudulently, then I assume the terms of the settlement would be voided and open them up again to new litigation. I think the banks will have incentive enough now to make sure all the Ts are crossed and the Is dotted. Also, I don't think the Attorney Generals get any new investigative powers from this. They would still have to use what they currently have, which would most likely be subpoenaing records.

 

[Mike M]

Just in case you forgot, Santorum is an unthinking theocratic douchebag.

I'm far from religious, but grew up in a Jewish household in the central valley of California, and this sort of shit just mashes all my rage buttons at once.

 

[maximum360]

Love ya Michelle, but this was too fitting to not post.

LOL. Dem evil eyes.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Just in case you forgot, Santorum is an unthinking theocratic douchebag.

I'm far from religious, but grew up in a Jewish household in the central valley of California, and this sort of shit just mashes all my rage buttons at once.

WOW. Is that real?

The dradels look like middle fingers to me, too. Or maybe that is just what i am perceiving by this ridiculousness.

 

[ChiTownBuffalo]

OK GAF. Help me out here.

My coworker just told me that Obama has caused 3 wars in his Presidency. I think she meant he presided over them, but anyway.

Iraq

Afghanistan

I have no idea where she is getting this 3rd war from.

Someone help me out

edit: Nevermind GAF, she told me the 3rd war was on family values.

 

[gcubed]

OK GAF. Help me out here.

My coworker just told me that Obama has caused 3 wars in his Presidency. I think she meant he presided over them, but anyway.

Iraq

Afghanistan

I have no idea where she is getting this 3rd war from.

Someone help me out

edit: Nevermind GAF, she told me the 3rd war was on family values.

Libya?

edit... good lord, family values? I'd walk away laughing. I refuse to talk to people like that about politics, nothing good ever comes out of it

 

[Officerrob]

OK GAF. Help me out here.

My coworker just told me that Obama has caused 3 wars in his Presidency. I think she meant he presided over them, but anyway.

Iraq

Afghanistan

I have no idea where she is getting this 3rd war from.

Someone help me out

edit: Nevermind GAF, she told me the 3rd war was on family values.

Ahhh, so she's a crazy person. Just smile and walk away

 

[ChiTownBuffalo]

Libya?

edit... good lord, family values? I'd walk away laughing. I refuse to talk to people like that about politics, nothing good ever comes out of it

I already trolled her.

Me: So, you really like Santorum?

Her: He's the only true conservative and has a vision. Blah, blah, blah.

Me: Wow. So you really think he's hot shit?

Her: Oh yes. Blah blah blah.

Me: You're like foaming at the mouth about him. So frothy!

Her: It's so important.

Other coworker in the break room was staring into the fridge the whole time, trembling with laughter.

 

[ToxicAdam]

Why? The USPS is a government program. It is allowed to cost money. This isn't to say that reform of some kind may be good (it's always good to improve things), but I don't see what the bare fact of its costing 3.5B has to do with it.

Well, those two thoughts were not linked together. The USPS does not need reform because it lost 3.3 billion in one quarter, but because it's own Postmaster General has called for it. So, it's on Congress to actually do something about it.

 

[ezekial45]

Obama is talking about the Mortgage deal now.

 

[mckmas8808]

Even if the rate stays at 8.5, it's going to be a boring thread. Almost all the swing states are doing better than they were when Obama took office. Obama has this.

I mean, I'm sure there will be a post-convention bump that will make it seem like a race, but the underlying reality of the electoral map is going to remain the same.

Well put. Unless Europe falls apart of course.

 

[codhand]

OK GAF. Help me out here.

My coworker just told me that Obama has caused 3 wars in his Presidency. I think she meant he presided over them, but anyway.

Iraq

Afghanistan

I have no idea where she is getting this 3rd war from.

Someone help me out

edit: Nevermind GAF, she told me the 3rd war was on family values.

hahaha

This is hysterical, if it's a joke. If it's true, it's hysterical in a different way.

 

[Dr. Pangloss]

I like to also read the other side of the coin. For those who want something on why the bank settlement sucks go here: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/the-top-twelve-reasons-why-you-should-hate-the-mortgage-settlement.html

We’ve now set a price for forgeries and fabricating documents. It’s $2000 per loan. This is a rounding error compared to the chain of title problem these systematic practices were designed to circumvent. The cost is also trivial in comparison to the average loan, which is roughly $180k, so the settlement represents about 1% of loan balances. It is less than the price of the title insurance that banks failed to get when they transferred the loans to the trust. It is a fraction of the cost of the legal expenses when foreclosures are challenged.

The enforcement is a joke. The first layer of supervision is the banks reporting on themselves.

If the new Federal task force were intended to be serious, this deal would have not have been settled. You never settle before investigating. It’s a bad idea to settle obvious, widespread wrongdoing on the cheap. You use the stuff that is easy to prove to gather information and secure cooperation on the stuff that is harder to prove. In Missouri and Nevada, the robosigning investigation led to criminal charges against agents of the servicers. But even though these companies were acting at the express direction and approval of the services, no individuals or entities higher up the food chain will face any sort of meaningful charges.

And don’t get too excited about the New York, Massachusetts, and Delaware MERS suits. They put pressure on banks to clean up this monstrous mess only if the AGs go through to trial and get tough penalties. The banks will want to settle their way out of that too. And even if these cases do go to trial and produce significant victories for the AGs, they still do not address the problem of failures to transfer notes correctly.

 

[StopMakingSense]

OK GAF. Help me out here.

My coworker just told me that Obama has caused 3 wars in his Presidency. I think she meant he presided over them, but anyway.

Iraq

Afghanistan

I have no idea where she is getting this 3rd war from.

Someone help me out

edit: Nevermind GAF, she told me the 3rd war was on family values.

Wow. Just leave it alone. There is no good to come out of any further exchange.

 

[PhoenixDark]

It amazes me that Obama has been in office for four years and is still making the same mistake of letting the right wing (with an assist from the media) distort sensitive issues into giant controversies. He has yet to address the contraceptive issue and democrats are already bailing ship.

If you're going to do this, best be prepared for any fallout. Polls are on his side, why not clearly address this in a short speech or press conference? I just don't get this guy or his clueless team

 

[Dr. Pangloss]

It amazes me that Obama has been in office for four years and is still making the same mistake of letting the right wing (with an assist from the media) distort sensitive issues into giant controversies. He has yet to address the contraceptive issue and democrats are already bailing ship.

If you're going to do this, best be prepared for any fallout. Polls are on his side, why not clearly address this in a short speech or press conference? I just don't get this guy or his clueless team

Obama has never been proactive. He lets his enemies hang themselves. Always been the way he has operated. The only time I can remember him going on the offence was during healthcare reform when it appeared in jeopardy.

 

[Puddles]

So Obama has left a massive opening for Republicans to attack him on the settlement. Strangely enough, I don't see any reports of that happening.

 

[PhoenixDark]

Obama has never been proactive. He lets his enemies hang themselves. Always been the way he has operated. The only time I can remember him going on the offence was during healthcare reform when it appeared in jeopardy.

He only went of the offensive for HC after it had already been smeared and put in danger. It's a long pattern of operation for him and it makes no sense.

 

[mckmas8808]

I like to also read the other side of the coin. For those who want something on why the bank settlement sucks go here: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/02/the-top-twelve-reasons-why-you-should-hate-the-mortgage-settlement.html

Settlements happen all the time with companies that do dumb/terrible crap. This one is not much different. I doubt the lawsuits would have ever gotten to a point where the banks would have had to pay 100s of billions of dollars and people would go to jail.

But if what they did was criminal then they can still go to jail for the other things that they did to help ruin the economy. Not sure how this settlement should be a sign of terrible things.

 

[Dr. Pangloss]

He only went of the offensive for HC after it had already been smeared and put in danger. It's a long pattern of operation for him and it makes no sense.

You want someone like James Carville. I always remember that quote of his, "If you see your opponent floundering in the water, then toss him an anvil." Obama doesn't do that. He let's his enemy step in the shit, but won't trip them into it.

 

[mckmas8808]

So Obama has left a massive opening for Republicans to attack him on the settlement. Strangely enough, I don't see any reports of that happening.

And what opening is that?

 

[Allard]

He only went of the offensive for HC after it had already been smeared and put in danger. It's a long pattern of operation for him and it makes no sense.

He just isn't a leader, he is a supporting character. Although there have been some very notable slip ups in regards to some civil issues, for the most part he just wants congress to do its job and not dictating the pulpit from the executive branch. He merely states the direction he would like things to go, defines his terms and gives some ideas and lets congress do its job from there. He seemingly has no intention of ever actually leading anything substantial unless a crisis happens where communications breaks down in congress to absolute grid lock. In this regard he is the exact opposite of Bush, which is precisely why he does it, unfortunately for him/us, what we need right now IS someone to lead the charge for better or worse, because political bickering between the parties is hurting this country more then anything else.

 

[Dr. Pangloss]

Settlements happen all the time with companies that do dumb/terrible crap. This one is not much different. I doubt the lawsuits would have ever gotten to a point where the banks would have had to pay 100s of billions of dollars and people would go to jail.

But if what they did was criminal then they can still go to jail for the other things that they did to help ruin the economy. Not sure how this settlement should be a sign of terrible things.

Um, no. Anything related to robo-signing of mortgage defaults is now settled with the government. That is why they call it a settlement. The government can't just decide they will make you pay now, then put you in jail later. They made the banks pay now to stop investigating the fraud. And there is no doubt what they did was illegal. They had proof and witness testimony to that fact. I know you like to defend the administration more adamantly than most, but don't put any blinders on here. More could have been done if the government wanted to. They chose not to in order to protect the banking sector. And if that is a good thing or bad thing depends on your political leanings.