Must-read post shows Warren Buffett is dead wrong about higher taxes

From The Grumpy Economist:

Warren Buffett, New York Times, on November 25th 2012:

Suppose that an investor you admire and trust comes to you with an investment idea. “This is a good one,” he says enthusiastically. “I’m in it, and I think you should be, too.”
 
Would your reply possibly be this? “Well, it all depends on what my tax rate will be on the gain you’re saying we’re going to make. If the [...]

REPORT: ‘Body man’ Reggie Love paid by top Obama donor

President Obama’s former traveling assistant got financial assistance on his departure from government from a New York financier who is a top Obama fundraiser.

Reggie Love, Obama’s former “body man” and a former Duke basketball star who the President has referred to as his “little brother” left the White House last November, and is on track to receive his MBA this December from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

In [...]

MUST SEE BUST: Mortgage Bankers Association ‘Strategic Default’ Exposed By Jon Stewart

The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Brilliant comedic bust of the MBA.

The Mortgage Bankers Association strategically defaults, walks away from the commercial loan on their headquarters after shaming and ridiculing homeowners who do the same.

The hypocrisy from John Courson, MBA’s CEO, oozes from the camera as he lectureshomeowners for choosing to walk away instead of pay.  The interview with the head of the Vegas MBA Chapter is [...]

Do You Really Need a College Degree to Get a Job?

Below is a breakdown of how many jobs were created in July by education level. Do you really want to spend $200k to get that MBA?

 

 

http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-08-06/do-you-really-need-college-degree-get-job

MBA Mortgage Applications: -7.1% vs. -0.8% last week

Thirty-year fixed mortgage rate with conforming loan balances ($417,500 or less) increased slightly to 3.88% from 3.87%.

Tragedy: Cops gun down man for legally carrying firearm

Erik Scott was a West Point graduate who went on to serve honorably in the Army, get his MBA from Duke and establish a lucrative career in real estate and as a sales rep for a medical device company. He was 38 years old when he was gunned down in portico of a Las Vegas area Costco store by officers from the Las Vegas Metro Police Department. While it was [...]

OBAMA: I don’t cheat at golf

At the 3:15 minute mark

3/1/2012 | FoxNation.com

Obama: “I do not cheat when I’m playing golf. “

Grantland editor-in-chief Bill Simmons recently sat down with President Obama to discuss sports-related topics. Simmons asked if people would ‘defend’ the President while playing sports, specifically when it came to the game of golf. Obama dismissed the notion and declared he was ‘proud’ that he doesn’t ‘cheat’ when playing golf.

TRANSCRIPT:

BS: Have you noticed that there is [...]

In case you missed it while looking at the blue skies, this from Bloomberg:

MBA Purchase Applications
Released On 2/15/2012 7:00:00 AM For wk2/10, 2012
Prior Actual
Composite Index – W/W Change 7.5 % -1.0 %
Purchase Index – W/W Change 0.1 % -8.4 %
Refinance Index – W/W Change 9.4 % 0.8 %

Highlights
The number of purchase applications sank 8.4 percent in the February 10 week, pulling the 4-week average down 3.9 percent and pointing to the risk of weakness for home sales. Refinancing applications rose 0.8 percent with [...]

Learn how the Mortgage Bankers Associatio­n dumped their corporate office in the same way you’re criticizin­g victims. It’s described as a prudent business decision.

There’s more. Banks work with all commercial properties to reduce mortgages to actual/ current market value, but won’t do the same for residentia­l homeowners­. You can use Google to learn about it and educate yourself like anyone else.

From WSJ:

A year ago, in what seemed like a supreme irony, the Mortgage Bankers Association sold its Washington, D.C., headquarters at a big loss.

On Thursday, insult was added to injury: The building’s buyer [...]

Presenting The Big Mac Index Infographic

With ever more Americans boldly crossing into the obesity zone, where so many have gone before, it is only fitting that the topic of today’s infographic du jour is the Big Mac index: the world’s intercontinental standard of purchase price parity.

Via: Online MBA Blog

Strategic default OK, but not for you

“… underwater borrowers should keep paying on their mortgage loans and ‘should not walk away from lawful debts’. In an interview this past year, Courson appeared genuinely concerned adding: ‘What about the message they will send to their family and their kids and their friends?’

Just last year, you pointed out that defaults hurt neighborhoods by lowering property values, so borrowers would do less harm to our society were they just [...]

Apple store employees heard woman begging for her life and did nothing about it

ayna Murray fought.

Stabbed, bludgeoned, beaten and tormented — with a rope around her neck—she fought. She fought for her life. To see her parents again. Her siblings. To finish her MBA. To live the life of a beautiful young woman. To grow old.

She begged, too.

“Oh, god, please help me,” she shouted, according to Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, who in his opening statement this morning detailed [...]

INFOGRAPHIC: Each U.S Citizen Owes $3,719 To China And $475 To Russia

Created by: MBA Online

The MBA had said it was immoral for homeowners take the strategic default, yet they did it:

by elfish
http://imm­oralhazard­.housingst­orm.com/ta­g/strategi­c-default/
Strategic Default | Immoral Hazard

“In an incredible show of arrogance and hypocrisy, the Mortgage Bankers Associatio­n is Walking Away from the 10-story, Washington D.C. building that they bought in 2007 to be their headquarte­rs.

John Courson, CEO of the MBA once said about strategic default: “What about the message they will send to their family and their kids and their friends?”

Fittingly, the group purchased the property for $79 Million with [...]

A 13.7-percent advance in prices for fresh and dry vegetables was the main factor in the January rise in the finished consumer foods index

by ZH

The PPI including food and energy came at 0.8%, in line with expectations, and a decline from the previous 1.1%. Ex food and energy, Producer Prices jumped from 0.2% to 0.5%, and over 100% higher than expectations of 0.2%. Somehow, food PPI increased by just 0.3%, the lowest since August, and once again making one wonder which Department of Truth is more unbelievable: ours [...]

There is a very big problem with the unemployment status in the United States.

by afern

First the unemployment numbers that are being given by the government are not true. They are completely false. The unemployment rate is a lot higher than 9.6%. We are way above 10%. The government is falsifying the numbers to protect themselves and from freaking out markets and the people of the United States. They are not accounting for part-time workers and people without unemployment. [...]

Mortgage Refinance Applications Continue to Increase, Purchase Applications Decline Further in Latest MBA Weekly Survey

http://www.mortgagebankers.org/NewsandMedia/PressCenter/72973.htm

“…The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index decreased 3.3 percent from one week earlier and is the lowest Purchase Index observed in the survey since April 1997. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 4.0 percent compared with the previous week, was down 27.1 percent over the past 4 weeks, and was 27.5 percent lower than the same week one year ago.

“Refinance application volume jumped last week as continuing financial market turmoil related to [...]

Interest rates are going up, up and up. Check the charts at bankrate.com!

As the Fed MBS program has ended mortgage rates started to climb.

Here is the 3 months 15yr fixed rate chart:
http://www.bankrate.com/funnel/graph/Default.aspx?cat=2&ids=10,-1&state=zz&d=90&t=MSColumn2D&eco=-1

Now you can see why did MBA Mortgage Applications declined! And guess how will it continue.

Treasuries are also on the rise. Guess what will be the result of all this. Even less loans, higher interest on debt, etc etc. All together any kind of recovery is impossible with such an environment! [...]