THE BANKSTERS ... MAKING WILLIE SUTTON PROUD

"Because that's where the money is."

- Famed Bank Robber, Willie Sutton,

responding to a reporter who asked him why he robbed banks.

 

 
Nakedcapitalism's Yves Smith muses about an interesting post from Housingwire.com on foreclosures. It turns out that of all of the housing foreclosures followed by RealtyTrac (one of the 'go to' sources on these things), over 50% of foreclosed homes actually have positive equity. That's right, banks are foreclosing on homes that can be resold at a profit at a higher rate than they're foreclosing on homes that are underwater.

Like famed bank robber Willie Sutton, the banksters are going after homes with equity because "that's where the money is." There's two possible reasons for this.

First, as I've been writing about for a while, it makes no sense for the banks to concentrate on foreclosing on negative equity mortgages because then they have to write-down the value of their assets and their managed portfolios. It especially makes no sense when you consider the banksters understand ...

* You can't claim bonuses, demand higher wages, charge hefty management fees, and then make billion dollar bets if your asset base is declining. Foreclosing only on homes that are underwater damages the asset base.

* New rules allow the banks to use Unicorn math to "reprice" their toxic assets, which artificially inflates the value of their asset base and portfolios (while regulating the market price out of the market). If you don't foreclose on toxic mortgages you can reprice the toxic instrument they are affiliated with.

Second, it's much easier to go after delinquent homeowners with positive equity, where court backlogs aren't so deep, and the outcome is more profitable. As Yves Smith suggests, with foreclosure rates rising in previously "safe" areas like Provo, Utah and Portland, Oregon, the banks seem to be going after the easy money. Because California, Arizona, and Florida have been the hardest hit states there's now a backlog of foreclosure cases there. This means more time in court, for longer periods, in these regions. Foreclosing on homeowners with equity in places like Utah is the industry's low hanging fruit.

And best of all, for the banksters, it's legal.

If you believe in reincarnation, I'm pretty sure where you can find Willie Sutton. He's on Wall Street.

- Mark

THE STATE OF OUR (DYING?) HEALTH CARE DEBATE

This Modern World pretty much sums up the health care debate as it currently stands. Not much on health care, but much ado about mindless (and paranoid) politics* and Joe Lieberman's real constituents: (1) The health care lobby and (2) his bruised ego (click on cartoon to enlarge).

And Lieberman's bruised ego speaks ...

I'd say the health care lobby has gotten their money's worth, especially if the health care vote goes into 2010.

- Mark

* After suggesting that the country would become dependent on the Democratic Party for everything, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch (R) squared his conspiratorial circle by referring to Democrats who support the proposed health care plan as "diabolical."

WEEKEND READING (12-06-14)

On Dec. 6, 1904 Teddy Roosevelt affirmed the Monroe Doctrine through the Roosevelt Corollary.

In the first week for open enrollments, more than a million apply for health insurance on federal website (NY Times).

The origins of Mockingjay's haunting song, 'The Hanging Tree' (Vulture).

11 months after marijuana legalization, here's what's happening to Mexican cartels (Mic).

20 signs that you're a tool (Rant Lifestyle).

FERGUSON AFTERTHOUGHTS
The police in America are becoming illegitimate (Rolling Stone).

Choke-hold cop sued 3 times in prior misconduct cases (USA Today).

Nashville police refuse to crack down on Ferguson protesters, no violence ensues (Ben Swann).

'I hate n*ggers. That is all': 5 Ohio deputies probed for years of racist text messages (Raw Story).

Killings by Utah police outpacing gang, drug, and child-abuse homicides ... ranked second only to homicide of intimate partners (Salt Lake Tribune).

5 reasons you should never agree to a police search (Alternet).


WHY EUROPE LOOKS TO GERMANY
Germany's expensive gamble on renewable energy (WSJ).

Why Germany dominates the U.S. in innovation (Harvard Business Review).

German Inventions - Ordinary, yet ingenious (Germany Travel).

Interesting ... 10 things the Nazis got right (Listverse).

THIS SHOULD BE EMBARRASSING
Religious overreach, again. Did the Founding Fathers really turn to Moses for inspiration (We're History)?

How a wealthy California town makes sure no poor kids attend its 'public' school (Alternet) ... but then reversed course when the media spotlight hits (San Jose Mercury).


WHY THE RICH SHOULDN'T BE RUNNING OUR COUNTRY
5 billionaires who are making life miserable for ordinary Americans (Salon).

The Republican Party's top priority is to raise taxes on the poor. Literally (The Week).

Study confirms Tea Party was created by Big Tobacco and billionaire Koch brothers (Huffington Post).


THIS IS GOOD NEWS
Judge allows libel lawsuit against Glenn Beck to proceed (Salon).

West Virginia coal country sees new era as Donald Blankenship is indicted (NY Times).

Woman who told Obama girls to 'show a little class' isn't a GOP staffer anymore (NY Magazine).


RACE & WHITE PRIVILEGE
Racial inequality in America: How far have we come (Christian Science Monitor)?

How to really understand white privilege (Quartz).


MISCELLANEOUS
"These pseudo-religious people who I find laughable": Jesse Ventura talks Republicans, Nazis and running for president (Salon).

Have the homeless become invisible? You be the judge (NY Rescue Mission).

Here comes oil at $60 a barrel ... OPEC tests U.S. shale market production costs (Bloomberg News).

The state of Washington is ranked 51st, and has the lowest average retail price for residential sector electricity in the country (EIA).

- Mark

WHAT HURRICANE HARVEY IS TELLING US: "In the Future Scientists Will Be Vindicated and The Skeptics Will Look Very Stupid ..."

If you want to understand how global warming likely made Hurricane Harvey much worse, according to climatologists, click here. Not that it needs to be restated (actually, it does), but this May 31, 2017 article from the Insurance Journal - you know, the people who write for the guys who have to pay and reject the claims caused by climate change - helps explain what's happening in places like Texas.

Scientific studies have established an acceleration in sea-level rise because of a warming atmosphere. Coal and oil burning and the destruction of tropical forests have increased heat-trapping gases that have warmed the planet by 1.8 degrees since 1880. Earth has been losing 13,500 square miles of ice annually since 1979, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Sea levels are generally rising faster along the Texas Gulf Coast and the western Gulf than the average globally, according to a January study by NOAA. 

“The western Gulf is experiencing some of the highest rates of relative levels of sea-level rise in the country,” said NOAA oceanographer William Sweet, lead author of the study. “The ocean is not rising like water would in a bathtub.” 

Sea-level rise is making storm surges larger, said John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas state climatologist at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Here's the money quote from the Insurance Journal's May 2017 edition: "Apart from sea-level rise, climate change is expected to cause hurricanes to be more intense and produce more rain, according to the NOAA."

The Washington Post helps explain what happened in Houston ...

For the climate change deniers out there, the Vox article cited here, tells us how the science behind climate change also explains why the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey was most likely worse because of climate change. Our real problem now, in the words of my former colleague David Berri (now in Utah), is how vindication for the scientists in the climate field will largely be a Pyrrhic-like Victory for humanity ...

... Notice the language [of the scientists]. Scientists don't speak in absolutes. They talk about where the evidence likely leads. 

This makes arguing with climate change skeptics so immensely difficult. 

Unfortunately for us, in the future the scientists will be vindicated and the skeptics will look very stupid. They won't be smart enough to know they look stupid. But they will look stupid.

So, yeah, the scientists win, while we lurch forward unprepared for the inevitable. And the truly stupid will live to see another day.

There's got to be a better way.

Sigh ...

- Mark

YEAH, WE STILL REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH ... BIG TIME

Almost two years ago I wrote a post explaining how we redistribute wealth in America. I wrote it in response to claims by the GOP and numerous other conservative groups that the poor and the unemployed don't need help. Their rationale? America is not a nation that redistributes wealth. People should work and pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.

This was an easy topic to write about because, well, the United States has been redistributing wealth for a long time. In fact, we've been redistributing wealth for such a long time that we've been able to track the process over time. We can actually see who pays and who takes from Uncle Sam. An updated study helps make it very clear that those yelling the loudest about people mooching off the system are living in states that receive the most government funds.

Let me restate that. There's another study out that shows, once again, that the most conservative Red States are still mooching off those of us living in the Blue States.

According to the survey, for example, for every dollar that California sends to the federal government we only get about 94 cents back. This is an improvement from the end of 2009, when the we learned that over a 20 year period the federal government kept over $330 billion in federal taxes that Californians sent in (which was used to prop up those living in the Red States).

This story is so glaring that even the conservative Wall Street Journal couldn't ignore the federal redistribution of wealth to the Red States story.

Below are the numbers from the new survey, which you can read about here ...

Rank	State Name	Return on Taxpayer Investment(Category Rank)	Funding as % of Revenue(Category Rank)	Federal Employees Per Capita(Category Rank)
1	Delaware	$0.50 (1)	25.37% (7)	6.17 (10)
2	Illinois	$0.56 (3)	26.23% (8)	6.45 (11)
3	Minnesota	$0.56 (2)	28.47% (12)	5.91 (8)
4	New Jersey	$0.88 (10)	27.53% (11)	5.75 (6)
5	Connecticut	$1.28 (25)	23.68% (4)	4.91 (1)
6	Kansas	$0.71 (6)	27.21% (9)	9.19 (31)
7	California	$0.94 (14)	28.82% (13)	6.65 (13)
8	Nevada	$1.15 (23)	27.48% (10)	6.60 (12)
9	Massachusetts	$0.94 (13)	29.56% (17)	7.09 (19)
10	Colorado	$0.84 (8)	29.24% (15)	10.67 (35)
11	New Hampshire	$1.07 (18)	32.06% (21)	5.61 (4)
12	Michigan	$1.08 (19)	34.12% (25)	5.33 (3)
13	Ohio	$0.66 (5)	35.87% (36)	6.78 (15)
T-14	Utah	$0.86 (9)	31.65% (20)	12.58 (40)
T-14	Nebraska	$0.57 (4)	34.92% (31)	9.06 (28)
16	Washington	$1.05 (17)	29.38% (16)	10.73 (36)
T-17	District of Columbia	$1.15 (22)	23.90% (5)	336.63 (51)
T-17	New York	$0.79 (7)	37.74% (41)	6.06 (9)
T-17	Iowa	$1.12 (21)	34.85% (29)	5.75 (5)
20	Wisconsin	$1.68 (38)	28.93% (14)	5.08 (2)
21	Alaska	$1.42 (31)	20.01% (1)	22.68 (48)
22	Arkansas	$1.1 (20)	34.52% (28)	7.01 (17)
23	Pennsylvania	$1.31 (27)	30.91% (18)	7.87 (24)
24	North Carolina	$1.34 (28)	33.91% (24)	7.22 (20)
25	Indiana	$2.01 (41)	33.20% (23)	5.76 (7)
26	Virginia	$1.75 (39)	24.81% (6)	21.52 (47)
27	Oklahoma	$0.9 (11)	36.21% (38)	12.78 (41)
28	Oregon	$1.28 (26)	36.16% (37)	7.26 (21)
29	North Dakota	$5.31 (50)	21.04% (2)	13.70 (44
29	Hawaii	$3.19 (46)	23.60% (3)	25.32 (50)
31	Idaho	$1.4 (29)	35.16% (33)	7.96 (25)
32	Texas	$1.43 (32)	35.13% (32)	7.77 (22)
T-33	Rhode Island	$1.55 (34)	34.48% (26)	9.80 (32)
T-33	Georgia	$1.05 (15)	38.86% (44)	10.44 (34)
35	Vermont	$1.41 (30)	34.86% (30)	10.38 (33)
36	Missouri	$1.05 (16)	40.83% (47)	9.19 (30)
37	Maryland	$1.61 (35)	31.29% (19)	25.06 (49)
T-38	Wyoming	$0.91 (12)	39.73% (46)	13.17 (42)
T-38	Florida	$4.57 (49)	32.65% (22)	6.96 (16)
40	South Carolina	$7.87 (51)	34.49% (27)	7.03 (18)
41	Kentucky	$2.39 (43)	35.83% (35)	9.10 (29)
42	Arizona	$1.62 (36)	39.35% (45)	8.71 (27)
T-43	South Dakota	$1.16 (24)	41.53% (49)	13.95 (45)
T-43	West Virginia	$2.22 (42)	35.46% (34)	12.56 (39)
45	Tennessee	$1.64 (37)	41.27% (48)	7.82 (23)
T-46	Montana	$1.55 (33)	38.54% (43)	13.53 (43)
T-46	Maine	$1.79 (40)	36.63% (39)	10.92 (37)
48	Louisiana	$3.35 (48)	44.26% (50)	6.76 (14)
49	Alabama	$3.28 (47)	37.02% (40)	11.66 (38)
T-50	New Mexico	$2.83 (44)	37.90% (42)	15.22 (46)
T-50	Mississippi	$3.07 (45)	45.84% (51)	8.67 (26)

- Mark

UPDATE (10-22-14): Here's another list of the 10 states that are most dependent on the federal government for financial transfers.

I want to make it clear that the Red State-Blue State tax redistribution process also happens within states, at the county level. The revenue redistribution maps of Washington and California below make this abundantly clear ...

FRIDAY READING (3-6-15)

Injured workers suffer as 'reforms' limit workers' compensation benefits (NPR).

Climate change helped fuel the Syrian conflict, new paper finds (Huffington Post).

Gas industry's solution for toxic wastewater: spray it on icy roads (Newsweek).

The best explanation of redistricting (gerrymandering) you will ever see (Washington Post).


JUST INTERESTING
Behold, the bike cave (Ozy).

DEA warns of stoned rabbits if Utah passes medical marijuana (Washington Post).

Bank of Canada urges 'Star Trek' fans to stop 'Spocking' their fivers (Dangerous Minds).

And the Darwin Award goes to ... The drunk guy who let another drunk guy shoot a trash can off the top of his head. Oops (Addicting Info).

New map shows Koch's connection to Keystone (Nation of Change).


TRADE NEWS
Obama's Trans-Pacific Partnership rhetoric resembles Clinton's on NAFTA (Truth Out).

Dishonest White House attack on Sen. Warren (D-MA), who's exposing sham behind secret panel on trade deals (Truth Out). 

Despite FATC, U.S. companies stash $2.1 trillion abroad (Forbes).


HEAD SCRATCHERS
More people have been killed in America by non-Islamic domestic terrorists than jihadists (Vice / Southern Poverty Law Center).

Incredible ... Texas lawmaker on his fifth marriage files complaint against judge over same-sex marriage (Daily Kos).


NETANYAHU'S SPEECH
Chris Matthews livid after Netanyahu's speech: GOP assisted 'takeover attempt' by a foreign government (Raw Story).

Democrats on Netanyahu's speech: Bibi's never seen a war he doesn't want the U.S. to fight (Slate).

There it is ... Ted Cruz compares Obama to Neville Chamberlain and Iran to Germany (Slate).

Half of American voters think that inviting Israeli PM was a bad idea (Daily Mail).


OBAMACARE NEWS
Two Red States that embraced Obamacare have seen their uninsured rates plummet faster than anywhere (Huffington Post).

Obamacare sign-ups reach 6.4 million (Hufington Post).

GOP Gang of Supremes goes after Obamacare (Nation of Change).


MISCELLANEOUS
In Ferguson, DOJ probe only confirms what community has long known (Nation of Change).

Bill O'Reilly's cavalcade of lies: A handy collection of the damage - so far (News Corpse).

California orders oil companies to stop drilling near drinking water supplies (Nation of Change).

Private prison companies foresee increased profits as ruling limits immigration detentions (Truth Out).

Department of Justice finds pervasive racial bias at Ferguson Police Department (Mother Jones).

- Mark 

READING FOR THE LAST WEEKEND OF 2013

Another rich entrepreneur makes it clear, rich people don't actually "create the jobs" (Business Insider / Henry Blodget).

Racist school teacher tells an African-American student he can't become president because America doesn't need another black person in the White House (Raw Story).

Albert Einstein's one page explanation on the importance of unions (University Professional & Technical Employees).

Two years after she passed away, a woman gives her family an unforgettable Christmas gift (Buzz Feed).


FROM NEANDERTHALS TO ...
Beyond neanderthals ... The case of the missing ancestor (National Geographic).

Speaking of neanderthals ... Pastor John Hagee has a message for the atheists (Raw Story).


... THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT
The right wing is filled with biblical illiterates: They'd be shocked by Jesus' teachings if they ever picked up a Bible (AlterNet).

Jesus was a liberal: 15 quotes the 'Christian' right doesn't want you to see (Addicting Info).

How to expose the hypocrisy of the religious right (Addicting Info).

The Pope's economic ideas rattle the GOP (Politico).


BY THE NUMBERS
I like this list ... the Top 10 Villains of 2013 (Raw Story).

The 10 dumbest dumb dummies of dumb crime in 2013 (Huffington Post).

The 10 most powerful militaries in the world (Business Insider).

The earth's next 100 years visualized (Upworthy).


MISCELLANEOUS
Snowmen that would make Calvin and Hobbes proud (Huffington Post).

The short animated video from Ed Asner that Republicans hate (Move On).

Diebold charged with bribery, falsifying documents, and "worldwide pattern of criminal conduct" (Salon).

Utah is on track to end homelessness by 2015 with this one simple idea (Nation Swell).

Here's an idea ... Why don't we pay back the money we borrowed from social security instead of making cuts to continue funding tax cuts for the rich (Huffington Post).

- Mark

PRESIDENT "STABLE GENIUS" DOES IT AGAIN ... MORE TARIFFS, THIS TIME ON CHINA

Because this is such a serious topic, let's start with this ...

It was June 1930. One of the partners at J.P Morgan, Thomas Lamont, is speaking with President Hoover, and is very agitated. The issue at hand was the fate of the Smoot-Hawley tariff legislation that President Hoover had on his desk. Fearing the global impact the tariff act would have, Lamont said: "I almost went down on my knees to beg Herbert Hoover to veto the asinine Hawley-Smoot [sic] Tariff."

Hoover ignored Lamont's arguments and signed the tariff bill. Import duties (i.e. taxes) were imposed on nearly 900 products which, as Lamont noted, "intensified nationalism all over the world."

The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act - sponsored by Rep. Willis Hawley (Oregon) and Sen. Reed Smoot (Utah) - kicked off a round of competitive tariffs and counter tariff measures that made an already bad economic situation worse. Global trade would collapse by two-thirds between 1929 and 1933, from almost $3 billion to just $992 million.

Incredibly things would go beyond competitive tariffs, and get even worse. Nation-states attempted to one up each other in the currency game with competitive devaluations (which would make their products cheaper abroad).

With the world in depression mode, competitive tariffs and competitive devaluations created an ugly international environment that would get uglier as the serpents of Nazism came out of the woodwork, and rose to power in Germany.

I'm bringing all of this up because Donald Trump just announced that he's going to raise tariffs on China because of their balance of trade surplus with the United States. The Chinese have made it clear they will retaliate. This means counter tariff measures on goods coming from the United States.

This comes off the heels of Trump raising tariffs on steel and aluminum, which he's already started to walk back by exempting several allies. China, Russia, Japan, India and Taiwan are not on the exempted list.

Here's the point. Donald Trump is embarking on a path that does little to enhance the prospects of commercial stability, let alone free trade. What he's doing only serves to isolate and antagonize nation-states that will ignite confrontational policies in other areas.

What we need to remember is that the U.S. is no longer in the position to push trade policies that are rooted in bluster and bullying. The dollar is already under scrutiny because of continued deficit spending. Our allies are suspicious of Trump's motives, and his stability. And the Chinese and Russians are looking for any crack to push the U.S. and its allies further apart.

When the market crashes (and it will) pushing tariffs like Trump is doing has the potential to lead to an economic unraveling that niether Trump, nor any other nation-state will be able to control. Then there's the Russian and Chinese angle, both of whom gain when the U.S. loses.

So, yeah, there's more to this story that's yet to come.

For the moment, though, all we have to deal with is yet another drop in the stock market after Trump's tariff announcement. And that's the good news.

Stay tuned.

- Mark

THE GOP'S STRANGE POSITION(S) ON RAPE & SPOUSAL ABUSE

Remember when Republican Senators voted to allow the health care industry to deny women insurance coverage if they were ever a victim of domestic violence? The rationale - straight from the insurance lobby handbook - was that spousal abuse was considered a "pre-existing condition" because if you were beaten once you're more likely to be beaten again. So Republican Senators voted to allow spousal abuse to be classified as a pre-existing condition, which allowed the insurance industry to deny victims of domestic violence insurance coverage. Nice.

Well, hold on to your hats. The Republicans are at it again. Only this time it deals with rape. Check this out.

... the new Republican-controlled House is already obnoxiously redefining "rape" in pieces of legislation. Under their plan, only abortions from "forcible rape" would be eligible for government funding, instead of the much simpler "rape."

Put another way, if you want an abortion and don't have the money for one don't go looking for Medicare or Medicaid to cover rapes involving drugs or alcohol, rapes of women with limited mental capacities, incest over the age of 18, and date rapes (among others). Sanctity of life, you know.

What will they think of next  ...

- Mark

Here's the GOP Senators who earlier voted to allow insurance companies to deny coverage to domestic violence victims.

* Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)
* Richard Burr (R-N.C.)
* John Ensign (R-Nev.)
* Mike Enzi (R-Wy.)
* Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)
* Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)
* Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
* Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)
* Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)
* Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)

GOP PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS 2016 ... FROM REALITY TV TO THE POLLUTION OF THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT

________________________

Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are taking presidential politics to a new low with their school house taunts over their wives. This is not just Reality TV gone bad. It's not just politics as a blood sport. What we are seeing is the on-going pollution of the human environment.

Most of you are already aware of what started this reality TV war gone bad. Apart from the fact that Donald Trump is a narcissistic megalomaniac who thrives in a trash-talking environment, right before the Utah primaries Ted Cruz's supporters posted this meme about Donald Trump's wife ...

____________________________

________________________________

Donald Trump responded by tweeting a meme that effectively says, "OK, let's start talking about wives ... yours is ugly, look at mine. Neener, neener, neener ..."

________________________________

___________________________

Then Ted Cruz decided he wanted to pretend he's a tough guy.

First, Cruz feigned moral indignation - in spite of these less than ethical positions. He then threw out some serious false bravado when he called Donald Trump "a sniveling coward" during a press conference.

____________________________

If Ted Cruz thinks that his attack on Donald Trump has taught him a lesson, he seriously needs to review the George Bernard Shaw aphorism, "Never wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."

I could go on, but what's the point?

Sigh ...

- Mark 

BEAT UP BY A SPOUSE? NO INSURANCE FOR YOU ...

The market at work ...

You can be denied insurance coverage if you've ever been a victim of domestic violence. Why? Because it's considered a "pre-existing condition." If you were beaten once you're more likely to be beaten again. Spousal abuse costs money to treat. Check this out.

In eight states as well as the District of Columbia, it is legal for insurance companies to reject individual health coverage for people because they are survivors of domestic violence. Among those states three are in the South (Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina). The others are Idaho, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia.

I guess the message here is if you plan on beating your spouse, and want to leave them with a pile of bills, move to one of those states.

Here's a list of the U.S. Senators who voted to allow insurance companies to deny you coverage if you were ever beaten by your spouse.




* Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.)
* Richard Burr (R-N.C.)
* John Ensign (R-Nev.)
* Mike Enzi (R-Wy.)
* Bill Frist (R-Tenn.)
* Judd Gregg (R-N.H.)
* Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
* Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)
* Pat Roberts (R-Kan.)
* Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.)




- Mark

AMERICA'S "MAP OF SHAME"

Via the Washington Post we get the United States of Shame, a map of what each state in the Union is infamously worst at ...

I'm still not sure how North Dakota has the ugliest residents (rationale and statistics here), but it's still better than having the most cases of gonorrhea (Louisiana), having the highest rate of porn usage (way to go Utah!), or the highest rate of beastialty (Washington).

- Mark 

JON STEWART TAKES A LOOK AT THE HOMELESS IN UTAH

Another approach towards the homeless in America ...

- Mark