Housing Bubble?

Wolf Richter: Dear Fed, It’s Not “Really Hard to Spot Bubbles” | naked capitalism:

Maybe.. but in the last bubble the housing market in my area, eastern Indiana Teabagistan, was crazy. Anyone could get any kind of loan, lots of people were talking about buying and flipping for a profit, housing never goes down, you can't lose, etc. five acre lots with a double-wides going for 150,000+ , etc. it was crazy.

It's nothing like that now.

Slow sales, empty houses everywhere, boarded up, burned out, un-mowed yards, blue-plastic roofs, confederate flag curtains. Hell, there's a country song in there somewhere. Anyway,.... there may be a housing bubble in some places but it hasn't hit our area like it did the last time.

I ain't buying the housing bubble story just yet.



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Trump the R

a pretty good post on Trump here.

Why Trump campaigned like a populist and governs like a sellout

Although Donald Trump campaigned as a populist during the 2016 campaign, he has not governed like one. Instead, in domestic policy he has taken positions that are largely consistent with a very conservative business-oriented Republican who wants to lower taxes on the wealthy, slash entitlements, and lift regulatory scrutiny from business.  His working class supporters have gotten little economic help from his policies, and are unlikely to receive it in the future.

Fake News, Propaganda, politics

Good one from Naked capitalism's 2pm Water Cooler

‘Nearly half (40%) of millennials use the news feed at Facebook Inc.’s social media site as their source for news. That’s far higher than the percentage that uses Twitter (16%) or Instagram (4%). All other news sites garnered the remaining 40%’ [247 Wall Street]. That is, 40% of millenials filter have their news filtered for them by a ginormous, global oligopoly whose CEO is making moves like he’s running for President. What could go wrong?

Trump's Saudi Deal

Nice headline on Trump's Saudi deal. from Israel's Haaretz

Helping Americans

A good post on policies that would really help Americans. You won't hear these from R's, D's or network news.

What Economic Policies Do Americans Need? Just Ask Them
It's not complicated. The poor want more money. The middle class worries about health care. The rich fret over retirement.

Pricing Algorithms

Algorithmic Pricing and Competition: The Small-Town Gas Station Example

Twice recently I've tried to purchase something from Amazon that I had purchased just a few months before. In both cases the price of the item in second purchase had been jacked up over 25%, one was over 33%. So,... I just didn't buy one and I bought the other from amazon's competitor, walmart.com, for the price of the original amazon purchase.

The amazon algorithm knows I didn't buy either at the higher price but it doesn't know i'm a price shopping dick and that amazon lost a sale to a competitor.

I'll check every price now.  How does that get input into amazon's algorithm?

Jerusalem: Some History

For those who wonder why recognizing Jerusalem is controversial.

Why Jerusalem is not the capital of Israel | Middle East | Al Jazeera:

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Why I don't believe in God

Posts like this could put Tyler Cowen on the winger's enemies list.  Why I don't believe in God - Marginal REVOLUTION:

My favorite line:

5. I am frustrated by the lack of Bayesianism in most of the religious belief I observe.  I’ve never met a believer who asserted: “I’m really not sure here.  But I think Lutheranism is true with p = .018, and the next strongest contender comes in only at .014, so call me Lutheran.”  The religious people I’ve known rebel against that manner of framing, even though during times of conversion they may act on such a basis

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Hillary Clinton

The D's couldn't be that stupid,.... could they?

No, Hillary Clinton Shouldn't Run For President Again - Syracuse New Times:

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Farm Supports

Every farmer I know voted for Trump, I wonder what they think of this.  Anyway, it ain't happening.

Trump Budget Would Erase $38 Billion in Farm Supports - Crops - News | Agweb.com:



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Roger Ailes

A good one from Taibbi on Roger Ailes.

Taibbi: Roger Ailes Was One of the Worst Americans Ever - Rolling Stone:

It's not that Trump isn't or shouldn't be frightening. But it's conspicuous that our media landscape is now a perfect Ailes-ian dystopia, cleaved into camps of captive audiences geeked up on terror and disgust. The more scared and hate-filled we are, the more advertising dollars come pouring in, on both sides.

Trump in many ways was a perfect Ailes product, merging as he did the properties of entertainment and news in a sociopathic programming package that, as CBS chief Les Moonves pointed out, was terrible for the country, but great for the bottom line.

And when Ailes died this morning, he left behind an America perfectly in his image, frightened out of its mind and pouring its money hand over fist into television companies, who are gleefully selling the unraveling of our political system as an entertainment product.

The extent to which we hate and fear each other now – that's not any one person's fault. But no one person was more at fault than Roger Ailes. He never had a soul to sell, so he sold ours. It may take 50 years or a century for us to recover. Even dictators rarely have that kind of impact. Enjoy the next life, you monster.

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Brainwashing

The True Story of Brainwashing and How It Shaped America | History | Smithsonian:

"Consider the conversations about ISIS and radicalization, in which young people are essentially portrayed as being brainwashed. "

or....

from tnb......

Consider the conversations about Fox News and radicalization, in which old people are essentially portrayed as being brainwashed.




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The Elite vs Fox News

Fox News undermines a free, independent press

Fox, in short, now is practically indistinguishable from Breitbart — and in some cases, RT. It has become the purveyor of falsehoods and propaganda, not a member of an independent media tasked with holding elected leaders accountable.

".. now is practically indistinguishable from Breitbart".

Now!?

Where the hell has the Post staff been the last 20 years. Fox has been like this since day one.

We hear about it now because they are the elite's bad guy of the month.

The US ruling class will put up with anything as long as it's not interfering with their world. Jerry Sandusky, while his teams are winning and he's making money for the college. Bill Cosby, while media giants are making money off of him. Pro athletes. 600$ epi-pens. Hell, even Trump, as long as he was making them some money, they'd let him bilk investors, welch on debts, and bad-mouth the Kenyan-Muslim.

It's all good until it outlives it's usefulness to or embarrasses our rulers. Then watch out.

Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, and Fox News were an evil that the elite were willing to let poison people's minds, right up to the point those poisoned minds combined to blow the elite's world up by electing the stupid, uncontrollable Trump.

Now the elite are taking them down.

...

A couple of related posts WP and No More Mister Nice

Trump The Bullshitter

The Relentless Bias Against Donald Trump – Dave Pell – Medium:

"So to those who argue there is a bias against Donald Trump, I say you’re right. It exists because it has been wholly earned. The bias against Trump is ultimately a bias in favor of America. At this point, one can’t be loyal to the president and the country at the same time."

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About That Swamp - Joe Lieberman edition

Lieberman is about as deep in the swamp as you can get.

Trump: Joe Lieberman is top contender for new FBI director

Planet of Cops

A good take on life in today's good old USA. Basically we're all cops in some way and a good portion of cops are just...well... dicks.

Planet of Cops – Freddie deBoer – Medium:



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Today's Internet

A decent look at how the internet has evolved

The Weird Thing About Today's Internet - The Atlantic:

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Trumps Brain

David Brooks nails it.

We’ve got this perverse situation in which the vast analytic powers of the entire world are being spent trying to understand a guy whose thoughts are often just six fireflies beeping randomly in a jar.

This has a good chance of being the best line of the Trump era. 

Yes Men

An Economist reporter dishes on Trump's 'priming the pump' interview | Public Radio International:

 "We were talking [to Trump] about China and currency manipulation. On the campaign trail, Trump was very ferocious about [calling China a currency manipulator.] [In our interview], he said, “As soon as I started talking about China being a currency manipulator, they cut it out.” Actually that’s not true. China [stopped manipulating the currency] two or three years ago.  What was striking was, when he made that point, Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, chimed in and said, “Oh yeah. The day he became president, they changed their behavior!” And factually, that’s just not right. It's quite striking to see a cabinet secretary making that point in that way." [emphasis by TNB]

A guy like Trump needs his "Yes Men".


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About that swamp - Indiana edition

AP: Fishers pays Rep. Luke Messer's wife $20K/month:

A burgeoning Indianapolis suburb has paid the wife of an influential congressman $580,000 since 2015 for legal consulting she largely does from the Washington, D.C., area, an unusually large sum even in a state rife with highly paid government contractors, according to a review by the Associated Press

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About that Swamp - Ohio addition

From Links 5/15/17 | naked capitalism:

Ohio’s sale of prison farms comes despite $8.9 million in upgrades 

Columbus Dispatch (BC). BC writes: “Governor Kasich’s administration wants to no-bid the sale of State property used by the prison farm system. The concern is that, without an open bid, the land will be sold for a fraction of its value as political favors to Kasich donors. The sale is being rushed without debate as well, so many unintended consequences are coming up too. For example several charities have relied on donated excess food from the prison system to feed disabled or poor people that they serve. The rapid timeframe is also impacting local small businesses that provide services or equipment.” Just in time for the Sanders v. Kasich debate on May 16!

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Top Taxes & Growth

Stumbling and Mumbling: Top taxes & growth:

"Much the same is true in the US; the economy there was stronger in the 50s and 60s when the top tax rate was 91% than it has been recently with lower taxes."

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O'Reilly - Hit Job

Bill O'Reilly blames a left-wing hit job.

"In the weeks to come we're going to be able to explain all of it," O'Reilly said Friday in his first interview since being fired on April 19. "It has to do with destroying voices that the far left and the organized left-wing cabal doesn't like."

Sort of like destroying the voice of George Tiller who O'Reilly and right-wingers didn't like. The one big difference being that George Tiller was actually "hit".

Wikipedia George Tiller

Tiller was discussed in 28 episodes of the Fox News talk show The O'Reilly Factor before his death in May 2009, focusing national attention on his practice. Although he later denied it, show host Bill O'Reilly sometimes described him as "Tiller the Baby Killer",[15][16] a nickname that Congressman Robert Dornan had used on the floor of the US House of Representatives. O'Reilly said he would not want to be Tiller, Kathleen Sebelius, and other pro-choice Kansas politicians "if there is a judgment day".[17] On November 3, 2006, O'Reilly featured an exclusive segment on The O'Reilly Factor, saying that he had an "inside source" with official clinic documentation indicating that Tiller performed late-term abortions to alleviate "temporary depression" in pregnant women.[18] He characterized the doctor as "a savage on the loose, killing babies willy-nilly", and accused him of "operating a death mill", and of protecting the rapists of children. He suggested that Tiller performed abortions for women who had "a bit of a headache or anxiety" or who felt "a bit blue".[19]

O'Reilly is a just a dick.

Crash

I'd bet this car was rebuilt (poorly) from a previous crash. The break looks pretty clean. The people were damn lucky.

Trump

The man is just not that smart. The latest Trump interview once again reveals appalling ignorance and dishonesty - Vox:

And maybe just a little out of touch. Donald Trump has no idea what health insurance costs 

“Insurance is, you’re 20-years-old, you just graduated from college, and you start paying $15 a month for the rest of your life and you really need it, you’re still paying the same amount and that’s really insurance,” Trump says.

And maybe just a little fucking crazy

On the future USS Ford-class carriers

You know the catapult is quite important. So I said what is this? Sir, this is our digital catapult system. He said well, we’re going to this because we wanted to keep up with modern [technology]. I said you don’t use steam anymore for catapult? No sir. I said, "Ah, how is it working?" "Sir, not good. Not good. Doesn’t have the power. You know the steam is just brutal. You see that sucker going and steam’s going all over the place, there’s planes thrown in the air."

It sounded bad to me. Digital. They have digital. What is digital? And it’s very complicated, you have to be Albert Einstein to figure it out. And I said–and now they want to buy more aircraft carriers. I said what system are you going to be–"Sir, we’re staying with digital." I said no you’re not. You going to goddamned steam, the digital costs hundreds of millions of dollars more money and it’s no good.

I put my money on this being the real reason for the Comey firing: Gaius Publius: Trump – A Nation in Crisis, Again

What particularly angered him [Trump], the reports say, was Comey saying it made him “mildly nauseous” to think the FBI may have swayed the election.

This hit right at President Trump’s psychological weak spot – the legitimacy of his victory in the election.

Mr Trump frequently talks up the size of his win in November and often disparages people, or photos, or agencies that suggest he didn’t win big…

Mr Trump hated what he heard in Mr Comey’s testimony. It made him angry, he felt disparaged and he hit back. This, we understand, was Mr Trump’s MO as a business man…

He does act pretty thin-skinned about his win. Trump to display map of 2016 election results in the White House: report

President Trump is planning on hanging a map displaying his 2016 Electoral College victory in the White House, according to a report.

One America News Network White House reporter spotted the framed map being carried through the White House by a Trump staffer.

"Spotted: A map to be hung somewhere in the West Wing," the reporter tweeted.

Trump has often brought up his election victory over Hillary Clinton in the months since he took office. In April, the Washington Post's White House bureau chief reported that Trump had asked the Post to run the election map on the front page of their newspaper.

Days before, Trump interrupted another interview with a Reuters reporter to pass out copies of the map showing his victory.

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Voters

Stumbling and Mumbling: The problem of ignorant voters:

... Millions of ignorant people will cast a vote next month.

This would not be so bad if their ignorance and irrationality were random and so merely introduced white noise into the election. But it’s not. It’s systematic. For example, people over-estimate the number of immigrants in the country and their adverse effect upon jobs and public services; over-estimate the level of welfare benefits and fraud; and mistakenly think the public finances are analogous to household finances. 

Yep...

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The Brain Eater

A good short read here:

The Brain Eater – Whatever:

What’s important is the gap, that wide space between where they think should have been and where they are now — and the “fact” that someone else, not them and not chance, is solely responsible for their failure to be who they are supposed to be, and their failure to achieve what they were entitled to achieve.

and

There is no expected path. Believing that there is will only make you unhappy, and from there, bitter, and from there, blame-seeking. There is only the path you make for yourself and where it takes you, however long you choose to be on it.

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Talking Trump down.

White House advisors called Ottawa to urge Trudeau to help talk Trump down from scrapping NAFTA | National Post:

"White House advisors called Ottawa to urge Trudeau to help talk Trump down from scrapping NAFTA"

I'm glad they didn't call Putin. Wouldn't want a foreign nation interfering in US politics.

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The Democratic Party Is a Ghost

The Democratic Party Is a Ghost:

"Democratic Party elites don’t have ideals. They just need you to be scared of the Republicans."

This is just a page out of the R's book with a slight change. The R version....

"Republican Party elites don’t have ideals. They just need you to hate Democrats."

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About That Swamp

Hullabaloo:

A much-criticized visa program that allows foreigners to win fast-track immigration in return for investing $500,000 in U.S. properties was extended in a bill signed by President Trump just one day before a sister of senior White House adviser Jared Kushner pitched the program to Chinese investors.

Trump, who advocates for restrictive immigration policies, extended the EB-5 investor program without long-promised changes as part of a massive federal spending bill. The program has offered wealthy foreigners a way around complicated U.S. immigration rules, allowing them to live in the United States and seek permanent residency in return for substantial investments.

The Washington Post reported Saturday that Nicole Kushner Meyer delivered a sales presentation in Beijing at which she urged Chinese citizens to invest in a New Jersey project being managed by the Kushner family’s real estate company. Meyer’s relationship to her brother was mentioned as part of the presentation.

On Sunday, the Kushner Companies, of which Meyer is a principal, said in an email to The Post that it “apologizes if that mention of her brother was in any way interpreted as an attempt to lure investors. That was not Ms. Meyer’s intention.”

The firm stressed that Jared Kushner “stepped away from the company in January and has nothing to do with this project,” which it said would provide $180 million in tax revenue over 30 years.

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Hannity...

... is a sack of shit.

Hannity Then and Now on NSA Surveillance - YouTube:

"



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Meditation in Schools

Nice try but no... In the US what usually happens is, eventually the Right-wing media will gang up on this government-sponsored, anti-merican, librull bullshit enraging it's base to the point that no public school will be allowed to promote this un-merican activity.

tnb

Job Growth

Question: Name something Fox News viewers have never seen.

Answer: This job growth chart

Health Care

A good one from Horsey: Top of the Ticket - Los Angeles Times:

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Working Trump

Coal: Coal execs' pay rises and rises, while miners' wages stagnate / Boing Boing:

Ignoring Trump: from Is Trump Really President?. "..perhaps Trump is being allowed to sit up there on the second floor of the White House and do his tweet thing, while others actually run the government." This week's budget deal seemed to ignore him.

Maybe just lobbying Trump? I wonder how much cash changed hands on this. Corporate America had to go into full 'all hands on deck' mode to save NAFTA from Trump.

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Ignoring Trump

Who cares what the old mouthy guys says... He says shit like that all the time, just ignore it.

The Daily 202: Why the markets shrugged off Trump’s threat to break up the big banks - The Washington Post:

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Funding BIll

Maybe the adults in the room decided to just do their job and let the man-child cry.

The Cuck Stops Here – Talking Points Memo:

For all the talk about Trump shutting down the government to get Wall money, holding Obamacare subsidies hostage or generally bending history or at least Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer to his will, Trump got close to nothing in the funding bill meant to fund the government for the rest of the fiscal year. He ended up crying uncle or “no mas” on virtually all his demands.

Let’s go down the list.

The EPA was slated for massive cuts – roughly 31%. It will retain 99% of its funding.

Trump demanded funding for his border wall. He didn’t get any.

Trump wanted to cut funding for the National Institutes of Health. It’s getting $2 billion of additional funding.

Funding is included for the Obamacare subsidies Trump has threatened not to pay.

There’s no provision for “defunding Planned Parenthood.”

There’s no language to defund “sanctuary cities.”

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Health Care

A good list of our healthcare woes here.

How Economic Incentives have Created our Dysfunctional US Medical Market:

Studies show that one dominant healthcare system can result in price increases as high as 40 to 50 percent.

Reid Healthcare, Richmond Indiana take note.

Also,...

Health Care Reform: Commercial Multi-Payer vs. Public Single-Payer Health Insurance

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Trump on Healthcare

He's a used car salesman.

Hullabaloo: Health care for dummies.

and

An interview suggests Trump doesn't know what's in his health bill
Either the president doesn’t understand the proposal — or isn’t telling the truth about it.

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