Due to time constraints, the club meeting was conducted by a twenty-minute morning teleconference. No pads or pods, just good old phones. The macro camera for the pictures of resistors is thornier than it needs to be. The newest camera generation again flogs the mega pixel ratings (which must have immense popular appeal to the unwashed masses) but has eliminated the viewfinder, a necessary feature for daylight shots. Nor can these wonder-cameras be focused less than just a foot, averaging 24cm. A decision has to be made shortly so once again, luck becomes an element. That's not a compliment, Nikon.Commencing a new diet today, since I’m not big on resolutions. No big deal, more protein and less carbohydrate. The only form in which I like whole wheat remains in bread. What brought this to importance was I watched more James Burke last night. Well, I more watch it in the background while I’m reading, which helps me miss his weaker passages. But one thing he sure knew because he tried it was plowing with a horse. If you’ve never done it, you have no idea what hard work it is. And worse, you don’t get credit for all that sweat, because it looks like you are walking behind on easy street. I believe that’s where the 2,500 calorie per day diet must have originated.
For reasons unknown (and unquestioned), my mention of Axis Sally has been a big draw for this publication. But who has heard of Amy Elizabeth Thorpe, the Mata Hari of the Second World War? I finally read so many references to her “irresistible” charms, that I went looking for her picture. Except for a few unflattering wedding shots and a Russian propaganda still, she isn't there. Nothing. That’s hard to believe.
This is doubly curious because at that time, diplomats were recruited exclusively from the ultra-rich who had cameras, and Amy’s “spy missions” consisted 100% of fluid exchanges with the enemies of America. Her finest half-hours, type of thing. She claimed no man ever resisted her, so yes, I would like to see some photos. Pix or it didn’t happen, at least not like she said it did. Many a chargé d'affaires undoubtedly doffed his chapeau when she eventually died in France of “throat complications”.
Next, it was determined our local boy who died eating cockroaches did, in fact, do a Jimi Hendrix and choke on his own upchuck. The only thing more vile than that is my next observation, that he committed insecticide. And how about that Gerard Butler? Few people know he is a real life lawyer, but quit a week before getting his license. To “get famous” as I think he put it. Some people have it so good they don’t know.
But not that countrified rube couple, the Hills, who won half the powerball. Around $135,000,000 take home. Claiming they won’t change or move! They have no idea, obviously, about how everybody around them will change or move. Every creep who ever saw them is going to track them down and there better be no ice on their sidewalk, ever. See, that is the strange part of people who don’t think ahead. Now that they have something to hide, they have no idea how and no legal way of doing so. Other than apparently living in a cave, they seem like nice people.Which leads to the story on stolen medical records. I’ve often stated that these records keep far too much information in one place. That they are more like a credit application form. A doctor should know your age, but not your birthdate and so on, specifically so that your personal information is fragmented. The reason those records are targets is because the latest scam is stealing income tax returns. It makes no sense to tell a doctor or anyone enough personal data to get away with that. But you can’t fix stupid.
ADDENDUM
I follow Trulia because they list price per square foot, the most telling statistic in the industry. House prices are still falling (and I’ll buy when it hits $10 per square foot). Heads up: Trulia has gone woefully downhill in most aspects of credibility. For example, here is a listing of a single-family dwelling. Read the fine print. Maybe the Rockefeller family.
I detect a little flak over my earlier statement that “pre-foreclosure” is a sales scam. Let me explain why I say that. In mid-2009, New York banks began sending delinquents a “pre-foreclosure notice”. This allowed the banks to claim the foreclosure was proceeding without proceeding with the actual foreclosure. The concept has spread nationwide. Florida for instance, repossessed 112,000 houses in Miami-Dade and Broward since 2009. Yet only 270 of those are currently listed for sale, only 800 in the entire state. This gave me a slap in the head, and I admit it.
The fact is, once these notices were delivered, the banks quit obeying the law that says they MUST repossess underwater houses—unless the purchaser can come up with the difference. These houses are listed for the balance of the purchaser’s debt which has nothing, repeat, nothing to do with fair market value. And there will be no fair market value as long as the banks semi-legally hold millions of homes in shadow inventory.
Consider that the trade-up market that fueled the boom for thirty years has evaporated. Nobody in their right mind would trade up to a larger mortgage now. That leaves only first time buyers to fuel the furnace. And where are they going to get 25% for a down payment? The meager sales still happening are cash buyers, but even cash buyers won’t stem the tidal wave that is coming.
What’s more, I cannot believe how many of these cash investors are buying homes to fix up and resell. They’ve got to be crazy, pouring money into a declining market that can only get worse. If they don’t know by now the government and media are lying, they will probably never get it. There is nothing to lose by waiting. I know how foolish I looked in 2011 for actually thinking the banks would have to obey the law but the game isn’t over yet.
Doomsday is still the watchword. There’s a ton of (2008) commercial and adjustable rate mortgages falling due in 2013. According to Forbes, the USA has only half the money required for the job. I grew up with people bragging how much their house was worth, so there’ll be little mercy from this direction. Right now, if everybody was forced to liquidate their holdings and pay off their bank loans and credit cards, (that's BOTH liquidate and pay off) I’d be one of the fifty wealthiest men left in this town.
