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SD Home Values Rise, Reports S&P
to 9 Surfpup, did you see how they separated Sallie Mae from her banking pimp in the health care bill? I guess the double dose of antibiotics she needed made it health care, or perhaps they were sneaking it past the banks hired gun, Philly Buster.— April 1, 2010 1:32 a.m.
SD Home Values Rise, Reports S&P
To 7 Sorry we failed to smile, personally I find the throngs of bikini clad students quite cheerful, and I never feel crowded around them. Those who date beauties and find them shallow, should reconsider their selection process, their mothers can find them a girl with a good personality. If San Diego is too shallow, perhaps San Francisco has what you need. Now if your wife supervised your visit, don't blame the town for your bad time. I love this town, call us dumb bunnies, but we are cheerful, beautiful dumb bunnies. As Yeats sings; "And wisdom is a butterfly, and not a gloomy bird of prey.".— April 1, 2010 12:10 a.m.
SD Home Values Rise, Reports S&P
Loans seem cheaper, and though I have no figures, I suspect that e price of the loan-home package is still dropping in terms of the 30 or 40 year price. Those cheap loans come from a Federal Reserve and government determined to stop the slide in prices. This monetarist tactic might succeed. We need to see a rise in volume before we put any trust in sales figures. A truly liquid market is the best medicine for the foreclosure disease.— March 30, 2010 6:49 p.m.
Questions Abound in City's Planned Refunding of Stadium Bonds
The feds appear to be tailoring orange jumpsuits for some JP Morgan executives. Check out http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&s… . I hope Uncle Sam will wire tap our local "experts" who recommended JP Morgan for this bond offering. I'm no expert, but this bond process, which chose multiple banks without agreeing on price, seems strange and suspect, and the proposed gain, even if as stated and not illegal, seems marginal. The more I look at this deal, the worse it seems.— March 29, 2010 12:16 a.m.
Questions Abound in City's Planned Refunding of Stadium Bonds
from Bloomberg 11 9 9 "JPMorgan won the county’s business by making millions in undisclosed payments to close friends of county commissioners, the county said. LeCroy, the banker who pitched the refinancing to Jefferson County, and MacFaddin, the former head of the New York-based bank’s municipal derivatives desk, didn’t settle with the SEC. Their lawyers said they acted properly. JPMorgan paid Blount, the former chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party, almost $3 million.". JPMorgan, the underwriter on the city's proposed bonds, is under investigation for bid rigging and bribery in municipal bonds, across the country and the world. That might explain the high interest rates, and the high fives. This gives a new meaning to "fixed" interest rates.— March 27, 2010 1:26 a.m.
Questions Abound in City's Planned Refunding of Stadium Bonds
Thanks for the link. His numbers are slightly different than those on the city document. The city only estimates a 5.71% new interest rate, elsewhere in the document, they admit the rate could be over 7%, and that the supposed savings might not exist for the Mission Bay properties. Normally I would say 7% or 5.7% was too high for tax free municipal bonds. but knowing our city, I'm surprised speculators would make such a risky play. Perhaps they intend to go short later. Pat Flannery entertains as well as informs, I liked "bondoggle" especially.— March 25, 2010 1:40 a.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
By "make a lot of people rich" I mean their friends and families. and those in on the scheme, that's everyone to them. They will also toss a bone from the table to construction workers and such. Thousands might benefit, but the downtown stadium is still an atrocity. If they planned to spend the same billion to fix our sewers and water supply, I would consider it.— March 24, 2010 7:23 p.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
Believers in God, Communism, free markets, social justice, whatever, cause most of the turmoil and progress in the world. All concerted action proceeds from belief. Resistance to that action is also from belief. In this city there are pragmatists who believe they can make a lot of people rich. But true believers stand in their way, talking crazy ideas of "honest government", "rule of law" and "solvency". The pragmatists would laugh at them, but with their crazy "ideals" they won't take a bribe. So the pragmatists call them crazy. Idealism without doubt leads to fanatical insanity, doubt of all ideals leads to a depressed hedonism. Somehow we've got to balance ourselves.— March 24, 2010 2:51 a.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
This fanaticism results from two Republican articles of faith shared with Marxism and radical Islam. That salvation proceeds from belief, not action, and that history is predestined. Once these principles are accepted, George W, seems a great leader. Followers knew he could not doubt, because he could not think. Failure was part of God's plan to bring us to the pure faith, the free market was not free enough, the monetarism marred by deficits, the torture not widespread enough, the judges not medieval enough. Take heart, the modern world has defeated fanaticism repeatedly. Our founders commemorated the bloodless victory of the British 1688 revolution in our constitutional separation of church and state. They remembered the horrific stupidity of 17th century religious wars. We should too. We must firmly defend the law, but avoid needless provocation.— March 23, 2010 12:16 p.m.
Fundamentalist Group Wants to Reform Court System
George W. is perhaps the greatest shill in history, providing a smiling trusted face to the shocking Enron and Neocon scams. He persuaded. Many still believe. Yet he had a weird thought disorder that forced his sentences into the passive case, he almost always used the verb to be. "I am the decider" instead of "I decide". He seemed incapable of forming compound sentences, or understanding them in debate. But this was turned to his advantage, he seemed an everyman. The son of a president ran as a outsider, against the smart peoples fancy talk. Those short meaningless passive sentences won an election. Americans prefer the cowboy to the city slicker, and the homespun philosopher to the scientist. That's why the Republican insiders selected Sarah Palin. Stupidity may well be an asset in presidential politics.— March 23, 2010 1:35 a.m.