[spdrun]

Why pay $250k for a 1 bedroom when you can get one for $150k or $175k in almost as good of an area?

[spdrun]

I looked at a few units on Lebon Dr. (not sure of name of complex, but it may have been one of those) a year or two ago. They were selling for $150-200k for a one bedroom, but the broker mentioned (and research confirmed) multiple lawsuits between the developer and the HOA. Construction also seemed ultra-cheap, even by San Diego standards.

If you’re looking for a one/two bedroom, I’d either wait — the frenzy of last year is basically over, and appreciation has calmed. Hopefully the slowdown of QE3 and ensuing higher mortgage rates will put the kibosh on further growth in that department for the next year or two.

Other thing is that two bedrooms south of $300k ain’t exactly hard to come by. Get yourself a Listingbook account and search. You probably won’t find one without problems in UTC, but there are plenty of other decent neighborhoods where you’ll have no problem finding one.

Verano at least seems to be on the other side of Rte. 5, at least a mile from Black’s Beach and on a busy road. Not terribly walkable. What’s the advantage vs other more working-class areas to the south and east?

[spdrun]

^^^

Which has been essentially solved with the official ability to sideload Android .apks. (Which may also discourage native development, but that’s a problem for a year from now.)

From all I’ve heard, the recent 10.2.1 release is getting great reviews.

[spdrun]

if you say so.. I can’t say I agree with you being in the business, I just can’t get myself around a BB phone these days..

Have you played with a 10.2.1 beta device?

[spdrun]

The fed is not ending monetary stimulus. They are just buying less.
Doesn’t seem like we have a lot to worry about.

The current plan is to cut by $10 bln per meeting, and Yellen’s accession aside, it’s supported by a more conservative set of voting members next month.

I’m not “worried” — I’m actually rooting for some normalization in asset prices. If it nails emerging markets which lived on credit and boomers who used their homes as ATM’s, so be it.

[spdrun]

I wouldn’t call it speculative. Great brand recognition, excellent UI for when you want a communication device rather than a toy, excellent remote management tools, serious end-to-end crypto built in, and ability to run Android apps. And (for some reason) an FM radio built in 🙂

Buy when the lemmings are selling. Also, I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for the firm and would like them to get their crap together and give the Big Three a run for their money again.

[spdrun]

Nah, you should have bought BBRY at $6 a share last month 🙂

[spdrun]

QCOM retraced some of its loss in the last five days. Fecesbook will do well until companies realize that users don’t actually look at the ads on there. They’ve all but acknowledged that they have problems with people actually noticing ads, hence their forced video play feature (fortunately easy to disable).

Seriously couldn’t remember ANY ads that were displayed on Facebook if you asked me.

Update: looked at the ‘book and it’s showing an ad attempting to sell me a NYC phone # for $29/mo. Seems expensive for something you can get through Verizon, transfer to Google Voice for free, and not pay a dime monthly.

As far as Google selling Motorola Mobility, I’m surprised. Didn’t they just acquire it two years ago? Guessing that Google is realizing that they’re not a hardware company and that Lenovo is a better fit to own a HW firm. Hope that manufacturing operations in the US continue even under the new owner.

[spdrun]

I wasn’t even talking about light or high-speed rail, BTW.

I was talking about that there are thousands of bridges that are ancient and no longer quake/storm/heavy-traffic safe out there.

That it would be lovely if the FREIGHT tracks were electrified with 25kV AC to allow the use of non-fossil power from the grid.

EV charging stations. Massive investment in renewable energy. Desalination plants where there are water shortages (.il has been using them for decades, .san-diego.ca.us is just starting now).

Medium-speed passenger rail where appropriate. Use existing tracks and upgrade them to 100 mph standard for electric tilting trains — it’s a lot faster than driving and cheaper than HSR.

Investment in manned space travel and exploration. We don’t want to be stuck on this rock forever…

[spdrun]

Big unknown as to how, though. Pushing money into speculation diverts it from productive activities. Remember that the Fed tightened and KEPT tightening even after the NASDAQ bubble started deflating in 2000.

Real change needs to come from DC. And possibly from the Fed buying state infrastructure bonds directly — infrastructure investment is one area that’s sorely lacking in the US. Rebuilding it, modernizing it will keep a lot of people employed and help the economy for 50 years to come.

Housing? We have a glut. People willing to play the markets? Samesville.

[spdrun]

Interesting — looks like the Fed is staying the bubble-popping course for now. Keep on keeping on cutting by $10 billion per session regardless what it does to the markets. Question is, would they have been better tapering in September, when the markets didn’t have another 10% extra to fall?

HSBC is down below 52 — if it gets below 45 or 50 without other banks doing same, I might start to worry.

Anyway, what the Fed is doing is commendable. Stock markets and real estate should be driven by the economy at large, not the reverse. Anything else leaves us vulnerable to a crash — the big joke was that 50% of the Phoenix economy consisted of building itself, and when that stopped, what was left?

[spdrun]

^^^

I wouldn’t worry about that story, personally. I saw it last weekend — it seems to have come from one source and spread virally to a bunch of conspiracy sites. Plus the policy change in question was in Nov 2013, not recently.

I’m betting that either (a) they don’t want to keep large amounts of cash on hand at all branches or (b) they’re catching flak over money-laundering accusations and want to play the good guy for a while.

Also, HSBC plc stock has been trading in the 52-57 range (40-60 the last four years) for the past year. While it’s at the low end of the 1-year range now, its behaviour doesn’t indicate people with inside information looking to get out of Dodge.

This looks more like a poor attempt at stock manipulation than a genuine issue, but I could be wrong.

[spdrun]

They build infrastructure, we make enemies destroying it.
Turning dollars into smoke, noise and ash.

Sadly, agreed.

[spdrun]

Depends — labor costs in China are going up, making their products more expensive (their workers want a higher standard of living). The market for consumer electronics, at least in countries that can afford them, is glutted (see also: Apple iPhone sales).

Lastly, if *we* wanted to crash the competition, what better way than to flood the markets with cheap money that is used to buy their goods and stocks, then pull the rug out, leaving them holding the bag?

[spdrun]

China crashing might be a cause for celebration, not a worry, for some. For all we know, this may be a deliberately engineered crisis — get them hooked on some QE opium, then pull their source and watch them twitch.

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