[spdrun]

Where are you getting 4.6%? Average 30yr fixed is about 4%.

[spdrun]

The Fed is already on the panic button. Problem is that the longer they’re on it, the more speculation about them getting off. Should make for a nice little buying opportunity either way. They made the perfect storm — hope they and their cronies get to reap the whirlwind.

[spdrun]

Joe 6p will get mods as needed. Landlords will be fine. Specuvestors counting on another bubble will be reamed. This will be a good thing.

As far as printing money, the markets are actually a lot more volatile during times of easy money. Printing money doesn’t (fortunately!) guarantee anything, at least not short term.

Here’s hoping for a correction!

[spdrun]

Since I bought everything I own at crash-level prices, I’d see another crash as another buying opportunity. Since most of the buyers buying in the last 2.5 years have been investors, if some that bought foolishly get burned, them’s the breaks.

[spdrun]

What’s the worry? No recovery is linear, and things are expected to bounce up and down before finding a new normal (if that word can ever be applied to the CA r.e. market 🙂 ). We’re also getting out of the Spring buying season, so some price correction is normal. Not the end of the world.

And if I can pick up a condo or two more in the next year, it will be a good job. I’ve actually seen a few deals that will cash flow in the last week or so.

[spdrun]

Are these reputable licensed contractors all bad because they pay a “living wage” in a town where there is are undocumented immigrants available everywhere to undercut them who have NO workers comp insurance, little to no tools of the their own and no formal training whatsoever?

From my experience in NYC, some of those “undocumented immigrants” do a lot better work than good ‘ol American unionized slobs.

[spdrun]

And why exactly should BoA be obliged to give deadbeat borrowers a free ride?

Don’t pay child support: go to jail
Don’t pay car loan: get car repo’ed

Why should mortgages be a sacred cow?

[spdrun]

You can also BitTorrent video — it will take a while to download, but then you can watch in high quality.

[spdrun]

Nonsense — unless you banned all power tools and machine tools, someone with sufficient skill and access to metal will ALWAYS be able to build a gun, perhaps a pretty advanced one.

[spdrun]

I have 3/1 service in NYC, and it’s adequate but not great. Have you considered any prepaid wireless-to-wifi carriers?

[spdrun]

Thanks — I ended up just looking on Yelp and hiring the first person that got good reviews, and who answered the phone directly and gave an estimate, rather than having me go through some frou-frou secretary who didn’t know jack about plumbing. I didn’t ask about union(*) or not, legal or not, just that he could do the job and do it well. Which he did, and came in about $20 under estimate in the end!

As far as your job, just because your GM plant is doing well right now, why not save a bit, walk the hell out, and start your own shop anyway? Working for yourself has got to be more pleasant than working for a mega-corepiration like Chrysler (or Generic Morons, AT&T, Monsanto, or GE). With one, you have more control, with the other, you’re just a cog in the machine.

(*) – non-union one-man show would actually be preferable to me. I’m a lone wolf and have more respect for other lone-wolves than employees or unionized groupers.

[spdrun]

It’s a start. 7 hr days more closely match school hours than 9-10 hr days. Plus 4 wks of vaca plus holidays will at least allow parents to take trips with kids and/or spend time with them during school breaks. Lastly, 35 hr weeks may allow for four day flex weeks for a lot more workers. Work 8.5 hr four days, take one day off to be with kids. If two parents do that on different days, then you end up having a parent around four days out of seven.

See my second part about income expectations — we should actually lower expectations, painful as that may be.

[spdrun]

Also sounds like Australia (actually they have 38 hr weeks). Capitalism should not mean slavery, nor does it need to. Besides, is world hegemony really more important than human happiness? What’s wrong with being a slightly backward but happy society anyway?

[spdrun]

No thanks to “stankations.” I usually just rent my place out one month during summer, which helps quite a bit with costs.

(And it bothers me not at all to “time share” my home with someone off of Craigslist or rec’ed by a friend, since private papers and computers go in one file cabinet that gets locked in basement storage.)

[spdrun]

Simple solution: limit working hours to 35 per week + 4 weeks mandatory vacation + holidays for most W-2 employees. Combine that with national health insurance for all, so that employers would have to provide very minimal benefits — cost of hiring goes down.

You’d have (a) more people hired, since the possible work done by a single worker will decline and (b) people having more time to spend with families and kids.

Also, STOP TRYING TO RE-INFLATE THE PROPERTY BUBBLE ALREADY! SD may have gone insane, but prices in NJ are actually such that people can afford a decent apartment in an area with good schools on one income. Attempting to support prices via QE is just keeping people on the treadmill, running like fucking hamsters.

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