About Me 0012: January 2011

Monday, January 24, 2011

Making Money With Options

Yesterday we learned that talks between the Astros and Yankees about Jeff Keppinger didn't get very far. The 30-year-old utility player appeared to be a fine fit for a team in need of bench help, but New York could instead turn to rookie Eduardo Nunez to fill the role. That, however, seems like a Plan B more than anything right now.

If the Yankees want to sift through other options on the open market they'll find that there isn't much left to choose from. Former Yankee prospect Cristian Guzman is still available after posting a less-than-stellar .648 OPS with the Nationals and Rangers. Despite a solid body of work throughout his career, Julio Lugo disappointed in Baltimore last season, hitting .249/.298/.282 in 93 games. Both players offer average defense at shortstop (-0.2 and -0.4 career UZR/150, respectively) but Lugo has more experience playing second base. Those two are essentially the cream of the free agent utility infielder crop.

The Yankees have had trouble signing bench players in recent years in part because no free agent in their right mind would join the Yanks only to sit on the bench behind their impressive cast of regulars. They've had to trade for bench help as a result, grabbing the likes of Wilson Betemit, Jerry Hairston Jr., Eric Hinske, and Austin Kearns at the deadline in recent years. John Hickey of Sportspress Northwest writes that the Mariners need to make a deal if they hope to free up spending cash this winter, so perhaps a deal involving Jack Wilson and the $5MM left on his contract deal could make sense for both sides.

GM Brian Cashman has started each of the last two seasons with young gloveman Ramiro Pena on his bench, so the team could go with him again if they feel Nunez needs more minor league seasoning. The Yankees have money to spend after missing out on Cliff Lee, but quality reserve players are tough to find these days. Overpaying for bench players is a good way to waste money, so don't be surprised if New York starts the season with Pena before making yet another in-season trade. What do MLBTR's readers think the Yankees will do with their bench during before Spring Training?

Mike Axisa contributed to this post.

Another Facebook change, another privacy uproar. Read the headlines and you might have thought the social network was planning to open the books on private cellphone numbers and home addresses to any advertiser willing to slip them some cash, rather than adding some more sharing options along with the usual granular control over who gets to see what of your digital details. Unsurprisingly Facebook froze its plans pending a reassessment of its privacy controls; unfortunately, nobody is taking Facebook users – and the online community in general – to task over taking some responsibility for what they share.

If you haven’t been following the story, here’s the situation in a nutshell. Facebook announced on Friday that it was planning to add address and mobile number to the personal information that could be shared with applications, websites and advertisers. As with other personal details, the degree to which that data was accessible would be managed under each user’s permissions settings: everything from a come-and-get-me open pipe to a complete block on anything being revealed. Facebook billed it as a way to “easily share your address and mobile phone with a shopping site to streamline the checkout process, or sign up for up-to-the-minute alerts on special deals directly to your mobile phone.”

Don’t get me wrong; I’m under no illusion that Facebook is doing this for altruistic reasons. Making online purchases quicker is undoubtedly handy to those who actually click through Facebook adverts, but for the social network itself it’s all about making money from its most valuable asset: its millions of registered users. Just like with a free newspaper, Facebook makes its money by showing you adverts, and it can use your personal information to tailor those ads more appropriately. Access to personal contact details, meanwhile, is even more valuable.

However, just because there’s profit to be made for Facebook, it doesn’t mean this is either bad for the user or a sign of Evil Big Business taking advantage of the general public. We manage the degrees to which we disclose personal information all the time, long before Facebook arrived and gave us a simple privacy settings page to work with. Every time you avoid giving your phone number to a door-to-door charity worker, tick the no-junk-mail box on a bank form or refuse to give your address to someone you just met at a bar, you’re exercising your own, personal privacy filter.

Perhaps I’m being unfair. After all, it only takes a quick glance at sites like Lamebook (often NSFW) to see that many Facebook users have problems with over-sharing, accidentally making public posts out of what were meant to be private messages, and generally forgetting who out of their friends and family can read what they’re saying. Maybe Facebook does have some intrinsic responsibility to shepherd its members through the difficult journey that is online life; perhaps the privacy pages really won’t be complete until there’s color coding, pop-up warnings and a virtual cash register showing just how much you’ve lined Mark Zuckerberg’s pocket.

This constant push-me-pull-me with Facebook does users no favours. Every time the privacy patrol scream, and Facebook backtracks, it reinforces the idea that the site itself is solely responsible – should be responsible – for making safe use of the information we share online. Don’t get me wrong, if Facebook was looking to sneak in a “we can sell your identify” clause into the T&Cs, that’s something worth shouting about. When, though, we muster the same amount of vitriol for sharing options that already have safeguards – safeguards that satisfactorily protect our email address and other details – it looks more like abdication of responsibility. We want to trust Facebook do “do the right thing” – based on our own interpretation of what “the right thing” is, exactly – so that we won’t have to. We can spend our time looking up old crushes, posting photos of ourselves looking fierce in clubs, and commenting on videos of cats.

Privacy is important, but the responsibility begins at the individual level. Just as you don’t hand out your address to strangers in the street, maybe giving it to every website that asks isn’t all that sensible either. Relying on other people, or companies, to protect us universally is a naivety we abandon before adulthood in the real world, yet something many seem determined to cling to online. That’s before you get to the thorny issue of lost or stolen data. In the end, it’s your life, your number, your face: it’s up to you whether it’s an open book.

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

American fitness guru Jack LaLanne died Sunday afternoon at his home in Morro Bay, California, according to his long-time agent, Rick Hersh. He was 96. The cause, said Hersh, was respiratory failure due to pneumonia.

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.

Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.

Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

epic fail photos - Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL.

Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

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Hype Is Not News But We Keep Acting Like It Is

This morning I read a headline from the Wall Street Journal that had promise, especially as it could impact online ...

Probably Bad News: Headline FAIL - Epic Fail Funny Videos and ...

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Jack LaLanne dead at 96 – This Just In - CNN.com Blogs

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Making Money System

Products of the past…doomed…

Chinese President Hu Jintao: the US dollar-based monetary system is a “product of the past.”

He is right about that. And last week two major US credit agencies – Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s – underlined the point. They said America’s triple A credit rating would be lost if the nation continues to borrow so much money.

Amen to that, brother…

But how can the US borrow less?

Ben Bernanke says the US economy will probably grow between 3% and 4% this year.

Pretty good, huh? We can stop worrying, huh?

Wait a minute. We don’t know if the US economy will grow this year…and neither does Ben Bernanke. But even if it were to grow at 3% to 4%…would that mean we were enjoying a genuine recovery? Could the US dollar-based monetary system hold up after all? Could it surprise the Chinese and be a product of the future as well as of the past?

Let’s see how the present economic model works. You spend $10 trillion on bailouts and stimulus. This puts the whole country on course for bankruptcy…where the Chinese are telling you that your money is history…and the rating agencies are threatening to take you down a notch or two. But for your trouble you get, say, 4% growth.

Hmmmm…4% growth is equal to about $560 billion more GDP. But don’t look too closely. Much of this extra GDP is debt-fueled government boondoggling which adds nothing real to the nation’s wealth.

But in order to keep this “growth” going, you have to continue to run deficits – of about a trillion dollars a year. Hold on…what kind of business is Ben Bernanke running?

It costs more in deficit spending than you get in positive GDP growth.

Well, maybe you lose money every year…but you can make it up in the long run!

Hold on… The deficits are expected to run 5% to 10% of GDP for years. Maybe forever. If the growth rate is only in the 3%-4% range, it will mean that debt always outgrows growth. In fact, that is exactly what almost every economist projects.

Then, what’s the point? Well, maybe deficits can be cut…and the growth rate will pick up? Hey, anything is possible. And since we’re starting out in 2011 with a positive attitude…we’re ready to believe anything.

And maybe that’s what gold speculators were thinking on Friday. They sold gold – taking the price down $26 an ounce. Gold rises as confidence in the financial system falls. If gold is falling, it must mean the confidence in the Bernanke, Geithner team is increasing.

Based on the evidence so far, we’d have to take the other side of that bet. If Bernanke & Co. have any idea what they are doing it is not apparent from the public record. Even now, in the 5th year of the Great Correction, they still seem unable to see what is going on.

Bernanke:

“We got in trouble in the first place by making too many bad loans, right. So you’ve got to make good loans. We’ve got to have credit worthy borrowers.”

It may be that, in private, Bernanke has a clearer view of things. But we cannot tap his phone or channel his dreams. All we have to go on is what he says…and does. So far, he has said or done nothing that gives us confidence in the man.

He’s right: we got into trouble by making too many bad loans. But why did “we” do that? Because the Fed lent money too cheaply! It encouraged speculation and risk taking – especially by the banks, who must have known that they would be bailed out if they got into trouble.

And how could the Fed remedy the situation? Easy. It could raise rates – just as Paul Volcker did. It could put the squeeze on speculators. It could raise reserve requirements. It could allow the banks to go bust…send them a message they wouldn’t forget.

But what has Bernanke done? Just the opposite. He has rewarded the reckless speculators by buying up their bad bets (adding $1.7 trillion in trashy mortgage backed securities to the Fed’s core holdings). He has cut rates even more…bringing the effective rate down to zero for privileged borrowers. And he has created the illusion of “recovery” – by goosing up prices of stocks and commodities.

Bad policies. Bad in the short run. Worse in the long run.

Bill Bonner

for The Daily Reckoning

The US Deficit Recovery Program and Other Fallacies originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning. The Daily Reckoning, offers a uniquely refreshing, perspective on the global economy, investing, gold, stocks and today's markets. Its been called "the most entertaining read of the day."

You're probably reading this on junk. And I'm not talking about newsprint - industry woes aside, that's high-quality stuff. But if you're on a computer or an iPad, and you're not plugged into an Internet jack in the wall? Junk, then.

But it's not your MacBook or your tablet that's so crummy. It's the spectrum it's using.

Spectrum, in the words of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, is the economy's "invisible infrastructure." It's the interstate system for information that travels wirelessly. It's how you get radio in your car, service on your cellphone and satellite to your television. It's also how you get WiFi.

But not all spectrum is created equal. "Beachfront spectrum" is like a well-paved road. Lots of information can travel long distances on it without losing much data. But not all spectrum is so valuable.

In 1985, there was a slice of spectrum that was too crummy for anyone to want. It was so weak that the radiation that microwaves emit could mess with it. So the government released it to the public. As long as whatever you were doing didn't interfere with what anyone else was doing, you could build on that spectrum. That's how we got garage-door openers and cordless phones. Because the information didn't have to travel far, the junk spectrum was good enough. Later on, that same section of junk spectrum became the home for WiFi - a crucial, multibillion-dollar industry. A platform for massive technological innovation. A huge increase in quality of life.

There's a lesson in that: Spectrum is really, really important. And not always in ways that we can predict in advance. Making sure that spectrum is used well is no less important than making sure our highways are used well: If the Beltway were reserved for horses, Washington would not be a very good place to do business.

But our spectrum is not being used well. It's the classic innovator's quandary: We made good decisions many years ago, but those good decisions created powerful incumbents, and in order to make good decisions now, we must somehow unseat the incumbents.

Today, much of the best spectrum is allocated to broadcast television. Decades ago, when 90 percent of Americans received their programming this way, that made sense. Today, when fewer than 10 percent of Americans do, it doesn't.

Meanwhile, mobile broadband is quite clearly the platform of the future - or at least the near future. But we don't have nearly enough spectrum allocated for its use. Unless that changes, the technology will be unable to progress, as more advanced uses will require more bandwidth, or it will have to be rationed, perhaps through extremely high prices that make sure most people can't use it.

The FCC could just yank the spectrum from the channels and hand it to the mobile industry. But it won't. It fears lawsuits and angry calls from lawmakers. And temperamentally, Genachowski himself is a consensus-builder rather than a steamroller.

Instead, the hope is that current owners of spectrum will give it up voluntarily. In exchange, they'd get big sacks of money. If a slice of spectrum is worth billions of dollars to Verizon but only a couple of million to a few aging TV stations - TV stations that have other ways to reach most of those customers - then there should be enough money in this transaction to leave everyone happy.

At least, that's some people's hope. Some advocates want that spectrum - or at least a substantial portion of it - left unlicensed. Rather than using telecom corporations such as Verizon to buy off the current owners of the spectrum, they'd like to see the federal government take some of that spectrum back and preserve it as a public resource for the sort of innovation we can't yet imagine and that the big corporations aren't likely to pioneer - the same as happened with WiFi. But as of yet, that's not the FCC's vision for this. Officials are more worried about the mobile broadband market. They argue (accurately) that they've already made more beachfront spectrum available for unlicensed uses. And although they don't say this clearly, auctioning spectrum to large corporations gives them the money to pay off the current owners. But even so, they can't do that.

"Imagine someone was given property on Fifth Avenue 50 years ago, but they don't use it and can't sell it," says Tim Wu, a law professor at Harvard and author of "The Master Switch." That's the situation that's arisen in the spectrum universe. It's not legal for the FCC to run auctions and hand over some of the proceeds to the old owners. That means the people sitting on the spectrum have little incentive to give it up. For that to change, the FCC needs Congress to pass a law empowering it to compensate current holders of spectrum with proceeds from the sale.

One way - the slightly demagogic way - to underscore the urgency here is to invoke China: Do you think it's letting its information infrastructure stagnate because it's a bureaucratic hassle to get the permits shifted? I rather doubt it.

Of course, we don't want the Chinese system. Democracy is worth some red tape. But if we're going to keep a good political system from becoming an economic handicap, there are going to be a lot of decisions like this one that need to be made. Decisions where we know what we need to do to move the economy forward, but where it's easier to do nothing because there are powerful interests attached to old habits. The problem with having a really good 20th century, as America did, is that you've built up a lot of infrastructure and made a lot of decisions that benefit the industries and innovators of the 20th century. But now we're in the 21st century, and junk won't cut it anymore.

Source:http://removeripoffreports.net/

Schneier on Security: More Stuxnet News

January 17, 2011. More Stuxnet News. This long New York Times article includes some interesting revelations. The article claims that Stuxnet was a joint Israeli-American project, and that its effectiveness was tested on live equipment: ...

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Pitchfork: The Strokes Confirm Release Date for New Record

TwentyFourBit points out that the Strokes' bassist Nikolai Fraiture has confirmed a recently speculated rumor concerning the release date of ...

Friday, January 14, 2011

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It has always been the case that anyone who has the benefit of Legal Aid would go running to their solicitor at the first sign of any problem. They did this on the basis that they weren't paying for any legal advice so they would have as much as possible! Sometimes however this shot them in the foot.

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Very often, funding is not a free lunch. If, (in a divorce for example) the parties are arguing over money or a house then some of the value of their house or their money may be at risk. There is an exemption which (the last time I looked) was £5000 but other than that any monies or property in dispute were at risk. In a nutshell, if the fund paid for someone to fight over the old matrimonial home then in the event that the matrimonial home was awarded to the person with the benefit of Legal Aid then the Board would want the costs they had paid, repaying from the value of the home.

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Talk with your local branch banks. Credit unions are another great route to take and you should explore membership with a credit union to have more options open to you. The small, local branches are often more inclined to work with someone who has credit challenges. There is something special about the small-town effect when it comes to your relationship with the bankers.

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Science news

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LePage on NAACP: 'Tell them to kiss my butt' — Bangor Daily News

But leaders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People pointed out in a news reports published Friday that LePage had declined numerous invitations from the organization. Rachel Talbot Ross, state director of the ...

Apple, News Corp. Delay "Daily" iPad Newspaper | Peter Kafka ...

Turns out you'll have to wait a bit longer to see The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's long-awaited iPad news service. Apple and News Corp. have made a joint decision to push back next week's planned launch. The delay is supposed to give Apple ...

Thursday, January 13, 2011

foreclosure homes

The financial costs of the seemingly endless foreclosure crisis have been widely reported with Credit Suisse estimating that as many as 12 million families will lose their homes before this is all over. The predatory lending that led to the spike in foreclosures, and the robo-signings coupled with the illegal forcible removal of many families from their homes, promise to keep these issues in the headlines for years to come.

Lost amidst the news reports, legislative hearings, scholarly journal articles and books, documentary films, and blogs of all sorts are the perhaps more profound non-financial consequences. There have been some reports of the family tensions that often surround financial struggles, the hardships children face when they are forced to change schools, and related social stresses. But a deeper, darker challenge may be on the horizon resulting from the mistrust and betrayal families report as a result of the deception they have experienced in the mortgage market. While also feeling shame and embarrassment, even personal failure, for having allowed themselves to be taken in, these families are also aware of the exploitation they have experienced at the hands of their "trusted" financial advisors. That mistrust threatens the recovery some believe has begun in recent months.

As the British sociologist Anthony Giddens has noted, in complex societies where each individual cannot become expert in all the institutional contexts in which they must operate, trust is essential for people to negotiate the various realms, including financial institutions, in which they operate. People must feel secure in the trust networks they establish in order to survive and prosper, and for society itself to advance.

In a series of in-depth interviews nationwide with 22 adults who are at risk of foreclosure (they were either behind in their mortgage payments at some point in the past two years or, in two instances, had already lost their homes due to foreclosure) all respondents expressed both anger and personal responsibility. The interviews lasted between 30 and 90 minutes. In no question with any respondent was the word "trust" used. But in every case but one, the respondents explicitly referred to the mistrust they now have for anyone associated with the mortgage lending industry in particular or financial services generally.

One woman who, unknowingly, took out a variable rate mortgage told us "We didn't have any reason to believe that he would lie to us or would mislead us on this. I mean there was no reason for us not to trust him." Another young woman described the reaction of her elderly uncle who was misled into taking an adjustable rate loan, "He doesn't trust anybody now, nobody."

Homeownership, of course, has long been one of the pre-eminent symbols of success in the United States. Self-respect for many is wrapped up in the fact that they could call themselves a homeowner. Taking care of one's family, being a contributing member of society, the very identity of who we are is often measured by the fact of being a homeowner. When that status is lost, it can be devastating. Many who are caught in the bursting of the housing bubble individualize their troubles and blame themselves, in part, for their situation no matter how egregious the deceit on the part of the lender. Anger is directed at their broker and themselves.

As one homeowner, whose family income was inflated by a broker in one of the loan documents, offered, "...if I had to do it all over again I would definitely have legal representation just to be there, cross my 't's' and dot my 'I's'"

One man acknowledged the haste with which he signed a loan where the broker misled him into thinking that various credit card loans would be consolidated. Instead, he was left with credit card payments on top of the mortgage, "Yes, I wouldn't have been so rushed in the process...we should've known better, the things that they tried to pull."

So our respondents exhibited a double-consciousness. They knew they were victims yet they still held themselves responsible. More problematic, in various ways all said they would be far more cautious in the future, with some indicating they would not likely deal with financial institutions again. In reference to the use of credit in the future, one respondent observed "Don't let them have your money and don't listen to them. I will be borrowing a lot less and I will be doing a lot less than what I did." After watching his interest rate increase from 8 percent to 11 percent one man stated, "I tell my kids, you know, trust no one. No one out there, no one's your friend, and I'm learning that more and more each day. I don't trust them anymore."

From a public policy perspective, even if the overriding concerns are the strictly financial costs, or more cynically the well-being of the "too-big-to-fail" institutions, these psychological and emotional costs may pose far greater challenges to our economy than the dollar amounts represented by the mounting number of foreclosures. Observers at all ends of the political spectrum recognize the importance of (prudent) risk-taking. When based on a foundation of knowledge, hard work, and no small amount of faith, entrepreneurship (which means risk-taking) is essential for any meaningful economic recovery. Refusal to participate in the nation's financial institutions (assuming they are properly managed) due to lack of trust or any other reason, can only forestall that recovery.

Small business operators, homeowners, and citizens generally must have trust and faith in complex institutions, including banks, if our economy and society are to prosper. Whether our focus is Wall Street or Main Street, our families and homes or our global institutions, focusing only on the immediately transparent (and readily quantifiable) value of the foreclosed homes understates the true costs of the crisis and will only extend and exacerbate the years of struggle before us.

Lauren M. Ross is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at Temple University. Gregory D. Squires is a professor of sociology at George Washington University. This essay was drawn from their forthcoming paper, "The Personal Costs of Subprime Lending and the Foreclosure Crisis: A Matter of Trust, Insecurity, and Institutional Deception" to be published in the March issue of Social Science Quarterly.

LPS Applied Analytics released their November Mortgage Performance data. According to LPS:

• The average number of days delinquent for loans in foreclosure is a record 499 days

• Over 4.3 million loans are 90 days or more delinquent or in foreclosure

• Delinquency rates are down across all products as more loans entered foreclosure and new delinquencies declined.

• Foreclosure inventory increases are being driven both by elevated levels of foreclosure starts as well as a very limited amount of foreclosure sale activity.

Click on graph for larger image in new window.

This graph provided by LPS Applied Analytics shows the percent delinquent, percent in foreclosure, and total non-current mortgages.

The percent in the foreclosure process is trending up because of the foreclosure moratoriums.

According to LPS, 9.02% of mortgages are delinquent (down from 9.29% in October), and another 4.08% are in the foreclosure process (up from 3.92% in October) for a total of 13.10%. It breaks down as:

• 2.61 million loans less than 90 days delinquent.

• 2.16 million loans 90+ days delinquent.

• 2.16 million loans in foreclosure process.

For a total of 6.92 million loans delinquent or in foreclosure.

Note: I've seen some people include these 7 million delinquent loans as "shadow inventory". This is not correct because 1) some of these loans will cure, and 2) some of these homes are already listed for sale (so they are included in the visible inventory).

Two key numbers to watch in 2011 are:

• New delinquencies. With falling house prices, delinquencies could start to increase again.

• Foreclosures. With the end of the foreclosure moratoriums, foreclosure sales should increase - and the number of homes in the foreclosure process should decline. However REOs (Real Estate Owned) will increase unless the homes are sold.

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Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

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Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

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Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

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News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

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News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

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News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

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News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

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News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

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News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

News Story Details

Dallas Cowboys Tidbits: Snacking On Cowboys News - Blogging The Boys

Get the latest roundup of Cowboys in the news. Dallas Cowboys Tidbits are for those that like to eat and run!

News Corp considers MySpace sale, what happened? - Lost Remote

Monday, January 10, 2011

Making Money With a Website

So Christmas has been and gone. Are you now facing the New Year and wondering how you can keep up the Christmas spirit and goodwill for the coming year? Well, it certainly helps when you know how to do so for free from your own home.

There are so many simple ways to volunteer or donate to charity by giving up a small amount of your time or re-purposing some money you would normally have spent. So here’s a list of five of the best quick and easy ways to volunteer or donate to charity. Bookmark the list of charities and use it to do the rounds weekly!

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Skip1.org

This is a great concept — it’s a site which makes you think about how much money you waste on frivolous things. You nominate something which you will give up, say a lunch or newspapers for a month. Then you donate that same amount of money to feeding a hungry child.

Yes, you’re handing over money to charity, but it’s money you would have spent anyway. It’s also easy to share news of your donation with your friends via social networks, and hopefully convince a few of them to skip something for charity too.

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Free Rice

Free Rice has been around a while, but it’s so good it’s worth making sure it’s on this list. Play a simple, addictive trivia quiz and Free Rice will donate rice for each of your correct answers. This is a free and simple way to give whenever you have a free moment. Read more on FreeRice here.

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Causes

There are a number of things you can do using Causes, including raising awareness for your chosen charity and helping to raise funds for them. By far the easiest way to donate money with Causes is to set up a birthday or holiday fund. This way, instead of receiving presents from friends and family, you simply ask them to donate the money on your behalf. It takes about two minutes to set up, since you can log in with Facebook Connect – just choose the charity and you’re set!

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Charity Gifts

Here’s another easy way to spend your money on charity instead of something you were already going to pay for. Instead of giving gifts to your friends, give them the knowledge that you have donated to charity on their behalf. The Donation4Charity website searches all the big charity gifting sites (such as UNICEF, WWF and Oxfam) and lets you search the gifts according to how much money you have available to spend. Buy a goat for charity for about the same price as a modest gift!

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Sparked

Spend 5-10 minutes donating your expertise to charity: Give website feedback, brainstorm fundraising ideas or help design an awareness campaign. This is what they need help with – if you can spend a few minutes working on it then you’ve made a difference to a real charity with just a moment of your time. Read more on Sparked here & get going!

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And many, many more!

There are so many great ways to donate your time to charity — the sites listed above are just a few. Here’s some more great articles which introduce many more you might like to try.

Introducing Jumo – The Social Network for Social Good
How To Easily Coordinate Volunteers Using Volunteer Spot
5 Crowd Funding Websites To Support Your Favourite Charities, Bands & Projects
Find Volunteering Opportunities Near You with VolunteerMatch
10 Search Engines To Help The Environment
5 Cool Edutainment Games You Can Play and Also Donate To Charitable Causes
5 Websites To Lend A Hand & Make A Difference To The World

What are your favourite sites for donating your time to charity? Do you appreciate charity gifts given on your behalf? Let us know in the comments!

The Middle East’s largest online auction and buying site has decided auctions are so last decade.

From the beginning of 2011 sellers won’t get the option to sell their products in an auction. It’s fixed price, or none at all.

The decision comes as a shock to many as Souq.com, which opened its doors to the public in 2005 and has since launched in 5 countries in the region, has always been portrayed as the eBay of the Middle East. At least in terms of online auctions, not anymore.

“We (and most of our sellers) want to offer the best online shopping experience to users in the region, and this is one step along the way to support this goal.” said CEO and Founder of Souq.com Ronaldo Mouchawar in an email about the recent shift.

This change, as most in life, will have its supporters and detractors. The good thing is, it looks like a only slim minority might end up annoyed.

To illustrate the above, lets say you’re a painter and you work from home during your spare time. I’m one of those who believe art has no price, but since it’s good to have paint to create priceless masterpieces, putting the occasional price tag on your work isn’t entirely evil. The only problem with that is how do you put a price tag on art in the first place? Van Gough considered giving money for art is as important as being an artist yourself. That’s where auctions come in strong.

By putting up a painting to sell through an auction, the seller allows the highest bidder to give her as much it takes to win the auction, or otherwise ask to ‘Buy Now’ according to a price the seller sets. Will this shift be good for those who realistically don’t know how much their work is worth? I would say no.

On the flip-side regional retail stores tend to invest large amounts of money to put their products online on their own, and usually fail miserably. Many factors come into play, but the most obvious are a large user base and an easy to use website to buy from.

This encouraged Souq.com to build a platform for merchants and retail stores to offer their products on Souq through fixed prices (almost all the time), and through Souq Stores which are customizable online outlets for retailers such as UAE’s
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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Fox is preparing for a "worst-case scenario" in which it was pressured to air responsible statements in place of its current programming: "If it comes to that, God forbid, we'll just air 24 hours of 24."

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

It pretty clearly seems to be a sarcastic remark about the large volume of Verizon iPhone stories. This one seems pretty redundant, of course Verizon plans to make news, why else would they call a press announcement? ...

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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

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Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

bench craft company reviews bench craft company reviews

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes may boycott Oscars over Anne Hathaway ...

The 83rd Annual Academy Awards is gearing up to be the most star-studded event of the year, but.

Andy Borowitz: Fox News Warns That Without Angry Rhetoric It Will ...

Verizon Wireless is ready to make news on Tuesday | 9 to 5 Mac ...

Friday, January 7, 2011

Wotlk Making Money

[blogsearch]
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Will an ad network work for your news website? Or are you just ...

The journalism industry's traditional ethical "wall" dividing advertising and editorial has left some journalists so frightened by the idea of selling to potential advertisers that they choose not even to try launching their own news ...

Star Wars Complete Saga Blu-ray news: release in September, 30 ...

This might not be the 'most impressive' Star Wars announcement you were looking for. Not that it's a bad thing the complete saga will be.

Dallas Morning News publisher on paywall plans: “This is a big ...

In talking about the Dallas Morning News' plans to begin charging for digital content next month, Jim Moroney is surprisingly candid about the decision and the economics of the industry. When the publisher of the News told his staff ...

Thursday, January 6, 2011

foreclosure

""A total of 78,955 U.S. properties received default notices (NOD, LIS) in November, a 21 percent decrease from the previous month and a 31 percent decrease from November 2009 — the 10th straight annual decrease in default notices. November’s default notices total was the lowest since July 2007. ""

DEFAULT NOTICES, administrative 3 months mandatory paper trail, properly 'served' to meet stage one Legal Requirements...

November 2010 lowest since July 2007 thats 3 years and 5 months = 41 months

so finally exhausted the continued monthly supply of about 80,000 defaulting type house buyers, 3.28 million defaulters

SINCE THE TAIL END CHARLIES finally 'evicted' is/has been at 95,000 / month...(why MORE..hum) ANYWAY, FOR SURE ALL 100% OF THE DEFAULTERS SEEM TO BE CONTINUING TO NOT PAY..remaining rent free during the judicial cycle from default to final eviction...

How Long on average ? 12-24 months per house rent-free? pure guess.. another guess is therrefore HOW MUCH 'TAKE HOME ADDITIONAL SPENDING MONEY IS IT @ 24 months and say $1500/month (very modest estimate, low end). and 3.28 million 'beneficiaries' over the 41 months thus far...

Well, a NICE SOLID $36,100 per household ....11.75 x 10 (6+4) => 11.75 tens of billions..=>.$117.50 BILLION boost to the USA economy, spread over 41 months, very very good...

Another pure guess is IF the US IRS will make an Administrative Final Decision regards the tax status of the UNPAIDFORGIVEN DEBTS on those mortgages...

You see, of course, that for every Bank Tax deduction for 'written off mortgage-debt', that same EQUAL amount of "DEBT FORGIVEN MUST BE TAXED", against the 'beneficiary...shall it be 'short term' or 'long term' windfall income?,

and under what special payment terms shall the IRS allow the money-due to be paid...probably the short term mode = 35% average for blue collar workers, spread over 2 years of the estimated $36,100 / household finally evicted, about $12,600 'back taxes due'

and for non-citizens, non-payment could result in deportation/refusals to renew VISAs and all THAT...right?

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