Well, the email lines seem to be clogged. O Great EE, or O Asshole EE, now that you have already predicted what's coming down the poop-chute, what shall we do?
Insert hand-wringing. Cue Edith Wharton.
So in the great spirit of decency (rare for the EE), here's some non-controversial advice about the credit upheaval and the upcoming depression.
If you have a gift card to any store, blow the money NOW!
That store may or may not last. Chances are it won't. Will they last through the New Year? Unless, you can read a balance sheet, who the fuck knows? And even then, given their exposure to "derivatives", all bets are off.
Blow 100% of all of your gift cards right now, and don't look back.
This is about as uncontroversial as any advice about finance gets. It's pretty bleedin' obvious.
Also, don't hand out any gift cards. That's pretty fuckin' obvious too.
Saturday, August 09, 2008
Friday, August 08, 2008
USA or Rural China?
From the Merced Star: Living in limbo: Tenants feeling the mortgage mess.
Brandy Menina's apartment hasn't had hot water for six weeks.
When she and her three teenage daughters want to bathe and wash their long hair, she fills up four pots and two roasting pans with water and heats them on the stove.
Sounds like the kind of problem she should complain to her landlord about. But Menina doesn't enjoy a typical landlord-tenant situation. The apartment building she lives in is in foreclosure.
Now a bank owns it, and it's hired a real estate company to sell the building. They want her out so they can sell it. Menina says she'll leave when she can -- legally, she's entitled to stay for at least another month.
In the meantime, she's waging a battle to get her hot water turned back on.
Welcome to the First World™!
Brandy Menina's apartment hasn't had hot water for six weeks.
When she and her three teenage daughters want to bathe and wash their long hair, she fills up four pots and two roasting pans with water and heats them on the stove.
Sounds like the kind of problem she should complain to her landlord about. But Menina doesn't enjoy a typical landlord-tenant situation. The apartment building she lives in is in foreclosure.
Now a bank owns it, and it's hired a real estate company to sell the building. They want her out so they can sell it. Menina says she'll leave when she can -- legally, she's entitled to stay for at least another month.
In the meantime, she's waging a battle to get her hot water turned back on.
Welcome to the First World™!
Thursday, August 07, 2008
The Realtard™ Chronicles
From USA Today: Realtors live close to the edge.
Jack Jentzen never saw it coming. Four years ago, as a real estate agent in Elgin, Ill., he was enjoying the rewards of the most frenzied U.S. housing market in decades, and money poured in.
Now he's fighting to keep his home.
"I'm looking at jobs that are way lower than what I was once making," says Jentzen, 43.
As his business started to wither away, so did his financial security. He took out an equity line on his house. He exhausted most of his savings. The value of his home plummeted, and his lender cut off his equity line. Credit card bills climbed.
"The money in the bank is going to run out. If we lose this house, what do we do? What does my daughter do? My dad? I felt depressed and saw a psychologist. The market's just so tough now."
Shirley Van Scoyk, a Realtor in West Chester, Pa., spends her days on her farm with the horses she boards and her 80-pound American bulldog puppy. It might sound idyllic, but days with no work feel agonizing to her. At the moment, she has only one listing — her son's house. It's been on the market for three months.
"The hardest thing, where it all starts to unravel, is the effect of the difficult market on my self-esteem," Van Scoyk says.
When home sales were booming, she reveled in snagging sales and closing deals, and then snacking on crackers and soda in her car on the way to a settlement she'd struggled to move to the table.
"When the market is challenging like this, all the drama is gone, the hunt is gone, and this eats at your soul," she says. "I love doing business, and there is less business to do. I am in mourning for my work life. … I worked hard to get to be a Realtor. It made me a professional and a success. That bothers me worse than the income loss. I'm so incredibly depressed by not having work."
Robert Millosh, a Realtor for Re/Max in Middlesex County, N.J., says he'll need to find some other job to stay in the area. He used to earn at least $30,000 annually as a Realtor. Right now, he says, home sales are so dismal that he's looking at a job change or a move to Florida or Pennsylvania.
"I am almost broke and struggling to get by from day to day," says Millosh, who is 45 and single. "I'm having an estate sale for most of the furniture I have that I don't need. My life has been ripped apart."
Milltown, N.J., is a quaint small town, the kind of place families want to move to. They have an all-American Fourth of July celebration, with a parade, fishing, rodeo, a band in the park and fireworks at night. Millosh says it would be a hard place to abandon, but he might not have a choice.
He says he got in over his head after he began caring for his mother. His house was valued at $411,000 last year when he refinanced, and this year houses in his neighborhood were selling for less than $300,000. He's trying to sell his home for $349,000. His grandmother and mother built the house in 1951 for $18,000, and Millosh took out a mortgage in 2004 when his mother began to have medical problems. The original mortgage was for $100,000.
Now, he is looking at renting out rooms. Renting out his entire house or selling it, he says, could leave him homeless.
He took a bartending class in hopes of getting a job but says he could find only jobs as a busboy. "I've been looking for a job since October of last year and have yet to find anything," Millosh says. "I apply for anything, as long as it meets my minimum salary and travel area. I figured real estate would always be there for me."
Let me remind readers again that these are "used house" salesmen. They have no particular skills. The best job one could find was as a busboy.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Jack Jentzen never saw it coming. Four years ago, as a real estate agent in Elgin, Ill., he was enjoying the rewards of the most frenzied U.S. housing market in decades, and money poured in.
Now he's fighting to keep his home.
"I'm looking at jobs that are way lower than what I was once making," says Jentzen, 43.
As his business started to wither away, so did his financial security. He took out an equity line on his house. He exhausted most of his savings. The value of his home plummeted, and his lender cut off his equity line. Credit card bills climbed.
"The money in the bank is going to run out. If we lose this house, what do we do? What does my daughter do? My dad? I felt depressed and saw a psychologist. The market's just so tough now."
Shirley Van Scoyk, a Realtor in West Chester, Pa., spends her days on her farm with the horses she boards and her 80-pound American bulldog puppy. It might sound idyllic, but days with no work feel agonizing to her. At the moment, she has only one listing — her son's house. It's been on the market for three months.
"The hardest thing, where it all starts to unravel, is the effect of the difficult market on my self-esteem," Van Scoyk says.
When home sales were booming, she reveled in snagging sales and closing deals, and then snacking on crackers and soda in her car on the way to a settlement she'd struggled to move to the table.
"When the market is challenging like this, all the drama is gone, the hunt is gone, and this eats at your soul," she says. "I love doing business, and there is less business to do. I am in mourning for my work life. … I worked hard to get to be a Realtor. It made me a professional and a success. That bothers me worse than the income loss. I'm so incredibly depressed by not having work."
Robert Millosh, a Realtor for Re/Max in Middlesex County, N.J., says he'll need to find some other job to stay in the area. He used to earn at least $30,000 annually as a Realtor. Right now, he says, home sales are so dismal that he's looking at a job change or a move to Florida or Pennsylvania.
"I am almost broke and struggling to get by from day to day," says Millosh, who is 45 and single. "I'm having an estate sale for most of the furniture I have that I don't need. My life has been ripped apart."
Milltown, N.J., is a quaint small town, the kind of place families want to move to. They have an all-American Fourth of July celebration, with a parade, fishing, rodeo, a band in the park and fireworks at night. Millosh says it would be a hard place to abandon, but he might not have a choice.
He says he got in over his head after he began caring for his mother. His house was valued at $411,000 last year when he refinanced, and this year houses in his neighborhood were selling for less than $300,000. He's trying to sell his home for $349,000. His grandmother and mother built the house in 1951 for $18,000, and Millosh took out a mortgage in 2004 when his mother began to have medical problems. The original mortgage was for $100,000.
Now, he is looking at renting out rooms. Renting out his entire house or selling it, he says, could leave him homeless.
He took a bartending class in hopes of getting a job but says he could find only jobs as a busboy. "I've been looking for a job since October of last year and have yet to find anything," Millosh says. "I apply for anything, as long as it meets my minimum salary and travel area. I figured real estate would always be there for me."
Let me remind readers again that these are "used house" salesmen. They have no particular skills. The best job one could find was as a busboy.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Monday, August 04, 2008
Sunday, August 03, 2008
Crazy Math
From CNN: Foreclosures linked to subprime fraud.
Mortgage scammers took advantage of loopholes in New York State lending laws to defraud homeowners and lending institutions all over the state, according to a new report released Thursday.
In one example from 2006, Suzette Francis, a woman with two young children, no assets, working as a $10-an-hour security guard and living in a homeless shelter, obtained a mortgage for $470,000 that, as the report stated, "exhibited...every characteristic and feature associated with dangerous subprime loans."
Francis had down payment and no proven income or assets. Her adjustable rate mortgage started at 10.8% and was capped at 16.85%. At that rate, even her initial monthly payment came to more than $4,400. She would have to work 400 hours a month just to pay her loan.
And yet there are only 168 hours in a "traditional" week!
Mortgage scammers took advantage of loopholes in New York State lending laws to defraud homeowners and lending institutions all over the state, according to a new report released Thursday.
In one example from 2006, Suzette Francis, a woman with two young children, no assets, working as a $10-an-hour security guard and living in a homeless shelter, obtained a mortgage for $470,000 that, as the report stated, "exhibited...every characteristic and feature associated with dangerous subprime loans."
Francis had down payment and no proven income or assets. Her adjustable rate mortgage started at 10.8% and was capped at 16.85%. At that rate, even her initial monthly payment came to more than $4,400. She would have to work 400 hours a month just to pay her loan.
And yet there are only 168 hours in a "traditional" week!
Saturday, August 02, 2008
The Goobernator Tries to Collect Rent
From Delaware Online: Landlord crashes Hummer into tenants' home.
A landlord who was apparently upset at his tenants because they were behind on their rent crashed his Hummer into their home – his property – and then attempted to kick the door down, according to police.
Yeah, that'll really show who's boss. Crashing a hummer into your own home.
You really showed them, dude, you really showed them.
A landlord who was apparently upset at his tenants because they were behind on their rent crashed his Hummer into their home – his property – and then attempted to kick the door down, according to police.
Yeah, that'll really show who's boss. Crashing a hummer into your own home.
You really showed them, dude, you really showed them.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Shameless
From the Boston Globe: Mass. foreclosure cases plummet.
The drop is attributed to a state law that took effect May 1 giving struggling homeowners a bit of breathing room. The so-called right-to-cure law created a 90-day period in which homeowners can "cure" mortgage delinquencies by catching up on payments or finding a buyer.
There were just 350 new cases brought by lenders against delinquent homeowners last month, compared with 2,308 in June 2007.
The number of foreclosure proceedings initiated in Massachusetts plummeted in June, a sign that a new state law delaying property takings is working.
Yeah, right. It's really working.
This is just so fuckin' shameless it's hard to endure.
Yeah, sure, report on the 89th day that things are great after a law puts a temporary moratarium for 90 days. How much more mendacious and shameless can you get, motherfuckers?
What's missing in the detail is that this the 27th straight month of Y-o-Y (year-on-year) declines for the Boston area?
Let's rephrase that again.
Prices have dropped 27 straight months in a row.
The drop is attributed to a state law that took effect May 1 giving struggling homeowners a bit of breathing room. The so-called right-to-cure law created a 90-day period in which homeowners can "cure" mortgage delinquencies by catching up on payments or finding a buyer.
There were just 350 new cases brought by lenders against delinquent homeowners last month, compared with 2,308 in June 2007.
The number of foreclosure proceedings initiated in Massachusetts plummeted in June, a sign that a new state law delaying property takings is working.
Yeah, right. It's really working.
This is just so fuckin' shameless it's hard to endure.
Yeah, sure, report on the 89th day that things are great after a law puts a temporary moratarium for 90 days. How much more mendacious and shameless can you get, motherfuckers?
What's missing in the detail is that this the 27th straight month of Y-o-Y (year-on-year) declines for the Boston area?
Let's rephrase that again.
Prices have dropped 27 straight months in a row.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Californication
From the Los Altos Town Crier: National home sales down, locally – up.
The average price of homes in June was $922,149, down from $970,702 in May.
The headline is absurd. They're trying to catch greater fools.
Besides, the EE is well aware that people have trouble conceptualizing large numbers like $900K.
Let's revisit the numbers again:
Drop = $970,702 - $922,149 = $48,553.
Number of days in June = 30.
Drop each day = $1,618.
That's a fuckload of money to be losing each bright summery California day in June, innit?!?
The average price of homes in June was $922,149, down from $970,702 in May.
The headline is absurd. They're trying to catch greater fools.
Besides, the EE is well aware that people have trouble conceptualizing large numbers like $900K.
Let's revisit the numbers again:
Drop = $970,702 - $922,149 = $48,553.
Number of days in June = 30.
Drop each day = $1,618.
That's a fuckload of money to be losing each bright summery California day in June, innit?!?
Sheeple Shearing
From Yahoo!: The Hidden Tax Traps in the Housing-Rescue Bill.
First, we have a $7,500 credit for new homeowners that's not really a credit. It's a loan. Those who qualify to receive this credit will receive 10% of the purchase price of their home -- up to $7,500, in the first year. Then they will repay the loan over a 15-year period, starting in the second year after the taxable year in which the house is purchased.
So it's not a tax-credit after all. It's just an interest-free loan that you have to pay back for the next 10 years.
I love this country. You get to shear the sheep all day long, and not only do they not object, but then afterwards, they even thank you for it.
"Thank you, sir! May I have another?"
First, we have a $7,500 credit for new homeowners that's not really a credit. It's a loan. Those who qualify to receive this credit will receive 10% of the purchase price of their home -- up to $7,500, in the first year. Then they will repay the loan over a 15-year period, starting in the second year after the taxable year in which the house is purchased.
So it's not a tax-credit after all. It's just an interest-free loan that you have to pay back for the next 10 years.
I love this country. You get to shear the sheep all day long, and not only do they not object, but then afterwards, they even thank you for it.
"Thank you, sir! May I have another?"
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
Hey-ho Hey-ho
From CBS: Housing Prices Drop By The Hour.
These numbers are sobering: If you are a homeowner reading this right now, when you wake up in the morning, the value of your house will have dropped about 45 dollars. And that's if you sleep just 8 hours.
If that isn't disturbing enough, wait until you see how much home prices have dropped in the past 2 years.
"I knew it was softening," said investor Philip Logue. " I just didn't realize how quickly, how fast the market was dropping."
When Logue put his Coral Gables house on the market, he thought for sure it would sell. He started at $650,000 in 2006. A couple of years later, and a $175,000 price drop. He's now renting the house out.
"I was really surprised," said Logue. " Especially at the end when we really dropped our pants down and I felt we were giving it away, and we still couldn't sell it."
After the pants down episode, a Joshua Tree was shoved up there!
These numbers are sobering: If you are a homeowner reading this right now, when you wake up in the morning, the value of your house will have dropped about 45 dollars. And that's if you sleep just 8 hours.
If that isn't disturbing enough, wait until you see how much home prices have dropped in the past 2 years.
"I knew it was softening," said investor Philip Logue. " I just didn't realize how quickly, how fast the market was dropping."
When Logue put his Coral Gables house on the market, he thought for sure it would sell. He started at $650,000 in 2006. A couple of years later, and a $175,000 price drop. He's now renting the house out.
"I was really surprised," said Logue. " Especially at the end when we really dropped our pants down and I felt we were giving it away, and we still couldn't sell it."
After the pants down episode, a Joshua Tree was shoved up there!
The Distortionist
From Realtor.org: Existing-Home Sales Down In June.
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.86 million units in June from a pace of 4.99 million in May, and are 15.5 percent lower than the 5.75 million-unit rate in June 2007.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said first-time home buyers are critical to the health of the housing market.
Yun said there is a downward distortion in the price data.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
They can't bring themselves to say that "prices are falling".
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
By this logic, an avalanche is a "downward distortion in skiing conditions".
A thunderstorm is a "downward distortion in sunny weather".
A genocide is a "downward distortion in human lives".
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
Existing-home sales – including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops – fell 2.6 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate1 of 4.86 million units in June from a pace of 4.99 million in May, and are 15.5 percent lower than the 5.75 million-unit rate in June 2007.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said first-time home buyers are critical to the health of the housing market.
Yun said there is a downward distortion in the price data.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
They can't bring themselves to say that "prices are falling".
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
By this logic, an avalanche is a "downward distortion in skiing conditions".
A thunderstorm is a "downward distortion in sunny weather".
A genocide is a "downward distortion in human lives".
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHHHHHH!!!
Thursday, July 24, 2008
The Joys of Home Pawn-ership
From the Boston Herald: Taunton woman commits suicide as home foreclosed.
TAUNTON - A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself soon after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.
O’Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house."
You weren't exactly the sharpest tool in the tool shed, were you, darling?
Life insurance doesn't pay off in case of suicide. Perhaps you should've read those documents just like you should've read the mortgage documents.
Police in Taunton said Carlene Balderrama used her husband’s high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.
Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company. O’Berg said Balderrama’s fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house I’ll be dead."
Aren't the joys of home ownership simply too delightful for words?
TAUNTON - A 53-year-old wife and mother fatally shot herself soon after faxing a letter to her mortgage company saying that by the time they foreclosed on her house that day, she would be dead.
O’Berg also said a suicide note found next to Balderrama told her husband, John, and 24-year-old son to "take the (life) insurance money and pay for the house."
You weren't exactly the sharpest tool in the tool shed, were you, darling?
Life insurance doesn't pay off in case of suicide. Perhaps you should've read those documents just like you should've read the mortgage documents.
Police in Taunton said Carlene Balderrama used her husband’s high-powered rifle to kill herself Tuesday afternoon, after faxing the letter at 2:30 p.m.
Police did not immediately release the name of the mortgage company. O’Berg said Balderrama’s fax read, in part, "By the time you foreclose on my house I’ll be dead."
Aren't the joys of home ownership simply too delightful for words?
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Dementia
From ABC News: People lined up to get mortgage help.
A few years ago, Gary Robinson bought this home in Antioch for about $700,000 using an interest-only loan and an adjustable rate that started at about four percent and has nearly doubled.
"My mortgage is at $5,000 dollars. It went from $2,000 to $5,000 and the house is worth 60 to 50 percent less," said Robinson.
"So what I'm here to do is ask Washington Mutual to seek a return on my investment," said Gary Robinson, an Antioch Homeowner.
Yeah, they're going to give you a return on your "investment". Any day now. Just you wait.
Dude, you're demented. You singlehandedly are the best argument in favor of issuing "breeding licenses".
A few years ago, Gary Robinson bought this home in Antioch for about $700,000 using an interest-only loan and an adjustable rate that started at about four percent and has nearly doubled.
"My mortgage is at $5,000 dollars. It went from $2,000 to $5,000 and the house is worth 60 to 50 percent less," said Robinson.
"So what I'm here to do is ask Washington Mutual to seek a return on my investment," said Gary Robinson, an Antioch Homeowner.
Yeah, they're going to give you a return on your "investment". Any day now. Just you wait.
Dude, you're demented. You singlehandedly are the best argument in favor of issuing "breeding licenses".
Monday, July 07, 2008
Everything beats the fuck out of Cleveland!
From Cleveland.com: Foreclosed homes depress prices throughout area.
The median home sale price in the city of Cleveland has dropped an astonishing 75 percent compared with the first six months of last year - from $62,000 to $15,500.
Guess it's all contained. Someone should send Paulson a memo.
Forty percent of single-family homes sold in Cleveland this year were purchased for less than $10,000.
Watch, out 1940's. Here we come!
The median home sale price in the city of Cleveland has dropped an astonishing 75 percent compared with the first six months of last year - from $62,000 to $15,500.
Guess it's all contained. Someone should send Paulson a memo.
Forty percent of single-family homes sold in Cleveland this year were purchased for less than $10,000.
Watch, out 1940's. Here we come!
Welcome to the Jungle
From Business Week: Upset homeowner shoots real estate agent in Mich.
A man upset about a property transaction fatally shot a real estate agent in the head during a meeting Tuesday morning in the victim's office, authorities said.
Troy VanderStelt, 34, was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m. at Mercy Health Partners Hackley Campus in Muskegon, said Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague.
A suspect was arrested a short time after the shooting at a home in nearby Norton Shores. Tague identified him as Robert Arnold Johnson, 73, of Roosevelt Park.
Tague said Johnson plotted to kill VanderStelt, took a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun to the real estate agent's office, got him preoccupied with some paperwork in a conference room, stood next to him, pulled out the gun and shot him once in the temple.
A man upset about a property transaction fatally shot a real estate agent in the head during a meeting Tuesday morning in the victim's office, authorities said.
Troy VanderStelt, 34, was pronounced dead at 12:45 p.m. at Mercy Health Partners Hackley Campus in Muskegon, said Muskegon County Prosecutor Tony Tague.
A suspect was arrested a short time after the shooting at a home in nearby Norton Shores. Tague identified him as Robert Arnold Johnson, 73, of Roosevelt Park.
Tague said Johnson plotted to kill VanderStelt, took a .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun to the real estate agent's office, got him preoccupied with some paperwork in a conference room, stood next to him, pulled out the gun and shot him once in the temple.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Flash 'n Sizzle
From the crappier Naples in Florida not the real one: Future uncertain for Third Street Plaza, some tenants say.
It’s a moving sale, the signs announce.
Reflections owner Larry Harris brought in his daughter and her boyfriend to help load the truck and haul the inventory into storage until he figures out a plan.
“We were so hard hit. Nobody was coming,” Harris said Wednesday morning while sitting in front of the shop he opened in November 2006.
On Gallery Row, the side that faces Broad Avenue, Gallery Matisse is gone, too.
In the past two years, The Good Life, a cookware store, left the Plaza; so did Bountiful, Artful Diva, Femme Fatale, Dominique Design Studio, Giggles and Glitz, Via Mediterranee, and ilSandalo on the inner courtyard.
Not THE Giggles and Glitz!
First the candle shops, then the pirate shops, and now the Artful Diva? And Giggles?
No way, man; no way.
It’s a moving sale, the signs announce.
Reflections owner Larry Harris brought in his daughter and her boyfriend to help load the truck and haul the inventory into storage until he figures out a plan.
“We were so hard hit. Nobody was coming,” Harris said Wednesday morning while sitting in front of the shop he opened in November 2006.
On Gallery Row, the side that faces Broad Avenue, Gallery Matisse is gone, too.
In the past two years, The Good Life, a cookware store, left the Plaza; so did Bountiful, Artful Diva, Femme Fatale, Dominique Design Studio, Giggles and Glitz, Via Mediterranee, and ilSandalo on the inner courtyard.
Not THE Giggles and Glitz!
First the candle shops, then the pirate shops, and now the Artful Diva? And Giggles?
No way, man; no way.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Scuppered
From the Bay Area: Fremont's pirate store to abandon ship.
FREMONT — All hands on deck! The Tri-City area's unique pirate store plans to abandon ship after nearly three years on the stormy retail seas.
Owner Don Hatcher, 47, said SeaWolf Trading Co. will raise anchor by Aug. 31, when the store's lease is up.
"We did great the first year, but we've been in the swamp for the past year, ever since the foreclosures started," he said. "We started to immediately see sales start slumping.
He said an effort to build community around the store by hosting a regular Guitar Hero video game night only attracted a small crowd, a result he attributed to gas prices.
Hatcher also was a vendor at last month's second Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo. He said plenty of people attended but seemed to spend less than at last year's fest.
"It's a rare place in Fremont, as opposed to the usual strip mall crap," Neu said. "We'll miss it."
C'mon kids, by now you've had enough practice. Can you say it?
HELOC!!!
He plans to sell off the décor, including an elaborate treasure cave, as well as the discounted wares — which this reporter succumbed to — before the store is sent to Davy Jones's locker.
YAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
FREMONT — All hands on deck! The Tri-City area's unique pirate store plans to abandon ship after nearly three years on the stormy retail seas.
Owner Don Hatcher, 47, said SeaWolf Trading Co. will raise anchor by Aug. 31, when the store's lease is up.
"We did great the first year, but we've been in the swamp for the past year, ever since the foreclosures started," he said. "We started to immediately see sales start slumping.
He said an effort to build community around the store by hosting a regular Guitar Hero video game night only attracted a small crowd, a result he attributed to gas prices.
Hatcher also was a vendor at last month's second Northern California Pirate Festival in Vallejo. He said plenty of people attended but seemed to spend less than at last year's fest.
"It's a rare place in Fremont, as opposed to the usual strip mall crap," Neu said. "We'll miss it."
C'mon kids, by now you've had enough practice. Can you say it?
HELOC!!!
He plans to sell off the décor, including an elaborate treasure cave, as well as the discounted wares — which this reporter succumbed to — before the store is sent to Davy Jones's locker.
YAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!
Translation Engine
From Bloomberg: Paulson Calls for Process to Liquidate Failing Firms.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called for regulatory changes that would allow financial firms to fail without threatening broader market stability.
``Two concerns underpin expectations of regulatory intervention to prevent a failure,'' Paulson said. ``They are that an institution may be too interconnected to fail or too big to fail. We must take steps to reduce the perception that this is so -- and that requires that we reduce the likelihood that it is so.''
We must "reduce the perception that an institution may be too big to fail".
Washington insiders (and others generally well-versed in the political process) will have no trouble interpreting this statement but for the general benefit, let me provide a translation:
"Currently, a large bank, and plenty of small banks are in too much deep doo-doo for us to bail out.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson called for regulatory changes that would allow financial firms to fail without threatening broader market stability.
``Two concerns underpin expectations of regulatory intervention to prevent a failure,'' Paulson said. ``They are that an institution may be too interconnected to fail or too big to fail. We must take steps to reduce the perception that this is so -- and that requires that we reduce the likelihood that it is so.''
We must "reduce the perception that an institution may be too big to fail".
Washington insiders (and others generally well-versed in the political process) will have no trouble interpreting this statement but for the general benefit, let me provide a translation:
"Currently, a large bank, and plenty of small banks are in too much deep doo-doo for us to bail out.
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