Thanks, Obama! Home Prices Continue to Sink, Home Ownership Heading to New Lows…

Home prices across the nation are now right back where they were at the beginning of 2003. All that was gained is largely now lost, and the effect on home ownership could continue for decades.

 “Consumer attitudes have gotten a lot more negative about long-term commitment,” said Standard and Poors’ David Blitzer, after reporting home prices through September had fallen a deeper-than-expected 3.9 percent compared to the third quarter of 2010.

 “They dropped to new lows. This takes them below the point we saw in 2009, where briefly we all thought this thing was about to turn around.”

 And that’s the problem.

Every time we think things are turning around in the housing market, we get hit with some new problem, like last year’s so-called “robo-signing” foreclosure paperwork scandal, which managed to stall the cleansing of distress in the market for over a year. Now that foreclosures are ramping up again, prices are coming down again.

All this could push home ownership down to levels not seen at least since before the Census began tracking this data in 1963. Home ownership soared to 70 percent in 2005, but it could fall to 62 percent by 2015, according to the number crunchers at John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

They suggest that the effect of foreclosures drops home ownership 5.6 percent, and cyclical trends, like poor consumer confidence, tightening mortgage credit and the weak economy drop it 3 percent. Positive demographic trends would only offset that by 0.7 percent.

From:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/45477559

Obama, Where’d The “Stimulus” Money Go? Existing-Home Sales Continue to Plunge…

Sales of previously owned U.S. homes fell unexpectedly sharply in February and prices touched their lowest level in nearly nine years, implying a housing market recovery was still a long off.

 

The National Association of Realtors said Monday sales fell 9.6 percent month over month to an annual rate of 4.88 million units, snapping three straight months of gains.

 

The percentage decline was the largest since July.

 

Economists polled by Reuters had expected February sales to fall 4.0 percent to a 5.15 million-unit pace from the previously reported 5.36 million unit rate in January, which was revised slightly up to 5.40 million.

 

The median home price dropped 5.2 percent in February from a year earlier to $156,100, the lowest since April 2002.

 

“If the price declines persist, even with the job market recovery, that could hamper recovery in the housing market,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun.

 

Compared with February last year, sales were down 2.8 percent.

 

Oversupply of homes and a relentless wave of foreclosures are pressuring prices, holding back recovery in the sector, whose collapse helped to tip the U.S. economy into its worst recession since the 1930s.

 

From:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/42192395

Thanks, Obama! U.S. Cost of Living Hits New Record High (Er…Ah…It’s the Economy, Stupid!)

One would think that after the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Americans could at least catch a break for a while with deflationary forces keeping the cost of living relatively low. That’s not the case.

 

A special index created by the Labor Department to measure the actual cost of living for Americans hit a record high in February, according to data released Thursday, surpassing the old high in July 2008.

 

The Chained Consumer Price Index, released along with the more widely-watched CPI, increased 0.5 percent to 127.4, from 126.8 in January. In July 2008, just as the housing crisis was tightening its grip, the Chained Consumer Price Index hit its previous record of 126.9.

 

“The Federal Reserve continues to focus on the rate of change in inflation,” said Peter Bookvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak. “Sure, it’s moving at a slower pace, but the absolute cost of living is now back at a record high in a country that has seven million less jobs.”

 

From:  http://www.cnbc.com/id/42130406

While Obama Admonishes Others to Cut Down on Carbon Emissions, He Flies Personal Trainer Back and Forth from Chicago Every Week

With a schedule as hectic as President Obama’s it must be hard to stick to a training regimen without help — but why does he insist on having his old trainer fly out from Chicago to D.C. regularly when Obama and his wife exhort the rest of us to drive less in order to cut down on carbon emissions?

 

And in a recession? According to Ashley Parker at the New York Times, Obama’s fitness czar Cornell McClellan comes out to D.C. every week:

 

McClellan, who works out with the first couple, often in the early morning, at the gym in the White House residence. Mr. and Mrs. Obama both try to exercise for at least an hour every day, and Mr. McClellan says he usually sees them two to four times a week, depending on their schedules.

 

…that comes at a steep cost for those as environmentally minded as the Obamas: 50,000 lbs of carbon emissions. That’s how much carbon emissions are involved in McClellan’s flying back and forth every week for a year (according to TerraPass.com).

 

Couldn’t they have just hired someone in D.C. to take over the training? The Yellow Pages provides over 56 entries under “Personal Fitness Trainers” alone, most of whom would have been able to reach the White House by bike.

 

Doing so would have at least been consistent with Obama’s statements about the need to reduce emissions. Last July, Obama announced that he wanted federal workers to cut down on business travel and commuting by car in order to reduce emissions produced by the federal government:

 

The White House was announcing Tuesday that the government will aim to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from indirect sources like employee driving by 13 percent in 2020, compared with 2008 levels.

 

The Nation also notes the importance of lower emissions to the Obamas’ “buy local” campaign:

 

Agriculture’s large greenhouse footprint is due mainly to its heavy reliance on fossil fuels to grow and transport food to market, as well as the increasing popularity of the meat-rich American diet. Meat production accounts for 18 percent of global emissions, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, in part because livestock emit large amounts of methane, an exceptionally potent greenhouse gas.

 

Even if Obama were to put his money where his mouth is and purchase offsets for McClellan’s Chicago-to-D.C. commute, the message is pretty clear: If you’re an average federal employee or your everyday taxpayer, stop driving and be careful of your carbon footprint. If you’re in the White House and you want some toned arms and a firm buttocks, fly your trainer out from Chicago every week.

 

From:  http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/02/obamas-jetset-fitness-trainer-helps-shed-pounds-adds-ozone

Mrs. “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” Obama Serves Governors a 2,200 Calorie Meal

First Lady Michelle Obama Sunday night stuffed about 2,200 calories worth of dinner into the nation’s governors, hosting a White House bash that pulled few punches on the fattening front despite her profile as the leader of a national crusade to trim the waistlines of the country’s youth.

 

President Obama is meeting with governors from both Parties at the White House today. Sunday night’s dinner was a kind of welcoming gala. It provided enough calories for an entire day’s worth of eating.

 

What’s worse, several governors clearly are not malnourished and might have done well without dinner altogether.

 

The meal follows a recent State Dinner for Chinese President Hu Jintao which probably forced him to put away about 2,900 calories. And a Super Bowl party where guests had access to eats totaling 3,600 calories.

 

Mrs. Obama is leading the “Let’s Move” campaign – which might also be known as the “Do as I say and Not as I Do” campaign – to reduce childhood obesity.

 

The first lady has not been shy about demonstrating her contention that healthy eating needs to balanced by some old fashioned cheating. She was seen just last weekend in Colorado chowing on a buffalo rib and has been photographed savoring cones and sundaes at ice cream ice cream shops from  Panama City, Fla. to Marbella, Spain.

 

Sunday, she served the governors beef instead of chicken, threw in some fattening plaintain chips even though she already had a side of black beans and rice for them, added an unnecessary dollop of honey to the tropical fruit dish, and dropped the coconut sorbet – otherwise not a bad dessert choice – into a “chocolate shell.”

 

Actually, HOW ABOUT NOT SERVING DESSERT AT ALL.

 

Of course these items generally aren’t on the new school lunch menu Mrs. Obama has crafted, which includes delicacies like steamed broccoli, cauliflower, cooked green beans, and oven baked fish nuggets.

 

Here’s a rundown of the governors’ menu and my CONSERVATIVE estimations of the calories consumed.

 

·       Salad of roasted pears with homemade ricotta, walnut crisps, with White House Kitchen Garden greens – 200 calories

 

·       Bread and butter – 150 calories

 

·       Local black angus beef with blue crab – 550 calories – assuming an eight ounce NY Strip steak and crab meat without any kind of fattening sauce.

 

·       Plantain chips – 200 calories

 

·       Black beans and rice – 300 calories

 

·       Two glasses of wine – 200 calories

 

·       Coconut Sorbet in a chocolate shell – 400 calories; served with poached tropical fruits made with White House Honey – 200 calories

 

Total: 2,200 calories

 

by Keith Koffler on February 28, 2011, 11:37 am

 

From: http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2011/02/28/obama-serves-govenors-2200-calorie-meal/

Obama’s Stimulus Created ZERO Permanent Jobs, Says FED…

Now, apparently, we know what that big “O” stood for that graced every pro-Obama campaign ad before his election.  It was a promise of what was to come from his economic policies. Nothing.  — Spencer

 

Obama’s Stimulus Created ZERO Permanent Jobs, Says FED…

 

According to recovery.gov, the President’s website designed to track the stimulus plan, the $800 Billion plus porkulous bill passed in February 2009 is responsible for 3,348,813 jobs. 

 

But according to a new analysis conducted by the San Fransisco office of the Federal Reserve, the president’s projection is off by only 3,348,813 jobs. 

 

That’s correct The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 created exactly zero permanent jobs.

 

Those of us who are still unemployed or even those who simply watch the unemployment numbers know that the stimulus bill was a failure, but what this study shows is that we could have saved the $800+  billion.

 

Jobs would have been almost the same and the federal deficit would have been in better shape. I say almost because the plan did create short term jobs but they are long gone.

 

The study also kills the Democratic party argument that we would have fallen into a depression without the Presidential porkage because for all intents and purposes, based on the effect of the plan, there was very little help to the economy:

 

The study results suggest that though the program did result in 2 million jobs “created or saved” by March 2010, net job creation was statistically indistinguishable from zero by August of this year.

 

Taken at face value, this would suggest that the stimulus program (with an overall cost of $814 billion) worked only to generate temporary jobs at a cost of over $400,000 per worker.

 

Even if the stimulus had in fact generated this level of employment as a durable outcome – which it didn’t — it would still have been an extremely expensive way to generate employment.

Most Americans Say They’re Worse Off Since Obama Took Office, Poll Shows

(Bloomberg) — More than 50 percent of Americans say they are worse off now than they were two years ago when President Barack Obama took office, and two-thirds believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg National Poll shows.

 

A separate Bloomberg poll shows a majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the nation’s independent central bank, saying the U.S. Federal Reserve should either be brought under tighter political control or abolished outright.

 

The survey, conducted Dec. 4-7, finds that 51 percent of respondents think their situation has deteriorated, compared with 35 percent who say they’re doing better.

 

The balance isn’t sure. Americans have grown more downbeat about the country’s future in just the last couple of months, the poll shows. The pessimism cuts across political parties and age groups, and is common to both sexes.

 

The negative sentiment may cast a pall over the holiday shopping season, according to the poll. A plurality of those surveyed — 46 percent — expects to spend less this year than last; only 12 percent anticipate spending more. Holiday sales rose by just under a half percent last year after falling by almost 4 percent in 2008.

 

“It’s definitely different this year than it’s been,” says poll respondent Larry Deyo, a 38-year-old father of two in Marlton, New Jersey. “I can’t really do too much with spending.” He says he lost his job at a kitchen and bath design center when the company closed, and he’s now working at a Home Depot Inc. store with a “significant decrease” in pay.

 

It was President Ronald Reagan who popularized the question, “Are you better off or worse off than you were four years ago” in his 1980 campaign against Jimmy Carter.

 

By Rich Miller – Dec 8, 2010 9:00 PM PT

 

From:  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-09/most-americans-say-they-re-worse-off-under-obama-poll-shows.html

Now Even Newsweek is Proclaiming Obama “God” — Only It’s Shiva, the Hindu Goddess of Destruction

Yes, this is real. 

Newsweek is portraying Obama, on its cover, as the Hindu Goddess Shiva….

…replete with a bold headline saying “God of All Things.”

Now that’s a real humdinger.

Is it lost on them that Shiva is the Hindu Goddess of the Destruction of the Universe?

Or, considering the fact that Obama is holding a globe in one of his six arms in the cover photo, are they trying to tell us something?

– Spencer