Word that a national settlement is near on the recent – years long – problems in the mortgage industry can be taken with a grain of salt, I’m afraid. While it’s perhaps a good thing that New York and California may join in the proposed $25-billion settlement, I’m not sure how this makes up for the damage already done.
I’ll use an example I know of in the Phoenix area: House payments was a key part of a breakup of a marriage and the house repo’ed and then ugly just kept on coming for a while.
So is the proposed settlement worth it? Here’s your chance to be a “citizen reporter”: If you know of a case where the $25 (or is it $32?)-billion actually patches up some family’s life, please let me know. I haven’t heard of any yet, but hope’s what we live by around here lately.
Meantime, the amount that actually goes into loan modifications for delinquent homeowners is only $17-billion and for the already foreclosed? Hmmm…how much is bupkis?
SOL again. Bad repos and false foreclosures seem unlikely to ever all be squared up. And amazingly, Washington wonders why the wee folk in the hinterlands are pissed and are still looking for None of the Above to run for president and all the seats in congress (except maybe the Pauls and Bernie Sanders)?
Taking Out Syria
It’s looking unfortunately prescient, Clif’s expectation for big doings the first couple of weeks of March. Already the headlines are that “International militarisation of Syria” is in the works. Isn’t that special?
It’s already a done deal if this Debka report is believed: British and Qatari troops are fighting on the rebel side…..which puts them opposite the Assad loyalists and perhaps Russians…
Elsewhere headlines are up that the “US military beginning review of Syria options” which isn’t bad…since the military has had its eye on Syria since the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov dropped into southern Syria for a port call last month. This chess game is already well into the decision-trees.
A check of the US Navy site reveals time is not this week for hostilities, since three of those presumably eastbound amphibious assault ships are still showing as in the Atlantic.
Still, there are two ways the supposed split between the US and Israel over tactics could be read: One way would be to assess the discord as real in which case the Obama administration really is trying it’s dead-level best to keep us out of a war which could scaled global thermonuclear before summer vacations. The other is that it’s all an elaborate subterfuge designed to give Washington’s warmongering crowd plausible deniability when Israel strikes.
A reader pointed out – after reading in the predictive linguistics (and here) about the possible critical role of the Carl Vinson, the US aircraft carrier now in Iran’s back yard, “You do remember this was the ship which disposed of the body of Osama bin Laden at sea, don’t you?” High risk platform, I’d say…and we certainly don’t want to be right in the words-based expectation.
Curiously timed: The Pentagon is planning to lift some of the restrictions on women in combat.
Food for Thought: Is Syria being ramped up as a cover for an Iran hit?
“Historical Winter”
Well, besides the predictive linguistics call a year ago for “skiing the seven hills of Rome” and now reports of Venice’s canals having patches of ice, we are also hearing other snips which won’t sit well with the global warming side:
-
A study reported in The Guardian advises that the Himalayas have lot no ice in the past decade.
-
And polar ice caps are melting less than earlier claimed.
Unemployment Filings Down
From Labor:
In the week ending February 4, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 358,000, a decrease of 15,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 373,000. The 4-week moving average was 366,250, a decrease of 11,000 from the previous week’s revised average of 377,250.
Not exactly the crack monkey blow-off top in the market, yet. Futures are up only 10 points on the Dow.
Say What? Department
CBS TV up in Chicago is reporting researchers are planning to develop smart phone technology to spot when people are getting depressed.
I’m not sure that’d be a hard one to develop. Just set off alarms when people go to their online trading accounts, look at their banking portal online, or when their “friends” and “likes” sag on social media. Seems to me an easy feature to develop…
Besides, I’m sure the government social network mapping and email scanning could be just piped in…but no one asked me. Just trying to be helpful…
Proof We’re Crazy File
Los Angeles County has approved a $1,000 fine for throwing a football or Frisbee on any beach in LA County.
If you want to read 37-pages of how to do it (it’s shorter than the Patriot Acts) hats off to CBS for putting it online here.
On the other hand, I see where section 17.12.360 baring “Nudity and Disrobing” has been struck. Way cool….warm up the plane….
More after this:
