Old and still drinking water and eating dry white toast.
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LONG A/U
Spoken like a true Northern Calif'nia looks like us Southern Calif'nia will have to save the North again....
....we can create CA jobs by moving the Capital to Riverside.
The only way for CA to save itself is to reduce the amount of spending.
On the sidelines waiting to see if Monday is a Blood Bath or SHORT cover day...
...to cheap to give my WINNING back to the HOUSE
Stimulus agreement reached
U.S. senators spent part of Saturday debating the massive economic recovery package, after a group of lawmakers reached a compromise agreement that trimmed billions in spending from an earlier version.
The senators debated from noon to about 3:45 p.m. ET., and will return Monday afternoon for more discussion. A vote could come Tuesday on the plan, which President Barack Obama has touted as a tonic for the nation's badly battered economy.
<<< look for further SHORT covering on MONDAY and TUESDAY, with a MAJOR pull-back if it passes the Senate >>>
However, there were strong opinions on both sides of the debate.
"If you knew a bill in the U.S. Senate would cause a recession in 10 years, would you support it?" asked Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Arizona. "That's what the Congressional Budget Office, the bipartisan office that supports our efforts in the Congress, says about this legislation ... there will be negative GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in this decade as a result of this legislation."
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, told opponents of the bill to "get over it.
"Come and talk to us, come and work with us," Boxer said. "This election was about change, not the same old trickle-down tax cuts that don't work. Yes, there's 42 percent tax cuts in this bill ... that's not enough for my friends on the other side, they want it all tax cuts, or most tax cuts ... We tried it, it didn't work, it's gotten us where we are today."
The compromise agreement was reached Friday after days of private meetings between centrist Democrats and Republicans who felt the $900 billion price tag on the Senate's earlier version was too high.
Senate Democratic leaders are so confident the package will hold that Democratic staffers in the House and Senate are not waiting for the final Senate vote to hash out differences between their two bills, according to a Senate Democratic leadership source, who said behind-the-scenes negotiations were under way Saturday.
Senators had trimmed the plan to $780 billion in tax cuts and spending on infrastructure, housing and other programs that would create or save jobs.
"We trimmed the fat, fried the bacon and milked the sacred cows," said Sen. Ben Nelson, a Democrat, as debate began Friday.
However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman Jim Manley said the deal will ultimately include two amendments that have already passed with broad support -- a $15,000 tax credit for 2009 homebuyers and a tax deduction for those who purchase a new car. Those two measures bring the total to $827 billion.
The key vote will still be on the $780 billion package, with a final vote to come on the package plus the amendments later.
Several senators said the compromise agreement axed money for school construction and nearly $90 million for fighting pandemic flu, among other things. An $7 billion item for energy-efficient federal buildings was cut in half, to $3.5 billion. A Democratic leadership aide said a $55 million item for historic preservation was eliminated entirely, as was $122 million for new U.S. Coast guard polar icebreakers and cutters.
The remaining spending includes more than $76 billion for education -- including college Pell grants and help for states struggling to pay for their schools -- $43 billion in transportation infrastructure and more than $3 billion for job training, according to the office of a senator involved in negotiations.
Tax cuts include incentives for small businesses, a one-year fix of the unpopular alternative-minimum tax and tax cuts for low-and-middle-income families, said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the most prominent Republican negotiator in the bipartisan talks.
"Our country faces a grave economic crisis and the American people want us to work together," she said. "They don't want to see us dividing along partisan lines on the most serious crisis facing our country."
Putting more pressure on senators to act was news Friday that employers slashed another 598,000 jobs off U.S. payrolls in January, pushing the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent.
"On the day when we learned 3.6 million people have lost their jobs since this recession began, we are pleased the process is moving forward and we are closer to getting Americans a plan to create millions of jobs and get people back to work," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
The Senate began considering amendments to the plan shortly before 10 p.m. Friday, and adjourned about 12:40 a.m. Saturday.
While Democrats appeared to believe they had enough Republican support to push the compromise plan through, most GOP members still were speaking out against the plan -- saying spending is not the answer to cure economic woes.
"This is not bipartisan," said Sen. John McCain, who lost the 2008 election to Obama. "If this legislation is passed, it'll be a very bad day for America."
If the package passes the Senate, yet another compromise -- between the House and Senate versions -- must be hammered out before the legislation is sent to Obama to sign. Obama has said he would like to sign the stimulus by Presidents' Day on February 16.
Cross / Pair of bouncing Tits....
one LONG and one SHORT...to keep it on topic
Turtle - USD/JPY rally dance
Pay yourself along the way and use the other person money.
All in fun - Daiello lost the flip of the coin with CaT.
My FX-trading style is a mix of CaT, Worn, jbcrazy, daiello, and a few others FX-style....
Not to step on anybody toes...and give proper credit to the other FX-broadmembers
Charting Style: Jbcrazy
Money Management Style: Worn
Indicator Watch Style: CaT
Position add Style: Daiello
Ride out the Storm Style: Jester
The most important style is to BANK the GOLD along the WAY.
Forx tab located on the TOP tab between Top List and Commodities
Link
http://ih.advfn.com/p.php?pid=forex&cb=1233933960
I rode it for a 7 percent loss and then waited for a 10 percent gain before closing the trade....only use 5 percent of my capital on the first trade, and only 2-1/2 percent on each additional trades....the reserve balance I kept to cover my paper loss.
EUR/USD base trade
AUD/USD - hedge trade....3X profit of EUR/USD with half the exposure of EUR/USD
NZD/USD - hedge trade....2X profit of EUR/USD with half the exposure of EUR/USD
LONG - EUR/USD
LONG - AUD/USD
LONG - NZD/USD
closed all the trades for $5K overall gain.
LONG - EUR/USD
LONG - AUD/USD
LONG - NZD/USD
not a fun ride
Only enough air to keep it bouncing again until the next crash
The SHIP of FOOLS is floating again...
....if you jump SHIP, remember that GOLD does not FLOAT.
Mark to Market would reset all the house values to $80,500
Block Shopper Listing for the Las Vegas - Cactus Springs Area
http://lasvegas.blockshopper.com/neighborhoods/cactus_springs
Latest Sales for 2621 Moss Rose Ave - $80,500
http://lasvegas.blockshopper.com/property/13929613016/2621_moss_rose_avenue/
I'm sure that his Neighbor is all happy about paying $238,000 for his house next door.
http://lasvegas.blockshopper.com/property/13929613017/2617_moss_rose_avenue/
Talk about MARK to MARKET rules
Sen. Dodd says could tweak mark-to-market
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It might be possible to modify mark-to-market accounting rules for U.S. banks facing steep writedowns of troubled assets without abandoning the underlying accounting standard, a senior Senate Democrat said.
Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told reporters on Wednesday evening after a panel hearing that at least one former bank regulator was discussing how to approach the difficult issue without "walking away from" mark-to-market standards.
The issue of how to value distressed assets held by U.S. banks has been one of the most difficult challenges in constructing a bank rescue plan, according to industry lobbyists and lawmakers.
It the government buys some bad assets as part of the rescue, it could force banks to drastically write down billions of similar assets. That could create further instability unless changes are made to the accounting rule which requires assets to be valued at market prices.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has already given the financial industry some wiggle room and has said hard-to-value assets do not have to be marked down to fire-sale prices.
The SEC and the accounting rulemaker, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, are working on more guidance to help banks determine the value of an asset when there is little or no market trading.
The Obama administration is expected to outline next week how it plans to handle the second $350 billion of a $700 billion financial rescue fund.
Pump the bubble and hide the needles
Fannie Mae to Loosen Rules for Home-Loan Refinancing
Feb. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company under U.S. government control, will loosen rules for homeowners seeking to lower their loan payments by refinancing.
Fannie Mae will drop some credit-score requirements, reduce income-documentation standards and waive the need for appraisals in some cases,according to a notice yesterday to lenders posted on the Washington-based company’s Web site. The changes apply to loans that the company owns or guarantees.
The company, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the $12 trillion in U.S. residential mortgage debt, is seeking to break a “logjam” in refinancing and allow more homeowners to take advantage of near-record low interest rates, according to Brian Faith, a Fannie Mae spokesman. The increased flexibility for consumers isn’t large enough to significantly harm mortgage- bond investors and mortgage insurers, analysts said.
“This is not yet the no-appraisal refi wave that many have feared,” Matt Jozoff and Brian Ye, mortgage-bond analysts at New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., wrote in note to clients yesterday.
Fannie Mae’s appraisal change doesn’t mean borrowers with less than 20 percent home equity can forgo mortgage insurance, the analysts said. That’s because Fannie Mae will likely use automated models to check home values listed on applications before offering to waive appraisals, the analysts said.
The company’s DU Refi Plus program will start April 4.
Aiding Borrowers
“To allow more borrowers to take advantage of today’s historically low interest rates and help the lending community break the logjam in mortgage refinancing, the company is extending its refinance offerings,” Faith said in an e-mailed statement. The program “will streamline” refinancing “for potentially millions of current mortgage holders,” he said.
While Fannie Mae, smaller rival Freddie Mac and the companies’ regulator are considering permitting borrowers to refinance even when the consumers owe more than their homes’ worth, they also must consider “the various hurdles and unintended consequences,” Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart said in a Feb. 2 interview.
Fannie Mae’s changes will include allowing borrowers seeking to take out a loan that is 80 percent of the value of the home or less to qualify for refinancing with credit scores below its 580 minimum. Consumer credit scores as measured by Fair Isaac Corp. range from 300 to 850.
Easing Documentation
The program also lowers income-documentation requirements to one current pay stub, according to the notice.
The U.S. took control of Fannie Mae and McLean, Virginia- based Freddie Mac in September as their losses threatened to further roil the housing market. The government agreed to inject as much as $200 billion of capital to protect investors in their roughly $6 trillion of corporate debt and mortgage bonds.
The average rate on a typical 30-year fixed mortgage rose to 5.25 percent in the week ended today, according to Freddie Mac. Rates are up from 4.96 percent three weeks ago, a record low, and down from 6.46 percent in the last week of October.
Under their government charters, the companies must have borrowers or lenders buy mortgage insurance or other forms of so- called credit enhancement if their down payments or home equity are less than 20 percent. Mortgage insurers cover all or some of lenders’ losses on defaulted debt.
Mortgage-bond holders who paid more than face value for the debt may incur losses if refinancing means the securities are repaid faster than expected, cutting the value of the premium coupons on the bonds. More than 95 percent of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac-guaranteed fixed-rate mortgage securities are trading above face value, according to Bloomberg data.
Unfounded Concerns
“Absurd” concern about faster prepayments being potentially enabled by quick Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac policy changes can be seen in the only about 1-percentage-point gap between prices for Fannie Mae’s 4.5 percent and 5 percent mortgage bonds, Ken Hackel, head of fixed-income strategy at RBS Greenwich Capital Markets, wrote to clients today.
Fannie Mae’s changes are “unlikely to have a material effect on prepayments,” Laurie Goodman, a senior managing director at Austin, Texas-based Amherst Securities Group LP, wrote in a report today. Derek Chen and Nicholas Strand, Barclays Capital mortgage-bond analysts in New York, agreed.
“We think the overall impact on borrower refinance-ability and prepayments is marginal,” they wrote in a note to clients.
While lenders won’t be required to make contractual promises about the value or condition of homes under Fannie Mae’s Refi Plus program, they will still be required to represent that all data submitted to the company’s computer underwriting program are accurate, according to the notice.
Faith said that the company will “expedite the refinancing process for Fannie Mae-owned loans by, under certain conditions, leveraging our automated risk assessment capabilities to validate the current market values in lieu of traditional appraisal or property inspection requirements.”
Sitting and waiting - too soon to bank $600 dollars of paper profit....
.....need to pass WORN at the finish line.
...look like I'm in bubble trouble...watching my paper profit disappear.
Hold'n E/U LONG collecting interest - wait'n for the Carry-trade MOJO to return.
E/U - 1.28249 T/P 1.4356
I will hold for now and double down with a E/U BUY order for 1.27.
Double-down on Long E/U - it's it complete the HEAD and SHOULDER....I'm toast.
Long E/U for a quick 30 pip....it's a big bro / little bro mandate...not that there anything wrong with that.
You may learn a few things from your little brother...not that I'm CHEAP, but I always take my Dates to McD for a Happy Meal.
Does this mean your buying a round of HAPPY Meals for everyone?
Economists can not predict when the Country goes into a Recession....it's always after the fact.
Economists can not see, hear, or predict Recessions.
If the Demo'crats flush enough money down the TOILET, OBAMA should be able to restore the global economy.
Short the dollar
No reason for me to go back to work - as long as I keep my eye on the targets...
FRONT VIEW
SIDE VIEW
Me no worry - OBAMA is getting away FREE Money
I'm planning on driving the son to College today - so I can get an extra hour to ring the bell later...I'm starting to like the stay @ home Dad life.
Banked another FREE Obama check today, take one down pass it around, only 50 more FREE Obama checks on the Wall.
EDIT - spending 15 min to proof read and edit...only 7 min. to go
No - Worn is closer to Goggle.
I was on the sidelines last night- whipped my pinto beans with too much air yesterday...
...forced to sleep on the outside sofa last night
...I may have to hide from the band of wandering homeless polarbears tonight.
It's hard being on the right side of the trade all of the time, I always have to make three left turns before I'm headed the right direction....
A man leaves home on foot one evening, makes three left turns and arrives back home to find two masked men waiting there. Who are they?
Agree, it's slow but when it breaks - it breaks hard...playing small till I get a better grasp of the market.
EUR/USD Trend is up....I had to average down two times on my first $270 short loss to cash out for a overall $30 dollars gain.
Sorry to hear about your LOSS........holding a small loss on my EUR/USD SHORT
KING of the ANT HILL
Almost have the beans in the rice cooker - switching between the cook and warm cycle, watching and counting the bubbles, trading and cooking in the FX-kitchen.
Should of held the short - but the beans are more important to the family.
CLOSED SHORT - EUR/USD, $50 profit...have to watch my pinto beans slow cook for the rest of the day before jumping back into the market...holding cash and tasting beans for now.
CLOSED LONG EUR/USD - $300 profit
OPEN SHORT - EUR/USD, 100K, 1.30267, T/P 1.29967
Hiding in the bushes, watching and waiting for the CaT to makes it's move....
LONG - EUR/USD, 100K, 1.29876, T/P 1.30176