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| 2008/2/8-11 [Reference/RealEstate] UID:49094 Activity:kinda low |
2/8 10- and 30-year treasuries take rocket shot
Conforming mortgage limit to increase to $730K for Santa Clara pending
Dubya's signature
\_ Oh shit! I was hoping the economy and home prices would come
crashing down, with with conforming mortgage limit going up
crashing down, but with conforming mortgage limit going up
and record low interest rates, maybe they won't be crashing
down as hoped? -guy who saved up for 5 years, still waiting
\_ URL?
\_ http://tinyurl.com/265duj (AP)
http://tinyurl.com/ywc3qy (yahoo.com) |
| 2008/2/8-11 [Reference/RealEstate] UID:49095 Activity:moderate |
2/8 Theoretically how low could the Fed be allowed to lower the interest
to? 2%? 1.5%? Anything over 0%? Is 0% actually possible?
\_ Technically anything lower than current inflation rate is
'free money.'
\_ The BOJ pursued a Zero Interest Policy for many years.
\_ The BOJ pursued a Zero Interest Rate Policy for many years.
\_ What's the BOJ?
\_ Bank of Japan.
\_ Monetary policy become useless in a deflationary environment.
Google for "deflationary trap" to see why.
Google for "liquidity trap" to see why.
\_ You will probably see 0.10% before 0%
Anyway, lower rates these days is more about saving the banks than
lowering mortgage rates. Mortgage securitization is dead. Mortgage
rates for 30yr fixed didn't drop below 5% even when the Fed Funds
Target was 1%: http://tinyurl.com/2zgbws (imageshack) |
| 2008/2/8-11 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:49096 Activity:moderate |
2/8 i kind of liked Romney. oh well.
\_ I called him an idiot at first because of his "political act". But
accepting that as part of politics, I certainly liked him much
more than McCain. Romney has more real leadership experience, and
McCain seems kind of unstable. And too war happy and egotistical.
\_ I like Fred Thompson ... 's wife.
\_ I didnt find it shocking he wasn't insanely anti abortion
and gay crushing when he was governor of Mass.
\_ Voting for democrats is SURRENDER TO TERROR
\_ I just saw that. Ok I don't like him anymore. what
a moron.
\_ Ditto, ok that reinforces my original assessment. Of
course, this too could be a political act. Whatever,
moron it is. Occam's razor.
\_ I winced too, but since both Dem canidates are planning to
surrender in Iraq, it's probably actually correct.
\_ 1. Iraq was never about the "War On Terror".
2. Going into war without clear goals (or constantly
moving your goals about) is a plan for disaster. This
was a war of choice, but there was no good reason or
plan. Pulling out is admitting that. You can't "win"
a war like that.
3. Isreal lost a lot of face because they lost a war.
Making that even more clear would have just made things
worse. Sometimes you need to pull back and regroup.
Throwing good after bad just makes things worse.
4. Getting out of Iraq is the first step to actually
solving the issues at hand.
\_ 1. It wasn't at the beginning, but it sure is now. Or
haven't you noticed the terrorist trying to take over
the place?
2. I agree, but this too has changed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/09/AR2008020902666.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=AR
http://csua.org/u/kqr (Wash. Post)
(And actually hasn't been true for some time.)
3. meh
4. This relies on 1 and 2, which were false.
\_ Surrendering generally requires an actual identified enemy
to surrender to. We could bomb everyone there until they
stopped moving, but what is the point? It's not a war so
much as a giant security problem. The enemies are living
in the same society as the one you're supposedly
protecting, you can't win a "war" like that. You have to
take drastic internal police-state measures.
\_ I agree with you technically, but the whole world would
interpret pull-out as surrender, so the technical
difference hardly seems important. Especially since
things are actually going pretty well now.
\_ Insofar as we embrace binary positions, yes, this
will be seen as a surrender. In reality, it will
simply be a repudiation of the Bush Admin's legacy.
\_ Remember Isreal and Hezbollah just a year ago?
That little pull-out move increased Hezbollah's
stature a lot. Whether we "embrace binary
positions" or not doesn't make a whole lot of
difference to how it looks on the world stage.
\_ Hey, do you still call them "Freedom Fries"?
\_ Can't win rationally huh?
\_ You can't talk a man rationally out of
a position that he didn't use reason
to get himself into in the first place.
\_ As if anyone gets political positions
using reason. -- ilyas
\_ Our enemy in Iraq is not just AQiI; it's a
number of Sunni insurgents, some of them
home-grown, as well as collateral damage from
Shi-ite militias. Hezbollah gets bragging points
in Lebanon because it's the only player fight-
ing Israel at the time. War was declared; sides
were chosen/drawn; one team left the field;
"win" (by which I mean bragging rights, not an
actual victory) by forfeiture: Hezbollah. Not
that Israel really had a choice at that point.
Shi-ite militias. Hezbollah gets bragging
points in Lebanon because it's the only player
fighting Israel at the time. War was declared;
sides were chosen/drawn; one team left the
field; "win" (by which I mean bragging rights,
not an actual victory) by forfeiture:
Hezbollah. Not that Israel really had a choice
at that point.
\_ No, the world will interpret pull-out as a sign that
the grown-ups are finally back in charge in Washington
at least until we elect the next round of wing-nuts.
the grown-ups are finally back in charge in
Washington at least until we elect the next round of
wing-nuts.
\_ World >> Europe
\_ I kind of like Fred Thompson's wife. Oh well.
\_ "San Franciscan style left wing is not MAINSTREAM America" |
| 2008/2/8-11 [Computer/Companies/Ebay, Computer/SW/Languages] UID:49097 Activity:nil |
2/8 When do we usually get the 1099-INT from PayPal? It's already
February and I still don't have mine.
\_ If you got less than $10 in interest, you don't get a 1099-INT.
But since PayPal is a money market fund, it's probably a
1099-DIV. I'm not sure what the rules are on that. |
| 2008/2/8-10 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:49098 Activity:nil |
2/8 American Woman in Saudi Arabia receives reality check
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,329605,00.html
\_ some things to notice:
1) this is from fox news. What do you think their angle is?
\_ Your fox paranoia is amusing. It's not the only outlet
reporting it.
2) she goes home to her "compound"... and she's in finance.
clueless?
3) incoming collision from... Starbucks! Yay nation of Starbucks!!
\_ Can OP fix the link above please?
\_ Fixed. The URL does not need shortening. |
| 2008/2/8-10 [Computer/SW/Database, Computer/SW/Languages/Misc] UID:49099 Activity:nil |
2/7 \_ Run in Strict or Traditional mode if you want it to throw an
error instead of a warning:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/server-sql-mode.html
-tom
\_ thanks. -crebbs |
| 2008/2/8-10 [Politics/Domestic, Recreation/Humor] UID:49100 Activity:low |
2/8 "The stakes in November are high. This is an important election.
Prosperity and peace are in the balance." -Bush
Is he trying to be funny here or what?
\_ Sounds like a typical Bushism to me. |
| 2008/2/8-11 [Health/Sleeping] UID:49101 Activity:nil 80%like:49124 |
2/8 Sleep your way to 100 with power naps (siesta is good for ya!):
http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/7588/sleep-your-way-to-100-with-power-naps |
| 2008/2/8-11 [Computer/SW/OS/Windows] UID:49102 Activity:low |
2/8 Old, but funny - Man shoots computer after installing Vista:
http://www.csua.org/u/kq3
\_ Not funny. Funny would be, "Man shoots self after installing Vista".
\_ Redundant: "Man shoots self in foot, installs Vista." |
| 2008/2/8-10 [Uncategorized] UID:49103 Activity:nil |
2/8 Really cool captcha plug-in that also does common good (you'll
be helping OCR programs turn documents into text):
http://recaptcha.net |
| 2008/2/8-10 [Consumer/Camera] UID:49104 Activity:nil |
2/8 Pretty cool 'realistic pixel art'
And quit squishing changes.
http://kotaku.com/photogallery/jimiyo/1000681749
\_ Why the hell is this worth posting? What a waste of my time.
\_ Welcome to the MOTD, blowhard. |
| 2008/2/8-11 [Transportation/PublicTransit] UID:49105 Activity:moderate 83%like:49118 |
2/8 Looking to buy our first home on a tight budget. Which east bay areas
near a BART station (within walking distance) are generally considered
safe?
\_ There's a ton of housing 5 minutes drive from the Dublin/Pleasanton
BART and lots of parking. I did tiny drive to BART->SF for years.
Walkable in that area are all apartments built around the BART.
\_ Isn't that area pretty expensive though?
\_ Depends on your idea of expensive. Is $600k for a yard, top
scoring schools, near zero crime rate, clean streets and
no gang bangers, all within a few minutes of BART expensive
to you?
\_ Does this have anything to do with the LOW INTEREST RATE?
\_ Walking distance is a pretty high bar in the suburbs, but I will
assume you can walk pretty far:
El Cerrito - safe but kind of foggy, with not great schools
Walnut Creek - safe, but not sure what your budget is
Concord - safe probably a good bet
Pittsburg - getting cheaper by the minute, you might have to drive to
\_ why walk when you can drive? -American
\_ Union City. I see many people (compared to other suburbs) walking
during the day and early evening in the BART station neighborhood.
(along Alvarado Niles Rd, Decoto Rd, etc.) It's quiet at late
night though. Schools are only okay. I don't actually take BART.
I take the AC Transit Line M Bus that stops at the UC BART station.
\_ What are the areas around the Hayward and Castro Valley BART
stations like?
\_ Hayward: many people walk during the day and evening, but the
type of people that you see in the evening doesn't make you
feel safe.
Castro Valley: no idea.
-- PP |
| 12/23 |