Isn't time for a G7 country to stand up and BOYCOT the Chinese Olympics 2008

But that won't happen of course, too much money on the line...

Walloon trap

No third chance for Leterme to make a Belgian Government which means the Walloons will block the talks again and the CD&V will give in to them.

"Samen Werkt", hij zal snel (alhoewel meer dan 100 dagen) moeten vast stellen dat dat niet geldt voor de WALEN.

Sorry to bring it up again

but those dumb realtors are so damn funny: LINK
Cramer is in the studio, a realtor is live too through satellite. The realtor says it is a good time to buy LOL and that all real estate is local blablabla. At 2 min 30 of the video the host asks the realtor: Where would you buy a home then?
He stalls for about 20 seconds, finally and hilariously saying Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Cramer just called him a lying idiot just trying to sell overpriced homes right to his face.

Yup, Ohio is doing great. So is Detroit in Michigan ... Let us all buy a home there.

I never believe commission based people. Amen!

Bye Bye NETBANK

Netbank didn't make it, on the 28th of September the patient died because of rising defaults in the mortgage business.LINK
Countrywide is still holding on, but that is just a matter of time, the clock is ticking...tick tick tick.

We bought a table

As you can see, you have to be at least 7 feet or 2.1 meters to enjoy ... We can finally move that patio table to the backyard.

Conservative America ...

Belgian Link to the STORY

US link to the STORY

To sum it up: A Belgian 19 year old is put behind bars because he has a date with a girl of 13 in the cinema. She told him she was 16. He didn't do anything wrong, he was just sitting NEXT to her. Mother calls the local Sheriff, so he can get up to 5 years imprisonment.
He has been in jail almost for 2 months now, and he sure is NO terrorist...
This is America at its worst: CONSERVATIVE

Naomi playing

2 Pictures and 1 video file

No internet live stream for people living in the USA

Voor wie niet in België woont...
De livestreaming van sporza.be is in het buitenland niet te bekijken, omdat er rechten op de beelden rusten. De eigenaars van de contracten (de organisatoren van de evenementen) zeggen uitdrukkelijk dat de beelden alleen op het Belgische grondgebied te bekijken mogen zijn.

We can't look at the Sports television show on the internet. You can only watch the internet live stream only when you are in Belgium. Auch.

No World Championships cycling for me.

The Foreclosure / Auction Tsuanami is here!

Prices start at 41$ per sq ft...

ARM= adjustable rate mortgage

These are mortages with a low introductionary rate, they adjust after 1, 2 or 5 years. These "homeowners" will see their mortgage payment rise with 20%-200%, and no refinancing available. Foreclosure Tsunami is here.

1 000 000 000 people in India, Amazing!

The National Association of Realtors (NAR = makelaars) finally revealed as the MOB

by one of the biggest investor and economists of the last 2 decades: Jim "ADHD" Cramer: videofile link

Dumb, Dumber and "Dumberer"

This is a must see, the government wants to bail these people out, oh my.

One of the reasons we left Belgium:

From a Belgian newspaper: No one can afford homes in Belgium anymore
Average home price is $224 000
Price of an average home is up 50% in 4 years. When no one can afford an average home, what do you think would happen with home prices from now on?

Who bought all those homes and what for?

The answer: realtors and marihuana

Ice Cream Shopping

Saturday night, after dinner at our place we went for an ice cream. Do we adapt fast or what?

Why pay $40 for an UFC76 Pay Per View event when

you can see it on the internet for free. This is not an official website of course because those video files are copyright protected. All matches are here: 3 links on top of the page(ultimate fighting is not for the faint of heart, it is modern way of Gladiator fights, without the animals)

PS: The priest looking guy on the left is GOD in ultimate fighting, his name is FEDOR, he never lost a fight. His hands move with the speed of ALI, he hits as hard as TYSON and he has the grappling skills of Royce Gracie. ALL combined in 1 person, FEDOR is GOD.

We received a great e-mail from one of Naomi's classmates

Thank you!
MAIL:

Hallo Naomi,

Ken je me nog ? Lise Kint uit Sint-Niklaas ? (Ik zat samen met jou in het eerste leerjaar in de Heilige Familie).
Ik heb je avonturen eens bekeken (samen met mama) en ik vond het heel leuk om je nog eens terug te zien. Het is vrijdagavond en dan mag ik een beetje langer opblijven. Straks moet ik in mijn bedje, maar eerst wil ik je nog een paar dingen vertellen/vragen (mijn mama zal het typen) :
- hoe gaat het ermee ?
- heb je daar al nieuwe vriendjes ?
- is het daar leuk ?
- ik zit in 2 B
- ik zit bij juf Kathleen en juf Veerle
- ik zit samen met Luna in de klas (Ilke en Wissal zitten in 2A)
- en nu ga ik zelf nog iets typen :
vind je het leuk in je andere school?
de groetjes van lise

Zo, nu is het echt bedtijd. We wensen jullie nog heel veel plezier en veel groeten vanuit een stilaan (of nog steeds) herfstig België.

Who are the visitors of this site?

I have added a counter 1 week ago.

These are the results after 7 days:

--> Total Unique Visitors: 58

--> Unique Visitors:

Sat: 15 September: 15

Sun: 16 September: 15

Mon: 17 September: 29

Tues: 18 September: 22

Wed: 19 September: 16

Thurs: 20 September: 13

Fri: 21 September: 18

--> Total Visits: 308

--> Visits from United States: 149

Average time on site, United States visitors: 4.15 min

--> Visits from Belgium: 148

Average time on site, Belgian visitors: 2.02 min

--> Pageviews: 646 (blog is 1 large page so low pageview is normal)

--> Average time on site per visit: 3.02 min

--> TOP 10 visit locations Belgium:

Oostkamp: total visits: 100

Gent: total visits: 7

Sint-Niklaas: total visits: 7

Brussels: total visits: 5

Lokeren: total visits: 4

Deerlijk: total visits: 3

Antwerp: total visits: 3

Londerzeel: total visits: 3

Melle: total visits: 3

Temse: total visits: 2

--> TOP 5 visit locations USA, by State:

Arizona: total visits: 116

Georgia: total visits: 13

California: total visits: 5

Washington: total visits: 5

Texas: total visits: 4

--> ARIZONA:

Tempe: total visits: 86

Chandler: total visits: 24

Glemdale: total visits: 3

Phoenix: total visits: 2

Mesa: total visits:1

Location, Location, Location

About 50% of the visitors of this blog are Americans, so let's take a look where Belgium is at (Belgian visitors, where is phoenix?):

Click on the picture to enlarge

distance: 8800 km / 5500 miles

Counting the days to ...

OUR FIRST PAID HOLIDAY WEEK

Two more weeks and we' ll have a week off. We definitely need that FALL BREAK to recharge our DURACELL batteries. Looking forward to a few days of rest.

Well, let's take a look at how that other country fared after their real estate bubble imploded: Japan

It is very difficult to predict FUTURE economical events, best way to handle that is by reviewing what happened in a similar situation somewhere else in the world.

Let's use Japan as our case-study, Interest rates 0.5% at this time, real estate prices on levels of 23 years ago and a very willing Bank of Japan trying to save the system. Well let's take a look at some graphs to compare it to the US' present situation:

Real estate bubble: TOP in 1991: check

Central bank, run by total morons, ready to do whatever they can to save the banks: check Stock market index near all time highs: checkThe Empire Strikes Back (part 2)

Wells Fargo Maricopa is now officially the WORST bank on the planet (UPDATED)

So I paid a visit to my friends at the bank this afternoon, as always using the drive-through. I wanted to add a check of $4000 to our account, the cashier was very friendly as they always are at Wells Fargo. What are the chances of being smart and friendly at the same time?
I recieved my receipt, my 2 ID's and got out of the drive through. When I checked my receipt ... they added $400 to my account. This is a madhouse, when there will be a run on the US banks, people will be RUNNING AWAY from this bank instead of running TO the bank... Oh my, they are now officially the worst bank on the planet.
Some other (not so) funny bank stories...

UPDATE: They put that $4k in the WRONG ACCOUNT AGAIN, SAME EMPLOYEE as my last DEBACLE. So I talked to the manager of the bank, I told him that person was incompetent and that it reflects on the bank. 2 checks 3 mistakes, the only reason I can't close my account over there is because we have a credit card there and getting a credit card with no US credit history is not an easy process.

Naomi's YMCA (video files)

I have to work on my camera skills LOL...

Not for the faint of heart

Crashing cars (exceptionally funny)

Helicopter crashes (not funny because a lot of people probably died, but you can always blame it on the Iraqi's, terrorists or Bin Laden)

People falling down

When will this bill be worth less than a piece of ordinary (toilet)paper?

Pretty soon
Fears of dollar collapse as Saudis take fright
Saudi Arabia has refused to cut interest rates in lockstep with the US Federal Reserve for the first time, signalling that the oil-rich Gulf kingdom is preparing to break the dollar currency peg in a move that risks setting off a stampede out of the dollar across the Middle East.
China threatens 'nuclear option' of dollar sales
The Chinese government has begun a concerted campaign of economic threats against the United States, hinting that it may liquidate its vast holding of US treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation.

Amazing videos

Mandog

This is what I would call: C Total ontrol

Oh my, that is a water spidding vulcano

The last minute is hilarious

After School Childcare

I forgot to add our after school childcare bill in our recurrent budget analysis. It is a whopping $220 every 4 weeks, auch. That is childcare from 14h40 when her school ends until 18h00. The activities are AT the school in one of the buildings. She is now part of (this is funny) the YMCA lol. We Europeans don't know what the YMCA is but it is definitely not the OCMW (whoehaha). It is sort of a health group facility thing, they help families and children in their facilities.

WooooW a 0.5% rate cut by the FED

In Belgium we would say "dat kan tellen", Lisa and I always translate this sentence literally which gives us this great expression: "That can count".It looks like the dollar is going down the drain, the FED funds rate stands now at 4.75%. Looks like the 10 year bond (CD, insured by FDIC) I bought 2 week ago at 6% was not such a bad idea after all. The only big problem of course is that it is quoted in dollars.

Some time in the future the weak dollar will pose HUGE problems for European firms that will have great difficulties in competing against their US competitors. Only 5 years ago the dollar was worth more then a euro. It has lost more than 40% of its value in 5 years. Looks like printing money has some bad effects after all. Who would have thought that...

Another day, another line at Northern Rock

Everything is fine at the "Northern Rock Bank" front, no liquidity issues ...

Inhale, exhale and read this.
QUOTE of the CEO of the Northern Rock Bank:
"The simple fact now is that the Chancellor has made it clear that all existing deposits in Northern Rock are fully backed by The Bank of England and are totally secure during the current instability in the financial markets."

This means in plain language:
"We lost your money in our "investments" in the USA using MBA (mortgage backed securities), because we don't have the ability to pay those deposits back, the Bank of England decided that the taxpayer will pay for our losses. Thank you very much, because I will receive my CEO salary of 20 million pounds anyway."

Counting the days before we´ll see those lines @ Countrywide Financial, the biggest US mortgage bank.

Well, how is the mortgage business doing?

Not that good...



btw: What is an eggroll? :-)

Please wake me up

This can't be happening, this is a quote from xxxx (name will be revealed later)when he gave an interview to the FT ( financial times)

Mr xxxx is more certain than ever before that central banks should not try to burst bubbles once they begin to inflate. “I am coming to the conclusion that bubbles are inevitable,” he says. “Human beings cannot avoid them . . . They cannot learn.”

You would think this quote would come from some economy professor who forecasted the housing and the dotcon/m bubble.

But hell NO, these are the words of the person who inflated the 2 biggest bubbles of the last 2 decades. Mr Bubble himself, Alan Greenspan. He inflated the internet and nasdaq bubble in '99-'00 and by lowering interest for 17 consecutive times he inflated the housingbubble.

If he had any dignity it would sound more like:

“I am coming to the conclusion that the FED inflates bubbles.” he says. “The FED can avoid them but they won't because they are run by monkeys and don't understand the basic market principles of supply and demand . . . The FED cannot learn.”

Link to the article.

Not everthing he does is bad, this is a quote from his book that was released today:
“I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”
As to be expected that book or this quote didn't receive a lot of good comments by the "free" US press.

Bills, bills and bills

So if everything is cheaper in the USA, how much do you have to pay for utilities and so on.

Remember that bills of utilities change a lot during the "winter, spring, autumn", when the airco is turned off. We also have a pool that uses a lot of electricity for the automatic cleaning system.

At this time, these are our recurring bills:(per month)

Electrical Company: $300

Waste Management (trash collection): $7

Gas: $13

Water: $68

Orbitel (inet + cable+HD channels+Hd recorder): $102

BTW: Is it really 12 degrees celsius over there? whoehaha

In Memoriam Ramon Sr

Saturday we went to the funeral of Ramon Sr in Gila Bend. The church was packed with people and the ceremony was held in English and Spanish.

Ramon Sr. was honored by his friends and family. Maybe the most emotional moment was a train (Union Pacific, his employer) that stopped and honored him when he was brought to the cemetary.

Ramon Sr. life was all about sharing everything he had with friends and family. He was the most generous man we have ever met. His helpful attitude and his love for his family will always be remembered.

We hope his family can find strength in the fact that Ramon Sr. touched a lot of lives for the better and that his spirit will live on in the hearts of his children and his grandchildren.

He will be missed by all.

Adding a counter called Google Analytics

I have added a counter to this blog. It will take 24 hours to start gathering information, the counter helps me to track pageviews and unique visitors. It is not displayed on the blog itself but I can review it in my google account. There is also a very funny world map that displays the physical location of the visitors of this blog. One big and one smal country are highlighted, now I will try to conquer the rest of the world.

Run on the banks

It took 75 years and the corrupt NAR, Mortgage Mob and a whole bunch of Housingflippers (sorry I meant real estate moguls/investors)for a NEW RUN on the BANKS.

It was only a matter of time but it is a VERY important economical event: Northern Rock (UK bank) gets overwhelmed, savers want their money back. Next in line (American big bank) is Countrywide. Diversify and be careful out there.

UPDATE: I watched some movies from the BBC on Yahoo! finance regarding the Run on the Northern Rock Bank, guess what the commercial was after the news report ... Countrywide financial offering No-Cost-Refi... indeed the USA is the land of the brave!

Look at this post of Friday 10th of August from this blog, seems that 3rd phase was no joke after all :-) A few weeks and we'll see those rows at Countrywide in the USA.

No blood in the streets yet, only panic:So capitulation is near:During that capitulation and desperation phase price drops will be severe. Median price in Phoenix dropped this week by $ 3500. Rental prices were stable :-)

Oh, this is the reason for the housingcrash, but that was pretty obvious of course...

It is NOT normal when home prices rise 7-11%, year over year. Home prices have on average risen 200 basis points above inflation. So 4-5% appreciation year over year is how it was and how it will be in the future.

But then again, real estate never goes down because people need some place to live, Susanne researched it and God doesn't make anymore land...

Video files party

Teacher Party at our Place

WaaW, that was a great night. After our Friday bar closed due to bankruptcy (Ramses) and our "new" bar (The Duke) couldn't live up to expectations, we took matters in our own hands. As you can hear in the small movie files, teachers are a loud bunch:-) But we had a lotta fun, and it seems we all face similar problems in our classes. I want to thank everyone for showing up and making this a very enjoyable evening. I will give Josephine Cochrane a Nobel price post mortum, becasue she invented the dishwasher. We thank you!

Great Quote (updated)

"In fact, they should bailout all the people who are upside down on their SUV loans. After all, you've gotta have a car...to park in front of your house that is on the verge of foreclosure. Where else will people live if they lose their house? Rent? [Shudder]"

"I make nearly 100K and cannot afford a home in California, using my tax dollars to help irresponsible people keep homes they can't afford, while at the same time keeping me out of the market, will be enough to send me over the edge."

Today is a good day to review the Eight' Miracle/Wonder of the World

the RE-election of this bunch of liars. First building(s) in the world that collapse due to fire. Why did those buildings crash like a detonated demolition, maybe because it was ...

Our family mourns

The Sandoval family lost Ramon Sr, father of Ramon and Brad, husband of Bonnie. He was a great father and husband and beloved family member. His positive attitude, his willingness to share and his love for his family will always be remembered. Cancer took him by surprise a few months ago, we hope he didn't suffer too much those last few weeks.

His funeral will probably be held the 15th of September in Gila Bend.

Sign Spinners

What do you do on a Saturday when you want to earn some money. Well, you can become a sign spinner. They hold signs and swing them to attract attention from passing cars. Here you see 4 human sign posts with signs of homebuilders. Did I already mention it is 110 F in the shade between 11h-16h, well that means it is probably 65 degrees Celsius in the sun :-) Oh, they get paid 7 bucks an hour, before taxes ...

Kittens

We went to the animal hospital today to get our kittens back. They were both declawed and fixed (below) and they got their shots. Auch, the $830 bill hurts, but a sofa or bed that gets demolished by our cats is a little bit worse:-)

(the cat in the second picture is not ours)

Retarded USA banking system

It is very difficult to explain the US banking system but you can ssume it is on a 19th century level. This week I visited the bank EACH and EVERY day. It is totally insane. Yesterday we received our checks from the school so we deposited them at once using the drive through LOL. Depositing a check takes about 10 minutes, which is quite incredible to say the least but they deposited the check in a WRONG account. Not one of ours. Oh my, luckily trading/buying stocks, bonds, CD's and mutual funds is cheapo here.

If you can't beat them, JOIN them

"Century 21 gets kicked out because they can't pay their bills anymore." Or on a website that WAS for the greatest part sponsored by the real estate mob, it goes like this: Century 21 Metro Alliance finds lien notice on door Looks like those lying realtors got what they deserved, real estate never goes down...they don't make any more land... haha

I am thinking of joining the realtor troups, they are all gone from Maricopa now anyway.
To earn the realtor degree,
you need: an IQ of schrimp(PROBABLY: CHECK), $550 for the education (pay with credit: CHECK)and 2-4 weeks of your time(SUMMER: CHECK).
I don't have anything to do during the summer and I already own the domain maricopavalleyrealty.com :-)

Ultimate fighting UFC75 on US Spike TV

I will not be available Saturday night. I'll be watching this, free of charge. My favorite fighter: Mirko Crocop. This is not for the faint of heart. videolink

My take:

Henderson beats Jackson: 3-0 decision

Crocop beats Kongo: KO 1st round

Hamill beats Bisping: submission in the 2nd round

Kongo will leave the Octogan with a head ache

A rate cut by the US Federal Reserve is 99% certain now

Bonds spiking and the dollar dropping, it's almost inevitable now. The government will lower interest rates to stop the chaos in the housing market.

Who in their right mind would be out signing their name to a mortgage on a depreciating asset today?

Not me :-)
Prices are dropping fast in Phoenix now: link.

What a great guy, I love this man!!!

Just a reminder or two

Hilarious

3 Minutes of TRUTH

are hard to find on US television without a host that attacks you in a real negative way. This guy wrote a book before it happened, he is the smart one. CNN should embrace Peter SChiff and invite him in the studio every day.
Why is that host so agitated? Shooting the messenger or serving the "there is no housingbubble, real estate always goes up realtors". The government will help 80 000 people in the first phase, well that's 6 920 000 to go ...

It looks like the truth hurts, sometimes.

Naomi's first day of School in Pictures (Alice in Wonderland)