Thursday, January 31, 2008
Don't underestimate the power of the FED
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 6:14 PM 0 reacties
UFC 81
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:57 PM 0 reacties
Labels: ufc 81
Offer
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:48 PM 0 reacties
Labels: offer
Political science
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful.
Bruce Springsteen and U2 sing for you.
REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So? If they want a cow, they should get a job.
SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.
COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You have to wait in line for hours to get it.
It tastes like ass and is very expensive.
CAPITALISM (AMERICAN STYLE)
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and make a fucking herd of cows.
BUREAUCRACY (AMERICAN STYLE)
You have two cows.
Under the new farm program, the government pays you to shoot one, milk the other, and then pours all the milk down the drain.
AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows.
You are surprised when one cow drops dead.
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you "have downsized and are reducing expenses."
Your stock price increases.
FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good, eh?
JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably fast, crowded trains and to play piano and violin.
All the cows are at the top of their class in cow college.
GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately, they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year (and watch really weird porn).
ITALIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows, but you don't know where they are.
While lazily looking around, you see three drop-dead beautiful women.
You break for lunch.
Life is good, eh?
RUSSIAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You drink some vodka.
You count them and learn you have five cows?
You drink more vodka.
You count them again, and this time there are 24 cows, and they won't hold still.
As you continue to drink vodka, the Russian mafia shows up and steals whatever cows you may have had.
TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which comes to two.
You don't drink the milk, because you cannot touch any of the cow's private parts.
You get a $40 million grant from the US government to find alternatives to milk production, which you use to buy AK-47's.
IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
Periodically, they send tapes of themselves mooing.
BELGIAN CORPORATION
You have one cow.
The cow is schizophrenic.
Sometimes the cow thinks he's French. Other times, he's Flemish.
The Flemish cow won't share with the French cow.
The French cow wants control of the Flemish cow's milk.
The cow is now asking to be cut in half.
The cow dies happy.
FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best-looking cow.
Some of the people who actually like the brown one best accidentally vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither.
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which one you think is the best-looking cow.
CALIFORNIA CORPORATION
You have millions and millions of cows.
They make real California Cheese.
Only five can speak English, however.
The best-producing cows are illegal.
Oh, yeah, and Arnold likes the ones with the big udders.
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:30 AM 0 reacties
Labels: political science
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
How is our offer doing?
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 4:10 PM 0 reacties
Labels: home buying, offer
MadMan is doing it again (State of the Union)
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:36 AM 0 reacties
Labels: state of the union
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Superbowl
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 7:58 PM 0 reacties
Labels: arizona, superbowl 12
We made an offer
We made an offer where we asked for some "free" upgrades. We hope it will be accepted or that we are allowed to negotiate.
Buyers are very hard to find, builders have a difficult time (especially in Arizona) and have some cashflow issues. We want to take advantage of that.
It will probably be the most expensive house that will be build in Maricopa in 2008 (the start of the post bubble era). Which from an investor standpoint of view is not such a good move. You'd rather want to own a low-class home in a fancy neighbourhood instead of an upscale home in a low-class neighbourhood. The high price is caused by the high premium of the lot. Americans don't want to pay extra for land. We are Belgians, we don't mind. Land prices in Belgium are (change that to "were" for the foreseeable future) extremely expensive and for that $225 / m2 lot you have a view on a "Discount Profi"...
Prices in Maricopa have dropped 40% the last 18 months and are at 2003/2004 levels. Half of Maricopa is for sale right now .. and the other half is auctioned off :-)
I remember in 2004-2005 hundreds of homes sold each month ... link
Will it go lower? Probably, but we will pay a price that is reasonable, with a low interest rate and on the dreamlot we have always wanted.
If we are able to buy the home, we will not visit Belgium this summer. We'll be busy moving. Our lease ends at the end of June.
The builder of our rental home just went bankrupt ... LINK
Holy cow: Countrywide: 1 in 3 subprime mortgages delinquent
Countrywide Financial Corp, the largest U.S. mortgage lender, on Tuesday said more than one in three subprime mortgages were delinquent at year-end in the $1.48 billion portfolio of home loans it services.
That's what I would call "tight" lending standards ...
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 6:58 PM 2 reacties
Labels: offer, real estae round-up
Monday, January 28, 2008
I am really glad I will see those people filling shelves at walmart for $6.75 an hour
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 6:52 PM 0 reacties
Labels: mortgage bastards
This just redefines the phrase " good job"
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 6:46 PM 0 reacties
Labels: am I awake?, CEO compensation, kb homes
In the worst housing market ever (except 1929)
Maricopa housing statistics:
Graphs: (yellow = price / sq ft)We would be buying into the abyss, which is pretty scary...
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:00 AM 0 reacties
Labels: Maricopa housing, offer?
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Lisa's math exam went well
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 10:51 AM 0 reacties
Labels: lisa's exam, mathematics
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Rebates to stimulate the economy (update)
Our share is $1500 :-)
(2 * 600) + 300 (per child)
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 7:43 PM 0 reacties
Labels: IRS, tax refunds
Question of the day?
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 3:04 PM 0 reacties
Labels: bankruptcy, fortis
The first visitor(s) will leave tomorrow
I asked them to bring 12 KWATTA choco paste bowls
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 2:37 PM 0 reacties
Great MINDS think alike
Peter Schiff Named Economic Advisor to the Ron Paul 2008 Presidential Campaign
"I know, sounds crazy" (at 22 seconds of this movie) was ironnically intended...
LINK: Housingtracker Phoenix
LINK: housingtracker California (San Francisco)
LINK: housingtracker Florida (Miami)
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 1:44 PM 0 reacties
Labels: Peter Schiff is GOD
Friday, January 25, 2008
This is a CHURCH my GOD!
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 6:34 PM 0 reacties
Labels: God and tits are everywhere
Lisa has a MATH exam tomorrow
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 6:19 PM 0 reacties
Nouriel Roubini invents a new economy term
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 6:17 PM 0 reacties
Labels: roubini, stagdeflation
What is a housingcrash?
Half a year later you take a look at what the builder is offering and you see their price sheet.
The homes are AUCTIONED OFF with a starting bid of 315 000 / 335 000 ... You lost 400 000 in equity in your home in 1 year. That is a housingcrash and there is a chance that no one wants these homes at these prices.
The new trend: The foreclosure bus tour ;-)
NOTE: If someone pays 750 000 dollar for a 250 000 dollar home in 2004, paying 369000 in 2008 is not a good idea. But there are bargains out there.
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:56 PM 0 reacties
Labels: housingcrash
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Important archaelogical discovery
After the "Peking Man" another important find in Asia: LINK
Now that I teach world studies ...
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 8:46 PM 0 reacties
Life after death
It has been a while since I bought a non-investment/gambling related book.
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 8:35 PM 0 reacties
Labels: 90 minutes in "heaven"
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
1929 revisited
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 8:55 PM 0 reacties
- 2000 points in the blink of an eye
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 8:33 PM 0 reacties
Labels: crash, Jim Cramer
Heath Ledger has died
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 7:09 PM 0 reacties
Labels: heath ledger
Chinese stockmarket
For US stocks: With the FED on the side of the market, the time to sell stocks is over.
BUY BUY BUY
The low for the next few weeks, months was set this morning when the DOW gapped down 400+
The dollar ... that is another story. The FED is REALLY going to f* up the US currency.
What does a 75 basis point cut mean?
1. They overdid it on the upside (17 consecutive rate hikes...)
2. The mess has become an apocalypse / abyss / catastrophy the last few days/weeks (banks)
3. They don't have any clue. Everyone with a basic 101 Econ knowledge knew that the mortgage mess was going to hurt the economy in a big way. The only people that were not aware of the problem... the FEDeral Reserve.
4. They don't care about the value of the dollar.
NOTE: They lowered the FED discount rate which is the rate banks can borrow money overnight from the FED. Mortgage rates are not lower now, they can even rise when short term rates drop.
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 6:42 PM 0 reacties
Labels: FED, US economy
THIS WILL BE A TOTAL MESS
FED lowers interest rates with 75 (SEVENTY FIVE) basis points.
The "Plunge protection team" in action.
That means it is total chaos out there.
GOLD $1000 anyone?
GOLD $2000 anyone?
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:27 AM 0 reacties
Labels: FED
Monday, January 21, 2008
Best Duets ever
Me thinks, Elton John is an excellent duet-singer:-)
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 10:45 AM 0 reacties
Labels: duets
Question of the day
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 10:35 AM 0 reacties
Labels: Bush
Ron Paul takes 2nd place in Nevada caucus
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 10:30 AM 0 reacties
Labels: nevada caucus
Holy Cow, PANIC in the streets
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 7:08 AM 1 reacties
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Pics
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 10:23 AM 1 reacties
Labels: pics
Quote of the day
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930)
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 8:33 AM 0 reacties
Labels: quote of the day
Friday, January 18, 2008
One of the smartest people in the world has died
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:30 AM 2 reacties
Labels: bobby fisher
Thursday, January 17, 2008
We're still alive and well
LOT premium $65000
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:36 AM 0 reacties
Labels: home
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Republican elections
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:33 AM 0 reacties
Labels: Elections 2008
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Real Estate round-up
Rank Real Estate Market 2008 Forecast
1. Miami, FL − 15.2%
2. Las Vegas, NV − 14.6%
3. Detroit, MI − 13.6%
4. Phoenix, AZ − 13.2%
5. Naples, FL − 13.2%
6. Anaheim , CA − 12.9%
7. Los Angeles, CA − 12.8%
8. Palm Beach, FL − 12.4%
9. Atlanta, GA − 12.3%
10. Boston, MA − 11.7%
Bank of America buys Countrywide Financial
FREEFALL
This is hilarious
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 11:19 AM 0 reacties
Labels: housing
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Memories
Carolientje
De Familie Knots
Bert en Ernie
Meester hij begint weer
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 7:55 PM 1 reacties
Labels: Oude doos
Lisa is missing her friends
I wonder why ... here a movie from one of her friends:
Den Charlie lijkt me wel nen plezante te zijn LOL.
It's been a while since I laughed that hard. Hilarious clip.
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 7:03 PM 0 reacties
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Misc. / Varia
In less then 4 weeks we will receive our first guest(s)
In less then 5 months we will be back in Belgium for a month (June08)
Did you know that:
-at Naomi's school 2nd graders learn 30 new words every week. (in other schools in Maricopa 2nd graders learn 12 words / week)
-in the USA, cars cun make a right turn when the traffic light is red
-they hired 5 new teachers to start in January
-they hired 2 extra full-time security personnel, which makes a total of 5 (1police officer who is on campus the whole school day and 4 security personnel)
-the weather is about 20 C during the day
-our next holiday is January 21st (Martin Luther King day)
-schools don't have an Easter holiday, however we do have spring break: March 17-21
-I received my first table tennis rating: 1853, record 7W -3L, 14th of PTTC, 47th in Arizona, year-end goal is 1925, 8th PTTC, 25th Arizona
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 4:59 PM 1 reacties
Labels: misc
Sunday, January 6, 2008
www.vrtnieuws.net morphs into the
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 5:44 PM 0 reacties
Labels: make-over, vrtnieuws.net
Introducing zillow.com
On zillow.com you can find real estate information on any house you want.
This is part of our information sheet. Auch, the landlord pays 4400 dollar in property taxes. That's gotta hurt.
Geplaatst door RamsesVI op 4:18 PM 1 reacties
Labels: zillow.com