Friday, August 19, 2011
Comparing Granite and Marble Countertops: Which A person Really should You Choose?
Nevertheless, granite is way harder than marble and it can be much more resistant to scratches and hefty impacts in comparison to marble. Simultaneously, granite is much more defiant to acids this sort of as vinegar, lemon juice, and tomato juice, together with other objects with large amounts of acidity. To assist you superior recognize the strengths of both stones, allow us take a nearer appear as to how they ended up shaped. Marble, and all its stone family - onyx, travertine, and limestone for the onset ended up sediments produced of shells, plant issue, animal skeletons, and silt which all settled on the bottom of bodies of drinking water and after several years of getting soaked in h2o, they solidify and become stones/ Marble’s primary part is calcium and that's the purpose why it's a tendency to react to acids this kind of as vinegar as well as other beverages that consist of citrus. Granite, then again, is made up of crystallized minerals shaped while in the earth’s mantle at higher temperature. The end result is a tricky, quite resistant stone. Marble can be scratched and etched by acids because it is made of calcium carbonate that's a great deal like chalk however the only difference is surface encounters marble is compressed and in a very crystallized kind. In the same manner, marble has fewer designs, actually it really is much more generally marketed in its white shade so stains and mars might stand out more exposed in marble. Granite incorporates a much more complex pattern that may cover the stains greater. In terms of models however, marble contains a finer, far more sophisticated search than granite. The crystal formations in marble are far more satiny and finer in nature which makes it look much more luxurious. Granite has greater, pea-sized crystals which are coarser to the eye.
In the long run, in terms of longevity, the granite countertop could well be additional tough and more resistant to stains and scratches whilst the seems are won by marble. Marble on the other hand is inexpensive than granite but it involves bigger servicing. So, all of it boils right down to what you genuinely want as being a countertop. Would you settle to get a countertop that is certainly very hard-wearing and however not as fairly since the other a single, or would you trade magnificence for durability and energy?
Monday, August 15, 2011
New Employ Criminal Background Examine
An employment criminal background check is now usually carried out not just to potential employees but to present employees for promotion as well. It is usually carried out to validate information discovered on an employee's resume or software form. It's also done to determine the very best suited possible employee among the candidates. Also with what has happened on September eleven, 2011, employers are actually extremely concerned using the kind of workers they employ.
A background investigation includes criminal, arrest, imprisonment, and intercourse offender documents. This is a kind of examine exactly where state records are examined to research if a possible employee or present worker continues to be convicted or charged with any crime in opposition to the state.
Citizenship, immigration and legal operating standing checks are also carried out because American companies are barred from hiring unlawful workers by the Division of Homeland Safety and its Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Division.
Litigation data will also be checked. Employees who often file discrimination cases might be recognized as a danger into a company thus employers resort to litigation checks. Also, those businesses who do company using the government do not want to hire whistleblowers who file qui tam fits.
Driving and vehicle records will also be component of the track record examine, particularly when a potential worker is applying for a driver place. Employers look for workers who have clean driving records or those that don't have any records of vehicular accidents or visitors tickets.
Drug check records are also becoming checked. An employer wouldn't want to employ drug addicts in his company because of company ethics, worker efficiency will probably be affected and increase of workers' compensation premiums.
Schooling records will also be part with the records search investigation. This really is done to confirm educational attainment of the potential employee and occasionally to check if applicant has had misdemeanor records in school.
Previous employment data might also be checked especially in the event the applicant will fill a sensitive position in the company. This is usually carried out verbally.
Monetary information can also be checked especially if the place becoming crammed demands someone to handle large amount of cash.
For professionals, licensing data are checked for grievances, disciplinary steps and investigations.
Medical, psychological and physiological files will also be checked simply because a possible worker may not be fit to work for wellness reasons. A written consent from the applicant should be procured before going through the whole process.
Social security number check is also done because identification theft is quite rampant. A past existence might be concealed or an applicant might not have fulfilled the citizenship requirement might be verified via the social safety number.
Even though most the above data are public data and can be procured from various government agencies within the United states of The united states, it's still extremely inconvenient for employers to complete background check on its possible workers as well as present workers. You will find a number of private investigators who provide the support. Also, there are 3rd party providers who also offer the same kind of service. You will find also available on-line data financial institutions which can provide the necessary info about individuals. What they do is they purchase U.S. public data and offer them on-line to get a fee.
Eliminate Credit score Card Financial debt Quick
Acquiring your check my credit score will supply you with a very essential bit of credit information. These scores range from anyplace between 300 and 900. The higher it's the better rates you can anticipate to get on loans. Your score will assist you to make sense of your credit history, it provides a great image of how well you're dealing with your finances and also provides you insight into exactly what creditors and lenders examine when figuring out whether you are certified to get a cost card or mortgage.
This really is exactly why we advise that everybody acquire their free credit score a minimal of 1 time for each yr. When you are about to use to get a charge card, it is a great plan to get a copy of your score and report, and examine it to make certain that all the information is correct. It is possible to acquire a copy of one's report completely totally free of charge each and every yr from each 1 with the credit score bureaus.
While the above idea is a totally appropriate means of tracking your credit score standing you can also obtain a 3 in one report as an choice.
This kind of report provides the information that appears on your report as compiled by Equifax, Experian and TransUnion and offers you the big image of what your credit history actually looks like. Typically, a three in 1 credit report gives you a short list of potentially tough info, which you can rapidly and effortlessly evaluate. It is additionally identified as a 3 Bureau Credit report.
Creditors, loan companies, and financial institutions will report into a credit bureau any time a consumer will get a mortgage, opens up a fresh bank card account, misses a payment on a monthly bill, or files for personal personal bankruptcy. However, they're not needed to report it to all three credit score bureaus. The outcome is that the no cost credit history you get from one credit score bureau could probably be lacking some essential particulars. That lacking info can frequently have an excellent impact in your credit status. In the event you would really like a truly obvious view of how great or dreadful your credit report truly is, you should look at investing in a 3 in 1 credit report.
A detailed analysis of your free credit score and report will provide you having a fantastic insight into your financial scenario. Within the event you place in your order to get a comprehensive credit score score from one of the three credit score bureaus, you are able to be qualified to obtain your credit score record from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax inside a joint file. These are going to help you in easy evaluation of exactly exactly where you stand and make it feasible for you personally to notice the versions inside your 3 credit score reviews. It's heading to assist you follow all loans and charge cards which are opened inside your title and also you also are going to become inside a position to learn which companies contact the credit bureaus.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Making Money Internet
I was wrong. I made a mistake. I was the idiot on the internet who was wrong.
I moved the rate of return on a trade in the wrong direction, on a phone conversation, with out putting the block’s of numbers to paper/screen, making a mistake that caused the return to be 2 factors faster then correct. Ya, FACTORS.
I would love to share *why* the mistake was not my fault, but it honestly was of my own creation. I was doing quick math in my head, and moved the decimal in the wrong direction. Compounding the mistake. I have felt embarrassed, as I get how stupid I look.
We are all human, sometimes its not as easy as it appears. Sometimes we make mistakes, because we are humans. I have, and did..
I learn from my mistakes. I wont make that one again. I was wrong, and I apologize to any one who understands the math behind the trade. I blew it.
Humble Pie and Cold Crow has been eaten,
Jack H Barnes Jr.
Filed under: Transparency
Read more posts on Ramblings of a Retired Portfolio Manager »
Surprisingly enough, AmEx’s 20% rebate is actually a good deal. They offer competitive rates on airfare and hotel booking, and allow you to pay entirely or partially with points.
Numbers, crunched
American Express points, when used through the Pay with Points program, are valued at one cent per point, so you could redeem 97,600 points for that $976 flight to Heathrow from San Francisco. After the 20% bonus is credited to your account (it happens after the fact, and takes 10-12 weeks, according to the Pay with Points website), you’ll have spent 78,000 points, or $780. That’s $185 saved over booking with Kayak or Travelocity, enough that only one-third of your England trip will be spent lamenting the weakness of the American dollar.
American Express Platinum is steadily earning our respect
We’re generally happy with American Express as a card for international travelers, especially since the Platinum and Centurion joined the ranks of credit cards with no foreign transaction fee. Now that you can redeem your points through American Express Travel and get 20% of those points back, we’re even happier.
The American Express Platinum is one of the best-known premium credit cards, and offers a number of perks for international (or domestic) travelers. There’s a 50,000-point signing bonus (worth $500), a base rewards rate of 1% and an annual fee of $450. And based on the numbers we ran above, it only takes a couple of international flights to make up for most of that hefty fee.
Skipping customs and sipping champagne: the joys of premium credit cards
Beyond the numbers, however, the true value of the AmEx Platinum (and, really, for all premium credit cards) lies in the lovely perks. The Platinum shells out $200 in refunds for travel-related expenses like baggage fees and in-flight meals, and a free Priority Pass membership that gives access to over 600 airport lounges worldwide. A special boon for international travelers is the $100 credit towards the government Global Entry program, which allows you to skip customs lines coming back to the US (after, of course, an extensive background check). You also receive one companion ticket a year, which allows someone to fly with you, round trip, in the same class, as long as you book a business or first class ticket.
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08/03/2011: U.S. Department of Justice, EPA to Hold <b>News</b> <b>...</b>
3, 2011) - Representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will hold a news conference at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 4, in St. Louis, Mo., to discuss a significant ...
08/03/2011: U.S. Department of Justice, EPA to Hold <b>News</b> <b>...</b><b>News</b> attacks — Crooked Timber
I've received the ultimate accolade from News Corporation, graduating from snarky asides and dark mutterings in which I'm identified only indirectly to a full-length hit piece in our only national (general) newspaper, ...
<b>News</b> attacks — Crooked Timber<b>News</b> In Brief: Life - Science <b>News</b>
Flowery advertising, tempting toilets for shrews, bat beacons and more in this week's news.
<b>News</b> In Brief: Life - Science <b>News</b>Monday, August 1, 2011
foreclosure agents
Comments
Please use the comments to demonstrate your own ignorance, unfamiliarity with empirical data, ability to repeat discredited memes, and lack of respect for scientific knowledge. Also, be sure to create straw men and argue against things I have neither said nor even implied. Any irrelevancies you can mention will also be appreciated. Lastly, kindly forgo all civility in your discourse . . . you are, after all, anonymous.
23 Responses to “Will the AGs Turn the US into a Banktocracy?”
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Shahien Nasiripour has an update on the talks between the big banks and the state attorneys general, with some rather worrying news: under the proposed settlement, the AGs are going to give the banks broad immunity from prosecution, despite the fact that they don’t really have a clue what the banks might have done wrong.
Some officials with experience sitting across the negotiating table with major banks say the government is making a critical miscalculation that jeopardizes the public interest by seeking a deal before amassing a credible threat of successful prosecution: In essence, they say, the government would give servicers a blanket pass for widespread alleged acts of fraud while extracting too little in return and operating from a relative position of weakness.
“I would never want to go into a negotiation without solid evidence of actual misconduct to hold as leverage over my counterpart,” said Neil M. Barofsky, the former special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which was crafted to bail out teetering banks. “It would also be very dangerous from a public policy perspective to waive all future claims as part of such a settlement if you do not have a good sense of the size, scope and severity of the underlying misconduct.”
According to sources familiar with the ongoing state and federal probes, state and federal officials have wasted months not digging into the details of the foreclosure crisis, yielding little of value in court and undercutting the lenders’ incentive to strike a settlement of greater benefit to homeowners and taxpayers.
The investigators have yet to gather many documents, conduct depositions or assemble tallies of aggrieved homeowners. They don’t yet have a good handle on the number of wrongful foreclosures, the amount of fraudulent documents filed in local courts or the volume of legal instruments processed by so-called “robo-signers,” the agents that lenders employed to process foreclosure filings en masse without examining the underlying paperwork.
“The evidence a prosecutor would use is not in the possession of the prosecution,” said one person familiar with the ongoing settlement talks.
This doesn’t really surprise me. A coalition of 50 AGs, not to mention a large number of disparate federal agencies, is never going to be particularly good at taking a focused look at wrongdoing in the banking industry during the financial crisis. The best they can hope for is to get a flavor of what the likely crimes were, and then try and extract as much as they can from the banks.
But the dangers here are obvious, especially to those of us who remember the story of Steve Rattner. Andrew Cuomo, if you recall, granted Rattner immunity from criminal prosecution in return for his testimony — and then regretted that deal later, when he found out much more about Rattner’s actions. It’s clearly in the banks’ interest to do a deal now, before a lot of detail comes out about what they did wrong; after all, this is a world where a single bad mistake can result in fine of hundreds of millions of dollars. Multiply that by thousands of mistakes and it’s easy to see why the banks would much rather pay a few billion dollars up front and put all that prosecution risk behind them.
If a deal isn’t done, aggressive AGs in New York and maybe a couple of other states could decide to start prosecuting cases individually — but the AGs don’t really have the resources to do that in all cases and against all banks, and most AGs don’t have the resources or even the inclination to do it at all. Which is why it’s important that they have all the information they can lay their hands on now, in the run-up to a global settlement. I’m already pessimistic that the settlement will actually achieve much of anything. And if it results in hugely valuable immunity for the banks, it might well be Wall Street which ends up the ultimate winner. Again.
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Obama, Boehner Announce Agreement to Raise Debt Ceiling, Avoid <b>...</b>
ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf (@zbyronwolf) reports: It took the threat of economic collapse and a long, contentious negotiation -- and there will still be votes in Congress before it's truly done -- but lawmakers from both ...
Obama, Boehner Announce Agreement to Raise Debt Ceiling, Avoid <b>...</b><b>News</b> Corp. Names Andrea Zappia CEO of Sky Italia - The Hollywood <b>...</b>
He replaces Tom Mockridge who left the Italian pay TV service last month to become CEO of News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper group News International.
<b>News</b> Corp. Names Andrea Zappia CEO of Sky Italia - The Hollywood <b>...</b>Local <b>News</b> Reporter Shot with BB Gun During Live Segment
Leanne Suter, a reporter for KABC in Los Angeles, was shot in the hand with a BB gun yesterday while doing a segment on weather. We can't find video of the incident itself, but apparently Leanne is such a bad-ass that ...
Local <b>News</b> Reporter Shot with BB Gun During Live Segment
joeyfishface Says:
July 11th, 2011 at 10:02 pm
“Its a sad situation, and it appears that whatever hopes we may have had that the Attorneys General were not like the whores in Congress appear to be starting to fade. (At least NY and California AGs are showing some spine).”
Perhaps the AGs, Feds, Regulators, etc. knew damn well what they would find and can’t risk the fallout of possibly collapsing the market? Given that the Fed has little firepower left, maybe they figure it’s a necessary (albeit ugly) evil?
Or not.
uzer Says:
July 11th, 2011 at 10:10 pm
joeyff, do your powers of rationalization help you sleep?
champs2011 Says:
July 11th, 2011 at 10:54 pm
US 200 year chart history
http://gmbpost.com/investment-news/chart-sheer-marvel-200-year-history-of-us-growth/
Mike in Nola Says:
July 11th, 2011 at 11:09 pm
Why do you phrase the question as if we are not already a banktocracy?
Mark E Hoffer Says:
July 11th, 2011 at 11:24 pm
“Why do you phrase the question as if we are not already a banktocracy?”
Mike in H-town,
Good Q: !
Andy T Says:
July 11th, 2011 at 11:36 pm
“At least NY and California AGs are showing some spine.”
Not really. NY and CA just need the cash more … you just need to put out a little bit of work to strong arm the banks into paying you some money.
Bob is still unemployed Says:
July 11th, 2011 at 11:48 pm
From the quoted article:
Despite failing to marshal a strong case proving misconduct during the foreclosure crisis, the government is seeking to craft a settlement quickly, in the hopes that this will inject greater certainty into the financial system, stabilize home prices and add vigor to a flagging economy.
In my most humble opinion, if you want to inject greater certainty into the financial system, then you appropriately punish those who are responsible for crashing said financial system.
If you let those who have crashed the system off lightly (as this settlement appears to do), then you are sending the signal that the financial system will never be robust and reliable because crooks can easy scam the system and get way with little more than a wrist slap.
Those who swear to protect the financial system need to send the message, “do not mess with the financial system.
This proposed settlement sends the opposite message.
dsawy Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 12:13 am
Why would you think that the AG’s weren’t political whores like those in Congress?
Where do you think AG’s go when they get tired of being AG’s?
Links 7/12/11 « naked capitalism Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 5:32 am
[...] Will the AGs Turn the US into a Banktocracy? Barry Ritholtz (hat tip reader John M) [...]
wisedup Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 5:54 am
hey, wiseup you guys.
You think that anyone with any amount of capital is going to piss off the people who can make or break his future?
The AG’s are somewhat smarter than those who invested in Uncle Bernie, but not by much. They need the reassurance that what money they have can be magically enlarged – without risk if they are good little boys.
barbacoa666 Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 6:52 am
Our current ZIRP is a subsidy to banks. Unless I am mistaken, the SS and Medicare Trust Funds will earn lower rates of return due to ZIRP. So, in order for these trust funds to remain solvent, current and future American retirees must either pay higher taxes, see reductions in their SS checks, or retire later. So, in essence, the working people of America are being charged a back-door tax that is being used to float our zombie banks.
rktbrkr Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 7:10 am
(unemployed Bob)… This proposed settlement sends the opposite message.
Ditto Paulson’s pulpitizing about about “moral hazard” and then the Treasury and Fed proceed to punish predent savers to rescue and reward reckless risk takers.
I’m sure the states AGs are being pressured to be “team players”. CA and NY will be able to squeeze a lot out of them, CA was ground zero for bad behavior. I’m surprised FL,AZ,NV aren’t playing hardball too – grassroots politics overruling big banks lobbyists.
Anthony Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 7:18 am
more importantly, Europe is in meltdown mode.
Italian bonds moved 42bps in a day. That is an enormous move. That also means an enormous drop in the price of Italian bonds (in the range of 3%). Banks holding Italian bonds just saw the value of their assets go down a lot. Who thinks European banks are in such good shape that they can withstand declines in asset values? From an accounting perspective if the assets are categorized as ‘held to maturity’ a bank wouldn’t have to recognize the decline in value but that doesn’t change the reality that the value of their assets dropped.
This quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Market participants know this so they stop transacting with each other. There’s an article in the WSJ about that very point (European banks are pulling back their exposure to each other).
This could get ugly fast.
HEHEHE Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 7:32 am
Government sanctioned fraud is all it was so now lets sweep it all under the carpet.
I have a tiny amount of sympathy for BAC and JPM simply because we don’t know the entire story re their taking over Countrywide and IndyMac – the institutions were the fraud was widespread. Were they really arm lengths deals that were willingly entered into or were the acquisitions forced down their throats ala Merrill and BAC by the Fed and Treasury? Btw what ever happened to Ken Lewis? He’s kind of disappeared ever since he accused Bernanke and Paulson of threatening him.
DC Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 8:03 am
[But Harris announced last week that the special unit will likely lose its investigative abilities, a consequence of a debilitating $71 million budget cut. Her office will lose the ability to follow up on open investigations ranging from foreclosure scams to "multi-million dollar corporate fraud," she said in a statement.
"It's all about their budgets," Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said last week about the state attorneys general and their settlement talks with the banks while rubbing his thumb against his fingers.
...
"We need a full-fledged investigation," said Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, the ranking member on the committee. "There's no substitute for a thorough investigation and finding of fact."]
—
Classic Republicanism from Coburn and Shelby. Just as with the SEC, FCC, FEC, etc., the goal is to starve the enforcers at the federal level and push that responsibility to the states. States of course are out of money and don’t stand a chance of making up the difference.
But these stalwarts of stupidity demand action! Investigation! What a reeking load of bullshit from self-righteous, corporation-owned senators-for-life who long since forgot what it’s like to be an “average American.”
Small Business Depression, Lack of Faith in Federal Government | Raw Finance Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 9:14 am
[...] what some sharp observers, like Barry Ritholtz, are terming a “Banktocracy” (see “Will The AGs Turn The US Into A Banktocracy?” at The Big Picture [...]
lambert Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 9:50 am
Can we avoid the “politicians are whores” trope? It’s insulting to whores. Thank you!
Julia Chestnut Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 10:06 am
Government of the corps, by the corps, for the corps. Now playing at a kabuki theater near you.
DeDude Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 10:08 am
@DC;
You are absolutely right. It is all about not having the resources to do the fight, because the GOPsters behind the door have slashed the budget. It is such an easy scam to get passed the idiots of this idiocracy. Why doesn’t/didn’t the gobinment do X !!! ??? – because you idiots voted for corporate sock puppets who cut the budget such that the gobinment does not have the resources to do X. When things go wrong the GOPsters can always come back and claim we don’t need to change anything because it was all the fault of gobinment (not enforcing current laws). Look at the joke of outrage about illegal immigrants. They had a law banning companies from hiring illegals, and then they had 100 people total in the only agency charged with enforcing that law – how could that go wrong.
Lugnut Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 10:53 am
let me translate the AG position: “We can’t be arsed to actually conduct a proper investigation on something so massive, so how about you guys just give us a whole bunch of money, since we need it; no one goes to jail, and we call it even? Sound like a plan?” Ptui.
I would just loooove to see any one of these so called news networks chasing down some of these AGs down the steps of their office buildings, stick a mic and a camera in there face ala Madoff, and ask why they’re offering payoffs in exchange for criminal prosecutions. Everyone points the fingers at the banks, but if the government offers no checks and balances for criminal behavior, or worse yet, leans towards what amounts to federal bribery for malfeance, whos really the worse actor in this play? The banks? I say the regulators and justice officials, as well as the Congressman who sell out for kleptocratic legislation bear equal top billing.
AHodge Says:
July 12th, 2011 at 10:54 am
a useful deal is possible
which would include punishment for foreclosure fee adding and lying
writing off second mortgages and
serious cramdowns and capital writedowns for banks and big pressure to short sale
but allowing cases where the house is vacant to go forward on inadequate docs
if the AGs want to do penalties and fines that are applied to writedowns and loan forgiveness?
i cant object, though its something the banks should do anyway
however if the AGs get little but a pot of tens of billions of penalties to farm out how they like?
they will be whores that a russian oligarch or chinese party official would have nothin to top
Bracton Says:
July 16th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
@AHodge:
money recovered by a state AG in a situation such as this goes to the state treasury, usually the general fund or a dedicated consumer protection fund. no state legislator or governor would let the state AG hand out the money himself.
@DeDude, @DC:
you hit the nail on the head in terms of resources available to a state AG. any enforcement action or civil litigation started against the banks, etc. would be hugely complicated, time-consuming, and expensive for a state AG’s office. california and new york can take the lead in a case like this because the respective AG offices are large, and there are attorneys in those offices with experience in financial regulation.
Senka Says:
July 26th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
Prosecuting Wall Street investment banks and their “geniuses” is not only a matter of democracy, but more importantly, it is about survival of America that we all love…and the only path for our kids’ future.
How did we become just one big hypnotized mass, even after the truth has been revealed? We’re walking around as if we’re mesmerized, not standing up, not demanding justice, still paying our mortgages to lenders who don’t even legally own them…
MA citizens stood up together on July 18th, demanding answers and justice- http://tinyurl.com/3qsu87x