Thursday, August 25, 2011

pin money

A possible source of occasional income for people who "own" a home is entering into room-sharing or short term rental ventures such as roomorama, airbnb, or wimdu. 

I recently signed up with one of these and almost instantly got three separate bookings. My experience has been very positive. I just jumped in, figuring that if it was out there and thousands of people were doing it, it must be okay.

Maybe, maybe not.

There is a whole lot of tension brewing regarding these informal overnight rentals with some of the "official" innkeeping population.

To put it mildly, they aren't too happy. They want it all to go away, and many are seeking out these listings and ratting out the hosts to local governments for being unlicensed.

Are they afraid of the competition? We aren't offering the same kind of accommodations in most cases, so we're not really in the same market. I don't think the $30 room in someone's house is any competition for what a fancy b and b has to offer on any level. People with jobs and paid vacation time are going to go for something a heck of a lot more upscale than my second bedroom. I think we might be competing with the fleabag $29 motels, and I like the fact that this alternative is out there — from my consumer-point-of-view. 



With the economy like it is, the opportunity to make a little cash is very appealing to people with an extra room in their house. On the flip side, it's appealing to people who don't have money for recreational traveling and need something basic and inexpensive. Taking my teenager to college this past week, I stayed in 3 informal bnbs as well as couch-surfed on my trip — and the alternative would have been sleeping in the car or tent camping in RV parks.

It seem impossible that this is something that could be contained, given the internet and the explosion of the peer-to-peer sharing movement.



In many ways this parallels all the other "open source" stuff that is happening now, where people are providing goods and services without the benefit of being in an umbrella organization, or without "official" sanctioning. In other words, the whole "peer to peer" movement. A lot of this is new and maybe is in a gray area. And local governments all over are trying to figure out how they can own it and tax it.



Of course, folks in my position see no need for regulation. This isn't what we are doing for a living. We aren't professional innkeepers. This might be once a month, or once a season. Is it reasonable to require licensing and inspections and tax reporting (in some jurisdictions this can cost quite a lot) for something that has such a small impact in the local community, economy and personal income? These are truly desperate times — isn't it better to have people earn grocery money and make it possible to pay their bills rather than shutting them down when there are no jobs to be had?

Doesn't our government already regulate the heck out of everything now? I don't mean hotels, where many people are coming and going on a daily basis and food is served and there are employees, but Aunt Jenny's house down the block, where maybe once or twice a month she gets $50 for someone staying the night.

A retail comparison would be ebay, etsy, 1000 Markets, craigslist, yardsellr and the many other internet sales venues. It's pained the government for years that they can't [currently] collect sales tax on individual internet sales and, more importantly, regulate and track these sellers. They would eventually like to have total regulatory control over weekend yard sales.

The whole world of commerce is changing. New ways of flying under the radar are developing all the time, and in my opinion as a libertarian, that's a great thing.

Friday, August 12, 2011

mortgage counseling

In financial trouble? There's a wealth of programs that provide debt management and counseling; it appears to be a growing industry. These companies are staffed by nice, caring people who have very little power to actually help in a lot of cases.

Access to these programs is not hard to get. You can contact them on your own. Your state or local politicians, should you choose to inform them of your plight, can refer you to them, or write a letter to your mortgage holder — this is called Constituent Services, and they love doing it. It's really a last-ditch effort though, and in my experience only makes them feel like they are being useful, without actually being useful.

I don't want my state pols to feel satisfied, because they haven't accomplished anything really useful — and it distracts them from the larger problem — lack of real jobs, caused by their world trade and tax loophole policies. But I do want them to see the face of downhill mobility.

Without the ability of these counseling companies to offer you a meaningful source of income — a job — there really isn't a thing in the world they can offer with the exception of false hope. I've been down that road barefoot about a thousand miles already.

You know what would really help? Lets give the consumer credit folks the power to negotiate with the banksters to lower our mortgage balances to their true un-inflated levels. Their "loans" are not real money — understand how the fiat currency system works and you will understand this. Let's give them the power to find us jobs, even if they have to create them. I'd be happy to sweep streets or pick up litter for a living wage. It wouldn't have to be permanent. How about making the banksters part of the solution by encouraging mortgage forgiveness after a certain level of equity over value is reached?

While I'm on this utopian rant, let's end corporate overseas outsourcing for higher profits. Now. Let's throw the fucking criminal class of banksters and their paid-for politicians who brought us to this place in jail for life. Have I mentioned my anger today? I'm not the only one.

But hey, there's a bright side for me! Once I'm homeless, I'll qualify for even MORE social services, Section 8 housing vouchers, energy assistance, Medicaid, and full-on Welfare. Does this really make any sense as federal policy? Is it really smarter than ending "free" trade agreements, higher tax rates to corporations who don't hire US workers, higher import tariffs, and bringing back real opportunity?

I'd much rather just have a job.

Dubya returns (in spirit, at any rate)

So. I got my "official" foreclosure notice today.

Elsewhere this week—

The White House says Obama will vacation in Martha's Vineyard soon.

How very, very Dubya.

I do so hope he enjoys his vacation. How delightful a little get-away is! In the midst of all these pesky annoyances he really could use a little light fun. I hope he gets a chance to catch up with his buddies like Jamie Dimon and Brian Moynihan.

I personally hope to catch up with Brian for a nice long visit, when I will be camping out on his lawn in North Carolina after I get kicked out of my home. Or Wellesley, MA. Or Boston, or New York, or one of the other places he lives. Heck, with a nice little yearly compensation package of just under 2 million, and a net worth of god-only-knows-what, I'm sure he has a few other place he can call home.




Here's an interesting little tidbit from Forbes:

Bank of America Sold Mortgage Pool
To Fannie Mae
 

08.10.11, 11:50 AM EDT

WSJ says bank agrees to sell 400,000 home loans to government-backed firm.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Bank of America has agreed to sell a portion of its home loan portfolio to Fannie Mae. The Journal said the deal to sell a pool of 400,000 loans to the government-sponsored mortgage holder was finalized last Friday.

The purchase price for the pool of loans, with an unpaid principal balance of $73 billion, is more than $500 million, according to one of the unnamed sources cited in the report.
The paper said the move is part of Bank of America's strategy to sell noncore holdings to rid itself of mortgage problems and preserve capital.


Nice little cash infusion, and I'm sure they need it. We wouldn't like BofA to feel the pain of being low on cash, would we? I know they are having a rough time with that nasty little fraud lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the Emergency Homeowner's Loan Program, AKA, the Totally-Random-Lucky-Duck-Lottery, which will assist a very small percentage of homeowners in foreclosure is now closed. Yes, it was actually a random lottery drawing, with lucky winners receiving up to 2 years of help on forestalling foreclosure. As we know, "too big to fail" only applies to the banksters, not the millions of Americans soon to be homeless.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

payday loans

Our of curiosity and financial desperation, I've done a little research into the "payday loan" industry.

Here's a little fine print for one company, who claims to make loans for much much less!! than typical payday loan companies. Let's explore their generosity:
  • First time XXX XXXX Loans customers typically qualify for an installment loan of $250 to $800 with an APR of 360%, or 40% less than the average 602% APR for a payday loan. For example, a $600 loan from XXX XXX Loans at 359.01% APR would require 12 bi-weekly installment payments of $105.11. After the 12th successful payment, your loan would be paid in full. An average payday loan of $600 with an APR of 602% and a fourteen (14) day term would require one payment of $738.54.
  • Average payday loan pricing is based on Texas-originated loans from CashNet USA (664%), ChecknGo (661%) and MyCashNow (485%) as of February 22, 2011.
Talk about predatory lending — and they are bragging about how nice they are for only ripping people off with 360% interest. Say it again — three hundred and sixty percent interest. That's the good rate.



Anyone who is teaching their children that people are "basically good" is doing them a serious disservice. My parents taught me this. My schools and churches taught me this. As a consequence, I waste a lot of time and emotional energy being shocked when it is proven to be, time and time again, wrong.

People are basically scum.










 Satire! Don't hurt me!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

look back at the original WPA

Anger is growing that the US government has not recreated some version of the WPA to help the millions and millions of unemployed workers — the rapidly growing poverty class. The US is in an economic death spiral due to greed and corruption at the top. The loss of these millions of jobs is directly due to corrupt and ill-advised "free trade" abominations like NAFTA among other travesties of "governing". Maybe if our politicians were not owned by the banksters and corporations things would be different.



The reality is that the wealthy are NOT producers. They don't create jobs. They should not be a protected class. They need to be taxed. Their corporations need to be taxed. They need to bring jobs back to US workers or be taxed into oblivion.

Immoral republication wealth-protectionism will have consequences — just keep cutting those social safety nets, boys. The nouveau-poor are a growing part of the population, have less and less to lose, and they are angry and starting to organize. Business as usual — that day is over.