Unless you've been living in a cave you should be aware of the current political battle over the debt ceiling. Personally, I see this as nothing more than political theater by the Republican Party, but what is truly worrisome is that some of the Tea Bagger freshman Republicans are more willing to allow this Country to default than to vote to raise the debt ceiling.
If we default, the United States would lose it's primary position as the World's reserve currency. In our current position as the World's reserve currency we have an ability to borrower at astoundingly low interest rates which bleeds into our mortgage rates, credit card rates, car loans, basically any thing that requires borrowed money. It's frustrating that the Tea Bagging Republicans want to sacrifice this amazing gift for political theater. Fucking Ideologues, I can't stand them.
I feel like this is the beginning of the end of the American Century. It was fun while it lasted.
In other related news; I tend to read a lot of Urban Development articles,cities are near and dear to my heart. Recently, I came across an article about Los Angeles on the 'New Geography' website.
New Geography Article
New Geography has a conservative slant on development, they tend to high density and mixed use development as anathema to a development of a city. Ultimately, the thesis of this article is that the mayor's pet projects of the Downtown Stadium, the Subway to the sea are giant wastes of money. New Geography seems to think that the blue print for bringing prosperity back to Los Angeles is by implementing the political policy of the Chamber of Commerce. This article summarizes what was wrong with the development of the city for the last 50 years, what Los Angeles doesn't need is another 50 years of low rise development, we need the subway and additional development downtown for the city to really grow again.
With the expansion of the Panama Canal, the Port of Los Angeles will the ultimate driver of growth. How the port goes as will go the city.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
The wheels are starting to come off the bus..
I'm really not a negative guy, I tend to see the silver lining even when bad shit starts to happen. But there have been some Macro Economic bad news and some person (financial) bad developments that have been concerning me recently. Let's start with some Macro Economics
The god damn debt ceiling needs to be raised. Period. The Democrats and the Republicans need to come to a compromise and raise the debt ceiling. I can not express in words how terrible a National Default would be, some of the awful shit would be 1. the United States losing it's reserve currency status 2. an increase in interest rates that the government would have to borrow at 3. the loss or temporary suspension of payments of Social Security would be crippling to a lot of Seniors. The cost associated with a default would be astronomical, it would be passed on for generations. Both parties need to compromise and work a long term solution, my great fear is that the Republican party would rather default than compromise.
I bought a rental house in Saint Louis last year, my tenant has failed to make his last 3 monthly rent payments. My management company was going to move to an eviction when the tenant told us he would be out by July 6th. Well, my management company went to the house last week and it was occupied by SQUATTERS who threatened them. Instead of calling the police, the management company fled the area.
I took it upon myself to protect my property. It's obvious that the management company is not being proactive. I called the St. Louis Sheriff's department, they did 2 area checks of the property today and found that the property is vacant, but there were blankets in the basement. Tomorrow, first thing I'm calling the management company for them to immediately change the locks. By leaving the property the tenant has forfeited his leasehold estate, I will take every action legally possible to protect my property.
Finally, Sunday in Downtown was beautiful. The weather was perfect so I opened my big loft windows to let in the warm air. I've been keeping them shut in order to avoid the wrath of the downtown mosquitoes. I figured I hadn't been bite by an insect in 3 weeks so the bugs had left the area. I even shut the windows once I went to sleep (thinking I could avoid the bugs that way). Well, I woke up with over 20 mosquito bites on my upper arms. I've turned myself into a mosquito buffet.
The god damn debt ceiling needs to be raised. Period. The Democrats and the Republicans need to come to a compromise and raise the debt ceiling. I can not express in words how terrible a National Default would be, some of the awful shit would be 1. the United States losing it's reserve currency status 2. an increase in interest rates that the government would have to borrow at 3. the loss or temporary suspension of payments of Social Security would be crippling to a lot of Seniors. The cost associated with a default would be astronomical, it would be passed on for generations. Both parties need to compromise and work a long term solution, my great fear is that the Republican party would rather default than compromise.
I bought a rental house in Saint Louis last year, my tenant has failed to make his last 3 monthly rent payments. My management company was going to move to an eviction when the tenant told us he would be out by July 6th. Well, my management company went to the house last week and it was occupied by SQUATTERS who threatened them. Instead of calling the police, the management company fled the area.
I took it upon myself to protect my property. It's obvious that the management company is not being proactive. I called the St. Louis Sheriff's department, they did 2 area checks of the property today and found that the property is vacant, but there were blankets in the basement. Tomorrow, first thing I'm calling the management company for them to immediately change the locks. By leaving the property the tenant has forfeited his leasehold estate, I will take every action legally possible to protect my property.
Finally, Sunday in Downtown was beautiful. The weather was perfect so I opened my big loft windows to let in the warm air. I've been keeping them shut in order to avoid the wrath of the downtown mosquitoes. I figured I hadn't been bite by an insect in 3 weeks so the bugs had left the area. I even shut the windows once I went to sleep (thinking I could avoid the bugs that way). Well, I woke up with over 20 mosquito bites on my upper arms. I've turned myself into a mosquito buffet.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Rededication
I've found that whenever I dedicate myself to do something I must make an extra effort to keep up with it. I've been in the loft for 5 weeks, and I've not completed several of the projects I wanted to get done in the first few weeks. I blame my social life for this failure. People have come over, I had a reunion, I had to go out of town, I had drinking to do! At any rate, I've rededicated myself to continue with the loft project until it's completed.
That means I have to re paint the red wall. Which I will do starting Monday. The problem is that I used a full gallon of paint and the wall came off streaky and splotchy. I never thought painting was that complicated, after all, kids without High School diplomas are part of painting crews. What did I do that was so wrong? In order to fix this situation I will speak with the dudes at the painting desk at Home Depot. I think they would be able to help me fix the wall.
I'm in initial conversations to build a 'built in' book case against the window wall. Once the book case is put in it should look pretty damned good. This thought brings me to a thought I've been having recently: Resale Value.
Built ins are phenomenal for re sale value. Built in furniture which complements the layout of your unit can add a lot of value to the building. In the long run I have a '5 year' plan that I want to execute for this unit. I want to live here for 5 years, build it out over the time I'm here and then rent it out to some young, up and coming hipster. Or, if the market has completely rebounded, I could sell it.
These are the goals, let's see if I can pull it off.
That means I have to re paint the red wall. Which I will do starting Monday. The problem is that I used a full gallon of paint and the wall came off streaky and splotchy. I never thought painting was that complicated, after all, kids without High School diplomas are part of painting crews. What did I do that was so wrong? In order to fix this situation I will speak with the dudes at the painting desk at Home Depot. I think they would be able to help me fix the wall.
I'm in initial conversations to build a 'built in' book case against the window wall. Once the book case is put in it should look pretty damned good. This thought brings me to a thought I've been having recently: Resale Value.
Built ins are phenomenal for re sale value. Built in furniture which complements the layout of your unit can add a lot of value to the building. In the long run I have a '5 year' plan that I want to execute for this unit. I want to live here for 5 years, build it out over the time I'm here and then rent it out to some young, up and coming hipster. Or, if the market has completely rebounded, I could sell it.
These are the goals, let's see if I can pull it off.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
10 Years, Dead and Gone
I had a 10 year High School Reunion over the weekend. To be honest, I had absolutely no desire to go. The reasons for this are intertwined with my growing up in Westlake Village and my family's personal history. I grew up in an affluent suburb of Los Angeles, most of the kids I went to elementary, middle and high school with came from well off families. And, most of their families were still together. My momther divorced my father when I was 4; more unfortunately, my father had terminal brain cancer for the 13 years of my childhood when he was still alive.
Kids are vicious, I was and insecure kid due to the divorce and to make matters worse, some kids would tease me when my father came to pick me up on his bi weekly court mandated visitations. I remember once, I was in 4th or 5th grade and my dad was walking me back to his car after picking me up from school. And due to the cancer, he was unstable and slow on his feet, some of the kids were pretending to kick him from behind as he walked with me through the hallways. It made me so angry, what fucking kid would do such a thing to some other father? They did it my father because he was sick and slow.
I carry these memories with me. They pierce me to my core, they color my life, I can't shake them. I was not excited to be put in a room with the kids (now adults) who did this. However, there were some people going to the reunion who I was anxious to see.
Luckily, there was a bar there. I was anxious to see some old faces and when they showed up we were able to catch up on the old times.
To my surprise, I found myself talking and catching up some of the kids who were responsible for some of my terrible memories from my youth. Now that they were adults, and the angst of teenagehood is over, they were more reasonable to speak with and to know. Maybe, just maybe, I can try forget about all that trouble from my childhood. We are connected by fate and the bonds of time. We were kids and we had to grow up together, whether we liked it or not. The past has to be forgiven.
Kids are vicious, I was and insecure kid due to the divorce and to make matters worse, some kids would tease me when my father came to pick me up on his bi weekly court mandated visitations. I remember once, I was in 4th or 5th grade and my dad was walking me back to his car after picking me up from school. And due to the cancer, he was unstable and slow on his feet, some of the kids were pretending to kick him from behind as he walked with me through the hallways. It made me so angry, what fucking kid would do such a thing to some other father? They did it my father because he was sick and slow.
I carry these memories with me. They pierce me to my core, they color my life, I can't shake them. I was not excited to be put in a room with the kids (now adults) who did this. However, there were some people going to the reunion who I was anxious to see.
Luckily, there was a bar there. I was anxious to see some old faces and when they showed up we were able to catch up on the old times.
To my surprise, I found myself talking and catching up some of the kids who were responsible for some of my terrible memories from my youth. Now that they were adults, and the angst of teenagehood is over, they were more reasonable to speak with and to know. Maybe, just maybe, I can try forget about all that trouble from my childhood. We are connected by fate and the bonds of time. We were kids and we had to grow up together, whether we liked it or not. The past has to be forgiven.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
The Summer of Our Discontent
The Company I work for has faced some major challenges in recent years; the acquisition of Countrywide ended up being one of the worst business decisions any major Bank made in the Subprime crisis. Bank of America has had to pay (by my very rough estimate from media reports) over $30 Billion to settle Representation and Warrant claims with the GSE Investors, the private label securities and the MI companies. Back when Countrywide collapsed I thought Bank of America got a steal by being able to purchase Countrywide's $2 Trillion servicing portfolio, a $15 Billion Corespondent Lending Division, Countrywide's industry leading origination platform and the entire mortgage banking brain trust that had the industry for so long.
When the crisis hit and Countrywide's losses ended up being much larger than Bank of America had ever anticipated, I believe, Bank of America began to sour on the former Countrywide entity. Most of my division's executive management can see Bank of America's intentions to wind down the Correspondent Lending arm of the mortgage business. In the last 3 months Correspondent Lending has lost 5 of the 6 top executives to Penny Mac (a tiny rival start-up mortgage banker, google it if you don't know the company), worse yet Correspondent went from $15 Billion in loan purchases a month to $10 Billion in the last 6 months (the rumor mill is circulating that Corporate wants to reduce Correspondent to $3 Billion in a year's time). It's shocking for a company the size of Bank of America to lose all it's top talent to a tiny start up, it makes the people in the trenches (like me) worried about the direction of our division. Personally, I've lost faith in our management team to continue to build the Corespondent Division, in fact people are worried for their jobs.
As I told my co worker, rats are the first to leave a sinking ship, maybe we should take the hint from our executive management team and jump ship too.
When the crisis hit and Countrywide's losses ended up being much larger than Bank of America had ever anticipated, I believe, Bank of America began to sour on the former Countrywide entity. Most of my division's executive management can see Bank of America's intentions to wind down the Correspondent Lending arm of the mortgage business. In the last 3 months Correspondent Lending has lost 5 of the 6 top executives to Penny Mac (a tiny rival start-up mortgage banker, google it if you don't know the company), worse yet Correspondent went from $15 Billion in loan purchases a month to $10 Billion in the last 6 months (the rumor mill is circulating that Corporate wants to reduce Correspondent to $3 Billion in a year's time). It's shocking for a company the size of Bank of America to lose all it's top talent to a tiny start up, it makes the people in the trenches (like me) worried about the direction of our division. Personally, I've lost faith in our management team to continue to build the Corespondent Division, in fact people are worried for their jobs.
As I told my co worker, rats are the first to leave a sinking ship, maybe we should take the hint from our executive management team and jump ship too.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
The Month That Was.
I write to you today from my new desk. As I sit here an write, I realize that my loft is nearly unrecognizable from when I first moved in. My windows now have full roller blinds that cover the length of the window, I now have full privacy where before I had none.
2 of my walls are now painted. One wall is a cobalt blue and the other is a orange-red. My goal is to paint only in primary colors, so far my goal seems to be in tact.
Unfortunately, the orange-red wall will need to be re-painted, the walls is still streaky as all hell, the work looks half assed. The great irony is that I spent 3 afternoons and a full gallon of paint trying to paint that wall and it still comes out looking like hell. Ugh.
Finally, Closet World came in today and installed the full dresser and desk into my closet. I now have a desk on which I can work, but most importantly, I have a place to watch the remainder of Season 3 of Mad Men. I was worried the day would never come...
It was the 4th of July Holiday this past weekend. I had a friend come into town so I decided to take most of the week off (that was how I was able to get shades and closet installed). I took my guest on a mini tour of LA, we hit Olvera Street, Griffith Observatory, but the highlight of the week had to be a downtown Art Deco walking tour. This was a tour given through the LA Conservatory, I believe there are 5 tours of downtown LA (the historic core, broadway theaters, the art deco tour just to name a few off the top of my head). The tour was lead by a retired Art History Professor at CSUN (not to demean her PHD, but CSUN, really? *scuff*). She was surprisingly informative and lucid. Hands down, the best part of the tour was when we arrived at the Eastern Columbia Building (my favorite building in downtown), she mentioned that she liked how some of the buildings have been converted (and therefore, the Art Deco designs had been saved from destruction). The Eastern Columbia Building just so happens to be a converted building as well, famously, it was the first major successful office to loft conversion in downtown. She mentioned the beauty of the building and symmetry of the portico designs and then spoke this gem (paraphrased) "The exterior is what counts, as long as the exterior shell is kept intact, and maybe, the lobby, then the Art Deco core is preserved. These loft conversions all gut the interior making them all look the same." Friends and family, you just heard it here first! All lofts look the same! I live in a cookie cutter loft per a CSUN PHD.
I love America. I love Abraham Lincoln. The 4th of July holiday is my favorite Holiday of the year by a light year. I had a somewhat large group of close friends over for a roof top BBQ. I cooked some carne, pork, and my patented spicy salmon. The last couple of years I've celebrated the 4th in various spots around LA, 2 years ago I thought I saw an amazing firework show, I was on the Santa Monica pier (SM doesn't have a firework show) however, from the pier you could see 4 shows going off simultaneously (the Palisades, Malibu, Mar Vista and Venice). The roof of my building trumps Santa Monica by miles. From my roof it appeared as if the entire East Side of Los Angeles was exploding in fireworks. There must have been 20 visible firework shows going off all at once, truly, an amazing sight.
Sadly, the pictures don't do the beauty of the fire work shows justice.
It was the 4th of July Holiday this past weekend. I had a friend come into town so I decided to take most of the week off (that was how I was able to get shades and closet installed). I took my guest on a mini tour of LA, we hit Olvera Street, Griffith Observatory, but the highlight of the week had to be a downtown Art Deco walking tour. This was a tour given through the LA Conservatory, I believe there are 5 tours of downtown LA (the historic core, broadway theaters, the art deco tour just to name a few off the top of my head). The tour was lead by a retired Art History Professor at CSUN (not to demean her PHD, but CSUN, really? *scuff*). She was surprisingly informative and lucid. Hands down, the best part of the tour was when we arrived at the Eastern Columbia Building (my favorite building in downtown), she mentioned that she liked how some of the buildings have been converted (and therefore, the Art Deco designs had been saved from destruction). The Eastern Columbia Building just so happens to be a converted building as well, famously, it was the first major successful office to loft conversion in downtown. She mentioned the beauty of the building and symmetry of the portico designs and then spoke this gem (paraphrased) "The exterior is what counts, as long as the exterior shell is kept intact, and maybe, the lobby, then the Art Deco core is preserved. These loft conversions all gut the interior making them all look the same." Friends and family, you just heard it here first! All lofts look the same! I live in a cookie cutter loft per a CSUN PHD.
I love America. I love Abraham Lincoln. The 4th of July holiday is my favorite Holiday of the year by a light year. I had a somewhat large group of close friends over for a roof top BBQ. I cooked some carne, pork, and my patented spicy salmon. The last couple of years I've celebrated the 4th in various spots around LA, 2 years ago I thought I saw an amazing firework show, I was on the Santa Monica pier (SM doesn't have a firework show) however, from the pier you could see 4 shows going off simultaneously (the Palisades, Malibu, Mar Vista and Venice). The roof of my building trumps Santa Monica by miles. From my roof it appeared as if the entire East Side of Los Angeles was exploding in fireworks. There must have been 20 visible firework shows going off all at once, truly, an amazing sight.
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