oja oba !!!

If you read the average newspaper editorial or many of the purported news articles about the US mid-term election, you may get the impression that the US electorate is angry, and that that anger is organic and grass-root in nature, pointed at the current ruling party – but you would have been wrong. Indeed there is anger in the land, but that anger did not originate in the grass-root. It is anger from a political party that could not handle its electoral loss, it is anger from a political elite on the US right that could not imagine being beaten by a team led by a woman and a black man, it is anger by corporate giants who tremble at the thought that their grip on the levers of power just be slipping – but it hasn’t. It is not the populist anger you would come to expect, it is the rage of the connected scared of loosing their perch at the top of the hill. Indeed there is discomfort in the land, but disillusion has set in not because of the discomfort but because of the widespread perce...

If you read the average newspaper editorial or many of the purported news articles about the US mid-term election, you may get the impression that the US electorate is angry, and that that anger is organic and grass-root in nature, pointed at the current ruling party - but you would have been wrong. Indeed there is anger in the land, but that anger did not originate in the grass-root. It is anger from a political party that could not handle its electoral loss, it is anger from a political elite on the US right that could not imagine being beaten by a team led by a woman and a black man, it is anger by corporate giants who tremble at the thought that their grip on the levers of power just be slipping - but it hasn't. It is not the populist anger you would come to expect, it is the rage of the connected scared of loosing their perch at the top of the hill.

China, with a population of 1.3 billion manage to have a relatively tamed polity, even in the face of the massive instrument of chaos, aka the Internet. The US, with just .3 billion people have on display one of the most raucous polity in world as occasioned by cacophonous blabber of political activism, open dissent and expression on the internet. The two nations exemplify the two extremes in governance, political organization and tolerance, economic management and philosophy and accommodation of dissent. But more importantly, the two nations demonstrate the extreems of freedom or the concept of freedom.

This is an interesting article   from The New Yorker. I got the article from a colleague earlier today, and took a cursory look at it. Other than the obvious point about Dick Clarke bloviating again, I continue to reserve my opinion on the article until I have read it all carefully, which I intend to do this weekend.

B ank of American is leading the way out of the nation’s foreclosure freeze after it announced plans to lift its self imposed moratorium on the process on the 23 states where it first imposed them last week.

Bank of American is leading the way out of the nation's foreclosure freeze after it announced plans to lift its self imposed moratorium on the process on the 23 states where it first imposed them last wee

And alas, there are real signs that home prices in Baltimore, City and County, are coming back to earth. The correction in the real estate market – at least in this region, continues briskly as home owners, who had previously held out for more are now shaving, between 30 and 50% off their 2008/2009 assessed home values – and these in many stuck-up neighborhoods. The foreclosure contagion is gradually spreading and is expected to accelerate in 2011 as many of the ARM products sold in 2005/2006 come due with massive price reset – and too many home owners were not able to refinance (again) because their homes have been under water since 2008. So, expect the deluge of homes in the market. One group have managed to hold relatively steady, the new home builders. That market has continued to hold steady to its market peak, or just under the peak prices with no real corrections yet. But expect some of the pressure to come down on any inventory home, and expect builders to start reflecting the...

And alas, there are real signs that home prices in Baltimore, City and County, are coming back to earth. The correction in the real estate market - at least in this region, continues briskly as home owners, who had previously held out for more are now shaving, between 30 and 50% off their 2008/2009 assessed home values - and these in many stuck-up neighborhoods.

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I stumbled on something quite interesting the other day, a community in Baltimore where a builder (Beazer) is selling two similar homes for two different prices, one across the street from the other. Its weird until you hear the builder’s justification – Beazer is trying to be fair to the home buyers! Yes, if you wish to purchase any of the   Beazer home plans at the Park at Mount Washington , you have only one constant – how much mortgage you are willing to pay. The land of the community straddles Baltimore City and Baltimore County. City tax is more than twice County tax. So to be fair, Beazer, since it has houses on both sides will sell a County House at one hundred thousand dollars (25%) more than a City Home. Not because the land costs one hundred thousand dollars more, or because labor or even regulations costs that much or that the cost of borrowing to build on county land costs any more than of borrowing to build on city land. Its just that   Beazer   wants to be...

One natural consequence of a real estate bubble is a massive wave of foreclosure. The US real estate market was bracing for such a wave since as early as 2005 when economists started to ask what will happen after the ARMs and interest only loans begin to come due at a much higher interest,  5 years down the pike. Interestingly, interest rates have since gone down – thanks in part of the financial tsunami unleashed by the first in memory global-real-estate-induced-financial meltdown. But it is not the interest rates that are causing the massive wave, it is joblessness and the continuing decline of real estate price (not value as some commentators and economists will claim) that is forcing some many home back into the market in less than orderly fashion. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. A bigger issue started to unfold a few weeks ago when large mortgage banks, under pressure from state attorney generals and an increasing number of personal law suites started to put “tempor...

The world was jolted by the rumor that Microsoft is in talks to buy Adobe. The problem is such an acquisition has no benefit for Microsoft, its shareholders or its customers. True Adobe competes against Microsoft in a few markets – online rich media engine (flash vs. silverlight), web development tools (dreamweaver vs expressions) and what else? The truth of the matter is neither of these markets are important enough to Microsoft’s strategy either in the business market or the consumer market to make a potential $15 billion dollar investment even remotely valuable to Microsoft investors. Maybe the argument is it will give Microsoft a bigger stick to poke into Apple’s eye (in Apple’s fight against perennial david Adobe), but there are no likely benefits to Microsoft because Adobe has not proven itself adept at delivering true value to customers. So I kept asking myself, as I discovered legions of others where doing – What can goofy Balmer see that the rest of us can’t? Or is this one o...

The world was jolted by the rumor that Microsoft is in talks to buy Adobe. The problem is such an acquisition has no benefit for Microsoft, its shareholders or its customers. True Adobe competes against Microsoft in a few markets - online rich media engine (flash vs. silverlight), web development tools (dreamweaver vs expressions) and what else? The truth of the matter is neither of these markets are important enough to Microsoft's strategy either in the business market or the consumer market to make a potential $15 billion dollar investment even remotely valuable to Microsoft investors. Maybe the argument is it will give Microsoft a bigger stick to poke into Apple's eye (in Apple's fight against perennial david Adobe), but there are no likely benefits to Microsoft because Adobe has not proven itself adept at delivering true value to customers. So I kept asking myself, as I discovered legions of others where doing - What can goofy Balmer see that the rest of us cann't?...

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