Sunday, March 8, 2009

Bend: Doomed To Tear Itself To Pieces... Again.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Bend.

I guess I've figured it out: Bend is a town doomed to tear itself apart.

Look at Buster; Here's a Bend Lifer who wants nothing more than The Good Olde Days to return in force. Guns, depression, liquor, downtown vacancies, flatbacking renters. Cowboy Capitalism at its finest.

Just about the polar opposite of today.

Now hbm; Surely there couldn't be someone more Buster's Polar Opposite, right? No.

HBM said:


"What I want to know is why is Bend considered the land of paradise?"

Bend isn't "paradise" and never was. When my family and I moved here in the mid-1980s it was a nice, pretty small town. Now, thanks to 20 years of uncontrolled, poorly planned (or unplanned) growth, it's just a sprawling ugly mess with a shitty climate.

IMHO.

Bend was fine for me at a certain stage in my and my family's life. It isn't anymore. I've changed, my family circumstances have changed (daughter has grown up and moved away), and Bend has changed -- a lot, and mostly not for the better IMO. Why not move on?

How about Dunc? Surely as a downtown business man, he wants things to somehow right themselves and continue his 3 decade upturn?

Laying out the odds

Scenario Three.

Things really crash, dropping 50% or even 60%. Storefronts empty and aren't refilled. People leave town. I start playing cribbage on the sidewalk with my neighbors, waiting for customers. Ironically, after the worst has hit, probably no more vulnerable than the above scenario, because concessions would be forthcoming, one would think. And I would just cut to the bone.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007


A series of
restaurants went into the space the Toomies is now in. Nothing like the haunted look in waiter's eyes, as they stood, tuxedo ed in the window waiting for customers. My neighbor, Jerry from the Sole Shop, and I used to sit out on the sidewalk and play cribbage for hours.

See the common thread? It's that way with everybody.

No one is happy with Bend, because it is never quite what they want. Hell, I got here in '01, and Bend has already become a horrible perversion of what it was then.

Full of Cali-Bangers. Hot & Cold running Hummers. Sprawling STD's going everywhere. Locals gone wild with greed (Breeze, DuBois, Bauhumper, Kuratek, et al). Prices just out of control. Mindless idiotic developments. Rude fucks. Liberal elitist dicks. Fake titties.

And I'm a fairly conservative, Olde School rePug. But even hard-core flaming liberals, like hbm, are fed up with the place. Why?

Full of Cali-Bangers. Hot & Cold running Hummers. Sprawling STD's going everywhere. Locals gone wild with greed (Breeze, DuBois, Bauhumper, Kuratek, et al). Prices just out of control. Mindless idiotic developments. Rude fucks. Liberal elitist dicks. Fake titties. Well, maybe not the liberal elitist dicks.

And Bend's anti-Christ, Buster... what's his fucking beef?

Full of Cali-Bangers. Hot & Cold running Hummers. Sprawling STD's going everywhere. Locals gone wild with greed (Breeze, DuBois, Bauhumper, Kuratek, et al). Prices just out of control. Mindless idiotic developments. Rude fucks. Liberal elitist dicks. Fake titties.

Right? Right.

That's what I see as Bend's main problem: No one will ever be happy with the place.

Papa Bear Buster: TOO HOT (liberal)

Mama Bear hbm: Too cold (conservative) (and too many Busters)

Brother Bear Dunc: Barely supports one store, and yet it always attracts locusts anyway.

No one ever seems to be happy in Bend. When it's growing, it's growing wayyyyyy too fast, at a pace that cannot last, and is doomed to implode at the end

When it implodes, it drives out everyone, and the whole place is economically gutted.

Dunc is a perfect encapsulization of Bend:
  • Buys first store at True Rock Bottom Price.
  • Does surprisingly well. Thinks it is personal genius, not cresting wave of fad.
  • Expands in short order. 4-5 stores
  • Fad implodes.
  • Stores implode.
  • Hanging by fingernails. For 20 years.
This is the nature of capitalism in the USA. And the nature of Oregon is the nature of the USA squared. And the nature of Bend is the nature of Oregon squared.

When the USA catches cold, Oregon gets the flu, and Bend gets the fucking AIDS.

And I can tell you EXACTLY WHY THIS HAPPENS. This is it. Are you ready, because this IS IT:

We never diversify.

Think of the US economy as a portfolio of business, because that is essentially what it is. All are, to some extent, interdependent. With some, the correlation is low, like aircraft & BBQ sauce. With some, the correlation is high, like furniture and housing.

OK, here's a graph of the fundamental nature of bonds vs stocks:
Risk/Return space for stocks, bonds, and riskless T-bills.

You want low risk & high reward, right? That's the upper left of this graph, and the maximum return per unit of risk lies on that brown line. It assumes there is some "optimal" mix of stocks, bonds, gold, and everything else, that lies right where that brown line touches it. What's that brown line? It's where the Ultimate Uncorrelated Asset (T-bills) intersects the Y-axis.

Strangely, you'll note that if T-bill rates go UP, that modern portfolio theory indicates you should buy more stocks. Imagine grabbing that brown line by it's left side & pushing it up... it "rolls up" that curve towards 100% stocks. Conversely, pulling T-bill yields down indicates more bonds should be bought. This is where we are now, extraordinarily low short yields.

I have to say, I spent a fortune on higher education, and this was about all I got out of it.

But maybe it was enough. Because while this graph illustrates that you can ALWAYS do better by buying a mix of stocks & bonds for maximizing your risk-adjusted return, it illustrates this fundamental truth for many assets classes in a huge variety of situations.

It's why there are Swim & Ski shops in town. Hiking shoes & snowboards.

When one is up, the other might be down, and vice versa.

But, by and large, there is a general ebb & flow to the economy as a whole, and everything either is doing OK, or everything is sort of doing crappy.

But the good thing about diversification, is that IF YOU PROPERLY REBALANCE, you can weather almost any storm.

Cuz think about it: What if you buy, say 70% stocks and 30% bonds. In 1933. Well, by about 1966, your stock portion is wildly overweighted. And on that graph above, you'll be off the optimal investment weighting, which is always that straight line that is resting on the risk/reward curve.

You can see on that curve, that the optimal mix is somewhere around 30% stocks, and 70% bonds. And it gets better when you can mix it with T-bills. The ability to buy T-bills, as well as sell them (buy optimal stock/bond mix on margin) is what constitutes this brown line. The brown line is ALWAYS the best investment. ALWAYS.

Same goes with a Swim/Ski store. What if your "Ski" section starts to overwhelm your "Swim" section? What if there is a Big Upswell in skiing for some reason?

Or closer to home: What if your Breakout Comic Section seems to justify opening a new comic store? And another. And another. And another.

What happens when you're "All Comics" (ie stocks, timber or ski's), and no "Games" (ie bonds, tech, or swimsuits)?

Your portfolio becomes unbalanced.

You become too tied to the whim & weft of One Thing. Too many comics, so when comics crash, you crash harder. Especially if you "averaged in". ie: You "bought" 4 stores at the top, borrowing to do so.

Solely Buying Buffett, while sensical from almost any rational backward looking perspective, NEVER makes sense from this perspective.

Diversify OR DIE.

Now, this doesn't mean Start An Aircraft Parts & BBQ Sauce store.

It means start with comics. Add games. Add used books. Add new books. Add things that "add value" to the other things.

So diversify intelligently. But also realize your Inherent Lack of Diversification. Realize you are in Bend. Realize you are selling a very targeted set of goods. Realize your customer base may have a high correlation to some sector of the economy (ie construction).

How to fix? Internet? I don't know. That space is already saturated. Start an "Awe Shucks" blog, and see where it goes? Maybe.

I guess that's my point: Success BREEDS it's own failure. Comics, Dunc's bread & butter, almost begat his collapse. Timber, once Bend's economic mainstay, very nearly put this place in a 20 year depression.

Then we made the jump to Real Estate. Ahhhhhhhh, yes. Surely Real Estate will be our savior. It never Goes Down!

And so it came to pass that RE, via a series of well-designed, planned & executed strategies using local government & media as puppets, has come to completely dominate this little towns economics.

Once again, Bend is a completely unbalanced business portfolio, ripe for a fall. We have almost nothing else to rely on to soften the blow.

This is why, and maybe you'll remember, I've said ad nauseum, that we should have taken our RE lottery winnings and Put Them Somewhere Else. NOT RE.

We should have charges $60K SDC's, and slowly but surely diversified into a number of POORLY CORRELATED investments: A 4 year college, tech, aerospace, medical, I-97 4 lanes, whatever.

Get us the fuck out of RETAIL, RESTAURANTS & REAL ESTATE. OK, we have MORE THAN ENOUGH OF ALL 3.

We have more than enough "life style" bullshit to last us a lifetime.

But no. We doubled down on REd. Just like a lot of my friends doubled down on tech around March 2000. Borrowed to buy, borrowed as much as they possibly could.

Should have taken their early winnings, and bought something Very Poorly Correlated.

"You mean IHTBYB, they should have bought Losers? Cuz they were winning up to that point, and boring stuff like BRK was going down the drain! Why diversify into a Loser?"

Cuz, as Dunc illustrates, as Bend timber illustrates, as Japan RE illustrates, as dot-com-2000 illustrates: It is the nature of things to undo themselves. It is the nature of booms to bust.

Success begets more investment. More investment begets concentration. Concentration begets lack of balance. Lack of balance always fails.

Far worse than a bad investment, is ALL IN as an investment ethos.

When comics perform well, buy more games (or books, or pogs, or...)

When stocks perform too well... buy bonds, NOT MORE STOCKS.

When RE explodes, get tech, a 4 year college, medical, a 4 lane highway... NOT MORE RE.

But that is, in fact, what we've done. From all timber to all RE.

And it's NOT that RE is itself inherently bad, it's the timing. We went ALL IN so late in the game, we're DOOMED.

"ALL IN" as an investment theme has a 100% FAILURE RATE.

Dunc went ALL IN on comics late in the game. But really, that's the nature of the game. ALL IN AT THE END is almost ubiquitous, whereas ALL IN AT THE START is essentially unheard of.

How many failed comic stores did you say there were Dunc? Something like 80-90% have failed in the past 20 years?

It's not so much a bad Industry, as it was Bad Portfolio Management. ALL IN AT THE END. Again, ALL IN has a 100% FAILURE RATE.

So Dunc went ALL IN AT THE END 20 years ago in comics, just as Bend went ALL IN AT THE END 2 years ago in RE. Expect similar results.

Where are we now? Funny, but we are exactly where all my friends were about 90 days after the NASDAQ bubble topped. They'd mindlessly bought some Swedish telecom something for $220/sh, watched it literally go to $280/sh overnight, but then mysteriously fall to a harrowing $125/sh.

They were shaken, but Very Hopeful. Very HOPEFUL. VERY, VERY HOPEFUL.

"It's going to bounce back. I know it. It'll be back at $300/sh before you know it."

And this keeps up, as it seesaws its way to $2/sh, where it flatlines for a decade.

That's where we are. Very hopefully sitting on something at $125/sh that we averaged in at $220/sh. It'll NEVER get there again, but we don't know that. We're HOPEFUL.

So it is too late to change things. RE runs the show via City Council & COBA, COAR, and God knows what other acronyms. It's not like we can call a stock broker & bailout. It took us years (decades) to get here, it'll take decades to get out.

So what should we do, once this thing has played out, and The Hope Is Gone (15-20 years) sufficiently that people in unison shriek "NEVER AGAIN!"?

Easy, diversify. Start building a Real Economy With Real People And Real Businesses. Does it mean BEM's "5 Things Bendites Should Do Now"?

Yes, that's a start. But it should be diversification within some rational bounds.

Realize that untrammeled growth into natural areas is shooting the Golden Goose. I don't see eye to eye with hbm on a variety of topics, but even I understand that mindless growth into places like the Metolius is pathological.

Realize that people come here to LEAVE THE URBANE. They are trying to ESCAPE. Making this place more like your favorite Frisco hood is just idiotic.

I guess there should be some rational guidelines, and hope that minds greater than mine can figure out what that means, and implement it. I can only say it IS NOT BEING DONE NOW.

But the primary objective should be to DIVERSIFY our economy to the extent that is achievable. Not only is this NOT BEING DONE NOW, all measure of force, time, money and effort is going into EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE.

Our local government is 100% made up of RE stool pigeons. Bought & paid for for 5 cents on the dollar. Doing all in their power to keep the gears of RE grinding along. Wiping out SDC's, building "affordable housing" and God knows what else.

This is why I said there is "nothing to be done" to save Bend. It is owned. And it'll be owned until the local RE interests are 100% wiped out. And that'll take decades.

Then, AND ONLY THEN, will Bend be ready for a rebirth. people will have had it with RE, even RE, and they will start to rebuild. When they do, unlike after the timber bust, they should NOT let one industry come to completely dominate this town. If they do, it'll simply happen again.

Diversify. It's the only free ride out there. And it is the key to Bend's future.

Geez! 9:00AM! Geez, this time change stuff is death. Time to look for the boobies....
I diversified into both jugs!

285 comments:

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Bewert said...

A little justice prevails:

Madoff Goes to Jail After Guilty Pleas to All Charges

The disgraced financier Bernard L. Madoff was immediately handcuffed and led off to jail on Thursday after a hearing in which he pleaded guilty to running a vast Ponzi scheme that bilked investors out of billions of dollars.

Rather than letting Mr. Madoff remain free on bail and return to his apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, Judge Denny Chin of Federal District Court ordered Mr. Madoff remanded as he awaited sentencing.

“He has incentive to flee, he has the means to flee, and thus he presents the risk of flight,” Judge Chin said. “Bail is revoked.”

Some of the dozens of Mr. Madoff’s victims in the downtown Manhattan courtroom began to applaud the ruling but were cautioned by Judge Chin to remain silent. As Mr. Madoff’s hands were cuffed behind his back, some victims pointed and nodded with apparent satisfaction.

And as he was led out of the richly paneled courtroom into an antiseptic white-tiled hallway, at least two of his victims were in tears.

“They are tears of relief,” explained Norma Hill of Armonk, N.Y., who sat in the first row of the packed courtroom. “It was a very courageous stand that the judge took. It has restored my faith in the justice system.”

Behind her, Adriane Biondo of Los Angeles wept with anger. “I’m angry,” she said, explaining that her family’s devastating losses have left elderly relatives “sick with fear.” She added, “It’s emotional — 120 cumulative years of hard work is gone.”

The 11 counts of fraud, money laundering, perjury and theft to which Mr. Madoff pleaded guilty carry maximum terms totaling 150 years. Sentencing was scheduled for June 16.

Dressed in a charcoal-gray suit and medium gray tie, Mr. Madoff, 70, followed his legal team into a courtroom packed with journalists, lawyers and some of his victims.

Mr. Madoff stood, was sworn in and reminded that he was under oath. Noting that he had waived indictment, Judge Chin asked, “How do you now plead, guilty or not guilty?”

“Guilty,” Mr. Madoff responded.

With his lawyer, Ira Lee Sorkin, standing to his right, Mr. Madoff began to answer questions from Judge Chin about whether he understood the ramifications of his guilty plea, whether he was satisfied with his legal representation and whether he was competent to enter the plea.

At first, Mr. Madoff’s voice was barely audible as he answered the judge’s questions.

“Try to keep your voice up so that I can hear you, please,” Judge Chin said. At one point, Mr. Madoff asked for water, sipping from a bottle that one of his lawyers handed him.

In recounting how he began the fraud, whose collapse erased as much as $65 billion that his customers thought they had in their accounts, Mr. Madoff said: “I believed it would end shortly and I would be able to extricate myself and my clients from the scheme. However, this proved difficult, and ultimately impossible.”

He continued, stumbling slightly over the word order in his prepared remarks, “As the years went by I realized this day, and my arrest, would inevitably come.”

Mr. Madoff acknowledged that he had “deeply hurt many, many people, including the members of my family, my closest friends, business associates and the thousands of clients who gave me their money,” adding, “I cannot adequately express how sorry I am for what I have done.”

Although Mr. Madoff admitted to operating what he called “a Ponzi scheme through the investment advisory side of my business,” he insisted that the other businesses that his stock-trading firm conducted, managed by his brother and his sons, “were legitimate, profitable and successful in all respects.”

Mr. Madoff’s fraud was a global scheme that ensnared hedge funds, nonprofit groups and celebrities and decimated the life savings of thousands of people.

Some of them came to court on Thursday to speak during the 75-minute court hearing.

One was Maureen Ebel, who said: “If we go to trial, we have more of a chance to comprehend the global scope of this horrendous crime. We can hear and bear witness to the pain that Mr. Madoff has inflicted on the young, the old and the infirm.”

Judge Chin asked Marc O. Litt, the federal prosecutor handling the case, to address her concerns. He said only that the government was continuing its investigation and was looking for assets and anyone else who might be criminally responsible.

It remains unclear where the billions of dollars lost by the victims have gone, and whether those victims will ever see any meaningful restitution. Prosecutors have said the government is seeking $170 billion in forfeited assets from Mr. Madoff, apparently representing all the money that ran through Madoff accounts traceable to the crimes.

A court-appointed trustee liquidating Mr. Madoff’s business has so far been able to identify only about $1 billion in assets to satisfy claims.

This week, the government said Mr. Madoff had 4,800 client accounts at the end of November, supposedly containing $64.8 billion in customer savings. But the government said Mr. Madoff’s business “held only a small fraction of that balance.”

As Mr. Madoff arrived at the courthouse early Thursday morning, helicopters buzzed overhead and television news trucks lined the street. The day’s events were a milestone in the story of a man whose name has become shorthand for an entire era of greed and deceit on Wall Street.

With the promise of steady, unwavering returns, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities enticed thousands of investors, including boldface names like Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and the Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, and a charity run by the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel.

This week, the government offered more details on how Mr. Madoff ran the fraud that had financed his beachfront mansion in the Hamptons, an estate near the French Riviera and yachts in New York, Florida and the Mediterranean.

Prosecutors said that Mr. Madoff concocted an elaborate charade to make it seem as if he were running a legitimate investment business when, in reality, “no such business was actually being conducted.”

He hired employees with little training or experience and directed them to generate false monthly account statements.

He shuttled millions between banks in New York and London to make it seem as if he was “conducting securities transactions in Europe on behalf of investors when, in fact, he was not conducting such transactions,” prosecutors said. And they said he repeatedly lied to regulators from the Securities and Exchange Commission to cover up his scheme.

###

An amazing story, the whole mess of shenanigans.

Anonymous said...

That is true. Jesse does a good job of "interpreting technical" movements of the market. Which means he can think.
-bp

*

So bruce, are you telling that when you palm-reader is reading your palm that they're thinking?

Or when they read tea leaves do you think they're 'thinking'.

Excuuuuuuse me Bruce, but some us would say they're 'bullshitting'.

Is 'bullshitting' a cognizant activity?? Is 'deep bullshitter' the same as a 'deep thinker'??

I'm sure mr-tea-leaf-reader writes well, and dresses well, and drives a nice car, and lives in a nice home, and is a nice member of the Bend GOB's, ... everything is nice.

But 'thinker' come on BP,

Anonymous said...

hbm said...
The Dow has crept above 7,000 again. Is this a rally ... or just another dead cat bounce? Thoughts?

Dead Cat bounce to near 9000 then 4000, care to play shorts or longs?

I'm out forever. Except one I forgot to sell, will do that at 8500. The koolaiders will be drinking their swill and then drown in it.

Anonymous said...

BP,

Your story was one of first reported, but later in the day made-off's attorney said that he could get his client out while awaiting June sentencing, its quite common after the guilty plea to spend the first weekend in federal-prison.

The next step after june is to argue that the prostrate cancer could be a death sentence because of the poor medical care he would get.

There are lots of angles going on, ...

Good theatrics of Judge Chin to toss his ass in jail, in front of the media, as many US citizens have long wanted him to go to jail, but for how long??

Also 'smart people' are asking why they didn't put more pressure on the low-lifes to force MADE-OFF to work with them, in the MOB nobody starts at the top, this is a RICO case, and they're all made by getting the lower people to RAT, in this case the GOVERNMENT seems to be ensuring that nobody will go to jail, and that the money will never be found, and that Made-Off's wife keeps all the 100's of millions she found.

One of the MOST rotten examples of US prosecution in history.

If you really care about this issue BP, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has a 'tracking' web site that tells where all people in the Federal prison system are at, so if you watch this site, you can see when they release made-off, and in all likelihood the media will be silent.

Anonymous said...

Bewert said...
Re: BULL ad

See bendgazette.com

There is apparently on copy in existence, which was shown to me by Sean Tate, ad manager at the Bill. He was kind enough to make me a copy, but informed me he could not discuss anything to do with the ad, especially any payment for it.


Ok, ok, I've followed all the trails, and X marks the spot. But I still haven't either seen the ad, or had anyone tell me what's in it. So...?

Quimby said...

>> The problem we have right now is that the balance sheet has been rigged. Lots of liabilities are not even on the balance sheet. So how the fuck can you credibly value something?

Exactly Bruce, it's a fucking con game. You can't trust what the print. Why do you even want to play when the game is rigged in the first place. Cash is king...always.

I used to trade technicals because I didn't trust the balance sheets....but that's also a losing game w/ market makers playing games all day long. No I don't play at all. I invest in myself and my biz like Buster says. Good advice. I'll let people buy stock in MY company.

Quimby said...

>> Also 'smart people' are asking why they didn't put more pressure on the low-lifes to force MADE-OFF to work with them

This Madoff thing is a damn joke. He's nothing but the fall guy for a massive orchestrated fraud.

Bewert said...

Re: If you really care about this issue BP, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has a 'tracking' web site that tells where all people in the Federal prison system are at, so if you watch this site, you can see when they release made-off, and in all likelihood the media will be silent.

###

I don't really care, but that is interesting.

Bewert said...

Re: You can't trust what the print.

###

Quim, that's the biggest loss. Our financial institutions, and even all of our public companies, credibility.

I don't see that coming back anytime soon. And it's going to fuck us in the ass going forward.

One of the last nails in the coffin.

Bewert said...

This is fascinating:

Google Co-Founder Backs Vast Parkinson’s Study


Sergey Brin, the billionaire co-founder of Google, says he plans to contribute money and his DNA to a large study intended to reveal the genetic underpinnings of Parkinson’s disease.

The study, to be announced Thursday, will be conducted by 23andMe, a company co-founded and co-managed by Mr. Brin’s wife, Anne Wojcicki. The company offers a personal genomics service, in which it scans the DNA submitted by its customers and provides information on their health risks, ancestry and other traits.

Now it hopes to use its service and its growing database of consumer DNA to conduct medical research. The company hopes to recruit 10,000 people with Parkinson’s disease for the study.

Mr. Brin, 35, revealed last September that he had a genetic mutation that sharply raised his risk for developing Parkinson’s. His mother, Eugenia Brin, already has the disease.

“I kind of give myself 50-50 odds of getting Parkinson’s in 20 or so years, 25 years,” Mr. Brin said in an interview. “But I also give it a 50-50 shot of medicine catching up to be able to deal with it.”

###

More at the link. Along with Obama's repudiation of the ban federal funding for stem cell research, good stuff this week.

Now if we could just get a public option, i.e. Medicare for everyone who wants it, for health insurance, we would see some real change. Unfortunately their is a real pushback against that. Seems the insurance companies are scared of competing with the government.

Imagine that.

tim said...

>>But like Black-Scholes, tech charting is a con game in the long run.

Black-Scholes isn't a con game. It simply tells you how the market has been valuing things recently (since one of the inputs is recent volatility). And empirical models have been substituted (at least with serious traders) for a normal distribution for ages, to accommodate real-life fat tails.

Now, I'd agree with you if you said that misapplication of Black-Scholes is a con game. Is that what you meant?

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Who was it that said "Never steal anything small"?

Buster's Vasectomy Doctor.

Bewert said...

Re: Is that what you meant?

###

That, and the lack of valuation of systemic risk.

Bewert said...

Although I'm sure some quants tried to model systemic risk, they didn't imagine a total meltdown. Like is occurring now.

We are completely fucked, unless we just force congress to write a law a simply absolve parties in CDS contracts and live with the consequences. And that is never going to happen.

Too big to fail.

What a fucking concept.

Especially since they all gambled with our money. Meaning the people that bought their stock. Whether through managed 401K's or directly.

Bewert said...

Re: But I still haven't either seen the ad, or had anyone tell me what's in it. So...?

###

No one has. I'll try to get around to scanning it, but am on a deadline right now. Unfortunately, my copy is B&W, not the color version of the original.

Besides, I'm starting to come to the conclusion that Bend is simply fucked. With Marge's numbers, I'll ask how building more on top of the 600+ empty homes for sale will fix our economy at that Work Session. But I doubt anything will change anytime soon.

It's like the only thing the movers and shakers in this town actually know how to do is pour concrete and pound nails.

It's really fucking depressing.

Anonymous said...

The 'ad' isn't the issue, like the PUSSY said the issue is "WHO" paid for the ad, and how, and why did IVERSON&HIGH lie about the ad in the first place? or make the SOS filing mistake?

Anonymous said...

Quim, that's the biggest loss. Our financial institutions, and even all of our public companies, credibility.

*

Excuse me BP, even in the early 1940's there was a famous book called "where are the customers yachts".

I think QUIM hit the nail on the head or maybe it was APU, but essentially made-off is a complete fucking dance for public consumption.

Like the MAESTRO said when the made-off scandal went public back in the fall, "IF made-off was a ponzi, then all of the USA is a ponzi".

HELL FUCKING YES!!

That's the whole fucking POINT. BUFFET brk.a is a PONZI, and the USA government is the biggest ponzi of them all.

APU, you mis-read what I wrote. I said that 'chart-reading' MOFU's were non-scientific assholes, and that black-scholes was the real-thing based on 'science', .e.g. probablity and statistics. I just mentioned that cuz BP is always talking about his high school BS project.


Quim, anyways, the PUSSY is wrong, the system has always BEEN fucked, its just that every once in awhile the hair-lips figure out their getting reamed, like during the 1930's, and like today.

MADE-OFF survived for 40+ years because of GREED. If people weren't greedy assholes MADE-OFF would have collapsed years ago, that's why even the $60k/yr plumber has his made-off.

Anonymous said...

>>But like Black-Scholes, tech charting is a con game in the long run.


*

I didn't write that I only mention 'black-scholes' for the pussy's sake since he's always talking about BS in his early high-school college days, and I too played with that shit on computers in the 1950's, as I used to play with options, but I quit playing the stock market in the 1960's when I realized the game was rigged.

My point was that 'charting' or 'chartists' like what JESSE does is voodoo bullshit.

I don't feel that 'technical analysis' is BS, I would call that scientific-analysis.

There days there are many people doing econo-physics, and that is a different matter.

But the king of shit that JESSE does, like draw slopes on highs and lows, and say that two lows means a high, and that the third low on a full moon means a high on the next lunar tide, that's what I call BULLSHIT.

Well too be HONEST its all a con-game. Hell fundamentalism, valuation, technical, charting (jesse), they got something for every village idiot, but like the book said "WHERE ARE THE CUSTOMERS YACHTS"?????

NONE of this shit is NEW, Fourier was doing mathematical analysis of signals back in the 1800's, so we had our technical. Modern 'charting' is just like astrology, and 'fundamental's is a nice word for reading the 'books'.

Of course 'value' is another school, but all this shit is based on information, and of course the name of the game is to FEED all the clients SHIT.

In the computer biz we call it garbage-in, garbage-out, all the fundamentals&valuation data we're FED is BULLSHIT, cuz all the REAL DEBT is off books.

Just like MADE-OFF, the US GOVERNMENT say the IRAQ war it was all OFF BUDGET. Who is to say what the fucking US debt is, given that so much is 'off budget'.

Same for the fucking stock market.

Yes, charting is bullshit, and 'technical analysis' really doesn't tell you anything about tomorrow, and that is what counts. Then there is 'fundamentals' the fundamentals today are TOAST.

Then there is 'vaule' the Ben Graham school, where is the VALUE, given today that ALL companys are MORE IN DEBT than their worth????

Today we have a negative NET-WORTH, how in the fuck do you calc the value of a company based on 'negative net worth'??? You MUST assume that the company is worth ZERO.

I don't think that black-scholes is a con-game, its how its SOLD. Are you using it to find 'bargains'?? That is good. Are you using it to justify selling SHIT to idiots?? That is bad.

Still nobody has addressed the issue.

If some fucking chartist spends his days drawing little lines on stock charts and saying that tomorrow will be higher cuz we had two lows, followed by a lunar tide, with a red-moon is that thinking??

Anonymous said...

It's like the only thing the movers and shakers in this town actually know how to do is pour concrete and pound nails.

*

From 2002 -> 2006 a lot of cocaine and wine were consumed, its not all nails and mud pussy.

Anonymous said...

S&P is a WHORE. Fitch is fair. Moody's is trying fucking hard to make up for its kiss-ass past during MTG-DOT-CON.

Today Fitch down-graded BRK.A to SHIT!!

About time ...

Berkshire, GE Lose Top Credit Ratings
Downgrades Reflect Impact of Recession

By Binyamin Appelbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 13, 2009; Page D01

General Electric and Berkshire Hathaway yesterday lost their places on a prized short list of the healthiest corporations.

The ratings agency Standard & Poor's, which evaluates the safety of lending money, said that General Electric no longer numbered among the companies most likely to repay its debts. GE was downgraded one notch from the highest S&P rating, AAA, which could force it to pay higher interest rates to investors.

Fitch, a smaller agency whose ratings are used by fewer investors, removed Berkshire Hathaway from its highest category.

Both agencies said the downgrades reflected the impact of the global recession. GE and Berkshire are sprawling conglomerates with diverse holdings, but their profits in recent years came heavily from selling financial services. GE is among the world's largest lenders; Berkshire, among the largest insurers. The crisis in the financial industry has shaken both companies from longstanding records of consistent and massive profitability. The downgrades both reflect and exacerbate those difficulties.

S&P said that GE's other businesses remain strong, but it was concerned about rising losses at the financial unit, GE Capital, which finances aircraft and industrial equipment, provides banking services to corporations and offers consumer loans including credit cards and mortgages.

GE Capital made much of its money by trading on the reputation of its parent company, which allowed the unit to borrow at low cost. Now its losses will cost GE that rating, which it had held since 1956, further straining GE Capital's ability to make money.

GE said in a statement that it did not expect the downgrade to have a significant impact on its operations or its funding model.

"While no one likes a downgrade, this review and rating reaffirm the relative strength of the company," chief executive Jeffrey R. Immelt said.

Some financial analysts had predicted a larger downgrade, and GE's share price rose 13 percent after the S&P announcement, closing at $9.57.

Moody's, the other major ratings firm, has said that it is reviewing its own Aaa rating for GE, which dates back to 1967.

Berkshire Hathaway retains the highest rating from both S&P and Moody's, but the downgrade by Fitch -- which often acts faster than its larger rivals -- reflects the mounting pressure on the company. Like GE, Berkshire's profits depend heavily on its reputation, which reassures its insurance customers and allows it to borrow money at low cost.

But Berkshire has bet billions of dollars through derivative contracts tied to the performance of stock markets and financial instruments, and Fitch said that it couldn't regard a company so heavily engaged in financial services as among the safest borrowers.

Fitch also noted the risk of the company's dependence on its chief executive, Warren Buffett, who is also a director of The Washington Post Co.

Following GE's downgrade by S&P, only four companies other than Berkshire retain the highest ratings from Moody's and S&P: American Data Processing, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon Mobil and Toyota.

Anonymous said...

Following GE's downgrade by S&P, only four companies other than Berkshire retain the highest ratings from Moody's and S&P: American Data Processing, Johnson & Johnson, Exxon Mobil and Toyota.

##

So there you go, ADP, JJ,EXX, & Toyota.

Who would have guessed?

So there you go Dunc, if you must BUY fucking stock, there is at least a few 'safe' shit-holes on Wall-St.

Anonymous said...

But like Black-Scholes, tech charting is a con game in the long run. It always comes back to fundamentals. The balance sheet is more important than the P/L.
- bp

###

I think BP is sort of correct, I mean in the 'long term', given that EVERYONE on the street is applying the same algorithm, it really doesn't mean much, it basically comes back to 'make the bet'.

Originally BS was secret shit, you tried to find value, but these days everybody is doing 'signal processing' is its rather mute.

'Tech Charting' again, isn't science, and its NOT math, its just widgi-board bullshit.

Yes, 'fundamentals' are great, but given that EVERYONE is a fucking MUSHROOM, .e.g. kept in the dark and fed shit, ... its virtually impossible for anyone to do a 'fundamental analysis', again given that everyone is using the same hand-fed shit from the SEC filings, which have been de-regulated to shit in the recent 30 years, ... Fundamentals are now bullshit.

The real issue is 'confidence', small wonder that all police departments call small time crooks 'confidence scam's, in order to ROB someone you MUST have their confidence. Well Wall-St has now lost the confidence of the USA main-street hairlip, and if history is any indicator it takes a generation to get that confidence back, and then you do it again, you rob them again.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

Classic Olde Bend Returns: Minimum Wage Jobs For Everyone!

Customer support center has 350 job openings
Bend office looking for more workers after getting Apple contract

By Kimberly Bowker / The Bulletin
Published: March 13. 2009 4:00AM PST

TRG Customer Solutions put out a big call for workers on Thursday: It needs to hire more than 350 people.

That’s how many jobs are being added to the Apple Inc. product and technical support program at the Bend operations center, formerly known as iSky.

TRG received the contract with Apple last summer and launched a pilot program in October, according to Paul Clough, executive vice president for marketing and sales support of TRG.

The next phase of the contract includes more support staff at the Bend location, based on a sufficient number of qualified people in the area.

“It’s really based on two factors,” Clough said. “One, the expected availability of the people who could do the work; and two, the performance that we have had to date.”

The job boost comes amid soaring unemployment in Central Oregon. Deschutes County’s jobless rate reached 12 percent in January, according to the Oregon Employment Department. Jefferson and Crook counties posted 12.9 percent and 14.9 percent unemployment, respectively.

“It certainly is very good news,” Jan Swander, work force analyst with WorkSource Bend, said about the new jobs.

“We have about 100 job listings right now in the Bend office. Many times you see one or two openings, up to 10, but when you have an employer calling that has 350, that is very encouraging for the region to hear.”

There are many qualified workers in Central Oregon who are idle and ready to work, Swander said.

The jobs come at a good time for those who can fill the positions, said Roger Lee, executive director of Economic Development for Central Oregon.

And for TRG, “They have a great talent pool (from) which to draw, based on unemployment rates and general economic conditions,” he added.

“We are in a cycle, and we will eventually turn around,” Lee said, “but I think it’s another example of how there are companies growing in the economy in spite of the bad news.”

TRG currently employs about 300 people in Bend, said Pat Barkley, Bend site director. Approximately 75 of those serve in the Apple support program.

“I’m expecting the response to be absolutely positive,” Barkley said. “We are already seeing people come in to fill out applications.”

The majority of positions for which TRG is accepting applications entail answering support calls from Apple customers. Starting pay will begin at $10 per hour, and employees will have an opportunity to earn up to $11.50 per hour if they meet performance targets.

TRG also looks to fill supervisory, training and quality management positions.

A three-week paid training program is required for all people hired.

Apple could not be reached for comment.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

There are many qualified workers in Central Oregon who are idle and ready to work, Swander said.

The jobs come at a good time for those who can fill the positions, said Roger Lee, executive director of Economic Development for Central Oregon.


These two normally ebullient cheerleaders know full well that iSky jobs are rock bottom, meth-mama positions, one step below Taco Bell sweathog.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

The jobs come at a good time for those who can fill the positions, said Roger Lee, executive director of Economic Development for Central Oregon.

And for TRG, “They have a great talent pool (from) which to draw, based on unemployment rates and general economic conditions,” he added.


Translation: Ordinarily NO ONE would take these shit jobs... but we all know Bend is reverting to it's roots: Meth, robbery, and shit jobs under explotation based employers. So there's a lot of people who are 100% fucked, who have no other choice but to take these crap jobs at wages that are a country mile below the poverty line.

Listen to Lee's tone. He knows these jobs are 100% CRAP.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

You can tell Lee is trying to put a Happy Face on a situation he finds mortifying.

See, Bend was going to be this HIGH TECH, HIGH PAY HAVEN, under Lee's (et al) vision.

But Bend is reverting to it's roots, and the only thing Bend can provide in ABUNDANCE is SHIT JOBS AT LOW PAY.

ISky was built on this premise. Then it started to shrink, due to prosperity. No one would work there. Now that we're back in the shit economically, iSky can actually bid jobs that nowhere else could fill. 15% is a big draw for explotation-based employers.

I find it hilariously ironic that iSky is bulking up again. I guess we'll see if it can survive post-Bubble. These are jobs that few were willing to take wayyyy back when homes prices were STILL far below where they are now.

Bewert said...

Re: Black-Scholes and cons

###

What I'm trying to say is more along the lines that B-S does not price in something that no one knows, like how much of the off-balance sheet "assets" are actually any good. I know it tries to, but it simply can't. If the actual situation falls outside the realm of potential possibilities as seen by virtually all traders, that catastrophic risk isn't priced in.

It this lack of knowledge, a lack of regulation at its most basic, that leads to the black swan events that end up with equity prices like we are seeing right now with Citi, Fannie, Freddie, etc.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

What I'm trying to say is more along the lines that B-S does not price in something that no one knows, like how much of the off-balance sheet "assets" are actually any good. I know it tries to, but it simply can't. If the actual situation falls outside the realm of potential possibilities as seen by virtually all traders, that catastrophic risk isn't priced in.

Black-Scholes is just a straight up statistical model, and after correcting for in/out of the money & variance (which are 'givens'), it's basic premise is that distributions of returns vary with the square root of time to expiration.

That's why I'd only do time spreads in options.

IHateToBurstYourBubble said...

B-S does not price in something that no one knows, like how much of the off-balance sheet "assets" are actually any good. I know it tries to...

No, it doesn't. All that 'real World' shit is ignored, and is assumed to be 'baked in' to variance. BS has nothing to do with balance sheets, income, or anything else like that, and doesn't try.

Bewert said...

Re: B-S

###

It implicitly tries to by reading the tea leaves of known pricing, believing that such pricing is a result of all those real world factors and only an ascertainable amount of variance is possible.

Which is also it's achilles.

Bewert said...

Interesting article from Roubini:

Bernie Madoff is the Mirror of a Made-Off Ponzi Economy

A reporter contacted me today with the following question:

“I am a reporter and I am doing a story on Bernard Madoff's life after pleading guilty. As part of this I was wondering if you could comment on what significance he will have in the history of this period. Will he represent more than a scamster who stole a lot of money from a lot of people? As Bernie Ebbers and Ken Lay came to embody corporate greed and deceit, what will Madoff symbolize? I would really appreciate your insights on this”.

Here is my answer fleshed out in full:

Americans lived in a Made-off and Ponzi bubble economy for a decade or even longer. Madoff is the mirror of the American economy and of its overleveraged agents: a house of cards of leverage over leverage by households, financial firms and corporations that has now gone bust.

When you put zero down on your home and you thus have no equity in your home your leverage is literally infinite and you are playing a Ponzi game.

And the bank that lent you with zero down, a NINJA (no income, no jobs and assets) liar loan that was interest only for a while with negative amortization and an initial teaser rate was also playing a Ponzi game.

And private equity firms that did over a $1 trillion of LBOs in the last few years with debt to earnings ratio of 10 or above were also Ponzi firms playing a Ponzi game.

A government that will issue trillions of dollars of new debt to pay for this severe recession and to socialize private losses may risk to become a Ponzi government if – in the medium term – does not return to fiscal discipline and debt sustainability.

A country that has - for over 25 years - spent more than income and thus run an endless string of current account deficit and has thus become the largest net foreign debtor in the world (with net foreign liabilities that are likely to be over $3 trillion by the end of this year) is also a Ponzi country that may eventually default on its foreign debt if it does not – over time – tighten its belt and start running smaller current account deficits and actual trade surpluses.

Whenever you persistently consume more than your income year after year (a household with negative savings, a government with budget deficit, a firm or financial institution with persistent losses, a country with a current account deficit) you are playing a Ponzi game; in the jargon of formal economics you are not satisfying your long run intertemporal budget constraint as you borrow to finance the interest rate on your previous debt and you are thus following an unsustainable debt dynamics (discounted value of your debt growing without limit in NPV terms as the debt grows faster than the interest rate on it) that eventually leads to outright insolvency.

According to Minsky and according to economic theory Ponzi agents (households, firms, banks) are those who need to borrow more to repay both principal and interest on their previous debt; i.e. Minsky’s “Ponzi borrowers” cannot service neither interest or principal payments on their debts. They are called “Ponzi borrowers” as they need persistently increasing prices of the assets they invested in to keep on refinancing their debt obligations.

By this standard media US households whose debt relative to income went from 65 percent 15 years ago to 100 percent in 2000 to 135 percent today were playing a Ponzi game.

And an economy where the total debt to GDP ratio (of households, financial firms and corporations) is now 350 percent was a Made-Off Ponzi economy. And now that home values have fallen 20% and they will fall another 20% before they bottom out and now that equity prices have fallen over 50% (and may fall further) using homes as an ATM machine and borrowing against it to finance Ponzi consumption is not feasible any more. The party is over for households, banks and non-bank highly leveraged corporations.

The bursting of the housing bubble and of the equity bubble and hedge funds bubble and private equity bubble showed that most of the "wealth" that supported the massive leverage and overspending of agents in the economy was a fake bubble-driven wealth; now that these bubble have burst it is clear that the emperor had no clothes and that we are the naked emperor. A rising bubble tide was hiding the fact that most Americans and their banks were swimming naked; and the bursting of the bubble is the low tide that shows who was naked.

Madoff may now spend the rest of his life in prison. The US household and financial and non financial firms and government may spend the next generation in debtor’s prison having to tighten their belts to pay for the losses inflicted by a decade or more of reckless leverage, over consumption and risk taking.

Americans, let us look at ourselves in the mirror: Madoff is us and Mr. Ponzi is us!

###

When Roubini starts to sound like Buster, the end is nigh ;)

Anonymous said...

Translation: Ordinarily NO ONE would take these shit jobs... but we all know Bend is reverting to it's roots: Meth, robbery, and shit jobs under 'excretion based employers'. So there's a lot of people who are 100% fucked, who have no other choice but to take these crap jobs at wages that are a country mile below the poverty line.

*

Yep, look at the facts, in recent year we had our 'call centers' in INDIA, today we're moving our 'call centers' back to places near 'Madrass-OR'. Deja-Vu.

Hell yes, back in the early 1980's is when the chippers exploded in ORYGUN. Cheap water, and cheap white labor.

I can't think of a MORE demeaning and shitty job than working in a cubical at a call-ctr in Bend-OR.

Bewert said...

...its achilles...

###

Roubini's updated US forecast:

http://www.rgemonitor.com/blog/economonitor/255936/2009_us_economic_outlook_q1_2009_update

Pretty grim.

Bewert said...

Re:
I can't think of a MORE demeaning and shitty job than working in a cubical at a call-ctr in Bend-OR.

###

Try wiping out the leftover dirt and wheat from huge grain ships, on your hands and knees with rags. One of my college jobs. It paid $12/hr, a fortune in those days.

I'll never forget it.

Anonymous said...

http://www.thedailyshow.com/

Cramer is now avail on jon-stewart.

Anonymous said...

Huge Grain ships in Utah, who would have guessed.

Anonymous said...

Thu, March 12, 2009
-
Views: 114063
Intro - Brawl Street: Get Ready to Buy Low! And Sell Die

*

My god stewart is good, and just gives cramer an enema.

Anonymous said...

BRK.A is getting reamed in the ASS, I hope APU is holding a bunch of this shit.

Bewert said...

Re: Huge Grain ships in Utah, who would have guessed.

###

Duluth, MN. Two of us drove up over Thanksgiving break and worked pretty much non-stop. To the point of falling asleep in the union hall.

Brought back a small pile of money, which was great back in the early 80's. Big recession going on then, too.

I didn't move to Utah until the week after I graduated in Dec., '83. Moved here in Feb, 2005.

Bewert said...

Re: Cessna

###

Textron, hurt by financial crisis, industrial woes, cuts CEO compensation in 2008

By STEPHEN SINGER | AP Manufacturing Writer
2:32 PM EDT, March 12, 2009

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Textron Inc., which has been reeling from the financial crisis and sharp declines in orders for business jets, cut the compensation for its chief executive last year.

The Providence, R.I., manufacturer of Cessna jets, Bell helicopters and E-Z-GO golf carts gave compensation of $9.8 million to CEO Lewis B. Campbell, 62, down 16 percent from $11.8 million in 2007, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday.

Textron paid Campbell $1.1 million in salary, unchanged from 2007. It paid no bonus, which is also unchanged from the previous year.

And it cut the performance-based bonus to $617,980 from $2.2 million in 2007. Other compensation totaled $650,842, most of which was for Lewis' personal use of the company's plane.

Campbell received 153,557 options to buy shares at an exercise price of $54.17 each. The fair-market value for those options on the day they were granted in February 2008 was about $2.15 million, though now they are worth little since the share price currently trades around $5 a share. The options vest in 10 years. He also received grants for other stock awards valued by the company at $5.3 million.

The Associated Press calculations of total pay include executives' salary, bonus, incentives, perks, above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year. The calculations don't include changes in the present value of pension benefits, and they sometimes differ from the totals companies list in the summary compensation table of proxy statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Textron said that for 2008, the "major yardsticks" that it used to measure performance were earnings per share and return on invested capital, "with small components related to leadership behaviors and work force diversity."

These measures are "effective indicators of shareholder returns and help ensure effective use of the capital which shareholders entrust to the company," Textron said.

For 2008, Textron reported net income of $486 million, or $1.95 per share, nearly half the $917 million, or $3.60 per share, earned in 2007. Excluding special charges, it earned $3.17 per share for 2008. Analysts had anticipated a profit of $3.11 per share.

The company said it will eliminate perks such as company vehicles, club memberships, financial planning and income tax preparation. It will require executives to reimburse Textron for some personal use of company aircraft and it froze salaries for senior executives for the third consecutive year.

The company said in February it has drawn $3 billion in credit to pay off debt and pump liquidity as it exits nearly all of its commercial financial business.

Shares of Textron, which ended fiscal 2008 down 81 percent at $13.87, closed Wednesday at $4.77 each.

###

And that was last year...

Anonymous said...

Make Note of that FED ID# BP

...

Bernie Madoff's lawyer is trying to spring his thieving client out of jail.

Ira Sorkin is appealing Manhattan Federal Court Judge Denny Chin's decision to immediately imprison the courtly crook after he pleaded guilty to destroying the lives of thousands of people with a $65 billion Ponzi scheme.

Sorkin is seeking to have the 70-year-old Madoff returned to house arrest at his swanky E. 64th St. duplex.
The appeals court was expected to render its decision later Friday.

Now known as federal inmate No. 61727-054, Madoff spent his first night at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.

Anonymous said...

http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp


Keep the above link BP, and use the above # and you can track made-off where he moves day-to-day.

My bet is he is out of MCC this weekend.

Inmate Locator - Locate Federal inmates from 1982 to present
Name Register # Age-Race-Sex Release Date
Location
1. BERNARD LAWRENCE MADOFF 61727-054 70-White-M UNKNOWN NEW YORK MCC

PopGoesBend said...

Builder Gary Norman (http://www.garynormanhomes.com/) just got an NOD on this beauty:

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/19638-Hollygrape-St-Bend-OR-97702/67340517_zpid/

Loan for $1.495M, interest only.

It's the only home in DIAL that is in his name. Does anyone know if this is his personal house?

Those $900k townhomes in NWX are not going to sell for anything close to what he is asking. ( http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2563-NW-Crossing-Dr-Bend-OR-97701/2143794543_zpid/ ). They will probably have to foreclose as well before they can be sold.

Anonymous said...

Well it was true 40 years ago, and it was true dec2008, and its true now. What took Made-Off so long to get got??

Confidence Scam. So long as ALL the investors were making money, everybody wanted to believe it wasn't a ponzi. It's only a ponze @game-over, prior that that everybody is making money, until the reach the limiting factor of the LAST SUCKER, todays stock-market aka wall-st has ran out of suckers for a generation.
...

Warren Buffett: People Thought "I Was Doing Some Sort Of Ponzi Scheme"

CNBC | December 16, 2008 07:27

Read More: Bernie Madoff, Warren Buffett, Warren Buffett Ponzi Scheme, Business News

"There were people in Omaha who thought what I was doing was some sort of Ponzi scheme."

That's Warren Buffett talking about his early days as a money manager in the late 1950s, before Berkshire Hathaway, as quoted by Alice Schroeder in her recent Buffett biography The Snowball.

It wasn't an unreasonable thought.

Anonymous said...

Another USA patriarch of the Kleptocracy, becomes a third-world debtor nation.

***

My worry about Berkshire Hathaway’s lost A
March 13, 2009 5:20pm

Fitch’s downgrade of Berkshire Hathaway from triple-A to double-A plus status has been greeted in a fairly sanguine manner, with Barron’s pointing out that Warren Buffett’s borrowing costs “aren’t exactly going to skyrocket.” But I think it is a bit more serious than that.

Remember what happened to American International Group, after Fitch cut its triple-A rating in March 2005 (to be followed by Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s). This is a description of what subsequently occurred from the Washington Post’s series on AIG:

On March 14, 2005, (Hank) Greenberg stepped down amid allegations about his involvement in a questionable deal and accounting practices at AIG. The next day, the Fitch Ratings service downgraded AIG’s credit rating to AA. The two other major rating services, Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s, soon followed suit.

The initial fallout came swiftly, as AIG’s annual report to federal regulators disclosed. The downgrades had triggered provisions in Financial Products’ existing transactions, the report said, requiring its parent company to post $1.16 billion in collateral for the deals.

The company also warned that the downgrades could erode confidence in Financial Products, a crucial element in the unit’s phenomenal success. “Historically, AIG’s triple-A ratings provided AIGFP a competitive advantage. The downgrades will reduce this advantage and [some] counterparties may be unwilling to transact business with AIGFP except on a secured basis,” AIG reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission in May 2005.

Well, Berkshire Hathaway is not AIG but it is a very large insurance and reinsurance company, and it has been using its balance sheet to write big financial derivatives contracts. So a weakening of its triple-A status has potentially important consequences.

I came down on Mr Buffett’s side in the fuss over him writing $34bn of put options on US equity markets, However, this shows the cost of exposing Berkshire to large financial risks at a sensitive time.

In fact, one of the reasons that Fitch cited for its ratings cut was the “one man” problem at Berkshire - it is largely Warren Buffett’s creation. Or, as I put it in that piece:

So I trust Berkshire Hathaway while 78-year-old Mr Buffett remains at the helm. The only thing that worries me is that he may have a shorter expiry date than his options.

Anonymous said...

IT's CALLED ARITHMETIC PUSSY ..

MADOFF(PONZI) + GREENBERG(AIG) => BUFFET(PONZI)

The celebrity CEO? Is this like losing a celebrity chef??

NO MORE CELEBRITY CEO's TO PIMP&HO worthless paper?? WHAT THE FUCK WILL MSNBC do?? ( note all of Xnbc is owned by GE, of which buffeetee is a biggest holder )

Folks the ENTIRE charade is imploding.

...

Another Blow to the Celebrity CEO: This Time It's Buffett

Posted by: Nanette Byrnes on March 13

The downgrade of General Electric got lots of attention yesterday, but another AAA was kicked down a notch as well: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway. Fitch Ratings downgraded the company in large part because of the volatility inherent in the company’s large, unhedged equity and derivative investments.

But the New York-based rating agency also cited “long-standing concerns” about Warren Buffett, 78, and how intimately the company’s investment record and corporate acquisitions are tied to the Sage of Omaha. “Fitch does not view this concentration as consistent with an ‘AAA’ rating,” the report concludes.

Buffett is the last celebrity CEO standing, one could easily argue. He’s important enough that CNBC happily took its entire production to Omaha to tape a morning with him earlier this week. His comments can still move the markets the way Alan Greenspan’s once did.

But if there’s a lesson to draw from the tortured unwinding of American International Group, it’s that companies built around one man, no matter how brilliant, are at some risk. Berkshire’s portfolio companies are run by top notch operators, for sure, but the same could be said for AIG’s insurance companies. Buffett has said that his board has a successor in mind. But whoever he is, he won’t be Buffett.

GE’s stock shook off its downgrade, rising 9.6% yesterday, an up day for the market overall. But Berkshire’s Class A share are down almost 4% at this moment, and the market is down slightly too. It must be said, of course, that a share of Buffett’s company sells for $82,400, compared to General Electric, now under $10 a share.

Anonymous said...

White House Raves About Jon Stewart's Beatdown of Jim Cramer

March 13, 2009 2:32 PM

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he and President Obama spoke yesterday about the fact that CNBC's Jim Cramer was set to appear on "The Daily Show" with Jon Stewart last night.

He wasn't sure if the president caught Mr. Stewart's bloodletting of the host of "Mad Money," but he himself gave the show a thumbs up.

"I enjoyed it thoroughly," Gibbs said at his daily briefing.

Throughout the show, Stewart went after Cramer for CNBC's financial journalism, which the Comedy Central host suggested -- angrily at times -- was corrupt.

Gibbs today said Stewart "asked a lot of tough questions" and that he wasn't "surprised that CNBC hasn't put the video on its website."

-- jpt

Bewert said...

Direct link to bookmark:

http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=61727-054&x=52&y=15

I wonder if we could set up a twitter account called where-is-bernie and have it drip his location every half hour or so?

Anonymous said...

Well the good & bad witches are out again, and this time the bad wicked witch hiself 'Summers' is using the entire Cabal of Wicka to Summon back US confidence in Wall St. Is this even too much for Wicka??

...

Summers Stresses Country Must Summon Confidence to Stop Recession

ABC News - ‎39 minutes ago‎
By MATT JAFFE Larry Summers, the top economic adviser to President Obama, said today that even though the country's recent excessive optimism may have helped trigger the current recession, the resulting lack of confidence is now hurting its chances of ...

Anonymous said...

Thanksgiving turkeys everywhere demand that they quit being compared to Warren Buffet's "Berkshire" BRK.A/B. Fitch has since apologized to AmeriKKKa's Turkeys.


Berkshire credit costs trade like Turkey's


Reuters - ‎33 minutes ago‎
By Walden Siew and Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Credit protection costs for Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.

Anonymous said...

excessive optimism may have helped trigger the current recession, the resulting lack of confidence is now hurting its chances of ... reaming what's left of 401k rectums.

*

I love this shit, the wall-st, just can't stand the fact that their just maybe is some lose pocket-money still left, and they want to the US public to put their food/gas money into the fucking stock market.

This is why they call it a 'CONFIDENCE SCAM'.

It's OVER, its BEND-OVER, and it only works while you got confidence, and the SCAM played out 40+ years, and even IF Greenberg, & Madoff, & Buffet go to prison, it will NOT bring back confidence.

Anonymous said...

HOW TO FUCK A COUNTRY ...


Hate thy neighbor? Giveth his children money; that will fix them all.

Few things are as costly as free money.

When the Spanish Galleons came back from the New World with cargoes of gold and silver coins, the Spaniards thought they'd hit the jackpot. All of a sudden, Iberia had plenty of money. Historians report that the Spanish neglected their fields and their manufactures; now they had easy money to spend. Prices rose quickly. Then, when the treasure ships stopped coming, the Spanish were broke. Spain - and Portugal too - went into a decline that lasted four centuries.

In the late 1990s, America got in the habit of getting shiploads of stuff from Asia - and paying for it only with pieces of green paper. Pretty soon, Americans too neglected their own factories - though not their fields. Let the Asians sweat, they said. We'll think!

Not much serious thinking has taken place in the United States of America for the last 20 years. Instead, people preferred comforting illusions and conceited claptrap. We have the 'strongest, most dynamic economy the world had ever seen,' they congratulated themselves.

Of course, you don't need to think - not when you ship is coming in. But now that the ship is sinking you'd expect people would put on their life jackets and their thinking caps. Nope. Now they look to the government for the free money. Yesterday's news told us that Congress is now spending away $1 billion per hour.

We'll come back to that in a minute...

First, some treacherously good news: the Dow rose again yesterday...up 239 points. We're still withholding judgment, but it looks as though this might finally be the long-awaited rally. Stocks worldwide lost more than half their value without a single major rebound. We're overdue for one. Maybe this is it.

Oil rose too - to $47. It seems to be getting ready to slide back over the $50 mark.

And the dollar may have topped out. The euro rose yesterday to $1.28...while gold recovered $13 to close at $924.

As near as we can tell there is no good reason for stocks to rally. Unemployment is still rising and sales are still falling. Until those trends flatten out, there is no reason to think business will improve.

Au contraire, business conditions are worsening and companies are cutting dividends faster than any time since the Great Depression. How can stocks go up in price...when sales and earnings are falling? The only possibility would be an increase in P/E ratios. But who wants to pay more for corporate earnings now?

No one we know. Instead, investors are becoming more and more wary. Why? Because even the biggest, strongest companies in the world are reporting problems. The agencies knocked down GE's rating the other day. "What's it worth now?" asks a headline. But the same question could be posed to almost any company on the planet - conditions have changed; what's it worth now?

Last autumn, Warren Buffett commented on the solidity of his own company: "If Berkshire [Hathaway] isn't Triple A, I'm not sure which company would be."

But yesterday, Fitch took Berkshire down a notch...noting that the company had financial exposure in its insurance division that could be troublesome. Berkshire is no longer Triple A. And investors have to ask themselves: if you can't trust the best companies, run by the best CEOs, who can you trust?

We won't wait around for an answer, because there is none. The fact is the crisis has put a question mark behind all asset values.

Again, you'd expect these question marks to inspire a little serious thinking. If assets aren't worth what we thought they were worth...well, what are they worth? And what is happening in the economy that makes things so uncertain?

House prices show no sign of reaching a bottom; foreclosures are running 30% ahead of last year. And the press reports that there are 14 million empty houses in the United States. What happened to all the people who lived in them? Below...a partial answer...

Meanwhile, the free money is flowing. Taxpayers got rebate checks from the government last year - even if they hadn't paid any taxes. According to recent tallies, the feds have committed $12 trillion to freebies, bailouts, and boondoggles.

GM got a few billion. But the banks and Wall Street have been the biggest freeloaders so far. AIG has gotten four bailouts. Freddie Mac took a big bailout from the government too. But boo hoo...Freddie lost $50 billion last year, says the Washington Post, so it will need a little more help.

Freddie Mac "to tap $30.8 billion in aid as losses deepen," says the Bloomberg report.

When will the losses stop? Who knows? But chances are...not any time soon. You're going to have to protect yourself - and your assets - from these bailouts. Set up your own "personal bailout" by clicking here.

*** Where have all the homeowners gone...Long time passing
Where have all the homeowners gone...Long time before
Where have all the homeowners gone...Gone to motels everyone...
When will they ever learn? Oh when will they ev-ev-er learn?

There are said to be 14 million empty houses in America. Where did the former tenants go, we wondered?

The New York Times has part of the answer: they've moved into motel rooms:

"Greg Hayworth, 44, graduated from Syracuse University and made a good living in his home state, California, from real estate and mortgage finance. Then that business crashed, and early last year the bank foreclosed on the house his family was renting, forcing their eviction.

"Local officials estimate that 1,000 families who live in motels in Orange County, Calif., go uncounted in federal homeless data.

"Paris Andre Navarro, 47, and her daughter, Crystal, 11, have been living at the El Dorado Inn in Anaheim, Calif., for three years. Ms. Navarro said the $241 weekly rent makes it hard to save.

"Now the Hayworths and their three children represent a new face of homelessness in Orange County: formerly middle income, living week to week in a cramped motel room."

*** Finally, a Dear Reader with a comment:

"I have been reading your comments regularly for a past few years, during which I was a Managing Director at Lehman Brothers and, thereafter, at Deutsche Bank. I am now semi-retired, living in the English countryside and watching the meltdown from afar. In my youth I was drawn to Austrian and Libertarian thinking and, as I progressed in the financial industry, never forgot these roots. Now I feel fortunate to have that grounding as it helps me to better understand what is really going on.

"During 2004-07 I saw the financial industry stacking up the powder kegs that would eventually blow up. I tried on occasion to warn people. But my warnings fell on deaf ears at Lehman and elsewhere, but not for the reasons you might think.

"I recall numerous conversations with senior people at various global financial firms on topics ranging from Fed policy, to the US/UK housing markets, securitisation and its potential pitfalls, the CDS tangle, and so on. One thing that is clear to me is that key people at these firms were aware for the most part what risks they were taking. They knew that it was all going to blow up someday, if not so spectacularly as it now has done. But they all believed that somehow they would be quicker and cleverer than rival firms, that they would effectively hedge themselves and they would get out first, before things got really ugly. As you well know, that sort of collective "greater fool theory" mindset is characteristic of bubbles and, if widely held, almost ensures that liquidity will dry up suddenly as markets turn for the worse.

"Believe me, they knew they were playing with fire to a much greater extent than is currently acknowledged. They blame 'animal spirits' and 'market forces' when they were, in fact, the most important market participants. No wonder a hedge didn't work if most major global financial institutions held the exact same hedge! If you are curious I can fill you in on some of the details although I suspect you know much of this already.

"In any event, I admire you and those few who are tirelessly pointing out that it was most emphatically not the free-market, but rather central banking and misguided regulation, that got us into this mess. You are doing the next generation a great service. Sadly, the current generation is probably beyond help at this point. I hope and pray that, like a phoenix, a form of proper, free-market capitalism rises from the ashes of the current conflagration."

Anonymous said...

Yesterday's news told us that Congress is now spending away $1 billion per hour.

*

That's essentially true, but congress is NOT the big 'shoo', the FED-RES to printing $100B/day!!

Anonymous said...

On the subject of 'ponzi', and something that is not often talked about, but is essentially the biggest ponzi of all is the Federal/state/local public employee pension system, patrick.net has a good over-view today. Yes, I agree, over 6M people in the USA have a 100% government guaranteed annuity worth over 3M. That be 2% of ameriKKK are hidden secret millionaires, so be happy don't worry, these people will NEVER worry about losing a job, or not being able to pay medical bills.

Trouble of course is there is no money to pay these pensions, well other than tax the shit out of the few with jobs, but we're so busy killing jobs.

Glad that patrick.net has brought this up, its something I have long known about.



Government pensions create hidden millionaires
By patrick.net reader V.


Not sure how they think know these statistics, but a recent article states:

"Affluent households, defined as those with a net worth of $500,000 or more,
declined 28% to 11.3 million.

The number of American households with a net worth of $1 million or more,
excluding the value of their primary residence, fell 27% to 6.7 million in
2008."

Now, many fireman, police, congressman, senators, mayors, city employees, and
many other government employees get over $100,000 a year pensions for life,
even $200,000 and more per year, plus medical coverage -- from citizens' taxes.
A regular citizen would have to save up over $3 million dollars to earn enough
interest to have a return like that.

So these pensioners are millionaires and even better, it is very hard for them
to lose the government pension, which means their millions. Here are articles
about pensions still being paid while the taxpayer paid pensioner is in jail.
Your taxes are paying these pensions.

http://www.google.com/search?q=collecting+pension+while+in+jail&btnG=Search&hl=en&sa=2

The regular citizen can lose his millions in the stock market, real estate
market, or be sued, and many other ways. But there are many more than 6.7
million households that are worth over 1 million when you consider the value of
a lifetime pension at taxpayer expense.

Anonymous said...

Now, many fireman, police, congressman, senators, mayors, city employees, and
many other government employees get over $100,000 a year pensions for life,
even $200,000 and more per year, plus medical coverage -- from citizens' taxes.
A regular citizen would have to save up over $3 million dollars to earn enough
interest to have a return like that.


*

The above is SO FUCKING important, next time you feel sorry for ABER-PUSSY remember, you working KUNTS will be paying for his mexican retirement for your entire working lives.

This is why CITY-of-BEND does what it does, this is why they're going to shove BEND-BAT up your ass.

It's all about EARLY retirement and paying handed a $3M annuity, think about how many private sector folks get the shit? NONE, well except for madoff, or buffet, or greenberg, or hbm.

Anonymous said...

HOMER KUNT, THEY'RE AT YOUR DOOR, YOUR ABOUT TO SEE THE USA BECOME AFRICA OVER-NIGHT.


China's Wen Jiabao expresses concern about safety of investments in U.S.


About half of China's $2-trillion foreign exchange reserves are invested in U.S. government-backed bonds. 'We hope the United States honors its word and ensures the safety of Chinese assets,' Wen says

By Don Lee and Barbara Demick
1:40 PM PDT, March 13, 2009

Reporting from Shanghai and Beijing -- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao voiced concerns today about the security of China's massive investments in U.S. government debt, even as he expressed confidence in the economic leadership of President Obama.

"To be honest, we are a little bit worried," Wen said, speaking at the closing press conference of China's annual legislative session.

"We have loaned huge amounts of money to the United States, so of course, we have to be concerned. . . . We hope the United States honors its word and ensures the safety of Chinese assets."

China is America's biggest foreign creditor. About half of China's estimated $2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, the largest in the world, are invested in U.S. Treasury and other government-backed bonds. China's continued holdings and future purchases of American debt are seen as an important part of financing Obama's $787-billion economic stimulus plan.

Wen's comments, coming after a string of otherwise upbeat pronouncements about China's own economic prospects, were unusual in that he has rarely spoken up on the issue, nor in such frank terms. Analysts said they doubted the remarks were impromptu; rather, they may have been intended in part to send a message, perhaps to Americans in particular, about just how much they are reliant on the Chinese for their economic security.

"I suppose you could kind of view it as a shot across the bow," said Mark Williams, Asia economist at Capital Economics Ltd. in London.

In a visit to China last month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sought to assure Beijing that U.S. assets remained a reliable investment. Beijing has not given indications of any major shift in its current investments or future buying plans, although analysts expect Chinese policymakers to gradually diversify its holdings. About two-thirds of China's foreign reserves, accumulated from the nation's booming trade surplus, are estimated to be held in U.S.-denominated assets. To a large degree, though, China's hands are tied, because any big withdrawals or sharp changes in purchasing could seriously disrupt global markets and hurt China's own interests.

Still, Chinese policymakers and scholars increasingly have raised concerns about putting too much of the funds in one basket, and a rickety one at that. Some have urged more investment in tangible assets such as natural resources and technology, and less of U.S. government bonds. Their view is that these securities are susceptible to a large drop in value because of the risks of a falling dollar or rising inflation as Washington prints more money to support its spending.

"I think it can't be more natural for Premier Wen to feel worried," said Zhao Xijun, professor of finance at Beijing's Renmin University of China. "All the Chinese citizens will also share such concerns about our country's assets under the current situation of this financial crisis."

China's response to the global economic crisis was a dominant theme during the meeting of the National Peoples' Congress, the legislative body controlled by the Communist Party. Despite a record fall in Chinese exports last month and a sharp deceleration of growth in the world's third-largest economy, Wen told foreign journalists today that he was hopeful that China would emerge from the global financial crisis "at an early date."

He said Beijing was prepared to add to the previously announced $586-billion economic stimulus plan if it doesn't get China's economy moving. Statistics released this week suggest that government spending on railroads and other projects may be starting to take effect as capital investments picked up.

"We have our plans ready to tackle even more difficult times," Wen said. "At any time we can introduce new stimulus polices."

China's role looms large in the global economy because it is one of a few major economies that is expected to grow this year. In recent years, the U.S. and secondarily China have propelled world economic growth. But with the U.S. in a deep downturn, people are looking increasingly to China to help pull the world out of recession.

Last week markets rose on word that Beijing might beef up its stimulus plan, only to fall back down after Beijing did not announce any new increase during the opening of the legislative session. Wen said that "rumors and misunderstandings set the world stock market on a roller-coaster ride."

Journalists pressed the premier on his projections that China this year will achieve economic growth of 8%, a figure that many economists say is overly optimistic. Under questioning, Wen said it was more of a "goal" than an expectation.

"I must admit it will be difficult to reach this goal . . . but this goal is an indication of the government's confidence," he said. "Setting the goal is like setting a compass so that you know which way the ship is heading."

Wen also set an 8% growth target during legislative sessions in previous years. But Beijing's challenge in the past was how to keep its galloping economy from overheating. In 2007, China's economy expanded by 13%. That has fallen to 6.8% in the fourth quarter of last year.

tim said...

This deluge of new $10 per hour jobs saddens me. If that's the kind of jobs we're going to get, rents are going to fall hard.

Bewert said...

And what's left of RE even harder.

Bewert said...

BTW, Stewarts evisceration of Cramer last night was priceless.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/fight-night-cramer-vs-stewart/

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220536&title=jim-cramer-pt.-1

Anonymous said...

Who WOULD HAVE GUESSED?

CACB EATS BEND DOG SHIT???

Cascade Bancorp posts wider adjusted fiscal 2008 loss - Update
3/13/2009 2:59 PM ET

(RTTNews) - Friday, Cascade Bancorp Inc. (CACB), the holding company for Bank of the Cascades, said it made adjustments to its preliminary financial results to include goodwill and asset impairment charges, additional provision for loan losses, resulting in a wider net loss for the year.

Including the non-cash goodwill charge and other adjustments, net loss for fiscal 2008 was $134.6 million or $4.82 per share, compared to a net loss of $21.2 million or $0.76 per share reported in the preliminary unaudited earnings release dated January 29, 2009.

Taking into consideration the unprecedented weakness in banking stocks in general and the significant decline in the company's stock price in particular, Cascade Bancorp decided to eliminate all of the previously recorded goodwill by taking a charge of $105.0 million.
The Bend, Oregon-based company also increased its provision for loan losses to $14.8 million, in addition to recording a charge of $22.9 million mainly to write-down the value of non-performing collateral dependent land development loans.

CACB is trading at $1.27, down $0.28 per share, or 18.06% on a volume of about 364 thousand shares.

Anonymous said...

This deluge of new $10 per hour jobs saddens me. If that's the kind of jobs we're going to get, rents are going to fall hard.

*

Let's see, cheap housing, cheap white-trash labor force, meth,...

Let me 'guess' India like call-centers, where your spied on and your expected to meet goals that are modified weekly.

Anonymous said...

It's called 'flexible' work-force, nothing more 'flexible' than a town of white hair-lips with a 25% un-employment and a city-hall ran by good ol boyz.

Bend is a plantation.

There are house nigger, field niggers and plantation owners.

The Plantation owners are city-hall and city-staff ( good high paying jobs ).

The house niggers are the professional class of enforcers, doc, cpas, and lawyers,

The field niggers are folks that work in call-centers.

Welcome to the NEW BEND ORYGUN.

Are we ASS-BEND ( sounds like ASPEN ) yet??

Bewert said...

Re: CACB

###

That is pretty rather stunning. All the "good" stuff comes out Friday afternoon. Or maybe over the weekend in this case.

A net loss of $4.82 per share. Or more than four times their stock price.

###

Cascade Bancorp (Oregon) Announces Filing of Form 10-K Annual Report and Audited Financial Statements; Adjusts Preliminary 2008 Results Due to Goodwill Impairment and Additional Provision for Loan Losses Resulting in a Net Loss of ($4.82) Per Share

Company Release - 03/13/2009 13:29

BEND, Ore., March 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cascade Bancorp ("Cascade") (Nasdaq: CACB) announces filing of its SEC Form 10-K annual report and audited financial statements and adjusts preliminary financial results to include goodwill impairment and additional provision for loan losses. Subsequent to year-end 2008 and after the issuance of its earnings release on January 29, 2009, the Company made adjustments which are reflected in the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2008. After taking effect of these items, the Company's risk based capital ratio is above regulatory benchmarks for "well-capitalized" banks at 10.22%. The adjustments include:

-- A noncash after-tax goodwill impairment charge of $105.0 million,
resulting in the elimination of all previously recorded goodwill.
Goodwill impairment is a noncash accounting adjustment that does not
affect cash flow, regulatory capital or liquidity. Tier 1 and Total
regulatory capital ratios are unaffected by this adjustment;
-- An increase in provision for loan losses totaling $14.8 million
resulting from the following factors; (i) a $5.1 million increase mainly
to increase the unallocated portion of the reserve for loan losses from
3.3% to 15%; (ii) an increase in specific reserves of approximately $9.7
million for certain real estate secured credits;
-- A charge against the balance sheet item "reserve for credit
losses" of $22.9 million mainly to write-down the value of
nonperforming collateral dependent land development loans, with a
corresponding reduction in nonperforming assets (NPA's);
-- A valuation adjustment of approximately $0.8 million for OREO property
based on receipt of an appraisal received in February 2009.

Goodwill is an intangible (noncash) asset that was booked mainly in accounting for the acquisition of Farmers & Merchants State Bank in Idaho in 2006. Goodwill impairment is a noncash accounting adjustment that writes down this intangible asset. It does not affect cash flow, capital or liquidity, but reduces existing book value to a level very near "tangible" book value. Underscoring the 'intangible' nature of goodwill is that Tier 1 and Total regulatory capital ratios are unaffected by this adjustment.

Including the noncash goodwill charge of $105.0 million or ($3.76) per share and other adjustments, net loss for the full year 2008 totals ($4.82) per share or ($134.6 million) as compared to a net loss of ($0.76) per share or ($21.2 million) disclosed in our preliminary unaudited earnings release dated January 29, 2009. These adjustments occurred subsequent to our preliminary earnings release date. The Company applied extensive procedures in its preliminary earnings report, including analysis from independent third party experts and thorough examination of all significant estimates. However, factors subsequent to that date became evident including the uncertain depth and duration of current economic conditions, the unprecedented weakness in banking stocks in general, and a significant decline in the Company's stock price in particular, that caused the Company to reexamine its goodwill which directly resulted in the noncash goodwill impairment.

2008 return on book equity and tangible equity decreased to (47.90%) and (80.51%) respectively, from the previously reported (7.02%) and (11.79%). At December 31, 2008, the Company's reserve for credit losses was $48.2 million or 2.46% of total loans and NPA's are reduced by $22.9 million to $159.4 million or 7.0% of total assets.

Patricia L. Moss, CEO said, "We are in serious times and actions will influence outcomes. The challenges we face reflect the stress the economic downturn has caused to our customers, businesses, friends and neighbors, and community at large. We are resolved to play our part in helping the community address the challenges we share, and to progress toward an improving economic future together." Moss continued, "Local deposits from our communities are essential to the economic health in the markets we share. We are encouraging the community to keep their money local to the benefit of our shared economy. Community banks effectively redeploy their deposits back into our communities." To this end, Cascade has provided additional assurance to customers by participating in the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program which provides unlimited FDIC insurance for all transaction account deposits through 12/31/09.

Commenting on loan quality, Moss said, "We continue to fund our reserve for loan losses to ensure we have provided resources under the current adverse economic conditions. In addition, we have written down a substantial portion of the residential development loan portfolio that has proven to be most negatively affected by the downturn. Residential development now represents just 10% of our credit portfolio while the majority of the Company's loans continue to perform well. I am gratified that we have taken these actions on the credit side and exceed benchmarks for a well-capitalized bank."

About Cascade Bancorp and Bank of the Cascades

Cascade Bancorp (NASDAQ: CACB), headquartered in Bend, Oregon and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bank of the Cascades, operates in Oregon and Idaho markets. Founded in 1977, Bank of the Cascades offers full-service community banking through 33 branches in Central Oregon, Southern Oregon, Portland/Salem and Boise/Treasure Valley. The Bank has a business strategy that focuses on delivering the best in community banking for the financial well-being of customers and shareholders. It executes it strategy through the consistent delivery of full relationship banking focused on attracting and retaining value driven customers. Over the past decade, the Bank has been rated repeatedly recognized among its peers nationwide for financial performance. In December 2008, Bank of the Cascades was named by the Portland Business Journal as one of Oregon's Most Admired Companies in the Financial Services category, as chosen by Oregon CEOs. For further information, please visit our web site at http://www.botc.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties may include but are not necessarily limited to general and local economic conditions, including the residential and commercial real estate markets; changes in interest rates, including timing or relative degree of change; inflation; credit quality and concentrations; competition within the business areas in which Cascade is conducting its operations; changes in regulatory conditions or requirements or new legislation; and changes in accounting policies. These statements include, among others, statements related to future profitability levels and future earnings. For a discussion of factors, which could cause results to differ, please see Cascade's reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Cascade's press releases. When used in this release, the words or phrases such as "will likely result in", "management expects that", "will continue", "is anticipated", "estimate", "projected", or similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements, as do any other statements that expressly or implicitly predict future events, results or performance, and such statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which reflect management's view only as of the date hereof. Cascade undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Cascade Bancorp

Contact: Gregory D. Newton, EVP, Chief Financial Officer, +1-541-617-3526, or Patricia L. Moss, President & Chief Executive Officer, +1-541-385-6205, both of Cascade Bancorp

Anonymous said...

FUCK ME I LIVE in BEND, and CACB is my BANKER,...

BEND, Ore., March 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cascade Bancorp ("Cascade") (Nasdaq: CACB) announces filing of its SEC Form 10-K annual report and audited financial statements and adjusts preliminary financial results to include goodwill impairment and additional provision for loan losses. Subsequent to year-end 2008 and after the issuance of its earnings release on January 29, 2009, the Company made adjustments which are reflected in the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2008. After taking effect of these items, the Company's risk based capital ratio is above regulatory benchmarks for "well-capitalized" banks at 10.22%. The adjustments include:

* A noncash after-tax goodwill impairment charge of $105.0 million, resulting in the elimination of all previously recorded goodwill. Goodwill impairment is a noncash accounting adjustment that does not affect cash flow, regulatory capital or liquidity. Tier 1 and Total regulatory capital ratios are unaffected by this adjustment;
* An increase in provision for loan losses totaling $14.8 million resulting from the following factors; (i) a $5.1 million increase mainly to increase the unallocated portion of the reserve for loan losses from 3.3% to 15%; (ii) an increase in specific reserves of approximately $9.7 million for certain real estate secured credits;
* A charge against the balance sheet item "reserve for credit losses" of $22.9 million mainly to write-down the value of nonperforming collateral dependent land development loans, with a corresponding reduction in nonperforming assets (NPA's);
* A valuation adjustment of approximately $0.8 million for OREO property based on receipt of an appraisal received in February 2009.

Goodwill is an intangible (noncash) asset that was booked mainly in accounting for the acquisition of Farmers & Merchants State Bank in Idaho in 2006. Goodwill impairment is a noncash accounting adjustment that writes down this intangible asset. It does not affect cash flow, capital or liquidity, but reduces existing book value to a level very near "tangible" book value. Underscoring the 'intangible' nature of goodwill is that Tier 1 and Total regulatory capital ratios are unaffected by this adjustment.

Including the noncash goodwill charge of $105.0 million or ($3.76) per share and other adjustments, net loss for the full year 2008 totals ($4.82) per share or ($134.6 million) as compared to a net loss of ($0.76) per share or ($21.2 million) disclosed in our preliminary unaudited earnings release dated January 29, 2009. These adjustments occurred subsequent to our preliminary earnings release date. The Company applied extensive procedures in its preliminary earnings report, including analysis from independent third party experts and thorough examination of all significant estimates. However, factors subsequent to that date became evident including the uncertain depth and duration of current economic conditions, the unprecedented weakness in banking stocks in general, and a significant decline in the Company's stock price in particular, that caused the Company to reexamine its goodwill which directly resulted in the noncash goodwill impairment.

2008 return on book equity and tangible equity decreased to (47.90%) and (80.51%) respectively, from the previously reported (7.02%) and (11.79%). At December 31, 2008, the Company's reserve for credit losses was $48.2 million or 2.46% of total loans and NPA's are reduced by $22.9 million to $159.4 million or 7.0% of total assets.

Patricia L. Moss, CEO said, "We are in serious times and actions will influence outcomes. The challenges we face reflect the stress the economic downturn has caused to our customers, businesses, friends and neighbors, and community at large. We are resolved to play our part in helping the community address the challenges we share, and to progress toward an improving economic future together." Moss continued, "Local deposits from our communities are essential to the economic health in the markets we share. We are encouraging the community to keep their money local to the benefit of our shared economy. Community banks effectively redeploy their deposits back into our communities." To this end, Cascade has provided additional assurance to customers by participating in the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program which provides unlimited FDIC insurance for all transaction account deposits through 12/31/09.

Commenting on loan quality, Moss said, "We continue to fund our reserve for loan losses to ensure we have provided resources under the current adverse economic conditions. In addition, we have written down a substantial portion of the residential development loan portfolio that has proven to be most negatively affected by the downturn. Residential development now represents just 10% of our credit portfolio while the majority of the Company's loans continue to perform well. I am gratified that we have taken these actions on the credit side and exceed benchmarks for a well-capitalized bank."

About Cascade Bancorp and Bank of the Cascades

Cascade Bancorp (NASDAQ: CACB), headquartered in Bend, Oregon and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Bank of the Cascades, operates in Oregon and Idaho markets. Founded in 1977, Bank of the Cascades offers full-service community banking through 33 branches in Central Oregon, Southern Oregon, Portland/Salem and Boise/Treasure Valley. The Bank has a business strategy that focuses on delivering the best in community banking for the financial well-being of customers and shareholders. It executes it strategy through the consistent delivery of full relationship banking focused on attracting and retaining value driven customers. Over the past decade, the Bank has been rated repeatedly recognized among its peers nationwide for financial performance. In December 2008, Bank of the Cascades was named by the Portland Business Journal as one of Oregon's Most Admired Companies in the Financial Services category, as chosen by Oregon CEOs. For further information, please visit our web site at http://www.botc.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

This release contains forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Such risks and uncertainties may include but are not necessarily limited to general and local economic conditions, including the residential and commercial real estate markets; changes in interest rates, including timing or relative degree of change; inflation; credit quality and concentrations; competition within the business areas in which Cascade is conducting its operations; changes in regulatory conditions or requirements or new legislation; and changes in accounting policies. These statements include, among others, statements related to future profitability levels and future earnings. For a discussion of factors, which could cause results to differ, please see Cascade's reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Cascade's press releases. When used in this release, the words or phrases such as "will likely result in", "management expects that", "will continue", "is anticipated", "estimate", "projected", or similar expressions constitute forward-looking statements, as do any other statements that expressly or implicitly predict future events, results or performance, and such statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, which reflect management's view only as of the date hereof. Cascade undertakes no obligation to publicly revise these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Cascade Bancorp

Anonymous said...

>>Let me 'guess' India like call-centers, where your spied on and your expected to meet goals that are modified weekly.

If I had to work a $10 job, I'd do it in India, not in Bend.

I like how you can move up to $11.50 if you really kick ass.

Anonymous said...

This White House sanctioned going-after of Rush and the CNBC heads seems a bit crazy to me. Desperate and misguided. They're elevating dissension and amplifying questions about the Administration.

Sloppy.

The proper way to do this is to have the White House say that such badgering is childish and unhelpful, if it's going to happen at all.

Is Obama's goal to alienate groups one by one until he has nothing but core? I don't get it. Seems contrary to his inaugural speech.

Anonymous said...

JEWS GONE WILD - The Bend Story

"Swindler's List"

March 13, 2009 | 5:10 pm
Cramer v. Stewart…Jew v. Jew

Last night’s encounter between Jon Stewart and Jim Cramer should be replayed, studied, discussed and memorized at every single yeshiva and Jewish day school.
Make the debate a mandatory part of the curriculum. Why? Because there are few more concise, dramatic and entertaining ways to engage in one of the central ongoing questions Judaism asks: How do you balance the need for money with the curse of money?
In many ways these two men are mirror images of each other: both from modest, middle class Jewish upbringings. Both from the northeast (Stewart from New York and New Jersey, Cramer from Pennsylvannia). Both went to good east coast schools (William and Mary and some place called Harvard). Combative, quick-witted, engaging (though, okay, I can’t say Cramer is my idea of fun, but he has his fans). They are similar on so many counts, from their outside ambition to their modest heights.
But in their souls, in their values, they represent the twin poles of Jewish existence, almost to the point of caricature.
Think of Cramer as representing the need for wealth and the security it brings. In Jewish history, this was embodied in the stories not just of our patriarchs like Abraham, who may have started poor but ended up as pretty well-off, but of the kings, who pursued wealth and palaces and women. Judaism is not a religion of poverty and self-abnegation. It accords no special place to the meek and the poor. In fact, the ancient rabbis made laws to protect the rights of the rich, who may be unjustly treated by courts sympathizing with the impoverished. And yet…
Confronting the tradition of our patriarchs and kings are our prophets. They railed against the unbridaled power and wealth of the kings. The decried the role of money and empty ritual in Jewish life. They exhorted Jews to return to the non-materialistic, eternal values— justice, mercy, faith, charity. And they were pursued and persecuted, always in conflict with the kings.
What the world saw Thursday night was the king versus the prophet, the marketplace versus the temple, greed versus grace, the things of this world versus the eternal values of the world-to-come. It is a tension at the heart of Jewish life, and the tension and temptation within all our hearts.
When Bernie Madoff and his wife gave millions of stolen money to support the Gift of Life bone marrow transplant registry, it’s possible they were trying to reconcile their inner Cramer with their inner Stewarts. Even crooks can have a conscience, and I suspect Jewish goniffs have particularly twisted ones. Which, by the way, may explain why Jim Cramer looked so uncomfortable last night….

http://www.maxim.com/AskJimCramer/articles/6698.aspx?src=cl55:MKd

Anonymous said...

DUMB FUCKING JEWS - THOUGHT that MADE-OFF was a secret CABAL of Rich Insiders, ... NYTimes says they deserved to get 'Bend Fucked'. It's all quite funny six months ago these 'victims' had all 'begged' to be part of the secret-cabal that paid 15%/yr APR for 40+ years.


Madoff Had Accomplices: His Victims

Article Tools Sponsored By
By JOE NOCERA
Published: March 13, 2009

Standing in the security line Thursday morning, waiting to get into the federal courthouse in Manhattan, I started chatting with the man behind me. He looked to be in his early 60s, and though he was well dressed, he looked a little haggard. I asked him if he was a victim of Bernard L. Madoff, who would soon be pleading guilty to masterminding the greatest Ponzi scheme in history. He said he was.
Skip to next paragraph
Brendan McDermid/Reuters

Outside of court, Sharon Lissauer said she had lost everything to Bernard Madoff.
Related
Madoffs Worth $823 Million, a Filing Says (March 14, 2009)
Times Topics: Ponzi Schemes | Bernard L. Madoff
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Comment Post a Comment on the Executive Suite Blog

Did he want to talk about it? He wasn’t sure, he said. I asked his name. “I’m not going to give my name unless there is some benefit for me,” he said dourly. “I haven’t had too many benefits lately.”

How much had he lost? I asked. He grimaced. “I don’t really want to say,” he replied, but conceded that it was a lot.

What was he hoping for today? He shrugged.

As we passed through security, I asked him what role he thought the government should be playing. It was as if I had flipped a switch. Suddenly, his reticence fell away.

“The S.E.C.,” he said, referring to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which muffed multiple opportunities to catch Mr. Madoff, “they played a big role in this. They have a lot to answer for.” He said that the tax code should be changed so that Madoff victims can recoup taxes they paid on profits that turned out to be illusory — no matter how far in the past those taxes were paid. He thought the Securities Investor Protection Corporation, which tries to put at least a little money in the hands of investors whose firms have gone under, should give victims more than the current $500,000 maximum.

“I think there should be some legislation,” he said finally. What kind of legislation? What he was hoping for, he said, was that the government would set up a fund for Madoff victims — maybe give them 60 percent of their losses, he suggested.

We turned a corner, and saw a long line of people waiting for a spot in the courtroom — far more people, it was obvious, than could ever fit in the chambers. (There was a large overflow room, where I watched the proceedings.) Most of them were holding notebooks; this was clearly the media line. “Is there a line for the victims?” the man asked the marshal.

“Are you a victim?” said the marshal. As the man nodded yes, the marshal said, “Come with me.” He took the man to the elevator and whisked him upstairs and directly into the courtroom.



I can’t deny that there was something gratifying about watching Bernard Madoff handcuffed and carted off to jail Thursday morning. He was — is — the worst of the worst. By his own admission, his Ponzi scheme ran for nearly two decades; by contrast, the original Ponzi scheme, dreamed up by an Italian immigrant named Charles Ponzi in 1919, was exposed within eight months. Many of Madoff’s investors have been left with nothing, having foolishly entrusted their life savings to a man they thought “was God,” as Elie Wiesel put it not long ago. Mr. Wiesel’s foundation lost more than $15 million in the Madoff fraud, and he and his wife, Marion, lost their personal fortune as well.

Still, the proceedings were a bit of a letdown. After all the anticipation — some reporters had begun lining up outside the courthouse at 5:30 in the morning — it was a perfunctory affair, completed in an hour. Much of it was legal boilerplate. Mr. Madoff was expressionless throughout; when he read a statement recounting his crimes and expressing “remorse,” he sounded like a man reading a speech he hadn’t bothered to rehearse.

Judge Denny Chin had made clear that he was not going to allow the Madoff guilty plea to turn into a Wailing Wall for the victims, so most of them stayed away. Though Judge Chin allowed them to speak, he insisted they stick to the issue before the court: whether he should accept Mr. Madoff’s guilty plea. One woman argued that the judge should not and force a trial instead, for the “opportunity to find out where the money is.” But of course there is no money — certainly nothing close to the supposed $60 billion plus he was “investing.” That is the whole point of a Ponzi scheme: the fraudster uses money coming in from new investors to pay old investors, pretending that that is their gain.

Afterward, the TV cameras surrounded a woman named Sharon Lissauer. She had not been wealthy, she said, but she’s lost everything. She didn’t know what she was going to do. She was weeping. It was hard not to feel sad for her — indeed, for all the victims of Mr. Madoff’s evil-doing. But one also has to wonder: what were they thinking?

At a panel a month ago, put together by Portfolio magazine, Mr. Wiesel expressed, better than I’ve ever heard it, why people gave Mr. Madoff their money. “I remember that it was a myth that he created around him,” Mr. Wiesel said, “that everything was so special, so unique, that it had to be secret. It was like a mystical mythology that nobody could understand.” Mr. Wiesel added: “He gave the impression that maybe 100 people belonged to the club. Now we know thousands of them were cheated by him.”

Anonymous said...

Madoff Had Accomplices: His Victims


(Page 2 of 2)

And yet, just about anybody who actually took the time to kick the tires of Mr. Madoff’s operation tended to run in the other direction. James R. Hedges IV, who runs an advisory firm called LJH Global Investments, says that in 1997 he spent two hours asking Mr. Madoff basic questions about his operation. “The explanation of his strategy, the consistency of his returns, the way he withheld information — it was a very clear set of warning signs,” said Mr. Hedges. When you look at the list of Madoff victims, it contains a lot of high-profile names — but almost no serious institutional investors or endowments. They insist on knowing the kind of information Mr. Madoff refused to supply.


I suppose you could argue that most of Mr. Madoff’s direct investors lacked the ability or the financial sophistication of someone like Mr. Hedges. But it shouldn’t have mattered. Isn’t the first lesson of personal finance that you should never put all your money with one person or one fund? Even if you think your money manager is “God”? Diversification has many virtues; one of them is that you won’t lose everything if one of your money managers turns out to be a crook.

“These were people with a fair amount of money, and most of them sought no professional advice,” said Bruce C. Greenwald, who teaches value investing at the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University. “It’s like trying to do your own dentistry.” Mr. Hedges said, “It is a real lesson that people cannot abdicate personal responsibility when it comes to their personal finances.”

And that’s the point. People did abdicate responsibility — and now, rather than face that fact, many of them are blaming the government for not, in effect, saving them from themselves. Indeed, what you discover when you talk to victims is that they harbor an anger toward the S.E.C. that is as deep or deeper than the anger they feel toward Mr. Madoff. There is a powerful sense that because the agency was asleep at the switch, they have been doubly victimized. And they want the government to do something about it.

I spoke, for instance, to Phyllis Molchatsky, who lost $1.7 million with Mr. Madoff — and is now suing the S.E.C. to recoup her losses, on the grounds the agency was so negligent it should be forced to pony up. Her story is sure to rouse sympathy — Mr. Madoff was recommended to her by her broker as a safe place to put her money, and she felt virtuous making 9 or 10 percent a year when others were reaching for the stars. The failure of the S.E.C., she told me, “is a double slap in the face.” And she felt the government owed her. Her lawyer, who represents several dozen Madoff victims, told me he “wouldn’t be averse” to a victims’ fund.

Even Mr. Wiesel thought the government should help the victims — or at least the charitable institutions among them. “The government should come and say, ‘We bailed out so many others, we can bail you out, and when you will do better, you can give us back the money,’ ” he said at the Portfolio event.

But why? What happened to the victims of Bernard Madoff is terrible. But every day in this country, people lose money due to financial fraud or negligence. Innocent investors who bought stock in Enron lost millions when that company turned out to be a fraud; nobody made them whole. Half a dozen Ponzi schemes have been discovered since Mr. Madoff was arrested in December. People lose it all because they start a company that turns out to be misguided, or because they do something that is risky, hoping to hit the jackpot. Taxpayers don’t bail them out, and they shouldn’t start now. Did the S.E.C. foul up? You bet. But that doesn’t mean the investors themselves are off the hook. Investors blaming the S.E.C. for their decision to give every last penny to Bernie Madoff is like a child blaming his mother for letting him start a fight while she wasn’t looking.



Late Thursday afternoon, I called Richard C. Breeden, the former chairman of the S.E.C. who had recently served as a trustee to get money back for investors who had been involved in a billion-dollar Ponzi scheme that was uncovered more than a decade ago. He had miraculously been able to pay investors close to 60 cents on the dollar, partly by increasing the value of the assets that the scheme was built on. That’s far more than any Madoff victim is going to get. (So far, the Madoff trustee has identified only $1 billion in assets.) Tragically, Mr. Breeden said, some people who had invested in the Ponzi scheme that he helped clean up turned around and gave their money to Mr. Madoff.

“I guess some people never learn,” Mr. Breeden said.

Anonymous said...

The proper way to do this is to have the White House say that such badgering is childish and unhelpful, if it's going to happen at all.

*

Hello?? Ever hear of ROVE-KARL or W-BUSH, want to talk childish bullshit??

Why is that now the tables of have been turned on the fucking PUG's, that they're whining about un-fairness?

Limbaugh is an ASS 24/7, and he is the leader of the BUFFOONERY, of course OREO ain't no better, but that's another subject.

OREO has got to be thinking about 2010 and to hold congress, and enlarge the senate hold of DEM. Limbaugh is one of the most un-popular mysgonists in the USA.

The PUG's have been bitch-slapped, but they're NOT complete out, your now seeing a final attempt to completely knock them unconscious. Rather than BEND PUG-GERY ( sounds like buggery ) concern the 'childish aspects', why don't PUG's find some leaders that aren't buffoons or crooks??

Is Limbaugh the leader of the PUG's? Hell NO. But he sure as hell is their ICON, and that's all that the DEM's need to win 2010.

Nobody is going to quit 'badgering', hell that isn't even going to happen on BB2. There are too many pissed off citizens. Limbaugh is doing what he has been doing for 25+ years, nothing new.

Putting the face of the PUG-PARTY to be a fat-man, who is addicted to pills, that hates women is brilliant. Especially given that the US hates fat people, and is hypocritic on drug use, and women control the vote since the 1920's.

If PUG-SHIT-HEAD's of BEND want to change their chances to taking back their government, then they should turn-off O'Rielly, Lars, Limbaugh, and Hannity, and read a fucking book, or better yet start their own business.

The PUG's lost cuz their current leaders SUCK-DICK and are SHIT-EATING LIARS.

The PUG's LOST cuz 'W' denied that the ECONOMY was fucked all the way up the election. DENIAL is the way of life with PUG's. It's their CHRISTIAN way of dealing with life, .e.g. HYPOCRISY&DENIAL.

The ameriKKKans are very afraid these days of losing their job and their home. DEM's are addressing the issues that ameriKKKan's care about.

24/7 LIMBAUGH only cares about reducing taxes for the riche, which is fucking bullshit and out-of-touch.

The PUG's NEED NEW LEADERS, but sadly STEELE is saying the RIGHT THING's, and the old-guard is trying to get rid of the NEW PUG OREO.

If anyone is 'childish' here its the DUMB FUCKING PUG's.

Anonymous said...

Cowboy Capitalism at its finest.

*

Well that is Bend,

Bend is a western high-desert town, and it used to have lots of cowboys.

Why MUST Bend be south-cali with fake tits??

Bend is a ghost-town, and soon beat up pick-ups will return.

Why the FUCK is homer here?

Why the FUCK is hbm here?

Why the FUCK is the PUSSY here?

Did you all really think your 'presence' would californicate Bend??

So what you had a bubble, and Bend spent tens of millions of tax-payer money on PR&MARKETING for what?

Things always revert.

Anonymous said...

I completely agree with QUIM, that MADE-OFF is a fall guy for something BIG, like the NOTION that all these MADE-OFF 'cabalists' should be MADE WHOLE by the US Taxpayer, problem is the MONEY now alleged to be $160B NEVER fucking existed.

Here's some current BEGGING THIS week.

1.) All taxes ever paid by made-off 'investors' should be returned by the IRS, yeh great, let's just make the IRS pay us all back, hell lets make the city-of-bend return all it has ever taxed.

2.) All losses from the made-off fraud should be covered by insurance loss, well wait made-off was a hedge-fund, folks knew going in it wasn't insured, this is why the SEC could really 'enforce the law', cuz there is NO FUCKING RULES on hedge-funds, they're designed ONLY FOR sophisticated investors, NOT WHINERS.

I pick on JEWS alot, and HBM says that's unfair, but lets be HONEST, this entire MADE-OFF SHOW is setting us up for a BIG payoff, for money that NEVER fucking existed.

All these JEWS that lost 'invisible' money want to be MADE good by the US taxpayer. Like they say below, the ENRON people weren't made good, and neither were all the MOFU's who had an ENRON retirement 100% tied to ENRON stock.

LIFE AIN'T FAIR, and if you expect to get 15%/yr APR in secret for 40+ years, something is BEND-WRONG.

...

People did abdicate responsibility — and now, rather than face that fact, many of them are blaming the government for not, in effect, saving them from themselves. Indeed, what you discover when you talk to victims is that they harbor an anger toward the S.E.C. that is as deep or deeper than the anger they feel toward Mr. Madoff. There is a powerful sense that because the agency was asleep at the switch, they have been doubly victimized. And they want the government to do something about it.

I spoke, for instance, to Phyllis Molchatsky, who lost $1.7 million with Mr. Madoff — and is now suing the S.E.C. to recoup her losses, on the grounds the agency was so negligent it should be forced to pony up. Her story is sure to rouse sympathy — Mr. Madoff was recommended to her by her broker as a safe place to put her money, and she felt virtuous making 9 or 10 percent a year when others were reaching for the stars. The failure of the S.E.C., she told me, “is a double slap in the face.” And she felt the government owed her. Her lawyer, who represents several dozen Madoff victims, told me he “wouldn’t be averse” to a victims’ fund.

Even Mr. Wiesel thought the government should help the victims — or at least the charitable institutions among them. “The government should come and say, ‘We bailed out so many others, we can bail you out, and when you will do better, you can give us back the money,’ ” he said at the Portfolio event.

But why? What happened to the victims of Bernard Madoff is terrible. But every day in this country, people lose money due to financial fraud or negligence. Innocent investors who bought stock in Enron lost millions when that company turned out to be a fraud; nobody made them whole. Half a dozen Ponzi schemes have been discovered since Mr. Madoff was arrested in December. People lose it all because they start a company that turns out to be misguided, or because they do something that is risky, hoping to hit the jackpot. Taxpayers don’t bail them out, and they shouldn’t start now. Did the S.E.C. foul up? You bet. But that doesn’t mean the investors themselves are off the hook. Investors blaming the S.E.C. for their decision to give every last penny to Bernie Madoff is like a child blaming his mother for letting him start a fight while she wasn’t looking.

Anonymous said...


People did abdicate responsibility — and now, rather than face that fact, many of them are blaming the government for not, in effect, saving them from themselves.


Indeed, what you discover when you talk to victims is that they harbor an anger toward the S.E.C. that is as deep or deeper than the anger they feel toward Mr. Madoff. There is a powerful sense that because the agency was asleep at the switch, they have been doubly victimized. And they want the government to do something about it.

I spoke, for instance, to Phyllis Molchatsky, who lost $1.7 million with Mr. Madoff — and is now suing the S.E.C. to recoup her losses, on the grounds the agency was so negligent it should be forced to pony up. Her story is sure to rouse sympathy — Mr. Madoff was recommended to her by her broker as a safe place to put her money, and she felt virtuous making 9 or 10 percent a year when others were reaching for the stars. The failure of the S.E.C., she told me, “is a double slap in the face.” And she felt the government owed her. Her lawyer, who represents several dozen Madoff victims, told me he “wouldn’t be averse” to a victims’ fund.

Even Mr. Wiesel thought the government should help the victims — or at least the charitable institutions among them. “The government should come and say, ‘We bailed out so many others, we can bail you out, and when you will do better, you can give us back the money,’ ” he said at the Portfolio event.

But why? What happened to the victims of Bernard Madoff is terrible. But every day in this country, people lose money due to financial fraud or negligence. Innocent investors who bought stock in Enron lost millions when that company turned out to be a fraud; nobody made them whole. Half a dozen Ponzi schemes have been discovered since Mr. Madoff was arrested in December. People lose it all because they start a company that turns out to be misguided, or because they do something that is risky, hoping to hit the jackpot. Taxpayers don’t bail them out, and they shouldn’t start now. Did the S.E.C. foul up? You bet. But that doesn’t mean the investors themselves are off the hook. Investors blaming the S.E.C. for their decision to give every last penny to Bernie Madoff is like a child blaming his mother for letting him start a fight while she wasn’t looking.

Anonymous said...

Investors blaming the S.E.C. for their decision to give every last penny to Bernie Madoff is like a child blaming his mother for letting him start a fight while she wasn’t looking.

*

Sorry HBM, but I have to say this, ... "NOTHING IS MORE SAD THAN A DUMB FUCKING JEW WHO HAS LOST HIS MONEY".

They all want to be made WHOLE, hell lets apply this logic to BEND.

Why shouldn't we all SUE COBA&CORA, and have all our homes be made WHOLE again, and marked to top of the Market Fall of 2006??? Why not??

This is a joke right? Nobody cares about Bend.

But the JEWS control the US media, and when they DEMAND they be made WHOLE on stupidity, action will be taken, if AIPAC demands congress or OREO JUMP, they'll jump, and make the DUMB FUCKING JEWS WHOLE.

Anonymous said...

Here's one for the PUSSY, ... $27/bike for license, $500 fine for riding a non-licensed bike in Bend.

COVA - Visit Bend!! www.visitbend.com - FUCK ME, I'm Visiting Bend.



Bend cyclists mad about license, fee proposal


Bicyclists appear more upset by amount of proposed fee than bicycle license itself

Bicyclists appear more upset by amount of proposed fee than bicycle license itself

Bike enthusiasts find no justification for $54 2-year charge

By Kate Paul, KTVZ.com

Central Oregon is a community full of cyclists, so it's no surprise a statewide proposal requiring people to pay to register their bikes is gaining a lot of attention.

It's not just bike enthusiasts that really oppose the idea of paying to ride their bike on the street.

Some of us ride our bikes just to get a little more exercise, and many of us to save a buck. But after this year's legislative session, saving money could be less of a factor.

"They're making us pay for something that's healthy," cyclist Danny Loredo said Friday.

House Bill 3008 would require all adults cycling on public roads to register their bike and pay a fee of $54 every two years.

Some lawmakers say cyclists should have to pay to use and maintain Oregon roads, but many cyclists disagree - especially about the proposed charge.

"I just think it's kind of ridiculous," Loredo said.

"I just think it's way too high," said Jeff Potts, the father of a cyclist. "Maybe if it was $5 or something, every year or two, that'd be reasonable."

Maybe the most bothersome issue is the grounds for the fee.

John Frey of Hutch's Bicycles says he's studied the bill and can't find any justification for it - especially for the notion of using the money to repair damage done by bikes.

"Realistically, bikes don't damage roads - I mean, they just don't. They don't have the capacity to damage roads," said Frey.

Two-thirds of the money would go to the Oregon Department of Transportation. But the remainder would go toward the "agent," collecting the fee, sparking even more opposition.

"The feedback from the cycling community isn't a positive one," Frey said. "My personal take is that it's completely ridiculous."

The bill had its first reading in Salem a little over a week ago.

From there, it's been referred to the Ways and Means Committee for further discussion.

Anonymous said...

"Here's one for the PUSSY, ... $27/bike for license, $500 fine for riding a non-licensed bike in Bend."

Way to encourage people to

1. Use alternative transportation to relieve congestion.

2. Encourge people to spend money in the economy.

3. Get people out exercising.

What a bunch of fucktards...is this really the best people we have out there. And yes it would cost our household over $400 every two years to register our bikes...more than our two gas guzzling autos.

Anonymous said...

See this is WHY I call all you folks KUNTS, you don't get it!!!

See I too have 1/2 dozen dirt-bikes and a dozen-bikes, ... hell yes they want to charge you $200/yr for your bike reg, and that is just the start, the cops want an excuse to stop bikes to make sure you got your tags, so they can write tickets and MAKE real money, and get your for a DUI if your cruising your bike after a beer, and its a DUI just like driving a FUCKING SUV,

But the real thing is MONEY $$$, see the fucking money, BEND-BAT is another MONEY$$$ empire for public retirement,

and get this want to ride a bike?? You got to soon have a DMV bike-drivers license, and pass bike drivers school, ...

Hell yes, you can never get away from the government stealing your money.

All the talk about buses and cars is just talk, they're going to go where the 'soft money' is at, and this is the people who are easy.

but the real money is in the $500 tickets, and the real power is all the fucking homeless in Bend, you know these 'homeless' can't afford to register their bike, but if they get a $500 non-licensed bike ticket they leave town,

in the cop biz, we call these TOOLS

Anonymous said...

HOMER, HBM his jackpot this week on his 'bend is paradise' 55 fucking comments!!!


csante said:
The question that I keep asking myself is who,what, where and why are these jobless people moving here ??? The only answer I can come up with is there must be some perverse RE agents posting ads all over the US inviting people to the land of paradise where there are cheap homes,awesome outdoor recreation and endless job opportunities. It certainly wouldn't be the first time.

March 04, 2009
Hairy Gary said:
What I want to know is why is Bend considered the land of paradise? I can think of a lot of towns closer to a paradise then Bend. Maybe it's a paradise town for the NW. Anyhow...The reason of your high jobless rate is due to your paradise town growing and needing all those people to work the then available jobs. Mostly the restaurant industry. Then your recession hits and all those that bought house that never could afford them to begin with all move away, the ones that stay here stop going out and supporting the businesses that they created by going out all the time. So now all your newly created business such as restaurants start letting people go or closing themselves...now where do all these people go that cannot afford to move somewhere with a more stable job market? They stay here and collect unemployment until either jobs become available or they find a way to move out of town. So there is your town of paradise...use to be a cool blue collar town, became a place for the wealthy, now the wealthy aren't so wealthy, Bend will be come small and ghost like within 5 years...too bad so sad.
March 04, 2009
lou said:
It is not a paradise town for the NW? This town is for the good ole boys who cashed in on it over the past 15 years and for the 2nd round of "yuppies" (not sure what they call themselves these days.) You know the ones - Bend is a town that has an ego bigger than I have ever seen and I still after all these years can't figure out for what???? Certainly can't be Bachelor. Crap that place is barely hanging on as they continually fix all the unsafe practices/buildings/equipment/unqualified staff etc etc etc they have been allowed to get away with for the past 10 years. So if not Bachelor, it can't be the fishing cuz there is a ton of better fishing elsewhere in the NW. So it must be the mountain bike trails - nah - they are all over the NW (most don't kick up that red pumice crap for 6 months of the year). God, it can't be higher education because this is a cheap attempt (although some call it glorified High School) at that - lots of great college towns around the NW. I am stuck - maybe the gated communities in a place where there is little crime?? (sure gives status though huh? even better than saying "I live on the WESTSIDE"- neato)I am stuck again. What is it? Take the family out of crime ridden California or even Portland and bring them up in good old wholesome Bend? - maybe. I am stuck again. Wait, maybe the golf courses the poison the almost dead landscape they call a "beautiful desert" (smells like cat piss to me) Can't be the Art Walk - tons of towns do those and did them YEARS before Bend had a "great idea". Can't be Bite of Bend - that was done by tons of towns YEARS before Bend came up with the "great and original" idea......Help me out - what am I missing???
March 04, 2009
Jed said:
If you live in Bend and do not like it here, hopefully you will be leaving soon.

The newley elected messiah is not doing much for the economy is he? Every time he opens his mouth the economy gets worse.
March 05, 2009
HBM said:
"What I want to know is why is Bend considered the land of paradise?"

Bend isn't "paradise" and never was. When my family and I moved here in the mid-1980s it was a nice, pretty small town. Now, thanks to 20 years of uncontrolled, poorly planned (or unplanned) growth, it's just a sprawling ugly mess with a shitty climate.

IMHO.

And for those who will ask the inevitable question, "Why don't you leave?" my answer is: "I'm working on it."

"the almost dead landscape they call a "beautiful desert" (smells like cat piss to me)"

LOL! Reminds me of a true story from a number of years back, when some famous French climbers came to Central Oregon to tackle Smith Rocks. A reporter asked them what they thought of Central Oregon and one said: "Eet ees ver' beautiFULL, except for ze smell -- eet smells like cat pees! I ask somebody 'Qu'est-ce que ce'st?' and he tells me eet ees ze zhun-i-PAIR."
March 05, 2009
lou said:
To Jed: What does the "Messiah" have to: (1) do with my comments (2) have to do with Bend overall? You must be one of those Rapepublicans..... why don't you move? The Messiah may be coming here..... gasp! It is people like you who make this town on the gaggy side..... like HBM - TRUST me I am working on it....
March 05, 2009
lou said:
Oh yeah Jed - you didn't answer my question(s) - in your mind what makes Bend a "paradise". Help me out here. Let's hear about the attributes from someone with a defensive position - mark get set go.......
March 05, 2009
HBM said:
"If you live in Bend and do not like it here, hopefully you will be leaving soon."

From your keyboard to God's ear, Jed baby.
March 05, 2009
HBM said:
BTW, I do agree the desert landscape of Central Oregon is beautiful. Too bad so much of it has been paved over and covered with ugly buildings.
March 05, 2009
Guest said:
Sounds like you guys haven't gotten out into some of the other big cities in this world!

We are lucky to live in a country where we do have the liberty to leave a place we don't like and plant our roots in a place we do like.

I personally love this town! I don't love it just for the things I can do here, although that's a plus! But, I love it because most of the people I meet are friendly and outgoing. It's not littered with horrific crime. OH, there's crime...but, it's NOTHING like most other cities I've known.

I love the events here. I love the climate here. I love the changes we go through here. After all, nothing stays the same. And, change is almost always a good thing. Good thing is...if we don't like the way things change, we can change!

It's frustrating to hear about how it 'was' great. Trust me, it wasn't a ton better before, it was just different. You got used to it and didn't like the changes!

What we are going through right now with the housing market is difficult and frustrating for so many. Most of these homes that are now being foreclosed on are because people go themselves in over their heads. They made bad investments and the value sank. They were all happy and fun loving when their investment was going to make them money.

Getting back on the change topic. Businesses succeed when they make changes to adapt to what is going on around them. People make it through the difficult times by making changes to adapt to the situation and circumstances surrounding them. Maybe we need to stop looking back at what we 'had' and start looking forward and working together to build something different that we like.
March 05, 2009
csante said:
I am writing in defense of Bend,like the old saying goes "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" Bend to some is like marriage,for better or worse,til death do you part. After 36 years of living here I have often asked myself, why am I living here ? Yes the winters suck and the summer rain showers after a thunderstorm bring the infamous cat pee smell,which I don't think is all that bad. That's just part of living here, it's my home. I can say for certain that any place you live can have pros and cons.

When I moved here Bend WAS a much different town, It was a paradise to me after moving from the valley. The desert, mountains, lakes and streams, very little traffic or people. I really miss those days, but they are gone, and life goes on.

The recent downturn in the economy has brought a sad reality to those who recently moved here to be part of the "bubble" in paradise. It reminds me of my first dose of reality during the first big "bust". I'm not certain but I think that is when Bend was first dubbed "poverty with a view". You then either love it or leave it. I just happen to love it, for better or worse I'm staying.
March 05, 2009
HBM said:
"Bend to some is like marriage,for better or worse,til death do you part. After 36 years of living here I have often asked myself, why am I living here?"

Your loyalty is touching, but I can't quite understand where you're coming from. A commitment to a place isn't the same as a commitment to a human being. You don't have to spend your life in a place just because you moved there or were born there.

Bend was fine for me at a certain stage in my and my family's life. It isn't anymore. I've changed, my family circumstances have changed (daughter has grown up and moved away), and Bend has changed -- a lot, and mostly not for the better IMO. Why not move on?
March 05, 2009
lou said:
You are right - beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I don't argue that. What I find so wrong with this town is that it won't "grow up". It isn't the little town it was yet politicians and people run it and talk about it like it still is. Ah.... that awesome community feeling.... where??? That to me is such a disgrace, almost bordering on stupidity. For example, the City was flush or if not flush at least had money to build, build, build yet legal things like ADA compliance sat untouched and now the City is asking for forgiveness or "more time". I look at that and think, wow how hill- billyish, how stuck up, how elitist - that is but 1 example. There are many many more. Forget the beauty, the so called quaintness, the cat piss smell, the Mercedes' with bikes on the roof, unbeleivable stupid gated communities in a town like you said that has not a lot of crime (compared to what - this town has more crime of anywhere I have lived including a city of 3/4 million!!) ..... simple thing is that Bend promotes itself like it is something it is not. That is the problem. The leaders and influential citizens in this town (the good ole boys) are what is destroying things and the little citizens go along their merry little way like, oh well not my problem. Yes the depression era right now is bad, but that is not my focus at all. My focus is on how pathetic this so called town is to call itself a paradise. That is just a flat out lie.... When a town makes national headlines for (1) drying LAUNDRY (2) stinky people using the city buses (3) now balsalmic vinegar. Come one, that says it all!
March 05, 2009
lou said:
Oops - I have traveled extensively. My SO is from NYC - don't even think my comments come from a base of nieve. Not true!
March 05, 2009
dlg said:
Lived here in 91-92 then came back last year....Bend has skiing....which is poor at best. Mountain trails not well maintained and rude people on trails. Restaurants are closing (thank god) way overpriced for lack of quality and service. Real Estate agents were still sooooo positive when I bought and would not acknowledge that there was an "OVER PRICED" market. Very unfriendly community unless you are in your early 20's....too many street people who are ALWAYS on the same corner....some with samll children.
Sorry I came back and looking to leave as soon as possible. Need to sell an home that has depreciated hugely...what a mess....welcome to the paradise.
March 05, 2009
jmr said:
Can all the negative folks who bitch about how bad living in Bend is please move away? We don't want your sour attitudes here. You don't own this town and you can't control what happens to it. Things change and you need to accept it.

I moved my family here 8 months ago and we don't regret it one bit. Aside from the "we want our old Bend back" old-timers, we stand by what made us move here in the first place -- the weather and the fact that it's a great place to raise a family. We don't ski, we aren't yuppies, and we don't live on the West side. We don't even live in town.
March 05, 2009
a guest said:
Good God. You can always move back to Portland or California! If your bitching about how bad Bend is you need a mental evaluation. In fact I think Cali needs you. They are having some serious social problems down there. They took from the rich to give to the poor and realized it didn't work so good........
March 05, 2009
Jed said:
Those who do not like where they live now, will probably not like where they move to. You make or ruin your own paradise. You control your emotions and feelings, no one else.

To Lou & HBM: I feel sorry for the areas you move to. I am sure you will think they are as terrible as Bend.
March 05, 2009
Spock said:
Bend...paradise? Wow, can I have some of what they're smoking.

BTW, Boulder isn't a "small town". It's home to the University of Colorado. The school alone has more people attending than who live in Bend.

Personally? I'm outta here in two weeks, and I never plan on looking back.
March 05, 2009
lou said:
jmr - besides telling people to leave, you seem to have what it will take for the next Bendovers to make this place a more enriched and better place to live. Don't look at attitudes as being sour, for they are not, just stating opinions. I think dlg's read on Bend is more in line with what truly is..... I am sure it is probably a decent place to raise a family, but that like beauty is relative - depends where you come from and what you look for. If your kids are not yet in High School, I would love to hear from you about say.... their sophomore year..... you just might have a different read. And yes, the skiing is extremely mediocre - it is a very unsafe place and no one at the MT will admit that or better yet fix that.... you have no idea. Hope your kids don't ski... I am not a Bend "old timer", I doubt I could have stayed that long to claim that title. I figured this out within less than 8 months of being here - a very very dysfunctional place.
March 05, 2009
Chance said:
Gotta go with the others here: What's so great about this place?

I hear people all the time complain about how it's gotten too big...is there such a thing? And even at that, how could it have? I'm a dust cloud in a couple of weeks myself, and this city is smaller than a SUBURB of the city I'm moving to. How is it "too big" when it's not even big enough to qualify as a burb if you were to move it? The tallest building isn't even 50 feet tall.

This is an area where companies offer you $11 an hour for jobs that would pay 60-70 grand a year just about anywhere else.

It has no fine dining to speak of. At all. When the majority of residents say their best dining experience of all time has been at a place like Tumalo Feed Company or Applebee's, you know there's a problem.

I'm glad people in this thread mentioned the smell. I always thought it was just me that thought it smelled like that.

It's 3 hours through dangerous mountain passes to get to a real city, or exposure to any real culture or nightlife.

The housing market has been a joke for some time. This area priced its own residents out of their own market years ago. Very few cities manage to do that.

Bachelor has been a joke ever since Powdercorp took it over.

That lava rock garbage they put on the roads doesn't seem to do much other than chip my paint.

Businesses are failing left and right. The town is literally on its last legs. Heck, even old time staples like that doughnut shop on Franklin & 97 went under. His rent couldn't have been anything.

Flying into or out of RDM is always an adventure. Anyone who does it with regularity knows what I'm talking about. Expensive as all get out, too.

Don't get me wrong, the town isn't all bad--I love the golfing here, and COCC is a godsend (the exception to the typically well-deserved "community college" stereotype). The people are for the most part friendly and there's NO crime here to speak of. Maybe it's good for farmers and old retired people, but it's not a place to settle down when you've still got some vibrancy left in life.

I've been here 5 years and, to be honest, it feels like 50. This town has sucked so much life out of me, I can't even describe it. The one thing I'm definitely not gonna do as I exit the city limits for the final time later this month is shed a tear, unless it's a tear of joy. The way I'm leaving isn't exactly how I had planned, but I'm nonetheless grateful that the time is finally here.
March 05, 2009
Blue Steel said:
Wow, Chance. Apparently you enjoy defining yourself by where you live rather than who you are. The town's "sucking the life out of you"? You certainly give a lot of power and credence to an arbitrary location on a map. Perhaps you should visit a shrink rather than blame a town for your pessimistic shortcomings. Bend isn't perfect, and if you want to be a naysayer, you could find plenty wrong with this town. But to make sweeping generalities suggesting that the difficulties you encounter in this town differ so greatly from that which you'll find in other communities in this great country is small-minded and rather ignorant. This is a beautiful area, and while you may not be pampered to by such amenities as "fine dining" these days, if you are comfortable in your own skin, don't feel you need to be catered to and can appreciate the natural beauty of such a diverse selection of "God's Country," Bend isn't half bad. Having lived in middle America and experienced communities that work too hard at surviving to offer the amenities to with many of you feel entitled, I wonder what promises Bend has failed to match that put such pessimistic strain on your lives. To blame a town for the current state of your being seems silly to me.
March 06, 2009
HBM said:
"To Lou & HBM: I feel sorry for the areas you move to. I am sure you will think they are as terrible as Bend."

I didn't think Bend was terrible at all when I moved here -- my family and I loved it. But it's changed. The Bend we moved to is not the Bend of today. We knew the drawbacks when we moved here -- long winters, isolation, lack of cultural amenities, little economic opportunity. We were willing to accept those in exchange for the advantages -- small-down ambiance, friendliness, low crime, no traffic congestion, wide-open spaces at our doorstep. Those advantages are gone now, but the drawbacks remain.

I still don't think the place is "terrible" but it isn't what we want and need at this point in our lives.

And, no, it is not and never was "paradise."
March 06, 2009
HBM said:
Whenever somebody tells me they moved to Bend for "the weather" I always wonder where the hell they moved from. Minnesota? Buffalo? The Falkland Islands? Vladivostok?

Actually the trouble isn't that Bend winters are so harsh -- they're not -- but that they're SO DAMN LONG. They last from November through May, sometimes into June (as was the cased last year).

And of course the "300 days of sunshine" claim is just pure Chamber of Commerce crapola.
March 06, 2009
myview said:
WOW,it's amazing how 2(or 200)people can stand in the same spot+see such a different view?Iv been in the area for 25 years+have seen a lot of change-some good,some bad.As with anywhere?I dont think its the paradise it once was, but its still not bad-no smog,it rains some but thats a necessary 'evil'(I kinda like the rain+it does get rid of the cat pee smell)we have no tornadoes or hurricanes,maybe an occassional tremor+they do predict a possible eruption someday,+wildfires can be a prob but beyond our control(mostly).There are lots of trees+water, blue skies,views in all directions,alot of rec ops+ one of the only places I know of where you can ski,bike+golf all in the same day?Some of the politics have gotten a little out of hand+invasive as well as the authorities(just my opinion)but tell me somewhere its much better+I'm there!Seems to me that no matter WHERE you are,your life is what you make it+you choose what to do with it-we're each responsible for our own happiness + our surroundings or other people don't dictate that-UNLESS we allow it?!
March 06, 2009
An Outsider said:
I have vacationed in Bend twice within the last year, last July and just a few weeks ago in February, and I'm really stunned by the negative comments posted here about Bend. My husband and I find Bend to be a lovely town with a seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities. We are planning to move there (we have no children and don't plan to, are in our mid 30s). My husband is an aviator by profession and we have lived in a many places in the U.S., including Ashland for nearly 2 years, and most of these places were MUCH less attractive and interesting than Bend. It shocks me to read your negative slant on this town.

And this comment is really confusing ... "it's not a place to settle down when you've still got some vibrancy left in life."

"Vibrancy" in what sense? Like exerting yourself with activities such as skiing, hiking, rafting, mountain and rock climbing, yoga, fishing, boating, and I'm sure I've left some out ...

And one of the most bewildering criticisms I've read here is re: the junipers ... just how is the town of Bend accountable for the smell of its flora? You do realize that is really stretching and picking on a place. I can see complaining about a sewer plant's smell, or some type of man-made factory ... but the trees? seriously.

As for "paradise", well you're wasting your time looking for that. You do know it is a fictional locale, right? Live life with your eyes open and stop looking for what does not exist, and you are more apt to find (and appreciate) that which does.

Good luck, hope you find your place, and, much as I have hated living in the south, here's an appropriate little parting ... don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.
March 06, 2009
csante said:
HBM: I have found that as you grow older, the winters here seem longer than the previous one . It tends to make one cranky as hell, look on the bright side we are over half way through, unless it snows in June !!
March 06, 2009
CBD said:
Yes, I too am leaving Bend in about week. I have been living here near 4 years and am over and done with this place. I moved here for a job opportunity that I couldn't say no too. Like most jobs here, that has dried up and long gone away. During my time here, this was a neat and fun place at first. Moving from a big city, nice change, felt like living in the suburbs with a desert/mountain scape. Fine for a little while but soon the isolation kicks in...No good live music, same old bars/style of restaurants, the mountain biking just so XC and nothing else...Bachelor as my only option for decent snowboarding? Everything else is hours away, and these days that is expensive in travel costs. So what is one to do? Move..yes move!!! Once the recession fades, I for-see Bend being a lot smaller, after the mass exodus from people in search of jobs and a real paradise town...Bend will be a residential ghost town over run by the gutter punks squatting in the big fancy houses once the gates are torn down, and the tumbleweed blowing through the Old Mill.
March 06, 2009
Dirka said:
Jed said:
If you live in Bend and do not like it here, hopefully you will be leaving soon.

The newley elected messiah is not doing much for the economy is he? Every time he opens his mouth the economy gets worse.

Well Jed, I am leaving your quaint town, and sounds like hundreds maybe thousands more are too. That will do wonders for your town of paradise...Good luck with that! As far your Obama comment...are you really that redneck? Do you think anyone can just snap their magical fingers and make everything better? You deserve Bend and all it's bleakness, maybe Bush will by a summer home here and everyone can enjoy the town/current state of economy you have created.

ALLAH ALLAH ALLAH ALLAH DIRKA MOHAMMED JIHAD
March 06, 2009
HBM said:
"I have vacationed in Bend twice within the last year, last July and just a few weeks ago in February, and I'm really stunned by the negative comments posted here about Bend. My husband and I find Bend to be a lovely town with a seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities. We are planning to move there"

A word of friendly advice: I strongly recommend against moving to Bend -- or any place -- just on the basis of a couple of vacation experiences. Vacationing in a town is VERY different from living there year-round for year after year. If you're seriously thinking about relocating, rent a place for a year (at least) and find out if you really like it.

Another point: If either of you has allergies, asthma or sinus problems, moving to Bend could be a disaster. We have some of the highest pollen counts in the West, especially when the juniper and Ponderosa are doing their thing, and the cold, dry air is absolutely brutal on sinuses. (I speak from personal experience.)

Even if you don't THINK you have allergies now, you might develop them after living here for a few years. That's what happened to me. I had severe allergies and asthma while living on the East Coast. When I lived in California for a number of years that all cleared up. Then I moved to Bend and, to my amazement, after three or four years the allergies CAME BACK (or I developed new ones to the new pollens that were here). The dust doesn't help either.

Final point: If and when you do move to Bend, bring plenty of money -- you'll need it. We have a proverb here that says, "The best way to make a small fortune in Bend is to start with a large one."
March 06, 2009
HBM said:
csante: You got THAT right. I used to enjoy the winters, but now if I never see another f'ing snowflake in my life it'll be too soon for me.

And snow in June is not beyond the realm of possibility. One "summer" a friend of mine and I tried to go fishing on the 4th of July and had to turn back because of snow. I ain't kidding.
March 06, 2009
Pickle said:
My favorite thing about living in Bend is all the BREASTS!!! Such wonderful BREASTS!!!! Big fake BREASTS, natural BREASTS....summer BREASTS, winter BREASTS....BREASTS BREASTS BREASTS
March 06, 2009
yADDa said:
An Outsider said:
I have vacationed in Bend twice within the last year, last July and just a few weeks ago in February, and I'm really stunned by the negative comments posted here about Bend. My husband and I find Bend to be a lovely town with a seemingly endless supply of outdoor activities. We are planning to move there (we have no children and don't plan to, are in our mid 30s). My husband is an aviator by profession and we have lived in a many places in the U.S., including Ashland for nearly 2 years, and most of these places were MUCH less attractive and interesting than Bend. It shocks me to read your negative slant on this town. "


Stunned.... give it some time after you move here and you will understand the stunned part. If you are a recreation-ist (not hardcore about your sports), like to sip wine, drive a Subaru, live life like an ABC 90's sitcom...then Bend is prefect, otherwise when you wake up and see what hides under the propaganda cloud of Bend, there are plenty of towns in the mountain that offer a lot more including a thing called JOBS!!!!
March 06, 2009
kim said:
Wow - of course any place you live you have to take it for what it is and see the benefits. Could it be worse? Of yeah it could. It is interesting to read all the negative comments - and the few positive ones. Besides the housing mess Bend put itself into before this depression, the egos are what is incredible around here. Almost humorous. It is not neighborly the way it wants you to think it is - like Mayberry or something. Today's Bulletin (sorry) had an article about economic development - what a joke that was. A nice feel good report for an area that has been told the same thing for 2 decades but can't get it together, yet groups keep paying for this high priced economists to tell them their fortune in a crystal ball. Juniper Ridge is a start and should be pursued - a 4 yr university is a must - and local guys in town who try to undercut all of that to benefit their own pockets should be called out and named. I heard of a guy thinking about starting a tech park in Tumalo (a local 50+yrold) while Juniper Park was struggling to get going. This is the Bend I am talking about. Here's a supposed local (raised here) instead of jumping on the band wagon and supporting smart tech business growth, he pursued a goal of starting his own Tech Park so that what .... he could benefit financially. THAT is what constantly goes wrong with Bend. I don't care about the juniper smell, it is weird. I am talking about "those people" who are beyond what you would call an entrepreneur - it is called personal GREED. That is Bend! Things are not done for what is best for the "group" but rather what is best for the individual....
March 06, 2009
Chance said:
Quote: "To blame a town for the current state of your being seems silly to me."

My current "state of being" is fine. I'm blessed in that my success is not tied to the success of this city. I actually work in Las Vegas (well, I work all over, but Las Vegas primarily). When I say this area has sucked a lot of life out of me, I mean in regards to how the lack of culture and entertainment has really worn me down over the years. It becomes such a hassle to either wake up at 4 in the morning to catch a flight out or town or else have to spend all day driving just to get to a real city to do something for a couple days. Especially during the winter months where the passes are horrible and the air is choppy enough to throw around the tuna cans that fly out of here like rag dolls.

I was refreshed when I first moved here. I was thrilled with concepts like not having to lock my doors, getting to remove theft insurance from my car, all the mountains, how the people here were so nice and how the night sky would just be littered with stars. But little by little over the years, the lack of any sort of amenities started wearing me down to where I'm at presently--which is being all depressed the day before I fly back from a real city, thinking "Ugh, I'm gonna have to go back to Bend".

Like I said, if you're a farmer/rancher type who wants the slow pace of life that this area offers, or an older person....I'm sure this place is appealing. But for people who are into things like museums, fine dining, healthy concert schedules, diversity, and new events every week? This just isn't the place. I see a lot of people point to the "outdoorsy" stuff you can do here, but honestly--there's a reason why when you go do something "outdoorsy" you only run into a few other people. It's not something most people are into. And furthermore, if that's your thing, Portland, Seattle et al all have better.

I could never raise a kid here. I see and talk to so many younger (18-22) people who've spent their whole lives here, and it still shocks me how unaware of the world a lot of them are. It's not something you'll see of people who have spent a good deal of time in a more populous setting. They essentially live in a bubble out here. And most of them, honestly, aren't even aware that this is the case. I couldn't do that to my kid, leave him/her so thoroughly unaware and unprepared for the world.

So. Yeah. 5 years later, I still think the people are (for the most part) nice. And I'll miss not having to worry about locking my doors. And I'll hate having to pay that extra cash for the theft insurance again. But at least I won't almost die trying to get over a snowed over pass anytime I get a craving for a Brazilian Steakhouse, Greek food, real Mongolian, fondue, etc. or when I want to go see the new Impressionist exhibit at the museum, or catch the theatre when it passes through town. If my favorite band goes on tour, I know they'll stop by locally. I know my next car won't be pockmarked by lava rocks. I'll know that if there's ever anything I need to get, I won't have to go far to get it--unlike here, where half the time I have to order it online because it can't be obtained locally. And while I won't be able to see those stars anymore, I'll still be able to look up and see something I like seeing even more--the skyline of a well-developed downtown.

Trust me on this, I'm getting the better end of this trade.
March 06, 2009
csante said:
Chance: Blah blah blah blah, Dude give it a rest already, move on to the big city and enjoy your culture, fine dining and gang bangers (Portland has plenty of em'). I'm sure that none of us long time hillbilly Bendites give a rip if you move on, just one less snob to contend with.

March 06, 2009
HBM said:
"When I say this area has sucked a lot of life out of me, I mean in regards to how the lack of culture and entertainment has really worn me down over the years. It becomes such a hassle to either wake up at 4 in the morning to catch a flight out or town or else have to spend all day driving just to get to a real city to do something for a couple days."

Well, dude, if you move to a (relatively) small town you can't justifiably complain that it doesn't have the amenities of a big city. My bitch is that Bend has developed a lot of the hassles of a big city (traffic congestion, sprawl, urban blight) without gaining the amenities.
March 06, 2009
Chance said:
" Chance: Blah blah blah blah, Dude give it a rest already, move on to the big city and enjoy your culture, fine dining and gang bangers (Portland has plenty of em'). I'm sure that none of us long time hillbilly Bendites give a rip if you move on, just one less snob to contend with. "

Boy, if you think that PDX has "a lot of" gangbangers, you really haven't traveled much. PDX is one of the cleanest, safest, and secure metro areas in the country.
March 06, 2009
Chance said:
"Well, dude, if you move to a (relatively) small town you can't justifiably complain that it doesn't have the amenities of a big city. My bitch is that Bend has developed a lot of the hassles of a big city (traffic congestion, sprawl, urban blight) without gaining the amenities."

Really? You think there's traffic? I never see any, and I've been here for years. At least nothing that would qualify as traffic in my world.

You think there's sprawl? I can go from the North end of Redmond through the South end of Bend in 30 minutes. I can get through Bend north-to-south in 10 minutes. You can't even get through downtown Seattle in 10 minutes. That's not sprawl.

Urban blight? Where? The tallest building is 4 stories tall. The only blight is the hodgepodge of mom-and-pop buildings that litter 97 and the surrounding areas that have no rhyme or reason to them. That's a rural issue--it's something I see in every small town.

And what I was complaining about was that this area, for all it's supposed "growth", isn't actually growing--at least not in a way that enriches quality of life. Growth generally implies new shopping options, more people which equates to more shows coming through town, etc. Growth is not taking the same existing structure and putting a new store in it every 4 months.
March 06, 2009
The Truth said:
Well, the 'long time Bendites' might not 'give a rip' if 'snobs' move on, but you're missing one very important point: Those 'snobs' brought in a lot of tax dollars that this area is going to lose as they leave, which means this city is going to become even more impovershed, the businesses are going to have an even harder time surviving, and the politicians are going to have even less money to work with. 'Hillbillies' really should try to understand that. Taking all the money out of the county via people leaving the area is just going to leave you all broke and broken down, not better off.
March 06, 2009
HBM said:
"And what I was complaining about was that this area, for all it's supposed "growth", isn't actually growing--at least not in a way that enriches quality of life."

I'm with you there.

"Those 'snobs' brought in a lot of tax dollars that this area is going to lose as they leave, which means this city is going to become even more impovershed, the businesses are going to have an even harder time surviving, and the politicians are going to have even less money to work with. 'Hillbillies' really should try to understand that."

There are many of the "hillbillies" who are hoping the local economy will deteriorate to the sad state it was in during the mid-1980s. Why? Because back then everybody was poor like them and they didn't feel inferior or looked-down-on. And there's a big element of schadenfreude. They want to see the "rich snobs" go broke even if that means they go broke too.
March 06, 2009
kim said:
Bend is a very odd place. It could use a 4 year university and that would solve so much of the backwardness of it. It is a very very look at me town. I love the comments about the "breasts" but you know for the most part they are FAKE! We had a friend come down from Seattle who took a booth at i think Summerfest. He had never been here and is a worldly and very intelligent guy. It was so funny for me to here his comments about what he saw strutting their stuff downtown (you call that a downtown for a city of 85000?)His first comment was about the old men with the trophy wives on their arms. And yes, he did go into the fake breasts part too!! God, I felt so relieved to hear these comments from an outsider. It wasn't just me! I have never seen so many law enforcement (fire incuded)espcially in a town this size and for the short time I have been here, who are criminals and kicked out of the force. Another oddity! I guess hillbillies isn't quite the word, close though. Being red necks is for sure - expand that defintion to include people who haven't even gotten out of this STATE! What?? I would encourage my kids to leave like you said. It is just one weird odd place. Like someone said (1) laundry drying outside in PLAIN PUBLIC VIEW - gasp!! (2)stinky people who ride the bus - oh my! (3) now a balsamic vinegar thief (who is probably a trusted employee!!) All national news - give me a break!
March 06, 2009
Blackcloud said:
HB,

I kinda gotta agree with you on your last. My federal pension which is annualy adjusted for inflation, four rental houses all paid for and never vacant, a spouse who is a registered nurse, and my primary home paid for, am starting to feel pretty good about myself. What recession? Retired at 56 and not care in the world. I like the demise of Mcmansion Bend. Folks loseing there homes think my rental looks real good. I have been through every Bend recession since 1980 and I will be here after you folks are all a fuzzy memory. Your ilk has came and gone at least four times in four decades. And once again, bye. I knows what smells like cat piss, and it aint the land. Yellow cat piss.
March 06, 2009
Next to Stars said:
How do I go from reading a feel good story to reading HBM rant and rave about how bad Central Oregon is? This is a good change from ripping on the Bulletin but come on, is it really that bad? You have never been in a small, bad market and left to fend for yourself have you. Yes I feel victim to the closing of businesses and the layoffs that followed, and I'm not planning on moving. Am I bitter about it though, no! I find exercise helps!
Did you ever think past your feelings of anger? Some preach on how this was better as a blue collar town, well what are you crying over then? This town is turning more blue collar by the day. Before I heard the sob story of a response I'd just like to inform you that jobless rates are high everywhere and also the housing market is dead everywhere. So where are you going to move HBM? You responded to a couple who posted here about how Bend is great and told them not to make this a destination to live, making Bend sound like the ghost under your bed at night. So what is it you are looking for in a town to move to and how does it enrich the lives of the people in it? Are you going to go where the jobs are, where it is sunny 24/7, where there isn't diversity in people or is it the straight out amenities? Your rantings are pathetic and tend to always end with a complaining whine. You not only wrote the blog but have commented more words then you have written.

"Final point: If and when you do move to Bend, bring plenty of money -- you'll need it. We have a proverb here that says, "The best way to make a small fortune in Bend is to start with a large one." Do you research? That's not a local Bend saying, just your way of trying to prove the glass is half empty! Exercise and a shrink is what you need, no new town or president can assure inner happiness!
March 07, 2009
csante said:
HBM; I have no problem with people with money, bring it on , we need money to keep our business running. What I have a problem with are "posers" who think they have money and we all need to cater to them. What they really have is an attitude which comes across as snobbery and I for one don’t feel the need to accommodate them at any price.

I am not naive enough to think Bend will go back to the 1980's , wouldn't even want it to, what I would like to see happen to Bend is "get real", not try to be something it’s not. Bend is not a big city, it is, what it is, a small city. We've had such a push to become all things to all people that we’ve lost what brought people to Bend in the first place, clean air and water, good neighborhoods, decent schools, parks and outdoor recreation.

I really hope Bend will recover from this economic blight it’s experiencing and come out better that is was before, with more theaters ,concerts , dance, good affordable restaurants, museums and family activities. HBM just because I’m a long time Bendite doesn’t mean I feel inferior or looked down on, I have no reason to feel that, I just don’t feel that people need to treat anyone with disrespect with or without money or complain Bend does not meet their expectations.
March 07, 2009
Weekly Reader said:
The Bend you are left with today is the result of environmentalists, pretentious yuppies and real estate people. The environmentalists legislate an economy based on abundant natural resources out of existence. An economy that provided good paying jobs to population that worked hard and lived simply. Then the locals are coerced into a tourism based economy that pays nothing. The real estate agents bring in the developers and the pretentious yuppies who shun the stores in favor of upscale boutiques. The locals get taxed and priced out of town. The yuppies are left scratching their heads while patting themselves on the back wondering why nobody will work in all the minimum wage jobs they've
created. There was a time in Bend when you went into a "cafe", your "food" was "cooked" and "served" to you. Now, you go into a "bistro" and your "entree" is "created" and "presented" to you. In the old Bend, you ate to live. In Bend now, you live to eat....and have an experience. Now Bend is left with its tourist economy totally dependent on the automobile in an age of high gas prices because there's no Amtrak, a joke of an airport in a neighboring town, and no scheduled bus service. Good luck Bend, at least you have the real estate industry to fall back on.
March 07, 2009
Beno said:
Bend will re-cover...every town/city will recover...some just won't be the same as probably the case with Bend. A lot of people with money and business have or will be leaving Bend. People rather they want to or not will be leaving Bend. Without the jobs, or stable economy which for Bend was all about consumerism, there will be a lot of people leaving. Results will be hundreds of empty houses, empty buildings were thriving business once were. When the dust settles, Bend will be here, just with a different attitude. Over time it will re-build to what it is now or even more, but maybe the next time it won't built on such greed and foolish spending
March 07, 2009
HBM said:
"The environmentalists legislate an economy based on abundant natural resources out of existence."

With all due respect, sir, that is bullspit. The timber industry east of the Cascades died because the timber companies didn't practice sustained-yield harvesting. They cut down all the big valuable trees, leaving nothing but skinny pecker-poles.

The natural resource was abundant but not inexhaustible -- and the timber companies exhausted it. It was as simple as that.

And please don't tell me about the spotted owl. The spotted owl doesn't nest east of the Cascades.
March 08, 2009
Give Me Rain said:
I came to this city to do systems administration at Columbia Aircraft. Starting salary: $74,000 a year. Acceptable.

The other day, I was called in for an interview for a job as a systems analyst (same basic job function) where I was offered, get this: $11 an hour

I didn't spend 4 years in college, 2 years acquiring certifications, and god knows how much money in tuition, fees, etc. to make $23,000 a year. And it's not the first time I've been given such an insulting offer. Just how this city operates. How do I operate? Bend Population: -2.
March 08, 2009
MITCH said:
I don't see why Bend is a paradise town. overall its pretty ugly...take away the cascade range and the area is flat with ugly zit looking buttes everywhere. beyond the landscape, bend has personality within the look and styling of the town. does bend not look like just another suburban town in any town america? even the downtown is bland... everyone has their reasons for living here, but apart from having nice weather here compared to the valley, how can bend be a paradise? just an ugly town in oregons high desert....oooooooohhhhhhhh aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
March 09, 2009
HBM said:
I'm astounded by how many comments this post has drawn -- a record, I think -- and by the heavy consensus that Bend is NOT "paradise."

I suspect a lot of people here thought so all along, but were too intimidated by the local "boosters" to say anything as long as the real estate boom continued. Now the bloom is off the bubble, so to speak, and it's okay to speak the unspeakable truth.
March 09, 2009
kim said:
to HBM - here here ---- Blackcloud - You are too funny.... I bow to these old wise master of Bend.... you seem to say you sit back on your a** and your wife STILL keeps on working- nice...... probably for the health insurance right?
March 09, 2009
pal said:
Some guy in the grocery store was heard aughing when he says he walked away from 4 homes, all rental, and just let them go into foreclosure. WOW!!! Not quite what I would consider comments in public. And he lives on Awbrey Butte BTW
March 09, 2009
HBM said:
"you seem to say you sit back on your a** and your wife STILL keeps on working - nice"

Yeah, it is. She's younger than I am -- not Social Security age yet. When she's ready to retire, she'll retire. I'm not making her work.
March 09, 2009
HBM said:
BTW, I'm not on her health insurance. Pay for my own, as I have done ever since I left The Bulletin about 15 years ago.

Anonymous said...

Madoff Had Accomplices: His Victims

What I said. Why didn't they ask questions when he said he could "guarantee" a 10% (or more) ROI?

Point is, THEY DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW. As long as they kept getting that steady return, they didn't give a flying fuck where or how Made-off was getting the money. He could have been selling meth to 8-year-olds for all they knew, or cared.

Anonymous said...

"the cops want an excuse to stop bikes to make sure you got your tags, so they can write tickets and MAKE real money"

Good fucking luck catching me on my bike.

Bewert said...

OK. I missed about the last 20 comments, but this is ridiculous right now:

ISSUE / COUNCIL DECISION & DISCUSSION POINTS:
Bend Code Chapter 6 has contained Section 6.345 for many years and in 1988 was amended to include a prohibition against skateboarding in the Downtown District. When the code was amended, the penalty section was not included. This amendment is intended to correct that omission.

BACKGROUND:
Section 1. Bend Traffic Code Section 6.345 currently states:
6.345 Roller-skates, Skateboards, Sleds, etc. No person shall:
(1) Use streets for traveling on downhill skis, toboggans, sleds, or similar services, except on a designated play street.

(2) Use roller-skates, skateboards, coasters or similar devices in the downtown
District as defined in Bend Code 6.910.

(3) Use roller-skates, skateboards or coasters on any streets except to cross at a crosswalk or as authorized by the City.
Staff proposes to add the following subsection:

(4) A violation of subsection of this section is a Class B civil infraction since I'm on deadline, but this is just too fucking rich--outlawing skateboarding, etc.

###

Yep, that is a fucking current concern.

This town is ridiculous at times.

Bewert said...

Re:
Good fucking luck catching me on my bike.

###

As one who has police friends and seen the reach of radios and infrared on helicopters, it's easy.

Unless you know of a quickly accessible and hidden cave.

Hint, hint.

And don't pull your weapon to protect your cave/home. That will cause your justifiable death.

Anonymous said...

Point is, THEY DIDN'T WANT TO KNOW. As long as they kept getting that steady return, they didn't give a flying fuck where or how Made-off was getting the money. He could have been selling meth to 8-year-olds for all they knew, or cared.

*

Wait a minute hbm, your talking about the finest jewish institutions in ameriKKKa, your talking about Spleenberg, the man you brought us "Swindlers List".

Anonymous said...

Hey - is it THAT hard to leave a link to HBM's 'paradise' article w/comments rather than copy/pasting 55 fucking comments?!

Anonymous said...

What the fuck is a link?

Besides do you really want to be logged by Switzer Jew @THE-SORE??

Isn't better to read the HBM vile&bile here, and be free of SORE-EYE-JEW IP logging??

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