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#20yrsago SARS: The Mystery Illness https://web.archive.org/web/20030408021713/http://www.cbc.ca/news/sars/
#20yrsago KPMG makes hysterical, self-serving wardriving report http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2885339.stm
#20yrsago Facts don’t violate trademarks https://web.archive.org/web/20030803080408/https://www.eff.org/IP/20030328_taxes-com_pr.php
#15yrsago British Airways loses 15–20,000 bags since Thursday at supremely b0rked Heathrow Terminal 5 https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7320771.stm
#15yrsago Cartoon explains the difference between causality and covariation https://appliedabstractions.com/2008/03/29/covariation-and-causality/
#10yrsago Toronto Mayor Rob Ford about to lose his job coaching high-school football? https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2013/03/29/rob_ford_mayor_cancels_meeting_with_toronto_catholic_board_to_discuss_his_coaching_future.html
#10yrsago When US money was nice to look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US-$10-LT-1901-Fr.114.jpg
#10yrsago ATM skimming comes to non-ATM payment terminals in train stations, etc https://krebsonsecurity.com/2013/03/cash-claws-fake-fascias-tampered-tickets/
#10yrsago Lessons learned from YouTube’s $300M “Original Channel” fund https://web.archive.org/web/20130330055859/http://edwardspoonhands.com/post/46305605617/lessons-learned-from-youtubes-300m-hole
#10yrsago Florida polo tycoon has difficulty adopting his 42-year-old girlfriend in order to keep assets away from bio-kids, ex-wife, family of guy he killed in a hit-and-run https://www.loweringthebar.net/2013/03/whats-the-point-of-being-a-polo-tycoon-if-you-cant-adopt-your-girlfriend.html
#10yrsago Zombie houses: 300K+ in America https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0328/Zombie-foreclosures-300-000-undead-properties-stalk-ex-owners
#10yrsago Songwriting podcast with Richard Sherman of Disney’s Sherman Brothers https://www.sodajerker.com/episode-38-richard-m-sherman/
#5yrsago Paypal blocks payments for a World Socialists pamphlet about the Iranian opposition https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/29/payp-m29.html
#5yrsago Private equity killed big box retailers, leaving empty big boxes across America, and architects have plans https://www.popsci.com/repurposing-big-box-stores/
#5yrsago There’s a notorious Nazi concentration camp guard living in New York City and ICE won’t deport him https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-wont-deport-the-last-nazi-war-criminal-in-america
#5yrsago The idea behind Cambridge Analytica’s Facebook data-harvesting app came from a Palantir employee, with support from Eric Schmidt’s daughter https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/27/us/cambridge-analytica-palantir.html
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New York City Leads Nation In Zombie Foreclosures In Q1 (Followed By Miami, Chicago, Cleveland And Philadelphia)
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/new-york-city-leads-nation-in-zombie-foreclosures-in-q1-followed-by-miami-chicago-cleveland-and-philadelphia/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr
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New York Zombie Foreclosure Warning: Second Lien Holders Are Coming!
New York Zombie Foreclosure Warning: Second Lien Holders Are Coming!
New York Zombie Foreclosure Warning: An Army Of Bottom Feeding Lawyers Are On The March To Shake You Down!
MFI-Miami is issuing a New York Zombie Foreclosure Warning!
Armies of bottom-feeding lawyers armed with thousands of New York Zombie foreclosures coming! They are barging down the doors of courthouses across New York like Walmart shoppers on Black Friday hoping for free money for…
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#foreclosure#foreclosure crisis#foreclosure defense#foreclosure fraud#foreclosure help#foreclosure rescue#foreclosure rescue scams#foreclosures#new york zombie foreclosures
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represents one of several expansions
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Vacant Housing
ATTOM Data Solutions recently released its Q3 2019 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, which found there are more than 1.5 million (1,530,563) U.S. single-family homes and condos vacant in the U.S. This number represents 1.6 percent of all homes.
The report showed there are a total of 9,612 “zombie” homes, or properties facing possible foreclosure, which have been vacated by their owners nationwide. New York had the highest number of zombie properties (2,428), followed by Florida (1,634), Illinois (985), Ohio (891) and New Jersey (463).
In drilling down to the local market level, which housing markets have the most “zombie” properties?
The report also noted the highest levels of vacant investor-owned properties were in Indiana (8.8 percent), Kansas (6.7 percent), Minnesota (6.0 percent), Ohio, (5.9 percent) and Rhode Island (5.8 percent).
And at the zip code level, the top 10 zip codes with the highest number of vacant investor-owned properties were in these zips:
The post Vacant Housing appeared first on Think Realty | A Real Estate of Mind.
from Real Estate Tips https://thinkrealty.com/vacant-housing/
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Timothy Geithner tries to spin White House housing efforts
Contents
Senate banking committee
Secretary-designee tim geithner
36m affordable housing scheme involved
National economic council
The White House has called for Beijing to take action to stop computer. and trade issues who dealt regularly with Lew’s predecessors, Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner.. Geithner’s Statement on Recovery Efforts Timothy Geithner addressed the senate banking committee: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner projects financial institutions will.
Geithner told the group he understands that the White House needs to do a better job of building public support, according to John M. Spratt Jr. (D-S.C.). "He promised to come back as frequently.
The Senate vote caps more than a year of legislative effort after Obama proposed reforms in June 2009. The House of Representatives approved. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said. “This is the.
Timothy Franz Geithner (/ a t n r /; born August 18, 1961) is a former American central banker who served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama, from 2009 to 2013.He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009, following service in the Clinton administration.
Treasury secretary-designee tim geithner, the man charged with turning around the worst U.S. financial crisis since the Great Depression, made more than $40,000 worth of mistakes on his tax returns.
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Geithner’s Statement on Recovery Efforts Timothy Geithner addressed the Senate Banking Committee: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner projects financial institutions will repay $25 billion of their government rescue funds over the coming year.
FHA policy transparency fuels Ginnie Mae modernization The primary function of Fannie Mae is to purchase, hold or sell Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgage loans originated by private lenders. 1968 – The 1968 Charter Act splits the Government.
So I think I’ll take a stab at a persuasive answer: the zombies do represent something. But the zombies aren’t foreigners, they’re us . There’s no denying the popularity of zombies"by which I mean the modern brain-hungry, shambling, disgusting, undead-or-plague.
Prominent Miami developers plead guilty for $36M affordable housing scheme Big Banks Prepare for Major Rise in Foreclosures Ending 2010 are the banks going to be putting a glut of foreclosed homes on the market in California very soon? Asked by Dog Lady, Riverside, CA Wed Nov 4, 2009. we would like to wait until January or February to try and sell our house but our realtor feels we should do it now because the banks will be releasingglut of foreclosed homes into the Ca. market soon.Lending Prominent Miami developers plead guilty for m affordable housing scheme involved inflated construction costs and kickbacksNew Kansas City land bank ready to receive properties Purchasing Property at the Michigan Land bank. land bank property Listing Link Please visit the new and improved Michigan Land Bank Property Search that allows a streamlined approach to searching, mapping and even applying for Michigan land bank owned property online. When a property is identified an offer can be made to purchase it by simply.
Chief among these were Harvard economist Lawrence Summers, who became the director of the President’s national economic council, and Timothy Geithner, a pedigreed. Scheiber dissects the White House.
Appearing before reporters in the White House State Dining Room. Also on Sunday night, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke joined counterparts from.
Timothy Geithner tries to spin White House housing efforts Timothy Geithner, Former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury; Author, Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises Bethany McLean, Contributing Editor, Vanity Fair – Moderator Geithner served as the.
The post Timothy Geithner tries to spin White House housing efforts appeared first on Mortgage Broker Plano Texas.
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Orlando’s ‘zombie’ home foreclosure rate hits record low since 2016
Orlando’s “zombie” home foreclosure rate is at a record low of 2.8% in the third quarter this year, down from 4% in the same period in 2016, according to a new report by Attom Data Solutions, an Irvine, California-based real estate research company.
In fact, the city’s rate is lower than the state and nationwide rate, which is currently 4% and 3.2% respectively. New York had the highest actual number of zombie properties (2,428), followed by Florida (1,634), Illinois (985), Ohio (891) and New Jersey…
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How to Punish the White House "Traitor"
See me, feel me Touch me, heal me - "See Me, Feel Me," The Who
PARIS - Now, we come to the bang!
But first, let's check the headlines...
Oh my... There's somebody in the White House casting doubt on the president's competence.
White House Resistance
An anonymous editorial in The New York Times claims there is "resistance" in the White House to an "amoral" president.
That is, there are, apparently, people who are trying to block the president from doing what he wants to do so they can do what they want to do.
From The New York Times:
President Trump is facing a test to his presidency unlike any faced by a modern American leader. [...] The dilemma - which he does not fully grasp - is that many of the senior officials in his own administration are working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations. I would know. I am one of them.
"Treason," says Trump, demanding that The New York Times hand over the traitor on national security grounds.
Here at the Diary, we hope The New York Times reveals its source.
If not, we have a suggestion: decimation.
It worked for the Roman army. And military historian Antony Beevor claims the Soviets used it, too, to stiffen the resistance at Stalingrad.
The idea for the Romans was simple: When punishing entire cohorts (military units), they'd line up all the soldiers... and every tenth man would get the sword.
Here's how the Trump team could use it now: Simply line up the entire White House staff - the head of the National Security Agency... the guards at the front gate... secretaries... top officials... everyone. If no one confesses to having told the truth to The New York Times, shoot every tenth person.
We don't know if that would solve Mr. Trump's morale issue, but it would be good for the morale of the rest of the nation.
Countercyclical Policy
While the political circus draws crowds in Washington, the important news is left unwatched and unnoticed. And no decimation will cure it.
As we wrote yesterday, America's long road to bankruptcy will start with a whimper... but end with a bang.
Yes, the whimper will come - as it always does - in response to a debt crisis. Falling stock and bond prices, rising unemployment, debt defaults, foreclosures - the collapse will cause people to moan, whine, and cry for relief.
People should have learned their lessons in the crisis of 2008-2009. But the Fed burned down the school, setting interest rates so low that saving money made no sense.
So instead of saving, people borrowed more... and now, they are more vulnerable than ever.
What will they do when the next crisis comes? When their stocks are cut in half? When their jobs are lost? When the federal deficit hits $2 trillion?
They will expect the feds to come to the rescue - just as they did after the last three crises in 1987, 2000, and 2008.
That should mean another round of emergency low interest rates (Mistake #3) and a new program of "shovel-ready," deficit-boosting boondoggles (aka "fiscal stimulus"), both designed to counterbalance the deflationary economy.
That was always the idea, by the way. Countercyclical policy, it was called. When the business cycle was running hot, the feds would cool it down. Monetary policy would switch to being "tight" - with higher lending rates. Fiscal policy would tighten, too - with less spending and bigger surpluses.
Then, when the business cycle turned down, the feds would be ready; they could cut interest rates and spend some of the surplus they had accumulated.
Bible scholars will recognize the idea's ancient provenance. Pharaoh, aided by his Jewish advisor, Joseph, ran a countercyclical economic policy thousands of years ago.
In the seven fat years, he stored up grain. In the seven lean years, he made it available to the people.
Granaries Gone Dry
The trouble with the feds is that they could never get it together enough to store any grain at all. The last time the feds ran a real surplus was during the waning years of the Clinton administration, nearly 20 years ago.
Since then, they've drained the granaries dry... and borrowed $21 trillion to pay for the grain they forgot to store up.
So what do they do? They fake it.
They give away fake grain - savings that were never earned or saved... and money that is nothing more than claim tickets on wealth that doesn't exist. These claim tickets are then added to the federal debt.
And then the feds, too, are more vulnerable. They have to borrow more money just to keep up with the payments on the money they've already borrowed.
This puts pressure on the debt market... drives up interest rates... and makes the economy even weaker, thereby lowering tax receipts.
This is just a classic, textbook debt deflation. It happens every time, without exception - interest rates rise and debt becomes too heavy to carry.
And then what? All the poor, the rich, the cronies, and the zombies... with their eyes full of tears and their wallets empty... turn their faces to the feds.
Help me. Feel me. Touch me. Heal me.
Can the feds pull off another "save" as they did after 1987, 2000, and 2008?
With no interest rates to cut (the federal funds rate, in real terms, is still negative)... and no surplus to draw on (we are in the tenth fat year... and still adding debt at the rate of more than $1 trillion a year)... what can the feds do?
Bang!
Stay tuned.
Regards,
Bill Bonner, Bonner & Partners Vivek Kaul's Diary
PS: Senior research analyst, Richa Agarwal, has discovered a way to identify potentially winning small-cap stocks early. This strategy has delivered triple-digit returns within a few years. To know more, click here.
Bill Bonner is the President & Founder of Agora Inc, an international publisher of financial and special interest books and newsletters.
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A Glimpse Into How Modern Agriculture Actually Works
Photo Credit: Larry Rana/USDA
The Atlantic recently ran a very interesting article on the rise of the zombie small business that shows a bit of the reality of how agricultural and other businesses actually work in the modern era. It’s a far cry from what you learn in undergrad econ textbooks. Here are some excerpts:
But a government report released this spring calls into question whether all those family chicken farms are really family chicken farms, and whether those taxpayer dollars might be better spent elsewhere. The Small Business Administration’s inspector general looked at poultry growers, and found that many of them are tied-and-bound contractors—so controlled by their agreements with giant food corporations that they no longer act like independent entities. Why offer them taxpayer support meant for the little guy?
“The farm is not a real family farm, but a cog in this larger industrial-agriculture model,” said Joe Maxwell, a fourth-generation farmer and the executive director of the Organization for Competitive Markets. “This is a heavily concentrated marketplace with a vertically integrated model. That denies the consumer an independent market, and it extracts wealth from the independent farmer.” … But farmers have complained about and litigated against such contractual relationships for years. “The company has 99-and-a-half percent control over the grower,” said Jonathan Buttram, the president of the Alabama Contract Poultry Growers Association and an outspoken critic of the industry. “I’ll list what they tell you: what time to pick up the chickens, what time to run the feed, what time to turn the lights off and on, every move that you make. Then, they say we’re not an employee—we are employees, but they won’t let us have any kind of benefits or insurance.”
Yet for all the control the poultry businesses have over the farmers, the farmers maintain significant financial and legal risk. They have little job security. They can get dumped for a different supplier, and face a tournament-style system that pits them against fellow growers. They are responsible for financing their own operations, and face the persistent threat of foreclosure.
Buttram said that he worried about the safety and health of the birds being produced for slaughter, many of which live lives of constant sickness and pain. “They pack these chickens in these houses so tight,” he said. “It’s nasty. It is hard to see.” He described farmers being instructed to dig pits to dispose of thousands of diseased chicken carcasses.
The system also takes an extraordinary toll on the contract growers themselves. The work is hard, the trade uncertain, the remuneration sometimes scant. Mental and physical health problems are common. “Back a few months ago, a grower called me and said he was going to kill his broiler manager and kill himself,” Buttram told me. “I never thought that I would have to be talking people out of committing suicide or committing murder. It shouldn’t be that an entity can coerce you into committing suicide when you have put everything on the line—your mortgage, your farm—and the company has nothing invested in it but a few chickens.” … The meat of the issue, experts said, is growing market concentration. If, as a farmer, you are not going to raise chickens for one of the big players, who are you going to raise them for? How are you going to get them to market? How would you ever get a loan? According to USDA data, about 20 percent of of growers report that there is only one integrator in their area, with another 30 percent reporting that there are only two.
The industry is highly concentrated by many other measures. “Where there were once 1.6 million independent farms across the country, a rapid shift to a vertical-integration model has resulted in just 25,000 contract farms raising the vast majority of America’s poultry,” Representative Nydia Velázquez of New York noted at a hearing the House Small Business Committee held on the report in April. Most broiler chickens in the United States come from operations that process more than 500,000 birds a year.
It is not just a chicken-and-egg issue, either. The top four beef producers account for more than 80 percent of the market. The top four hog processors account for more than half. Much the same is true across the economy. The top four players account for more than 90 percent of overall revenue in a wide variety of market sectors and for a wide variety of consumer goods: web search, toilet paper, wireless services, arcade operations, soda, light bulbs, tires.
An estimated three-quarters of industries have seen a substantial increase in market concentration in the past two decades. There were about half as many publicly traded companies in 2014 as there were in 1997, a decline “so dramatic that the number of firms these days is lower than it was in the early 1970s, when the real gross domestic product in the U.S. was just one third of what it is today,” researchers have found. Those public companies are three times as big as they were in the 1990s.
Click over to read the whole thing.
from Aaron M. Renn https://www.urbanophile.com/2018/09/06/a-glimpse-into-how-modern-agriculture-actually-works/
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New York Zombie Foreclosures! Fannie Mae Is Coming To Get You!
New York Zombie Foreclosures! Fannie Mae Is Coming To Get You!
Fannie Mae Is Conjuring New York Zombie Foreclosures!
New York zombie foreclosures are rising from their long-forgotten graves.
Surprisingly, it’s not servicers or New York lawyers leading the conjuring of these long-dead foreclosures. It’s taxpayer bailed out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac doing it.
New York homeowners discovered they are now facing ramifications for defaulting on their…
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#aggressive new york foreclosure defense#illegal new york foreclosures#new york foreclosure defense#new york foreclosure help#new york foreclosures#new york zombie foreclosures#stop new york foreclosures#zombie foreclosures
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A Glimpse Into How Modern Agriculture Actually Works
Photo Credit: Larry Rana/USDA
The Atlantic recently ran a very interesting article on the rise of the zombie small business that shows a bit of the reality of how agricultural and other businesses actually work in the modern era. It’s a far cry from what you learn in undergrad econ textbooks. Here are some excerpts:
But a government report released this spring calls into question whether all those family chicken farms are really family chicken farms, and whether those taxpayer dollars might be better spent elsewhere. The Small Business Administration’s inspector general looked at poultry growers, and found that many of them are tied-and-bound contractors—so controlled by their agreements with giant food corporations that they no longer act like independent entities. Why offer them taxpayer support meant for the little guy?
“The farm is not a real family farm, but a cog in this larger industrial-agriculture model,” said Joe Maxwell, a fourth-generation farmer and the executive director of the Organization for Competitive Markets. “This is a heavily concentrated marketplace with a vertically integrated model. That denies the consumer an independent market, and it extracts wealth from the independent farmer.” … But farmers have complained about and litigated against such contractual relationships for years. “The company has 99-and-a-half percent control over the grower,” said Jonathan Buttram, the president of the Alabama Contract Poultry Growers Association and an outspoken critic of the industry. “I’ll list what they tell you: what time to pick up the chickens, what time to run the feed, what time to turn the lights off and on, every move that you make. Then, they say we’re not an employee—we are employees, but they won’t let us have any kind of benefits or insurance.”
Yet for all the control the poultry businesses have over the farmers, the farmers maintain significant financial and legal risk. They have little job security. They can get dumped for a different supplier, and face a tournament-style system that pits them against fellow growers. They are responsible for financing their own operations, and face the persistent threat of foreclosure.
Buttram said that he worried about the safety and health of the birds being produced for slaughter, many of which live lives of constant sickness and pain. “They pack these chickens in these houses so tight,” he said. “It’s nasty. It is hard to see.” He described farmers being instructed to dig pits to dispose of thousands of diseased chicken carcasses.
The system also takes an extraordinary toll on the contract growers themselves. The work is hard, the trade uncertain, the remuneration sometimes scant. Mental and physical health problems are common. “Back a few months ago, a grower called me and said he was going to kill his broiler manager and kill himself,” Buttram told me. “I never thought that I would have to be talking people out of committing suicide or committing murder. It shouldn’t be that an entity can coerce you into committing suicide when you have put everything on the line—your mortgage, your farm—and the company has nothing invested in it but a few chickens.” … The meat of the issue, experts said, is growing market concentration. If, as a farmer, you are not going to raise chickens for one of the big players, who are you going to raise them for? How are you going to get them to market? How would you ever get a loan? According to USDA data, about 20 percent of of growers report that there is only one integrator in their area, with another 30 percent reporting that there are only two.
The industry is highly concentrated by many other measures. “Where there were once 1.6 million independent farms across the country, a rapid shift to a vertical-integration model has resulted in just 25,000 contract farms raising the vast majority of America’s poultry,” Representative Nydia Velázquez of New York noted at a hearing the House Small Business Committee held on the report in April. Most broiler chickens in the United States come from operations that process more than 500,000 birds a year.
It is not just a chicken-and-egg issue, either. The top four beef producers account for more than 80 percent of the market. The top four hog processors account for more than half. Much the same is true across the economy. The top four players account for more than 90 percent of overall revenue in a wide variety of market sectors and for a wide variety of consumer goods: web search, toilet paper, wireless services, arcade operations, soda, light bulbs, tires.
An estimated three-quarters of industries have seen a substantial increase in market concentration in the past two decades. There were about half as many publicly traded companies in 2014 as there were in 1997, a decline “so dramatic that the number of firms these days is lower than it was in the early 1970s, when the real gross domestic product in the U.S. was just one third of what it is today,” researchers have found. Those public companies are three times as big as they were in the 1990s.
Click over to read the whole thing.
from Aaron M. Renn https://www.urbanophile.com/2018/09/06/a-glimpse-into-how-modern-agriculture-actually-works/
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The Greatest Showman: Freedom, Radical Authenticity, And YOUR Power To Change The World
Inspired by The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman
Leaving the gym at around 7:30 am, after spending a little time getting my stretch on in the steam room, and upping my early morning social media game, I listen…
“You stumble through your days got your head hung low your skies’ a shade of grey like a zombie in a maze…”
As I listen to The Greatest Showman soundtrack, Hugh Jackman’s words pierce my psyche and my heart. His song, Come Alive, at once, spirals me through a sea of memories of the 15 years that I spent the majority of my life counting down the minutes and hours until I could finally leave work, go home to a lonely existence, and rinse and repeat the next day.
Then comes the promise of a light somewhere peeking through the cracks in the tunnel
“Come alive, come alive Go and ride your light Let it burn so bright Reaching up To the sky And it’s open wide You’re electrified…”
A distinct memory envelopes my mind- I’m standing behind the counter in the weather office at Marine Corps Air Station Camp Pendleton.
My Sergeant Major, at the time, had just come into the office to tell me that, although the command knew my intent to exit the Marines, I’d just been slated to fill what is called a “B-billet.” This basically means that I’d been put on a list to be forced into one of the most demanding, shit show jobs, you could possibly do while still stateside (recruiting, drill instructing, combat instructing or if you’re lucky, embassy duty), and that only people who are looking to get promoted and plan to stay in until retirement, actually subject themselves to.
Now, some people spend their entire military career aspiring to fill the image of one of these perceived superheros, but I’d recently been promoted to Staff Sergeant (E-6) and would be exiting the Marine Corps in about a year-and-a-half. There was no reason for me to complete a b-billet. But, out of esprit de corps, I offered to extend my enlistment to fulfill the obligation requirement of whatever billet Uncle Sam decided to throw me into.
And then it happened…the ultimate betrayal…
We had this saying in the Marine Corps, that we used metaphorically, whenever we felt like we were being screwed by the good old USMC. We called it, getting the “green weenie.” Well, Uncle Sam gave it to me that day when I was informed that extending my enlistment to fulfill the 36 month obligation required to fill a b-billet, was not good enough. If I were selected, I’d be forced to reenlist for 4 more years and if I refused to reenlist, I’d be “awarded” with a special derogatory code that would follow me for eternity, indicating that I “refused orders.”
The lyrics continue, “Cause you’re just a dead man walking Thinking that’s your only option But you can flip the switch and brighten up your darkest day Take the world and redefine it Leave behind your narrow mind You’ll never be the same…”
And in that moment, a switch DID flip, and I have NEVER been the same!
Up until that moment, sitting in the Career Planner’s office, there had been a little part of me still questioning whether I wanted to take the plunge away from the security of a federally funded career, and into the vast unknown and discomfort of reintegration into civilian society. But at once, that last flicker of honor, uncertainty about my decision to exit the Corps, vanished. After such an unjust attempt to back me into a corner, the Corps represented more of a prison than a voluntary fighting force.
But who was I kidding-it was a prison all along!
Within a few months, I had submitted for, and carried out an “early out” package, releasing me from service six months early. I’d dodged the b-billet bullet and was not going to waste time removing myself from the stranglehold of the ultimatum I was given (even after expressing my willingness to compromise to fit the “needs of the Marine Corps,”). This is not, by the way, how to maintain low attrition rates in your organization!
Not surprisingly, upon exiting the military, I dove head first into a situation that would land me repeating an only slightly-improved-version of the same thing I’d just left behind. After two years in college, my dream college actually, I realized that I was repeating the old pattern, positioning myself to end up working my ass off for four or eight years and then go work another nine-to-five.
I couldn’t decide on one thing to devote my life to studying and I was freaking out on the inside.
Then it happened- the ultimate resistance, right at the end of a semester. A situation arose that resulted in flying my two young nieces out to New York City. I figured it’d be no big deal, in such a big city, to find childcare for them. Boy was I wrong! Taking care of the girls really shook me. Not only did I end up having to withdraw at the end of the semester, but it made me realize that I wanted to have more children and I also wanted to finally carry out my lifelong dream to travel and experience other cultures. What I did NOT want to do was have more children before getting to do those things. I wanted to feel free. Since I married at 18, had my daughter right before my 20th birthday, and seperated from her father five months later, I never got to experience that freedom from responsibility that characterizes many American’s 20-somethings.
After the girls left, I completed one more semester- a course on Indian Art and Architecture and a course on East Asian Buddhism- and I was ready to go travel. I had fallen behind on the payments of my investment property in California, was facing possible foreclosure, and used my student loans to pay for the cost of the kids, so I was stuck between a rock and a hard spot. Fortunately, I’d bought the place, three years earlier, with a lot of foresight. I decided to sell the house, and came out $60,000 on top, even after the back payments, and realtor fees.
By now, you’re probably wondering how all of this ties together…
Well, my first trip was to one of the most transformational events I’ve experienced in my life, Unleash the Power Within with Anthony Robbins. This event forced me to dig VERY VERY deep, and completely changed the trajectory of my life. For the first time, I was beginning to understand myself; for the first time in a long time, I felt truly inspired to be alive. I decided that the three most important things I could possibly do were to understand myself better, trust my instincts and pursue my passions. Tony also planted the seed that peaked my interest in “multiple income streams” and business. So, I proceeded to buy every program he offered, and then scheduled lessons in Neuro-linguistic Programming, hypnosis, tantra yoga, and Japanese Taiko drumming. Yes, I was all over the map. But I was happy.
While I missed learning from some of the world’s best, and I missed the idea of possessing that Ivy League degree (the status symbol that I now understood was serving as a source of significance, certainty and certain misery for me), I was much happier being the free spirit that was authentically me. The person I’d almost forgotten completely over the many years I’d clutched to certainty and significance as my primary needs (an unconscious mistake that prevents true fulfillment for so many of us).
I caught a glimpse of freedom. I feel it…
“When the world becomes a fantasy And you’re more than you could ever be ’Cause you’re dreamin’ with your eyes wide open And you know you can’t go back again To the world that you were living in ’Cause you’re dreamin’ with your eyes wide open So, come alive…”
And after almost 3 years of extreme personal growth, building multiple streams of income and learning the ins and outs of passion-based business,
when I listen to The Greatest Showman soundtrack, my soul comes alive.
Not only because I resonate so deeply with the message of the movie: the struggles and beauty of entrepreneurship; our power to create; our ability to alter the trajectory of the world we live in, if we only take the risk of following our heart; the importance of seeing the potential in others; the liberating effect of radical authenticity; accepting the good with the bad, I could go on and on!
“I am not a stranger to the dark Hide away, they say ’Cause we don’t want your broken parts I’ve learned to be ashamed of all my scars Run away, they say No one’ll love you as you are…”
This movie also served as a little reminder of my childhood dream of performance, my love of singing, of theater, the parts of myself I’ve learned to hide over the years. It allowed me to understand that it’s ok, and even healthy, to do life for you, on your terms.
I am not responsible for fixing the world or anyone else in it; just myself.
As Rupaul mentioned in a recent Oprah interview, the purpose of life is to experience life, to enjoy it, that’s first and foremost.
“When the sharpest words wanna cut me down I’m gonna send a flood, gonna drown them out I am brave, I am bruised I am who I’m meant to be, this is me Look out ’cause here I come And I’m marching on to the beat I drum I’m not scared to be seen I make no apologies, this is me…”
Gandhi said, “be the change you wish to see in the world.” The depth of this quote is unending, I’m learning, as the lesson continues to flow constantly. Hind Swaraj (home-rule) is a never ending process of personal growth!
Yes, it’s true, that stepping into your authenticity is as uncomfortable as it is empowering.
You will be criticized, ostracized and outcasted. But it is fully worth it! When you embrace the discomfort, it is then that your inner superheroine will shine forth from the S on your chest (in your heart that is).
“Another round of bullets hits my skin Well, fire away ’cause today, I won’t let the shame sink in We are bursting through the barricades and Reaching for the sun (we are warriors) Yeah, that’s what we’ve become (yeah, that’s what we’ve become)…”
All I ask of you now, is that you become a warrior with me!
“’Cause darling without you All the shine of a thousand spotlights All the stars we steal from the nightsky Will never be enough Never be enough Towers of gold are still too little These hands could hold the world but it’ll Never be enough…”
Let’s steal the night, feel the warmth of a thousand spotlights, enjoy the gold, and hold the world…together! Empowered by our unique strengths, dreams, visions and perspectives; by each of our unique and fully authentic truths. Let’s take the world by storm. Let’s be the change we wish we could see. Let’s see the incredible potential in one another, once and for all. Let’s set high expectations for life and take full responsibility in creating it.
Join the me and the FeminineStrong movement Connect with me, personally, on Snapchat Check out The Greatest Showman Trailer
#business#businesswoman#authenticity#womeninbusiness#womenempowerment#womenleaders#empoweringwomen#designyourlife#entrepreneurship#womenentrepreneurs#femininestrong#feminine#leadership#thegreatestshowman
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Vacant Housing
ATTOM Data Solutions recently released its Q3 2019 Vacant Property and Zombie Foreclosure Report, which found there are more than 1.5 million (1,530,563) U.S. single-family homes and condos vacant in the U.S. This number represents 1.6 percent of all homes.
The report showed there are a total of 9,612 “zombie” homes, or properties facing possible foreclosure, which have been vacated by their owners nationwide. New York had the highest number of zombie properties (2,428), followed by Florida (1,634), Illinois (985), Ohio (891) and New Jersey (463).
In drilling down to the local market level, which housing markets have the most “zombie” properties?
The report also noted the highest levels of vacant investor-owned properties were in Indiana (8.8 percent), Kansas (6.7 percent), Minnesota (6.0 percent), Ohio, (5.9 percent) and Rhode Island (5.8 percent).
And at the zip code level, the top 10 zip codes with the highest number of vacant investor-owned properties were in these zips:
The post Vacant Housing appeared first on Think Realty | A Real Estate of Mind.
from Real Estate Tips https://thinkrealty.com/vacant-housing/
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New York Buys Distressed <b>Mortgages</b> to Fight Zombie Homes
New-York New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced that the state, working through its Community Restoration Fund, has purchased 172 distressed mortgages in high-foreclosure areas, hoping to help keep the homeowners in their homes and avoid letting more abandoned properties fill the market ...
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NYDFS hits PHH with six-figure fine for failing to maintain single zombie home
Back in 2016, the state of New York enacted “sweeping” new laws aimed at reforming the state’s foreclosure process and addressing the state’s issues with zombie homes. And Thursday, the New York Department of Financial Services showed that the threat of a fine for improperly maintaining a zombie home is not an empty one.
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The Inman Files: Pocket listing + dual agency = home sale horror story
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I’m working on a new weekly email featuring my thoughts on the industry and more. Here’s last week’s if you missed it. Send me feedback at [email protected]. And if you would like this in your inbox every Friday, sign up here:
I recently told the tale of my recent encounter buying a house. In episode #2, industry practices and gimmicks conspire to almost muck up a deal.
Once, many years ago, I got totally aggravated by how dirty my shower had gotten.
In my impulse to clean up the mess, I threw some Clorox on the tile floor and then sprayed liquid ammonia on the walls. I nearly died.
5 steps for a successful listing presentation
Prepare, build rapport and careful pricing = success READ MORE
Another volatile combination I have learned about firsthand is a pocket listing in a dual-agency homeselling situation.
Our purchase offer was a 45-day close at full price. What could possibly go wrong? Lots.
Since it was a pocket listing, the sellers began to think that they had priced their jewel too low, like the delayed garage sale remorse when a browser fanning through your vintage albums asks, without looking up, “How much for this?” And he has a Franklin in your palm just as you spit out “$20.”
Cold feet on a house sale can be 10 degrees chillier.
The seriousness of the sellers’ second thoughts didn’t surface until 30 days into escrow; every day compounds the tension once the fretting sets in. There was nothing nefarious by anybody involved — just raw human emotions — but the setup stoked anxiety.
This trepidation led the seller to worry the property was underpriced because of a dual-agency cabal. (I actually think we overpaid, but I am not losing any sleep over it.)
Add general seller anxiety about moving out of the house and everyone had to be lawyered up.
Egads.
Let’s put an end to dual agency and pocket listings. Sure, they can work, but the opportunities for conflicts and problems are boundless.
Next episode: The homebuying Zombies: Locksmiths, utilities, AT&T and the pool guy.
Inside Inman
The latest Fidget Spinner
Suddenly, real estate has become as hot as fidget spinners for investors and technology companies.
Ink Drop / Shutterstock
Start with the FANG companies — Facebook , Amazon, Netflix and Google — the gang of four tech titans.
F and G are squarely in the real estate advertising space, clamoring to grab a greater share of industry ad dollars. And this week, Inman broke the story that Amazon may be taking aim at the agent referral business.
Is there an angle for Netflix? Maybe there is a true-crime drama about the Airbnb tenant who got kidnapped by the Lyft driver who was a part-time Zillow Premier Agent.
FANGs aren’t the only big shots lathered up by the real estate opportunity.
An explosion of new startups, led by Silicon Valley darling Opendoor, are dragging Wall Street investors into the market to the tune of billions of dollars.
Their business model is different from the digital advertising middlemen — Facebook, Google and Zillow.
It is a direct transaction model, which has gotten the support of Wall Street investors who make their money on fees and owning stuff. Their appetite for residential real estate has soared in the last few years, after they made a killing on the foreclosure market.
This makes it more disruptive. Stealing ad dollars from newspapers and magazines was interesting but not threatening to the old ways.
Wall Street buying up properties through a tech middleman and re-selling through the same channel looks more like business models that shook other industries and began to change the rules.
Wall Street is hardly a stranger in the real estate world. But every time it makes a big splash, there are unintended consequences.
More on Inman
Zillow dukes it out with big New York brokers
My version of an extreme sport is to ride my bike down 5th Ave from uptown to downtown on a hot summer day — nothing like it. The negotiating with cabs, trucks and buses is a big rush. In the end, you get home exhausted and exhilarated but the deal is done.
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Inman reported on a data brawl in New York City where Zillow rejected a listing feed from the big brokers there.
This is how it works in The Big City — pushing, shoving, cajoling, positioning and capitulating if the right special interests are served.
One morning, you read about the scuffle between the big brokers and Zillow; by the end of next week, you might expect to hear about an unexpected resolution.
You’ll wonder how things got from angry fists to a friendly embrace so fast.
Outside Inman
Building and burning
The serial arsonist in Oakland, California, is at it again. Authorities are investigating the fifth fire in the last year, this one close to downtown. The targets are new housing construction in a region that sorely needs housing.
Is this some version of political anarchy? Seems so.
“Investigators released grainy images of a man in a sweatshirt riding a bicycle and wearing a backpack in the middle of the night near the seven-story complex,” according to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle. “A similar fire struck the project last July, and the second fire happened despite armed guards and surveillance cameras.”
As always occurs when there is so much collective anger, the extremes let loose with their criminal rage. Eventually, someone will get hurt.
This week I passed by the New York City townhouse at 18 West 11th Street that was destroyed in 1970 when a bomb being constructed by the Weather Underground in the basement accidentally exploded, reducing the building site to rubble.
Three “Weathermen” were killed.
It became a symbol of how things were out of control in our troubled country.
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