Tracy Phillips said:

 

Buddhas who truly are Buddhas, rarely know that they are Buddhas.

 

longhorn said:

 

Who was it that said "A liar will never believe you and a thief will never trust you"?

Wise words.

 

lindainks55 said:

 

I think all of you, my blog friends, are truly Buddhas. I learn and grow daily because I get to be around you.

longhorn, I hadn't heard that quote! Thought provoking. Who would doubt but the one who knows to doubt; makes soooo much sense.

 

lindainks55 said:

 

I have to go to the east side of town this morning. I don't go there often and it's like an adventure. Have an appointment at 11, then there are a couple of stores on that side that aren't duplicated on the west side I have been wanting to see. Could be a long day! I'm not much of a shopper and the heat may hasten me home. I will play it by ear.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

As I'm in a particularly crappy mood this morning, the following shot at Karl Rove piqued my curiosity, and after reading it, I though I'd link it here for others. Plus, it just seems to fit the moral of the story, so to speak.

http://tinyurl.com/yv8tmr

Careful over there on the East side, Linda; the orange cones have been programmed to seize all vehicles coming from the West side and hold them for indeterminate periods! :-)

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

QUESTION:
What does a pick-pocket see when he meets a saint?

ANSWER:
HIS POCKETS!

 

longhorn said:

 

"I think all of you, my blog friends, are truly Buddhas."

HEH!

I have a Buddha Belly! I think that is about as close as I get...

 

longhorn said:

 

And BTW, Linda. I hate shopping. Anywhere, anytime, except at the grocery store or book store. I would rather eat a BIG bowl of dirt than go shopping for clothes. You have my sympathy.

 

longhorn said:

 

...and one more btw...

I have five boxes of the biggest, reddest, most beautiful slicing tomatoes in the whole world. Like softballs, juicy and ripe.

And guess what? I'm gonna turn 'em into salsa today because I couldnt sell them all at the farmers market last night, and I'll have five more boxes to go tomorrow and Saturday.

I WISH I had a way to get them to you all, my blog buddies, instead of whizzing them up into salsa. Along with all the peppers, japs and serranos and pablanos, and cubanells, and banana and bells...

I sold OUT of peppers and cukes last night but couldnt give the tomatoes away. Last Satuday, I ran out of tomatoes and couldnt give the cukes away. Go figure. And since the green beans are almost finished, what did eveyone want last night? You got it. Green beans.

Big eye roll.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Damn, longhorn, were I a couple hundred miles closer, I could rescue a few of those tomatoes from their ultimate fate. I could also take a few of the bells off your hands as well....

Linda, I regret to say that much as lh has posted, any resemblance to a Buddha on my part is surely limited to the belly. Sad to say, but true for me.......

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

Unintended consequences, damn, HA!
I just noticed that at the top of the post, it says:

Linda's Corner
A PILE OF DRIED SHIT

SORRY!!!!

 

longhorn said:

 

hee hee hee

I noticed that too Tracy! I thought it was funny, but then, I also thought it was just me...

 

longhorn said:

 

Probably Rox and I are the only ones here who follow wheat prices. They have been at record highs, almost doubling in the last year. Due to lots of reasons, mostly bad weather, bad crops, and huge export demand. Especially, "they" said export demand in the last couple of weeks.

The price set another record here on Tuesday, and today, it is dropping like a stone, almost 50 cents lower at noon than it was on Tuesday. (local prices) "They" say on the noon market reports, wheat is following a soybean "swan dive" (their words).

I think the long term wheat price will remain high, but considering what is going on in the stock and real estate markets, I'm a little nervous about commodities right now. Usually, money flows from stocks to real estate to commodities and back. WTF does it mean when the money is leaveing all of those at the same time? I mean, WTF does it mean other than potential disaster?

And WHERE is the money going? There are only so many options in terms of general catagories? If not the stock market, the real estate market, or commodities... where?

 

longhorn said:

 

Oh, and I forgot that, as VT said, the banking industry is needing daily liquidity transfusions from the fed. Where TF is THAT money going that they need CONSTANT infusions of liquidity? Someone noted that money is "disappearing" and not getting to where it is supposed to go as fast as it is supposed to get there.

Where is all the money going? Seriously. To say "off shore" doesnt address the issue that this is a world wide liquidity problem, and money always travels globally. So.. globally the stock markets are down, and we'll see if the commodity problem is short lived and/or global. I dont know if there is a global real estate market per se, but I doubt commercial real estate will sustain a housing bust.

And I read recenting that productivity was up? That might explain delayed inflation, but you cant have all the increases in areas of inelastic demand without related inflation.

Ok, sorry for the ramble. Just wondering...

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Good point, lh; just where is the money going? Gold?

On commodities, I pay attention about once a day, old habit from my younger years. Hadn't looked today, interesting about the drop.

 

longhorn said:

 

VT, I generally lump gold and silver in with commodities. There is a general and predictable up trend in gold and silver, but nothing really remarkable. Certainly nothing of the magnitude to indicate a big influx of money.

Of course, they changed the way they count the money supply, and in some ways, they dont even COUNT the money supply anymore, so it's hard to compare apples and apples concerning monetary trends.

I am truely puzzled.

 

longhorn said:

 

I forgot to post this link. Long but good read on the economy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboa...

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

lh, I generally lump the precious metals into commodities as well, but there are the "Gold Bugs" out there which seem to make it a separate market area from time to time.

Speaking of commodities, oil off >$2/bbl about 10 minutes ago. Haven't taken a look yet at T-Bills, Bonds, etc., have a feeling that there's some price movement there w/corresponding yield adjustments.

If you can't tell, I'm also puzzled.

 

longhorn said:

 

I cant remember where I read this, maybe at the link. But someone said "this isnt in the manual". Just like stagflation was new and "not in the manual" in the seventies, we may have something going on here that we've not seen before and may not understand until we look at it in retrospect.

NOTHING is behaving the way we expect it to right now. Either in the absolute or in relation to other factors. I'm guessing the fed and the economic advisors dont know which lever to pull right now for fear of doing more harm. The predictable isnt behaving as predicted. I can just hear them wondering "NOW, WTF"?

And of course, the elections of 08 are not far off. Who knows what corrective measures, if any, are being taken by this crew? Who is to say they arent pulling the short term political levers instead of the appropriate economic levers, both short and long term?

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Interesting link, lh. From my limited experience as a Dillons employee back in the day, I'm aware that "shrinkage" increases in the grocery biz when the economic times get tough locally.

Another "informal" economic indicator. I've a client who volunteers with the Sg Co Sheriff's Department. She puts labels on postcards reminding folks who have bench warrants, etc., of their obligations. She used to volunteer once a month; she's now doing it every two weeks, and the volume of labels to put on the post cards is now higher each two weeks than monthly a few months ago. She also commented that while the bulk of the mailings are still traffic, there's been an upsurge from Family Law (think contempt for failure to pay child support), Criminal (non-traffic), and some Civil (assessed but unpaid court costs, for example). Battening down the hatches....

 

longhorn said:

 

Oh, and did I mention bushco's penchant for creating chaos? When in doubt, or if something is going wrong, they love to create chaos so up truely IS down and black is white. Were I a conspiracy theorist, I might speculate that all the economic "chaos" right now could be a smoke screen hiding something.

I mean hey, chaos has worked for bushco in iraq...

 

longhorn said:

 

...and they do seem to be focusing on "running out the clock". They just want to get out the door with their skins and bank accounts intact. They dont give a rat's ass about what kind of mess they leave behind.

Paraguay anyone?

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Speaking of "not in the manual", a piece from "The Economist", lh, for your reading enjoyment.

http://economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?s...

I don't know, just have a feeling GWB & Co. couldn't have pulled this one off just to create chaos to divert attention. After all, it seems to me that what's going on right now in the various markets has to be hurting some of their very well-placed "friends" a whole lot.

 

longhorn said:

 

"Another "informal" economic indicator"

Well ya know, for most people, when they are losing their homes and the foreclosure wolf is at the door, it seems that NOTHING could be worse. Even unpaid child support, court costs, criminal restitution, etc.

So you know if THOSE obligations are being ignored, probably only forclosure would be perceived as worse. But I wasnt aware that Wichita or the surrounding area had lots of forclosures or a dropping real estate market.

It could be lack of cash, or feared lack of cash in the near future, but...

...another speculation could be that there is just a general increase in lawlessness right now? Were I a conspiracy theorist :) I might speculate that all the lawlessness at the top of the food chain, both economic and government, others take their cue that perhaps THEIR lawlessness might also go unpunished? They delude themselves into thinking what is good for the goose is good for the gander?

When the preznit and his military industrial/oil cronies wipe their ass with the constitution, what's a little ol' unpaid bench warrant!

I know that is stretching it, but I had this conversation with someone the other day. The message is VERY clear that lawlessness is tolerated if not encouraged in this current economic and political climate.

 

longhorn said:

 

"I don't know, just have a feeling GWB & Co. couldn't have pulled this one off just to create chaos to divert attention."

Ya know, VT, for the most part I agree with that. I think the global nature of our economy is what "isnt in the manual" right now. We are used to having somewhat of a closed system. But right now, the whole world is interdependant in a way that has never before been recognized. The world is at the mercy of the new, free trade, global economy, and there are waaaaaaay too many unknowns in THAT equation to accurately predict an outcome.

I think that is why the fed et al may be reluctant to pull any levers for fear of the unintended consequenses. Had they bothered to STUDY chaos theory, they would have known that a butterfly in the pacific could eventually cause a hurricane in Mexico. We may just be paying the price now for some stupid move a while back.

It's a brave new world out there. Better eat yer Wheaties!

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

lh, there is an ever increasing number of foreclosures being filed in the Sedgwick County District Court monthly. As to housing sales, there appears to be a two-headed "monster" developing, in talking with those directly in the RE game. At the high end, it's still great. Get below that (I'm saying under $250,000, but likely that's conservative), the inventory isn't moving as fast, the prices are softening a bit, and there's a certain increase in occupancy rates at various apartment complexes around the city. All the local Board of Realtors wants to talk about is the high end strength.

I've had conferences with a number of folks within the past few months concerning impending foreclosures, etc. Many of these are related to the subprime ARMs out there; a few are more traditional; and a few are connected with the "interest only" mortgages that were a hot topic for a while. About the last group, I can't get my sympathies too worked up, as the big plan was to hold for no longer than the period of "interest only", then market the house, take advantage of increasing prices, walk with a bit of $$ in the pocket, having lived in a very nice residence for a period of time at a net cost lower than the rentals which would otherwise have been paid. Not working any more, although there is some anecdotal evidence that it did work for a few folks in the area a bit earlier in the game.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Speaking of diversion, a major announcement today from the White House: Jenna Bush is engaged! Sheesh.....

 

longhorn said:

 

Still not very familiar with your real estate market. How is the commercial real estate market doing?

"As to housing sales, there appears to be a two-headed "monster" developing, in talking with those directly in the RE game."

Isnt it funny that, at least in Texas, the reverse was true not long ago. The "McMansions" were on the market and unsold with falling prices, and the "real" homes for the middle and lower classes were in a booming market.

Maybe that wasnt true there, but I need to find out if the reversal has happened in Texas. Of course, most of my buddies live in Austin, consistantly one of the hottest real estate markets in the country over the past 15 years. With NO sign of cooling. It's not the real world...

 

longhorn said:

 

"Not working any more, although there is some anecdotal evidence that it did work for a few folks in the area a bit earlier in the game."

Heheheheheh. Isnt that ALWAYS the way a ponzi scheme works?

I had some shady pals (friends in low places :) in Houston that made some money SELLING those houses and mortgages. I'm surprised they never got caught, but then, they were at the top of the pyramid!

 

longhorn said:

 

So... back to the topic. Maybe all the chaos I see in the world right now is really a reflection of the chaos in my life and in my soul right now?

Dammit Linda! I hate when yer right!

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Commercial is very interesting. It seems to have some underlying strength city-wide, but as the onion is peeled, the strength is really more broad than deep. There still exists a surplus of commercial space in the downtown area, keeping values and rents lower while in the sexy new places, e.g., around Waterfront; 21st & Greenwich, people are snapping up anything big enough to put a building or two on, often with tenants already in the pocket.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Well, one more off-topic post. I see that Jose Padilla and his two co-defendants were convicted of all charges today. Never mind that the alleged "dirty bomb" plot for which he was held in military custody for 3 1/2 years wasn't among the charges. I'm sure these convictions will be used as examples of the great job the current administration is doing in the "War on Terror".

 

longhorn said:

 

Ok, you better strap on the tinfoil really tight for this one :)

There is a theory that Jose Padilla is really the mystery "man number 2" from the Oklahoma City bombing.

Remember the guy who said there was a second man with McVeigh when he rented the truck? They circulated his pic for months, but no one was EVER able to identify him? We never heard much more about it.

But... I saw a post one time that published the drawing of "mystery man" and Jose Padilla side by side. Dead ringers. Of course, that alone doesnt mean much.

But the connection was/is supposedly with Terry Nichol's wife who's last name is... wait for it....

Padilla.

Of course, heheh, that doesnt really mean anything either as it is a common hispanic name.

But supposedly, THAT is why the govt picked him up, essentially tortured and abused him, and destroyed his mind and spirit. They did NOT want him to talk.

OK, tinfoil off :)

 

Tracy Phillips said:

 

You got friends in low places?
I've got low friends in places!

 

lindainks55 said:

 

I haven't read much of this thread; must go back and do it justice but wanted to say I feel like a pile of dried shit so want to rest and hydrate.

 

Vaughn Tolle said:

 

Linda, hope the hydration has been successful. It's a bit much out there today, no?

 

lindainks55 said:

 

By the time I got to this thread it was too late after a day too long and hot. I really want to know some tiny bit of what you two who talk economics so easily know! I will read again when I'm rested and see if I can come up with any questions. Sometimes you have to know more than I do to even figure out what to ask. ;-(

I went to two stores today and one of them was a clothing store. Most things look way better on the hanger than on me and that was the case today. Besides, taking off and putting on clothes is hard work! Maybe if you waltzed in and picked up just any ole cute thing and it fit it would be more fun. I think I need to live in Hawaii where Mumus are acceptable! I still have not gone to bed fat and woken up slim and since that really is about all the effort I'm willing to put into the whole thing there is little hope. Do they sell feed sacks someplace?

You guys over on the east side do seem to have MORE than your fair share of orange construction barrels!

I drove past the famous water pumping station sans blue roof and wondered IF the west side even has water pumping stations and what do they look like, where are they...??? See, not only do they not need to be inside a $200,000 shell we probably don't even have roofs over them! After all shouldn't a water pumping station be made of something that can get wet?

 

longhorn said:

 

" Do they sell feed sacks someplace?"

Hehehehehehheeh! I have gunny sacks left over from the potato planting if that helps. Personally? I have Omar the Tent Maker's cell phone on speed dial....

Thank god for sweat pants and t-shirts! And my Wolverine work boots :)