Mortgage Modifications Are Seen as Adding to Housing Woes - NYTimes.com

Mortgage Modifications Are Seen as Adding to Housing Woes - NYTimes.com: "The Obama administration’s $75 billion program to protect homeowners from foreclosure has been widely pronounced a disappointment, and some economists and real estate experts now contend it has done more harm than good."
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The housing and financial markets collapsed because millions of people bought homes they couldn't afford. Obama & Co. decided the fix for that was to keep people in homes they couldn't afford for a few months longer. It was never a fix to begin with. It was just delaying the inevitable, which in turn is prolonging the recession that Obama & Co. say is over.

SSRN-Terms of Use by Mark Lemley

SSRN-Terms of Use by Mark Lemley: "Ten years ago, courts required affirmative evidence of agreement to form a contract. No court had enforced a shrinkwrap license, much less treated a unilateral statement of preferences as a binding agreement. Today, by contrast, it seems widely (though not universally) accepted that if you write a document and call it a contract, courts will enforce it as a contract even if no one agrees to it."
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New law review article that talks about the increasing use of standardized adhesion "contracts."

Home prices are flat for second month in a row -- latimes.com

Home prices are flat for second month in a row -- latimes.com: "Home prices were flat for the second month in a row, according to a closely watched national index, indicating that the nascent housing recovery may be losing some steam. Brisk sales fueled by low interest rates, inexpensive properties and a popular tax credit for first-time buyers helped bolster home prices this summer. Now many experts expect some of that activity to slow down."
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In other words, the "nascent housing recovery" never existed. Banks have been dumping their foreclosed properties and the feds are keeping interest rates very low and handing out borrowed money. That isn't a recovery.

New Restrictions Quickly Added for Air Passengers - NYTimes.com

New Restrictions Quickly Added for Air Passengers - NYTimes.com: "The government was vague about the steps it was taking, saying that it wanted the security experience to be “unpredictable” and that passengers would not find the same measures at every airport — a prospect that may upset airlines and travelers alike."
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The man who did this was so obviously dangerous that his own father had warned the US Embassy about him. He was on a list of people known to have terrorist connections. He had been going to places like Yemen, where the bomb was built by some Al Qaeda maniac (so the stories say at this point). But he had a US visa and hopped on a plane that was to land in Detroit--except that he tried to blow it up with explosives in his underwear.

So--what does the government learn from this huge security failure? Don't let anybody get out of their seat or hold anything in their lap for the last hour of the flight.

This nation is being run by idiots. No other conclusion is possible.

biggest-losers-where-americans-are-not-moving: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

biggest-losers-where-americans-are-not-moving: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance
Biggest population loser: California, followed by New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio.