Mar262015
Ten Lessons learned from a real estate coach
Sometimes people who feel they have something to say communicate far more by their actions than their words.
Bernice Ross, CEO of RealEstateCoach.com, is a national speaker, author and trainer with over 1,000 published articles and two best-selling real estate books. She recently wrote about her experience obtaining a loan modification, and it contains many valuable lessons for anyone considering following her path.
Riding the loan modification merry-go-round
What it takes to climb out of a credit mess
by Bernice Ross, Feb 16
When you or your clients find yourself in a financial mess due to circumstances beyond your control, you have a number of options. Do you walk away from your home when your mortgage exceeds its value? Do you default on your credit cards and/or declare bankruptcy? Alternatively, do you stay the course and do your best to climb out of the mess?
Lesson 1: Come up with a sob story that justifies your actions
A sad backstory blinds many people to the fact you are unfairly getting something they are not; therefore, everyone needs a sad backstory that provides justification for special treatment that is otherwise undeserved.
When I had six surgeries in a 12-month period coupled with the recession, our 42-year-old business partner dying of cancer, and a 20 percent drop in our property value, we were facing the same hardships so many Realtors and their clients faced. Even when people can show hardship, however, obtaining a loan modification can be a daunting proposition.
Lesson 2: Project nefarious motivations on those who don’t give you what you want
In the real world, we all must face that we don’t always get what we want. This isn’t a grand conspiracy designed to single out individuals for particularly bad treatment: it’s just life. To further justify any undeserved special treatment or explain any bad actions, it helps if you characterize those who don’t succor to your pleading as nefarious people with evil motives.
Cleaning up the mortgage mess
In our case, the jumbo loan market had dried up completely in the summer of 2007 just as we were completing construction on our new home. The lender couldn’t sell the loan on the secondary market. Thus, even though we had an 800 credit score, 20 percent down and a written pre-approval, the lender tried various maneuvers to avoid funding the loan.
Nobody was maneuvering to avoid funding. Why would they? Lenders are in the business of loaning money. Whenever someone makes a statement that’s bogus on its face, you know there is more to the story than they are letting on.
Further, a real estate coach should know that a pre-approval letter doesn’t mean much. Until you go through the full underwriting process, you don’t know how much you actually qualify for. Realistically, the lender probably worked feverishly to close the deal, and when the borrower’s finances didn’t qualify them for the rate they wanted, the lender found a loan program they did qualify for with a higher rate.
Lesson 3: Set yourself up as a victim
Lessons 1 and 2 are the precursor for casting yourself in the role of a helpless victim that needs a higher authority to intervene on your behalf. If you want to get bailed out, don’t be one of those self-reliant people who makes their own way in the world and accepts responsibility for the consequences of their decisions.
Two weeks before closing, the lender gave us one choice of accepting its predatory loan terms or we would have lost our entire down payment that had been advanced to the builder.
The characterization of the terms as predatory is her interpretation. As with any loan, you either take it or leave it.
If she wanted to provide real advice to someone in real estate, perhaps she should tell them to negotiate with multiple lenders and don’t leave yourself at the mercy of one at the last minute where you might be forced to accept a deal that you don’t want.
Lesson 4: Use your victim status to justify breaking your agreements
In the case of this author, rather than accept that she entered into the best agreement available to her, she convinced herself she was a victim who was forced to accept a bad loan. Since she was cajoled into a predatory loan (her characterization), she is justified in immediately working to change the terms to her liking. I assume she advocates this for others as she is leading by example.
Over the last five years, I have continued to pursue modifying our predatory loan.
Lesson 5: Imply it’s a conspiracy against you
When thwarted in your pursuits, portray it as a broad conspiracy of evil people all working to make your life hell because it generates more sympathy.
I was bounced from department to department, all with the same answer: This has to be handled by a different department. I finally learned that the loan was part of a group of mortgage-backed securities and supposedly could never be modified.
A consumer attorney advised us that we had a strong case against the lender for predatory lending. The challenge was that we were past the five-year limit for filing a case.
The attorney told her what she wanted to hear in order to reinforce her perceived victim status, then revealed to her that she missed an important deadline she should have researched and known about herself. She had five years to learn this fact. How did it escape her notice?
I then heard about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. I filed a complaint with them and that brought the lender to the negotiation table.
Lesson 6: Interpret prudent lending guidelines as part of the conspiracy against you
Remember, there is no reasonable “no.” When someone interprets a guideline in a way that doesn’t favor you, label the interpretation as bad or foolishly misguided, otherwise you look like a fool for continuing to pursue your goal that has little or no chance of a successful outcome.
We were referred to the lender’s Home Preservation team, but, despite the reams of documentation, the underwriter couldn’t qualify us for a 2-3 percent loan modification. The reason? It couldn’t make our loan payment “affordable” since we were self-employed.
Many self-employed are in sales, and their income fluctuates, sometimes wildly. Think what would happen if the self-employed were allowed to obtain loan modifications when their income declined.
If loan modifications were granted to all self-employed, they would all apply after a bad year and fail to tell about good years to keep their payment artificially low. Everyone would game the system. Further, the collective consequence of this would be to drive up rates on loans to all self-employed borrowers to compensate lenders for the cost of loan modifications, or more likely, loans simply wouldn’t be underwritten to the self-employed at all.
Basically, this guideline is in place for a good reason, and she simply doesn’t want to accept it.
Lesson 7: Imply you’re being punished for being an upstanding citizen.
When generating sympathy to garner support for favorable and undeserved treatment, it’s important that everyone believe you’re one of the good guys (even when you behave badly).
What’s laughable is that our current payment is more than double what the “affordable” payment would have been. I suspect part of our challenge is that we have never fallen behind on our payments.
To top this off, the underwriter required us to set up an escrow account to collect property taxes monthly before it would consider the modification. That raised our monthly payments by 45 percent without the benefit of the loan modification. Moreover, we may be unable to remove the impound account.
Impound accounts are a great way to manage payments. If people don’t set aside some money each month, they don’t have the taxes or insurance payments when they come due. Now that the lender is aware that this borrower is facing financial difficulties, the lender is protecting itself, as it should.
Lesson 8: Feign ignorance to the fact you simply can’t afford your house
When a lender denies a loan modification for lack of verifiable income, it’s their way of saying you need to sell your home because you can’t afford it. That was the story of the single mother making minimum wage who wanted to keep her house after her divorce. She and her husband were originally qualified based on both their incomes. (She’s a great speller too)
Loan modifications are not a mechanism to make houses affordable to people who have a major life change but want to keep their former level of entitlement.
We submitted more documentation and then received another rejection. Apparently, the underwriter did not understand the permanent changes we had made that directly impacted our profit and loss statement (P&L);
Or perhaps the underwriter fully understands the change, and it’s the borrower that refuses to.
Lesson 9: Imply the carelessness or shoddy work of others is the cause of your suffering
Never admit you create your own problems. If you must rely on other people to get what you want, and if you don’t get it, accuse them of being careless or slipshod in their work. This implies you would have gotten your way if they had been more diligent and skillful. This further gives you hope that the error could be corrected if only good people with the proper skills were assigned to help you.
its drive-by appraisal was also $70,000 low…
The home preservation team advised us it would be happy to resubmit the loan if we had more income, if its drive-by appraisal was too low, or if there were some other change in our circumstances.
Bonus Lesson 9A: Never admit defeat when dealing with others
Work diligently to replace the careless people who don’t give you what you want and deserve.
Like most short sales during the downturn, persistence is the name of the game. We will appeal and ask for a different underwriter who hopefully has a better understanding of our business P&L. Even so, I suspect our merry-go-round ride is nowhere near being finished.
She is probably right. This futile effort will go on as long as she wants it too. Unless she abandons her sense of entitlement, her victim identity, and her righteous indignation at the poor treatment she alleges she received, she will continue to fight and struggle for a special break she does not deserve.
Lesson 10: Advise others to follow your course without a moment of self reflection
The first thing that homeowners who go for a loan modification must understand is that any error in your submission package will result in a denial. Second, you must carefully document everything. Any discrepancy can result in a denial. Third, the lender will most likely do a drive-by appraisal that will probably be low. You will be charged for a second appraisal.
Woe is she.
And she’s not alone.
Other Loan Mod News
A year ago I wrote HAMP loan modifications will become permanent housing subsidies. The basic premise of the post was simple: the government will not foreclose on anyone in the HAMP program, and if necessary, they will amend these loans over and over again. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the GSEs are laying the groundwork for more loan modifications.
Fannie, Freddie to Alter Some Loan Modifications
Mortgage giants say move in anticipation of rising interest rates that could affect some borrowers
By Joe Light, March 17, 2015 6:34 p.m. ET
Mortgage-finance companies Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae on Tuesday said they are changing the way they modify some loans in anticipation of an influx of borrowers struggling to make payments on loans with rising interest rates. …
Since those modifications typically lowered borrowers’ interest rates for five years before the rates tick back up, some observers have worried that rate resets could send some borrowers back into default. …
In a statement, a spokesman for the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which regulates Fannie and Freddie, said the agency “worked with Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to ensure that borrowers who may be facing hardship as a result of an interest rate reset on their HAMP loan modification have options that allow them to remain in their homes. In most cases, keeping borrowers in their homes is the most beneficial outcome for all involved, including taxpayers, and we will continue to monitor these loans and make adjustments as necessary.”
They will continue to modify these loans until the borrowers are no longer underwater, then the loan modification entitlement will be rescinded as prices near the peak.
Maybe there is yet hope for the real estate coach.
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I’ve attacked the insane Right lately, so let’s add some balance. Most Democrats would read this article and feel only empathy for the borrower. They understand how evil the banks are and would agree with every complaint the borrower shared. IR’s commentary would enrage them, despite its completely factual, accurate and honest character.
Mellow Ruse says:
June 28, 2013 at 12:43 pm
“el numeraire is toast.
Gold is a bubble. The selloff is not recent. It has been going on for two years. What has changed is that we’ve entered the acceleration phase of the decline.
My prediction: Gold will bottom at $500 and stay there.”
So, when will gold bottom at $500 and stay there?
Mellow Ruse 13-03-2015, 13:32
“There’s no need to worry about gold though. Plenty of Chinese demand for that or so I’ve been told.”
Are you saying that there is NOT a large Chinese demand for physical gold? If not, what are you saying?
Every financial market ends in a bubble. Always follow the trend and get out a little early. Never marry a trade and admit mistakes.
I was hoping MR would anser questions about his posts. Why do you think he won’t answer them? Are they not reasonable questions?
All I can do is assume his posts are a bunch of bs and he does not have the credibility or the cajones to back them up?
Nice bait, but I don’t think he is going to bite.
High-income Americans pay most income taxes, but enough to be ‘fair’?
Americans don’t much like the federal tax system, a recent Pew Research Center report finds. But it’s not, as you might imagine, because they think they pay too much. Rather, they think people other than themselves don’t pay their fair share.
Some six-in-ten Americans in the Pew Research survey said they were bothered a lot by the feeling that “some wealthy people” and “some corporations” don’t pay their fair share. Only 27% cited their own tax bills as something that bothered them a lot, even though 40% thought they paid more than their fair share given what they get from the federal government.
Still, that analysis confirms that, after all federal taxes are factored in, the U.S. tax system as a whole is progressive. The top 0.1% of families pay the equivalent of 37.9% and the bottom 20% have negative tax rates (that is, they get more money back from the government in the form of refundable tax credits than they pay in taxes).
Of course, people can and will differ on whether any of this constitutes a “fair” tax system. Depending on their politics and personal situations, some would argue for a more steeply progressive structure, others for a flatter one. And as former U.S. Sen. John Sununu wrote a few years back, “The precise point at which a tax deduction becomes a ‘loophole’ or a tax incentive becomes a ‘subsidy for special interests’ is one of the great mysteries of politics.”
In 2014, our total federal/state income/payroll tax was 3.28x our rent. Gulp!
The nature of the tax code makes it very difficult to earn your way to wealth. You can earn a great deal and have a good life, but since the government takes so much, it’s very difficult for someone to earn and save enough to amass real wealth.
Which is why I hope everyone is maxing out their 401ks, 403b, 457(b), and IRA.
The government taxes sweat labor very effectively and many other things very poorly.
It’s not always possible. If your income exceeds a certain amount, and your employer’s 401k doesn’t have a 3% match, your contribution percentage will likely be limited due to the IRS Highly Compensated Employee Discrimination Test. You’re not allowed to contribute to an IRA due to the workplace 401k’s existence. And you can’t contribute to a Roth IRA due to its income limitations.
Have you looked into a Health Savings Account? If your employer will allow it, it’s a great way to shelter income similar to an IRA.
I was affected by the Discrimination Test for a few years working for a small young company. I haven’t been affected for five years. However, my wife is affected. She contributes just 3% to her 401k plan, and every March receives a reimbursement check for a portion of her contribution. I can compensate for this by contributing more to my 401k since I don’t contribute the max (been paying off debt and saving a down payment).
Yep. That’s why it’s important to convert severely diminished net income into appreciating assets where growth can be hidden from taxation for years/decades. Yes, I’m saying a house you can afford fits this description very well.
It’s one of the many reasons home ownership has historically been touted as the route to wealth for the middle class.
It was before the bankers turned it into a wall street financial security.
And lenders found ways people could raid the piggy bank through unlimited mortgage equity withdrawal.
RealtyTrac: Home prices outpacing wage growth in 76% of U.S.
Nationwide home price appreciation tops wage growth by 13 to 1 ratio
Home prices are growing much faster than wages for a majority of the country, a new report by RealtyTrac shows.
According to the RealtyTrac report, home price appreciation is outpacing wage growth in 76% of U.S. housing markets in the last two years.
The RealtyTrac report also showed that nationwide home price appreciation is outpacing wage growth by a 13:1 ratio in the same time period.
“Home prices in many housing markets across the country found a floor in 2012 and since then have rapidly appreciated, particularly in markets attracting institutional investors, international buyers or some other flavor of cash buyer not constrained by income as much as traditional buyers,” said Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Eventually, however, those traditional buyers will need to play a bigger role in the housing market for the recovery to maintain its momentum.”
Latest Real Wage Growth Could Spell Good News for Housing
Many economists and analysts have said that strong wage growth is needed in order for facilitate a full recovery for the housing industry. The latest data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that real wages are on the rise, increasing by 22 cents year-over-year.
In the real earnings report for February 2015 released Tuesday, the BLS reported that real average hourly earnings – hourly earnings adjusted for inflation – increased year-over-year from $10.32 to $10.54 year-over-year, an increase of 2.1 percent, despite a drop by one cent from January’s average of $10.55.
“We maintain our belief that once upbeat hiring translates into stronger income growth, which we believe it likely will, a stronger housing recovery will follow,” Duncan said.
While Fannie Mae reported a slow start to the year economy-wise in its March 2015 Housing and Economic Outlook released earlier this week, recent improvements in the labor market suggest that the GSE’s prediction that the economy will rebound and “drag housing upward” in 2015 may still yet come true. The latest year-over-year increase in real earnings suggest that the wage growth analysts are hoping for to lift the housing market may be coming.
“The economy is getting a boost from the strong employment numbers we’ve seen last year and at the start of 2015,” Duncan said in the report. “When this employment growth partners with income growth and consumers experience a rise in their personal household income, we should see a similar boost in the housing sector. Overall, we expect an improving 2015 with continued economic growth bringing housing above 2014 levels.”
Cold Winter, Soft Economic Growth Cause Housing Market to Stumble
The housing market experienced winter doldrums in January as housing stumbled due to cold weather and slower economic growth, according to Freddie Mac’s latest Multi-Indicator Market Index (MiMi) released on Wednesday.
The latest index experienced a broad-based decline in January despite recent improvements in the labor market and low mortgage rates that promised a strong homebuying season for the spring.
Just as it reported for December’s national index, Freddie Mac reported that January’s national MiMi value of 74.6 indicated a weak housing market and even declined slightly (0.20 percent) month-over-month despite a year-over-year increase of 3.39 percent. The all-time high for the national MiMi is 121.7, set in April 2006 prior to the recession. The all-time low for the national MiMi was 57.2, set in October 2010 at the height of the foreclosure wave. The housing market has rebounded by 30 percent since hitting that all-time low nearly four and a half years ago.
“Housing markets weakened slightly this month, which is no surprise considering the harsh winter and slowdown in economic activity at the outset of 2015,” Freddie Mac Deputy Chief Economist Len Kiefer said. “While single-family purchase applications dipped a bit across the board from December to January, they are still up nearly 3 percent from last year. Improving employment and attractive mortgage rates should help to support increased purchase applications, particularly as the weather warms up and we head into the spring homebuying season.”
Senate Banking Committee Chairman Says GSE Reform is Unlikely
A key government official indicated in a speech Wednesday that GSE reform is unlikely for the next two years and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will likely remain under conservatorship of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) for the time being, according to a report from Bloomberg.
U.S. Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, said in his speech Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Conference in Washington, D.C., that he would rather leave the two GSEs under control of the FHFA than to replace them with a private insurance company system with a government backstop, as a bi-partisan bill proposed by Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) and Mark Warner (D-Virgina) called for. That bill, S.1217, passed in the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 13 to 9 last year even though Shelby opposed it. The bill never got a full vote in the Senate, however.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac required a combined taxpayer bailout of $188 billion in 2008 after the government seized control of them. The two GSEs returned to profitability in 2012. The future of the two GSEs has been a hotly contested topic in Washington as well as in the rest of the housing industry. Both parties appear to want to wind down the FHFA’s conservatorship of the two, but cannot agree on what, if anything, should replace them as well as what role the government should play in housing, if any.
Shelby’s sentiments on Wednesday were similar to those expressed in a white paper released earlier in March by the Office of the Inspector General of the FHFA on the future of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
“Absent Congressional action, or a change in FHFA’s current strategy, the conservatorships will go on indefinitely,” wrote Acting Deputy Inspector General for Evaluations Kyle Roberts in the white paper. “The Enterprises’ future status is beyond their control. At present, it appears that Congressional action will be needed to define what role, if any, the Enterprises play in the housing finance system.”
Shelby said in his speech Wednesday that he had priorities ahead of GSE reform, and that he didn’t want to “do something to make it worse than it is,” according to the report.
I think getting rid of Ed DeMarco was the final nail in the coffin of GSE reform. The government is getting used to the quarterly dividend payments that Fannie/Freddie make to the Treasury, so why would they want to cut off that gravy train? It’s a win/win for the politicians because they can use the GSE’s as instruments of housing policy and get a nice paycheck sent to the government’s coffers.
They will reap what the sow. As long as the government remains in charge, pressure to assume more taxpayer risk will be everpresent, particularly if Democrats take charge in the Congress. Eventually, the market will blow up again, and the taxpayer will have to pay the bills.
The irony is that the Right has been inaccurately accusing the Left of this to blame them for the last housing bubble. If the government remains in control of the GSEs, the next housing debacle really will be caused by government meddling in the mortgage market through the GSEs.
How China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. did in the entire 20th Century
Amazing evidence of massive overbuilding
China used more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th Century.
It’s a statistic so mind-blowing that it stunned Bill Gates and inspired haiku. But can it be true, and, if so, how? Yes, China’s economy has grown at an extraordinary rate, and it has more than four times as many people as the United States. But the 1900s were America’s great period of expansion, the century in which the U.S. built almost all of its roads and bridges, the Interstate system, the Hoover Dam, and many of the world’s tallest skyscrapers. And China and the U.S. are roughly the same size in terms of geographic area, ranking third and fourth in the world, respectively.
The statistic seems incredible, but according to government and industry sources, it appears accurate. What’s more, once you dive into the figures, they have a surprisingly logical explanation that reveals some fascinating differences between the two countries, and some ominous realities about China.
So how did China use so much cement? First, the country is urbanizing at a historic rate, much faster than the U.S. did in the 20th Century. More than 20 million Chinese relocate to cities each year, which is more people than live in downtown New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago combined. This massive change has taken place in less than 50 years. In 1978, less than a fifth of China’s population lived in cities. By 2020, that proportion will be 60 percent.
What’s almost more impressive than China’s biggest cities is the incredible number of “small” cities that no one has ever heard of. In 2009, China had 221 cities with more than a million people in them, compared with only 35 in Europe. Even relatively minor cities like Zhengzhou and Jinan are more populous than Los Angeles or Chicago.
Finally, China’s cement industry is much larger than it should be. Many of China’s cement manufacturers are state-owned, and they benefit from government support and access to cheap capital. As in other overcapacity state-owned industries — aluminum, steel, and shipbuilding — China’s cement sector has undergone a period of explosive growth without much regard for product quality or profits.
And yet, China’s massive cement use also points to a darker side of the economy: The waste that occurs with too much top-down economic planning, and the environmental toll of growth at all costs. China’s cement splurge is impressive, yes, but it may hold the seeds of a more ominous story.
Not only that but their demand for gold is insatiable, or so I’ve been told.
Are you saying that there is NOT a large Chinese demand for physical gold? If not, what are you saying?
You seem to be big on showing your ignorance, but why so often?
“Jamie Fulmer, spokesperson for Advance America, said in a statement that regulators are on ‘an ideological crusade to eliminate small-dollar, short-term credit products.’”
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/new-rules-for-payday-lending-cfpb-142811092.html
Yes, the goal is to eliminate you. Characterize it however you wish, but I’m glad to see you understand the end goal.
For as much as the Right maligns the CFPB, they are doing great work. Since they are largely immune to political pressure, no matter how much lenders lobby Congress to continue their abusive lending practices like payday loans, the CFPB can do what is right.
I think payday lending is one of the most evil forms of consumer debt, and a total ban would be fine with me. When you read the article and see how much abuse is still possible under the proposed rules, it makes me sick to see what they can still get away with.
BTW, I particularly like the DTI caps. Those will be the best and most effective ways to curb the most egregious abuses.
I read the article and the changes are funny. While they are not eliminating payday loans the regulations and caps on the loans will effectively end them. Now if we can just eliminate credit cards and student loans for things other than tuition the public might start to consume within it’s means.
You failed to mention auto lending – also in the Bureau’s crosshairs. Simply extending ATR/QM to auto lending would do all Americans a great service. Imagine how many fewer consumers would be harmed (yes, by themselves as well as by creditors) if we limited auto loans to five years and the borrower’s back-end DTI to 43%?
Perhaps in a few years, the CFPB may force through a 43% DTI cap on all debt. Then we would ensure a relative level of freedom for all Americans.
Forcing American to behave in a particular manner ensures a relative level of freedom for all Americans?
Sounds like something The Ministry of Truth wrote.
I am fine with no regulation if people could declare bankruptcy every couple of years. That regulation would be much quicker and have the same end result.
Prohibiting Americans from sacrificing their financial freedom is not a curb on Liberty, it’s an enhancement.
Texas prohibits its citizens from borrowing more than 80% of the value of their home in the State Constitution because they recognize there are some choices that are so detrimental to a person’s personal liberty that they must not be allowed to make them. The small infringement on personal liberty imposed by the law is tiny compared to the infringement on personal liberty caused by the activity that the law prohibits.
You sound like a die-hard Libertarian. In your ideal freedom society, would anyone be able to perform medical services? Legal services?
In your ideal freedom society, would anyone be able to perform medical services? Legal services?
Answer= “INSURANCE!” Yes. One of the most “un-professional” areas of the economy in the past 50 years has to be insurance. Insurance (well-structured insurance) could revolutionize such sectors as , Legal, Medical Financial services, Pollution control, etc.
However, it would take a strong interaction between “market-loving” forces in the industry and “government loving” forces in the government- you MUST have a market that is EFFICIENTLY regulated- NOT a “market” that is mandated and run by the government.
Auto lending is pretty bad as well. There is a used auto dealership who I have not seen a bill of sale on a car for less than 20% apr. Most of the time they purchased the car for less than the customers down payment/trade in so if the customer makes even one payment they make money. I don’t understand how these people buy these cars under such terms it’s truly shocking. I think the dealer knows they will repo the car then sell it for the same price to the next guy and repeat until the car is destroyed and they collect their insurance on it.
Subprime auto creditors even have kill switches now on cars. If you’re more than a few days late, they can remotely prevent the car from starting. There have been some cases of creditors stopping the engine while the car was being driven.
Does awgee support this type of freedom?
A true Libertarian would also be in favor of selling one’s organs. Laws infringing on a person’s right to sell a kidney would unduly limit their freedom.
Since July, the beginning of the uptrend, the US Dollar index has risen 21%.
Since July, the price of gold in US Dollars has declined 9%.
Hmm
Since peaking out 4 years ago, even the Euro has outperformed gold. Pathetic!
RibsplitterFAIL!
As usual, you (Peter Schiff of gold bears) have it assbackwards…
4yr Gold actually outperformed Euro by 6.90%
Euro Mar 25 2011: 141
Euro Mar 25 2015: 109
4yr performance: -22.7%
Gold Mar 25 2011: 1430
Gold Mar 25 2015: 1204
4yr performance: -15.8%
Cheers!
What part of “since peaking out” did you not understand?
The Euro is a more stable currency than gold. Pathetic!