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As a result of a death in the family, I came into possession of a house in a lower middle class neighborhood in the city. This was in June 07. The house was a 2 story older brick and the real estate agent said she was going to list it for less than the appraised price for a quick sale. Sure enough, we got a contract, but it fell through.
Photo: Waferboard / Flickr.
After that, interest in the house began to slow. In the meantime, me and my adult son worked and sweated like crazy to give the house more appeal. Interest picked up, but no contracts.
Time passed, the house began to deteriorate; and I didn’t have the money to make repairs. At the same time, the neighborhood was beginning to go down. It went down in “invisible” ways before visible manifestations occurred. First there was an increase in crime and dope peddling at night. Next, the upper middle class residents in the big houses one block over simply left without selling their houses.
Although my primary concern was getting that house sold, I felt deep pain for the people who couldn’t leave. I knew them as neighbors many years ago when I lived in that very same house, at a time when I thought that was one of the best neighborhoods in the city.
My personal finances went down hill and I needed money, so I contacted a “bottom feeder” and sold the house at a fraction of it’s worth. When we went to the closing, just recently, the lady at the title company had a sad empathetic expression on her face when she gave me the pen to sign the papers. “I’ve seen a lot of this lately,” she remarked. I was shocked, and at the same time relieved that, “The Gods were not urinating on me personally.”
My “tale of woe” would be just that, if it were not for the fact that it’s this countries “tale of woe;” one that was man made, and is constantly being repeated.
I’m going to parallel my “tale of woe” with some graphics and dates. In June of 07, that neighborhood was stable. In June of 07, corn was $3.00 a bushel, and gasoline was just over $2.00 a gallon. When we closed on that house, corn had gone to over $7.50 a bushel twice; once in 2008, and again in 2011. The price of gasoline had gone to $3.50 three times: once in 08, and twice during the Obama Administration; it hit $3.50 in 2011 and again in 2012. $3.50 in the commodities market translates to over $4.00 a gallon at the pump.
What does the price of gasoline have to do with “My tale of woe?” Normally, that house would have sold within 3 months or less after it was listed. It was in a stable neighborhood in the city that had been that way for my entire life, and people need a place to live. When the price of gasoline went higher than it’s ever been in the history of this country, and food more than doubled; that affected the lower middle class more than any other group of people, and that’s where this house was.
People who are living from one paycheck to the next, don’t have much wiggle room in the best of times. After food and gas more than doubled, that put pressure on them in more ways than I can imagine; buying my house was the last thing on their minds. Their neighborhood had changed more in 5 short years, than it had in my entire lifetime.
These higher than ever commodity prices are not the result of inflation. That occurs when there is increased demand and decreased supply. Demand increases when there is full employment and wages are rising. During those times, the prices on houses go up, never down.
In regard to food, there was a storage problem with corn; one farmer had so much corn in his bin that when it burst, it destroyed his house, and almost took his life. Corn is synonymous with food.
If we are not in an inflationary period, then why are commodity prices going higher than they have ever been in the history of this country? The answer is commodity market manipulation. In the past, the CFTC protected us from commodity market manipulators. Then why isn’t the CFTC protecting us now? I’ll give you a clue to the answer to that question. Almost all of the commodities bottomed in January of 09, during the last days of the Bush Administration. Next, they went right back up after President Barack Obama took office.
Now the prices are going down, just like they did in 08. Market manipulators make money when the price goes down by selling short. They can make the commodity market go any way they want it to go. They do this by buying or selling enough contracts to move any commodity market they choose in any direction they choose. They are a consortium which is directed by a master market manipulator. Sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it. But if you notice, these “unrelated” commodities move in harmony, they go up and down at the same time. How do you explain that?
The unemployment rate was at 3.5%, and gas cost about $2.00 a gallon when that house went on the market in 07. The unemployment rate was over 8% and gas cost $4.00 a gallon when I sold that house. Does anyone have a problem understanding how the price of gas and the unemployment rate affected the sale of that house and that neighborhood?
Go to this website and click on the charts for more detail.
24 Comments
It’s as if the very atoms of your childhood castle are being teleported to the glorious comprador neighborhoods uptown.
Ain’t America great?
“Ain’t America great?”
Oh yes. America. Fuck yeah.
A few years ago I attended an auction and watched five acres and a four-bedroom house with all of the vehicles and furnishings and outbuildings sell for something like $137,000. It was so sad. That’s the last auction I attended.
Thank you for the article and for sharing your experience, lakota, rec’d.
What a great snap shot of the sudden demise of our ‘Middle Class’…! Rec’d…! Especially, when 1 of every 2 Americans is officially poor…! *gah*
Ludwig my friend, I feel like one of the characters in a Kafka novel. I’m desperately trying to get a dialogue going on something that is very important to everyone, but no one hears me. We are being exploited in a way that we have never been exploited before in the history of this country.
The reason we have never been exploited like this before is because of the CFTC. But the CFTC has been “hijacked” by the corrupt politicians and they are manipulating the commodity markets. An “astronomical” amount of money is being removed from us to their commodity accounts, and the proof of that is on the website at the end of my post. “Please”, go to that website at the end of my post, and let us have a discussion about this.
thank you for stepping up and making the connections for us. so much was lost that was dear to you.
Thanks for the post. A perfect illustration of the reality that the politicians never see from inside their protected little Beltway Bubble.
It will soon get much worse. Doesn’t matter who wins the presidential election. Obama will make sure the economy is good enough to get elected and if he does then he will continue to hand over the wealth of the American people to the Oligarchy. If Romney wins we will go hungry.
Greenwarrior, I was young when I lived in that house. It was the kind of neighborhood that took you an hour to get a loaf of bread from the store 1 block from the house and back home; that’s how long it took to chat with the people you knew in the block and the owner of the store.
The neighborhood hadn’t changed that much in 07 when I went to sell the house, the neighbors were glad to see me again. The neighborhood changed so drastically between 07 and now that it was unbelievable. When the lady at the title company told me that I wasn’t the only person who sold a house for a fraction of what it was worth, that let me know that we’re in the worst time of my life, and they’re going to get a lot worse.
A large part of the reason times got so bad in such a short time is because of the “commodity chart” I’m looking at, it’s a chart of what we paid for gasoline. On this chart, it never went much over $1.00 on the commodities market, that translates to $1.50 at the pump. In 08 it cost over $4.00 at the pump, the same for 11 and 12. If these prices were the result of some natural event that we had no control over, that would be one thing; but these prices are the result of “commodity market manipulation”. Normally, the crooks are some bad guys that you can call the police about, but what if the bad guys were the police; who would you call then?
Things are going to get a lot worse because there are people who are able to manipulate the commodity markets at will and the only thing that can stop them is prosecution, but that won’t happen without citizen awareness. The website at the end of my post takes you to the charts, if you click on them they become enlarged.
marymccurnin, you are very perceptive; there are some bad things going on, and if Barack Obama was going to do anything about them he would have done it. No matter who gets elected we are in for some hard times. I’m trying to make people aware of something they have never had to be concerned with in my entire lifetime. The CFTC has always protected us from “commodity market manipulators” but they can’t protect us from corrupt politicians who can appoint people in charge of the CFTC who have other interests.
Commodity charts are probably not your thing, but it’s important to understand them at this time; most importantly I’m sure you understand how the price of gas affects the entire economy. Why has gas gone to a price almost 3 time higher than ever in it’s history before the Bush Administration, and why have these prices continued into the Obama Administration. Please go to the website at the end of my post, you can click on the charts for enlargement. I will be glad to answer any questions.
Comrade, yes, this and other economic crimes against humanity go on. Financial mercenaries for the 1% must be paid. This has been apparent for some time and yet capitalist prisoners have long refused to acknowledge we are headed for the iceberg.
On my travels a Persian-Brit Cambridge grad rashly announced the world population had to be reduced by a factor of ten. He regained his composure when he detected a slight indignation in my query, “Who will be the losers?”
Now tell me, when all indications are that this morality has possessed an elite, how can it be that so few are able to face this horror, especially those elite who pretend they have our common interest at heart? The most you can get out of them is that the “criminals” are in charge.
They cannot admit their own “criminal” negligence. This is how this crapitalist empire ends, comrade. Untruths, untold truths, terror, shock and trauma rule the day and hope bleeds to expiration.
Forensically, I am interested in the distribution of this theft. How much cut do you have to pay compradors to get them to murder their fellow citizens? But I think guilt plays a large part in the silence.
So, what would you like to discuss?
First Ludwig, gasoline, corn, and copper are unrelated markets, yet all three move in harmony. That is a natural impossibility, it indicates a master market manipulator is at work; someone who is orchestrating price movements of all of the markets. They have formed a “consortium” that he is directing. The dotted lines at 2009 indicate the end of the Bush Administration. Notice how gasoline, corn, and copper bottom at the same time, January 09, the end of the Bush Administration. But they go right back up after Obama comes into office. Gasoline goes to $3.50 on the commodity market, which translates to over $4.00 at the pump.
Corn bottoms in January 09, and shortly thereafter goes to $8.00 a bushel in 2011, that’s higher than it was during the Bush Administration. Copper bottoms in January of 09 at $1.50 a pound and runs up to $4.50 a pound in 2011 during the Obama Administration.
If this was some kind of natural event that no one could stop, that would be one thing, but this is man made robbery. Every time you go to the grocery store, part of that money is going back to the market manipulators commodity account. Every time you buy a gallon of gas, part of that money is going back to the manipulators account, and most electronic equipment contains copper; you got it, back to the manipulators account. Actually, the manipulator got paid before you went to the grocery store.
Now, do you understand what I’m getting at.
I have been studying the Weimar Republic for the last several years and I find the similarities between 1930 Germany and our current crises unnerving. The reason that the German people elected Hitler is because he railed against these very things. He spoke out against international capital, the central banks, and the manipulation of the market that impoverished the middle and lower classes in Germany. Since we are being raped again, I hope we don’t wind up going down that same dark path.
Absolutely, comrade. I rad a paper a couple years ago about the rise in grain prices despite an abundant crop somewhere in the 2008-2010 frame.
Are you aware that commodity investors delight in this method of making money? I want to reiterate this point: compradors know they are extorting consumers and this payoff is how the “master manipulator” maintains his regime. So, do you know any compradors or do your relatives work with these compradors?
They’re shockingly callous comrade. The crapitalists have been inculcating these barbarians, so it’s really no surprise.
But, don’t you suspect this is not a panic or pandemic of criminality? Isn’t this the capitalistic exploitation of crisis, the true market method of economic guidance? This system is rotten to the core.
I am past indignation, comrade. Are you ready?
The game-plan would probably involve civil warfare since this would be least polluting and the global capitalist hegemony are obviously coordinated.
Will the truth set us free?
Believing the truth requires an open mind, something I fear is in short supply in the West.
Out of the mortgage bubble frying pan and into the commodities bubble wildfire:
“It is estimated that in 2003, the commodity futures markets held some $13 billion in bets. But since then, and especially since 2008, when the mortgage bubble had popped, money has flowed into commodities. During the first two months of 2008, $55 billion was pumped in; by July that year, $318 billion worth of outstanding futures contract bets existed.
Among the primary mechanisms involved in this speculation, are the various commodity funds set up by the major banks—Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, AIG, Barclays, and others—to gamble their own and their clients’ funds in the commodities casino. These outfits have no interest at all in buying food or oil—the last thing they want is to actually take delivery of physical product. They are just continuing the game of derivatives speculation, but moving it from the mortgage sector to the commodities sector, doing to food what they were already doing with oil….
The speculators in Chicago, and on other key food commodity exchanges in London, Kansas and elsewhere, by trading among themselves in phantom bushels and all kinds of “paper” food, ultimately transfer the cost to the consumer. Such paper trading now dominates the market. It is putting the cost of food out of the reach of millions of people around the world. It is putting the cost of producing food—fertilizer, fuel, chemicals, animal feed—out of the reach of farmers.
Perpetrating and tolerating these practices constitutes bail-out genocide.
Go All the Way: Price Controls!
Declaring controls on food prices stops this cold. It reasserts sovereignty over national economic activity, in particular, the government responsibility for the general welfare, in terms of securing ‘our daily bread….’
On Jan. 30, 1942, the Emergency Price Control Act went into force, giving power to the Office of Price Administration to put controls on commodities, and to ration as well. Goods such as sugar, meat, coffee, processed foods, as well as fuel oil, tires, and even farm machinery—all were ultimately rationed. The law also gave power to provide subsidies for production, and permitted sanctions—including fines and imprisonment—for violations of the rules.
During the war years, government price controls, along with the full spectrum of pro-production economic policies—parity-pricing for farm commodities, backing for adequate food processing, etc.—led to a huge increase in foodstuffs, improvements in domestic consumption, and provisioning for the military, and for Lend-Lease aid to allies (see box).
Total U.S. farm output during the period 1939-44 was twice the output of the period of 1919-23 to 1935-39. It was figured that output per farm worker in the Plains States resulted in a 42% increase in gross farm production from 1939 on….
Food price controls, credits, and a production mobilization today can have even more spectacular results. But it requires a total break with tolerating any of the Wall Street/London ‘market forces’ thinking and swindles, especially on food. So far this Spring, many prominent associations of farmers, food processors, and others are voicing opposition to the rampant speculation on food commodities. Now it’s time to go all the way.
The National Farmers Union (NFU) March 30, issued a statement reporting that they “submitted comments this week to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, requesting that the CFTC impose strong position limits to curb excessive speculation in commodity markets.
“NFU President Roger Johnson said ‘A recent study by the CFTC found that as much as 80% of market activity for some commodities is conducted by speculators. This level of activity certainly qualifies as excessive speculation…. Another commodity price bubble like the one that occurred in 2008 would be difficult for many farmers to weather….”
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2011/3824food_price_controls.html
From 2008:
“CFTC Data Show Oil Futures Market Went Wild in July 2007, Confirming LaRouche Announcement That Crash Was Under Way”
http://www.larouchepub.com/pr/2008/080904cftc_oil.html
“Geithner’s move prevented the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) from even attempting to regulate this derivatives mess…”
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2011/3818geithner_protects_goldmansachs.html
You might be interested in reading “On Hitler’s Mountain” on overcoming the legacy of a Nazi childhood. It’s excellent. It was written by Irmgard A. Hunt.
lakota, your personal tale is very sad, and instructive. Thank you for sharing the story and for the linkage with commodity prices.
We are being destroyed by the insatiable greed of the bankers and the 1%.
Ludwig, what you are talking about is in the past. This is infinitely worse. I’m talking about a “consortium” of very wealthy “politically connected” market manipulators who can make any commodity go in any direction they want it to go. They have gotten past the CFTC by political appointments. This began in 04. By now they have made an “astronomical” amount of money that was derived from us, every time we went to the grocery store or bought a gallon of gas. Some of that money is used to buy “political favor”, which is why no one in Washington DC knows what I’m talking about.
Since this began under the Bush Administration, I thought the Obama Administration might want to correct it. I was wrong. We have the best government that money can buy, and it has been bought.
Northwestbynorth, everything you said corroborates what I’m saying. There is nothing more important to us economically, than this. When they manipulate the price of food and gasoline, they are extracting money from the very poorest among us and transferring it to the very wealthiest. Apparently, the politicians don’t care where the money came from, or how any one got it; as long as they get their share.
I am dismayed to hear of your plight.
At this point in the complete transition of this country into an unabashed corporate fascistic state there seems to be but one significant question left begging for an answer:
Do we take this on our knees or standing up?
The symbol of the Iroquois Confederacy on our dollars bills tells it all:
One arrow is easily broken, but 13 of those suckers is a very different story.
Or, perhaps Franklin’s: “We must hang together gentlemen…else, we shall most assuredly hang separately.”
I say to all of you my fellow patriotic lovers of democracy and truly representative government:
It’s time to stand together and take back not only our freedoms and future but our very lives!
Dear friends once more into the breach!
Thank you for sharing your memories of your neighborhood and their painful ending — and for linking this to “approved” manipulation of the commodities markets since about 2004.
Yet another argument for growing our food locally! Even if it means starting with one clump of chives in a pot.
We are all like frogs in one gigantic tub of water where the temperature is constantly being raised very slowly. Some of us can withstand temperatures of 120 degrees, while others have succumbed at 80 degrees.
The price of food and gas is the thermostat, and it’s controlled by a very wealthy politically connected consortium. Although this began under the Bush Administration, it has the tacit approval of the Obama Administration. We no longer have that “Republican, Democrat” dichotomy; we are now left with a unified thieving politician party of Repugnantcrats.
Identifying the problem is halfway to finding a solution.