Wednesday, February 07, 2007

I See Debt People


Funny thing is these debt people don't even know it.

84 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just have one thing to say:

Wherefore art thou, MigDreamy?

*sigh*

Miguel said...

So I'm a debt person now, am I?

Whatever that means.

Anonymous said...

MIGDREAMY!!! Welcome! <3 <3 <3

All is now well in Tracyland. :)

Anonymous said...

PS: Damn, that was some terrific timing you had there. I'm most impressed.

Anonymous said...

Isn't the present value of the US government's non-discretionary spending obligations around $50 trillion?

How's that going to be paid off? I can't imagine that social security will be cancelled.

And I can see the government raiding the 401s, IRAs and savings of people who have been sensible with their money to bail everyone else out.

So yea, we are all debt people.

Anonymous said...

PPS: Due to unforseen circumstances (ie, your lovely wife and children) the writers have decided to end our story arc and have written a script that contains a new love interest for my character.

John Galt has recently been cast as my McSteamy.

It was good while it lasted, babe, but like all good things... it had to end sometime.

I'll always remember our IAFF days fondly. :)

Anonymous said...

I wrote a long item on the "unfunded liabilities" debt. It's in the "Are there no poorhouses?" thread. Here:

http://exurbannation.blogspot.com/2007/01/are-there-no-poorhouses.html#comments

Basically, the American government (and lots of local governments) has been saying "Charge it!" for many decades.

The Medcare and Social Security promises _alone_ have a Net Present Value of $86 trillion.

I like to put this in understandable terms by interpreting this in terms of individual taxpayers, fo which there are about 125 million in the U.S.

This works out to be about three quarters of a million bucks per average taxpayer. Or more than their net worth.

And this does not even count the unfunded liabilites where the government has promised to fund the pensions that corporations neglected to (or pulled a Casey on, leaving the debt hanging). Or the unfunded liabilities of loan guarantees, foreign loans that will never be repaid, and on and on.

All of America is one giant Caseyland.

--Tim

Rob Dawg said...

Reproduced below is Tim's opus. Tim, are you sure? I thought the $86t was FV not NPV. Big difference. Clearly the govt will repudiate much of this in some form. Most likely, extending retirement age, inflating the currency, double dealing when national healthcare is imlemented, increased taxes targetting financial assets... the usual.

Also I'm sorry the cheap blog ate one of your posts. I enjoy them and understand your frustration. As it looks now there's probably enough persistent traffic to justify a full website. I promise you your own dawg pound where you can wax poetic on Josephson effects, tunnelling electons and macroeconomics to your hearts content with a built in appreciative audience.

Tim from Monterey Bay Area said...
(Note from Tim. I don't know the best place to put this little expression of my opinions, this mini-esssay. Like Casey's blog, like a lot of blogs, people tend to just dump stuff into the topmost blog entry, probably because that's what people read. A lot of comments added to older main blog topics probably never even get read. I know this has been my experience over in Caseyworld, where a 121st comment gets added weeks after the earlier entries had petered out.

Blogs are really an Ogg-like throwback to the ancient days. No proper threading.

Oh well, I didn't think this fit under the current "top" entry, about Duane LeGate, so here it is, buried down here.)

The Real Bubble

The bubble in real estate, the bubble brain mentality that is Casey's, reverberates throught the American economy.

Want a Jamba Juice, but got no money? Charge it.

Want a new PDA, but got no money? Charge it.

Want to increase Medicare funds, but got no money? Charge it.

Want to expand "No Child Left Behind" social boondoggles, but got no money? Charge it.

Want to send more troops to a foreign war, but got no money to pay for their medical benefits and pensions for the next 50 years? Charge it.

Want to send $7 billion to Israel and $6 billion to Egypt (or the Swiss bank accounts of their rulers), but got no money? Charge it.

About 20 years a CPA friend of mine told me something I'd never heard about. He said the national deficit was not the $4 trillion or $6 trillion or whatever it was officially being reported as back then. Because it didn't include what would be needed to pay for PROMISES MADE and INDEBTEDNESS BEING INCURRED. Things like:

-- promises made to pay for health care, medicine for a retiring Boomer generation

-- pensions for a vast number of government workers, military personnel, etc.

-- "pension guarantees" for corporations which failed to set money aside

-- the effective "co-signing" of dubious loans, even including loans taken out by foreign governments and their corrupt leaders

(these are the "loan guarantees" we keep signing, and the "debt forgiveness" do-gooders like Bono keep telling us we must agree to, so that more billions can be "lent" to Chad and Uzbekistan and Zimbabwe)

-- a vast array of mandated social programs and retirement benefits for which no actual money has been set aside

My friend Stewart told me that in his community--Certified Public Accountants--the best estimate being bandied-about was $60 trillion. That is, $60 thousand billion. This amount of money would have to be SET ASIDE RIGHT NOW (this was around 1987-89 he told me this) to provide, under reasonable expectations of interest rates and inflation, the promised pensions, medical care, loan co-signings, and other detritus of the modern socialist state.

(As we will see in the item below, this number has sharply increased. The unfunded liabilities time bomb has shot up in magnitude. Now even just the Medicare/Social Security part is now $86 trillion.)

To put this in perspective, there are approximately 100 million taxpaying households in the U.S. (the rest are spouses in joint returns, children, the elderly, non-filers, prisoners, etc.). The precise figures are not the point, as you'll soon see.

Dividing $60 trillion--the 1987-89 number--by 100 million households gives $600,000.

This effectively means that each of the households effectively would've had to put $600,000, on average, into an escrow account just to pay for the yearly costs of the promised benefits.

And that number has since grown enormously.

Of course, there are two caveats:

1. Much of future benefits are supposed to be paid out of current tax revenues. (But a little bit of math should show that that's not possible--the "tax overhang" is enormously larger than what taxpayers are now paying....so the overhang just keeps getting snowplowed out into the nebulous future, where it will eventually come due--or promised benefits will be slashed by a factor of ten in real terms)

2. Households pay varying amounts, so this $600K per household in what we may call "credit card debt" (things bought, countries bought off, pensions guaranteed) is not a "per household" amount. Sure. Most taxpayers pay less than $10,000 a year in federal and state taxes. Some pay millions.

But do the math. Even if the top-earning taxpayers are taxed at 100% (as in "progressive" countries), $60 trillion is not going to be raised even over the next 20 years.

What about corporations? Couldn't they be "soaked" to provide the funds to pay off this credit card bill? They're already paying close to 50% of all profits to gubmint. Raise taxes higher and even more growth happens in China and other "less communist" nations (!).

Maybe selling off a big chunk of land--all of California, for example--would pay for a part of this debt. It's why past governments sold land to _us_. (But I think China would only agree to buy California if the rest of the U.S. agreed to pay off its debts, take its fruitcakes and gangbangers and welfare addicts.)

But enough silliness. What we face is "Caseyism" on a national scale. Other nations face just as bad a problem. It's really just a massive credit bubble, with money "borrowed" from a future that cannot possibly pay it. Gulp.

Bottom line: America has been one big Caseyworld, charging things and worrying about the bill later. America is just bouncing on its blue ball, rearranging papers on its desk.

But it gets worse. I said that estimates are now much higher than the $60 trillion estimate from 20 years ago. Here's one article. Remember, this is just for Social Security/Medicare. It doesn't include the "pension guarantees" for airline companies which have skipped-out on their pilot and crew pension plans (and before you mention it, the "funds" to supply "pension plan insurance" have paltry amounts in them....the first couple of Uncle Sam payouts has completely depleted that paltry fund--further payouts are coming straight from the taxpayer).

Read it and understand why the only thing that keeps me sane is "Schadenfreude."

Watching the train wreck is going to be fun.


http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2006/05/01/hey-buddy-can-you-spare-86-trillion/

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare $86 trillion?

That’s how much Congress would have to put in an interest-bearing account today to cover the gap between the Social Security and Medicare benefits it has promised, and its ability to actually keep those promises.

The trustees of the Medicare and Social Security programs released their annual reports at 3pm today.

A brief rundown:

The unfunded liability of the Social Security program grew by 20 percent (from $12.8 trillion to $15.3 trillion) while Congress dithered over reform proposals.
But the Social Security gap is still smaller than the unfunded liability of just the Medicare prescription drug program, which weighs in at a robust $16.2 trillion.
The total unfunded liability of Medicare topped $70 trillion (It’s actually $70.8 trillion. Round up or down to suit your taste.)
....

Anonymous said...

"He's gone back and deleted older posts that have my name."

Casey has deleted many other posters comments. He has deleted most of mine... and while I haven't posted in a while, he did not allow my last few posts through (info found on net).

I do believe there needs to be a page "casey and galena serin" with all the caches, pictures and pages.

Dolph said...

I could start the Casey Archives on my blog. I will defer to Rob though...he was my inspiration to start my place which is devoted to scorn and ridicule for the Casey(s) of this world.

Anonymous said...

Tim from Monterey Bay Area said...
...a whole buncha stuff....

You, my friend, must have a very large brain. :)

Anonymous said...

Rob Dawg:

"Reproduced below is Tim's opus. Tim, are you sure? I thought the $86t was FV not NPV. Big difference. Clearly the govt will repudiate much of this in some form. Most likely, extending retirement age, inflating the currency, double dealing when national healthcare is imlemented, increased taxes targetting financial assets... the usual"

Well, the Cato Institute article specifically said:

"Hey Buddy, Can You Spare $86 trillion?
That’s how much Congress would have to put in an interest-bearing account today to cover the gap between the Social Security and Medicare benefits it has promised, and its ability to actually keep those promises."

So is this Present Value or Net Present Value? Not being a finance guru, I checked the Wikipedia definitions.

Whichever, it means America has been living beyond its means, living on a credit card, for a long, long time. And making promises it cannot keep.

As for repudiating the promises, I agree that this is likely. Inflation alone will not be enough to repudiate the promises, as many of them are "denominated" in terms of services, or are formally tied to Cost of Living figures, so their price in dollars will go up at least as fast as inflation (probably faster).

--Tim

Anonymous said...

Yikes, has anyone been to Casey's latest BFF Eric Herrholtz's site? That flash POS on the left has to be the most annoying site add-on ever. It's like those stupid animated GIFs (that moms would put on their AOL sites) are evolving. My god, what if the animated GIFs become self-aware??? Or is he supposed to be a REI Max Headroom or something?

http://www.hotnpl.com/

(The Haters' Prayer)
Lord (or Buddha or L Ron, whoever's listening), please hear our plea and strike down the wretched abomination that is Eric J. Herrholz's embedded flash window. It is vile and wicked and crudely animated. Also, while you're at it, if you could also rain brimstone down on Casey's Vdubs, that would be cool.
Amen.

Anonymous said...

Hey guys,

Rob BBB here.

(the real one, not one of the fakes, yes.. you will get yours.. you worms!)

Just saying hi. Hanging around waiting for some news.

It will come... it will be bad and then we will all have something to talk about.

Just a waiting game at this point.

Anonymous said...

By the way, Rob, you are doing a fine job with this blog.

In particular, your light or nonexistent moderation is working well. Casey tried "turning off moderation" for a day or two, as we all recall, and got hit with an explosion of obscenities, racial insults, etc. Which is predictable, as there wasn't enough time for self-moderation (restraint) to become established.

If Casey were to adopt your non-moderation policy, things might get wild for a couple of days, but would eventually settle down, I think.

But my complaints about the "blogosphere" go a lot deeper. Listing some of them, in no particular order (because I'm too lazy tonight to compose a real essay):

1. The lack of threading. The owner of a blog--you, Dolph, Casey, Duane, etc.--creates some topic and then a flurry of comments are added. No one else has "root" and so the topics are whatever Casey wants to talk about, for example.

2. The "island" mentality. Blogs are like personally-owned islands. And there are now tens of thousands of them. Some are very popular (like Andrew Sullivan's, or Matt Drudge's), some are very sparse and usually vanish.

3. The lack of persistence. Most of the blogs which vanish never have their words stored or retrievable. (Google stores some, and the Wayback Machine may eventually have an archive. Good luck finding any gems, though.)

4. Did I mention the primitive tools? Each "family" of blog tools (Blogger, WordPress, etc.) has its own set of tools, with unique and bizarre interfaces, with primitve editing tools. And with no threading...see above.

5. The combination of poor tools and the "commenting on what the Big Dog just said" (the blog's owner, not Rob Dawg specifically) encourages lots of short little snippets of repartee.

The little text boxes like this one, rather than full-page editing environments, further encourages "D00d, like you are pwned!" one liners.

(Yeah, I know about other editors. Longer items I usually edit in Emacs or TextEdit, for the full-screen environment, not for fancy non-ASCII text. But often I start editing in the "little box for replies" and am done before I even think to use one of my real editors...which is why I sometimes lose text completely with these blog environments.)

Someone suggested to me that I start my own blog. Believe me, it's been suggested to me before.

The problem I have is related to the themes above. I don't want to have to "start conversations" on various topics and then see who responds to my conversation starters.

Also, and this is more serious, my interests lie in some diverse areas. Some of the interests I have in technical areas are completely orthogonal to political or social interests. There is no way someone reading my blog on Haskell, functional programming, and category theory is going to to want to read my libertarian views on welfare mutants and their litters of children. (Said deliberately provocatively, though honestly, to illustrate the orthogonality.)

No, it's better to find a forum for talking about technical things, a forum for political things, a forum for hobby things, and so on. One blog does not fit all, except when someone is very focused on one issue (such as with Casey and his current problems) or where one is so charming and entertaining that people read someone maunderings just for the sake of reading them.

In set theory terms, there just is not any significant overlap, except to me, in many of the things I am interested in. Ditto for most everyone, I think. Most blogs become hideously boring because the interests of the blogger (crocheting, Morgan horses, Islamic art, their dog, gossip about the neighbors, what they ate the night before) has no interest for readers. And so the blogs die.

Frankly, this Casey train wreck is eventually going to come to an end. And so, too, will the blogs. And then most of us will scatter into other niches, other blogs, other islands.


--Tim

Anonymous said...

One of the biggest strengths of the Internet is that it promotes the ability for people to communicate with each other. It's no surprise that two of the most popular pre-web Internet activities were Usenet and mailing lists. People, even introverted techie types, are social animals.

Over time, we-the-net-users have tried a number of different ways to use the Internet to communicate. Usenet, mailing lists, chat rooms, bulletin boards, blogs, "user generated content" sites, social networking sites, IM clients, IRC -- these are all attempts to harness technology for the same purpose. Each format has plusses and minuses, and I doubt that any one format will ultimately triumph.

Blogs aren't perfect, but they obviously have a role to play.

Side note -- I have run a blog for the last 3 years, and to some people it probably is a boring personal blog. The fact that I get some traffic is nice, but that's not the reason why I blog. I do it so that I can stray current with some aspects of internet technology, and because I enjoy running the blog. If I stop enjoying it, I'll stop blogging.

Anonymous said...

Tim from Monterey Bay,
I agree with all of your points about blogging, particularly the last 4 paragraphs of http://exurbannation.blogspot.com/2007/02/i-see-debt-people.html#c4995396762899142161

And this one in particular (hilarious):
In set theory terms, there just is not any significant overlap, except to me, in many of the things I am interested in. Ditto for most everyone, I think. Most blogs become hideously boring because the interests of the blogger (crocheting, Morgan horses, Islamic art, their dog, gossip about the neighbors, what they ate the night before) has no interest for readers. And so the blogs die.

Anonymous said...

Just got back from Dolphh's blog where we are talking about what a REAL entrepreneur is...I happened to glance back at Casey's posts and by what he says, even he can't seriously think he has the work ethic of an entrepreneur. It is such a fascinating thing to see that I posted it here as well


From Casey's mouth Oct. 22 2006

From Oct. 22 2006

1) I will not work more than 8 hours a day. Monday through Friday 9am to 5pm or something similar. This way I’ll have room for daily exersize, social life and a full night’s rest.
2) I will focus on money producing activities. Since my working hours are limited I must use the time wisely. I must learn to work smart and be efficient.
3) No working on weekends. That is a general rule. Weekend work would only be allowed if it’s something that cannot be done on a weekday. Open house is a good example of that. My wife will have to approve the activity first - to prevent me from abusing the privilege.
4) I will keep all work in the office. No taking work home.
Blogging, comment moderation, email, etc, will have to be done in the office during working hours. I did however, negotiate a 2 hour blogging/email allowance on Saturday. This way I will not have a huge pile of messages on Monday to go through. So I hope to continue posting daily, except for Sundays.
5) Sunday will be a rest day to connect with my Maker and spend quality time with wife, family and friends


does this sound like a workaholic? does this sound like someone who will baby and nurse their new business? Does this sound like someone you would hire? Let alone invest in?

Casey you are an ass!

Anonymous said...

will keep all work in the office. No taking work home.



Lol I just remembered that Mr. Workaholic has an office in his room/home..no wonder he doesn't get any work done. I expect that sooner or later he won't be able to afford the $50 a month and will have to move his office into the bathroom.

Anonymous said...

Hi USA:

I might be able to arrange a meeting for you with Robert Kiyosaki here in Phoenix. I'm sure his advice can help you out of that $86 trillion mortgage. In fact, he's about to write a new book called, "Rich Founding Fathers. Poor Founding Fathers."

If I could have the rights to your story, oh maybe from 1850 on, I'll take you to In-n-Out Burger for lunch.

If you throw in the Grand Canyon, I'll give you some mentoring, too. I have plans to fill it in with concrete and build a gazillion condos.

My slogan used to be "I do people." Now, it's "I do countries."

- Erin

Anonymous said...

Casey doing some serious trolling with his last post..note how he mentions his newly bought road service and how he isn't getting his money's worth...



I am Facing Foreclosure .com
February 7th, 2007
Homeless Dude Trespassing on My Property


That’s right, there is a homeless guy living in that blue car on my Burdett property. (The boat is my neighbor’s and he will be removing it now that the house is listed on the MLS and ready for showing). The homeless guy wasn’t in the car when I was taking the picture.

I’ve seen him before inside that car except the car was parked on the street in front of the house. The neighbor has seen him there too on and off for months now. I have been ignoring the problem for a while because I was too busy to deal with it.

Then about a month ago I saw the homeless dude there and talked to him. He said he is there to check for the mail since he doesn’t have a forwarding address. He told me he used to live in the house back when I had it leased out last year. I never met him before and he wasn’t listed on the application so apparently he was living in the house last year without my permission. I told him he needs to get going because I’m selling the house. He said he will go get gas and move the car that same day. That never happened.

So this time (on Saturday) I see the car parked on my driveway as you can see from the picture above! On top of that, I find the guy put a lock on the gate so I couldn’t open it! I also notice the grass has been mowed and watered. The neighbor said the homeless guy did that. Is he trying to take care of the house so I would be nice to him or what?

Either way trespassing on my property is not cool, so I try to figure out what to do:

I call the police and they said they can’t move the car because it hasn’t been reported stolen.
I talk to code enforcement to report an abandoned car and they said they can’t do anything about this because the car is on my property and not on the street. They say I need to call a towing company and they will tow it for free and charge the car owner.
I call my road-side assistance program that I just ordered. They are NOT willing to help me because I don’t own the car and they say this is something the police is supposed to do.
I call the police again and explain my situation again thinking maybe they didn’t understand me the first time but the guy told me for sure they don’t do this kind of thing and said I should call around and find a towing company that will.
After several calls to a bunch of different companies I FINALLY find a company that is willing to tow the car for me but they only work Monday through Friday 8 to 5. (This was on Saturday.)
So I left a note on the car saying that the car will be towed on Monday.
Today I found from the neighbor or the agent (I forget) that the car is now on the street.
So I called code enforcement and report an abandoned car.
They said it will take 1-3 days to get it towed.
We will see…

Anonymous said...

I hope Casey gets into a fight with the "homeless guy" and the guy takes a razor to his throat and gut and leaves him to bleed out on the sidewalk.

Anonymous said...

Casey steals from bank

Homeless dude steals "Casey's" house.

Love the way our little buddy thinks of it as "his" property despite not having paid his mortgage for months.

Me - I think the homeless due has more "right" to live on the property than Casey - I mean, afterall, the homeless dude is mowing the lawn.

I can't wait.... in a few weeks Casey will be posting that he has opened his mail and their will be an invoice from "homeless dude property management services" for landscaping!

Anonymous said...

Oh. He has a "homeless" dude on *HIS* property.

Right.

And said "Homeless Dude" actually cuts the grass and keeps everything tidy.

Anytime I need to raise my blood pressure a couple hundred points, I just go to IAFF and voila.

If I was a cartoon character, I'd be blowing steam out of my ears and running after little casey with a bat to knock some sense into him.

-Cecelia

Anonymous said...

As if his lender had a reason to not viciously pursue foreclosure before, now there's a squatter in the mix?

Looser Boy needs to tread very carefully, as that is not a very nice neighborhood. Anyone living out of their car in that general area is very likely into something illegal. Extremely likely that he carries at least a switchblade--and he'd know how to use it and wouldn't have any qualms about giving Casey the ass-kicking he so richly deserves.

So Casey's probably doing the right thing by trying like hell to have the city/county take care of it. Although he should realize that if the guy's car gets towed, that Burdett house is going to get seriously messed up. Now I'm sure Looser Boy doesn't think of that as his problem having not paid a dime in insurance for half a year, but wait until the lender goes after him to recover any uninsured losses post-BK.

He's an idiot too for even thinking that his roadside assistance would cover towing of the vehicle. Had he read the contract...

Lastly, I cannot imagine being the neighbor of one of Casey's properties. In that area, its most likely a working class family that is busting their asses to afford the best home that they can. And here's this 24 year-old punk who totally neglects the property for 6-8 months. What a worthless sack of lazy crap.

-walt526

Anonymous said...

"I can't wait.... in a few weeks Casey will be posting that he has opened his mail and their will be an invoice from "homeless dude property management services" for landscaping!"

What's even better is that if its official-looking enough and is addressed to Galina, Looser Boy might actually pay it. Or try to anyway. I wouldn't trust a cashier's check from that guy.

-walt526

Anonymous said...

Rob Dawg,
In a new and improved Exurban/SerinInfo-what-have-you blog, it would be nice to click on favorite characters – Tim from Monterey Bay Area, Stephanie J., Homey Da Clown, etc.

Anonymous said...

Ha ha, this is classic. In six months, Casey will be the one trying to live in front of that house in his Jetta.

Homeless guy kept his word: he got gas and moved his car. He moved it from the street into the driveway. It's Casey's fault for not being more specific.

Anonymous said...

Re: the homeless dude now living at Burdett:

Once again an opportunity falling into Casey's lap... just like he said. Casey can have the homeless guy buy the house on a "wrap". Maybe he can take the homeless guy's car in the deal so he has a backup vehicle for the Jetta, or for G to use for herself. Win-win! And the homeless guy won't even have to move far.

To the skeptics who might point out that the homeless guy probably doesn't have any money to buy a house: that didn't stop Casey, did it? All the homeless guy has to do is to wrap it again to someone else. That's the kind of creative high level deal making Casey excels at. If he puts his argyle thinking cap on, he could probably figure out a way for everyone to get some cash back.

Dare I say SWEET deal?

Anonymous said...

Is there a real connection between the Serin family and the gas? I suspect there might be – or perhaps the last name has added to all the reasons he disturbs me.

Anonymous said...

At 9:35 PM, walt526 said...
"I can't wait.... in a few weeks Casey will be posting that he has opened his mail and their will be an invoice from "homeless dude property management services" for landscaping!"


Actually, in a few weeks, Casey will be posting that not only will the homeless guy not leave, but that he's claiming an easement.

Hey homeless guy, if you're out there, it's worth a shot!

Anonymous said...

AumDoom said...
"Is there a real connection between the Serin family and the gas? I suspect there might be "

No. Different spelling.

Though someone one IAFF used the nym "Don't inhale the Serin gas" for a while.

From the Wikipedia:

"Sarin was discovered in 1938 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld in the Ruhr valley of Germany by two German scientists while attempting to create stronger pesticides; it is the most toxic of the four G-agents made by Germany. The compound, which followed the discovery of the nerve agent tabun, was named in honor of its discoverers: Gerhard Schrader, Ambros, Rüdiger and Van der LINde."

Anonymous said...

Immigrants often change the spelling of their names though…

Anonymous said...

hahahahahahhahahahahahahahah


I cant wait to see robert post this in a new topic with the comments come rolling in from homey, og, dolph, and stephanie oh and heidi too.


I swear...I have gotten more entertainment today that my side hurts from laughing.

Fuck you casey...you deserve everything you get....


HAHAHHAHAHAHAh a homeless guy mowed the lawn...ROFL ROFL ROFL

a homeless guy does more work than casey does.

Anonymous said...

Why are we calling him 'homeless' -- he has a home! And a financial net worth several hundred thousand higher than Casey . . .

Anonymous said...

Only Casey and his on inflated self worth would actually look down on a homeless person that
1) Apparently has a nicer car than he does
2) Actually works to add value to a property that isn't even his
3) Has a net worth of zero which is still waaaaay ahead of Casey
4) Is smart enough to beat Casey at this own game (the lock on the gate was pretty smart)
5) Will pretty soon be teaching how to survive on the streets..

Anonymous said...

I don't buy a word of it.

L'il Casey has found a way out for his Sac house - "Hey, I chased a bum away from my house, I even posted about it, and after I had the car towed...it got burned down! Can I have my insurance check?"

I'd watch that property carefully, very carefully.

I would'nt find it hard to believe L'il Casey would pay the guy to do it, to.

"Hey, I offered him a sweet deal, he needed money, I need that house GONE".

He's got nothing left, and I just know that blintz filled head of his has been slowly creaking over the possible insurance cash he *almost* got from the NM house.

L'il Casey does not make random posts, he always has an ulterior motive, I've been reading his crap long enough to know that. This situation is not big enough to get much sympathy (Blintz brain, it's *your* house, throw a chain aroud the axl and tie it to the bumper of your Dub, and yank the thing OUT, after taking a bolt cutter to the lock.) It's not enough to justify the lack of posts.

No, I think Blintz Brain has been scheming again.

Watch that house carefully.

Money Factor said...

The city probably mowed his lawn when he ignored their warning letters. I expect a several hundred dollar bill in the mail. Of course, he won't open it until mid summer.

Anonymous said...

Laidees and Gentletrolls, dearly beloved all:

Let us being by having Tim lead our little flock in a chorus of "Sixteen Tons" ("Another day over and deeper in debt...")

One of you Californian haters located near the Burdett property (Homey) needs to hie himself over there and tell the homeless dude to get his ass over to Legal Aid. Just leaving a note might work.

As far as I know, squatters in California have rights; you can't just kick them off a property that they have been occupying. Instead, the property owner must establish his rights with the courts.

We want this squatter to be able to exercise all his rights, as watching Casey attempt to navigate the court system with Legal Aid snapping at his heels should be fun.

Only after our urban camper gets the heads up, we may also want to inform the Burdett lender that the property is occupied. Just not by Boy Casey. Or maybe not - the Burdett lender will be more motivated and experienced than Casey in kicking the homeless guy out.

Then there is the fire-hazard issue. Would this homeless guy want to burn down "his" own shack?

How do we want to play this? Either way, the homeless guy needs to know, and he seems to be doing a better job of keeping the place up than Casey is, which is an underpinning of Anglo-American property law.

Anonymous said...

prlinkbiz Says:
October 27th, 2006 at 9:02 am

He’s going to make a come back because some of us know how to come in and fix mistakes and turn problems into something positive. Among my friends I count multi millionaires who made that money solving these kind of problems, friends who made and lost and made multiple millions again, and these people are taking Casey on to help him. Keep an eye on mine and Casey’s blog in the next week. I feel confident that Casey is going to find the help and tools he needs to get out and get on to achieiving his goals. It’s too bad you are all so negative and wanting to see him fail. One day your karma will come back to bite you in the ass.

Anonymous said...

Yo, Rob Dawg, yo, dawg!

Do we have any evidence that Casey has been reading this blog? It seems incredulous that he hasn't.

Anonymous said...

Posted this yesterday on IAFF (note the caps):

"Rather good article, although rather Obvious. Basically, Energy and Talent are Characteristic Observations Today regarding young Enthusiasts."

Anonymous said...

Casey, IMHO, does have an ulterior motive. This "homeless dude" will either "hurt" him or be used as some excuse to torch the house, or something.

Anonymous said...

Casey (we know that you are reading this):

You do know that if you burn down the Burdett property and blame the homeless guy for it, dozens of people are going to be calling the Sacramento arson investigators and fingering **you**.

Tread carefully, dude...

Anonymous said...

A bit late but...

On April 26 2006 Casey buys "a copy of Microsoft Money 2006 to finally start to organize the finances".

On January 30 2007 Casey "installed and setup Microsoft Money so I can start tracking my income and expenses".

I wonder what took priority over tracking his income and expenses in the intervening nine months? Maybe the same thing that kept him too busy to deal with the homesless guy?

Anonymous said...

'homesless' was actually a typo, but thinking about it, that's exactly what Casey is going to be very soon...

Anonymous said...

I was just hurrying over here to say someone in the area just has to go over there and tell the guy to move the car back onto the driveway and inform him of his rights as a squatter.

Then Heidi can call the bank and inform them there's a tenant in the house that Casey hasn't told them about.

Also - did anyone snap all the posts off the old blog site? I still can't see the dang previews from earth mission and It'd be great to have them someplace.

Anonymous said...

You can read them here:

http://www.freewebs.com/creepyoldman/Earth_Mission.txt

Previews still work for me, I tried them again just now...

Anonymous said...

Oooh, thanks!

Yeah, I don't know why the previews won't work for me, tried two browsers, tried backing up and searching from scratch as per Heidi's tip, I still get only the blank wp error page from the previews.

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Beezer. Who here is willing to volunteer to help a homeless person out? I would but I sort of live in Russia.

Speaking of Russia, my friend Lena has insisted since Day One that CS is a troll, and a pathetic one at that. Everyone knows that it is impossible for anyone who ever participated in the Soviet educational system to be as stupid as CS.

Lena is kind of a Casey Serin herself, except noone mistakes her for stupid and she makes money out of her scams.

Miguel said...

Immigrants often change the spelling of their names though…

Indeed, and of course Casey's surname would originally have been written in Cyrillic - so there's no "correct" Romanized spelling.

PPS: Due to unforseen circumstances (ie, your lovely wife and children) the writers have decided to end our story arc and have written a script that contains a new love interest for my character.

Where's your sense of adventure, woman? And my daughter isn't remotely lovely at the moment: the terrible twos have started with a vengeance.

Anonymous said...

Oh my god. Homeless guy on his property. Homeless guy who has done more work on the property than Casey has ever done. Probably more work than Casey has ever done in his life.

That is AWESOME.

Anonymous said...

Man I'm am REALLY hating Casey over that "Homeless dude" post. TROLLLLLLLLLING. Probably his neighbor's car actually. The one with the stupid big boat. Maybe homeless dude is living in the boat? I'd pay a towing company to drop the dude's car 20 blocks away where he'd never find it and throw a new lock on the gate. And If I were boat-neighbor, having my boat in Casey Serin's bank's driveway would make me a little nervous. Maybe paying for a drydock by the marina is expensive but hey...at least you know it'll be there when you want it.

Homeless guy should be enlisted to get the property in saleable condition. I mean the guy cared enough to cut the lawn. And yet Casey refers to it as "MY house". HIS properties. What a joke.

Anonymous said...

Given the comments about Serin/Sarin gas above, I'm surprised nobody has made a pun yet about Serin Wrap. Or did I miss one sometime here or on IAFF?


TfMB,
You seem to know more about US macrofinance than I, and there's a little question that's been buggin me. How much of a difference to the US credit situation is being made by the slow erosion of seigneurage of the US dollar? If you have a quick reply, please feel free to comment. But don't bother looking up info; if I weren't so Serin.. whoops, that should be spelled lazy... I'd do it myself.


Miguel,

You want to talk about terrible twos? Try boys instead of girls. Try twins instead of one.


Sleepless Northern Renter

Anonymous said...

Did anyone else catch that bit Casey wrote about the neighbor moving the boat "NOW that the property is on the MLS and ready for showing"????

Why wasn't that done 8 months ago?? Why is it just NOW on the MLS???

Anonymous said...

Can someone run the plates?

Looks like 41B 220.

Who is the car registered to?

Odds
Casey 50%
Galina 25%
Casey using Galina's name 15%
Chris Record(SWEET CAR DOOD!) 10%
Duane LeDouche 7%
Homey Da Clown 3%

Anonymous said...

No way that car is registered to Casey. If it was, he'd already have sold it to finance some more sweet deals. My guess is that the homeless guy is also living in the house, but Casey hasn't bothered to look inside.

Anonymous said...

My money is that the car belongs to Sputnik, who is escaped and on a shoe-poopin' spree.

Anonymous said...

I think I'll stop by the house today and see if Mr. Squatter is still there.

I'm a little lost on the potential torching of the house though. For him to get paid, he would have to have his insurance be current. Also, his lien holder would be notified of the fire and potential payout before one would happen.

Anonymous said...

Visible license plate number is 4TB, gate, 220. There may be a middle number obscured (deliberately?) by the gate.

CLOSEUP OF PLATE

Casey's is a real Horatio Algae story. Like algae, he is green, moist, and stinky. He will soon play an important role in aquatic ecology. Like algae, he can be burned to produce heat and electricity. This may be his only practical use.

Anonymous said...

Ok, if someone does go over there, the information for our friend from the lawn service is to look into adverse possession in California, which takes five years, but can be sped up by payment of the property taxes by the squatter. I'm pretty sure we can take up a collection to that effect, and I'd wager Casey isn't up to date on the property taxes.

In California, adverse possession requires five years of continued use which is "open and notorious" and "adverse" to the owner's interest. The maintenance and upkeep and improvement of the property is required and for the five years of use the property taxes must be paid for the property being adversely possessed.

However, there are also tenancy rights that may evolve from squatting. To wit -

Getting tenants' rights as a squatter is difficult but it's not impossible, and early on what's most important is at least acquiring the appearance of tenants' rights, since the most basic aspect of a tenant is that she is someone the police won't arrest as a trespasser. ...

First, rent does not necessarily have to be cash. Sure, that's the most common, but rent is also frequently paid through labor (resident managers, caretakers, etc.). What makes a rental contract is "consideration:" that is, you are getting housing in exchange for something (usually money), but in the case of squatting, squatters need to realize that they are getting the housing in exchange for watching over it, making repairs, cleaning it up, etc.

Second, the landlord's permission does not necessarily have to be explicit permission or written down. A rental agreement can be written, oral or implied by the conduct of the landlord.
Thus many squatters have found themselves in a squat which the landlord has known about and has given up (for whatever reason) trying to get rid of them. Squatters can make an argument that, when discovered by the landlord, they made an oral agreement with him to live there in exchange for maintenance and security of the property.

But probably the most important step and the first step which should be taken is to create the appearance of tenants' rights. This is pretty easy and can forestall actions to evict you as a trespasser, giving you time to establish more solid rights (as described above). ...

police training in a trespassing situation instructs them to first determine if the person may be a tenant. Police are instructed to ask for rent receipts, utility bills or mail at the address.

Police Training Bulletin 84-05 says: "If any material showing a right to possession is produced, however arguable it may be, the burden shifts to the property owner or agent to prove the elements required for a trespass violation . . . members should not presume a person to be a trespasser." If the burden is shifted back to the owner, that means the police will tell him it's a "civil matter" and must be addressed in court (i.e., through a formal eviction). ...

The first thing to do is to make it look more of a home than a squat. Getting some furniture and possessions inside helps a lot. If the police come by and see that you're cooking dinner, reading or watching television they're much more likely to buy an argument that you have permission to be there and are really tenants.


So... if someone goes over, explains all this, I'm sure people here will send mail, and maybe he could get something hooked up in his own name. This may be more effective in the short term than Heidi's phenomenal efforts to subvert our lil condom hat.

Anonymous said...

Let's not think of this guy as "Homeless Dude," but rather as "Poor Dad." I see serious potential for a mentoring relationship here. Casey is going to need to learn to live on the streets soon and Poor Dad is just the guy to do it. This is just another example of how sweet opportunities just seem to magically fall into Casey's lap.

Anonymous said...

Most edifying, Beezer, and preach on, brothers and sisters!

I wasn't trying to let Young Qasey's new tenant take over, so much as to make it difficult to get him out. That is a victory in and of itself, as it will be tough to sell the property.

If California is like other liberal-infested states, Boy Wonder can't simply kick the squatter out without a court order, (assuming he is physically capable of doing so).

Of course, if the California homeless are anything like their DC brethren, they know their rights and know how to manipulate the system.

The determined DC property owner will win in the end, but it takes months, money, and court appearances. The determined squatter can stall the system and live in the property in the meantime, and Casey has to deal with it.

Of course, if the property owner does attempt self-help without court sanction, the squatter immediately gets a court order to repossess the property and simultaneously sues for assault, trespass, etc.. What usually happens in the real world is that the property owner pays the squatter to move out rather than waste time and money in court.

I do not know how much Cali resembles DC, but I am sure that the local Legal Aid deals with this sort of thing all the time. That is why I suggested we clue the squatter in, so he can get a head start on gumming up the the eviction machinery.

Hell, the squatter may be able to file a lien on the place for all I know. Would not that be festive?

Anonymous said...

Sorry, forgot to mention info is from - http://www.sftu.org/squat.html

I don't know how much of a wrench it'd throw our little antihero, but any annoyance is a good thing. Go lawn dude!

Anonymous said...

One more thing: I have reason to believe that Casey's newest mentor knows exactly what he is doing.

I will not yet post why, as this information may be misused by some.

Anonymous said...

I didn't mean he should try to take the property, though I'd certainly encourage it, he is taking care of it better than Casey, and his net worth, as pointed out above, is a half million or more above Casey's.

But if he can get some mail going - order him some catalogues or something, and get something hooked up in his name and possibly pay the taxes, the cops won't do anything and Casey would have to start eviction proceedings and all.

I think if the bank forecloses, they can get the Marshall's office to summarily evict but there might be other irritation this can cause Condom Hat.

Sid - You tease!

Anonymous said...

::dabs tears from her eyes::

Oh my god, it took me ten minutes to cycle down from the laughter.

I hadn't seen that new post until this morning, and at first I thought it was a joke. I wrote a joke post about squatters yesterday--and hell if this doesn't just take the cake.

He's got a tidy squatter. LOL LOL LOL... ROFL LOL LOL

He should start charging homeless guy rent--paying him for property maintenance.

Augh, you know, just when life starts to get you down, little jewels like this lift you right back up. I've gotta give Casey props for that.

LOL..

Anonymous said...

Hell, for all I know Joe Squatter is firing up a meth lab in there. That would explain why he is keeping the place up.

Does anyone here know what an environmental mess a meth lab is? Or what fire hazards they are?

Unknown said...

ANON & Walt - the plate number is '4TBK220'

Clearly visible from Casey's 'Holiday pictures' post from late December.

Closeup of the car is HERE : http://www.gofrumpy.com/viewer.php?id=1170949599338035555_88c20c2276_o2.jpg

Anonymous said...

Hm....maybe the car really DOES have some Casey-connection and Casey is trolling us?

Anyone able to run a check on those plates?

Anonymous said...

Oh a meth lab is an environmental disaster. Some municipalities have specific regulations regarding cleanup, it'd cost a ton AND he'd be subject to lawsuits from neighbours, I believe.

It's wrong to root for it to be a meth lab though, right? Yeah, that'd have to be wrong. To ... root for something like that. Yeah. I'm pretty sure.

Anonymous said...

What a dilemma....Should I root for a meth lab or for dumbass?

Far as the plates on that car go, does anoyone here think it might just be Homey time?

Anonymous said...

Okay, I need some credit here, because it's taking every fibre of my being not to go to IAFF and flame the living hell out of that idiot.

I am resisting. Barely.

Anonymous said...

Re:
>>>Okay, I need some credit here, because it's taking every fibre of my being not to go to IAFF and flame the living hell out of that idiot<<<

Don't do it! It's what he wants. No IAFF posts, please! Starve the twink!

Anonymous said...

Grouphug for Stephanie J!

i am wicked...

Anonymous said...

Any chance we can get CS arrested and taken away for falsely reporting a car as abandoned? That's effectively theft. And a Homeless Dude (HD) is probably not running up millions in debt on his credit cards and therefore won't have the cash to get his car back.

He's really pizzing me off now - as if someone down on their luck needs kicking... well if he's name is Casey, he does, but at least HD is mowing the lawn and keeping an eye on the place.

segfault said...

Re: Meth lab

They are a big problem in my part of the country, although I am not sure if my locality has specific cleanup provisions.

More information on meth-lab cleanup here:
http://www.forensic-applications.com/meth/meth.html

Besides the physical and environmental danger, health danger to users and others, etc., it is now more difficult and inconvenient to purchase effective OTC allergy medications such as Claritin-D.

Anonymous said...

Stay strong Stephanie! Believe me, I know the pain you are going thru - hell, I want to write him somenthing so vile that it would scar him for life.

But I realize that a slow painful death to his aspirations for stardom is much agonizing in the long run. I find it too ironic that Casey calls another human being "homeless dude" (haha, very witty dumbass) but asks for kindness and understanding regarding his situation.

Burn in hell, CaseMan!

Rob Dawg said...

The worst punishment for someone like Casey is to ignore him for the insignificant pimple he is.

I'm just amazed. Is it typical of 20 somethings to live their lives on the internet like this? Everything just laid bare for anyone to voyuer?

Anonymous said...

Rob Dawg:

It does seem to be a pretty major cultural shift in less than a generation. I'm not quite old enough to be Casey's mom (argh! A, my kid would be better behaved and smarter, and B, how'd I get to 41 already???) but I know that the stuff Gen Y'ers think is not only kosher but par for the course is so outside the bounds of what we did at the same age - the biggest killer for me is the lack of shame. If I had fucked up big time like Casey has, I'd be too ashamed to show my face, much less broadcast it.

Anonymous said...

@ Jade

I noticed the bit about the MLS listing too. Maybe Burdett was FSBO before? After all, he did all that "marketing."

So what are the latest figures on hits for his blog? Like Stephanie, I'm just barely hanging on to my boycott.

Anonymous said...

Miguel said...
Where's your sense of adventure, woman? And my daughter isn't remotely lovely at the moment: the terrible twos have started with a vengeance."

Ouch! My boys are 16 and 19 and I still remember the curse of the terrible twos. You poor thing.

Ok, well...I've had a talk with the writers and since it appears that Mr. Galt has yet to show up for work* since being cast, I have explained to them that like Meredith and Derek you and I are meant to be and it would be a great disservice to our audience if they were to deny our relationship. They've agreed.

Welcome back, my MigDreamy. <3 It's almost like you were never gone.

*sigh*

*at Exurban Nation

R-Boy said...

I just want to say that you guys all rock, and that I'm so glad there's an alternative site, so I can snark Casey without giving him more comments.

But, like crack, I can't stop reading his blog.

That being said, Uh, I might accidentally forward this over to my friends at Housing and Civil Enforcement (his blog). They might enjoy it

Anonymous said...

Tim from MBA,

Have you read the book 'the coming generational storm'? It describes a lot of the topics you mentioned regarding the US liabilities and obligations and is very interesting.

-Big Cheese