All The Sad Lonely Men of Starbucks

Market is up. Recession over. So who are all these men in Starbucks? I have been coming to coffee houses for many years to get a little release from writing. I usually shuffle in the afternoon to a Starbucks and flop down in an old wing chair and get lost in some Fitzgerald, Yates, Whitman...just anything to cool the brain cells. But lately, all the chairs are taken. And they aren't taking by women, they are taken by older men. Middle age dudes of the forty something fifty something variety. They sit in their comfort jeans trying to look inconspicuous. These men do not read fiction. They stare at newspapers or some jabber away.
  
 When I first saw these men I thought maybe it was a fluke, but everyday they increased until yesterday the place was overrun. We might as well be sitting in a union hall. They look like they should all be in offices. You see the hands reaching for something to do, expressions trying to navigate the strange duplicity of sitting in a Starbucks in the middle of the afternoon when the rest of the world is working. They go to the bathrooms, order more coffee, sit with legs crossed staring intently at nothing. They just don't know what to do. In Britain they call them being made redundant. And there is that feeling that for a lot of these guys they are now redundant. They are of the middle management variety and that is something the new economy will not carry.

   The day passes and one by one they look at their watches and finally rise to put on their coats. The fact they have nowhere to go yells at you. I have lived a life of uncertainty as a writer, but you can tell these guys did not bargain for this. They are now redundant men, put out to pasture too early in a Starbucks in a small town: the sad lonely men of our time.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

Why The Germans Won't Bail Out Anybody

Europe is about to blow unless the Germans do something and start lending. I have a friend who is German. He told me a long time ago that the Greeks will have to just pay for their ways. They are lazy and just want to sit on the beach. And the French are the same. He works here in America and I know him quite well. What was amazing to me is that he really is just a step away from those pedantic Germans who pop up in movies and on Hogans Heroes. He does not deviate from methodology. And this is the reason the Germans lost the war but also almost took over the world.

What is scary is the logic that sits right under his cool facade. He also believes old people should just die and that would solve a lot of the worlds problems. He says this with no more emotion than ordering a hamburger. It is logical. We keep too many people alive and the world cannot support all these people. He is not a monster and has a family and is a good father.

But looking for the Germans to bail out countries where they believe people lived beyond their means is not going to happen. They will watch as the European economy implodes and drags the rest of the world down with it. As my friend said, they get what they deserve. Yavol.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

The Real Cost of Black Friday

Granted Black Friday is consumerism gone bad. Getting up at the crack of dawn or going to the store at midnight is slightly mad, but what is the real cost to save a buck? If you went down to the store at midnight then the cost is obvious. You leave your family on one of the few days you have off to go to a store and fight with thousands of others for a deal you may or may not get. The cost is psychic yes but it is also economic.

You will spend money to compensate for leaving: gas and food for one. Loss of sleep for another, somewhere you will have to catch up. Maybe you take the kids to a movie or dinner to compensate. You are not home and there is a hit there too. Dad or mom is gone again. A day home from work to be with family has turned into another parental absence you cannot make up. The number of days we as Americans have to spend at home is diminishing as the recession drags on and on. People are already working Saturday as standard operationg procedure to keep their jobs.

But lets say you don't take a hit anywhere else. You have succumbed to the oldest bait and switch on the planet. You are in the store to get hat IPOD for fifty dollars less and maybe you get it but then you get hit with all the other deals. Impulse buying kicks in and now you are getting the switch. Statistics prove people buy unwanted items just by entering the store and that is what Black Friday is all about. Even if you get suckered just a few times the savings that got you up in the middle of the night is gone.

So save yourself some time and money and let Black Friday pass. The deals you miss will be more than paid for by hanging with your kids and your wife or husband. And we all know that time is not money. Time is much more precious.

www.billhazelgrove.com

Buying Eggs

I needed eggs the other morning and so I jumped in the car and started driving for a local farm where they sell eggs off the back porch for a buck seventy five. I had scratched up the money from my pants pockets (times being what they are) and set off on my Sunday morning drive back into the rural America. The far west suburb of Chicago I live in is ground zero for where the boom died. On my drive toward the farmer I saw old stone entrance posts and gates of STONEHAVEN  or CREST FARMS with bright red flags advertising luxury homes. On the other side was only corn fields.

And I drove feeling more anxious. Hadn't these morons learned yet? That Americans could no longer afford luxury homes and that the market nay the culture for these type of homes had passed. In these high weeded lots sat several desultory McMansions that someone had taken a flyer on and like the pioneers of old found themselves isolated in a country they knew not. Like a wave retreating these fields will return to the Prairie grass. 

But I felt anxious. Something seemed terribly wrong. America seemed to have bet on all the wrong things. The thought that a million dollar home could make you feel better about yourself seems so delusional now after four years of super recession. And yet the red flags are new and the sign is freshly painted. COME PICK OUT YOUR DREAM HOME. I slowed down to look and then I stopped and just stared at the lonely landscape of American capitalism gone bad. I saw no American dreams here.

And so I finally reached the old farm house with the swinging sign EGGS and pulled up to the back porch. I crunched across the drive and swung open the door to the nineteenth century home. The cooler whirred and the box for money sat there open. I threw in my dollar seventy five and fished out a dozen eggs. No one was up in the house and I shut the door quietly and walked back to my car. Then I drove back toward home with my eggs and I felt strangely peaceful.

Funny that just a simple task like buying eggs off a farmers back porch should give me such serenity. But maybe I had just touched a time when all the choices were simple. A man produced eggs and sold them to his neighbors and expected the money to be left behind. Simply amazing.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

The New American Dream: Downsizing

It is the first thing off someones lips who is selling their home now. I'm downsizing. Used to be people whose kids had gone off to college would downsize, now everyone is doing it. Apologies to all those still in search of the perfect McMansion, but everyone I bump into including myself talks about one thing: getting into something smaller with less taxes and less mortgage. It has become the new American Dream.

In my last novel, Rocket Man, the main character finally  gets his dream and is able to short sale his house away and go back toward the city and live in a bungalow. This is the polar opposite of the steady march of America which probably began with the first Puritans who decided a bigger log cabin was better and from then on the implied assumption was that materialism was next to Godliness and a big house put you into the Big Mans Favor.

Gatsby, right? Jay Gatsby's pride and joy, his magnet for Daisy was his home. A mansion he resurrected on the Long Island sound to show the world he had made it. The American Dream was at its zenith during the twenties and there was nothing more American than a bigger home. Bigger does not only belong to Texas, it is wrapped up in the swagger of American prowess. Let the Europeans live in their bungalows and row houses...we live in Giant Homes. We live in mansions.

But then of course that all came crashing down much like the Hindenburg with all the concomitant horror. Suddenly the big house no longer represented prosperity or at least upward mobility, now it had become an albatross around our neck...a prison of debt and sinking good fortune. Our homes could literally make us homeless now with the specter of upside down mortgages and foreclosure.

So the race is on to downsize. Who knows where it will end, but like Dale Hammer says at the end of Rocket Man  and is sitting in the small yard of his new home: I was finally where I was meant to be.

Lucky him.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man


http://www.bi/

The Great Secret of the Suburbs

I was was talking to a friend the other day who said his kid had lost their food card. I stared at him and said your food card? He shrugged and said yeah. Our food card. We’ve had it for a couple years now. And then it hit me. Food stamps. This friend lives in a comfortable five hundred thousand dollar suburban home but his kids are on food stamps and he is on medicaid. He had been a realtor and basically lost his job. But then it go me to thinking, how many other people in the land of wide lawns are on food stamps?


It turns out a lot. Forty six million people or fourteen percent of the population is now on food stamps. That is an amazing amount of people depending on the government so they wont go hungry. And here is the kicker, half of them are in the suburbs. The suburbs are no longer the place where people go to raise their kids. For a lot of people it is where they went to go into debt and lose their homes. And what has happened now is we have created a huge subclass of people living under the radar.

This type of family is probably your neighbor or lives down the street. They drive old cars because they can’t afford the payment of a new one. They are on food stamps because they need every nickel to pay utilities and keep their kids in clothes. They are on medicaid because there is no health care when you are broke in America. They might or might not be in foreclosure or in a loan modification. They are living in a twilight land of the American nightmare.

It now takes years to get someone out of their home. If they know how to file in court they can stretch it out indefinitely. This is exactly what is happening. There are now squatters in their own homes. The American Dream depends on a vision if not a mirage and this must remain intact for the kids and the neighbors. And outwardly everything seems normal. The lawn may not get cut and the cars may be old but it is all stitched together with rubber bands and paperclips. One catastrophe can bring the whole thing down.

Yet there are millions of families living this way. We have a huge underbelly of people who have fallen out of the middle class but like a ship that refuses to sink, they can keep pumping out just enough water to keep the mirage in place. But eventually they will take water. Once the banks catch up with them or someone slashes entitlements then it is game over.

Until then, the dirty little secret of the suburbs remains just that.
http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man...one mans struggle to find the American Dream

Does Capitalism Work for the Many?

Should one human have a billion dollars at their disposal? It would seem an indictment of capitalism that such things can occur. But they do and now we have lots of billionaires. That kind of concentration of wealth into the hands of the few is unsustainable. Should an Oprah have billions and billions of dollars?Should a Bill Gates? Some would say the good provided is worth the payout,but in our wired world of five billion people and three and a half billion jobs, it just doesn't make sense.

Behind the OWS movement is a basic proposition: capitalism favors the few at the expense of the many. The few are people who game the system and make the billions. And why shouldn't they? They are smart enough to do that. But we are all on the same planet and just because one person can have the intelligence or luck to make a billion dollars should society permit that kind of inequity?

The problem is people don't share. Even if the President proposed a tax on billionaires it would never pass the congress because the billionaires can buy the congressmen. Even this rarefied world of billionaires could cry class warfare and say people are taking from them unjustly. We would like think that a sort of mega philanthropy would kick in for people at this leve,l but money has a nasty habit of staying in the same circles.

Capitalism allows anyone to become a billionaire in theory. But becoming a billionaire is largely a fluke in a system that allows one individual to prosper at the expense of the many. It would seem the many are starting to wake up.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

The old cars of the middle class

Old cars are making a come back. Or maybe it's just because I drive old cars. Used to have really nice cars with really nice payments. Five hundred. Four hundred. Big thirty thousand dollar monsters that broke down pretty quickly just the same. Amazing how that new car smell went away so quickly. I guess there is a spray out there you can get so you can keep it going. And those first dings. Rough man. And then that first time you don't get by the wash and your thirty five thousand dollar ripoff looks old.

That sucks.

So then you get rid of it or you pay it off and it becomes your old car. Ten years old with a one hundred and fifty thousand miles. You quit washing it years ago.  You just keep it going. You don't have any payments and you don't want any. Now you have two old cars and the air goes out or a window doesn't close or a door doesn't open and the upholstery smells like a junkyard with that sun baked smell of old clothes in a trunk. And the floor is covered in leaves and dirt and old junk food wrappers.

But it still runs.

And so you cruise around with your loud muffler and then some dude pulls up next to you in a Beamer. You look over and you feel the pang. Man I want that car. I want to get into a car that smells good and looks good and I want that new feeling man. Because if your car is new then you are new. You just feel better about everything. And that lasts about... a month. And then you are staring down those payments and you start thinking about the fact you are paying up to five hundred bucks a month just to get from point A to point B.

No thanks.

And so the Beamer dude pulls ahead and you get your jalopy up to speed. Throw in a CD of old songs you dig. And look for a McDonald's. Life aint so bad.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

Rocket Man...losing a house should not be this funny

The I Can't Move Generation

Everyone has their cross to bear and for the recession generation of homeowners it is this: they can't afford to move. It used to be you moved to improve your situation. In the old paradyme one moved to a bigger home to take advantage of the increase in equity from the market. Trading up. This was a no brainer. You found out your house had appreciated by a hundred grand and went house shopping. You  found your next dream home then sold your current home and took on a bigger payment but it all came out in the wash because you would get a bigger chunk of equity as the market moved again. Then it all came crashing down.

In the smoking ruins of the bust the housing market is on it's head. Take the homeowner today who wants to sell. He can't because his house is now in a negative equity situation. He owes more than it is worth. There is nothing to plunk down on the next house. But let's say the house is not underwater and he wants to sell. There is still no guarantee it will sell and worse there is no guarantee there is another house out there. This is the kamikaze element to moving now. You might find yourself out in the street because you cant qualify for the next house.

So nobody moves now. People move for a variety of reasons. The big one now is downsizing. No one wants the big house anymore. Most people want to cut costs, but here is the irony of the housing bust: you can't afford to move to a smaller home. The smaller home might cost you more because you will lose all the evaporated equity in your current house. Much like a stock you don't lose until you sell. There is a chance it might come back right? Right.

But lets say you are going full speed ahead. You literally have to proceed like a blind man. You don't even look at the new house. You can only concentrate on selling yours and make peace that you may not get a penny out of it. Then you look for a new home and you have to make peace with the fact you could well end up renting. Because qualifying with no down payment is just about impossible now. So nobody moves.

Who is moving then? The people who get foreclosed. The strategic defaulters who quit paying. The wealthy who walk from their home and buy the next one with cash. The rest of us sit and wait for the next bubble.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man...keeping your house shouldn't be this hard

The Pigs Will Have Their Day

Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. An old mortgage man said that to me a long time ago. The hogs it would seem are about to get slaughtered. You may laugh at the small size of these gatherings on Wall Street but you should start watching this. The middle class has been decimated and the children of the middle class have nowhere to go, but to the streets. And no one has been listening.

FDR saw this coming in the thirties. He knew that if inequities were not addressed then there would be trouble. So The New Deal emerged and he gave the middle class a piece of the pie. Now you have that pie divided into tiny slivers with the one percent taking the giant gulp. Should there be this type of inequality in society? This is the basic question of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Strip it down and it is about the removal of representation for the middle class. America is truly an oligarchy with only the wealthy represented in Washington. The Middle Class simply does not have a lobby to push their concerns. The middle class is not represented because there is no room at a table composed of bankers and corporations. So what is left for them but to take to the streets for those who have disenfranchised?

Dis-comfort. That is the opposite of comfort. The people in Washington are all comfortable. They have no dis-comfort. Demonstrations by their nature create dis-comfort. They shake up the status quo. There is no clear agenda and there are no leaders. But there will be dis-comfort as the protest grows. This is the age of social media and it could well spider out. And it would seem Washington will not see the writing on the wall until it comes to their door.

That old mortgage man went on to explain that if you take too much, if you are greedy, then you might end up getting nothing. Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered. Someone should write it down and send it to every person in Washington who has forgotten about who they really are supposed to represent.

Because the pigs will have their day.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

Rocket Man...a story of one man trying to find the American Dream

                                                                   

The President Has One Shot Left to Jump start Housing

The American Jobs Bill is taking water fast since the Speaker and the boys have already said they won't increase taxes for nuthin. Uh Uh. Not going to do it. The fourteen month countdown is here and like the wrestler ahead by two points all they have to do is hang on and let the economy tank and it's game over for Obama and crew. But the President does have one bullet left and it will be his last shot. It could save the economy and his Presidency.

Here it is. Forget about the Jobs Bill. It is too scatter shot anyway. What he should do and really has to do is give the American people back their homes. He can do this and he won't need congress. He can order Fannie and Freddie to immediately change their guidelines and refinance anyone with good credit regardless of the the value of their homes. Anyone. Millions would move to lower rates and get two months off in the process and get their escrow money back. Massive cash infusion for the middle class.

Secondly. Give a ten thousand dollar incentive for anyone buying a new home. It worked before and it will work again. Get people buying homes again. Third. Order all the banks who hold second mortgages to subordinate to the first lien position. The second loans are strangling homeowners by not allowing them to refinance. Third. Give the market back it's equity. Make it illegal to count foreclosures and short sales in comps for appraisals. These should not be counted. They are aberrational and taking away the value for homeowners who have been paying their mortgages on time.

Why do this? Because the crash started with housing and it will end with housing. This was not a normal boom and bust cycle. The crash occurred because lending was broken when the derivative market blew. The middle class backs their hand with their homes. Everything they do comes from this asset. Give the housing market back it's value and middle class people will start to buy again. Hiring will follow. But here is the real reason: The effect would be immediate.

Forget about tax cuts for businesses. Nothing will trickle down. It has to go up. This is what the economists don't get. This is what mortgage brokers and real estate agents know. The President could save his Presidency by doing this. But he has to do it now. He has to focus. Because this is his last shot.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/

Rocket Man...sometimes a house is not a home

Corporations are not people

I used to know a guy in college who always said, you are either for me or against me. Usually he wanted help in some way and everyone had a good laugh. But there is no laughing now. Sixteen million people unemployed with a double dip recession looming, one quarter of all mortgages under water, houses worthless, and a vanguard of zealots running for President who want to destroy Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare. See Paul Ryans plan if you doubt what I am saying or watch Governor Perry in the debate last night.

These are the times of you are either for the people or against the people. Ideology aside. Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, green whatever, this concerns the people. Black, white, yellow, brown, it doesn't matter your color. The people are on the line right now. The American Jobs Act will be unveiled and it will help middle class people. It will help the people. Even if you are employed and doing very well, this plan will be better than doing nothing because we might have a chance to get things going.

Corporate America will bail out nobody in the United States. They are in pursuit of other markets. They are in other countries where the emerging middle class has buying power. They are after those consumers. They are sitting on trillions and are not going to employ Americans because the American consumer has been shucked and left with only the husk. There is no more money for the corporations to mine. This is a basic concept. There is no Buy America. The buyers have left the country for ports where people can buy. And corporations are not churches, they do not have our best interests at heart. They could give a damn.

Mitt Romney was wrong. Corporations are not people. They are not feeling creatures. They are entities created to make money anywhere in the world. America to them is like a service station where you can pick up some gas and a few goodies, but you are on your way somewhere else. The right will try and obstruct Obamas plan. They have already begun. But they are not obstructing the Presidents plan. They are obstructing the people.

http://www.billhazelgrove.com/
Rocket Man  One Man's Search for the new American Dream. James Frey