If nothing else, I think I'll need to keep this blog going because there doesn't appear to be anyone else who is willing to discuss local economic issues.
Where's the reaction to the Bulletin bankruptcy filing?
I mean, most blogs seemed to be concerned with the latest Brew pub, or what they sold on Etsy this week, or whatever.
Kind of sad what blogs have become. Twitter ain't much better.
The other guys who were addressing this issue all quit, most of them saying as they left, "our job is done."
Well, no.
This downturn still has a long way to go, with lots of permutations, and even if you don't much like my blathering, the least I can do is provide an open forum for discussion that isn't mainstream or commercial.
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27 comments:
The Bully filed under Chapter 11?!? Holy shit! I've been out of town for a few days and didn't hear about it until today.
There is indeed a certain element of poetic justice to this.
The Bully filed under Chapter 11?!? Holy shit! I've been out of town and just now got the news.
It is hard to repress one's feelings of schadenfreude, although I feel sorry for the lowly reporters and other grunts who probably will pay the price for management's poor decisions.
You still have any sources at the paper?
It actually seems pretty straightforward, I guess. But you never know.
I think the resounding silence we are hearing (aren't hearing?) is representative that there are no real sources who are willing to get down and dirty, to confront the issues, to admit the truth, and the unwillingness to be perceived of as negative.
How much discussion has there been of the formally high flying Jeld-Wen, and how their vanity golf tournament was a sign of hubris?
Or, now that Cascade Bank has managed barely survive, it seems like it's back to "everything is hunky dory."
The Source has become a newspaper that seems almost exclusively devoted to entertainment venues -- and a couple of unreadably dense columnists who don't say much original. (I miss Bruce's column.)
Putting your head in the sand and humming loudly is no way to solve things.
I've been hoping that the columnists at the Source would get better, but they seem to be getting worse.
Badly written in that they aren't fun to read, which would be O.K. is they said anything original or insightful.
Boilerplate. Like the Source is trying to be 'respectable.'
I give up on it.
Sorry to go off on the Source, but I'm sad they haven't managed to become the "alternative" while they had the chance.
Blah.
Sorry for the double post -- I don't know how it happened.
I don't really know anybody at The Bulletin these days.
Re being afraid to be "negative," I thought it was interesting that Sheila Miller's news story on the bankruptcy filing referred to "real estate challenges" as one of the causes. I guess it's no longer permissible to use the phrase "real estate collapse" or even "real estate problems."
I actually thought it would happen sooner - the Bulletin's influence and relevance has deteriorated over the last 10 years. They have a monopoly here in Central Oregon (for print) and as a result they have not adapted nor realized that the medium is archaic. Why would they buy another newspaper (not sure when they did this) with the emergence of the digital space?
It would be different if the product was relevant or even palatable but it's a poor example of a community newspaper and with the 50% price increase (newstand) it is has priced itself out of the market...
No secret the print newspaper business is in serious decline. The Bulletin has been out of touch with the residents of Bend for a long time.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/24/BU931KR0NC.DTL
"Why would they buy another newspaper (not sure when they did this) with the emergence of the digital space?"
Small weeklies actually are still doing quite well in many markets in the US.
Also: It seems odd that KTVZ hasn't reported this story yet. Professional courtesy? Fear?
I wonder if it's a coincidence, but the Redmond Spokesman has the darkest article I've seen yet on local housing, making a guess that more than half of the houses are underwater.
What seems significant to me is, that guess wasn't asked for by anyone...it could have been easily subsumed under, "no one knows."
Instead, the paper calls attention to a negative guess.
So...you know, under the assumption that the Bulletin is trying to say: "If OUR company went Chapter 11, you should know that it's not just US -- everyone is having problems."
Something like that.
I agree, it's strange that KTVZ hasn't said anything.
Thank you all for not having the mean spirited comments I read over on the Source.
Ummm...the Bulletin as "socialist?"
Wow.
Just wow.
I doubt the Bulletin is going anywhere, and I would sure as hell miss them if they were gone.
Really, no one else does the local news in as much depth.
I'd be without blog fodder.
Interesting. I thought this would be like red meat for Buster, but only silence.
Sorry dunc, but in my mind the BULL died long ago, .. like most story's in Bend, this is one of those 'who would have guessed',
We all saw it coming,
Now with nobody left to pay the paid whores of Bend. ...
Will the last paid COTA/COBA/CORA whore please turn off the lights.
Shit the BULL got a free $5M from the city a few years ago, back then they were BK, now even though hollern can still give them desert land, the city cannot buy, ... so the BULL has no access to cash-flow, ...
I think we all predicted that the 'death' of Bend would be quiet, most telling is the death in AUGUST peak tourist season for the whores of Bend. It's telling that summer is shutdown.
But in MY MIND this is most telling because FALL 2011 will be ugly, EURO is about to go BK, CDS insurance is now over 350, CME raised GOLD and made a $100 haircut, CHAVEZ has demanded his gold from UK, and gaddaffi is selling his, but no where to go but GOLD.
Like I have long said, Bend RE will go down to 90%, $50k homes near you soon, ... It's coming.
Ditto with HBM, been away from the computer for a few days, ... wives are quite jealous when they see me on the laptop, just haven't wanted to fight with them, its better to stay off the computer
Credit default swaps on the bonds of Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and Intesa Sanpaolo, among others, flashed warning signals on Wednesday. Credit default swaps (CDS) on RBS were trading at 343.54 basis points, meaning the annual cost to insure £10m of the state-backed lender's bonds against default is now £343,540.
The cost of insuring RBS bonds is now higher than before the taxpayer was forced to step in and rescue the bank in October 2008, and shows the recent dramatic downturn in sentiment among credit investors towards banks.
*
Think global, act local, ..
It's going down in the coming weeks, I think that smart players of Bend are bailing out before the shit hits the fan. Quietly pack your bags and leave, before the last of the new arrival suckers figure they have been had.
CITY of BEND coffer's are fucked. There is NOTHING LEFT TO STEAL. This is the end of Bend that all predicted a city built on debt, incapable of repaying, and nobody in the world capable of loaning..
Why expect a reaction? Everybody that cares long ago left Bend. Only those remaining are those with too much lead in their shorts. At this point the few still around are positive, besides in these times internet costs money, all those good-will story's about beer are just paid ad's for the industry, nobody any more spends his own nickel in Bend to bitch and moan, those that had that nickel used it to buy a uhaul long ago.
Nobody now remains except those selling something. What's point of bitching in Bend to a closed loop?
I think most folks today are on twitter or facebook, the blogging is really passe, and nobody makes friends by being negative.
I personally guess that the few of us hbm, dunc, me, ... just keep up this shit for the same reason we did 40+ years ago, it was a habit then and a habit now, but I never had any illusion of changing the world.
The BPussy, homer, BEM, and so many now long gone from our forum were here to make Bend a better place, .... they're all gone or silent, .. I never had any such illusion, Bend is a fraud and con, always has and always will. Today you can see it for what it is, and nobody is willing to talk about the truth.
It feels like the lethargy & indifference are just a byproduct of the complete lack of relevance of the Bully.
What has the Bully done in YEARS that matters to this community at large? Nothing. No one cares about the Bulletin, they always have been a whore to RE interests in this town, even when it came clear ( even to those slow witted buffoons ) that RE was imploding.
Even my own schadenfreude Super Spike has subsided to... meh.
To respond to your statement that blogs here are "less relevant" or whatever... I think it's this after-effect of this place being the target of unrelenting over-hyped bullshit for so many years. It's media exhaustion.
We were NEVER told the news by the Bully... we were marketing victims. So much so that no one can even tell what's real here anymore. Losing the Bully isn't like losing a Real Newspaper... it's like losing a coupon circular, or one of those weird cult circulars you see on the corners in Vegas. No one cares about that.
The Bully sacrificed their legitimacy as a real news operation long ago... like everyone else, they doubled down on RE and lost.
I used to blog on these subjects long ago (really?), and this is why I quit... it's neither fun or interesting to blog on a cold-tar calamity happening in slow-mo. This sort of thing will continue like a slow motion tsunami that drags everything under. For years.
Speaking of which... I wish someone would start talking (blogging?) about the Second Bubble Collapse! Essentially, it looks like all the defaulted private debt in the World has been assumed by governments. We are now just getting to The Fun Part of how this Ponzi Scheme plays out.
The entire Planet has taken up the model of privatizing gains and socializing losses. This seems unprecedented in history. The Arab Spring and the Greek protests seem to be a backlash against what looks like the most asymmetric distribution of wealth in centuries... although I don't know much about history.
There is a rage building against the Worlds aristocracy (super wealthy). Even Buffett talks about it... but in a way it feels disingenuous coming from him.
Not sure, but it's starting to feel like people are going to start grabbing governments (first, dogshit countries like Libya, then a little more legitimate, like Greece... then in a few years it'll happen to a place that looks like us (EURO-WHITE ANGLO), and then we'll get scared), and governments are going to start grabbing the money... usually a great formula for wealth destruction.
So we've Publicized our housing mess... we ALL own it now. The Bubble is not even close to gone, it has just changed owners.
And the fact that THEY reported their own bankruptcy filing as some sort of "dispute" is the standard self-serving tripe we have come to expect from this pathetic rag.
Like it's an "argument", and the Bully can "win". It's NOT a dispute, YOU IDIOTS. YOU ARE BROKE ASS BROKE, YOU ARE DEADBEATS. THAT'S ALL.
"The BPussy, homer, BEM, and so many now long gone from our forum were here to make Bend a better place"
I'm still here dude!
It's just that poking a corpse with a stick gets old after awhile...
I think it's more like poking zombies and there are always more of them...
Yes, kicking an old dog is boring, but good to see you stop by time to time. :)
Yes, kicking the BULL while down or CACB is quite boring.
Honestly, I can't think of anyone anymore to kick, even HOLLERN brings pity to my mind, pity for all, you know the old ugly witch of CACB must sleep miserable at night dying from gluttony.
Well DUNC served his motion, he brought all the skeletons out of the closet ( HOMER, ... ).
I have pointed out many times the similarity of the BLOG to the CB radio fad of the 1970's. Short term for both. Once everyone is on board, the chattering classes, the loudest wins, and those with something to say go away, and fairly soon the public channels are full of bile 24/7, and then someone like dunc asks rhetorically 'where is everyone?'
They're all still here, I concur, even though now I'm 1/2 way around the world, I still go to this site, or water-bowl, or dog pissing rock as I like to say.
I think dunc likes everyone to get together time to time.
Really the BULL BK? What took so long? Got a little problem with paying back money to BofA who is fucked, the BULL is INSOLVENT, but who isn't in ameriKKKa 2011?
Yes, like homer say's look at the world, that's why I now write more about Asia than about Bend. You really can't run away to Bend and hide, because its coming home to you.
We all wrote the the demise would be a BIG BOOR and here it is our PINATA the BULL is Bend fucked, and its a yawn.
If you have to live in ameriKKKa Bend is as good as it gets, but now even Bend doesn't justify living in NAZI-GERMANY-2011.
HELL YES HOME is right, this government is already seizing assets and will go big, which is why all real wealth is leaving the USA. Real Estate will be worthless, as even the cops, judges and IRS will not bother to steal because of liquidity. CASH, DRUGS, GOLD, ... bank accounts, ... with TSA and TIA nothing is safe from local or FEDERAL gubmint.
The beast is broke, and the poor have nothing to fear.
So much was written about the BULL certainly 1,000's of pages of BULL was written about the BULL.
Like BEM said in 2007, everything that could be said, had been said.
Now its almost 2012, and as we know resets aren't even flushed, and 1/2 of Bend is in zombie state with banks afraid to even let zombie homes go to auction, for fear of no bidder, and thus Bend becoming like Detroit, where homes sell for $5,000 or less.
The beautiful people of bend, who run this place, they're doing everything they can to protect their INVESTMENT with other peoples money. Taxpayer debt was long used via COTA/CORA/COBA, ... to protect the investment of FOOTBALL knights and MOVIE moguls of our gated community's - But what of Bend, when the national press reports that homes go unsold for a few grand? The beautiful can't allow that to happen, so instead homes just sit empty and rot in the desert.
What of the BULL? They never were a paper, never for news it was, only for FODDER. We know DUNC will find other fodder, its there. Just google 'bend oregon' everyday, you'll find fodder.
Bend is Fucked, the BULL is dead. Nothing new, move along.
Most poetic is that Bend becomes one big WALMART parking lot, with the likes of Redmond or LA-PINES.
I never cared, cuz like I said long ago, my Bend was destroyed pre 1983, long before most you arrived.
We worked to preserve what you found as if you had found something nobody knew about. Endless speculation and promotion.
Like a nomadic cult, fuck a place to death and move on when it wreaks the stench of death.
Some like DUNC will hold on and die, having survived all, what could be worse? Not much really. Live a simple life, and stay out of parking lots at night, probably a good idea to close the shop for dunc and linda at 4pm in winter darkness, other than that life moves on. Crime will sky-rocket. But day to day life style that dunc has now, will not differ much from yesterday to tomorrow. Dunc's not a night-owl, so he likely will not get mugged, not having the display of wealth of home or auto, he's not attracting predators.
I can honestly say for someone like DUNC, that has nothing to lose that Bend is an ok place. But ameriKKKa today if you have anything, then your BEND-FUCKED, because the system is a kleptocracy. I personally don't want to live like that.
I would rather live in a warm tropical climate, where I can water my veggies every morning at 5am in my shorts with no shirt on :)
I guess coming back to this site brings me as close to Bend as I want to come, but still think of the place, and activity's. But the mean people, the grifters, and evil government, the cops, and judges and all the fucking GAWDS of Bend that act like they own the fucking place, even though they just crawled up from CALI 5-10 years ago.
As far as the BULL not being able to pay off its astronomic debt, who gives a fuck, everyone in BEND lives like that and they're all going down, ... well except dunc, and those who have real assets better get them out, but in my mind its already too late.
Couple of years ago right before Valentine's Day a Bulletin reporter called up my business which had a Valentine's Day keepsake for sale. "We're looking for Valentine's Day "made in Bend" items and we want to feature your item in our Valentine's Day special section." Before I had a chance to tell her that we had sold all of the stock on pre-order she said "I'm your , new best friend, you know." Implying that The Bulletin had this magic power to make my business money by featuring our product in a story. I sent her a couple of follow up e-mails and never heard back from her. And I thought, this is such an arrogant outfit. But in those days they did rule the roost, and they did have a lot of power. The Source has this attitude now too to some extent.
I'm not sorry The Bull is going down for one reason: No diversity of opinion. They would never, ever hire an opinion writer who might voice even a whisper of a liberal opinion even if only slightly so. And after what John Costa did for years to try to drum Scott Mutchie out of the BLP schools, well I just lost faith in their agenda. Constantly attacking Mutchie and the public schools, the very ones Costa's own kids were attending even as he attacked was so hypocrital. Shame, John, shame on you.
On the plus side I always loved their photography and local news stories but the right wing editorial slant was off putting.
I like to think that if Costa had had the courage to let other opinions than his own agenda be expressed on a regular basis, the Bulletin would have had a lot more subscribers. I know I would have remained one for sure.
What the Bulletin is to the far right wing, The Source is the the far left. Both are missing out on the middle, and as every successful politician knows, you play to the middle if you want to have power. So how about it, Source, how about getting just a weeny bit moderate? Might help you out down the road, ya never know.
Gotta give kudos to the Source, even as the Bulletin has shrunk and shrunk, the Source is still packed full of ads, they give their paper away free, and it has stayed the same size week after week. So they are doing something right in terms of running their business and good for them.
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