Union Time?

[djd09]

"It’s not over. Not by a long way. The crisis, that is, generated by the clash between Spain’s central government and rebellious Catalonia.

A work stoppage on Tuesday has paralyzed the Spanish region, as angry locals protest the heavy-handed police action during Sunday’s chaotic independence referendum.

What’s happening? The effects of the stoppage — described as a general strike by many participating— are being seen all over the northeastern region, added to by several demonstrations.

Huge crowds of protestors took to the streets to show their anger, blocking freeways, clogging streets and streaming past shuttered businesses:

At least 50 roadblocks have been built , causing large traffic jams, with farmers blocking highways with their tractors, media reports said."

http://www.marketwatch.com/(S(jpgxu...nce-vote-2017-10-03?link=MW_story_latest_news

 

[Walter Kirk]

I voted yes but your poll is biased toward the anti- union point of view. Those who are familiar with me know that I worked for years to help develop the American Guild of Appraisers. The ridiculous comparisons to old style industrial unions made by the knee jerk anti-union people are the main reason for the lack of success of that organization.
The dominance of the AMC's and the lack of respect for professional appraisers could have been avoided If appraisers had simply listened to the AGA's message with open minds, they didn't and the result is the current plight of our moribund profession.

 

[Meandering]

AMC Fees Exceeding Appraiser’s Fee

What other industry pays the paper-pushers more than their actual experts but the experts get blamed for being too costly? It’s bizarre and unfair to any industry and we are vulnerable because we are without any political might.

Free Market! Free Market!

.

 

[leasedfee]

How do we as a group do that? Look to the the AMA, the NAR, and the
BAR Association for models. We do need an Association that can effectively argue *for* us as a group.

Everything that an appraiser would argue for, the ABA, NAR, HBA, etc., argues against. They want faster and cheaper. We want mortgage financing to be slower and more expensive -- for good reasons of course. FDIC, FNMA, FHA, CRA, Greenspan Put, and bailouts nationalized mortgage banking. Appraisers are a remnant of the 1930s legislation. Governments have declared that the system must be codified into perpetuity. Thus, appraisers are unnecessary. AVMs and de minimus are just workarounds.

Successionist movements in Scotland, Catalonia, Venice, Bavaria, Texas and CA are quite awkward and untenable to a nationstate, republican government's raison d'tre. Historically, a king's raison d'tre had nothing officially to do with what the success and failure of merchants. Yes, credit and bankruptcy might stymie a king's wars, but the king existed sui generis by divine right and by royal blood. Which royal wore the crown was for fighting. Not the case in a democracy or its cousin a republic. In a democracy or republic, you get both tyranny of a minority and a tyranny of a majority. Appraisers are neither a mob nor an elite, so we cannot bully nor buy regulations. If the raison d'tre is the status quo, if you're unwilling to let the banks to fail, then the banks run the government.

 

[Meandering]

Everything that an appraiser would argue for, the ABA, NAR, HBA, etc., argues against. They want faster and cheaper. We want mortgage financing to be slower and more expensive -- for good reasons of course. FDIC, FNMA, FHA, CRA, Greenspan Put, and bailouts nationalized mortgage banking. Appraisers are a remnant of the 1930s legislation. Governments have declared that the system must be codified into perpetuity. Thus, appraisers are unnecessary. AVMs and de minimus are just workarounds.

Successionist movements in Scotland, Catalonia, Venice, Bavaria, Texas and CA are quite awkward and untenable to a nationstate, republican government's raison d'tre. Historically, a king's raison d'tre had nothing officially to do with what the success and failure of merchants. Yes, credit and bankruptcy might stymie a king's wars, but the king existed sui generis by divine right and by royal blood. Not the case in a democracy or its cousin a republic. In a democracy or republic, you get both tyranny of a minority and a tyranny of a majority. Appraisers are neither a mob nor an elite, so we cannot bully nor buy regulations. If the raison d'tre is the status quo, if you're unwilling to let the banks to fail, then the banks run the government.

Banks rule the world.

 

[Meandering]

Spain demands Catalan holds a snap election to settle the independence crisis as country's third biggest bank says it is LEAVING the region

Spanish government spokesman Ignacio Mendez de Vigo told a news conference: 'It would be good to start mending this fracture through regional elections.'

Hard to have your own country when no bank will service it.
And appraisers think they could get some power someplace.

.

 

[leasedfee]

Hard to have your own country when no bank will service it.

During Spain's Golden Period, the Spanish silver galleons would be handed over to the bankers when they docked. Had to pay for all of the wars to keep the House of Hapsburg united in the 1500s-1600s. Wikipedia:

"Financially, the Spanish state had become dominated by Genoese bankers and lenders under Philip II, whose lines of credit had allowed the Spanish state to continue during its moments of financial crisis; under Philip III this process remained unchecked, building up considerable resentment against this foreign influence,[59] some going so far as to term the bankers 'white moors'."​

The EU seems to be unraveling and it doesn't ode well for their banks. East Europe doesn't concur with immigration policy Liberté, égalité, fraternité, and the richer provinces, duchies, and states resent central authority. Nothing new is under the sun. Europe may look very different in 10-20 years. Why should American appraiser's care beyond historical tidbit? Appraisers are desired during instability and volatility.

 

[Meandering]

And we are in for instability, very shortly.
Watch the bond market.

 

[Walter Kirk]

That's the whole point....independent business owners cannot get together and collectively bargain anything....that would be collusion and a clear violation of anti-trust laws.

You are mistaken. Unions are specifically exempted from anti-trust laws.

 

[Riick]

Everything that an appraiser would argue for, the ABA, NAR, HBA, etc., argues against. They want faster and cheaper. We want mortgage financing to be slower and more expensive -- for good reasons of course.

Why do I feel you've taken my point, and twisted it by, oh, 180 degrees?
Maybe because you have.
I didn't say we should side with them, nor use them; what I said was that their Associations had political power, and I suggested we use their *methods* as a model.

Oh, and about Catalonia -- "No one EXPECTS The Spanish Inquisition"