The Difficulty In Escaping From Old Ideas
A report from Metro News in Canada. “It is like a tap has been switched off. That’s how realtor Louise Sabino describes the housing market in the wake of the Liberal government’s provincial plan aimed at cooling Toronto’s scorching property prices. ‘I think it’s shocking that it did make the impact so fast,’ the Royal LePage Signature Realty agent said.”
“Agents like Sabino are already advising their clients on selling in a market that is far different from the frenzy that was making headlines even three weeks ago. The pause may be welcome for buyers. But it’s frustrating for sellers, who have, for months, been primed for bidding wars and over-asking-price offers, Sabino said. She cited an offer presentation on Tuesday that drew a single bid. Although it was higher than the property’s listed price, it came with conditions for financing and a home inspection. ‘We haven’t seen that for months,’ Sabino said.”
From The National on the UK. “For overseas investors in luxury London developments, tumbling sales and slowing value growth of new-build and established homes makes for dismal reading – and it does not look like improving any time soon. Years of overpricing is hurting the market in ultra-prime areas such as Mayfair, while new luxury developments are suffering even more.”
“‘The struggling performance of the new-build market in Inner London will certainly be beginning to worry developers,’ said Naomi Heaton, the chief eecutive of of LCP. ‘It has already been reported that Battersea Power Station has reached a ‘critical stage’ and has written down its projected investment returns from 20 per cent to 8.23 per cent. As is now being seen, in areas such as Battersea-Nine Elms, there is a saturation of over-priced, over-supplied ‘commodity style’ property, which leads to a softening market, particularly during times of instability.’”
The Daily Telegraph in Australia. “Sydney’s property price frenzy is beginning to die down. The main drivers of the slowdown have been a push by banks to tighten investor access to credit and a drop in foreign purchases, which have dampened demand. A stream of new housing, mostly units, has also hit the market, easing buyer competition for homes. The result is that apartment prices have already been falling in pockets of the city’s inner south, Homebush region and the Greater Parramatta area — areas where developers are releasing a slew of new housing, with more projects still in the works.”
“The biggest fall was in Hillsdale, a suburb in the Botany area roughly 7km south of the CBD, where the median price of a unit dropped 21.8 per cent over the past year. Median unit prices also fell by more than 10 per cent in Sydney Olympic Park and Auburn, while prices in Mascot and the Sydney CBD fell roughly 7 per cent. Nicholls & Co Estate Agents founder Cameron Nicholls said more property owners, particularly investors, were cashing out of the market after deciding it had peaked. ‘A lot of people think Sydney’s (price growth) cycle has ended, so they want to take out their money and buy in a place where the cycle is starting,’ he said.”
The Japan Times. “The Bank of Japan is keeping a wary eye on the steep growth of bank loans to finance the construction of apartment buildings and other rental homes. The BOJ is concerned that the active lending may cause an oversupply of rental homes and an increase in vacancies, resulting in defaults by borrower landlords, officials said. The central bank is concerned that if banks extend loans to construction projects that do not pay due heed to real demand, including rental homes constructed in inconvenient locations, a housing bubble could be formed, the officials said.”
“Demand for rental homes is likely to slow down in view of the dwindling population. ‘If the housing supply continues to increase at the current clip, numerous landlords are expected to have difficulty finding tenants and managing their apartment buildings,’ said Kazuyuki Fujii, a senior official at Tas Corp., a Tokyo-based real estate information company.”
The Real Deal. “Anbang Insurance Group has quickly gone from industry darling to cautionary tale. The Chinese insurer lost major mojo in the U.S. in the wake of two splashy deals that fell through, the Starwood Hotels portfolio and Kushner Companies’ 666 Fifth Avenue. And it’s facing a fair bit of drama back home, too. On Wednesday, WeChat went nuts with talk of Anbang chairman Wu Xiaohui being detained over alleged financial irregularities at the firm.”
“The troubles reportedly rose from a $14.5 billion loan Wu obtained from China’s largest private lender. Anbang eventually put out a statement rubbishing the rumors and said everything was business as usual. On Thursday, Wu also granted a rare interview to a Chinese state media outlet, in which he defended the firm’s flurry of overseas deals. And then on Sunday, the firm said it would sue Caixin, a Chinese investigative magazine that reported on potential financial irregularities at the insurer.”
“Ludwig Chang, the former boss at China Orient Asset Management, a top state-owned asset management firm, predicted that the Chinese government’s increased scrutiny of overseas real estate transactions would be felt by Anbang and those of its ilk. ‘Some insurance companies, who shall remain unnamed, have had two or three failed transactions,’ Chang said. ‘I think those are the handiwork of the new insurance regulatory regime.’”
From The Irish News. “Next Monday marks the 10th anniversary of the restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly, memorable in many people’s minds for being a beacon of what could be. A decade on, our political representatives have not learnt the lessons of the past.”
“The feel good factor in Northern Ireland at that time was palpable. The economy was booming, employment was plentiful and the housing market was buoyant. However, just like the local political accord the foundations were built on quick sand with easy credit and over exuberant lending funding the boom with banks chasing profits and consumers believing the good times had arrived. Locally the fallout of the property crash was economically devastating and far reaching.”
“There is growing concern that the housing sector in the Republic is in danger of overheating with mortgage lending governance brought in after the crash being overridden to support increased demand within the market. House prices have risen by 5 per cent in the first three months of the year and are expected to rise by as much as 8 per cent to 10 per cent by the year end. Housing Minister Simon Coveney has denied that the Government’s tax break policy for first time buyers is contributing to the rises with claims the Central Bank, following Government pressure, is easing mortgage lending rules to accommodate demand.”
“But relaxing the rules on lending is a concerning development following the catastrophic economic implications that were a consequence of irresponsible lending by Irish banks a decade ago. The great British economist John Maynard Keynes said: ‘The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.’”
“In the process of escaping from the mistakes of the past, whether it’s Westminster, the Dáil or the Northern Ireland Assembly, it would be inconceivable and certainly unforgiveable to repeat them.”
‘In the process of escaping from the mistakes of the past…it would be inconceivable and certainly unforgiveable to repeat them’
How many editorials and column inches were devoted to swearing off housing as an investment? Thousands for sure. Yet here we are, with more flipping shows on TV than one can watch and even on this blog, people writing, “shacks are the best investment ever!”
Housing is an expense.
“BUY NOW! THIS TIME’S DIFFERENT!”
Well, “housing is an expense” as long as it is a local market with local financing. What we have are currency movements and markets on a global scale. Chinese clamp down and real estate craters across continents on the other side of the globe. Nothing local here, move along.
Regards,
Roidy
Yes, I wonder what is keeping housing prices in Brazil still elevated, it had a recession that lasted for years and the prices are still to the roof:
https://www.numbeo.com/property-investment/region_rankings.jsp?title=2017®ion=019
No. 1 U.S. automaker GM reported a 6 percent decline in April sales to 244,406 vehicles, but crossovers and trucks continued to see strong growth.
imagine when p/u truck sales slow w re slow down=ouch
but crossovers and trucks continued to see strong growth
That’s where the profits are, not in sedans or hatchbacks.
imagine when p/u truck sales slow
That’s when the profits go bye-bye. It boggles my mind how many people buy $40-50K pickup trucks.
‘With April’s new car sales expected to drop about 3 percent over last year, new and used vehicle inventories continue to expand contributing to a buyer’s market with generous incentives and dealers anxious to move vehicles. J.D. Power estimates that the average time a vehicle sits on a lot before being sold has risen to 70 days. That’s also reflected in the industry’s measure of days’ supply, the time it would take to sell all the vehicles on the ground at the current sales rate. It now stands at 73 days, higher than the 60-days’ supply considered normal.
The annual sales rate is expected to recede from the record levels of the past three years, according to Tom Web, chief economist for Cox Automotive, parent of Kelley Blue Book. “New-vehicle sales probably should be under that 17-million rate shortly,” Webb told Automotive News. “To keep it above sort of implies you’re forcing the market higher than it wants to go. You’re doing incentives or something else to push product.”
‘Incentives have grown to represent about 10 percent of the average vehicle’s sticker, above the usual rate of 8.5 percent. Either incentives will continue to run at a torrid pace or manufacturers will back down and cut production schedules to bring supply more in line with vehicle demand. But until then, there are plenty of generous rebates on new 2017 and left over 2016 models.’
I recall the years after the previous crash. New cars with the ubiquitous temporary tags were a rare sight in my little burg.
Prices are still stubborn on 5 - 7 year old cars.
I’m looking at 3-4 yr old and expect big dump after graduation buying season ends.
“It boggles my mind how many people buy $40-50K pickup trucks.”
They don’t. They rent them from the bank and are immediately underwater from day one. Just like housing.
Just found out a guy that used to work for my company got a “deal” on a raptor - 60K truck for 40K. Yeah, you got a deal buddy.
A minivan with a box on the back.
Boy, those new $35k Honda Ridgelines are pretty awesome.
Not so much.
Young kid in my apartment had a Raptor with some kind of modified exhaust that sounded like a howitzer being fired every time he started it. He used to park right under my window and left for work around 5am. Literally startled me out of my sleep most every morning.
Young Navy kid. Probably bought it with some crazy enlistment bonus he got.
Thank you for your service, now please go live somewhere else. He did, eventually.
You could always buy one of these inexpensive, utilitarian-looking Russian UAZ jeeps.
http://www.mortarinvestments.eu/products/jeeps,-trucks-a-bikes-3/uaz-469-96
“rent them from the bank.” Yup. Either they are leased, or leased/bought and repo’d. In my neighborhood, I almost never see any new car or truck for more than six months. But the beaters hang around forever.
Just like houses Donk…… just like houses.
“…but crossovers and trucks continued to see strong growth.”
Until fuel prices are gamed-up again.
he-he, they’re about to be gamed up by the Trump tax on gasoline to pay for infrastructure.
the cure for all bubbles is skin in the game
RE
HC - godd ol 80/20
EDU- loans u have to pay back by working
Well, we already have it in healthcare, it’s called the High Deductible Plan, where you pay the first few thousand before the insurance company pays for anything.
Lots of skin in those plans. So far it hasn’t made a dent in health care costs.
I went to see my GP last week. They were able to get me in the day after I called. There was even more than one slot open that day. I’ll bet people with are “toughing it out” rather that pay the $100+ for the office visit. Yet pricing remains stubbornly sticky.
“Lots of skin in those plans.”
Not really…once you pay your deductible, there is almost no skin in the game for additional care.
What we really need to consider is a higher co-pay plan, with an annual max–so people have skin in the game each time they use medical care.
But you have to pay that huge deductible first, which can be as much as $5000. That’s a lot of skin. That means that when you have a cough or your knee hurts or you have a nasty rash that you might just “tough it out”.
I have “good” insurance so I can see my GP for $20. When I visit other doctors the payment collector usually tells me “Wow, you have good insurance!”
With an HD plan with a $5000 deductible I would have to see him 5000/140 times (35) before the insurance starts to pay. So in other words, the copay is the full price of the office visit, ~$140, until I’ve seen him 35 times. I call that skin. And being that I can always see him on short notice (it wasn’t like that 10+ years ago) I can surmise that many people are toughing it out and not seeing him until things become dire.
Even with a 20% copay, the office visit would cost $28. Not much skin at all.
Worked well in the 1950s u work almost 4x as many hours to pay for hc vs then.
Healthcare is the proverbial 3rd rail… politicians won’t go near it while they can coerce the healthy into funding it.
health insurance, not health care.
The fun thing about “the healthy” is that they are guaranteed to turn into “the sick.” Actually it would be most efficient if the politicians DID coerce the healthy into funding the sick through a centralized system. Right now the healthy are funding health insurance CEO superyachts while the sick are being funded by borrowed *poof* money.
Lots of skin in those plans. So far it hasn’t made a dent in health care costs.
I thought I had read somewhere that statistically people with high deductible health care plans did use less health care, but that there weren’t many of them yet. The more interesting statistic is that many also tended to be wealthy enough that they weren’t using any of the money out of their associated health savings plan and instead were using it as an additional 401k to get around the yearly deposit limits of the standard 401k.
I know lots of people on HD plans, even people who work for Fortune 500 companies. And aren’t nearly all Obamacare plans HD plans?
My understanding is that the traditional HD plans are not OK under Obamacare. For regular office visits, you have a small co-pay, but for emergency, or out of network, you pay the deductible first.
I’d prefer that regular office visits were simply paid for by the customer $140 in cash per your example. This would cut out enormous overhead for the doctors, and then have a relatively high copay for other services up to an annual maximum.
I know lots of people on HD plans, even people who work for Fortune 500 companies. And aren’t nearly all Obamacare plans HD plans?
I think the important point is that normally high deductible plans are normally paired with health saving account (untaxed just like a 401k, yearly contribution limit just like a 401k, if you make it to retirement with money still in the account you can use it for whatever you want just like a 401k). If you do it right you build up enough in the saving account during the good years to cover the whole deductible if you have a bad year. If every year is a bad year then you have to pony up a little extra and your savings account has nothing in it.
I don’t know about the Obamacare plans.
CA taxes the HSA (high deductible) plans. i.e one does not get to reduce the taxable income by the amount contributed to HSA plan. Further, you have state that the money used from the plan was to pay for medical expenses.
After retirement you have to enroll in medicare (or become eligible) to use that money for non medical stuff. All the capital gains and interest are taxed no matter what.
where you pay the first few thousand before the insurance company pays for anything ??
Try $5,000 .
A bit off topic but it does pertain to the overall economy:
here in Citrus Heights, CA I just received a big postcard flyer from a local dental office advertising that they will pick you up for any dental work.
it’s labeled “Boomer Special”. haha
on a related note, the actual dentist handled my daughter’s ortho/braces regular adjustment HIMSELF recently.
that has NEVER happened in years of treatment . . . !
The real question is how much do they charge? It seems to me that most individual practice dentists are rather pricey to begin with. There has been a rise in chains that are a lot less expensive.
For example, with my insurance a crown at the chain place I’ve been going to (with the same Dentist for years) my out of pocket is $200. We were paying $700+ at Dr. Pricey’s office before we switched.
We switched from a pricey independent dental shop and went to a chain saving over 40%. Service is better where we are now with local doctors. Family mans gotta find yield, baby.
Kids ortho braces run just a tick under $5K.
Go to Mexico. You can get excellent dental and orthodontic care for a fraction of US prices.
My friends in London fly to Krakow for great, inexpensive dental work. Offices look more high tech than ours in most cases.
Morrison, CO Housing Prices Crater 14% YoY
https://www.zillow.com/morrison-co/home-values/
‘Some insurance companies, who shall remain unnamed, have had two or three failed transactions,’ Chang said. ‘I think those are the handiwork of the new insurance regulatory regime.’
Insurance became a money laundering tool for Chinese flight capital a while back, particularly through Hong Kong channels.
Housing: You’ll get Schlonged!!
The Financial Times
Home Capital Group
Home Capital drama raises fears for Canada’s housing boom
Allegations against mortgage lender prompt questions over surge in household debt
Markets Insight
A 15 per cent tax for foreign property buyers has been introduced in Canada’s British Columbia © Getty
10 hours ago
by: John Plender
Canada and Australia led a relatively charmed life through the great financial crisis of 2007-8, with their banking systems proving more robust than most. Yet it is possible that they may have a delayed reaction thanks to overheated property markets in some of their biggest cities.
…
Both these countries confront similar challenges for monetary policymaking and financial stability. The collapse of energy and commodity prices imposed a drag on their economies while aggregate household spending and debt remained buoyant. Big cities — Toronto and Vancouver in Canada, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia — have racy housing markets. In energy and mining-dependent Calgary and Perth, by contrast, house prices are weak.
The response of the central banks in both cases has been to loosen monetary policy, which provided a boost to the hard-hit sectors of the economy at the cost of adding stimulus to the housing boom. The authorities in both countries tried to damp mortgage lending and tighten borrowing conditions through higher down payment requirements and/or tougher loan to value ratios — standard weapons from the tool kit of so-called macro-prudential policy.
How effective these measures have been is moot. Canadian household debt stood at 167.6 per cent of disposable income at the end of 2015, which is near the top of the OECD country range. In Australia, as in Canada, house prices are at historically high levels in relation to incomes and rents. Just to round off the picture, a Sydney mansion was sold last week for A$75m ($56m), a record for a single house in Australia. Not unnaturally, this has fuelled discussion about whether there is a bubble and what damage it might cause when it bursts.
…
I was just going to post a link to this discussion of the sausage-making behind the Home Capital Group debacle (at Naked Capitalism, itself cross-posted from MacroBusiness):
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/05/canadian-bank-run-contagion-begins.html
Shocking stuff, even in a world where $400k bribes pass almost without comment. And “fast” in Ben’s sense too.
https://betterdwelling.com/city/vancouver/chinese-media-now-warning-canadas-housing-crash-will-worse-us/#_
Chinese media reporting on Canada’s housing bubble, you just cannot make this stuff up.
Just noticed the story was from last July, well it is not like the buyers were not warned.
Any thoughts on why the bubbling crude is suddenly flowing over the lip of a waterfall?
Word is out OPEC has been lying, pumping more crude than ever during their “cutback.” Worldwide GLUT.
I was in Toronto 3 weeks ago for a funeral, I stay at my cousins median priced house in a middle class neighborhood. I said wow there are 4 house for sale within my view, he said they’re all $1.2mil+ 3 years ago they were selling for $330K. I told him ’sell you house and move into an apartment, you’ll be able to buy all those for cash in a year.’ He wouldn’t bite he’s been living there for 25 years.
‘3 years ago they were selling for $330K’
They’ll tell you it’s just catching up with Vancouver, like it’s a rising water level or something. I have a bad feeling about Australia and Canada. Lots of people are going to be caught swimming naked and I don’t think they will take it very well.
“I have a bad feeling about Australia and Canada. Lots of people are going to be caught swimming naked and I don’t think they will take it very well.”
GOOD. They deserve everything they get if they gamble and lose playing housing roulette and trying to make money for doing nothing. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
Let me add that i hadn’t been to Toronto to visit in 15 years, and from then until now it’s turned into a socialist sh*thole! The roads were terrible it was garbage day in the neighborhood and it looked like the City hadn’t came for weeks. Houses were dilapidated and the general feel was doom and gloom. And, btw, I got cussed out in front of my Uncle’s casket at the viewing for working on the Trump campaign for 2 years in Georgia. From Canucks!! Needless to say I won’t be going back anytime soon. I love Georgia, won’t be moving again. I was in Arizona for the last bubble and sold in August 2007 moved to CA and rented then bought when the bottom fell out. Sold 2 years ago bought in north Atlanta burbs and I’m happy
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-02/oil-suddenly-drops-6-month-lows-after-saudi-prince-comments
Oil Suddenly Drops To 6-Month Lows After Saudi Prince Comments
A Saudi price trying to force the other oil producers to sign an extension of cuts by scaring them and this came out:
http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Bullish-API-Data-Prevents-Oil-From-Falling-Further.html
More good economic news….
Record oil production capacity, a globe awash in excess oil and cratering oil demand.
It’s the price stupid.
Exxon/Shell still win.
Gas is $3.19 in CA
Down from $4.50. Now that is a good thing.
50% more than in most of the country.
The refiners are making lots of money:
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Oil-Prices/What-Crack-Spreads-Say-About-Oil-Prices.html
PS for those worried that a discussion of crack spreads means a discussion of what Race Bannon looks like when he bends over in his plumbing pants, it has nothing to do with that, thank God. Have another donut Race/HA. JK, this blog would not be the same without you, I would miss your posts.
Yachats, OR Housing Prices Crater 8% YoY
https://www.zillow.com/yachats-or/home-values/
There goes the Oregon coast.
We need to put global warming back on the milk carton:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/05/01/global-temperatures-plunge-in-april-the-pause-returns/
Look like it’s time to go “adjust” temperatures from earlier decades downward again.
This could be a problem for Leonardo DiCaprio while he is flying around the world doing good for the environment.
Leo DiCaprio: “I will fly around the world doing good for the environment”
How climate change could mean more jet turbulence
USA TODAY NETWORK
Sean Rossman , USA TODAY Published 11:53 a.m. ET April 6, 2017
Researchers form the University of Reading found severe and moderate-to-severe turbulence will more than double as a result of expected increases in carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/04/06/how-climate-change-may-lead-more-severe-airplane-turbulence/100115444/
azdude, you gonna BTFD in AAPL tomorrow? Take some of your house equity and do it!
there u go buddy, double frickn down!
I bought some uvxy today. vix seems unrealistically low and if sh@t hits the fan there will be a nice pop. Then head on a beer run to total wine.
I read retail investors are sh@tting in their pants to buy stocks.
UVXY, TVIX, etc. are scam stocks. Read the prospectus.
Here’s what the chart of UVXY looks like:
http://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=uvxy
Here’s the chart of TVIX:
http://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=tvix
if buying/selling the VIX was a straight dealn it would be the simplest trade in the world.
no straight deals
where is the scam? uvxy is an etf by powershares. Most popular one for trying to duplicate moves up in the VIX index.
ETN’s are a little scetchier because they depend on the issuer not defaulting.
tvix is an ETN.
While the last of the retail “investor” lemmings are being suckered into Wall Street’s rigged casino, Da Boyz are stealthily exiting the pump & dump.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-02/big-institutionals-sold-most-stocks-brexit-retail-investors-cant-stop-buying
“Big Institutionals Sold The Most Stocks Since Brexit As Retail Investors Can’t Stop Buying”
Truly, a nation of dummys. There is no upward trajectory of anything that begins to resemble even a hint of a learning curve.
Absolutely none.
‘The biggest fall was in Hillsdale, a suburb in the Botany area roughly 7km south of the CBD, where the median price of a unit dropped 21.8 per cent over the past year. Median unit prices also fell by more than 10 per cent in Sydney Olympic Park and Auburn, while prices in Mascot and the Sydney CBD fell roughly 7 per cent. Nicholls & Co Estate Agents founder Cameron Nicholls said more property owners, particularly investors, were cashing out of the market after deciding it had peaked.’
Now that Sydney is falling can we say the bubble has popped?
Kimberly, ID Housing Prices Crater 10% YoY
https://www.zillow.com/kimberly-id/home-values/
April home sales in Shanghai, one of the world’s hottest housing bubbles, just hit a four-year low. The Chinese government is making half-hearted efforts to cool runaway speculative bubbles, even though its own monetary policies and truly insane levels of “stimulus” are what caused the bubbles in the first place.
http://www.scmp.com/business/article/2092404/shanghais-april-home-sales-hit-4-year-low
The Chinese government has been very active in cooling the housing market, as I said yesterday, China is a planned economy and it uses bubbles to meet its economic targets and when the economy is above those targets it deflates the bubbles:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2017-04/07/content_28825824.htm
A bunch of Millennial first-time investors “escaping from old ideas” (like due diligence and caveat emptor) and who, “looking to invest without transaction fees” were drawn lemming-like to the Robinhood site’s “sleek, simple aesthetic” just got their heads handed to them.
http://www.businessinsider.com/millennial-investors-are-getting-smoked-on-amd-2017-5
“The chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices is down 18.2%, or $2.48, at $11.14 a share on Tuesday after the company said it expected second-quarter gross margins to come in at about 33%, down slightly from the first-quarter reading of 34%.”
Bahahahahahahaha … Gross margins come in at 33% instead of the expected 34% so the stock drops 18.2% in market value.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
More extend and pretend in the Eurozone. Greece is getting it’s third bailout, after so-faux promises of austerity and “reform” that all parties know it has no intention or ability to honor. But the alternative - a sovereign default - cannot be allowed to happen under any circumstances, because then the cascading effects would bring down the ECB’s financial house of cards.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/05/02/greece-paves-way-debt-relief-late-night-deal/
Sounds like the wonderful game of “Gotcha!”, the game bankers everywhere are destined to always win.
God’s Plan unfolds … as it should.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
apparently “Reform” doesn’t include having to work or pay back the loan
“Working”, especially at a job, is so last century.
Somers, CT Housing Prices Crater 9% YoY
https://www.zillow.com/somers-ct/home-values/
The sharks are starting to smell blood in the water on these over-levered developers.
http://www.businessinsider.com/traders-are-loading-up-on-bets-against-china-evergrande-group-2017-5
Vancouver housing bubble shows no signs of slowing.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-02/vancouver-home-price-surge-defies-canadian-housing-jitters
China’s mega-rich still betting it all on housing.
http://www.scmp.com/property/hong-kong-china/article/2092396/who-buys-multiple-apartments-hong-kong-when-most-struggle
We missed a big opportunity during the Obama administration to turn to NG vehicles, looks like Europe still might. If Tesla can not deliver an affordable electric vehicle and I am in the skeptics corner, we will have wasted a lot of government money supporting a dead end lithium battery based technology. New types of batteries may support electric cars in the future but lithium is more dangerous and polluting than the technology it is replacing:
https://www.rt.com/business/386940-volkswagen-gas-car-gazprom/
You know, for decades, other countries have been able to harvest only the best of US technology without having to experience the failures. Look how much of a jump the Asian countries got when they could skip straight to wireless phones without going through that pesky land-line phase. I wonder how many folks in Mumbai slogged from tapes to 5.75 to 3.5 to zip.
So I encourage Europe to build up their NG refueling infrastructure … just in time for everybody to run out of NG. Let Europe take the hit.
Then the US take a cue on what not to do, and skip straight to electric.
Natural gas could more than double from today’s level and still be competitive with oil on a BTU basis. Even a doubling of price would mean that there would be decades of natural gas. If you gave the same $7500 credit for NG cars that electric cars enjoy the refueling infrastructure would be created by the market rather quickly. You already have a structure that is as developed as the EV charging structure. I have seen more NG pumps than EV charging stations although I have seen both.
Now electric cars are perfect for countries burning coal to produce electricity and high NG prices:
https://qz.com/972897/china-is-selling-more-electric-vehicles-than-the-us-and-its-not-even-close/
The corporate financial media is trying to herd Millennials into Wall Street’s rigged casino so they can be fleeced along with the rest of the retail investor bagholders.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/millennials-ought-to-be-100-invested-in-stocks-says-top-ranking-newsletter-editor-2017-05-03
Oh dear. Twilio, another high-flying “momentum stock” beloved of Millennial bag holders, er, “investors” is tanking hard.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/twlo
The singularly worthless SEC, like the other regulators and enforcers, is enabling reckless speculation through fundamentally unsound financial instruments favored by gamblers. This is not going to end well.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-03/there-now-quadruple-leveraged-sp-500-etf
can I get that in a 30year DUMBO?
30-Year Fixed - Jumbo 4.272%
China might be turning off the easy money spigot. What is this going to do to housing in Vancouver, Toronto, and the West Coast?
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2092718/say-goodbye-easy-money-chinas-central-bank-puts-squeeze-liquidity
Yellen sees no bubbles.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-03/is-this-the-most-valuable-car-in-the-world
Everything is in a bubble…everything…
crushing.housing.losses.
TDS
It wasn’t Hitlery’s fault that she didn’t win the election, or the Weiner Tweeter’s fault either. It was the Russians who done her in!
Napoleon Dynamite loves Creightor Tators!!!
“In the advanced stages of the disease, the afflicted lose touch with reality.”