A Whole World Of Bubbles
A weekend topic starting with an opinion piece by John Coumarianos. “Minneapolis Federal Reserve President Neel Kashkari has recently observed that asset price bubbles are hard to recognize, and, even if recognizable, the Fed shouldn’t do anything about them. Kashkari deserves praise for this, because it isn’t often a Fed official, in a published article no less, addresses arguments about bubbles — including market participants’ and ordinary citizens’ dissatisfaction with the Fed’s failure to forecast them.”
“Unfortunately, Kashkari’s arguments are weak, and with regard to the housing bubble at least, he hasn’t examined the record carefully enough. Besides psychological arguments, data could have clued anyone in. My findings corroborate the argument of asset manager Grantham, Mayo, van Oterloo (GMO). The firm has long defined a bubble as a two standard-deviation event. That definition is arbitrary, but the firm has studied over 40 bubbles, and found that each of them exceeded at least two standard deviations, and all of them reverted back to their long-term mean.”
“It doesn’t inspire confidence that Kashkari and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve haven’t come up with a working definition of their own. If GMO can conduct such a study, why can’t the bank that sets monetary policy in the United States? I have no idea what the Fed should do if it happens to spot the next bubble, but it may command greater respect if it reconsiders the assertion that bubbles aren’t recognizable.”
The Union Tribune in California. “The San Diego County median home price hit $525,000 in April, passing the region’s previous peak reached in 2005, CoreLogic. Housing bubble fears are likely with the new median but home prices would have to rise 40 percent (assuming no income or rent growth) to be as overvalued as much as they were during the last peak, said Rich Toscano, who predicted the last housing crash on his blog Professor Piggington’s Econo-Almanac.”
“‘Homes are definitely expensive when you compare purchase prices to rents and incomes,’ he said. ‘They are the most expensive they’ve been outside the bubble. But, it still doesn’t compare to the expensiveness of the bubble.’”
“Toscano said low interest rates are keeping the monthly mortgage rates somewhat affordable and home valuations high. ‘In theory, for as long as low rates persist, they could keep supporting the prices,’ he said. ‘The big question is if that will continue to happen and the smartest people in the world disagree on that.’”
From Global News in Canada. “A group working on behalf of Vancouver developers is urging the city to build more townhomes and other forms of multi-family housing as a way to boost the supply of affordable homes. But critics say it’s little use building more supply if it’s going to be marketed to overseas buyers. Construction projects seem to be a permanent fixture of life in the city, but new numbers show that despite all the cranes dotting the skyline, Vancouver is experiencing an all-time low for multi-family housing availability.”
“A recent series of ads show several Vancouver condos being marketed in Hong Kong. ‘When you’re pushing supply as the solution, and then you’re ultimately selling it overseas to foreign speculators, it’s really not helping locals, it’s not helping local affordability,’ realtor Steve Saretsky said.”
“According to the UDI, roughly seven per cent of Metro Vancouver sales are to foreign buyers. Tom Davidoff of UBC’s Sauder School of Business suspects that when it comes to presales, the numbers are much higher. ‘When these buildings are complete are we going to see the foreign buyers of the presale units flip their presale assignments to local buyers?’ he said. ‘Are we going to see them rent the units out or are we going to see foreign buyers hold onto empty units?’”
From Vietnam Bridge. “The lack of transparent information about the master plan, infrastructure works is attributable to the current ‘fever’ of land prices in HCM City. ‘We must publicly announce all detail land-use planning’s from commune to district levels and they should be accessible by mobile phone to avoid the land ‘fever’ that occurs periodically,’ Le Van Khoa, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee, told a meeting held middle of last month to try and quell rumours that were giving rise to property price bubbles in outlying districts like Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Nha Be, and Can Gio in the last few months.”
“After the authorities indicated they were determined to forestall land price bubbles, prices immediately fell by 15–30 per cent, even 50 per cent in some places, and, importantly, trading has ground to a halt.”
From Korea Joongang Daily. “The real estate market is nervous about Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Hyun-mee being nominated as Land Minster by the Moon Jae-in administration. As a lawmaker, Kim has consistently blamed the market for exacerbating wealth inequalities in Korea, and opposed measures to stimulate the market. She may try to stabilize it and restrict lending for real estate.”
“Kim was strongly opposed to the Park Geun-hye administration’s decision to ease qualifications for mortgages - particularly the loan-to-value (LTV) and debt-to-income (DTI) ratios - in July 2014, which helped revive a lukewarm real estate market. The LTV ratio was eased from 60 percent to 70 percent while the DTI ratio was raised from 50 percent to 60 percent. The government’s decision to ease the debt limit was extended twice. The easing of the debt cap ends at the end of next month.”
“At the National Assembly last year, Kim argued that the conservative government was responsible for household debt increasing by 564 trillion won ($502.3 billion) between 2008 and 2015. ‘The first priority in recovering our economy is to solve the household debt problem and in order to do so, we have to bring back regulations restricting debt,’ Kim said.”
“In a 2012 debate organized by Kim, she argued that there was a bubble in the real estate market that required limits to mortgages and syndicated loans that apartment investors borrow in groups. In a book Kim published in 2013, she pointed out that many Korean baby-boomers are forced to start small businesses after retiring from office jobs, using their apartments as collateral for loans. When the businesses fail, they lose everything, she wrote.”
“After Kim was nominated to head the Land Ministry, she immediately raised the issue of household debt. During a press briefing, she blamed the easing of the LTV and DTI ratios by the previous administration for today’s mountain of household debt.”
The New Daily. “It’s only natural for Australians to be obsessed with our own property market woes, but there is a whole world of bubbles out there waiting to be popped. Between the global financial crisis and February 2017, median dwelling prices almost doubled (+99.4 per cent) in Sydney, bringing them to $850,000, and in Melbourne (+85 per cent to $640,000), according to CoreLogic.”
“But we should not delude ourselves that a housing crisis is a uniquely Australian phenomenon. Cries of ‘Bubble!’ are ringing out across the globe. Sweden’s central bank boss Stefan Ingves this week issued a warning about sky-rocketing household debt and soaring property prices. Sound familiar?”
“In Switzerland, the cities of Zurich, Zug, Lucerne, Basel, Lausanne and Lugano face similar risks. Then there’s Ottawa, Vancouver and Toronto in Canada – an economy comparable in size and composition to our own. As it has for Australia, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has told the Canadian government to intervene or risk an economic crash. The IMF has issued similar warnings for Denmark, which is battling soaring prices in the capital of Copenhagen.”
“Most important of all is China. Prices rose 22.1 per cent in Beijing, 21.1 per cent in Shanghai and 13.5 per cent in Shenzen between March 2016 and March 2017, CNBC reported. The warnings are familiar. ‘If young people lose hope, the economy will suffer, as housing is a necessity,’ Renmin University president Wu Xiaoqiu said recently.”
“Hong Kong is fighting bubbles, too. Reports on its property market are full of ‘handsome gains’ and an impending ‘burst.’ Closer to home is Auckland in New Zealand, where prices have also doubled since the GFC. Despite Brexit, the mother country is hurting, too. There are periodic predictions that London will ‘finally burst’ after years of rampant price growth.”
“So what’s going on? The consensus is that these bubbles have been created by a combination of ultra-low interest rates, easy lending, rapid population growth, and an openness to foreign investment. If Australia wants to beat its bubble, perhaps it should look to Singapore. It was fighting rampant prices too until the government intervened and did two things: boosted supply by building a whole bunch of new apartment buildings, and dampened demand by hiking stamp duty and cracking down on foreign buyers.”
‘It doesn’t inspire confidence that Kashkari and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve haven’t come up with a working definition of their own. If GMO can conduct such a study, why can’t the bank that sets monetary policy in the United States?’
This is kind of like trying to reason with someone you know is lying. You can step around the lie, avoid it, put your argument outside of the lie, but if you don’t address it, you don’t get far.
The central banks and governments wanted and created these bubbles. It’s all they’ve got to keep the economy going. They said this straight out.
I’m not going over what I learned in real estate school yet again, except to say there are charts showing house prices going back hundreds of years and this never occurred:
‘Between the global financial crisis and February 2017, median dwelling prices almost doubled (+99.4 per cent) in Sydney, bringing them to $850,000, and in Melbourne (+85 per cent to $640,000)’
Shack prices should at best go up at the rate of inflation or a tad more. We are way off that and have been for a long time.
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
A very merry covfefe to you.
“what the Fed should do…”
That depends on what the Fed’s motives are. Eventually the idea that the Fed is willfully ignorant of these bubbles should be considered. If they are willfully ignorant (lying) then their motive isn’t the well-being of the entire population.
The Fed has turned what should be management of a monetary system into management of a system of debt. Debt has enslaved the majority and enriched the minority. Judge their motives by the results.
Eventually market forces will force their hand. Until then, I expect many more scenes from Peanuts of Lucy Yellen pulling away the football from dimwitted Charlie Brown.
The Federal Reserve was created to save bankers.
Its function has always been to bail out the largest banks whenever their high-risk, highly-leveraged investments start to go bad. Large commercial banks extract massive amounts of wealth from the economy with no risk to themselves.
The economic situation of We the People will not change until central banking is eliminated. The problem is, as you pointed out the other day, the average Joe no longer wants this situation to change, because he is hooked into it like a drug user.
“Why is everyone becoming a bank holding company?”
They’re no dummies
“Taxpayers may be unhappy to bear the risk of companies accustomed to betting the farm on strategies that may or may not pan out. And even if they do submit to the stricter regulations, can corporations that profit from taking big risks be trusted to play it straight?
“Can we be assured that they will follow the rules strictly? These are strong competitors who take advantage of loopholes” says Gary Dymski, an economics professor at the University of California, referring to Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Companies may approach risk cautiously during the current economic crisis, he says. “But how is it going to be ten years from now?”
Lambert said that AmEx intended to comply with all federal requirements.”
Green handshakes, glaring omissions, fudged numbers in all these sales prior to, during and after the fact. I’m thrilled I haven’t been a part of any of it.
People see/think ‘bubble’ and they think Bear and AIG, and ‘The Big Short’. There are a thousand way to inflate a bubble and a thousand ways to deflate.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:It’s gonna take a ‘Lehman Brothers’ moment on cable news to break the news to the public.
“Breaking News: Your house value just tanked!”.
Remain calm. All is well.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-03/dont-panic-banco-popular-tells-its-employees-after-stock-crashes-most-record
If GMO can conduct such a study, why can’t the bank that sets monetary policy in the United States?
The Fed has no interest in defining bubbles, much less countering them. The Fed’s engineered boom-bust cycles every eight years or so are the Wall Street-Federal Reserve Looting Syndicate’s most efficient means of facilitating the plundering of the middle class and the transfer of its assets to the Fed’s oligarch accomplices like BlackRock.
Why don’t you ask them yourself, Raymond?
Here’s the link to the Fed’s Economists page. You’ll find direct phone numbers and email addresses:
https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/theeconomists.htm
“The Federal Reserve Board employs over 300 Ph.D. economists, who represent an exceptionally diverse range of interests and specific areas of expertise. Board economists conduct cutting edge research, produce numerous working papers, and are among the leading contributors at professional meetings and in major journals. Our economists also produce a wide variety of economic analyses and forecasts for the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee.”
“It’s only natural for Australians to be obsessed with our own property market woes, but there is a whole world of bubbles out there waiting to be popped. Between the global financial crisis and February 2017, median dwelling prices almost doubled (+99.4 per cent) in Sydney, bringing them to $850,000, and in Melbourne (+85 per cent to $640,000), according to CoreLogic.”
I suppose there will be an intense, worldwide solidarity among FBs worldwide when the central bankers’ asset bubbles finally implode and true price discovery asserts itself at last.
“Toscano said low interest rates are keeping the monthly mortgage rates somewhat affordable and home valuations high. ‘In theory, for as long as low rates persist, they could keep supporting the prices,’ he said. ‘The big question is if that will continue to happen and the smartest people in the world disagree on that.’”
Perhaps it was just a bunch of lies and deceptions deliberately intended to sow confusion among market participants, but I am nearly certain that I read somewhere that the Fed plans to eventually, some day in the foreseeable future, end extraordinary accommodation and normalize interest rates to levels that exceed the zero bound by a sizable margin.
But maybe I am merely imagining that I read this somewhere.
Nope…not imagining it.
Policy Normalization
Q&As
At its December 2015 meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided that economic conditions and the economic outlook warranted the commencement of the policy normalization process and the Committee voted to raise the target range for the federal funds rate, the first change since December 2008. The postmeeting statement announced the change in the monetary policy stance, and the accompanying implementation note provided operational details associated with the Federal Reserve’s policy tools. The FOMC outlined its approach to monetary policy normalization in the Policy Normalization Principles and Plans issued after its September 2014 meeting.
Policy Normalization Principles and Plans
Over the spring and summer of 2014, the FOMC discussed ways to normalize the stance of monetary policy and the Federal Reserve’s securities holdings. The discussions were part of prudent planning and did not imply that normalization would necessarily begin soon.
…
A world drowning in debt. This can’t possibly end well.
http://www.scmp.com/news/article/2096775/just-how-high-level-debt-within-chinas-economy
‘Free trade has been a double-edged sword for the U.S. Even as U.S. policy makers continue to debate the relative advantages and drawbacks of globalization, it’s abundantly clear that international trade is not the benevolent force it was once thought.’
‘For all its promise of boosting incomes and strengthening growth, trade has had a disproportionately damaging impact on regions of the U.S. that have long depended on manufacturing. Recent data shows that these communities have suffered a great deal of economic distress, including high rates of underemployment and joblessness.’
‘These communities have also become much more indebted compared with the rest of the nation, according to my latest research. During the years 2000 to 2007 — also known as the run-up to the Great Recession — overall American household debt doubled. That debt peaked in 2008, at almost $13 trillion. This leverage, however, was not shared equitably. Household debt in regions of the country where manufacturing jobs had shifted overseas grew an additional 20-30% over that period. In other words, nearly a third of American household debt during that time frame can be attributed to import competition with China and other low-wage countries.’
‘Why does this matter? For starters, the research — which I undertook with my colleagues Jean-Noel Barrot of MIT, Matthew Plosser of the New York Federal Reserve, and Julien Sauvagnat of Bocconi University — shifts the narrative on what fueled the credit bubble that preceded the Great Recession. To date, most of the economic literature has focused on the supply side and the private sector’s drive for short-term profit. Greedy banks sold unsuspecting customer risky loan products. Money-hungry private lenders made mortgages too easy to get. And fund managers sought new investments through high-yield mortgage-backed securities.’
‘But our study shows that the demand for debt was also a big contributing factor. Perhaps more importantly, our study suggests that a great deal of this household debt can be tied directly to globalization.’
‘It’s not difficult to piece together what happened. As factories shut down and manufacturing jobs were shipped overseas, many Americans — especially blue-collar laborers without a college degree — found themselves without a paycheck. So they borrowed to make ends meet. This borrowing often came in the form of home-equity loans or mortgage refinancing. (In fact, we found that the rise in household debt was strongest in areas where house prices had appreciated the most.)’
‘In theory, this is how financial markets ought to work. People should be able to borrow money when they need it — and it makes sense to use a home as collateral, particularly when the value of that home has increased.’
‘In hindsight, though, we know better. When house prices collapsed, many Americans were so overly burdened with household debt that they couldn’t afford to maintain their spending. They had already tapped into their homes for equity to pay for everyday spending and without any income, that debt load became untenable. Millions of Americans defaulted on their mortgages.’
‘It wasn’t so long ago that economists thought that international trade was uniformly positive for global growth. While it’s true that free-trade practices can open markets and lead to broader economic development, this carries real costs, and in certain regions these costs have been overwhelming. Many Americans have seen their jobs and incomes disappear; they’ve lost their homes and gone deeply into debt.’
‘The lesson for policy makers is clear: globalization has winners and losers. We must not pretend otherwise.’
Erik Loualiche is an assistant professor of finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Back in the election where a Clinton didn’t win anywhere NEAR a majority of votes…but still thought he had a mandate.
“Most new jobs won’t come from our biggest employers. They will come from our smallest. We’ve got to do everything we can to make entrepreneurial dreams a reality.”
– Ross Perot
“The budget should be balanced, the treasury should be refilled, the public debt should be reduced and the arrogance of public officials should be controlled.”
– Ross Perot
“If you’re paying $12, $13, $14 an hour for a factory worker, and you can move your factory south of the border, pay $1 an hour for labor…. Have no environmental controls, no pollution controls, and no retirement. And you don’t care about anything but making money. There will be a giant sucking sound going south.”
– Ross Perot
Ironically, moving factory jobs from the US to China put both the US workers and the Chinese deeply in debt. So who really benefited?
Paging Mr. Banker…Courtesy phone line one…
😁
“In fact, we found that the rise in household debt was strongest in areas where house prices had appreciated the most.”
Hehe… the plebs never learn.
‘Are we going to see them rent the units out or are we going to see foreign buyers hold onto empty units?’
I vote for empty units.
Amidst housing crunch, Vancouver has 800,000 empty bedrooms
Economist Paul Smetanin says 70 per cent of Vancouver’s over-65 residents are ‘over housed.’
The nest is empty — but many baby boomers are staying in their homes for a range of reasons, says Michael Geller, a Vancouver architect and real estate developer.
Published on May 16 2017
Jen St. Denis
Metro
In Vancouver, it’s not uncommon to hear of young families raising two toddlers in a one-bedroom apartment and at a loss to find a larger place they can afford.
But the story is much different among home-owning baby boomers, according to Toronto-based economist Paul Smetanin, president of the Canadian Centre for Economic Analysis.
“One in four households (in Vancouver) are in an extremely precarious situation,” said Smetanin, referring to his analysis of how much pressure households are under in order to afford shelter.
“The lingering contradiction is that you have over 800,000 spare bedrooms in Vancouver, and 70 per cent of people over 65 in Vancouver are over-housed.”
…
The story would remain accurate if you changed the name from Vancouver to San Diego.
SanDiegCA Median Home Price: $532k.
SanDiegCA Median Family Income: $ 68k.
Ratio of Price-to-Income: 7.1
Regards,
Roidy
It is accurate in the Sacramento foothills too. In 2008 I wrote on the blog how in my then neighborhood, bedroom occupancy was about 40%!
Over 700 bedrooms and only 270 residents. It was closer to 20% if you consider most homes had 2 residents living in one bedroom as married couples.
Vancouver. Well yes. Ok.
““A recent series of ads show several Vancouver condos being marketed in Hong Kong. ‘When you’re pushing supply as the solution, and then you’re ultimately selling it overseas to foreign speculators, it’s really not helping locals, it’s not helping local affordability,’ realtor Steve Saretsky said.””
Local affordability is gone. If it ever came back there would be a massive housing collapse. I looked at several real estate sites, and the asking prices are beyond Earth’s orbit.
I found a 350-400 sqft condos for $250k American dollars.
Vancouver population: 630k people.
Median Family income: $71,660
Here is a little nugget I found on the internet, “The average resale price in Greater Vancouver was $878,242 in January, down 18.9 per cent from a year earlier, when it stood at $1.038 million, according to numbers from the Canadian Real Estate Association.”
Maybe that massive collapse is begun.
Regards,
Roidy
Shaughnessy property owners compare high-density housing to slave ships
A rant in a property owners’ newsletter laments that working class people expect to be able live in Vancouver
A house in Shaughnessy.
Published on May 05 2017
Jen St. Denis
Metro
The residents of one of Vancouver’s wealthiest and most historic neighbourhoods appear to be hot under the collar about the City of Vancouver’s latest housing plan, which emphasizes adding secondary suites and laneway houses to single-family lots.
In the latest Shaughnessy Property Owners’ Association newsletter, Mik Ball writes that Mayor Gregor Robertson’s recent rhetoric that Vancouverites of all incomes should be able to find a place to live has given lower-income people some unrealistic ideas.
“The notion underlying this right is that anyone who wants to live in Vancouver should be able to, regardless of their ability to compete in the housing market,” Ball writes.
“This is a major departure from past decades where people who could not afford a home in Vancouver left for the more affordable suburbs. Young working class people were content with the idea that you moved in order to find ‘affordable’ housing.”
Ball takes aim at the City of Vancouver’s plan to offer incentives to homeowners to add additional suites or laneway houses on their single family lots. The city recently backed away from a proposal to limit the size of a new home when a property owner tears down an older home. The policy was intended to protect heritage houses, but was criticized for being too restrictive.
But the city does want to move ahead with a plan that would include further “gentle density” in single-family neighbourhoods, as well as ensuring new housing includes units priced to different income ranges.
“The Mayor has announced further intentions to densify single family neighbourhoods to allow greater numbers people to be shoe-horned into them, so that they can enjoy their ‘right’ to an ‘affordable’ home within the city’s environs. The fact is, however, that the more people who exercise this ‘right’, the more unaffordable homes will become,” Ball writes.
“The result puts one in mind of the ‘dense pack’ strategy of early 18th century slavers, wherein they struck upon the idea of stacking their human cargo like cordwood in the hopes of increasing profits. The result was an increase in mortality that did exactly the opposite of what was intended.”
…
Is it the metropolitan things you can do in Vancouver that keeps real estate so precious? Or is it suitcases and wires of never-ending money looking for a safe keeping place?
The state of California just passed a law allowing urban home owners to add second units. It prevents local building departments from adding on huge fees for permits. Granny flats now grandfathered in….so to speak.
Some of Vancouver’s priciest neighbourhoods lost hundreds of residents between 2011 and 2016
Few new homes being added, an aging population and an increase in unoccupied homes may all be contributing to the decline, say researchers
A home in Shaughessy, one of a cluster of Westside neighbourhood that lost residents, compared to 4.6 per cent population growth throughout Vancouver
Published on Feb 15 2017
Jen St. Denis
Metro
Are some of Vancouver’s quiet, tree-lined single-family neighbourhoods a little too quiet?
In contrast to Vancouver’s overall population growth of 4.6 per cent between 2011 and 2016, a cluster of neighbourhoods on the city’s pricy Westside lost hundreds of people in the same period. Arbutus Ridge, Kerrisdale, Shaughnessy and Dunbar/Southlands all lost population, a phenomenon researchers say is worthy of more study.
“Population drop is always kind of jarring,” said Jens von Bergmann, a data analyst who has been mapping Canadian census data (the latest population numbers came out on Feb. 8). “We know that overall population went up quite a bit.”
…
Number of unoccupied Vancouver homes rises to 25,000, census data show
As city continues to struggle with tight rental market, data shows 8.2 per cent of Vancouver housing is left vacant or not permanently lived in
The view of Vancouver’s skyline from the Burnaby Heights neighbourhood.
Published on Feb 08 2017
Jen St. Denis
Metro
The number of empty homes in Metro Vancouver continues to rise, according to population growth data from the 2016 Census.
Between 2011 and 2016, the percentage of homes left vacant or not permanently lived in in the City of Vancouver rose from 7.7 per cent to 8.2 per cent, according to an analyses of Census data by Andy Yan, an urban planner and director of Simon Fraser University’s City Program.
During the same period the number of such properties jumped by 15 per cent, from 22,169 to 25,502, in Vancouver.
Yan’s previous work had identified a high percentage of empty units in Vancouver’s Coal Harbour neighbourhood, an area filled with upscale condo buildings. Coal Harbour continues to have a high percentage of empty units, at 22 per cent.
…
Data shows empty homes rising across Metro Vancouver over 30 years
An analysis of Statistics Canada data shows that over the past 30 years, the percentage of unoccupied units has grown across Metro Vancouver
David P. Ball / Metro
Condos being constructed near Brentwood mall in Burnaby. Data shows the number of unoccupied housing units in Metro Vancouver increased sharply between 2001 and 2006.
Published on Oct 26 2016
Jen St. Denis
Metro
It’s not just Vancouver — Surrey, Richmond and Burnaby might also want to think about implementing an empty homes tax.
An analysis of Statistics Canada census data over the past 30 years shows a sharp increase in the percentage of Metro Vancouver homes either not permanently lived in or vacant. In 1981, 3.2 per cent of homes, or 15,870 housing units, were either unoccupied or not occupied by permanent residents. By 2006, that had jumped to 6.2 per cent, or 58,229 units, with 87% of those units being classified as unoccupied.
“What I wanted to do is show how it’s a regional issue as opposed to just within the City of Vancouver,” said Andy Yan, an urban planner and director of Simon Fraser University’s city program. “So the idea of an empty homes tax and all the provincial changes that were required, may need to occur on a regional level as opposed to a city by city level.”
…
‘At 53, Johnny Depp is one of the most recognizable actors in the world. Depp has made more than $650 million over his three-decade career. So, it is understandable that he thought there was plenty to go around. Then one day his longtime business managers called him. They told him that he was short on funds.’
‘Depp’s former business managers have had no problem telling the world just how Depp spent all that money in the counter-suit they’ve filed against him.They alleged that Depp’s lifestyle costs $2 million a month to maintain.’
‘TMG alleges that Depp has spent $75 million to ‘acquire, improve, and furnish 14 residences’ around the world, including his 45-acre chateau in the south of France. He also owns a chain of islands in the Bahamas, a horse farm in Kentucky, and a number of houses, condos, and penthouses in Los Angeles. Back in 2007-2008, Depp purchased five penthouses in a Los Angeles building. He has sold two of those for a combined price of $12.78 million. Each and every house has a full staff.’
‘Well, as a successful and famous actor who has made hundreds of millions of dollars, at least he can pay cash for all of these extravagances, right? Nope. Depp also allegedly has a Visa balance of $55,000.’
Should be required watching to every “suddenly rich” athlete or celebrity…
+++
ESPN’s ‘Broke’ Barely Scratched the Surface of Athlete Bankruptcy Discussion
Michael Schottey - October 3, 2012
Many athletes go broke.
It doesn’t matter how much money they’ve made; it doesn’t matter how they lost it. The numbers are staggering. According to a 2009 estimate from Sports Illustrated, “78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.”
That’s 2009. While Broke told many individual stories (from football and elsewhere) about the symptoms, the disease is not new, nor have people been completely ignorant about it. Every fan of any NFL team probably knows at least one cautionary tale of one of their favorites going bankrupt. Broke was just the telethon that forced everyone to think about the problem at once.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1356918-espns-broke-barely-scratched-the-surface-of-athlete-bankruptcy-discussion
‘TMG alleges that Depp has spent $75 million to ‘acquire, improve, and furnish 14 residences’ around the world’
This is interesting for several reasons. He could have stayed at the best hotels and resorts for a fraction of the carry costs. So why buy them? He was going to profit. Yet during the biggest expansion of real estate prices in history, he’s broke. Housing, luxury or not, is an expense. And this is a glaring example that more expense is simply more expense.
‘Without a fire sale, Depp — then arguably the biggest star in Hollywood and certainly one of the best paid, thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise — would never be able to meet his obligations.’
‘After he connected with Heard, on one occasion “he walked into a [high-end jewelry] store, sat for a couple of hours,” says an insider. “They showed him a lot of stuff, gave him champagne, and he walked out with a $400,000 diamond cuff. It was a classic sort of moment because it wasn’t worth $400,000.”
‘When the couple decided to take the Orient Express and travel around Europe, a full security team accompanied them. “There were almost always two [security guards with Depp],” the source says. “He had a crew in L.A., a team of eight or 10 that traded off, with private security at the [Sweetzer] homes and the lofts downtown.”
‘Those lofts were a collection of penthouses in L.A.’s historic art deco Eastern Columbia Building; Depp has since sold two of the five units, which he bought for $7.2 million in 2007-08 and which were listed early last year at a combined price of $12.78 million.’
‘His key reps struggled to maintain access. “It became harder to find the right time to get him,” says a source. “In the old days, it was just [a question of] when he was free, but now it became [a matter of] finding a time when he was free and clear of mind and in the right mood. He got angry a lot. He’d scream at someone that worked at the house or his security.”
‘On May 30, 2015, three years after the Sweetzer tete-a-tete, Mandel met with Depp again, this time in the Eastern Columbia building, ready for another confrontation. He insisted Depp sell his French chateau, part of a hamlet outside Saint-Tropez that he’d purchased for an unknown sum, before adding $10 million in renovations. The actor agreed. “I am ready to face the music, in whatever way I must,” he texted Mandel, according to the TMG countersuit. “I know there’s a way to dig ourselves out of this hole and I am bound and determined to do it.”
‘The estate was put on the market for some $27 million, twice Sotheby’s valuation; then, sources say, Paradis and Lily-Rose urged Depp to change his mind. The actor had never been married to the French actress-singer but continued to help support her after their 2012 split, even buying her a $4.5 million home. Now, when three prospective buyers asked to see the property, he got cold feet. The chateau was taken off the market. (It has since been relisted for $39 million.)’
‘The possible catalyst for the lawsuit was a multimillion-dollar bridge loan TMG made to Depp in 2012. The managers say they tossed their client a lifeline as he faced default on a $5 million loan. In the cross complaint, TMG attorney Michael Kump says the firm stepped in to help Depp avert a “devastating financial collapse.” When he defaulted on that loan, TMG alleges, the firm initiated foreclosure proceedings on two of the actor’s homes in the Hollywood Hills. TMG says Depp’s lawsuit arrived with the potential sale of those homes only weeks away.’
‘Typical of Depp’s behavior, their suit claimed, was his response in 2008 when they cautioned him this was not the best time to buy another property, given his sputtering cash flow. “I will call tracey [Jacobs] and jake [Bloom],” Depp allegedly replied via email, “and prepare them to make some ludicrous deals to refill the glass and make it f—ing overflow!!! Whatever we have to acquire 1480, let’s do!!!! WE MUST BUY THIS HOUSE!!!”‘
‘When the couple decided to take the Orient Express and travel around Europe’
Did they buy the Orient Express? Don’t tell me you rented a spot on that train Johnny, it’s cash in the trash!
To sum up the documentary of Broke.
Women, Real Estate and crazy investments will make even the highest paid athlete go broke…
If they could only:
Not marry (some over and over)…
Only own ONE house at a time…
Invest only in Vanguard funds…
They would all be rich to this day.
Spot on! These entertainment figures are natural chick magnets for gold-diggers. Makes me feel incredibly lucky to be married to a hard-working lady with her own independent career and income source, plus a preference for thrift over profligance.
“Hey kids, stay away from sports!”
“‘After he connected with Heard, on one occasion “he walked into a [high-end jewelry] store, sat for a couple of hours,” says an insider. “They showed him a lot of stuff, gave him champagne, and he walked out with a $400,000 diamond cuff. It was a classic sort of moment because it wasn’t worth $400,000.”
Interestingly, Heard dumped him for billionaire Elon Musk. She smells like a gold digger.
House flipping is huge among the so-called “stars,” be they athletes, actors or otherwise. The get-rich-quick-on-houses mindset is pervasive across all socio-economic strata.
Dumb ‘em down, and profit.
Here’s ESPN’s “Broke” (run time = 1:19)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elfw0ESih-A
The title of this video should be “Watch and Learn” just as a video about drug addiction should be “Watch and Learn” but, hey … why spend the time to waste such futile words?
Again, a nation of dummies.
“78% of former NFL players have gone bankrupt or are under financial stress because of joblessness or divorce.
This proves again stats are meaningless. More than 78% of former nfl players play for less than 3 seasons at nfl minimum wage.
It’s time for Johnny Debt to cash in on his investment gains.
PS The new Pirates movie sux.
“Johnny Debt”
Holy Cow! That’s just way. too. awesome. I’m not worthy.
You think even Nicolas Cage laughs at JD now?
Nick Cage is a piker compared to Debt, it would seem.
I prefer Cage’s acting. Johnny Debt is awful.
At $2 million a month, or $24 million a year, $650 million could last him 27 years, even with zero investment gains.
Something doesn’t add up, and I suspect it relates to massive leverage coupled with an insane cash burn rate.
He earned $650 million…’
Lost at least 50% of it to taxes…$325 million remaining
Lost 33% of the remainder to a divorce…$200 million remaining
And bought around $100 million in trophy property…$100 million remaining
Oh look - bankrupt in four short years.
This discussion reminds me: How did Nicholas Cage’s real estate travails ever turn out?
Why Stars Like Johnny Depp Burn Through Their Fortunes: Following the Money…Down the Drain
by Natalie Finn | Fri, May 12, 2017 5:00 AM
Latest News
Ryan Edwards, Maci Bookout
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Nicolas Cage filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Mr. Cage has never declared bankruptcy. We regret the error.
________________________________
When Michael Jackson blew through $6 million during one shopping trip in Las Vegas, an outing that turned into the biggest takeaway from a 2003 British TV documentary that painted the pop star as the consummate weirdo, it became the go-to example of why Jackson was said to be $400 million in debt when he died.
Let’s see, $6 million x 365 days in a year…plus all that Neverland Ranch upkeep…
But even if he didn’t have seven-figure expenses every single day, the real question was, what happened to all the money Jackson made over the course of his four-decade career? 1984’s Thriller was the second best-selling album of all time when he died (it’s since become No. 1). His 1991 recording contract with Sony alone was for $65 million, not including touring and the endless monetizable aspects that go hand-in-hand with the sort of game-changing music Jackson was producing at the height of his career. He spent “only” $47.5 million in 1985 on ATV Music, which included the Lennon-McCartney portfolio. Sony then bought half the rights to the ATV catalog in a 1995 merger for $95 million.
So even if he was spending like a maniac, which he apparently was ($8 million in annual travel and antiquity acquisitions alone as the 20th century became the 21st), how did Jackson end up close to half a billion dollars in the red?
The answer is utterly average.
Unpaid loans. The financial system that frequently gobbles up people much, much lower on the earning totem pole than Jackson also got to him. Wanting to maintain a certain lifestyle, he secured a $200 million loan in 2001 and continued to spend tens of millions more each year than he was making for the rest of his life. (Tens of millions also went to settle various civil claims brought against him for alleged child molestation. He was acquitted of criminal charges in 2005.)
For anyone who’s ever been in the slightest bit of credit card debt knows, it’s alarmingly easy to spend beyond one’s means. Even if—or maybe especially if—your means are seemingly infinite.
Ironically, after his sudden death in 2009, money started pouring back into his estate (the sale of his half of the Sony/ATV catalog for $750 million helped secure a cushion for his kids’ future) and Jackson’s is one of the most posthumously flush afterlives around.
But while Jackson’s financial troubles proved a shocking and tragic cautionary tale at the time, he’s in storied company when it comes to poor money management among the celebrity set. Considering how prevalent money issues are among regular people, just add some zeroes and you’ve got Hollywood Economics 101: Amex Is Going to Want You to Pay That Bill One Day.
…
“Kim has consistently blamed the market for exacerbating wealth inequalities in Korea, and opposed measures to stimulate the market.”
This Korean guy thinks putting people into more housing debt increases wealth inequality. He’s not far from China where wealth inequality is maybe the worst in the world. The Fang Nu might agree with him.
Here in the US the Fed is revered like a benevolent god, yet they are the facilitators of our wealth inequality.
‘If Australia wants to beat its bubble, perhaps it should look to Singapore’
Reposting this, again:
‘How Singapore tamed house prices and deflated their housing bubble’
by Rebecca Macfie / 31 August, 2016
‘House prices in small, open economies such as Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark and Singapore have all been pushed up by very low interest rates, upward exchange rate pressures, low inflation and foreign money looking for safe havens following the global financial crisis. All have put in place measures to try to dampen prices, but Skilling says Singapore has been the most effective.’
‘The island nation – a far more land-constrained city than Auckland – was hit hard in the financial crisis, but between 2010 and 2013, house prices overheated. Skilling says the Government responded by introducing policies targeting both supply and demand.’
‘On the supply side, the Housing and Development Board – the state agency responsible for the bulk of residential development – significantly ramped up the construction and sale of units. The board has been responsible for the development of affordable housing since Singapore’s independence in 1959, and Skilling says it has mass construction of standardised high-rise apartments “down to a T”.
‘The Government also rolled out an increasingly tight suite of policies to restrict mortgage borrowing. In 2012, it limited mortgages to 35 years, and in 2013, it tightened loan-to-value ratios to 50% for people with one housing loan and 40% for those with two or more loans. Debt-to-income limits were also imposed.’
‘Stamp duty was ramped up, with a 16% duty imposed on those who sold a property within a year of purchase. Those buying second and subsequent properties pay duties of 7% and 10% respectively, and foreign buyers pay a 15% stamp duty.’
‘The Government’s goal was to “skew the incentives” in a way that reduced the demand for property.’
‘After peaking in 2013, residential property prices have fallen for 11 consecutive quarters and are now 9.4% lower than in the third quarter of 2013. “The Singapore way is not to crash the market,” says Skilling. “It’s to do it in a very calibrated way.”
‘He describes the combination of demand and supply-side measures as a “scissor” action. “You can’t just operate one blade without the other.”
BTW, someone posted a link last night that the GSE’s are lowering loan requirements, again. So I don’t want to hear any BS about “oh, we just need to build more shacks!” This thing could be solved in days:
‘We must publicly announce all detail land-use planning’s from commune to district levels and they should be accessible by mobile phone to avoid the land ‘fever’ that occurs periodically,’ Le Van Khoa, deputy chairman of the People’s Committee, told a meeting held middle of last month to try and quell rumours that were giving rise to property price bubbles in outlying districts like Cu Chi, Hoc Mon, Binh Chanh, Nha Be, and Can Gio in the last few months.’
‘After the authorities indicated they were determined to forestall land price bubbles, prices immediately fell by 15–30 per cent, even 50 per cent in some places, and, importantly, trading has ground to a halt.’
That’s right, a freaking phone app.
Similarly, Donald Trump could end the Housing Bubble with a single late-night tweet if he decided to make America’s home prices affordable to American families again.
And he would do this why?
Most likely he won’t. What president wants to go down in history as the one who ended the housing market federal subsidy gravy train? Romney merely hinted on the campaign trail of letting market forces run their course, allowing housing to “bottom out,” and was savaged by the MSM for the infraction.
At least Trump has popped the 🍺 bubble, as people substitute hard liquor for suds.
We must publicly announce all detail land-use planning
They still haven’t learned that socialism doesn’t work, whether large-scale (to run the entire economy) or small-scale (to run parts of it).
But then again, neither have Americans. All these words about land-use planning and “master plans” could have come straight out of Massachusetts or California.
‘U.S. President Donald Trump’s picks for two open spots on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors may push for tighter monetary policy if they receive the Senate confirmation needed to join the Fed’s rate-setting panel, their records suggest.’
‘Trump will nominate Carnegie Mellon University professor Marvin Goodfriend and former Treasury Department staffer Randal Quarles to fill two of the three open seats on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, the New York Times said on Friday, citing unnamed people with direct knowledge of the decision.’
‘Goodfriend in particular has been skeptical of the Fed’s bond-buying programs, saying that it is too close to fiscal policy. Goodfriend, 66, a former Richmond Fed policy advisor, also has urged the central bank to adopt simpler rules governing policy decisions.’
‘That view has support among many congressional Republicans, though Yellen has strongly opposed their proposed legislation on grounds that it would tie the Fed to make mechanical decisions that would harm the economy. The rule at the center of that legislation suggests the Fed should be raising rates more aggressively than the three annual rate hikes policymakers currently expect for both 2017 and 2018.’
‘A lawyer by profession, Quarles, 59, worked on financial regulation at the U.S. Treasury for years, including during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. Reuters had earlier reported he was a leading candidate to be Trump’s pick for the Fed’s vice chair in charge of banking supervision.’
“Many market participants have been barking up the wrong tree, arguing that Trump is an easy money guy because he borrowed a lot when he was a real-estate tycoon,” said Stephen Stanley, Amherst Pierpont’s chief economist, who worked for Goodfriend when he was at the Richmond Fed. “If these two nominees are eventually confirmed, the tone of the Fed Board will instantly swing to a far more hawkish tenor.”
From the comments:
‘It’s amazing how ignorant some of the comments are. first of all they need to be confirmed. chances are they will be along party lines. Next they won’t be voting members of the FOMC so their opinions will mean little to nothing in policy decisions. Next anyone that thinks the Fed needs to be more business accommodating is stupid. Trillions in bonds,)% interest for the last 8 years allowed businesses to refinace trillions in debt at extremely low rates. It also allowed them to borrow hundreds of billions for mergers,dividends, and stock buybacks to prop up their stock prices. The Fed is the only reason the economy didn’t collapse. You people need to realize that debt makes the world go around,not saving. The government can’t tax savings so it needs money exchanging hands. Since the cost of living is higher and median wages have been stagnant for the last 20 years that means without lending the economy collapses.’
One of Trump’s potential Fed picks is a huge fan of negative interest rates
YESTERDAY By: Matthew C Klein
From the New York Times:
The Trump administration has selected candidates for at least two of the three open positions on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors, according to people with direct knowledge of the decision. The expected nominees include Randal K. Quarles, a Treasury Department official in the George W. Bush administration, and Marvin Goodfriend, a former Fed official who is now a professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University.
Goodfriend is described in the piece as a sceptic of the Fed’s bond-buying, especially its purchases of mortgage-backed securities because these ostensibly favour the housing sector over other areas of the economy. He is also someone who has expressed sympathy for binding the Fed’s policy decisions with simple rules.
This might not sound like someone inclined to support the monetary policies desired by a self-professed “low-interest rate person”. However, it’s also worth noting that Goodfriend’s opposition to balance sheet expansion is paired with a radical willingness to embrace deeply negative rates. Negative rates are the one policy option Fed officials have studiously avoided discussing in public even though they have been adopted by the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan, the Swedish Riksbank, and of course the Swiss National Bank.
Goodfriend presented on the subject at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s economic symposium at Jackson Hole in 2016. To Goodfriend, refusing to let nominal interest rates drop below zero is analogous to the gold standard and exchange rate pegs:
The zero interest bound is an encumbrance on monetary policy to be removed, much as the gold standard and the fixed foreign exchange rate encumbrances were removed, to free the price level from the destabilizing influence of a relative price over which monetary policy has little control—in this case, so movements in the intertemporal terms of trade can be reflected fully in interest rate policy to stabilize employment and inflation over the business cycle.
https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2017/06/02/2189711/one-of-trumps-potential-fed-picks-is-a-huge-fan-of-negative-interest-rates/
Mr Goodfriend and Mr Quarles… really? God Himself couldn’t come up with better names for Trump appointees.
The Fed is the only reason the economy didn’t collapse. You people need to realize that debt makes the world go around,not saving.
We’d all be eating gruel.
Debt has a logical end. It is not possible to borrow infinitely.
The Fed is the only reason the economy didn’t collapse.
The Fed did well in preserving the existing order, preventing creative destruction.
However, I suspect their Expert Redistribution, in the form of stimulus and “financial repression” had little to do with any net wealth creation. Although again, it has reinforced the profitability of the FIRE sector.
Yes, Mark Hanson has this on his blog.
Apparently with 20% down, you can now take on up to 50% of your gross income for a mortgage payment.
So a $66K gross income can now qualify to buy a $450K house, assuming 20% down, mortgage balance of $360K. That’s over 5x that annual gross income of $66K.
Foaming the runway, apparently -);
“Apparently with 20% down, you can now take on up to 50% of your gross income for a mortgage payment.”
Those who do this are future underwater mortgage victims and bailout recipients.
They are subprime.
Oh dear….
https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/06/03/business/03reuters-banco-popular-m-a.html?_r=0
Now that is a haircut in record time…
++++
Popular’s shares fell almost 40 percent in the past three days on concern it would not find a buyer or raise new capital to fix its balance sheet, which is weighed down with 37 billion euros (31.80 billion pounds) of non-performing real estate assets.
It’s different this time. The “analysts” who’s paychecks depend on perpetuating the bubble say so.
http://www.scmp.com/business/article/2096718/hong-kongs-property-market-heading-1997-crash
All I saw is, “home prices have always been high…” that is clearly false… affordability clearly varies greatly.
Also “you have to buy to live… so this doesn’t really effect my decision to buy” also terrible logic. You don’t have to buy. You can rent instead of digging your self a debt grave if you believe your desired home is overpriced.
How the Fed killed saving.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-03/less-zero-how-fed-killed-saving
your house is your savings now.
Soon to turn into negative savings in the next housing downturn, right up to the next round of bailouts.
Maybe a more accurate statement would be how the Fed’s response to the Bush meltdown in 2008 killed savers.
LOL
What a joke you are.
Who me ? Refute it then. When did the Paulson 800Bil bailout occur ? When did Zirp start ? When did QE start ? And the million dollar question is Why did all those occur. I’m listening.
And, what effect did all those policies have on savers ?
Davey seems to be missing Danny’s apron.
We take offense to that.
I’m worried.
Another side effect of the housing bubble. Retirees move to lower housing cost countries (SS $ now spent overseas)
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/colombia/article154093359.html
excerpt:
“We could have survived [financially] in the United States if we had moved to a more rural area,” said Susan, 71, a semi-retired property manager. “But we wanted to take this chance while we were still healthy enough to be able to do it.”
In Cuenca, a city of about 350,000 people, they’ve found robust public transportation, an extensive museum network, solid healthcare and markets bursting with fresh fruits and produce. It’s a place where their two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath apartment costs less than $400 a month. They’ve found that for about $1,500 a month, they can live a solidly upper-class lifestyle, dining out frequently and traveling.
“In the United States, we couldn’t afford to go anywhere,” Susan explained. “We were having to stay home.”
Saw it in comment section somewhere. Is US any different?
The Sicilians used to buy cheap pizza joints to launder their money. Now the Mainlanders buy $12 million dollar condos. When you launder loot, price is not as important as distance and safety, and 5293 miles and a complicit local (Canadian) gubmint, realtors and lawyers appear to be the answer. Especially if the natives are to dumbed down or docile to object to being priced out of the market.
Oh, did I say “complicit”… I meant cooperative or thankful.
I like this Macron guy now:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-03/emanuel-macron-offers-us-stem-graduates-second-homeland-france-if-they-help-make-our
“French President Macron invited American citizens - especially those with a higher education - who are disappointed with Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris accord, to help “make our planet great again” by moving to that bastion of liberal global values, France , where they will find “a second homeland.”
In a short address to Americans following Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, the French leader said that while he respects President Donald Trump’s decision, he believes it was a “mistake” and invited all Americans (ideally those with a college education) to come join him in France “to work together on concrete solutions, for our climate, our environment.”
First, American citizens are invited. “Give us your FSA, your Antifas, your SJWS yearning to….” Oh, wait, there’s some caveats, apparently. Those with a higher education. Oops, I don’t think gender studies count. Gotta be STEM grads. But hey, give it a shot. Hands Across the Water! Cruise ship convooy! Convoooy!
In all seriousness, I was just thinking that a little exchange program with Western Europe wouldn’t be a bad idea, it could bleed off some tension on both sides of the pond. Give us the Europeans looking for free speech and 2A and that sort of thing, and who are willing to defend it. In exchange, Europe can have our snowflakes, who are much more compatible with “European values”, whatever that is.
You like anything that comes out of ZH. It’s your Temple.
Yeah, it’s similar to religion in some ways, an opiate for the masses to distract them from actual politics. Consider”“Give us your FSA, your Antifas, your SJWS yearning to….”. The obsession with antifa, which 90% of the population has never heard of, is something new. New enemies and terminology have to be invented to keep the hatred fresh.
Meanwhile Trump is surrounded in the White House by Goldman Sachs alumni.
Rent Free Mike. Are you mad? Have you stomped your little feet today? Natty ice dude did it so much he missed band camp.
I think davey and mikey would be great candidates for expatriation to France. What’s not to like? They’d be with their own peeps instead of constantly mewing at views with which they don’t agree.
scdave, why so bitter, so resentful? I must say, being called “weird and sick” by you for expanding on one of Blue Skye’s comments was a surreal experience.
You must’ve really had the peewadden beat out of you on the playground back in the day.
had the peewadden beat out of you on the playground back in the day ??
LOL Polar opposite is the case although I did lose some battles.
I see. The Kathy Griffin of the playground, then. Pinching the other kids’ lunch money and laughing about it, until someone administered a little recess justice. Makes sense.
Few adults boast of being a schoolyard bully. We had one in Jr. High that changed his ways after a surprising swift takedown by one of the quiet kids. I rather think that if one reaches middle age with an abusive disposition, there isn’t much hope for a healthy attitude to develop.
you go ahead and draw your “sick” conclusions. Bottom line is I am a passivists, tenage homeless advocate and a animal rights activists.
But, I finished a lot of confrontations started by the other side in quick order.
Now, back to your ZH cell with you.
I hope that you aren’t plural. Probably just got excited.
May you do some good. In this community, you present as a bully. It’s your presentation, do with it as you wish.
Well, that’s OK, then. My favorite nephew is a well-known homeless advocate in the PNW. I’ve slipped him some $$ from time to time, anonymously, so as not to embarrass him. And as you may know, I’m not particularly a fan of war. So we may actually have more in common than you might think.
As to ZH, why does this annoy you so much? I’m asking seriously. It’s mainly just an aggregator, like Google News or Drudge, they source their stories from elsewhere, even WaPo, which of course annoys me no end, but such is the lot of an aggregator. For me they fall in the middle between goog and drudge.
You’re not the only one to have such an objection to ZH. What’s the problem? The Macron story came straight from Macron himself, in a press conference or some such thing. ZH delivered it. So?
“I hope that you aren’t plural. Probably just got excited.”
To be fair, this happens when people post from their phones. And sometimes auto-correct does some weird things.
You’re a good sport Palmy.
“The Macron story came straight from Macron himself, in a press conference or some such thing.”
It was during a three minute speech to the American people.
Go here …
https://theintercept.com/2017/06/01/french-president-emmanuel-macron-offers-refuge-american-climate-scientists/
“ZH delivered it.”
Do did a lot of other sources. Don’t shoot the messenger.
Thanks, Blue. I try, often I fail.
dave was just expressing that he is a pacifist and his device betrayed him.
Along those lines of pacifism, dave might perhaps be interested in this photo essay that William Banzai, Zero Hedge’s resident graphic blogger, posted on Memorial Day. Here it is:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-29/memorial-day-2017-ordinary-people-extraordinary-times-repost
Powerful images from the grunts on the ground in Vietnam, accompanied by prose from a guy who was there. It made me so angry I got on the blower to the offices of my Congresscritters the day after, with some choice comments about war and bankers and politicians and such.
“ZH delivered it.”
Do did a lot of other sources. Don’t shoot the messenger.”
Yes. I just happened to hit the ZH link. At one point a while back, there were so many objections by the Cali Clan to Zero Hedge links, that I used to search for the source story and post the link to that, so as not offend their tender sensibilities. And then one day I realized I was giving in to a form of “shaming”, a tool of the neotards, so I went back to posting the ZH links.
Look at mm’s ridiculous point and splutter “ZH is similar to a religion” and “obsession with anti-fa”. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever mentioned anti-fa, maybe I did once before. I’d hardly call that an obsession.
I mean, ZH publishes both Kuntzler and Buchanan. I’d say that’s pretty balanced.
“But, I finished a lot of confrontations started by the other side in quick order.”
Yet you still don’t know how goon got that dog up there.
Yet you still don’t know how goon got that dog up there.
I thought that one was from oxide…
True.
https://www.zillow.com/san-mateo-ca/home-values/
San Mateo, CA housing prices crater 8% yoy
Well, hi there, I was wondering where you were. Everything OK? Good ta seeya.
Crater taters, donk, debt donkeys and rent free.
ah, all’s well, then. Good. Wouldn’t be the same around here without ya.
Carry on.
If you can get $50,000 for your pick up, sell today. Or something like that.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-03/93-all-jobs-created-2008-were-added-through-birthdeath-model
93% Of All Jobs “Created” Since 2008 Were Added Through The Birth/Death Model
Did you run out of ideas for a different handle today and decide to plagiarize on a long time poster?
You’re cracking buddy. My name is an acronym for zerohedge info. There’s someone else here going by ZH but I don’t hear him squealing like a little girl nor is craterguy.
Get your characters straight.
Bloomberg says The Donald is already re elected then this happens
Jihadi terrorists shouting ‘this is for Allah’ kill seven in knife frenzy at ‘FIVE’ locations in the capital: Hunt for men with 12in blades who began the rampage by mowing down revellers on London Bridge
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4569638/Car-ploughs-20-people-London-Bridge.html
Has anyone noticed that the jihadis never quite seem to target gatherings of government officials, or corporate headquarters, or these Davos, Bilderberg confabs? Heck, they don’t even stab socialites at a charity ball or mow down the patrons in one of those private clubs like Annabel’s. It’s always a bunch of poor schmucks out for a walk, or at a concert or nightclub enjoying some music, or having a bite at a cafe. And when some other poor schmucks get upset about it and express their upset publicly, there’s some cheerful bobby knocking on their door to arrest them for violating the elite social norms.
I find that fascinating.
You could be forgiven if you were to infer from this that the jihadis are the shock troops of the elites.
Terror for thee, but not for me (or we, as it were).
“socialites at a charity ball” have armed guards. There is no terror if the perps get dropped.
“Has anyone noticed that the jihadis never quite seem to target gatherings of government officials, or corporate headquarters, or these Davos, Bilderberg confabs?”
An interesting observation.
“Heck, they don’t even stab socialites at a charity ball or mow down the patrons in one of those private clubs like Annabel’s. It’s always a bunch of poor schmucks out for a walk, or at a concert or nightclub enjoying some music, or having a bite at a cafe.”
But not the truly down-and-out; If the targets were the down-and-out then nobody would care. So the targets are those in the middle - not the elite and not the down-and out either. The middle.
Something to think about.
More candlelight vigils, teddy bears, and flowers will surely fix this.
In Colorado(?) was just in London. Didn’t he say he was coming back yesterday, or was it today? He got out just in the nick.
An OT, but a nice article interviewing Noam Chomsky:
https://www.thenation.com/article/noam-chomsky-neoliberalism-destroying-democracy/
People are losing more and more power over their own lives. The housing bubble would have been prevented if state and local governments had more power. Why is the federal government meddling with everyday lives of the citizens? Individuals would have had the choice to find a place that more or less matches their values.
In regards to the housing bubble, the Fed’s power to fatten banks would have been undermined by the state’s power to create its own currency based on gold.
‘CL: I don’t know what you think of Pankaj Mishra, but I enjoy his book Age of Anger, and he begins with an anonymous letter to a newspaper from somebody who says, “We should admit that we are not only horrified but baffled. Nothing since the triumph of vandals in Rome and North Africa has seemed so suddenly incomprehensible and difficult to reverse.”
‘NC: Well, that’s the fault of the information system, because it’s very comprehensible and very obvious and very simple. Take, say the United States, which actually suffered less from these policies than many other countries. Take the year 2007, a crucial year right before the crash.’
‘What was the wondrous economy that was then being praised? It was one in which the wages, the real wages of American workers, were actually lower than they were in 1979 when the neoliberal period began. That’s historically unprecedented except for trauma or war or something like that. Here is a long period in which real wages had literally declined, while there was some wealth created but in very few pockets. It was also a period in which new institutions developed, financial institutions. You go back to the ’50s and ’60s, a so-called Golden Age, banks were connected to the real economy. That was their function. There were also no crashes because there were New Deal regulations.’
‘Starting in the early ’70s there was a sharp change. First of all, financial institutions exploded in scale. By 2007 they actually had 40 percent of corporate profits. Furthermore, they weren’t connected to the real economy anymore.’
‘In Europe the way democracy is undermined is very direct. Decisions are placed in the hands of an unelected troika: the European Commission, which is unelected; the IMF, of course unelected; and the European Central Bank. They make the decisions. So people are very angry, they’re losing control of their lives. The economic policies are mostly harming them, and the result is anger, disillusion, and so on.’
‘CL: So, the question is, at a moment when people are almost ready… when they’re ready to act and almost ready to recognize that this game is not working, this social system, do we have the endowment as a species to act on it, to move into that zone of puzzlement and then action?’
‘NC: I think the fate of the species depends on it because, remember, it’s not just inequality, stagnation. It’s terminal disaster. We have constructed a perfect storm. That should be the screaming headlines every day. Since the Second World War, we have created two means of destruction. Since the neoliberal era, we have dismantled the way of handling them. That’s our pincers. That’s what we face, and if that problem isn’t solved we’re done with.’
‘CL: I want to go back Pankaj Mishra and the Age of Anger for a moment— ‘
‘NC: It’s not the Age of Anger. It’s the Age of Resentment against socioeconomic policies which have harmed the majority of the population for a generation and have consciously and in principle undermined democratic participation. Why shouldn’t there be anger?’
‘CL: Pankaj Mishra calls it—it’s a Nietzschean word—“ressentiment,” meaning this kind of explosive rage. But he says, “It’s the defining feature of a world where the modern promise of equality collides with massive disparities of power, education, status and—’
‘NC: Which was designed that way, which was designed that way. Go back to the 1970s. Across the spectrum, elite spectrum, there was deep concern about the activism of the ’60s. It’s called the “time of troubles.” It civilized the country, which is dangerous. What happened is that large parts of the population—which had been passive, apathetic, obedient—tried to enter the political arena in one or another way to press their interests and concerns. They’re called “special interests.” That means minorities, young people, old people, farmers, workers, women. In other words: the population. The population are special interests, and their task is to just watch quietly. And that was explicit.’
‘Two documents came out right in the mid-’70s, which are quite important. They came from opposite ends of the political spectrum, both influential, and both reached the same conclusions. One of them, at the left end, was by the Trilateral Commission—liberal internationalists, three major industrial countries, basically the Carter administration, that’s where they come from. That is the more interesting one [The Crisis of Democracy, a Trilateral Commission report]. The American rapporteur Samuel Huntington of Harvard, he looked back with nostalgia to the days when, as he put it, Truman was able to run the country with the cooperation of a few Wall Street lawyers and executives. Then everything was fine. Democracy was perfect.’
‘But in the ’60s they all agreed it became problematic because the special interests started trying to get into the act, and that causes too much pressure and the state can’t handle that.’
‘CL: Not only that, he turned Al Smith’s line around. Al Smith said, “The cure for democracy is more democracy.” He said, “No, the cure for this democracy is less democracy.”
‘NC: It wasn’t him. It was the liberal establishment. He was speaking for them. This is a consensus view of the liberal internationalists and the three industrial democracies. They—in their consensus—they concluded that a major problem is what they called, their words, “the institution’s responsible for the indoctrination of the young.” The schools, the universities, churches, they’re not doing their job. They’re not indoctrinating the young properly. The young have to be returned to passivity and obedience, and then democracy will be fine. That’s the left end.’
‘Now what do you have at the right end? A very influential document: The Powell Memorandum, came out the same time. Lewis Powell, a corporate lawyer, later Supreme Court justice, he produced a confidential memorandum for the US Chamber of Commerce, which has been extremely influential. It more or less set off the modern so-called “conservative movement.” The rhetoric is kind of crazy. We don’t go through it, but the basic picture is that this rampaging left has taken over everything. We have to use the resources that we have to beat back this rampaging new left which is undermining freedom and democracy.’
‘Connected with this was something else. As a result of the activism of the ’60s and the militancy of labor, there was a falling rate of profit. That’s not acceptable. So we have to reverse the falling rate of profit, we have to undermine democratic participation, what comes? Neoliberalism, which has exactly those effects.’
‘Take the year 2007, a crucial year right before the crash. What was the wondrous economy that was then being praised? It was one in which the wages, the real wages of American workers, were actually lower than they were in 1979 when the neoliberal period began. That’s historically unprecedented except for trauma or war or something like that.’
And how much are house prices up from 1979?
“And how much are house prices up from 1979?”
Ah, now we are getting into the magic.
If house prices go up then wages can remain leveled out and folks will remain happy (or at least calm) because the rise in the prices of houses represents a rise in household wealth.
Equity = wealth.
High prices create equity which in turn creates wealth.
High prices do not actually have to be paid, they only have to be promised to be paid, hence equity is generated by promises made by buyers, buyers who are total strangers, buyers who are willing to pay high prices.If these total strangers have lost their minds then prices will reflect this.
And who is there to complain about these high prices? The people who already bought? Bahahahahahahaha, fat chance.
How about those who want to buy? Logic would suggest that buyers would want prices to be lower but logic does not apply here because the draw for promising to pay a high price for a house is the high price itself; Take away the high price and you take away the draw.
As I said many times in the past, a nation of dummies.
A nation of dummies = A nation filled with people who have been conditioned to fully accept the idea that committing to buy a house is the same thing as actually owing the house.
Homebuyers = homeowners.
The two terms are interchangeable in the American people’s minds and this is because these people have been successfully dumbed down.
“In regards to the housing bubble, the Fed’s power to fatten banks would have been undermined by the state’s power to create its own currency based on gold.”
If you restricted the creation of currency to the supply of gold then the only way to increase the currency is to increase the supply of gold.
However if you could associate the creation of currency to something else (such as home equity) then you would not experience a limitation of currency if you could somehow increase the value of this “something else” (in this case this “something else” is home equity).
If you can convince an entire society that home equity translates to wealth and this wealth is based on debt created in order to support ever-rising house prices set by strangers then you have the makings of a debt-based economy supported by willing debt slaves.
Same goes for education. If you can convince and entire society that it is a good and wonderful thing to borrow huge sums of money to be used as an investment in education then you add debt to the debt-based economy and you add slaves to the to the growing numbers of debt slaves.
A good thing if you are a banker, not such a good thing if you are one of the debt slaves.
Debt slaves work, bankers reap.
They—in their consensus—they concluded that a major problem is what they called, their words, “the institution’s responsible for the indoctrination of the young.” The schools, the universities, churches, they’re not doing their job. They’re not indoctrinating the young properly. The young have to be returned to passivity and obedience, and then democracy will be fine.
As I’ve said before, fake news starts with school.
Cyndi Lauper Puts Stamford Home On Market
The singer of top hits including “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” wrote five of her albums in the house.
http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/250-Saddle-Hill-Rd_Stamford_CT_06903_M34410-99053