A Great Deal Of Stupid Money
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “When rich home buyers don’t have the liquidity to purchase their homes outright, many turn to massive mortgages known as jumbo loans. Jumbo loans exceed the mortgage amount that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will purchase from lenders. Many experts blame the financing tactic for helping to enable the housing bubble by encouraging extravagant property purchases. ‘A lot of these borrowers can’t walk into a traditional bank and get a $5-million loan,’ said Brandon Boyd, an executive mortgage consultant with Encinitas lender Drop Mortgage. ‘It’s hard for a bank lender to pull back and understand that income. It’s not irresponsible lending at all — it’s an alternative space, but it’s not the subprime of the past, not by a long shot.’”
“In yet another sign of the weakening ultra-luxury market, former Avon CEO Andrea Jung sold her apartment at Toll Brothers’ 1110 Park Avenue for $17 million — a $600,000 loss on what she paid last year. The unidentified buyers are from Asia and used an LLC for the purchase. The 16-story building at 1110 Park Avenue has just nine units, and it’s one of the buildings where Toll Brothers had previously reduced prices. A unit in the building is currently on the market for $16 million, down from the $20 million it was first asking in 2015.”
“The Scottish property market is now suffering a ’serious slowdown’ and faces the risk of a major price correction as the controversial replacement for stamp duty continues to take its toll, according to Ken McEwan, chief executive of Edinburgh-based McEwan Fraser Legal. Sellers of homes worth more than £1 million are being particularly hard hit according to McEwan with a fall of 40 per cent and there has also been a 25 per cent drop in demand for homes worth over £500,000.”
“Greenland Holdings Corp., China’s fourth-biggest developer by property sales, said it had overdue loans of 457.5 million yuan ($69.2 million) in some units in the northeast province of Liaoning at the end of June, underscoring concerns about the company’s debt problems. The company told Bloomberg News last week its project in China’s northeast faced repayment problems due to the region’s weak real estate market. This isn’t the first time a Greenland unit has had problems repaying debt. Last year, Greenland affiliate Shanghai Yunfeng Group Co. was in default on 2 billion yuan of privately placed notes after the triggering of early repayment clauses, according to a Caixin magazine report.”
“Despite an uptick in interest over the last two months, property prices in Sentosa Cove remained depressed, with a 4,069 sq ft waterfront apartment at Seascape sold at a loss of almost S$4 million, reported The Straits Times. Bought in 2010 by Dyna-Mac Holdings chief executive Lim Tze Jong for around S$12.8 million, the luxury apartment went for S$9 million last month. The $2,212 psf price achieved for the unit was an improvement from $1,524 psf price achieved for a similar unit earlier in the year. Located at the higher level of Seascape, the apartment was sold for S$6.2 million, which translated to an eye-popping loss of S$6.6 million given that it was acquired for S$12.8 million in June 2010.”
“There’s been a drop in the number of Chinese buying up houses in Auckland. QV spokeswoman Andrea Rush says developers are having to drop house prices in Flat Bush and Albany so they can sell them. ‘It’s possible that the crackdown by the Chinese government on the amount of capital allowed to leave the country may be a factor, as it’s now much harder for new migrants or foreign buyers from China to get their cash out to purchase property here.’”
“Ms Rush says whether that market builds back up ‘really depends on the Chinese government.’ ‘The situation has really run parallel with the slowing in the New Zealand market since late last year when [the Chinese Government] did crack down on the slow of capital.’”
“Offshore Chinese investors have helped drive the Australian property market to new heights. But with the tightening of government regulations, that interest is shifting to other attractive markets. It is a similar story at the Sydney-based Linfield Property Agents according to Shan Lin. ‘We found now in the last 12 months our offshore market [has] cooled down big time,’ Mr Lin told ABC’s The Business program.”
“Real estate agents contacted by the ABC are already seeing an increase in nomination sales — where buyers try to sell their off-the-plan properties when it comes times to settle. ‘I can’t deny it,’ Home 789 chief executive Walton Chu said, who operates out of the inner-city suburb of Redfern. ‘For our business we’re ok, but I’ve heard from my agent friends quite a lot of overseas buyers, they struggling to get finance here. So either they would chose just to pay off straight away or rather just say lose [the] 10 per cent deposit and walk away.’”
“Re-reading the hardy perennial book by Charles Kindleberger on ‘Mania, Panics and Crashes’ reminded me of his definition of the historical phases of financial crashes. First, there is a period of ‘displacement,’ which causes speculation, credit and monetary expansion. Second is a phase of overtrading, financial distress and perhaps the exposure of fraud, swindles and malfeasance. This leads to revulsion, mistrust of shady products and intermediaries, and then panic as everyone rushes to the crowded exits without parachutes.”
“A displacement is defined by Kindleberger as ‘an outside event that changes horizons, expectations, profit opportunities, behavior.’ In the South Sea Company bubble of 1720, the displacement was the growth in joint-stock companies in Britain after the turn of the 18th century. It engaged in a huge swap of the national debt for its equity, paying off politicians and investors alike with more issuance of equity.”
“In January 1720, its share price was £128, rising to £1,000 in August, not unlike the price behaviour of some tech stocks and bitcoin in 2017. South Sea share prices were propped up by allowing investors to buy shares on credit. Sounds familiar? Inevitably, as the company could not pay its dividend and investors buying on credit had to force sell, the share prices collapsed back to £100 before the year was out.”
“The displacement in the 21st century is the tech boom, in which everyone thinks that there are fortunes to be made, but no one is totally sure which tech company will be the great winner. Bitcoin fits that displacement/speculative model. The whole purpose of bitcoin is to create private money, outside the purview of the state. It is an asset with no intrinsic value and not the liability of anyone. Hence, its value is totally dependent on finding the next buyer, or perhaps sucker.”
“Writing in 1856, the founding editor of the Economist magazine Walter Bagehot had this view about panics and manias, ‘but one thing is certain, that at particular times a great many stupid people have a great deal of stupid money….At intervals, from causes which are not to the present purposes, the money of these people – the blind capital, as we call it, of the country – is particularly large and craving; it seeks for someone to devour it, and there is a ‘plethora’; it finds someone, and there is ’speculation’; it is devoured, and there is ‘panic.’”
“We are in this current state of a liquidity flood, founded on the current monetary logic that debt addiction, like drugs, can be cured by providing more debt at near negative interest rate costs. So we have too much money chasing speculative cyber-wealth. The physicist Isaac Newton, who also lost a fortune in the South Sea bubble, claimed that ‘I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.’”
‘the founding editor of the Economist magazine Walter Bagehot had this view about panics and manias, ‘but one thing is certain, that at particular times a great many stupid people have a great deal of stupid money….At intervals, from causes which are not to the present purposes, the money of these people – the blind capital, as we call it, of the country – is particularly large and craving; it seeks for someone to devour it, and there is a ‘plethora’; it finds someone, and there is ’speculation’; it is devoured, and there is ‘panic.’
I’m glad I came across this because it describes what I call Yellen bucks looking for a place to die. I say this isn’t a phrase but an actual economic phenomenon. We know wealth can’t be printed, so when money is conjured up, it goes in search of return. Enough of this new money gets going and you can end up with people thinking irrational things. Like boxes of air in places you’ve never heard of are worth mega bucks and you better buy now or you’ll miss out!
And we have a great deal of stupid money.
The obama trillion dollar bailouts
The obama trillion dollar/year deficits
The 3% down payment Mel Watt mortgages
QE1, QE2, QE3, QE4, ZIRP, HARP
Negative interest rates
Taxpayers guaranteeing 90% of all mortgages (to include equity cash outs)
Etc.
All looking for a place to live…stocks, real estate, art, etc.
But strangely, it creates NO wealth. Those 1ers% first in the money line get rich, the rest of the 99ers% get poorer.
Realtors are liars.
Yes, they are. Today I noticed that realor.com started putting pending in listing. They haven’t done that in the Boise market since 2015.
‘A lot of these borrowers can’t walk into a traditional bank and get a $5-million loan,’ said Brandon Boyd, an executive mortgage consultant with Encinitas lender Drop Mortgage. ‘It’s hard for a bank lender to pull back and understand that income. It’s not irresponsible lending at all — it’s an alternative space, but it’s not the subprime of the past, not by a long shot.’
A lending shop no one ever heard of in southern California would never make a subprime loan with other peoples money.
‘A Hong Kong marketing firm is sharing a post that Canadian real estate is dangerous, and that’s why you should opt for a condo. Overseas Estates Limited, a firm specializing in Toronto and Vancouver condo pre-sales, shared some pretty hilarious info on the benefits of buying a condo.’
‘In a Facebook post shared by the company, explaining the 5 reasons you should buy a condo instead of a house in Canada, they explain some things you’re probably unfamiliar with. Such as Canadian homes have basements frequently filled with mosquitos. Canadian homes are also prone to crows and raccoons stealing food, and some are even threatened by black bears.’
‘If you’re a foreign buyer worried about that, never fear – the 24/7 security of a condo will save you from that. In fact, the protection of the condo doesn’t stop there. The ad also boasts that the brightness experienced in condos may help defend against cancer. Our translator assures us the ad-copy sounds “much better in Chinese than English.” Before he ads, “Chinese people will know it’s bulls**t, but it’s well-written copy.”
‘Apparently Canadian condos can help defend against cancer, prevent crows and raccoons from stealing your food, and protect you from bears. That already sounds like a great deal, why even bother advertising frills like guaranteed cap rates to foreign buyers?’
Remember… A ‘housing recovery’ is falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels by definition.
There will be no rebuilding for a vast quantity of houses.
All those with Mel Watt 3% down-payment loans (guaranteed by the taxpayers) are going to WALK.
+++++
The 4 Ways To Access Money For “Harvey” Repairs
Sep 1, 2017 - zerohedge
According to the Consumer Federation of America, approximately 80% of those affected by flood damage do not carry flood insurance protection.
Low-interest loans to cover losses are available up to $200,000 for primary residences. Loans up to $40,000 are also available for personal property replacement, including renter losses. Interest rates on these loans generally tend to be less than 4%. The maximum loan term is 30 years. Unfortunately, interest is not tax deductible.
Secondary homes, pleasure boats, airplanes and recreational vehicles are not covered unless they’re used for business purposes. Amounts for landscaping and backyard items like swimming pools are going to be limited at best. Remember the primary purpose of the money allocated is to get primary residences livable again.
If you have the ability to tap the equity in your home, using an existing home equity line of credit is an expedited source of funds, generally available through a check book or ‘credit’ card.
Funds are quickly available through a HELOC which makes it extremely convenient. It can take 5 days at the quickest to obtain the first disbursement from the Small Business Administration, which may feel like an eternity to a displaced hurricane victim.
The cash value of permanent life insurance like whole or universal as examples, may be easily accessible recovery money.
What About Loans Against My 401(k)?
You may be eligible to borrow up to 50% of your account balance up to $50,000 that requires repayment within five years. Interest rates are set by your retirement plan provider. Generally, they’re the prime rate plus 1%.
This is the third “100 year flood” in 4 years. Probably shouldn’t be building there.
Probably shouldn’t be building there ??
Ya think….
No one should be building or re-building in the known paths of wildfires or in earthquake prone areas, either. Or in much of Tornado alley.
But, the battle cry is always “WE WILL REBUILD!” as if it is some virtue signifying tough resilience.
Hurricane Irma (coming soon) is going to teach a hard lesson to those that built million dollar homes on barrier islands…
“Probably shouldn’t be building there.”
Subsidized….Federal….Flood….Insurance.
Subsiding millionaires for the last 40 years.
2banana;
I believe the federal cap on flood insurance, excluding the value of land, is $250,000. If the person wants more orneeds more insurance to get the loan they must get it from a private enterprise, at a much higher cost.
Can we please stop propagating the myth that only rich people live in coastal communities? Most people in flood prone areas are regular working and middle class families. It’s laughable to believe that wealthy people with high value homes relay on NFIP for their flood insurance. An NFIP payout is capped at $250,000, so it will not and can not rebuild a wealthy family’s mansion. It’s to help the average Joe homeowner. 60% of the nation’s population lives in coastal communities and they ain’t all rich.
Idiots! That place makes for an outstanding profit center. More building needs to be done there, not less.
They just called it a “10,000 Year Flood Event”.
Fed subsidized “insurance” built this mess
More coming
Elections have consequences.
There was a vast difference in the candidates…
I look forward to the housing bubble popping in/around Washington DC!
+++++
Federal Gov’t Jobs Down 11,000 in 2017; State Gov’t Jobs Down 2,000; Local Gov’t Jobs Up 12,000
Terence P. Jeffrey | September 1, 2017 | CNSNews
The number of people working for the federal government has declined by 11,000 in 2017 while the number working for state governments has declined 2,000, according to data published today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But because the number of people employed by local governments has climbed 12,000 so far this year, the overall decline in the number of people employed nationwide by government has only dropped by 1,000 in 2017.
Meanwhile, even though manufacturing jobs have increased by 137,000 this year, the number employed by government in August still exceeded the number employed in manufacturing by 9,818,000.
The 22,298,000 people employed by government in the United States in August continues to far outstrip the 12,480,000 people employed in manufacturing—evening though manufacturing has seen employment gains this year as government employment has marginally declined.
I’d prefer the cajun navy vs big gov
I don’t think the bubble is going to pop. Most of the 11000 jobs were early retirements. These folks probably own their houses outright, or their CSRS pension is plenty enough to cover what’s left of the mortgage. Kids and grandkids nearby… no reason to sell or move.
‘The displacement in the 21st century is the tech boom, in which everyone thinks that there are fortunes to be made, but no one is totally sure which tech company will be the great winner. Bitcoin fits that displacement/speculative model. The whole purpose of bitcoin is to create private money, outside the purview of the state. It is an asset with no intrinsic value and not the liability of anyone. Hence, its value is totally dependent on finding the next buyer, or perhaps sucker.’
And we get companies supposedly worth many billions based on taxis and bed and breakfasts.
‘We are in this current state of a liquidity flood, founded on the current monetary logic that debt addiction, like drugs, can be cured by providing more debt at near negative interest rate costs’
Man, we sleep-walked into this one. Only a few raised an eyebrow when Bernanke implemented it. It never made any sense, but people dived right in.
“but people dived right in…”
When money (credit) is cheap and easy…happens everytime.
Hope and change has been tried many, many times before.
++++++
“In January 1720, its share price was £128, rising to £1,000 in August, not unlike the price behaviour of some tech stocks and bitcoin in 2017. South Sea share prices were propped up by allowing investors to buy shares on credit. Sounds familiar? ”
Or valuing money-losing start ups based on the latest round of VC funding.
Eventually, the music stops.
And the exit doors are very narrow.
+++++++
Uber’s 2016 losses to top $3bn according to leaked financials
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/uber-finances-losses-driverless-cars
Hilo, Hawaii Housing Prices Crater 16% YOY
http://www.movoto.com/hilo-hi/market-trends/
As I know a little about that area, I have to assume that RE firms are not sharing data with movoto hence the laughable inventory count. There’s probably that many places for sale on a single block. I used movoto a few years back for some analysis but it seems somewhere along the way they stopped offering statistics or they were wildly off as in this case.
I saw this in the aftermath of bubble 1.0, a realtor in the next county over created a really good website analyzing all aspects of the RE market in his county and after a few years that got shut down. I suspect he was read the riot act. Probably still accumulates the data but keeps it to himself, maybe uses it to help his clients, I dont know.
‘For our business we’re ok, but I’ve heard from my agent friends quite a lot of overseas buyers, they struggling to get finance here. So either they would chose just to pay off straight away or rather just say lose [the] 10 per cent deposit and walk away.’
It’s probably a little tilted to the latter.
‘There’s been a drop in the number of Chinese buying up houses in Auckland. QV spokeswoman Andrea Rush says developers are having to drop house prices in Flat Bush and Albany so they can sell them…Ms Rush says whether that market builds back up ‘really depends on the Chinese government.’
It’s a good thing locals can afford a million NZ pesos for moldy old shacks Andrea.
Building houses in Australia (with cheap and easy money) that depend on the whims of a Chinese government if they sell or not…
It would be a bad joke if it was private or bank money.
It is going to destroy the public treasury and public trust.
Commercial real estate impacted by Harvey “COSTAR”;
http://lnlsv02.loopnet.com/t/260945/7772261/3697898/0/
That perfectly sums up the last 7 years.
That perfectly sums up the last 7 years ??
Sum-up the 7 years prior to that.
If only we could have elected someone to stop the madness…
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”
– Barack Obama, Fargo, ND, July 3, 2008
You a always turn to the Blackman as the problem don’t you 2-fruit. Kind of telling.
The damage done economically, socially and racially to this country by the “African-American who is articulate and bright and clean*” is going to take at least generation to fix.
Economically - How many bubbles are going to have pop?
* Joe Biden, 2007
The damage done economically ??
Remind me please. What were the prices of homes in this country in 2006 and who was President ?? Also, remind me what happened in September 2008 and who was President ??
Hint. He’s White.
two wrongs don’t make a right. Nobody is saying Bush was an economic genius. But you can’t castigate someone for taking the debt from $5 trillion to $9 trillion, and then take it to $18 trillion on your own watch and expect to not get called out on it. Same for Trump: if he continues the wars and expands the debt and does all those things he criticized Obama for then he is equally culpable. He just has to have the guts to shut down government until they pass a balanced budget (which they won’t, and he doesn’t appear to have so far).
The other part is even more ridiculous. Supposedly Barack Obama did social and racial damage to the country.
He just has to have the guts to shut down government until they pass a balanced budget (which they won’t, and he doesn’t appear to have so far).
You might want Trump to do such a thing, but he’s not interested.
two wrongs don’t make a right ??
I call BS !! Obama was handed a economy in Fricken meltdown because of Bush. If Bush managed the nation the way Clinton did the deficit spending under Obama would have never happened.
The last inherently racist president was probably LBJ, ironically enough.
Yeah, poor Barry! Even after 8 years, it was still all Bush’s fault…
And the Bill Clinton economy was rock solid, no bubbles there at all, just waiting to burst….
Yeah, the American economy has been a mess forever.
BS. Support your accusations. Fact jack. Housing bubble in 2006. Fact jack. Financial meltdown in September 2008. Fact jack. Obama handed 10% unemployment and a world financial crisis.
At the risk of interrupting yet another constructive round of finger-pointing on this issue, allow me to make note of something. Suppose a guy had an alternative to this serial bubble thing. Instead of relying on the globalist model of asset prices supporting consumer spending on Chinese junk, why not try to renegotiate the trade agreements? Stop sending factories overseas or down south. Stop the globalist open borders situation, fix our infrastructure. Reform the tax code. Suppose this guy ran for president. Won the nomination, then the general election. Isn’t it worth the chance to at least try something different? Because the “neo-liberal” Yellen has already said, if things go down, it’s back to QE, even though money printing and artificially low interest rates have failed over and over.
why not try to renegotiate the trade agreements? Stop sending factories overseas or down south. Stop the globalist open borders situation, fix our infrastructure. Reform the tax code ?
I would ask you Ben, did the republicans in congress attempt to work with Obama in getting any of those things done ?? Wasn’t it Mitch’s #1 goal from day one to see Obama a one term President ? Wasn’t it the current presidents mission to reduce Obama to a illegal alien ??
It’s my opinion the republicans wanted Obama to fail miserably. He didn’t. So, the alternative was to stir the base. Let’s introduce some serious bigotry into the mix, along with possible other assistance and see if we can rally enough people to carry Trump over the finish line. It worked. Not by much. But it did work. What the ultimate consequences for our ountry and all of us are still unknown.
Obama is a globalist, as are McConnell, Ryan, McCain, Clinton. The short list is who isn’t a globalist in DC. So short I can only think of one or three. I’m not interested in a radio talk show rehash of history. Right now we are stuck. This globalism thing hasn’t worked, will never work. Do you realize how screwed we are if 3% growth (or less) is acceptable?
We have had these people running things for close to 50 years. I say they had their chance, blew it, and we should try a different direction.
I’ve having a tough time why there remains people here who simply do not understand.
The recent negative vote re: repeal of ObamaCare should make it patently obvious to even the dullest of deniers.
NeoCons = Progressives.
All within that equivalency are globalists.
The “Republicans” didn’t stop Obama anywhere along the way because they agreed with Obama. They WANT big government, too. They promised for 7 years that they would put an end to ObamaCare given the chance, and didn’t proceed to do so. Why not? Because they didn’t WANT to. Screw the constituencies who voted them into office, the hell with what they think.
What other proof does anyone need? Geez.
Is this what happens to all people when they get old? Is being stuck in your ways - in thinking and living in the times of decades past - vital to your very existence?
Frankly, I’m sick to death of slamming my head into the wall on this subject. THEY ARE THE SAME PEOPLE, DAMMIT! Wake the hell up!
stat·ist
ˈstādist/
noun
plural noun: statists
‘an advocate of a political system in which the state has substantial centralized control over social and economic affairs.’
“this is one issue which unites statists of all persuasions”
glob·al·ist
ˈɡlōbəlist/
noun
plural noun: globalists
‘a person who advocates the interpretation or planning of economic and foreign policy in relation to events and developments throughout the world.’
‘a person or organization advocating or practicing operations across national divisions.’
You have no idea how thankful I am of your sensibilities, Ben. If someone other than you served as moderator, I very likely would have been gone from HBB years ago.
Maybe that’s what I need to post:
NeoCons = Progressives = Statists.
Maybe then the deniers will think outside their ideological box for more than one-eighth of a second.
Sister Rosetta Tharpe: That’s All
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9bX5mzdihs
“keep on fighting one another
and think you’re doing swell
all they want is your money
and you can go to hell’
MacBeth, while I kind of understand your “neocon = progressive” concept, the definition of Neocon has changed. Yes, neocon meant something else in the 1960s. But when someone today says “neocon,” the immediate vision is the Secure-the-Realm and Invade Iraq crowd, i.e., Bush II, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Scaife, etc. These are not the same people as progressives.
I like Ben’s idea to forget the old labels and just pick out the globalists. Our economic issues are basically due to ONE thing: we are spreading the wealth of 300 million people over about a billion people, and the subsequent decrease in standard of living is being filled in with printed money. Really, that’s it in a nutshell.
The entire globe has turned into a Free Sh!t Army.
Comments well taken. Thanks, oxide.
Traditionally, neocons are Trotskyites. A not insignificant number of those characteristics remain. Like you said, however, all are globalists (as I also stated).
And that’s where the real battle is. Individual liberty versus statism.
Sum-up the 7 years prior to that.
I have to agree with this. The holes were already dug during the 2004-2007 housing bubble. The Fed printed dirt to fill the existing holes. Of course, the banks found a way to borrow a minimum amount of dirt and use the rest to buy toys like luxury student housing in Norman, Oklahoma.
While I’m not a fan of VC-fueled redundant or incremental tech, at least the VC are spending the Yellenbucks on new(?) ideas and jobs, instead of stashing the money in floating airboxes.
’spending the Yellenbucks on new(?) ideas and jobs’
Like driving your own car as a taxi for less than minimum wage or scrubbing toilets in their shack for strangers.
‘instead of stashing the money in floating airboxes’
They do this too.
What new ideas?
That’s why I said “new(?).” The entire sharing economy is just Napster applied to one product after another.
So they lost 7 billion bux in shipping. But they’ll make it up in volume, lol.
https://www.geekwire.com/2017/true-cost-convenience-amazons-annual-shipping-losses-top-7b-first-time/
I don’t think Amazon is anywhere near what it’s cracked up to be. Oh, sure, it has its fans. So does Hillary Clinton.
Oh, sure, it has its fans. So does Hillary Clinton ??
More than the gasbag.
Well, of course, I’m not sure, but I think Hillary probably has more fans than you do.
Don’t need nor want fans. I don’t need my ego rubbed like your “narcissistic” President that you adore.
Whooosht! That went right over your head. Or through the ears.
Palmy,
Speaking of Amazon, I came across a Marketplace article that actually had some merit. I was dumbfounded as articles written by MarketWatch staffers typically are low-grade horseshit.
Anyway, here’s the piece:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-is-actually-the-weakest-of-the-big-us-retailers-2017-08-30
the-weakest-of-the-big-us-retailers
It’s always been, but ofcourse nobody pays attention. GOOG and FB revenues are massively inflated due to click scams as well.
Why are you posting stuff from Feb 2017?
Because I just saw it and it’s current year. Can’t wait to see Feb 2018’s figures.
From Ben’s post two days ago…….
The one thing that the Realtards miss in ILLANNOY is the number of folks moving OUT from there. More supply - less demand and ruh roh…..price drop….look out below Chicago.
A report from Crain’s Chicago Business in Illinois. “The laws of economics dictate that growing demand drives prices up, but not if supply is rising by a greater amount. That’s exactly what’s happening in the downtown Chicago apartment market. Landlords are losing some of their leverage over tenants as a flood of new apartments washes over the downtown market, a historic surge in supply that’s more than offsetting rising demand. A key measure of apartment demand, absorption—the change in the number of occupied downtown units—tells another part of the story.”
a flood of new apartments washes over the downtown market ??
If we hit another economic downturn, you just watch these guys cannibalize each other.
ROTFLMAO! Too funny.
“The town of Southampton, with its 55,000 year-round residents and vaunted reputation as a summertime playground for wealthy New Yorkers, now has its very own counterterrorism squad. And unsurprisingly, it’s making the out-of-towners nervous.
At least that’s what Joe Nocera, a former New York Times columnist who now writes for Bloomberg View, suggested in a recent column. Apparently, the image of police carrying automatic weapons roaming around the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival is just too gauche for Nocera’s wealthy friends to stomach.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-31/out-towners-whine-about-militarization-hamptons
I dunno why, but this made me laugh like hell. I have a feeling da chief is messing with some heads, just because he can.
Just to add, here’s a quote from da chief:
‘Many of the people at Southampton events are symbols of American affluence and success and capitalism,’ Skrynecki told me. ‘At the same time, there is an abundance of freedom of expression and morals and dress. The attendees’ beliefs might be contrary to the known ideology of terrorist groups.’ He also mentioned the possibility that someone on the “ultra right” could try to commit an act of terrorism at a fundraiser attended by wealthy liberals.”
Aw, that’s just priceless. How can they argue with that? Although looking at the photo that goes with the story, I’d just love to know what goes through some white lib’s head when some brown lady in full combat dress and all locked and loaded looks at ‘em with that steely-eyed stone face. I’ll bet it puts a damper on some of the extreme cuttin’ loose that goes on at some of those shindigs.
The head that’s getting messed with is yours due to it being imbedded in ZH.
Oh, fer cryin’ out loud, dave, get a sense of humor, or you’re just not going to make it much further in life.
ZH is pretty much an aggregator, with a bit of editorial added. If you want the source links, in this case Bloomberg via a former NYT writer, feel free to access them, instead of whining out pathetic attempts at shaming. Why do you even give a rat’s patootie? Just ignore it if you don’t like it.
It’s worthwhile to read the doom and gloom sites along with the bullish cheerleader sites.
Ladees and Gennelmen, I give you Senator Kid Rock!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4845124/Kid-Rock-drops-new-hint-2018-political-revolution.html
Psst, dave, I got the link to this story from Drudge. BOO frickn HOO!
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/GFI/key-statistics?p=GFI
Best of the miners
Are any worth a sht?
They were pretty much giving away miners about 2 years ago.
I invested some mad money. Some picks up over 50%.
Is there still room? Who know?
I say the train has left the station but the miners are no where near bubble territory.
Englewood, CO Housing Prices Crater 18% YOY
http://www.movoto.com/englewood-co/market-trends/
Patton: When we took Palermo they called me a hero, said I was the greatest general since Stonewall Jackson.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066206/quotes
Remember…. 3% down payment mortgages are subprime by definition.
It’s always been.
Turd by any other name is still a turd.
On debt:
Baltimore just had an interesting incident: The head of a police special operations unit was charged with robbing suspects. In one incident he entered a suspect’s house, took his cash, said he didn’t find any money (or very little money). The suspect was later killed because, as a result, he couldn’t pay a drug debt.
Wall Street, working with the the US government has dispensed with such obvious unpleasantness when it comes to debt collection. When debt goes bad, the cost is subtly socialized - the government borrows or prints money, subtly extracting the purchasing power from the rest of the population and giving it to the owner of the debt.
In a truly glorious perversion, the originator of the debt, the initial lender, can sell it and completely shed all of his repayment risk.
I was struck by how different debt collection has become, from its rawest form by the drug dealer, to its subtle form by the central bank and the government. The problem with socializing vast amounts of bad debt is there are consequences, even if the cause of those consequences is heavily obscured.
Another example of the investing prowess of the VC’s http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/juicero-closes-seeks-a-buyer-as-high-priced-machine-falters/ar-AAr61Lc?li=BBnbfcN
Is an overpriced “juicer” that juices pre-made packets high tech?
Juicero Inc., the vegetable and fruit juice startup that raised more than $100 million from investors, said it will suspend sales, offer refunds to customers and search for a buyer for the company.
The decision to shut down its business comes four months after a Bloomberg News report that the company’s juice packets could be squeezed by hand and didn’t require Juicero’s machine, which cost $400. The machine had previously sold for $700, before the price cut.
A good question.
Did this VC money (really Yellen Bucks) just found a place die?
Someone, somewhere lost $100 million. Funny how we never hear who did and the consequences…
+++++++
Juicero Inc., the vegetable and fruit juice startup that raised more than $100 million from investors, said it will suspend sales, offer refunds to customers and search for a buyer for the company.
They couldn’t salvage the company by simply selling the packets by themselves? The packets seemed to have some value. Or maybe, the packets were being sold at cost, with the profit coming from the machine…