See Who’s Swimming Naked
A report from My Kawartha in Canada. “Prospective homebuyers are looking at reduced costs, longer listings and less bidding wars. At least for now. Following Peterborough’s hot spring market which drove costs up, realtors are saying prices have gone from a boil to a simmer. Leona Lambert owns a farm in Cavan Monaghan Township and has been trying to find a nearby property for her daughter to run her own farm. She says one nearby property’s price recently dropped from $799,000 to $699,000 and its still overpriced. Lambert says she’s seen old rundown homes with small lots sell for high prices. One property she looked at ‘only had two acres and they’re asking almost $700,000 for it.’”
“She says one problem is real estate agents marketing properties near Peterborough as having the potential to be developable lands, driving up the prices. The result is buyers being scared away, says Lambert. ‘Everybody thinks their place is worth so much money so they’re putting it up for $200,000 more than it’s worth,’ she adds.”
The Richmond News in Canada. “A Hong Kong woman is suing her her ex-boyfriend, demanding he be removed from the title of a single-family home she claims to have bought under his name to avoid paying a 15 per cent tax on residential properties for non-residents. According to a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Monday, Jennie Ka Yu Wu is asking to have Richmond resident Johnny Pak Shing Chu removed from title of the property, a new single-family home at 7488 Langton Road.”
“BC Assessment shows the last sale date for the property was Jan. 11 for $2,349,000. It is a new home built on the site of an old duplex. The property was valued at $2,248,000 as of July 1. So, roughly $350,000 in taxes, targeted for social housing for poor people, was avoided by transferring title to the Richmond resident. Asked if he has seen or heard of more of such cases, Surrey-based real estate lawyer Jon Singh said he couldn’t say anything for certain but his guess would be there are or will be more. ‘As Warren Buffet says, when the tide goes out you see who’s swimming naked.’”
The Western Investor in Canada. ” A year after the introduction of Canada’s first foreign-home buyer tax drove Metro Vancouver sales down 44 per cent, the three most popular markets for foreign buyers have yet to recover. West Vancouver, Richmond and the Westside of Vancouver – all areas with the highest proportion of foreign buyers prior to the implementation of the 15 per cent tax on August 2, 2016 – are all seeing lower sales now than in 2016.”
“Only 52 detached houses sold in West Vancouver this August, down from 72 in August of last year and benchmark house prices have fallen by 6.3 per cent, the biggest drop in the Metro region. Realtors say the price plunge is more dramatic at the high end of the market. ‘There, we have seen price reductions of 20 per cent to 30 per cent,’ said Brent Eilers of Remax Masters Realty in West Vancouver. According to Eilers, foreign buyers today immediately discount any asking price by 15 per cent to compensate for the tax ‘and then begin negotiations downward.’”
“He points to a view-property house on Russett Way in West Vancouver that was listed last year at $4.6 million. After four price reductions, it recently sold for $2.8 million. ‘The market is extremely sluggish,’ Eilers said. ‘It is a hell of a lot better time to buy now than last year,’ he said, but he suspect that prices for higher-end houses will continue to decline. ‘Eventually, sellers have to adjust their price.’”
From Bloomberg on Australia. “On a wet, midweek evening when most Australians are home cooking dinner, fewer than a third of the lights are on in the apartments in Melbourne’s Docklands. These ‘ghost towers,’ as the high-end residential property with three-bedroom apartments costing almost $1 million have been dubbed, are popular with Chinese investors who mostly live abroad. Their darkened blocks loom as sparsely occupied symbols of a property market where even solidly middle class households have increasingly found themselves priced out.”
“Now, policy makers are seizing on public resentment and hitting foreign buyers with more taxes. New South Wales has doubled its surcharge when foreigners purchase residential property, and Western Australia has added a new tax as well. More controversially, both the conservative federal government and the left-leaning one in Victoria state that includes Melbourne this year imposed additional taxes on properties deemed to be empty for six months or more.”
“Australia’s moves are part of a growing global trend, primarily in response to the massive amounts of capital that have poured out of China and into real estate around the world. Additional taxes targeting vacant homes are already in place in Vancouver and some London boroughs, with Toronto and Dublin mulling similar moves. Liu Yumei, a 52-year-old restaurant owner in Suzhou, China, is rethinking her plans. Her A$290,000 two-bedroom Melbourne apartment has been empty since 2013, other than for a brief family holiday. Citing the risk of it getting ‘messy and old,’ Liu said fears about damage stopped her from renting out the apartment, which was bought in anticipation of her son eventually living there during his university years.”
“The new vacancy tax for her unit would exceed $2,200 a year — enough to cause her to look into renters or AirBnB. ‘Some friends are educating me that rental income could be high in Australia and I shouldn’t miss it,’ said Liu, who has friends in Melbourne to help with arranging AirBnB stays.”
From The Australian. “Apartments bought off the plan at the start of Brisbane’s unprecedented unit-construction wave are selling at losses of up to 36 per cent, underscoring concerns from the Reserve Bank about the city’s concentrated inner-city market. Property searches of high-rise apartment towers in Hamilton, Bowen Hills and Fortitude Valley built about five years ago show most sales this year had been at a loss.”
“The heaviest falls were a $152,000 plunge from an original price of $522,000 for a Hamilton two-bedroom unit with river views; a $150,000 decline on a smaller two-bedroom unit in the same complex; and a $145,000 loss on a $400,000, 60sq m unit in Bowen Hills. RBA assistant governor Luci Ellis last week said it was ‘crunch time’ for Brisbane’s potential oversupply but warned the older apartment market was particularly vulnerable to price falls.”
“Andrew Coronis, managing director of Coronis real estate agencies across southeast Queensland, said price drops of 20 per cent to 25 per cent were not uncommon for resales after off-the-plan buys. ‘It is just time to sit and ride it out if you can,’ he said. ‘If rents drop a bit the yields still aren’t too bad. If you do have to sell, it’s better to do it now. I don’t believe it will get better in the short term.’”
From Domain News in Australia. “Dark days lie ahead for Australian luxury car retailers as sales screech to their biggest annual decline in more than five years. But those numbers could also hold a hint or two about the state of the housing market. Experts worry a slump in luxury car sales is a canary yellow Porsche in the coalmine for the health of the Australian economy and, in particular, house prices.”
“Just last year analysts noted record high luxury car sales as proof of the robust performance of the Australian economy – that indicator appears to have well and truly reversed course as Australia’s Rich Listers move to tighten their belts amid growing uncertainty. ‘In the past, when the top end of the new vehicle market has peaked it has signalled slowdowns,’ CommSec chief economist Craig James told Domain, referring to luxury car sales as a ‘confirming indicator’ of house prices.”
“Looking beyond the toys of bosses and successful entrepreneurs, recent Westpac data shows Australians are feeling downbeat, with the Consumer Sentiment Index notching up its 10th consecutive negative week in September. Specifically, only 10.5 per cent of respondents nominated real estate as the ‘wisest’ place for savings – the lowest number in 40 years.”
“Westpac senior economist Matt Hassan seconded Mr James’ comments, saying an air of caution is seeing Australians leaving their wallets in their pocket. ‘Vehicles are the bellwether of discretionary spending,’ Mr Hassan said. ‘When consumers become more concerned about job losses they put off purchasing vehicles.’ Simply put – if people no longer feel their double-digit annual house price gains are a sure bet, then they’re disinclined to spend big on a Lexus.”
Aventura, FL Housing Prices Crater 6% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/aventura-fl/home-values/
‘A year after the introduction of Canada’s first foreign-home buyer tax drove Metro Vancouver sales down 44 per cent, the three most popular markets for foreign buyers have yet to recover. West Vancouver, Richmond and the Westside of Vancouver – all areas with the highest proportion of foreign buyers prior to the implementation of the 15 per cent tax on August 2, 2016 – are all seeing lower sales now than in 2016.’
‘Only 52 detached houses sold in West Vancouver this August, down from 72 in August of last year and benchmark house prices have fallen by 6.3 per cent, the biggest drop in the Metro region. Realtors say the price plunge is more dramatic at the high end of the market. ‘There, we have seen price reductions of 20 per cent to 30 per cent’
Oh, where oh where are the people who said it was racist ! to even mention foreign speculators. And we were told, they are a tiny number, but counting them is racist! When they are taxed, the holy grail of BC real estate, detached shacks, drops like a rock.
But, they have so much money? Their teenagers drive Maserati’s and appear on TV shows.
‘Big cash flowing into River Rock Casino sparks money-laundering probe’
‘Approximately $13.5 million in $20 bills were accepted at the River Rock casino in July 2015, according to a report. Revelations that B.C. casinos may have been used by Chinese high-rollers to launder massive wads of cash that could be “proceeds of crime” come as no surprise to Sandy Garossino.’
‘The co-founder of Vancouver Not Vegas said the contents of a government report, released Friday after freedom of information requests by Postmedia, are “consistent” with everything she’s learned after fighting the proliferation of casinos for more than five years.’
“The crime comes with the industry,” she said.’
No, no Sandy, you have it all wrong. These Chinese are hard working, uh, at something, and in China they have really big pockets! Why they carry around $20 bills like loafs of bread. And they like to gamble on video poker and buy houses they won’t live in.
Cheap and easy money (debt) leads to massive corruption - every time
please come to 22151 and buy house not to live in or send kids to school=lower property taxes
‘Everybody thinks their place is worth so much money so they’re putting it up for $200,000 more than it’s worth,’ she adds.”
The irony here is the typical SFR is built for far less than $200k, lot, labor and materials included.
Adding to the irony is Kawartha. The big city there is Peterborough. One of our posters, Patrick, is from there I think. Median household income in the city is around $50,000. This is not a boomtown.
Blue Sky
Have vacation Trent farm frontage but don’t live there.
I agree with you, certainly not a boomtown area. Great for vacationers though.
Those prices of $700+ are unreal.
The only good farming is for rocks !
And, as you know, very nice water routes.
Realtors are liars.
Capitol Hill, DC Rental Rates Crater 5% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/capitol-hill-washington-dc/home-values/
Canada’s first foreign-home buyer tax drove Metro Vancouver sales down 44 per cent,\
isn’t big gov great?
Is there any chance that areas of the U.S. will
Also enact similar foreign-buyer taxes?
California could certainly use one to help end its housing affordability crisis.
“She says one nearby property’s price recently dropped from $799,000 to $699,000″
Theres whole bunches of shacks falling at a pretty good clip. And that’s a good thing.
“Toronto Houses Are Losing Value At A Rate Of $100,000 A Month”
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/09/06/toronto-houses-are-losing-value-at-a-rate-of-100-000-a-month_a_23198863/
‘Realtors say the price plunge is more dramatic at the high end of the market. ‘There, we have seen price reductions of 20 per cent to 30 per cent,’ said Brent Eilers of Remax Masters Realty in West Vancouver’
‘The heaviest falls were a $152,000 plunge from an original price of $522,000 for a Hamilton two-bedroom unit with river views; a $150,000 decline on a smaller two-bedroom unit in the same complex; and a $145,000 loss on a $400,000, 60sq m unit in Bowen Hills.’
‘Andrew Coronis, managing director of Coronis real estate agencies across southeast Queensland, said price drops of 20 per cent to 25 per cent were not uncommon for resales after off-the-plan buys.’
Given what’s happening in Toronto, when is the media going to call these two countries bubble pops?
Can’t wait for the 20 to 30 percent declines to land on Coastal California’s shores…
ca economy is based on overpriced houses and a lot of leverage.
Standard sign of an aging debt-fueled boom.
As Market Pressures Mount, Lenders Continue to Ease Mortgage Credit Standards
Fannie Mae press release
WASHINGTON, DC – Facing constrained mortgage demand and a negative profit margin outlook, more lenders say they have eased rather than tightened home mortgage credit standards, according to Fannie Mae’s third quarter 2017 Mortgage Lender Sentiment Survey®. Across all loan types – GSE Eligible, Non-GSE Eligible, and Government – the net share of lenders who reported easing credit standards over the prior three months reached a new high since the survey’s inception in March 2014, after climbing each quarter since Q4 2016.
http://www.fanniemae.com/portal/media/corporate-news/2017/mortgage-lender-sentiment-survey-q3-2017-6606.html
QE: redistributing purchasing power to the FIRE sector, preventing market discipline and protecting senior executives from the consequences of their actions - what’s not to like?
KC Fed’s George: ‘Gratified’ balance sheet plan met with muted market reaction
Reuters
“My hope is this continues to operate smoothly and as many have noted in the background,” said George, who opposed the third and final round of asset purchases used to fight the crisis until 2014. With the balance sheet now declining, George said she hoped the quantitative easing strategy “will be kept in a box” and not be used again.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-george/kc-feds-george-gratified-balance-sheet-plan-met-with-muted-market-reaction-idUSKCN1BX1ZJ?il=0
This is rich.
‘Kansas City Fed president sees no threat yet of a farmland bubble
By Christine Stebbins, Reuters July 17, 2013′
‘Soaring U.S. farmland prices remain a cause of concern for many bankers and policymakers, but the forces driving gains nowadays are different from the debt-driven farmland crash in the 1980s, Kansas City Federal Reserve president Esther George said on Tuesday.’
‘George, who flagged concerns about a potential farmland “bubble” in remarks earlier this year, has argued consistently for higher interest rates and an end of the Fed’s easy money policies. But in remarks to a gathering of bankers and business leaders at a conference here, she expressed confidence that both farmers and banks had learned and remember the hard lessons of being “over-leveraged” in the 1970s. When the Fed raised interest rates sharply in the 1980s to subdue inflation, thousands of farmers were pushed into bankruptcy as land values popped and collateral for their bank loans collapsed.’
“One of the things I’ve talked about are ag land values and the really extraordinary levels of which we see sales continuing to occur in markets in this region,” George said. “Certainly we know that global demand for the commodities has driven the values there. We also know that looking for return can be a contributor to some of that value as well.”
http://www.cattlenetwork.com/cattle-news/Kansas-City-Fed-president-sees-no-threat-yet-of-a-farmland-bubble-215817921.html
Well Esther, your non-bubble in farmland popped. Incomes are halved or worse, debt coming out of their ears from what they borrowed during the QE fed commodity bubble. Remember that one? China created magnitudes more QE than the US. They then poured 100 years of concrete in 3. Everybody went nuts: Brazil with mines, Australia with ore, 80 million acres of land were turned into crops in places like Amazon forests. And the money! Soon Chinese speculators went from unheard of in US real estate to number 1 by a long shot. They crawled all over Canada, Australia, New Zealand and London. Now their cities are littered by huge empty towers with airboxes no one can afford to live in.
These Brisbane towers getting slaughtered in the post above: sold pre-construction and built just for Chinese buyers who never saw them or even knew they were too small for people to actually live in. One broker bragged a couple of years ago: “those towers are selling out in one day to the Chinese!”
They seem to think that QE is that unicorn of social and/or monetary policy: That there is no cost, only benefit. That there is exactly no downside, and it can only possibly help. It’s bizarre, frankly. Every social policy, except QE apparently, has costs and benefits. The lack of any honest discussion on it raises eyebrows.
Sizing Up QE Now That It’s Ended
by Noah Smith
Bloomberg
September 25, 2017, 8:00 AM EDT
Did quantitative easing do any good? It probably helped end the Great Recession, though we’ll never know for sure.
When I was taking an advanced macroeconomics course at the University of Michigan in 2007, Miles Kimball, my professor — and later my doctoral adviser — explained to the class how to fight a recession. “Print money and buy stuff,” he exclaimed. Then, for good measure, he repeated the phrase three more times.
“Stuff,” in this case, meant financial assets.
Back when QE was beginning, there were widespread expectations of hyperinflation. That makes sense if you think of money as something created by the government — since inflation is a drop in the value of money, it makes sense that printing more money would reduce its value. But despite all the loud warnings, inflation never materialized.
Meanwhile, other anticipated dangers of QE, like asset bubbles and financial instability, also have quite conspicuously failed to materialize.
So although we’ll never know how much QE helps the real economy, we do know that it’s not the risk that many once believed. Monetarism may or may not help, but it probably doesn’t hurt. That’s an important lesson for future policy makers. Although QE’s day may be drawing to a close, it looks like it’s a valuable device that should remain in the central bank tool kit.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-09-25/sizing-up-qe-now-that-it-s-ended
It sure does help prevent market discipline, so there’s that. Keeps people who led the economy into the abyss in their jobs, and even helps them become billionaires. No effect? Hah.
They argue about the indirect impacts of QE. I’d like to see a prosaic enumeration of the direct impacts, on specific companies. They sure did save a lot of FIRE sector company’s bacon.
Monetarism may or may not help, but it probably doesn’t hurt.
A bit premature to conclude that, isn’t it? Let’s wait until the final act has played out on stage. To date, we’ve only seem the pumping and the stabilizing (rollover repurchase pumping only) phases—and not the withdrawal stage.
As any addict knows, it’s the withdrawal stage that puts everything into perspective.
With the balance sheet now declining, George said she hoped the quantitative easing strategy “will be kept in a box” and not be used again.
Surely you can’t really believe that. The only reason the market response is “muted” is that THEY don’t believe you! Actually do it and watch what happens. Even better, revisit FASB 157. You’ll be sprinting back for more QE in no time. Nobody could have seen Dow 10K coming again.
Haiku, Hawaii Housing Prices Crater 16% YOY
http://www.movoto.com/haiku-hi/market-trends/
Trust a Realtor and you’ll get burned.
If you ever see one, lock your doors and call the authorities immediately.
Another downside to the Fed’s housing market reflation program: Americans living in their cars because they can’t afford the to own or rent.
Author Interviews
Tracks Rising Number Of Americans Living On The Road
September 25, 20174:31 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered
A new book by the journalist Jessica Bruder describes the increasing number of Americans living on the road, often in RVs, moving from job to job as a way to avoid the expense of a permanent home. NPR’s Ari Shapiro talks to Bruder about her book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.
…
I admit, I like some of the van life videos out there and would give it a try in certain circumstances in order to surf, fish, etc. and not pay tons of money to the money changers.
Saw this recent parody video of van life videos, pretty funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEzx3L_Rx7g
If you listen to the story about Bruder’s book, you realize that a lot of her middle class nomads were wiped out in the 2007-09 financial crisis and chose their nomadic lifestyle out of desperation.
This is an interesting post. I’m an RN and I posted a few days ago about lots of travel RNs that I met who are essentially doing this. Some of them do really well, like 6-figures well. But that is not all of it. They move around and see the country and then sight see when they aren’t working.
The trade-off is that they don’t have permanent stability and are constantly looking for their next gig. But the work they do take is often 1.5x or 2x what they would get at a staff position (because they are skilled workers). This is especially true if they have some ICU, ER, or highly in-demand medical training. Obviously this type of work is a lot different than low wage retail work. There are mobile docs as well who go to under-served rural hospitals and contract out their services too. They get good wages from short-term contracts and they are taxed really low because they can declare a home base in another part of the country and deduct literally every expense they have as work-related.
I’ve personally thought about doing this in the San Francisco/San Jose/Sacramento area. If I do it, I will live out of my Tesla and commute back to southern Utah. The only thing holding me back right now is that we have a 2-year-old and I don’t want to miss too many memories.
Changing bed pans while living in your car isn’t conducive to long term employment prospects.
They get good wages from short-term contracts and they are taxed really low because they can declare a home base in another part of the country and deduct literally every expense they have as work-related.
Not unless they are committing tax fraud they can’t.
As long as you maintain the IRS definition of a “tax home” then, yes, travel-related reimbursement expenses (e.g., room and board, travel expenses, meal allowances, incidentals) are non-taxable as long as they don’t exceed IRS GSA stipend rates. All of the staffing agencies understand this and this is well-established in the medical field.
As to changing bed pan, you obviously don’t understand the nursing field very well. Let me just put it this way: I met a travel RN couple from Minnesota this summer who were 24 and 25 and they were living in their van touring the country. They were pulling down about $100k each, with almost no expenses. In amount 2 years they accumulated about $250k savings.
“Almost no expenses”….. right. food, fuel, clothes are all free right?
“Staffing agencies”, bed pans and footing all your travel expenses on your own dime while living in a van isn’t lucrative or glamorous. Real road gigs pay per-diem or are direct expense while shacking up at the Four Seasons. Claiming expenses working on a W-2 is the best wait to invite an audit as it should.
As long as you maintain the IRS definition of a “tax home”
Well that’s the crux of it. You have to actually have a home and live there, i.e. return home throughout the year and spend time there, in order to deduct any travel-related business expenses.
Which means, you have the expense of having a home and the expenses and time related to traveling to and from it and of spending time living there, while you are presumably not working (since if there was work available at your “home base” you wouldn’t spend your life as an itinerant.)
And then there’s the fact that even though certain expenses may be tax-deductible or tax-free, you are still out of pocket that money you spent on these things.
All of the staffing agencies understand this and this is well-established in the medical field.
They were all participating in massive tax fraud years ago and got caught paying “wages” of minimum wage to nurses and claiming the rest as tax-free living expense stipends.
Kind of along the same lines as the NPR article:
[url=https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2017/0821/Why-it-s-becoming-cool-to-live-in-your-car-or-a-150-sq.-ft.-apartment]Why It’s Becoming Cool To Live In Your Car[/url]
SEATTLE; AND LOS ANGELES—When Shawna Nelson leaves her office in Seattle’s suburbs, she does what 28-year-olds often do: dines with friends, goes out dancing, or sees a show. Sometimes she hits her swanky gym.
But at the end of the night Ms. Nelson always returns to Dora, the dusty Ford Explorer she calls home. In the back, where a row of seats should be, lies a foam mattress covered with fuzzy animal-print blankets. Nelson keeps a headlamp handy for when she wants to read before bed. Then, once she’s sure she won’t get ticketed or towed, she turns in for the night.
If it appears that somebody is living in a vehicle parked on Seattle streets, the police have been directed to not ticket or tow.
No joke.
The key is that lived-in look. Throw some garbage and syringes on the ground around it for maximum effect.
What’s fascinating is seeing them just South of Palo Alto lined up near Stanford.
My sister rents a 70’s, 2br/1ba, apartment on Stanford’s northside for $3k+/mo. No schitt.
Nice post Pbear…
Swampscott, MA Housing Prices Crater 19% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/swampscott-ma/home-values/
NAR second biggest spender on Capitol Hill
https://www.marketplace.org/2017/09/25/business/lobbyists-line-up-defend-mortgage-interest-deduction
Which explains why talk of eliminating the MID from the tax code is unlikely to gain traction inside the Beltway…
Second Biggest? Shocking if true. Is the NAR really ahead of either AIPAC or the oil lobby?
It’s true. They’re the 2nd largest bribe outfit and have been for many years. It’s been discussed here frequently over the years.
Realtors are liars
From the article, “No deduction is safe — not even the mortgage interest deduction, which has been around since 1913 and is as old as the tax code.”
The fix was in right from the beginning. Back when the income tax first came into being, it only applied to very wealthy people. That was true for many years. And yet the MID was right there, meaning it was not created to help the little guy.
“the mortgage interest deduction is one of the biggest incentives to buy a home. Take it away and “obviously sales volume will drop,” he said.
And if sales volume drops, “valuations will drop,” he said.”
The purpose of the MID has always been to keep RE prices high.
‘Technology Billionaires Lose $16 Billion After Today’s Selloff’
There’s trillions more in printing press money where that came from.
these tech stocks are at nose bleed levels. If the punchbowl ever goes away there will be some serious pain.
All it’s taken for a major selloff are the Fed’s gentle reminders that another rate hike remains on the table for 2017.
Of course it’s not too late to set off a year-end rally by rescinding the planned rate hike!
Is North Korean bombast ruining your risk appetite?
Financial Times
Markets
Risk appetite falters after North Korean bombast
Haven flight slows in European trade but investors stay cautious, euro falls further
Global Market Overview
North Korea’s foreign minister Ri Yong Ho outside the UN Plaza hotel in New York © AP
24 minutes ago
by Michael Hunter in London and Edward White in Taipei
Tuesday 12:20 BST
What you need to know
Haven flight loses momentum in European trade
Euro under pressure under $1.19 as dollar finds support
Kurdistan tension drives oil to two-year high
Equities track poor session in New York as risk appetite remains muted
Focus turns back to Yellen
Leading quote
“Tensions around North Korea should continue to drive market volatility in otherwise unusually calm markets,” says Joyce Chang, global head of research at JPMorgan Chase.
“North Korea has generated many false alarms over the past decade and each incident has been met with modest market reactions. The actual situation is probably getting more serious than markets perceive.”
Hot topic
Equities are slipping and havens are finding support after dark rhetoric from North Korea added to tensions with the US over the communist state’s nuclear ambitions.
…
From another story regarding air travel: Stressed and financially strapped, Americans are sensitive to any additional signs that they are falling behind, said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. “People are working two and three jobs to get by, and the disparity of wealth is growing,” Nelson said. “People are upset.”
The future is so bright… gotta wear shades.