Many People Are Living In Fantasyland
A report from CNBC. “Bitcoin is in the ‘mania’ phase, with some people even borrowing money to get in on the action, securities regulator Joseph Borg told CNBC. ‘We’ve seen mortgages being taken out to buy bitcoin. … People do credit cards, equity lines,’ said Borg, president of the North American Securities Administrators Association, a voluntary organization devoted to investor protection. Borg is also director of the Alabama Securities Commission. ‘This is not something a guy who’s making $100,000 a year, who’s got a mortgage and two kids in college ought to be invested in.’”
From Reuters on Canada. “Canada’s two largest housing markets, Toronto and Vancouver, are being held aloft by booming condo markets as investors and developers stick to an asset they love, fueling charges that the market is geared toward building fortunes rather than homes. Data released on Friday showed urban construction starts for multiple-unit buildings, typically condos, surged 16.9 percent in November to 175,016 units, a record high even after a decades-long boom.”
“Beneath a skyline of cranes, the majority of condos being built are one-bedroom or studio apartments aimed mostly at buyers betting on price appreciation, along with some first-time buyers seeking a foothold, rather than families or so-called end users seeking a house that will grow with them. ‘Investors are looking for product that they can put the least amount of money down for and realize a profit when they resell it down the road,’ said Michael Ferreira, principal at consultancy Urban Analytics.”
The Orange County Register in California. “California doesn’t have a housing bubble — yet. But look out if mortgage interest rates go up, or if there’s an ‘economic shock,’ such as a major stock market correction. Those could be the ‘tipping points’ that ignite a market turnaround, ending a 68-month streak of steadily rising home prices, a recent California Association of Realtors report concluded.”
“The report, drafted by state Realtor economists, seeks to explore ‘the B word,’ addressing whether California is in another housing bubble. Bubble fears are a real issue after almost six years of steadily rising home prices, and after disastrous miscalculations a decade ago put the economy in a tailspin and led to 7.8 million U.S. foreclosures, according to CoreLogic.”
“‘Prices are rising rapidly in California, and both housing affordability and homeownership are trending downward at an alarming rate,’ said the report. ‘This … has led many to begin to question if home prices have reached a level that is no longer sustainable,’ the report added. ‘We’ve begun to hear the ‘B word’ again: Have home prices gotten out of whack again? Are we at the tipping point yet? How much longer can this go on?’”
“‘Incomes simply have not kept pace,’ the report said. ‘The current trend is worrisome from an affordability and, thus, a price sustainability standpoint.’ The Realtor association ‘does not believe we are at the tipping point for home prices yet,’ the report concluded. But, it added, ‘residents in the Bay Area and Orange County will be well served by keeping close tabs on broader economic conditions. … If prices do fall, they will hit those areas the hardest.’”
From Community Newspapers in Florida. “Would you go to a Toyota dealer advertising a Corolla for $85,000? How about a pizza joint with a $62 pie? Of course not! Which is why, as a real estate professional, it infuriates me to see homes priced well above their eventual sales price. Many in the media would lead you to believe Miami is a hot market. And, in certain neighborhoods, this is true. But in the vast majority of Miami-Dade County there is an over-supply of homes and unrealistic expectations. In short, if you are a seller in this market it’s time to put on your big-boy pants.”
“If you travel through Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay, you’ll see loads of FOR SALE signs, even on the shortest drive. And yes, most of them have been there long enough to start serving as landmarks. I am amazed by the conversations I have with people who (a) believe they magically know the market better than anyone else, (b) think their house is perfect and (c) feel they can outsmart the market and make a disproportionate amount of money. In short, many people are living in Fantasyland.”
From ABC News. “Richard Thaler does a good line in one-liners. Shortly after picking up the Nobel Prize for economics in Stockholm a few weeks back — for questioning whether we really behave rationally when it comes to self interest — the behavioural economics pioneer was asked how he would spend the $1.4 million cheque.”
“‘I will try to spend it as irrationally as possible,’ he quipped, much to the amusement of reporters and those in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.”
“But on what? There’s so much to choose from when it comes to behaving badly or, if you’re looking for excuses, irrationally. From an investor viewpoint, perhaps Professor Thaler should look at bitcoin. For not since the dotcom boom, or our very own housing market, has there been a better opportunity to abandon any form of common sense.”
“So, what spurs us to part with our cash in this way? Human beings, far from being rational, instead are unpredictable and often, deeply flawed. Rather than examine all the evidence and carefully weigh it up, we often look for information that merely backs up our existing beliefs or, even worse, just react to the last thing we heard. And given we’re social animals, we herd. We’re sheep. If we’re not trying to outdo those around us, we’re desperately trying to be just like them.”
“So when everyone’s buying uber-expensive houses with oodles of cash borrowed at the lowest interest rates in the history of mankind, pushing prices even higher, we’re tempted to jump on board.”
‘The Realtor association ‘does not believe we are at the tipping point for home prices yet,’ the report concluded. But, it added, ‘residents in the Bay Area and Orange County will be well served by keeping close tabs on broader economic conditions. … If prices do fall, they will hit those areas the hardest.’
Getting a little worried out there, eh?
Why the sudden concern about prices falling? Don’t these people realize that California real estate always goes up?
Always goes up…unless it’s on fire
Always on fire… sometimes literally.
It’s a helluva barbecue.
Always goes up…unless it’s on fire
Going up in smoke is still going up.
“So when everyone’s buying uber-expensive houses with oodles of cash borrowed at the lowest interest rates in the history of mankind, pushing prices even higher, we’re tempted to jump on board.”
Cash “borrowed at the lowest interest in the history of mankind” to buy:
Uber-expensive houses AND
Second houses,
Third houses,
Rental properties,
Commercial properties,
60’s muscle cars,
Corporate stock “buybacks”,
Fine art,
Antiques,
Etc,
Etc.
Dec 12,2012:
The Federal Reserve on Wednesday agreed to keep a key short-term rate near zero until the 7.7% unemployment rate is 6.5% or lower.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2012/12/12/fed-buys-treasuries/1762459/
MARCH 18 2015:
“At least one guest left a New York restaurant with the impression Bernanke, 60, DOES NOT EXPECT THE FEDERAL FUNDS RATE, the Fed’s main benchmark interest rate, TO RISE BACK TO ITS LONG-TERM AVERAGE OF AROUND 4 PERCENT IN BERNANKE’S LIFETIME. “Shocking when he said this,” the guest scribbled in his notes. “Is that really true?” he scribbled at another point, according to the notes reviewed by Reuters.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-18/ben-bernanke-was-right-no-rate-normalization-during-my-lifetime
60’s muscle cars
I don’t understand the fascination with these. New muscle cars are faster, more reliable and safer, and in my opinion look better. Maybe old guys want to fantasize that they’re Bullitt or Smokey and the Bandit or something.
They like those cars because it evokes memories of their youth and simpler times.
Heard about these homes for sale in Santa Barbara, started out at 2.4, now going for 1.7M and only 3 have sold from what I heard. Doesnt look like they have good views of the ocean either, maybe horizon views.
http://theknollsantabarbara.com/
Also in the early days of the fires the media was pretty useless - very little actionable info was coming out from them and the best reports were from social media and message boards. Thats not only my opinion, most who concluded this were libs in the area so maybe this was a red pill for them. It seems the newspapers and networks employ third graders - one article talked about an evacuation map but did not show it nor provide a link!
60’s muscle cars
I don’t understand the fascination with these. New muscle cars are faster, more reliable and safer, and in my opinion look better. Maybe old guys want to fantasize that they’re Bullitt or Smokey and the Bandit or something.
Old car guys don’t change quickly, if at all. For a long long time 60s cars were the pinnacle. The fact that the new ones are finally better in every way doesn’t immediately erase decades of mental conditioning. Plus a lot of people are looking for a time machine more than a car. Nobody is really looking to seriously drive one any more as far as I can tell. It’s just to look at and sit in and remember the good old days and try to make your friends jealous with.
Here’s a 1970 Hemi Cuda that was auctioned off in 2016 (one of several million dollar muscle car sales made that weekend).
$2.7 million (Mecum auto auction):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sV7Ta-fX5hU
old muscle cars an be worked on by the average joe. New ones no way in hell!!
old muscle cars an be worked on by the average joe. New ones no way in hell!!
I grew up thinking that due to the miles of vacuum hose in the late 70s cars. But lots of car guys work on late model cars now. You just need to get comfortable with using a device to talk to the computer and get its opinion on what is wrong :-).
Plus a lot of people are looking for a time machine more than a car.
This seems to be the over-arching theme of The Great Gastsby. Excellent book and the movie version was not too shabby either.
‘Cash “borrowed at the lowest interest in the history of mankind” to buy:
Uber-expensive houses AND
Second houses,
Third houses,
Rental properties,
Commercial properties,
60’s muscle cars,
Corporate stock “buybacks”,
Fine art,
Antiques,
Etc,
Etc.’
Don’t forget about:
Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple, IOTA, Dash, NEM, Monero, Bitcoin Gold, Cardano, Ethereum Classic, EOS,
Stellar Lumens, NEO, BitConnect, Populous, Waves, Qtum, Lisk, Etc., Etc.
Twitter.
1,345 cryptocurrencies, with the number growing daily…
It’s gonna be another pets.com.
Think of this: those most concerned with short term house prices are flippers. Flippers are most likely to be those deeply involved in the real estate industry.
“California doesn’t have a housing bubble — yet. But look out if…”
These UHS types always call the collapse the bubble.
“California doesn’t have a housing bubble — yet.”
____________________________/
I was out in L.A. recently, and drove around Culver City. A lot of smaller 3/2 houses, nearly all of which are presently valued, according to Zillow, between $1.3 and $2 million.
If this is what we really wanted, we have failed as a people.
“If this is what we really wanted, we have failed as a people.”
Bahahahaha … obviously you are positioned wrong.
We capitulated a few years ago. Since that time, our house purportedly has become 40% more valuable, a siren song which we refuse to take advantage of, to the great disappointment of politically-protected banks repeatedly offering us a home equity loan.
Don’t do it snake. I’m in a similar position (plenty of untapped theoretical equity–lenders looking to lend).
Just keep saying to yourself “my house is where I live, not an investment”, and go about your life as usual, refinance only if it reduces the interest rate, and pay off the loan as soon as you can.
Don’t intend to. We had a front row seat to what happened last time, and fully expect history to repeat itself.
Hello my friends.
Alameda, CA Housing Prices Crater 11% YOY
https://www.movoto.com/alameda-ca/market-trends/
If houses were not excessively overpriced (and hence in a bubble) no one would care about a small increase in interest rates or a stock market correction. My dad paid just 1 half week’s take home pay of the mortgage, today paying 2 weeks take home pay is considered normal.
But now, if rates inch up just a teensy bit it means that the howmuchamonth crowd’s buying power has eroded and if their 401K tanks (if they even have one) they suddenly feel less confident.
All signs that we are in a bubble.
O’REILLY: HUGE FAKE SEX ASSAULT CLAIM AGAINST TRUMP COMING IN JANUARY
Democrats set to go all in to kill Trump’s re-election chances
Paul Joseph Watson | Infowars.com - DECEMBER 12, 2017
Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly is predicting a huge onslaught against President Trump in January based around fake accusations of sexual assault as Democrats panic that Trump’s chances of re-election are surging.
Warning, “There’s going to be a tremendous assault on President Trump” beginning in January, O’Reilly says Democrats now feel they must go all in to destroy Trump now because he has a good chance of getting re-elected.
“There is an audio tape of an anti-Trump person offering $200,000 dollars to a woman to accuse Donald Trump of untoward behavior,” O’Reilly told Glenn Beck, adding that he may have to go to the U.S. Attorney himself because “there are at least three crimes on the tape”.
The former Fox News host added that “Donald Trump knows about the tape” and should be drawing attention to it to highlight how the entire raft of sexual assault allegations against him “is an industry, that there are false charges and money changing hands.”
“It will change the whole discussion if it ever gets out,” said O’Reilly, vowing that he’s “not going to allow the country to be deceived”.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
Despite thousands of hours wasted and many millions of dollars spent, the Democrats have been unable to show any collusion with Russia - so now they are moving on to the false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don’t know and/or have never met. FAKE NEWS!
7:10 AM - Dec 12, 2017
24,796 24,796 Replies 15,179 15,179 Retweets 54,027 54,027 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy
https://www.infowars.com/
The Trump economy is on fire. That’s what wins or loses elections. The rest is noise.
Trump fans better hope his economic team can sustain Housing Bubble 2.0 through the 2020 election season.
I personally did not vote for him in the hopes that he would sustain the housing bubble.
I personally did not vote for him
in the hopes that he would sustain the housing bubble.
Yeah, that’s about right.
…. And he personally lives in your empty skull, rent free.
Predictions:
Moore wins
Franken doesn’t “retire”
Trump wins reelection in a landslide.
The democrats will then decide to “triple down”
I have a hard time envisioning what candidate the Democrats could run against Trump who would stand a chance. He seems as inevitable in 2020 as Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
I fully expect the Dems to nominate someone who will make Bernie Sanders look mainstream. Probably a black lesbian woman or something along those lines. And the MSM polls will show the candidate easily beating Trump.
Michelle Obama.
Remember when the Obamas (through their friends) bought that palatial mansion in an exclusive area of Hawaii awhile back? With everybody expecting them to move there?
So what did they do instead? The recently bought a house in D.C. that they were renting. Now if they were going to ride off into the sunset in Alohaville, why would they do that?
Michelle Obama.
Yeah, I expect both Michelle and Chelsea to run at some point in the future and both to lose. Hopefully at some point the Ds finally hit bottom and take a serious look at somebody more Jim Webb style. Or even an Elizabeth Warren type but hopefully with a little less baggage. But somebody serious about taking on the vampire squid would be a nice option.
I have heard that Kamala Harris is being groomed for the Dem candidate.
Trump would have a field day tearing M Obama apart. I think the Dems might save her for 2024.
“I think the Dems might save her for 2024.:
How would that work?
Would Moochelle still stay on vacation while Barry covered the fundraisers or would the Mooch have to give up some of those taxpayers funded vacas to hit the fundraisers while the MSM gushed over what she was wearing?
I have heard that Kamala Harris is being groomed for the Dem candidate.
Too bad for the Ds she’s not from a big swing state.
I have heard that Kamala Harris is being groomed for the Dem candidate.
I have to laugh every time I see her name. IIRC, Kamala means “lust” in Hindi. I’m guessing that some people who read Herman Hesse’s “Sidhartha” thought it was a cool sounding name for their daughter.
Another character in the novel “Kamaswami” is a merchant. His name would translate as “master of lust”
‘IIRC, Kamala means “lust” in Hindi.’
Which reminds me…
Post Politics
Obama calls Kamala Harris ‘the best looking attorney general’
By Rachel Weiner
April 4, 2013
Speaking at a fundraiser in a wealthy San Francisco suburb, President Obama praised the looks of California Attorney General Kamala Harris.
“You have to be careful to, first of all, say she is brilliant and she is dedicated and she is tough, and she is exactly what you’d want in anybody who is administering the law, and making sure that everybody is getting a fair shake,” Obama said. “She also happens to be, by far, the best looking attorney general in the country.”
“It’s true! C’mon,” he added, to laughter from the crowd.
…
I seem to remember George H.W. Bush being unbeatable following Desert Storm. 18 months later, he was a 1 termer heading out to stud some retarded children.
It’s Trump Country now and going forward for a long time so you better find something to soothe that rage-ravaged skull of yours.
LOL… true!
HW Bush wasn’t beaten by Clinton. HW Bush was beaten by Ross Perot.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
And I still think we’d have been better off if Perot had won. Wackiness and all. Instead we got everything that lead directly to where we are now.
ELECTIONS
4 hours ago
Roy Moore tried to be Trump and Doug Jones beat him. That’s because only Trump can win as Trump
By Erick Erickson | Fox News
There will be a lot of hot takes in Alabama which is not suddenly a Democrat state. But there is one take that is inescapable and undeniable after a contentious election: Trump only works for Trump.
The Roy Moore campaign was confronted with credible allegations that the aspiring senator had molested a 14-year-old and dated teenagers while in his thirties. He all but admitted to the latter and admitted to knowing at least one of the accusers. Then he denied it all and denied knowing any of the accusers. The campaign then doubled down on attacking the press in the mode of Donald Trump.
In fact, after the allegations were made public, the Moore campaign decided to model itself on the Trump campaign. They shut out reporters from events. They berated and bullied the press. They changed their stories in a game of Three-card Monte, shuffling facts before our eyes.
That worked with Donald Trump. He could do that. But Roy Moore is no Donald Trump.
…
Democrats now feel they must go all in to destroy Trump
I’m thinking they should be getting low on ammo by now…seems like they’ve been all in for a while. Not that he doesn’t have a knack for giving them more. But he seems pretty immunized to most of it now.
It’s not just the Democrats:
The U.S. Media Suffered Its Most Humiliating Debacle in Ages and Now Refuses All Transparency Over What Happened
The Enemy Within
We’re being force fed all types of falsehoods in the US, all constructed by the moneyed special interests. The sad part about it is it seems the majority of people buy into it.
Just put on the Sad Panda face and give up.
Hoe fortunate we are to have this internet medium to exchange ideas without the censorship of the PTB.
Bremerton, WA Housing Prices Crater 19% YOY
https://www.movoto.com/bremerton-wa/market-trends/
Doing some research on bubbles throughout history…
I ran across this gem.
History does repeat and does rhyme at the same time.
+++++
Mississippi Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Mississippi Bubble
Louis XIV’s long reign and wars had nearly bankrupted the French monarchy. Rather than reduce spending, the Regency of Louis XV of France endorsed the monetary theories of Scottish financier John Law. In 1716, Law was given a charter for the Banque Royale under which the national debt was assigned to the bank in return for extraordinary privileges. The key to the Banque Royale agreement was that the national debt would be paid from revenues derived from opening the Mississippi Valley. The Bank was tied to other ventures of Law—the Company of the West and the Companies of the Indies. All were known as the Mississippi Company. The Mississippi Company had a monopoly on trade and mineral wealth. The Company boomed on paper. Law was given the title Duc d’Arkansas.
Prisoners were set free in Paris in September 1719 onwards, under the condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana. The newly married couples were chained together and taken to the port of embarkation.
Law exaggerated the wealth of Louisiana with an effective marketing scheme, which led to wild speculation on the shares of the company in 1719. The scheme promised success for the Mississippi Company by combining investor fervor and the wealth of its Louisiana prospects into a sustainable, joint-stock, trading company. The popularity of company shares were such that they sparked a need for more paper bank notes, and when shares generated profits the investors were paid out in paper bank notes. Law’s pioneering note-issuing bank thrived until the French government was forced to admit that the number of paper notes being issued by the Banque Royale exceeded the value of the amount of metal coinage it held.
The “bubble” burst at the end of 1720, when opponents of the financier attempted to convert their notes into specie en masse, forcing the bank to stop payment on its paper notes.
“Prisoners were set free in Paris in September 1719 onwards, under the condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana. The newly married couples were chained together and taken to the port of embarkation.”
Sounds like an awesome way to populate a new colony!
I think the French looked at it as a win-win.
If nothing else - it made for some great dinner discussions!
Grandma and grandpa - how did you meet?
http://digg.com/2017/dutch-east-india-size
#2 behind Dutch East India Co.
On a related topic, I noted to my wife (who is in tech investing) that the Winklevii are billionaires on paper due to the price of Bitcoin.
Her simple question…I wonder if they’ll ever be able to sell (and turn it into $)? Or, will their efforts to monetize effectively crash the market?
If they are smart, then they are dollar cost averaging their way out of Bitcoin and into Bitcoin put options.
Once they have accumulated a critical mass of put options, they can dump the rest of their Bitcoin holdings and cash in again on the crash they precipitate. Double payday!
Something like 40% of BTC are owned in 10 accounts…I’m not sure there is enough liquidity to be able to buy the puts to fully protect them. Frankly, I don’t even think options on BTC are available. There is a futures market, but I don’t know how large it is, since it’s like 3 days old.
I once held a small option position in Apple options (pre-iPhone). The position was large for me, but small relative to the size of a public company like Apple. I was surprised that when I went to sell the options, I needed to do so through a trading desk as to not move the market.
Bitcoin is WAY less liquid, especially if you are one of those 10 accounts.
Prisoners were set free in Paris in September 1719 onwards, under the condition that they marry prostitutes and go with them to Louisiana. The newly married couples were chained together and taken to the port of embarkation.
Wow, how did I miss that in history class. I didn’t realize we had a story at least as good as Australia’s right here. Kinda explains New Orleans…
Flight of the Conchords - “Is your Mum Australian?”
‘This is not something a guy who’s making $100,000 a year, who’s got a mortgage and two kids in college ought to be invested in.’
And yet this describes the typical Bitcoin investor I know.
Exactly what kind of individual should be gambling on Bitcoin?
Bitcoin is the ultimate Keynesian beauty contest winner. Monkey see, monkey do.
I bought $250 in bitcoin. Here’s what I learned
By Seth Fiegerman
December 8, 2017: 11:24 AM ET
Some people kill time at the airport by browsing duty-free shops. I decided to shop for bitcoin.
But first, there are two things you should know about me: I tend to be almost as afraid of losing money investing as I am of flying. On some level, I figured one fear might cancel out the other.
So last Thursday, while waiting for a flight to Nashville, I pulled up a popular application called Coinbase that can be used to buy and sell bitcoin. The virtual currency had hit $10,000 for the first time a couple days earlier, before retreating somewhat. News of bitcoin’s rapid rise was everywhere, including on CNN.
For 15 minutes at the airport, I refreshed the price of bitcoin over and over, watching as it gained and lost hundreds of dollars in a matter of minutes. I called out the price fluctuations breathlessly to my wife, who gently encouraged me not to be an idiot, before returning to her magazine.
She was in good company. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon recently called bitcoin a “fraud” and suggested people who buy it are “stupid.” Warren Buffett called bitcoin a “mirage” in 2014 and warned investors to “stay away.”
And yet bitcoin has climbed more than tenfold since Buffett’s warning. Earlier this month, one college friend casually told me over drinks he’d made tens of thousands of dollars investing in another cryptocurrency. He said he hoped it would be worth enough one day to buy a house.
When I saw the price of bitcoin fall to $9,500, I pressed buy, defying the wisdom of two finance titans and my wife. One hundred dollars, or 0.0101 bitcoins. (A few days later, I bought another $150.) By the time we got to our hotel, my stake had already gone up 10%. One week later, it was (briefly) up 100%. My wife’s opinion of me has reportedly decreased by the same amount.
What is happening?
It’s an investing frenzy, plain and simple.
…
Investing??????
No. You are in a casino.
Without the free drinks.
How many people know what “blockchain technology” even is? I find the hacks, too, to be unnerving. And then there was the episode earlier this year where somebody simply vanished the $300 million worth of coins out of existence by accident.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/nov/08/cryptocurrency-300m-dollars-stolen-bug-ether
“On Tuesday Parity revealed that, while fixing a bug that let hackers steal $32m out of few multi-signature wallets, it had inadvertently left a second flaw in its systems that allowed one user to become the sole owner of every single multi-signature wallet.”
Just what I want - to “invest” in some computer currency where hackers and developers play day and night, where I could wake up and my “wallet” has gone missing.
“Some are pushing for a “hard fork” of Ethereum, which would undo the damage by effectively asking 51% of the currency’s users to agree to pretend that it had never happened in the first place. That would require a change to the code that controls ethereum, and then that change to be adopted by the majority of the user base. The risk is that some of the community refuses to accept the change, resulting in a split into two parallel groups.”
Oh, great. After my “virtual wallet” goes missing, I’m then beholden to the whims of a “user base” to decide if my missing wallet will be returned or not. Yeah, this is definitely something I’m interested in “investing” in. These people have lost their minds.
but…but…Blockchain technology.
As seen on TV!
I thought all cryptocurrencies were Somehow logged or tracked in ledgers or wallets or whatever. In fact, aren’t these Ledger or whatever entries the only way they actually exist? I mean, there’s no physical item.
So it’s hard for me to understand what is actually happening when they are “stolen.” How can they somehow still exist yet not be in one of those ledgers, etc.?
Your access to your bitcoin is effectively a password. If you lose your password, you are screwed. If someone else steals your password, your bitcoin can be transferred to someone else’s wallet. While there is a record for the bitcoin going somewhere else, you have no idea who owns the account. So, you might know that your bitcoin was stolen, but not who stole it.
Good luck getting it back if they traded it to a Russian Oligarch for $10 million in cold, hard cash.
Thanks, RW. I’m slowly figuring this out.
I wonder how much cryptocurrency Putin has by now?
Then again, maybe NK is grabbing this stuff? They seem to have pretty good hackers.
I think a large part of it is people who might live in a place where it is hard to transfer money out. BTC allows theoretical privacy.
And so there is utility there.
There is some utility as a near frictionless transaction tool, but there are two problems that I see (and probably more):
1. Currently BTC “miners” spend money on electricity to keep up the ledger…their reward is earning BTC. Once there are no more BTC to mine (in approximately 2020), there needs to be some kind of compensation for the massive amount energy utilized to keep the ledger. Enter the transaction fee–which makes BTC somewhat less great as a transaction tool.
2. It is my belief that until you solve the “if you lose your encryption key your money is gone forever” problem as well as the “if someone gets hold of your encryption key, your money is gone forever” problem. And for that, a major player is likely to need to be involved as some sort of backing/regulation/enforcer.
And the involvement of a government makes the secrecy aspect of BTC worthless.
However, the involvement of a government (or other large player) makes the “transaction tool” aspect of a digital currency potentially much more viable.
My gut tells me that when we look back 10 years from now, blockchain will be integrated throughout the financial system, reducing friction (fees) through a decline in fraud.
I have no idea if a digital currency will have any place in the economy, but suspect if widely used, there will be a government sponsor (or many government sponsors).
And if there is one or more government sponsor, BTC will relegated back to drug dealers, pimps, and people trying to hide asset movements from their government.
“Your access to your bitcoin is effectively a password. If you lose your password, you are screwed.”
Not only that, even if you don’t lose your password you might be screwed, as evidenced by all of this stolen cryptocurrency.
I’m convinced this is all going to come crashing down. Reading these stories about how some developer boobooed here or oopsed there while “working on the block chain” (whatever the fawk that entails) costing people millions - that isn’t going to fly.
When you have a trading account or a bank account, there are protections. Even with physical gold you can protect it. Bitcoin is the wild west of investing, with few protections for those investing.
Typing too fast…my point with #2 above is that there likely needs to be protections that don’t exist yet for a blockchain currency to be widely used for transactions, and those protections are likely to be offered by a large (very potentially government) player (or players).
http://www.businessinsider.com/vanguard-the-fund-giant-with-nearly-5-trillion-in-assets-is-using-blockchain-to-underpin-its-mutual-funds-2017-12
Perhaps they can lower their fee from 0.05% to 0.0499%.
It’s not just a Bitcoin bubble, it’s a cryptocurrency bubble. People are buying every single crypto they can. Some are way more bubblicious than Bitcoin. Look at Ethereum, it’s up 7,200% in a year. The past 20 years or so have me losing faith in mankind.
https://www.coinbase.com/charts
Eth and BTC are the better long term play at this point.
I mentioned before that I stopped buying BTC and sold a bunch a while back (when BTC crossed 10,000). I just think eth is the better technology once they scale up the processing.
I’m going to start pulling out for a while, something modest like 25% between now and jan. My total coinbase account crossed 10MM yesterday bc of the LTC gains.
Liberace!
I’m curious, what cut does Coinbase take if you sell and cash out?
1.5% per trade. Buying and selling.
Good on ya, Joe. I really mean it. My buddy made $18,000 on the $2000 he put in. He tried to give me a ltc for Christmas yesterday, but I couldn’t go the 22 hours to download the wallet. Jeebus. Of course, I’m operating on 32 bit, lol.
I think the concept of a distributed, immutable database certainly has applications. I don’t know if it suits economic transactions. Here’s why:
• If you, ProfessorBear, make a purchase in California, the database here on my computer here in Maryland must update. On top of that, all bitcoin owner’s databases (ledgers) must update. Freaky, eh? I mean, seems inefficient.
That’s my understanding of it. I’m not in the bitcoin community, but that seems like a huge weakness. So it may not work out as any large scale medium of exchange.
But as far as trading bitcoin to make money, gamblers gonna gamble. It’s probably quite heady for a certain crowd. I mean, consider art, or non-voting+non-dividend stocks. As long as money is being pumped into the market, it’s going to keep going up, and as long as the money stays in the market, it’ll stabilize.
I think it could be quite useful for certain kinds of transactions that are much less frequent than, say, buying a latte.
Think title records, UCC filings, secured debt, etc.
Blockchain could be utilized for such things…but I agree, everyday transactions are problematic.
Seems like an insanely expensive waste of perfectly useful energy.
Technology
Bitcoin: Does it really use more electricity than Ireland?
12 December 2017
Can something which has no physical presence consume as much electricity as an entire country?
The internet has recently been awash with claims that the digital currency Bitcoin could be using more electricity than a number of developed nations. So Reality Check wants to know: how did they work it out, and is it true?
Although it has been around since 2009, the digital currency, or crypto-currency, has been dominating headlines across the globe recently thanks to its soaring value.
Unlike the notes or coins in your pocket, Bitcoin is not printed by governments or traditional banks and largely exists online.
Around 3,600 new bitcoins are created every day through a complex process known as “mining”, where computers are rewarded with a bitcoin for processing mathematical equations through specialised software.
Except this isn’t only a handful of computers processing these equations, but thousands of machines all over the world running day and night - that’s a lot of electricity.
And as bitcoins increase in value, more and more machines are being plugged in and switched on by amateurs and professionals alike to mine them.
Given their digital nature, there’s understandably been a growing curiosity about how much electricity is actually being used to produce bitcoins.
…
The Financial Times
Bitcoin
Bitcoin feeding frenzy fuelled by 15 times leverage, says exchange
Investors on Tokyo’s bitFlyer drive cryptocurrency price higher
Robin Harding in Tokyo
December 10, 2017
The Japanese exchange at the heart of bitcoin’s recent surge has said its investors are fuelling the cryptocurrency’s feeding frenzy as they buy in with leverage up to 15 times their cash deposit.
Yuzo Kano, chief executive of bitFlyer, said in an interview with the Financial Times that the liquidity on his Tokyo-based exchange — which has an 80 per cent share of bitcoin trading in Japan and 20-30 per cent of the global market — was deep enough to handle even the biggest market movements.
Bitcoin’s meteoric rise continued to shock markets last week as the currency soared another 50 per cent to hit new highs over $17,000. Wild trading saw different prices around the world: while the price was about $16,000 a bitcoin on Friday afternoon in Tokyo, it fell to about $15,000 during the European day.
“I think Japan is leading the market higher,” said Mr Kano.
BitFlyer, which ranks third for trading in the underlying digital currency, has also won authorisation to open in the US.
Activity on bitFlyer points to a market where large inflows of yen from leveraged Japanese investors are colliding with minimal supply of underlying bitcoins to force the price higher.
Mr Kano said trading on the exchange was “roughly 50-50” between existing investors and new money coming in. “The scale of deposits is steadily increasing. It’s pretty large,” he said.
Most of bitFlyer’s customers are private individuals from big Japanese cities aged 20 to 50. “There are lots of traders but some buy-and-hold investors. Actually, they are buy-and-buy,” said Mr Kano.
…
Bitcoin is no different that old fashioned gambling in the sense that you shouldn’t put in money that you can’t afford to lose.
How about putting in other people’s money at 15:1 leverage?
A wee bit incredible, isn`t it?
“Exactly what kind of individual should be gambling on Bitcoin?”
The same kind of person who should gamble at all…namely a person who could alternatively light the money they are spending on BTC/gambling on fire, and shrug their shoulders with no concerns in the world after they blow the ashes away.
A couple of years ago, I thought about putting ~0.1% of my net worth in to Bitcoin…but didn’t. That I figured was about the right amount for a wager for me.
“Exactly what kind of individual should be gambling on Bitcoin?”
Answer: The product of our wonderful educational system.
A educational system that is the envy of the world.
🤣
I put in about 50k total in dollar cost avg to BTC back when it was worth 1% of current price on avg. (Price was mostly under 500, but I still bought BTC until this past Aug or Sept as long as process were below 2000.)
Today that BTC is worth high 7 figured (lots of volatility lately).
The initial investment was not a big deal to me, so even when the price fell sharply at times, I never wavered. I think blockchain is going to have a big role in future transactions for to decentralized nature and low transactions cost.
I bought eth as low as 25 and kept buying until 2 weeks ago when it was 290-300 range. I bought litecoin at under 40 as recently as August and kept buying regularly in increments until 2 weeks ago under 100.
The overall effect for me is going from low 7 figures to selling and diversifying (conservative approach) into at least 8 figures. I will still keep a few mil in crypto and if it continues to grow I’ll end up very comfortable.
The other key is that it would’ve taken me until at least my mid 40s to hit 8 figures without crypto.
Crypto saved me a decade of grinding. (I started my own fund buying and reorganizing distressed assets; I like it but it’s not like I wouldn’t rather go skiing all winter and take my boy traveling on all his school breaks.)
And this being the internet, you can still have a job washing my fleet of cars when you lose everything.
Here’s your chance to acquire a new one, lol:
“Ferrari California 2010- Crazy DEAL! TRADE for Current Bitcoin~ - $88000 (San Francisco) ”
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/cto/d/ferrari-california-2010-crazy/6415693015.html
Looks like the smartest people in the room (San Francisco techies) are going all in and more.
I’ve been pulling out of crypto the last month and I had plenty to start with before crypto came along. I work hard and saw the crypto tend coming a few years ago. I have no idea if it can continue. I think yes, but I’m not stupid enough to think I can predict the future.
Yes, newcomers are taking a risk. That’s not me. BTC is over 16000 right now. My average buy was well under 1000. Some at just a fraction of that when many here and elsewhere scoffed at Bitcoin.
‘when many here and elsewhere scoffed’
Who cares internet billionaire? I made multiples of that betting the Clintons on Trump winning the election. All that uranium one loot - MINE!
Yeah, he’s made $10MM in Bitcoin on paper, yet he’s only going to sell 25% in the next few months after it went parabolic. I call BS. Anybody who had that basis would sell and gtfo. $10MM = never have to work again - EVER.
The problem is that the same person who would sell out completely at $10MM would have probably sold out at $2MM, or $1MM.
My partner and I had this conversation the other day, commenting about how neither of us pulled the trigger to buy BTC years ago. But my partner commented that he probably would have cashed out LONG before we got to the current levels–and I think he’s right.
It seems like those that are holding at current levels are either gamblers (buying one BTC for fun), or true believers (holding onto Billions worth and not planning to sell). Joe may be a bit of both.
It’s hard for me to see them as investors.
That’s precisely why he’s full of it. He would have been selling all the way up, yet he says he has $10MM in Bitcoin off a $50k basis. Somewhere else he said you need 8 figures for f**k you money. He’s already there but he’s only going to divest himself of 25% with retirement IN THE BAG? Nope. Like Ben says - “somebody’s a lion.”
My suspicion is that Joe isn’t lying. Instead, I believe he wandered into the truly greedy territory; where 8 figures isn’t enough for him, he needs 9. His attitude has been trending more toward the greed theory for the past few years.
Liberace, you’re a degenerate gambler.
If one really wanted to travel with their son, and didn’t have enough money to do that, they wouldn’t throw $50K away on bits of nothing.
May be bragging like a billionaire but still talking like a pauper.
2 mm n.w. in early 30s isn’t enough to say f it and travel.
Otoh, it’s not a pauper situation either.
There is a sizeable gulf in between, otherwise no one would work in biglaw or MBB consulting ever. Low 7 figures is common in those situations, yet everyone is still grinding. “F you money” is something like 10-15mm these days.
Like the rest of the degenerate gamblers slithering around here, Liberace is broke as a joke.
Speaking of Walking Money, I’ve completed negotiations with my long term employer and am officially retired at the end of the month. On “vacation” until then. I declined their offer to impart knowledge for a fee at their beck and call in future. More money is always nice, but I’d rather not be interrupted. When you’re trying to do something creative in the studio or relaxing with the deck fox on a beautiful day, one drama phone call can ruin the train of thought for hours. They were kind of stupid asking me to train people at the last minute when we’ve been discussing this for three years.
It’s not so much how much money I’ve saved as it is how little I need and that I don’t owe anybody anything. I feel most fortunate.
Nice. It is interesting how much drama one phone call can create even when it’s not really your problem. When somebody on the other end of the line is really desperate I can’t help but get emotionally sucked in…makes me good at my job though…which is technical in nature but is mostly about making customers feel like someone feels their pain and is on the case.
Joe Smith,
Do you know which coin will be added to Coinbase?
“…Exactly what kind of individual should be gambling on Bitcoin?…”
So lets pretend that Bitcoin really *is* legit and those who invest are off-the-charts geniuses and bitcoin rises to a zillion dollars.
Since bitcoin is based on open-source software and easily replicated, whats to prevent bitcoin2 or bitcoin3 … (Kinda like QE2 QE3 in that money is created out of thin air)
How about celebrity bitcoin? (ie. Bitcoin Kardashian) Could be pushed on late night TV. (But wait there’s more. You can become an overnight billionaire)
At least with gold or pet rocks, you have something you can hold in your hand and put in your garden.
Bitcoin, eth, and ltc are the only platforms work the reputation to be carried on coinbase right now, so that’s one difference. And it’s a big difference. You could start your own visa or MasterCard too… The ideas aren’t that complicated. But scaling up is not easy.
Most ico’s are scammy. People call them altcoins or scamcoins. I thought about putting 1% of my Bitcoin into ripple or tezos but didn’t feel like dealing with other exchanges.
Understand motivation to buy/sell via reputable brokers such as Coinbase.
But then again, look what happened to Mt. Gox. They were once “reputable”
Just sayin…..
Every scammer was “legit” until he wasn’t.
“Mt. Gox was a bitcoin exchange based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Launched in July 2010, by 2013 and into 2014 it was handling over 70% of all bitcoin transactions worldwide, as the largest bitcoin intermediary and the world’s leading bitcoin exchange.
In February 2014, Mt. Gox suspended trading, closed its website and exchange service, and filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. In April 2014, the company began liquidation proceedings.
Mt. Gox announced that approximately 850,000 bitcoins belonging to customers and the company were missing and likely stolen, an amount valued at more than $450 million at the time. Although 200,000 bitcoins have since been “found”, the reason(s) for the disappearance—theft, fraud, mismanagement, or a combination of these—were initially unclear. New evidence presented in April 2015 by Tokyo security company WizSec led them to conclude that “most or all of the missing bitcoins were stolen straight out of the Mt. Gox hot wallet over time, beginning in late 2011.”"
This stuff is a joke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mt._Gox
“Reputation” my ass. All it takes is a few developers wanting a change of scenery and “presto!!” new crypto. This stuff is a joke - there’s no barrier to entry or physical product to back it up.
Millions of people go to Las Vegas evert year and drop $5K on a weekend of gambling. Others hate the lights and noise and instead gamble $5K on bitcoin.
Borrowing $5k to throw away on bitcoin gambling or the casino is what degenerate gamblers do.
or they’ve annexed the SUE.DEBT.en land
Year % of U.S. Households With Credit Card Debt
2013
38.1%
2014
40%
2015
42%
2016
43.9%
2017
45.6%
A good start.
😁
More of hope and change.
And Yes we can.
Realtors are liars.
Waialua, Hawaii Housing Prices Plunge 15% YOY As Housing Bubble Deflates
https://www.movoto.com/waialua-hi/market-trends/
‘Many in the media would lead you to believe Miami is a hot market…in the vast majority of Miami-Dade County there is an over-supply of homes and unrealistic expectations. In short, if you are a seller in this market it’s time to put on your big-boy pants.’
‘If you travel through Pinecrest and Palmetto Bay, you’ll see loads of FOR SALE signs, even on the shortest drive. And yes, most of them have been there long enough to start serving as landmarks’
Interesting that the local newspapers don’t mention this.
It reminds me of the “land shortage” during the 2006 bubble. You saw plenty of empty land but none of it was for sale because the big companies (Tool Bros et al) were bidding up options all over the place.
Troll Bros & Sisters better bring a better strategy to the table because there is a globe full of land where 95% of it goes undeveloped.
I’ve always been surprised at the lack of posters from Miami on this blog. We’ve had people from West Palm Beach, but the only person from Miami that I remember is “Mike from Miami,” who hasn’t posted for awhile.
“Severely unaffordable” housing market in Denver:
https://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2017/12/12/denver-housing-costs-considered-severely.html
There are over 6,000 homeless in Denver. Downtown is overrun with panhandlers, methheads, junkies, and the sidewalks are covered in human waste. If you want to ski on the weekends, plan on spending at least 2 hours in traffic each way (4+ hours each way on powder weekends). All the hiking trails and popular peaks are overcrowded, badly eroded from too much foot traffic, and covered in garbage. The air is badly polluted, and there is *no water* to support a metro population of 3 million or the projected millions more moving here.
The quality of life on the Front Range is in an unstoppable freefall.
Don’t move here, you’ll be really disappointed if you do
FWIW, when I interviewed downtown I didn’t see any human (or any other) feces on the sidewalks. I did see a lot of panhandlers and other human detritus though.
I enjoyed the five years I lived in the Denver area. But, that was back in 1997 to 2002.
You’re not kidding about the trails and peaks and mountains in general being over crowded. It was so bad last summer, I’m not sure I want to come back this summer or not. Maybe I should give Idaho or Montana a try.
I was on the “Decameron” this year and there was a huge crowd, almost a conga line, heading up Mt. Democrat, although it proceeded to thin out with each succeeding peak. By the time I got to Mt. Bross there only were about a dozen people who I could see.
Bierstadt crowds: https://14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=3576
The above was in 2007. Heres a 2017 article, the Crowds Are much bigger now:
https://www.google.com/amp/denver.cbslocal.com/2017/07/18/mt-bierstadt-colorado-hiking-fee/amp/
One of my many ex-bosses says if you’re not making 10K per month on your home you’re doing something wrong , 2017 Silicon Valley CA
Remind him of that when everyone is losing 10K per month.
From a safe distance.
He sold one house in S. San Jose and bought another in a better school district probably closer to work in Santa Clara . This guy was always full of it making up stuff based on his weird logic.
Warren blasts Trump tweet: Are you trying to ’slut-shame’ Gillibrand?
BY AVERY ANAPOL - 12/12/17 11:32 AM EST
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) blasted President Trump on Tuesday, accusing him of trying to “bully, intimidate and slut-shame” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/364445-warren-blasts-trump-tweet-are-you-really-trying-to-slut-shame-gillibrand
Kind of hard to think that Warren is taking high moral ground with a mouth like that…
Are you talking about “slut-shame”? That’s a code word now, it’s not considered dirty among the enlightened.
So Slut is a compliment now. Got it.
Liberals head to the gutter at every opportunity.
Shots fired by Congressman Steve Smith at Gillibrand.
https://i.imgur.com/6FZoHJs.jpg
I heard that slut Gillibrand
(it’s ok the betters said I could use that word)
was at a Bible Study when she learned of Trump’s tweet.
“That’s a code word now, it’s not considered dirty among the enlightened.”
Evidently you are right but it sure sounds bass akwards to me.
Once the word “slut” is allowed in the gloves are off I don’t care what the betters say.
Definition of slut shaming in English:
slut shaming
NOUN
The action or fact of stigmatizing a woman for engaging in behaviour judged to be promiscuous or sexually provocative.
‘some of the criticism smacks of slut shaming’
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/slut_shaming
She’s a guttermind
“White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that “only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way” regarding Democrats’ interpretation of Trump’s tweet.”
6 words got Trump into big trouble today
By Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large
Updated 5:16 PM ET, Tue December 12, 2017
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, another Democrat, told a group of reporters on Capitol Hill Tuesday that Trump’s tweet amounted to a “sexist slur that disgraces the office and diminishes the presidency.”
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-California, called Trump’s tweet “ugly and suggestive.”
“We all know what he was trying to say there,” Swalwell told CNN.
“He put ‘begging’ in quotes.”
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that “only if your mind is in the gutter would you have read it that way” regarding Democrats’ interpretation of Trump’s tweet.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/12/politics/donald-trump-gillibrand-tweet-analysis/index.html
It’s a calculated attempt to continue the drive to get Trump to resign based on treating women poorly.
It is a fact that Trump contributed to Gillibrand’s campaign. What political favors she offered, no one has said…HOWEVER, if one thing is true…real estate developers need to interact A LOT with government/politicians, and it wouldn’t be inconceivable that Gillibrand offered Trump something in exchange for a donation. A political connection, a kind word to the right people, etc.
It’s like Warren and all the Democrats are saying “I’m shocked, shocked, to find that gambling is going on in here!”—because the only way they could narrowly see Trump’s statement is sexist is to ignore all the political games played to get donations.
Seems something’s amiss in the online/mobile network world today…
My online banking was down so I had to call in order to access my account. They already had a ticket in, and the ETA was 45 mins to fix.
Ordered online at a company I regularly order from, no confirmation email. I called to verify order, and indeed it went through. They re-sent email confirmation, still have not received it. It’s either an issue with my email provider, or their system.
Somebody sent me three text messages which never came, then finally showed up an hour late.
Anybody having any sorts of issues today?
I spent the whole day in my studio listening to music. Everything seemed fine.
I just got a text a friend sent on Saturday!
Concord, MA Housing Prices Crater 6% YOY As Market Floods With Housing Inventory
https://www.movoto.com/concord-ma/market-trends/
After the 2008 mortgage implosion, mortgage lenders were able to continue to avoid being having skin in the game (i.e., if the loan they make defaults, they lose money). That was a triumph of lobbying, avoiding dealing with a core reason for the financial crisis. How then does anyone expect a “clean” tax bill? Tax law attracts the attention of every interest group out there, and thus their lobbyists.
if bond holders demand more or a yield due to higher inflation central bank balance sheets will take a huge hit, massive losses. Central banks around the world have huge bond portfolios due to QE.
They have to keep bond yields low by saying there is no inflation.
Never underestimate the power of an Excel spreadsheet. It runs down the yellow brick driveway of Mr Moebius for miles and miles and miles and….
For sh@ts and giggles yellen might raise the funds rate 1/4 point. its all for show. If longer term bond rates go up sh@t will hit the fan. there is some much leverage and debt built up rates have to stay low.
How many more trillion will be printed up to keep yields low? If the market starts to push up the long end of the curve what are they gonna do?
“An inverted yield curve is an interest rate environment in which long-term debt instruments have a lower yield than short-term debt instruments of the same credit quality. This type of yield curve is the rarest of the three main curve types and is considered to be a predictor of economic recession.”
Oh the trials and tribulations of an overloaded debt donkey.
He’s praying his HELOC interest doesn’t go up.
In the Land of BTC
“If I truly and indefeasibly own something, but that something is actually nothing, does it have value?
“This is the proposition bitcoin proposes. Those who can’t stand Bitcoin say that it must collapse because it is…. nothing. Nothing at all rests behind the coin. Indefeasible or not, at the end of the day you own nothing. Bitcoin promoters, on the other hand, say that the indefeasible ownership, even of absolutely nothing, forms a perfect medium for exchange, and therefore, holds value. The value is equal to the consensus attributed to it by the market.”
“The value is equal to the consensus attributed to it by the market.”
Which means its value is voted on, voted on by strangers, strangers with money (or strangers who have access to money) who just may be (and probably are) a bunch of fools.
“absolutely nothing…therefore, holds value”
“God is great, beer is good and people are crazy”
Jack Daniels, Marlboros, and ammo will never lose trading value in a post-digital societal collapse economy.
Enjoy your Bitcoin “wallet” after it gets hacked dry or you have no source of juice to plug your dead i-phone into.
Millennials deserve everything they have coming to them. I wish them much, much worse
Frisco, TX Housing Prices Crater 5% YOY
https://www.movoto.com/frisco-tx/market-trends/
I think the meddel fanger is coming out.
It’s sure looking that way to me. There’s nothing a good dose of anti-bacterial like Trump Cream to attack that creeping crud of a virus Mconnellitus Erectii and the nasty democraptus vectors.
Fake York Times says it’s in the bag for Jones at the moment:
https://www.nytimes.com/elections/results/alabama-senate-special-election-roy-moore-doug-jones
mmmm hmmm…. thanks joo york tymes.
Now a tossup.
Roy Moore up 5% with 70% reporting.
Wow, they called it for Doug Jones. Looks like the libs showed up in force in the inner city.
Illegals voting. Maybe now Trump will get serious about getting these people out. There’s 20 million, plus their kids. $1.5 trillion to Exxon? F*ck that
It must have been the illegals that voted Jones into office. It couldn’t possibly be due to Alabama voters not wanting an accused child molester representing them in the Senate, right after a bunch of male Senators were run out of office without due process of law on relatively milder sexual harassment accusations.
—AL.com Reports: Alabama is allowed to destroy digital voting records created at the polls during today’s U.S. Senate election after all. At 1:36 p.m. Monday, a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge issued an order directing Alabama election officials to preserve all digital ballot images created at polling places across the state today.
—But at 4:32 p.m. Monday, attorneys for Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and Ed Packard, the state administrator of elections, filed an “emergency motion to stay” that order, which the state Supreme Court granted minutes after Merrill and Packard’s motion was filed. By granting the stay, the court effectively told the state that it does not in fact have to preserve the digital ballot images - essentially digitized versions of the paper ballots voters fill out at the voting booth - created today.
—Why would the Alabama Supreme Court suddenly make this decision to allow the destruction of digital voting records, just a few hours before the tallies come out between Judge Roy Moore and Doug Soros-Jones right before today’s special Senate election in Alabama. This once again shows that the Democrat establishment is basically once again using illegal voting, and the decision by the Alabama Supreme Court just hours before votes are counted simply prove this fact.
—This decision to destroy digital voting records right before the votes are counted in today’s special Senate election in Alabama today, also comes after multiple reports of the Left paying voters at least 50 dollars if they vote for Jones…And right after multiple reports of Soros and Democrats bringing in out of state voters with Alabama felons also voting. Trying to cover it up already are we?
This is growing legs quickly.
Why do liberal media news sites predict Democrat winners in elections when it’s obvious it’s not going to happen? Does credibility not exist in their worlds?
Washington Post Reporters Denied Entry To Roy Moore’s Election Night Party:
“Reporters for The Washington Post were told they could not enter Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore’s election night party in Montgomery, Alabama.
“We were denied credentials and when our reporters asked to enter they were told no,” the Post’s Kristine Coratti Kelly said in an email.
Lauren Walsh, a reporter with the ABC television affiliate in Birmingham, Alabama, confirmed the news with the Moore campaign. Walsh said the Post reporters were “asked to leave” the rally while journalists for other news outlets were stationed inside awaiting the results of Tuesday’s closely watched special election.”
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/roy-moore-washington-post-reporters_us_5a305cc1e4b01bdd76583f8b?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Now that’s a beautiful thing.
#FakeNews is real. I haven’t paid for cable or any kind of subscription TeeVee service in over a decade.
Stop. Giving. Them. Your. Money. Is it really that complicated? I pay $39 a month for home internets and $35 a month for a phone, and nothing beyond that. No money to Comcast. No money for a dead tree “news” paper.” No money to see a movie show at the theatre. No money to Amazon dot com.
Just. Don’t. Pay. Them. Give them nothing.
This is how we win. If you can’t make these small sacrifices, you don’t deserve to win.
Are they still partying despite Moore’s loss? I guess they may want to drown their sorrows.
The Atlantic sells a narrative.
The Alabama Election Is a Referendum on the GOP’s Future:
“For all the national attention that’s been paid to the grisly particulars of Alabama’s special election over the past few weeks—the lurid details of the sexual-abuse accusations against Roy Moore; the performative shrieks of “Fake News!” from the candidate and his defenders—the true political consequences of the race will likely reach well beyond a single Senate race in 2017.
In fact, many Republicans in Washington believe the voters who are heading to the polls on Tuesday could end up playing a pivotal role in the fight for the soul of the GOP.
Republican leaders have been keeping an especially wary eye on Alabama ever since former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon announced his intention to recruit primary challengers for (virtually) every Republican senator up for reelection in 2018.
“There’s a time and season for everything,” Bannon said in a speech at the Values Voters Summit in October, “and right now it’s a season of war against the GOP establishment.”
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/12/alabama/548135/
Looks like Bannon coming out during daylight hours to cheerlead for Roy Moore, and against the GOP establishment, may have backfired.
Another narrative. Yes, Ben Jones I read the New York Times, the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Salon dot com, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, the UK Guardian, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Politico, The Hill dot com, etc, because if you don’t *know* the narrative, you can’t address the narrative.
Your narrative is broken. It’s weak, it’s sad, and it’s failing
Kirsten Gillibrand fires back after Donald Trump’s sexist Twitter attack:
“Trump’s tweet marks just his latest attack against women, and while it might seem to be a random outburst, it’s certainly not a coincidence that Gillibrand targeted him the day prior. It’s perhaps fitting that the Merriam-Webster’s word of the year for 2017 is “feminism,” as the leader of the nation continues to prove his regressiveness on women’s rights issues.
On Monday, the Democratic senator from New York called for Trump to resign on Monday in light of the several women who have accused him of sexual assault, or otherwise misconduct.
“President Trump should resign,” Gillibrand said. “These allegations are credible; they are numerous. I’ve heard these women’s testimony, and many of them are heartbreaking.”
https://www.salon.com/2017/12/12/kirsten-gillibrand-fires-back-after-donald-trumps-sexist-twitter-attack/
Cats, boxed wine, and SSRI anti-depressant meds. This future is yours.
The Democratic Party’s thought process seems to be that dividing men and women is the path to electoral victory. And maybe in the short term, it is. But in the long term it is not an inspiring vision.
C-SPAN and NYTimes just called it for Doug Jones.
Coastal elitist f*cktards, remember, remember where your electricity and food comes from (hint: it doesn’t come from Manhattan).
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush, 2008
“…where your electricity and food comes from…”
Mostly from California.
Electricity… think Columbia River Hydro-Power.
By far the better thing to remember is who serves in the military.
With no government backer, who pays Bitcoin’s hefty electric bill?
Bitcoin Mining on Track to Consume All of the World’s Energy by 2020
By Anthony Cuthbertson
On 12/11/17 at 10:07 AM
A satellite composition of the world at night. Projections suggest the amount of electricity required to mine bitcoin will be equivalent to all of the world’s current energy production.
NASA/ Wikimedia Commons
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The real cost of the Bitcoin scam in energy consumption terms is mind boggling. Are fiat currencies comparably expensive to maintain in terms of resource consumption?
Is Bitcoin’s rapid surge harming the environment?
Jason Lemon for the AJC
10:39 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017
Business and Money news
Business
Everyone’s talking about Bitcoin and its rapidly increasingly value. Over the last few days, the cryptocurrency’s price soared, passing $19,000 for one Bitcoin before falling back below $16,000.
While most people are just wishing they’d had the foresight to buy into Bitcoin when the exchange was still less than $50 to one (before early 2013), some environmentalists are raising alarm bells about the cryptocurrency’s negative environmental impact.
The reason? Bitcoin is “mined” using computer processing power, meaning as the cryptocurrency’s value surges, more and more energy must be consumed. According to an analysis by Digiconomist, if Bitcoin’s total energy consumption were calculated and compared to countries, it would currently be on par with Oman, Morocco, Serbia, Denmark, Belarus and Bulgaria, requiring about 32.6 TWh per year.
And, according to experts, as the cryptocurrency’s mines have grown rapidly, they haven’t turned to renewable or more efficient energy sources. In fact, quite the opposite has taken place, as miners aim to lower costs while using more and more power.
Cambridge University in the United Kingdom conducted a study earlier this year, revealing that nearly 60 percent of Bitcoin mining happens in China, where cheap and dirty energy sources are more readily available. The study compared the development of Bitcoin mines to “an arms race,” saying that miners are turning to the “cheapest energy sources and the most efficient equipment to keep operators profitable.”
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Invest in Bitcoin, ruin the planet. It’s your God-given perrogative!
INDYTech
Bitcoin price surge could be ruining the environment because it uses so much energy
The surging cryptocurrency could be literally ruining the planet
Andrew Griffin
@_andrew_griffin
7 days ago
The Independent Tech
Surging bitcoin prices have left many people feeling rich – and many more regretful that they didn’t buy into it when it was much cheaper. But it might be having a much more damaging effect on the world, too.
The sheer amount of computing power and energy required to run the bitcoin economy means that the surging prices could literally be damaging our planet, experts have warned. And as the price of the cryptocurrency surges, that problem is likely to get worse.
Already, the power used to mine bitcoin around the world takes up more energy than 159 individual countries. And each bitcoin transaction uses the same amount of energy required to power a US household for nine days, according to Digiconomist.
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the equity is gone my friends.im back to a 9-5. party was great.
DebtDonkey
Burke, VA Housing Prices Crater 5%YOY
https://www.movoto.com/burke-va/market-trends/
You just might have perfect timing.
Did ‘ya leverage that sweet equity?
Are planning to sell before your mortgage goes underwater in the incipient correction?