Priming The Pumps Of Real Estate Speculation
A report from ABC 7 News in California. “In the competitive Bay Area housing market money talks, but one family says singing set them apart. Natan Kuchar is a high school music teacher, his wife Lili teaches elementary school, and the two rented a Berkeley apartment in the Poets Corner neighborhood. When a charming home in their neighborhood went on the market back in November they put in an offer. Outbid by $20,000, the seller had an odd request. ‘They want you to offer something creative beyond the money. Um, that’s what she said,’ said Kuchar, recounting the phone call from his real estate agent.”
“So Kuchar sat down at his piano and started recording with his phone. ‘Hi Cathy and Joshua, this is Natan and I thought I would just show you how much my family and I would love to purchase your home,’ he said in the recording. ‘Who has the words to say choose me,’ asked Kuchar and it came to him. He’d play Our House by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Kuchar sent the soul-baring rendition to his real estate agent Maya Karpinski.”
“‘And I cried that’s basically what happened,’ recalled Karpinski. ‘No joke, three minutes later Maya texted me back saying that we won the house,’ said Kuchar. Karpinski says always write a buyers letter, ‘Write this letter with your heart making your story a part of that house.’”
From Mansion Global. “San Francisco’s luxury condo market, which comprise 10% of the city’s housing market and start at $2 million, are concentrated in the southeast quadrant. The newest crop is there, too. Sales have been robust in all areas, said Patrick Carlisle, chief market analyst at Paragon Real Estate, except the Financial District, where the sinking Millennium Tower has also sunk sales in the district by 50%.”
“He is, however, more cautiously optimistic about the ultra-luxury housing market. ‘For houses selling for over $5 million and condos and co-ops priced at $3 million or more, the supply of listings has been surging well beyond demand,’ he said. ‘And many of these listings are expiring without selling.’”
From City Watch LA. “The urban growth machine, including its enablers in public office and academia, dish out endless cover stories to camouflage their hidden agenda of priming the pumps of real estate speculation. When one of their self-serving theories bites the dust, they quickly advance another one, knowing they can depend on the corporate media and ‘business-friendly’ policy experts to quickly pickup the beat.”
“In the face of such overwhelming evidence that their ‘build more market housing’ (in Hollywood and elsewhere) version of densification would worsen climate change, the density hawks nimbly turned to other ruses. But, as you will see, their back-up claims are equally specious. Like greenwashing, they, too, are just frail stalking horses for their real objective: supporting this year’s most profitable type of real estate investment: apartment houses.”
“In San Francisco, like LA, a major center of gentrification in an expensive housing market, the same forecasts of an impending population boom were cited to justify rampant land use deregulation and up-zoning. But, in SF more people are leaving than moving in. In fact, the Wall Street Journal reports that despite the riches of the high tech boom, San Francisco declined by 24,000 people last year, mostly because too many residents were priced out of its expensive housing market.”
“The final justification for the build-more-market-housing business model is that it will increase the supply of desperately needed affordable housing. Since there is zero evidence of expensive housing trickling down to become affordable housing in Los Angeles, the density hawks then invoke another out-of-context economic theory: supply-and-demand. They imagine that a glut of expensive housing forces the price of housing down to the point that it becomes affordable and apartments that rent for $2000-3,000 per month will be discounted to $600 a month because of high vacancy rates.”
From the American Spectator. “Economic illiteracy has an astoundingly high cost. California’s leaders have created a housing crisis thanks to myriad policies that make it difficult — at times, nearly impossible — for those ‘greedy’ developers to build new homes, condos, and apartments even as the state’s population grows. They can’t figure out why the rent is too darned high and U-Hauls (heading east) are so hard to come by.”
“To most normal Americans, supply and demand is a concept as basic as gravity. To the Left, it’s something that can be overcome by central planning. So listening to the state’s Democrats debate housing policy is as mind-twisting as listening to Venezuela’s leaders argue about changing the numbers on the currency. It’s almost unfathomable, actually. And, in fairness, California’s leading Republicans don’t have a firm grasp on the concept, either.”
“My favorite story about California’s housing crisis involves San Francisco’s housing market. In a city where modest apartments routinely cost $4,000 a month, thousands of landlords have pulled apartments from the market and let them sit vacant. Who foregoes that kind of rent? People who understand that under rent control and the city’s tenants’-rights laws that it’s nearly impossible to evict tenants, or later convert apartments into condos or to raise the rent if market conditions change. It’s far safer to leave them empty, which has sparked calls by San Francisco’s leaders to impose taxes and penalties on those who do so.”
“The housing statistics are daunting. The median home value in the state has topped a half-million dollars. California’s cost-of-living-adjusted poverty rate is the highest in the nation due primarily to housing costs, according to the Census Bureau. Homeless encampments are spreading.”
From Mother Jones. “When I ask Christine Hernandez, a mother of four, slender in stature and bold in manner, how best to scout for abandoned homes—the bleak dwellings with the boarded-up windows and ripped-out drywall, their innards packed with leftover syringes, rotting debris, and the peculiar loot of previous dispossessed tenants—she says it’s best to send someone who won’t draw too much suspicion from cops or neighbors. ‘I’m a woman, and small,’ she notes. ‘Not super intimidating, you know?’”
“It was about two years ago when Hernandez, who works at a community development organization, and her husband, Emilio, a painter, were forced to leave their ramshackle home in Oakland, California, after trying to get their landlord to make repairs. They started touring listings and seeking out ‘For Rent’ signs in windows. But in the nutso housing crisis plaguing the Bay Area, where one-bedroom apartments in Oakland rent for more than $2,000 a month—never mind a home with space for a family of six—they found themselves, like so many others, hopelessly priced out.”
“What they did notice was a shocking abundance of forsaken properties. They started performing reconnaissance. On a clear October morning in 2015, they found a three-bedroom, one-bath house that had been a haven for drugs and prostitution. They pried open a section of the chain-link fence surrounding the property, scurried inside, and explored by flashlight. The kitchen had no counter, no sink, no pipes. Burn marks scoured the home. ‘It was a total mess,’ says Hernandez, but a mess could be cleaned up. They got to work.”
“The housing crisis is often described as a shortage, the only solution being that we build our way out of it. But for every American living on the street, there are 13 empty, off-market units. In Oakland, where buyers routinely offer hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking prices, there are nearly four vacant properties for every homeless person. It’s not so much an issue of scarcity, but of distribution.”
“Squatting, or ‘occupying,’ as its practitioners tend to prefer calling it, is a shaky existence, Hernandez’s family immediately discovered. Steven DeCaprio, and his organization, called Land Action, was dedicated to helping squatters. Hernandez and her family went off to find him. Not long ago, DeCaprio was facing several years in jail and tens of thousands of dollars in fines for felony conspiracy charges stemming from assisting two Oakland squatters in 2015. When those charges were finally dropped in late 2017, DeCaprio and his colleagues interpreted it as a confirmation that adverse-possession claims might be a viable strategy for housing for at least some of the Bay Area’s burgeoning homeless population.”
“On a stormy night in January, I tagged along with DeCaprio as he drove to a city commission meeting about a homeless encampment in Berkeley. As he steered through the rainy streets, he said that in his nearly two decades of working on housing rights, he’d ‘never seen such an acute amount of displacement and homelessness.’ The dot-com boom and the foreclosure crisis were nothing compared with the speculation that’s occurring now, ‘this new real estate bubble that keeps expanding.’”
Redmond, WA Housing Prices Crater 11% YOY
https://www.movoto.com/redmond-wa/market-trends/
Using garbage websites to justify your incorrect headlines. You’re as predictable as a broken clock, Mortgage Watch.
Hello my good friend.
Bellevue, WA 98005 Housing Prices Crater 11% YOY As Seattle Economy Stumbles
https://www.zillow.com/bellevue-wa-98005/home-values
Too funny how you get so bent out of shape over this…are you a used house salesperson in WA?
He’s a loanowner in Redmond, WA. He worships at the altar of high house prices.
I wonder when the crash emanating out of Manhattan will reach Seattle?
He’s a loanowner in Redmond, WA. He worships at the altar of high house prices.
Where does this come from? redmondjp hasn’t worshipped anything, merely reported that which appears accurate to me from living in the same area (Bellevue vs Redmond).
Please stop attacking anyone who doesn’t toe the line and say that housing is crashing everywhere…
Please stop attacking anyone who doesn’t toe the line and say that housing is crashing everywhere…
That said, my former LL’s house appears to still be up for sale after a month, so perhaps change is finally in the wind around here. One can hope…
Prices are falling in Bellevue and Redmond, not everywhere my good friend.
“predictable as a broken clock…”
LOL….even Mortgage Watch is right twice a day….
Housing my good friends. Housing.
North Palm Beach, FL Housing Prices Crater 10% YOY As Vacation Property Demand Collapses
https://www.movoto.com/north-palm-beach-fl/market-trends/
‘For houses selling for over $5 million and condos and co-ops priced at $3 million or more, the supply of listings has been surging well beyond demand,’ he said. ‘And many of these listings are expiring without selling.’
Oh dear…
The alligator will destroy most of these real estate Trump wanna bees and their “financial” backers.
Waterfront San Diego listings are up 24% from last year. We looked at the market last May, 2017. It was a “given” that listings were holding steady at 225 for several years. Today, there are 279 properties for sale.
Probably not cratering, but it’s a good sign that buyers have more choices now, so you don’t have to settle for the first floor dark condo between the garbage chute and the elevator banks!
I wonder where it will go from here?
This correction is just getting started…
Indeed the correction is well underway in San Diego
San Diego, CA 92037 Housing Prices Crater 9% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca-92037/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
“My favorite story about California’s housing crisis involves San Francisco’s housing market. In a city where modest apartments routinely cost $4,000 a month, thousands of landlords have pulled apartments from the market and let them sit vacant. Who foregoes that kind of rent? People who understand that under rent control and the city’s tenants’-rights laws that it’s nearly impossible to evict tenants, or later convert apartments into condos or to raise the rent if market conditions change. It’s far safer to leave them empty, which has sparked calls by San Francisco’s leaders to impose taxes and penalties on those who do so.”
is this true ? Sad but I believe very little written as news anymore.
“there are nearly four vacant properties for every homeless person.”
what kind of properties ?
In a non-rent controlled environment, if you want to convert an apartment project to condos, or complete a major renovation (where it is far more efficient to renovate the whole property than one-unit at a time), you make deals with the residents that you can terminate their occupancy with a reasonable notice period, so you can keep the units full for as long as possible.
If the city laws preclude you from making such arrangements, then you have no choice but to keep the units vacant if you want to convert the property to condos (or complete major renovations).
There may be some people who keep their units vacant hoping that rents rise further, but I’m willing to bet that 90%+ of those who are keeping units vacant are trying to vacate their entire building to complete a larger plan.
Government regulation and taxes have consequences.
People can and will adjust behavior to their best interests.
The more insane, the more people adjust.
For example:
Venezuela, with more oil than Saudi Arabia, has to import oil and gasoline products.
Venezuela, with a near 12 month growing season and massive amounts of fertile soil, has most of its population starving.
Whatever the reason, our system has totally failed. Completely. Turning shelter into a get-rich-quick scheme was the worst idea ever.
Not only that, it destroyed commutes and peoples’ quality of life, because they drove til they qualified, which is often very far away from work, and many stayed put even after a job change because they didnt want to give up their low loan amount. Where’z the libs with muh carbon emissionz?
Housing as an inflation hedge for anyone but the rich is pretty destructive when you think about it. I rent a house for about 1K/mo, house down the street that is similar size but much older is selling for 500K. Complete insanity.
Remember in a rent controlled building, the price is based on the rent roll not the projected price once everyone leaves..
So most landlords would have never been able to afford to buy the building in the first place if it was fully market price.
So its just good business sense to pay tenants to leave,
“there are nearly four vacant properties for every homeless person.”
With 25 million excess, empty and defaulted housing units out there, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Broad Brook, CT Housing Prices Crater 16% YOY As National Housing Demand Plummets
https://www.zillow.com/broad-brook-ct/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
I keep telling you it’s down to $24,999,999. One house sold since you started posting this number in 2009!
HA!
“They want you to offer something creative beyond the money.”
“Um, that’s what she said…”
Funny in a pathetic sort of way.
FWIW, when it comes time to sell my house, I might actually ask for the letter thing. Not that I’m looking for the best sob story, but I might be swayed if the buyer is a stable family that would live in the house, not a specuvestor or foreigner or a passel of flophouse renters.
Might be.
I’ll never understand this thinking. I want the highest offer that is most likely to close smoothly. What do I care what they do with the house when I’m gone? Live in it, rent it out, burn it down…..Did the check clear? Thanks, have fun.
No sappy video is worth $20,000.
Let’s say you have 2 offers:
1. Family who intends to live in the home and raise their kids; or
2. Foreign buyer who wants to park some money and do ??? with the house.
If the price is the same, would you flip a coin? Or sell to the family? I think most would sell to the family who intends to live in the house.
The question is, how strong is that preference in dollar terms? The answer depends on how much you like your neighbors, and how much the money matters to you.
You might say the preference isn’t worth one penny…but I think you’d be in the minority.
Thanks RW, that’s what I meant. I find it funny that HBB has been complaining for years about all these specuvestors and zombie houses and shadow inventory. But when given the choice themselves, they elect to enable the specuvestors and allow their homes to become the very same shadow inventory they claim to hate so much.
And I guess I have to cover my own butt here. I’m a single woman in a 3-bed house. It’s been implied that I should be living in a one-bed condo so that a larger family would access the house, i.e., I’m “depriving” a family of a house. I’m not that picky about who would live there after me (family vs. single person),but I do want the house to remain a primary residence for somebody, preferably someone who would maintain the place as I have.
If the price were the same. The singers were outbid by $20K.
Besides, who’s to say the other family aren’t nice people. We need auditions to buy a house now? This whole market really is just freaking off the rails.
Way back, I bought a family farm from a couple who cared very much what kind of folks would be moving into their neighborhood.
To be clear Oxy, leveraged speculation, buying more house than what you would if it were simply a dreadful expense, in the hopes of spectacular wealth generation is one of the obvious gears in the housing bubble clock. It has happened all over the country and folks of modest means who do not want a yoke of debt for the better part of their life can’t compete with easy credit and visions of sugar plums.
You did say you were going to get rich doing this.
I’m pretty sure I said that was *not* going to get rich doing this.
I could be wrong.
You’re not. Donk has repeatedly said poverty is guaranteed if you pay rent and don’t pay a massively inflated price for a rapidly depreciating house.
Ironically the opposite is true.
Looks to me like landlords have renters by the gonads now…every day I’m glad I bought in 2002.
Why buy it when you can rent it for half the monthly cost? Buy later after prices crater for 75% less.
Boothbay Harbor, ME Housing Prices Crater 12% YOY As Housing Correction Ravages New England States
https://www.zillow.com/boothbay-harbor-me/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
Mania can’t be remembered. “It never happened” is a hallmark. Like Jingle Mail coming on here and saying he never cheer leaded China. Confabulation, I guess it keeps one’s head from exploding.
“Looks to me like landlords have renters by the gonads now…every day I’m glad I bought in 2002.”
Homeowners can experience rapid tax increases that make it difficult to sell if you decide to leave. Florida homeowners could tell ‘ya about flood insurance increases.
“Freedom is just another word for when you have NOTHING left to lose.” —Janis Joplin
If the price were the same. The singers were outbid by $20K.
I’m not saying that what happened in this case isn’t completely bananas. After all, there is a reason locals here call it the Berzerkeley (or the People’s Republic of Berkeley).
At the same time though, unlike with commercial property, with residential, price and certainly of closing are not the only two things sellers consider–regardless of whether you think that is right or wrong, sign of a mania, or not.
The seller of the house we bought sold us her house off-market. This was in 2011, when the market wasn’t quite so crazy. The seller didn’t just ask us what we would pay and when we would close. She wanted to know who we were.
Thankfully we didn’t need to compose a song. We just told her that we lived in the city for a number of years, were renting closer to the downtown, but had a growing family and were looking for a bigger place. That was good enough–we negotiated a price and that was the end of it.
My guess is that if we were a foreign buyer looking to park some money, she may have decided to list the property and sell it to the highest offer from a family (regardless of how well they sang).
I suspect that the decision to choose a buyer who is going to actually live in the house as opposed to a foreign investor (who pays higher) might have something to do with how well-to-do the seller is. Those who are a bit more well off might have the luxury of being able to sell to someone at a lower price point primarily because they will be a better fit for the neighborhood or be a better stewardship of the dwelling or whatever.
My point simply is that it matters to many sellers who the buyer is…it may not matter $20k worth to most–that’s a big number to have a buyer who sings a song.
But would I sell my house for $1 less to a local family as opposed to a foreign buyer? Sure.
$1k? Maybe.
How about $50k? Not a chance.
Well put, and I agree with that sentiment as well. I would do the same. My teeter-totter amount would probably be around the $5k mark; I’d have to either really like the singers or dislike the nameless, faceless investors offering $5k higher.
How many cats live in your three bedroom home?
Way back, I bought a family farm from a couple who cared very much what kind of folks would be moving into their neighborhood.
When I was selling a house I inherited, bigoted neighbors (total Archie Bunkers minus the humorous aspect) stopped by and gave me the card of a realtor who would insure that it would be sold or rented to “a nice Christian family”. I threw it in the garbage.
I think a lot of what is posed as caring about the type of people who move in is a cover for something much uglier.
I was sorely tempted to find some black muslim transgender illegal immigrant lesbians to sell the place to, but I just needed it gone (because houses are giant money pits and not fountains of wealth).
And FYI to any who would be tempted to solicit letters or videos from prospective buyers–do you not have any idea what convincing liars many people are? Duh.
Granted, if the price were the same and I liked my neighbors I would probably ask. But $20,000 is a hefty sum (at least it is to me).
Apt, are you asking me? No cats. I’m hitting enough of the spinster-lady stereotypes as it is; I don’t need any more!
And why is it that men are allowed to be single, but women are not. Sexist.
Hey Donk
men are allowed to be single…
I have pictures of my lovely girlfriend hung on the wall in my house. Married men are not allowed to do that.
I know plenty of single women, and men too. The women typically seem less comfortable with the single status, but they live better and longer than single men. Go figure!
do you not have any idea what convincing liars many people are? Duh.
I’ve heard stories of “straw buyers” who appear to be a nice family, purporting to be the buyer using an LLC….which is actually owned by a foreign individual.
Madoff had investors begging him to take their money. He made people think they had to be sort of special - exclusive - for them to qualify to be scammed by him.
I like it.
Requiring the submitting of letters or music or poetry or whatever offers up the same sort of psychology to potential marks in convincing them that their overpaying for a house is a special privilege that they have to somehow earn.
Here’s an article that is vaguely related to what I am talking about …
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inside-the-box/201401/creativity-lesson-betty-crocker
The fact that there is some sort of obstacle that needs to be overcome or some sort of task needs to be performed in order to land a prize tends to add value to the prize.
See also “the endowment effect”:
In psychology and behavioral economics, the endowment effect (also known as divestiture aversion and related to the mere ownership effect in social psychology[1]) is the hypothesis that people ascribe more value to things merely because they own them.[2][3]
This is typically illustrated in two ways.[3] In a valuation paradigm, people will tend to pay more to retain something they own than to obtain something they do not own—even when there is no cause for attachment, or even if the item was only obtained minutes ago. In an exchange paradigm, people given a good are reluctant to trade it for another good of similar value. For example, participants first given a Swiss chocolate bar were generally unwilling to trade it for a coffee mug, whereas participants first given the coffee mug were generally unwilling to trade it for the chocolate bar.
People also ascribe more value to things they must earn than what they are given for free.
It’s amazing how, as capitalism is corrupted, people descend into tribalism and discrimination. Like the apartment building where developers said they would only rent to “cool people.” How is this different than China’s social credit score denying access to services to people who don’t fit in? If you don’t vote the right way, or display trendy tendencies toward “creativity,” you don’t get access to elite enclaves like Berkeley. Doesn’t sound very tolerant or inclusive.
Like how if you want to rent an AirBnB, you have to write a letter to the host explaining what kind of person you are, why you’re traveling and what you’ll do when you get there. If evil hotel corporations tried this they would be sued into oblivion.
AirBnB was originally intended for people to rent out rooms in their own home, not a workaround for a hotel or time-share business.
As for tribalism, do you really think the rental houses in my neighborhood were publicly posted for rent, and tenants chosen from a diverse pool on the basis of financial merit alone? Not when my mailbox gets sales flyers from Dish Latino.
Capitalism cannot exist where there is no rule of law.
DACA, Paris Agreements, Iranian Agreement, cheap/easy money, not one banker in jail, fast a furious, GM/UAW bailout, using government agencies to spy/prosecute political enemies, killing people with no due process, etc.
The fish was rotten at the head and an example of all to follow.
Bill Whittle wrote a great piece called “You are not alone” where he talks about the breakdown of the rule of law and the “Prisoner’s Dilemma”. These two quotes are out of context but:
” You are in a line of cars on the freeway heading for a high-traffic exit ramp. The line slows. The line is the most efficient and fair way to get the cars off the highway – first come, first served. But people are using the faster surrounding lanes to get to the head of the line and merge at the last instant. When more cars end up bypassing the line than are waiting in it, being in the line no longer makes sense. Cooperation flips to Screw the Other Guy as the best strategy, since so many people are merging at the exit the line now barely moves at all. These haphazard merges slow not only the exit lane, but also the surrounding ones as people decelerate to find a last-minute merge opportunity. It becomes a safety hazard. Everybody loses. ”
“When a tipping point is reached – when enough people are allowed to cheat – the system swings to a different stability mode (the default mode) and Screw the Other Guy becomes the only rational choice. “
Yep. One cop pulling over a few of the line cutters would have ended it.
Kinda like doing away with GAAP, too big to fail and not one banker in jail.
“…Funny in a pathetic sort of way….”
What’s next? A family of well fed squirrels singing acapella?
I bet thats how Alvin and the chipmunks got started!
+4
“California Commits Massive Medicaid Fraud”
https://spectator.org/california-commits-massive-medicaid-fraud/
Just to be clear Medicaid is for younger disability and welfare cases while Medicare is for people who have reached social security age. The entire medical compensation system is shot-through with fraud, IMHO.
One way to remember the distinction is “you care for the old and aid the poor.”
Realtors are liars.
Herndon, VA Housing Prices Crater 7% YOY
https://www.movoto.com/herndon-va/market-trends/
….even a broken Mortgage Watching going to be right twice a day! HA!
Weekly Summary: HBB-Reported Purchase Price Declines
Posted every Tuesday.
–
**REMINDER: I posted the quarterly summary and key in the comments section on March 31:
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=10388#comments
–
March 28 - April 3
> -28.6% [Sydney / PCA] (Mar18)
> -25% [Brisbane - Fortitude Valley / PCA DEV] (Mar18)
> -8% Manhattan / MED CND + COP (Q2.17.P-Mar18)
> -4% London - South West / PIX EST (Mar18)
> -3.3% [Toronto - Oakville / PCA] (2017-Mar18)
It’s quite a list.
u have sinned
Not by your standards…
obama economics in a nutshell.
In the bad old days when banks ate their bad loans and Janet Reno/AGs was not forcing CRA down their throats - this rarely if ever happened.
And now it is common and expected.
+++++
But in the nutso housing crisis plaguing the Bay Area, where one-bedroom apartments in Oakland rent for more than $2,000 a month—never mind a home with space for a family of six—they found themselves, like so many others, hopelessly priced out.”
“What they did notice was a shocking abundance of forsaken properties.
Bahahahahahahaha … Here’s a fun read that demonstrates just how stupid people are …
https://wolfstreet.com/2018/04/02/what-kind-of-hyper-enthusiastic-market-is-this-that-blindly-keeps-pursuing-scams-to-make-a-fortune-overnight-even-if-they-already-crashed-the-first-time/
Bahahahahahaha … Here’s some excerpts. Be sure to read the entire article then go ahead and go all-in and buy the dips.
“What Kind of Hyper-Enthusiastic Market is this that Blindly Keeps Pursuing Scams to Make a Fortune Overnight, even if They Already Crashed the First Time?”
(snip)
“LFIN started trading on December 13, following their IPO. On December 15, LongFin announced – with what I called it “a mix of gobbledygook, hype, and silliness” – that it had acquired a “Blockchain-empowered solutions provider,” namely a website that belonged to a Singapore corporation that is 95% owned by Longfin’s CEO and chairman.”
Bahahahahahahahaha …
(snip)
“After the first spike and crash, and after what some folks wrote about it – including your humble servant right here – it would seem that people would realize what kind of outfit this is, and that they would try to exit their shares, and be done with it, having learned a lesson about believing corporate gobbledygook instead of doing research. Then the shares would have died a quiet death in the graveyard of forgotten penny stocks.
But what kind of hyper-enthusiastic market is this that blindly keeps pursuing the latest scam, knowing all the things that are wrong with it? How can the people and algos that make up this market drive these shares so high as to give a nothing-company with the iffiest disclosures a market capitalization at one point of $7 billion? And after it crashes, how can these players in this market try to do this all over again?”
I like that phrase “blockchain-empowered”. WTF does that even mean? I’m thinking a life-coach type hatched this. Hope his karma lands him in a ditch somewhere.
One word: GREED.
New York County (Manhattan) Housing Prices Crater 20% YOY As Major Cities Are Impacted By Housing Correction
https://www.zillow.com/new-york-county-ny/home-values/
*Select price from dropdown menu on first chart
….even a broken Mortgage Watching going to be right twice a day! HA!
DebtDonkey
Wrightsville Beach, FL Housing Prices Crater 7% YOY As Coastal Property Values Plunge
https://www.movoto.com/wrightsville-beach-nc/market-trends/
Active shooter today at YouTube office in San Bruno, CA.
Cue up the grabber narrative
did u know Im in escrow?
They’re on it!
Nancy Pelosi
✔
@NancyPelosi
My staff & I are closely following developments from the active shooter situation at YouTube HQ in San Bruno, CA. Thank you to our heroic first responders. Our Bay Area community – and all American communities – deserve real action to #EndGunViolence.
5:04 PM - Apr 3, 2018
5,104
2,028 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Dianne Feinstein, a former mayor of San Francisco who was thrust into the national spotlight following the Moscone-Milk assassinations, said her stomach sank upon hearing the news.
Sen Dianne Feinstein
✔
@SenFeinstein
My stomach sinks with yet another active shooter alert. I’m praying for the safety of everyone at YouTube headquarters.
5:09 PM - Apr 3, 2018
2,347
853 people are talking about this
Harvey Milk - the hero gay pedophile of the left who raped minor adolescent boys after getting them incapacitated on drugs
Speaking of which - how is the Bill Cosby trial going?
#metooexceptforgayvictims
Do Pelosi and Feinstein show as much concern about the feces smeared all over the streets? Doesn’t raw sewage present a danger to one’s health?
The narrative must be controlled.
YouTube (owned by Google) had its “safe space” violated today.
None of these people give a sh*t about black teenagers killing each other on the streets of Chicago or Baltimore day after day after day, because it doesn’t sell a narrative.
And as we’ve learned from the New York Times, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Salon dot com, the Atlantic, the New Yorker, the UK Guardian, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, NPR, PBS, and too many others to name, if you dare deviate from #MuhNarrative, you are, in fact, a Nazi. And if you dare speak about it in public, Soros-funded AntiFa thugs will bash your head in with a bike lock (see also Berkeley, April 2017).
Know your narrative. Because if you don’t, it could get you killed
Vegan vigilantes are a hate group.
@DonnieDC
“Was just briefed on the shooting at YouTube’s HQ in San Bruno, California. Our thoughts and prayers are with everybody involved. Thank you to our phenomenal Law Enforcement Officers and First Responders that are currently on the scene.”
√
Somebody must be mad at the voyeurs?
So far, it sounds like the only one killed was the shooter (who apparently killed herself). I hope the three that were wounded survive.
According to recent reports, one of the victims was the boyfriend of the shooter. Supposedly, it was a domestic violence issue. Yup, I’d say that’s the ultimate in domestic violence.
Heh, butters was right. The shooter was upset over demonetization. No boyfriend involved.
Makes sense based on my understanding of things. Manhattan is ground zero of the financial sector. There are going to be more people with high level views of the money flows, i.e. those who can trace a dollar injected by a central bank to what it buys, who are, it seems to me, trying to position themselves to reduce risk from reduced injections.
Manhattan Home Sales Tumble Most Since 2009 as Buyers Walk
By Oshrat Carmiel
April 3, 2018
Bloomberg
Home sales in Manhattan plunged by the most since the recession as buyers at all price levels drove hard bargains and were in no rush to close deals.
Sales of all condos and co-ops fell 25 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to 2,180, according to a report Tuesday by appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. It was the biggest annual decline since the second quarter of 2009, when Manhattan’s property market froze in the wake of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy filing and the global financial crisis that followed.
The drop in sales spanned from the highest reaches of the luxury market to workaday studios and one-bedrooms. Buyers, who have noticed that home prices are no longer climbing as sharply as they have been, are realizing they can afford to be picky.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-03/manhattan-home-sales-tumble-most-since-2009-as-buyers-push-back
‘Buyers, who have noticed that home prices are no longer climbing as sharply as they have been, are realizing they can afford to be picky’
Prices have been dropping for two years.
Rising interest rates + DJT new tax laws + QE unwind = the tipping point
Having the financial sector as the most sacrosanct and important sector of the economy means an economy built around gambling. Government-backed gambling if you can influence politicians and central bankers to insure your profitability, either overtly (bailouts) or covertly (monetary policy).
I’ve got no issue with gambling, it’s just the side-effects of the insurance that I take issue with. Wanna be a cowboy? Be a cowboy. But it’s the whole “Socialism for the wealthy, rugged individualism for everyone else” policy that doesn’t seem just.
Stunned Investors Reap 95% Gains on Defaulted Puerto Rico Bonds
By Michelle Kaske
April 3, 2018
Of all the wild, head-scratching moves in financial markets this year, there are few that have surprised investors quite as much as the rally in defaulted Puerto Rico bonds. “It just blows my mind,” says Matt Dalton, chief executive officer of Belle Haven Investments.
Since sinking to a mere 20.8 cents on the dollar in December, prices on the island’s most frequently traded securities have climbed steadily and reached a high of 45 cents last week before paring gains during the past few days. Not only are Puerto Rico’s bonds the top performer in the $3.9 trillion municipal market, they’ve gained more than any other dollar-denominated debt in the world, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-03/stunned-investors-reap-95-gains-on-defaulted-puerto-rico-bonds
Boring munis - backed by full faith, credit and taxing authority of government and the first in line to be repaid are now casinos.
obama economics in a nutshell.
I think Trump is president now…..
“The central bank must vote once per year on the level of the buffer, currently set at 0%.”
Hwy50 say$, that vote date will bee x1 day … after.the.fact
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/fed-may-want-to-require-banks-to-hold-more-capital-to-head-off-financial-stability-risks-brainard-says-2018-04-03
“Everybody needs to relax,” Navarro told CNBC. Trump’s trade policy is “good for the market,” he insisted, adding: “I teach that stuff. I mean, let’s remember – if anybody knows what goes wrong with these models, it’s the guy who knows how to teach them.”
Eye’m plenty relaxed Poindexer Profe$$or from Irvine, CALIFORNIA, got many Co$tco boxes of made.in.America Midwest popcorn in the pañtry, & American micro.brewed ice cold beer, awaitin’ for the commoditie$ export reports on RFDtv over the coming months. + (as in add) Fed interest rate increa$se acomin’ down the hard.rock.rural.road
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/03/peter-navarro-says-trumps-trade-policies-are-good-for-the-market-but-economists-arent-buying-it.html
they want u to pay more for stuff.
How many years have we been told the Chinese were stealing intellectual property from us? As long as I can remember. That’s what’s at the heart of these new tariffs. Some say it’s worth $800 billion each year. (That’s nearly a trillion for you folks in Oklahoma).
And this isn’t the only problem. They practice all sorts of protectionism. Basically, China declared a trade war on the US long ago and we just kept letting it go on unopposed. So now Trump wants to challenge them on it. What’s the alternative economists? Just roll over yet again and let them steal us blind?
Around 2012 I knew of a company in Flagstaff that made a blood testing machine. They paid good money for up there. They got an order from China. Shipped it off and back it comes rejected. While it was in China, every single part and screw had been disassembled. They said the government had to take it apart to look for drugs. This was the only patent this company in Flagstaff had, and now the technology was likely stolen.
“They said the government had to take it apart to look for drugs. This was the only patent this company in Flagstaff had, and now the technology was likely stolen.”
Knot likely, it was $tolen, & then mass di$tributed …
Buffett And Trump Agree: America Must Get Off Squanderville Island
Mar. 2, 2003
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4051695-buffett-trump-agree-america-must-get-squanderville-island
Remember that article Warren Buffett wrote for Fortune magazine in 2003 titled, “America’s Growing Trade Deficit Is Selling The Nation Out From Under Us. Here’s A Way To Fix The Problem - And We Need To Do It Now.”
We agree. Trump is fighting the correct fight in the correct way. China will fight back hard. It needs a large surplus to counter capital fight and its increasing need to import energy. The stolen intellectual property is needed to raise wages by moving up the production letter. China is in a race to grow rich before it grows old. Leverage has been used to accelerate the gdp growth. It only becomes a risky strategy if the large trade surpluses disappear. However the status quo was a weakening America while China grew stronger. Better a trade war now than a shooting war later, because we are weak.
Thank you for your insight, dan. Even if China gets rich, they will eventually let it all decay, just as we did. It will only take 50 years.
Thank you and of course: production letter= production ladder
An example of this is planes. Five years ago everyone was talking about how many Boeing planes would be sold to China to meet its surging travel needs. I pointed out then that China was going to produce its own planes. Of course, stolen technology played an important role in accomplishing its goal. This also allowed China to move textile mills to Vietnam and have even better paying jobs stay in China, producing the machines for the mills and making airplanes.
“It will only take 50 years.”
Likely sooner as their demographic problems are due to arrive in less than 25-yrs, the result of the single child policy.
China is in a race to grow rich before it grows old.
Doubtful the Chinese elderly procure Federal financial burden$ as the U$A ederly … Their $ocial $ecurity net$ are … different.
“What’s the alternative economists? Just roll over yet again and let them steal us blind”
2013 + 5 = 2018 … Right on time!
“Our analysis concludes that, within five years, the total cost of production for many products will be only about 10 to 15 percent less in Chinese coastal cities than in some parts of the U.S. where factories are likely to be built. Factor in shipping, inventory costs and other considerations, and — for many goods destined for the North American market — the cost gap between sourcing in China and manufacturing in the U.S. will be minimal. … When all cost are taken into account, certain U.S. states, such as South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee, will turn out to be among the least expensive production sites in the industrialized world.”
https://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/02/11/the-trade-deficit-an-update-on-warren-buffetts-goo.aspx
The problem is now they are closing Chinese plants and moving to lower wage places like Vietnam. Globalism is a race to the bottom, with wages, labor laws and the environment. This happened before when thousands of factories left Mexico for China after the WTO let the latter in.
Mr. Ben, yous dead on, & preachin’ to the choir$, ( Thank You!) … Eye suggest à HBB soriee @ a commercial parking lot that has a micro brewery & Harbor Freight tool joint, … eye got a coupon for a free flashlight!
Tesla’s Model 3 Is Now America’s Best-Selling Electric Car
That’s the good news buried under Elon Musk’s rocky first quarter. But a
question remains: Is it sustainable?
Tom Randall
Bloomberg
“It’s official: Tesla’s new Model 3 is now the best-selling electric car in the U.S. Tesla Inc. released its production numbers for the first quarter 2018 on Tuesday. The company delivered 8,180 Model 3s in the first three months of the year. That compares with 6,468 deliveries for Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius Prime plug-in hybrid and 4,375 for General Motors Co.’s Chevy Bolt.”
“Coming out on top is no small feat for a company that’s been manufacturing vehicles for barely a decade. However, huge hurdles remain as Palo Alto, California-based Tesla tries to turn the page on one of the most difficult chapters in its short history.”
“Earlier this year, Bloomberg launched an experimental model to track Model 3 production using vehicle identification numbers (VINs). Our final estimate came in just 5 percent less than Tesla’s reported numbers, arguably validating the methodology. That’s not great news for Tesla fans, because our model suggests the company may have exaggerated its production capabilities at the end of last year. In the coming weeks, Tesla will need to prove that it can sustain and build upon the peak weekly production rates it just announced.”
“Other key takeaways from Tuesday’s announcement:
1. Tesla’s second-quarter forecast eases cash concerns. Tesla said it “won’t require an equity or debt raise this year, apart from standard credit lines.” Investors were anticipating a need for as much as $3 billion in additional capital for the production ramp.
2. Investors are pleased. Shares rose in early trading as much as 6.9 percent.
3. Total Model 3 production for the quarter was 9,766, compared with a final estimate of 9,285 made by the Bloomberg production tracker.
4. Tesla maintained its targets. Model 3: 5,000 cars produced each week by the end of the second quarter. Model S and X: 100,000 deliveries in 2018. Tesla foresees a rapid increase in production this quarter.”
But is Tesla making any money selling those cars?
Yes, that is the correct question and I think we all know the answer, it is not even close despite Tesla selling mostly the Model 3s selling over $50,000 and not the base models. A second question is what happens when it loses the $7500 credit and its competitors still have it as a selling point. I guess the only silver lining for its low production of Model 3s is the tax credit will last for more quarters than originally projected.
The loss of the tax credit will hurt. But how much? The new tax law with $24k of standard deduction for married couples will mean that it is a lot less likely that a median income buyer (target buyer for Tesla of the lower-priced model 3) would be able to take full advantage of the $7500 credit. The credit can’t be rolled forward to future years. You have to use in in the year you purchase. In other words, the credit is less useful the less you make; only really useful to household incomes above $100k.
Not yet. Maybe not ever. Building cars and selling them is a pretty tough business. Net margins are very low industry-wide, even for the best companies. It’s no wonder that there hasn’t been a new entrant in the US market for decades that hasn’t gone belly up.
A mobility company, on the other hand, has a much better chance of having good profit margins. Tesla would be better to own the platform (e.g. the car) and monetize the fuel (e.g. electricity) and the entertainment/advertising to the end-user.
Oakton, VA Housing Prices Crater 10% YOY As DC Area Housing Market Adjusts To Federal Budget
https://www.zillow.com/oakton-va/home-values/
*Select price from dropdown menu on first chart
HA! ….even a broken Mortgage Watch is going to be right twice a day! HA!
DebtDonkey
Kahului, Hawaii Housing Prices Crater 12% YOY
https://www.movoto.com/kahului-hi/market-trends/
“The housing statistics are daunting. The median home value in the state has topped a half-million dollars. California’s cost-of-living-adjusted poverty rate is the highest in the nation due primarily to housing costs, according to the Census Bureau. Homeless encampments are spreading.”
What remedy do California Democrats propose to this crisis? Free housing for all?
“Homeless encampments are spreading.”
Come for the weather, stay for the free food, clean needles, and the hotel vouchers.
Shelterless taxe$ on ALL real e$tate tran$actions.
(make it miniscule percentage ba$ed on tran$actions amount$)
Iffin’ the Germans can manage defective cars in California, surely Californians can do like wise for defective shelterless humans!
http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2018/03/30/nearly-300000-vw-diesels-are-sitting-in-lots-across-u-s.html
They’ve already got theirs. They don’t give a sh*t.
My apologies if somebody already posted this USA Today article, but it really hit a nerve with me.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/04/03/hot-housing-market-home-buyers-spending-more-than-expected/479824002/
Caron MacDonald, 29, of Hanover, Mass., planned on spending $250,000 to $280,000 on her first home purchase but found that houses in that range needed work or weren’t in safe neighborhoods. So she wound up buying a two-bedroom house for $300,000 about a year ago.
Since MacDonald wanted to make a 20% down payment to avoid the cost of mortgage insurance, the higher price tag forced her mother to chip in half of the $60,000 down payment instead of the $10,000 to $20,000 she originally planned.
MacDonald is also paying $1,600 a month in mortgage and other costs, about $400 more than she intended. To make it work, the lifelong equestrian had to sell her horse to shed roughly $700 in monthly stable fees and has given up her annual vacation to the Caribbean.
“It was tough,” she said of the horse sale. And, “It is a little disappointing to not go away as much.”
But noting that her monthly house payment is now an investment in her future, she says, “I can do without a vacation if it means I’m actually a homeowner.”
Gives up vacations/pleasures of life to be debt slave, check
Screws mom into also being mired in a bad investment, check
Sells her horse/pet down the river, check
Fear of missing out is a bitch! She’s doomed.
The pendulum has been swinging for some time but given her story is not unique and the article deals with “your average person” spending more than they intend, it really feels like we’re back into the depths of housing market insanity and something has to give. I think it is just a matter of time now before the Realtor hits the fan and we’re back to 2007-2012…or worse.
“It was tough,” she said of the horse sale.
Add a dash of “Hotter Than Hell” hot-sauce. . .
I am sick to freaking death of this cryptojacking that’s going on. Yahoo is one of the worst sites of all. When I open their site my CPU % spikes and the fan runs as the computer gets hot. When I close Yahoo, it goes back to normal. This crap can’t die fast enough. DUMBEST.BUBBLE.EVER.
Avoid the Yahoos. Problem solved.
Interesting. I have the same problem. Is cryptojacking really the issue?
Yeah, I had to stop going to any yahoo pages too.
I believe the advertising has a lot to do with it. You can opt out.
Another day, another multihundred point drop in headline U.S. stock indices priced into the futures market…
Got volatility?
It turns out that the stock market doesn’t always go up.
How to handle market volatility close to retirement
By Kathryn Vasel March 24, 2018: 10:26 AM ET
There’s a plot of land sitting in North Carolina waiting for Robin Festa and her husband to build their retirement home.
She’s hoping to retire early in three years at age 63 and head south from Connecticut to enjoy a lower cost of living. The pair have been dutifully socking away as much money as they can into their retirement accounts.
She’s meticulous about their savings, tracking everything on a spreadsheet and checking the balances frequently — a task that has been enjoyable for the last few years as the market climbed to record highs.
But the stock market’s recent volatility has made checking her balance a lot less fun. In one week in early February, they lost $30,000.
“I have to admit a tear slid from my eye,” she said, referring to her balance after the Dow’s worst week in two years. They were down $18,000 for February.
The couple are planning to use some of their retirement funds to build their home down South and Wall Street’s recent performance has been tough on then nerves. “When things swing wildly, it upsets the apple cart,” said Festa, who is a legal assistant.
…
stay invested!
Follow the tweet$! … Monty Python
Watch Trump’s Twitter feed for buying opportunities: Economist
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/03/watch-trumps-twitter-feed-for-buying-opportunities-economist.html
Aren’t Boeing and Amazon both headquartered in Seattle? Just sayin’…
Stock Market Today
Stock Market Futures Plunge As China Announces Big Tariffs
ED CARSON 7:05 AM ET
Stock market futures for the S&P 500 index, Dow Jones industrial average and Nasdaq 100 sold off sharply Wednesday morning after China announced plans for big retaliatory tariffs on aircraft, soybeans, automobiles and chemicals in response to America’s high-tech tariffs on high-tech Chinese imports.
Stock Market Futures
Stock market futures indicated sharply losses vs. fair value. S&P 500 index futures fell 1.8%, Dow Jones futures slid 2.3% and Nasdaq 100 futures were off 2.1%.
Boeing (BA) crashed 6% in premarket trading as China’s penalties could weigh heavily on the aerospace giant. Boeing is a major drag on the Dow Jones and a significant part of the S&P 500.
…
boeing and CAT are so overvalued they could crash 50% and still be overpriced.
Stocks are in fantasy land.
Boeing HQ moved to Chicago, IIRC.
Boeing Corporate is in Chicago, since it is doubtful there will knot bee any layoffs there, it might give Chic.ago Amazonian ll a leg up in the headquarter$ relocation bidding$.
This …
https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?p=d1&t=YM
Reminds me of this …
https://charts.bitcoin.com/chart/price
One thing that is wonderful about having a balanced portfolio composed of stocks and bonds is when stocks tank bonds tend to do well and thus even things out.
Oh, wait …
https://finviz.com/futures_charts.ashx?t=ZB&p=w1
goldilocks is alive and well. I feel proud to buy american product.
Chic.ago trading has i$$ues too.
oink
oiNGk
noun
1.
the characteristic grunting sound of a pig.
verb
1.
make the characteristic grunting sound of a pig.
San Diego was a leader in the first leg down of Housing Bubble collapse, circa 2007-2009. The onset of Housing Bubble 2.0 collapse appears to be concentrated in New York City. Time will tell when the shock waves will reach California shores.
Folks will unwillingly allocate 70% of their income to $tay in their over.priced mortgaged box with plentiful empty $pace inside, otherwise, their alternative choice is to allocate 70% to move into a rental … Deci$ions, decision$
something that can be built in months by a small crew is a lifetime of debt for a buyer. It is also a meal ticket of interest for bankers.
All that matters nowadays when buying the home is the monthly payment. Its just like buying a car.
“The onset of Housing Bubble 2.0 collapse appears to be concentrated in New York City.”
Denver, CO 80211 Housing Prices Crater 8% YOY
https://www.zillow.com/denver-co-80211/home-values/
https://snag.gy/m5EzRB.jpg
FINANCIAL TIMES
Manhattan, New York
Manhattan apartment sales plunge
US tax changes blamed as buyers hold back and prices slide
A model apartment at 389 East 89th Street in New York © Bloomberg
Lindsay Fortado in New York April 2, 2018
Sales of Manhattan apartments — some of the priciest properties in the US — have declined by the most in almost a decade, as potential buyers hesitate following the introduction of the new tax law.
The number of co-op and condominium sales in Manhattan fell nearly 25 per cent during the first quarter compared to the same period last year, according to new research by Miller Samuel real estate appraisers and Douglas Elliman real estate brokers.
It was the largest annual decline in sales in nine years, according to the report.
…
Most real e$tate $ellers, like actors, have skill set$ they can fall back on, until the next audition pre$ents itself.
The Throwing $tones: “time is my side, yes it is, time ….”
How about the original Irma thomas
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP-c2Aq47Cs
Thank you, love it!
So, things are improving and I’ll be back to my original palmetto handle shortly, I think.
In other news, I see the Pentagon may be going with Oracle rather than Amazon for its big, fat no-bid contract. Good! It never made sense to me that Bezos uses the Washington Post to rip the President up one side and down the other, relentlessly, and then holds his hand out to the gubbmint and says “Now pay me!” At least with groups like the Mafia, if you pay for protection, they deliver it.
What in the name of Jeebus was this psychopath thinking?
Does Alibaba own a newspaper?
Eye dunno.
Hope they don’t catch on to using the US Postal Delivery to their own $elfish advantage$
“Internet giant Alibaba has become the first mainland Chinese company to join the ranks of stocks most commonly held by the world’s big institutional investors, according to data provider eVestment.
eVestment, which tracks $37tn managed for investors like pension funds, sovereign wealth funds and endowments, said Alibaba BABA, -3.56% became the 20th most widely held stock as of the end of last year, in the most recent update of its regular Institutional Stock Ownership Report.”
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/alibaba-joins-ranks-of-international-fund-managerss-favorite-stocks-2018-04-03
Hope they don’t catch on to using the US Postal Delivery to their own $elfish advantage$
Oh, but all the Chinese sellers have been doing exactly this since 2011, thanks to the postal service “epacket” program: https://www.shopify.com/blog/epacket-delivery-explained-everything-you-need-to-know-about-epacket-shipping
“In 2011, the United States Postal Service formally announced the new shipping service and agreement with Hongkong Post and eBay China, allowing packages from China and Hong Kong to receive USPS First Class Mail Service along with a delivery confirmation service.
As the name (“e”Packet) implies, the shipping service was designed for ecommerce, to make it more affordable and quicker for consumers to receive their purchases from online stores and marketplaces that shipped out from China and Hong Kong.
In the past, China EMS was the only affordable and reasonable option to ship consumer products overseas to customers. However, it would often take over a month or longer for customers to receive their purchase. Other quicker options were too expensive, especially for small inexpensive products.
ePacket delivery began as a quick and affordable shipping solution from China and Hong Kong to the United States. Over the years, ePacket has expanded into 35 other countries such as Canada and Australia.”
Overseas companies get cheaper shipping than US companies shipping domestically. Don’t know why Trump didn’t mention the subsidy to foreigners, and why he picked on Amazon.
Does anyone still read newspapers?
Yep, if held just right @ the local bagel shop, it provides cover from all the zombie digital eyes with postures of neckitis …
Bezos thought that there was no competition and that .gov had no choice other than to use AWS.
I seem to recall they had some data breach on their CIA “cloud”, that revealed the names of all kinds of personnel and employment details. In the news for a day, and then radio silence. Like, no big deal.
What a Potemkin Village of a company. Their online sales division doesn’t even turn a profit, as I understand it. Any profit there is, comes from the gubbermint contacts. It’s all about share price. In the casino economy, who cares whether you have a viable product or service?
And it looks like the Whole Foods deal isn’t working out so great, either.
For the life of me I can’t understand why anyone would keep anything sensitive on the cloud. The big banks and Wall St. still use on premise enterprise systems.
Amazon has a P/E of 200. Once investors realize that they aren’t going to deliver the growth, look out below.
P/E of 200. Pretty ridiculous for a company that doesn’t make money unless they’ve got a government subsidy and a government contract or two.
I see the Pentagon may be going with Oracle
That might be some good news for some friends of mine. Who needs a new Amazon HQ across the street if you can just make the money with the people you’ve already got?
I need to borrow 5 grand for a margin call asap.my FANG stocks have me depressed.
“I need to borrow 5 grand for a margin call asap.”
Easy… use that credit card linked to your home’s equity. [ka-ching!]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBYJdZlpBT4
“Unfortunately, that’s what Trump has inherited from Obama. But it’s not even really just Obama, it’s the federal reserve. It’s the monetary policy that has been passed like a baton from Clinton to Bush to Obama and now to Trump. And we’re near the end of the game and unfortunately, Trump’s gonna be the fall guy. This thing is all gonna collapse while he’s president.”
p. Schiff
Schiff is excited. Feeling that little thrill in his nether regions.
One man’s “collapse” is another man’s return to reality.
One man’s “collapse” is another’s buying opportunity.
That, too.
Thank God for the PPT!
Soybeanz. Is any food more disgusting than soybeanz? Don’t get me wrong, I like a little soy sauce on my sushi, but other than that, what’s the point? One of our former neighbors used to work at Burger King HQ and said that he won’t their burgers, because they were mostly soy and he was allergic to soy.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-04/why-chinas-soybean-tariff-changed-everything
yeah, I know this causes pain for soy farmers, but it’s a lousy product. Frankenfood.