Investors Suddenly Struggling To Hang On
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “In his corner of American finance, where hard selling meets hard luck, Angelo Christian is a star. Each time Christian sells a home loan, the company he works for, American Financial Network Inc., takes as much as 5 percent. Many of Christian’s customers have no savings, poor credit, or low income—sometimes all three. Some are like Joseph Taylor, a corrections officer who saw Christian’s roadside billboard touting zero-down mortgages. Taylor had recently filed for bankruptcy because of his $25,000 in credit card debt. But he just bought his first home for $120,000 with a zero-down loan from Christian’s company. Monthly debt payments now eat up half his take-home pay. ‘If he can help me, he can help anyone,’ Taylor says. ‘My credit history was just horrible.’”
“Christian can do this kind of deal because he is, in effect, making the loan on behalf of the federal government through its most important affordable housing program. It’s a sweet deal: He gets his nearly risk-free commission. Taylor puts no money down. If things go south, the government ultimately bears the risk. Many borrowers ‘are living paycheck to paycheck and, if they lose their jobs, they go into default immediately,’ says John Burns, a housing consultant.”
“One reason more borrowers may be stretching: Real estate prices are soaring again.”
“Far south of Orlando, the city of St. Cloud has had a lot of room to expand outward and attract developers. St. Cloud has no shortage of land, but it doesn’t have enough local jobs. About 90 percent of the residents who work commute out of the city to get to their jobs. Builders are ‘going crazy’ buying up residential lots and creating a housing bubble, said Craig Shadrix, Ocoee’s assistant city manager. ‘If you had asked me 10 years ago if we would be seeing housing prices from $400,000 to $500,000 up there on a routine basis, I would have laughed, but that’s what’s happening now,’ he said.”
“The City of Trees is getting noticed. The limited run Fixer Upper-style show on HGTV is helping put the spotlight on the booming Boise area in yet another way. The concept is simple: the pair buy a house, make improvements (usually drastic) and work to resell the homes for a profit. Two of the homes on the show with the highest price tags have sat on the market unsold, despite a tidy wrap-up at the end of each episode. A home along the rim at Kathryn Albertson Park was purchased for $350,000 - with another $350,000 into renovation costs.”
“Toward the end of the episode, Robertson tells the camera they have a deal in hand. But the home didn’t sell until well after the episode was produced and the show was aired. The home was removed from the market just Sunday after a price reduction from $989,700 down to $974,900. Another home in Boise’s North End was said to have sold ‘above asking’ during the show, but is still listed for sale - listed since March 10th at $897,700.”
“Nestled into the side of Mt. Soledad about a half-mile from the coast sits the residence dubbed ‘Essencia.’ In more recent years, the group has fallen on harder times — a home on Plum Street in Point Loma sat unfinished for years before falling into foreclosure, eventually netting a handful of misdemeanor charges for Concepto principal Francisco Mendiola. La Jolla’s ‘Essencia’ suffered a similar fate — the property appears to have bounced between a series of investor-owners since it was built, with ten documents related to foreclosure proceedings having been filed against the property between 2008 and 2014.”
“A handful of attempts have been made to sell the property, none publicly successful. In 2007 a listing at $18-20 million failed to attract a buyer, same with a 2008 attempt that ranged from $19.5 down to $14.95 million. A six-month stint on the market for $17.9 million in late 2015 did not result in a sale, nor did 2016 attempts at $16,750,000 and $14,600,000. An attempt to rent the mansion for $20,000 per month also met no takers. The property sat off-market for more than a year before it was re-listed in April, this time carrying an asking price of $14,500,000, the lowest reported to date.”
“Southern California home prices notched yet another record in April, with the median price hitting $520,000. Still, there’s been a shift this year as the number of homes on the market increases slightly and buyers become more price sensitive, market watchers say. ‘We’re still seeing multiple offers on well-priced homes, (but) we’re seeing price reductions on higher-priced homes,’ added Mike Cocos, general manager for ERA North Orange County in Yorba Linda. ‘Now that we have the inventory, buyers are going to take a little longer to pick and choose. … (Buyers) are a little more selective than they were last year.’”
“A group of Montreal condominium buyers fear they’ve lost both their deposits and their condos after the unfinished building they were to move into in Saint-Henri was sold to another developer. It may be a case of buyer beware: real estate experts and commercial lawyers say buying into a new condo development often doesn’t work out as planned. ‘I feel kind of scammed,’ said Ying Zhang, one of 14 buyers taking both of the developers to court in the hope of either getting their condos or their money back. ‘How can you pay a down payment and now have nothing?’”
“It was an ambitious plan: Donna Pirie offered to give away her £1.7m Aberdeenshire mansion in a competition, but she wanted to sell £3.75m worth of tickets to do so and give £1m to charity. In the end, she sold just 10,000 tickets at £25 each – totalling £250,000 – despite national newspaper coverage, so she ended up with a net loss of £31,500. Pirie is one of a growing number of people who are trying to sell their homes through ‘win a house’ schemes. The slowdown in the property market over the past year has led to an explosion in the number of properties being offered as prizes, particularly by homeowners who fail to achieve the asking price they want.”
“Sam Mitchell of online estate agents House Simple thinks sellers simply need to lower their prices. ‘If you are finding it difficult to sell your property, rather than resorting to desperate measures, take a step back and find out why it might not be selling,’ he says.”
“Guo Qirui says it’s a lonely journey when he goes home to his rented luxury condominium in Phnom Penh, where the Chinese retail executive has lived for nearly half a decade. The majority of the homes, sales agents and residents say, are sold to absent Chinese landlords. ‘Probably half of the completed units have been handed over but every night it’s all dark. Not one light is switched on,’ Guo told Reuters.”
“‘In terms of the high-end segment there is oversupply,’ said Ross Wheble, Cambodia country head at property consultancy Knight Frank. ‘This is a question that everyone’s asking in terms of sustainability. With Chinese investors buying these units, are they actually going to be occupied?’”
“The hype is such that some like Beijing native Jiang Zheming bought a unit last month despite having never visited Cambodia before. Another Chinese buyer who asked to only identified as Alex, said he bought more than 100 flats. CBRE and Knight Frank said there were already signs the market was softening. The frequency of new launches has fallen while landlords were reducing their asking rents, they said.”
“Chrek Soknim, chief executive of Cambodian property agency Century21 Mekong, said he did not think a market slowdown would be bad for locals given that these apartment owners were mostly Chinese. ‘If they can’t sell, it’s not a problem for us.’”
“Mortgage revaluations of second-hand homes in inner Brisbane are between 20 per cent and 30 per cent lower than the prices they originally exchanged for, one more sign of falling demand and over-supply in the Queensland capital, according to private property lender Development Finance Partners (DFP). DFP, which provides commercial loans to residential developers, has discovered that not only are the values of new dwellings being pushed down, but secondary apartments and townhouses have been swept up in the downward slide.”
“The large number of newly completed apartments – about 8300 – expected to hit the city in 2017-18 will only worsen the problem DFP says, quoting the latest residential data from property research group BIS Oxford Economics. An additional 5000 units are in the pipeline for 2019.”
“‘It’s a shock and it pressures those owners who do not have substantial equity,’ DFP director Matthew Royal said. ‘The new, shiny, state-of-the-art properties are easier to let and those owners, keen to get cash flow, may set a rental that is lower than rentals applying for nearby, older, properties. Making things worse is that, in a new development a large number of rental properties emerge at once, flooding the market.’”
“Adding to the woes of lower rents, banks are refraining from refinancing interest-only loans, forcing many borrowers to repay both principal and interest. ‘Lower rents push down a property’s value, reduced cash flow arrives as principal and interest needs to be paid and an investor, financially comfortable up until then, is suddenly struggling to ‘hang on’, Mr Royal said. ‘Unfortunately I am predicting more pain than gain for the most exposed assets this time next year.’”
“Financial bubble are not accidents. Our asset-backed banking system creates bubbles by design—they’re an inevitability. Imagine a homeowner who owns a $1 million house free and clear. The owner goes to a bank and borrows $800,000 against the house. This credit money springs into existence as an accounting entry of a private bank. The borrower goes out into the market and starts purchasing other assets: stocks or a weekend house. The new money drives prices higher, including the assets that form the collateral of the banking system.”
“Since collateral values now have increased, the banking system is happy to increase its loans to borrowers, which pushes prices yet higher, and so on, in a positive feedback loop. The Chicago Tribune reported in June last year: ‘Several major lenders are offering 1 percent down payment loans, and now a large national mortgage company has gone all the way, requiring absolutely nothing down.’”
“It looks like the lessons from the 2008 housing crash have been erased completely: a quasi-government agency, which operates under federal conservatorship, is guaranteeing loans made by reckless institutions to shaky borrowers. The difference is that the reckless institutions are not banks but non-bank lenders. If we follow all of the credit tributaries back to their source, we see that this system is more malignant than ever. The banks are, in fact, still funding mortgages, just surreptitiously. In the new normal mortgage transaction, the non-bank lender funds its loan to the borrower by in turn borrowing ‘warehouse loans’ from a bank.”
“These banks loans are secured by the new mortgages and are extremely short-term, generally for only 15 days, which is the time needed for the non-bank lender to flip the mortgage to one of the government-sponsored enterprises or Ginnie Mae. These GSE then securitize the incoming mortgages into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and guarantee the payments ‘to increase affordable, sustainable lending,’ Fannie Mae claims. And who owns most of the $7 trillion of outstanding MBS? The Federal Reserve owns 25 percent and banks another 27 percent.”
‘Many of Christian’s customers have no savings, poor credit, or low income—sometimes all three’
Check out this article. The photos of these stars are worth it alone.
‘Taylor puts no money down. If things go south, the government ultimately bears the risk. Many borrowers ‘are living paycheck to paycheck and, if they lose their jobs, they go into default immediately’
Where are those posters who continually tell us how sound loans are?
‘a quasi-government agency, which operates under federal conservatorship, is guaranteeing loans made by reckless institutions to shaky borrowers. The difference is that the reckless institutions are not banks but non-bank lenders’
‘The Chicago Tribune reported in June last year: ‘Several major lenders are offering 1 percent down payment loans, and now a large national mortgage company has gone all the way, requiring absolutely nothing down.’
And Freddie Mac just said, no income required. This isn’t the cause of a bubble. It’s a symptom. They run out of buyers and need more to keep the mania going. Then they use up that pool and have to repeat it. Sure they’ll tell you they are helping poor people or what ever.
“They run out of buyers and need more to keep the mania going. Then they use up that pool and have to repeat it. Sure they’ll tell you they are helping poor people or what ever.”
Hey, you use what works. If these pukes weren’t so dumbed-down then chances are good the scam wouldn’t work. But as it sits now the scam works just fine.
A nation of dummies. Dumb ‘em down, and profit.
“posters who continually tell us how sound loans are”
Oh, I’m one! I like to say that the loans are sound because they require full PITI and aren’t I/O. But please note, I said that *before* Mel Watt went off the rails.
That said, I look at it this way: if loans are full PITI, many fewer people will buy them. There isn’t this nonsense about “we’ll sell in two years” and “we’ll refinance later.” If a buyer tries to make an offer in March and he is told he needs to pony up $X in May, that would give him pause. That does keep down the demand and the prices somewhat. (if you take out foreign buyers)
But of course, that doesn’t mean everybody. There are still a lot of low-income less fortunate that won’t be daunted by high PITI. In that case, the loan *won’t* be sound. But at least the foreclosure will be a bit quicker, also keeping prices down.
‘Monthly debt payments now eat up half his take-home pay. ‘If he can help me, he can help anyone,’ Taylor says. ‘My credit history was just horrible.’
It’s episode 37,940,000 of“Meet The Craterton’s”.
Now stack on insurance, taxes and depreciation at $3 per square foot per year and you have a bona fide DebtDonkey.
Man Ben, that Bloomberg piece on Angelo Christian is eerie to the extreme. It’s like 2005-2006 all over again.
Oxide, I think you assume people can do math. They can’t. Take a look at this Taylor guy: You think he mathed out his mortgage with interest and such? No way. “Howmuchamonth” is all he cares about.
“I said that *before*…”
Crow dinner is in preparation.
“…guaranteeing loans made by reckless institutions to shaky borrowers.”
In Real Estate speak these are “strong fundamentals.”
This guy worked for Ameriquist🤷♀️
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameriquest_Mortgage
‘Its ad slogan is “proud sponsor of the American dream,” and their company motto was to “do the right thing.” Additionally, in their commercials, Ameriquest also reiterated more than once that their customers are “more than a number,” and produced a series of commercials with the theme, “Don’t judge too quickly. We won’t.”
Something tells me you’ll need to bookmark this article for the “Nobody saw this coming” crowd. The Wolverine inspirational poster is worth it alone.
It’s like the wolf of wall street movie. Definitely a high water mark.
In addition to the Yoda quote referred to in the article, the quote on the wall behind his desk is from the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Some people quote Jack Kerouac; Mr. Christian quotes Jack Sparrow. Are you kidding me?
+1000
But hey, inspiration comes from all sort of places, right?
I never found “Bring me that horizon” quote to be terribly inspiring. I was expecting the quote about waiting until the opportune moment when it is at greatest profit.
But hey, at least these guys knew enough to quote the first PotC and avoid the sequels.
Good grief. That guy looks like a classic charlatan dandy, straight out of central casting. Almost as bad is the buxom sales manager with “Got Mortgage?” across the front of her snug t-shirt.
With every passing day P.T. Barnum’s comment characterizes the global economy more than anything taught at the most exalted universities in the land. This is a joke.
The reporter here is a joke too. “If things so south, the government bears the risk.” No, the taxpayer does. Then there’s this line: “No one is saying the system is close to another collapse.” Actually, plenty of people are saying it, but they aren’t important enough to be listened to.
’straight out of central casting’
Hollywood couldn’t write a funnier skit. Bookmark this day for sure.
‘Many borrowers ‘are living paycheck to paycheck and, if they lose their jobs, they go into default immediately,’ says John Burns’
Now John, what’s the chance they’ll lose a job in the next 30 years? It’s just 360 easy payments!
‘Many borrowers ‘are living paycheck to paycheck and, if they lose their jobs, they go into default immediately,’ says John Burns’
Go burn John before John Burns you.
I think Hollywood did a fairly decent job in this instance.
“Well, that’ way we’ll have it!” - Arrested Development
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL8UXQ6BIrc
Well the govt is the tax payer so the reporter isnt wrong.
Angelo…Angelo…why does that name somehow ring a subprime mortgage bell?
The Great Financial Crisis 10 Years On: Countrywide Warns of ‘Difficult Conditions’
By David Floyd
Hardly anyone noticed at the time. Over 10 years after the subprime meltdown, which kicked off the Great Recession, a search of the day’s news coverage only turns up one result: CNBC’s Diana Olick, who spotted the relevant line in Countrywide Financial Corp.’s (CFC, at the time) second-quarter financial results.
Olick focused on this warning from CEO Angelo Mozilo, rather than the slight disappointment in Countrywide’s earnings per share, which seems less than insignificant in light of what would eventually unfold in the housing market. She pointed out that the lender had set aside $293 million to cover mortgage losses and warned that a “toxic” mix of bad credit, rising foreclosures and an already overstuffed market augured a “clearly unique” correction.
…
Olick was part of the coordinated strategy thus part of the problem.
“This kind of lending echoes the subprime mortgage boom that preceded the credit crisis of 2008. Then, as now, independent mortgage companies, the so-called nonbanks, dominated the business of making loans to people with blemished credit and low incomes. In the pre-crash years, companies such as New Century Financial Corp. helped spur the crisis with their shoddy underwriting standards. Using a line of credit from a major bank, they would offer mortgages essentially to anyone with a pulse. They would then quickly resell them into a market that repackaged them into high-risk securities that were destined for failure, infecting the financial system and requiring a government rescue.
No one is saying the system is close to another collapse. Yet nonbanks, more loosely regulated than the JPMorgan Chases of the world, are bigger players today than during the last mortgage bubble, according to a Brookings Institution report. They’re making almost half of new loans, compared with 19 percent in 2007. As before, many are companies you’ve never heard of, like American Financial Network, a closely held firm based in Brea, Calif. A few are better-known, such as LoanDepot, Freedom Mortgage, and the industry leader, Quicken Loans, with its ubiquitous Rocket Mortgage television commercials.”
So subprime is back, and constitutes 50 percent of new mortgages, instead of a mere 19 percent last time. I wonder how this chapter in U.S. financial history is destined to end? I can’t wait until Obama’s FHFA director is replaced to find out.
‘Two of the homes on the show with the highest price tags have sat on the market unsold, despite a tidy wrap-up at the end of each episode’
Wow, complete open, public misrepresentation. What a surprise.
Happened right before the last housing bubble burst too…
********
“It was an ambitious plan: Donna Pirie offered to give away her £1.7m Aberdeenshire mansion in a competition, but she wanted to sell £3.75m worth of tickets to do so and give £1m to charity. In the end, she sold just 10,000 tickets at £25 each – totalling £250,000 – despite national newspaper coverage, so she ended up with a net loss of £31,500. Pirie is one of a growing number of people who are trying to sell their homes through ‘win a house’ schemes. The slowdown in the property market over the past year has led to an explosion in the number of properties being offered as prizes, particularly by homeowners who fail to achieve the asking price they want.”
Kings Beach, CA Housing Prices Crater 7% YOY As Housing Depreciation Crushes Homeowners
https://www.movoto.com/kings-beach-ca/market-trends/
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Uber car ‘had six seconds to respond’ in fatal crash
24 May 2018
National Transportation Safety Board investigators have examined the vehicle involved in the crash
The sensors of a self-driving Uber car spotted a pedestrian pushing a bicycle across the road six seconds before killing her, according to a report.
The on-board identification system classified her as an “unknown object, as a vehicle, and then as a bicycle”.
The car slowed slightly but failed to avoid Elaine Herzberg, 49, of Tempe, Arizona, or perform an emergency stop.
And the car’s human operator took control a second before impact but did not hit the brake until just after.
…
‘The car slowed slightly but failed to avoid Elaine’
Elaine put a foot deep dent into the front of the car. We’re being volunteered as crash test dummies for silicon valley snake oil.
Yup. Remember that guy from Waymo(? or somewhere else) who wanted to push 100,000 self-driving cars on the road in order to “improve the software?”
That was meant to land below my “dumb cars” comment.
As was pointed out yesterday, the car’s emergency maneuvers subroutines were disabled. I wonder why? Could it be that in lab tests they proved to be unreliable and maybe even dangerous?
It’s another example of Yellen bucks looking for a place to die. Too much money trying to solve problems that don’t exist. We don’t need driver less cars any more than we need grilled cheese trucks.
BTW airbnb is swirling the bowl. Remember when we were told it was worth more than Hilton and Marriott + others combined?
‘Tesla settled a class action lawsuit this week with owners of its Model S sedans and Model X SUVs who alleged the company’s semi-autonomous driver assist system was “essentially unusable and demonstrably dangerous.”
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/25/17393920/tesla-autopilot-class-action-lawsuit-settles
That’s interesting, given that AirBnB has no assets (hotels) on its books and makes its living by running a reservation system and taking a big cut. But yeah, being worth more than all the hotel chains combined is absurd.
We don’t need driver less cars any more than we need grilled cheese trucks.
FWIW, shipping and trucking companies are salivating at the prospect of not needing paid drivers anymore and having their trucks running 24/7.
I’m still waiting on the paperless office. All this amounts to is guys sitting around and thinking up of ways to shear “investors” of their money. “Oh, I’ll set up a website that connects drunks with shack owners so they can rent it out illegally!” Come on, craigslist ran that into a brick wall 10 years ago. Sure enough, people are getting pissed and every day more cities and countries even are saying no.
And the shipping companies will be waiting for driverless trucks for a long time.
While the office will never be paperless, I will say that I print a lot less stuff than I did 10 years ago.
shipping and trucking companies are salivating at the prospect of not needing paid drivers anymore and having their trucks running 24/7.
They can salivate all they want, that won’t be happening any time soon. Once a driverless semi takes out a school bus full of kids (or hits a school in session), that will be the end of that. If they paid their drivers $1 million or so a year (salary, not by the mile) & upgrade the onboard bunks, they would have no problem running 24/7. Of course they would probably go broke if they paid that much.
Our hospital is almost entirely paperless now. It’s probably about 1/10th the paper we used to use.
With regards to self-driving, I think there is an important use case to be made with the elderly. So much of our aging society is going to lose the capacity to drive safely (already happening in Japan) and the ability to have self-driving (if it is validated and safe) would be very important for maintaining some autonomy and reducing costs associated with assisted living or skilled nursing facilities.
As I am one of the unabashed self-driving enthusiasts, I keep coming back to what self-driving would do to housing. If we could get there, it would severe the link between high house prices in dense urban clusters where jobs are plentiful. Self-driving would be truly disruptive for the housing market.
I am one of the unabashed self-driving skeptics, who deeply fears how much more blood will need to be spilled before it dawns on the boosters that this is a failed concept.
I also fail to grasp the housing link. Maybe try to explain it tomorrow…
With regards to self-driving, I think there is an important use case to be made with the elderly.
Cheaper for the PTB to get rid of them with “self-driving cars” instead of death panels?
“sever the link between high house prices in dense urban clusters”
BS. 50 miles is 50 miles no matter who or what is driving. And I don’t think self-driving is going to be much of a timesaver anyway. What are people going to do when their car is driving them to work? Work from their iPhone? If they can do that, why don’t they just work from home and not bother with driving to the office (most days) at all?
You want to disrupt housing? Have people work from home over video feeds. Or have mega-companies move into small office campuses of ~1000 people each in exiting small cities where people can live within 15 minutes of work.
who deeply fears how much more blood will need to be spilled before it dawns on the boosters that this is a failed concept.
I chalk that up to status quo bias which is believing that the current situation of humans killing each other in regular cars because they are drunk, sleepy, visually impaired, old or just looking at their cell phones is preferable to any incremental improvement that can be added to by tech, with self-driving being the holy grail somewhere in the distant future.
Remember, about 105 people die every day in the US in a traffic related accident, many of them from much dumber human errors than the Uber programming.
I readily admit that Uber was playing fast and loose with their self-driving initiatives. Many companies, such as Waymo, are far more responsible and incremental in testing their tech. But I say, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
You want to disrupt housing? Have people work from home over video feeds. Or have mega-companies move into small office campuses of ~1000 people each in exiting small cities where people can live within 15 minutes of work.
In my previous career, this is exactly what I did in some small way. I managed large call centers (contact centers) and I specialized in making them remote contact center agents from their houses. This allowed many of them to forgo 30-60 minute commutes and allowed companies to recruit a vastly larger net. There were still required on-site meetings, but we limited them as much as we could.
Alas, the remote worker trend is now going in the opposite direction. I’ve posted several articles highlighting this fact. IBM, the evangelist for remote workers, slashed their entire tele-worker program and is mandating a recentralization. There are a lot of entrenched corporate interests pushing against the teleworker thing.
What are people going to do when their car is driving them to work?
Sleep, read, play games, talk with friends or relatives, browse the internet, watch Netflix, have sex, etc.
Sleep, read, play games, talk with friends or relatives, browse the internet, watch Netflix, have sex, etc.
Sounds like they don’t actually need a house. Just have the car drive them around until it’s time to go back into the office again.
Driverless cars are coming. Maybe later than sooner but they are happening. I personally cant wait. Get in the car at 10pm go to sleep wake up 500 miles away the next morning. A red eye in my private car. Bring it on.
‘Driverless cars are coming’
‘Tesla settled a class action lawsuit this week with owners of its Model S sedans and Model X SUVs who alleged the company’s semi-autonomous driver assist system was “essentially unusable and demonstrably dangerous.”
‘Tesla settled a class action lawsuit this week with owners of its Model S sedans and Model X SUVs who alleged the company’s semi-autonomous driver assist system was “essentially unusable and demonstrably dangerous.”’
Remember that story about the guy who had complained to his family that his Tesla had scared him on autopilot when it tried to follow a line in the pavement into a concrete divider or something, then eventually it did and killed him?
Odd that the discussion of self-driving cars omits taxis. Obviously the taxi market has failed in most of the USA. Otherwise house bound elders could still make a phone call, and get a ride to anywhere in their locality to do what they have to do, and so forth.
Good point. Taxi cabs have notoriously resisted change and became monopolistic (NYC gold medallions). Uber and Lyft are basically just an app that organizes a massive taxi fleet. The elderly could ostensibly just use Uber and Lyft (and many do), but I think the allure of self-driving combined with electrification is the potential to make trips super convenient and much cheaper than they are now.
More silicon valley hogwash.
I suppose that the model T’s were Detroit hogwash to the horse and buggy industry too. Technology happens in every industry.
Odd that the discussion of self-driving cars omits taxis. Obviously the taxi market has failed in most of the USA. Otherwise house bound elders could still make a phone call, and get a ride to anywhere in their locality to do what they have to do, and so forth.
Government-enforced monopolies on licensing taxis plus government zoning rules which created suburban sprawl equals what people mistakenly refer to as “market failure”.
I suppose that the model T’s were Detroit hogwash to the horse and buggy industry too. Technology happens in every industry.
Software, apps, and law-breaking do not constitute “technology”. Cars are actually technology.
Software, apps, and law-breaking do not constitute “technology”
Law breaking doesn’t constitute technology, but software and apps certainly do. Also, an industry doesn’t can be disrupted by more than just technology. Novel business models can be just as innovative as new inventions.
Nonsense.
“But he just bought his first home for $120,000 with a zero-down loan from Christian’s company. Monthly debt payments now eat up half his take-home pay.”
Bahahahahahahahahahaha …
“‘If he can help me, he can help anyone,’ Taylor says.”
Bahahahahaha … the person he is helping is himself.
His newest best friend is this Christian guy. What a dummy.
‘Monthly debt payments now eat up half his take-home pay’
Soon to be “they should never have given me that loan!”
I am a victim and I deserve a bailout…
So far those smart cars seem pretty dumb.
A smart phone doesn’t make you smart, and a FitBit doesn’t make you fit.
A smart phone doesn’t make you smart, and a FitBit doesn’t make you fit.
I thought Bud makes you weiser.
‘a home on Plum Street in Point Loma sat unfinished for years before falling into foreclosure, eventually netting a handful of misdemeanor charges’
Strange, no mention of a shortage.
Point Loma has been ruined by a number of these gymnasium sized homes. They’re 10x the size of their neighbors and crowd out views - zoning should have never let that happen. La Jolla went through it first and its a big reason most old timers dont even like going there anymore - ugly monstrosities everywhere. Many of them have so much glass that I would feel like I was always on display - like a fish in a bowl. Many have near zero yard and are wedged into steep hillsides that are a 6.0 from liquefaction.
The other thing about this bubble is how many homeless are everywhere. You cant talk or read about a city/town/burg without hearing about the homeless problem, except for the really remote or cold parts of the country. Empty homes everywhere, tons more being built, and a nation of zombies living out of shopping carts. Just when you think it cant get any weirder, reality laughs in your face.
La Jolla went through it first and its a big reason most old timers don’t even like going there anymore
I especially like how the sea lions have made themselves at home at the cove and the childen’s cove, driving people out. When did that first happen? I remember when it wasn’t like that.
The other thing about this bubble is how many homeless are everywhere.
It seems like there are beggars at every major intersection these days. And it’s only going to get worse.
Homeless aren’t everywhere.
It seems to be largely a West Coast and equity locust-driven phenomenon.
Where there are locusts, there are swarms of homeless.
To be expected, as locusts ruin local economics. It’s why they’re called “locusts”.
Last year I camped at Traverse City State Park in a very popular vacation area of northern Michigan. The rangers there supervise what is basically a homeless encampment in an open area near where a state mental hospital once operated. State law gives some right to camp out on state owned land, and the rangers enforce what few regulations there are. Cost of housing in this entire area is very high compared to earnings. A nearby Indian tribe is putting up a housing for tribal members who want to live in town near their jobs.
Traverse City/ Sleeping Bear Dunes is full of equity locust money, mostly from Detroit suburbs. Originally a fantastic west coast Michigan location, well known by those who call the Great Lakes area home.
My parents owned a place in Door County - right on Lake Michigan, for some 30 years. They had it built, about 1,700 square feet. Built to scale…a one-story. You’d never knew their place even existed until you were thisclose to it. No grandiose, pompous, look at me! bullshit.
They sold and left in 2007.
About 20 years ago, equity locusts from Chicago swarmed to Door County en masse, building townhouses and McMansions on the Green Bay side that fetch $1-2 million now. Big monstrosities that block views for everyone save those who live in them.
The locals, of course, were priced out and left long ago.
“homeless encampment in an open area near where a state mental hospital once operated”
O the irony…
Next week I have reservations at one of the Sleeping Bear Dunes NPS campgrounds for $18 a night with electricity & a discount with my senior pass. During the summer those campgrounds tend to be completely booked up, as (particularly for us seniors) they are by far the cheapest vacation lodgings available.
Since the NPS controls much of that coastline, there won’t be any megamansions on that stretch of the beach for a while at least. Sleeping Bear area has several beaches you can walk for hours on a summer day and not see another person.
I agree that outside money has greatly damaged the liveability of the NW coastline of Michigan. I’ve been following the local news there for 50 years, some of the shenanigans in governance are pretty funny.
In 1976 north of Durango CO there was once a beautiful National Forest campground at the site of the highway called “Purgatory,” almost across the road from the ski area that had the same name. Last I visited in 2006 the campground had been bulldozed, there was only a National Forest trailhead and trail, near a huge sign advertising “Homes from $400K”. They bulldozed paradise / purgatory and turned it into housing hell.
I’d say that anywhere the bubble has wreaked havoc you’ll find homeless. Add to that the lack of decent jobs and it just gets worse.
That’s everywhere in the United States.
Agreed. Other than deep blue progressive run cities I dont ever see homeless people. The MSM lives in NY and LA and never venture outside their bubble. So it is reported as if it’s everywhere when in fact it’s not. Fake News is everywhere.
“So it is reported as if it’s everywhere when in fact it’s not. Fake News is everywhere.”
There’s a fair amount of this on this board as well. The HBB is quite California heavy, and many of those on the West Coast assume that what they are seeing there is happening everywhere else. It isn’t. I rarely see homeless people.
I have yet to see anyone living in a tent. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my entire life.
What I am seeing is the beginning of an invasion of equity locusts, who will eventually destroy what is around me. As they infiltrate, the disparities will grow, services will grow more costly, and homelessness will begin to appear.
Locusts have zero self control, which is why they find themselves wanting or having to move. I don’t expect locusts to understand that concept. They likely never will…they are too self-absorbed, hedonistic and shallow to ponder such things. To them, it’s all about consumption.
Move to a cheaper locale so they can consume more for less.
I have yet to see anyone living in a tent. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my entire life.
I lived in Gallup NM for a year starting in 1975. I took a long walk one afternoon through the sagebrush west of my apartment & found a homeless encampment, about a dozen people living out of tents and a van, just a quarter mile from the apartment. Due to the topography these people were completely invisible from 50 yards away. Tire tracks indicate cars & vans zigzagged through the sage to get to paved roads leading into town. Drug running was one way to make a living in those times.
We have homeless in missoula too. We cater to the mentally ill, so we gets lots if them.
Like I said, progressive run cities like Missoula, San Francisco on the Clark Fork.
A lot of the homeless are not visible. Many of the homeless are women and children living in cars or moving from couch to couch. My wife has quite a few homeless students in her class. This is not New York or California, this is a deeply red state.
As I understand it, St George has a high percentage of equity locusts already living in, or rapidly building, housing that the local population cannot afford.
If that’s the case, then homelessness is understandable.
Equity locusts destroy the lives of others. Some locusts actually have the gall to pretend they give a shit.
$300K-600K houses in St George? How does that pencil out for the locals?
A shame they can’t all buy Teslas, too, eh?
St. George could build affordable housing and has in the past, but right now the construction industry is geared up to building 2nd and 3rd houses for Californians and Nevadans, as well as for wealthy northern Utahans who want a winter retreat. Also, it’s proximity to natural parks means its a tourist attraction. There are about 5 events year-round that make the city boom in size (Huntsman World Senior Games, St. George Marathon, Parade of Homes, Iron Man, and softball/golf/soccer tournaments).
Lots of the homeless children are those of immigrant workers or from families where drugs, alcohol, or abuse are involved.
Equity locusts destroy lives.
People who build $400K houses in St George because of windfalls made elsewhere are locusts.
That’s the reality. Deal with it.
I wonder how many of these locusts scoff at WalMart for doing the same to the business world?
Equity is a fallacy. It never existed in the first place.
Lots of the homeless children are … from families where drugs, alcohol, or abuse are involved.
A century ago this was a major problem for native children in that type of family. Churches & government had already been running boarding schools to educate native kids ever since the treaties were signed, and these simply morphed into what amounted to orphanages, where shiftless or impoverished parents could send their kids, or where children’s services could do the same, and abandon parental responsibility for those kids while (essentially) saving their lives.
The kids for sure felt rejected, abandoned and often wound up getting a different kind of abuse and neglect in the boarding schools / orphanages. Oddly, they virtually never blamed their parents for this. In later years the schools / orphanages were closed and children services officials simply took kids away and put them either into foster care or had them adopted.
“Homelessness” vs. abusive conditions/families and outright poverty, about the same thing for the kids of today.
right now the construction industry is geared up to building 2nd and 3rd houses for Californians and Nevadans
That seems to be like the rule for the entire USA house construction industry. Even allowing for the optimistic estimates of $50/sq. ft., I really doubt that someone who owns a buildable plot of land could find a contractor willing & able to build a house for $150,000 that the owner had ready to go without need of financing.
Churches & government had already been running boarding schools to educate native kids ever since the treaties were signed, and these simply morphed into what amounted to orphanages, where shiftless or impoverished parents could send their kids, or where children’s services could do the same, and abandon parental responsibility for those kids while (essentially) saving their lives.
I read last year about the atrocities committed in Ireland by church-run institutions:
Typical is the story of one unmarried woman who had been sent to the home from a remote Galway farm. Determined to remain close to her child, she took a job as a cleaner at a nearby hospital and, for several years, she appeared at the home’s door on her day off every week to say the same thing:
That’s my son you have in there. I want my son. I want to rear him.
No, would come the answer. And the door would close.
For the children left behind, there were swings and seesaws and donated Christmas gifts from town, but no grandparents and cousins coming around to coo. They lived amid the absence of affection and the ever-present threat of infectious disease.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/10/28/world/europe/tuam-ireland-babies-children.html
In the last crash, a coworker lost a Pt Loma home to default thanks to her husband’s job loss. I guess it didn’t help that he had recently borrowed money to invest in supersizing the structure, on the theory that a bigger house will always generate bigger gains.
Turns out the value of all those improvements went back to the lender!
Turns out the value of all those improvements went back to the lender!
My brother has been in house renovation for over 30 years in the Boston area. He told me long ago it has been common for the owner of a $1million home to do $500,000 of renovation and wind up with home worth $1,250,000. He never saw the sense in that, but he still cashed the checks.
‘Mortgage revaluations of second-hand homes in inner Brisbane are between 20 per cent and 30 per cent lower than the prices they originally exchanged for, one more sign of falling demand and over-supply’
This is where Jingle can jump in and tell us what a great investment airboxes are.
‘Another Chinese buyer who asked to only identified as Alex, said he bought more than 100 flats. CBRE and Knight Frank said there were already signs the market was softening. The frequency of new launches has fallen while landlords were reducing their asking rents’
‘he did not think a market slowdown would be bad for locals given that these apartment owners were mostly Chinese. ‘If they can’t sell, it’s not a problem for us.’
Click!
RE: ‘Another Chinese buyer who asked to only identified as Alex, said he bought more than 100 flats. CBRE and Knight Frank said there were already signs the market was softening. The frequency of new launches has fallen while landlords were reducing their asking rents’
‘he did not think a market slowdown would be bad for locals given that these apartment owners were mostly Chinese. ‘If they can’t sell, it’s not a problem for us.’
Assuming i am not reading the article incorrectly …. This is Cambodia. What could go wrong? It is not like they could have severe government corruption or a military coup.
‘St. Cloud has no shortage of land, but it doesn’t have enough local jobs. About 90 percent of the residents who work commute out of the city to get to their jobs. Builders are ‘going crazy’ buying up residential lots and creating a housing bubble, said Craig Shadrix, Ocoee’s assistant city manager. ‘If you had asked me 10 years ago if we would be seeing housing prices from $400,000 to $500,000 up there on a routine basis, I would have laughed, but that’s what’s happening now’
I can remember when 400k pesos was a lot of money.
‘A home along the rim at Kathryn Albertson Park was purchased for $350,000 - with another $350,000 into renovation costs’
Check out the sh*t eating grins on these goobers. And to think the bubble reality TV market is in the billions each year.
I can remember when 400k pesos was a lot of money.
Used to be that with that kind of nest egg you could buy a nice annuity for your retirement. Now we’re told you need to save millions, because of low interest rates.
Now we’re told you need to save millions, because of low interest rates.
Yup. And since you can’t do that with a job, you better get into real estate where the real money is.
About 90 percent of the residents who work commute out of the city to get to their jobs.
And gas (AKA Petrol) costs $6 a gallon in Oz.
Used to be that with that kind of nest egg you could buy a nice annuity for your retirement. Now we’re told you need to save millions, because of low interest rates.
I would think that our decade of near-zero interest rates is one of the major factors making “this time” look different than “last time”, though the results will be “very bad” just the same.
I don’t remember paying close enough attention to be sure, but surely the degree to which, and sheer numbers of people desperately looking for a return on all that (inflated by QE, etc) money is significantly higher than in previous bubbles/busts.
I do remember the early 2000s - post dot-com bust and 9/11, there was sentiment away from stocks and into having “something tangible” and REITs were the ‘new hotness’, but I don’t recall the global cash surplus and throngs of foreign ‘investors’ with all the cash.
Anyway, it’s the same bubble gum, different flavor.
For many decades interest rates were lower than inflation. Zero interest is not less than inflation in a credit contraction.
Miami Beach FL Housing Prices Crater 5% YOY
https://www.movoto.com/miami-beach-fl/market-trends/
Real e$tate @ record high$ = passenger jet 450mph @ 33,000 ft
Ri$ing intere$t rate$ = crack$ in engine fan blade$
What can po$$ibly go wrong? = No one $aw it coming, … again!
Mortgage rates have been rising at a pace not seen in almost 50 years
Kathy Orton, The Washington Post Published Thursday, May 24, 2018
Mortgage rates continued their upward march this week, extending the most prolonged increase in rates in 46 years.
“The minutes suggest that the [Federal Open Market Committee] remains committed to a gradual withdrawal from the remnants of its crisis-era policies, rather than a more aggressive withdrawal as had been suggested in several recent speeches,” said Aaron Terrazas, senior economist at Zillow.
Is now a good time for dips to buy?
Bitcoin Faces Close Below Long-Term Support In First Since 2015
NEWS
Omkar Godbole
May 25, 2018 at 10:00 UTC | Updated May 25, 2018 at 12:00 UTC
Bitcoin risks closing below the 50-week moving average (MA) – an important long-term support not breached for over two-and-a-half years.
With the bears already on the offensive following the recent sell-off, prices are likely to suffer if bitcoin closes on Sunday below the key support, currently seen at $7,611. More worryingly for the bulls, since the cryptocurrency has not traded below the 50-week MA since October 2015, acceptance below that level would only add credence to the argument that the long-term bull run has ended.
As of writing, bitcoin is changing hands at $7,449 on Bitfinex, having dropped below the 50-week MA on May 23.
https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-faces-first-close-below-this-key-long-term-support-in-2-5-years/
“With the bears already on the offensive following the recent sell-off, prices are likely to suffer if bitcoin closes on Sunday below the key support, currently seen at $7,611.”
“…if bitcoin closes on Sunday below the key support, currently seen at “$7,611…”
It is impossible to describe how asinine it is to attach “key support” levels to something that is completely worthless, such as Bitcoin.
“completely worthless”
There it is, there is the “key support level”.
Poor poor Alphonso.
I warned you.
Bitcoin Analysis May 26, 2018 12:33
Cryptocurrency Market on a Continuous Decline, No Major Movements on the Upside
Bitcoin price
Get exclusive analysis and cryptocurrency insights on Hacked.com for just $39 per month.
Over the past hour, the bitcoin price has increased by 1.4 percent, from $7,410 to $7,550, after recording a sudden spike in buy volume, as shown below in the 30-minute chart of bitcoin below. Cryptocurrency market has also moved up slightly but has struggled to record any major movement.
Bitcoin to $6,000
While several bulls including Wall Street firm Fundstrat founder Tom Lee and John McAfee have expressed their optimistic in regards to the short-term growth of bitcoin, it is highly likely that the bitcoin price drops to the lower end of $6,000, as suggested by cryptocurrency researcher Willy Woo.
“I think we are gonna go to $5500-5700 next, I can’t see $7000 holding. Most likely we’ll balance a bit, then we’ll slide through. Long timeframes here, looking into June for rough timing of this to play out at a best guess,” said Woo.
Based on the overly strong downward trend of bitcoin, high NVT signal, and volatility, Woo suggested that it is unlikely bitcoin records a major bounce from the current level back to the $8,000 region.
Cryptocurrency investor and Blocktower co-founder Ari Paul raised a similar point on May 25, stating that due the current period of oa low volume consolidation, an abrupt increase in volume and price is not expected.
“Always a good bet for vol to mean revert, but this has been a low volume consolidation which is a much weaker setup for explosive moves than a high volume consolidation,” Paul explained.
As seen in the 30-minute chart of bitcoin above, the volume of bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market have remained relatively low since mid-May, when the bitcoin price started to fall after testing the $10,000 region. Apart from three buy and sell spikes, since May 24, the volume of bitcoin has remained significantly low in comparison to April and early May.
On yesterday’s report, CCN suggested that following bitcoin’s trend since January, it is likely that the bitcoin price bounces from the $6,500 level in the short-term. But, analysts see the bitcoin price dipping below the $6,000 level, especially if the market cannot regain its volume in a swift manner.
https://www.ccn.com/cryptocurrency-market-on-a-continuous-decline-no-major-movements-on-the-upside/
In 1979, eye rented a 14×20 room w shower/bathroom for $210 per month (installed my own 6×7 kitchen) … my large 4×6 window view was this place:
Laguna Beach cottage: 1 bedroom + 1 bathroom = $1 million
Marilyn Kalfus
PUBLISHED: May 24, 2018 at 1:48 pm | UPDATED: May 25, 2018 at 7:30 am
Categories:Business
The tiny cottage at 545 Lombardy Lane – a street that listing agents like to describe as “a treasure” because of its rows of cute, historic homes
“It looks like the lessons from the 2008 housing crash have been erased completely: a quasi-government agency, which operates under federal conservatorship, is guaranteeing loans made by reckless institutions to shaky borrowers. The difference is that the reckless institutions are not banks but non-bank lenders. If we follow all of the credit tributaries back to their source, we see that this system is more malignant than ever. The banks are, in fact, still funding mortgages, just surreptitiously. In the new normal mortgage transaction, the non-bank lender funds its loan to the borrower by in turn borrowing ‘warehouse loans’ from a bank.”
“These banks loans are secured by the new mortgages and are extremely short-term, generally for only 15 days, which is the time needed for the non-bank lender to flip the mortgage to one of the government-sponsored enterprises or Ginnie Mae. These GSE then securitize the incoming mortgages into mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and guarantee the payments ‘to increase affordable, sustainable lending,’ Fannie Mae claims. And who owns most of the $7 trillion of outstanding MBS? The Federal Reserve owns 25 percent and banks another 27 percent.”
They figured out a way to blow an even bigger bubble than last time without collapsing the banks, this time with the losses shouldered directly by taxpayers, with the unauditable FED and its monetary voodoo hiding a large portion as well.
Mel Watt is obama’s greatest legacy…
Sounds tidy but 50 million underwater debtors is already a mess and it’s getting messier by the day.
Realtors are liars.
The dog, where is the dog?
I don’t really understand all of the hate for Christian. I don’t see him doing anything illegal. He seems to be playing within the bounds. Frankly, my company could use some sales people like him. He sounds like a hard working, hard charging guy to me who gets results. Who cares where his quotes come from?
That’s pretty impressive. He probably looks the way he does because he works out a ton and has a very low body fat percentage. Having a low body fat percentage when your’re young looks normal. Having the same body fat percentage when you’re 50 can look freakish.
Are you hating on him because you think he’s a parasite? or because you’re jealous of all the things he’s accomplishing with what appears to be a lot of hard work and effort? If it’s the former, get off your a$$es and try to change the rules of Mr. Banker’s ridiculous game: either smarten people up, or make it so he can’t prosper! It’s a lot more Mr. Banker’s fault than Christians!
Mel Watt - is that you posting???
Why is it any wonder when people call realtors liars?
Nah, you ought to know better than that! I’ve been a reader of this site longer than most; I just don’t post a lot. The guy might be a slime ball, but he’s a hard working dude who seems to have solved the self-discipline problem and overcome some giant (400 lb) hurdles. Few can do that and it’s something I can admire.
In other news: I’m still sitting on the sidelines waiting for sanity to return. My good friend Mafia saying prices have cratered doesn’t make it so.
Does anybody know how to tell how much money is contributed to 401(k)s each month? That’s the real “tell” in my opinion. Stocks are a ponzi scheme built on that money. When people freak out and stop contributing, that’ll be the first domino. I think people underestimate how much money gets pumped into the stock system each month that has to find a place to live. That feels like the true life blood of this beast.
One still has the agency to not engage in unethical or even immoral enterprises, regardless of their legality.
Well said.
Unethical or not, at least he’s employing people. Although, if this comes crashing down again, in retrospect maybe it would be better if his employees just dug holes and filled them in.
One still has the agency to not engage in unethical or even immoral enterprises, regardless of their legality.
That’s why I got out of the stock market in 2007, to the greatest extent possible short of stuffing my savings in a mattress.
Santa Cruz, CA 95060 Housing Prices Crater 10% YOY As Tech Wreck Ravages West Coast
https://www.zillow.com/santa-cruz-ca-95060/home-values/
*Select price from dropdown menu on first chart
Chit. Chit. Chit. They’re putting Tommy Robinson in prison in the UK, for live streaming about Muslim grooming gangs. And Google is deleting the news from the internet. That’s a death sentence for the guy.
Fuh kyoooooooooo England.
Wow. We need to send in some special ops guys to grab him, Nigel Farage and Assange and then detonate a few cans of sunshine on exfil. F that sh!thole country.
Amen. England is truly the sh!thole of the planet. Perversion is a way of life there for the toffs. Make that dismal island disappear and the world would be a better place.
When I was in London last year I could tell that things are very, very wrong there. Good thing I got to see the National Gallery before the new majority takes over and burns everything in there, including the DaVinci.
Some years ago I made the one trip to Europe that I had wanted to do. Now I have no desire to go back. There’s enough to see in the US already.
Fox news
A Los Angeles firefighter received $300,000 in overtime pay in one year by working more hours than actually exist in a single year.
Donn Thompson augmented his $92,000 salary by more than a quarter of a million dollars in 2017, Reason magazine reported, citing data from Transparent California, a project of the Nevada Policy Research Institute.
It wasn’t a one-off payout, as Thompson earned over $1 million in overtime pay over the last four years.
But the math behind the pay doesn’t add up. It would have required the firefighter to work 9,280 hours in a year, despite there being 8,760 hours in a single year.”
Sweet he can buy two houses and rent one out , except its LA so maybe only one
This is the kind of fraud that’s going on at all levels of state and local governments across the country. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - the corruption on the Federal level pales in comparison to that of the state and local governments. They are absolutely fleecing the taxpayers blind.
The aforementioned “firefighter” should be arrested for fraud, then imprisoned after conviction.
Indeed BlackSwan. And when someone suggests cutting 0.055% of tbe budget, cop and fire unions scream that it will mean “heroes” go hungry. And the inbecilic tax payers fall for ot every time.
My county had a bond measure on the ballot to increase spending for “fire safety”. A mere $15 for the average home owner. Passed with 80%. It is sickening.
Few firemen are heroes. Most fireman do nothing but sit on their behinds 90% of their working lives.
Cops have a much more difficult time. They get shot at, people try to kill them. They get sued often because they tell people “no”.
When was the last time a fire attempted to kill a fireman? Or slapped a fireman with a lawsuit?
The salaries and pensions of firemen should be cut by at least half.
I’ve long said that gov’t workers should not get any benefit that the average US worker doesn’t get. So, if the average US worker doesn’t get a generous pension or a pension at all ,then gov’t workers shouldn’t get them. If the average US worker only gets X vacation time, then the gov’t worker can get no more than X vacation time. Want more benefits? Make it better for everyone out there paying for your salaries.
And no firefighter should be getting 1/3 of a million dollars. That’s an abuse of taxpayer monies. Who lets this go by? Geesh.
I think the only government workers who get pensions should be retired military. All the others can save their dough for their retirement (or not) like the rest of us. Government unions should be outlawed. If prospective government workers don’t like that, they are always free to seek (un)employment elsewhere. Eliminate the income cap on FICA deductions. Someone who earns a million a year can have his $156,000 portion of FICA sent - off the top with no deductions - to shore up Social Security and Medicare. Eliminating the FICA income cap would not affect the vast majority of US workers. The pigs would really squeal over this one.
And while we’re at it, why not tax capital gains at ordinary income tax rates too.
Ben Jones (((they))) are going to shut this blog down.
Too much freedom of speech, too much freedom of thought.
This will only continue, until (((they))) decide it’s not allowed to continue.
Prescription: Late 20s blonde, 420 friendly w/seriously long legs and ample thigh gap. Take as needed for stress with dark beer.
“420″
??? … oh.
Urban dictionary to the rescue, again.
Prescription: Late 20s blonde, 420 friendly w/seriously long legs and ample thigh gap. Take as needed for stress with dark beer.
I already have TOO MUCH STRESS in my life for that. Why should I add more? I will just stick to beer and meditation
Refill: 5 x
This one goes out to all those MS-13 lovers out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBfJOkPZVM4
That drummer could rip it before he bought that Vette and wrecked it with his arm hanging out the window.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvLzqKrjVwY
Democrats 2018….higher taxes, more ms13 and no more guns. Wining strategy if I ever heard one.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/114000-more-people-seattle-now-this-decades-fastest-growing-big-city-in-all-of-united-states/
Most common job in Seattle isn’t in retail anymore, and 4 out of 5 of these workers are men
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/data/software-developers-overtake-retail-workers-as-most-common-job-in-seattle-area/
As we’ve seen this past week, the Seattle Crimes censors news and events. They can’t be trusted.
Does it seem like trouble is brewing in the central bankers’paradise across the pond?
The Financial Times
Eurozone economy
Instability in Italy and Spain jolts European markets
Peripheral bonds sell off after confidence motion called against Rajoy while Rome bickers
…
Business News
May 24, 2018 / 7:17 PM / Updated 18 hours ago
Dollar ends week stronger as commodity-linked peers slip
Saqib Iqbal Ahmed
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar rose against a basket of peers on Friday and was on pace to finish the week at its strongest since mid-November, as commodity-linked currencies fell following a slump in oil prices and as political concerns in Italy and Spain hurt the euro.
…