In A Crazy Market You See Crazy Ideas Emerge
A weekend topic on various manias starting with Physicians News. “The Maryland Proton Treatment Center chose ‘Survivor’ as the theme for its grand opening in 2016. But behind the scenes, the $200 million center’s own survival was less than certain. Insurers were hesitating to cover procedures at the Baltimore facility, affiliated with the University of Maryland Medical Center. The private investors who developed the machine had badly overestimated the number of patients it could attract. Bankers would soon be owed repayment of a $170 million loan. Only two years after it opened, the center is enduring a painful restructuring with investors poised for huge losses. It has never made money, although it has ample cash to finance operations, said Jason Pappas, its acting CEO since November. Last year it lost more than $1 million, he said.”
“For years, health systems rushed enthusiastically into expensive medical technologies such as proton beam centers, robotic surgery devices and laser scalpels — potential cash cows in the one economic sector that was reliably growing. Developers got easy financing to purchase the latest multimillion-dollar machine, confident of generous reimbursement. There are now 27 proton beam units in the U.S., up from about half a dozen a decade ago. More than 20 more are either under construction or in development.”
“If the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble marked previous decades, something of a medical-equipment bubble may be showing itself now. And proton beam machines could become the first casualty. ‘The biggest problem these guys have is extra capacity. They don’t have enough patients to fill the rooms’ at many proton centers, said Dr. Peter Johnstone, who was CEO of a proton facility at Indiana University before it closed in 2014. ‘In any industry that’s really an emerging industry, you often have people who enter the business with over-exuberant expectations,’ said Scott Warwick, executive director of the National Association for Proton Therapy.”
From AZ Big Media. “The medical office space market slowed during the first three months of 2018. Rents fell, vacancy rose and sales of medical office properties fell off a bit. Vacancy in medical office buildings rose 10 basis points during the first quarter to 14.4 percent. The rate remains approximately 100 basis points lower year over year in both on-campus and off-campus medical properties. First quarter posted negative net absorption of approximately 11,500 square feet.”
“Sales of medical office properties slowed during the first quarter. Prices for medical condos fell slightly in the start of 2018 with a median price of $176 per square foot in first quarter. Sales of traditional, non-condo buildings dropped by 40 percent from the end of 2017. The median price for traditional buildings also fell to $136 per square foot, down from $157 per square foot in 2017.”
From The Real Deal. “The hotel market — which for years has struggled with dropping revenues and oversupply — is finally showing some signs of promise. Average revenue declined at a slower pace last year, and demand appears to be on the rise. The number of new hotel rooms slated to open in 2018 is 7,802 — the highest number seen since at least 2000, according to hospitality research firm STR. Anthony Rinaldi, head of the Secaucus, New Jersey-based Rinaldi Group — which raked in 977,079 square feet of new hotel work in 2017 — said he hasn’t seen a decrease in demand for the product.”
“‘I keep hearing that the market is oversaturated with hotels,’ he said. ‘I am reading about it, I am hearing about it, but I’m not seeing it.’”
From the Houston Chronicle. “When construction is completed by year’s end, the Proguard Self Storage facility near Memorial City will total nearly 270,000 square feet and boast 1,750 air-conditioned units. The Houston-based company operates five storage centers locally. Proguard’s massive storage facilities, some of the largest in Houston, exemplify a building boom in an oft-overlooked real estate sector overshadowed by trophy office towers, luxury apartments and gleaming hotels and hospitals. However, industry leaders are increasingly concerned that self-storage is becoming overbuilt in many parts of Houston.”
“Self-storage operators are slashing rents to prop up occupancy rates in an increasingly competitive market. Houston rents have dropped for a second straight year, falling 4.8 percent to 86 cents per square foot. Last year, rents plunged 7 percent, Marcus & Millichap reports. ‘There’s way too much storage being built in Houston right now,’ said Richard Loeb, a partner with San Antonio-based SurePoint Self Storage. ‘We’re killing the goose that laid the golden egg.’”
From The Telegraph. “The Australian owner of Homebase has sold the struggling DIY chain for £1 after a bungled attempt to rebrand it turned into one of the ‘most disastrous’ buy-outs of a British retailer. Wesfarmers will book a loss of between £200m and £230m on the sale to HMV owner Hilco Capital. Rob Scott, Wesfarmers managing director, admitted Homebase had been hampered by his company’s ‘poor execution’ after the takeover, compounded by a consumer slump that has swept the retail industry in recent months.”
From the Associated Press. “Although interest in farmland by Wall Street investors and pension funds dates back at least to the late 1980s and early 1990s, the 2007 financial crisis reignited interest. Farmland investment looked stable in comparison to other real estate. ‘It’s certainly true there was new money that came into agriculture during the boom period between 2007 and say 2013,’ said Pat Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at MU.”
“With low commodity prices and high rental rates in the last few years, fixed rents aren’t always easy to make. Rents have come down a bit in recent years, but not too much. ‘Most of the farmers across the Midwest are seeing three to four years of loss,’ said Wendong Zhang, an applied economist at the University of Iowa and researcher for Iowa’s farmland ownership survey. ‘They’re essentially burning through their working capital.’”
From the Bend Bulletin. “Recreational cannabis has been legal in Oregon for only two years, but the state produced enough last year to supply every adult resident with more than 5 ounces of legal marijuana. There were more than 1 million pounds in the supply chain. But growers think there’s a glut, and the mismatch between production and consumption of recreational marijuana has led to dropping wholesale prices, with some growers scaling back production or getting out of the market.”
“It’s these unknowns that made Joseph Stapleton decide to take a step back and seek only a retailer’s license from the OLCC rather than a retail license and a grower’s license. The number of people seeking licenses could be contributing to the glut, Stapleton said. ‘There are a lot of guys bailing this year,’ Stapleton said. ‘They’re not getting their price, and there’s too much product around.’”
From Undercurrent News. “Thai processors are currently suffering the worst slump in sales in the industry’s history, according to one of the country’s largest seafood suppliers. Satasap Viriyanantawanit, general manager at Siam Canadian Group, which is headquartered in Thai capital Bangkok, told Undercurrent News it’s no overstatement to say the current slump is the worst he’s seen faced by the industry in its 40 years.”
“‘I strongly suspect that most of the plants are suffering at least a 50% year-to-date sales drop compared with last year. It is the worst record in Thailand’s [shrimp industry] history,’ he said. Prices in India and Indonesia have fallen below those in Thailand, said Viriyanantawanit. Subsequently, US importers are opting to buy from those countries instead of Thailand, he said. He said a decline in raw material prices has left shrimp farmers in Thailand ’screaming’ about losses and urging processors to pay more, although a recent minimum price guarantee offered by exporters was rejected.’
“An industry source in Thailand who wished to be quoted unnamed reckons countries like India, not Thailand, are faring worse from the current price slump, because they are ‘new to the game.’ ‘They thought production had no limits,’ he said. ‘New leveraged investment is always at risk.’”
From ECNS. “Southern China’s Hainan Province has halted surging applications for horse racing businesses to prevent speculative investment and a market bubble. The island province has reportedly allowed horse racing as part of efforts to build China’s biggest pilot free-trade port. Sensing fresh opportunity, some companies have rushed to apply for business registrations. The China Securities Regulatory Commission has also urged listed companies to refrain from marketing hype when it comes to horse racing.”
“Developing horse racing is not an effort to legalize gambling so it’s necessary to prevent investment of a speculative nature, said an opinion piece on China Newsweek. In its development, Hainan has had setbacks including property bubbles, in 1988 and 2010 respectively, and car smuggling so authorities today need to learn lessons from the past according to the report. The opinion piece said Hainan also needs to be aware of speculative investment in property and horse racing.”
“Hainan’s new development can also advance regional economic integration and promote the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, but any ideas of making huge fortunes overnight or hyping the horse-racing concept must be guarded against.”
From the New Zealand Herald. “Sleeping pods going for up to $200 a week inside an Auckland CBD apartment have been dismantled for violating a number of council bylaws. The pods drew controversy when they popped up on Trade Me in August last year, with eight ’state of the art’ Japanese-style sleeping capsules in one apartment stacked two high. But the Trade Me listing for the capsules, which had been seen more than 2000 times, was taken down within hours of being put up without explanation. Auckland Council this week confirmed the owner did not have resource consent to install the pods in the first place.”
“Housing affordability campaigner Hugh Pavletich said council had done the right thing in asking for the set-up to be dismantled. In a crazy housing market you see ‘crazy ideas emerge.’ ‘We’ll see all different variants like in Hong Kong where they’re living in pipes. But all we want to see happen is normal markets restored in New Zealand,’ he said. ‘That’s what the focus should be - supporting housing affordability so we don’t see this kind of nonsense.’”
‘Bankers would soon be owed repayment of a $170 million loan. Only two years after it opened, the center is enduring a painful restructuring with investors poised for huge losses. It has never made money, although it has ample cash to finance operations, said Jason Pappas, its acting CEO since November. Last year it lost more than $1 million, he said.’
‘For years, health systems rushed enthusiastically into expensive medical technologies such as proton beam centers, robotic surgery devices and laser scalpels — potential cash cows in the one economic sector that was reliably growing. Developers got easy financing to purchase the latest multimillion-dollar machine, confident of generous reimbursement. There are now 27 proton beam units in the U.S., up from about half a dozen a decade ago. More than 20 more are either under construction or in development’
This easy financing is a common theme it would seem.
‘It has never made money, although it has ample cash to finance operations’
‘rushed enthusiastically into…potential cash cows in the one economic sector that was reliably growing’
‘the 2007 financial crisis reignited interest. Farmland investment looked stable in comparison to other real estate’
From domestic farmland to the international shrimping industry, from proton beams and laser scalpels to New Zealand sleeping pods and Chinese horse racing - the tsunami of Yellenbucks has washed into every little corner of the planet.
Don’t forget about all of the soon-to-die Yellenbucks which have been poured down the cryptocurrency rat hole.
It seems redundant to call a cryptocurrency “fake”.
The hilarious aspect of the giant cryptocurrency Ponzi is how many “smart” people I know who have fallen for it. Most of them are attorneys with a connection to the FIRE sector.
The government created a fake cryptocurrency to help you avoid scams
by Anna Bahney
@annabahney
May 16, 2018: 4:15 PM ET
What is an ICO?
There’s a hot new crypto coin linked with luxury travel out there: HoweyCoins.
But this initial coin offering isn’t going to earn you anything more than a better understanding of how crypto works and a warning about scams.
This mock ICO — or initial coin offering — is a creation of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s office of investor education and advocacy in an effort to teach people about the dangers and pitfalls of investing in cryptocurrencies.
Lesson one: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
The goal of the project is to acquaint investing novices with signs of fraud before it’s too late.
“The rapid growth of the ‘ICO’ market, and its widespread promotion as a new investment opportunity, has provided fertile ground for bad actors to take advantage of our main street investors,” said SEC Chairman Jay Clayton in a statement. “We embrace new technologies, but we also want investors to see what fraud looks like, so we built this educational site with many of the classic warning signs of fraud.”
The site, HoweyCoins.com, mimics a coin offering, proclaiming, “Combining the two most growth-oriented segments of the digital economy — blockchain technology and travel, HoweyCoin is the newest and only coin offering that captures the magic of coin trading profits AND the excitement and guaranteed returns of the travel industry.”
Anyone who clicks on “Buy Coins Now” will be led instead to investor education tools from the SEC and other financial regulators.
…
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/16/pf/fake-cryptocurrency-ico/index.html
Retweet your FOMO, baby!
Buyers beware: It could be the next Bitcoin — or a scam
Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press Personal Finance Columnist Published 12:48 p.m. ET May 21, 2018 | Updated 5:09 p.m. ET May 21, 2018
Basis cofounder and CEO Nadir Al-Naji discusses the upside of strict regulation with The Ledger team. Time
Bitcoin and blockchain technology
(Photo: Dan Kitwood, Getty Images)
A crackdown on cryptocurrency-related scams is being coordinated by state regulators across the country, as con artists play up the popularity of Bitcoin.
Various enforcement actions, including some taken in provinces of Canada, have included cease and desist orders involving companies with names like Cryptocashback, Cryptosecure, DasCoin, ThinkCoin, Ubcoin, Leverage and Krios.
The North American Securities Administrators Association — a group of state securities regulators who work to protect investors — said Monday that 70 investigations have opened up relating to initial coin offerings and cryptocurrency programs. There are 35 pending and completed enforcement actions nationwide since the beginning of May.
Millennials are viewed as potential targets, as are consumers who are embracing products related to financial technology, or fintech.
Regulators said millennials are both most likely to use fintech products (84%) and most at risk of fraud relating to some fintech schemes (41%), according to a survey released by the North American Securities Administrators Association in February.
ICOs and cryptocurrencies are viewed as high risks for fraud.
Initial coin offerings are fund-raising programs that could be used to kick off a new cryptocurrency effort. But some of the ICOs can be nothing but frauds where con artists keep the cash.
Even offerings that are legitimate should be viewed as highly risky.
“Not every ICO or cryptocurrency-related investment is fraudulent, but we urge investors to approach any initial coin offering or cryptocurrency-related investment product with extreme caution,” said Joe Borg, president of the the North American Securities Administrators Association.
Why are people ponying up money after repeated warnings about the dangers of ICOs?
“People are afraid to miss out on the latest and the greatest,” Borg said in a press conference on Monday in Washington, D.C.
https://www.freep.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2018/05/21/bitcoin-scams-cryptocurrency/628144002/
“The hilarious aspect of the giant cryptocurrency Ponzi is how many “smart” people I know who have fallen for it. Most of them are attorneys with a connection to the FIRE sector.”
Are they HODLing? I sure hope so.
Also - is it all through Coinbase? I’m wondering at what point Coinbase goes BK, and takes hundreds of millions in customer funds with them.
People with Mt. Skulls forget quickly!
Mt. Gox, Coincheck and the Biggest Hacks and Scams in Cryptocurrency History
May 26, 2018
by Salomon Iyke
3 min read
On Monday, Verge suffered a second cyber attack in the space of two months bringing to for the bitter taste of cryptocurrency heists. The first hack happened in April and 250,000 XVG coins were stolen. This latest breach was more hurtful; about 35 million XVGs worth approximately $1.7 million was stolen.
This narrative has increased as cryptocurrencies became more popular since 2017. The rapid increase in bitcoin prices coupled with the proliferation of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) in 2017 brought much attention to cryptocurrency. Dave Jevans, the chairman of Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) revealed that $1.2 billion was stolen by cryptocurrency cybercriminals since 2017. This infographics provided by HowMuch.net gives a birds-eye view of the major cryptocurrency hacks since 2011.
Jevans, who is the CEO of cryptocurrency security startup CipherTrace, noted that the trend in cryptocurrency cybercrime has moved towards actual cyber heists. According to him, “one problem that we’re seeing in addition to the criminal activity like drug trafficking and money laundering using cryptocurrencies is the theft of these tokens by bad guys.”
The Anti-Phishing Report for Q4, 2017 identified major targets for cryptocurrency hacks as SaaS/webmail providers, financial/banking sites, and file sharing platforms. Cryptocurrency exchanges which have lost the most to these cybercriminals are Mt. Gox, Coincheck and Bitgrail.
The Mt. Gox hack remains the biggest cryptocurrency hack in history. In the incident that occurred in 2014, 850,000 bitcoins were stolen. The worth of the stolen coins at the time of the theft is about $450 million USD, but it would amount to about $7 billion USD at today’s rates. The exchange filed for bankruptcy after the hack.
https://smartereum.com/16164/mt-gox-coincheck-bitgrail-biggest-hacks-scams-cryptocurrency-history-2016-2017-2018/
Bbut bbbut we millenials are so hip and cool. How could we possibly fall for a scam? Only oldsters, who voted for Trump and invest in boring things like IBM and Microsoft are dumb enough to do this.
Dumb question of the day: How can so many bankers afford to make so many bad loans that are destined to never be repaid? It almost seems they are handing out loans like candy.
Easy answer: The banks don’t keep the loans they originate.
We know Smelly Mel is financing houses. Who’s financing proton beams and what exactly are they used for? Cancer treatment?
Yes, cancer treatment.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy
To expand on that, the loans are packaged into CDOs and MBSs and sold to investors. And many of these are gift-wrapped with a free federal-government sponsored guarantee against loss.
Editorial Board
America’s Mortgage Market Is Still Broken
Ten years after the 2008 crisis, crucial flaws need fixing.
by The Editors
April 30, 2018, 4:00 AM PDT
Needs work. Photographer: Mike Mergen/Bloomberg
Regulators have done a lot to reform the financial system since the 2008 crisis, but they still haven’t fixed the market where the trouble started: U.S. mortgages. It’s an omission they need to put right before the next crisis hits.
Looking back, it’s easy to see what made U.S. housing finance so vulnerable. Loosely regulated companies, financed with flighty short-term debt, did much of the riskiest lending. Loan-servicing companies, which processed payments and managed relations with borrowers, lacked the incentives and resources needed to handle delinquencies. Private-label mortgages (which aren’t guaranteed by the government) were packaged into securities with extremely poor mechanisms for deciding who — investors, packagers or lenders — would take responsibility for bad or fraudulent loans.
As soon as borrowers started defaulting in significant numbers, chaos broke out. With little cash or capital, non-bank mortgage lenders imploded by the hundreds. Servicers left borrowers in the lurch — some went out of business, while others saw that they could make more money by foreclosing than by modifying loans. The parties involved in securitizations became embroiled in legal battles about who owed what to whom — litigation that goes on to this day.
After the crisis, Congress and regulators took action to prevent a repeat. New rules eliminated the worst of the pre-crisis loan products. Higher capital requirements made banks somewhat more resilient. Yet it’s becoming apparent how much the reformers missed.
In recent years, highly regulated institutions such as Bank of America — burned by billions of dollars in fines — have shied away from the mortgage business. Instead, they provide short-term credit to nonbanks such as Quicken Loans and PennyMac, which do the actual lending. Nonbanks now originate some 60 percent of new mortgages.
…
The other detail to bear in mind is that under our Fed’s Too-big-to-fail bailout policy, debt securitization schemes that blow up can later be cleaned up by Quantitative Easing funded purchases of securitized debt that bury it forever on the Fed’s balance sheet.
“It’s an omission they need to put right before the next crisis hits.”
Why bother closing the barn door now that the horse is out?
Barn door left open
All of the horses have fled
Hurry, shut the door!
I guess this is what Churchill meant by the Americans eventually getting it right?
“Americans eventually getting it right?”
Sock it to me
The Glut of Private Jets Means ‘Insane’ Bargains for Buyers - Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/…/private-jet-glut-spurs-insane-bargains-for-aspiring-bu...
Oct 8, 2017 - Corporate-jet makers are flooding the market, spurring deep discounts for new aircraft and fueling a three-year slide in prices of used planes.
Private jets are getting cheaper - Cut-price aircraft - The Economist
https://www.economist.com/gulliver/2017/10/19/private-jets-are-getting-cheaper
Oct 19, 2017 - Part of this is explained by oversupply. A glut of corporate aircraft is flooding the market, pushing many manufacturers, such as Gulfstream and …
Oversupply lowers prices of private jets - Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
http://www.arkansasonline.com › Business
Oct 10, 2017 - Corporate-jet makers are flooding the market, spurring deep discounts for new aircraft and fueling a three-year slide in prices of used planes.
Sale prices for second-hand private jets fall 35% - Financial Times
https://www.ft.com/content/23a59714-5813-11e7-80b6-9bfa4c1f83d2
Jun 24, 2017 - Billionaires and larger corporates have had tens of millions of dollars wiped off the value of their business jets, as massive oversupply in the …
SuperyachtNews.com - Business - Private jet market collapse …
http://www.superyachtnews.com/…/private-jet-market-collapse-underline-superyacht-stabilit...
Oct 24, 2017 - However, it’s the slide in the pricing of pre-owned aircraft, catalysed by an oversupply and lack of demand, which has harmed the private jet …
Pre-Owned Private Jets Cost Owners Millions Of Dollars
seagilbart.com/pre-owned-private-jets-cost-millions/
Jul 16, 2017 - According to research done by Colibri Aircraft, pre-owned private jets are … in pre-owned aircraft after the massive oversupply prior to the credit …
Business jet market still waiting for solid economics to trickle down …
https://corporatejetinvestor.com/…/business-jet-market-still-waiting-for-solid-economi...
Oct 31, 2017 - US private non-residential investment in the Q2 2017 came to $2.43 trillion … related explanation simply involves a legacy of jet overproduction, …
Oversupply lowers prices of private jets | NWADG
http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2017/oct/10/oversupply-lowers-prices-of-private-jet/
Oversupply lowers prices of private jets. Bloomberg News. Posted: October 10, 2017 at 1 a.m.. Credit: Bloomberg photo by SeongJoon Cho
You Know It’s Bad When… Prices For Used Jets Are Cratering | Zero …
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-25/sales-prices-used-jets-are-cratering
Apr 4, 2017 - The private jet market has been struggling for a decade, beaten down by … waste, stigma of outlandish luxury, and an oversupply of planes.
‘Asia’s second-hand jet market soars as super-rich eye bargains’
‘SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Asia’s super-wealthy are increasingly opting for second-hand private jets rather than buying new ones, as private buyers look for deep discounts and shorter waiting times, aircraft brokers said.’
‘It underscores how a trend that began last year has hardened amid slowing economic growth in the region, while cost-conscious Chinese buyers have shunned flashy symbols of wealth.’
“Customers have changed, their knowledge of the industry has changed and they now understand the value of a pre-owned aircraft,” Jeffrey Lowe, managing director of consultancy Asian Sky Media, said on the sidelines of the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition in Shanghai this week.’
“The market has had an abundance of supply of late, so they were able to find good airplanes at good prices too which were not necessarily all that old and still under warranty. So that has certainly spurred the market.”
Something that crosses my mind is that a used Gulfstream probably has a fraction of the flying hours of a comparably aged airliner. Airliners spend most if their time airborne, ferrying paying passengers to their destinations, while a Gulfstream probably spends most of its time parked in a hangar. Meaning that a pre-owned Gulfstream is as practically good as a new one.
Last 3company I worked for had 2 jets and both were flying 5 or 6 days a wek, with several flights per day. Both jets are Gulfstreams.
It was a pretty cool system too. Anyone in the company could hitch a ride. There is an online booking system on the intranet, as long as there is a seat open, and a manager approves, you get on the flight. Saves a ton of time vs flying commercial with all the TSA nonsense. And the flights were usually to smaller airports which are much easier to get in and out of, think DeKalb airport vs ATL. Could fly in for a 10am meeting and be back in the office by 2pm.
A private jet is a hole in the sky that eats money.
I’m sure the Rothschilds and other members of the banking clan fly on commercial carriers.
Warren Buffett flies in a corporate jet owned by the company he and other stockholders own and he controls. He gets to fly in the jet and the corporation gets to pay the bills. Thus the expense of owning this hole-in-the-sky-that-eats-money is shared among ALL the stockholders but Warren is the guy that gets to ride in it.
Of course, billionaires fly on the corporate jet. You don’t expect them to fly first class on some rickety, 30 year old airliner, do you?
“…but Warren is the guy that gets to ride in it.”
FWIW, ‘ol gramps owns a jet charter service, so he shares the aircraft’s use with other paying customers. You can download the app to your phone too, schedule a lunch trip somewhere… impress your woman.
Billionaires and larger corporates have had tens of millions of dollars wiped off the value of their business jets
While that may very well be true, you don’t really expect billionaires and CEO’s of large corporations to fly commercial with the rabble, do you?
Too much cheap credit and extremely low returns on UST’s lead to speculation run amok. From Druckenmiller’s NYT’s op-ed:
If I were trying to create a deflationary bust, I would do exactly what the world’s central bankers have been doing the past six years. I shudder to think of the malinvestment that has occurred. Corporate debt has soared, but most was used for financial engineering. Bankruptcies have been minimal, but who knows how many corporate zombies free money is keeping alive? Individuals have plowed ever-increasing sums into assets at ever-increasing prices.
Link to a paywall…
There’s an browser extension, ByPass Paywalls.
Another workaround is to simply open an incognito browser in Chrome and perform a Google search on the title. You should be able to read the article at that point.
“…perform a Google search on the title.”
That used to work, but not so well anymore. Try a search on getting around paywalls… interesting reading.
Just copy the url and paste it in an incognito tab. Also works with Firefox.
That used to work, but not so well anymore. Try a search on getting around paywalls… interesting reading.
You are right! It still works for The New York Times but it doesn’t work for The Wall Street Journal. In any event, the prepending this to the URL seems to work:
http://facebook.com/l.php?u=
Also, you can go to archive.is and search the URL to find the page in its entirety.
Wsj is different since it is all pay. Nyt, wapo and others give you a few free articles. Using incognito fools wapo into thinkig it is always the first article you are reading, so you essentially have a free subscription. But with wsj there ard no freebies so that doesnt work.
Good point. However, when I access WSJ via Apple News on my iPhone, there are a certain number of “subscription-free” articles that are available. It does seem that WSJ throws out freebies in some shape or fashion, just different than the way that NYT and WaPo does.
‘An industry source in Thailand who wished to be quoted unnamed reckons countries like India, not Thailand, are faring worse from the current price slump, because they are ‘new to the game.’ ‘They thought production had no limits,’ he said. ‘New leveraged investment is always at risk.’
I posted an article a couple of years ago stating fish farming in Asia had increased something like 60% since the global QE. One guy asked, “you have most of the worlds population and you want to export food?”
This is another installment in the QE results in deflation thing.
‘Crude oil is struggling to develop momentum, and WTI spots are trading near 67.80. WTI spot prices are getting tugged around the map as the US’ consistent overproduction is applying greater and greater pressure on prices despite the OPEC’s best efforts to cut off supply in an effort to give demand a chance to catch up.’
‘If the dot-com bubble and the housing bubble marked previous decades, something of a medical-equipment bubble may be showing itself now…‘The biggest problem these guys have is extra capacity. They don’t have enough patients to fill the rooms’ at many proton centers’…‘In any industry that’s really an emerging industry, you often have people who enter the business with over-exuberant expectations’
In the early 1990s the basically tortured my grandmother, who was dying of heart disease and bone cancer, by stuffing here into to MRI every time she showed up at the hospital. When what she really needed was pain relief, not more pain. Until my grandfather made them stop.
If Medicare is paying, they’ll find some way to make some senior buy. Heck, down in Florida they make up both the services and the seniors, something that happens in New York with Medicaid.
‘Private buyers accounted for $1.3 billion in closed transaction volume in the seniors housing and care sector, according to new first-quarter data from the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC) — though overall mergers-and-acquisition volume took a major tumble.’
‘Nursing care transactions included about $900 million in closed deals, while seniors housing saw $1.7 billion worth of deals. The total volume was down 5% from the fourth quarter of 2017, and down 45% from the first quarter of last year.’
“[W]hen the REITs trade at a premium to asset value (asset value is based on the private market capitalization rates and the REIT’s portfolio holdings) then the REITs can go out and buy properties by raising equity and realize an instant increase in value because the private market value is lower than their publicly traded equity value,” Kauffman wrote. “In other words, their cost of capital is low when the premium is high.”
‘On the company’s most recent earnings call earlier this month, Omega executives talked up the demand among private buyers in certain individual markets as the REIT embarks on a major push to offload $250 million in properties through the end of the year — on top of $98 million already sold during the first quarter.’
Friend’s grandmother who was 92 had a do not resuscitate on file with the hospital, and friend had a power of attorney on file as well.
Grandmother fell ill with heart problems while friend was on vacation, so hospital consulted with non-relative and recommended installing a pacemaker (into a 92 year old) for the heart issue. Non-relative wasn’t sure what to do so they said “ok, do what you think should be done,” not wanting to be responsible for the grandmother dying.
Friend gets back from vacation, learns of surgery to install pacemaker into grandmother with do not resuscitate and POA on file, and HITS THE ROOF. Friend investigates further and finds out it was an intern “practicing,” if you will. Hospital acknowledges failures, apologizes, and agrees to wipe the bill out completely in an effort to avoid massive lawsuit.
Which kind of stupidity is stupider.
Tripling down on stuff no one needs?
“Self-storage operators are slashing rents to prop up occupancy rates in an increasingly competitive market. Houston rents have dropped for a second straight year, falling 4.8 percent to 86 cents per square foot. Last year, rents plunged 7 percent.”
First people borrow money to spend money to buy a bunch of stuff you don’t need. Then they spend money to store it, rather than admit they were dumb in the first place, cut their losses, and get rid of it. Then the real estate industry builds even more places to put stuff that shouldn’t have ben bought to begin with than is required, leading to more waste.
Or an excess of the stuff that people DO need, but the unequal distribution of income and search for easy money selling to rich with stuff produced by the poor leads to a glut at the top and a shortage everywhere else.
“One guy asked, “you have most of the worlds population and you want to export food?”
Housing in NYC, same deal.
Dumb ‘em down, and profit.
“First people borrow money to spend money to buy a bunch of stuff they don’t need.”
Check.
“Then they spend money to store it, rather than admit they were dumb in the first place, cut their losses, and get rid of it.”
Check.
“Then the real estate industry builds even more places to put stuff that shouldn’t have been bought to begin with than is required, leading to more waste.”
Check.
‘As a property owner, you’ve probably at least once thought, how did I get myself into this? You’ve seen the worst as a property owner, even more so if you’ve dealt with bad tenants. Below are 9 investments with better ROI than property management.’
People who sink all of their future earnings into an illiquid property investment have no financial flexibility to pursue higher ROI investments. I guess you could say that they got stucco.
I’m a prude who has never used any kind of recreational drug in my life so I admit I feel a bit of schadenfraude watching these get rich quick weed hucksters go down.
It’s not prude, it’s attractive. Substance use and abuse is a major turnoff.
i agree…. i’ve been very lucky to meet and live with women who this was not an issue
Maybe you are just choosy (as am I!)…
and i wonder why we allowed Mexican Colombian MS 13 drug lords to reign for so long. At least this way we keep all the money in America.
Maybe that’s why they turned to smuggling people and not dope.
There’s a whole side-discussion to be had about people with chronic pain and legal weed being a godsend as it bypasses the opioid industry / govt war on pills situation.
Knowing a couple people with legit lifetime chronic pain and seeing how they get handled by doctors has changed my own stance on weed to a more nuanced one.
Its why i am against drug testing welfare gov assistance people. Make them sit in class 15 hours a week to learn English and Math, and when they fail and lose their EBT card because they are smoking weed daily, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Kratom works as well or better for pain.
Smoking a joint is not substance abuse anymore than having a glass of wine is. It still boggles the mind that some people still lump all “drugs” together and equate MJ with meth and heroin as “substance abuse”.
There’s a young Helen Hunt propaganda video where she goes full tilt after a couple of tokes and dive through a 2nd floor window. Very educational.
This is true, but with a caveat. MJ may be one of the more innocuous drugs, but it is one of the worst offenders for people predisposed to mental illness. I cannot emphasis enough how terrible MJ is for those predisposed to any form of mental illness. If you have a family history of anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, do yourself a favor and stay away from experimenting with MJ. If you do, wait until after 25 when the brain is mostly done establishing its connections.
Eh, I think you’re way overboard here. A lot of people with anxiety and other issues have found relief in it. I don’t think you have the science to back up your assertions, either.
I do not partake in it, by the way, so I’m unbiased.
Trust me, I am very well versed in the science. I consult on a regular basis with leading psychiatrists. There is a known differential sensitivity effect with some patients when exposed to THC. Just because one patient has no issues whatsoever doesn’t mean another will not. Go ahead and do just a cursory dive into marijuana and schizophrenia or acute psychosis.
Cannabis use is associated with an increased risk for psychotic disorder, yet most cannabis users do not develop psychosis, suggesting that other factors are also involved. This paper reviews the available evidence suggesting that differential sensitivity to the psychosis-inducing effects of cannabis may be related to underlying genetic liability. There is robust evidence that persons at psychometric risk for psychosis are most vulnerable to display psychotic symptoms subsequent to the use of cannabis. Multiple studies have also found that persons at familial risk for psychosis have an increased sensitivity to the effects of cannabis.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22716139
https://ndarc.med.unsw.edu.au/blog/does-cannabis-cause-mental-illness
Pot head’s brains are forever changed. Something is missing, though it may not be noticed by the user. Just my unscientific observation.
As an aside, the problem with cannabis right now is that there is very much a Big Marijuana industry that is sugar coating the very real risks to the drug. There is good evidence that cannabinol extracts are very useful for seizures. I’ve had patients using cannabis-derived medication for appetite while undergoing chemo. Lots of good studies show that cannabis may be significantly more effective for chronic pain, and less deadly than opiates. But the fact remains is that for a subset of the population predisposed to mental illness, it is can have very adverse effects. We need a better understanding of the risk factors, indications, dosage, and contraindications for THC and cannabis-derived medications before we go too far into the legalization experiment.
‘Canada should heed warning from Oregon’s flooded pot market: economists’
‘Robin Cordell, owner and grower at Oregon Girl Cannabis Company, said she saw the influx of supply coming on social media that would choke out her farm. “I saw just massive fields planted on Instagram, just huge acres and I just knew that was going to be the result,” she said in an interview.’
‘While she once sold her pot to a wholesaler for $2,200US per pound, she said that dipped to $600 per pound. The retail price for a gram of pot has fallen about 50 per cent since 2015, from $14 to $7, says a report by the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis.’
$600 per pound is still an insane return for a crop. Try growing potatoes, girl, and see how you like it.
$$$s per acre is a more fair comparison, rather than dollars per pound.
“Using the average price of $1,948 per pound in Colorado, an acre of marijuana can yield more than $1.1 million per acre. Comparatively, the most widely grown crops in the U.S., including corn, soybeans, oats and wheat, all yield less than $1,000 per harvested acre. Even with more competition in the legal marijuana market, which could cause prices to fall, the revenue margin will remain significantly greater for marijuana crops than for other cash crops.”
https://newfrontierdata.com/marijuana-insights/comparative-yield-per-acre-for-grains-and-marijuana/
At $600 per pound, that’s still $338,800 per acre.
“Potato yields per acre
Organic potatoes yielded an average of 21,200 pounds per acre over all three varieties, while conventional methods averaged 32,800 pounds per acre.”
32,800/100=328cwt
Potato price = $10.30USDcwt*328 = $3.378.40 per acre
Cry me a river, Oregon Girl.
‘Will Austin’s Hotel Boom Lead to a Bust?’
‘Recently my parents were in town. They marveled at how much the city has grown, as they do each time they come back. (You know, as we all do when we leave town for, like, a week.) I noticed that many of their questions (What’s that big building? What’s going there? Why can’t we get out of your neighborhood?) had similar answers. (It’s a hotel. A hotel. They’re building a hotel and have commandeered the street for several months to do so.) Reviewing the data, my dad summed it up pretty well: “Austin has a lot of hotels. Do you need them?”
‘Well, Dad, that depends on what you mean by “need.”
‘Last year Austin ranked among the top five cities experiencing a hotel boom, according to industry research group STR. Marriott was soon to open or start building eight, including a 31-story hotel by the Austin Convention Center. Also coming are the 37-story Fairmont, the 32-story Aloft, and the 24-story Hotel ZaZa. Any dad can tell you downtown’s skyline is being transformed by the lodging industry.’
‘Right now, everything is working just fine. People are coming, hotels are going up, money from hotel taxes is fueling real changes in the city—it’s great. Still, it worries me that we’re embracing permanent structures that will be dependent on our city having to remain cool in the eyes of people who don’t even live here. We’re housing hordes of dentists from Topeka on the grave of Las Manitas. We’re erecting hotels built on the backs of live-music hype and yet pricing out the music venues and complaining when that music gets too loud.’
‘While I’m sure that Austin will always be weird enough to sell T-shirts, I worry that it might only be “T-shirt weird.” I worry that new hotels are being built and financed based on a market need long since filled, and now we’re creating a beast (more empty hotel beds) whose hunger is used to justify expanding the convention center at the price of making downtown a place of fun over function.’
‘Years ago, sage environmental advocate and consumer watchdog T. Paul Robbins warned the city council about the perils of endorsing a project (Circuit of The Americas) that would put Austin at the mercy of tourism’s good graces. He said that we, as a city, ran the risk of developing a “cruise ship economy” beholden to festivals and events to keep dollars coming in. The premise was that permanent investments in something as elusive as “cool”—and depending on people who could choose to go anywhere—would force Austinites to peddle their wares every time a ship docked, always waiting for the next ship to come in and worrying about what would happen if it didn’t.’
Honey let’s spend our annual family summer vacation in Austin. What do you say kids?
- said nobody ever
Don’t forget the student debt bubble. The labor market is flooded with a glut of college graduates who can’t find jobs that pay high enough wages to cover their loan payments plus living expenses. This is just another facet of the central bankers’ paradise we live in.
I like it. It keeps the pukes humble.
A humble puke is a puke who is desperate and thus won’t get all uppity
about working conditions and workers rights and pay raises and other such distractions and thus possesses the potential for becoming an ideal employee.
Get ‘em when they are young and desperately indebted and then exploit them to the max.
Churn ‘em and burn ‘em and when their age gets into the forties or so cast them out and bring on another batch. Do this as often as necessary.
There’s an unlimited supply of new plankton for whales to feed on.
I’ve read in several publications now that student loan debt is fast becoming a new perk for some employers to offer new hires. Our hospital offers student loan repayment for some of it’s nurses. The cynic in me sees this not as a way to increase overall pay so much as a way to tether employees to their company in an attempt to suppress wage increases that may be had by going to a competitor or out of state.
“The cynic in me sees this not as a way to increase overall pay so much as a way to tether employees to their company in an attempt to suppress wage increases that may be had by going to a competitor or out of state.”
I like it. Adds a wee bit to the definition of “debt slave”.
Internal bondage is the best sort of slavery in that the slave owns himself and thus is responsible for his own well-being. Easiest form of acquiring a slave as well; No kidnapping or other forms of coercion is needed whatsoever. The only thing that is needed is a pen and a dotted line.
“Easiest form of acquiring a slave as well; No kidnapping or other forms of coercion is needed whatsoever.”
Slavery in America has been a great challenge since the end of the Civil War, but thanks to the miracles of financial innovation, our bankers have done an admirable job of rising to the challenge.
I would be proud to accept such accolades on behalf of all bankers everywhere but the real heros are those involved in our educational system. Without them bankers such as myself would be condemned to a lifetime of working for a living.
This weekend I was at a museum exhibit about farming in my state and read about farmers in 1866-1870+. The farmer’s dairy said that with the passing of slavery, he feared that he and his fellow farmers would not find enough labor for the crops.
Right now the local libbies are up in arms about not having enough seasonal immigrants to process the Maryland crab in the Bay.
My landscape guy is a 20ish year old white guy. An American who does tbe work liberals say Americans won’t do. My house cleaners are 2 white American women. More unicorn Americans doing work Americans won’t do. Amazing huh?
Landscapers and house cleaners? Sounds like you’re better off offloading that depreciating elephant.
When I rented, I had cleaners and landscapers as well. I was responsible for mowing the grass as a tenant renting a house. And I will happily pay someone $15 an hour to avoid cleaning toilets, renter or home owner.
Everything seems like a bargain with empty pockets.
Money
9 in 10 Americans failed this 6 question quiz about student loans
Shawn M. Carter | @shawncarterm
10:46 AM ET Thu, 24 May 2018
Here’s where students have the hardest and easiest time paying off loans
Despite the fact that more than 44 million Americans have student loans and their debt now totals $1.4 trillion, many people remain unclear as to how, exactly, those loans work. Financial website Credible created a six question quiz to “gauge public awareness of how rising interest rates might affect the cost of borrowing for college.” The quiz surveyed 1,000 students and parents on how interest rates are set, how often those rates are adjusted and whether or not they can change.
A shocking number of them failed.
“More than 9 out of 10 people scored less than 50 percent,” Mike Jurs, Credible’s director of communications and content, tells CNBC Make It, and 63 percent could answer only one or two questions right. No one was able to answer all seven questions correctly and one in five respondents couldn’t guess even a single right answer.
“There’s clearly a need for more information about how federal student loans work!” says Jurs.
…
I missed only one question, which put me in the 98th percentile of respondents. This is somewhat remarkable because not being any kind of expert on student loan programs, I made educated guesses on over half of them.
You’re in a small group, Professor Bear. Very few people have ever even heard of LIBOR, etc, much less know what it is.
I got the same #, a combo of having reviewed my wife’s student loans, once having worked in mortgage origination, and educated guessing.
Yeah, but how many know that LIBOR is being replaced with SOFR?
SOFR = Some Other Fraudulent Racket?
That’s about right!
Secured Overnight Funding Rate
“Despite the fact that more than 44 million Americans have student loans and their debt now totals $1.4 trillion, many people remain unclear as to how, exactly, those loans work.”
This much-needed clarity is sure to come to them shortly after graduation. 😁
“Financial website Credible created a six question quiz to “gauge public awareness of how rising interest rates might affect the cost of borrowing for college.”
Only six questions. Check.
“The quiz surveyed 1,000 students and parents on how interest rates are set, how often those rates are adjusted and whether or not they can change.”
… and …?
“A shocking number of them failed.”
Bahahahahaha … what a surprise!
“More than 9 out of 10 people scored less than 50 percent,”
Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
“… and 63 percent could answer only one or two questions right.”
Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
“No one was able to answer all seven questions correctly and one in five respondents couldn’t guess even a single right answer.”
Oh, and the supposed solution to this problem is …?
(ta da)
“There’s clearly a need for more information about how federal student loans work!”.
MORE INFORMATION! There is a shortage of information!
A question for the board: How many of you pukes believe there is a shortage of information in this, the Information Age, regarding the particulars of student loans?
I mildly tortured my wife by talking her into taking the quiz. She got 4 out of 7 correct, which put her in the 94th percentile. In fairness to anyone who struggles to answer the questions, most of them are fairly arcane (e.g. who knew the LIBOR was used to set student loan rates?).
I missed two. Student loans are so different today than they were 20+ years ago that I had no idea.
I don’t think there’s a shortage of information, but I do think there’s a shortage of wisdom.
Direct central planning, or indirect through monetary policy and government spending. Leaders and policy makers just can’t believe they can’t do it right, “this time”.
The reason for this is every policy they have fits into a “context” (the broader economy) with a myriad pieces which will respond to the policy, and also influence the other context components.
This is why the free trade models are silly. It’s like freshman physics, where they present the model of the feather and the bowling ball falling in a vacuum. Yes, both will fall at the same rate, and hit the ground at the same time. But it never happens in the real world, outside of a lab.
Slapping a little bit of self referential mathematics gives it a more august air because many can’t understand it. I remember the “quants” in the early 2000s with their long pages of equations about why debt from people who couldn’t repay was actually quite lucrative (it was of course, but not for the reasons they provided - the taxpayer gave them their profits). It’s like writing a simple thesis in Latin. The Latin, due to its indecipherability, makes it seem more august, when it too is still conveying inaccurate information.
Stockman talks about a “dashboard” of charts that the Fed monitors, as if that makes them informed about the intricacies of an almost $20T economy. As you say “due to its indecipherability, makes it seem more august, when it too is still conveying inaccurate information.”
From
Comment by Mr. Banker
2018-05-26 23:07:55
“There Are 101 Americans With Over $1 Million In Student Loans”
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-26/there-are-101-americans-over-1-million-student-loans
True story
About 12 years ago my kid’s dentist asked me to bring 1 of my 3 kids to an Orthodontist to see if she needed braces or not (the other 2 were perfect).
The appointment was on a Saturday morning so I ended up bringing all three. When I got there I explained to the receptionist which one was to be looked at and told her I was going to stand outside the front door for 5 minutes and make a business call.
When I stepped back inside the door all 3 kids were gone. Five minutes later the Orthodontist’s assistant came out with 3 charts and started explaining to me that all three needed braces for $6k+.
Upon further review another Orthodontist took care of the 1 kid.
“After graduating from Brigham Young University with no debt and a new marriage, Meru borrowed $601,506 debt to attend USC’s orthodontics program - while his new wife Melissa finding work as a USC administrative assistant to save on tuition. After a few years, his student loan had swelled to $1,060,94.”
This is why a lot of my friends who are MDs or optometrists went the military route. It’s lower pay that private practice while you are putting your time in with the branch you signed with, but you come out completely debt free. I was in the OR with an anesthesiologist who was explaining to me how he was able to sign up for the national guard and get a military pension in the next 4 years. I realized then and there that the military benefits are a bit screwed up as this guy will never see any form of combat experience and is multi-millionaire.
I know several high-paid, white-collar professionals who are in this same boat and have very high incomes (this particular orthodontist made over $200k last year.
The federal loan forgiveness program is not well-understood by the lay public, but very well-understood by those who use it. By capping repayment at 10% of discretionary income minus 150% of the poverty rate, it actually encourages individuals to go into more debt, especially housing debt. In a normal interest rate world, the incentive would be to discharge student debt by continuing to live frugally (as this couple apparently did during orthodontic school by living with family and driving an old Buick). Instead, the incentive is to just make the minimum payment since the unpaid amount will go to the taxpayer. One way to look at this is that our overpriced healthcare system is even more expensive than other state-run socialized systems since the outrageous debt for schooling is being passed on to Joe Taxpayer.
“I realized then and there that the military benefits are a bit screwed up as this guy will never see any form of combat experience and is multi-millionaire.”
FWIW, during the ‘68 Tet Offensive in Da Nang even the wounded soldiers stuck in hospital beds were issued rifles in preparation of the base being over-run. Never say never.
Did you use to post as “Rio?” Some of your writing seems awfully similar.
Who me? No, same old handle. Sorry!
My comment was not to you, it was to OAM, as evidenced by where it nested.
Always have been OAM.
Rio would be pretty obvious. Links to alley webcams for one thing…
What is the advantage to basing global lending rates on a rigged interest rate benchmark?
And for that matter, why would banksters want to replace a rigged interest rate, once the system is running smoothly?
What Is Libor, and Why Should You Care?
This London-based interest rate may be a major reason for rates you’re paying.
By MoneyWise Learning
Financial Literacy
05.18.2018 23:09
Even if you’ve never heard of Libor, you’re probably affected by it in your financial life. Libor is a benchmark interest rate that — despite scandal — still has a significant impact on global commercial and consumer lending.
Libor stands for the London Interbank Offered Rate. It’s used to set interest rates for more than $350 trillion in loans around the world, possibly including a loan you’ve taken out.
Libor is determined each day in London by more than 15 major international banks, including HSBC, Deutsche Bank, J.P. Morgan, Barclays and Bank of America.
Every morning the banks submit offers to the Intercontinental Exchange Benchmark Administration for rates they would pay to borrow from the others. The highest and lowest offers are eliminated, and an average rate is calculated from the rest.
Libor reflects the level of confidence in economies and banking institutions. When Libor inches higher, it mirrors banks’ concern about the health of their fellow institutions.
But a low Libor isn’t necessarily a positive sign. Some of the chaos of 2008’s financial meltdown had roots in an intentional skewing of the industry’s confidence in itself.
Because of those kinds of shenanigans, regulators are phasing out Libor and plan to replace it with a new benchmark rate by 2021.
…
Professor Bear: And for that matter, why would banksters want to replace a rigged interest rate, once the system is running smoothly?
My core thesis has always been, “They’re not going to stop until they have to.” These policies are extremely lucrative for the donor class and provide money for politicians (property taxes). My question has always been, “What does ‘have to’ look like?”
I’ve been intrigued by the Fed’s desire to stop pumping money into the real estate and other financial markets. I think the net result of extracting money from the populace and injecting it into Wall Street is long term stagnation, which results in broad social dissatisfaction. I wonder if there’s something else they’re considering, or are we far enough along that they’re trying to address broad social dissatisfaction?
When we start seeing large numbers of politicians turned out of government at all levels, that is what I expected to drive any changes in economic policy. I’m not sure why the Fed is making these changes now, and other central banks (ex. Japan) are hinting at reducing financial sector stimulus.
“I’ve been intrigued by the Fed’s desire to stop pumping money into the real estate and other financial markets.”
Why would they ever want to do this, given that they have assumed de facto responsibility for ensuring that real estate always goes up?
Are you ready for the next emerging markets meltdown?
Is an emerging market meltdown coming?
Matein Khalid
Global Investing/Dubai
Filed on May 27, 2018 | Last updated on May 27, 2018 at 08.45 pm
The sheer scale of Fed monetary tightening since December 2015 has a multiplier effect in emerging markets.
(AFP)
King Dollar in early stages of another major bull run as Italy emerges as Europe’s next systemic risk
Five years after the 2013 “taper tantrum”, the world is on the brink of yet another emerging market meltdown whose twin epicentres are now Istanbul’s Bosphorus and the Argentine pampas. There is now a tangible risk of contagion in the asset class, a ghastly replay of 1998 and, yes, 2008. I got MBA (Master of Bubblelogy and Amnesia!) in Wharton but got my true education trading the global markets during Mexico 1994, Thailand/Indonesia in 1997, Russia in 1998, Turkey and Argentina in 2001 and the GCC since the Emaar IPO. This time the wolf is here. Why?
One, King Dollar is in the early stages of another major bull run as Italy emerges as Europe’s next systemic risk. Two, the spread between 2- and 10-year US Treasury bond notes has flattened to 48 basis points even while a June FOMC rate hike is certain. An inverted yield curve is a disaster for emerging markets since it means recession risk in the West is imminent. Three, the sheer scale of Fed monetary tightening since December 2015 has a multiplier effect in emerging markets. Four, oil importing emerging markets face a triple-whammy due to $78 Brent. Note the plunge in the Indian rupee to 68 as oil is 70 per cent of New Delhi’s current account. Five, emerging markets are dangerously leveraged due to the post-Lehman decade of negative real interest rates, which generated a $14 trillion tsunami of dollar debt borrowing. As Libor rises, these overleveraged chickens will come home to roost as credit Frankensteins.
…
I expect another 1980s-style intercontinental default wave in the emerging markets. Entire countries and banking systems will go bankrupt or, as my Chicago futures trading cronies used to put it, belly up. I predict the mother of all debt restructuring. Thirteen, Argentina tells me the linkage between internal debt held by gringos and post-Macri, post-Paris Club sovereign borrowing is a recipe for financial disaster. Yet I can name a dozen countries in the same boat as Argy Bargy. Fourteen, imagine a world that needs $500 billion in IMF bailouts? Will Trump’s America First xenophobes ever agree to a dozen IMF bailouts? Do horses fly. Net-net, get real, get out! Remember George Santayana. Those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Sad but true!
The writer is a global equities strategist and fund manager. He can be contacted at mateinkhalid09@gmail.com.
Bethesda, MD Housing Prices Crater 6% YOY As DC/NoVa Housing Bust Expands
https://www.movoto.com/bethesda-md/market-trends/
High street landlords are gearing up for war with retailers, whom they accuse of railroading them into agreeing to rent cuts via increasingly controversial company voluntary arrangements (CVAs).
Struggling businesses including the department store chain House of Fraser, the children’s retailer Mothercare and the Carluccio’s Italian restaurant chain are all seeking CVAs, where property owners accept lower rents to help a tenant avoid financial collapse.
But they are meeting with growing resistance from major property companies, alarmed by the growing list of CVAs sought this year by chains including Prezzo, Jamie’s Italian, Byron, New Look and Carpetright……
Begbies Traynor partner Mark Fry said: “Landlords represent pension funds, investment funds – they’re spending the ordinary man in the street’s money. So when rents aren’t paid, that affects the performance of these funds. It’s not just about rich property owners.”
Bless reality bites, still at least they are thinking about the best interests of the little man (if you believe that I’ve some Narnian tin mine shares you might be interested in).
Free Tommy Robinson.
Seeing as how tomorrow is Memorial Day, here’s the definition:
“Me·mo·ri·al Day
məˈmôrēəl ˌdā/Submit
noun
noun: Memorial Day
a day on which those who died in active military service are remembered, traditionally observed on May 30 but now officially observed on the last Monday in May.”
Food for thought: if you had a relative/ancestor who gave their life in WW2 so that England could be free of German fascism, think about this for a moment. Tommy Robinson has essentially been put in jail, an almost certain death sentence, handed down with no due process, by a deviant freak of a judge, for exercising freedom of speech regarding Muslim “grooming” gangs in the UK.
Meanwhile, a German member of parliament is speaking out for him, offering asylum. Let that sink in. And yet, where’s Sir Paul? Sir Elton? How about Mr. Street Fighting Man Mick Jagger? How about you, Roger Daltrey? Where’s the Boyz from Take That? Or the Spice Girlz? Yah, all you opinionated rock stars, where are ya? How about you, Hugh Grant? Jude Law? Daniel Ratcliffe? JK Rowling? Daniel Craig? How about you, Ozzie and Sharon? Simon Cowell? I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!!!!!!!!!
My mother had a cousin with whom she was very close who died in the European theater of WW2. It was one of the biggest losses of her life. Over the years she would bring it up occasionally and descend into such grief like I’ve never seen. I’m glad she isn’t around now to witness the abomination her beloved cousin died for.
Oh, what about George Clooney’s outspoken “human rights” lawyer wife, Amal? Too busy complaining about the villa on Lake Como?
@palmetto - You got the right stuff. LMFAO!
The natural state of Freedom is erosion. If you want to keep it you have to push.
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Thomas Jefferson
With apologies to frankie. I am not attacking you and I don’t blame you as a citizen, just what’s going on in the UK, because that is the beta test. If it works there, they’ll (the deviant freak globalists) try it over here. They already are attempting it, thus the Awan spy ring in Congress. I believe the idea is to have a communist government enforced at the citizen level by violent Muslims. I’m praying for Tommy. However, given that they would not release Assange, I doubt if Tommy will have better luck. I just hope he’s not dead or a vegetable already.
It is what happens when you have a country without a first and second amendment. The globalists are trying to eliminate truthful reporting so Brexit does not happen.
The Brits haven’t progressed much beyond the medieval beasts they always were, eh? They run the show, and don’t kid yourself, they’ve always hidden behind the big skirts of the US while the US industrial-spy complex does their bidding. It was England that interfered in our election, with their fuggin degenerate “spies”. They’ve been hard at it big time since WW2, even before. The deviant movie star Cary Grant worked for MI6 and he wasn’t the only one.
Did you invest your life’s savings in buying a house, only to watch your dreams go up in smoke?
May 27, 2018 @ 11:53 AM
The Little Black Book of Billionaire Secrets
Lava From Hawaii’s Kilauea Volcano Eruption Now Covers Nearly 4 Square Miles Of A Residential Area
Eric Mack , Contributor
I cover science and innovation and products and policies they create
…
Ya see? They are too making new land!
“He says many of the homes he built there are now gone.”
What happens to the land if it’’s leased. Before he died my FIL owned a house in Hawaii but leased the land for 99 years or some such sh#t. His second wife still lives there.
In addition to high prices, we also have two types of property ownership, “Fee simple” and “Leasehold”, as well as different construction methods.
HOUSING IN HAWAII
Fee Simple
Fee Simple (Freehold) ownership is the same as in most areas of the country. When you purchase a property, such as a single family home, you obtain title to the land as well as the improvements (structures).
Leasehold
Leasehold ownership is where you purchase the improvements, but rent the land. Land leases usually run 50 to 99 years. There is generally a fixed lease rent for a given number of years. The end of the fixed period is called the renegotiation date. At that time the owner of the land (lessor) and the owner of the home (lessee) would renegotiate the rent for the remaining period of the lease.
http://alohaproperties.net/honolulu-real-estate/buying-in-hawaii/
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-27/china-s-toughest-housing-curbs-test-limits-of-speculative-buyers?cmpId=yhoo.headline&yptr=yahoo
Interesting. They think of Hainan as their Hawaii. When they (as this century’s manufacturing center of the world) have their great depression maybe it will be more like their Florida. I recall someone here saying Florida real estate crashed in about 1926.
In ten years you’ll be treated w protons. If we go socialist then not. They’ll use the blaster type radiation on you.
Will anyone be able to afford insurance in 10 years? Will insurance pay for proton beam treatments?
Just heard about this on the ABC evening news a few minutes ago. Besides the basic story and the “blunt objects” part being changed they had the unconscionable mother of the what they called 20 year old victim wanting the Border Patrol agent who shot her daughter to be charged with murder.
Although I honestly feel badly for the young Guatemalan immigrant, her family and for that matter probably the Border Patrol agent assuming he was thinking he was being rushed in the dark by a group of people who did not listen to his verbal commands and ended up the way it did but where does 1 law start if the other was in the process of being broken?
Border Patrol revises account of why agent shot and killed 19-year-old Guatemalan immigrant
By César Rodriguez
Laredo Morning Times Updated 8:53 pm, Friday, May 25, 2018
Federal authorities on Friday walked back a claim that a U.S. Border Patrol agent who fatally shot a 19-year-old immigrant woman earlier this week opened fire because a group of immigrants had started to hit him with “blunt objects.”
Friday, a news release issued by Border Patrol dropped the reference to an attack with blunt objects in the deadly encounter that occurred Wednesday afternoon in Rio Bravo, a small town just south of Laredo.
“According to the agent, the group ignored his verbal commands and instead rushed him,” states the news release.
When asked about the difference in reporting what happened, a Border Patrol spokesman declined to comment, citing the open investigation.
https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local/article/Border-Patrol-revises-account-of-why-agent-shot-12945393.php
The Camp of the Saints wasn’t fiction.
I know a couple of Guatemalan guys who are having houses built in their home towns while they are working here. They have plans to go back and retire soon in communities that look pretty nice in their pictures. They also say there are Gringo communities where U.S. retirees live really well for cheap.
So it doesn’t seem to me they have to run that far for their lives, maybe the decent pay and handouts but not their lives.
Walnut Grove, CA Housing Prices Crater 13% YOY As Unemployment Ravages Sacramento County
https://www.movoto.com/walnut-grove-ca/market-trends/
Elon Musk on Twitter:
“Who do you think *owns* the press? Hello.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1000560049389907969
LOLZ
Elon is off in la-la land here when he starts attacking journalists. Maybe he is mixing Ambien with wine again. I say stick to cranking out the Model 3, the Model Y, and the electric truck:
“Elon Musk tweeted this week that he plans to setup an online platform called ‘Pravda’, where people can “rate the core truth of any article and track the credibility score over time of each journalist, editor and publication.” This isn’t a joke.”
“Free-for-all forums where some people make decisions for other people are susceptible to being hijacked by polarised communities that can easily bias ratings. Of course, Musk is welcome to try and build a platform where the numbers are more meaningful than on Google Reviews, but fundamentally, foot-soldiers of the political extrema are bound to gang up and vehemently down-vote publications that publish news they don’t like.”
“The false conceit in Musk’s declaration is rooted in his belief that journalists who publish stories that suggest he made a mistake are wrong and, more dangerously, the masses are always right.”
https://thewire.in/media/elon-musk-journalism-credibility-pravda
Elon Musk is trying to distract people from the simple truth. He promised cost reductions in batteries that just have not panned out. Without them, EVs of all types cannot survive without massive government subsidies.
And those cheaper production costs were to lead to the $35,000 Model 3. Now he’s pushing a $78,000 Model 3 and the cheaper one is not for sale.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance states that ICE cars and BEV cars will reach upfront cost parity in 2024. Last year they predicted 2026, but have already moved it up by 2 years. Many BEVs are already lower total-cost-to-own for consumer over the lifetime of a vehicle, without any subsidies. New vehicle sales in the US are flat or declining, while EV sales continue to climb at a substantial pace.
I am not interested In Bloomberg projections just interested in what is actually happening, the $35000 car has disappeared both car production and battery production is well below past predictions and it is running to California for more subsidies. All it has is favorable stories which it is probably feeding to the press claiming reductions in the future
https://www.yahoo.com/news/report-forecasts-explosive-growth-evs-163100472.html
Musk has created an echo chamber when it comes to the green press. However, if you read the link it basis most of its optimism on China. But China is a special case, it has made it virtually impossible in its major cities to get a license plate. When you do obtain one it cost $15000. Then, it adds even more subsidies comparable to what you might get in California. As far as the rest the story is just projecting trends forward with no analysis. It is like projecting landline growth forward in 1995 based on history, without considering the impact of cell phones to use the analogy of the article against it. This is common in the green area which seems to ignore the law of diminishing returns, both solar and wind power have largely ceased to come down in price as the advantages of mass production and dumping of Chinese production at a loss have reached their maximum. The story glosses over the raw material bottleneck, with insignificant production mines are struggling to meet cobalt demand. There are only so many child slaves in the Congo to meet the demand and only so much in the ground. I am sure that Putin is happy about the increased demand for nickel since Russia is a major producer but its mine capacity too is limited. To assume continued price reductions under the existing scenario seems baseless.
It is like projecting landline growth forward in 1995 based on history, without considering the impact of cell phones to use the analogy of the article against it.
Except for in your analogy a landline is old technology and cell phones are new technology. EVs are the new tech, and ICEs are the old tech. The analogy breaks down or is completely backward. VW just announced it is opening 3 new factories in China to meet EV boom. China is the elephant in the room when it comes to vehicle sales, all automakers know this. They will tip the scales one way or another. And VW has locked up $48 billion in batteries. One way or another, EVs are coming. Whether Tesla will be a significant part of the revolution remains to be seen. Besides, I think you should be happy that Tesla may never sell a $35k Model 3. The way to profitability is to sell expensive cars to those who want and can afford them, like GM and Ford are doing with their trucks and SUVs.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/report-forecasts-explosive-growth-evs-163100472.html
The rate of production for Tesla for Model 3 on April 8th was 2611 and if you check today it is 3225 per week. Tesla has pulled out robots and added humans and has them working twelve hour shifts. It is running the plant 24/7. A real rate of 5000 vehicles a week is nowhere in sight. Of course, Musk will play games a stockpile enough cars almost finished so the last week he can meet the number before production collapses the following week. The link above shows that Musk is screaming about the green press since his con games are just about over.
You totally miss the point of my analogy you cannot just project numbers into the future.
It was once said that power from nuclear power would be too cheap to meter. Nuclear power was a technology. However, technologies mature and you reach diminishing returns. There are numerous signs solar and wind and battery storage using the existing technologies have matured to a point where further improvements are very difficult and the rapid advancement on price seen over the last ten years are over. It may be decades before we see significant technological improvements.
Just to be clear, to get an ICE plate in China it costs $15000, a EV one is free. It is a hidden subsidy just like in this country net metering is a hidden subsidy and you I can go on and on about hidden subsidies. Greens when they compare costs will pick the best location for wind or solar and than compare that against the average or even the worse location for a fossil fuel plant and the list goes on and on. You cannot have a rational discussion with most of them and I am not including One with this comment because green has become a religion and they are just as fanatical as ISIS. However, they cannot explain where the rare metals, cobalt and nickel for these new technologies will come from if we try to scale these technologies. Particularly, since China is locking up all the potential supplies.
Additionally, the “greens” cannot explain how we afford these technologies. With all the direct subsidies California and the US give to these technologies California’s electric rates are 50% higher than the national average and this is despite significant cheap hydro and ideal solar and wind conditions within the state. Why is that, if the prices they cite for the technologies is accurate?
Tesla has pulled out robots and added humans and has them working twelve hour shifts. It is running the plant 24/7.
I believe this is a good thing. Musk over-engineered the solution and tried to go “full-robot”. Many analysts and long-time automotive experts chimed in and said that this was not efficient. So a correction course does seem warranted. And, Elon has issued a mea culpa (”humans are underrated”). I’d say that a willingness to admit mistakes is a good thing in this case. As for running 24/7, that doesn’t bother me one bit. My hospital runs 24/7 and we don’t deal with widgets, but actual people who have a lot more variance and unpredictability than an assembly line. Again, the fact that they are ramping up to meet demand is a positive thing in a capitalist economy.
Of course, Musk will play games a stockpile enough cars almost finished so the last week he can meet the number before production collapses the following week.
A lot of the cars that are being completed are being shipped to Canada, China, and the EU. Musk is trying to maximize the number of people who can be eligible for the EV tax credit the way the US law is written. The honest truth is that the people buying a Tesla now are not the people who would be buying a Ford Fusion, a Toyota Camry, or a Hyundai Sonata. Musk is stealing Mercedes, Audi, Lexus, and BMW drivers. The expiration of a tax credit of $7500 will be a loss, but won’t have a material impact on the decision of that type of buyer.
California’s electric rates are 50% higher than the national average and this is despite significant cheap hydro and ideal solar and wind conditions within the state. Why is that, if the prices they cite for the technologies is accurate?
CA has higher rates because they are replacing legacy, high-carbon sources with newer, low-carbon ones. Also, CA has mandated a fairly rapid transition to a renewable portfolio (RPS), despite there not being much of a need for more electricity in the state. This is causing wholesale electricity to be cheap (because it is so abundant; they are shipping some of the excess to Texas, and they also have to pay for transmission lines), which results in the retail price being expensive to make it more profitable. That being said, CA has some of the highest rates, but also some of the lowest consumption, which means they have lower than average electric bills.
http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2017/nov/16/john-cox/does-california-have-highest-electricity-bills-nat/
It has great weather, the green agenda did not cause that and that keeps bills down, some of the construction standards may have lowered use but at a very high cost in the price of the housing. It is not just Californian, show me a country where solar and wind is used is high percentages and I will show you consumers who are paying a high price. That is why all the claims that solar and wind are cheap are nothing but propaganda, just look at what consumers are paying in Germany despite still using lots of coal. Solar is not competitive and will not be for decades unless a new technology is found.
And remember this ignores the heavy subsidies paid by the taxpayers to build these plants to begin with. This is why Europe is screaming so much about Trump pulling out of the global warming treaty, they went deep in debt building the alternative energy facilities, are paying high electricity rates and still do not have clean air since they promoted diesel vehicles to reduce AGW. Because they are in such an uncompetitive mess, they wanted the U.S. to turn its back on fossil fuels which give us such a competitive advantage:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/263492/electricity-prices-in-selected-countries/
That is why all the claims that solar and wind are cheap are nothing but propaganda, just look at what consumers are paying in Germany despite still using lots of coal. Solar is not competitive and will not be for decades unless a new technology is found.
Solar and wind are extremely cheap. But they are variable power sources. What is expensive is starting up and stopping the legacy, on-demand sources (like coal and natural gas). Better battery storage and transmission lines are the answer.
Just imagine how disruptive a transition to low-carbon, cheap, plentiful energy would be. The rent-seekers (fossil fuel industry) would quake in their boots. No wonder they want to undermine the conversation. They are the ones putting out the propaganda against the “greens”.
Just to be clear, to get an ICE plate in China it costs $15000, a EV one is free.
Thanks, I knew about the high cost of plates in Shanghai. I didn’t realize all the electric vehicles there were getting free plates.
He promised cost reductions in batteries that just have not panned out.
Makes you wonder about his promise to send people to Mars in 2024 on a rocket that still doesn’t exist, or the fact that he has yet launch an astronaut into low earth orbit.
up there the dog how?
We were recently discussing Nine Inch Nails and their upcoming tour (two nights at Red Rocks, Colorado) and how Trent Reznor is hosting opening bands as his openers that he used to open for back in the 1990’s. My homeboy paid $153 for a single ticket. I won’t. Here, the Jesus and Mary Chain full album Honey’s Dead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mcV5_d1p68
Dog?
Ready to grow a pair and plow some fertile soil?
“Used 2018 Ford F350 Crew Cab Platinum - Only $98,990.00″
https://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-sale/vehicledetails.xhtml?listingId=482657718
DUAL ALTERNATORS
https://itstillruns.com/advantages-dual-alternators-7555016.html
I have dual alternators on my ride. Pretty straightforward, since there’s two engines. Also three isolated battery banks, two inverters and an AC/DC generator.
Consumers Skip More High-Rate Auto Payments Than During Crisis
Delinquency rate reaches highest since 1996 at 5.8 percent
Number of auto loans and leases to subprime borrowers falls
By Adam Tempkin
May 14, 2018
Bloomberg
Borrowers in the U.S. are defaulting on subprime auto loans at a higher rate than during the financial crisis, according to Fitch Ratings.
Lenders are responding by pulling back on financing to applicants with shaky credit histories and requiring higher standards for loans that they bundle and sell on to investors.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-14/consumers-skip-more-high-rate-auto-payments-than-during-crisis
Meanwhile inventories are swelling at dealerships and manufacturers keep cranking them out…
“Lenders are responding by pulling back on financing to applicants with shaky credit histories and requiring higher standards for loans that they bundle and sell on to investors.”
Maybe this explains our recent experience at an empty local dealership on a Friday night. I had the feeling that we were the only customers shopping for a car.
? What h as append ii n 1996. I though things were perky then.
A fish rots from the head down.
The Financial Times
North American prime property
Prime homes in New York’s SoHo take big price cuts
One broker estimates that 90% of the area’s homes are reduced in price before they can sell
…
Hi all,
been away for a while. This blog still offers informative posts and insightful comments. Looks like there is a lot to catch up.
Neuromance, you are saying you are puzzled why the Fed is switching their stance from the wealth transfer to Wall Street? I think the reason is that they no longer see the increase in their profits. Rents have risen, but the people got poorer. No wonder the retail sector is doing poorly. If you look for middle end consumer goods, you get a lot of sweet deals nowadays. Some UHD smart TVs are now a lot cheaper than my FHD TV purchased a few years ago.
Banks profit by economic activity and there are many more than the housing sector they are involved in. For example, the banking sysyem gets a significant share when we swipe a credit card. We have seen a steep decline in the money velocity. People are just poorer and they are cutting down on their spending beyond necessity. What they get from bubbling housing minus the cost of doing that may have become less than what they lose in others. Also, the problems the easy money has caused can be easily seen in virtually all metropolitan areas in the country. Probably, and hopefully, they finally realized they are choking their own necks.
I looked up this Tommy guy issue, and it looks like this guy was arrested for the contempt of court. I don’t know how the court has the power to limit the freedom of speech in UK, but it does look like this guy was interfering with court proceedings. If he was arrested for violating the laws, why should we meddle in UK business? That does sound like what globalists have always been using to justify themselves. Any more thoughts or information on that?
“OPEC Sends Oil Prices Crashing
“
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/OPEC-Sends-Oil-Prices-Crashing.html
With U.S. output increasing, it’s a prisoner’s dilemma for OPEC.
Industries
Energy
U.S. oil-rig count makes biggest weekly climb since February
By Myra P. Saefong
Published: May 25, 2018 1:20 p.m. ET
Baker Hughes (BHGE, -2.72%) on Friday reported that the number of active U.S. rigs drilling for oil was up 15 at 859 this week. That was the largest weekly rise since the week ended Feb. 9. The total active U.S. rig count, which includes oil and natural-gas rigs, climbed by 13 to 1,059, according to Baker Hughes. July West Texas Intermediate crude (CLN8, -1.44%) fell further after the rig data, down $3.10, or 4.4%, to $67.61 a barrel, compared with $67.75 a barrel before the Baker Hughes numbers.
Read the full story: Oil drops to multiweek low as OPEC, Russia talk output increase
…
Yet, Brent crude is still above $75 a barrel. Where is that $10 a barrel oil which was predicted in the numerous links you posted over the last three years? Trump asked the Saudis to lower prices back to where it was prior to the Iran announcement so the Dems did not have a political issue. They complied but that does not mean they intend to drive prices significantly lower.
It seems we are in the sweet spot for oil price in the US:
Dear oil helps some emerging economies and harms others
The Economist
May 26, 2018
“The price of Brent crude has risen by nearly 50% in the past year to around $80 a barrel. It ranks as the 11th-biggest spike in the past 70 years (adjusted for inflation), according to UBS, a bank. So should emerging markets now worry that oil prices will carry on rising above $100, or that they will tumble below $50? The answer is yes.”
“Many emerging economies import oil; others export it. As a rule, higher prices hurt the first group and lower ones hurt the second. But it can be more complicated than that. Indonesia, for example, is a net importer of oil, but a net exporter of “energy”, more broadly defined, including coal and palm oil. Since coal, palm and oil prices tend to rise roughly in tandem, Indonesia would benefit overall from $100 oil, according to UBS. Mexico, like America, is also a net importer of crude. But in both countries a higher oil price will help investment and employment in the oil industry by more than it hurts household spending.”
“The impact of a price change also depends on the price level. A jump from cheap to dear oil works differently than a jump from dear to even dearer. In America, many rigs that are not profitable at $40 become viable at $60 or more. Conversely, most rigs that would be lucrative at $120 are already viable at $100. So an increase in price from $40 to $60 might inspire a lot of additional investment and employment, whereas an increase from $100 to $120 might induce less. Meanwhile, the damage to household wallets increases relentlessly.”
In the short term any price over $80 was not going to spur more production than $70. Trump intervened at the best moment. He has great energy advisors.had he intervened much earlier he would have soon created a shortage that even the Saudis could not cure. It would have led to $100 a barrel oil prematurely.
“Where is that $10 a barrel oil which was predicted in the numerous links you posted over the last three years?”
Got alternative facts?
I can’t recall posting any article saying oil was headed to $10. That said, I often post articles to stimulate discussion. Just because I post an article doesn’t mean that I endorse the writer’s opinion.
“With U.S. output increasing, it’s a prisoner’s dilemma for OPEC.”
Record high production, record high inventory and falling demand.
How bout it!