The Housing Bubble

“Who controls the food supply controls the people; who controls the energy can control whole continents; who controls money can control the world.”

Talk:Henry Kissinger - Wikiquote
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Henry_Kissinger - 28k -

Now, why are they showing me an ad above to watch a trailer of the Backstreet Boys? Was it because I mentioned on the blog that I posted to a fansite when I’d had a drop too much? Is it because I sometimes like to watch old music videos and clips of bands from the 1960s-1980s on YouTube? What? I’m so confused, sigh.

This just goes to show how bogus so much internet advertising is. Let’s see, off to the right is an ad for Beazer (love the name) homes, from the $160s, no less.

Some real “target” marketing there, lol. What a joke.

“Doomsday Seed Vault” in the Arctic -

May 1, 2013

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest ‘transparent’ private foundation as it says, with a whopping $34.6 billion endowment and a legal necessity to spend $1.5 billion a year on charitable projects around the world to maintain its tax free charitable status. A gift from friend and business associate, mega-investor Warren Buffett in 2006, of some $30 billion worth of shares in Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway put the Gates’ foundation into the league where it spends almost the amount of the entire annual budget of the United Nations’ World Health Organization.

So when Bill Gates decides through the Gates Foundation to invest some $30 million of their hard earned money in a project, it is worth looking at.

No project is more interesting at the moment than a curious project in one of the world’s most remote spots, Svalbard. Bill Gates is investing millions in a seed bank on the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean, some 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole. Svalbard is a barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty (see map).

On this God-forsaken island Bill Gates is investing tens of his millions along with the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation and the Government of Norway, among others, in what is called the ‘doomsday seed bank.’ Officially the project is named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard island group.

The seed bank is being built inside a mountain on Spitsbergen Island near the small village of Longyearbyen. It’s almost ready for ‘business’ according to their releases. The bank will have dual blast-proof doors with motion sensors, two airlocks, and walls of steel-reinforced concrete one meter thick. It will contain up to three million different varieties of seeds from the entire world, ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future,’ according to the Norwegian government. Seeds will be specially wrapped to exclude moisture. There will be no full-time staff, but the vault’s relative inaccessibility will facilitate monitoring any possible human activity.

Did we miss something here? Their press release stated, ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future.’ What future do the seed bank’s sponsors foresee, that would threaten the global availability of current seeds, almost all of which are already well protected in designated seed banks around the world?

Anytime Bill Gates, the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto and Syngenta get together on a common project, it’s worth digging a bit deeper behind the rocks on Spitsbergen. When we do we find some fascinating things.

The first notable point is who is sponsoring the doomsday seed vault. Here joining the Norwegians are, as noted, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the US agribusiness giant DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred, one of the world’s largest owners of patented genetically-modified (GMO) plant seeds and related agrichemicals; Syngenta, the Swiss-based major GMO seed and agrichemicals company through its Syngenta Foundation; the Rockefeller Foundation, the private group who created the “gene revolution with over $100 million of seed money since the 1970’s; CGIAR, the global network created by the Rockefeller Foundation to promote its ideal of genetic purity through agriculture change.

Who uses such a seed bank in the first place? Plant breeders and researchers are the major users of gene banks. Today’s largest plant breeders are Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and Dow Chemical, the global plant-patenting GMO giants. Since early in 2007 Monsanto holds world patent rights together with the United States Government for plant so-called ‘Terminator’ or Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT). Terminator is an ominous technology by which a patented commercial seed commits ‘suicide’ after one harvest. Control by private seed companies is total. Such control and power over the food chain has never before in the history of mankind existed.

This clever genetically engineered terminator trait forces farmers to return every year to Monsanto or other GMO seed suppliers to get new seeds for rice, soybeans, corn, wheat whatever major crops they need to feed their population. If broadly introduced around the world, it could within perhaps a decade or so make the world’s majority of food producers new feudal serfs in bondage to three or four giant seed companies such as Monsanto or DuPont or Dow Chemical.

That, of course, could also open the door to have those private companies, perhaps under orders from their host government, Washington, deny seeds to one or another developing country whose politics happened to go against Washington’s. Those who say ‘It can’t happen here’ should look more closely at current global events. The mere existence of that concentration of power in three or four private US-based agribusiness giants is grounds for legally banning all GMO crops even were their harvest gains real, which they manifestly are not.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/doomsday-seed-vault-in-the-arctic-2/23503 - - Cached - Similar pages

Suppose that over a three-week period, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 7% (around 1000 points), from its current level of 15,303 to 14,300. Would that be considered “a real selloff,” or just a minor dip?

This is the magnitude of drop in 30-year Treasurys since May 2nd. And the Nikkei also had a 7% drop in just one night this past week. Luckily for Wall Street bulls, the headline U.S. stock market indices are fully decoupled from other asset classes.

Even better: U.S. housing is decoupled from everything else now, and leading the U.S. towards recovery.

What can be said about housing? Houses are depreciating assets year after year until they end up right back in the ground right where they came from. Thus it is wise to limit your exposure to anything related to housing unless you want to be in enslaved to losses from which you will not recover. Current asking prices of resale housing are massively inflated far far above replacement cost.

The increasingly distorted residential real estate market will result in a much larger implosion than anyone imagined. Being locked in to the housing market is something you’re going to regret.

Latest national casualty of the global economic slowdown?

Sweden.

Swedish police try to restore order in Stockholm after week of rioting
Reinforcements brought in after disturbances show Sweden is not immune to tensions festering in deprived communities
Anthony Lane in Stockholm and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Friday 24 May 2013 12.39 EDT

Stockholm suburb
Burnt out cars in Stockholm: rioting continued in the Swedish capital on Thursday for the fifth night in a row. Photograph: Rikard Stadler/Rikard Stadler/Demotix/Corbis

Police reinforcements have poured into the capital from provincial districts as Stockholm sought to put an end to a week of rioting, the worst to hit Sweden for years.

Disturbances have spread to 23 suburbs, dozens of cars have been set alight and around 30 people have been detained in connection with the riots, which were touched off on Sunday after police shot dead a man, believed to be Portuguese, who was reportedly wielding a knife.
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The riots have served as a sharp reminder that despite regular praise for its ‘Nordic model’ of progressive politics, relatively low unemployment and a generous social safety net, Sweden is not immune to the tension that festers in deprived communities.

The riots began on Sunday in the neighbourhood of Husby, 14km north-west of Stockholm’s city centre, a week after police shot a 69-year-old man who was reportedly roaming the area with a machete. According to Stockholm police, the man retreated to an apartment that was stormed by officers who were concerned for the welfare of a female inhabitant. An attempt to disarm the man with a flash grenade was unsuccessful and he was then shot by the police. The incident resulted in groups of young local men setting fire to about 100 vehicles.

Husby was calm on Friday, with children making their way home from school only showing the most cursory interest in burnt-out wrecks under the bridge next to their school.

Although the smashed windows of shops, two schools and the local library had yet to be replaced, locals of the 12,000-strong neighbourhood, which has an 80% immigrant population, said there had been no problems since 20 members of the local Islamic centre went around Husby to talk to the youths involved in the original disturbances.

“They told them that it had to stop and that they were scaring people,” said Abdul, a nurse in the local hospital after Friday prayers at the mosque.

“At the moment it’s very hard to get jobs – not just here but for everyone in Sweden,” said the Moroccan immigrant who had lived in Husby for 11 years. Having registered growth of 6.1% and 3.9% in 2010 and 2011 respectively, the Swedish economy slowed to just 0.8% last year, largely as a result of faltering exports to the eurozone. Residents born outside Sweden represent 15% of the country’s 9.5 million population, but account for 35% of those registered as unemployed.

Many of the riots have occurred in cramped neighbourhoods with tall, run-down housing blocks, which were quickly constructed as part of Sweden’s “million homes” project in the 1960s and 1970s when Stockholm was in the grip of one of its periodic housing crises. Long-since abandoned by almost all of their original inhabitants, they are often the only source of available housing for migrants and asylum-seekers from war-torn countries.

Sweden’s relaxed immigration policy and generous asylum system has resulted in exceptionally high immigration levels over the last decade. In 2012, 82,000 non-Swedes migrated to the country – 44,000 of them were asylum-seekers. The country’s migration board expects to receive 54,000 asylum seekers in 2013, including around 20,000 Somalis.
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Italians getting glummer on economy, Letta government
By Gavin Jones
ROME | Fri May 24, 2013 1:59pm BST

(Reuters) - Italian consumer morale fell unexpectedly in May despite the tax-cutting promises of a new government whose approval ratings are already sliding.

Prime Minister Enrico Letta took office last month at the head of a left-right coalition which is bickering on a daily basis and its problems were underlined by the marked decline in sentiment on the economy.

Statistics office ISTAT’s consumer confidence index, the first to be conducted since the government was formed, slid to 85.9 in May from 86.3.

The fall in morale reversed a rise in April and left the index close to record lows, offering little prospect of a near term exit from Italy’s longest post-war recession.

Letta has suspended a hated housing tax that was due to be paid in June and promised to cut labour taxes. He says he will tackle youth unemployment of above 38 percent and lobby the European Union for more growth-oriented policies. But Italians appear unimpressed.

The government’s approval rating has fallen to just 31 percent from 43 percent three weeks ago, according to a poll published on Friday by the SWG agency.

Another survey released on Friday by the IPR agency gave Letta a personal approval rating of 45 percent.

That was down three points from April 30 and far lower than the ratings of any of the previous three prime ministers, Mario Monti, Silvio Berlusconi and Romano Prodi, after one month in office. Monti had an approval rating of 62 percent.

Consumer spending has long been a weak spot in the Italian economy, which has been the most sluggish in the euro zone for at least a decade.

Retail sales in March - the most recent data available - fell for a fourth consecutive month and were down an unadjusted 3 percent from the year earlier, indicating a marked contraction in real or inflation-adjusted terms.
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“High risk” of deeper Cyprus recession: central bank
POSTED: 22 May 2013 9:08 PM

Cyprus’s central bank governor said on Wednesday the country’s teetering economy could fall deeper into recession than previously thought.

Central Bank Governor Panicos Demetriades (AFP/Yiannis Kourtoglou)

NICOSIA: Cyprus’s central bank governor said on Wednesday the country’s teetering economy could fall deeper into recession than previously thought.

“Risks to the outlook are substantial and tilted to the downside,” Panicos Demetriades said in a prepared speech to certified public accountants.

“Macro-economic risks remain unusually high, given the uncertain impact of the banking crisis and fiscal consolidation on economic activity,” he added.

Demetriades did not forecast what the decline would be, but Finance Minister Haris Georgiades said on Tuesday the it could be in the double digits.

The International Monetary Fund, which has joined with the European Commission and European Central Bank to provide near-bankrupt Cyprus with a 10 billion-euro bailout (US$13 billion), forecast last week that gross domestic product would decline 8.7 percent this year and 3.9 percent in 2014.

But it also warned the decline could be worse than that.

Demetriades also said capital controls imposed as part of the bailout package will have to be eased gradually, as eliminating them abruptly could trigger rapid outflows from the banking sector and liquidity problems.
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Is France’s Economy a Surprise Threat to Eurozone?
By Marlene Y. Satter, AdvisorOne
May 23, 2013

The “bad boys” of the southern Eurozone, Greece, Spain and Italy, have gotten most of the attention in the thorny question of a possible Eurozone breakup. Even little Cyprus has been in the spotlight, although its economy is small enough that failure to work out a deal for a bailout would not necessarily have threatened the currency union.

But the real threat may lie in an unexpected direction: France. It lost its AAA credit rating from Moody’s in January and is beset by controversy and hard times. Its unemployment rate hit a record high in April of 10.6%. Although lower than the Eurozone’s average rate of 11.4%, it’s still rising, and likely to keep doing so as its economy shrinks.

Rising unemployment, falling exports, and an increasingly negative trade balance have combined with other problems—an escalating dispute with Germany over austerity vs. jobs, the failure of French President Francois Hollande to fix the country’s economic woes, and increasing immigration hostility. Even the European Commission President Manuel Jose Barroso accused the country of having a negative view of globalization. He also said France had, over the past two decades, lost competitiveness.

France has, in fact, come to look upon its European Union membership as a handicap, not an advantage. A new Pew poll, The New Sick Man of Europe, said that, pre-2007, France’s outlook more closely resembled Germany’s. Now its views are more aligned with those of Spain, Italy, and Greece as some of the most pessimistic in Europe; France now believes being in the EU has undermined its overall economy.
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Spanish unemployment
Indignant, undignified
It is the young who suffer most from high unemployment
May 25th 2013 | MADRID |From the print edition

JOSÉ GARCIA used to work as a doorman. But two years ago he lost his job. Since then the 62-year-old has lived off unemployment insurance built up when he was working. This month it runs out. Now he hopes for €426 ($550) a month in long-term state subsidy. With unemployment above 27%, he does not expect to work again. “I’ll keep looking, but the queue will always be long,” he says.

The jobless rate is unlikely to drop below 25% before he claims his pension at 65. The prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, hopes to turn the jobs corner before the next election in late 2015, but his record so far is dismal. Over the past 17 months 1.2m jobs have gone, taking the total lost since 2007 to over 6m. Net job growth needs GDP growth above 1%, yet the government does not predict that until 2016. In the European Union only Greece’s jobless figures are worse. And in southern provinces such as Cadiz the rate is above 40%. Among under-25s, the figure is a horrific 57%.

Some analysts say these figures hide a large underground economy. That may be true, although Visa Europe reckons that it is no bigger than the European average and, with the decline of construction, is contracting. But even if the numbers are exaggerated, the rate remains accurate on one count. Over 3m fewer workers now pay taxes or social-security contributions than did five years ago. That knocks the public accounts.
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Samaras says Ireland is model for Greek recovery
Prime minister says improving competitiveness and low tax rates would help Athens
Damian Mac Con Uladh
Thu, May 23, 2013, 15:47
First published: Thu, May 23, 2013, 08:20

Ireland is a model for Greece on how to exit the crisis and return to the money markets, the Greek prime minister told Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Athens this morning,

“Ireland is showing the way and that there is an end to this road,” Antonis Samaras, the conservative leader of Greece’s three-way coalition, said this afternoon at a press conference following a meeting between the two leaders.

“After many reforms implemented by Enda Kenny’s government, Ireland shows us the way. We know that they are on the track to recovery and are almost ready to fully return to the international money markets,” Mr Samaras told the press conference, which was relayed live on Greek state television.

The Greek leader said improving competitiveness, opening up to investment and low tax rates would help Greece match Ireland’s success.

“All of these issues have helped Ireland exit the crisis … and we will follow suit as soon as we start exiting the crisis,” he said, adding that it was his aim to introduce a flat-rate tax of 15 per cent.
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Russia to become ‘next Greece’ with slowing economic growth - Renaissance Capital
Published time: May 22, 2013 12:38
Edited time: May 22, 2013 15:02
An employee pours molten iron into molds for making manhole covers at the Smarhon Casting and Mechanical Plant in the town of Smarhon, the Grodno region.(RIA Novosti / Egor Eryomov)

* Federal budget deficit is likely to widen next year more than expected due to a weaker economy erasing $20.8 billion in revenue
* Economy is expanding at the weakest pace since contracting in 2009
* Main export Urals blend crude has averaged $107.51 a barrel this year, compared with $110.26 in 2012, according to Bloomberg.
* The rouble has weakened 1.3% against the central bank’s basket of dollars and euros to 35.3103 as of 1:26 pm GMT+4
* Russia will probably require an average Brent oil price of $117.8 a barrel this year to balance its budget

The Russian economy will not be able to grow faster than 2 percent per year in the coming decade and might become another Greece, says one of Russia’s leading investment banking firms Renaissance Capital.

This would mean the government increasing national debt just like it was in Greece.

The slowing economic growth in Russia to 1.6 percent in the first quarter of 2013 has been connected to various factors including falling investment, private consumption and weak exterior demand, Vedomosti daily reports.

However according to Ivan Chakarov, an analyst with Renaissance Capital quoted by the newspaper, the slowing pace of economic growth in Russia is mainly due to the so-called middle-income trap.

It is common for developing economies, when a country, which attains a certain income, gets stuck at that level as it begins losing its main advantage – low costs.

The analyst claims the middle-income trap strikes a country when annual per capita GDP reaches $16,000. In Russia this figure is slightly above that at $16,016. The analysts added that Russia is the first BRICS state to enter the middle-income trap. Similar economic situations were seen in the Western Europe’s economy in the 1970s, in South Korea in 1995 and in Singapore and Hong Kong at the beginning of the 1980s.

In his comments Chakarov refers to the study by the US National Bureau of Economic Research, which has come to a conclusion that countries falling into the trap lose two thirds of their growth speed. This means that Russian economic growth will slow to 1.6 percent of GDP against 4.3 percent in 2010-2011.

The analyst says that in the upcoming decade the Russian economy won’t be able to expand faster than 2 percent per year. In his opinion this may force the Russian government to increase the national debt and make Russia “the next Greece”.
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Aside from the fact that they have a powerful political lobby which has proven very effective in bribing politicians to protect their political interests, isn’t there a case for completely ending the realty profession in the internet age? What good does a lying scumbag Realtor™ do you in an era when you can go online to get all the information you need about a home you want to buy, or even the entire market?

How Canada’s housing downturn threatens to shake up real estate commissions
TARA PERKINS - REAL ESTATE REPORTER
The Globe and Mail
Published Saturday, May. 25 2013, 8:00 AM EDT
Last updated Saturday, May. 25 2013, 2:15 AM EDT

The power of the Internet was going to shatter the grip that realtors have on house sales in Canada, driving down commissions and empowering consumers.

The Internet failed.

The Competition Bureau waded in to overcome the industry’s stasis, attempting to create a market where consumers pick which services they want and data are more widely available.

But, so far, it’s accomplished little.

In a country where grousing about bank fees is a national pastime, where a 5-cent rise in gasoline prices sparks outrage, one fee remains remarkably static: the thousands in commissions paid to real estate brokers. Technology has failed to snap consumers out of their complacency, and regulatory efforts to force the industry to make it easier for new Web-based firms to compete have been abortive.

But there is a new threat to the status quo that could be the catalyst for industry-rattling change: the housing slowdown.

Canadian house prices were generally on a tear from the turn of the century until last year, with most sellers still netting a tidy profit even after paying commissions. But that growth has now begun to taper off, with year-over-year price increases slowing from more than 6 per cent at the outset of last year to less than 3 per cent at the outset of this year (and some markets, such as Vancouver, seeing outright declines).

Economists suggest that the market could be entering a lengthy period in which house prices remain essentially flat. Toronto-Dominion Bank’s economists recently estimated that the nominal annual rate of return on real estate will be about 2 per cent over the next decade. In other words, the rise in home prices will just keep pace with inflation.

And that means that homeowners who buy and sell homes in the next 10 years will not be making the profits that homeowners who bought and sold in the past decade got used to. More commonly, sellers will be accepting prices that are much closer to what they paid.
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Housing
Do we still need real estate agents?
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, May. 24 2013, 4:40 PM EDT
Last updated Friday, May. 24 2013, 8:37 PM EDT

Real estate reporter Tara Perkins joins Hannah Sung to discuss whether the demand for realtors has changed in recent years and whether it pays to save the commission fee and sell your home yourself. Read more in a full story in Saturday’s Report on Business and on ReportonBusiness.com.

Is Canada’s housing market on the verge of a crash?
By Jennifer Kwan | Insight – 22 hours ago

Canada’s housing market has been a wildly popular topic lately with experts sounding off on everything from house-market affordability to house-buying intentions to the effects of too-long, very-low interest rates. All this is keeping the debate about the soft landing, or crash to come, firmly on the minds of Canadians.

The common link is the Bank of Canada’s benchmark rate, which has been frozen at 1.0 per cent since September 2010. The market doesn’t expect the central bank to move higher — if it moves higher — until sometime in the latter part of 2014, or even later, so in some ways there’s a bit more time to sit back, wait and watch.

If you believe The Economist, Canada’s housing market is “especially vulnerable” to a major correction, according to a recent analysis on global property markets. It says house prices here are overvalued by 73 per cent compared to rental prices, and 32 per cent overvalued when compared to household incomes.

“Home sales in March were 15% down on a year earlier. Buyers are in short supply. A recent poll showed that only 15% of Canadians are likely to buy a home in the next two years, down from 27% last year—the steepest decline in the 20-year history of the survey. After a big boom, the housing bust will be a wrenching affair,” the magazine stated earlier this month. This is golden for those who are in the doom and gloom camp, and don’t believe house prices will bounce any time soon.

Now, combine that with a recent warning by the Canadian Association of Accredited Mortgage Professionals. This week the group said many Canadians are managing their debt responsibly, and warned Ottawa’s clampdown on mortgage lending rules has set the stage for up to a 30 per cent plunge in home sales by 2015, translating into massive job losses related to the industry and other negative things that could crimp economic activity. Think of all those first-time home buyers who may be on the sidelines.
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Portugal warns of deficit target miss
By AFP | 24 May, 2013, 09.51PM IST

LISBON: Portugal may request a third revision to deficit targets agreed with EU-IMF creditors as part of its 78-billion euro international bailout, Prime Minster Pedro Passos Coelho warned Friday.

“It is not excluded that it will be necessary to ask for further revision for 2014,” Coelho said in parliament.

The revision from the agreed 4.0 per cent of output would be the third one granted to Portugal after already winning leniency from the European Union and International Monetary Fund in March and December.

The warning comes as a new government spending package, announced by the centre-right government earlier this month, foresees the slashing of 30,000 public sector jobs out of a total 700,000.

The new terms are aimed at ensuring continued aid payments from a package worth 78 billion euros ($102 billion) granted in May 2011.

Passos Coelho said that the 2013 deficit target of 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product would however be met, even though budget figures for the first three months of the year were already off the mark.

Hit hard by the eurozone debt crisis, Portugal’s economy has been in recession for two years, and contracted by another 0.3 per cent in the first quarter with unemployment at a record high of 17.7 per cent.
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China’s Economic Outlook Just Keeps Getting Worse
posted: 6 hours ago

The unexpected contraction in China’s factory activity in May has heightened the risk of a further slowdown in the second quarter, after the world’s second largest economy grew at its slowest pace in three years over January to March, said economists.

The flash HSBC Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) for May that was released on Thursday slipped to 49.6, falling under the key 50 level, which divides expansion from contraction, for the first since October. Last month, the final HSBC PMI stood at 50.4. The decline was driven partly by a fall in new orders - with the sub-index dropping to 49.5, the lowest reading since September.

“It is not good and it does increase the chances of a sequential slowdown in the second quarter GDP [gross domestic product]. Simply put, domestic demand this time wasn’t strong enough to counter fully the impact of still weak external demand,” Donna Kwok, greater China economist at HSBC told CNBC on Thursday.
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ft dot com
Last updated: May 23, 2013 3:50 pm
Shrinking eurozone output points to recession in second quarter
By Michael Steen in Frankfurt

The eurozone is likely to remain in recession in the second quarter, a business survey showed on Thursday, with output in both France and Germany, the two biggest economies, still shrinking.

The initial reading of the Markit eurozone Purchasing Managers’ Composite index for both the manufacturing and services sectors rose to 47.7 in May from 46.9 in April. That beat market expectations for the indicator but remained firmly short of the 50.0 level separating growth from contraction.

While country-specific readings for Germany showed it was at best stagnating, with a reading of 49.9, up from 49.2 in April, the broad-based downturn in France remained fierce. The French composite manufacturing and services index was unchanged at 44.3 in May.

The data will feed into a debate on whether the European Central Bank is doing enough to help stimulate a recovery in a region beset by record unemployment and stuck in the longest recession since the euro was created.

“The ECB’s quarter-point cut in interest rates seems to have done little to inspire confidence that the economy will start to pick up again,” Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, said.

The data group said there were signs of companies cutting prices in an effort to stimulate sales with the largest drop in manufacturing output prices since January 2010 recorded in the survey of about 5,000 eurozone businesses.

The prospect of a weak recovery later in the year for the eurozone hinges to a large extent on the global economy.

In a blow to hopes for such a recovery, a business survey released in China on Thursday showed industrial activity contracting.

The HSBC PMI survey for the manufacturing sector was on track to fall to a seven-month low of 49.6 in May from 50.4 the previous month. The Chinese economy has come under close scrutiny amid fears that growth is faltering. Preliminary manufacturing PMI data from the US showed output continued to expand but the pace of growth slowed, with the index falling to 51.9 from 52.1.
…

Yesterday ahansen wanted to know why F&F stock prices were booming.

In short, the fix is in.

Rep. Mel Watt gains bipartisan support to head federal finance agency
Charlene Crowell

President Obama recently nominated Melvin (Mel) Watt, a long-time North Carolina Congressman, to direct the operations of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA). While major news media reported on the development, few mentioned exactly what the new job would entail or the significance of an African American potentially leading a key financial office.

At a news conference announcing the nomination, President Obama said, “Mel understands as well as anybody what caused the housing crisis. He knows what it’s going to take to help responsible homeowners fully recover. And he’s committed to helping folks just like his mom — Americans who work really hard, play by the rules day in and day out to provide for their families.”

When our nation faced the worst financial crisis since that of the Great Depression, the House Financial Services Committee faced dealing with the nation’s financial solvency on one hand and millions of homeowners who were in or approaching foreclosure on the other. Through a series of discussions and hearings, Rep. Watt emerged as a voice of reason, consistently fair and balanced in crafting solutions to complex problems.

Following the Watt nomination, the Center for Responsible Lending said of the nominee, “He was one of the first elected officials to recognize and warn about the dangers of sub-prime lending, offering legislation to nip predatory lending in the bud and tirelessly advocating for ways to prevent needless home foreclosures…The Senate should move quickly to confirm him.”

Created by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the FHFA oversees the nation’s secondary mortgage markets: 12 Federal Home Loan Banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. FHFA is also empowered to make policy, implement rules, and regularly report to Congress. In 2010, the combined debt and obligations of these 14 government-sponsored enterprises totaled $6.7 trillion.

Watt’s nomination is reminiscent of an earlier one in 1966. The late Andrew Brimmer, nominated by President Lyndon Johnson became the first African American member of the Federal Reserve Board. A Louisiana native, Brimmer attended segregated elementary and high schools but went on to earn a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard in 1957.

Watt, another son of the South raised from modest beginnings, became a 1967 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a result of having the highest academic average in its business school, he also became president of the business honors fraternity. Three years later, he earned a law degree from Yale University Law School and was a published member of the Yale Law Journal.

Both men’s lives are proof that difficulty need not defeat a person’s dreams or goals. And further, what may appear improbable is not the same thing as being impossible.

On learning of Rep. Watt’s nomination, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., reached across the chamber’s partisan divide to offer his hopes for confirmation saying, “Having served with Mel, I know of his commitment to sustainable federal housing programs and am confident he will work hard to protect taxpayers from future exposure to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I look forward to working with Rep. Watt in his new role to find new ways to facilitate more private sector involvement in the housing and mortgage markets.”
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ot, but that story this morning
about that Palmdale, Ca 8 yr
old that died from fractures and
cig burns, among other torture,
was just so sad. His mother
watched her BF torture the kid.

Off w/ their heads. No 3 hots w/
a cot. Brutal evil animals.

Who wins in the battle between gold ETF sellers and retail buyers?

Time will tell…but meanwhile, I have some simple advice to offer: SELL EVERY RALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

PRECIOUS-Gold heads for best week in four as stocks retreat

Fri May 24, 2013 10:49am EDT

* Gold boosted this week by drop in stock markets

* Fed official dampens talk Fed policy may tighten

* Largest physical gold fund sees fresh outflow (Updates prices, adds comment)

By Jan Harvey

LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Gold stayed on track for its biggest weekly rise in a month on Friday, supported by a drop in stock markets and comments from a Federal Reserve official that dampened talk the U.S. central bank is set to curb monetary stimulus.

Gold got a boost this week from a fall in equities, which in Europe posted their biggest one-day drop in nearly a year on Thursday. A rotation out of gold and into stocks this year has helped drive gold prices down 17 percent.

Speculation the Fed would scale back its monetary easing programme threatened to weigh on gold this week after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said it could start scaling back its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases in the next few meetings.

But St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said on Friday that U.S. inflation would have to pick up before he voted to scale back stimulus.

Spot gold was at $1,390.01 an ounce at 1427 GMT, little changed from $1,390.40 late on Thursday but up 2.3 percent on the week. It is on track for its biggest weekly rise since late April, pulling further away from the near 2-1/2 year low it slumped to during last month’s rout.

“This week presented something for everyone,” Saxo Bank vice president Ole Hansen said. “The bears have not seen any evidence of them being wrong, while the bulls got a bit of safe haven and on balance a rather dovish Bernanke.”

“Bottom line, we are still in dangerous territory having failed so far to move back above $1,414. The double bottom which is now in the making might give technical traders some comfort, but for it to be confirmed we ideally need to see a $1,432 print, so it’s not yet something to lean against.

U.S. stocks fell for a third day on Friday, hurt by lingering concerns the Fed may scale back its support to the economy, while European stocks were set to end lower this week, the first week in five.

GOLD FUND REPORTS FRESH OUTFLOW

The SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed ETF, reported at the close of Thursday that its holdings had fallen by another 1.5 tonnes, bringing its total outflow for the week to 19.8 tonnes.

The fund is on track for its largest weekly outflow since the week ended April 26. At 1,018.567 tonnes, its holdings were at their lowest in more than four years.

Macquarie said in a note on Friday that ETF liquidation this year had totalled 450 tonnes of gold.

“Given the extent of these outflows - equivalent to mine production from all of Africa and South America during the same period - that the gold price hasn’t completely collapsed is testament to strong retail demand (for jewellery, coins and bars),” it said.

“If ETFs continue to leach gold - and despite the outflows, over 2,200 tonnes remain - then gold’s price outlook will depend on these retail buyers.”
…

I’m fully convinced that People are becoming deranged over their hatred of the President.

The boss told me yesterday that he opposes drone strikes. Because Obama plans to use them domestically, to murder all his critics.

At the same time, this very same government is too big and too stupid to accomplish anything.

Really, I don’t get the whole “droneaphobia” deal. Absolutely zero difference between launching a Hellfire from a drone, or an F-16……except the F-16 launch costs more. And, as they say, the government doesn’t care about controlling costs.

As far as “due process” is concerned, we have a long history of whacking US citizens who decide to hang out with people shooting at us.

Modern day feudalism.

Hard to feel sorry for them. The majority of them voted away their freedoms and economic opportunities for an ever growing and ever expanding government.

They really think government’s going to “do stuff for them.”

—————————–

Millennials Won’t Be Debt Free Until They Die
RCM | 05/25/2013 | By Brian O’Connell

NEW YORK (TheStreet) — How bad have things gotten for millennials?

Their financial situation is so grim that they may never get completely out of debt — in their entire lives.

That’s the conclusion of a study from Ohio State University.

The real culprit is credit card debt, which tends to stifle economic growth of younger Americans, primarily because they pay it off so slowly, the OSU study says. But millennials are paying off all their debts so slowly they may accumulate credit card debt well into their 70s and die still owing, researcher say.

“If what we found continues to hold true, we may have more elderly people with substantial financial problems in the future,” says Lucia Dunn, a lead author of the study and an economics professor at Ohio State.

That dour sentiment comes from another study, this one from banking giant Wells Fargo, which has 54% of millennials saying it’s debt that keeps them up at night.

Another 42% of younger Americans say their debt is “overwhelming,” double the percentage of baby boomers who feel the same way. And 51% of millennials say they aren’t saving for retirement, primarily because they just don’t have enough extra cash to start a savings program. Any extra cash they do have needs to go to pay down debt, 81% of millennials say.

The trouble starts in their early 20s, with ever-skyrocketing student loan debt, Wells Fargo reports. More than 64% of millennials funded their college education through loans, compared with 29% of baby boomers. The report cites statistics from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which estimates total student loan debt topping $1 trillion last year, far and away the highest figure ever for U.S.-based college loans.

Eventually, we will all have to live within our means.

Even local, state and Federal governments.

—————————-

Hot Trend in Automobiles: Not Owning One
Paul Eisenstein - CNBC – Fri, May 24, 2013

Whether by choice or through financial reality, the percentage of American households without a car has doubled over the past two decades-and is now approaching 1 in 10.

The impact of this trend could be significant, especially when it comes to alternatives to driving, such as car-sharing and mass transit, according to research by CNW Marketing.

“While the recession was in large part responsible for the latest spurt, the trend was already clear,” said CNW’s research chief Art Spinella, “A growing number of Americans felt they didn’t need or want a personal car.”

The new research is in line with a separate study released last week by the U.S. Public Research Interest Group, or PIRG, which declared that, “the driving boom is over.” It noted a decline in the average household vehicle fleet, for one thing, and it found that millennial motorists are both waiting longer to get a driver’s license than previous generations and clocking fewer miles on the road.

CNW’s research found that it’s not a phenomenon limited to just millennials. The trend, said Spinella, is particularly noticeable among “both youngest and oldest Americans.”

“While the full impact of these trends are years away, we can see the formation of a future that includes more car-sharing, increased use of public transportation and diminishing status of owning a new vehicle,” said Spinella. “Again, this is years away-perhaps a decade-but the shift is clearly taking root.”

Going Galt except for student loans.

And what lender (without a government backing them up for ALL risks) gives a mortgage to a 75+ year old?

——————————————

Younger Americans: No House, No Car, Less Debt
21 Feb 2013 - John W. Schoen - CNBC

The bust that followed the epic borrowing binge of the late-2000s has apparently had a sobering effect on younger borrowers.

Americans under 35 are carrying substantially less debt than they were before the 2008 meltdown, according to an analysis released Thursday by The Pew Research Center. Still, they’ve also put off the big ticket purchases like cars and houses that are typically the main reasons for taking on debt.

There are several reasons younger households are carrying less debt than the generations that preceded them, said Richard Fry, a Pew senior economist.

“We know they’re going to school more, so that puts them into the job market later, and they’re postponing marriage and having kids later,” he said. “So if you marrying and having kids later, the urgency to buy a home and get a mortgage is also delayed as well.”

Until 2006, generations of young adult Americans had no reason to doubt the conventional wisdom that buying a house was a sure-fire investment.

However, the allure of home ownership was badly tarnished by the housing collapse. Since the bust, home ownership has become a financial albatross for millions of Americans who now owe their lender more than their house is worth. That collective “negative equity” now stands at about $1 trillion, according to figures released Thursday by Zillow.

The housing bust also knocked many younger households, who bought their first homes shortly before prices peaked in 2006, back into the rental market at greater rates than in the past, said Fry.

Younger Americans are also putting off borrowing to make other big-ticket purchases, including cars. In 2007, when credit was easy to get, nearly three out of four under-25 households had a car, the Pew researchers reported.

The one exception to younger Americans’ aversion to borrowing is student debt, which now stands at roughly $1 trillion outstanding. While more younger Americans are going to college and graduate school, financial aid has not kept up with rapidly rising tuitions. As a result, some 40 percent of younger households were carrying student debt in 2010, up from 34 percent in 2007.

…

The exception has been among the oldest Americans, who have seen their debt burden increase sharply since the 2007 recession began, according to an analysis from the Employee Benefit Research Institute.

For households aged 75 or older, the average debt burden essentially doubled to more than $27,000 in 2010. Debt payments, most of which went to paying off a mortgage, consumed 7.1 percent of income in 2010 – up from just 4.5 percent in 2007.

Memorial Day weekend and the temp is in the low 50s. Yesterday in the 40s.
Tell me more about this global warming…..

ATTENTION PROGRESSIVES

This aggression can not be allowed to stand.

—–

May 25, 2013

Libertarian movement gaining steam in New Hampshire

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/25/libertarian-movement-in-new-hampshire-10-years-later-successes-more-challenges/

Time to send in teams of attorneys, bus in the indigent from around the globe, have the radical college professors work overtime on indoctrination and ultimately win the race to fill local and state government with statist progressives.

I mean if one state goes off the reservation others could follow…Oh, the horror!!!