Bits Bucket for July 29, 2014
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Anybody read about the Chinese Military exercises all but shutting down the major eastern airports? If you’re trying to get anywhere, you’re basically told to take the train.
It’s a massive disruption of travel so the military can show off and “practice.” Where else in the world does this happen?
I think in most countries in the world, the military can disrupt civilian air traffic when they need to practice and they need the airspace.
Wow.
Our FAA actually has regulations governing the closing of airspace for military exercises.
In other words, the regulations would prevent the military from disrupting civilian air traffic when they “need” to practice and they “need” the airspace.
No you are reading it wrong
http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/ATpubs/AIM/aim0304.html
(back on hbb after a few years)
The plane I was on sat on the ground in Shanghai for 2 hours after its scheduled time before it was given clearance to takeoff. The 2 hour delay was known at the very beginning and communicated to passengers by the pilot. Yes, it was because of the “military exercises”. I almost missed my connecting flight.
This is ridiculous, and will hurt the Chinese economy in some way. Passengers will end up paying for it. As the WSJ said in an article, the PLA is “seeking rent” from the public.
Markets
Investors Bet on China’s Large Property Developers
Shares of the Country’s Biggest Developer Are Up 22.7%, Outperforming Gains in the MSCI China Index
By Daniel Inman And Fiona Law
Updated July 28, 2014 10:52 a.m. ET
As China’s real-estate market slows, investors are turning bullish and buying up stocks of large property developers, betting they won’t only ride out the storm but also grow.
The MSCI China Real Estate Index, which tracks the stocks of mainland developers, has surged 16.5% from the start of July through Friday, on pace for its best month in nearly three years, as local governments have started to ease restrictions on housing purchases to boost sales. The index remained down more than 3% for the year.
A slowdown in the housing market sent property sales down 9.2% in the first half of 2014, while prices fell for a second month in June. The slide hurt smaller developers, in particular, which tend to operate mostly in smaller cities that have an oversupply of housing.
Larger companies have continued to perform well. Shares of China Vanke Co., the country’s biggest developer, are up 23% this year, while Evergrande Real Estate Group Ltd.shares have climbed 17%.
…
This doesn’t make much sense…..perhaps it is the Darwin effect index? Larger fish eat smaller defenseless fish. It seems foolish.
It makes a lot of sense if you believe the future of China is bright and housing demand will soar as people leave the countryside and move to the cities. They are looking past the short term correction and anticipating the future.
I had an entire post on China yesterday, including how they are throwing people out of tall buildings and all. I don’t recall you joining in on that one.
If you read my posts, I announced when I was leaving the blog, and I did not see any posts that I did not answer before I left. With all due respect Ben, I do not control when you post or when I have time to respond.
A-dan, that is why some people bring posts forward from the previous day, instead declaring a conversation “done” at bedtime. If a conversation is worth having, then it is worth restarting the next day. And why not? Posts don’t go *poof* or turn into pumpkins at midnight as if this were Cinderella. The words are all there, ready to be requoted for more meaningful discussion. Just like in the days before computers, when people communicated by written word.
Oxide, bring any post forward that you want and I will respond if I am on the blog. However, I will be shutting down soon probably for the day.
ABQShill (aka PropagandaDan) always announces his departure when he can see that the tone of the OP is going against him. He also always uses wiggle wording, such as “I have to go soon”. This allows him to disappear at his own convenience.
Unlike agw where people can deny the data for decades, within six months it will be clear that my 7% growth figure for china this year was correct. Nothing anyone has posted has changed my view. In fact, information coming out the last two weeks suggest I am too pessimistic on the growth. No one on this board has suggested that.
This year and next.
China is communist, 10 times more statist than America and is destroying their country and our only planet but they rock because they have “7% growth” and paid shills to apologize for them.
China’s Worst Self-Inflicted Environmental Disaster: The …
io9.com/…/chinas-worst-self-inflicted-disaster-the-campaign-to-wipe-out…
by George Dvorsky - Jul 18, 2012 - Back in the 1950s, China was going through its Great Leap Forward, an effort to transform China from a largely agrarian nation to a thriving …
China’s industrialisation is an environmental disaster - Fidelity
http://www.fidelity.com.au › Markets & insights › Investment insights
Mar 5, 2014 - China’s industrialisation is an environmental disaster. by Michael Collins, Investment Commentator at Fidelity. March 2014. George Soros …
China’s Soviet-Style Suburbia Heralds Environmental Pain …
http://www.bloomberg.com/…/china-s-soviet-style-suburbia-heralds-environm...
Nov 7, 2013 - Take away the haze of air pollution and Waterfront Corso Mansions near Tianjin might seem like an urban idyll for China’s growing population …
Can China step back from the brink of ecological disaster …
blog.worldagroforestry.org/…/can-china-step-back-from-the-brink-of-ec…
Oct 25, 2013 - China’s 30-year drive to grow its economy has paid scant attention to ecological and social costs. A survey of six main environmental stressors …
China’s Three Gorges Dam: An Environmental Catastrophe …
http://www.scientificamerican.com › Energy & Sustainability › Features
Dan, I wasn’t referring to me. I was referring to your not responding to Ben. Sounds like Ben wants you to answer him. Why not bring Ben’s post forward from yesterday and answer it when you have time?
That way, we all have total “control over when we have time to post.”
Yer predictions are the correctest.
China is bad, but we still pollute twice as much.
Who is America to judge?
Don’t forget we have one quarter of the people also.
The British Empire looked unconquerable 100 years ago
and now it’s a shadow of its former self.
It makes a lot of sense if you believe the future of China is bright…….
I doubt the even the moderately bright consider it bright.
China’s environment: An economic death sentence
http://fortune.com/2013/01/28/chinas-environment-an-economic-death-sentence/
The question on everyone’s mind is whether Beijing will finally muster the political will to implement policies to avert an ecological calamity that will almost certainly spell the end of the Chinese economic miracle and potentially lead to the fall of the Communist Party itself.
Judging by the numbers, the scope of China’s environmental degradation is beyond shocking. Consider:
The World Bank estimated, in a 2007 report, that pollution caused 5.8% of China’s GDP in premature deaths, health care costs, and material damages. Air pollution alone is estimated to kill 700,000 people a year.
A 2012 MIT study estimated that air pollution in 2005 cost the Chinese economy $112 billion in lost labor and healthcare costs, roughly five times higher than it was in 1975.
In 2010, airborne microscopic pollutants caused an estimated 8,600 premature deaths in four major Chinese cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Xian.
Called mm out and you appear. That proves it to me.
China is cleaning up now ten years ago any thing was ok. I attacked them for years when they were. Very few articles were in the msm, now since the ptb fear them we have multiple articles.
Very few articles were in the msm, now since the ptb fear them we have multiple articles.
You are delusional.
I attacked them for years
It’s always all about you to you.
Many times in the global warming debate I argued why are we so concerned with a beneficial gas when china is producing real pollution. I wanted tariffs due to pollution.
Really? That isn’t the general impression that a person would have gotten from your cumulative comments.
Go back to 2012 on this blog and check.
I have an idea. Maybe you could go back to 2012 on this blog and check. Oh wait, THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE. There is no public archive of this blog that dates back to 2012.
Gee, I wonder why you chose the year 2012? Is it because you already know that the Google archive goes back exactly one year, and there is no other place to look? Did you just attempt to send me on a wild goose chase, SHILL?
There is no public archive of this blog that dates back to 2012.
HUH???
Almost the whole history of the blog is online, here on the website that you use every day. Have you ever tried using the little calendar widget at the top-right of the page? You can also search the blog history with google using this format “site:thehousingbubbleblog.com some_search_terms_here”.
No public archive? The whole blog is a public archive.
The public archive is only searchable by post title. You cannot search by comment. Google only goes back one year.
You cannot search by comment. Google only goes back one year.
http://www.southrustern.com/hbbcmt/index.cgi
The HBB has been indexed for years. lavid was the one who hosts this, I believe (apologies if my memory is off)
Google only goes back one year.
Google turns up results from as early as 2009 (perhaps earlier) for me?
You sure you’re not using bing?
That’s a great tool. Who’s lavid? Does he post here under another name?
Who’s lavid? Does he post here under another name?
Someone who used to post here ‘back in the day’. I’m sure you could search using that website to find out
‘Someone who used to post here ‘back in the day’
I think he made a post today. Uses a new screen name. I had lunch with him in Las Vegas a few weeks ago.
You can also search the blog history with google using this format “site:thehousingbubbleblog.com some_search_terms_here”.
search term first, e.g.
some_search_terms_here site:thehousingbubbleblog.com
With a rate of only thirty suicides an hour, what could possibly go wrong in China?
Society should address suicide among youths
By Cesar Chelala (China Daily)
09:48, July 29, 2014
The rising rate of suicides among youths has become a big cause for concern for many countries, but the number and the reasons for suicides in China are even a bigger cause for concern. In the last few years, several studies have shown that adolescents and young people in China, Japan and other Asian countries have been battling with a large number of psychological problems that could force them to commit suicide.
Will China, and the other Asian countries, be able to draw away such adolescents and youths from that path?
Suicide is only the fifth leading cause of death in China, but it has become the leading cause of death among young people. An estimated 287,000 people commit suicide in China every year, that is, one every two minutes. What is equally alarming is that 10 times that number attempt it, according to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In fact, the suicide rate in China is one of the highest in the world.
…
‘one every two minutes’
I’ll say it again, watch the documentary Last Train Home. It’s on Netflix. A couple nights ago I saw it and it was until the next day that I absorbed what it showed.
“Will China, and the other Asian countries, be able to draw away such adolescents and youths from that path?”
The lower caste in India are essentially sentenced to a life of labor with few options for a better life.
Using LaviD’s server, which goes back consistently for longer than a year, I get 0 results on comments that contain the word tariff or tariffs from ABQShill in 2012. Google caches stuff after a year. I dunno, maybe they started extending the amount of time that they keep some stuff. The last time I tried to Google an HBB comment, it only went back one year.
The same thing happened here. Remember LA Landlord?
Are you ready for a 4% yield on 10-year Treasurys by Thanksgiving?
July 29, 2014, 5:01 a.m. EDT
Why the 10-year Treasury could yield 4% by Thanksgiving
Insight: Bond bullishness at near-record levels is a warning sign
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (MarketWatch) — Interest rates have fallen this year because the otherwise compelling case for why they should rise was missing one crucial piece — until now.
That missing piece was in the sentiment arena: Far from the excessive bullishness typically seen at market tops, bond traders and investors instead have been quite bearish. In classic contrarian fashion, the market instead did just the opposite — rallying as interest rates fell.
But the Wall of Worry has now given way to near-record levels of bullishness. That’s not a good sign.
Consider the average recommended bond market exposure among a subset of short-term bond market timers tracked by the Hulbert Financial Digest (as measured by the Hulbert Bond Newsletter Sentiment Index, or HBNSI). On three occasions over the last six weeks this average has risen to its highest level since 2009 — 54.7%.
…
As long as China has an excess of savings and needs a place to park its new found wealth, T-bills/bonds aren’t going to budge from near ZIRP.
My thought exactly! Who needs QE3 when China is around to snap up Treasurys at bubble price valuations?
stocks and homes will get your somewhere.
A lot of people are starting to believe these bubbles are being created on purpose to mask the rotting economy and give the big boys a free meal ticket.
Yes. They will get you up to your neck in losses and debt.
still stuck in moms basement?
enraged still?
Business travel is soaring in China:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014-07/29/content_18143846.htm
Excerpt from link that will soon post:
China is poised to displace the US as the world’s biggest business-travel market by 2016, aided by accelerating export growth and slowing inflation.
Spending worldwide for business travel will climb 6.9 percent this year to $1.18 trillion, according to a report released by the Global Business Travel Association on Monday. Growth will accelerate by an estimated 8.6 percent next year and then slow in 2016 through 2018, the GBTA forecast shows.
In China, the increasing pace of exports since mid-2013, consumer prices running below government targets, and nominal wage gains that support more spending and profit growth are contributing to an expansion in the market. That contrasts with the US, where economic growth has been “stubbornly low,” along with employment and wages, the GBTA said.
BTW, the export growth includes things like solar panels and wind turbines. The U.S. can close its market to the Chinese but most of the world wants the best price and that is from China and not the U.S.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2014-07/29/content_17945508.htm
The WTO finds that we are cheating not China.
Excerpt:
China’s exports of solar products to the US have been declining because of multiple rounds of anti-dumping and countervailing duties. In a ruling on July 14, the World Trade Organization said that some punitive US import duties on Chinese products, including solar panels, are inconsistent with US trade commitments and violate US commitments to WTO rules.
Jigar Shah, president of the Coalition for Affordable Solar Energy, an organization that represents US installers, said the latest ruling is “another unnecessary obstacle for the US solar industry” that will hinder the deployment of clean energy by raising the prices of solar products.
Obama, protecting America or his crony capitalist friends?
No, most of the world is suing China for dumping stuff like solar panels and wind turbines at below cost, for the sole purpose of wiping out competitors.
Not what the wto found this time. Try reading.
The USA didn’t sue China. The rest of the world is doing that. The USA kisses China’s butt because China is providing more profit to corrupt “citizen of the world” billionaires.
No they are importing more and more except for the EU countries and the us which cannot compete.
I don’t understand. Why would they need to dump at “below [their own] costs” when their much lower labor and environmental-compliance costs make them “below [competitor] costs” in the first place?
Production in Mexico, China, India and Indonesia is simply cheaper, often much cheaper.
Sometimes a larger company will temporarily sell at a loss, for the sole purpose of putting their smaller competitors out of business. It’s illegal according the WTO, and China was yelled at for doing it. The real cost savings of having stuff made in China is an average about 5% nowadays.
LOL, subprime is contained. And so is ebola, apparently:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-29/ebola-poses-little-risk-us-cdc-claims-it-wrong
So the media says it’s just a short plane ride from the US. CDC says it poses little risk.
CDC says it poses little risk
The world is having the worse outbreak of Ebola in areas where it was traditionally was very rare but the CDC says it poses no risk. As far as they know it crossed the border with the “children”, yesterday.
I predict a very bad “back to school” season for those who are elderly or immune-compromised.
Every year, around these parts, when the kidz go back to school, there’s always some sort of “bug” that goes around and hits the retirees especially hard. The older and weaker, the more serious it is and sometimes morphs into pneumonia, which is how some of the elderly with weaker systems get weeded out.
This mechanism is nature’s way of getting rid of the old in favor of the young. The kidz go back to school, exchange a lot of germs with each other, bring it home to mumsy and daddy, who pass it on to friends and neighbors. Sooner or later grandmaw and grandpaw get it, whether through their grandkids, or casual contact with children at WalMart or wherever.
I may be wrong, but I’m hearing that a lot of these kiddie crusaders from across the border have not had medical care and will be going to public schools without immunizations or proper diagnosis of illnesses. So quite in addition to the lice and scabies they’ll be sharing with American classmates, there’ll be things like TB and flu and god knows what all. Wait’ll that hits the retiree populations, lolz.
“lice and scabies … TB and flu and god knows what all”
Racist
Lol, payback for when the European explorers and missionaries (even the American missionaries) wiped out brown people with their diseases. If you’ve read Michener’s book Hawaii, the description of natives dying of chicken pox is grim. Not to mention the STDs the sailors gifted the hula dancers with.
“payback”
That’s what my liberal betters and other Social Justice Warriors™ tell me. White people were pretty overrated anyway, good riddance.
“lice and scabies … TB and flu and god knows what all”
lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Is mm Lola? Talk about Brazilian Japanese multiple posts while Lola has disappeared.
You’re very bad at identifying people using multiple blog names.
. The older and weaker, the more serious it is and sometimes morphs into pneumonia, which is how some of the elderly with weaker systems get weeded out.
This mechanism is nature’s way of getting rid of the old in favor of the young. The kidz go back to school, exchange a lot of germs with each other, bring it home to mumsy and daddy, who pass it on to friends and neighbors. Sooner or later grandmaw and grandpaw get it, whether through their grandkids, or casual contact with children at WalMart or wherever.
This is a bit much. If you eventually die this way, would you like people to say that nature weeded you out because you were superfluous. Also, does nobody ever think to keep the sick little kids away from the old folks?
I’m hearing that a lot of these kiddie crusaders from across the border have not had medical care and will be going to public schools without immunizations or proper diagnosis of illnesses.
Kind of like the millions of American-born citizens without health-care.
USA 2014=Mostly Republican-made, marginally civilized by OECD standards, quasi Banana Republic.
Someone should fit that on a bumper sticker.
The world is having the worse outbreak of Ebola in areas where it was traditionally was very rare but the CDC says it poses no risk. As far as they know it crossed the border with the “children”, yesterday.
So, in addition to being an expert on the Chinese economy, you know now more about infectious diseases than the CDC.
I know when something is unknowable and an “expert” is clearly speaking about something outside his or her expertise so should not be given any deference. There is no way of knowing whether someone with Ebola has stepped on a plane or not.
The focus of epidemiology is to study the frequency, distribution, and determinants of disease. Measuring the frequency of a disease in the general population and identifying how disease occurrence may differ over time or among population subgroups are important steps in discovering potential causes and determining effective methods for prevention, control, and care
Just an amazing excerpt from the same source:
Since the GBTA began its study in 1998, the US has been the world’s largest business-travel market, although it has not seen the fastest expansion. While spending in China has increased an average 16 percent a year since 2000 to reach $225 billion in 2013, in the US it rose 1.1 percent annually to $274 billion.
Try not to become a delinquent debt donkey.
Past-due debt prevalent across U.S.
Roughly 1 in 3 adult Americans have a bill that’s been turned over to a collection agency, a new study says.
By KEVIN G. HALL
STATESMAN WASHINGTON BUREAU
July 29, 2014
Fewer Idahoans than average are in collections, but their debts are higher and their incomes are lower than the U.S. average, the study said.
About 30 percent of Boise-area consumers have an average $6,342 of debt that has been sent to collections, it said. The metro area’s consumers have much higher total debt, $64,355 on average, including mortgages.
The findings overlap other economic data that together suggest millions of Americans continue to struggle to make ends meet in an uneven economic recovery that’s benefited the top end far more than the middle and bottom.
“Debt in collection is pervasive, and it threads through nearly all communities,” said Caroline Ratcliffe, the lead researcher on the report titled “Debt in America,” published by the Urban Institute, a centrist think tank. “Every third person you see on the street has debt reported on their credit file.”
…
posted the article that 35 percent of americans have debt in collections?
hopefully that won’t be a barrier to their purchase of $500,000 starter homes
They will have to pay off their delinquent balances and wait for their FICO to rise…..
stocks look cheap here according to the experts like gartman @cnbc.
a nation of broke azz loosers
‘about 77 million americans have a debt in collections, a new report finds. that amounts to 35 percent of consumers with credit files or data reported to a major credit bureau’
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/29/a-third-of-consumers-had-debts-in-collections-last-year/
“a nation of broke azz loosers”
+1 Especially in the sun-belt.
cash, flash, and trash. see also:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=30k%20millionaire
got overdraft protection?
nation of broke azz loosers
This is not mostly because of the personal character on the part of the broke. The American brand of Capitalism is broke (en).
Most the major “socialist” European countries have a much higher per-capita net-worth than “exceptional” America.
Old and white
With free health care.
“Home-Price Growth Slows Sharply, Case-Shiller Says”
http://online.wsj.com/articles/home-price-growth-slows-sharply-case-shiller-says-1406638837
No way really? You mean prices are falling?
Prices have a long way to fall. A very long way to fall.
“Home prices across the U.S. slowed sharply to a single-digit pace in May on a year-over-year basis, the slowest rate since February 2013, according to a home-price report.”
HA’s conclusion: “No way really? You mean prices are falling?”
No HA, prices are increasing at a slower pace. HA, HA, HA, ….idiot.
Good morning J._Fraud
Petaluma, CA Housing Price Dive 5% YoY As Housing Demand Craters Across State
http://www.movoto.com/petaluma-ca/market-trends/
Funny HA. One of the residents I rent to has been looking for a house to buy for about 1 year now. He says inventory is so short he hasn’t been able to find anything. Town of 75,000 people has 20 homes for sale under $300,000 today.
Oh BTW, your “Petaluma Price Dive” quoted above….the “cheaper” houses to which you compare the prices are smaller in size.
Petaluma Prices per Square Foot:
2013 = $317
2014 = $326
No “housing analyst” skill exhibited today. More like Housing Idiot Guesser. HIG. HA, HA, HA. <;-o} Dunce cap for you!
well of course at new house its going to cost more than a 20-year-old depreciating shack.
Silly fraudster you are J. Fraud.
B A N K R U PT
Then get to your bankruptcy attorney and dump that underwater shack.
Because it’s for the children
“While irate anti-immigration groups attempt to turn back the wave of minor immigrants crossing the border and being moved into shelters across the country, a quiet force of humanitarian support for the youngsters is building in Colorado.
Attorneys, churches, municipalities, social justice and immigrant rights groups are stepping up to provide housing, food and clothing, legal aid and foster homes to unaccompanied child immigrants entering the country without documentation.”
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_26223255/forces-mobilize-colorado-help-unaccompanied-immigrant-children
“Attorneys, churches, municipalities, social justice and immigrant rights groups are stepping up to provide housing, food and clothing, legal aid and foster homes to unaccompanied child immigrants entering the country without documentation.”
And every one of these treason groups is well-funded, mainly by the US taxpayer, who is too busy trying to stay afloat to do their own “activism”.
However, there’s this:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-07-28/photos-emerge-10-active-militia-teams-securing-rio-grande-river
Caution: Zero Hedge has been known to post photos that can be heavily misinterpreted.
These foolish Americans are not “quietly” aiding and abetting the illegal immigrants. They are loudly, garishly, and offensively displaying it, right in front of all our faces. Whatever happened to the friggin LAW in this country?
“You really believe wages are going to double or triple to meet inflated prices of housing? Of course not. Prices will fall by 50-75% to meet existing wages as demand continues to collapse.”
Exactly.
You can say that again.
If you take on mortgage debt at current massively inflated housing prices, you’ll enslave yourself for the rest of your life.
>“Debt is bondage.”~ Suze Orman, May 11, 2013
Don’t Be A Debt Donkey®
One third of Americans ARE Debt Donkeys
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/more-than-one-in-three-americans-has-debt-in-collections-033649637.html
If you’ve been on the receiving end of an unsolicited phone call from a debt collector, you’re far from alone.
More than one-third of Americans had debt in collections in 2013, putting their credit and job prospects at risk, according to a new study by the Urban Institute, which analyzed credit reporting data for more than 7 million consumers. The report is based on data from Transunion, one of the three major credit reporting agencies.
In order to be released to debt collectors, unpaid balances have to be more than 180 days past due. And once debts are reported to credit bureaus, they can Of the 35% of Americans with non-mortgage debt in collections, the average amount was $5,178, according to the report. Although researchers weren’t able to break down the types of debt by category, they can include things like credit card balances, student loan debt, medical or utility bills, parking tickets and even gym membership fees.
Delinquent debts are prevalent across the country. Overall debt on things like credit cards, student loans and auto loans increased by $129 billion — or 1.1% — in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the previous quarter, ofaccording to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
People from certain states and regions are more likely to wind up on debt collectors’ speed dial than others. In Nevada, nearly half (47%) of consumers had seriously delinquent debt, according to the report, with an average balance of $7,198, the highest of any state. At least 40% of residents in a dozen other states have debt in collections, 11 of which are in the South. States with the fewest number of residents with debts in collections were mostly in the Midwest, including states like North Dakota, which had the lowest rate (19.2%), followed by Minnesota (19.8%) and South Dakota (20.8%).
“Debt in collections is pervasive and threads through nearly all communities,” says Caroline Ratcliffe, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute. “This is important because delinquent debt can harm credit scores, limit access to credit and [make credit] more expensive.”’
The long-term effects of debt can be crippling. Past due debts not only make credit more expensive and harder for consumers to access, but it can weaken their chances at getting a job as well. Some employers routinely run background and credit report checks on prospective job candidates.
View photo
.
Source: Urban Institute
Source: Urban Institute
Dealing with debt collectors
As if the stress of unpaid bills weren’t difficult enough to endure, communicating with debt collectors, who can often be pushy and aggressive, is no cake walk.
Consumers filed 204,000 complaints against debt collectors with the Federal Trade Commission in 2013, up from 199,000 the year prior and the highest level since the agency began keeping track in 1999. The most common complaint filed concerned debt collectors that allegedly lied about the amounts a consumer owed and the nature of their delinquency, followed by firms that called too often.
“This is a major consumer protection problem,” says Chris Koegel, assistant director of financial practices at the FTC. “We devote a significant amount of our resources to trying to clean up the practices in this industry.”
Part of the challenge of reining in unscrupulous debt collectors is that if a borrower is embarrassed or feels guilty about having a delinquent debt, he or she may take abuse from collectors without ever reporting it. Some people have even been tricked into believing they owe debts that don’t exist, an increasingly common ploy the FTC calls “phantom debt collecting.” In the scam, a collections agency will call a consumer, inform them of a nonexistent debt and bully them into making payments, often threatening arrest or other types of legal action.
North Carolina resident Frances Marshall endured more than two years’ worth of harassing calls from debt collectors, according to reports this month, despite the fact that she never had any debt to begin with.
The best thing you can do if you feel you’re being harassed is to file a complaint with either the FTC, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), or both.
The FTC has a handy guide on what to do when debt collectors contact you, including a full list of your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If you’re a target, you can protect yourself by understanding what debt collectors are and are not allowed to do.
For example, debt collectors aren’t allowed to phone you after 9 p.m. unless you expressly tell them so. They also aren’t allowed to call you at work if you tell them not to. And no, they can’t actually throw you in jail, either.
By far the biggest myth about calls and letters from debt collectors is that you have to put up with them at all. Once you’ve been alerted about your past due debt, you can ask the collector to stop contacting you, even if you haven’t paid your balance.
You just have to do it in writing. The CFPB makes that easy, with a list of sample letters you can use to get collectors off your back. And you should keep a log of your interactions with collectors, including copies of any letters and emails, and notes from phone calls.
Of course, none of this will erase your debt. Once debt goes into collections, it can stay on your credit report anywhere from five to seven years, limiting your chances of getting approved for new credit, not to mention the heavy blow it will deal your credit score. You can improve your odds at getting approved for loans by settling your debts, but it’s next to impossible to get them removed once they show up on you credit report.
You can dispute debts on your credit report and get them removed if you think they are erroneous. Check your credit report at annualcreditreport.com at least once a year to make sure you don’t have any unwarranted collections notices. Then file a dispute using each credit bureau’s dispute submission form.
“Housing is a depreciating asset and a loss, always. Your losses are magnified tremendously if you finance it.”
BINGO
lolz to the deluded fools who tell themselves that signing up for a lifetime of debt slavery, in 360 easy monthly payments, is a ‘hedge’ against inflation
suckers
So I read this as a leader that is making policies for the people instead of the elites. As opposed to this country where the people want border enforcement and the elites want open borders and guess who Obama is supporting?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-oligarchs-tired-funding-putin-100000898.html
The new corrupt dictators are slaying the old corrupt dictators!
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Inside-Xi-Jinpings-purge-of-Chinas-oil-mandarins/articleshow/39170248.cms
“In China, the announcement of a criminal probe means charges are almost certain to follow. Acquittals are rare.”
Billions embezzled and snuck out of the country. Does this count as “business travel”?
None of our elites have foreign accounts or evade taxes.
Unfortunately, we are not losing our elites by them falling out of empty high rise windows either.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html
The post about our external debt being 14 times China’s is missing, so I will post again.
China can increase their external debt by having the world’s reserve currency.
Yes it could so it is decades away from any kind of real problem. BTW, more propaganda this time from the Obama administration documenting how China is moving up the food chain:
http://economyincrisis.org/content/us-falling-behind-china-high-tech-manufacturing
“so it is decades away from any kind of real problem…”
Believe and it will come true?
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices rose in May from a year earlier at the weakest pace in 15 months as sales remain modest in the spring buying season.
The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller 20-city home price index, released Tuesday, increased 9.3 percent in May from 12 months earlier. That’s down from 10.8 percent in the previous month and the smallest annual gain since February 2013.
Yearly price gains slowed in 18 of the 20 cities. They accelerated in Charlotte, North Carolina, and were flat in Tampa, Florida.
Home prices soared last fall and winter but have been steadily returning to a more sustainable level this year. Existing home sales have picked up, rising to an eight-month high in June. But they are still 2.3 percent below last year’s level. And an index of signed contracts dipped in June, suggesting sales will cool. At the same time, the number of homes for sale has increased, giving buyers more choices.
After steady gains early last year, home sales have been restrained by weak wage increases and tight credit, particularly for first-time buyers. Mortgage rates also rose last summer, slowing sales.
The Case-Shiller index covers roughly half of U.S. homes. The index measures prices compared with those in January 2000 and creates a three-month moving average. The May figures are the latest available
“Buying a house is an adventure in depreciation discovery and slavery.”
You better believe it.
hows your rental treating you?
The 87% of my income that is not spent on overpriced housing is treating me rather well, thank you. I might treat myself to an ice cream cone to celebrate.
California Housing Demand Plunges To 10 Year Low; Falls In 54 Of 58 Counties Statewide As Excess Inventory Skyrockets
http://www.zillow.com/local-info/CA-home-value/r_9/#metric=mt%3D30%26dt%3D1%26tp%3D6%26rt%3D4%26r%3D9%26el%3D0
Map of the Dimwitted Dimented Debt Donks
http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/2psJCEeiLTBYEtDJb86Omw–/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NQ–/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/finance/2014-07-29/64228f80-16d1-11e4-87cd-392a77c76e91_Screen-Shot-2014-07-28-at-11-14-41-AM.png
When I worked in indirect auto finance for TARP bank in 2005-2006, we did alot of 100+ percent LTV auto loans in NC, SC, FL, trading in 3 year old cars and rolling the balance into the new loan.
Broke azz loosers.
Our good friend mark hanson released some new research. It aligns with ours almost perfectly. You might want to read it.
Link?
search for it J._Fraud.
F R A U D
Underwater?
Link?
http://mhanson.com/blog
Register to see “Recent Coverage” pdfs in right column.
Really respect Hanson alot - he has posted rarely on David Stockman’s contra blog - I have not seen a post by Hanson on his site since March of this year. Good to know he is back at it.
10% yearly raises for the Fang nu from here to eternity rapidly approaching a brick wall.
http://www5.cbia.com/cbianews/article/study-reveals-striking-shifts-in-global-manufacturing-costs-in-past-decade/
Five economies traditionally regarded as low-cost manufacturing bases—China, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Poland, and Russia—have seen their cost advantages erode significantly since 2004. The erosion has been driven by a confluence of sharp wage increases, lagging productivity growth, unfavorable currency swings, and a dramatic rise in energy costs. China’s manufacturing-cost advantage over the U.S. has shrunk to less than 5%. Costs in eastern European nations are at parity or above costs in the U.S.
If you think they cannot move up the economic food chain it would be a wall. The U.S. has to put tariffs on Chinese solar panels because it still cannot compete. Alibaba is soon going to give Amazon and Google stiff competition and Apple will soon have difficulties competing with Chinese firms. Our elites ten years ago considered China nothing but a profit center, now they fear the new competition. Thus, the MSM now running constant anti-China stories. When conditions were far worse for Chinese workers and citizens, the MSM was strangely quite.
The article is not from the MSM. The Chinese may get their own version of ebay IPO without profits, who cares? The age of export powerhouse is over for China. They need a new model and you know it. The Fang nu are not moving up the food chain, they are in a debt trap. Observe Japan to get some insight into what the next generation in China has on their plate. Divide by 100.
The China government wants to bootstrap the Fang nu up by raising their wages, so that they will buy more of their own Chinese crap. This can only end like the snake swallowing its own tail. Debt based prosperity has an endpoint that is painful. Same for the US and Europe, but multiply by 100.
Have fun with the math.
Same for the US and Europe, but multiply by 100.
Your comment is not supported by the facts, the external debt of the U.S. is 14 times the debt of China as a percentage of GDP. I have posted the link often.
Oh yes, your links. A forest of links from the chinadaily, the official Communist party propaganda channel.
Maybe look at the trees once in a while. The debt pyramid in Japan didn’t matter 25 years ago either, because it was all internal fiat credit expansion. It has mattered though, for a couple of decades. China’s pile of debt is much larger than anything ever seen, and it is a much poorer country. Fang nu on $250/mo are not going to become the uber consumer. Not the ones on $750 with $200,000 mortgages either. Not in this generation. They are in a debt trap that will take decades to unwind. China has lost it’s competitive edge. It needs to become something else, something that is not credit expansion based.
At 10% wage growth wages double in seven years. Japan had one tenth of the population of China, perhaps China will hit a wall but it is decades a way. You can attack the source of the information but you have not provided one example of its data being incorrect. It is no different that people in this country attacking Drudge, you just don’t like the content.
Until another 10% wage hike or two makes you non-competitive. Then you borrow more or do something else. The Fang nu are already at their credit limit.
It’s the elephant under the rug that I don’t like.
No because Chinese wages a still low compared to the us for the same work. With their higher IQ they will raise productivity to match our productivity. Meanwhile we are not becoming meaningfully more productive, look it up. Post is from my phone.
Your phone is wrong. Chinese do not have higher IQ than Americans. They are better at cheating, lying and stealing possibly, but that takes centuries of practice.
Yes they do. You can thank Obama and bush for the immigrants.
Average iq china 100 average IQ us 98. Google it. Communism kept them poor as they move to capitalism, they will become wealthier.
Two percentage points is not statistically significant. IQ is a shoddy test anyway.
Communism kept them poor
China is still communist because they’re kind of dumb.
By definition, the average IQ in the United States is 100. Standardized by Guess Who.
Not when you measure on a world wide basis.
Who measured it on a world-wide basis?
Who? I’m guessing folks with a bias. From what I heard 50 years ago, it is largely a culture biased test. Maybe that has changed.
Our elites ten years ago considered China nothing but a profit center, now they fear the new competition. Thus, the MSM now running constant anti-China stories. When conditions were far worse for Chinese workers and citizens, the MSM was strangely quite.’
yea I think you are right they finally get it.
I could say more but better not..
How can they possibly move up the food chain when they’re commies? We put tariffs on almost none of their junk, even though they are breaking all the “rules”. These are rules that were stacked in their favor to begin with!
Interesting - I posted a link to a map of the Debt Donks (should appear anytime). It’s obvious that the southern half of the US is predominantly debt donkey territory. Outside of Hawaii. States like North Dakota, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Vermont are less likely to be debt donkey.
Surprisingly New York State is less likely Donkey territory. Even Northern Californians are less likely be be in debt than southern Californians.
Is this a weather phenomena?
Possible correlation between concentration of Sky Wizard believers who think the earth is 6,000 years old and that dinosaur bones were planted by the devil to make people unbelievers, not paying their bills because they believe the Rapture is coming soon?
When the rapture comes Goon, you should be able to find some vacant property to obtain with adverse possession.
You need to read Max Weber. Quite a few of the Protestant churches that have played a role in shaping America’s culture two hundred years ago emphasized thrift, not debt.
No, more like race and age.
States like Vermont are white and old.
Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington are the most religious areas of their states but they are also white and old.
“Eastern Oregon and Eastern Washington are the most religious areas of their states but they are also white and old.”
+1 Amen, hehe.
Yes I also considered that a factor. New Hampshire also is white and old. I keep wanting to move there up in the cold state but I have relatives out west (and in the south).
The reservation out west (four corners) is one of the worst areas shown. I don’t blame the Native Americans for this anymore, as I once was inclined to. We did it to them.
If you want to see the final outcome of hyperactive, cradle-to-grave government policy, what better place to look than the reservation? I’m now convinced that’s the serfdom they intend for all of us, hence all the tax and monetary-based financial repression for anyone who resists debt donkeyism.
True dat. Up until a few years ago on Indian Reservations to even open and mom and pop grocery store you had to conduct an EA.
Native Americans are getting everything they demand. This includes cradle-to-grave government nannying. It’s in their culture, right along with alcoholism and daughter assault.
Two words boarding schools and if you do not understand the link to what you are saying, you have no understanding of the issue.
Oh, do Native Americans attend boarding schools? Or did that just happen a long azz time ago, when we were actually attempting to raise them into civilized people? You do realize that we could have easily just killed them all, right?
Looks more the south-east to me.
Off Topic
Could someone explain to me what is going on with all these young people entering your country along the southern border. Who are they and why are so many showing up now? Why aren’t they turned back? Why is your government incapable of dealing with this? No politics please, just some basic background. From up here it’s all very strange.
“Why is your government incapable of dealing with this? No politics please…’
That’s a rather tall order for an explanation, don’t you think?
It’s all very strange from down here, too.
BTW, Washington is not “our” government. It’s an occupation government of some sort.
Most of us are not really sure why this is happening, although there are all sorts of explanations like “Democrat Supermajority” and “cheap labor”. I think it’s far more sinister than that.
This is being done on purpose and was set up by the Obama administration. Our government is incapable of dealing with this because nobody has the political will to impeach the first black president.
In most countries this would be taken as a threat to national security, on so many levels, and dealt with firmly and quickly. Your country certainly has the means. What happened to the will?
What a complete buncha marlarkey. Europe is dealing with far worse from Africa and the Middle East and no one give a rat’s patootie about national security (except maybe Switzerland)
I’m assuming you’re from Canada, right? So your country is a party to NAFTA, which is the main driver for this. We couldn’t have accomplished this without you. They’ll be visiting you, soon, after they’ve vultured through the US.
BTW, you can have Justin Bieber back. And when your neighbors come down to Florida for the winter, tell them to tip better.
Too cold for southern folk up here. As for the Beibs. He’s a national treasure. It’s against the law to tip more than 3% here.
These aren’t “southern folk”. They’re skraelings on their way home. Seriously. When they arrive, compare them to the Inuit and you’ll be surprised the similarities.
Tom Cochrane, Bryan Adams, THOSE are national treasures. Bieber, not so much.
Heck, even Neil Young is more of national treasure than Bieber. Kind of an a-hole, but a danged fine singer-songwriter.
This is being done on purpose and was set up by the Obama administration.
That’s right. Obama and the DNC are secretly funneling money into the Central American countries by exercising put options on corn futures on the London Exchange. This money is channeled through Cayman Island banks via Panama and converted into peso’s which are then used for the illegals to purchase train tickets to the USA on the Amtrac Mexicano.
We didn’t have enough MS-13 members. Seems like the easiest way to get them.
It is just a small step in a decades-long movement by globalists and social justice warriors (many of whom are white themselves) to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, the dominance (that is disproportionate to their numbers) of white people around the globe.
If you think this is a conspiracy or that it is racist, why does third-world immigration (poor, but irrespective of race) only flow into the US, Canada, Europe, Australia?
Japan doesn’t have these problems, and their standard of living is equal or greater than the Euro/Anglo-sphere countries that are the destinations for third-world immigration.
Maybe the answer is that the Japanese are racist. Although racist is best description of their attitude. They allowed some immigration of Brazilians of Japanese ancestry. It didn’t work out well, because those Japanese-Brazilians were much more Brazilian than Japanese culturally.
meant to write:
Although racist is not the best description of their attitude.
Japan is for Japanese.
Japan is for Japanese.
Yeah, the indigenous population of North America was not able to implement a similar policy for their homeland.
So that is an argument to control our borders? To me it is a warning on what happens when you do not.
that’s what i heard all about in my undergraduate liberal arts days from howard zinn, noam chomsky, et cetera.
civilizations come and go, and this one is on its way out. you can get sad about it, or angry (see also: take america back), but it doesn’t change anything.
No, it’s not an argument, just a fact.
And it has always been a fact that even Indian tribes displaced other Indian tribes. Many tribes welcomed whites as allies because of it.
For that matter most blacks were enslaved by other blacks and then sold to whites.
that’s what i heard all about in my undergraduate liberal arts days from howard zinn, noam chomsky, et cetera.
civilizations come and go, and this one is on its way out. you can get sad about it, or angry (see also: take america back), but it doesn’t change anything.
You could consider that argument for majoring in STEM. You wouldn’t have to exposed to certain unpleasant facts so much.
Or maybe Howard Zinn’s works should be taught starting in the sixth grade. Then it wouldn’t be so shocking when they’re encountered in college.
You have to take general ed to get a college degree. Everyone has “been exposed” to all that stuff by the first grade. It’s actually shoved down everyone’s throats all the time. It is conservative activism at its worst.
For that matter most blacks were enslaved by other blacks and then sold to whites.
That sounds like a very tribal attitude. You’re only responsible for your own behavior. If you’re white, you’re not responsible for all of the crimes committed by white people throughout history.
why does third-world immigration (poor, but irrespective of race) only flow into the US, Canada, Europe, Australia?
It’s much more an economic issue than a “social-justice” race conspiracy issue.
When Eastern European Jews and Italians were immigrating to the U.S. in large numbers 100+ years ago, the WASP elite made disparaging comments about how “swarthy” they were. And many of them and their descendants went on to make some of the greatest cultural and technological contributions to America and the world.
Will the influx of third-world peasants illiterate in both English and Spanish crossing the southern U.S. border today make similar contributions to America?
Cultural relativism is the greatest lie the Social Justice Warriors™ tell, and the majority of Americans, be they white, black, brown, yellow, are not buying it.
Patrick Buchanan was right, this country is done, stick a fork in it.
When Eastern European Jews and Italians were immigrating to the U.S. in large numbers 100+ years ago, the WASP elite made disparaging comments about how “swarthy” they were. And many of them and their descendants went on to make some of the greatest cultural and technological contributions to America and the world.
What you’re saying is that the WASP elite were shown to be mistaken.
There are a lot of interesting parallels between the current situation and the controversy of 100 years ago. That controversy led to Congress passing a law in 1924 to change the immigration rules. Some of the concerns that led to the enactment of that law are very similar to those of today.
from Wikipedia:
Proponents of the Act sought to establish a distinct American identity by favoring native-born Americans over Jews, Southern Europeans, and Eastern Europeans in order to “maintain the racial preponderance of the basic strain on our people and thereby to stabilize the ethnic composition of the population”. Reed told the Senate that earlier legislation “disregards entirely those of us who are interested in keeping American stock up to the highest standard – that is, the people who were born here
This is similar to Pat Buchanan’s concern that changing demographics mean the end of America as we know it.
Some of the law’s strongest supporters were influenced by Madison Grant and his 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race. Grant was a eugenicist and an advocate of the racial hygiene theory. His data purported to show the superiority of the founding Northern European races
Note that this eugenicist had data, just like AlbuquerqueDan.
Southern/Eastern Europeans and Jews, he believed, arrive sick and starving and therefore less capable of contributing to the American economy, and unable to adapt to American culture.
This is echoed today in the concerns that people crossing the southern border are bringing infectious diseases into the country.
Hearings about the legislation cited the radical Jewish population of New York’s Lower East Side as the prototype of immigrants who could never be assimilated.
This once again is similar to Buchanan’s sentiments. The concern about radical Jews is also similar to your predictions of permanent Democratic supermajority.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924
Of course, one big difference is that those aggrieved WASPs got together and formed a political movement which led to the 1924 act. Since then Americans have been indoctrinated to believe that it’s futile to try to change anything in Washington. Some even believe that it’s immoral for people to get together and form political movements because everyone should be on his own. So they rail at the TV news or the computer, stewing in their anger.
There are many conspiracy theories, but no one has a verifiable explanation.
The immigrants in question have claimed that they are being bombarded with advertisements telling them that the US is accepting anyone with a family. All pregnant women and children are welcome. Obama will take care of them. They are being told to say that they seek asylum due to violence in their home countries.
Some people think it’s the Kochs taking advantage of the new amnesty laws. Some people think it’s the anti-illegal crowd trying to make a point. Either way, the government is clearly in on it, since they are taking in the aliens and distributing them across the United States, rather than sending them home. The main-stream media is also coddling the aliens. This may be because the MSM is cow-towing to government requests for certain coverage, or because the MSM is a large corporate machine, controlled by the same interests who benefit greatly from mass immigration of poor people into the US.
Hot off the press from Reuters via UBS….
Um…look out below?
WASHINGTON, July 29 (Reuters) - Homeownership in the United States hit a 19-year low in the second quarter as financially squeezed Americans opted to rent, pointing to a sluggish housing market recovery.
The seasonally adjusted homeownership rate fell to 64.8 percent, the lowest level since the second quarter of 1995, the Commerce Department said on Tuesday.
The rate, which peaked at 69.4 percent in 2004, was 65.0 percent in the first three months of 2013. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by James Dalgleish)
Here is the whole press release from the Census:
http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/qtr214/q214press.pdf
The number I find interesting in this whole thing is that the rental vacancy rate for the country has fallen to 7.5%, which is way below where it was in 2005, and the lowest since Q1 1997.
Homeowner Vacancy Rate is at 1.9%, which is OK, but not back to what I would consider a low number…if we get back to 1.5%, then we would be back to a number that I would consider indicative of a market without much in the way of overhang.
Anything above 5% is a renter’s market.
How exactly did you come up with 5% as the magic number?
It’s widely available in the literature. People who follow markets (rather than search for breadcrumbs) know this.
You need to distinguish between an individual market, and the national number. The 7.5% number is a national number.
From my experience, an individual market that is 5% vacant is very clearly a landlord’s market. Where it shifts from being a landlord’s market to a tenant’s market is less clear, but the magic line is not 5%, it’s somewhere north of that depending on who you ask, but probably not much north (a point or two). 5% is just a nice round number for the public’s consumption.
A lower national vacancy number generally indicates a greater number of markets that are “landlord’s markets”.
If your statement is true (about 5% being a national number delineating the national market being a landlord’s vs. tenant’s market), then there has only been one quarter in the past 55+ years where it’s been a “landlord’s market” nationally (Q1 1979, apartment vacancy rates hit 4.8%…the rest of the time back to 1956, the rate was 5% or higher). And we clearly know this isn’t the case, since there have been plenty of times over the past several decades where national rent growth exceeded inflation (my definition of the market being a “landlord’s” market).
I think of the national market as a sloshy tub of water (with the level of vacancy=the level of the water, and any location in the tub being a particular market). There are points in time where some markets are overbuilt (water level is too high), and thus need to slow/stop development until equilibrium is reached (water level goes back down), and other markets are underbuilt (water level too low), and development is needed to keep a lid on rents (water level rises again).
If in this “sloshy water” environment, with each market behaving through their own cycle were to just stop, with the water settling, you would find that the AVERAGE water level would be somewhat above what is considered an equilibrium vacancy level (equilibrium being neither a buyer nor seller’s market). This is due to the tendency to overbuild in cycles because of the lag between the commencement and completion of a development cycle (lots of participants can start to add to supply before the effect of the supply is known).
I know you’ll say that I’m talking out of my *ss, but there is not one apartment market. Assuming that the vacancy rate indicating a “tight” individual market is the same as for the nation is a mistake…you need to think more dynamically than that.
P.S. I don’t read “the literature” in order to follow the markets…I participate in the markets.
So then why are you posting national numbers then?
Only as a measure against history (my articulated point).
7.5% being the lowest that it’s been since 1997 is a meaningful statement about the overall level of vacancy in the national market over nearly the past nearly 20 years.
And you probably do well with your own On-the-street
analysis. Especially if your interest is in one or two communities that you understand well
All the money spent by Obama to keep people in homes which they cannot afford has been pis#ed away. Thanks Obama.
A crater for every donkey.
Crazy low price. This thing will be sold in no time:
http://roanoke.craigslist.org/reb/4566781476.html
How long is the commute to 3-digit IQ employment?
Low? It’s a WW2 era building overgrown with vegatation. Even if it’s pristine in/out/roof/basement, the prices seems higher than it’s worth.
China’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang under investigation — the highest ranking Communist party official ever to be put under investigation, after state media announces case against him
One of the most powerful men in China, who once controlled the police, intelligence networks and law courts, is under investigation by the Communist party.
For nearly two years, investigators have slowly but relentlessly built a case against 71-year-old Zhou Yongkang for “serious violations of discipline”, usually taken to mean extreme corruption or worse.
A former member of the Politburo Standing Committee who retired in November 2012, Mr Zhou is the most powerful Chinese official ever to be put under investigation.
The decision to bring him down breaks an unspoken Communist party rule not to touch current or former members of the Politburo Standing Committee.
In what is a common Communist party tactic, the official announcement of Mr Zhou’s investigation came only after his fate had been firmly sealed. Within minutes of the news breaking on the state media, Caijing, a Chinese magazine, said Mr Zhou’s son, Zhou Bin, was also under arrest. Mr Zhou’s name was also uncensored on the Chinese internet, allowing the public to roundly mock him.
Mr Zhou owned one house next to the former Communist party secretary of Sichuan and the province’s vice-governor. All three houses are now vacant, their owners in detention.
“His case is big, but Wen Jiabao’s case is bigger,” said one observer, who cannot be named because of reprisals from the Communist party. “But it is hard to tell whether they will go after Wen because his case implicates so many others,” he added, referring to China’s former prime minister.
“Wen’s case is hanging over the Party ever since the New York Times exposed his family wealth,” said another commentator, referring to an investigation which claimed Mr Wen’s family had amassed £1.5 billion in assets.
Region VIII checking in.
Everyone must check in.
Here’s what $3 Billion a year of American tax dollars pays for:
“Obama and Secretary of State John F. Kerry have been careful to temper their impatience with the surging civilian deaths in Gaza by stressing that Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas rocket fire and tunnel incursions. Israelis, though, slammed Kerry’s cease-fire proposal, delivered Friday night, which they saw as too soft on Hamas — a group considered a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel and the European Union.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/israelis-support-netanyahu-and-gaza-war-despite-rising-deaths-on-both-sides/2014/07/29/0d562c44-1748-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html
Because statists gonna state
“A federal judge on Tuesday delayed a ruling overturning the District’s long-standing ban on carrying handguns in public, once again making it illegal to have firearms on city streets.
Authorities have 90 days to decide whether to rewrite the law to conform with the court ruling. The District could also appeal the judge’s decision. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said that officials are still deciding on a strategy but that an announcement would be made “in a matter of days.”
As lawmakers get to work, D.C. police returned to past arrest practices. Ten minutes after the judge granted the reprieve at 1:20 p.m., Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier rescinded orders hurriedly issued Sunday night and told 4,000 officers that “all laws related to firearms regulations and crimes remain in effect.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/judge-puts-dc-handgun-ruling-on-hold/2014/07/29/c86383f2-1738-11e4-9349-84d4a85be981_story.html?tid=hpModule_13097a0c-868e-11e2-9d71-f0feafdd1394
I’m still buying SDRL even though they’ve diluted shares recently.
From the west coast late night post I present Ron Paul
“Stocks are in a Bubble and are going to Crash”
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101876532
When was the last time Ron Paul was wrong?
Contrarian investment should hold up a little better. I should probably own more gold stock because it will rise dramatically when the stock market falls.
Russia is buying gold so they must be preparing to hunker down against the West if necessary.
Yes, but when the crash does happen, it will mean the jig is up. There are still powerful forces out there to fight against or cover up this scenario.
I can’t make money betting 100 percent on Armageddon.