Bits Bucket for August 2, 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
May 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
If you like your Ebola patients you can keep your Ebola patients.
Period.
I prefer them to be an ocean away.
True but an ocean certainly does not give you the protection it did a century ago.
And even a century ago it did not prevent the “Spanish” flu from spreading over the entire planet.
Ebola is only contagious when people are bleeding out.
No sweat and salvia can also transmit the virus. Go back to your McDonald’s shift work.
Not really, ADan.
http://www.infowars.com/more-than-100-health-workers-fighting-ebola-have-contracted-it-themselves/
We like to import that which causes us harm.
Well, the progressives of the world do, at least. Whatever negatively affects the United States is what they welcome in.
Dagnabbed progressives — they are the root of all our problems!
By the way, what is a progressive?
“what is a progressive?”
It’s a code word for the social justice warriors who blame every problem in the world on the evil capitalist patriarchy, who are by nature collectivist, and who are against individual civil liberties.
By the way, what is a progressive ??
Yes, I would like to know the answer to that question also…
Take your pick:
progressive
noun
: a person who favors new or modern ideas especially in politics and education
1
a : one that is progressive
b : one believing in moderate political change and especially social improvement by governmental action
2
capitalized : a member of any of various United States political parties: as
a : a member of a predominantly agrarian minor party that around 1912 split off from the Republicans; specifically : bull moose
b : a follower of Robert M. La Follette in the presidential campaign of 1924
c : a follower of Henry A. Wallace in the presidential campaign of 1948
A person who believes that people need a powerful central government to govern them since they are inadequate to manage their own affairs. The word statist works well as replacement if you want one.
Thanks for the made-up definitions. We wouldn’t expect any less from you.
Thanks for the made-up definitions.
Every word and definition is at some point “made-up” and the euphemism treadmill never stops.
People that are calling themselves progressive are making it up. The progressive coalition in Congress is made up by Marxists. They hardly just want moderate change. They also do not belong to parties of 1912, 24 and 48. Thank you for a post that does not actually answer the question. I would not expect anything more from you.
He didn’t make up the definition.
Progressives changed it.
If you don’t like it, Whac/Bear/Stucco, I suggest you find a different word that is more suitable to your definition of self.
I’m curious, Whac/Bear/Stucco….how do you define yourself philosophically? You sure like to tell others what they are.
Perhaps you ought to justify yourself for a change rather than insist that others do the same.
Thank you, Michael Viking. Well said.
“If you don’t like it, Whac/Bear/Stucco, I suggest you find a different word that is more suitable to your definition of self.”
Feel free to redefine self to mean whatever you choose, and to use it to tar and feather anyone who points out the inanity of your posts.
There is more wisdom in one of his posts than all the posts you have ever made.
We’re still waiting Bear/Whac/Stucco.
What is your definition of self? Tell us. What are your guiding principles?
In a sentence or two, tell us your political philosophy.
An example of a “progressive” in the news on the issue of immigration:
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=1265
What is your definition of self? Tell us. What are your guiding principles?
In a sentence or two, tell us your political philosophy.
Why do you make such a request? Do you think that that would make for interesting discussion?
Why not ask it?
Why do you think it would not make for an interesting discussion?
You’re essentially asking him to state his preferences. That’s like asking someone he prefers baseball to football or cats to dogs. Once he states such preferences, I can’t see where the conversation goes form there. If his preferences differs from yours, how would you respond? Would you insult him for having those preferences?
I may or may not insult him. Who knows? He seems to get insulted easily when someone says something he doesn’t like. Note that I did single him out - he chose to go after me. As did Auntie Fed.
He also goes after me when I equate NeoCons to Progressives.
It seems that whenever someone steps out of his preconceived ideas as to what is, he gets bent out of shape. So much for diversity, eh?
You did the same. Immediately you assume any conversation isn’t worth having. Why? Why not be open-minded enough to see where it goes?
I think that maybe some of this commentary makes people feel uncomfortable enough to lash out. Because perhaps there’s a nagging sense that some of it might just ring true.
Thank you for asking. (And yes, I’m fine with onslaught of personal insults soon to be thrown my way by who knows whom).
You did the same. Immediately you assume any conversation isn’t worth having. Why? Why not be open-minded enough to see where it goes?
Over the past 6 years, maybe more, there’s been a lot of discussion on this blog about different political labels. It got a big boost back June or July of 2008 when people started calling Barack Obama a socialist. Much of this discussion, as we can see here today, ends up going over the definition of various terms that end in -ist or -ism.
We have all our ideas of what is an interesting discussion. I think that discussing these labels and their definitions is not particularly interesting. Discussion of specific issues is more interesting.
Fair enough. Thanks.
Simple.
A progressive believes that the Power of the State reigns supreme over the Rights of the Individual.
Next question?
Do you have any more made-up definitions to promulgate here?
Do you have any definition that even closely resembles the people that belong to the progressive caucus in Congress?
“In a sentence or two, tell us your political philosophy.”
Politics sux, as do the people who constantly push their political agendas on this blog.
Bill would say that anyone who is not an anarchist must be a Progressive. ABQShill would say that anyone who disagrees with his spin is a Progressive. MacBeth is an emotionally unstable person who thinks that someone in California is ruining his/her life. He/she has heard the word “progressive” loosely associated with California. I’m pretty sure that the term is being used by propagandists for the Republican party to make people think that they need to very afraid, and that only Republicans can save them.
Realistically, until the Progressive party gives us their platform, we will not be able to start blaming them for everything bad in the world.
And on that note:
The Progressive Promise
Fairness For All
The Congressional Progressive Caucus believes in government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our fairness plan is rooted in our core principles. It also embodies national priorities that are consistent with the values, needs, and hopes of all our people, not just the powerful and the privileged. We pledge our unwavering commitment to these legislative priorities and we will not rest until they become law.
1. Fighting for Economic Justice and Security in the U.S. and Global Economies
» To uphold the right to universal access to affordable, high quality healthcare for all.
» To preserve guaranteed Social Security benefits for all Americans, protect private pensions, and require corporate accountability.
» To invest in America and create new jobs in the U.S. by building more affordable housing, re-building America’s schools and physical infrastructure, cleaning up our environment, and improving homeland security.
» To export more American products and not more American jobs and demand fair trade.
» To reaffirm freedom of association and enforce the right to organize.
» To ensure working families can live above the poverty line and with dignity by raising and indexing the minimum wage.
2. Protecting and Preserving Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
» To sunset expiring provisions of the Patriot Act and bring remaining provisions into line with the U. S. Constitution.
» To protect the personal privacy of all Americans from unbridled police powers and unchecked government intrusion.
» To extend the Voting Rights Act and reform our electoral processes.
» To fight corporate consolidation of the media and ensure opportunity for all voices to be heard.
» To ensure enforcement of all legal rights in the workplace.
» To eliminate all forms of discrimination based upon color, race, religion, gender, creed, disability, or sexual orientation.
3. Promoting Global Peace and Security
» To honor and help our overburdened international public servants – both military and civilian.
» To bring U. S. troops home from Iraq as soon as possible.
» To re-build U.S. alliances around the world, restore international respect for American power and influence, and reaffirm our nation’s constructive engagement in the United Nations and other multilateral organizations.
» To enhance international cooperation to reduce the threats posed by nuclear proliferation and weapons of mass destruction.
» To increase efforts to combat hunger and the scourge of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, and other infectious diseases.
» To encourage debt relief for poor countries and support efforts to reach the UN’s Millennium Goals for Developing Countries.
4. Advancing Environmental Protection & Energy Independence » To free ourselves and our economy from dependence upon imported oil and shift to growing reliance upon renewable energy supplies and technologies, thus creating at least three million new jobs, cleansing our environment, and enhancing our nation’s security.
» To promote environmental justice in affirmation that all people have an inherent right to a healthy environment, clean air, and clean water wherever we live, work, and relax.
» To change incentives in federal tax, procurement, and appropriation policies to:
(A) Speed commercialization of solar, biomass, and wind power generation, while encouraging state and local policy innovation to link clean energy and job creation;
(B) Convert domestic assembly lines to manufacture highly efficient vehicles, enhance global competitiveness of U.S. auto industry, and expand consumer choice;
(C) Increase investment in construction of “green buildings” and more energy-efficient homes and workplaces;
(D) Link higher energy efficiency standards in appliances to consumer and manufacturing incentives that increase demand for new durable goods and increase investment in U.S. factories;
» To eliminate environmental threat posed by global warming and ensuring that America does our part to advance an effective global problem-solving approach.
» To expand energy-efficient transportation choices by increasing investment in synthesized networks, including bicycle, local bus and rail transit, regional high-speed rail and magnetic levitation rail projects.
» To preserve prudent public interest regulations that encourage sustainable growth and investment, ensure energy diversity and system reliability, protect workers and the environment, reward consumer conservation, and support an expanding marketplace that rewards the commercialization of energy-efficient technologies.
“MacBeth is an emotionally unstable person who thinks that someone in California is ruining his/her life.”
LOL!
“Politics sux, as do the people who constantly push their political agendas on this blog.”
You didn’t think so back in 2008 and 2009, when you posted endless links from The Economist, all extolling the Messiah that is Obama. You loved the man!
See, I went back and looked. I went back and read a number of HBB pages before I started posting here about 18-20 months ago.
Comment by Guillotine Renovator
2014-08-02 16:47:55
“MacBeth is an emotionally unstable person who thinks that someone in California is ruining his/her life.”
“LOL!”
Crawling out of the woodwork! Anyone else? Lemme see. Thus far, there’s Whac/Bear/Stucco, Auntie Fed and now Guillotine Renovator. All three must be Californians. (Yet, interestingly, none of them are progressives).
Anyone else? C’mon…just do it. I have just one request: Make it a personal attack.
“Realistically, until the Progressive party gives us their platform, we will not be able to start blaming them for everything bad in the world.”
Now we are getting somewhere.
“You didn’t think so back in 2008 and 2009, when you posted endless links from The Economist, all extolling the Messiah that is Obama.”
Now you are making ch!t up.
No I’m not.
Liar.
“By the way, what is a progressive?”
Here is one definition.
Progressive
A term that former liberals co-opted when they discovered that their delusional beliefs didn’t fit any recognized definition of the word liberal.
A “Progressive” is identified by the following behaviors/beliefs:
- Knows what is best for everybody else
- Claims to be well-informed even though they get their news/talking points from the Daily KOS and/or MSNBC
- Believes that personal wealth is evil yrt they fawn over wealthy celebrities and limousine liberals
- Believes corporations and profit are evil, and will tweet about this 24/7 on their fancy iPad
- Thinks name-calling and demonizing opponents is the same as debate
- Accuses every person with a dissenting view of being a racist
- Supported Occupy Wall Street from the comfort of their living room, not the rape tent
- Drives a Prius with a COEXIST bumper sticker
- Believes in the rights of everyone, except those who disagree
- Thinks the Constitution is flawed because they can’t control all 3 branches of government
- Believes YOUR success could only have come at THEIR expense
- Believes Al Gore is right about global warming, even though his carbon footprint 100X of the average person
- Thinks voter identification is racist, because it discriminates against dead people
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=progressive - 68k -
Link will soon post, an average progressive in Congress:
Luis Gutierrez was born in Chicago on December 10, 1953, to parents of Puerto Rican ancestry. After graduating with an English degree from Northeastern Illinois University in 1977, he spent approximately seven years working variously as a cab driver, schoolteacher, community activist, and social worker.
From 1984-86 Gutierrez, a Democrat, served as an advisor to Mayor Harold Washington of Chicago. In 1986 Gutierrez was elected alderman of that city’s mostly-Hispanic 26th Ward. At the time, he was a member of the Puerto Rican Socialist Party, a Marxist-Leninist entity.
In 1992 Gutierrez won a seat in the U.S. Congress, representing the newly formed Fourth District of Illinois. Gerrymandered from neighborhoods and suburbs west of downtown Chicago, this bizarrely shaped, 75-percent Latino district was designed by Democrats not only to guarantee the area a Latino Representative in Congress, but also to concentrate so many Latinos into a single district that they would pose little threat of unseating any black Democrat in the vicinity. Since then, Gutierrez has been re-elected every two years to the House of Representatives, where he is a member of both the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus. His political campaigns have drawn significant support from the Democratic Socialists of America.
In the mid-1990s, Gutierrez developed close ties to the pro-socialist New Party in Chicago. In 1995-96 he was a board of directors member of Illinois Public Action, the state’s largest public-interest organization, along with such notables as Robert Creamer, Lane Evans, Alice Palmer, Jan Schakowsky, and Quentin Young. And in 1997 Gutierrez served on the board of Citizen Action of Illinois.
In 1999 Gutierrez collaborated with fellow Progressive Caucus members Jose Serrano and Nydia Velazquez to pressure President Bill Clinton (through Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder) to free 16 convicted FALN terrorists. For details, click here.
During his years in Congress, Gutierrez has cultivated a reputation as the Democratic Party’s leading strategist and spokesperson on immigration issues, and has been at the forefront of the effort to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation. In 2001 he became the first elected official to sponsor a version of the DREAM Act—legislation designed to create a path-to-citizenship for illegal immigrants who came to the United States as minors.
In 2004 Gutierrez was a guest speaker at a “Take Back America” conference organized by the Campaign for America’s Future, an organization dominated by the Democratic Socialists of America and the Institute for Policy Studies.
A Progressive is someone who will use the most foul obscene language at you if you suggest the cause of the problem is personal choice and/or personal responsibility. (especially when race is involved)
Phony Scandals, thanks for leavening your definition with wit. I definitely am not a progressive.
“By the way, what is a progressive?”
A progressive is a limousine socialist, or a socialist who wants to also be at the limousine category.
Most lower income and poor people are not progressives.
So, what we’re all really saying here is that no one agrees to what the term “progressive” actually means.
So much for Democrats/Liberals/Progressives having a clearly identified brand, eh?
Not much different than what we see among Republicans/Conservatives/Fundamentalists, is it?
NeoCon-Progressives want you to think there’s some great distinction amongst the six. Not so. There are as many progressives in the Republican Party (the NeoCons), for example, as there are fundamentalist whackjobs in the Democratic Party (the Global Warming/Carbon Tax Environuts).
All six believe they know how you should live your life.
I disagree. Strongly so. And it’s for that reason that folks here like Whac/Bear/Stucco (and a dozen or so others) seek to demean others.
The smallest minority is always the individual. It is he or she who must be afforded the greatest opportunities and protections. Always.
The original leaders of “progressives” were Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson:
http://www.amazon.com/Theodore-Woodrow-Presidents-Destroyed-Constitutional/dp/B00F6IND00
Progressives are elitists who think they know what is best for strangers. They seek power and praise, and the way they do it is by robbing the productive people and giving it to both themselves and to the undeserved to buy votes for even more power. They point to all the wealth they grabbed from others and they claim they are unselfish altruists who are generous. They are only generous with other people’s money. Even worse is the gullible minions who worship them. That is exactly what the Hillarious Clowntoon, E Warren, and Obama types feed off of. The worship.
A progressive is the vector for the ebola virus.
“MacBeth is an emotionally unstable person who thinks that someone in California is ruining his/her life. He/she has heard the word “progressive” loosely associated with California.”
Hit a nerve, eh? Ah, well.
Don’t blame me for California being the disaster it is.
“Fairness For All”
That indeed says it all, Ms. Auntie Fed. What utter nonsense.
It’s definitely a pretty empty sentiment. One could just say “fairness” instead of “fairness for all”. But then everyone in politics would claim to be in favor of fairness.
Yes. It’s also an impossibility.
Fairness is in the eye of the beholder. For whatever you deem fair, there will be numerous others who cry foul. It will always be thus.
Fairness cannot be legislated. Fairness is addressed via ethics and morals, both of which rest above the law.
Progressives want to legislate the Golden Rule. Those who are not progressives tend to realize doing so is an impossibility.
Mighty Mike -
I have an idea. Let’s you and I have that interesting discussion here on HBB. It could be about whatever.
The cool thing is that you and I don’t agree on much but often have civil discourse (most of the time!).
It’ll have to wait until next weekend as I’m out of pocket tomorrow and much of the week.
You game? Let me know.
I wouldn’t agree with that. Here’s an anti-Progressive statement from Selfish Hoarder just a few minutes ago:
Progressives are elitists who think they know what is best for strangers. They seek power and praise, and the way they do it is by robbing the productive people and giving it to both themselves and to the undeserved to buy votes for even more power. They point to all the wealth they grabbed from others and they claim they are unselfish altruists who are generous. They are only generous with other people’s money. Even worse is the gullible minions who worship them. That is exactly what the Hillarious Clowntoon, E Warren, and Obama types feed off of. The worship.
It’s seems to reasonable to assume that he thinks that taxing some people and giving the money to others in unfair.
There are so many people who post on this blog that I only keep track of a certain number of names. I can’t remember whether my discourse with you have been civil.
I also can’t make an appointment with you to have a discussion next weekend. I may be busy myself then.
Wouldn’t agree with what?
Bill and I don’t move in lockstep or goosestep with each other, thought we tend to agree with each other fairly often.
Besides, the offer was to converse with me, not with Bill.
What have you got to lose? If not next weekend, then whenever. You choose. It’s your olive branch to pick up.
What I’m saying is that it’s not only progressives who are interested in fairness or legislating fairness.
Would it be more correct to say that China is poised to crash, or that it is already crashing?
Apologies to ABQDan for posting week-old news.
Chinese government defers another default but only for the time being
Developer dodges failure to repay its debt this time, but Beijing cannot beat the odds forever
PUBLISHED : Saturday, 26 July, 2014, 1:39am
UPDATED : Saturday, 26 July, 2014, 1:39am
William Pesek
Odd as it may sound, the fact that Huatong Road & Bridge Group dodged a default on July 23 is bad news.
Until Wednesday, markets had been buzzing about the possibility the Shanxi-based builder might become the second mainland company in four months to renege on a bond payment. Then, Huatong beat the odds, repaying all principal and interest on a US$65 million bond. How? Some aggressive fundraising, along with a little help from local government bodies. According to press reports, municipal officials intervened to prevent the company’s collapse.
Two immediate worries spring to mind. One, the mainland’s moral-hazard bubble continues to swell as public officials insulate companies from the effects of bad business decisions. For all the talk of epochal reform on the mainland, there’s still no price to pay for questionable borrowing and lending. Two, local government debt is growing even as Communist Party leaders pledge to reduce public liabilities.
A recent analysis shows that as of July 23, 20 of 25 provinces and provincial-level cities reported a pickup in growth in the first half. Some of the gain, of course, is the result of central-government stimulus: expedited railway spending and tax cuts. Most of it reflects local fiscal pump-priming, funded by untold billions of dollars of fresh debt.
The big worry is that we just don’t know how bad the mainland’s debt profile really is. As of June 2013, local government debt had swelled to about US$3 trillion. Given efforts since then to meet growth targets, it’s a pretty safe assumption that the figure is now considerably higher - and poised to rise further.
…
The Chinese government will cover everything up.
But it is very hard to hide entire cities of empty buildings!
Central Bank Exec Says Stocks Are ‘Irrational’ As China Is Poised To Crash
Jim Edwards
Jul. 14, 2014, 4:26 AM
China: hard landing expected.
The Bank of International Settlements, an international finance watchdog that serves as a counter-party for national central banks, has again warned that investors are unprepared for a potential financial crash.
Jaime Caruana, head of the BIS, told The Telegraph that he believed the world economy is as vulnerable to crisis now as it was in 2007, because nobody in stocks seems prepared for the idea that at some point soon central banks will begin raising interest rates again.
The BIS previously described stocks as “euphoric.”
Currently, most major central banks — including the Bank of England and the U.S. Federal Reserve — are holding rates at around zero percent. That is boosting stocks, because there is no point in investors keeping their money in savings accounts at such low returns.
Thus, an “irrational” bubble is looming again in stocks, Caruana says:
And that’s not even the scary part. Look at China, Caruana says, which has had a private credit boom of its own, also fueled by low interest rates (if interest is low, people tend to get further into debt because the cost of the debt is so low). China is unprepared to shed that debt without pain, BIS sources told The Telegraph:
Right on cue, Mohamed El-Erian, the former PIMCO chief and current chief economic adviser to Allianz, wrote an op-ed in the Financial Times that sees the world looking much the same way. Stocks are booming in a way that doesn’t reflect the underlying economic fundamentals, he says:
…
There is a silent war for economic dominance going on and China is winning it and the PTB in the U.S. know it. The PTB are fighting a rear guard action using the MSM trying to undercut China. Since our PTB are globalists they particularly hate that Russia and China are following nationalistic policies. However, Russia and China are finding ways to resist the new world order which would put world control in London’s and the United State’s banks:
http://www.chinaeconomicreview.com/BRICS-china-brazil-beijing-development-bank-economic-diplomacy
Take your China and shove it up your @ss.
+1
Cratering or top Crater. Either way, China and US are synonymous with crater.
Probably. A coupla (or maybe three) questions:
Q #1: Where did China used to get its money that financed its boom?
(Hint: The source of this money was from countries that occupy the Western part of this planet.)
Q #2: What happened to the flow of money that used to land on China’s shores?
(Hint: The countries, the people who occupy the countries, that used to send money to China - used to send BORROWED money to China - are now broke, and because they are broke they had to cut back on their spending, and the result of this cutting back on their spending cut deeply into the flow of money that used to end up in China.)
Q #3: So how did China keep its boom going if the money flow from elsewhere slowed down?
(Hint: Such things a Ghost Cities and trains that led to nowhere were built - using borrowed money, natch - so as to keep their economy booming. But Econ101 say a borrowed money boom is not a sustainable boom.)
But Econ101 say a borrowed money boom is not a sustainable boom ?
What if they default ??
Who defaults? The Chinese government has a national debt 1/5 of the U.S. as measured as a percentage of its GDP. It is in no danger of default. Some private entities may default and that is good. A 65 million dollar default in a ten trillion dollar economy is hardly significant.
You lie like a fly. What about the debt of their state-owned corporations? China’s debt is 250% of their GDP, sweetheart.
From China Daily the trains are not to no where and the ghost cities will soon have a population. As I fully suspected China intended to make it easier for the rural population to live and buy within the cities particularly the cities that are not first tier:
Rural workers will gain access to health, education benefits in cities
Chinese migrant workers living in cities will gradually have full access to schools and hospitals where they work, a significant move to improve social equality between rural and urban residents.
Under guidelines to create a unified household registration system, known as hukou, the dual-household system that has divided people into urban or agricultural households since the 1950s will be phased out. In its place, a system of residence permits will be set up to allow qualified migrants to enjoy urban services.
“The guidelines will play a positive role in accelerating the country’s urbanization,” said Zhang Yi, a population expert at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, by creating attractive conditions for new rural residents to come to urban areas.
The guidelines said basic public services - including education, healthcare, social insurance, employment, aged care and housing - will be expanded to migrants’ children.
“From China Daily the trains are not to no where and the ghost cities will soon have a population.”
Got Field of Dreams thinking?
“The guidelines said basic public services - including education, healthcare, social insurance, employment, aged care and housing - will be expanded to migrants’ children.”
Sounds like a socialist worker’s paradise.
Their safety net is very minimal even less than 1950’s America. Hence their 30% savings rate.
Of course the PTB in this country are actively telling China how it must increase its social spending so it can become a basket case like the U.S.
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2014/03/25/chinas-rebalancing-should-start-with-a-safety-net/
ABQShill:
What happened to their 50% savings rate? How come it went down to only 30%? Is it because they’re Fang Nu?
PS: Chinese people cannot own property.
A few years ago the great conservative writer George Will wrote that lefty Americans like Amtrak because trains are big in “socialist” Western Europe. Good “anti-government” Americans prefer travelling by car because each person is on his own, charting on his own course, not crowded into a metal tube with a bunch of strangers. Or something like that
So I guess it’s no surprise that Communist China is building railroads at such a phenomenal pace.
“Great conservative writer” George Will? Try the neo-con oligarch propagandist.
These are conservatives:
http://rsc.woodall.house.gov/
http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/2014-07/31/content_18226781.htm
I think a strong case can be made that even though China used to be an earned money economy its earned money depended on Western countries becoming insane and they themselves shifting from earned money economies to borrowed money economies. And once these borrowed money economies were all borrowed out then China was no longer able to sustain its boom by earning money so it had to sustain is boom by borrowing money.
Now it is the biggest smoldering pile of debt in the world.
Compare its debt to Europe’s and tell me that with a straight face. China’s combined debt is still less than the U.S. and it has a future.
Europe’s debt pile is contained. (Typed with a straight face.)
Then take your meds. China’s 250% debt is far better contained then Europe’s debt with some countries in the 400% range. China’s debt primarily went to fund new plant and equipment, and was funded internally. Europe’s debt went to welfare transfer payments and was externally funded to a great degree. China will be running trade surpluses with the new efficient plants while Europe gets ever deeper in debt.
http://www.usdebtclock.org/world-debt-clock.html
China has an external debt equal to 7% of its GDP and GB has a debt of 459% and it is stable but China is not? What universe are you living in?
So, China looks good compared to PIGS. Least convincing shill argument ever. China is a VERY POOR country and its debt burden oversized. The expansion of China was a credit expansion, riddled with corruption and theft, not an IQ driven innovation expansion.
No China looks good compared to all of Europe and the US. Even our admitted debt is higher than China’s debt. Add in unfunded entitlement programs and it is an order of magnitude higher. BTW really have to go but stayed because the best board discussion in quite awhile.
ABQShill:
When will your high-IQ Chinese saviors begin to invent things that are useful to mankind?
Why invent when you can easily steal others’ intellectual property?
You ignore two key facts:
1. China is still running a large trade surplus
2. Chinese consumers now have enough buying power to support 22 million cars per year in sales. (U.S. 16 million). Those cars are being bought primarily with cash and the industry is rapidly expanding with the vast majority of the vehicles being produced in China.
http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2014/07/29/113520-new-long-wheelbase-c-class-starts-production-beijing.html
Their future has been borrowed. More than any place else on earth.
See above debt chart of the world.
$25 Trillion. In just a few years! The poorest people on earth owing more than anyone. Can’t help that they are ruled by the most corrupt thugs on earth.
The only thing I agree with is all of the first sentence. China is run by corrupt thugs but many U.S. cities are run by worse. Its debt is less than many countries and it is owed mainly by corporations that actually used it to build something. Not stock buybacks or to pay dividends that they cannot afford. They have a productive asset to now use and the older least efficient polluting plants can and are being closed.
“owed mainly by corporations…”
Makes one wonder. Are state owned and run enterprises among those so-called corporations? Are the banks?
yes
China puts a huge tariff on foreign-made cars. Did you know that, PropagandaDan?
China grew by 7.4% the first half of the year that is hardly a crash and the number was verified by outside sources give or take a few tenths. As far as the future, I posted a link that housing prices were down .81% in June in China, big deal. If anything I was too pessimistic about China. The article quoting a Reuters polls expect Chinese housing to decline .5% for the year. Even if they are wrong by an order of magnitude that would only be 5%. It is going to be difficult for housing in China to decline 20 to 30% over two years. Someone in China, there is a Gotconcrete getting yelled out by his wife since he did not buy her a house when they were must cheaper. Will not be able to post much today but I will try to make it up tomorrow.
Well, I prefer to turn to this guy for analysis of China…Its worth reading that is unless you think your prognostication better than this Nobel Laureate from Stanford…Here is a sentence from the closing paragraph;
“What we should probably worry about is not whether it maintains the old rate of growth, but rather whether Chinese growth drops below the country’s sustainable rate of 7 to 7.5%”…
And here’s your linky;
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDEQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gsb.stanford.edu%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2Fmichael-spence-chinas-rising-middle&ei=FPbcU7mNO8ryoATVroH4Cw&usg=AFQjCNGEzLgL_LN4M79fBsuEZLN6dwuzhg&sig2=0aEzg6dP88JOy9jmvSz84w&bvm=bv.72197243,d.cGU
“Its worth reading that is unless you think your prognostication better than this Nobel Laureate from Stanford…”
There is no question what he thinks is better…
You act like he is saying something different from what I have been saying when he is saying exactly what I have been saying. I will take my Nobel now.
“Here’s your sign.”
Close enough?
You act like he is saying something different from what I have been saying when he is saying exactly what I have been saying??
What a Bunch of Bull$hit A-Dan…A big gigantic pile of it but then you are pretty good at throwing aroung Chit…
You are beating the drum Saying how all is so great in China and that they are going to hand us our a$$…This based on your 7.4% GDP as you posted above…
What the Michael Spence is saying, is that @ 7-7.5% GDP, China is on the edge…Completly contradictive to your Cheerleading of the 7.4 GDP….
I will take my Nobel now ??
Yes…You likely believe it to…
You do not even understand what he is saying. He is saying that China is capable of sustained 7% growth not that it is going to collapse if it has a quarter of year below that. Read the whole article, it is if I wrote it.
“What we should probably worry about”
Did you miss this part of the sentence A-Dan or just choose to ignore it ?? Your in denial dude…Even when your wrong you try and weasel your way…Last word A-Dan is what we should call you although HA probably has that locked up.. I do like Big V’s name for you; ABQShill…
“As far as the future, I posted a link that housing prices were down .81% in June in China, big deal.”
I’m looking forward to your future posts claiming that you predicted China’s housing crash.
That would be something you would do. When I make an actual prediction I make it clear. I clearly stated that china would grow around 7% this year and next and housing would at worse drop in the 20 to 30% range over two years. So what are your predictions or do you still want to be like Obama and lie through your teeth but give yourself some room to deny it?
“When I make an actual prediction…”
Anyone who has ever played a game of 50/50 knows that you can’t pick a prediction that is already taken. The China Leaders already predicted that their fake number would be 7%.
It is not a fake number but it is a number that they have many levers to achieve. Due to the government’s very low debt they can take on more if necessary to keep the growth up. This can literally go on for decades before they would be in the financial situation we are in now due to Obama almost doubling our debt and having nothing to show for it. we are a country of ninety year old water pipes. The stimulus was wasted on things like night basketball.
What happened to “7-7.5%”? PropagandaDan is downgrading his predictions.
There’s at least ten things that are completely made up.
China is the most broke country on the planet, except in their book.
Really? Do you believe that they could have more external debt and nobody would know about it?
Couldn’t the debt be internal? What about China’s shadow banking system? Isn’t its size unknown, by definition?
“…and nobody would know about it?”
Makes one wonder where all that debt is…. The Chinese wouldn’t be hiding it would they? Chinadaily wouldn’t print anything that wasn’t completely honest and transparent, would they?
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2014-02-06/china-the-death-star-of-emerging-markets
Couldn’t the debt be internal?
Of course, their debt is internal just like our debt after WWII was internal which made it very easy to pay off. As people sold their war bonds and spent the proceeds it fueled economic growth which generated taxes. Similarly, the businesses of China borrowed from the workers to build plants. The workers can now sell those bonds and buy the products made by the new factories which will allow the businesses to pay off their loans.
When the Chinese sell their American bonds, they can buy U.S. real estate and they do with a very small percentage of their wealth, or they can buy more Chinese products fueling their economy even more and allowing the Chinese corporations to pay off their debts.
“What about China’s shadow banking system?”
It’s quite likely to collapse in similar fashion to America’s subprime lending sector, which went up in smoke in the first half of 2007.
This crash is gathering steam.
China News
China Average Housing Prices Fall for Third Straight Month
Chinese Average New Home Prices Down 0.8% in July, Indicating Grim Prospects for Housing
By Esther Fung
Updated July 31, 2014 12:00 p.m. ET
SHANGHAI—China’s average housing prices fell in July for the third consecutive month, an accelerating decline that seemed to indicate prospects for the housing sector remain grim.
Under pressure to sell homes quickly amid a supply glut, property developers are cutting prices to lure customers. But many home buyers remain uncertain and are waiting for further reductions, data provider China Real Estate Index System said Thursday.
According to a survey of 100 Chinese cities, average new home prices fell 0.8% in July from June, a faster decline than the 0.5% fall in June and a 0.3% drop in May, according to China Real Estate Index System. May’s decline was the first month-to-month drop since June 2012.
Out of the 100 cities surveyed, 76 showed declines in home prices, up from 71 in June.
Still, prices remained higher than they were a year earlier. Average new-home prices rose 4.72% year on year in July, a smaller increase than the 6.48% gain in June, the survey said.
The latest data come as some local governments have started to ease property curbs to boost sales, while some banks are reportedly offering discounts on mortgages to first-time home buyers. Restrictions on home purchases in larger eastern Chinese cities, such as Hangzhou, Suzhou and Ningbo, have been eased in recent weeks.
“In the second half, there could be a short-term rebound in the property market as more cities announce loosening in home purchase restrictions,” said analysts at China Real Estate Index System. While the policy easing won’t be able to solve the supply glut, it has stabilized expectations to a certain extent, they added.
“In the short term, China can’t avoid a correction in housing prices,” said a report issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a government think tank, this week. The reported highlighted that the country’s housing market faces high inventories and vacancy rates, saying that prices may take about two to three years to adjust to the mismatch between demand and supply.
Home prices in China’s largest cities also declined. In Beijing, home prices slid 1.6% in July from June. Prices in Shanghai fell 0.5%.
In a separate survey of 288 Chinese cities also released Thursday, home prices fell by 0.13% in July from June, when they fell 0.06%, according to another data provider, China Real Estate Information Corp.
Many economists and analysts have said that the current downturn in China’s housing market poses the biggest risk to the economy. Weakness in housing could spill over to sectors such as construction, machinery and metals.
China’s government had been putting the brakes on the housing market since 2010. It clamped down on credit available to builders and investors to rein in speculative purchases that had fueled unsustainable growth in home prices.
…
China House Price Fall Accelerates in July: Survey
By Agence France-Presse on 06:31 pm Aug 01, 2014
Category Business, Property
Tags: China, China property bubble
A couple on a motorbike ride past residential construction projects, left, and residential buildings in Haikou, Hainan, China, on April 5, 2014. (Bloomberg Photo/Brent Lewin)
China’s decline in property prices accelerated in July, an independent survey showed, adding to concerns over the sector, a key component of the world’s second-largest economy.
The average price of a new home in 100 major cities was 10,835 yuan ($1,757) per square metre last month, down 0.81 percent from June, the China Index Academy (CIA) said.
It was the third consecutive monthly decline and an acceleration from the falls of 0.50 percent in June and 0.32 percent in May, which was the first in nearly two years, according to CIA data.
In July, prices dropped in 76 cities and rose in just 24, compared with 71 versus 29 in the previous month, it added.
All of China’s 10 biggest cities posted month-on-month falls, with the average price in Beijing dropping 1.6 percent to 32,736 yuan per square metre.
“Pressured by high inventory levels and elevated debt ratios, most property developers adopted a price cut strategy to boost sales,” said CIA, the research unit of real estate website operator Soufun.
“On the demand side, consumers still expected the market to continue to go down, leading to low buying desire.”
…
Would it be better now to go to cash, or to ignore the bears and pile into stocks?
Aug. 1, 2014, 4:00 p.m. EDT
Ignore the bears and you could bank a 22% stock market gain
Insight: Investor sentiment gauge keeps flashing a ‘buy’ signal
By Jonathan Burton, MarketWatch
The bad news bears are back in town, and that could be good news for U.S. stock market bulls.
With so many market experts predicting that the S&P 500 SPX -0.29% is set for a 20% slide, and the small-stock Russell 2000 will fare even worse, it’s easy to ignore one closely watched investor sentiment measure that keeps flashing a bright “buy” signal.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch’s proprietary “Sell Side Indicator” — the average recommended equity allocation of Wall Street strategists — puts Wall Street’s bullishness at a 13-month low. In fact, pessimism is even more extreme than at the market lows of March 2009. In true contrarian fashion, this is positive for U.S. stocks, BofA Merrill says — to the tune of a 22% total return over the next 12 months.
“Given the contrarian nature of this indicator, we remain encouraged by Wall Street’s ongoing lack of optimism and the fact that strategists are still recommending that investors significantly underweight equities, at 51% vs. a traditional long-term average benchmark weighting of 60-65%,” Savita Subramanian, the firm’s head of U.S. equity and quantitative strategy, wrote in a research report published Friday. The Sell Side Indicator would give a “sell” signal when strategists raise their recommended stock weighting to 66%.
…
Aug. 1, 2014, 2:42 p.m. EDT
Avoid the mistakes small investors make at market tops
By Thomas H. Kee Jr.
I have been in this market since the middle of the 1990s, and whether it was the debacle that followed the Internet bubble, the bullish market conditions between 2002 and 2007, or the credit crisis, over all of these cycles one thing has been abundantly clear: When the market makes a longer-term top and then begins to turn, smaller investors play a significant role, and usually make significant mistakes.
About two-and-a-half weeks ago, I issued an important alert to clients identifying what seemed to be arrogance on the part of smaller investors. They seemed to be so overly confident that it was off putting, and immediately, we shorted the Russell 2000. That trade paid off and is paying off, and the catalyst for that decision is part of this discussion.
When smaller investors jumped in with both feet, like they have in recent months, it should be a red flag to everyone else because almost always smaller investors buy at the top and sell at the bottom.
…
I can’t believe the DJIA is down on the year, given how many new stock records were reached so far this year. What’s up with that?
Aug. 1, 2014, 1:29 p.m. EDT
3 market warning signs predict 20% stock tumble
Insight: When these indicators flash together, it’s time to sell
By Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch
Over the past 45 years, the stock market has lost more than 20% each time three warning signs flashed simultaneously.
After a selloff this past week dragged the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA -0.42%) into negative territory for the year, it’s worth noting that all three are flashing today.
…
NEWSFLASH:
The sky is falling, the sky is falling!
According to some, it’s been falling every day since March 2009.
Why march? And what “sky”?
Cash is where it’s at.
Buy stocks when P/Es go below eight.
why buy now when you can by 50% cheaper soon?
We have a huge cash pile waiting to dive into stocks, but it’s taking so long to see that drop that we started to average in anyway. Nobody knows what’s going to happen and if it falls precipitously 10% then we will make a large buy and cheer if it falls another 10% and buy some more.
Cash is so hard to hold. It burns a hole in your pocket.
Inflation burns a hole in your cash, too.
And remember, the Fed targets an inflation rate of 2%, in order to slay the deflation dragon which would otherwise make the value of your cash increase over time. The value of your cash drops by half every 35 years if they succeed, or even less time than that if their inflation-creation efforts overshoot the mark (like in the 1970s).
The Fed does not do this alone. Their necessary partners are the loyal army of debt donkeys who have pitched in with their very lives to aid in the wealth transfer.
Inflation puts cash in your pocket.
Why do either “go all into cash” or “pile into stocks?” A dollar cost averager (one who is mostly into mutual funds in the stock side of his portfolio) does not do either. He invests the same amount on regular intervals and yawns.
A trader, on the other hand, should bail out of the stocks he bought above book value per share. Go entirely into cash on those.
As for those shares bought below book value per share they are probably a hold.
This stock bubble is ‘beyond 1929 and 2007,’ says John Hussman
July 27, 2014, 3:58 PM ET
John Hussman can generally be counted on for a bearish take on the stock market. But his latest weekly commentary letter is a doozy, with some particularly pointed remarks aimed at investors who continue to believe valuations are fair in stocks.
The economist runs Hussman Funds, and since the financial crisis he’s been a prominent critic of Federal Reserve policy. His investment choices are concentrated in “defensive” positions in stocks and U.S. Treasurys. And if you take a look at his writing, it’s no secret why. Here’s the money quote from the latest commentary:
Hussman couches his bubble call in references to the cyclically-adjusted price to equity ratio pioneered by economist Robert Shiller, as well as the ratio of nonfinancial market capitalization to GDP (below). MarketWatch’s Brett Arends has some more on his investing methodology.
…
“The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with the flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again. Take this great power away from the bankers and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and to control credit.”
Sir Josiah Stamp, Director and President of the Bank of England during the 1920’s
There it is.
And invite them into the U.S. Cabinet to make sure they do not impede the government’s sole ability to legally rob the citizenry at gunpoint.
Yet sheep still froth about Obama vs. Bush.
When This Reporter Asked People If They’d Like To House Illegal Immigrant Children, The Reactions Are Priceless
By Brandon Steward on August 1, 2014
Recently a reporter from CNS took to the streets of Alexandria to ask the residents a few questions.
Question 1. Would they sign a petition to bring Illegal alien children to Alexadndria to house them and if they went that far, Question 2. Which is if they’re ok with Illegal alien children coming to Alexandria, would they be fine with housing the children themselves.
Some people were pretty eager to sign the first petition, but when it came time to potentially house the children themselves no one agreed. They were coming up with every flimsy excuse they could.
It’s easy to give sympathetic sound bites, but when the rubber hits the road, people aren’t going to go along with a policy like this.
conservativepost.com/…/ - 126k -
If you like your MS-13, you can keep your MS-13.
#FundamentalTransformationOfAmerica
Some of my best (and most profitable) customers sign these types of of petitions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIvea_QWF4g
Give ‘em a dotted line - ANY dotted line - and they will sign it.
Why in the world would any policymaker want to follow the policy they inflict upon nameless and blameless others?
Illegals aren’t their problem, they are YOUR problem. Got it?
And don’t you ever forget it.
“The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control…. Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.”
Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviets
Kind of like Bush being the set up man and Obama being the closer.
It also explains the love of Putin and China one often sees from some unlikely political sources.
Present day Russia is not the Soviet Union. In 1976, I firmly agreed with that conclusion. The big banks helped create the Soviet Union. Putin wants to recreate former Russia not the Soviet Union. He is not promoting communism, in fact he is promoting institutions such as the Russian orthodox church. When the facts change, I change. China still is far too communist for my liking at the government level but the people have embraced the free enterprise system and the government is catching up. The people have also embraced religion but her the old guard is actively fighting back since organized religion is a threat to their status.
Big banks created the Soviet Union??
So you’re against statists, but you like Putin? How does that work?
Big banks created the Soviet Union??
http://www.wildboar.net/multilingual/easterneuropean/russian/literature/articles/whofinanced/whofinancedleninandtrotsky.html
So you’re against statists, but you like Putin?
Yes, in the same way the British and Americans liked Stalin during WWII. He is an ally in the war against the globalists who are destroying my country.
But Putin is nothing like Stalin or even Lenin. They were truly evil. He is like a czar. Tough and able to use very undemocratic methods to get what he wants. I would not want a czar running this country but at least a czar acts in the national interest.
Even Obama is far more evil than Putin. He knew his policies would encourage children to take the dangerous journey to the U.S. but for political reasons he was willing to use the dead bodies of children for his goals. That demonstrates that he is a truly evil man.
Yeah, and I see a whole truckload of political resistance against “his” policies on immigration. That explains why the policies were voted into law. Remember that Repbulicans LOVE illegal immigration.
So you don’t like statists (aka progressives), yet you endlessly shill for China.
How does that work?
but for political reasons he was willing to use the dead bodies of children for his goals.
Is there any evidence of this?
The last segment on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal today that just finished was a “real journalist” taking viewer calls on the topic that conspiracies are bad for this country and bad for democracy. Link to follow if they post it soon.
I stopped believing anything out of the MSM on the day we learned that NBC rigged a bunch of pickup trucks to explode and then reported it as due to the fault of faulty vehicles.
That was 1989. I was a young pup back then.
Which conspiracies come to mind, goon?
Those you support or those you consider nonsense?
Scroll down to Recent Journal Segments:
http://series.c-span.org/Journal/
One might refer to them today as NeoCon-Progressive Party Members.
I wonder if Congressman McDonald might do so today if he hadn’t been murdered so many years ago.
What is supercapitalism?
I looked up that guy on Wikipedia. At lot of it was you might expect, just more extreme. This paragraph is a interesting sample:
His staunch conservative views on social issues attracted controversy. For instance, McDonald sponsored amendments to stop government aid to homosexuals.[15][16] McDonald also co-sponsored a bill “expressing the sense of the Congress that homosexual acts and the class of individuals who advocate such conduct shall never receive special consideration or a protected status under law”.[17] He advocated the use of the non-approved drug laetrile to treat patients in advanced stages of cancer[18] despite medical opinion that the promotion of laetrile to treat cancer was a canonical example of quackery.[19][20][21] McDonald also opposed the establishment of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day,[3][22] saying the FBI had evidence that King “was associated with and being manipulated by communists and secret communist agents”.[23] It was reported that McDonald had “about 200″ guns stockpiled in his official district residence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_McDonald
America’s Hidden Credit Card Bill by Laurence Kotlikoff, NY Times: The Government Should Report Its ‘Fiscal Gap,’ Not Just Official Debts
“Even worse, the budget office raised what’s called the alternative fiscal scenario, the most realistic projection of fiscal outcomes absent major policy changes. Based on these estimates, I calculate that the “fiscal gap” — a yardstick of total government indebtedness that I’ve worked on with the economists Alan J. Auerbach and Jagadeesh Gokhale — was $210 trillion last year, up from $205 trillion the previous year. Thus $5 trillion was the true deficit.”
The fiscal gap — the difference between our government’s projected financial obligations and the present value of all projected future tax and other receipts — is, effectively, our nation’s credit card bill. Eliminating it, would require an immediate, permanent 59 percent increase in federal tax revenue. An immediate, permanent 38 percent cut in federal spending would also suffice. The longer we wait, the worse the pain. If, for example, we do nothing for 20 years, the requisite federal tax increase would be 70 percent, or the requisite spending cut, 43 percent.
Even if we do nothing — which, given Washington, is the likeliest outcome these days — we should at least be transparent about our insolvency. A bill introduced last year by the Democratic senators Tim Kaine of Virginia and Chris Coons of Delaware and the Republican senators Rob Portman of Ohio and John Thune of South Dakota would require the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Management and Budget to conduct such “generational accounting.”
Former government officials from both parties, and more than 1,200 economists, including 17 Nobel laureates, have endorsed the legislation, known as the Inform Act. It would keep our government honest, and sound an alarm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/01/opinion/laurence-kotlikoff-on-fiscal-gap-accounting.html?_r=0
There you have it, an honest estimate of how much we’ve spent and an explanation on how we can start paying it off. Want to bet we continue to kick the can down the road for a few more years?
“Former government officials from both parties, and more than 1,200 economists, including 17 Nobel laureates, have endorsed the legislation, known as the Inform Act.”
“It would keep our government honest, and sound an alarm.”
Bahahahahahahahahahahaha
Now they want to legislate honesty in our government?
Bahahahahahahahahaha … and this legislation is supposed to do what? “sound an alarm”?
Bahahahahahahahaha … the DEBT CLOCK has been sounding an alarm FOR YEARS and that alarm MEANT NOTHING!
And NOTHING is what this new alarm is going to mean.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Mr Banker, I don’t disagree, I just don’t think it’s funny.
“… I just don’t think it’s funny.”
Perhaps you are positioned on the wrong end of financial transactions?
I’m positioned on the correct end and because of this every morning I get to enjoy a laugh while I am on my way to the bank.
I agree, Mr. Banker. The whole thing is laughable.
BTW, Mr. Banker, do you remember a ordinary, unimportant member of the U.S. citizenry - some young, low-brow, haus-frau type woman - who did her own calculations of federal fiscal coiffeurs perhaps 20-25 years ago? One year, she made some noise which resulted in her findings being publicized on major new outlets? (Perhaps during the Perot years?)
What happened to this woman? Did you have her taken out?
I think I remember her. I believe she was the woman that I got my buddies in the MSM to trash.
They trashed her - not what she said (what she said they simply ignored) - but trashed her personally.
This is the way irritating people are handled, which is to trash them.
Think shoot the messenger; Works every time.
People are smart.
I kinda remember that happening as well, but it was a long time ago.
I thought maybe you’d remember since, as an individual, you’re focused on this kind of thing.
There ought to be a website for another group of heroes in this country: ordinary citizens who made noble attempts to keep the U.S. banking system and the U.S. government fiscally honest.
What was this young woman’s name?
I have no idea! I wish I knew. I’m thinking 1990-1991 as the time frame.
She did most - if not all - the work herself.
Yes and China does not have unfunded entitlement programs but the MSM does not want to discuss that difference.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/chinadata/2014-08/02/content_18235419.htm
“Home prices dropped for the third consecutive month in July even as many cities eased limits on purchases and financing conditions.”
Hmmmm … ease up on purchase and financing conditions and prices still drop.
There has got to be a message in there somewhere.
Fang nu nation. Biggest army of debt donkeys in the world. Too bad.
Too bad.
Too bad for us, that they are moving into the areas we use to dominate like high tech and oil equipment and undercutting our manufacturers. While we run massive trade deficits they run massive trade surpluses.
their trade surplus is puny, and the cost to get it high in terms of debt accumulation, pollution and resource depletion. You are shameless in your sales pitch for the Fang nu.
The Chinese have been ramping up at the exact wrong time in Planet Earth’s history.
Or maybe I should say the exact right time to get whacked by multiple exponential function hockey sticks.
Unfortunately, it’s a whoopin that we exported to them. I wonder if they’ll be pissed.
“The powers of financial capitalism had another far reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements, arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences. The apex of the system was the Bank for International Settlements in Basle, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the worlds’ central banks which were themselves private corporations. The growth of financial capitalism made possible a centralization of world economic control and use of this power for the direct benefit of financiers and the indirect injury of all other economic groups.”
Tragedy and Hope: A History of The World in Our Time (Macmillan Company, 1966,) Professor Carroll Quigley of Georgetown University, highly esteemed by his former student, William Jefferson Blythe Clinton.
Waiting for the Mother of all False Flags
“Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order [referring to the 1991 LA Riot]. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond [i.e., an "extraterrestrial" invasion], whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government.”
Dr. Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991
Can one be created by importing the Ebola virus?
Surely, the U.S. Government will save us! Look, there’s one of them now! {cueing the theme from “Underdog” - Speed of Lighting, Roar of Thunder!}
From the point of view that “The efficient parasite does not kill the host” the Ebola virus is not at all efficient.
If it is going to kill the host then it needs to at least slow down a bit in doing so else the host may die before it can infect somebody else.
Then why import it?
Because people feel sorry for the doctors that went and got themselves infected by attempting to help people who think that doctors are witches.
¨Can one be created by importing the Ebola virus?¨
I think Kissinger’s point was that the fear of the Ebola virus and its carriers would be far more effective in directing popular opinion. Fear of the other/outsider group is the great manipulator. ¨The one thing every man fears is the unknown.¨
Yes, Oddfellow. I agree.
Election Day is coming. A nationwide Ebola scare might be just the ticket. (It also doesn’t hurt in districting the public from irritant issues such as open borders, ObamaCare fiascos and the NSA).
¨A nationwide Ebola scare might be just the ticket¨
Yes, that seems to be the plan. Scare ‘em and steer ‘em in the preferred direction. Here comes the virus! Carried by Them! Fear, fear, fear.
Gotta love auto-correct spelling.
“Districting”? Really? How about “distracting”?
WHAT ARE US BIOWAR RESEARCHERS DOING IN THE EBOLA ZONE?
by JON RAPPOPORT | AUGUST 2, 2014
This is a call for an immediate, thorough, and independent investigation of Tulane University researchers (see here and here) and their Fort Detrick associates in the US biowarfare research community, who have been operating in West Africa during the past several years.
What exactly have they been doing?
Exactly what diagnostic tests have they been performing on citizens of Sierra Leone?
Why do we have reports that the government of Sierra Leone has recently told Tulane researchers to stop this testing?
Have Tulane researchers and their associates attempted any experimental treatments (e.g., injecting monoclonal antibodies) using citizens of the region? If so, what adverse events have occurred?
The research program, occurring in Sierra Leone, the Republic of Guinea, and Liberia—said to be the epicenter of the 2014 Ebola outbreak—has the announced purpose, among others, of detecting the future use of fever-viruses as bioweapons.
Is this purely defensive research? Or as we have seen in the past, is this research being covertly used to develop offensive bioweapons?
For the last several years, researchers from Tulane University have been active in the African areas where Ebola is said to have broken out in 2014.
These researchers are working with other institutions, one of which is USAMRIID, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, a well-known center for biowar research, located at Fort Detrick, Maryland.
In Sierra Leone, the Tulane group has been researching new diagnostic tests for hemorrhagic fevers.
Note: Lassa Fever, Ebola, and other labels are applied to a spectrum of illness that result in hemorrhaging.
Tulane researchers have also been investigating the use of monoclonal antibodies as a treatment for these fevers—but not on-site in Africa, according to Tulane press releases.
Here are excerpts from supporting documents.
Tulane University, Oct. 12, 2012, “Dean’s Update: Update on Lassa Fever Research” (.pdfhere):
“In 2009, researchers received a five-year $7,073,538 grant from the National Institute of Health to fund the continued development of detection kits for Lassa viral hemorrhagic fever.
“Since that time, much has been done to study the disease. Dr. Robert Garry, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and Dr. James Robinson, Professor of Pediatrics, have been involved in the research of Lassa fever. Together the two have recently been able to create what are called human monoclonal antibodies. After isolating the B-cells from patients that have survived the disease, they have utilized molecular cloning methods to isolate the antibodies and reproduce them in the laboratory. These antibodies have been tested on guinea pigs at The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and shown to help prevent them from dying of Lassa fever…
“Most recently, a new Lassa fever ward is being constructed in Sierra Leone at the Kenema Government Hospital. When finished, it will be better equipped to assist patients affected by the disease and will hopefully help to end the spread of it.” [The Kenema Hospital is one of the centers of the Ebola outbreak.]
Here is another release from Tulane University, this one dated Oct. 18, 2007. “New Test Moves Forward to Detect Bioterrorism Threats.”
“The initial round of clinical testing has been completed for the first diagnostic test kits that will aid in bioterrorism defense against a deadly viral disease. Tulane University researchers are collaborating in the project.
“Robert Garry, professor of microbiology and immunology at Tulane University, is principal investigator in a federally funded study to develop new tests for viral hemorrhagic fevers.
“Corgenix Medical Corp., a worldwide developer and marketer of diagnostic test kits, announced that the first test kits for detection of hemorrhagic fever have competed initial clinical testing in West Africa.
“The kits, developed under a $3.8 million grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health, involve work by Corgenix in collaboration with Tulane University, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, BioFactura Inc. and Autoimmune Technologies.
“Clinical reports from the studies in Sierra Leone continue to show amazing results,” says Robert Garry, professor of microbiology and immunology at the Tulane University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the grant.
“We believe this remarkable collaboration will result in detection products that will truly have a meaningful impact on the healthcare in West Africa, but will also fill a badly needed gap in the bioterrorism defense.
“…The clinical studies are being conducted at the Mano River Union Lassa Fever Network in Sierra Leone. Tulane, under contract with the World Health Organization, implements the program in the Mano River Union countries (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea) to develop national and regional prevention and control strategies for Lassa fever and other important regional diseases.
“Clinical testing on the new recombinant technology demonstrates that our collaboration is working,” says Douglass Simpson, president of Corgenix. “We have combined the skills of different parties, resulting in development of some remarkable test kits in a surprisingly short period of time. As a group we intend to expand this program to address other important infectious agents with both clinical health issues and threat of bioterrorism such as ebola.”
The third document is found on the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation Facebook page (no login required), dated July 23 at 1:35pm. It lays out emergency measures to be taken. We find this curious statement: “Tulane University to stop Ebola testing during the current Ebola outbreak.”
Why? Are the tests issuing false results? Are they frightening the population? Have Tulane researchers done something to endanger public health?
In addition to an investigation of these matters, another probe needs to be launched into all vaccine campaigns in the Ebola Zone. For example. HPV vaccine programs have been ongoing. Vials of vaccine must be tested to discover ALL ingredients. Additionally, it’s well known that giving vaccines to people whose immune systems are already severely compromised is dangerous and deadly.
Thanks to birdflu666.wordpress.com for discovering hidden elements of the Ebola story.
Originally appeared at nomorefakenews.com
“Thanks to birdflu666″
Cruise report from NY.
Least traffic ever. Pass two or three cruisers a day only and more than half of them are from Canada. Gasoline sales along the waterways have fallen off a cliff.
I commented to one marina operator in Baldwinsville that the neighboring marina was increasingly looking like a dump. “All our marinas are turning into dumps. There’s no money to invest in fixing things up.”
Last year there was a lot of conversion of old commercial into upscale rentals. That is over. Zero construction in 400 miles of shore passing.
I’m just guessing about this, but from what I’ve seen beer sales are probably not hurting.
Now hitting the marinas: trickle-up poverty.
Maybe trickle up “not putting 100 gal of gas on the credit card because we already put the groceries on it.”
One makes others dependent on government by setting public policy that makes staples expensive.
Growing crops isn’t expensive, transportation is = government policy
Housing should not be expensive now, but it is = government policy
Medical care should not expensive, but it is = government policy
If markets were allowed to clear, all three of the above would drop in cost after some years of fiscal pain upfront. But no one is in Washington is interested in generating wealth. They are only interested in moving it (taking their cut as they move it) and preserving it.
Markets will not be allowed to clear until government is reduced in size.
Denver Post - Denver is among least-affordable home markets for Millennial buyers
“Metro Denver is one of the 15 least affordable areas in the country for Millennials to buy homes, according to a report by RealtyTrac.
While most of metro areas were clustered along the east and west coasts, RealtyTrac singled Denver out in the report.
“There were some exceptions to the move to the coasts, most notably Denver County, which made the Top15 least affordable markets to buy list,” the report said.
In Denver — and many of the other least affordable counties to buy or rent — the number of Millennials has increased dramatically over the past six years, despite the worsening affordability, RealtyTrac said.
The Millennial population in the city and county of Denver increased 58 percent between 2007 and 2013, the survey noted. Millennials (those born from 1977 to 1992) accounted for 30.52 percent of the metro Denver population in 2013.
Denver’s median household income is estimated at $51,315.
In April, the median home price in the Denver area was $270,000 and the percentage of income spent on house payments was 32.43 percent.
The report said that poor affordability combined with lukewarm job prospects could slow Millennial growth in more of these “traditional Millennial meccas” over the next six years.
Meanwhile, said the report, the average fair market rent for a three-bedroom property in the 15 least affordable markets to rent was $1,723. The Denver metro area, however, did not make the Top 15 least affordable areas to rent.
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_26260787/denver-is-among-least-affordable-home-markets-millennial
“We tortured some folks.”
And trashed the Constitution, though Obama, Holder, et al. will never acknowledge as much.
Wait, so now Obama was the one who tortured ppl?
Good forbid we see a locust-like infestation of Californians decamping from the state they’ve turned into Comrade Pelosi’s libtard dystopia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/07/31/californias-catastrophic-drought-keeps-getting-worse/
It’s the land of fruits, nuts, freaks, child molesters and poverty.
California Most Impoverish State In The US
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_poverty_rate
child molesters?
Colorado = The Next California.
You are unfortunately probably correct.
I’m sorry to say it, too.
It’s not what I would have hoped for you guys out there.
Why outsiders can’t leave well enough alone, I don’t know. Moving somewhere else is one thing. Moving somewhere else and destroying the local economics of your new locale is something else altogether.
It’s a shame that so many of those with deep pockets possess such little class.
You’re just mad because you don’t have any money.
See what I mean?
“Colorado = The Next California.”
+1 Terrible drought in both states too.
Fortunately, Colorado is in much better shape than it was.
Check out the U.S. Drought Monitor for some decent maps.
“Fortunately, Colorado is in much better shape than it was.”
+1 Okay, you’re right. I was under the impression that the Ogallala Aquifer was more centralized through the state. It’s being pumped dry with modern technology.
Unsurprisingly, the Fed’s policies that benefit the .1% at the expense of everyone else have been a boon to yacht sellers.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6227b796-196a-11e4-9745-00144feabdc0.html#axzz39GYWHdbL
Jackson Hole - God’s country, renter’s hell
“You’ve gotta pay to live in God’s country” — director of Jackson Hole’s homeless shelter
—-
Jackson Hole, Wyoming – Living out of your car has its challenges, particularly when you get food poisoning in the dead of winter and have to hightail it to the nearest bathroom.
“Another night I woke up and it was so cold that I thought it was snowing inside my car, but it was just my breath crystallizing and freezing on me,” said Jared Rogers, a 15-year resident with a good job who says his life looks pretty good, except for that part about being homeless since November.
Rogers is perhaps unique in his ability to withstand negative Teton temperatures with nothing but a heated blanket, but he is hardly alone in his struggle to find housing as a working-class professional in Teton County. One of the realities of living the Jackson Hole dream is the high cost of securing a heated place to lay one’s head. Buying a home is prohibitively expensive for most of the non-trustafarian working class. Long-term renting, and all the trials and tribulations that come with it, is the de facto option of choice for most.
Christine Walker, executive director of Teton County Housing Authority, said the workforce housing puzzle has perplexed Teton County for more than 20 years.
“When I moved here in 1989 it was pretty tight. I camped out and slept in garages,” Walker said. “Housing the workforce is a constant challenge and this period of time is right up there with one of the most difficult there’s been.”
Melanie Rees, a housing consultant specializing in the Mountain West, said that while the magnitude of the problem ebbs and flows, the overall trend is that the housing shortage is a consistently worsening problem for lifestyle communities like Jackson Hole.
Jackson Town Councilor Jim Stanford said the supply of affordable workforce rentals is low this season, in part, due to an increase in illegal short-term rentals.
Whereas homeowners once rented their places to long-term renters, Stanford said the internet has enabled average homeowners to turn their apartments or condos into a makeshift hotel, generating far more profit from night-to-night rentals. He said that doesn’t jive with the goals the community has set for itself.
“We’ve made a choice as a community that we don’t want to export our
房奴workforce,” Stanford said. I really don’t think that is the community choice, just something he has to say.The Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan lays out a goal of housing 65 percent of the workforce locally. The statistics from the 2014 Comprehensive Plan Annual Indicator Report point to a discrepancy between our community goals and reality.
“Workforce housing opportunities are not being provided at the same pace as jobs, ” the report states. D’oh!
Several studies are underway to give local officials more information about the housing picture in Jackson Hole….even without the numbers tallied, it’s easy to see that the market is lopsided when you look at the newspaper classifieds.
“There are 332 full time jobs available and only three available rental units,” Shawn Hill, a planning consultant, said.
“I don’t like to put too much emphasis on my title, but I feel like I’m doing alright financially and professionally. I just don’t have a place to live,” said Jared Rogers, an executive chef at a popular local restaurant.
Last fall, when he was ousted from his basement room rental, Rogers and his dog, Ninja, searched for rentals. He knows that in this market he is being picky by setting his budget between $700 and $1,000 a month for a reasonably quiet place, preferably by himself.
“I’m 36 and I just don’t want to live with five other roommates at this point,” he said. “Plus, 90 percent of the places I looked at did not allow pets. For me it just seemed like a better option to live out of my car.”
He bought a topper, and built a “living” area complete with storage compartments and just enough space for him and his dog to sleep.
“Dating isn’t really an option,” he said, showing how he sleeps diagonally across the truck bed so that his feet fit. Dating, however, is a secondary concern compared to finding a warm place to change clothes and a way to fill his free time.
“I work a lot, so when I didn’t know what to do with myself, I just went to work or went to the gym,” Rogers said. “But sometimes I just wanted to relax.”
Living out of a truck bed, especially through the winter, requires constant planning.
“I had to move around a lot to various spots and find power to plug in my space heater,” Rogers said. “I planned my days so I could shower at my gym and brush my teeth before bed.”
Summer, with its more moderate temperatures, should be easier to manage, but the thought of next winter weighs heavy on his mind.
“I don’t know if I will do another winter like that,” Rogers said. “After 15 years, it might be the reason I move from Jackson.” Slow learner?
Alarm bells ringing: behind the smoke and mirrors of the “fixed” Eurozone banking system.
https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140802115912-1088431-alarm-bells-ringing-behind-the-smoke-and-mirrors-of-the-european-banking-system
Cannot be, Europe is contained ask Whac/stucco/bear.
Compared to the crash that China is facing, the Eurozone is in relatively good shape.
Thanks for agreeing with me.
Tampa, FL Housing Prices Turn Negative; Down 6% YoY As Inventory Balloons 38%
http://www.movoto.com/tampa-fl/market-trends/
Eastern Washington’s Columbia Basin has been hot lately, 95 to 105, for past six weeks. Top it off with regional fire(s) smoke and dusty wind, and it’s hotter than a three-pecker goat.
The soil around my place is near clay, better known a “hard-pan” caliche, which has no drainage. Our lawn resembles thatch growing on top of concrete, so forget about deep watering. The sprinklers are set for five minutes per zone every two hours starting at 0600 and ending at 1400 hours, seven days a week. Otherwise it will turn brown and die within a day or two. The plants are on a separate watering system.
Just received my July utility bill for water, sewer and garbage: $131.28
Less than 5 minutes ago a realtor just came to my apartment door (no joke) and asked if I am interested in owning a home…”low interest rates and low down payments” - and all that bull.
I don’t ever recall any realtor at my apartment doorstep. And this is in Orange county in my nabe which is full of $500,000+ stucco boxes.
Is this random event a sign of trouble in OC RE?
And I firmly said no. Not interested. And that I have done much better in the stock market than real estate, and that stocks in the long run do far better than real estate!!!!!! I wanted to add that my cost of a roof over my head is cheap compared to PITI-uM all around here. But he was on a spiel.
Then he spent most of the time on the doorstep promoting some wacky new age philosophy called Urantia.
I allowed him to advertise the wacko new age stuff only because I am always happy to tell anyone who asks that I don’t want to buy a house, particularly here, even if it’s a very nice neighborhood in the hills around me….Especially happy to tell a realtor!!! And explain why
Forgot to mention: The funniest thing about the discussion was not the wacko new age stuff. It was that the realtor complemented me when I said I’ve bailed out of real estate in the 1990s. He referred to the bad times RE went through in the bubble burst.
Lying realtors and underwater sellers…. two hopeless fraudsters that fraud great together.
I hope you tossed a pot of hot coffee in his face and threw him off the balcony.
F*ing realtors…
I had enough fun with my brief and emphatic explanation why I wanted no RE. Good grief and he doubles as a cultist. That is so Southern California: Let’s see. Heaven’s gate, Manson Family, etc.
So, tell us about Urantia. What are the guiding principles? Can anyone join?
See InchByInch - it’s a cult. I’m too individualistic to be in a cult - very averse to groups, government, crusades, or religion…
But this is interesting. What did the cult member have to say about it? I want on-the-ground gossip.
well he said a bunch of gobble de gook that yours truly, a guy who thinks in terms of 0 and non zero. So I was half listening.
But he first started off right away asking me in a manner if I’m from a scientific background or spiritual background. I assumed he had canned responses geared to whichever I answered. And of course I said scientific.
He did mention things like buying/selling stocks, gut feeling, well that is the system they are talking about that is working, the unseen.
To me, I mentally roll my eyes.
Had I been invited to Ray Rice’s wedding I would have brought a gift for the bride.
Amazon.com : Everlast MMA Headgear : Boxing And Martial Arts …
http://www.amazon.com/Everlast-Advanced-Headgear-7420XL-MMA/dp/B000GK2XUY - 297k - Cached - Similar pages
When you’re sparring you need to be focused on your opponent, not worrying about how your headgear is holding up
———————————————————————————-
Ray Rice apologizes for domestic abuse incident with then-fiancee
Associated Press
Updated 11:17 pm, Thursday, July 31, 2014
Owings Mills, Md. — Ray Rice stepped to the microphone, took a deep breath and spoke for 17 minutes about what he called “the biggest mistake of his life.”
His arrest for domestic violence against his then-fiancee last February is something Rice figures will haunt him long after his NFL career has ended.
The Baltimore Ravens running back was arrested on assault charges following a Feb. 15 altercation in New Jersey in which he allegedly struck Janay Palmer. Rice has been accepted into a diversion program, which upon completion could lead to the charges being dropped.
“My actions that night were totally inexcusable,” said Rice, who during Ravens training camp Thursday spoke publicly for the first time since receiving a two-game suspension from the NFL.
“My daughter is 2 years old now. One day she’s going to know the power of Google. Me having to explain that to her, what happened that night, that’s something I have to live with the rest of my life.”
Rice was referring to a grainy video in which he is shown dragging Palmer, now his wife, from an elevator at an Atlantic City casino. He did not address the incident at an impromptu news conference in May, and although he refused to divulge details on Thursday, he dismissed the notion that he was provoked.
“I don’t want to keep reliving the incident. I’m trying to move forward,” he said. “What happened that night was a huge mistake, and that’s what I’ll keep it at. I don’t condone any of my behavior. I take full responsibility for my actions. My wife can do no wrong.”
“It was the first time it ever happened,” he said. “I’ve never had a problem with domestic abuse. This was a one-time incident.”
——————————————————————————–
Ray Rice — Dragging Unconscious Fiancee … After Alleged Mutual Attack
Read more: http://www.tmz.com/videos/0_c5nk3w3n/#ixzz39HE9ouYg
LOLZ
http://www.picpaste.com/going-viral-QyTDyU6m.jpg
Selfish Hoarder
Urantia is a cult, imho. My Religion is “Kindness”, and Epicurus is my Greek Philosophy “Professor”.
who cares
A cult? I did not even bother. I am so individualistic that I’m cult proof. Certainly I have always felt as if I’m a stranger in a strange land. Where two camps of statists are the only likely choices for any fellowship: socialists on the one hand and religionists-pro war on the other hand.
The people who reject either side are as rare as a saguaro cactus in Fairbanks, Alaska.
So Ca is balmy hot today. June gloom on August 2nd? Reminds me of our Disney World (Orlando, Florida) vacation. Although FL is a true balmy hell. I could not breathe, so we had to take an emergency flight home, 3 days early.
While i lived in Florida, I recall there were 3 months of comfort and nine months of high humidity and dripping. But I stayed mostly indoors. My third floor apartment was like a palace and had everything I needed. And I kept the A/C on low. So cool I had to wear a sweatshirt even in July.
Here today in Southern California it sure is gloomy and there is a 40% chance of thunderstorms.
Did you dump that shack yet?
C L O W N
Enraged already?
It just rained and it’s 80 degrees outside. I went to Taco Bell and discovered this new “Freeze” thing. It’s a slushie made out of soda. I got the Dr. Pepper one. Friggin awesome. I’m bummed that my local store doesn’t sell the chilito, but I’m really stoked over my Dr. Pepper Freeze.
Thanks, Obama
I weep for my loss of carelessly eating like that. DQ (Dairy Queen) has some really decadent “blizzard” desserts and they must be the unhealthiest.
But I’m buff.