The Housing Bubble

This is for ADan.
It’s not easy to follow but I hope the point gets across.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBSBngjhst8#t=14

And this;

“China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. (688) led property stocks lower in Hong Kong after authorities in the southern city of Shenzhen blocked unit sales by the company and other developers. ”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-16/china-overseas-land-plunges-after-shenzhen-blocks-sale-of-units.html

The rubber glove rebellion

A group of middle-aged cleaners have become heroes to Greeks hit hard by austerity for refusing to go quietly when their jobs were cut. They have clashed with police and camped for months in central Athens - their defiance springing from decades of low-paid work and hard lives as mothers, wives, widows or divorcees.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30811426

Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Hungary were the EU member-states where poverty and social exclusion increased the most during the economic crisis, according to the European Commission’s Annual Review on employment and social developments released on Thursday.

The review noted that the poverty and social exclusion percentages in those countries were already high before the crisis.

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/01/15/greece-among-5-member-states-with-highest-poverty-hikes-during-crisis/

The decision to end the minimum exchange rate between the Swiss franc and the euro means luxury timepiece makers in the Alpine country face one of their most challenging years. Shares of Richemont, the parent company of watch brands including Vacheron Constantin and IWC, declined 16 percent yesterday in Zurich, the most in more than two decades, as the franc surged more than 15 percent against the euro.

“It’s an absolute disaster,” said Jon Cox, an analyst at Kepler Cheuvreux in Zurich. “Swiss watchmakers have a substantial cost base. It will have a negative impact on margin and translated earnings. Watchmakers either need to increase prices or cut costs.”

For an industry that derives its appeal from the “Swiss-Made” label, local production is creating a headache as costs to put together timepieces increase. Swatch Group AG Chief Executive Officer Nick Hayek said the SNB has set off a “tsunami”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2015-01-15/swiss-franc-surge-spoils-luxury-watch-party-as-local-costs-mount.html

I suggest they rename a village in China Switzerland and move there.

real journalists

swiss francs

“You’ll get nothing and like it.” Judge Elihu Smails, Caddyshack, 1980.

Yes - We need more gun control. And more understanding of the thugs.

May God help you if you live or own a house/business in a long term ruled democrat city with legions of the FSA.

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‘Criminals Have Been Empowered’: St. Louis Rocked by Seven Fatal Shootings in 24 Hours
The Blaze | 1/16/2015

Scott Knopfel, 50, was shot in the head at the Drury hotel near Interstate 44 just before 3 a.m. after he struggled with his assailant while opening a cash drawer. Surveillance video shows the suspect, whom the manager mistook for a patron, entering the hotel and leaving less than 30 seconds later. He can be seen pulling out a handgun and vaulting a counter, then leaving the hotel in the same manner.

Seven homicides within 24 hours is an unusually high number for St. Louis, which has a population of about 320,000 people and recorded 159 homicides in 2014. Dotson and Slay linked the overnight violence to crime increases in the area documented since the fatal Ferguson police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown more than five months ago in north St. Louis County.

“To see this much violence going on in our city within such a short period of time, it is absolutely outrageous,” Slay said. “It’s out of hand. It disgusts me.”

Dotson also called for more gun control, telling reporters that it’s “too easy to get a gun and state law makes it too difficult to prosecute gun crimes.

“Criminals have been empowered,” he added. “Officers have been distracted.”

Yes - that could be a cool place to live…

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Deep in UFO country, a prepper’s dream home for sale: Roswell nuclear missile silo
Yahoo Homes | 1/15/15 | Jennifer Karmon

Deep in the heart of flying-saucer land, a real estate agent is peddling conspiracy theorists’ dream home. This Atlas-F nuclear missile silo — decommissioned, of course — is one of a dozen around Roswell, New Mexico, a remote town best known as the site of a supposed flying-saucer crash in 1947.

Century 21 agent Jim Moore, who’s marketing the 25-acre property, recently gave the New York Times a silo tour. He told the paper that the property is already under contract, for close to its $295,000 asking price.

“I am really good at killing people.”

–obama, Nobel Peace Prize President of the FSA

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Pentagon to deploy 400 troops to train Syrian rebels
Reuters | 1/16/15 | Phil Stewart

The U.S. military is planning to deploy more than 400 troops to help train Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State, along with hundreds of U.S. support personnel, a Pentagon spokesman told Reuters on Thursday.

What does it mean when so many bonds go negative?

Where is the inflation all the central bankers and governments wanted?

Better to put your money under the mattress? I guess a flight to quality. Losing 1% of your money (per year) is better than losing 90%…

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All Swiss government bond yields out to nine years go negative
Reuters | 1/15/2015 | Jamie McGeever

All Swiss government bill rates and bond yields out to nine- year maturities traded below zero on Thursday, after the Swiss National Bank stunned markets by scrapping its exchange rate cap on the franc and lowered interest rates to -0.75 percent.

This was unprecedented in modern times, and analysts said it was only a matter of time before the benchmark 10-year yield dropped below zero too.

—————

Warning: Bond rates are going negative
CNN Money | 15 January 2015 | Matt Egan

Investors are so nervous that they are basically willing to lose money when they buy some government bonds. It’s part of the latest fad in finance that’s all the rage: “going negative.” The yields on government bonds in Europe and Japan have dipped into the uncharted waters of negative territory. That means buyers of those bonds are essentially taking a loss just to hold onto those assets. They think their money is better off losing a few cents than putting it elsewhere. “It’s basically a fee for fear,” said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx. “Fear of deflation, fear of volatility in other capital markets and general fear of the known.”

Below zero: Just look at Switzerland, where the yield on bonds fell further into negative territory this week after the country’s central bank dropped a bombshell on investors by scrapping a currency cap. In addition to allowing the Swiss franc to trade freely against the euro, the Swiss National Bank lowered a key interest rate further into negative territory, from -0.25% to -0.75%. That’s like a bank charging customers to park their money there instead of paying them interest. Switzerland isn’t alone in going negative. The yield on short-term government bonds of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands are all sub-zero. Even short duration U.S. bond rates are barely above zero.

But there is REAL racism and a war on women in America.

Why, just the other day a FSA woman had to pay for her birth control. And some white racist cop actually looked at a thug sideways…that could have been obama’s son.

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“It’s As If The World Has Forgotten Us”
CBSNews | January 15, 2015 | DEBORA PATTA

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — #BringBackOurGirls. Remember that hashtag? The social media campaign that accompanied global outrage over Boko Haram’s abduction of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls on the eve of their final exams went viral almost instantly.

That was nine months ago. The girls have not been seen since and it appears the world is suffering from what one commentator called “collective amnesia.”

But for the people of Nigeria, there is no such thing as the luxury of forgetting and moving on. Hardly a week goes recently without word of another Boko Haram atrocity.

All cultures are equal.

Diversity is our strength.

Anyone know how well housing prices hold up in muslim “no-go” areas? At least you don’t have to pay property taxes.

———————

2015: Muslim Masters, Infidel Slaves
FrontPage Magazine | January 16, 2015 | Jack Kerwick

The very word “slave” stems from “Slav,” which in turn derives from the Slavish people’s experience of having been enslaved en masse by North African Muslims.

There is scarcely a person alive today whose ancestors weren’t both enslavers and enslaved. Yet it wasn’t until the late 1700’s that, for the first time, a moral backlash erupted against this age-old institution, a revolt in England spearheaded by people who—horror of horrors!–were white, Christian business men. Such was their vigilance that they soon swayed the British Empire, which in turn brought the full weight of their military and economic weight to bear upon Africans, Arabs, and Asians who had to be coerced into abandoning the practice of slave-trading.

And nowhere is slavery more common, and more brutal, than in the Islamic world.

The Daily Mail relays some of the unspeakable cruelty to which Yazidi women and girls have been subjected by their Islamic State captors.

A 19 year-old female from the Yazidi community in Iraq revealed the extent of her courage in sharing with the world details of her time spent as a slave to ISIS.

Hamshe was married and pregnant when ISIS jihadists stormed her community, murdered the men—including, she is nearly sure, her husband—and made slaves of her and the other females. Hamshe relays that one of the militants threatened to lock her in a room and withhold all food and water unless she agreed to marry him.

And many aren’t women but girls as young as 12 years of age who are repeatedly, violently raped, beaten, and sold into slavery and marriage.

But that’s not all.

These female slaves of ISIS are subjected to blood transfusions for the purpose of supplying blood for wounded ISIS fighters.

A 21 year-old Yazidi woman who claimed to have refused to be “gift” to the head of ISIS—Abu Bakir Al Baghdadi—spoke at length about the horrors that she witnessed. “I saw everything,” she said, “I saw girls being raped, I witnessed their torture. I saw babies separated from their mothers. Some children were 5 or 6 years old when they were taken from their families.”

The survivor said that there was “no horror” that she hadn’t experienced. She witnessed the murders of “our fathers, uncles, and everyone.” She also tells of a 13 year-old girl who was locked in the home of an ISIS head who raped her for three days—even though he told his children that he was instructing her in the Koran.

One escaped slave described how ISIS militants would drag young girls by their hair to be carried off into a living nightmare. Another said that some “girls” who had been brutalized while enslaved would be returned until they healed—and then resold. All of the girls were sold before the women. No amount of crying and pleading moved the Islamic State barbarians.

ISIS published a document regarding some rules for slavery. While announcing their belief that Christians, Jews, and Yazidis can become slaves to Muslim masters, they followed this up with the following:

“Question: Is it allowed to have intercourse with a female captive immediately after taking possession of her? Answer: If she is a virgin, her master can have intercourse with her immediately after taking possession. But if she is not, you must make sure that she is not pregnant.

“Question: Is it allowed to have intercourse with a female slave who has not reached puberty? Answer: You may have intercourse with a female slave who hasn’t reached puberty if she is fit for intercourse. However, if she is not fit for intercourse, it is enough to enjoy her without.”

“Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive,”

Joe Biden

and todays rage-o-meter reading is;

http://goo.gl/RfZB8B

Peter Schiff: Swiss Surrender Wins Currency War

Tyler Durden’s picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 01/15/2015

Submitted by Peter Schiff via Euro Pacific Capital,

By ending its three year currency peg to the weakening euro Switzerland has become the first major economy to surrender in the international currency war, and in so doing has given a long-delayed victory to the Swiss people. Contrary to the indignant reaction by the media and financial establishment, the decision is not a disaster for Switzerland. A continuance of an open-ended peg to the euro could have ultimately ruined the country. Its surprise move, perhaps prompted by the European Central Bank’s recently announced intentions to unleash its own quantitative easing program, may be looked at in the future as the first significant counter-attack against our current global system of monetary insanity.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-01-15/peter-schiff-swiss-surrender-wins-currency-war

Our friendship with Canada is in danger, we give Castro what he wants, we deny Canada even a decision that would allow it to plan:

http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/136786/Canada_Postpones_Three_Amigos_Summit_Amid_Keystone_XL_Tension

What an a$$clown Harry Dent is. This advertisement was also last year. It predicted gold will fall to $700 in 2014. He adjusted the date to 2015…

http://research.economyandmarkets.com/X195Q645

‘The outrageous whitewash issued yesterday by the CIA panel John Brennan hand-picked to lead the investigation into his agency’s spying on Senate staffers is being taken seriously by the elite Washington media, which is solemnly reporting that officials have been “cleared” of any “wrongdoing“. But what the report really does is provide yet more evidence of Brennan’s extraordinary impunity.’

‘It is now more clear than ever that Brennan was the prime mover behind a hugely inappropriate assault on the constitutional separation of powers, and continues to get away with it.’

‘At issue, of course, is the same intrusion into Senate computers that Brennan initially tried to make people think was a figment of then-Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstein’s warped imagination. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” Brennan said when confronted with Feinstein’s allegations. “That’s just beyond the — you know, the scope of reason in terms of what we would do.”

‘But he obviously knew that what he called “spurious allegations… wholly unsupported by facts” were largely true. And while could have argued his real position, he chose instead to deceive.’

‘And behind it all, of course, lies the horrible truth neither Brennan nor the CIA want to admit: That they tortured detainees, many of them innocent, and lied to make people think it was worth it.’

‘Senator Ron Wyden, the Democrat from Oregon who has led what little push there is in Congress for accountability in the intelligence community, issued a statement in response to the newly released documents yesterday, saying that “Brennan either needs to reprimand the individuals involved or take responsibility himself. So far he has done neither.”

‘Wyden also addressed the context: “This episode further illustrates the cumulative corrosive effects of the CIA’s torture program. First, agency officers and contractors went far beyond the limits set out even in the Justice Department’s torture memos. Then, top officials spent a decade making inaccurate statements about torture’s effectiveness to Congress, the White House and the American people. Next, instead of acknowledging these years of misrepresentations, the CIA’s current leadership decided to double down on denial. And when CIA officials were worried that the Intelligence Committee had found a document that contradicted their claims, they secretly searched Senate computer files to find out if Senate investigators had obtained it.”

It’s interesting how very low inflation is sometimes a byproduct of all-out economic collapse, while other times not.

Consumer prices see biggest monthly slide in six years on falling gas
Published: Jan 16, 2015 9:00 a.m. ET
Regular gas cash price is displayed for $1.79 a gallon at a Mobil station on Jan. 6 in Livonia, Mich.
By Ruth Mantell
Economics reporter

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — Consumer inflation in December saw the biggest monthly drop in six years as gasoline prices tumbled, according to government data released Friday.

U.S. consumer prices fell 0.4% in December, the largest drop since the end of 2008, matching expectations from economists polled by MarketWatch. Energy prices plunged 4.7% in December, the biggest drop since the end of 2008, as gasoline prices fell 9.4%, the U.S. Labor Department reported. Energy prices are expected to drag down headline inflation in coming months as well.

Consumer prices grew 0.8% in 2014 — the second smallest calendar-year increase in the last five decades. While low inflation sounds good to consumers, Federal Reserve officials want to make sure that inflation doesn’t get too low. That’s because it’s hard to break the vicious cycle of deflation — a sustained downward price trend that sees consumers delay purchases, weakening the economy.

The “core” reading of inflation, which excludes the volatile categories of food and energy, showed that prices were unchanged in December, compared with a gain of 0.1% in November. Economists had expected core inflation of 0.1%.

Core inflation was 1.6% during 2014.

“With core inflation unlikely to fall much below December’s 1.6%…and headline inflation to rebound to 2.0% early in 2016, the Fed will still raise rates this year,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at and Capital Economics. “Since lower gasoline prices provide a net boost to activity, core inflation is unlikely to fall much further.”
…

What the heck is going on in this glorious housing market of ours?

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/01/14/the-american-dream-pops-kb-home-wrecked-other-homebuilders-follow/

See! Progressives and liberals really do create employment opportunities!

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Empty shelves across Venezuela due to tumbling oil prices create a new industry: People queuing
UK Daily Mail | January 16, 2015 | Khaleda Rahman

Shortages of basic goods in crisis-hit Venezuela has created a lucrative new profession… queuing to buy things for other people. The country is experiencing a recession triggered in part by a scarcity of hard currency - which limits imports of essential goods. As a result, there are shortages of nearly a third of all basic goods and as well as tumbling oil prices, inflation ballooned to 64% last year. Krisbell Villarroel is one of many people who make a living by waiting in line to buy everything from milk and sugar to diapers and shampoo.

Bam!

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Oil services Giant Schlumberger to Lay Off 9,000, as Crude Prices Fall
Yahoo Finance | 01/16/2015 | Douglas A. McIntyre

The drop in the price of oil will cost 9,000 workers at Schlumberger Ltd. (SLB) their jobs.

In response to lower commodity pricing and anticipated lower exploration and production spending in 2015, Schlumberger decided to reduce its overall headcount to better align with anticipated activity levels for 2015. Schlumberger recorded a $296 million charge associated with a headcount reduction of approximately 9,000.

Unfortunately for the workers, the oil services company had good reason. Although fourth-quarter revenue rose 6% to $12.5 billion and operating income by 7% to $1.9 billion, the company believes the situation has deteriorated:

hmmm… Qrater. Has a nice circular ring to it.

Here ya go - Obamao community organizing at its final end…..

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2015/01/16/fed-creating-community-advisory-council/?mod=WSJBlog

so where’s the disaster swiss move

how dare they !

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=EWL+Interactive#

Pin, meet housing bubble II.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/01/16/pin-meet-housing-bubble-2-0/

The 30 Year U.S. Treasury bond yield hit 2.35% yesterday. That is the lowest rate in U.S. history for the 30 Year Treasury. During the deepest darkest depths of the recession in March 2009, after the stock market had fallen over 50%, the yield was 3.5%. One year ago it was yielding 4.0%. Long term interest rates are not controlled by Yellen. They reflect the economic prospects of the country. When they are rising it means the economy is doing well. When they are plummeting to all time lows, the economy is either in recession or headed into recession. Take your pick. No amount of government data manipulation, feel good propaganda spewed by the captured mainstream media, or Ivy League educated Wall Street economist doublespeak, can change the fact this economy is in the dumper and headed much lower. The Greater Depression is resuming its downward march toward inevitable war.

can-you-guess-the-only-state-where-less people work than not?
Moonshining I guess is not included in the employment stats!!! (sark).

http://reason.com/blog/2015/01/15/can-you-guess-the-only-state-where-less

Rig count out, we lost another 74 rigs. About a month from now that will be 37,000 barrels of oil that will not be produced. If the rigs do not start back up, you can multiple that by at least ten minus production declines, that is how you move from oil production surplus to oil production shortage at warp speed.

Sorry for ALL the postings today - but I just can’t help myself right now….mad as hell and on the point of rage!!!!
What is amazing to me is all those who go about destroying the US (mostly the socially minded, social justice warrior libtards) - then leave before the poopy hits the fan. Seems to be a libtard pattern that continues to wash, rinse and repeat over and over again - what a bunch of friggin cowards libtards are when it comes to criticism and holding feet to the fire for failure and destruction. Better bail before they have to justify their pathetic existence on any matter that affects your life there Mr and Mrs. American.
As Goon is want to point out results are epic whenever the liberal government interferes with:
Healthcare
Auto Industry
Housing
Finance
and on and on….

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/229745-top-obamacare-official-to-step-down

44 rigs lost just in Texas the last week or 4400 direct jobs, 7400 jobs losses county wide:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=79687&p=irol-reportsother

I love the HBB infotainment. Value is higher than today’s crater-rage-meter!

2banana Housing Bubble #1 Market:

DENVER

Wonder if anyone has info on rig count decreases and how oil field layoffs are affecting the Denver area…

Or is big oil now dwarfed by big pot?

Apparently, Texas is one of the most regressive states when it comes to taxation, though Washington state is the worst. Neither has a state income tax.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/15/pf/taxes/poor-state-taxes/index.html?iid=Lead

Swiss National Bank Of Qrater

“…and I was planning on building it up this spring, but circumstances have changed and I need to downsize and raise some cash.”

My favorite kind of eBay ad.

Qrushing weight of QE induced debt is Qilling you. LiQuidate.

Qrater.

TODAY: WASHINGTON (AP) — For the third time in a decade, the globe sizzled to the hottest year on record, federal scientists announced Friday.
Both the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA calculated that in 2014 the world had its hottest year in 135 years of record-keeping. Earlier, the Japanese weather agency and an independent group out of University of California Berkeley also measured 2014 as the hottest on record.
NOAA said 2014 averaged 58.24 degrees Fahrenheit, 1.24 degrees above the 20th-century average.

REGION VIII - Something wicked this way comes? Another big job loss report at DIA now.

Frontier outsources work, gives 1,160 Denver airport workers notice
Frontier Airlines said Friday it is outsourcing 1,300 reservations and airport operations jobs in Denver and Milwaukee. It it is terminating 1,160 jobs in Denver, Frontier told employees. The cuts are expected to take effect in March.

More U.S. jobs as risk as the Obama administration opens the U.S. up to Mexican trucking firms.

From Bloomberg, they seem to have stopped denying we are waging an economic war on Russia:

Saudi Arabia isn’t the nicest ally to have. The desert kingdom just handed out a sentence of 1,000 lashes to a blogger for running a website devoted to freedom of speech. Not exactly the kind of regime we want to have in our circle of friends, especially once you figure in their financial support for Islamic State and other radical Islamist groups.

But you go to war with the allies you have, not the allies you wish you had. And in the global oil price war against Russia and Iran, Saudi Arabia is the U.S.’s indispensable ally. By continuing to pump the black stuff at an undiminished rate, the Saudis are repeating the trick they pulled in the mid-’80s, allowing oil prices to plunge in response to Western supply increases, thus depriving their rival (Iran) and ours (Russia) of revenue — and, in the process, temporarily tanking the U.S. shale industry.

It would be nice if we could escape this cycle — to say nothing of limiting global carbon emissions. But oil remains the indispensable commodity, without which industrial civilization will be thrown back to the coal age — or worse. So we’re stuck with the Saudis, stuck with Russia and Iran, and stuck with our dependence on a single nonrenewable pollution-generating resource.

But what if we had a real-life Iron Man, to build us magical “arc reactors” and solve our energy needs forever. Well, we do have the man who inspired the movie version of Tony Stark –Tesla founder Elon Musk.

Musk and Tesla haven’t invented the arc reactor, but they are making rapid incremental improvements to a more down-to-earth technology — the lithium-ion battery. Tesla’s planned “gigafactories” in Nevada and (possibly) New York will harness economies of scale to an unprecedented degree, building on improvements that have slashed battery-based energy storage costs during the past two decades.

Everyone Must Check In

Jeb Bush’s Decision To ‘Actively Explore’ 2016 Run Allows Him To Avoid Super PAC Rules!

We need this kinda weasel!!

Hate.
Obama hates Putin more than he cares about the U.S. economy.
Congress hates Obama more than they love America.

Can some one make a Haiku with this theme?

o hates putin more than
congress hates O more than A
A is USA

I had .90 in fuel perks. Put 16 gallons in at $1.17… total $19.40.

Deflation is my friend. Hello friend.

George Soros, who plucked Barack Obama from well-deserved obscurity and groomed him all the way to the presidency and is also backing gun control and drug legalization efforts, as well as “colored” revolutions in the former Soviet Union, is also funding the Ferguson rent-a-mobs.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2913625/Billionaire-George-Soros-spent-33MILLION-bankrolling-Ferguson-demonstrators-create-echo-chamber-drive-national-protests.html

Looks like an incipient bank run is underway in Greece.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/11350042/Greek-deposit-flight-forces-banks-to-apply-for-emergency-support.html

A foretaste of what the unholy alliance between corrupt public unions (especially the NEA) and our future permanent Democrat supermajority will look like.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2015/01/due-to-health-challenges-ester-gordillo.html

Big up move on oil today. Has the price bottomed out, or is this merely due to the confounding effect of the Swiss franc on the dollar (lower dollar => higher oil)?

If this is a dead cat bounce, I can already hear the moaning and wailing on the next leg down.