Bits Bucket for March 4, 2015
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
-
June 2025 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
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Average household incomes are back to pre-crisis levels, but still more than 2% below their 2009-10 peak, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
The think tank also found that incomes for working age people were still below their 2007-08 level, after adjusting for the impact of inflation.
Only over-60s will have higher incomes this year than 2007-08, it said.
Living standards have risen more slowly than in previous recessions, it found.
The IFS said this was mainly a result of weak growth in earnings for those in work, but it said tax increases and benefit cuts, as part of the government’s actions to reduce the deficit, had also had a negative impact on average incomes.
Jump media player
Media player help
Out of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
George Osborne: “A lot of damage was done to the British economy and there’s a huge job to be done”
“It’s astonishing actually that seven years later incomes are still no higher than they were pre-recession and indeed for working-age households they’re still a bit below where they were pre-recession,” IFS director Paul Johnson told Radio 4.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31711854
The world economy is at a standstill at best. So far no piper has been paid thanks to a willingness to extend and pretend.
Did you know buying a house near a starbucks will make your house more valuable? I sh@t you not my friend.
It will also result in much greater losses when things turn down.
The world economy is at a standstill at best.
And neither Hillary, Jeb, Ted or whoever gets elected next year will be able to do a thing about it. The skill set bar for being middle class will continue to rise and the ranks of the lucky duckies will continue to grow. Meanwhile global unemployment will continue to rise from its current 200 million and countries will continue to run budget deficits.
we need Silent Cal and Mellon
“let it all go” 1920
You must assume that you won’t be one of the people who gets liquidated.
you should have thought about that before you went deep into debt.
The skill set bar for being middle class will continue to rise ??
Yep
“It’s astonishing actually that seven years later incomes are still no higher than they were pre-recession and indeed for working-age households they’re still a bit below where they were pre-recession,”
Astonishing, eh.
Really? Bahahahahahahahahaha … jokes that write themselves.
Wages? Target is going to lay off thousands. Meanwhile Walmart is going to raise their wages to like $10 an hour.
Prices will have to continue falling to meet wages. Its the way the world works.
For what it is worth - this from the WSJ today - interactive graphic of interest..
http://graphics.wsj.com/us-housing-market/
Here’s a wee prediction:
Those housing market metrics won’t get anywhere near their bubble peak before the onset of the next recession.
Greece’s government submitted a bill to offer free food and electricity to thousands of poverty-stricken Greeks as its first legislative act in parliament, in a symbolic move to address what it calls a “humanitarian crisis”.
Athens, which got a four-month extension of a financial rescue from the eurozone last month, has sought to assure its lenders that such measures will not burden the budget while showing Greeks that it is sticking to pre-election pledges.
http://www.euractiv.com/sections/euro-finance/greece-pass-anti-austerity-bill-312603
A Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS) research note wants to make it clear: Greece can’t leave the Euro, at least not without a pound of flesh being extracted from their economic innards.
In a daily research report, Goldman’s emerging market research team of Themos Fiotakis and Oliva Kim deliver the insight that Greece transitioning into its own currency to pay down debts, a primary benefit of a sovereign nation’s currency, won’t be a binary event. The research goes on to explain “why Greece can’t just (re)introduce” a new and improved Drachma that the nation could print money to its heart’s content.
http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/03/can-greece-print-dramchas/
The Greek tragedy continues.
Greece can either give up the Euro and take a short term hit, or drag out the suffering for decades. I don’t know why they keep bowing to the banks. Just default already, say buh bye to the banks, and start building an economy that works for Greece instead of Deutsche Bank.
“I don’t know why they keep bowing to the banks.”
And this tells me that you are a prolie.
Anyone who voted for Obama, McCain, or Romney also bowed to the bankers. Or rather, bent over for them.
Or Bush, Clinton, or Dole.
“And this tells me that you are a prolie.”
What’s wrong with borrowing from a bank, defaulting on the loan, and letting the bank take whatever actions the law allows them to take to try to recover what is owed on the loan? It’s all written into a contract, which is the basis of our legal system. And if the bank gets stuck with huge losses, it’s their fault for making the loan in the first place. It’s all perfectly legal, and very funny.
Bwahahahaha!
It would be funny if the TBTF banks didn’t get bailed out. Meanwhile they pay ~0% on deposits and lend the money out to subprime borrowers for 20%.
Dman: And if the bank gets stuck with huge losses, it’s their fault for making the loan in the first place.
The banks are way, way in front of this game. They don’t keep the loans. Heck, nowadays, the government doesn’t even keep the loans. The Fed prints money, diluting the value of the money supply (despite their howls that inflation is ever so low), and buys the loans (Quantitative Easing). The bank gets paid early on in the process, like the realtor, and they’re both out, looking for the next mark.
The PTB gets paid and as long as the natives don’t get too restive (they have sufficient food, shelter and entertainment), the system continues. It’s a license to loot.
The mortgage finance market has been frozen but for the government and the central bank, since 2008, which is essentially the sole consumer of mortgages at this point.
Banks - the logical constructs - are federally guaranteed. If the executive team pursues once-in-a-lifetime profit by running the bank aground through risky business, it makes sense to do so. The executives get paid, they’re shielded from prosecution, and the taxpayer picks up the tab from the bailout and from the market distortion. Privatize the profits, socialize the losses.
Definitely a business model suited to the decline of empire. Not a business model for long-term economic health of the country.
“Research report?” Sounds more like marching orders to me.
Allessio Rastani on the BBC in 2011 was right, although late. Governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wHnzWyUsYI
That article on the Goldman Sachs report presents the same doomsday scenario for Greece as was predicted for Iceland, which of course never materialized. “Greece will be excluded from international markets, blah, blah”. Greece will always have a big tourism market, all the bigger if they become the low-cost destination they used to be back in the drachma days.
“Greece will always have a big tourism market …”
“Always”, will always have a big tourism market.
I don’t think you truly understand what that word really means.
Well, until the Parthenon crumbles and their islands wash away, and the sun burns out.
I’ll take a vacation there if they leave the euro, as a show of support. And because I bet it will be cheap.
“Well, until the Parthenon crumbles and their islands wash away, and the sun burns out.”
Or until a few of my fellow terrorist buddies decide that they need to make a point of some kind.
BTW, I lost track; How’s the tourism business in Egypt been doing lately?
Oh, good point. Just like no one goes to New York City any more. Or flies in an airplane.
“Or until a few of my fellow terrorist buddies decide that they need to make a point of some kind.”
Troll alert.
“Or until a few of my fellow terrorist buddies decide that they need to make a point of some kind.”
The same people who run and hide when a news mic and camera show up? What are you and your buddies so scared of? You’re not so brave in public as you are in secret, are you? It’s easy to act tough in front of your own camera with a weapon, but you’re scared of your own shadows in public. COWARDS.
Iceland barely blinked
Greek islands for everyone
Santa Rosa, CA Housing Inventory Balloons 99% As Prices Sink Lower
http://www.movoto.com/santa-rosa-ca/market-trends/
While screechers were busy being distracted by Bibi yesterday both sides got together and ironed out a back room deal to allow the Shamnesty to proceed unimpeded.
Anyone who thinks there is a plug nickel’s worth of difference between the two parties, or that the entire charade isn’t controlled by high level rich interests, should consider this.
i posted the washington post article about the ‘mystery paralysis’ afflicting kids across the usa, the real journalists at the washington post failed to connect the dots between the resurgence of polio and the mass invasion of ‘unaccompanied minors’ into this country
but the children of the 0.1% will never have to rub elbows with the diseased hordes, so it’s all good
forward
but the children of the 0.1% will never have to rub elbows with the diseased hordes, so it’s all good
Unless they go to Disneyland. Or eat the food they prepare at restaurants, etc.
The top 0.01% will build their own Disneyland. It will be manned by the remainder of the top 1%. The 0.01% to 1% are the manual labor, military / police state, and politicians that care for the rich and support them because that paycheck keeps them from becoming one of the destitute bottom 99%.
“distracted by Bibi”
These are the links at the top left of the Drudge Report right now:
White House warns Netanyahu not to reveal Iran details
VIDEO: BIBI SPEECH
Assails nuke talks
‘It Paves Iran’s Path To The Bomb’
‘Iran’s founding document pledges death, tyranny, and the pursuit of jihad’
One year from mushroom cloud
Thunderous Applause
‘Days when Jewish people remain passive in face of genocidal aggression are over’
Broadcast Networks Refuse to Carry
‘Enraged’ Pelosi freaks on floor
‘Near Tears Throughout’ … ‘Saddened by the insult’
Dems LASH OUT at Netanyahu, Tell Him to Go Home, Call Him ‘a Child’
Obama says read transcript; ‘nothing new’
American taxpayers and voters, you are being emotionally manipulated
Barely a mention (and not even a red link) for the sellout deal to punt on Shamnesty obstruction.
to be fair, breitbart has a headline on this halfway down their front page
New in stock this week, mention the “HBB discount” to your budtender and get 10% off all edible products
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150304_060818_990-2QT0BkDf.jpg
Region VIII
More soma for the unwashed.
we sell what the voters voted for in region viii
if you like drinking duff and popping oxycontins, stay in alabama
Why not all three? Get em hooked early and straight onto disability in their 20s.
They moved here expecting Summer of Love but instead they got Altamont
http://news.yahoo.com/pot-seen-reason-rise-denver-homeless-175115981.html
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_27575680/banned-from-16th-street-dozens-ordered-by-court
Whocouldaknowd this one - eh?
Problem too is it is f…ing cold there in Region Viii from time to time - not like Altamont.
As soon as the golden state legalizes mj, they’ll be gone.
Is the stock market immune to another crash now that uncle FED is running the show?
Sure does seem that way…no more bear markets, ever.
Got boots?
Despite Russian Warnings, US Will Deploy A Battalion To Ukraine By The End
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/02/2015
“Before this week is up, we’ll be deploying a battalion… to the Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces for the fight that’s taking place,” stated US 173rd Airborne Brigade Commander Colonel Michael Foster said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC on Monday. Despite earlier warnings from Russia (and claims that NATO had not agreed to any such foreign ‘boots on the ground’ action’), Sputnik News reports, Foster added, “what we’ve got laid out is six United States companies that will be training six Ukrainian companies throughout the summer.”
This comes a week after PM David Cameron confirmed Britain will be sending 75 military personnel to help combat Russian military aggression.
Despite earlier reports from Russia’s NATO envoy that, as TASS reports,
NATO has taken no decisions on sending British or any other instructors to Ukraine, Russia’s Ambassador to the North Atlantic Alliance Alexander Grushko said on Monday.
“NATO has taken no decisions on sending instructors,” he told the Rossiya 24 television channel. “NATO is implementing the decisions that were taken at the political level at the Wales summit in September 2014.”
Moscow will take all measures, including military-technical, to neutralize possible threat from NATO presence in Ukraine, he added.
It seems it is happening, as Sputnik News reports,
The United States will deploy personnel by the end of this week to train the Ukrainian national guard, US 173rd Airborne Brigade Commander Colonel Michael Foster said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC on Monday.
“Before this week is up, we’ll be deploying a battalion minus… to the Ukraine to train Ukrainian forces for the fight that’s taking place,” Foster stated. “What we’ve got laid out is six United States companies that will be training six Ukrainian companies throughout the summer.”
The current plan is for US forces to stay six months, he said, and noted there have been discussions about how to increase the duration and the scope of the training mission.
The current channels for military training set up between Ukraine and the United States would not be used for transferring defensive lethal aid if the United States decided to provide arms to Ukraine, Foster told Sputnik on Monday.
“It would go through something separate… We would not funnel the lethal aid or arms through that [training] event, we would use a secondary method for that,” Foster said, adding that a completely separate process is preferable.
* * *
Here is the full interview with Colonel Foster: “If Russia will invade Ukraine, why would we not think they will invade the US next?”
At 14:45, Colonel Foster discusses the deployment of US troops to Ukraine…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-02/despite-russian-warnings-us-will-deploy-battalion-ukraine-end-week
Do you call this
“Most transparent administration in history”
or is it
“Shrinking the size of government to where you can drown it in the bathtub”
so confused
Send more ‘advisors’ like JFK and then get back to your poolside shenanigans with teenage interns and the Secretary of State.
But if you don’t want to go to the Ukraine, don’t volunteer.
But if you don’t want to go to the Ukraine, don’t volunteer.
If we go to war with Russia it won’t matter if you volunteered or not.
If we go to war with Russia, our Oligarchs here in the US will reinstate the draft as it will be your patriotic duty to go and fight.
If we go to war with Russia, our Oligarchs here in the US will reinstate the draft as it will be your patriotic duty to go and fight.
Which is why you need to keep that foreign passport handy. This time I doubt Canada (or Mexico) will welcome draft dodgers with open arms.
If we go to war with Russia, boots won’t matter.
Why is bush doing this?
Bush tells his oligarch backers not to be too conspicuous in their financial contributions…looks unseemly to the serfs.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/jeb-bush-asks-donors-to-limit-gifts-to-1-million-2015-03-04?dist=beforebell
“limit gifts to one million dollars”
Wow, he’s really building it on a shoestring with the little guy. Of course, Rove’s PACs will do the heavy lifting.
CraterRage® Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/q2hIyh
RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!!!!
http://picpaste.com/pics/53434999a11b9a4833c2bc2d87536f4a.1425478024.jpg
http://picpaste.com/IMG_20150304_072317_571-l7HwAFep.jpg
That’s one way to avoid military service in the Ukraine.
See, you can overpay on Mars too.
Fairfield, CT Sale Prices Crater 9% YoY As Housing Correction Ramps Up On Coasts
http://www.zillow.com/fairfield-ct/home-values/
Bridgeport would be attractive if it weren’t for Connecticut’s gun laws.
Bridgeport $158,400
Having your kid attend Darien, Greenwich or Staples High Schools will remain out of reach for most humans.
Westport $1,072,100
Anything south of 84 ain’t Connecticut anyways.
one of the scariest place in usa
on par w gart in, detroit etc
November; unemployment rate holds at 5.8%
By Chico Harlan December 5, 2014
A months-long hiring spree has pushed the U.S. labor market closer to full health, providing workers with their best chance since the financial crisis to find higher-paying jobs or enjoy see long-awaited wage increases.
On Friday, the government announced that the U.S. economy added 321,000 jobs in November, the best figure in nearly three years, keeping the country on track for the strongest annual job growth since the late 1990s. That performance, coming even as other advanced economies slump, has lifted hopes among economists and U.S. officials that a slow, six-year recovery is beginning to yield substantial benefits for ordinary workers.
President Obama said on Friday that the United States has added more jobs over the last four years than Europe, Japan, and all other advanced countries combined. Other U.S. officials noted that job growth in November was driven by traditionally blue-collar or higher-skill sectors, a contrast to the low-wage boom earlier in the recovery.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/ -
—————————————————————————–
Best part-time jobs that are hiring now - CNBC.com
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102468776 - 166k - Cached - Similar pages
23 hours ago …
Interesting, with construction slumping and also the oil crater, everything is coming up roses. Stay tuned for the long hot summer.
San Diego, CA Sale Prices Freefall 15% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/san-diego-ca-92128/home-values/
Even at 15% off last year’s prices, San Diego is still too pricey for most end users. Are the investors still buying now that prices are headed south?
Correction:
Zip code 92128 in San Diego median sales prices down 15% year on year.
San Diego as a whole is approximately flat (up 3%).
Correction:
Zip code 92128 in San Diego median sales prices down 15% year on year.
San Diego as a whole is down 2% MoM and 4% QoQ.
Drudge link reports on the “fundamental transformation”
Report: More than Half of Children in U.S. Expected to Be Minorities by 2020
http://www.mrctv.org/blog/report-2020-more-half-us-children-expected-be-minorities
And remember, even when Whitey becomes the minority, Whitey still gonna pay
Because historical oppression and legacy of slavery, colonialism, segregation, patriarchy, et cetera
Whitey gonna pay
Forward
Middle classy gonna pay, the remnants of which are mostly white. I’m not sure who’s gonna pay after middle classy is gone.
Homeowners Sustain Crushing Losses As Sale Prices Plunge 11% In Ashland, OR
http://www.zillow.com/ashland-or/home-values/
Dallas, TX Housing Increasingly Affordable As Sale Prices Plummet 9% Last Month On Falling Oil Prices
http://www.zillow.com/dallas-tx/home-values/
Nabors cuts nearly 3,500 jobs as U.S. drilling takes big hit
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2015/03/03/nabors-cuts-nearly-3500-jobs-as-u-s-drilling-takes-hit/
Is there a doctor in the house?
Ben Carson: Prisons prove being gay is a choice
http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/04/politics/ben-carson-prisons-gay-choice/
Becoming a bad man’s girlfriend might not be a choice for many inmates.
Half Baked Shower Scene
Hapless, innocent Kenny saved by Tommy Chong.
Half Baked and Booty Call are the two best B movies of the 90s.
66 year old lumber company in Tucson closes for good and blames the housing slump
http://tinyurl.com/qzz2z4x
After 66 years, the Grant Road Lumber Company is saying its goodbyes to Tucson.
The business, owned and operated since 1948 by the Hauert family, announced this week that it will cease operations at both of its locations — its midtown retail store at 2543 E. Grant Road and contractor lumberyard at 3361 E. 36th St. — by the end of the month.
David Hauert, vice president of the company and son of founder and president Sam Hauert, said the decision to close did not come lightly.
The Hauerts attempted to find a buyer for Grant Road in an effort to save the jobs of its 30 employees. They hired a broker who conducted a nationwide search for two years with no luck.
Ultimately, “It was something that we had to do,” David Hauert said. “The housing market has not seen a lot of change since the recession. It hasn’t been good for a number of years. Tucson has a long way to go to get out of this thing.”
Hauert said the company is debt-free, but business has been sluggish.
“We weren’t going to allow ourselves to get into a financial bind,” he said. “We are closing on our terms. It has been very emotional, very difficult.”
Hauert has been working for his father’s lumber company since he was 14. His brother, Steve Hauert, started at age 18.
Sam Hauert launched Grant Road Lumber with two business partners, E.T. Burnett and Fred Armstrong, when he was 23 years old.
Sam’s father milled lumber in Arkansas and Oklahoma.
“I was born in a sawmill community and knew nothing else except for what my father was doing,” said Sam, 89. “It was something that I wanted to do, too.”
When Grant Road Lumber opened its doors, just east of North Tucson Boulevard, it was one of 20 lumberyards in town.
The business eventually expanded to a second location, a 15-acre lot on East 36th Street, in 1955.
“The property was rail-served,” David said. “We needed a rail spur in order to get product. It is less expensive to have it ride on a rail than to have it trucked.”
The company still uses the rail spur to have materials shipped in from, among other places, the Pacific Northwest.
Grant Road Lumber has come up against its share of challenges.
Fire completely gutted the Grant Road location in 1960, and again in 1968. In 1980, a blaze took out its lumber bins. Arson was suspected in all three instances.
Major home-improvement chains such as Lowe’s and Home Depot have chipped away at business in recent years, but nothing hit the company harder than the economic downturn.
“The industry goes through cycles,” David said. “They build like crazy, overbuild and hit a slump, then go back up again. It is a roller coaster and always has been. But it has never been like this.”
The closing of Grant Road Lumber leaves many longtime employees out of work.
Joan Vidonic has been with the business for more than 30 years.
A Jane-of-all-trades, Vidonic, 66, started with the company answering phones and performing administrative duties, eventually moving over to sales, then bookkeeping.
It was through Grant Road Lumber that Vidonic met her husband, David Vidonic, who has 33 years with Grant Road.
David’s father, Ed Vidonic, also worked for the company.
Joan Vidonic said she will miss the camaraderie.
“It is a family atmosphere,” she said. “We have a nucleus of employees that have been really fun to work with.”
Sam Hauert said the business couldn’t have survived this long without its dedicated workforce.
“Our employees have been very loyal,” Sam said. “We have them to thank for a lot of our success.”
“The industry goes through cycles,” David said. “They build like crazy, overbuild and hit a slump, then go back up again. It is a roller coaster and always has been. But it has never been like this.”
Ultimately, “It was something that we had to do,” David Hauert said. “The housing market has not seen a lot of change since the recession. It hasn’t been good for a number of years. Tucson has a long way to go to get out of this thing.”
Truth.
Portland, OR Housing Inventory Balloons 89% As Prices Continue To Slip Lower
http://www.movoto.com/portland-or/market-trends/
Region IV
take it easy
we don’t need to get all regional about this
A classic example of an inept socialist government, elected by the “benefits-for-votes” mob, killing the goose that lays the golden egg as it uses its tax collectors to extort money out of soybean growers, i.e. the productive. Coming soon to a Permanent Democrat Supermajority cesspool near you, once Comrade Pelosi imports a few more million Democrat-on-Arrival voters from south of the Rio Grande.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/03/04/christina-goes-to-war-with-argentinas-soy-farmers-over-their-us-dollars/
Bernanke Wants the U.S. President to Declare “Economic Emergencies” in Future Crises
Michael Krieger | Posted Tuesday Mar 3, 2015 at 10:42 am
Presidents should get the power to declare economic emergencies along the lines to declare war, said former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on Monday.
It might make sense to give “the president some ability to declare emergencies or take extraordinary actions and not put that all on the Fed,” Bernanke said at a conference. “The constitution gives the president significant flexibility to respond to military situations,” in part because they are chaotic, he noted.
“I am sure it is not politically possible, but it would be worth thinking about,” the former Fed chairman said.
– From the MarketWatch article: Presidents Should Be Able to Declare Economic Emergencies: Bernanke
For those of us who remain horrified and disgusted by the 2008-09 Federal Reserve and U.S. government bailout of the kleptocratic oligarchs who created the crisis, the above comments by the mastermind of this historic theft should be extremely concerning.
Although bankers and oligarchs got everything they wanted and more from the post crisis panic, what seems to bother Bernanke is that some of the response measures had to be pursued publicly. By calling for the U.S. President to declare economic emergencies in future crises, he is explicitly saying he doesn’t want Congress involved at all, even if just ceremonially. This man is a dyed in the wool fascist.
Bernanke may be a kleptocratic oligarch criminal, but stupid he is not. He knows exactly what kind of power an “economic emergency” would grant to the executive, which is exactly why he wants it to happen.
libertyblitzkrieg.com/…/ - 73k -
Fine, so if its an economic emergency, let’s wait until AFTER all the banks and corporations and cities and states go under, and all the stocks and bonds and debts are wiped out in a bonfire of bankruptcy.
And ONLY THEN, once certain metrics of disaster are reached, to reorganize things in a sort of mass Chapter 11 reboot.
Social Security and other federal entitlements would hold all the business debt (at first), and the equity would be privatized by issuing the shares equally to all living Americans. Everyone starts over. No big bonuses for the bailed out this time.
Does he understand that granting that kind of power would create moral hazard for the CIC to take actions that increase the risk (i.e. frequency) of economic emergencies?
create moral hazard for the CIC to take actions that increase the risk (i.e. frequency) of economic emergencies?
Just like giving the Fed _more_ power as a result of the global financial crisis, which was caused in large part by their failure as a regulator, gives them incentive to do the same thing again? We have already failed to avoid moral hazard on so many levels.
Comment by phony scandals
2015-03-04 08:47:17
Bernanke Wants the U.S. President to Declare “Economic Emergencies” in Future Crises
libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/03/03/bernanke-wants-the-u-s-president-to-declare-economic-emergencies/
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/housing/million-dollar-club-average-cost-of-a-detached-toronto-home-tops-1-million/article23278494/
Comment:
All these people that waited for the last 10 years that the prices will come down…missed the boat.
CallofDuty
Yeah the name of the ship is Titanic. Ever wonder the commercial real estate is in the sinking fast with all these stores closures?
Fixt.
‘All these people that bought a house in the last 15 years overpaid and stepped onto a sinking ship’
“Russia’s Biggest Homebuilder SU-155 Faces Default”
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russia-s-biggest-homebuilder-su-155-faces-default/517011.html
Contractors, builders, vendors and home owners are all speculators. And they all default regardless of location.
Had to click the Moscow Times Real Estate section.
Obama Extends Sanctions Against Russia, Citing Threat to ‘National Security’
The Moscow Times
Mar. 04 2015 13:11
U.S. President Barack Obama has issued an order to extend by one year a series of sanctions against Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis, the White House said Tuesday.
Real Estate
Living in the Stalin-era skyscraper
photo 1 of 3
For
Rent
Price
3000$
Type
Apartment
Per
Month
Size
120 sq.m.
Address
Kudrinskaya sq. 1
Bedrooms
2
Location
Moscow
Cozy and light apartment in the center of Moscow. Living room, kitchen, dining room, bedroom and spare room. 1 bathroom with Jacuzzi. Apartment has such utilities as boiler, washing machine, dishwasher, air-conditioning.
Contact phone number: 89629927089
Contact e-mail: t.volova@beatrix.ru
Spacious apartment in the heart of Moscow
photo 1 of 4
For
Rent
Price
4000$
Type
Apartment
Per
Month
Size
180 sq.m.
Address
Stoloviy lane, 4
Bedrooms
4
Location
Moscow
Very spacious apartment in the center of Moscow. Studio, 4 bedrooms, 2,5 bathrooms. Apartment is fully equipped with all necessary technical appliances.
Contact phone number: 89629927089
Contact e-mail: t.volova@beatrix.ru
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article.php?id=516961 - 52k -
“Emerging-market bond default rates may be set to lift off”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/03/emerging-default-idUSL5N0W146520150303
“Sahara India Defaults on Luxury Hotel Loans From Bank of China”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/sahara-india-defaults-on-luxury-hotel-loans-from-bank-of-china
Defaults, delinquencies and crushing debt globally.
Pay off all debt and hold onto every dollar you’ve got. You’ll be glad you did.
The US is going after Chinese “maternity hotels” in southern California
Dozens of US immigration agents yesterday raided 37 “maternity hotels” in California that are suspected of hosting pregnant Chinese women, so that they can give birth to children who will be US citizens.
The sting operation is likely to result in the largest federal case ever against a “birth tourism” industry driven by wealthy Chinese families hoping to emigrate —or at least have the option to do so one day. It’s not illegal to give birth in the US while visiting, but it is illegal to lie about one’s intentions for getting a tourist visa. Chinese women pay as much as $60,000 for a package deal that includes help getting a tourist visa to the US, prenatal care, accommodation for the few months before and after the birth, and advice for how to get past border agents (wear lose clothing and come well before the due date).
http://qz.com/355483/the-us-is-going-after-chinese-maternity-hotels-in-southern-california/
======
“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” is now “Giver me your pampered, your wealthy, your coddled masses yearning for UCLA?”
I would rather have a few thousand of these every year than an amnesty of 11 million (34 million when including “chain migration”) illiterate third world peasants
Then you must not be dependent upon their votes to win elections or dependent upon their cheap labor to amass more wealth for yourself.
If the people against amnesty want to stop immigration, all they have to do is make it a felony to hire an illegal. It would stop the next day. But they don’t really care about amnesty. It’s just a political game to keep the base riled up while they consult with lobbyists for banks and oil companies.
Much like the fat people just need to quit eating or at least cut the carbs.
Hmm… Japan has no babies, no immigration, resulting in negative GDP growth and deflation. USA has a declining birthrate among the middle class and upper class. We need to fill the demographic hole somehow to keep the economy going to avoid the Japan trap. Besides, in 15 years I’ll be collecting Soc Sec. so I need the Dreamers to be working so some of their paychecks can be redistributed to me.
Ever watch the movie, ‘Idiocracy’?
The I got mines crowd.
These are peasants with cash.
Go back to your own fawking nightmare you created, China freaks.
Is Chicago the next Enron?
In a word - Yep!!!
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/is-chicago-the-next-enron/
Hardly. Enron had managed to cover up its reality. Everyone knows about Chicago (and Illinois).
Region V weather report for the warmist who warm….
Today - cold and continued cold - Tonight dark with continued cold - could be a record low for the date ever recorded in Region V (Chicago)
Given that China’s GDP growth rate is only down by a fraction of a percentage point, it is amazing to see gambling revenues shrink by so much and so fast.
Posted March 3, 2015 - 6:13am
Updated March 3, 2015 - 6:21pm
Feb. decline marks Macau’s worst gaming revenue month since 2011
The Sands Cotai Central logo is seen in front of its hotel in Macau Sept. 20, 2012. (Reuters/Tyrone Siu/Files)
image
By HOWARD STUTZ
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL
Maybe February was rock bottom in Macau.
Macau casinos suffered a 49 percent decline in gaming revenue during February — the market’s single-worst monthly decline on record. Despite what is normally a lucrative time period, the annual Chinese New Year, the region reported an overall gaming revenue total of $2.44 billion, a figure not seen since 2011.
“This would seem to be at the high end of the most recent consensus expectations and represented a volatile month that stepped outside of historical trends, which is a likely theme for 2015,” said Union Gaming Group principal Grant Govertsen.
The gaming revenue decline was Macau’s ninth straight monthly drop, and most analysts expect the trend to continue into the summer.
Sterne Agee gaming analyst David Bain tried to put the month into perspective for American investors. MGM Resorts International, Las Vegas Sands Corp. and Wynn Resorts Ltd. all operate casinos in Macau and are expanding their holdings.
Bain suggested February would indeed mark the bottom.
“March growth should be less bad than February, and April less bad from March,” he said.
Analysts knew going into the month there were challenges. In February 2014, Macau casinos collected a single-month industry high of $4.8 billion, buoyed by the “Year of the Horse” Chinese New Year celebration.
The 2015 “Year of the Goat,” so far, hasn’t been as bountiful.
…
Region V - Mayor race update
Rahmmy in a run off on April 7 against Jesus ‘Chuy’ Garcia….you know the guy that was the other half of Tommy Chong….remember him? Cheech -
“hey man…..you wanna get high” fame….. oh never mind…….
Chi-town is soooo scrude.
Palmie - it was so…..scrude years ago - it is just now that this place is having its Jesus moment. This does not end well.
rahm really screwed himself…i honestly thought he could get reelected or even run for president or get the VP in 16 if he was tough on black people and make chitown a safe city to move to….
but the exact opposite happened
This place as far as violence is concerned has become worse under Rahmmy. Debt is worse and as noted Chicago just had another bond downgrade - this at the pleasure of our mayor, the guy who was part of the Citibank / Lehman cabal.
Problem is - like all lieberals like him - he promises the moon and delivers nothing short of hell. The locals here really are disgusted with the whole mess. Forget the pension mess, the debt and the rest. That is another story by itself. Check out the Civic Fed - http://www.civicfed.org/
Violence has dropped a bit recently but then we are in the coldest time of the year - Feb. just came off its coldest monthly recording ever. When it warms back up - look out - the kiddies and gang bangers will be co-mingling in the parks and contrary to Rahmmy’s comment of take your business to the alley and leave the kids alone rhetoric - this doesn’t happen so much. They fire away at will if they see any opposition gang member and the children be damned.
I commented on this on another site and noted that the city just feels dirtier, the trash is not picked up as often, parking rates are out of site, property taxes are just unworldly - imagine a 1500 sf crap shack in the traditional nabe in Chicago - 50 x 120 ft. lot and taxes are a bit over 8k a year. It is difficult to live here.
As for me and my house - we are leaving!!!
So it looks like oil is rocketing right back up to $100/bbl…not.
US running out of room to store oil; price collapse next?
Associated Press
By JONATHAN FAHEY 18 hours ago
This March 13, 2012 photo shows older and newly constructed 250,000 barrel capacity oil storage tanks at the SemCrude tank farm north of Cushing, Okla. For the past seven weeks, the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1 million more barrels of oil every day than it is consuming. That extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country's main trading hub in Cushing, pushing U.S. supplies to their highest point in at least 80 years, the Energy Department reported Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015.
(AP Photo/Tulsa World, Michael Wyke)
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. has so much crude that it is running out of places to put it, and that could drive oil and gasoline prices even lower in the coming months.
For the past seven weeks, the United States has been producing and importing an average of 1 million more barrels of oil every day than it is consuming. That extra crude is flowing into storage tanks, especially at the country’s main trading hub in Cushing, Oklahoma, pushing U.S. supplies to their highest point in at least 80 years, the Energy Department reported last week.
If this keeps up, storage tanks could approach their operational limits, known in the industry as “tank tops,” by mid-April and send the price of crude — and probably gasoline, too — plummeting.
“The fact of the matter is we are running out of storage capacity in the U.S.,” Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citibank, said at a recent symposium at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Morse has suggested oil could fall all the way to $20 a barrel from the current $50. At that rock-bottom price, oil companies, faced with mounting losses, would stop pumping oil until the glut eased. Gasoline prices would fall along with crude, though lower refinery production, because of seasonal factors and unexpected outages, could prevent a sharp decline.
The national average price of gasoline is $2.44 a gallon. That’s $1.02 cheaper than last year at this time, but up 37 cents over the past month.
Other analysts agree that crude is poised to fall sharply — if not all the way to $20 — because it continues to flood into storage for a number of reasons:
— U.S. oil production continues to rise. Companies are cutting back on new drilling, but that won’t reduce supplies until later this year.
— The new oil being produced is light, sweet crude, which is a type many U.S. refineries are not designed to process. Oil companies can’t just get rid of it by sending it abroad, because crude exports are restricted by federal law.
— Foreign oil continues to flow into the U.S., both because of economic weakness in other countries and to feed refineries designed to process heavy, sour crude.
— This is the slowest time of year for gasoline demand, so refiners typically reduce or stop production to perform maintenance. As refiners process less crude, supplies build up.
— Oil investors are making money buying and storing oil because of the difference between the current price of oil and the price for delivery in far-off months. An investor can buy oil at $50 today and enter into a contract to sell it for $59 in December, locking in a profit even after paying for storage during those months.
The delivery point for most of the oil traded in the U.S. is Cushing, a city of about 8,000 people halfway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa at an intersection of several pipelines. The city is dotted with tanks that can, in theory, hold 85 million barrels of oil, according to the Energy Department, though some of those tanks are used for blending or feeding pipelines, not for storing oil.
The market data provider Genscape, which flies helicopters equipped with infrared cameras and other technology over Cushing twice a week to measure storage levels, estimates Cushing is two-thirds full.
Hillary Stevenson, who manages storage, pipeline and refinery monitoring for Genscape, says Cushing could be full by mid-April. Supplies are increasing at “the highest rate we have ever seen at Cushing,” she says.
Full tanks — or super-low prices — are not a sure thing. New storage is under construction at Cushing, and there are large storage terminals near Houston, in St. James, Louisiana, and elsewhere around the country that will probably begin to take in more oil as prices fall far enough to cover the cost of transporting the oil.
Also, drillers are cutting back fast because oil prices have plummeted from $107 a barrel in June. And demand is showing signs of rising.
While the Energy Department reported another enormous rise in crude stocks last week, up 8.4 million barrels from the week earlier, it also reported that diesel and gasoline supplies fell more than expected. That leads some to conclude that demand for crude will soon pick up, easing the surplus somewhat.
But many analysts believe oil prices will fall through the spring, before summer drivers start to relieve the glut.
…
The U.S. Is Pumping Even More Oil and Storage Tanks Are Getting Filled to the Brim
American oil
by Tom Randall
7:43 AM PST
March 4, 2015
A crude oil facility outside Williston, North Dakota, on Feb. 12
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
The U.S. is pumping oil faster than at any time since 1972, and storage tanks are getting filled to the brim.
U.S. oil production rose for the fourth consecutive week, to a rate of 9.3 million barrels a day, even as oil-drilling rigs are being idled at an unprecedented rate. U.S. inventories also rose, for the eighth consecutive week, jumping 2.4 percent to 444 million barrels, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported today.
U.S. oil storage is bursting at the seams amid a global glut of supply that has driven prices down by half since last summer. U.S. inventories remain at their highest levels in at least 80 years, according to an analysis by Bloomberg Intelligence.
Exxon told investors in a presentation today that it’s sticking sticking to its production targets established when oil traded for more than $100 a barrel. Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali Al-Naimi said in Berlin today that his country won’t cut output either.
…
Oil Markets
Oil Prices Drop as U.S. Crude Supplies Surge to Record
Data shows U.S. crude supplies rose for eighth straight week
Oil pump jacks next to a strawberry field in Oxnard, Calif.
Photo: Reuters
By Nicole Friedman
Updated March 4, 2015 11:07 a.m. ET
Oil prices fell on Wednesday as data showed U.S. crude supplies soared to another record high last week.
Light, sweet oil for April delivery declined 75 cents, or 1.5%, to $49.77 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Brent, the global benchmark, slid $1.18, or 1.9%, to $59.84 a barrel on ICE Futures Europe.
U.S. crude stockpiles rose by 10.3 million barrels to 444.4 million barrels in the week ended Feb. 27, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday. Analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had predicted a 4.6 million-barrel increase. The gain was the biggest for a single week since May 2001.
Refineries ran at 86.6% of capacity, down from 87.4% the prior week, as refiners performed seasonal maintenance.
“The build is massive,” said John Kilduff, founding partner at Again Capital in New York. “That low refinery utilization rate [is] clearly causing crude-oil inventories to back up in the system.”
Crude-oil stocks are at their highest level on record, according to weekly data starting in 1982. In monthly data, which don’t exactly match up with weekly data, stockpiles haven’t been this high since 1930.
Gasoline stockpiles rose by 46,000 barrels in the week, compared with expectations for a 1.8-million-barrel drop. Distillate stocks, including heating oil and diesel fuel, fell by 1.7 million barrels. Analysts had expected a 2.6 million-barrel weekly decrease.
Supplies in Cushing, Okla., the delivery point for the Nymex contract, rose by 500,000 barrels, less than many had expected. Cushing inventories are within a few million barrels of their all-time high.
Crude inventories in the Gulf Coast hit a new all-time high of 219.9 million barrels, according to EIA data going back to 1990.
Oil futures have been whipsawing in recent weeks as market participants weigh signs of impending production cuts and improving demand against signs of global oversupply.
…
Countdown to ‘thermogeddon’ has begun
11 November 2010 by Michael Le Page
Magazine issue 2786. Subscribe and save
For similar stories, visit the Climate Change Topic Guide
THERE may come a point, if the world warms enough, when parts of the tropics will become so hot and humid that humans will not be able to survive. Models predict that this could start to happen in places in as little as 100 years in the worst case scenario. Now, observations show the process is already under way.
Eventually, some tropical areas could get so hot and humid on occasion that even someone standing naked in the shade in front of a fan would die (New Scientist, 23 October, p 36).
——————————————————————————-
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
Winter storm-related death toll revised, rises to 30
Jordan Buie, jbuie@tennessean.com
5:06 p.m. CST February 27, 2015
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency twice revised the winter storm death toll on Friday. The agency first reduced the count by one because of new information, but then confirmed that 30 people died because of weather-related causes.
The 30th fatality was a 55-year-old Bledsoe County man who died of hypothermia.
Authorities said a suspected hypothermia death in Sevier County was actually a result of an aneurysm.
The agency said that at least 10 deaths have been determined to be related to hypothermia, and six occurred in weather-related traffic accidents, among other causes.
Tennessee remains at a Level II State of Emergency, since 3 p.m. Saturday. The original elevation to a Level III State of Emergency came at 9 p.m. Feb. 16.
Additional snow along the Cumberland Plateau and the eastern part of the state, as well as poor road conditions, have made the storm particularly perilous in those regions.
http://www.tennessean.com/…/02/24/tema-now-confirms-30-dead-after-cold-weather/23950377/ - 170k -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-03-04 09:52:15
Winter storm-related death toll revised, rises to 30
tennessean.com/story/weather/2015/02/24/tema-now-confirms-30-dead-after-cold-weather/23950377/
Are you really the only person in the world who doesn’t know that there will always be a thing called weather?
There are millions like him. Collectively, they are known as “mouth breathers”
Update: Oil Blows Hole Through $50 Floor Again
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/future/crude%20oil%20-%20electronic
Seems destined to remain sticky at $50 until the cotango hoarders run out of closet space.
Pot growers convicted on fed count in state where it’s legal
Associated Press
By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS 14 hours ago
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Three people were found guilty Tuesday of growing marijuana, but they also were exonerated of more serious charges in a widely-watched federal drug case in a state where medical and recreational marijuana is legal.
The three remaining defendants of the so-called Kettle Falls Five were all found guilty of growing marijuana. But a jury found them not guilty of distributing marijuana, conspiracy to distribute and firearms charges that carried long prison sentences.
U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Rice set sentencing for June 10.
http://news.yahoo.com/pot-growers-convicted-fed-count-state-where-legal-023854966.html
Try that sh*t here and we’ll open up a can of MOLON LABE
bloomberg article bewails breeders not breeding
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-04/fixing-america-s-baby-bust-might-require-help-from-france
but article makes no mention that 50 percent of marriages end in divorce
or that 70 percent of those divorces are initiated by women
50 years of marxist feminism, and this is what you get
People don’t have kids when they feel they are economically more secure by not having kids.
The really poor don’t care and have kids hoping they can get them working for the family by age 5, the middle class not so much. They already have a job having more kids is much more likely to make things harder for them. So down go birth rates. They also have a hard time fathoming taking care of a kid when employers provide zero flexibility, your kid get’s sick and you may get fired.
RAGE AGAINST THE CRATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Will those who kept the faith in the almighty dollar finally get their due?
Market Pulse
Dollar climbs to 11-year high ahead of jobs data, ECB
Published: Mar 4, 2015 8:29 a.m. ET
By Sara Sjolin
Markets reporter
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The dollar climbed to its highest level since September 2003 on Wednesday ahead of closely-watched jobs data and the European Central Bank meeting later in the week. The ICE dollar index (DXY, +0.65%) which measures the greenback against a basket of six rival currencies, jumped 0.3% to 95.71. The strength for the dollar came as the euro (EURUSD, -0.92%) continued to its slide, trading at $1.1124, down from $1.1176 late Tuesday. Investors were waiting for the ADP U.S. employment report due at 8:15 a.m. Eastern Time, as well as the top-tier nonfarm-payrolls numbers out on Friday. In Europe, market participants looked ahead to the ECB meeting on Thursday, hoping for hints as to when the central bank will kick off its quantitative-easing program.
…
Black swans?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-03-04/there%E2%80%99s-going-be-chaos-what-worst-case-outcome-todays-supreme-court-obamacare-hearin
Gold = $1200/oz OR BUST.
Zillow predicts 32812 home values will increase 2.7% next year, compared to a 3.2% increase for Orlando as a whole.
unlimited land- last time a drove through it was pretty ugly
mcmansions as far as the eye could see.
I guess the polite thing to do would be to say You’re welcome.
‘Thank you America!’ Syrian rebels taunt West after capturing US-made weapons
And may split from Al Qaeda to form terror group that could rival ISIS…
by John Hall | DailyMail.co.uk | March 4, 2015
Militants fighting for the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front in Syria have released images showing them posing with American anti-tank missiles captured from Western-backed rebels.
The terrorists are seen wearing military fatigues as they pose with deadly American-made BGM-71 TOW missiles in a warehouse in Atarib, a town 15 miles west of the city of Aleppo.
The showboating images show the masked militants pointing to America logos on cardboard boxes filled with food and weapons, which were seized when the Western-backed moderate rebel group Harakat Hazm recently disbanded and allowed their headquarters to be overrun with jihadis.
The emergence of the photographs comes as Nusra Front militants announced they are considering splitting with Al Qaeda in order to create an antonymous terror organisation that can rival the Islamic State’s reign of terror in Syria and Iraq.
a security agreement would have prevented this
30 A10s
50 Apaches at a little remote base
= no isis
And as soon as their mouths are empty once they’re done fluffing Bibi, cue the 2016 GOP nominee hopefuls to call for “boots on the ground” to defeat this
Shrinking the size of government to where you can drown it in the bathtub, one war at a a time
Our tax dollars at work.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2979527/Thank-America-Syrian-rebels-taunt-West-capturing-weapons-split-Al-Qaeda-form-terror-group-rival-ISIS.html
is it Zillow or am I crazy
orlando-endless land hot
midland tx oilland- hot
and dc area where gov workers never get fired is negative. To go negative and anger realtors -it’s that a big event for Zillow?
please explain
Explanation: CRATER
“he also is calling for tax hikes on the wealthy to fund his desired $74 billion increase”
Well, as long as it is…
paid for by “Someone else”
Obama: ‘We can afford’ $74B spending increase
By Ben Wolfgang - The Washington Times - Saturday, January 31, 2015
Despite a national debt over $18 trillion, President Obama said Saturday the nation can afford the major spending increases he’ll put forward in his fiscal year 2016 budget, due out Monday.
In his weekly address, Mr. Obama made the case that the federal government has the money to invest in infrastructure, education and other priorities because of shrinking deficits, though he also is calling for tax hikes on the wealthy to fund his desired $74 billion increase in spending. His budget also would undo the automatic cuts known as sequestration, paving the way for even higher spending down the road.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jan/31/obama-we-can-afford-74b-spending-increase-national/#ixzz3TRibwKU4
Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter
If you want to pay up so some rich prick can buy another Ferrari, by all means, do so. I’ll be voting in my own self interest.
“If you want to pay up so some rich prick can buy another Ferrari, by all means, do so.”
When does a truly “rich prick” ever get a tax hike?
They aren’t “Someone else”
“I’ll be voting in my own self interest.”
LMAO
“Until a second Massachusetts hero arose, John Kerry. John Kerry said no-no we’re not going to tax your heath insurance, we’re going to tax those evil insurance companies. We’re going to impose a tax that if they sell health insurance that’s too expensive we’re going to tax them. And conveniently the tax rate will happen to be the marginal tax rate on the income tax code. So basically it’s the same thing – we just tax insurance companies, they pass on higher prices, that offsets the tax break we get into being the same thing. It’s a very clever basic exploitation of the lack of economic understanding of the American voter.”
How can you “has the money” when you are $18 Trillion in debt? Crazy.
DOJ: We Legalized 100,000 Illegals by Executive Action Before Injunction
President further dismantles rule of law
by Susan Jones | CNS News | March 4, 2015
President Obama’s expanded executive amnesty started earlier than the administration said it would — and before a court blocked it.
“Out of an abundance of caution,” the Obama Justice Department on Tuesday informed a federal court in Texas that it started issuing three-year work permits to thousands of illegal aliens right after President Obama announced his executive amnesty on November 20 — and before a federal court issued a preliminary injuction blocking the expanded amnesty on Feb. 16.
The injunction barred the Obama administration from implementing “any and all aspects or phases” of Obama’s expanded DACA (deferred action for childhood arrivals) program. That program allows certain illegal aliens to live and work in the U.S. for three years instead of two.
But the injunction did not apply to Obama’s original 2012 DACA program, so when those people renewed their enrollment, they got the new three-year work permits.
“The Price of Oil Is About to Blow a Hole in Corporate Accounting”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/oil-at-95-a-barrel-discovered-in-sec-rules-on-reserves
“It has postponed the reckoning,”
Buckle up boys.
“It has postponed the reckoning,”
That has a mighty familiar ring to it!
Right?
More Rain Forrest warming weather climate global ice age changing that Al Gore or uh settled um I mean 1970’s Disco scientists warned about.
Third Winter Storm in Four Days Bears Down on East Coast
By Call it Crazy Follow Wed, 4 Mar 2015, 11:06am PST
Spring is two weeks away…. Thanks Global Warming!!!
(Bloomberg) — A winter storm sweeping across the eastern half of the U.S. is grounding flights from Texas to the Atlantic and threatening New York with its third snowfall in four days.
Rain in New York on Wednesday will change to snow overnight with 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) possible through Thursday, said Faye Barthold, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Upton, New York. The heaviest accumulations are forecast for Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn, with less falling north and northwest of the city.
“There will be more snow the further south you are,” Barthold said by telephone. “Snow should continue into Thursday afternoon and after that it should taper off.”
Winter storm warnings and weather advisories stretch from New Mexico to Long Island, including Dallas, Memphis, Washington and Philadelphia, the weather service said. Across the U.S., 1,202 flights were canceled as of 12:15 p.m. New York time, with Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport the hardest hit, according to FlightAware, a Houston-based tracking service.
Dallas could get 1 to 3 inches of sleet and snow overnight, said Steven LaVoie, a meteorologist with Hometown Forecast Services Inc. in Nashua, New Hampshire.
While a train of snowstorms and frigid temperatures has swept across the eastern U.S. since January, the pattern may be breaking up, Kines said.
“We haven’t seen that for a while,” Kines said.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-04/third-winter-storm-in-four-days-bears-down-on-u-s-east-coast
How Chicago Spent $400M On a Subway Superstation to Nowhere
February 23, 2015
NBC Chicago
View the Article
This segment investigates the costs associated with an abandoned CTA “superstation,” a plan for non-stop airport train service left unfinished underneath Block 37 in the Chicago Loop. The Civic Federation said the expensive, unfinished superstation is a prime example of a project that failed due to inadequate planning and lack of public discussion.
Big money made by wealthy on Subway Superstation to Nowhere.
Tax hikes for Subway Superstation to Nowhere paid for by “Someone else”
“One of them refused to leave us,” he added, “[so] we took all the marijuana around him, but his natural instincts to run were somehow gone.”
Stoner Bunny’s natural instincts to not get ripped off musta kicked in.
DEA Claims ‘Rabbits’ Will Get Stoned If Utah Passes Medical Marijuana Bill
March 2, 2015 5:35 pm·
As unbelievable as it sounds, the Drug Enforcement Agency has come up with the most ridiculous argument against marijuana legalization yet. You see, the State of Utah is considering a bill that would recognize the rights of patients with certain debilitating conditions to use medical marijuana – or, more accurately, to use marijuana medically.
The bill specifically promotes the use of edible forms of the plant, preferring it to smoking. This is, of course, fine for most who want to use the herb for medicine. But the DEA is freaking out…
That’s not surprising, since the bulk of DEA revenue is justified by marijuana entrapment and arrests.
If the bill passes, the DEA warns, the state’s wildlife may start to “cultivate a taste” for the herb. If this happens, they say that animals like rabbits – little bunny rabbits – might start to lose their natural inhibitions and fears of humans. This, in turn, could result in “an all time high” of animals, such as rabbits, losing their lives to humans.
Apparently, since the after school specials and Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaigns didn’t work, the DEA is trying to suggest that if you love legal weed, you had bunnies.
The DEA testimony presented to a Utah Senate panel last week (time stamp 58:00) claimed as much.
“I deal in facts. I deal in science,” Special Agent Matt Fairbanks claimed.
He’s a member of the “marijuana eradication” team in Utah. Other members of the same team, recently raided an okra garden, even though okra is perfectly legal… everywhere.
But Special Agent Fairbanks assure us he is a man of science.
“Personally, I have seen entire mountainsides subjected to pesticides, harmful chemicals, deforestation and erosion,” the DEA science man said. “The ramifications to the flora, the animal life, the contaminated water, are still unknown.”
He claimed more of his “scientific research” involved observing “rabbits” which he claims “had cultivated a taste for the marijuana…”
“One of them refused to leave us,” he added, “[so] we took all the marijuana around him, but his natural instincts to run were somehow gone.”
In spite of his “scientific” arguments, the Utah Senate panel approved the bill and sent it on to the full Senate. It will be debated later this week.
countercurrentnews.com/2015/03/dea-rabbits-medical-herb/ - 104k -
Why do they put the word rabbits in quotes?
Neither outrageous prices nor mounting debt can apparently slow the big, crazy so-cal real estate bloat machine:
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/market-652959-year-thomas.html
Wasn’t China’s growth last year something like the lowest since 1992 — the year they started quarterly GDP accounting?
It looks as though this year’s GDP growth rate will also be the lowest since 1992.
China News
China Lowers Growth Target to About 7%
This year’s target to signal how ready leaders are to settle for ‘new normal’
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang spoke at the opening of the National People’s Congress on Thursday. Photo: Zuma Press
By Mark Magnier
Updated March 4, 2015 11:03 p.m. ET
BEIJING—China lowered its economic growth forecast to about 7% for 2015 at the opening of the country’s biggest political event of the year, ushering in what leaders have dubbed a “new normal” of slower growth in the world’s second-largest economy.
The move signaled Beijing won’t take dramatic action to raise the growth rate above last year’s level, which at 7.4% was its lowest level in nearly a quarter-century. At the same time, its leaders signaled concerns that an even sharper drop in growth risks higher unemployment and social unrest.
In remarks before the country’s lawmakers on Thursday, Premier Li Keqiang listed the challenges to the Chinese economy, including sluggish investment growth, overcapacity, deflationary pressure and increasing public demand for better social services.
The new target “takes into consideration what is needed and what is possible,” Mr. Li said at the opening of the National People’s Congress, China’s annual parliament. Of the challenges, he said, “We must face these problems head on.”
Mr. Li on Thursday was more sober in tone than previous speeches. Several times he referred to the necessity of not letting growth slide further. He called for “a medium-high-level growth rate,” and suggested that falling below that would stall the drive to raise incomes. That could leave China in the “middle-income trap”—unable to create enough jobs and fund the transition to an economy driven by services, small business and innovative companies.
China’s targets illustrated the balance it is trying to strike as it encourages reform while trying to sustain growth. The government said it would increase deficit spending, lower targeted trade and fixed-asset investment growth, and increase money supply if needed. At the same time, it said it would loosen price controls on pharmaceuticals and energy and push to restructure its bloated state-owned enterprises.
Beijing’s new target follows a year in which the leadership struggled, and ultimately fell slightly short, of hitting its “about 7.5%” growth target for 2014. Targets remain far more important in China than in most other countries and are more directly tied to the leadership’s prestige and serve as a tool to guide the bureaucracy.
…
Is there any viable alternative female presidential candidate to Hillary Rodham Clinton?
Nobody will ever agree on a definition of viable. But the only thing I see in the wings that makes sense to me is Warren. But I suspect that if the PTB can’t bring her to heel she will get the Palin treatment at some point. She won’t make it as easy, but it will still happen. And then she’ll no longer be “viable”.
But I suspect that if the PTB can’t bring her to heel
She has already been brought to heel; she plays the part of not being, of course—but where did her precious Consumer Protection come down on QRM, again?
As I was saying…