Bits Bucket for April 8, 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.
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Name:Ben Jones
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The National Association of REALTORS®
http://ellenbrown.com/2015/04/06/how-america-became-an-oligarchy/
According to a new study from Princeton University, American democracy no longer exists. Using data from over 1,800 policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, researchers Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page concluded that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of – or even against – the will of the majority of voters. America’s political system has transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where power is wielded by wealthy elites.
Some observations …
https://www.google.com/search?q=pogo+we+have+met+the+enemy+and+it+is+us&biw=1813&bih=857&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=XR0lVZ28K4mqoQSx-oHIDw&sqi=2&ved=0CCsQsAQ&dpr=0.75
From the article, a quick peek at God’s plan …
“The influence of money was greatly enhanced by the emergence of private banking. The banks are able to create money and so to lend amounts far in excess of their actual wealth. This control of money-creation . . . has given banks overwhelming control over human affairs. In the United States, Wall Street makes most of the truly important decisions that are directly attributed to Washington.”
Time to dust off “Inside Job” for a re-watch and git some RAGE!!!!
From the article, a quick peek at God’s plan …
If I was a banker, I would hope and pray that there be no God.
FREE JON CORZINE!!!!
One pardon… coming up!
” well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of – or even against – the will of the majority of voters”
Did the study mention when this was ever not the case?
Did the study mention when this was ever not the case?
It was much smaller
when government was much smaller…
The more government controls
The more the wealthy elite will control
So those Barbary pirates were threatening America’s subsistence farmers?
???
America’s first war.
Was to stop muslims from taking American citizens as slaves or being kidnapped and held for ransom.
Kinda sounds familiar today - doesn’t it?
ALL BEFORE:
There was ONE American base or even soldier in the middle east.
Modern Israel was a country.
Funny how the excuses just keep coming…
Muslims were barbarians then and Muslims are barbarians today
But that doesn’t mean we need to give more American taxpayer dollars to Sheldon Adelson
What were America’s subsistence farmers doing on the other side of the world being kidnapped?
America’s first war.
Was to stop muslims from taking American citizens as slaves or being kidnapped and held for ransom.
I looked this up when you mentioned it a couple of months ago. The first war that I found was against some Indian tribe, probably to take their land.
Even subsistence farmers needed some goods and trade was necessary to meet those needs. A military is authorized in the Constitution. The need to avoid involvement in foreign entanglements while not in the Constitution was understood by the founders. However, protecting our own ships certainly did not violate that principle.
We built the navy and used it to attack people on the other side of the world in defense of the oligarchs’ shipping industry and its finance system.
The goods would have gotten here, had we desired them and if we were willing to pay a fair price, with or without our own shipping industry and financiers. But the oligarchs wouldn’t have made as much money. Hence “to the shores of Tri-po-li”.
Every war is a bankers’ war.
2banana: During the Gilded Age, the time of the Robber Barons, government was very small and the U.S. was essentially ruled by monopolistic wealthy elite… Rockefeller, Carnegie, Stanford, etc. If you’re worried about corporate power, shrinking the government isn’t the solution — that’s when the oligarchs flourish…
The First Barbary War
At this time in the Mediterranean, Arabic-speaking pirates were taking cargoes and hostages, collecting ransoms and dealing in slaves. They sailed from where Morocco is today, and they sailed from Tripoli, Tunis and Algiers, semi-independent areas attached at least in name to the Ottoman sultan in Turkey. Westerners called the region along this North African coastline, the Barbary in reference to the Berber peoples of North Africa.
Torture was used to obtain conversions to Islam: ‘turning Turk,’ as Western sailors called it… Most women who could not raise a ransom were, if pretty, married off to locals, or put into harems as concubines. note18
The newly independent United States was scarcely capable of defending its own coastline. The French had promised to protect American ships, citizens and goods with their navy, but they had lost interest and were unenthusiastic about competition with American tradesmen on the Mediterranean Sea. Ignored by the French, American tradesmen were easy prey for the Arab-speaking pirates from North Africa.
In 1784 an American-owned 300-ton brig, the Betsy, was boarded by pirates with sabers between their teeth and pistols in their belts. They took the American crew and cargo away in the holds of their ships. Two months later, two more ships were captured. Twenty-one U.S. crewmen were fettered and pushed past jeering crowds of Muslims to the ruler of Algiers, Hassan, who called them Christian dogs, put them in a dungeon and fed them fifteen ounces of bread per day. Hassan asked for $60,000 dollars as ransom – an old form of income for rulers like Hassan and for the communities they ruled.
The U.S. Ambassador to France, Thomas Jefferson, complained that paying ransom to Hassan would only encourage more attacks. The US Congress chose bribery. The US paid Algiers its ransom – as much as $1 million each year for the next fifteen years to the year 1800. This was close to like 20 percent of Washington’s revenues (federal revenues in 1800 adding up to a little more than 10 million dollars).
In France, Jefferson asked Tripoli’s ambassador what right Tripoli had to extort money and take slaves. According to Jefferson, the ambassador answered that such a right was founded on the Laws of the Prophet: that it was written in the Koran that all nations who did not recognize their authority were sinners; that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found; and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners; and that every Muslim slain in battle was sure to go to heaven.
Following Jefferson’s inauguration as president in 1801, the pasha of Tripoli, Yussif Karamanli, demanded $225,000. Jefferson refused. In May, the pasha declared war on the United States, not through any formal written documents but by cutting down the flagstaff in front of the US Consulate in Tripoli. Morocco, Algiers and Tunis joined their ally Tripoli against the United States. Jefferson had opposition from political opponents and members of his cabinet, but he chose war against far away Tripoli. Jefferson sent some frigates to the Mediterranean with the approval of Congress – without having declared war.
A turning point in the war came in 1805 at the Battle of Derna. on the US side was a combined force of 54 United States Marines and soldiers and something like 400 Arab, Greek and Berber mercenaries. This action was commemorated by the Marine Corps in the words “to the shores of Tripoli” in their hymn. The Marines wore leather around their necks as protection from sabers, leaving them with the name leathernecks.
President Jefferson’s war policy worked. Weary and threatened by an advance on Tripoli (and worried about a scheme to replace him with his deposed older brother), Pasha Karamanli signed a treaty ending hostilities with the United States.
http://www.fsmitha.com/h3/h27b-pirx.html
In other words, banana has no answer at all.
One could argue that if government is the power of the people, then the only real government we have are those parts of the USA system which are not yet owned by the moneyed interests.
By that definition, we already have very little government.
Along those lines I’ve been reading “Oil!” by Upton Sinclair, the setting is the Southern Calif. oil boom of `100 years ago and was partly inspired by the Teapot Dome scandal, back then corruption was at least as bad or maybe even worse at the state and national level.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teapot_Dome_scandal
An despite this, the masses continue to vote for and support increase centralization of power and funding through the federal instead of state and local governments.
It’s worse at the state an local level. The governments are smaller and thus more easily pushed around by business.
^^^ This. Exactly this.
In my new job (private equity), we deal with mostly small/rural municipalities to privatize some of their most vital services. They lay off their local workers, we take over and do the work cheaper… at least in the short run. Of course, the reason it’s cheaper is because our liabilities are carefully spelled out and are limited. We also get better deals on materials and equipment because we buy in bulk and finance them super-cheaply (calculated to reduce our taxable profits). We use mostly outside workers and will actively look for new employees to undercut any wages we consider to be above market.
And you know what? Most government officials never ask about the long term implications, they simply want lower costs/lower taxes in the short term.
Liberace!
The masses are stupid. They proved it very convincingly in 2008 and 2012 by voting for Wall Street water carriers Obama, McCain, and Romney.
American taxpayers and voters, William Kristol needs to shake you down for some more money
http://m.weeklystandard.com/blogs/iranian-nuclear-deal-explained_912097.html
And when you’re writing those checks to pay your income taxes next week, remember you are making him RICH
Moonie rag the Washington Times piles on to “rally the base”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/apr/7/donald-lambro-iran-a-nuclear-nightmare-for-israel
No “smaller government” or “lower taxes” happening here, you neocon hypocrites
Goon, tell me again how leaving sanctions on Iran or even tightening then means soaring expenditures for the U.S.
Any foreign policy chosen by Christian Zionists (with a little help from William Kristol to pull the puppet strings) is gonna cost alot of money, Dannyboy
These people believe the Earth is 6,000 years old, the concept of a trillion dollar war is beyond their third grade math skills
Can somebody explain how exactly the fed is gonna raise the fed funds rates when it finally decides to?
How do they do it?
Can they do it without bankrupting the treasury?
Can they do it without bankrupting the treasury?
Maybe that’s the idea, that way they can “foreclose” on the US government. They could privatize the national parks. Imagine how much they could get for luxury condos in Yosemite, especially those with views of El Capitan. Of course the riff-raff would be kept out. Or maybe Steve Balmer and his buddies could buy the parks for their private use.
They could privatize the Interstate Highway system, or maybe all the public schools … the possibilities are endless.
They could privatize the national parks. Imagine how much they could get for luxury condos in Yosemite, especially those with views of El Capitan. Of course the riff-raff would be kept out. Or maybe Steve Balmer and his buddies could buy the parks for their private use.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what does happen to broke nations. That is why conservatives having been arguing for a debt level that is no where near the 100% of GDP type debt that we presently have. Gimmicks such as monetizing the debt thereby keeping debt servicing low only work for a short time. Just like Greece we are going to learn that spending above your means has consequences.
except the gop is the first to sell state assets.
In Illinois they have a guy pushing the privatization of all state universities.
In Wi we sold a bunch of efficient state power plants in a closed door process with no open bidding.
Highways are being privatized and turned into toll roads all over the Midwest.
State lands are being sold.
School voucher systems privatizing K-12 education.
Medicare advantage plans privitize medicare. With state gurantees of course.
The quickest get rich plan is privitize the gains and socialize the losses.
Warmist Warming Wednesday
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/08/health/obama-climate-change-public-health/index.html
This is the top headline on CNN right now, polls show that Americans don’t give a sh*t about warmism, so real journalists have to answer to their deep pocketed paymasters and shove that warming down your throat, LOLZ
Are you ready for Go Time?
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/08/white-sc-officer-charged-with-murder-for-shooting-black-man
But remember, this is just one little puzzle piece of Go Time
When King Obama unleashes some paid stooges to randomly waste a bunch of cops around the country in alleged retribution for this, then it’s gonna be Go Time
That’s when King Obama signs the “2015 Take All The Scary Looking Guns Away From White People Executive Order” and unleashes the DHS to begin door to door confiscation and shoot on sight and without questions anyone who resists
Forward
Do you remember 2012? I do
First they tried with James Holmes in Aurora, then they tried with Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook, both of which were very professional productions
There are some deep pocketed and well connected people behind this, it’s alot bigger than Obama
Some backroom deal at Davos or the Aspen Ideas Institute is where this started
It’s gonna take a Bloomberg sized pile of cash to make Go Time happen for real, but it’s coming…
Bloomberg has been trying for years and is tossing out lots of cash, but it isn’t helping the disarmament cause. We have more guns than ever. Thank god.
Funny thing to watch…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl–YVnni0I
First they tried with James Holmes in Aurora, then they tried with Adam Lanza at Sandy Hook, both of which were very professional productions
Goon, on the whole you seem like an intelligent guy, but then you spew nonsense like this and kind of destroy your credibility.
spew nonsense like this
Everyone
Must
Check
In
Did Everyone Check In?
0:23 No recoil even for 9mm?
0:26 looks directly at person taking video
2:44-2:52 took 5 bullets in the back and no blood?
Full Video of Walter Scott shooting by Michael Thomas Slager …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEzYcrq3A38 - 322k -
Well they shut that video down pretty damn quick.
Forward
Walter Scott Police Shooting FULL RAW VIDEO. - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQgjAY-Mm8s - 391k -
Al and Jesse need to get PAID
Clearly the cop’s life was in danger, so he had to use deadly force to protect himself.
Shot and Killed While Running Away
Matt Ford
Apr 7 2015, 8:08 PM ET
The arrest of the North Charleston officer, Michael Slager, comes after a series of high-profile deaths of black Americans at the hands of police officers last year prompted a national debate over policing, racism, and the use of deadly force. Last month, President Obama outlined proposals for police reform based on a task force report commissioned after incidents in Ferguson, Missouri and New York. Slager, the 33-year-old police officer, is white; Walter Scott, the 50-year-old victim, was black.
http://www.theatlantic.com/…/archive/2015/04/shot-and-killed-while-running-away/389976/ - 166k -
outlined proposals
Obama Calls for Changes in Policing After Task Force Report
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISMARCH 2, 2015
WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday called for prompt action to change police practices across the country after the deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island at the hands of white officers exposed frustrations about law enforcement in minority communities.
“The moment is now for us to make these changes,” Mr. Obama said at the White House, where he met with members of the task force. “We have a great opportunity, coming out of some great conflict and tragedy, to really transform how we think about community-law-enforcement relations so that everybody feels safer and our law enforcement officers feel, rather than being embattled, feel fully supported. We need to seize that opportunity.”
“It will be good for police and it will be good for the communities involved, and as a consequence it will be good for the country,” Mr. Obama said. “Everybody wants our streets safe, and everybody wants to make sure that laws are applied fairly and equitably.”
In an interim report of more than 100 pages, the panel offered 63 recommendations, including the creation of a National Crime and Justice Task Force to guide a broad overhaul of the criminal justice system.
The panel, led by Charles H. Ramsey, the commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department and president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, and Laurie O. Robinson, a former Justice Department official who is a professor of criminology and law at George Mason University, also offered more specific recommendations.
It called for the creation of a federal initiative to diversify law enforcement agencies so they better reflect their communities’ demographic makeup, and suggested that federal funding be tied to those efforts.
Comment by phony scandals
2015-04-08 08:07:54
Shot and Killed While Running Away
theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/shot-and-killed-while-running-away/389976/
“diversify law enforcement agencies so they better reflect their communities’ demographic makeup”
B-b-but our apartheid system! Our shakedowns! Oh, what a world.
(Can we keep our mine-resistant vehicles?)
“Shot and Killed While Running Away”
I watched My Three Sons while growing up, and I never saw Fred MacMurray running from the police.
A white cop who shoots a black guy in the back while he’s slowly running away, after pulling him over for a minor traffic infraction, and who may have planted a taser on his corpse, is now being charged with murder. I’m sure he’ll do just fine in prison.
I’m sure he’ll do just fine in prison.
I have a hunch he won’t serve time.
Honestly, I do not see how he avoids it. You can argue about the degree of culpability whether it is first degree murder or manslaughter but that it is an unjustified homicide is quite clear and is clearly deserving of prison. Not even the law enforcement community would disagree.
P.S. The system did work, he has been charged.
That’s when King Obama signs the “2015 Take All The Scary Looking Guns Away From White People Executive Order” and unleashes the DHS to begin door to door confiscation and shoot on sight and without questions anyone who resists
If it’s going to be so easy for the government to confiscate all the guns, then what is the point in having them? If 300 million guns in private hands can’t keep the Feds in their place, then what’s the point?
And don’t most gun fetishists have bumper stickers on their vehicles proclaiming their support of the troops or their fidelity to some branch of the military? Aren’t the armed forces instruments of our overlords?
“There are some deep pocketed and well connected people behind this, it’s alot bigger than Obama”
Crushing.Housing.Losses.
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/blog/real_deals/2015/04/colorados-home-price-appreciation-highest-in-u-s.html
Remember…
I can ask $50k for my 10 year old Chevy pickup but where is the buyer at that price?
Colorado Housing Demand Plummets 6% YoY
http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/State/State_Turnover_AllHomes.csv
A ten year old Chevy in Colorado can be worth $50,000 if it has enough pot in the bed.
China’s low external debt:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-04/08/content_20023781.htm
Debt is debt, it doesn’t matter who it’s owed to. It all has to be rolled over or paid. The Chinese government will protect the banks and state owned companies, but there are going to be trillions in losses before this is done.
The process of turning debt into equity is well under way, sell stock and pay off debt with the proceeds, that is something easily down when the debt is someone’s asset within the same country:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-04/08/content_20029538.htm
The amount of money raised in one week will almost be as much as China’s entire external debt. Next year I would not be surprised to see China’s overall debt down to 200% just due to the stock markets rally and the issuance of stock to retire debt.
Excerpt you will see with a little math, China’s external debt is well below 10% of its GDP. The U.S. has external debt close to 100% of its GDP:
BEIJING - China’s outstanding external debt totaled $895.5 billion at the end of 2014, up 2.5 percent from one year earlier, according to data released on Tuesday by the country’s forex regulator.
Of the total debt, outstanding short-term external debt, due within one year, amounted to $621.1 billion, up 0.4 percent from a year earlier, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) said in a statement on its website.
Medium- and long-term outstanding external debt reached 274.4 billion dollars, a year-on-year increase of 7.5 percent.
The SAFE said China’s external debt risk is within control as indices of debt security, including the ratio of debt to GDP, debt ratio and debt servicing ratio, all stayed below international alert levels.
Ban,
Remember…. Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
All this article is saying is that it’s the Chinese themselves who will take the biggest hit when the defaults start to avalanche.
Yes, but if you combine it with the fact that the debt is owed by SOEs which I showed a few days ago and the fact that the assets of the same SOEs exceeds the debt by more than in the 1990s and their return on capital also is higher than it was in the 1990s, all shown earlier, both the chance for a default and the probability that debt holders will actually lose money on the debt is pretty low.
The SOE’s are the least productive segment of the Chinese economy, but they are the ones that will be saved, while the more efficient private companies are allowed to wither and die.
The SOE’s, because they have friends in high places, will have no problem rolling over the debts they owe to the banks, which also have friends in high places. Local government debts will be backed up as well, to a point. But developers, their suppliers, small companies, small investors, large investors, and large companies that compete with SOE’s will soon be eating dirt. When all is done, there will be a lot less free enterprise, and a lot more crony capitalism.
The New York Times hates America and hates Israel and hates God and hates Jesus, as evidenced by this hate speech penned by their editorial board of haters:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/08/opinion/israels-unworkable-demands-on-iran.html
You would think that those East Coast liberals would remember when the Iranian terrorists took down the World Trade Centers, but they’re so blinded by their hate they can’t see the imminent threat of Iran nuking Israel and the USA five minutes from now
http://www.foxnews.com/story/2004/07/18/iran-denies-harboring-11-hijackers/
When I clicked that link and read that article, for some reason I got the image and sound of William Kristol jingling some coins in his pocket and smiling stuck in my head
Puerto Ricans Getting Disability Checks Because They Don’t Speak English
Investor’s Business Daily | 03/07/2015 | John Merline
Is not knowing how to speak English a disability? According to the Social Security administration, it can be.
In fact, it’s even a disability in Puerto Rico, where 84% of the population doesn’t speak English “very well,” and where Spanish is one of the official languages.
In one case cited by the IG, a 50-year-old dental assistant who claimed she suffered depression and back pain was approved for Social Security Disability Insurance, even though she was well enough to perform light work, because she wasn’t fluent in English.
Over the past six years, 5.7 million workers have gone on permanent disability in total, and today, the ratio of workers to disabled is now just 16 to 1. A decade ago it was 21 to 1.
Let’s cut out all the lies and dissembling and call all this for what it is: the Dole. That way you can better thank your oligarch masters for providing for you without you having to work.
The oligarch masters wouldn’t have become the masters without stupid people deciding the outcome of elections. Hence you have to keep giving stupid people a reason to keep voting for the status quo. So far it’s working just grand, as evidenced by the 95% of the electorate who voted for Obama, McCain, and Romney.
From Rathergate to Rolling Stone: Fake But Accurate
Front Page Magazine | April 8, 2015 | Daniel Greenfield
A decade after Dan Rather’s career ended over an attempt to pass off forged documents about President Bush’s military service, Robert Redford is working on a movie about the case. The movie is based on CBS producer Mary Mapes’ book “Truth”, which denies the truth that the documents were not written on a 70s typewriter, but in Microsoft Word.
That scandal led to the coining of the phrase, “Fake, but Accurate”. Ten years later, they’re still fake but accurate.
Rathergate has many similarities to the Rolling Stone rape hoax. Both ignored the basic rules of journalism to pursue a narrative. The narrative was so full of holes that bloggers and even casual readers realized that something was wrong and stepped in where the professional journalists had failed.
Modern lefty media journalism is more interested in narratives than in facts. The specific facts of a case may be fake, but that doesn’t matter as long as the narrative is accurate.
Facts don’t disprove narratives. JFK was shot by a radical Socialist. Rather than deal with this fact, we have been burdened with generations of conspiracy theories indicting everyone from the CIA to space aliens to Dallas. Like Rathergate, the conspiracy theories are factually fake, but narratively accurate.
As recently as last year, the New York Times’ Frank Rich was still indicting the “climate of hate in Dallas” for the Kennedy assassination. Rich knows it’s untrue, but it’s an accusation that feels emotionally right. Kennedy should have been killed by the right. It feels more fitting and true. The rest is just word games.
Lefty narratives that are false, but ideologically and emotionally fulfilling, never go away. (The real victims of the Cold War were a handful of Hollywood scribblers. The USSR took the lead in the war against fascism. Terrorism is caused by unemployment. Tax cuts cause poverty. Revolving door prisons reduce crime.) Facts that are true, but upset the narrative quickly vanish.
Which lefty really wants to remember that the co-founder of Earth Day was Ira Einhorn, who brutally murdered his girlfriend and then went on the run, or that Maulana Karenga, the founder of Kwanzaa, brutally tortured a woman and was sent to jail for it where he wrote essays about feminism? Einhorn and Karenga both claimed to be political prisoners. Einhorn blamed the CIA for killing his girlfriend.
Progressives aren’t supposed to be rapists. Fraternity brothers are. When it comes to the narrative glue that makes certain stories stick and not others, the imaginary “Drew” of Rolling Stone’s rape hoax will always outshine politically inconvenient rapists like Obama’s mentor Bill Ayers.
The left isn’t interested in rape victims. It’s interested in narratives. That was why Bill Clinton’s accusers were “trash” while Anita Hill was a martyred saint.
The left does not inhabit the realm of facts. It is an ideology. Its followers live in a world of convictions. They believe in what feels true, not in what is. They express their convictions through stories. These stories are more real to them than the real world. By trying to make the stories real, they attempt to impose their reality on the world. Occasionally facts poke holes in their fantasy, but not for very long.
+1
David Horowitz (who grew up a red diaper baby in communist colony Sunnyside, Queens) started Front Page Magazine, which despite their slobbering Zionism, are some of the only journalists to expose “progressivism” for what it truly is
See also Horowitz’s excellent book “Hating Whitey”
At some point he moved a mile or so from Sunnyside to Astoria, Archie Bunker’s neighborhood. It’s unlikely that the rants on his web site expose anything for what it truly is.
Archie Bunker’s neighborhood
It looked like a TV set to me, but if you say so. But weren’t those fun times? Let’s all laugh at the racist old white guy! Of course, most of the hippies turned into greedy old farts eventually, but it seemed like a wonderful time.
Boy, the way Glenn Miller played!
Songs that made the Hit Parade.
Guys like us, we had it made.
Those were the days!
And you knew where you were then.
Girls were girls and men were men.
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
Didn’t need no welfare state.
Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days!
Strange how hollywood does that.
Carol O’ was an english professor and son of an attorney.
Charles Ingalls(Michael Landon) was gay
Godfreys general store in the Waltons was really a reclaimed chicken coop.
Yeah. Hollywood. We have a few hollywood types right here on the HBB. And they’re equally full of shit.
Yeah, it’s called show business. That movie whose story supposedly took place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away was actually filmed entirely on Earth in the 1970s. Imagine that.
Go ahead and watch some more fantasy. Be comfortable in your delusion.
‘it’s called show business’
Writing the intolerant lines and attitudes, have an older white guy play the role, have him made to look like a buffoon over and over by all the stereotypical, politically correct cut-outs. I would call that shooting fish in a barrel.
Ben Jones, 95% of American television content and 99% of television advertising today is anti white heterosexual male
…. and 100% revisionist fantasy bull$hit.
Writing the intolerant lines and attitudes, have an older white guy play the role, have him made to look like a buffoon over and over by all the stereotypical, politically correct cut-outs. I would call that shooting fish in a barrel.
At the time the show was considered to be very controversial, introducing topics that advertisers and networks preferred to avoid.
Also, up to that point, it was almost entirely white males who did anything interesting on TV. So they were both the heroes and the villains in Westerns, cop shows, etc. The hero in All in the Family was the son-in-law character, who was a younger white guy.
Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.
Didn’t need no welfare state.
Everybody pulled his weight.
Right. Archie Bunker would not have survived a week without welfare state bread lines.
Hey… Meathead’s here.
Not ding bat?
This discussion brings back some memories. I can remember when I was bothered about “political correctness” it was Archie’s class that I thought was significant. He was a working class white guy in NYC. For some reason they made him a WASP. In reality, most working class whites at the time were Catholics. So a bunch of rich Hollywood liberals, who were probably either Jewish or non-religious, were ridiculing working class white Catholics. Would any network allow a show that operated the other way around?
This ties in to a political event of the period - the way that Richard Nixon convinced lots of non-wealthy white to support him. Millions of white people disregarded Archie’s class or the fact that he lived in New York City. They just saw the show as liberal Hollywood dumping on them, insulting them.
Her too.
‘As recently as last year, the New York Times’ Frank Rich was still indicting the “climate of hate in Dallas” for the Kennedy assassination.’
You are supposing there is one right and one left, never changing, never fractured. Who were the ‘extreme right’ in this time? The Hunt brothers? Are you telling me the John Birch Society would be down with all this globalism stuff? About this time, what would become the neocons were Trotskyites in the Democratic party. These ‘big government conservatives’ like Newt Gingrich, always talking about small government and constantly working to enlarge it.
Some issues; torture, NSA spying, drones, undeclared wars; Rush Limbaugh, Hillary Clinton, both for it all. Some big left/right difference, huh? Have you ever heard either one say boo about the WTO?
My point is, false dualisms serve a purpose; to distract, confuse, keep the public fighting each other while we are robbed blind. Let me bring up a photo again:
President Clinton at a 1993 NAFTA signing ceremony
http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/images/media/doc/d5b/1247689576-large.jpg
There they are; clapping, smiling. No big conflict when it came to selling the entire country down the river.
Just like the clapping seals at the signing of Otraumacare - remember that one?! What a f…ing joke this whole charade has become.
Obamacare was passed without a single republican vote.
And you think that’s a bad thing?
I guess all those crosses in our military cemeteries are really just figments of our imagination. Tell us again, where are those weapons of mass destruction?
If we had not fought those wars, and created those crosses, row on row, what language would you be speaking today?
English, French, Indian, German, Russian, Spanish,or Japanese?
And what languages will you speak in the future, Arabic, or Chinese?
You live today as you do, on the bodies of those dead warriors!
Blame someone, but not yourself, because you BELIEVE!
Are you one of those chickenhawks who supports every war, no matter how dumb, as long as it’s fought by someone else? I’m sure you’ll be glad to patrol the streets of Tehran when Ted Cruz is elected president.
Actually you are right, I did serve in WW2 and spent 6years in the USN.
and I support all of the warriors that defend the country
and you should know that the present type of war is the battle will be in the civilian streets and the dead will be the civilians, as shown in the MidEast today!
Why fight the soldiers when the civilians roll over and play dead!
CraterJack!
Wars don’t threaten languages. We totally kicked Mexico’s butt in 1845 and Spain’s butt in 1898. Yet, what language are many Americans speaking today? Oh, right. Vietnamese.
Front Page is the right-winger equivalent of the World Socialist web site. I just ignore both.
The real victims of the Cold War were a handful of Hollywood scribblers.
Who says this?
The USSR took the lead in the war against fascism.
The fact of the matter is that the Soviet Army killed seven out of eight German soldiers who died during the war. On the other hand, Stalin’s subjugation of Central Europe had the effect of expanding his brand of fascism.
Terrorism is caused by unemployment.
A lot of trouble in the world is caused by young males with too much time on their hands.
Tax cuts cause poverty.
Who made this assertion?
Revolving door prisons reduce crime
And what’s he on about with this one?
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/04/07/uah-global-temperature-report-march-2015-down-slightly/
And this is during an el nino year.
Now compare this graph showing co2 in the atmosphere provided by real journalists, if you can find a correlation between the two over the last twenty years, there is a multi-million dollar government grant in your future:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/co2-levels-in-atmosphere-rising-at-dramatically-faster-rate-un-report-warns/2014/09/08/3e2277d2-378d-11e4-bdfb-de4104544a37_story.html
The Washington Post should just rename itself the Warmism Post
But speaking of warmism, it kinda sucks that backcountry skiing and couloir climbing season is ending so early this year, but alpine rock climbing season will start sooner (not that people with mortgages ever get to participate in any of these activities)
UAH satellite data found to be suspect… “A new study suggests that the University of Alabama at Huntsville is lowballing the warming of the atmosphere”
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2015/mar/25/one-satellite-data-set-is-underestimating-global-warming
Just more of the same ignore real data because it is not performing according to the models. It is just like NASA going in and changing data gathered since the 1880s because the data must be wrong since it does not agree with the models. This is not science it is bad religion. The satellites are by far the most accurate methods we have, they are not bias by heat islands etc.
Obama’s DOJ attorneys sound like they would do well as Realtors.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/texas-judge-doj-misconduct-immigration-dispute-116755.html
Silly court, expecting the Government of the United States to act in a forthright manner and not hide behind deceptive representations, half-truths, omissions and purposeful misdirections.
“This Court expects all parties, including the Government of the United States, to act in a forthright manner and not hide behind deceptive representations and half-truths,” Hanen wrote in one of two orders he issued Tuesday night. “Whether by ignorance, omission, purposeful misdirection, or because they were misled by their clients, the attorneys for the Government misrepresented the facts.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/04/texas-judge-doj-misconduct-immigration-dispute-116755.html#ixzz3WjViEiar
Technically speaking, aren’t the courts the third branch of the government?
Latest from Chi-town ILLANNOY - Rummy wins
and another four years of bad policy, fiscal tanking and schools that under perform.
This sucker could go down.
What’s Illin’s pension fund debt up to these days…?
Puggs:
Depends if you are asking about the City pension fund or the State’s.
They are tied to one another.
Last I looked at the IL Policy Institute’s Linky here…https://www.illinoispolicy.org/ stats last summer the figures were $1.2 bil for the City (current unfunded) and the state is now at $120 bil of unfunded future entitlements for pensions. Current inability for the state comptroller to pay out services (i.e. write checks) is now 6 to 7 Billion in the hole. Services include mental health, aid to dependent children, medicaid, social services etc all contracted by the state to agencies providing services. Many have not been paid in months. This has been going on for a very long time. I hear more and more will not provide services contracted by the state because they don’t get paid in a timely fashion.
The Civic federation led by Lawrence Msall is a good source for info as well. He noted a couple of years back that that the State of ILLANNOY was in dire shape and soon bond ratings would drop if something was not done - well nothing was done and here we are….Linky here….http://www.civicfed.org/
I have to say that the election result is no surprise as Moody’s and Fitch are threatening to take the bond rating of the City down another click in the near term resulting in just two clicks above junk status. Had Jesus “Chuy” aka Cheech Marin Garcia won the drop would most likely have been immediate due to inexperience in fiscal matters.
My sense - Rummy is gonna just continue to pay lip service to the fiscal disaster that is Chicago and pretend that things are not as bad as they really are. I suspect that by the end of the summer Moody’s at least will impose another negative outlook and drop the bonds another click. Just a hunch.
Rummy has very few choices left as he has alienated the teachers - has threatened to raise property taxes and is now kow towing to his friend Gov. Rauner for what may be relief from all of this as these two are tied at the hip for the next 4 years.
The folks - those that can - are leaving. City has lost on net I think the number is near 120k folks to the surrounding burbs over the last decade and the State last year alone lost net 94k people who simply moved out to friendlier climes - taking their business, tax dollars and most telling their families with them. Not only are the dollars gone - now the future intellectual capital is gone as well. My kids - never coming back here and again as I have noted for a while as soon as I can I am outta here too.
WOW, KABOOOOOM!!!!
I used to live a couple hours from Chicago and loved to visit there summer and Christmastime.
Thanks for an on the ground report.
You are welcome - the deal is the linkys I provided only report what is seen in terms of debt - it’s anyone’s guess as to how deep the hole really is.
Re-defines “I can’t breath”.
https://gma.yahoo.com/obama-says-climate-changes-impact-health-personal-him-100124762–abc-news-health.html
So….does this mean that I have to pay Mr. Banker to hold the money that I have invested hoping to get a return from the investment that I have made?
If so - is this upside down or what?!!!
These are not normal times.
Europe’s plunging borrowing costs marked two new milestones on Wednesday, with Switzerland becoming the first country ever to issue 10-year debt that gives investors a yield under 0%, and Mexico lining up a rare deal to borrow euros that it will repay a century from now.
Mexico lining up a rare deal to borrow euros that it will repay a century from now
Nice. The grandparents of those who will have to pay that back haven’t been born yet. Talk about kicking the can. Is it a 0% loan? If so, they amount paid back might be the price of a kilo of tortillas in 100 years.
Another day, another 4%+ drop in the oil price (yawn…)
Futures Movers
Oil slumps as inventories continue to build
Published: Apr 8, 2015 11:26 a.m. ET
Saudis say oil production will stay record high
By William Watts
Deputy markets editor
Carla Mozee
Markets Reporter
& Eric Yep
NEW YORK (MarketWatch)—Oil futures slumped Wednesday, giving back a large chunk of the previous two session’s gains, as inventory data showed a crude supply glut continues to build.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in May (CLK5, -4.67%) fell $2.20, or 4.1%, to $51.78 a barrel, after having gained around 10% over the previous two days to close Tuesday at a 2015 high.
Brent crude for May delivery (LCOK5, -3.54%) on London’s ICE Futures exchange dropped $1.89, or 3.2%, to $57.21 a barrel.
Oil extended losses after the U.S. Energy Information Administration said commercial crude inventories, excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, jumped by 10.9 million barrels to 482.4 million in the week ended April 3, far exceeding the 3.2 million barrel rise forecast, on average, by analysts surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
If that wasn’t enough, market bulls had also looked for a second consecutive weekly drop in domestic oil production only to see output rise by 18,000 barrels a day to 9.404 million barrels. Also, supplies at Cushing, Okla., the delivery hub for Nymex futures, rose to 60.2 million barrels from 58.9 million
Crude was already under pressure ahead of the EIA data after Saudi Arabia reported record output in March.
Oil prices have been volatile in recent weeks on the back of unrest in Yemen, the Iranian nuclear talks, wide swings in currency markets and indications of stronger oil demand.
The OPEC members, and particularly Saudi Arabia, have no intention of drastically reducing oil production as they know that this won’t alter total oil supply, as non-OPEC countries such as the U.S. and Canada would quickly step in to fill the gap, ABN Amro said in a report.
“In other words, the OPEC would merely lose market share without achieving its objective of raising oil prices,” it said. The bank said the ideal oil price is somewhere around $80 a barrel but reaching this equilibrium will be a prolonged process with great volatility.
ABN Amro expects oil prices to test new lows before recovering by year-end to around $60-$65 a barrel.
Meanwhile, Nymex reformulated gasoline blendstock for May (RBK5, -4.13%) fell 7.42 cents, or 4%, to $1.7867 a gallon. May natural-gas futures (NGK15, -2.05%) dropped 5.9 cents, or 2.2%, to $2.621 per million British thermal units.
…
Plummeting oil prices. Plummeting plummeting oil prices. The more they pump, the less we use, the more they plummet.
http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/138031/Kemp_US_Oil_Production_Is_Probably_Peaking_Right_Now/?all=HG2
Tank farms and barges billowing with bubbling crude….
And pretty soon Iran will start pumping out a million or so gallons. I hear those storage tanks are getting pretty full….
Looking forward to gasoline under $2/gal and oil below $30/bbl!
Looking forward to gasoline under $2/gal and oil below $30/bbl!
I think you are not looking forward but backward. Market got a head of itself. If you look at oil production in the U.S. over the last three weeks, it is down. However, last week was a bit of fluke down and we gave some of the drop back this week. The market did not like it but the anticipated drop in production is actually a head of schedule. We will soon see thirty thousand + barrels of production declines every week but that will not be until May so last week was an outlier.
But global production is skyrocketing and prices are falling.
No, the Saudis have just about killed both the U.S. shale oil industry and the smaller but significant Canadian shale oil industry. The Saudis are, now, able to cut back their production without fear that we will step up production to fill the gap. The Saudis can cutback a million or more barrels and in fact they have to since they cannot keep this surge production up without further damage to their old oilfields. Even if Iran gets sanctions lifted, it will be only able to produce 500,000 barrels a day extra within about a year. Do the math, oil demand is increasing by about 100,000 barrels a day per month. U.S. production will soon be dropping by about 35,000 barrels a week like it did the previous week. Thus, 240,000 barrels of new production will be needed every month over say the next ten months. Which means 2.4 million barrels of oil of new production will be needed, subtract 500,000 barrels of oil from Iran, despite a deal not being certain, and you have still have a need for 1.9 million barrels, subtract another 200,000 barrels of Libya, which is questionable due to its instability, another 200,000 barrels from Iraq (ditto) and you still have a 1.5 million barrel hole which is greater than the stated surplus. Now, remember the declining production in the North Sea and Canadian shale oil and you offset any other areas of increase. The Saudis are setting it up for $80 a barrel by the end of the year and $100 oil by the end of 2016. The irony which PB cannot see is the lower oil is now, the higher it will be in December since we will lose more shale oil production with these prices. The Saudis clearly understand this fact as I do. The drilling rig count is already far below where it needs to be to sustain production and it is still dropping albeit at a slower pace.
Falling oil prices, skyrocketing inventory and production at record highs.
What’s not to like?
Even with today’s plunge, we are still above $50 a barrel on WTI, higher than we were two months ago. So yawn but we are not going below $40 like you asked about a few weeks ago when it was close to $40. If you just count the down days, I guess we should be selling for $0.
Futures Movers
Oil plunges as supply glut grows
By William Watts, Carla Mozee, and Eric Yep
Published: Apr 8, 2015 3:09 p.m. ET
U.S. inventories post another big rise
NEW YORK (MarketWatch)—Oil futures plunged Wednesday, erasing much of a two-day gain that had previously put the U.S. benchmark in positive territory for 2015, after data showed U.S. oil inventories posted the largest one-week jump since 2001.
The figures helped dash notions that the market was beginning to work through a supply glut that has helped drive oil down more than 50% from its mid-2014 peak.
…
Drill, baby, drill!
ft dot com
Oil slides on ballooning US stockpiles
Anjli Raval and Eric Platt
April 8, 2015
Oil prices slid on Wednesday after data showed US crude stockpiles ballooned last week and Saudi Arabia announced production reached a record high in March.
The US benchmark Nymex May West Texas Intermediate dropped $2.97 a barrel to $51.01 in late afternoon trading, while the international marker ICE May Brent fell $2.55 a barrel to $56.53 a barrel.
US crude stocks recorded their biggest gain in 14 years surging by 10.9m barrels, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Analysts’ surveyed by Reuters had expected an increase of 3.4m barrels.
Behind the increase was a rise in imports of 869,000 barrels a day. Gasoline stocks recorded an unexpected pick-up of 817,000, even as analysts forecast a drop of 1m barrels.
Crude stocks at the important Cushing, Oklahoma delivery hub, where WTI is priced, rose by 1.232m barrel. This was also greater than analysts had estimated.
The numbers follow American Petroleum Institute data on Tuesday which showed inventories surged by 12.2m barrels in the week to April 3. The data far surpassed market projections for a 3.3m barrel build in the latest week.
Meanwhile, in earlier Wednesday trading, oil had reacted to comments late on Tuesday by Saudi Arabia’s veteran oil minister, who said the country’s output had climbed to a record 10.3m barrels a day in March. The Kingdom’s previous record peak was 10.2m b/d in August 2013.
…
That whole Greece clawback from WWII is pretty funny.
If the Greeks get the money, then Iran should sue Greece for Alexander the Great.
Nation of broke a$$ losers……
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2015/04/high-number-of-zero-savers/
If you haven’t been plowing money into savings or paying down debt since the 2008 meltdown, you need yer head examined!
Get the popcorn!
Oh wait - there are votes or money in this.
————–
Native Americans BAN same-sex marriage.
http://www.therightscoop.com | april 7, 2015
CBN NEWS – Months before the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the issue of gay marriage, Native American tribes have taken steps to defend traditional marriage.
Eleven tribes with a total membership approaching a million people will not recognize same-sex marriages.
Just weeks after North Carolina began issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, the state’s Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians updated its law to prevent gay couples from having marriage ceremonies on tribal land.
Tribes that don’t recognize same-sex marriage include the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma and the Navajo Nation.
Hmmmm….
———–
9K Off Of Food Stamps After Maine Begins Work Requirements
CNS News | April 8, 2015 | Eric Scheiner
12,000 non-disabled adults were in Maine’s SNAP program before Jan. 1 - a number that dropped to 2,680 by the end of March.
More than 9,000 Maine residents have been removed from the state’s food stamp program since Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s administration began enforcing work and volunteer requirements.
The new rules prevent adults who are not disabled and do not have dependents from receiving food stamps for more than three months - unless they work at least 20 hours a week, participate in a work-training program or meet volunteering requirements. DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew said the goal of the requirements is to encourage people to find work.
It’s time to go after the real welfare queens and eliminate the mortgage interest tax deduction
Good luck with that
The MID will cease to exist within 5 years.
ZIRP must be moving us in that direction.
I think something has been left out of this story. What’s the policy regarding senior citizens?
The new rules prevent adults who are not disabled and do not have dependents from receiving food stamps for more than three months - unless they work at least 20 hours a week, participate in a work-training program or meet volunteering requirements. DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew said the goal of the requirements is to encourage people to find work.
It’s about time. Now we need to wean the Wall Street welfare queens off the Fed’s trillions in free printing-press gambling money, er, “stimulus.”
unless they work at least 20 hours a week, participate in a work-training program or meet volunteering requirements.
Is there even enough paid work for everybody to do?
That’s why they slipped in the “volunteering” requirement. It’s any employers wet dream. An unemployed person “volunteers” as an intern. The employer pays nothing, but the government pays in food stamps. Hmm, it smacks of that “you pretend to work and we pretend to pay you” joke of the Soviet era.
The should just have them show up and ride a stationary for 4 hours a day.
Or work in a community garden
Or take a large box of white and black rocks and separate them
It doesn’t matter what they do.
Volunteering at for profit business should not be allowed.
Note walmart already does this paying so little that their employees qualify for food stamps, they give them training on how to get state benefits.
Bottom line is - if you cannot beat your neighbor in the market place of ideas - then do like a typical Chicago hack and bully them to submission…..Rauner now in full retard mode - didn’t last long did it.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner says he wants “rip the economic guts out of Indiana.”
He told the Chicago Tribune Editorial Board Monday: “Believe me, I am going to rip — try to rip the economic guts out of Indiana.”
He went on to say, “We’re coming after Indiana big time.”
???
How?
Raise taxes more in Illinois?
Go more into debt to public union pensions?
I suspect that he means the state gov will boycott Indiana.
I’m sure the Hoosiers are shaking in their boots.
If you liked the 2014 Super Bowl Coke commercial, you’ll love this:
http://lovehasnolabels.com
How goes the war?
CraterRage Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/q73bCc
That mates got a Cup-O-Tabasco RAGE!!!!
Drinking from the cup of crushing.housing.losses.
hows life after bankruptcy?
frrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaud…..
Gilroy, CA Sale Prices Crater 10% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/gilroy-ca-95020/home-values/
I dont want to see you working a pole. Its time you buys some assets.
Stick with the data Poet.
your bogus data has done nothing to make us any money in 5 years.
I need to put gas in my car and food on the table. make me some money!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your beef is with Zillow Poet.
STALKER
Data Poet data…. stick with the data.
Fremont, CA Sale Prices Down 7% YoY; Plummet 14% QoQ
http://www.zillow.com/fremont-ca-94538/home-values/
Puggs: Chicago Update with linky…..
Election not even 12 hours done and this….
http://newsletters.briefs.bloomberg.com/document/3fz176niqylzjr6oax/commentary
Next Stop for Chicago: Emergency Financial Control Board
BY JOE MYSAK
Now that Rahm Emanuel has been reelected mayor of Chicago and that distraction is out of the way, we can all start thinking about the future of the city.
I’m not a betting man. If I were, I’d bet that Chicago is going to be run by an Emergency Financial Control Board, or something like it, within two years, the same as New York City back in 1975 (and until 1986).
The city is now rated Baa2 by Moody’s, one step from the basement of investment grade. In cutting the rating (”with a negative outlook”) in February, Moody’s said, “The negative outlook reflects our expectation that the city’s credit quality could weaken as unfunded pension liabilities grow and exert increased pressure on the city’s operating budget.” Moody’s expects “substantial growth in unfunded pension liabilities even if the city’s recent pension reforms survive an ongoing legal challenge.”
Vermont Combats Aging Housing Structures With New Bond Deal
Over a quarter of Vermont’s housing structures were built in 1939 or earlier, more than double the national average of 13.5 percent, reflecting weak demographic trends in the state, according to data from the Census Bureau. Vermont’s population grew only 0.1 percent from 2010 to 2013, according to Standard and Poor’s, which revised the outlook on the state’s AA+ rated GO credit to stable from positive in November based on the weak demographic data. Wednesday’s $40 million Vermont Housing Finance Authority negotiated bond deal will finance mortgage loans for low- to middle-income Vermonters, as well as construct new multi-family housing in the state. The debt is rated Aa3 by Moody’s and AA by Fitch.
‘Haitong Securities and China International Capital Corp. said April 2 in reports that Cloud Live would be the first default on a bond principal payment. Shanghai Chaori failed to fully pay interest on its bond last year. Premier Li said on March 15 the government will prevent any systematic fallout while tolerating individual cases of financial risk.’
‘This isn’t the first time efforts to clean up the world’s second-biggest economy have touched the company. Cloud Live was formerly Beijing Xiangeqing Co., which operated a chain of restaurants. It said in July it was shifting into the Internet business and changed its name in August.’
The company’s abrupt turn into the “totally unrelated” information-technology industry came after it shuttered some stores in 2013, according to a documentary on Xi’s anti-graft drive that aired on the official China Central Television on Dec. 17.’
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-07/cloud-live-spooks-chinese-junk-bonds-amid-second-onshore-default
When of the “troubled” areas of China is performing like this, it is quite hard to see a collapse or even a cooling from around 7% growth:
http://www.straitstimes.com/news/business/economy/story/chinese-developers-trim-sales-forecasts-amid-housing-doldrums-20150408
I will not be able to post tomorrow, I know that will make many happy but I have to share this link hot of the press, shows the reaction to the latest moves by China to stabilize the housing market:
http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2015-04/08/content_20029297.htm
Excerpt, the Chinese have returned to the casino:
Beijing’s property sector has seen a growth reboot since the latest moves by authorities to loosen credit and lower down payment requirements for the sector one week earlier, according to local newspaper Beijing Times.
According to the report, six days after the relaxation of housing loan requirements policies were announced on March 30 by the central bank and the housing and banking authorities, new house sales volume in Beijing increased nearly double compared with the same period last year and there has been a peak sales period over the past three-day Qingming Festival.
For homebuyers who are applying for a mortgage for a second home, the minimum down payment is cut to 40 percent from the previous level of 60 to 70 percent. The minimum down payment for first-time homebuyers using public housing funds is cut to 20 percent, compared with the previous level of 30 percent, the central bank said.
On the same day, the Ministry of Finance also announced that homes bought at least two years ago would be exempt from capital gains tax. Previously, only homes bought at least five years ago were exempt from the tax.
Statistics from Beijing Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development shows that from March 31 to April 5, the transition volumes of new house and second-hand property have both seen a significant growth with 2063 apartments, up 19.04 percent month-on-month and 191.8 percent year-on-year and 2496 apartments, up 39.13 percent year-on-year, respectively.
Meanwhile, according to market analysis data released by property agency Lianjia, the average purchase price of second-hand property in Beijing reached 35,353 yuan ($5,698.9) per square meter, a 2 percent increase week-on-week.
“The remarkable growth of contract sales volume in Beijing’s real estate sector indicates that last year’s slump has been overcome and the overall market is in recovery,” said Hu Jinghui, vice-president of 5i5j Real Estate Group.
‘Recall last year, Hangzhou ended buying restrictions in July and the result was You Can See Why Developers Are Optimistic: 2000 Panic Buyers. Before August was finished, however: Hangzhou Housing Rebound Fades.’
‘The propaganda department is doing its best: “All the nation’s propaganda departments and news organizations…Support the stable development of real estate and social stability…On the suggestion of leadership, news organizations please focus on the stable real estate market policies, support the Housing and Urban Development and other departments to do a good job of guiding public opinion on the real estate market, to for a stable real estate market and healthy development, and to create a good atmosphere for public opinion.”
“1. Strengthen the real estate market, positive publicity, efforts to boost confidence…Focus on public opinion, persist in positive agenda setting, objectively cover of the real estate market situation, accurate interpretation of the relevant policies and measures to correctly guide market expectations, boost market confidence.”
“(1) Accurate interpretation of the relevant State Council departments propaganda interpret real estate market regulation policy measures, propaganda, the State Council attached great importance to residents of the housing problem, make full use of government regulation and market mechanisms are two means to take effective measures to promote the healthy development of the real estate market, ask the poor, the party central, State Department.”
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2015/04/china-orders-media-talk-property/
Bibi and his neo-con stooges are still trying mightily to get the US to fight Israel’s battles.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102570002
buy stocks and homes.
Do u think buybacks will be enough to look like companies are turning a profit this quarter?
How are revenues looking these days?
phony scandals