Bits Bucket for May 10, 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
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Hyattsville, MD List Prices Crater 11% YoY; Mortgage Losses Grow
http://www.movoto.com/hyattsville-md/market-trends/
18,191
My coworkers think I am creepy because I DON’T have a facebook account!
Is it too much to be a quiet guy, who enjoys privacy, that expects things to be reasonably priced? Apparently I am the oddest thing in Florida this week.
Posted while mom is sleeping in. Don’t worry ladies of HBB, mom is going to have a great day!!
I have one but seldom go on it, I do not know what is worse in today’s world. I share your view that I do not feel a need to tell everyone that I am heading to Costco to buy salmon.
Something I learned many, many, years ago from a hacker who wrote an article in “2600 - The Hacker Quarterly” was this:
Stop giving away information about yourself to strangers.
Lol, not only that, but as I’ve said in the past, it was never my ambition to be an unpaid asset of Mark Zuckerberg’s.
Buddy of mine thinks it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. For ecommerce. He sells a lot of stuff online, it’s how he makes his living and he does really well at it. He watches a ton of youtube videos and listens to podcasts of various people who also sell online, where they give tips and strategies for success and talk about what they’ve purchased for resale.
Anyhoo, people can now buy lists of this or that demographic from Faceschnook and promote their products to them. My buddy told me about one guy who purchased a list of cat owners from FB and apparently sold a whole bunch of cat related products to those who responded to the promotion.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is: Just because a lot of people are doing a stupid thing, does not make it any less of a stupid thing.
Coming around to economics and finance, one could say that fraudulent mortgage lending and heavily obfuscated derivatives were stupid because they did implode. But they made a tremendous amount of money for Wall Street executives since they had been building a regulatory framework which would offload risk onto the government - basically enshrining the “Privatize the profits, socialize the losses” economic model for that sector.
So - what Wall Street did wasn’t stupid - it was the end result, which we see today, of a long period of preparation. Wall Street executives knew what they were doing.
The bagholders on the other hand - the cattle which were consumed by the system - they seemed smart doing stupid things - taking out too much debt, assuming house prices would keep rising forever at a consistent pace. Ultimately, what they did was still stupid.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is: Just because a lot of people are doing a stupid thing, does not make it any less of a stupid thing.
Indeed. 95% of the sheeple keep voting for the Republicrat duopoly’s Wall Street water carriers. I decline, along with the thinking 5% of the population.
Actually I should caveate that by saying ony 30% of eligible voters participated in the 2008 and 2012 elections. I would like to think a majority of the 70% who declined did so because they were intelligent enough to recognize that none of the Republicrat “choices” represented them or their interests but rather, were water carriers for the .1%.
Aren’t these the same folks at home the household-level bailouts were targeted? Maybe they saw the bailouts coming and decided to make sure they would qualify.
“at whom” (Freudian slip there!)
These aren’t the people talking with politicians and regulatory agency heads, building the regulatory framework. They saw the herd moving and decided to move with them. Sometimes the herd is moving away from an approaching wolfpack, sometimes it is moving towards a cliff, or towards the slaughter chute. Wisdom is knowing which is which.
Did these people profit from bailouts? It seems to me the bailouts were more to turn the bagholders into pass-through entities to benefit the MBS holders and servicers.
Some of the bagholders may have gotten lucky, if they lawyered up, but that takes money. I doubt their net worths were improved, for the vast majority.
Facebook… where every moron and drama queen on the planet gets their own live TV show that nobody watches.
I know, right? Being on Facebook has not ended well for more than a few peeps, I think. Twitter, too.
Whoever looks at such things determined that one in seven marriages are ending as a result of social media.
I’m not here to defend social media, but it bears no responsibility for peoples’ lack of morals and personal failings.
Agreed. It does help stupid people manifest their stupidity in a much more public, visible way. Much like voting.
I dont need any more fake friends.
You gotta have Facebook to have a Tinder profile.
Do you post on your Tinder profile the fact that you can get pot at wholesale prices?
My Tinder profile is me lighting a spliff the diameter of a broomstick with a hundred dollar bill, Dannyboy
I may hate on the millenials as a generation, but I love how promiscuous millenial women are
I may hate on the millenials as a generation, but I love how promiscuous millenial women are
Yes. Every generation has at least one item in the positive column.
Ah, so maybe you’re the rarest of the rare in ‘Murica: a contemplative, creative person.
http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Power-Introverts-World-Talking/dp/0307352153
I’m starting to see a trend toward the opposite; as in “Lucky you that you didn’t sign up for FB. I wish I never had.” Facebook is quickly trending toward old busybody women showing off their grandkids. It’s tedious in person and even more so FB.
Yes my younger relatives seem to use snapchat or instagram, I think.
I have no Facecrook account, or any social media account. I have no interest in it, nor will I ever.
Does it seem curious that both the U.S. and China stock markets currently have record levels of margin debt?
Since margin is a relatively new phenomenon in China why wouldn’t they have record margin debt?
Since I’ve read your posts here every day about how China is a low debt country and what fantastic savers the Chinese are, it seems a little surprising to learn their stellar recent stock market gains were fueled by a record level of margin debt.
+1. Does anyone know how their margin debt compares to ours as a percent of market-cap? That seems like a better comparison.
It’s about double after adjusting for market size, according to the article I just posted.
It’s about double after adjusting for market size, according to the article I just posted.
Yikes! Something tells me that this new class of Chinese stock-market investors are in for a real education when the worm finally turns.
Yikes! Something tells me that this new class of Chinese stock-market investors are in for a real education when the worm finally turns.
Which is amusing in the context of only 60% of them having at least an eight grade education.
Here is my favorite passage from the article posted below:
+1, I thought that was the money quote too. How can she have an opinion that it is “worth the risk”—e.g. the risk/reward ratio makes sense—when she has no idea what it is? In other words, she doesn’t understand either the risk or the reward part of the equation!
Casino, meet mark.
PONZI
Margin trading has only been available to the Chinese since 2011, they have never been through a bull/bear cycle, they need to learn that leverage works both ways.
“… they need to learn that leverage works both ways.”
Not to worry. If they run into a problem they’ll just grow their way out of it.
Seven-percent growth. Forever!
It’s a lock!
Oooooops, maybe not:
China cuts interest rates for the third time in six months as economy sputters.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-cuts-interest-rates-boost-092943680.html
No, but China’s ten year plan has them doubling their GDP by 2020. To achieve that they need 6.8% growth going forward. Not ready to predict out to 2020, but they will have around 7% growth this year since they have a lot of room to cut interest rates and they did again today.
Um, yeah. The PBOC just cut interest rates again. Not the sign of a flourishing economy. More like desperation (like the Fed) to keep their asset bubbles and Ponzi market levitated (and hold off unrest).
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-10/china-cuts-rates-again-desperate-bid-buoy-stocks-rescue-economy
It is a sign of an economy that is having trouble growing at 7% the government’s target, we wish we had that “problem”. The fact that we are in contraction does make it harder for China to reach its target and it is reacting to our slowdown which is slowing them down.
China is contracting at a faster rate than the US. Remember China GDP growth has fallen by 50% since 2008.
falling demand. Falling prices.
China Walks $264 Billion Tightrope as Margin Debt Powers Stocks
3:00 PM PST
April 13, 2015
Confident that China’s stock market rally still has legs, Jiang Lin recently began borrowing money from her brokerage to buy more shares.
Her newly-opened margin finance account with state-owned China Investment Securities Co. has allowed Jiang, a 29-year-old marketing executive in Beijing, to double up her bets on the vertigo-inducing rally in Chinese share prices.
“It’s worth the risk,” said Jiang, while admitting she doesn’t fully understand how margin finance works because she hasn’t had her broker explain it to her.
Investors such as Jiang are part of a $264 billion dilemma facing the country’s securities regulator, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, after the Shanghai Composite Index climbed on Monday to a seven-year high. Should it tighten its rules governing margin finance and risk triggering a crash, or continue tinkering with regulations and see stock purchases on credit rise to potentially perilous levels?
Traders are betting that the regulator will shy away from any serious steps to curb an explosion of margin finance, which fueled a 93 percent one-year surge in Shanghai’s benchmark gauge. Securities firms’ outstanding loans to investors for stock purchases were a record 1.64 trillion yuan ($264 billion) as of April 10, up 50 percent in less than three months, despite bans imposed by the CSRC in January and April on lending to new clients by four Chinese brokerages.
Bubble Risk
China’s margin finance now stands at about double the amount outstanding on the New York Stock Exchange, after adjusting for the relative size of the two markets.
“Regulators are aware of the risk of rising margin debt but they can’t afford to puncture the equities bubble with very draconian measures,” said Lu Wenjie, a Shanghai-based analyst at UBS Securities Co. “They want to pelt the mice without smashing the china.”
With growth faltering and real estate prices heading lower, China is wary of adding a stock market crash to its economic problems, according to Mole Hau, a Hong Kong-based economist with BNP Paribas SA.
There’s also a political dimension because equity markets are dominated by small retail investors, some of whom may face ruin if a market slump prompts brokers to call in loans. Individual investors make up about 90 percent of equity trading in China, according to the CSRC.
…
Read This, Spike That
Should Record Margin Debt Scare Investors?
Pundits disagree on whether rising borrowing against portfolios is a sign of a dangerous bubble.
By John Kimelman
May 6, 2015
I suspect that few stock investors are familiar with an obscure New York Stock Exchange Website with the innocuous Web address of NYXdata.com.
Right now, a data point for “margin debt,” the money that investors are borrowing against the value of their investment portfolios, is flashing red for some.
The NYSE margin debt level for March, the latest reporting period, has hit a record of more than $476.3 billion. In March 2009, at the beginning of the current bull market, the level of margin debt was about $182 billion.
Margin debt has long been viewed by some as a sentiment indicator of risk taking. So the thinking goes that higher levels of borrowing against portfolios can only mean that investors are getting too exuberant.
Writing on his blog Wednesday, money manager Jesse Felder contends that this statistic and its implications should make any investor worried about the state of the stock market.
Referring to several market pundits who feel there is little to worry about regarding rising margin debt levels, Felder writes, “To me, this sounds like just another version of, ‘it’s different this time.’”
Felder writes that over the past 20 years, the level of margin debt relative to the economy has had nearly an 80% negative correlation to future three-year returns in the stock market.
“What this means is, the higher the level of margin debt relative to GDP, the lower the returns for the stock market over the coming 3 years and vice versa,” he adds.
…
Markets Asia Stocks
China Shares Slump on Margin-Trading Worries
By Chao Deng
Updated May 5, 2015 5:49 a.m. ET
Shanghai shares suffered their second largest daily fall this year, as worries about margin trading put an abrupt halt to the market’s 39% year-to-date rally, while an interest-rate cut in Australia failed to lift the market.
The Shanghai Composite Index on Tuesday closed down 4% at 4298.71, its biggest daily percentage loss since Jan. 19, when the market plunged 7.7% on similar fears that Beijing was clamping down on the use of borrowed money by retail investors to buy stocks.
Analysts said there was no one piece of news knocking down the market, which many said was due for a correction, although local headlines Tuesday about another crackdown on margin financing added to already existing worries about the slowing economy and the prospect of new initial public offerings sucking liquidity out of the market.
The Shanghai Composite closed Monday at its second-highest level this year on enthusiasm that Beijing would continue to ease monetary policy after cutting interest rates and banks’ reserve requirement ratios. Retail investors have piled into the market, opening more than a million new trading accounts each week for six weeks in a row now.
…
Driving through Region VIII this morning is an apocalyptic wasteland of downed trees and branches on cars and power lines under 6 inches s of heavy wet snow.
Happy Mothers Day, loanowners. Renters don’t have to clean these messes.
I remember back in 2002 I was paying close to $2500 per month rent and my bond income was perhaps $8 per month. Now my rent is close to $2500 and my bond income is $1100. My net worth now is about five times what it was in 2002. Home ownership is for “loosers.”
Nice. Well done Bill.
you two hoarders are part of the economic malaise.
LOL… Dollar Store meals and thrift shop clothes frees up cash to buy gold bullion
And had you not paid a grossly inflated price for a depreciating shack you wouldn’tbe Walmarts customer if the month.
You go EmptyPockets!
$2500 was a very high rent for 2002
And very high rent today yet still a small fraction of the cost of buying at current grossly inflated asking prices
It was worth it. 1) furnished and 2) month-to-month - in a great part of northern New Jersey on the top floor of a building at the top of a hill 30 miles west of Clifton. The best part was watching the Fall colors outside my windows on the east and on the west. Awesome views.
Region VIII
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150510_071613-oOyl6YG3.jpg
Region VIII
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150510_075159-wS1AtvxA.jpg
(people with mortgages do not get to go here)
FWIW, by the month of May you should have a nice tan.
Done.
Region VIII
http://www.picpaste.com/IMG_20150510_101051-AfBrpTXj.jpg
Nice day albeit windy.
http://picpaste.com/screenshot.jpg
Everyone in Northern Virginia has this clause that all repairs have a deductible paid by tenant
Next place I rent I’m going to demand that goes away. In the meantime, hide anything that breaks lol.
I love how the US financial media tries to pretend that Yellen the Felon is anything other than a parrot on Goldman Sach’s shoulder.
http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-economy-markets-test-patience-of-fed-chief-yellen-2015-5
Under Holder there was no perp walk, in China there is:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-05/09/c_134224509.htm
Another neo-con “success” story: Libya is now a festering, violent dystopia where all sorts of malevolence flourishes. Mission accomplished, John McCain.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/10/eu-considers-military-attacks-on-targets-in-libya-to-stop-migrant-boats
German finance minister warns of “sudden” Greek default. And then what?
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/05/09/schauble-warns-of-sudden-greek-default-insolvency/
A cup of Greek coffee.
The liberal/socialist mind is the mind of an adolescent. Which is why most of us when we are young have been more liberal politically. The Greeks have only two choices they can leave the EU and forgo the subsidies or the can keep the subsidies but conform to the EU demands on them. The former would allow them to create their own currency and after much pain and devaluations they might be able to create a viable economy without EU subsidies. But instead of making a hard choice, in the typical liberal/adolescent way, they pretend that there is a third choice where they keep the subsidies but do not have to do the tough restructuring required by the EU.
The liberal/socialist mind is the mind of an adolescent.
I could descend to the level of being insulting but I won’t. I mean, I could accuse conservatives of being self-centered egotistical bigots who don’t give a hoot about their fellow man. Let Grandma die in the gutter without health care or a safety net ‘cuz I got mine. Nah, I won’t go there.
If Grandma made poor choices all her life, then let her face the consequences rather than become my problem. And let her be a cautionary tale for young people who might be tempted to be social parasites and n’er-do-wells.
Poor choices… like when the globalists outsourced her job and she got laid off? Or her assembly line job got eliminated by a robot? All her fault. No sympathy for her.
Poor choices like voting for Obama, Bush II, and Clinton.
If Grandma voted for Republicrats, as she almost certainly did, it is indeed her fault - especially as a Boomer, the most feckless, self-absorbed generation this planet has ever seen. Vote for the status quo that’s shafting you and end up in a cardboard box? Boo f**king hoo. No sympathy indeed.
Poor choices like voting for Obama, Bush II, and Clinton.
Poor choices like voting for Clinton, Bush (41 and 43), Obama, McCain, Romney, and HillaryJeb. There, fixed it for you.
I was fortunate enough to have a stay-at-home mom who was a great mother and wife, who taught me and my siblings to be productive members of society with strong work ethics. Needless to say, it is our responsibility, not “society’s” or the gub’mint, to look after mom in her old age. Our parents are our responsibility and we will honor that obligation. It is not my responsibility to take care of someone else’s grandmother either because she raised shiftless kids (the apple never falls too far from the tree, I’ve noticed, in such cases) or granny was a lowlife who never amounted to much (as is the case with the vast majority of the elderly homeless.
If Grandma voted for Republicrats, as she almost certainly did, it is indeed her fault - especially as a Boomer, the most feckless, self-absorbed generation this planet has ever seen.
You mentioned the fact above that lots of people don’t vote at all. There are statistics that show that the poor typically vote at a lower rate than the non-poor.
It is not my responsibility to take care of someone else’s grandmother either because she raised shiftless kids (the apple never falls too far from the tree, I’ve noticed, in such cases) or granny was a lowlife who never amounted to much (as is the case with the vast majority of the elderly homeless.
This is another instance of the Just World Hypothesis, the tendency of the human brain to want to believe that people get what they deserve in life.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis
And you seem to think you’re being a kind and generous human being by trying to fix all the ills of the world with other people’s money, taken from them involuntarily and by coercion.
No, I never claimed that all the ills of the world could be fixed.
36 years ago they would have been harvesting rice by hand and fertilizing it with human sh*t, now thanks to supply side economics:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/china/Best-boss-ever-Chinese-CEO-takes-6400-of-staff-on-4-day-holiday-to-France/articleshow/47221952.cms
And a few years from now, when some Pol Pot or Mao figure emerges from the embittered “ant tribes,” millions of Chinese urban denizens might find themselves back in the rice paddies again following a radical agrarian revolution.
Sunday funnies from TBP.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/05/10/sunday-funnies-62/
IL court shoots down pension reform
‘re taxes going up so gov workers can retire in their 50,s
Exactly.
Goons!
Interesting article on alternative energy costs vs. NG. The part I found most interesting is the wide cost differences between solar energy costs depending on the site. I now understand when people are quoting the cost of solar or wind and it seems very low, it is for a particular site and not really representative of overall costs. We still have a long way to go to alternative energy is competitive with fossil fuels without massive subsidies:
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Renewable-Energy-vs-Natural-Gas-How-The-Costs-Stack-Up.html
“We still have a long way to go to alternative energy is competitive with fossil fuels without massive subsidies”
Really? Because your article says:
” Regardless of subsidies, wind’s levelized cost is competitive with gas, and has been for years”
Do you read your links and hope we don’t? Or do you just post what you’ve been provided without reading it?
Regardless of subsidies, wind’s levelized cost is competitive with gas, and has been for years”
At the prime locations which are very finite. Perhaps you should read the article and you would get that point.
From the article, the amount of wind now being deployed is insignificant which shows that the prime areas have been exhausted:
While power purchase prices for wind have declined considerably since 2009, deployment in 2013 totaled only 1,032 megawatts (MW) – down from 12,885 MW in 2012 before the federal Production Tax Credit expired
Posts are slow, but to put the 1,000 megawatts in perspective according to the EIA we used about 335,000 megawatts of electricity on a given day.
“At the prime locations which are very finite. Perhaps you should read the article and you would get that point”
I did read your article, but I can’t find that anywhere in it. Could you provide the quote?
+1. I did not see that said anywhere in there.
Sadly, the wind promoters generally use a form of magical math that does not capture field realities. It fools just about everyone for a while.
If you can find a goldilocks location where the wind blows not too hard (can’t run during high winds) or too low, 24/7, 365 days a year it is very competitive. However, those locations are very finite. Hence the decline is wind installations after the tax credit went away. Despite this the proponents try to use those few goldilocks locations to claim wind is competitive with NG and coal. However, you can see how the U.S. and screamed when China created a bank to fund projects including coal fired electricity throughout the world since solar and wind cannot compete.
So your article is correct when it says that solar power is currently not economical but incorrect when it says that wind power is economical and has been for some time.
How convenient.
No. I believe it is correct on all its numbers but like everything in life when you read an article you should have more know more than the one article. Why don’t you explain why if wind is so competitive we have had such a drop in installations? I use to see wind turbine blades being transported all the time on I-40, now I hardly see them. I have given my explanation why don’t you give your explanation.
“why don’t you give your explanation”
I’d say the two factors are the tax credit ending (of course that was predictable so many projects were built while it was in effect) and cheap nat gas, which is temporary, according to you.
Actually, I said the NG glut was real but there was no rule oil glut, the price drop was engineered. You Obama supporters love to misstate what I say. NG may rise a little but it will continue to be a bargain in the US.
rule=real
If the nat gas glut is real and long-term, then we’d be crazy to keep using so much coal and oil, right? Switch over to nat gas powered electric everything. Save the world, save a lot of money.
With massive excess supply and falling prices, everyone will continue to use the economical fuel. Oil.
TX is deregulated. The website powertochoose.org lists plans by various providers. It can sort by price, renewable, term, etc.
Recently one of the top 3 plans by price was 100% renewable - wind. It was like #2 I think.
Not sure what that means but I was surprised that a 100% renewable plan was priced in the top 3.
Some of the price competitiveness comes from the completion of transmission lines from west texas wind farms.
Subsidies - criticizing renewable because they’re subsidized is somewhat nearsited. Oil and gas have been subsidized since the beginning of time.
Oil and gas have been subsidized since the beginning of time.
Yes, Alaska and Texas have gone broke like Spain subsidizing oil. No wait, oil and Gas companies have picked up the tax tab for years. Total bs by the crony green capitalists.
Oil is subsidized by our military, which protects its production and distribution around the world. Very heavily subsidized.
Obama’s promotion of solar did not prevent his intervention in Libya, Syria and Iraq. As long as we have a globalist in office we will use the military whether we are getting a drop of oil from those countries. It is a false argument to say that is a subsidy for the industry. The oil companies had no problem dealing with Libya prior to our intervention, in fact they had an easier time. No subsidy, more crony green capitalist BS.
Alaska and TX don’t write the Internal Revenue Code slick. Go check that and get back to me.
No but oil companies pay tons of taxes and royalties to states, which is why Alaska can actually pay its citizens. Check it out slick. They also are major net taxpayers to the federal government, how much is Elon Musk and his companies paying in taxes slick, while his companies and customers are receiving billions in subsidies.
Solar becoming ‘least-cost option’ for US utilities
Solar energy is fast becoming a ‘least-cost’ option for U.S. utilities. Declining technology costs, policy support and retail rate levels are cited as contributing factors. Issues, including rate restructuring and grid integration, need to be addressed; meanwhile, community solar programs are garnering strong interest.
…Overall, the top ten utilities accounted for 72% of all new installations in the U.S. in 2014, which is estimated to total around 5.3 GW (AC) across 18,300 systems.
Leading this charge are falling power purchase agreement (PPA) prices, sometimes under those seen in the natural gas market, meaning new U.S. markets are opening up for solar. States with higher solar insolation are also said to be experiencing prices competitive with those of natural gas.
http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/solar-becoming-least-cost-option-for-us-utilities_100019329
Sweet! With an 80 year payback, they should go all in.
I guess the payback would be longer if they actually had to do any maintenance over those 80 years.
80 years? Unless sun trackers are used, solar is passive and needs less maintenance. A gas turbine or a coal plant has got lots of moving mechanical parts that need upkeep and replacing. Take away the generous depreciation tax write-off and those fossil fuel plants are less attractive.
Right, tax write offs make losses into gains. It’s like housing!
I’m thinking you might be failing to appreciate the life expectancy of the electronic components and the solar panels. I don’t think inverters and solar cells are expected to last more than a decade or two.
Only 80 years if the land is free, and free of taxes. I guess that would be a subsidy.
Solar is a very effective way to increase CO2 emissions. Another bonus?
Barbecued invertors, boiled batteries, etc. Give’em 2 years.
Worse yet, try firing your electric range or clothes dryer or well pump with solar panels. You’re going to be mighty hungry and thirsty.
And the most costly option absent subsidies.
Solar=FAIL
No. 1 growth industry in the USA!
And the ignore the relatively short life of the panels. It works out if you can expense it over 80 years but the panels start to serious deteriorate over twenty.
We don’t really know yet if 20 years is the right expectation. The mania is younger than that. The designers hoped for 20 years (so some of them told me) and we’ll see.
Why are those high IQ Chinese investing so heavily in solar power?
interesting if it were true but its not. And they are horrible businessman.
It is cheaper for them than high price coal imports and high price LNG imports. We have cheap coal and cheap NG and we are wasting tens of billions on alternative energy.
Solar is not cheaper for the Chinese than coal & etc. They invested heavily in manufacturing Solar panels to sell to Europe and the US. Then the boom fizzled and they are sitting there on all this surplus capacity. If you are going to be late to the party, be sure it’s not a short party. For them it’s now a CCP WPA party.
Aha! Solar is economical for the Chinese, but uneconomical for us.
Now it makes sense.
Solar doesn’t work Lola.
“uneconomical”
For most things, your neighbors will let you sort out what is economical for you or not. You can plunk down your $25,000 to save yourself $50 a month for the next 10 to 20 years, knock yourself out.
The problem for the rest of us is that you want us to pay the balance due for you and make you whole or more. Then you take our parks and bird sanctuaries and destroy them in your supposed concern for our environment. Just as a kicker, you gobble up so much energy trying to get yours that we all pay double for ours. Mocking us does not improve our perspective on your motives.
I think we’ve discovered another one of those worldwide scientist conspiracies.
“Aha! Solar is economical for the Chinese, but uneconomical for us.
Now it makes sense”
Why is so hard to understand that if the Chinese are forced to pay four times our natural gas prices and at least twice are coal prices and are able to produce solar panels cheaper than we are, solar might make sense for them and not for the United States?
I don’t know about a scientist conspiracy. Maybe a snake oil industry on the government teat. The math is pretty simple. I think people want something for nothing and will pay a lot for it. Take the housing bubble for example.
Just for perspective, we did the renewable energy and shale oil in the 70s and learned some simple things that are no longer remembered much.
“Maybe a snake oil industry on the government teat. The math is pretty simple. I think people want something for nothing and will pay a lot for it.”
BINGO
Solar math doesn’t work without the subsidies. End of story.
Solar power doesn’t work for anything except for non-critical low demand like lighting.
” Regardless of subsidies, wind’s levelized cost is competitive with gas, and has been for years”
And solar is on its way. Yes, technologies develop.
And they fail without the subsidies Lola.
“wind’s levelized cost…”
You are not appreciating the scam. The wind must blow at the design speed of the generator, not less, not more. The cost of keeping a coal or gas fired plant on hot standby must not be considered, and most importantly, there must never be any maintenance. Once you sell the project you install, collect the subsidy and walk. You are no longer available to entertain the complaints of locals whose houses are now hosts to the hammer of Thor with dead owls and hawks on their lawns. You have extracted the money.
This has not changed in years.
Are you interested in this enough to do some research? There is plenty of information available to the curious.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/09/us-usa-shooting-businessman-exclusive-idUSKBN0NU0G620150509
‘Robert Shillman heads a publicly traded American technology company called Cognex Corp with a market value of $4 billion. He also says he is a big supporter of last Sunday’s Prophet Mohammad cartoon contest in Texas that was attacked by two gunmen who opened fire before being shot dead by police.’
‘In a telephone interview with Reuters from his home near San Diego, California, Shillman said America’s free speech is under threat. He added that violent attacks on such events are making people fearful and prone to self censorship. Many Muslims regard depictions of the prophet – such as the caricatures displayed at the event - as offensive and against the religion’s teachings.’
“It was a terrorist attack on the American way of life,” says Shillman, who says he isn’t anti-Muslim.’
‘Shillman said he remains a director of the David Horowitz Freedom Center, whose Jihad Watch website helped organize the cartoon event in a Dallas suburb with activist Pamela Geller’s American Freedom Defense Initiative.’
‘Shillman has in the past withdrawn support from organizations whose behavior he disagrees with. In 2002, he pulled funding from WBUR, a National Public Radio station in Boston, for what he perceived as anti-Israel sentiment.’
‘His Shillman Foundation has funded a number of conservative and pro-Israeli groups, including the Zionist Organization of America. The ZOA has targeted both academics it perceives have been teaching anti-Israel doctrine and Palestine student groups accused of intimidating Jewish students on U.S. campuses, including a campaign at Shillman’s alma mater, Northeastern University in Boston.’
It’s all about free speech. As long as it isn’t “critical” of Israel.
Lol, imagine what would happen if we had a “Draw the Shylock” contest.
Robert is aptly named.
He says that he’s a supporter of the cartoon contest but he’s anti-Muslim. Compared to that, I have some respect for Pamela Geller.
http://time.com/3850839/bernie-sanders-usa-patriot-act/
Another oligarch-owned Republicrat stooge of the .1% trying to con the sheeple.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/us/billionaire-lifts-marco-rubio-politically-and-personally.html?_r=0
Yes. He revealed himself during the amnesty debate as backing the globalists, he won their backing but lost all chance of getting my vote and plenty like me.
Yes, well, I watched the Rubio scam go down here in Florida, he really courted all those old ladies in massive retirement complexes like The Villages. Practically had them droppin’ their panties. Once in office, he pretty much turned his back on everything he had campaigned on.
The only plus side of Rubio, at this point, is that he is harshing JEB!’s buzz.
Once in office, he pretty much turned his back on everything he had campaigned on.
You just described every Republicrat politician from Bush on. Yet the sheeple still fall for it every election.
I wouldn’t say everyone, but you’re close.
I’ve castigated you for ageist comments about boomers, but I have to say, so many of the retirees here in Florida are real
SOBs when it comes to buttering their own bread and kicking younger people under the bus. Rubio knew this and courted them heavily with his faux limited government BS.
Yeah, the retirees here are all for limited government, until their Social Security and Medicare is threatened.
so many of the retirees here in Florida are real
SOBs when it comes to buttering their own bread and kicking younger people under the bus.
At this point, that’s Florida’s purpose. At least the low taxes make it easier to pay for private schools.
My comments on the Boomers aren’t “ageist.” Granted, the Boomer generation - the most worthless these shores have ever raised up - are moving into their “golden” years, after a lifetime of selfishly creating or allowing problems that younger generations are going to be stuck dealing with. And many in the Boomer generation by age are fine human beings who are the antithesis of the fecklessness that characterizes their generation as a whole. But as a group, the Boomers will go down in history as having almost singlehandedly destroyed America as she used to be.
” But as a group…”
I think my contemporaries did the most damage via decades at the ballot box. The leading edge of the boomers got all the free sex, protested American imperialism, and tended to be in favor of using government guns to force people to give up their wealth to the IRS to redistribute to social causes. The third item is something I would disagree with.
But what the hell happened? Many of them became social conservatives and in favor of American imperialism and to give up all of our freedoms in exchange for a little more security.
Here are some famous exceptions: Lew Rockwell (he might be older than the leading edge of boomers though), Sheldon Richman, Wendy McElroy, Justin Raimondo. Many libertarians I read about in the late 70s / early 80s are still kicking and active.
I’m worried that you young people will send us all to the gas chambers even though many of us were always anti war.
From the article’s comments: “What a beautiful story of democracy, only in America. It just makes me want to cry.”
Yes, it’s just heart-achingly beautiful, the story of an ambitious lad from an immigrant family who grew up to be a sock-puppet of the oligarchs, globalists, and neo-cons.
Sounds like Rubio has found his own personal Adelson.
Now THERE’S some immigrant success stories, the Adelsons and Bramans of the world.
Oligarch tag-teams plus an electorate with a stupidity quotient of 95% or higher = charlatans in the White House.
More evidence, as if the last two elections weren’t enough, that the cretins are breeding like rabits while the birthrate among the brighter segment of the population continues to decline. IDIOCRACY has arrived.
http://www.statista.com/statistics/241530/birth-rate-by-family-income-in-the-us/
“She’s absolutely wrong,” Barack Obama said, before I could even get the question out of my mouth. He was talking about Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and populist crusader whom Obama helped elevate to national prominence. Warren generally reserves her more acid critiques for Republicans and Wall Street, but in recent weeks she’s been leading a vocal coalition of leftist groups and lawmakers who oppose the president’s free-trade pact with 12 Asian countries.’
‘This past week, as I had just reminded Obama, Warren launched her heaviest torpedo yet against the trade deal, alleging that some future president might use it as an excuse to undo the reregulation of Wall Street that Obama signed into law in 2010. In fact, as the White House quickly pointed out, language in the pact would expressly prevent that unless Congress voted to allow it.’
“Think about the logic of that, right?” he went on. “The notion that I had this massive fight with Wall Street to make sure that we don’t repeat what happened in 2007, 2008. And then I sign a provision that would unravel it?”
‘Obama wasn’t through. He wanted me to know, in pointed terms, that for all the talk about her populist convictions, Warren had a personal brand she was trying to promote, too. “The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else,” he said. “And you know, she’s got a voice that she wants to get out there. And I understand that. And on most issues, she and I deeply agree. On this one, though, her arguments don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny.”
https://www.yahoo.com/politics/why-obama-is-happy-to-fight-elizabeth-warren-on-118537612596.html
‘undo the reregulation of Wall Street’
If they are too big to fail, what do re-rules matter?
Wonder how much Obama and Michelle stand to rake in per speech, post-”public service,” from audiences comprised of employees from the firms that stand to make bank off this secretive Pacific free-trade pact. And how many of the sheeple who voted for him or Hillary who will find themselves downsized due to the off-shoring of more American jobs and importation of more Asian wage slaves.
Speaking of lucrative post-government careers…
Finance Ben Bernanke
Bernanke faces harsh words at hedge fund conference
by Stephen Gandel
May 7, 2015, 3:29 PM EDT
The Fed’s boost of the stock market has made everyone’s portfolio go up. That makes it harder for hedge funds to convince clients they need to pay them millions of dollars to manage their money.
Given what Ben Bernanke has been called by hedge fund managers in the past, you would have thought he would have come to SALT, the giant hedge fund conference in Las Vegas, with a very large body guard.
He didn’t. Instead, the former head of the Federal Reserve came with a single, average-size, female assistant. He appeared to be unarmed.
But you wouldn’t blame him for being nervous. Many a hedge fund manager has spent time at SALT and conferences like it since the financial crisis spewing vitriol at Bernanke and his policies.
Two years ago, at a hedge fund conference in New York, two prominent hedge fund managers, Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Singer, took turns bashing Bernanke. Druckmiller said Bernanke’s policies were totally outrageous and inappropriate. Singer said that Bernanke was creating class welfare. He later wrote in a letter to investors that the Fed would “ultimately destroy the value of money and savings while uprooting the basic stability of our society.”
The Fed’s policies have lifted stock and bond markets, which should generally benefit most hedge fund managers and their investors. So, you would think that hedge fund managers would be Bernanke’s biggest fans, or at least happy with him. You would be wrong.
One hedge fund manger at this year’s SALT conference explained it to me this way: It has to do with returns. The Fed’s boost of the stock market has made everyone’s portfolio, even someone just blindly invested in the S&P, go up by double digits. That makes it harder for hedge funds to tell their clients they need to pay hedge fund managers millions of dollars to manage their money. “When everyone is given the ability to dunk, hedge funds become less special,” he said.
…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-10/free-trade-plutocratic-propaganda
In 2003, Kevin Flanagan was an information technology employee at Bank of America. They told him he was being replaced with foreign labor, and he was ordered to train his replacement. After he completed his assignment, he was laid off. Then he went to the parking lot and shot himself.
That’s “free trade.”
Boo. He should of taken out the labor he replaced, or some managers that made the decisions. Lost opportunity.
Oops, there seems to be cracks in the miracle.
“China’s imports and exports contracted again in April in a new sign of economic weakness, adding to pressure on Beijing to roll out more stimulus measures to avert a sharper economic slowdown.
“Imports fell by a bigger-than-expected 16.2 per cent over a year earlier to US$176.3 billion following March’s 12 per cent decline.
“Exports fell 6.4 per cent to US$142.1 billion, adding to the previous month’s 15 per cent decline.
“Economic growth fell to 7 per cent in the first quarter of the year, its lowest since 2009 in the aftermath of the global crisis.”
“We expect negative export growth to prove short lived,” said Evans-Pritchard.
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/1789134/chinas-exports-fell-64pc-april-compared-last-year-far-below
It must be that the Chinese dictators reduced exports to force more consumption, which actually increases growth. Brilliant!
Rental market getting tighter? Not around here.
http://www.businessinsider.com/rental-vacancy-rate-at-lowest-level-in-20-years-2015-5
Amusing to watch the Blue Team oligarch puppets pile on Hillary, the Red Team oligarch puppet, in Wall Street’s Republicrat duopoly puppet show.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3074826/Hillary-Clinton-fire-South-Carolina-old-white-rich-Republican-presidential-hopefuls-pile-Democratic-runner.html
Frau Merkel, puppet of Goldman Sachs and international finance, is starting to run into resistance from awakening Germans as she tries to put German taxpayers further on the hook for the liabilities of her bankster cronies. Anti-establishment parties are finally starting to push back against such chicanery.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/10/us-germany-election-bremen-exitpoll-idUSKBN0NV0OI20150510
Playing Along With The Fed’s Asset Buying Could Be A Lucrative Bet
By Sebastiao Buck
May 10, 2015 08:54AM
…
Everything is so intertwined, that this reality bite on crude may feed back into other economic and geopolitical issues. And US crude stocks are building up in storage. At some point, they will be dumped on the market, resulting in more tumbling prices, lower inflation numbers, a stronger dollar and the lesser likelihood of rate hikes…
The oil market is hooked on negative real interest rates. But what kept the Fed Funds rate in negative territory in real terms was just QE. Without that generous stream of new dollars, though very low in nominal terms, the 0 to 0.25% range still offers positive yields once disinflation and deflation are allowed to play out.
Oil happens to be a junkie on negative real interest rates, which is a junkie on inflation, which is a junkie on new dollars. They are all looking for another fix, and the Central Bank is the dealer running the streets.
But still, though now not nearly as loudly or broadly as some months ago, I hear the town-criers and heralds of imminent rate hikes and a terrible bubble-bust on US Treasury Bonds and the longer specter of the bond market. Someone must have got it wrong, either me or them. So bear with me a little longer and feel free to write later offering me your own views. I welcome the discussion. But in my view, even if the Fed sentences all junkies to go cold turkey, allowing no additional QE fixes to anyone, the unavoidable abstinence syndrome will be harsh and painful. That still puts a rate hike out of the picture for a long while.
Therefore, the issue for me is not if rate hikes by the FOMC will materialize anytime soon, but indeed if the Fed isn’t going to be hard pressed against the wall with demands for more quantitative easing. Especially from the oil sector. A stronger pullback on the US Dollar Index could signal that the market is already pricing in more monetary stimulus with a new edition of QE.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Gave Bond Deals To His Wall Street Donors, Despite Federal Rules
By Matthew Cunningham-Cook
May 07 2015 9:11 AM EDT
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has since 2012 taken in more than $131,000 in campaign contributions from three major financial firms that were then tapped by his administration to manage state bond work, according to an International Business Times review of campaign finance documents and state bond prospectuses. The Democratic governor accepted the money — and his officials handed out the government business without competitive bids — despite federal rules that bar campaign contributors from receiving taxpayer-financed state bond work.
Last week, Cuomo officials designated the three banks that contributed the campaign funds — JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America — as the dealers for a $33 million bond issue, enabling the firms to reap lucrative fees. That came on top of the Cuomo administration assigning the firms to manage a $68 million bond issue last fall, even as federal law enforcement officials were investigating allegations that New York lawmakers were doing favors for political donors.
http://www.ibtimes.com/new-york-gov-andrew-cuomo-gave-bond-deals-his-wall-street-donors-despite-federal-1911822
Well, there you have it. This corruption on such a massive scale (Cuomo just being the latest and perhaps one of the most egregious examples) signals the end of the US and its so-called “rule of law”. Well, maybe not entirely. Rule of law for citizens, those not politically or financially connected.
Well, eff these guys with a stick. They’ll get theirs. Believe me.
NYS politics are corruption on a grand scale.
Picking up your pork and beans at the dollar store today?
Yellen needs you to start spending some cash so the chinese can buy some bonds.
If Greece fails to make its $750M euro IMF payment on Tuesday, I’ll be picking up some extra pork & beans to add to the pantry. Although I fully expect the Greeks to come up with the money from the overleveraged parties who have the most to lose from a Greek default.
Australia PM advisor says climate change a U.N.-led ruse to create new world order
May 8, 2015
SYDNEY – Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s top business adviser on Friday claimed climate change was a ruse encouraged by the United Nations to create a new authoritarian world order under its control.
Maurice Newman, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council, said the real agenda was “concentrated political authority. Global warming is the hook.”
“Figueres is on record saying democracy is a poor political system for fighting global warming. Communist China, she says, is the best model,” he wrote.
“This is not about facts or logic. It’s about a new world order under the control of the U.N. It is opposed to capitalism and freedom and has made environmental catastrophism a household topic to achieve its objective.”
In an interview with the ABC this week, Figueres said the nation had no option other than to gradually step back from coal — a key economic driver.
Newman said “hopefully, like India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Tony Abbott isn’t listening” to the U.N.
But he warned that “having gained so much ground, eco-catastrophists won’t let up.”
“After all, they have captured the U.N. and are extremely well-funded. They have a hugely powerful ally in the White House,” he said.
“They will continue to present the climate change movement as an independent, spontaneous consensus of concerned scientists, politicians and citizens who believe human activity is ‘extremely likely’ to be the dominant cause of global warming.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/…/ -
Comment by phony scandals
2015-05-10 10:48:11
Australia PM advisor says climate change a U.N.-led ruse to create new world order
japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/05/08/asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/australia-pm-advisor-says-climate-change-u-n-led-ruse-create-new-world-order/#.VU-kXBcQ6Qk
How does renewable energy allow the UN to rule the world?
As I explained before the crony capitalists get billions and then kick back hundreds of millions in campaign contributions to globalist supporting candidates. How do you think Obama raised more than one billion dollars in both campaigns?
Couldn’t Obummer get even bigger kickbacks from the already super-wealthy oil companies for coddling them ? Solar start-ups can’t have near the same money.
Sorry, doesn’t make sense.
“As I explained before the crony capitalists get billions and then kick back hundreds of millions in campaign contributions to globalist supporting candidates.”
Oh, that’s how renewable energy allows the UN to rule the world.
If they can get us all hysterical about bogeyman, and then promise to protect us from it, they can make rules for us and charge us for their protection.
Of course, if you believe that everyone in government is altruistic, totally honest and completely devoted to your welfare, not theirs…this would be a ridiculous concept.
I still don’t see how you get world-domination with a technology that enables people to live off the grid more easily. Again, it doesn’t make sense.
Hey, I live off grid a large portion. I get wanting to live off where others don’t go. It’s worth the extra expense, it’s worth having to understand how stuff works, it’s worth reducing one’s energy requirements drastically.
When I am at my house in town, I don’t want to pretend I am off somewhere in the wilderness, paying high premiums for being “Off”. I could do it in a heart beat mind you if it was necessary, and my neighbors would be shivering in the dark.
I am sure that doesn’t answer your question. “World domination”. We have among us “elites”, who do not wish to labor, but rather take the best at other’s expense. I took a youngster to the movie “Monkey Kingdom”. It is worth the admission. Go see that and let’s talk then.
Attorney: Spy chief had ‘forgotten’ about NSA program when he misled Congress
He just forgot
by The Hill | Julian Hattem | May 9, 2015
Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper wasn’t lying when he wrongly told Congress in 2013 that the government does not “wittingly” collect information about millions of Americans, according to his top lawyer.
He just forgot.
“This was not an untruth or a falsehood. This was just a mistake on his part,” Robert Litt, the general counsel for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, said during a panel discussion hosted by the Advisory Committee on Transparency on Friday.
“We all make mistakes.”
The comments add to the years of criticism that Clapper has received for his testimony in the 2013 Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.
“He just forgot”
Sorta reminds me of the Dan White “twinkie” defense.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkie_defense
Houseflippers back together with Wall Street. Since the sheeple bent over and grabbed their ankles in 2008 and 2012 for candidates who would bail out any and all Wall Street losses incurred on imploding asset bubbles, it’s pretty much a no-risk strategy by the banksters.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-08/hard-money-comes-easy-as-wall-street-funds-home-flippers
LewRockwell.com
2015 Bilderberg Meeting
April 14, 2015
Austrian police have confirmed the date of the 2015 Bilderberg meeting. The security for the annual conference will take place from June 9th-14th. The meeting itself will take place from the Thursday to the Sunday of that week, June 11th-14th, at the exclusive Interalpen Hotel, in the mountains near Telfs.
The police have stated that they will be undertaking just the one single security exercise for the Bilderberg conference and for the G7 summit taking place nearby at Schloss Elmau in Bavaria, Germany, from the 7th-8th June.
The yearly transatlantic summit, which is attended by senior politicians, bank bosses and the heads of some of the world’s largest companies, will be held at the Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol, a luxury hotel and conference centre in Austria.
It will be the third time the Bilderberg summit has been held in Austria, and 27 years since the previous occasion. The 1988 conference was also held at the Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol; the 1979 conference was held in Baden, just south of Vienna.
Participants at the 2014 conference in Copenhagen included: Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne MP; Paul Achleitner, the Chairman of Deutsche Bank; Stephen Poloz, the Governor of the Bank of Governor; Robert Dudley, the Group Chief Executive of BP; Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google; Douglas Flint, the Group Chairman of HSBC; Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF; and Peter Sutherland, the Chairman Goldman Sachs International.
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2015/04/no_author/saddle-up-for-bilderberg-2015/ - 150k -
Having learned nothing from the 2008 housing bubble collapse, except that the sheeple will willingly bend over for Wall Street by voting in the candidates who supported bailouts for the TBTF banks, government is again propping up subprime mortgages.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/05/05/government-using-subprime-mortgages-to-pump-housing-recovery-taxpayers-will-pay-again/
It really does seem as though some things never change!
Nothing will change as long as the sheeple keep voting for the Republicrat status quo.
Is this a real photo?
Is that global warming or paid too much?
Globalists Love Global Warming
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
People who still trust the platitudes of politicians and elitists who implore us to change our way of life, cough up more tax money, and get on board with the global warming religion save being linked with Holocaust denial, are as deluded and enslaved as the tribes of Mesoamerica who, unaware of the natural phenomenon of a solar eclipse, thought their high priests could make the sky snake eat the Sun, and therefore obeyed their every demand.
Globalists love global warming! Oil industry kingpins, Bilderbergers and Rothschild minions have all put their weight behind it. This is a fraud conceived, nurtured and promulgated by elite, and to castigate individuals for merely questioning the motives behind climate change fearmongering by accusing them of being mouthpieces for the establishment is a complete reversal of the truth.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2007/280307globalistslove.htm - 45k -
Bahahahahahahahaha …
https://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/alterations-to-climate-data/
Alex Jones No Show as ABC News Panel Debunks Jade Helm
by Pam Key10 May 2015
Sunday ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” took on a so-called “Texas-sized conspiracy theory,” which suggested Jade Helm, a military training operation in Texas, is actually a cover for eventual martial law.
Radio host Alex Jones, one of the theory’s main proponents, did not show up for his scheduled interview so the panel was left to discuss the ridiculousness of the theory.
“They’re pandering to a vocal minority. I’m all in favor of a healthy distrust of the government but not paranoia. There are many threats to our liberty, the U.S. military isn’t one of them. Federal-controlled Texas was established in the mid-19th century by President Polk. the idea that they’re going to retake Texas is nonsense.”
http://www.breitbart.com/…/05/10/alex-jones-no-show-as-abc-news-panel-debunks-jade-helm/ - 48k -
——————————————————————————
Dirty Tricks: ABC Claim of Alex Jones “No Show” is a Hoax
Network blames its own screw up on radio host
by Paul Joseph Watson | May 10, 2015
ABC pulled a dirty tricks stunt this morning by claiming that Alex Jones was a “no show” for a live appearance on This Week with George Stephanopoulos to talk about the Jade Helm military exercise, when in reality the car ABC sent to take Jones to the studio arrived just 12 minutes before the segment began.
“Radio talk show host Alex Jones….who has been one of the leading proponents of this (Jade Helm) theory, had agreed to join us this morning but he did not show up at our studio,” said fill-in host Martha Raddatz during this morning’s broadcast.
This prompted a number of news outlets to insinuate that Jones didn’t show for the interview because he was “chicken,” or unwilling to defend his position on Jade Helm.
In reality, the non-appearance of Jones was entirely the fault of ABC.
As the screenshots below show, an ABC producer sent an email at 7:58 AM asking if Jones had got in the car to take him to the studio. Another email was sent at 8:19 AM CST complaining that Jones was not answering the phone or at his apartment in time to be picked up for the broadcast.
However, Jones only received the text message (seen below) informing him that the car was outside his residence at 8:48 AM – just 12 minutes before the segment was set to start.
Jones could not have physically made it to the studio in time for the live broadcast, yet ABC is now blaming their screw up on Jones.
Whether the miscommunication was a mistake or not, to blame Jones for a “no show,” insinuating that he deliberately chose not to appear on the broadcast, is completely inaccurate and dishonest.
Former talk show host Montel Williams even suggested that Jones didn’t have the “balls” to appear on the network, a claim completely belied by the fact that Jones has appeared on ABC before as well as virtually every other major TV network numerous times.
Jones is now challenging ABC to have him on to discuss Jade Helm live next week, and he is prepared to appear on any ABC show at any time.
The actual round table segment which was supposed to include Jones was just another re-hash of the strawman arguments and smear tactics used against Infowars and Jones by the rest of the mainstream media over the last several weeks.
As we have documented, dozens of media outlets have characterized concerns over the exercise as being founded in baseless paranoia, ignorant of the manifestly provable preparations for domestic disorder by both the U.S. Army and the federal government that have been unfolding for decades.
While Jade Helm will by no means herald the implementation of martial law (a claim falsely attributed to Jones), it will serve to further acclimatize Americans to the sight of troops on the streets and the militarization of law enforcement.
Funny how the oligarch-owned financial media are trying desperately to hype Elizabeth “Fauxahontus” Warren as a reformer and a threat to the banksters. Controlled opposition, yes. A true threat, absolutely not.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-05/why-elizabeth-warren-makes-wall-street-tremble
German taxpayers are starting to wake up and punish the bankster adjuncts and faux “conservatives” in the establishment parties who are selling them down the river and piling massive debts and liabilities onto future generations.
http://www.businessinsider.com/angela-merkels-party-just-suffered-a-huge-blow-2015-5
Bahahahahahaha …Greece is now taxing cash withdrawals.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-10/situation-escalates-%E2%80%93-greece-now-taxing-cash-withdrawals
Bahahahaha … I really love the article but I love this comment even more:
“Someone deposits their hard earned money in a bank. The bank steals the deposit. The bank then “prints” up counterfeit money, fiat, based on that stolen deposit and then loans it out to some unsuspecting sap as a fiat-loan with usury attached. The bank’s counterfeit is additional theft, but from the economy, the people, as a whole, by way of the borrower. The borrower then deposits the fiat-loan in his bank, which then also promptly steals it, and “prints” up more theft from the economy. And so on, and on, and on…
“Now, after all of that grift, the banks in question then have the gall to charge “fees” on deposit accounts that they have looted. Then they charge “fees” for you to access your own money. And what if you have the temerity to request funds from your account that are beyond what your bank’s “ponzi statement” says? Yup, more egregious “fees.”
“Now, when all the counterfeiting weakens the economy, the banks, who printed the counterfeit in the first place, come a knocking, and a taking, of the borrowers’ collateral. The banks then have traded nothing for something while using the borrower as a “fence.” But then the banks will then still hold the borrower liable for any value difference between the fiat-loan amount and THEIR valuation of the collateral they have taken.
“Ultimately, when all the bank “printed” counterfeit finally destroys the economy, the banks will then use their violence-puppets, government, to make official their original thefts of the deposits–a “bail-in.”
This puke sums it up quite well.
Scottish voters jettisoned a major Labour incumbent and bankster water carrier in favor of a 20-year-old student more in touch with the popular sentiment. Awesome!
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/mhairi-black-meet-the-20year-old-who-beat-douglas-alexander-to-become-youngest-mp-since-17th-century-10239334.html
Hillary, the so-faux “champion of the middle class,” is making a beeline straight to her plutocrat campaign contributors (and puppet masters). Even the oligarch-owned financial media can’t fail but to notice.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-08/hillary-clinton-s-big-donor-paradox
The Chinese government is busy trying to figure out who is too big to fail.
China cuts rates as economic slowdown deepens
Published: May 10, 2015 5:43 p.m. ET
By Lingling Wei
BEIJING–China is stepping up monetary-easing measures in the face of a worse-than-expected economic slowdown, as authorities scramble to ease the heavy debt burdens of companies and governments.
The People’s Bank of China said Sunday it would shave a quarter of a percentage point off benchmark lending and deposit rates, effective Monday–its third rate cut in six months. The move underscores growing fears among senior Chinese officials that a severe debt overhang as a result of rapid credit expansion over the past few years is threatening to derail efforts to pick up the world’s second-largest economy.
In one of the starkest official warnings about China’s growing debt woes, the PBOC said in its monetary-policy report Friday that the “rising debt size is forcing China to use a lot of resources in repaying and rolling over debt” while limiting the room for further fiscal expansion. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that the central bank is also considering a credit-easing tool that will allow local governments to restructure hefty debts.
Meanwhile, easing measures taken by the central bank–including two interest-rate reductions since November–have largely failed to spur new-loan demand. Instead, the actions have triggered a strong run-up in China’s stock markets in recent months, which has helped the authorities to keep funds from flowing outside China but also led to concerns over speculative trading. Chinese shares tumbled last week as regulators moved to limit investors’ ability to buy stocks with borrowed funds.
People with knowledge of the discussions say China’s policy makers are increasingly concerned that Beijing may fall short of reaching its already-lowered expectations for growth–set at about 7% for this year, the lowest level in about a quarter-century. The latest rate cut came after China reported disappointing trade data on Friday and inflation data on Saturday that both highlighted weak domestic demand and subdued manufacturing activity. The real-estate market, which together with construction and other related industries accounts for a quarter of China’s GDP, remains sluggish, casting one of the biggest shadows over the overall economy.
At the same time, bad loans are rising in China’s vast banking system, fueling worries among Chinese policy makers over the country’s rising financial risks. According to the China Banking Regulatory Commission, nonperforming loans surged 140 billion yuan ($22.6 billion) from the beginning of the year to 982.5 billion as of March 31, the biggest quarterly jump in more than a decade.
Dud loans made up 1.39% of all loans as of the end of March, up 0.14 percentage point from the end of 2014 and representing the highest level in five years. The rise of bad loans is crimping banks’ profits at a time when they are being called upon to make credit more accessible. China’s top five state-owned banks, for instance, saw their first-quarter profit grow less than 2%, compared with the double-digit growth rate typically seen in previous years.
The rate cut lowered by a quarter-percentage point both the benchmark one-year loan rate, to 5.1%, and the one-year deposit rate, to 2.25%. In a statement Sunday, the central bank singled out low inflation as a trigger for the move, saying real interest rates, adjusted for price changes, remain at historically high levels. In addition, in another step toward freeing up banks’ deposit rates, the PBOC allowed Chinese banks greater flexibility in deciding how much they pay depositors. With the latest move, banks can raise one-year deposits rates to as high as 3.375%.
Of particular concern to officials at the PBOC and other regulators is the potential for credit to freeze up as a result of mounting defaults, Chinese officials and economists say. Already, based on estimates by economists at Royal Bank of Scotland, more than $300 billion in funds has left China’s shores over the past six months, partly from the strength of the U.S. dollar and partly from ebbing confidence in the Chinese economy. More money could flow out if defaults keep rising, drying up funds for lending.
As a result, China’s authorities are trying to come up with different ways to help alleviate borrowers’ debt-repayment burdens, even though that can mean taking a direct government role in deciding winners and losers.
In Guangrao, an industrial county in eastern China’s Shandong province, tire maker Deruibao Tire Co. has become a key target of a government-led rescue effort, according to a government spokesman and others involved in the process. Like other Chinese companies, Deruibao expanded rapidly soon after Beijing launched a massivestimulus package in late 2008. It took on debt, mostly bank loans, to build new plants, according to local officials and bankers familiar with the company’s finances. All had gone well until last year, when plunging sales both at home and abroad led its bank creditors to call in loans.
Earlier this year, the company went to the government of Guangrao for help, according to a spokesman for the local government. Local officials then tried to get its banks to extend credit to the company, according to local officials and bankers with knowledge of the negotiations. Two local banks obeyed the order, these people said, but other national banks balked. Now, according to the spokesman for the Guangrao government, the county still is seeking to help prevent the company from filing for bankruptcy by “actively coordinating with all parties involved.”
The main reason, according to Guangrao officials: Deruibao also guaranteed loans taken out by other companies, and a bankruptcy filing could trigger a chain of defaults.
“The regulators are on the lookout for any signs of systemic risks,” a Guangrao official involved in Deruibao’s affairs said. Representatives at the company declined to comment.
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EU Economy
May 10, 2015 1:52 pm
Greece hits crunch time over €750m repayment to IMF
Shawn Donnan in Washington
People sit under a Greek flag at the Acropolis in Athens on May 6, 2015. AFP PHOTO / LOUISA GOULIAMAKI (Photo credit should read LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AFP/Getty Images)
Monday’s meeting of Eurogroup ministers in Brussels may or may not turn out to be a make or break moment for Greece and the eurozone. There is no doubt that moment is creeping closer, however, or that the International Monetary Fund and the billions it is due to be repaid by Athens this year alone will play a central role in what happens next. Whether a deal is concluded in Brussels or not, Athens owes the IMF €750m on Tuesday.
The money is part of a repayment plan set five years ago as part of a 2010 bailout and the IMF is unyielding about that schedule. One way or another it must be repaid and be repaid on time. No advanced economy has ever defaulted on the 70-year-old IMF, which acts as a lender of last resort to its 188 member governments.
Here are a few things you need to know in the run-up to Tuesday’s deadline:
Greece’s repayment schedule to the IMF is toughest in the weeks ahead .
Cancel the summer holidays. Tuesday’s €750m repayment is the biggest that the Greek government has had to make to the IMF so far this year. But it is really just the start of a difficult few months that make it likely that Greece and its creditors are going to have a long hot summer high on brinkmanship and stress, and short on fun.
The immediate discussions are over releasing another €7.2bn from a European-led bailout. Greece owes more than that to the IMF and other creditors in the months to come.
In June alone, Greece owes another €1.5bn to the IMF and it is due to repay the same sum across four payments in September. Meanwhile, it owes some €3bn to the European Central Bank in July and August.
Given its current cash struggles it is unlikely to make all of those payments without receiving at least some of the bailout funds.
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Look, all I can say is crater. Yellen says crater and I say crater. In the meanwhile, y’all enjoy your employment and keep your powder dry. Don’t buy anything until it’s half off.
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