Bits Bucket for May 25, 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
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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Happy Memorial Day
Let’s celebrate in advance for the millions of casualties of the next multi-front war in Iraq, Syria, Iran, and Ukraine
John McCain wants to send troops back to Iraq to fight their battles for them, because the job of the US Army is to fight for those who won’t fight for themselves.
Onward Christian Soldiers.
All wars are Bush’s fault
We never had a war before or after him. Americans are free to travel through out the Middle East with out worry since now everyone loves the U.S. and all the people from here.
Yes, The $2 trillion war in Iraq to stop WMD’s (lie) is Bush, all Bush. ISIS is all Bush.
ISIS is all Bush.
Then, ISIS should be done since Bush is no longer president hasn’t been for more than five years.
Cant fix the Bush Blunders over night. When you make 250k young men angry and unemployed (Iraq Army) there are LOOOOOONG term consequences… you know this.
Bush signed the treaty to bring them home in 2008. Obama is stuck with a lot of Bush policies. Again, you know this.
They are all stuck with Carter’s policies.
Summer lovers.
https://www.google.com/search?q=bush+saudi+king+holding+hands&rlz=1CAACAC_enUS604US605&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&imgil=g0GZeBW0aH1m8M%253A%253BCVKGoIe7F_QevM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fen.wikipedia.org%25252Fwiki%25252FHolding_hands&source=iu&pf=m&fir=g0GZeBW0aH1m8M%253A%252CCVKGoIe7F_QevM%252C_&usg=__X6zi4gWv0j-qw04SVonNh02FUK0%3D&biw=1366&bih=657&ved=0CCgQyjc&ei=a9hjVerbE4qmyAT7h4KwCA#imgrc=MRmCC2xcNEfqCM%253A%3BrU9_4MXdt_WhhM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fedge.liveleak.com%252F80281E%252Fu%252Fu%252Fthumbs%252F2013%252FAug%252F2%252Fb24886acad9a_sf_8.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.liveleak.com%252Fview%253Fi%253Ddfd_1375495354%3B1024%3B576
I don’t want to send troops back to the Middle East but the won’t fight for themselves meme is just an excuse for Obama’s failure. The Iraqis were hit with 30 suicide vehicles in a matter of days, where was U.S. air cover? The day the defenses fell apart despite heavy attacks, there were 8 lousy sorties. During the Gulf wars hundreds occurred each day. I guess ISIS is advancing in Syria because the Syrians will not fight either or advancing in Libya because the Libyans will not fight, advancing in Afghanistan due to the Afghans will not fight. How about we have no effective policy to confront ISIS?
The US govt. is ISIS.
Some times it is supporting and some times is it opposing, it depends on the day and that is of course part of the problem.
US Defense (chuckle) Secretary Ashton Carter say that Iraqi forces (giggle) have no will to fight to defeat the Islamic State ROTFLMAO.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/defense-secretary-carter-iraqis-need-will-to-fight-to-defeat-islamic-state/2015/05/24/1f189454-022e-11e5-bc72-f3e16bf50bb6_story.html
‘Some times it is supporting and some times is it opposing’
That’s pretty naive.
“The US govt. is ISIS.”
U.S.I.S.I.S.
Forward
‘Some times it is supporting and some times is it opposing’
That’s pretty naive.
It would be naïve to believe that the U.S. believes it has permanent friends or permanent enemies. It uses groups like ISIS when they suit its purposes. If it had total control over the group, ISIS would not have attacked the Kurds which have numerous American companies producing their oil or the oil fields of Libya. Do I think that Hillary facilitated the transfer of weapons from Libya to ISIS for use by ISIS against Assad, yes. Is that the real Libyan scandal, yes. Do I think that means that ISIS is controlled by the U.S. and does exactly what we want it to do, no. As we often do we are riding the tiger and blowback is common in the covert game.
Just because you believe Hollywood tripe doesn’t mean everyone is stupid Dan.
When someone lies in court, you tend to not believe anything they say. The FOIA thing that came out the other day proves the US govt. is not telling the truth about ISIS. I don’t believe anything they say on the matter from now on. The fact that they pretend to be fighting them just adds more ridiculousness to the situation.
The ISIS book I posted about below also notes that Obama plays alot of golf
Interestingly, there was a similar debate that we are having on WUWT in the comments on a cartoon. I did not see it until now due to my yard work:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/05/22/friday-funny-the-horror-of-rising-sea-levels-in-context/
There’s nothing wrong with the Iraqi military that a generation of US-UK training and several trillion in “investments” won’t fix.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11628351/Generation-needed-to-rebuild-Iraqi-Army-says-British-general.html
The only good news in the Middle East is that they are rapidly running out of oil, soon we will care about the area as much as Clinton cared about Rwanda in the 1990s.
P.S. when I say soon I do mean decades which in history or even one’s life is nothing.
ISIS is supported by 81% of respondents? So does that mean they support the U.S. since it is supposedly well known that the U.S. controls ISIS?
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/05/25/shock-poll-81-of-al-jazeera-arabic-poll-respondents-support-isis/
’since it is supposedly well known that the U.S. controls ISIS’
That’s not what the FOIA document said. But it is interesting that the media ignored it and the government didn’t say boo.
but the won’t fight for themselves meme is just an excuse for Obama’s failure ??
What a bunch of BS….You remember the 2012 Campaign Adan…You must because you were yelping about your Rasmusson/Romney win…
You remember the campaign promise that Obama made to the American people Adan ?? He won and fulfilled his promise to the people who elected him…
Typical neocon statement…Can’t/Won’t take responsibility for your failures…All the lies would have worked out fine if Iraq had worked I fine…It Didn’t
Now live with your support of the war and the 5,000 dead Americans besides the overall carnage…
I honesty do not no one campaign promise Obama has kept. We still have troops in Afghanistan and we are back in Iraq, Obamacare was filled with lies, the economy has not been restored nor the gap between the really rich and poor narrowed at all. I did not predict a Romney win only that things would be even worse if Obama was reelected and that prediction has come true.
No=Know
I did not predict a Romney win only that things would be even worse if Obama was reelected and that prediction has come true ??
More BS….If Romney was President right now you would be CROWING from the highest perch about how Romney saved the economy from the disaster Obama…
We still have troops in Afghanistan and we are back in Iraq ??
How many ?? How many were there when he took the reins from the war criminal Bush ??
If Romney was President right now you would be CROWING from the highest perch about how Romney saved the economy from the disaster Obama…
Not if the economy had been growing at around 2%, if he achieved 3 or 4% which we should be achieving with our cheap fossil fuels, I would be pointing out the difference between Romney and Obama. However, in the end I did not vote for Romney since he is a globalists so he would have only been managing our decline better than the idiot in chief.
I get it, ABQDan blames Obama that he has to live in ABQ. Too bitter to think straight or for himself.
Actually, ABQ is a nice city to live in, you should try the bike and walking trails along the Rio Grande or hiking in the mountains, or try all the casinos with their inexpensive food and inexpensive rooms compared to the large cities. I travel to the Bay area and San Diego and with the Bay area in particular I cannot believe how people are gouged, and the average pay in the area is less than I make. You can keep it, I am a member of the CA bar and could move there tomorrow, I want no part of it. You act like the typical Californian, you believe that everyone wants to live there when the truth is many cannot get out of there fast enough.
Just one example:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/whats-driving-high-gas-prices-in-california/
“In Asia we face an ambitious and aggressive China, but we have the will and we have the strength to help our Asian friends resist that ambition. Sometimes our folks get a little impatient. Sometimes they rattle their rockets some, and they bluff about their bombs. But we are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.
President Eisenhower said in 1954 to the Government of Viet-Nam, “President Diem, we want to help you help yourselves. We will give you advice, we will provide leadership, we will help you with material things, with your weapons and the things that you do not have, to protect your independence because we are so proud of our independence we would like for you to have independence, too, and not be swallowed up by the Communists.”
We have been doing that for 10 long years under three Presidents. We have now some 18,000 men in Viet-Nam, officers and men, advising, counseling, leading them. We have a good deal of material that we have sent there, very costly to our taxpayers each month. The reports that come in are gloomy from day to day.
But we have a choice. We can seek a wider war. China is there on the border with 700 million men, with over 200 million in their army. And we could get tied down in a land war in Asia very quickly if we sought to throw our weight around. Or we could retreat and pull out and say “Goodby” to the rest of the world, that we are going to live on our own shores, and we would let Asia go to other people. But we don’t seem to think that either of those alternatives is the wise decision. ”
– Lyndon Baines Johnson, 21 October 1964
The U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (official name: Agreement Between the United States of America and the Republic of Iraq On the Withdrawal of United States Forces from Iraq and the Organization of Their Activities during Their Temporary Presence in Iraq) was a status of forces agreement (SOFA) between Iraq and the United States, ****** signed by President George W. Bush in 2008. ****** It established that U.S. combat forces would withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009, and all U.S. combat forces will be completely out of Iraq by December 31, 2011.[1] The pact required criminal charges for holding prisoners over 24 hours, and required a warrant for searches of homes and buildings that were not related to combat.[1] U.S. contractors working for U.S. forces would have been subject to Iraqi criminal law, while contractors working for the State Department and other U.S. agencies would retain their immunity. If U.S. forces committed still undecided “major premeditated felonies” while off-duty and off-base, they would have been subjected to an undecided procedures laid out by a joint U.S.-Iraq committee if the U.S. certified the forces were off-duty.
Bush signed the treaty in 2008 to pull out the troops, Obama takes credit for ending the $2 trillion wars (never ended), McSame wants to rev them up again… uhg
Why can we just let them kill themselves for a while? Let Jordan, Turkey and Israel bomb as needed.
Paul/Trump 2016
No one is paying attention.
I actually want to se Jeb elected, so he can start Bush War III.
Aren’t you a Jibbary fan?
so he can start Bush War III
He ?? Count them all in for that maybe holding back Paul & Kacich…
George was the guy who got the idea in his head, and shamed anybody that went against him as unpatriotic. They can’t help that they’re spineless feebs.
Hillary is my crash the system candidate. I think she has much more experience than Jeb at this.
I just can’t hold the idea of her wearing one of those pant suits of hers while wielding the fist of nuclear oblivion in my head.
My friend is a nurse, I may have second thought s about letting women run it all. She says they need men mixed in or they all fight light cats.
Soggy San Diego Memorial Day ceremony
http://picpaste.com/tmp_7011-20150525_1101312003678996-FUjlX0eX.jpg
It’s a family tradition for us to attend the annual RB Memorial Day ceremony. This is the first time in over ten years that it rained. I’m hoping it’s a sign the drought is ending.
Because of illegal immigration California is going to have to bite the bullet just like China:
http://english.cntv.cn/2015/05/25/VIDE1432503721713928.shtml
‘”I clearly remember when I was a child that Tianjin’s drinking water used to taste very salty. The water color was yellow,” A Tianjin resident Cao Shuping said.’
San Diego may not have enough water, but at least it is not ‘yellow and salty’…blech!
Are you still gambling these days in long-term bonds? If so, why? Can you envision any scenario where you don’t lose money?
Ft dot com
Bonds have forgotten Buffett’s first rule
John Plender
Warren Buffett’s first rule of investing is never lose money. His second rule is never forget rule number one. Most of us tend to think of this wise quip in the context of equities, which historically inflict far greater capital losses on investors than bonds. Since bonds offer capital certainty on redemption and a fixed income stream, which is the reason economists refer to them as “risk free”, that might seem logical enough. Yet at today’s astonishingly low yields, the balance of risk between equities and bonds has changed fundamentally.
Throughout the postwar period the income component in total bond returns has tended to act as a counterweight to capital losses. But depressed yields at the end of a three and a half decade bond bull market mean that the income now offers minimal compensation to investors for a hit to capital. As Anthony Doyle, director of fixed income investment at M&G Investments, the fund house, rightly argues, the collapse in yields across the fixed income spectrum means that investors are now at greater risk of higher drawdowns — peak to trough falls — than ever before. The chances of losses in the bond market, he adds, have never been greater.
The recent sudden surge in the yield on German Bunds was a salutary reminder of this change in the nature of bond market risk. It demonstrated how a modest fall in the price of a very low-yielding bond can wipe out several years-worth of interest income. If bond market yields were to revert to their long-term mean, the damage would be catastrophic.
Of course everyone, including central bankers who worry about systemic risk, hopes that a return to something closer to historical norms will be incremental. Fingers everywhere are crossed. But investors also need to rethink their perceptions of risk.
…
I have a hard time allocating capital to bonds in this market, even the intermediate term funds with average durations of 5-7 years.
Higher cash holdings are a more attractive alternative to a higher bond allocation for me right now.
But to your question, PBear, for an investor with a long term investment horizon (sovereign wealth funds, trust funds for a very young person, or a large pension fund) a small allocation to long term bonds provide some protection to further rate drops or a deflationary period. The downside, of course, is that the long term bond allocation will most likely be a drag on portfolio performance. One needs to understand the role and purpose that long term bond allocations have in a portfolio.
“…provide some protection to further rate drops or a deflationary period.”
I get the generic argument for owning long-term bonds.
Are you saying this applies currently, after several years of Fed quantitative easing driving long-term yields to a record low, followed by repeated warnings of imminent liftoff with no liftoff?
What makes you feel the present day central banking establishment will tolerate deflation, given they appear determined to avoid it at all costs?
I was pointing out a scenario where you don’t lose money in long term bonds.
If you have a 30 year or longer investment horizon (like a sovereign wealth fund or a trust fund for a young person might have) then holding a 30 year treasury bond to maturity has a positive, albeit meager, return.
As I wrote in my original post, for me, cash is more attractive alternative to bonds right now. Each investor needs to make their own determination.
then holding a 30 year treasury bond to maturity has a positive, albeit meager, return.
Meager, indeed! The idea of holding a bond for thirty years at the current yields blows my mind!
I, too, prefer to hold cash to that; I have to believe that sometime in the next thirty years, there will be an investment that looks more attractive than that, even given the yield I will leave on the table in the interim.
If you ignore present and future inflation it will work out well. Of course, if you ignore inflation in your investments, you will end up in cardboard box living on a corner near Lola.
Uh oh…Dan and I agree on something. It’s a very bad omen for people who buy into this oft-repeated, though spurious, statement:
“If you have a 30 year or longer investment horizon (like a sovereign wealth fund or a trust fund for a young person might have) then holding a 30 year treasury bond to maturity has a positive, albeit meager, return.”
Ignore future inflation at your peril.
“I, too, prefer to hold cash to that; I have to believe that sometime in the next thirty years, there will be an investment that looks more attractive than that, even given the yield I will leave on the table in the interim.”
If you lock in current 30 year Treasury yields, you are likely to be more underwater than a homeowner with a negative amortization mortgage who HELOCked away all his home equity on vacations and toys by the time a better investment opportunity presents itself.
If you lock in current 30 year Treasury yields, you are likely to be more underwater
Precisely why I refuse to “lock in” such pitiful yields, and remain mostly in cash rather than Treasuries. I’m willing to lose a bit to inflation in order to avoid the bond bubble burst, and in order to have the flexibility to move without major capital loss when something more attractive presents itself.
“I’m willing to lose a bit to inflation in order to avoid the bond bubble burst, and in order to have the flexibility to move without major capital loss when something more attractive presents itself.”
Which reminds me: Why does the definition of “cap rate” ignore capital gains?
Which reminds me: Why does the definition of “cap rate” ignore capital gains?
My understanding is that it is intended to be a metric for comparing different properties; by design, it tries to factor out appreciation and capital structure (e.g. leveraged vs cash purchase), and merely tells you which property will produce more income for a given cash investment. It is not intended to tell you the real ROI of the investment—that is not the purpose that this particular tool.
Everybody thinks long-term bonds are a bad investment right now.
So they’re probably a good investment.
^^^ Click!
Stocks are far more dangerous than bonds right now.
I’ll take my 1% savings account interest, and wait.
Where are you getting 1% on a savings account?
Think I’m getting 0.9% on a DiscoverBank one…
You cannot be serious bonds are the biggest bubble in history due to central bank manipulation.
due to central bank manipulation ??
Which Central Bank ??
Virtually all of them.
That was my point….Read the article Ben posted below…
In a stock market plunge you could still make a profit on gov’t bonds. In a flight-to-safety panic the value of gov’t bonds go up even if that causes yields to go negative.
‘a flight-to-safety panic the value of gov’t bonds go up even if that causes yields to go negative’
Paying someone to borrow my money is safety?
It’s more like paying someone to store your money. There’s only so much cash one can store in your sock drawer.
There’s only so much cash one can store in your sock drawer.
And there are strange rules that prevent storing it safely elsewhere already, such as the rule preventing you from putting cash in your safe-deposit box.
@Ben — in a panic, investors are bidding up the bond prices. Only the new bonds can have negative yields. The bonds you hold today will have the same income stream, it’s just you can now sell the bond at a profit.
You need to study the late 70s under Carter or Brazil today.
Q. How do you avoid deflation or stock-market panics?
A. Manufacture high inflation and associated currency and bond market panics instead.
(I believe this is the scenario the gold bugs are hoping to see.)
I’m popping in from time to time. The good thing about gold, it’s said, is that it is the only primary asset that is not simultaneously someone else’s liability. I wonder about silver? Platinum? Palladium? Maybe the one who said that quote meant “precious metals.”
Nice to hide more “inside the oatmeal.”
Yellen’s Back-to-the-’50s Interest Rates
Friday, 22 May 2015 07:38 PM
By Larry Kudlow
Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen told us last week that the federal-funds target rate will be raised slightly later this year.
But after that, future rate hikes will be small and gradual over the next several years. In fact, we may never have true normalization (4 percent).
In my view, Yellen is offering a back-to-the-’50s approach to interest rates. And she’s right, though for many wrong reasons.
For average folks, what might this policy mean? I’ll take a guess: No boom and no bust.
No inflation and no recession. All the post-war recessions were preceded by an inverted Treasury yield curve, where short rates are higher than long rates. That won’t happen for many years. Plus, upward oil-price spikes lead recessions, but we’re now in a downward energy-price cycle.
What’s the back-to-the-’50s part? Well, from Eisenhower to JFK, short rates averaged between 1 and 2 percent, inflation was roughly 1.5 percent, the dollar was tied to gold, long Treasurys ranged 2 to 3 percent, and real growth was only 2.5 percent.
And despite Ike’s three recessions, the stock market roughly doubled (from very low levels).
So that was then, and this is now. Things are different. But the ultra-low interest rates are quite similar, along with low inflation and virtually stagnant real growth.
…
Memorial Day book recommendation for Clubber Lang: “ISIS Exposed” by Erick Stackelbeck, it has endorsements from Sean Hannity, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabee
I can’t sleep and I’m in the middle of chapter three titled “Target America: Why You Should Care About ISIS”
There will be a false flag operation on American soil this week
When the Senate returns to session at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 31st, they have only eight hours to reauthorize NSA spying on American citizens
This is unacceptable to the bipartisan supporters of Big Daddy Government
Therefore, there will be an ISIS attack this week to “rally the base”
You heard it here first
You see “Shooter,” my favorite B movie / Saturday night flick. Not exactly what your describing, but very similar.
If you believe they do not follow the law than what does it matter anyway? Do you really think it would be shutdown?
Heck, couldn’t an executive order keep it all going? Why not?
“…they start getting weird and talk to you like they own you.”
I think this is what my neighbors (the ones that parked on my lawn) struggled with: that renters are real people. They never parked on anyone else’s lawn. Although it’s not related to housing, some people in my workplace also become very stratified and power-trippy. They can’t even talk to the plant operators or secretaries like they’re human, and deny simple, normal adult stuff like stepping out for a doctor’s appointment. Some people can’t handle power.
Anyhoo, the irony is that out of my whole block (about 20 houses), we’ve been here longer than all but 3.
The smugness level really goes up when people feel house rich, but when they’re underwater, they always look for someone to blame other than themselves.
Our last landlord seemed to feel his failing investment and my family were one and the same, and treated with equal contempt. Not a pleasant time. I wanted to avoid this by getting out before the showings and I seem to have set our present LL off.
and I seem to have set our present LL off
What is your LL doing to demonstrate said contempt?
Packing and cleaning all day.
Not answering the emails I sent him. I can only guess his reaction since I didn’t receive a reply. I told him how we found it a bad experience showing our last rental. We had people come in with agents and split up and go into bedrooms. We couldn’t watch them all. One group looked like gang members.
We got really scared one night, 8-9 PM. Someone was on the lawn, looking in the windows. As it turned out they thought the place was empty, as the lights were out (we’re very dull.) Nice couple; we talked to them for about an hour and explained that the LL was in trouble, not paying the mortgage.
Back to the present - I said we’d leave ASAP to avoid their showing start date of July 1st. My theory is he’s ticked because he was counting on receiving rent until the sale.
We also saw his behavior. The very first week of our lease my husband, also of the occasional inappropriate hot temper, had an argument with the male LL about stuff they left in the garage which took up a significant amount of space. The wife and I agreed that we’d smooth it over, and we succeeded. However, my husband was right, the stuff is still there and we just ate it. Apparently a hot temper is is his bent; she pretty much said it, so it’s not so hard to upset him.
I’m pretty direct; that also could have done it, but nothing I said in the email wasn’t true (explaining my concerns) or offensive. I just said that I didn’t want people viewing dear old Ma in her condition in a hospital bed.
Basically, he’s ticked because we’re just not saying “Yes, sir.” Bad serfs, bad bad serfs.
Sorry to hear it…
Hope you find an even better rental!
Thanks! Maybe we’ll get lucky this week.
“Some people can’t handle power.”
With a bit of imagination one can have a lot of fun with such people.
Suggestions? Echh, never mind, I won’t do it.
It will be bad enough if I ask for 60 days (for which we do qualify) to get out rather than 30. I may need it. His head will explode.
I really and truly don’t want to give him a hard time. It’s his house. But I don’t care for being treated like a serf. A little chin music would have cost him nothing. On the rare occasion something happened, he had no problem calling me then.
How is the rental search going?
So far no good. I didn’t think much of this place. Looking at what’s available, this shanty is looking good. Pride goeth before the fall. Oh God, we’re going to end up in North Las Vegas
Thanks Phony, you’re sweet for asking.
A friends coworker has a simple, inexpensive house with a crawl space, now the house is tilting and its going to cost 10k to fix. At least she doesn’t have to worry about flooding in the basement.
clearly lack of maintenance.
That’s what happens to houses. They depreciate costing a fortune of the lifetime of the structure.
Hope she escrowed $5k every year she owned it to cover those losses.
Maybe they should have had better drainage in place to prevent slumping of the soil?
Nothing to do with depreciation.
The drainage plugged up because they didn’t replace it when it failed. All these manmade systems fail.
Figure $4k to replace perimeter drains.
Mini-excavator and operator-16hrs x $125/hr
30CY #57 x $40/CY delivered
120LF perf pipe and diaper-$400
5 Mexicans, lots of gravel and 10 bags of concrete….. $1000
Concrete perimeter drains eh?
Here’s the plans. Build a doghouse in 6 months.
That’s the trouble with crawl spaces. People go down there so rarely that small problems can become major repairs because they aren’t caught in time. A pipe could leak for years and you might never notice until your foundation starts sinking.
You should go down there and inspect everything once every season, but few do, since they’re usually nasty places full of cobwebs, and you usually have to crawl around in them.
http://www.monnit.com/solutions/crawl-space-monitoring
“the house is tilting and its going to cost 10k to fix.”
The pride of ownership!
“It’s A Coup D’Etat,” David Stockman Warns “Central Banks Are Out Of Control”
We’re all about to be taken to the woodshed, warns David Stockman in this excellent interview
by Zero Hedge | May 25, 2015
We’re all about to be taken to the woodshed, warns David Stockman in this excellent interview. The huge wealth disparity is “not because of some flaw in capitalism, or Reagan tax cuts, or even the greed of Wall Street; the problem is central banks that are out of control.” Simply put, they have “syphoned financial resources into pure gambling” and the people that own the stocks and bonds get the huge financial windfall. “The 10% at the top own 85% of the financial assets,” and thus, thanks to the unleashing of almost limitless money-printing, which has created a massive worldwide financial inflation, “the central banks have created and exaggerated the wealth gap.” Stockman concludes, rather ominously, “it’s a coup d’etat, the central banks have taken over – unconstitutional domination of the entire economy.”
“Everywhere, misleading distorted signals are being given to both public and private sector players about financial values… the prices have been falsified by The Fed.
We can’t print our way to prosperity… The Fed is now petrified that Wall Street will have a hissy-fit when they tighten.”
Full interview below:
“Everywhere, misleading distorted signals are being given to both public and private sector players about financial values… the prices have been falsified by The Fed.
Spot on—the seeds of next crisis in a nutshell.
The longer they postpone liftoff, the more dependant Mr Market becomes on his steady supply of monetary hooch, making the pain of withdrawal so much worse when liftoff finally arrives.
There are a lot of happy Chinese today, you can call it a bubble or you can call it a prediction of increasing economic activity only time will really answer that question:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/Chinese-shares-climb-to-highest-closing-in-7-years/shdaily.shtml
That’s where you are wrong Dan, the stock market blowoff is a sign of decreasing economic activity. When that pustule bursts it’s not going to be pretty.
It’s setting up over there just like Wall Street in 1929.
… and there will be a lot of sad Chinese when that blows up in the next year and they get nothing.
Or maybe the rise is supported by fundamentals, I do not know but we will know within six months since that is how far a typical stock market “predicts”:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-05/25/c_134268021.htm
This post right here. This is the one I’m going to look back on and chortle, again and again.
There are a lot of happy Chinese today, you can call it a bubble or you can call it a prediction of increasing economic activity only time will really answer that question:
Printing $23 TRILLION in stimulus can give you quite the illusion of prosperity, as well as enabling corrupt system insiders (redundant, I realize) to park their ill-gotten wealth in California real estate.
That is not what the CEO of Honeywell thinks about the economy:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-05/21/c_134259085.htm
His main point made a few days ago have been my main points for almost a year:
Cote said China’s evolution has been rapid, and the Chinese government has been evolving with the economy.
“One of the reasons that I am so bullish about where the country can go is that I see China recognizing what the issues are and addressing them. That is the important part of being able to evolve,” Cote told Xinhua.
“Every government, country, company, organization, and every single person need to evolve because the world is always changing around you.”
Cote said evolution was one of the main reasons behind Honeywell’s astonishing transformation into an industrial powerhouse with a double-digit profit growth and an enviable balance sheet. “I always say that Darwin’s point is not the survival of the fittest, it is survival of the most flexible.”
“As a company, we need to be constantly evolving faster than our environment. Competitors, customers, technologies, countries, and everything is changing all the time. We need to be changing even faster than them.”
Accompanying an economic slowdown are lots of adaptations going on in the Chinese system right now, including the anti-corruption effort, the state-owned enterprise reform, and the shadow banking discussion, Cote said.
China’s economic expansion has slowed down in recent years, which is officially called “New Normal”, with growth rates falling from 8 to 10 percent annually to current 7 percent.
Cote believes China’s economy will continue to do well as long as the Chinese government keeps evolving and addressing the issues, adding that a 7-percent growth was still pretty good and it would be terrific if the world’s economy would expand at the same pace.
“Every government, country, company, organization, and every single person need to evolve because the world is always changing around you.”
But this evolution will be resisted because whatever it is that worked (or seems to have worked) will be retained.
These people may use a lot of words to describe who they are and what they are about but at root who they are and what they are about has gotten them to the positions they now occupy (IOW, what they have done so far up to now has worked for them) and there is no real solid incentive for them to change.
“Every government, country, company, organization, and every single person need to evolve because the world is always changing around you.”
Thing is, most organisms evolve into something that isn’t viable. It’s only the winners that survive.
Thing is, most organisms evolve into something that isn’t viable. It’s only the winners that survive.
You haven’t been to a Wal-Mart lately, have you? The voting habits of 95% of Muricans should tell you that our current IDIOCRACY is proof positive that not all evolution is in a forward direction.
And with a growing economy why can’t they print another $23 trillion? It is only when the debt/GDP numbers hit certain points does it become impossible, with only 6% external debt, they can play this game for decades, as I said above not long in human history but far longer than this board is looking for the boom to turn to bust.
Anyone can build a lot of useless crap with $28 Trillion, but that doesn’t create wealth. The Chinese are still a very poor lot and they now have huge debts and a lot of useless crap. Cheering them on to double down is asking for the outcome to be worse for everyone.
With the defaults having begun in China, I rather doubt that they can pull off an encore credit expansion.
The Chinese are still a very poor lot and they now have huge debts and a lot of useless crap.
Aka “mal-investment”.
With the defaults having begun in China, I rather doubt that they can pull off an encore credit expansion.
I share your doubt—but would caution that the sheeple were far easier to herd back onto the debt ranch here in the US than I would have expected as well.
Whoever gets screwed the hardest will stop playing first.
Got popcorn?
“Skies Darken for China’’s Solar Industry as Hanergy Plunges 47%”
http://www.nasdaq.com/article/skies-darken-for-chinas-solar-industry-as-hanergy-plunges-47-20150520-00288
Oil is the economic choice considering crude oil prices and crude demand is cratering.
People who follow the solar industry knew that Hanergy had sketchy accounting all along. It has nothing to do with solar vs. oil. Instead it should be viewed as a warning shot across the bow of ^all^ Chinese stocks across all industries. Can you really trust Chinese quarterly revenue, income and guidance statements?
No you cannot. If one of the biggest companies in China can get away with fudging their numbers like they did, just imagine what the finances of the thousands of mid tier and smaller companies look like. And the local governments are so intertwined with local businesses, they don’t even know how deep in the red they are themselves.
Collapsing global demand…
“China Freight Index Plunges to Multi-Year Low”
http://www.smarteranalyst.com/2015/05/06/china-freight-index-plunges-to-multi-year-low/
Forex Update: Crude Oil Plunges
http://www.actionforex.com/analysis/daily-forex-technicals/crude-oil-plunges-20150520241055/
“Tax Revenue Plummets in Oil Producing States”
http://www.ktoo.org/2015/05/24/tax-revenue-plummets-oil-producing-states/
“Commodity Price Drop Not Over, No Strong Rally In Oil: DBS”
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/21/us-lmeweek-asia-dbs-idUSKBN0O615T20150521
“Plummeting Iron Ore Prices Have Cut Growth Expectations”
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/plummeting-iron-ore-prices-have-cut-growth-expectations/story-e6frg8zx-1227352364003
‘As Mr King puts it acidly. “Many – including the owner of the Titanic – thought it was unsinkable: its designer, however, was quick to point out that ‘She is made of iron, sir, I assure you she can’.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11625098/HSBC-fears-world-recession-with-no-lifeboats-left.html
Nice post Ben…If you have time read some of the comments…
No life boats for steerage class.
CraterRage Photo Of The Day
http://goo.gl/qx0dRC
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2015/05/23/why-its-so-hard-to-convince-warmists/
Doesn’t matter with a global recession looming.
This is a good article, lots of interesting tidbits imbedded in it, such as this …
“There are some interesting social sciences theories on why warmist are unresponsive. I know the social sciences aren’t a favored science with this group but if you’ll bear with me, you’ll hopefully see how social science can be useful in describing why warmists are unreachable.”
“I know the social sciences aren’t a favored science with this group …”
“This group” meaning the group that the article was written for.
Now, why should this be so? Why should the scientific, logical types (the target audience of this article) not favor the social sciences?
This, too, has been my observation. And it goes the other way too - the social science guys do not favor the logical, scientific-type guys.
For the most part “social sciences” is an oxymoron.
“For the most part “social sciences” is an oxymoron.”
This statement inspired me to look the term up in Wikipedia:
“Positivist social scientists use methods resembling those of the natural sciences as tools for understanding society, and so define science in its stricter modern sense. Interpretivist social scientists, by contrast, may use social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically falsifiable theories, and thus treat science in its broader sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are often eclectic, using multiple methodologies (for instance, by combining the quantitative and qualitative techniques). The term social research has also acquired a degree of autonomy as practitioners from various disciplines share in its aims and methods.”
FWIW.
Have a smoke Dan. You can trust tobacco scientists when they say cigarettes are safe, just like you can trust the fossil-fuel-paid denier “scientists.”
No, it is the CAGW “scientists” that are like the tobacco “scientists” highly educated but well paid to support the lie that the warm up of the 20th century was anything more than a rebound from the little Ice age.
“In their latest speeches on global warming, Obama and the Pope weren’t trying to convince skeptics that CAGW is real. Instead, they were sending signals to their supporters on what “all right thinking people” should be saying. This is classic in-group/out-group communication. Obama and the Pope were setting up the talking points for their in-group members to use to determine who can be considered part of the tribe and who should be rejected for being outside of it. This is a process called Othering. Othering turns political foes into non-beings. Others have no value. Others can be discounted and ignored. Others can be mocked.”
“Obama and the Pope are examples of bellwethers; the sheep with the bell that the other sheep follow. Bellwether is not a derogatory term, it’s a descriptive term. The job of a political bellwether is to indicate the position that their followers should take in their everyday conversations.”
Useful idiot
From Wikipedia
In political jargon, useful idiot is a term for people perceived as propagandists for a cause whose goals they are not fully aware of, and who are used cynically by the leaders of the cause. Despite often being attributed to Vladimir Lenin,[1][2][3] in 1987, Grant Harris, senior reference librarian at the Library of Congress, declared that “We have not been able to identify this phrase among [Lenin's] published works.”[4][5]
In the Russian language, the equivalent term “useful fools” (полезные дураки, tr. polezniye duraki) was in use at least in 1941.[6]
Drudge Report link says it’s go time in New Orleans:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/orleans-cop-shot-dead-cruiser/story?id=31276815
“The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion dollars for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added $4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child,” Obama said on July 3, 2008, at a campaign event in Fargo, N.D.
“That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic,” said candidate Obama.
U.S. National Debt Clock : Real Time
http://www.usdebtclock.org/ - 117k -
Yes, and under Obama, the federal deficit has shrunk from $1,410 Bil in 2009 to $483 Bil in 2014. Good thing Bush was relieved of duty.
Obama was in charge during the year we had a 1.4 trillion dollar deficit but 2009 is deceptive, most of that spending was actually loans which were paid backed and credited in subsequent years so all the following years of Obama had lower deficits despite really higher spending and deficits. Look it up. The Democrats had the TARP loans booked as spending so it looked like the 2009 fiscal year which Bush II was only president for three months and could have been changed by Obama looked larger. In fact the Bush budget and deficit was changed, Obama added to it. The size of the deficits even today are what Obama denounced when he was running for president.
PFFF… there are infinite future generations to sell into debt slavery. We will never run out of borrowed money.
Is it just me, or does the whole “Memorial Day” thing seem to have faded out or submerged with a whimper? Very little about on the google news aggravator page, except for some local headline about Memorial Day freebies and deals. The goog landing page has a feeble little American flag with a yellow ribbon.
It seems as if, all at once, all the stuff behind our “wars” and “military actions” are coming to light, for example the Pentagon info that ISIS is a Washington creation. Also the real story behind 9/11 from the redacted pages in the report. Heck, even stuff about WW2, the end result of which seems to have been having the Israel millstone hung about our necks. People seem to have become rather subdued on the subject, with good reason.
Well, here’s a good one from Paul Craig Roberts on what all these wars and military actions are all about:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-24/paul-craig-roberts-our-soldiers-died-profits-bankers
The money quote:
“We need a memorial day to commemorate the victims of neoliberal globalization. All of us are its victims, and in the end the capitalists also.”
+1
For those that tell you Xeriscaping means zero work they are lying through their teeth. In a desert climate sand will fill up the rock gaps leading to the growth of plants such as tumble weeds. You need to either sift the sand between the rocks and remove or at least hire some illegals like my neighbors. I decided to not be the hypocrite and do it myself, thus I have been hitting both the gym and the yard this long weekend.
I don’t think a lot of people really understand xeriscaping. One homeowner here in the nabe took out their grass lawn and dumped a bunch of rocks and pebbles in its place. Wotta mess. Lots of weeds and such growing up between the rocks and pebbles.
Got Google? what is weed cloth for?
Ya cant help dumb. At least they are not wasting water.
It has weed cloth, the rocks go on the weed cloth, sand and dirt can and does fill the gaps between the rocks and plants can grow in that sand. It is not complicated. Sure if you just wait for a period of hot dry weather the plants will die due to shallow roots, but it is plenty ugly and you will not make your neighbors happy and if you have an HOA forget about waiting for that.
This is why you put plastic down under the rocks.
There is.
Why do so many people feel a need to brag about the time that they spend at the gym?
Was it Bruce Jenner?
I think many people on this board talk about their physical activities, why does it bother you so much, physical activity is a good thing and people have a right to be proud about keeping themselves in shape and helping to reduce this country’s medical bills. The context of why I said it the last post is an explanation on why I did not post much yesterday or Saturday.
“why does it bother you so much,”
It could be because Bruce Jenner may have been the co-worker who gave him the name MightyMike and since Bruce Jenner used to be a decathlon man he probably worked out a lot.
Are you suggesting he might be more Michael Jackson than Mike Tyson?
It doesn’t really bother me, it just strikes me as odd. People do it in the real world as well as the blog world.
Why Do We Celebrate Rising Home Prices?
May 23, 2015
Ryan McMaken
The fly in the ointment, of course, is if home prices keep going up faster than wages — ceteris paribus — fewer people will be able to save enough money to come up with either the full amount or even a sizable down payment on a loan.
Not to worry, the experts tell us. We’ll just make it easier, with the help of inflationary fiat money, to get an enormous loan that will allow you to buy a house. Thus, rock-bottom interest rates and low down payments have been the name of the game since the late 1980s.
We started to see the end game at work during the last housing bubble when Fannie Mae introduced the 40-year mortgage in 2005, which just emphasized that when it comes to being a homeowner, the idea is not to pay off the mortgage, but to “buy” a house and just pay the monthly payment until one moves to another house and gets a new thirty- or forty-year loan.
But why would any lending institution make these sorts of long-term loans if the payment in real terms keeps getting smaller? After all, thirty years is a long time for something to go wrong.
Lenders are willing and able to do this because the loans are subsidized and underwritten through government creations like Fannie Mae (which buys up these loans on the secondary market), through bailouts, and through a myriad of other federal programs such as FHA. Naturally, in an unhampered market, a loan of such a long term would require high interest rates to cover the risk. But, Congress and the Fed have come to the rescue with promises of bailouts and easy money, meaning cheap thirty-year loans continue to live on.
So, what we end up with is a complex system of subsidies and favoritism on the part of lenders, homeowners, government agencies, and the Fed. The price of homes keeps going up, increasing the net worth of homeowners, and banks can make long-term loans on fairly risky terms because they know bailouts of various sorts will come if things go wrong.
Who Loses?
From a free market’s perspective, renting a home is neither good nor bad, but American policymakers long ago decided to favor homeowners over renters. Consequently, we’re faced with an economic system that pushes renters toward homeownership — price inflation and the tax code punishes renters more than owners — while simultaneously pushing home prices higher and higher.
During the last housing bubble, however, as homeownership levels climbed, few noticed or cared about this. So many renters became homeowners that rental vacancies climbed to record highs from 2004 to 2009. But in our current economy, one cannot avoid rising rents or hedge against inflation by easily leaving rental housing behind.
This time around, the cost of purchasing housing is going up by 6 to 10 percent per year, but few renters can join the ranks of the homeowners to enjoy the windfall. Instead, they just face record-high rent increases and a record-low inventory in for-sale houses.
There once was a time when rising home prices and rising homeownership rates could happen at the same time; it was possible for the government to stick to its unofficial policy of propping up home prices while also claiming to be pushing homeownership. We no longer live in such a time.
mises.org/library/why-do-we-celebrate-rising-home-prices - 112k - Cached - Similar pages
Comment by phony scandals
2015-05-25 09:07:48
Why Do We Celebrate Rising Home Prices?
Sheriff sends in SWAT tank and chopper — and finds a sleeping man with food
May 21, 2015
The Manatee County Sheriff’s SWAT team rolls out of the parking lot after man who was detained under the Baker Act at the Bridge Church was surrounded by deputies and SWAT for a couple of hours. It was reported that he made statements that concerned an assistant pastor at the church. | TIFFANY TOMPKINS-CONDIE Bradenton Herald
A Florida sheriff sent in the works — a tank filled with SWAT members, dozens of deputies, a helicopter — and found this inside a church: a sleeping man with a bag of food he had been given.
The cause for alarm: reports of a suspect, possibly armed and making threatening comments, according to bradenton.com. Turned out the man was clutching a liquor bottle filled with wine.
Why the massive response?
“When they heard that, they saw what they thought could be a weapon and they became alarmed and law enforcement got involved,” Manatee County sheriff’s spokesman Dave Bristow said.
The man found at The Bridge Church in Manatee County will not be charged criminally.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/deadline-miami/article21552834.html#storylink=cpy
Sometimes it’s better never than late
Woman’s dog fatally shot by deputies responding to call
Posted: 6:06 p.m. Sunday, May 24, 2015
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —
A Tymber Skan condominiums resident told Eyewitness News that a call to authorities for help ended with her dog being shot and killed by a deputy.
Deborah Jones said her 4-year-old pit bull was in his home when Orange County deputies kicked the door in, and fatally shot the dog.
“They had to shoot my dog for no reason. They kicked my door in. I can’t even lock my door,” Jones said.
Jones said she left her home Sunday morning, and when she returned, she found deputies surrounding her home and a paper authorizing the county to pick up her dog’s body.
“My dog was right here dead. They wrapped him up with a blanket,” Jones said.
Jones said had called for help earlier in the day when she and her boyfriend had an argument. Jones said the Sheriff’s Office responded after she left
A public information officer said that because of the nature of the call, deputies had to force their way in and the dog, named Itchygo, charged at them once they got in.
Itchygo was home alone.
“That’s his house. This is his house. He’s got to protect this house,” said Jones’ daughter, Kita Williams.
Williams said since no one was home, neighbors who saw the shooting told them what happened.
Neighbors said they told deputies no one was home, but they went in anyway.
“If three neighbors are telling the officers no one’s here, that don’t give you proper cause to continue coming in,” said Williams.
Deputies said because they never received another call to cancel the response, they had to respond urgently.
Williams said she is concerned for her mother’s safety living in the troubled Tymber Skan complex without Itcygo to protect her.
http://www.wftv.com/…/news/local/womans-dog-fatally-shot-deputies-responding-call/nmNHr/ - 237k -
This is great news!
The next time my neighbors leaves their house unoccupied, except for their endlessly barking dog, I’ll just call up my buddy who works in the phone company and have him dial 911 from my neighbor’s phone line and then have him hang up the phone.
This act will send the cops to my neighbor’s house and (hopefully) they will end up shooting the dog.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Town Pays $40,000 After Cop Shoots Pet
Witnesses said dog was chewing on rawhide bone when slain
by WND | May 24, 2015
A Colorado town has agreed to pay a family $40,000 after one of its police officers shot and killed the family pet – a dog witnesses described as lacking any aggressive behavior and was, in fact, chewing a rawhide bone when she was shot.
The move by the town of Erie is the latest development in a long string of such shootings on which WND has reported.
ABC’s affiliate in Denver reported the decision to make the payment to Brittany Moore for the shooting of her German shepherd, Ava, ended four years of litigation.
The dog was shot by Erie police officer Jamie Chester when he went to her home after she reported a threatening telephone call.
Charges were not filed against the officer because the Boulder County prosecuting attorney found the officer “justified in using deadly and physical force.”
Police Shoot and Kill Dog in Front of Owner (Graphic … - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9fCK6Y0bu4 - 357k -
Cop shoots service dog during kid’s birthday party - [Filer … - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1O9GmUcp0Mo - 282k -
Who are all these losers that can’t find someone to date in the real world and have to use these online dating services?
Never mind, I just remembered my last trip to the DMV and Walmart.
American Exceptionalism
Essentially open borders and a welfare state is a prescription for a disaster, unfortunately I am watching Free Speech TV, and seeing Bernie Sanders argue for open borders, but here is another example of the open borders disaster:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3095906/Hundreds-Bangladeshis-fly-Britain-ONE-DAY-claim-housing-benefit-massive-fraud-racket-smashed-police.html
Want Great Longevity and Health? It Takes a Village
The secrets of the world’s longest-lived people include community, family, exercise and plenty of beans
http://www.wsj.com/articles/want-great-longevity-and-health-it-takes-a-village-1432304395?mod=e2tw
I am in my 50s and I am not taking any medication except an occasional pill for acid reflux. I have a BP of 116/74. You do not have to wait for a village, like most things in life it is personal initiative. You need to eat healthy and get exercise. Of course, friends and family are important but not as important as exercise and eating healthy.
Social interaction and beans are mutually exclusive.
While the article does not directly address it, so far house sales in May have been averaging more than twice the sales rate in April, the interest rate cuts are working, perhaps too successfully judging by the price increases:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/real-estate/Robust-new-home-sales-as-sentiment-recovers/shdaily.shtm
Updated NASA Data: Global Warming Not Causing Any Polar Ice Retreat
James Taylor Contributor
5/19/2015 @ 9:53AM 242,088 views
Updated data from NASA satellite instruments reveal the Earth’s polar ice caps have not receded at all since the satellite instruments began measuring the ice caps in 1979. Since the end of 2012, moreover, total polar ice extent has largely remained above the post-1979 average. The updated data contradict one of the most frequently asserted global warming claims – that global warming is causing the polar ice caps to recede.
The timing of the 1979 NASA satellite instrument launch could not have been better for global warming alarmists. The late 1970s marked the end of a 30-year cooling trend. As a result, the polar ice caps were quite likely more extensive than they had been since at least the 1920s. Nevertheless, this abnormally extensive 1979 polar ice extent would appear to be the “normal” baseline when comparing post-1979 polar ice extent.
Updated NASA satellite data show the polar ice caps remained at approximately their 1979 extent until the middle of the last decade. Beginning in 2005, however, polar ice modestly receded for several years. By 2012, polar sea ice had receded by approximately 10 percent from 1979 measurements. (Total polar ice area – factoring in both sea and land ice – had receded by much less than 10 percent, but alarmists focused on the sea ice loss as “proof” of a global warming crisis.)
A 10-percent decline in polar sea ice is not very remarkable, especially considering the 1979 baseline was abnormally high anyway. Regardless, global warming activists and a compliant news media frequently and vociferously claimed the modest polar ice cap retreat was a sign of impending catastrophe. Al Gore even predicted the Arctic ice cap could completely disappear by 2014.
In late 2012, however, polar ice dramatically rebounded and quickly surpassed the post-1979 average. Ever since, the polar ice caps have been at a greater average extent than the post-1979 mean.
Now, in May 2015, the updated NASA data show polar sea ice is approximately 5 percent above the post-1979 average.
During the modest decline in 2005 through 2012, the media presented a daily barrage of melting ice cap stories. Since the ice caps rebounded – and then some – how have the media reported the issue?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamestaylor/2015/05/19/updated-nasa-data-polar-ice-not-receding-after-all/
I followed your link for a bit and it led me to here:
http://michiganradio.org/post/higher-water-levels-great-lakes-and-shift-climate-variability
An excerpt:
“The Army Corps of Engineers and scientists with NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, say water levels in Lakes Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie and Ontario are all above seasonal averages for the first time in 16 years.”
Keep in mind he is talking about a lake - a non-landlocked lake.
“Lake St. Clair is also up. It’s 10 inches above its historical average. The word “unprecedented” is being kicked about.
“Al Steinman, Director of the Annis Water Resources Institute at Grand Valley State University, joined us today to talk water levels and their cause.
“’The reality is we have a very dynamic hydrologic system in the Great Lakes and it does change,’ he said. ‘Now, the amount of change in such an unprecedented period of time, such a short period of time, is highly unusual, but is consistent with what we expect from climate variability.”
You should take note and deep track of this term “climate variability”, and here’s why:
“Steinman said he thinks the term “climate variability” will begin to overtake the more common “climate change” soon.
“One aspect of “climate variability,” he said, is that the atmosphere will hold more water as it warms. For this reason, we should expect more rain in the warmer months and more snow in the colder months.
“… more snow in the colder months.”
Well, now, there’s a shift …
“He said this also accounts for the fact that colder ice-covered conditions lead to a less-than-normal amount of precipitation, as happened last winter in 2014.
“It’s impossible to predict these kind of events,” Steinman said.
But … but … but Al sore said …
“The variability we’re experiencing in the climate is very unusual and I suspect we’re going to see more and more of this kind of dynamic situation where the changes are more frequent than we’ve had historically. And it goes to the point that we really need to adapt to these kinds of changes in the future.”
“Al sore said” = Al Gore said”
The link offers an audio replay of the original broadcast and this replay carries a lot more information than what is given in the text.
Plus, for those who may be alarmed at the rising water levels of the Great Lakes, I offer to you this diagram of the Great Lakes’ water flow:
http://techalive.mtu.edu/meec/module08/GreatLakesFlow.htm
Al sore
Don’t you just love autocorrect?
Low-income homeowners get free solar panels thanks to cap & trade
By David R. Baker Updated 9:40 pm, Friday, May 22, 2015
A 2013 study by the liberal research and advocacy group Center for American Progress found that 67 percent of solar arrays installed in California went to ZIP codes with a median household income between $40,000 and $90,000. Wealthier areas accounted for almost all of the rest.
A new California program, however, aims to make solar power available to lower-income families — using money from the state’s fight against global warming.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Low-income-homeowners-get-free-solar-panels-6281762.php
Look into the Solar Panel lease program, nothing upfront, just save $20-50 mo. You don’t need to be rich, just own a roof and use your Google. duh! Many of my friends have solar, even on the foggy coast it can make sense in an all electric home, just for the $avings each mo.
Senior NATO Official: “We’ll Probably be at War This Summer”
“If we’re lucky it won’t be nuclear”
by Paul Joseph Watson | May 25, 2015
A senior NATO official told former NSA intelligence analyst John Schindler that the world would “probably be at war” sometime this summer.
“We’ll probably be at war this summer, if we’re lucky it won’t be nuclear,” the official told Schindler last week.
Although the tweet was retweeted over 400 times, the comment garnered no mainstream media attention whatsoever, which is odd given that Schindler is a former U.S. Naval War College lecturer and is known to have many high level military contacts.
Although not specified, the reference was almost certainly in relation to growing tensions between the United States and Russia.
One analysis of the comment suggests it may have been a “deliberate “leak” from NATO sources, to emphasize how serious the situation is.”
Earlier this month NATO launched its biggest ever wargame exercise on Russia’s doorstep. Moscow responded by conducting “provocative” wargames in the Mediterranean Sea in coordination with the Chinese PLA, the first ever naval drill involving both superpowers.
NATO powers are also taking part in one of Europe’s largest ever fighter jet drills from today, with the United States, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Finland, Norway and Sweden all involved in the 12 day exercise.
Tensions are also building between the U.S. and China, with The Global Times, a state media outlet owned by the ruling Communist Party, today warning that “war is inevitable” if Washington doesn’t halt its demands that Beijing stop building artificial islands in the South China Sea.
“If the United States’ bottom line is that China has to halt its activities, then a U.S.-China war is inevitable in the South China Sea,” the newspaper said. “The intensity of the conflict will be higher than what people usually think of as ‘friction’.”
Last week, CNN revealed how China’s Navy has repeatedly issued warnings to U.S. surveillance planes flying over the South China Sea.
Billionaire investor George Soros also cautioned last week that the planet was heading towards a third world war as a result of a potential economic collapse in China.
Noting that Beijing may need to rally its population around an external threat to avoid an internal collapse, Soros said that, “there is a real danger that China will align itself with Russia politically and militarily, and then the threat of third world war becomes real.”
In a People’s Daily editorial last September, Chinese PLA Professor Han Xudong also warned that Beijing should prepare itself for a third world war which could arise out of the conflict between the United States and Russia over Ukraine.
I think China will opt for a few more interest rate cuts and more government spending prior to the thermonuclear war option. Of course, the Chinese army might be angling for some of that additional government spending.
Maybe that is why there are in a rush to buy land in Calif. Hurry before the ponzi scheme and funny money is exposed, then distract with a war.
WHo’s side will the 3 mill that are here recently fight for? Irvine might have a civil war on, c’mon whiteys hold Jamboree!
There’s a precedent for Asians whose loyalties were suspect to have their property confiscated and to be interned in camps. Don’t think it couldn’t happen again.
I cant get no, DEPRECIATION!!!!
Those ribs never stood a chance.
Fair fights are for amateurs.
Housing bubbles suk.
+1.