The Housing Bubble

‘The opportunities to blackmail or coerce people…’

When I studied auditing in college, we were looking a lot at human traits. One of the things that struck me was that if you have a system that makes it easy to steal, you make it possible that a person who otherwise might never steal to be tempted to do so. It’s very similar to this situation. This kind of power, left in the dark, in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats, will eventually be abused if it hasn’t been already.

will eventually be abused if it hasn’t been already ??

Nothing eventual about it…We know its happening…..

“One of the things that struck me was that if you have a system that makes it easy to steal, you make it possible that a person who otherwise might never steal to be tempted to do so.”

Posted by Ann Althouse
May 26, 2012

“The locksmith told him that locks are on doors only to keep honest people honest.”

“One percent of people will always be honest and never steal. Another 1% will always be dishonest and always try to pick your lock and steal your television; locks won’t do much to protect you from the hardened thieves, who can get into your house if they really want to. The purpose of locks, the locksmith said, is to protect you from the 98% of mostly honest people who might be tempted to try your door if it had no lock.”

We’re only relatively honest. So don’t tempt us!

Lots of great material at the link, various studies and so forth. Also this joke:

There’s a joke about a man who loses his bike outside his synagogue and goes to his rabbi for advice. “Next week come to services, sit in the front row,” the rabbi tells the man, “and when we recite the Ten Commandments, turn around and look at the people behind you. When we get to ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ see who can’t look you in the eyes. That’s your guy.” After the next service, the rabbi is curious to learn whether his advice panned out. “So, did it work?” he asks the man. “Like a charm,” the man answers. “The moment we got to ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ I remembered where I left my bike.”

“This kind of power, left in the dark, in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats, will eventually be abused if it hasn’t been already.”

At a Scheme’s Inception and Destruction, the F.B.I.
Tim Weiner
Updated June 14, 2012, 2:21 PM
Tim Weiner, a former New York Times reporter, is the author of “Enemies: A History of the F.B.I.”

There never would have been a Watergate without the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The F.B.I. had always done the president’s bidding — until J. Edgar Hoover said he would not carry out the president’s dirty tricks. Then the F.B.I. took Nixon down. It almost came down with him.


Hoover had schooled Nixon for years in the bureau’s techniques of political warfare — wiretapping and bugging and burglary. President Lyndon B. Johnson had advised Nixon to depend on Hoover, and Hoover alone, to protect his power. “I will warn you now,” L.B.J. told the president-elect in December 1968, “the leaks can kill you.”

But Hoover refused to lead Nixon’s scorched-earth campaign against leaks, starting with the Pentagon Papers case. He was afraid the bureau would be caught in the act. So the president set up the Plumbers — his team of washed-up F.B.I. and C.I.A. agents — to do what Hoover would not. And six weeks after Hoover died, they got caught breaking into the Democratic Party’s headquarters at the Watergate.


Then Nixon refused to name Hoover’s No. 2, Mark Felt, to lead the bureau — and with reason. He knew Felt was the biggest leaker of all: the man they called Deep Throat.

The big newspaper scoops on Nixon’s obstruction of justice often came straight from Felt and his close aides. When the Senate investigated Watergate, the bureau steered its hand. The F.B.I. guided the prosecutors who brought indictments against the president’s men.

But in the end the bureau had to investigate its own dark history of warrantless taps, bugs and black-bag jobs. For the F.B.I., Watergate’s bitter denouement was Felt’s federal conviction for breaking into the homes of the friends and families of antiwar radicals. He was following Nixon’s orders in a futile search for ties between the American left and international communism. President Reagan finally pardoned him in the name of national security.

It’s a long tradition. The 1917 Espionage Act, which took effect weeks before Hoover first joined the government, was used against thousands of citizens who opposed White House policies. When the Supreme Court outlawed wiretapping, President Franklin D. Roosevelt told Hoover to keep tapping, the court be damned. Today the F.B.I. and the Justice Department are still trying to use the Espionage Act to send leakers to prison.

Yet, as Nixon’s fall revealed, the long arm of justice will tug presidents back to the rule of law — and that’s one reason we survive as a free republic. Though the F.B.I. still bends the law in pursuit of secret intelligence, its leaders now know that if they are caught breaking it, they will suffer the same deep disgrace. 


FBI
CIA
NSA

How many clandestine organizations does it take to run a country?

Nope. You’re extraordinary.

The 5% of the electorate who voted for Ron Paul cared, and still care. But there’s not a lot they can do about the zombified 95% who fell for hope ‘n change or the even worse GOP “alternatives.” How do you protect yourself against tens of millions of stupid people casting votes?

No, by a 95% margin they voted for Republicrat corporate statists who trampled on the Constitution.

US: NSA Surveillance Restricts Press Freedom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bloPC_BHCDQ

Briefing on the Technological Impact of NSA Surveillance

“The choice isn’t: ’should the NSA spy or not?’ The choice is: ‘does everbody get to spy or do we make a secure internet?’” — Bruce Schneier on the impact of NSA surveillance.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkANFt_wIc0

As the soaring murder rate shows the criminals are scary. NYC’s murder rate is between 1/6 and 1/7 of what is was in 1990 due to aggressive policing. Take it away it will become a sewer like it was and people will flee it in droves. As I predicted innocent people in Baltimore are dying due to the nonsense of the liberals and it is primarily innocent black people.

Strangely enough, black people hold police to a higher standard than white people, according to a study. They know what kind of people the police have to deal with in their neighborhoods, but they expect the cops to be professional. They want the crooks gone more than anybody, but they don’t like being lumped in with the bad elements, and there are way too many dumb redneck cops who can’t tell the difference.

Dirty cops scare me even more than the criminals.

Urban environments are loaded with plain clothes. They’re everywhere. They and the thugs are a distinction without a difference. Keep one eye on each.

“As the soaring murder rate shows… NYC’s murder rate is between 1/6 and 1/7 of what is was in 1990″

Really?

How does contraction = “soaring”?

The soaring is in the last few months, it certainly has not reached the levels of 1990 but if it continues it certainly will not be 1/6/ or 1/7 of the rate of 1990.

Dirty cops scare me even more than the criminals ??

Yep….Because, your common sense says, if one got caught, how many don’t…And how many cops know of a dirty cop but won’t say squat because of the “brotherhood” and the fact that if you say something you are toast…And, how many lives are ruined because of it…

Cops are granted & trusted with the ultimate power…The abuse of that power & trust should be a sentencing accordingly…Life in prison…Not death because I want that dirty cop to live for the remainder of his life with people some of which are there because of dirty cops…

“due to aggressive policing”

What’s the difference between aggressive policing and violating the Constitution?

And doesn’t it involve, like the NSA spying, the 4th amendment?

Many courts have upheld stop and frisk and found it does not violate the 4th amendment including the U.S. Supreme Court.

How does contraction = “soaring”?

China’s economy provides an excellent case in point.

‘Like an ocean liner without lifeboats’: HSBC’s dire warning for global economy
4 days ago May 27, 2015 2:59PM
“We will carry on sailing across the ocean in a ship with a serious shortage of lifeboats.” Source: AP

THE world economy is in serious danger of falling into another recession — and if it does, governments have few tools left at their disposal to combat it.

That’s the dire warning from HSBC chief economist Stephen King, who describes the situation as like being on an “ocean liner without lifeboats”.

With interest rates at near zero across the developed world, record levels of public debt and little room for further stimulus spending, the conventional “monetary ammunition” that has been built up following previous recessions is all but non-existent.

“In effect, the world economy is sailing across the ocean without any lifeboats to use in case of emergency,” he writes in a new report, ‘The world economy’s titanic problem’.

That’s bad news. As the UK’s Telegraph points out, the United Nations has cut its global growth forecast for this year to 2.8 per cent — only slightly above the 2.5 per cent which used to be regarded as a recession.

The biggest danger comes from China. If the Chinese economy weakens so much that the authorities have no other choice than to let the renminbi slide, it will have severe knock-on effect.

“[In this situation, collapsing] commodity prices lead to severe weakness elsewhere in the emerging world,” Mr King writes. “The dollar surges, but the Fed is unable to respond via interest rate cuts. The US is eventually dragged into a recession through forces beyond its control.”

And the situation in China is already worse than authorities are letting on, experts have warned.

China accounted for 85 per cent of global growth in 2012, 54 per cent in 2013, and 30 per cent in 2014 — that figure is expected to fall to 24 per cent this year. “If there is only one statistic that you need to know in the world right now, this is it,” RBS economist Andrew Roberts told The Telegraph.

In every recession since the 1970s, the US Federal Reserve has cut interest rates by a minimum of 5 percentage points.

“That kind of traditional stimulus is now completely ruled out,” HSBC’s Mr King writes. “Meanwhile, budget deficits are still uncomfortably large and debt levels uncomfortably high.”
…

The indoctrinated progressive: “Local police should be disarmed.”

Someone with a brain: “hmm.”

The indoctrinated progressive: “Law abiding citizens should also be disarmed”.

Someone with a brain: “What?”

—–

It’s ok with me if goofy progressives are suicidal, just don’t take the rest of us with you. Without armed, sane law abiding citizens and police, the animals would kill all of us and then turn on each other down to the last man.

I don’t know anyone who says cops should be disarmed. Where did you come up with that?

“That’s the dire warning from HSBC chief economist Stephen King…”

How much scarier can an economic warning get than to come straight from Stephen King’s mouth?

“Where did you come up with that?”

Here’s one example, you can google the rest.

March 12, 2015

“Ed Schultz suggested on his MSNBC show Wednesday night that police officers in Ferguson, Missouri, should be disarmed in order to effect real change following a Justice Department report that accused the department of being rife with racial bias.”

http://www.frontpagemag.com/2015/dgreenfield/msnbc-disarm-ferguson-police/

Check out the effects of the War on Police:

Opinion Commentary
The New Nationwide Crime Wave
The consequences of the ‘Ferguson effect’ are already appearing. The main victims of growing violence will be the inner-city poor.
A police investigation under way in Baltimore, May 20. Photo: Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/TNS via Getty Images
By Heather Mac Donald
May 29, 2015 6:27 p.m. ET

The nation’s two-decades-long crime decline may be over. Gun violence in particular is spiraling upward in cities across America. In Baltimore, the most pressing question every morning is how many people were shot the previous night. Gun violence is up more than 60% compared with this time last year, according to Baltimore police, with 32 shootings over Memorial Day weekend. May has been the most violent month the city has seen in 15 years.

In Milwaukee, homicides were up 180% by May 17 over the same period the previous year. Through April, shootings in St. Louis were up 39%, robberies 43%, and homicides 25%. “Crime is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said St. Louis Alderman Joe Vacarro at a May 7 City Hall hearing.

Murders in Atlanta were up 32% as of mid-May. Shootings in Chicago had increased 24% and homicides 17%. Shootings and other violent felonies in Los Angeles had spiked by 25%; in New York, murder was up nearly 13%, and gun violence 7%.

Those citywide statistics from law-enforcement officials mask even more startling neighborhood-level increases. Shooting incidents are up 500% in an East Harlem precinct compared with last year; in a South Central Los Angeles police division, shooting victims are up 100%.

By contrast, the first six months of 2014 continued a 20-year pattern of growing public safety. Violent crime in the first half of last year dropped 4.6% nationally and property crime was down 7.5%. Though comparable national figures for the first half of 2015 won’t be available for another year, the January through June 2014 crime decline is unlikely to be repeated.

The most plausible explanation of the current surge in lawlessness is the intense agitation against American police departments over the past nine months.

Since last summer, the airwaves have been dominated by suggestions that the police are the biggest threat facing young black males today. A handful of highly publicized deaths of unarmed black men, often following a resisted arrest—including Eric Garner in Staten Island, N.Y., in July 2014, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014 and Freddie Gray in Baltimore last month—have led to riots, violent protests and attacks on the police. Murders of officers jumped 89% in 2014, to 51 from 27.

President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, before he stepped down last month, embraced the conceit that law enforcement in black communities is infected by bias. The news media pump out a seemingly constant stream of stories about alleged police mistreatment of blacks, with the reports often buttressed by cellphone videos that rarely capture the behavior that caused an officer to use force.

Almost any police shooting of a black person, no matter how threatening the behavior that provoked the shooting, now provokes angry protests, like those that followed the death of Vonderrit Myers in St. Louis last October. The 18-year-old Myers, awaiting trial on gun and resisting-arrest charges, had fired three shots at an officer at close range. Arrests in black communities are even more fraught than usual, with hostile, jeering crowds pressing in on officers and spreading lies about the encounter.
…

“The New Nationwide Crime Wave”

Realtors on the loose?

‘One noteworthy point about this article: it relies on two new sources, one named, one kept secret, backed up by Snowden documents. That is, it appears that at least one other source (in this case, a recent member of JSOC’s High Value Targeting task force — the group that’s in charge of figuring out who to capture and kill) has come forward to Greenwald and others, calling foul on what the US government is doing. This person was privy to how targets are selected, and it’s pretty scary how little info they’re going on. The fact that the NSA was heavily involved in picking targets was revealed a while back, but this person explains how much those choosing targets rely on bad metadata from the NSA to kill people — often revealed later to be totally innocent.’

‘In one tactic, the NSA “geolocates” the SIM card or handset of a suspected terrorist’s mobile phone, enabling the CIA and U.S. military to conduct night raids and drone strikes to kill or capture the individual in possession of the device.’

‘The former JSOC drone operator is adamant that the technology has been responsible for taking out terrorists and networks of people facilitating improvised explosive device attacks against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But he also states that innocent people have “absolutely” been killed as a result of the NSA’s increasing reliance on the surveillance tactic.’

‘One problem, he explains, is that targets are increasingly aware of the NSA’s reliance on geolocating, and have moved to thwart the tactic. Some have as many as 16 different SIM cards associated with their identity within the High Value Target system. Others, unaware that their mobile phone is being targeted, lend their phone, with the SIM card in it, to friends, children, spouses and family members.’

‘Some top Taliban leaders, knowing of the NSA’s targeting method, have purposely and randomly distributed SIM cards among their units in order to elude their trackers. “They would do things like go to meetings, take all their SIM cards out, put them in a bag, mix them up, and everybody gets a different SIM card when they leave,” the former drone operator says. “That’s how they confuse us.”

‘The guy also points out that the metadata is often somewhat questionable in itself: ‘What’s more, he adds, the NSA often locates drone targets by analyzing the activity of a SIM card, rather than the actual content of the calls. Based on his experience, he has come to believe that the drone program amounts to little more than death by unreliable metadata.’

“People get hung up that there’s a targeted list of people,” he says. “It’s really like we’re targeting a cell phone. We’re not going after people – we’re going after their phones, in the hopes that the person on the other end of that missile is the bad guy.”

‘You would think that someone like Rep. Rogers would be happy that we were trying to improve our targeting and to stop killing innocent people, but apparently making sure the people we target are actually guilty is just too much “red tape.” But it hasn’t stopped these killings. The source in the article notes that the “overwhelming majority” of the strikes they’re doing these days are based almost entirely on the NSA’s signals intelligence.’

‘The report also reveals that the NSA has a program in which the drone itself has what’s basically its own phone cell attached to the drone, in order to better target a particular phone (note: not person, but phone) when dropping a bomb. The report also reveals another program, this one from the CIA, called SHENANIGANS (really), that maps out WiFi networks from the sky and tries to suck up any data it can. When this program was used in Yemen, the mission was called (again, no joke) VICTORYDANCE.’

‘There’s a lot more in the article, which is well worth reading. It’s good to see more sources who are uncomfortable with what the NSA, CIA and others are doing getting in touch with Greenwald and others. It’s also worth noting that this guy claims he tried to raise these issues through the “proper channels” and was rebuffed.’

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140209/22440726160/new-whistleblower-reveals-nsa-picking-drone-targets-based-bad-data-death-unreliable-metadata.shtml

AKA, the old “Kill them all, and let God sort them out” plan.

Can’t wait until they start using missile firing drones over the USA.

For starters, all of those nerds working for the NSA/NRO will have a system in place to deal with unfaithful wives, enemies, and guys banging their girlfriends while they are at work.

And just think of the business opportunities.

“Beat the NSA. Learn Morse Code!”

I’ll bite, even though you went strait to insult land.

Sharia (Islam) is a totalitarian political ideology masked as a religion. Marxism is a religion of worshiping the totalitarian political state masked as an ideology.

The key words are Totalitarian, Political and Religion, that is where they cross paths. Marxism is indeed a theology…progressives favor either or both.

From your world model, there is no such thing as a theocracy, it seems. I think you are in denial.

It’s funny how these sites are aimed specifically at climate scientists and nobody else. Isn’t there some other scientific theory that conservatives have a problem with, other than evolution, and any economic theory that doesn’t give more money to billionaires?

More funny articles please. Nothing is more entertaining than Koch propaganda.

Once again all you have is talking points, same old tobacco scientists, Koch, evolution etc. What you cannot do is find any studies to refute my three main points, the computer models are all wrong, no warming in almost twenty years and we are 2 degrees Celsius cooler than a normal interglacial period.

Which is more likely: you have three main points about global warming due to your extensive research and knowledge of the subject, or: you are repeating arguments that have been pre-created by opposition research? Why don’t you have any opinions about sub-atomic particle theory? I forgot, Koch Industries is only into fossil fuels.

If Koch Industries were into nuclear power, you would be posting articles that prove that radiation cures acne.

“Once again all you have is talking points,”

And 99% of climate science research studies. All you have is daily links to a climate change science denier web site run by a college-dropout weatherman.

The left is wrong and they know it. But they have made their views on climate change a key difference between them and the Republicans. Now, all they can do is hope the climate will change and become warmer. Unfortunate for them with sunspot activity falling and the oceans cooling except for the El Nino areas, cooling is more likely than warming. The desperation is evident in your posts you cannot refute my key points.

no warming in almost twenty years

All you have to do is “zoom out” to the 1960-2015 time frame to see the long-term temperature trend. There is no “pause.” The upward long term trend is intact.

no warming in almost twenty years

The ONLY source of this falsehood is a highly manipulated satellite data set from the Univ. of Alabama, Huntsville, led by Dr. Spencer, one of the very few climate denier scientists. Gee, tweaked data from deep within a red state, no agenda there eh?

All you have to do is “zoom out” to the 1960-2015 time frame to see the long-term temperature trend. There is no “pause.” The upward long term trend is intact.

https://tamino.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/tempcp3.png?w=500&h=325

Even NASA’s manipulated numbers are only showing like .04 F in twenty years and the period is called a “pause” by the CAGW advocates. The satellite records are the hardest to fake and everyone knows it, your side continues to get more desperate.

Long term? No, go to Climate4U and look at 400,000 plus years and then you can talk long term and you will see no global warming.

“All you have is daily links to a climate change science denier web site run by a college-dropout weatherman.”

That statement reminds me of President Obama’s Man Made Lie last month.

“In the same way I think there are families right now in south Florida who see two feet of water coming into their house every time it rains and start thinking, you know what? Rising temperatures and rising ocean levels are going to affect my property.”

All that spending on “research” and that’s all he’s got?

The left is wrong and they know it ??

Why is it left or right Adan….Whats wrong about cleaning up the environment ?? I could say the right does not want to acknowledge it because of money…

The Democrats (left) ran on climate change in the last election funded by the green crony capitalists. They own this issue and need the continued funding of the green crony capitalists, it ends if the public understands that CAGW has been disproved. Cleaning up the environment is different from preventing co2 emissions. Many much more environmentally friendly coal plants are not being build that could displace dirty coal plants because of the co2 emission’s standards and c02 is a beneficial gas that promotes plant growth.

Many much more environmentally friendly coal plants are not being build ??

Good…They are not needed so even if they are cleaner, they are still dirty…That is, unless you are a coal mine advocate…

They’re needed because we’re all falling price/lower price advocates.

Neither is Skeptical Science nor the Guardian which you are always linking.

Oh, I can link to hundreds of peer-reviewed academic journals if you want. But “Watts Up With That” is all you’ve got. And that’s because, I’m sorry to say, is because the denier case has little or no scientific credibility.

WUWT links to hundreds of peer review article refuting that Co2 was the primary cause of the warming between 1979-1998 and demonstrating that the present models used by the CAGW are wrong.

Your data is cherry-picked and misinterpreted, as the entire non-fossil-fuel-funded scientific world agrees.

It is Obama that intervened in the Ukraine. He has been beaten because he is a neo-con or at least a globalist which is most cases is a distinction without a difference.

WHOOPSIE, never let it be said that palmetto wouldn’t admit to a HUGE flub. I had the wrong Biden offspring here. It’s HUNTER Biden who is the POS on the board of the Ukraine energy company. And he’s still alive and kicking. Beau, I guess, was relatively harmless, poor guy.

Mea Culpa.

No problem… I don’t know about Hunter. Beau was a veteran, and the Dems were waiting on whether he was going to run for governor of Delaware.

So is that your latest thing Dan? Sure, there are empty cites but it’s part of a master plan that only the Chinese know about! See, there are half a billion people living in cardboard boxes just waiting to move into these places. Jobs will magically appear, food will sprout.

Alternatively, these are a bunch of stupid developers and bureaucrats making one huge, dumb decision after another. I think I’ll take the latter.

Ben, perhaps you should read the whole story and watch the video on the other link. It is hardly a secret that only the Chinese government knows about, it has publicly announced the bullet trains to these cities and the plans to move factories to these areas.

The Chinese economy is failing.

” stupid developers and bureaucrats ”

and a few more billionaires are born each time.

What are we being asked to believe here? Let’s take Phoenix. I’ve read that in the 1940’s, only a few thousand people lived there. Then over decades millions of people made millions of decisions. About jobs, where to live, how to live, where do they want to buy gas and food. How many auto-repair shops are needed and parks. Along the way people decide, there should be a day care facility or a bakery there. They take risks, employ capital, it succeeds or maybe fails. Growth moves this way and that. Trade-offs of commute time, income opportunities. Millions and millions of decisions, conscious and unconscious, communicated via markets, traffic patterns, central planing even!

Now you are asking us to believe that a group of men can sit around tables and do this. From scratch.

Let’s consider their motivation. A situation arises where these same men are given the opportunity to make fantastic amounts of money, if only they will presume they are intelligent enough to produce what otherwise would be the result of all these decisions made by millions of people over decades. And if it is a colossal mistake, there will be no accountability and they can keep the money. Plus, if they don’t take the job, someone else will.

pre·pos·ter·ous
prəˈpäst(ə)rəs/
adjective
adjective: preposterous

contrary to reason or common sense; utterly absurd or ridiculous.

I would add that such a notion could only be entertained in the midst of the greatest financial mass-delusion in the history of mankind.

“Now you are asking us to believe that a group of men can sit around tables and do this. From scratch.”

Hayek explained a long time ago why central planning is doomed to fail.

Master/Central plans by Commies = Always good. As long as the oligarchs get theirs.

Master/Central plans by our guys = Always bad.

I dunno Ben, they did it in Celebration, Florida.

And it’s not hard to visualize centrally planning a city. You simply take an existing city — Phoenix, if you like — and say, “well this is what a million independent decisions came up with and it worked pretty well. Instead of making all the mistakes, let’s just copy the end product, the good stuff that survived.”

In fact, copying the end product is a VERY Chinese thing to do. They’ve been reverse engineering and copying American innovation for decades, sometimes exactly, like in their architecture.

Now, whether they can sustain it is something else again. For example, who is going to maintain all these empty houses and community centers while they’re waiting for the jobs to appear and the food to sprout?

That’s not market driven Donk.

‘they did it in Celebration’

They built the cities. The question is why? We’re told there are maybe 3 million vacant units in Beijing alone. 40-60 million across the country. They don’t need any houses. The cities were built to meet government ‘growth’ goals and to line the pockets of those involved. It’s only afterward that these various schemes are invented about what to do with them. It like the underwear gnomes on a massive scale.

the gnomes claim to be business experts and explain their business plan:

Collect Underpants
?
Profit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomes_%28South_Park%29

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO5sxLapAts

“The cities were built to meet government ‘growth’ goals and to line the pockets of those involved. It’s only afterward that these various schemes are invented about what to do with them.”

Might they end up stimulating the economy in the future with various projects to tear down unneeded highrise housing towers?

“…well this is what a million independent decisions came up with and it worked pretty well. Instead of making all the mistakes, let’s just copy the end product, the good stuff that survived.”

Central planning cannot spontaneously replicate millions of organic decisions about jobs, where to live, how to live, where to buy gas and food, etc., which collectively represent lost utility of individual choice when Big Brother decides what is best.

For example, who is going to maintain all these empty houses and community centers

No one, of course. This is one of many inefficiencies associated with central planning: if buildings are built when they are needed (due to organic demand), they don’t sit empty in need of maintenance—someone makes use of it right away, and is motivated to maintain it. If they are built in anticipation that they might be needed in half a decade or more, and then sit empty, they are naturally going to deteriorate with NO ONE motivated to maintain it.

“If they are built in anticipation that they might be needed in half a decade or more, and then sit empty, they are naturally going to deteriorate with NO ONE motivated to maintain it.”

Same problem arises in the U.S. economy when a handful of Megabanks collectively decide to change the rules so shadow inventory can sit empty and untended for years on end.

This article suggest big problems ahead for China’s ghost cities:

ft dot com > World > Asia-Pacific >
China
May 4, 2015 4:44 pm
China’s ‘migrant miracle’ nears an end as cheap labour dwindles
Gabriel Wildau in Shanghai

China’s labour force is shrinking and the “migrant miracle” that powered its industrial rise is mostly exhausted, removing the factors that propelled the country’s meteoric development, according to leading economists.

A shrinking labour force is driving huge economic change in China. James Kynge talks to Jamil Anderlini about the human cost of China’s mass migration from rural areas to the cities and why it is now beginning to slow.

The transformation will lead to slower growth, reduced investment and a loss of export competitiveness, they warn, increasing the urgency of implementing ambitious economic reforms aimed at finding new sources of expansion.

Today the Financial Times begins a series of articles on the end of the migrant miracle — the three decades of breakneck economic growth fuelled by the unprecedented migration of labour from the unproductive farm sector to work in factories and on construction sites.

Broad consensus has emerged that China has reached its “Lewis Turning Point” — the point at which the once-inexhaustible pool of surplus rural labour dries up and wages rise rapidly. Nobel-prize winning economist Arthur Lewis argued in the 1950s that a developing country with surplus agricultural labour could develop its industrial sector for years without wage inflation as it absorbed that surplus.

“Now we are at the so-called Lewis inflection point. I made this forecast in 2006, and today there is no need to change it,” said Ha Jiming, chief investment strategist for private wealth management at Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong and formerly chief economist at China International Capital Corp, the country’s first Sino-foreign joint venture investment bank.

“The working-age share of China’s population peaks this year at 72 per cent, then it will start to fall rapidly, even more rapidly than what we saw in Japan in the 1990s,” he added.

Cai Fang, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a think-tank that advises the government, estimates that China’s potential gross domestic product growth decreased from 9.8 per cent in 1995-2009 to 7.2 per cent in 2011-15 and 6.1 per cent from 2016-20.

A shrinking labour force is one of the main drivers. Since Deng Xiaoping launched market reforms in 1978, 278m migrant workers from rural villages have moved to work in the cities.

But reallocating labour from farm to factory — resulting in higher overall growth as workers’ productivity soars — is now mostly complete.

“From 2005 to 2010, the growth rate of migrant workers was 4 per cent. Last year it was only 1.3 per cent. Maybe this year it will contract,” said Mr Cai.
…

“Same problem” plus an order of magnitude.

‘Muricans surrendered any expectation of accountability when 95% of the electorate voted for corporate statist candidates like Obama, McCain, and Romney.

Since all you ever say is this, I am adding you to my Joshua Tree block list.