Bits Bucket for June 13, 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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Does the amount of worrying about a China stock market crash pretty much render it impossible?
A Chinese stock market crash is inevitable
Matein Khalid / 1 June 2015
The danger is that China’s meltdown is happening at a time when Europe/US are overvalued and liquidity shocks could well follow as Greek exit or the Fed rate hike.
As Greece’s drop-dead moment with the ECB creeps closer, the catalyst for the next global financial crash could well be the meltdown in China’s stock market bubble. The Politburo triggered Shanghai’s 125 per cent run since last summer by ordering the Beijing central bank to slash interest rates, cut bank reserves ratios, inject untold billions in high-powered liquidity as the property market deflated and GDP growth fell to 25-year lows below seven per cent.
President Xi Jinping has now become China’s de facto Paramount Leader, the most powerful head of state since Deng and Mao. Casino capitalism became state policy in the People’s Republic as brokerage house margin loans rose 500 per cent to two trillion yuan in a mere 12 months. This financial Ponzi scheme makes pro-Lehman subprime mortgage credit bubble-era seem like a Sunday school picnic in comparison. If the Chinese stock market bubble bursts, its shockwaves will be felt all over the world. Did that happen last week as the Shanghai Composite Index fell 6.5 per cent in a panic selling spasm? I think so.
A rise in broker margin debt, sovereign wealth fund sale of Big Four bank shares, 23 new liquidity sucking IPOs, profit-taking after the Comp index traded 50 per cent above its 2015 lows at a seven-year high all played a role in Shanghai’s flameout. The Shanghai A shares market is the world’s least transparent, most opaque index, dominated by state-owned companies run by the Communist Party’s nomenklatura vulnerable to Xi’s political witch hunts. The danger is that China’s meltdown is happening at a time when Europe/US are overvalued and liquidity shocks could well follow as Greek exit or the Fed rate hike. The Politburo tried to use the Shanghai/Shenzhen stock market bubble to reflate the world’s most overleveraged economy, with total debt now 250 per cent of GDP and epic overcapacity in property and the industrial base.
The Chinese meltdown has ominous implications for Hong Kong, whose H share-listed companies have been goosed by Mainland capital flows. China is also the largest weighting in Morgan Stanley’s emerging markets equities fund index. Shanghai trades at 23 times earnings, well below its October 2007 peak at 45 times. This does not mean a 25 per cent correction is not possible this summer; after all, the Shanghai Composite Index was a mere 3,200 in early February 2015.
A retail mania rally driven by a tsunami of margin debt contains the seeds of its own destruction. A Chinese friend in Hong Kong tells me he knows people who borrowed money against their homes to speculate in the stock market. This will end in tears. Something is dangerously wrong in a world where the ultra-speculative Shenzhen exchange is worth $4.3 trillion, almost equal to Hong Kong. Shenzhen trades at an absurd surreal valuation of 61 times earnings, up from 20 just a years ago. As China’s economy slows, corporate earnings will contract. A Chinese stock market crash is inevitable.
…
BEIJING, June 11 (Xinhua) — Growth of China’s industrial output continued to pick up in May after hitting a six-year low in March and rebounding in April, pointing to tentative signs of improvement for the world’s second largest economy.
Industrial output grew 6.1 percent year on year in May, up from the 5.9-percent growth in April and 5.6 percent in March, the lowest monthly level since December of 2008, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced on Thursday.
The figure was released by the NBS with other major economic indicators for May and the first five months.
Manufacturing output rose 6.7 percent, while the mining industry saw output grow 3.9 percent. Growth for electricity, heating, gas and water was 2.2 percent.
In the first five months, industrial output grew 6.2 percent year on year, the same growth rate as the January-April period.
Industrial output, officially called industrial value added, is used to measure the activity of designated large enterprises with annual turnover of at least 20 million yuan (3.22 million U.S. dollars).
“a six-year low in March…”
Apparently, past “growth” statistics were bogus, and that despite hitting a six year low in the first quarter, they are growing on target YoY (in a selected statistical group).
7% GDP growth is a six year low. Services are rising at close to a 10% growth while mining and manufacturing are below the 7% mark, it averages to 7%.
China moves rapidly to develop its service economy, looks like I will be eating Peaking Duck while others eat crow:
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/business/China-sees-more-firms-established/shdaily.shtml
Prices are falling Dan. And falling prices are the best sign of a economic recovery.
Prices were falling due to a strong dollar but not anymore.
And have a very long way to fall. Just like houses.
http://img802.imageshack.us/img802/7812/caseshiller.jpg
‘looks like I will be eating Peaking Duck’
At least you have a bib on now.
Baby steps.
What kind of wine are you going to match with your crow. So far the only whine I am hearing is the numbers are not accurate but no proof that China has changed its methodology at all. The bet was comparing apples to apples, not apples to oranges and thus more a bet on direction than “absolute” accuracy. We certainly do not have absolute accuracy in the U.S. numbers.
It’s not about the US (yet). Stay focused.
Coal, iron, copper and oil miners still say the miracle has rolled over.
When you build capacity for 10% growth in raw material’s demand and only 7% is realized you have price pressures in the short term, it doesn’t mean that China is not still growing at a fast clip or that the finite natural resources are not going to rise much higher in the future.
http://www.mining.com/producers-rally-on-soaring-iron-ore-price/
When you and all your suppliers build out for 10% growth on credit and then growth slows, the result is overcapacity in everything and an unserviceable debt overhang. The price collapse from overcapacity we already have happening. Over capacity will not self correct in a year or a decade. Slowing growth, or outright contraction is to be expected, but in an over indebted situation it leads to cascading defaults in the short term.
China needs to either double down on the biggest expansion of credit in history and hope for a little more time, or they need to buckle up for a financial fiasco. Slower growth or a bit of contraction won’t do. It’s a show we’ve seen before, but not on this scale.
Look at the link above, overcapacity is already coming out of the system.
“soaring”
You are funny. Iron ore is back up to where it was about a month ago, still off 50% from a year ago.
China needs to either double down on the biggest expansion of credit in history and hope for a little more time, or they need to buckle up for a financial fiasco. Slower growth or a bit of contraction won’t do. It’s a show we’ve seen before, but not on this scale.
They can always go back to Maoism, I suppose.
a brief reprieve before the next leg down
They can always go back to Maoism, I suppose.
Yes, mass starvation under communism is always possible. They could have incomes 1/30th they have now by going pack.
‘looks like I will be eating Peaking Duck’
I thought that Dan’s bet was that Peking is NOT peaking. Freudian typo?
Autocorrect. But amusing.
Or he was talking about “Peak Duck”. Maybe watch the duck futures…
There is no way on earth that China’s stock market can keep growing the way it is. Does anyone really think that 20 years from now the Chinese stock market will be worth the entire planet? It’s ridiculous. The best that China can hope for is a plateau, but even that is impossible now that China’s economy has reached the limit of stimulus growth, and the hangover from over investment kicks in.
Of course, it will not continue to rise at these levels but that does not mean it will crash. Corrections can and will occur but while stock markets are poor predictors of economies more than six months in advance, they are great predictors out to six months and the Chinese stock market correctly predicted the stabilization of the Chinese economy around the 7% level.
“Does anyone really think that 20 years from now the Chinese stock market will be worth the entire planet? It’s ridiculous.”
People had similar irrational expectations for Japanese growth before the start of two decades of stagnation in 1990.
But did Japan collapse and become a dirt poor country like it was after WW II before the boom? China’s new infrastructure will still be there even if it someday it has a cyclical downturn. Meanwhile we keep living off the infrastructure we created in the Eisenhower and Kennedy era.
Nope. Just went through a couple of decades of falling asset prices and “lower than expected” GDP growth which “nobody could have seen coming.”
Is a Greek drop dead moment dead ahead?
Greek jitters upset US, European stock markets
In this photo provided by the Cleveland (Tenn) Police Department, EMS and firefighters assist youths, some injured, who were traveling on a small bus which was involved in an accident while on a mission trip, Friday, June 12, 2015, in Cleveland, Tenn. Officials said more than a dozen people were injured when the bus ran off a Tennessee road and stopped in a ditch.
(Cleveland (Tenn) Police Department via AP)
FILE - In this Oct. 2, 2014 file photo, the statue of George Washington on the steps of Federal Hall faces the facade of the New York Stock Exchange, in New York. Global stock markets were mostly lower Friday, June 12, 2015, as lack of progress in bailout negotiations between Greece and its creditors dampened the positive impulse from upbeat U.S. retail and jobs data.
(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE- In this Aug. 3, 2014 photo, a sample glass of Lake Erie water is photographed near the City of Toledo water intake crib, in Lake Erie, about 2.5 miles off the shore of Curtice, Ohio. Ohio and Michigan have agreed to sharply reduce phosphorus runoff blamed for a rash of harmful algae blooms on Lake Erie that have contaminated drinking water supplies and contributed to oxygen-deprived dead zones where fish can’t survive, Friday, June 12, 2015.
(AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File)
By MATTHEW CRAFT
Associated Press
Friday, June 12, 2015
(Published in print: Saturday, June 13, 2015)
NEW YORK — A setback in talks between Greece and its creditors helped knock the stock market lower on Friday, amid renewed concerns that the country could default on its debts.
Despite the drop, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index managed to eke out a 1-point gain for the week, snapping a two-week slump.
An unexpected decision by the International Monetary Fund to walk away from talks with Greece spurred the selling. At a summit meeting in Brussels late Thursday, the IMF pulled its negotiators out of talks with Greece, saying there had been no progress and that major differences remained on key issues. Without a deal by the end of the month, Greece faces the prospect of going bankrupt and dropping the euro currency.
Markets are likely to make sudden turns until Greece and its creditors reach a deal, said Ninh Chung, head of investment strategy at SVB Asset Management. Earlier this week, stocks on both sides of the Atlantic rallied on reports of progress in the talks.
“There had been optimism over Greece,” Chung said, “and now it seems like we’ve had a complete 180.”
The S&P 500 slipped 14.75 points, or 0.7 percent, to close at 2,094.11. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 140.53 points, or 0.8 percent, to 17,898.84, and the Nasdaq composite lost 31.41 points, or 0.6 percent, to 5,051.10.
The losses were modest but broad: All 30 companies in the Dow and all 10 industries in the S&P 500 finished with losses.
Speculation over Greece’s fate and the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate increase have weighed on markets over recent weeks. Many think an improving U.S. economy will push the Fed to raise its benchmark interest rate later this year for the first time since the Great Recession. The Fed’s ultra-cheap interest rates have helped fuel the six-year bull market in stocks.
“I’m not sure the downside risk with Greece is as big as investors believe, but it’s caught investors’ attention,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank. “It’s the same with the Fed tightening.”
…
As Greece goes, so goes Europe’s banks.
Which I guess makes Greek too big to fail (and their negotiators know it).
They will probably paper over the debt, just like China does on a much larger scale (much much larger scale).
They will probably paper over the debt, just like China does on a much larger scale (much much larger scale).
Greece is small enough for that to work for a while. The problem is that Greece isn’t alone and will have company, and if it’s joined by a larger economy, say Italy, then it won’t be so easy to paper over.
Seems like treasuries might be a good investment if you think a Greek implosion is around the corner
All the German tough-talk is for the benefit of the cameras. Merkel is no doubt aware of Douche Bank’s derivatives exposure to Greece, which, coupled with its $74 TRILLION derivatives pyramid, could touch off a chain-reaction financial meltdown. So rest assured, Merkel has far more incentive than the insolvent Greeks to keep the Ponzi going and defer the financial reckoning day.
http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2015/6/germany-is-bluffing-on-greece.html
Yep, Germany has much more to lose than Greece.
Fears of Greece eurozone exit mount as EU deadline looms
* Greek finance minister says he does not believe Europe would let his country leave the eurozone, but decision on its fate is expected by Thursday
* Yanis Varoufakis said he hoped the EU was bluffing about letting Greece leave.
Chris Johnston and Ian Traynor
Saturday 13 June 2015 05.52 EDT
Last modified on Saturday 13 June 2015 08.17 EDT
Fears that Greece could leave the eurozone continued to mount on Saturday, despite its finance minister saying that Europe would not allow that to happen.
Yanis Varoufakis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I don’t believe that any sensible European bureaucrat or politician will go down that road.”
Asked whether the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were bluffing, he said: “I hope they are.”
Varoufakis said Greece had not agreed to the proposals offered by its creditors because they were “yet another version of the failed proposals of the past”.
Greek officials and the country’s creditors were due to resume talks in Brussels on Saturday. Athens needs to reach a deal before the end of June to avoid running out of money and defaulting on payments due to the IMF.
It is expected to make counter-proposals at Saturday’s talks in Brussels in a bid to end a five-month standoff since Alexis Tsipras’s anti-austerity government was elected in January.
Eurozone finance ministers will meet on Thursday in Luxembourg and that meeting is now viewed as the deadline for a decision on Greece’s fate.
Officials preparing for the Luxembourg talks included the default scenario in their discussions for the first time at a meeting on Thursday night in Bratislava.
Until then they had refused to countenance the prospect of a default and the issue has not been discussed at any official level.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is said to have resigned herself to the prospect, and an opinion poll for ZDF television found that 51% of Germans want Greece to leave the eurozone, up from 33% at the start of the year.
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Varoufakis sought to play down the level of dissent towards Greece in Germany. “I think [Merkel] does not even begin to contemplate an exit of Greece from the eurozone,” he said. “What matters, in the context of the European Union, is that we get it together and work towards a sensible solution that is mutually beneficial.”
The European Central Bank chief economist, Peter Praet, said on Saturday that the bank’s governing council wanted Greece to remain in the eurozone.
Fears that a “Grexit” would cause chaos in European markets have subsided in recent months and officials believe it would not cause lasting damage to the euro.
…
The EU central bank can conjure up a trillion out of nothing, but Greece better pay back those few billions.
Likewise FBs better pay up on their underwater mortgages, even if $4t is available out of thin air on short notice to save banks all over the globe.
+1 Prof. Greece is obviously too big to fail. There appears to be a “Greek deal just around the corner” news story almost every month or so. Is it just Greece defaulting on every month’s Mastercard statement, or is it one big deal?
It was Iceland that was small enough to fail. HBB likes to say that Iceland told the EU to stick it, but I’m not sure. I suspect they deliberately let Iceland go.
• A default is a transfer of money from lender to borrower. Money doesn’t go poof, it just gets transferred, with no repayment plan.
• So, a Greek default will harm debt holders. So, it depends on how powerful those debt holders are and how much political sway they hold.
• Finding pots of money for a debtor allows him to continue to be a pass-through entity to give the debt holder an income stream.
So it seems to me that whether Greece is allowed to default depends on who the Greek debt holders are. If they aren’t politically connected, if the risk has been sufficiently spread over the past few years away from power centers, then it could be allowed to default. However, if the debt holders are politically powerful, then I anticipate money will be found for Greece to continue its current operations.
+1, well said, Neuromance.
The German government has already made good on the money Greece owes to German banks. It just hasn’t given the bill to the German taxpayer yet.
Greek banks are on their last legs. Grexit beckons
There are no good outcomes for Greece, but exiting the euro looks like the least worst option
The Troika has been renamed as the Brussels Group at the request of Athens
By Jeremy Warner
7:27PM BST 13 Jun 2015
There are no good outcomes for Greece in the seemingly interminable tragi-comedy of negotiations with the Troika over further bailout funds.
Anyone who thinks that Greece has nothing to lose by leaving the euro because the Greek economy has already sunk so low that things couldn’t possibly get any worse needs to take a reality check. It can go a lot lower yet, and certainly will in the event of a messy exit. Yet in the choice between two bad outcomes, Grexit looks increasingly like the better one.
Whoever you think primarily responsible for Greece’s predicament, there is absolutely no doubt that Greece needs meaningful debt relief. Europe doesn’t offer such a solution. To keep the country in a state of permanent penury in the hope that this might provide the incentive to reform, which is in essence what the hated Troika proposes, is no kind of a strategy at all, even as a warning to others on the dangers of fiscal excess. Denied debt forgiveness, Greece will inevitably be back, cap in hand, in a few years time, and the crisis will kick off anew.
High minded economists are prone to argue that even a bad deal to keep Greece in is better than no deal, given the risks if the euro breaks apart. I can’t agree. From the start of the crisis, Europe has faced a binary choice – save the euro, or save the economies that make it up. Thus far, it has consistently chosen the former. Unforgivably, the International Monetary Fund, which stormed out of talks last week in frustration at Greece’s obstinacy, has coalesced in this madness.
The Greek banking system looks again as if it will be the centre of the storm this week, ripe as it is for another mega-run. Will the ECB provide lender of last resort support? Or will it exercise its right not to lend to insolvent counter parties? The latter course seems inevitable if Greece starts defaulting on its debts to the ECB. At that point, the ECB would call in its loans to the Greek banks and capital controls would become inevitable. Greece would be on the runway to Grexit. What a mess.
…
Annapolis, MD Housing Prices Fall 15%
http://www.zillow.com/annapolis-md/home-values/
Australia: “Canberra Rents Continue To Fall”
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/it-pro/canberra-rents-continue-to-fall-20150514-gh1eqa.html
Sacramento Foothills Rental Market Update:
The rental market continues to be very solid. A resident give notice in May to vacate June 9th. Put the house on Craigslist and had several inquiries within 3 days and a new leased signed in a week. The new resident moved in on Friday, June 12th. The property was vacant for 3 days and has a 5-year occupancy rate of 99.6%.
The new resident had to move because the landlord was selling the existing place. The rental rate was 4.4% above the rate set 2 years ago (I don’t raise rent during an occupancy term) at $0.76/SF. I usually offer a discount for a two year lease and I find most people want the longer term. This family like the longer term too.
Sounds sketchy as usual Jingle_Fraud.
There are 2500 rental listings on CR alone in the city of Sacramento. A full 2200 are under $1000/month.
http://sacramento.craigslist.org/search/apa?maxAsk=1000
Data my friend.
sacramento is booming cause the new arena is being built. I’m looking at shanties in west sacramento. 60 years old homes for 300k.
Housing demand at 20 year lows(30 year in CA) doesn’t sound like a boom.
Housing Demand Plunges To 20 Year Low
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fqSztKilps8/VFlPKlr52JI/AAAAAAAAhKU/v5oS41S-y0s/s1600/MBANov52014.PNG
I’m ringing the register at the top.
panic before everyone else!
Hogs get slaughtered!
“I’m looking at shanties in west sacramento.”
…aka the Yolo flood plains.
CRATER
Davis, CA Housing Prices Fall 13%
http://www.movoto.com/davis-ca/market-trends/
Washington DC Housing Prices Fall 6%
http://www.movoto.com/washington-dc/market-trends/
You guys keep me entertained even though I don’t post anymore. I read y’all in the evening.
Housing in Austin is CRAZY!
Austin-area home sales, prices set records in April
Central Texas home prices hit an all-time high last month, while sales set a record for the month of April, the Austin Board of Realtors said Thursday.
The median price jumped 14.4 percent year over year in April, with half of the homes selling for more than $274,000 and half selling below that amount, the board said. Less than 30 percent of single-family homes sold in the region were priced below $200,000.
Local housing experts say prices continue pushing higher because supply is still lagging the demand that’s coming from the region’s job and population growth.
Are you sure about that?
Austin, TX Housing Prices Fall 7%
http://www.movoto.com/austin-tx/market-trends/
‘The median listing price in Austin went down from May to June. There were a total of 208 price increases and 880 price decreases.’
Inventory way up too. Doubled since January.
A lot of people don’t realize Austin isn’t a high wage city. Dallas and Houston are money centers, Austin’s the live music capital.
Yep. They’re even falling in Dallas suburbs.
Frisco, TX Housing Prices Fall 8%
http://www.movoto.com/frisco-tx/market-trends/
sounds like a bull market to me. CHA CHING!
Yes. Remember… Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is always positively bullish and good for the economy.
“The median price jumped 14.4 percent year over year in April, with half of the homes selling for more than $274,000 and half selling below that amount,”
Buy when the prices are sky high. Then you will feel like a smug Donald Trump.
Brett
How did you make out with that LL who wanted to charge you for his cr@ppy remodel work?
We went back and forth and settled for $100. Easy fix
Thanks for the boots on the ground info Brett…Please post occasionally…As you can see, the nut case is still posting his garbage but most seem to ignore him now…
Go easy on the village idiot. This is all he does day in and day out. Don’t take that away from him.
Let the power of data enrage you.
Arvada, CO Housing Prices Fall 11%
http://www.movoto.com/arvada-co/market-trends/
Bogus data has no power. It’s laughable.
Where do you live? What’s the housing market like in your neighborhood?
THAT would be useful information.
You seem unable to refute the data.
Redmond, WA Housing Prices Fall 8%
http://www.movoto.com/redmond-wa/market-trends/
I don’t need to as I know it is false. My boots-on-ground data says otherwise. A dozen homes have sold in the past two months within a mile of my house. Virtually every one was only on the market for less than a week and sold for over asking. I am very familiar with my local market and your data is simply bogus.
Just because some website says something, doesn’t make it so.
Again where do you live? Why can’t you even answer a simple, basic question? Is it Trollville?
Prove it.
Is a big shift in market mood scaring you away from stocks?
Marketwatch dot com
Need to Know
Traders taking cover for a big shift in market mood
By Shawn Langlois
Published: June 12, 2015 8:28 a.m. ET
Critical intelligence before the U.S. market opens
You think you’ve heard enough bubble talk to last a few lifetimes? Try being a strategist who covers Chinese equities, like Citi’s Markus Rosgen. The question was raised to him again, in the face of this week’s massive outflows from emerging markets.
And he answered like a guy who’d rather be talking about something else.
“All people see is a bubble — and they have been stuck on this theme like an old-fashioned record for years,” he told the Financial Times. “If you don’t own it, it is a bubble. If you own it, you are in a bull market.” In other words, can we change the subject?
Not yet.
It’s hard not to think policy-induced bubble when seeing the latest batch of data. Overall, emerging markets funds this week suffered outflows of $9.3 billion, their biggest since 2008, according to numbers cited by the FT. Of that, $7.1 billion came out of China. After having watched the region’s major indexes double over the past year, investors appear to have gotten their fill.
…
Since wages are staying stagnant I agree with Housing Analyst on his skepticism of price increases in real estate. If they are happening, they cannot stay high when young people have student loans to pay off for their basket weaving majors. And with the demographics the way they are, most children born in America are to low income people, or lower middle class people. Only the poor and the rich can afford to have children these days. House price increases cannot last while wages lag. Assume my pay has gone up 2% per year since 2000. ($120k without bennies in 2000 and $130k with bennies in 2015 is closer to 1% per year) while real estate prices go up more than 2% per year. Logic would have it that in a goldilocks world I would have bought a $200,000 house in Phoenix where I was and ALL my neighbors would never lose their jobs and be easily paying for their own houses.
But there are no guarantees.
I had to struggle and move around a lot to keep afloat. You cannot do that and own a house at the same time.
Speaking of wages compare the U.S. to China in terms of real wage growth, have you ever seen a collapsing economy have 5.7% real wage growth?
http://www.haygroup.com/en/our-library/infographics/2015-global-salary-forecast/#
“Pay rises in North America are forecast at 2.8% – up 0.1% compared to last year and with inflation predicted to be 2.1%, employees will experience a real income increase of 0.7%.”
I’m envious. All the other guys at my place mostly commute only 8 miles. The company has me commuting 28 miles these days.
And I have to still do unanticipated business travel by air. I quit consulting for that reason. Just spent last week in Texas. And I’m returning to Texas for another week on Monday.
May as well go back into consluting.
Not sure about the other guys but I had no pay raises. Not last year and not this year. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, either that article above you posted is wrong or I am getting the message that I must take a hike.
Last few years in the 2 to 3% rage, could take another position in the organization and make 10% more but I would have to give up the obscene amount of annual leave and sick leave, I accrue every year so I pass. Might do it when I get closer to retirement since my pension is partially based on my three highest years.
Traders taking cover for a big shift in market mood ??
If the market sells off, where will the money go too..Cash ?? Bonds ?? China ?? I submit that there is no other place to go right now…Cash yields basically zero or less…Bonds are not much better and push towards bonds will drive yields down further…Barring a blackswan, I think the market is just going to bounce around in a 600 point range either way for now…
“Oil Prices Fall As Saudis Could Boost Output”
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/oil-prices-fall-as-saudis/1912482.html
Falling prices…
Falling prices…
Falling prices of oil, housing, consumables of all types is positively bullish and your wallets best friend.
Too bad they really don’t have the ability to significantly raise oil production and it is just jawboning:
http://alcalde.texasexes.org/2012/10/an-end-to-saudi-oil/
Falling oil prices. Cratering oil demand.
Whats not to like?
I believe Iran has the ability to dump large quantities of oil on the market, and they’ll be selling cheap to take market share from Saudi Arabia. The long term outlook for cheaper oil is looking good.
I believe Iran has the ability to dump large quantities of oil on the market,
Large quantities? After six months they may be able to produce an additional 500,000 barrels a day, if they sign a nuclear agreement. Meanwhile shale oil production is 5.4 million barrels and most of that is endangered at these prices. The math is very simple and lower oil prices is not the correct answer.
http://news.yahoo.com/iran-wont-allow-nuclear-inspections-jeopardize-state-secrets-130937002.html
So we can inspect the civilian sites but not the military sites, yes that makes sense to the Obama administration but not anyone serious about preventing them from obtaining a bomb.
This is excellent news on the global economic front.
“Central London house prices fall ‘by up to 22%’ - report”
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33086002
Is the Grexit back on the table?
Ft dot com
Germans increasingly resigned to Grexit
Stefan Wagstyl in Berlin
German Chancellor Angela Merkel remains publicly committed to doing a deal to save Greece from bankruptcy, gamely insisting this week: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
But behind the scenes, top government officials are becoming increasingly resigned to a possible Greek default and exit from the eurozone, and discussing preparations to deal with such a scenario.
Throughout the Greek crisis, Germany has been among the most sceptical EU members about Greece’s ability to adhere to a reform plan that would revive its economy and allow it to repay its debts.
Yet German doubts have deepened over the last week after a putative agreement negotiated with Greece’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, frayed and then gave way to recriminations.
Fearing a deal may now be out of reach, many in Berlin echo the International Monetary Fund’s assessment on Thursday in which it cited “big differences” between the parties as it withdrew its negotiating team.
Among the more pessimistic, the view is that the Greek government has shown itself in months of talks unwilling to deliver on reforms. The gap between Athens and its creditors is seen not in narrow differences over budget numbers but in wide swaths of economic policy.
They also fear that Mr Tsipras is operating under the mistaken assumption that his country’s creditors will, at the last moment blink — something they insist is not the case.
“Lenders are signalling in ever more ways . . . that they do not intend to blink. Whether or not these are partly negotiating tactics, such preparations can take on a life of their own,” said Holger Schmieding of Berenberg, the German bank.
Steffen Seibert, Ms Merkel’s spokesman, on Friday declined to comment directly on a report in Bild, the tabloid newspaper, that the government no longer ruled out Grexit.
Mr Seibert said government policy towards Greece had not changed: “We are working in the direction that Greece can remain a eurozone member,” he said.
But European diplomats in Berlin say Germany is drawing up contingency plans for a possible Grexit. Officials are considering ways of helping Athens remain in the EU, even if it leaves the eurozone, with emergency EU funding, for example.
The German government believes the financial turmoil of a Grexit is manageable. The finance ministry sees little danger of contagion spreading from Greece to other potentially vulnerable eurozone members.
…
“They also fear that Mr Tsipras is operating under the mistaken assumption that his country’s creditors will, at the last moment blink — something they insist is not the case.”
Sounds as though there is quite a bit of confusion over whether Greece is too big to fail.
Bonds | Sat Jun 13, 2015 4:04am EDT
Greece’s Varoufakis says he believes Europe does not want ‘Grexit’
LONDON, June 13
Greece does not believe its European partners will ultimately let the country leave the euro zone, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said on Saturday, as the country races to agree a cash-for-reforms deal with its creditors.
Athens is trying to clinch a deal before an end-June deadline to release the final tranche of a 240 billion euro bailout and avert the risk of the country crashing out of the euro zone.
Asked whether it was possible that Greece could leave the single currency, Varoufakis told the BBC he did not think any European official wanted to see that outcome.
“I don’t believe that any sensible European bureaucrat or politician will go down that road,” he told BBC Radio Four’s Today programme.
Asked whether the European Union and the International Monetary Fund were bluffing Varoufakis said: “I hope they are.”
Greece leaving and then collapsing will do more to cement the EU then Greece staying in and sucking out resources. This is the calculation by the PTB that the leftist government has not figured out, they are playing chicken with an oncoming train and they are driving a VW beetle.
Meanwhile Ireland which was in just a big as hole as Greece due to a housing collapse has climbed out of the hole with supply side economics, a 12.5% corporate income tax rate:
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/ireland/corporate-tax-rate
“This is the calculation by the PTB that the leftist government has not figured out, they are playing chicken with an oncoming train and they are driving a VW beetle.”
Not only that, German efforts underway to assume the crash position have the effect of accelerating the train’s approach to the VW.
Sounds as though there is quite a bit of confusion over whether Greece is too big to fail.
It is in a way, if Greece fails it could start a domino effect.
Let’s hope it’s not like the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914.
That was the first domino to fall which triggered a chain of events that led to the start of World War I.
all wars are banksters wars. Suppose sometime they start a war and none of the soldiers fought?
Suppose sometime they start a war and none of the soldiers fought?
There will always be willing soldiers.
“It is in a way, if Greece fails it could start a domino effect.”
That right there is the too-big-to-fail bailout argument in a nutshell.
You don’t go into a negotiation and say I’m going to offer what ever the seller wants you threaten to walk a way a few times, but if you really want or need the product you come back.
If you really believe a Grexit is in the cards it’s probably a good time to buy treasuries.
If you really believe a Grexit is in the cards it’s probably a good time to buy treasuries.
And if you believe that the can will get kicked further down the road, it’s probably a good time to buy Greek bonds.
Merkel asks experts to draw up plans to protect German economy from Grexit as reports say she is ‘resigned’ to Greece leaving eurozone
* Chancellor said to be deeply disillusioned with Greece’s refusal to implement reforms to get bailout cash
* Greece teetering on edge as talks with creditors collapse after IMF walkout
* IMF says ‘There are major differences between us in most key areas’
* Pound rises back above €1.38 and European stock markets slide
By Alan Hall In Berlin For Mailonline
Published: 16:41 EST, 11 June 2015 | Updated: 07:52 EST, 12 June 2015
Angela Merkel is resigned to Greece leaving the eurozone, it was claimed today, and has asked economic experts, diplomats and bankers to draw up emergency plans to stop fallout from a ‘Grexit’ wrecking Germany’s economy.
The Chancellor’s waning resolve could torpedo debt negotiations between Greece and its creditors, which were already in disarray after the International Monetary Fund last night broke off talks in Brussels, citing ‘major differences’.
…
How could tiny Greece wreck mighty Germany’s economy? Merkel must know some things about German banks she’s not telling the rest of us.
How could tiny Greece wreck mighty Germany’s economy?
Like I said … domino effect. First Greece, then Portugal and Ireland, maybe Hungary too. No problem, all small fries, right? Then Spain and Italy … oh, oh.
Don’t forget all those northern European countries with horrible debt-to-GDP ratios . . . If Greece gets bailed out, why shouldn’t they?
That’s what they are really afraid of - if they say ‘yes’ to Greece, then watch the line form asking for the same from half of the other EC countries.
Greece is the canary in the coal mine called the global economy.
(putting tinfoil hat on) Personally I think that the George Soros’s of the world want this all to happen, so they can sweep up the pieces and save us all with the new global bank/gov’t/monetary system.
The justification? Obviously the way we have been running our current system isn’t working (evidence: global economic collapse), so they will give us something better that will keep this from ever happening again. And with the entire world using the same currency, it will make global finances so much easier - none of this currency manipulation (dollar stronger, dollar weaker, etc) going on like we have now.
Much like the Federal Reserve was sold to us 100 years ago - they were supposed to keep the economic boom/bust cycles from happening, and we all know how well that has worked.
http://www.kxly.com/news/spokane-news/did-naacp-president-lie-about-her-race-city-investigates/33533026
I do not see the problem, in this “modern” world if Bruce Jenner can wake up one day and decide he is a woman, why can’t a white woman decide one day that she is a black woman? She has always felt like a black woman in a white woman’s body.
It is all about the bennies…
There is no affirmative action, minority set asides, special college scholarships or instant victimhood for pretending to be white.
Is there an operation available to turn a heterosexual white male into a lesbian black female?
The procedure is to listen to a lot of NPR.
Is there an operation available to turn a heterosexual white male into a lesbian black female?
Drive a Subaru Forester. Closest non-surgical approach to getting where you want to go.
Toyota Prius is a pretty good bet too.
Or an operation to turn a heterosexual white male into a lesbian black female alcoholic dyslexic amputee
You need to watch MSNBC for that to happen.
She is the female version of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANph32LoXR4
The Jerk
Ha! Such a great movie….’these cans are defective!’
My father in law hasn’t seen a bunch of these type movies. We watch one or two when we get together, Blues Brothers, caddyshack, stripes, etc. I gotta put this one on the list. They’re coming in for the 4th.
The new phone book here! The new phone books here!
LOL….
http://stuffblackpeopledontlike.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-was-born-poor-black-child-i-remember.html
She’s a serial fabricator, and a walking exemplar of everything that is FUBAR in today’s PC society.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-journalism/2015/06/12/everything-you-need-to-know-about-transracial-hero-rachel-dolezal/
Reality has a pesky way of reasserting itself at inopportune moments.
Thank you for posting, that is the craziest story I’ve heard in a while.
I never thought I would say this…
But
God bless Nancy Pelosi
Yes. I agree. But they will try a backdoor immigration and trade deal again.
“I never thought I would say this…”
“But”
“God bless Nancy Pelosi”
Using Hydrogen Peroxide as Mouthwash
Using hydrogen peroxide as mouthwash is simple: just swish some 1% to 3% hydrogen peroxide around in your mouth, then spit it out. Like you’d do with any kind of mouthwash, right?
Why 1% to 3%? Some people feel that 3% is a bit strong to use as a mouthwash. You can try 3%, or water it down with some water. (Some 3% hydrogen peroxide with an equal amount of water added will give you 1.5% hydrogen peroxide.)
Using hydrogen peroxide as mouthwash will kill bacteria and viruses in your mouth. However, it takes time for hydrogen peroxide to work, so this is not going to remove all the bacteria and viruses in your mouth – it will just lessen them.
Hydrogen Peroxide and get it in your eyes and you can go blind.
“God bless Nancy Pelosi”
Good cop bad cop
It’s an old bit.
Is John Boehner having a good cry right now?
God bless Nancy Pelosi
Agreed. As much as I detest Comrad Pelosi, she deserves full credit for at least temporarily derailing ObamaTrade and its “No Billionaire Left Behind” screw-job of American workers. While Boehner, Ryan, and their ilk validate all I’ve been saying about how the Republicrat Duopoly have exactly the same agenda: enabling the swindles of their .1% masters.
August 8, 2013
Borrowers Are Getting Some Cash Out Again
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=7886#comment-2452041
Comment by Ben Jones
A letter to the editor:
‘Re “Flipping again for SoCal housing,” July 29
As Americans, we’ve let ourselves be convinced that profit is sacred. We act as if anyone who can figure out a way to make money should be allowed to do it. But it’s grossly immoral to deliberately drive up the cost of housing, especially here in California, where families struggle so desperately to pay the rent.
We don’t have to permit this housing frenzy nonsense to start again. Another bubble is forming. Are we going to sit back and let it happen?’
So we’ve got cash-out refis, HELOC’s and no-doc reverse mortgages going on in California. What are the chances that house gamblers in that state aren’t going to make asses of themselves and run the economy even deeper into the ground?
……. and here we are with losses racking up.
Equity makes ca rich. I’m seeing a lot more chevy 4×4’s driving around town.
I’m seeing a lot more chevy 4×4’s driving around town ??
I am seeing Bentley’s…
Tacomas and Tundras are the “in” brand right now. Almost as much cab space as haul space.
“In” with who? Gay cowboys?
And all dumb.borrowed.money.
crushing.housing.losses.
Falls Church, VA Housing Prices Fall 5%
http://www.movoto.com/falls-church-va/market-trends/
renters are afraid of taking risk.
I’ve got my savings. Why should I risk losing 50% of it for a 10% gain?
you’ll be happy you took the plunge my friend.
I’ll be happier paying my rent with the interest I earn.
Grin and share it: the rise of the midlife housemate
All-out war over who left the gluey Weetabix bowl in the sink; other people’s hair in the plughole; trying to get some sleep while you can hear next door’s mattress creaking: there comes a point in most twenty- or thirtysomethings’ lives when it feels time to find a fridge of one’s own. But what happens when, possibly decades later, you find yourself back there, sharing your loo and laundry basket with someone who doesn’t share your bed or DNA? This is the reality facing a growing number of people, who, despite years of independence, are being forced back into renting with friends or strangers, because of the rocketing cost of living alone.
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/13/grin-and-share-it-midlife-housemates-flatsharing
I’m assuming this isn’t just an UK phenomena.
One of my sisters did that in her 20s and 30s. Because she could not otherwise afford to live in communities within a mile of the Pacific Ocean. She still is having problems with the high rental prices and is 60 this year.
THE price of a Highland estate which was the summer retreat of Conservative statesman and prime minister Sir Robert Peel has been slashed by £12 million by its reclusive billionaire owner.
Eilean Aigas, a private wooded island within a 547-acre estate near Inverness, is expected to reach around £3m when it is sold at an auction in London in September.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/eilean-aigas-estate-selling-price-cut-by-12m-1-3795704
California drought starting to worsen. How long before this affects housing prices there?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/california-drought-largest-water-cuts-in-states-history-ordered-by-state-regulators-10317667.html
But yet the state of California still lets in and keeps millions of illegals.
So the democrat controlled government reallly doesn’t care about about the drought or reducing water consumption.
It is all about keeping power and punishing their political enemies.
+1. Forward, Soviet! All hail the Free Sh*t Army!
+1. Forward, Soviet! All hail the Free Sh*t Army!
IIRC, in the old Soviet Union everyone worked. It many cases it was no value added make work, but everyone worked. Those who didn’t were called “parasites”.
“Capitalism” has a large “free sh!t army” because it can’t provide employment to everyone. Imagine what the unemployment rate would be if the free sh!t army had to look for a job. I’m guessing it would be over 20%; and I’m talking M3, not M6
California does not have a water problem…California has a water “allocation” problem…
California has a Californian problem. Their sin isn’t one of geography. Their sin is being…themselves.
Their sin is being…themselves ??
Cry-baby…Another California hater grounded in envy..
Envy…The desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to (someone else).
South central Texas is peculiarly green. Lush tall trees. I never realized it. Guess the gulf brings in a lot of moisture.
I liked the restaurants and pubs where I was at. Could easily enjoy it there. As long as I would have a storm cellar though. My firearms and traditional 401k would be fine there.
We are raining in Albuquerque again today. The thing with a drought, it is really too many good days in a row. In the Southwest you are never suppose to complain about rain but I forgot what a pain rain can be.
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/a-derivatives-bomb-exploded-within-the-last-two-weeks/
Something deep and dark has transpired behind the Orwellian “curtain” used by the elitists to hide the inner workings of the financial markets, especially with regard to big bank balance sheets and OTC derivatives. What’s happening right now reminds of the movie “Jurassic Park.” You can hear and feel the monster coming but you can’t see it yet and you don’t know it will pop up in your face or how big it is.
That is an interesting link. It’s hard to believe this kind of gambling is allowed to continue. I would have thought that China would be the first bubble to pop, but it appears that Germany is also vucked.
To Protect and Serve.
http://ktla.com/2015/06/11/video-of-santa-ana-police-pot-shop-raid-shows-officers-eating-edibles-attorney-says/
I hope they do not put THC in donuts or we are in for big trouble.
Is smoking pot part of this:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/06/12/look-at-how-much-weight-weve-gained-since-the-1960s/?tid=trending_strip_6
Ted Cruz, like virtually all of the occupants of the Republicrat clown car, is a Wall Street puppet and neo-con stooge. His shilling for Obama’s abomination of a free trade bill was personal: his Wall Street puppetmasters would reward him richly for his service, while his wife’s employer, Goldman Sachs, would make bank as well.
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20150324/FREE/150329968/cruz-avoids-mentioning-his-wifes-goldman-sachs-job
Rick Perry says the first thing he would do as president is approve the tar oil pipeline. He gots to have his self some of that Koch money.
you think it is better to ship the oil by railcar like we are doing now, Obama’s blocking of the XL pipeline has not stopped production, it has only caused it to be shipped more dangerously at a higher cost? It has also caused some to be shipped to China and it is trying to get a pipeline build so it gets more. Only Warren Buffett likes the present transportation due to his ownership of BNSF.
Bingo. You nailed it. Wanna bet that Buffet is actually funding these anti-pipeline efforts through 5th-party-removed organizations? He’s making a lot of money off of oil trains.
MGTOW, Marriage Strike
The problem I see with most articles and comments on these sites is that the men generalize ALL women to be thinking the same - how to rip off or belittle the man.
I can only stand reading a few brief comments before I have to get away.
Collectivism is the central problem on both sides.
The answer is to really “Go Your Own Way.” Foremost, the idea of marriage is collectivism, that two people can think as one. The cure is simple. Don’t make these unrealistic commitments. Recognize that you have differences but do not act as a single entity. Don’t make lifelong commitments. EVER. Collectivism is the number one evil in the world. So do your most to avoid it. If you value someone, you selfishly value that person. You get gratification by associating with that person. Friendships, gifts, nurturing (of children) are not collectivistic, but individualistic because you selfishly want to keep the relationships going. But recognize that people change over time. Their values change. The person you hated the most ten years ago might have become your best friend. Or the person you had as a best friend and confidant ten years ago may have betrayed you.
Collectivism is the number one evil in the world.
The number one evil in the world is the top 0.1% _collecting_ more than half of the world’s wealth and money. That’s 2015’s version of “collectivism.”
+1. So WPA, why do you and other “progressives” bend over and grab your ankles for said 0.01% by voting for their water carriers like Barak Obama?
Same reason the far right and the Tea Partiers bent over and nominated neo-Cons like Romney and McCain.
Same reason the far right and the Tea Partiers bent over and nominated neo-Cons like Romney and McCain
Your stupid?
No they didn’t.
Liberal Republicans actvely try to crush tea party and conservative candidates.
I agree but I think he might be saying that they accepted the neocons in the general election, I might be giving him more credit than he deserves.
Guess you guys forgot all the hand-wringing during the Repub primaries over “electability.” Partisans preferred candidates like Santorum but many went with Romney because they thought we was more electable in the national. Same thing will happen next year as progressives will choose Hillary because somebody like Sanders will be painted as “unelectable.”
Your stupid?
Sorry, You are stupid? Since you think that Tea Party members are stupid, if you vote for one of the two, handpicked candidates of the .01 percent, you must be right?
That’s quite the over-generalization. Marriage provides satisfaction for a lot of people. It results in misery for many others. People can choose for themselves which path to take.
FLASHBACK: ABC’s ’08 Prediction: NYC Under Water from Climate Change
By Scott Whitlock | June 12, 2015 | 7:30 AM EDT
New York City underwater? Gas over $9 a gallon? A carton of milk costs almost $13? Welcome to June 12, 2015. Or at least that was the wildly-inaccurate version of 2015 predicted by ABC News exactly seven years ago. Appearing on Good Morning America in 2008, Bob Woodruff hyped Earth 2100, a special that pushed apocalyptic predictions of the then-futuristic 2015.
As one expert warns that in 2015 the sea level will rise quickly, a visual shows New York City being engulfed by water. The video montage includes another unidentified person predicting that “flames cover hundreds of miles.”
Seven years later, the network has quietly ignored its horribly inaccurate predictions about 2015. When it comes to global warming claims, apparently results don’t matter for ABC.
- See more at: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/scott-whitlock/2015/06/12/flashback-abcs-08-prediction-nyc-under-water-climate-change-june#sthash.2qvurzIK.dpuf
When you think about it, all predictions tend to be apocalyptic. Bad news gets ratings.
The article is an indictment of bad journalism not climate science. No credible climate scientists made those predictions.
Politicians used these claims to grow government, increase regulations and raise taxes.
To save us.
It is for the children
Never let a crisis go to waste
“The article is an indictment of bad journalism not climate science. No credible climate scientists made those predictions.”
The NASA scientist predictions of snowfall in Boston being a thing of the past seems to have been wiped from the net but…
Much of the information in this section is sourced from “Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast: Science, Impacts and Solutions,” a report of the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment © 2007 Union of Concerned Scientists.
New England has clearly warmed since the end of the 19th century, with winter temperatures increasing more than summer temperatures, and with the greatest warming taking place in New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island. Annual precipitation has increased. While more rain has fallen in intense storms, snowfall in northern New England has decreased since 1953.
According to the New England Climate Coalition, temperature increases could affect New England’s brilliant fall colors as trees migrate north or die out, and maple syrup production may be jeopardized because sap flow depends on freezing nights and warm days. And the ski industry will face the threat of less natural snowfall and the inability to produce artificial snow, which requires temperatures of 28 degrees or less. Under a high emissions scenario, for example, only western Maine is projected to retain a reliable ski season.
Back to top
http://www.neaq.org/…/climate_change/climate_change_in_new_england.php - 43k -
—————————————————————–
Snowstorm wallops Boston with 20 more inches; records fall
John Bacon, USA TODAY 6:07 a.m. EST February 10, 2015
The third major storm in two weeks blasted a wide swath of beleaguered New England with more than 2 feet of snow Monday, again smashing records and paralyzing travel in hard-hit Boston.
After setting a seven-day snow record last week, Boston had 22 inches of fresh snow, and the storm was forecast to last into Tuesday in some areas. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency, clearing the way for him to request snow-removal help from neighboring states.
“It’s otherworldly,” said Shmuel Bollen, 50, of Natick. “Shoveling the driveway becomes like painting a bridge. As soon as you get to the end, you have to go back and start again.”
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority suspended subway, trolley and commuter rail service at 7 p.m. and said they would remain closed Tuesday while crews check and repair snow-damaged equipment. Nearly 50 commuters were evacuated from a disabled Red Line train in Quincy after being stranded for more than two hours.
More than two feet of snow was recorded in Quincy, Cohasset and Weymouth, Mass., the National Weather Service reported.
Monday’s snow depth in Boston was 37 inches, which was the city’s largest depth ever recorded since weather records began.
The National Weather Service’s Boston office said on Twitter that the city has received 76.5 inches of snow so far this winter. But nearby Providence, R.I., got just 4.2 inches of snow from this storm, the weather service reported.
Boston set a record for the most snow recorded in a 30-day period, with 71.8 inches, breaking the record of 58.8 inches set in February 1978.
Bangor, Maine, tied its own 30-day snowfall record with 53 inches, which hasn’t been seen in such a short period since 1969, the National Weather Service said.
Weather service meteorologist David Manning said the storm was hitting hardest in Massachusetts, southern Vermont and southern New Hampshire. But once again, eastern Massachusetts was bearing the brunt of the storm.
“In eastern Massachusetts, we are certainly looking for 18 to 24 inches before it’s all over,” Manning told USA TODAY. “It’s adding insult to injury given what the region has seen this winter.”
http://www.usatoday.com/…/weather/2015/02/09/boston-new-england-snow-records/23109017/ - 385k -
So environmental science is a fraud because of…..weather? Could you use your scientific expertise to critique quantum particle theory? I’m sure we’d all like to hear your opinions on the matter.
“So environmental science is a fraud because of…..weather?”
I’m sorry, I forgot weather is only science when it is part of a (well paid) climate scientist’s prediction and it’s just weather when it happens years later and proves a climate scientist’s prediction was wrong.
“According to the New England Climate Coalition,”
“And the ski industry will face the threat of less natural snowfall and the inability to produce artificial snow, which requires temperatures of 28 degrees or less. Under a high emissions scenario, for example, only western Maine is projected to retain a reliable ski season.”
Like I said, the NASA scientist predictions of snowfall in Boston being a thing of the past which I had posted here seems to have been wiped from the net.
But what the heck, by the time it was proven wrong it had happened so it wasn’t science anyway.
Here is my opinion on the matter.
Top UN official admits climate change is about transforming world economy
By: Jonathan DuHamel March 6, 2015
It’s about the money, and power, not the climate. According to a press release from the United Nations Regional Information Center, Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said that “the fight against climate change is a process and that the necessary transformation of the world economy will not be decided at one conference or in one agreement.”
Figueres went on to say, “This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model, for the first time in human history….This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the industrial revolution.”
That “economic development system” Figueres talks about is capitalism. The UN is attempting to transform that to global socialism governed by the United Nations.
In a previous ADI article (Enviros are watermelons) I noted that the conclusion of a meeting of environmental groups last year in Venezuela proclaimed “we must end capitalism to save the world from global warming. The structural causes of climate change are linked to the current capitalist hegemonic system.”
In a series of conferences over the past few years, the UN has been trying to get signatories to a legally binding treaty on climate change in which countries promise to decrease carbon dioxide emissions and western countries agree to pay huge sums to developing countries (through the sticky fingers of UN officials) to save those developing countries from the imagined ravages of global warming.
“Figueres, however, pointed out that the legal treaty is only one of four important parts of the process. In addition to the treaty, there are the current Climate Change actions from now and until 2020, the financing packages and the so-called Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs). These are the actions that countries intend to take under a global agreement from 2020 and have to be publicly outlined… It is expected that all major economies will deliver their plans in time: the US, China, and the European Union have already shown their cards.”
Figueres praised President Obama’s stance on climate change and Obama’s gift of $3 billion to the UN Climate Fund.
The Wall Street Journal opines:
“Capitalism has been the primary economic model of the west since the industrial revolution. Therefore, the only logical conclusion, based on her [Figueres] stated objective, is the eradication of capitalism and free market economics, to be replaced with a model based on monetary redistribution. This we know by the redistribution calculations being developed by the UN’s IPCC for developed nations to pay ‘reparations’ and ‘carbon offsets’ to poorer countries based on carbon dioxide emissions.”
This goal of economic transformation is hardly a secret. Back in 2010, Ottmar Edenhofer, a German economist and co-chair of the IPCC Working Group III, explicitly affirmed the economic objective:”Climate policy has almost nothing to do anymore with environmental protection…One must say clearly that we redistribute the world’s wealth by climate policy…”
WSJ: “It would appear that the entrenched prevalent ideology of the UN has found a new way to fundamentally transform the world with the visage of Marx.”
Bring Back the Failed climate predictions
Failed climate predictions gets a website
Anthony Watts / February 10, 2015
wattsupwiththat.com/2015/02/10/failed-climate-predictions-gets-a-website/ - 244k -
If you can’t read about the outcome of the latest Climate Change prediction you can click the link below and listen to the results.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8n3F3O3Xqo - 239k -
Koch funded studies, Koch funded propaganda.
Since you can’t refute the data, you attack the funding source, lame old trick. Even the government’s data does not even coming close to show the type of warming predicted by the models. The studies you attack have predicted the weather accurately thus meeting the primary standard of science that you can accurately predict the result. But don’t let the facts get in the way of your religion.
“Koch funded studies, Koch funded propaganda.”
What studies are you talking about?
Or are you just stuck on autokoch?
Who cares about your links to these sites? Did you research them yourself? You’re just forwarding links from other sites to forward an argument that only some narrow special interests care about. Why do you keep bringing up this issue on this site? If it’s true or not, we’ll find out one way or another. It’s a phony controversy created by people who can afford to create such controversies, and you are their shill.
“Why do you keep bringing up this issue on this site? If it’s true or not,”
Too easy Autokoch
Comment by Bring Back the WPA
2015-06-09 08:27:11
Another chink in the armor of the climate deniers
====
Republican pledges $175 million to push party on climate
A North Carolina executive is pouring his own money into trying to sway people in the GOP to take global warming seriously. …The aim is to get the Republican Party to shift its skeptical view of climate change and green energy, topics that usually fall to the bottom of its list of priorities when they don’t generate outright opposition among conservative voters.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/republican-climate-change-jay-faison-118755.html#ixzz3cZxZUPnZ
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/06/republican-climate-change-jay-faison-118755.html#ixzz3cZw9FQJP
Comment by Dman
2015-06-09 09:27:12
$175 Million is nothing compared to what the Koch Brothers will be spending to buy the election.
Conspiracy Theories
Whoa, If True: Jeb Bush, Bilderberg, and the Secret Rulers of the World
Apr 20, 2015 9:32 PM EDT
The likely Republican candidate’s campaign debunks Alex Jones.
On Monday, a writer for Jones’s InfoWars web site noted that former Florida Governor Jeb Bush would be traveling to Europe in “early June.” It so happened that the 2015 Bilderberg Group meeting would occur from June 11-14 in Austria. Just as Barack Obama “infamously disappeared to a secret location with Hillary Clinton in June 2008 in Northern Virginia, at precisely the same time and location the Bilderberg Group were convening in Chantilly,” it was possible—possible!—that Bush was going to the Interalpen Hotel to be ordained as the next president.
Many questions remain, but Jones’s own question has been answered. Jeb Bush will not attend the 2015 Bilderberg Group meeting. The idea of presidential candidates being anointed by secretive elites remains completely deranged and fictional.
http://www.bloomberg.com/…-if-true-jeb-bush-bilderberg-and-the-secret-rulers-of-the-world - 165k -
——————————————————————————
Bloomberg Coverage of Bilderberg Ignores Attendance of Bloomberg Editor-In-Chief
Current head of media outlet attends elite confab for 16th time
by Mikael Thalen | Infowars.com | June 11, 2015
Micklethwait, who joined Bloomberg after stepping down as The Economist’s editor-in-chief in 2014, has been a regular attendee of the group since at least 1996.
Despite attending for the better part of two decades, Micklethwait, as the Bloomberg video states, will remain tight-lipped due to Bilderberg’s policy of secrecy.
As noted in Infowars’ Adan Salazar’s breakdown of media representation at this year’s meeting, Bloomberg’s coverage of the event has been superficial at best “despite boasting over 5,000 daily articles and over 150 bureaus worldwide.”
While affording extensive coverage to the G7 summit, the only other coverage of Bilderberg this year by Bloomberg was a failed hit-piece attacking Infowars for merely asking if Jeb Bush would attend.
http://www.infowars.com/…/ - 109k -
In Europe, Leaders Take Note: Jeb Bush Isn’t His Brother
By MICHAEL BARBAROJUNE 12, 2015
BERLIN — After emerging from a 45-minute meeting here with Jeb Bush, the foreign minister of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, told colleagues that what struck him most about the American was not the strength of his opinions but something simpler: the depth of his curiosity.
Mr. Bush, who will declare his candidacy for president on Monday in Florida, had impressed Mr. Steinmeier, a veteran of European policy and diplomacy, with a wide range of pointed questions about the Middle East, Ukraine and Greece. It was, declared a German official involved, “a broad tour d’horizon.”
But across Europe this week, Jeb Bush revealed himself to be a very different kind of Bush: well traveled, almost encyclopedically knowledgeable about foreign countries, and possessing the genuine inquisitiveness that his brother had so notably lacked.
http://www.nytimes.com/…/jeb-bush-distances-himself-from-his-brother-in-europe.html -
As usual, the oligarch-controlled MSM had almost nothing to say about the Bilderberg confab. Pathetic when you have to go to media outlets like Russia Today or Al-Jazeera to get something approximating a straight scoop on what’s really going on.
http://rt.com/news/266947-bilderberg-police-protests-journalists/
“The idea of presidential candidates being anointed by secretive elites remains completely deranged and fictional.”
Bilderberg speak for accurate.
Protesters slam Bilderberg big boss elitist summit for lack of transparency
by RT | June 13, 2015
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The Bilderberg conference, which bills itself as a “forum for informal discussions” held by the world’s top brass, has drawn fire from protesters gathered near the Interalpen-Hotel Tyrol in Austria, accusing the attendees of corruption and elitism.
After a rally on Friday, anti-Bilderberg activists re-emerged on Saturday afternoon to protest what many of them refer to as a gathering of criminals. Thousands of protesters are expected to assemble outside the hotel where the Bilderberg group meeting is taking place.
“What we have seen is a very tight police cordon. It has been very difficult for many people to get to this area. Some journalists have been subject to rather humiliating police tactics,” RT’s Peter Oliver reported.
Some like it hot, but those gathered for the Bilderberg meeting in Austria seem to prefer it “top secret.” According to the published agenda, a total of around 140 participants from 22 countries have confirmed their attendance this year, including German Defense Minister Ursula van der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, UK Chancellor George Osborne and former President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, just to name a few. One of its past participants is the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss Kahn, accused of sexual assault by a New York hotel maid in 2011.
The key rule of participation is the so-called “Chatham House Rule”, which states that while attendees are free to use the information received, “neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s) nor of any other participant may be revealed.”
A 50-kilometer safety zone has been created and two checkpoints set up around the event to ensure the safety of the influential guests. Up to 2,100 officers from all over Austria will be on duty, along with 300 German police officers, should an emergency occur during the four-day conference.
Tom Moriarty @thetommoriarty
You gotta worry when the world’s banks, corps, media and politicians have a secret meeting. Come on. #bilderberg #democracy?
4:16 AM - 13 Jun 2015
12 12 Retweets
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Bilderberg Police Search 11-Year-Old Boy In Woods
Locals previously unaware of Bilderberg now joining protests
by Steve Watson | InfoWars | June 13, 2015
Austrian police guarding the elitist Bilderberg meeting in Telfs yesterday stopped a young boy who was playing in the woods and searched him as a potential security threat, angering local residents ahead of scheduled protests.
The incident was reported by the Austrian outlet Tiroler Tageszeitung which quoted a local resident who told reporters “A friend told me that they even have an eleven year old boy who has played in the woods searched.”
“This is a real police state.” the local added.
InfoWars reporters currently in Telfs spoke with several locals who confirmed the story and expressed shock and disgust. The 11-year-old boy was searched for guns before being escorted away from the no-go zone.
Indeed, the general consensus among locals who are aware of the Bilderberg presence is one of annoyance and extreme displeasure that their tax money is going toward paying for the security operation.
There are over 2000 police surrounding the Interalpen Hotel, while just a handful of protesters and alternative media reporters are present at the site.
Multiple checkpoints are manned by police, some even with armored vehicles, while helicopters containing COBRA special anti-terrorism forces armed with machine guns are conducting routine patrols of the area.
When you’re a “Master of the Universe” everyone who isn’t in the club is a potential threat.
Since readers of this site live in perpetual pessimism that the Big Housing Bubble or the Big China Bubble or the Big QE Bubble is going to pop any day now, thought you’d like to see a different view:
https://beaconecon.com/blog/US_financial_markets_what_me_worry_6_11_2015
Beacon Economics is a respected firm.
‘Since readers of this site live in perpetual pessimism’
Right, we are all clones of each other, sitting in a cave with tin-foil hats. And this from a poster with a new deal (post-depression) screen name. From the link:
‘A similar argument can be made for home prices. Yes, they have been rising rapidly since 2012. Home prices nationally are within a whisker of their pre-collapse peak, set back in 2007. And some sub-markets are far beyond those record prices. But this doesn’t tell us much. We have to consider what the cost of buying a house is for the average homebuyer. Incomes have been rising over the last few years—admittedly slowly—and even more importantly, mortgage rates have fallen back below 4%. When we look at housing affordability while controlling for these trends a vastly different picture emerges. Home prices have been rising (and affordability falling) but only from the record low levels hit during the worst years of the bust. From a long-term perspective homes are still very affordable—more so than at any time since the early 1990s. This is not a bubble market.’
‘is going to pop any day now’
The only thing I’m saying is that it’s a bubble. Heck, what happened just a few years ago? “Oh the worlds’ gonna end.” I wasn’t saying that. I saw it as a return to sanity.
I will repeat this; the crisis, if there is one, is that house prices are too high for regular people on regular wages and loans. If there’s a pop, it’s a good thing. So cheer up FDR, we’ll get through this and have a few laughs along the way.
From a long-term perspective homes are still very affordable—more so than at any time since the early 1990s. This is not a bubble market.’
Note how they arrive at their conclusion: it is _affordability_ that determines bubble or no-bubble (rather than mentality). Yet affordability is defined in terms of payment, and payment varies dramatically with interest rate.
So with a simple wave of the man behind the curtain’s magic wand, and the pixie dust of interest-rate suppression sprinkled liberally, bubble is magically transformed into non-bubble.
Yeah, right…
I’m not a pessimist, I’m a realist.
“Beacon Economics is a respected firm.”
Long-time HBB posters recall when Christopher Thornberg morphed from an iconoclast to a sellout.
“Long-time HBB posters recall when Christopher Thornberg morphed from an iconoclast to a sellout.”
Oh yeah… never forget that turncoat.
Right, we are all clones of each other, sitting in a cave with tin-foil hats.
Sorry, I thought i overstated the “perpetual pessimism” thing enough that my intended humor would be evident. I meant it with a wink.
Note that even the Beacon guy doesn’t fully buy his own optimism — at the end he says ‘what me worry’ and references Alfred E. Neuman. I agree with his point, which is things are going along fine now but it’s all precarious, as if balancing on a knife edge.
The fact that current asking prices of resale housing is 300% higher than long term trend and tens of millions of suckers overpaid eludes you.
Carry on.
I was out shopping this morning and I heard two guys at the checkout talking about all the money they are making working from home day trading. They talked about being glued to their computers from the opening bell till market close watching patterns develop.
They talked about being glued to their computers from the opening bell till market close watching patterns develop.
Those guys are so 1998. Who needs to watch charts all day when you’ve got Autopilot? Just run the software and leave your portfolio unattended! Hmm, yeah, I trust it, I trust it!
http://www.geckosoftware.com/autopilot.htm
Me: Autopilot, sell all positions now!!
Autopilot: I’m sorry Dave. I can’t do that.
In the early 1990s I met a guy slightly younger than me who quit his software job to go full into day trading.
And later another guy in 1999 who told me he was asked why he leaves work when he puts his full hours in at the same time everyday, instead of working extra when needed. He said he was making more money in stocks than his salary….then 2000…
Restaurant Owners Defend ‘White Appreciation Day’ Despite Bomb Threats
by Khushbu Shah May 11, 2015, 9:38a @KhushAndOJ
The owners of Rubbin’ Buttz BBQ, a barbecue restaurant in Milliken, Colo., are determined to celebrate “White Appreciation Day,” even after the proposed promotion drew serious backlash. Last week, the hispanic owners of the restaurant made headlines after they announced that on June 11, all white people will receive a 10 percent discount. Unsurprisingly, notes the Huffington Post, the restaurant received “widespread criticism.” Owner Edgar Antillon was criticized across social media platforms, and many expressed their outrage by filing fake reviews on the restaurant’s Yelp page. Antillon says that he has even received bomb threats.
When he first announced “White Appreciation Day,” Antillon argued, “We have a whole month for Black History Month… We have a whole month for Hispanic Heritage Month, so we thought the least we could do was offer one day to appreciate white Americans.” He still is sticking to that logic. Antillon appeared on CNN (see video below) over the weekend to “argue that he’s trying to celebrate all Americans, and honor the United States’ history as a melting pot.”
While he is celebrating a certain subset of the nation’s population, Antillon tells the Huffington Post that he thinks that “celebrations based on racial or ethnic identity shouldn’t exist at all.” He believes that the need for Black History Month and Hispanic Heritage Month should be eliminated: “We’re trying to move past that and realize we are all Americans.”
Antillon claims that while he has received backlash online, the response by his customers “has been overwhelmingly positive.” And, apparently it’s not just the white customers that are supportive of the discount: “A lot of Hispanics are in favor of what we’re doing.”
http://www.eater.com/…staurant-owners-defend-white-appreciation-day-bomb-threats-colorado - 344k -
Did someone sign in?
Van Used Owned BY DALLAS S.W.A.T. TEAM!
By conspiracyclub -
Jun 13, 2015
Last night at around 12:30 am, a group of 4 suspects reportedly opened fire at the headquarters of the Dallas police department in the parking lot in the front of the building. They reportedly used automatic weapons. No one was injured at that time, according to current reports.
The story looks like a hearts and minds op.
The suspects arrived in an armored vehicle which once belonged to the Dallas police department SWAT team. Go figure.
First, here is the ad in which the van was being sold:
Here is the exact same van being used during the “attack”
The suspects left that scene at the headquarters and took off down the street where they could stage yet another exciting scene and this one, just like the Charlie Hebdo shootouts as well as the street scene shootout with the suspects in the Boston Bombing, just happened to have a person on a roof with a camera who filmed the whole thing.
What a coincidence. Lots of people hanging out on rooftops these days.
And it turns out, there was another photographer up on the roof across the side street from the “DJ” on this roof. He took pics as well.
A multi-angle shoot. Just like Hollywood.
The shooter is supposedly a guy by the name of James Boulware. He supposedly spoke with the police via a cell phone and told them that he was pissed because they took away his kids and called him a “terrorist”. There seems to be some kind of arrest history for the guy by that name for threatening to go on a shooting spree.
Of course, he has access to semi-automatic assault rifles (they want to ban them), body armor (they want to keep us from having that as well) and somehow got his hands on this surplus armored SWAT van.
“His family told police Boulware had recently made comments about “shooting up schools and churches.””
Let’s see how many agendas this guy falls under:
He attacked the police at a time when it’s being reported that cops have killed 500 people this year already.
He hates the Jews and Christians alike.
A history of mental illness. God knows Bloomberg wants those national mental hygiene laws passed.
A history of belligerence on the internet (possibly “radicalized” by the web?)
oh yeah… and he took the time somehow to plant 4 bombs all around the headquarters building.
guy has been on police / law enforcement radar since 2013
So he/they shot out a bunch of windows at the police department hitting no one.
And this is a pic of where one of the “bombs’ went off in the parking lot.
As more information becomes available, I will update this post.
But right now, let’s sum it up:
A “mentally ill”, antisemitic guy who’s been on law enforcement radar (and probably FBI if he was charged with making terrorist threats) shows up at a police department late in the evening (so there wont be many people on the streets) in a salvaged SWAT armored vehicle and starts shooting at no one in front of police headquarters hitting no one.
He somehow takes the time to plant some bombs around the building, one goes off, in a place where no one would be.
He then (along with accomplices) drives away in the van after shooting no one, like he’s trying to escape.
He makes it to a place where there just happens to be folks on the rooftops waiting with cameras and decides that’s a great place to stop his van in the middle of the street and have a big shootout right there.
Then he leaves.
Now he’s in a standoff with the cops talking to them on his cell phone making sure to give us all his name so we can look him up and find out he’s crazy and has promised to go on shooting sprees in the past.
That’s the news out of Dallas today.
The influence peddlers on Twitter are out by the thousands.
http://www.conspiracyclub.co/2015/06/13/dallas-false-flag-exposed/ - 107k -
Another non-awesome day in America for somebody. Do you suppose the shooter owned a house too?
A cottage industry here in my neck of the woods. Now, where can you park one of these things and not be hassled by zoning?
http://maine.craigslist.org/reo/5072990252.html
snarking HBB gold detractors will continue to snark but…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-13/writings-wall-texas-pulls-1-billion-gold-ny-fed-makes-it-non-confiscatable
The lack of faith in central bank trustworthiness is spreading. First Germany, then Holland, and Austria, and now - as we noted was possible previously - Texas has enacted a Bill to repatriate $1 billion of gold from The NY Fed’s vaults to a newly established state gold bullion depository…”People have this image of Texas as big and powerful … so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold,” and the Bill includes a section to prevent forced seizure from the Federal Government.
From 2011:
“The University of Texas Investment Management Co., the second-largest U.S. academic endowment, took delivery of almost $1 billion in gold bullion and is storing the bars in a New York vault, according to the fund’s board.”
The decision to turn the fund’s investment into gold bars was influenced by Kyle Bass, a Dallas hedge fund manager and member of the endowment’s board, Zimmerman said at its annual meeting on April 14. Bass made $500 million on the U.S. subprime-mortgage collapse.
“Central banks are printing more money than they ever have, so what’s the value of money in terms of purchases of goods and services,” Bass said yesterday in a telephone interview. “I look at gold as just another currency that they can’t print any more of.”
And now, after we noted the possibility previously, as The Epoch Times reports, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill into law on Friday, June 12, that will allow Texas to build a gold and silver bullion depository. In addition, Texas will repatriate $1 billion worth of bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to the new facility once completed.
On the surface the bill looks rather innocent, but its implications are far reaching. HB 483, “relating to the establishment and administration of a state bullion depository” to store gold and silver coins, was introduced by state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione.
Capriglione told the Star-Telegram:
“We are not talking Fort Knox. But when I first announced this, I got so many emails and phone calls from people literally all over the world who said they want to store their gold … in a Texas depository. People have this image of Texas as big and powerful … so for a lot of people, this is exactly where they would want to go with their gold.”
But isn’t New York, where most of the world’s gold is stored, also big and powerful? Why does the state of Texas want to go through the trouble of building its own storage facility?
There are precisely two important reasons. One involves distrust in the current storage system. The second threatens the paper money system as a whole.
“In a lot of cases with gold you may not have clear title to the metal. You may have a counterparty relationship that makes you a creditor. If the counterparty has a problem unrelated to gold, they can default and then you become an unsecured creditor in bankruptcy,” said Keith Weiner, president of the Gold Standard Institute.
This means you get whatever is left after liquidation, often just a fraction of the initial value of your holdings.
“This exact scenario happened with futures broker MF Global. I knew people who had warehouse receipts to gold bars with a specific serial number. But that gold had an encumbered title and they became unsecured creditors in bankruptcy,” said Weiner.
In Texas, two big public pension funds from the University of Texas (UoT) and the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) own gold worth more than $1 billion.
Being uncomfortable with holding purely financial gold in the form of futures and Exchange-traded Funds, University of Texas actually took delivery of the gold bars in 2011 and warehoused it with HSBC Bank in New York.
At the time pension fund board member and hedge fund manager Kyle Bass explained: “As a fiduciary, which I am in that position to the extent you own gold and you are going for a long time, and it’s not a trade. … We looked at the COMEX at the time and they had about $80 billion of open interest between futures and futures options. And in the warehouse they had $2.7 billion of deliverables. We are going to own it a long time. You are on the board, you are a fiduciary, so that’s an easy one, you go get it.”
Bass is implying that there is much more financial gold out there than physical, and that it is prudent to actually hold the physical.
Taking the gold to Texas would then also solve the counterparty risk. “In this case it’s going to be a depository, the gold is going to be there, they are not going to be able to lend it out and it won’t serve as collateral for other transactions of the bank.” said Victor Sperandeo of trading firm EAM Partners. “Because if the bank closes, you are screwed.”
“I think that somebody was looking at that, we better have this under our complete control,” said constitutional lawyer and gold expert Edwin Vieira, of the Texas bill. “They don’t want to have the gold in some bank somewhere and in two to five years it turns out not to be there.”
So far most of the attention has focused on the part of the depository and the big institutions. However, the bill also includes a provision to prevent seizure, which is important for private parties who want to avoid another 1933 style confiscation of their bullion by Federal authorities.
Section A2116.023 of the bill states: “A purported confiscation, requisition, seizure, or other attempt to control the ownership … is void ab initio and of no force or effect.” Effectively, the state of Texas will protect any gold stored in the depository from the federal government.
And free from the threat of confiscation, private citizens can use gold and silver as money, completely bypassing the paper money system.
“People can legally do that with gold contracts. The difficulty is the implementation. Now Texas has set up a mechanism with the depository. We have accounts in that institution and can easily transfer back and forth certain amounts. So we can run our money system a gold or silver basis if we were so inclined,” said Vieira.
This would not be possible if the gold is stored in a bank because of the risks of bank holidays and bankruptcies. It would also not be possible if the federal government could confiscate gold.
According to Vieira, this anti-seizure provision rests on Article 1, section 10 of the Constitution of the United States, which obliges the States to not make anything tender in payment of debts apart from gold and silver coin.
“If someone from the Department of Justice comes along you are going to see legal and political fireworks. The state is going to say ‘we need to have a mechanism to make gold and silver money. This is pursuant to the constitutional provision we have. You can’t touch this. Our state power on the constitutional level is more powerful than any statute you may pass,’” said Vieira.
Because one of the litigant parties is a state, the case would go directly to the Supreme Court.
“We are talking about something completely new in terms of the legal playing field. This is no longer a fringe concept,” he adds, but cautions about a possible fight with the federal government: “We will have to see how committed the governor and the attorney general are.”
Official Statement from Governor Abbott:
Governor Greg Abbott today signed House Bill 483 (Capriglione, R-Southlake; Kolkhorst, R-Brenham) to establish a state gold bullion depository administered by the Office of the Comptroller. The law will repatriate $1 billion of gold bullion from the Federal Reserve in New York to Texas. The bullion depository will serve as the custodian, guardian and administrator of bullion that may be transferred to or otherwise acquired by the State of Texas. Governor Abbott issued the following statement:
“Today I signed HB 483 to provide a secure facility for the State of Texas, state agencies and Texas citizens to store gold bullion and other precious metals. With the passage of this bill, the Texas Bullion Depository will become the first state-level facility of its kind in the nation, increasing the security and stability of our gold reserves and keeping taxpayer funds from leaving Texas to pay for fees to store gold in facilities outside our state.”
* * *
Is this the first step down a road to secession? Notably, they’ll need that gold to establish their own country once they win the potentially imminent war with the US military which starts on Monday (Jade Helm).
* * *
This implicit subordination of The Fed’s gold sends a more ominous signal of rising fears of confiscation and leaves us wondering just how long before every state (and or country) decides to follow Texas’ lead?
“Texas has this image of being big and powerful”
I don’t think Mexico would agree with that if Texas were ever to secede.
See, the 0.01% don’t just buy art and townhomes and islands. They buy batcaves too:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimdobson/2015/06/12/billionaire-bunkers-exclusive-look-inside-the-worlds-largest-planned-doomsday-escape/
Buuuuuuuuut the staff to run the place, serve the food, clean the toilets, etc will also survive the catastrophe the bunker protects from.
Bill said: Buuuuuuuuut the staff to run the place, serve the food, clean the toilets, etc will also survive the catastrophe the bunker protects from.
And will probably eventually murder them in their beds.
2008 (June 5–8) Westfields Marriott United States Chantilly, Virginia[12][13]
false