Bits Bucket for July 5, 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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Irving, TX(Dallas) Housing Prices Fall 14%
http://www.movoto.com/irving-tx/market-trends/
Hows that Grecian Formula working out?
I’m decently well-traveled, and I can’t think of any people I’ve encountered who are more welcoming, friendly, honest, and hospitable than the Greeks, especially in the smaller towns and villages, but really everywhere. As soon as the smoke and dust settles there, I hope to take a vacation there to help support the people no matter what decision they make. I encourage everyone else to do so too, if you like great food, friendly people, amazing historical sites, beautiful scenery, and beaches full of nude and semi-nude europeans, especially from Scandinavia. And it’s really cheap, and will probably be cheaper.
Greek villagers’ secret weapon: Grow your own food
ARITAINA, Greece (AP) — Ilias Mathes has protection against bank closures, capital controls and the slashing of his pension: 10 goats, some hens and a vegetable patch.
If Greece’s financial crisis deepens, as many believe it must, he can feed his children and grandchildren with the bounty of the land in this proud village high in the mountains of the Arcadia Peloponnese.
“I have my lettuce, my onions, I have my hens, my birds, I will manage,” he said, even though he can no longer access his full pension payment because of government controls imposed six days ago. “We will manage for a period of time, I don’t know, two months, maybe three months, because I also want to give to our relatives. If they are suffering, I cannot leave them like this, isn’t that so?”
Despite the collective sense that a catastrophe of some type stares Greece in the face, the country’s strong tradition of hospitality remains intact. Mathes won’t let a visitor leave without a bundle of fresh vegetables and some “trachanas” and “chilopites,” types of local pasta his family makes by hand.
http://news.yahoo.com/greek-villagers-secret-weapon-grow-own-food-121623266–finance.html
I like the ancient Greek history. I can do without the nude beaches unless there are only young thin women who are nude.
Brother SH - I’m reading “Seneca: Letters from a Stoic” on the recommendation of a friend of mine, a decorated combat officer and stand-up dude who thinks these stoic virtues are going to serve us well as America lurches toward the abyss. Seneca’s words are as timely now as the day they were written. Also read “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius, which I think you’d also enjoy.
And for our resident Obama Zombies, I think I might have a few coloring books somewhere.
“only young thin women who are nude”
You gotta take the bitter with the sweet on that one.
Also I suspect gays are overrepresented in the nudist population relative to their share of the overall population (based on second-hand anecdotal information, not data-based…).
If you live in The OC, you certainly don’t have to travel all the way to Greece to find a nude beach.
Cub Scouts hike ends up at nude beach in San Diego
February 3, 2015
A view of San Diego’s Black’s Beach as seen from the cliffs above. (Alexander Gallardo / Los Angeles Times)
By Tony Perry contact the reporter
No punishment after Cub Scouts hike close to nude beach
The Boy Scouts motto is “be prepared,” but a group of Cub Scouts and their adult leaders were not prepared for what they spied on a recent hike: Nudists.
Half a dozen Cubs — ages 9 and 10 — were hiking on a Saturday morning at Torrey Pines State Park near La Jolla when they ventured close to Black’s Beach, San Diego’s unofficial nude beach.
Some naked sunbathers were surprised. So were the adult leaders.
The hike was “quickly rerouted to protect the youth,” according to a statement issued later by the scout leadership.
One of the parents on the hike, Diane Lekven, told KFMB-TV Channel 8 that she was outraged by the incident.
“I was nauseated because I’ve never seen just a bunch of nude people walking around holding hands, strange people that I don’t know,” said Lekven, who attended the hike with her 4th-grade son.
…
That will go down in local cub scout lore as the Best. Hike. Ever.
LOLZ… I thought Scout Leaders were supposed to know the route for a hike!
Luckily that wasn’t a Mormon Cub Scout pack!
Luckily that wasn’t a Mormon Cub Scout pack!
Aren’t like half of all Troops and Cub Scout Packs sponsored by the LDS?
From what I have seen, it is not exactly cheap to do a Grecian vacation. Still wondering where their GDP comes from and how they could go into debt like this. Are they a special case or are the likes of Spain and Portugal eventually gonna succumb too?
Read recently that young people who had flocked to the cities from the countryside in search of jobs and careers, are now returning to their anchestral villages and rediscovering farming (growing their own food). Many are reportedly healthier and happier as a result. They are also become producers, which makes them automatically hostile to the socialists who are stealing from the productive to buy votes from their parastite voting base (Comrade Pelosi, take note). Young people, having seen what a train wreck their elders created with their entitlements-for-votes fecklessness, will hopefully choose another path that leads Greece out of its current abyss.
“They are also become producers, which makes them automatically hostile to the socialists…”
Welcome to Piaget’s formal operations and adulthood.
I think this is the link that will post the voting results first..As best I can find out, I think the voting stops in a couple of hours;
http://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/e/public/index.html?lang=en
Looks like the outcome will be projected at 4:00 PM EST. It looks like things are going from bad to worse by the hour. I’m still expecting “Yes” to win - because of the 50% female portion of the population who will vote for security (and serfdom) over giving the Troika and their banker overlords the finger - but if “no” carries the day, look out below - it’s going to be a bloodbath on global markets.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3149848/Greek-army-riot-police-braced-street-battles-millions-polls-country-s-bailout-referendum-result-close-call.html
There is also a live BBC feed with comments from people in the street at this link;
http://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-33400127
Voting booths now closed and exit polls are suggesting a “No Vote” win…Go to the above link for live updates…
Would love to see Greeks give a Victoria Nuland “F**k the EU” to the Troika, which would put “extend and pretend” in mortal danger.
It is starting to look like a “NO” by a wide margin…
The confederate flag issue is coming to a head in the upstate here..Yesterday we noticed dozens of pickups and cars with huge ones flapping ,in Pickens and Anderson countys,both rural areas.I don’t have one,a lot of minority people I deal with as a landlord are convinced it will soon be illegal to own or fly a confederate flag.I think it is all working up to reparations ,where each descendant of slaves gets a wad of cash.Let them have it ,I say, the car dealers,store owners and landlords would have it all back within weeks,it would help our economy……
people in ca are more concerned with what dress caitlyn is wearing.
“people in ca are more concerned with what dress caitlyn is wearing.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA4DR4vEgrs - 272k -
The stupidity, it burns.
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/kim-kardashian-we-need-more-gun-control-just-not-for-my-armed-guards_072015
are convinced it will soon be illegal to own or fly a confederate flag ??
Then someone needs to read them the constitution…Taking away their personal use of the confederate flag will never happen…
‘So the One Percent of One Percent Who Own US Politics Include Some Black Faces. Is This A Victory For Us All?’
‘One percent of the one percent, about 30,000 individuals account for 42% of all the contributions to political candidates in the US. In most other countries these would be bribes, but in this, the freest country in the world, wealthy have baked their right to bribe into our election law. They’ve even purchased a Supreme Court ruling – Citizens United – which says their unfettered right to bribe is guaranteed in the Constitution.’
‘While America’s corporate elite is disproportionately white, nobody I know considers this a victory for white people. So why then, do many African descended Americans insist on celebrating black members of this one percent of one percent as persons worthy of respect and admiration on the part of the rest of us?’
‘Former NBA superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson is a case in point. With business interests all over the country, Magic dropped a quarter million dollar campaign donation on Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and flew to Chicago to get his picture taken with the mayor on the eve of the elction. Magic’s payback was an $80 million dollar contract managing privatized custodial services in Chicago’s Public Schools, under which he pays those custodial employees, many of them African American far, far less than they once made as direct employees of the public school system.’
‘This doesn’t make Johnson unique. It makes him one of the gang, a very privileged gang indeed. A recent study by the Sunlight Foundation revealed that corporations get about $760 back from federal, state and local governments for every buck they donate to politicians of the two capitalist parties.’
‘How should we regard the black faces among the one percent of one percent? Are they smart and savvy business people, examples of real black power? Or are they well connected, despicable thieves stealing from the rest of us?’
http://blackagendareport.com/admire-or-condemn-black-one-percenters
‘Muricans love their crony capitalism, as in the past two elections, 95% voted for the Oligopoly’s water carriers, Obama, McCain, and Romney, and have positioned HillaryJeb as the leading contenders for 2016. Serf’s up!
“Former NBA superstar Earvin “Magic” Johnson is a case in point.”
I guess those Wall Street returns don’t really add up despite his cash pile, so he has to sweat labor.
Then someone needs to read them the constitution…Taking away their personal use of the confederate flag will never happen…
scdave, maybe you haven’t been paying attention to what happened to the Constitution under Bush and Obama, but it’s pretty much a dead letter. All you have to do is designate something “hate speech,” then just keep expanding the definition of “hate” until the First Amendment is effectively defunct. Then you move on to the Second Amendment….it’s for the children.
I don’t see how reparations would work, unless it went hand-in-hand with some sort of revocation of citizenship and repatriation to an African nation. Because what about children as yet unborn? Would reparations be renewable every couple of generations? And how does one determine who exactly is a descendant of a slave? Who would administer the fund? (Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton come to mind immediately, and I’m sure it’s in their minds as well.) What about fraud, wouldn’t a ton of Rachel Dolezals start crawling out of the woodwork? (I understand that Native Americans have been dealing with this issue for decades).
I’m actually not against it, I’d just want to know how it would work. Might be a good precedent for Irish Americans whose families suffered at the hands of the British.
Here’s another aspect of this reparations thing: descendants of slaves would receive the money. Fair enough. But shouldn’t descendants of slaveholders be the ones to pay it, then? You know, people like Ben Affleck and such?
reparations were paid, it is called the civil war. Do we have to pay every southern civilian that had their property destroyed or confiscated by the U.S. army?
Wonder when the gays will start demanding reparations for all those years in the closet?
” But shouldn’t descendants of slaveholders be the ones to pay it, then?”
Did Black People Own Slaves?
By: Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Posted: March 4 2013 12:03 AM
One of the most vexing questions in African-American history is whether free African Americans themselves owned slaves. The short answer to this question, as you might suspect, is yes, of course; some free black people in this country bought and sold other black people, and did so at least since 1654, continuing to do so right through the Civil War. For me, the really fascinating questions about black slave-owning are how many black “masters” were involved, how many slaves did they own and why did they own slaves?
The answers to these questions are complex, and historians have been arguing for some time over whether free blacks purchased family members as slaves in order to protect them — motivated, on the one hand, by benevolence and philanthropy, as historian Carter G. Woodson put it, or whether, on the other hand, they purchased other black people “as an act of exploitation,” primarily to exploit their free labor for profit, just as white slave owners did. The evidence shows that, unfortunately, both things are true. The great African-American historian, John Hope Franklin, states this clearly: “The majority of Negro owners of slaves had some personal interest in their property.” But, he admits, “There were instances, however, in which free Negroes had a real economic interest in the institution of slavery and held slaves in order to improve their economic status.”
In a fascinating essay reviewing this controversy, R. Halliburton shows that free black people have owned slaves “in each of the thirteen original states and later in every state that countenanced slavery,” at least since Anthony Johnson and his wife Mary went to court in Virginia in 1654 to obtain the services of their indentured servant, a black man, John Castor, for life.
And for a time, free black people could even “own” the services of white indentured servants in Virginia as well. Free blacks owned slaves in Boston by 1724 and in Connecticut by 1783; by 1790, 48 black people in Maryland owned 143 slaves. One particularly notorious black Maryland farmer named Nat Butler “regularly purchased and sold Negroes for the Southern trade,” Halliburton wrote.
Perhaps the most insidious or desperate attempt to defend the right of black people to own slaves was the statement made on the eve of the Civil War by a group of free people of color in New Orleans, offering their services to the Confederacy, in part because they were fearful for their own enslavement: “The free colored population [native] of Louisiana … own slaves, and they are dearly attached to their native land … and they are ready to shed their blood for her defense. They have no sympathy for abolitionism; no love for the North, but they have plenty for Louisiana … They will fight for her in 1861 as they fought [to defend New Orleans from the British] in 1814-1815.”
These guys were, to put it bluntly, opportunists par excellence: As Noah Andre Trudeau and James G. Hollandsworth Jr. explain, once the war broke out, some of these same black men formed 14 companies of a militia composed of 440 men and were organized by the governor in May 1861 into “the Native Guards, Louisiana,” swearing to fight to defend the Confederacy. Although given no combat role, the Guards — reaching a peak of 1,000 volunteers — became the first Civil War unit to appoint black officers.
When New Orleans fell in late April 1862 to the Union, about 10 percent of these men, not missing a beat, now formed the Native Guard/Corps d’Afrique to defend the Union. Joel A. Rogers noted this phenomenon in his 100 Amazing Facts: “The Negro slave-holders, like the white ones, fought to keep their chattels in the Civil War.” Rogers also notes that some black men, including those in New Orleans at the outbreak of the War, “fought to perpetuate slavery.”
http://www.theroot.com/articles/history/2013/03/black_slave_owners_did_they_exist.html - 387k -
I am going to demand reparations from my former school district, as I feel my educational experience was incomplete as my female teachers, to quote David Lee Roth in “Hot for Teacher,” were “never quite like this” (all mine looked like Ben Franklin and were disgustingly professional), and thus my failure to be “victimized” by a hottie teacher has left me feeling cheated and depressed.
http://dailycaller.com/2015/07/04/teacher-charged-for-victimizing-male-teen-with-month-long-sex-fling-has-worked-at-dirty-dicks/
“Yesterday we noticed dozens of pickups and cars with huge ones flapping”
Tell them to drive carefully. God don’t like ugly!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b7PK_1hV98
LOL. That was awesome.
Jeff Update NY, I suggest you be the first one who writes the check of reparations to anyone. I certainly will not. I’m not going to buy into any white guilt (and I’m part American Indian anyway).
Uh…Upstate SC…(tried to call that back)
Yeah, I think you missed the point of Jeff’s post entirely. Completely. Totally.
You have NO idea what these people in the South have been put through over and over and over again. Continual punishment and degradation, decade after decade. It has never stopped.
You ought to read the relocation boards on the net sometime. Very enlightening. All those middle class loser economic refugees from the Northeast moving south and wanting to know about racism and the KKK and rednecks and such.
Would love to read. Got a link for one of the better sites?
Check out citydata.com, and just click on the forums for any of the southern states. North Carolina is the one that seems to get hardest hit, as a lot of nawtheners want to colonize it and make it like where they’re from.
The confederate flag issue is coming to a head in the upstate here.
Whether by design, missteps, or overreach by our political correctness commissars, it seems America’s descent into Balkanization and tribalism has accelerated markedly under the Obama regime.
under the Obama regime ??
I believe it was Nikki Hailey along with Lindsey Graham said it was now time that the flag be taken down….
The Confederate flag is the current hot-button issue, but the larger picture is the race relations in this country seem to be deteriorating, which not coincidentally appears to be correlated with our continuing economic malaise with our Obama-Fed-Goldman Sachs “No Billionaire Left Behind” economic “recovery.” And the “us vs. them” mentality is becoming more prevalent. The .1%’s worst nightmare would be for blacks, whites, and browns to focus on who is robbing the 99% blind.
Confederate flag is the current hot-button issue ??
Nah…Its already gone away…No flag on the state capital…No big deal…As far as race relations, I lived in the south for awhile so I do have a feel for how they think…Its their constitutional right to be racists if they choose to be…They can’t discriminate (legally) but they can openly decry that they hate blacks if they want to…Just like that white punk kid did…Except that he took it to a another level of sadistic action…
The .1%’s worst nightmare would be for blacks, whites, and browns to focus on who is robbing the 99% blind.
+infinity.
“The .1%’s worst nightmare would be for blacks, whites, and browns to focus on who is robbing the 99% blind.”
That, IMHO, is why we are graced with our racist and homophobic shepherds, constantly posting about obscure black-on-white crime cases and calling people who disagree with them ‘gay’.
Gotta keep ‘em separated…
“The .1%’s worst nightmare would be for blacks, whites, and browns to focus on who is robbing the 99% blind.”
“Gotta keep ‘em separated…”
Comment by scdave
2015-07-05 09:26:53
“I lived in the south for awhile so I do have a feel for how they think”
“if they choose”
“They can’t”
“but they can openly decry that they hate blacks if they want to”
“He called them “they”!
The horror.
“Gotta keep ‘em separated…”
By using pronouns?
“Did you hear that, fellas? Someone called us ‘them’.”
Now they’ve gone too far!
“Did you hear that, fellas?”
They must have punched out, I don’t think they get paid to work this late on a weekend.
“They” must have punched out.
I don’t think “they” get paid…
How dare you call them “they”? Pronouns are proof of something or other that you seem to find significant and full of portentous meaning.
Anyway, shouldn’t you be reporting a crime that “they” did to “us”, somewhere in America? You know, like from the web sites devoted to that crap, the ones that got the Charleston knucklehead all excited? You know, your source web sites.
Because …you gotta keep us separated.
“They” must have punched out.”
Oh that “they”
Not Southerners or Northerners, not black, brown or white, not gay or straight but…
Government Trolls Are Using “Psychology-Based Influence Techniques” On YouTube, Facebook And Twitter
07/02/2015
Documents leaked by Snowden also reveal that government agents have been conducting denial-of-service attacks, flooding social media websites with thinly veiled propaganda and have been purposely attempting to warp public discourse online.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-02/government-trolls-are-using-psychology-based-influence-techniques-youtube-facebook-a
” flooding social media websites with thinly veiled propaganda and have been purposely attempting to warp public discourse online”
But that’s your job! How dare they?
‘Documents leaked by Snowden also reveal that government agents have been conducting denial-of-service attacks, flooding social media websites with thinly veiled propaganda and have been purposely attempting to warp public discourse online.’
So, what do they do, these agents? Do they sit at their computers all day and go through a list of blogs and news articles to comment on w/ pro-agenda talking points?
“So, what do they do, these agents? Do they sit at their computers all day and go through a list of blogs and news articles to comment on w/ pro-agenda talking points?”
Got climate change?
“Got climate change?”
Wow they interfere with all your propagandizing areas, don’t they?
Good thing you’ve got the Putin troll army on your side. And the Kochtopus.
Yep. One of the leading untold stories in the USA these days.
Real Estate Agent Charged With Burglary
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-wilton-manors-burglary-20150702-story.html
we need a homeowners draft. mandatory home ownership for 18-30 year olds.
mandatory home ownership for 18-30 year olds ??
How about just creating a environment where they have been given a skill set, without the massive burden of debt and a opportunity for a decent job…
Because they are unnecessary and redundant. Robots can do their jobs better, faster and with no whining.
faster and with no whining ??
You were likely slow and whined when you were in your twenties also…Nothing new here…
Our pecking order of priorities in this country are FU…
Technology rapidly is making people obsolete.
Then what?
*crickets*
Apparently there is no such thing as ethics and morality in the field of information technology, either.
I predict that technocrats will take over government within 10-20 years. For better or for worse. Mostly worse.
Freedom-seeking people will begin freeing themselves from technology to the extent possible.
I predict that technocrats will take over government within 10-20 years. For better or for worse. Mostly worse.
You only have to look to the EU to see that.
” homeowners draft”
How about we follow the Chinese model, and force realtors to buy houses whenever there’s a major fall in prices? Then they’d have a economic incentive to keep the market stable.
… it may not be burglary but 6% commissions is robbery! All Realtors are equity thieves.
I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KpNrlHPrJY - 285k -
China: Debt And (Not Much) Deleveraging
http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/economic_studies/debt_and_not_much_deleveraging
“China’s debt has quadrupled since 2007. Fueled by real estate and shadow banking, China’s total debt has nearly quadrupled, rising to $28 trillion by mid-2014, from $7 trillion in 2007. At 282 percent of GDP, China’s debt as a share of GDP, while manageable, is larger than that of the United States or Germany. Three developments are potentially worrisome: half of all loans are linked, directly or indirectly, to China’s overheated real-estate market; unregulated shadow banking accounts for nearly half of new lending; and the debt of many local governments is probably unsustainable.
Global Housing Bubble
And notice that China’s debt as a percentage of its GDP is less than the U.S. Yes, they have borrowed but they have infrastructure and new factories to show for it. All we have its broken Obama phones. Plus and more importantly unlike the U.S. they owe it to themselves. Thus, China is running a 65 billion dollar trade surplus while we run a trade deficit in the tens of billions each month.
All we have its broken Obama phones ??
And Bush’s broken military hardware, dead people in the middle east, and seriously FU military personal at home…
“At 282 percent of GDP, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, China’s total debt now exceeds America’s 269 percent and Germany’s 258 percent. Even more worrying: If the credit buildup continues at its current pace, that ratio will explode to 400 percent by 2018.” — Bloomberg
Cough…
The graph provided today shows otherwise as has every other study I have seen.
http://atimes.com/2015/04/chinas-stealth-de-leveraging/
This has the total at of U.S. debt at over 300% which is consistent with the McKinsey graph but not the narrative of course the key is external debt and as the link I constantly post shows China’s is in the low twenties and the U.S. is in the high nineties, when Obama took over we were in the sixties I believe:
http://ycharts.com/indicators/us_total_debt_gdp
Corporate debt in China is a staggering 125% of GDP. If, as Dan says, this is mostly “internal” debt, the cascading defaults in a downturn will devastate the Chinese and do little to others.
“Fueled by real estate and shadow banking, China’s total debt has nearly quadrupled, rising to $28 trillion by mid-2014, from $7 trillion in 2007.”
Subtract $7 trillion from $28 trillion and you will end up with …
Twenty-one trillion dollars!
This is the amount of debt that has sprung into existence since 2007 - which is only eight years!
The message:
China doesn’t need to make money by selling stuff to the West as they used to do. No, All China needs to do is borrow money into existence and then spend it.
Spending twenty-one trillion dollars spread out over eight years will create a lot of economic growth (choke), why it might even cause the growth rate of China to proceed at a seven-percent-or-so rate!
If you can meter the borrowing and spending then you can meter the growth rate which means you will be able to create an economic miracle at will.
And because the borrowing has virtually all been done internally, they have quadrupled their assets too.
“And because the borrowing has virtually all been done internally, they have quadrupled their assets too.”
Translation: The prices of the assets that the borrowed money went into rose.
If the prices tripled then the values (as expressed by these tripling prices) tripled.
Magic!
Ooops, “tripled’ should read “quadrupled”.
Just like the US.
A person that makes $20,000 a year but has a $80,000 mortgage is in a lot worse shape than a person that has a $500,000 mortgage and makes $250,000 year. China has gone from being the former to the latter.
Neither one of them is well off compared to the person living well on less than he earns and having no debt.
“Neither one of them is well off compared to the person living well on less than he earns and having no debt.”
+1 Been doing this for three years now.
+1, Blue—that’s freedom. And if the delta between what he earns and spends builds up to enough to support his meager desires, then that’s independence as well.
This is a great gimmick, one that has been used by a lot of con men in the past.
Borrow lots of money and then lavishly spend the money that you borrowed.
Since your spending is lavish others (such as lenders) will see that you are prosperous and this prosperity of yours will translate into their minds as you being “low risk”. And if you are low risk then they will not hesitate to loan you lots of money.
It works quite well until it doesn’t. This is true for individuals, true for businesses, true for countries.
No, All China needs to do is borrow money into existence and then spend it.
If endless prosperity was always so easily obtained, why didn’t they do this decades sooner??!?
That darn Mao.
Yes, killer of tens of millions.
China doesn’t need to make money by selling stuff to the West as they used to do. No, All China needs to do is borrow money into existence and then spend it.
China is still running a trade surplus, we haven’t for around forty years. We borrowed money into existence for forty years and grew our economy. What makes you think China cannot do it for decades?
“We borrowed money into existence for forty years and grew our economy.”
Correction, we borrowed money for twenty years and grew China’s economy.
China did well because those in The West went nuts.
Even though those in The West are still nuts the difference now is they are not only nuts but they are also broke.
‘All China needs to do is borrow money into existence and then spend it.”
You mean create fiat money.
Cash is king.
Until it is no longer king.
While China’s bursting bubble resume tonight?
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/05/business/fund-in-china-aims-to-stabilize-stock-markets.html?_r=0
The Chinese government wants the market at 4500, I would not bet against them over the next few months.
Great advice! Wait for all-out efforts to manipulate the market up to 4500 to succeed before betting against it. Unless the rules of stock-market valuations change to completely divorce prices from fundamentals, this seems like a no-lose strategy.
Are the “shorts” going to end up in mass graves?
Athens On The Potomac - It Could Never Happen Here, Right?
07/01/2015
Submitted by John Gabriel via Ricochet.com,
Financial experts in New York, London, and Brussels have tut-tutted Greece’s economic travails as Athens considers its future with the European Union. Why did they borrow so much money? How can they ever pay it back? Do they think that much debt is sustainable?
Instead of pointing fingers at the innumerates running Athens, they should consider our own situation. Jason Russell of the Washington Examiner shows how America’s debt projections look suspiciously like Greece’s recent history.
While we’re right to be concerned about 2040, the U.S. is in deep trouble now. Yet if you mention the debt to most Americans, they’re either confused or indifferent. “But Obama lowered the deficit.” “Just print more money.“ “It’s Reagan’s fault!”
Since most graphs look like this, I created my own user-friendly debt chart focused on three big numbers: Deficit, revenue and debt. (My first version was published a couple of years ago. This one is updated with the most recent figures).
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-01/athens-potomac-it-could-never-happen-here-right
Bitcoin, LiteCoin, PeerCoin, Dogecoin, silver, gold, cash (under the mattress)
Lead and brass, too. And don’t forget the kitty litter.
Hell, why not go all out and get ready for a grid-down situation?
http://survivalcache.com/37-things-you-should-stock-but-probably-arent/
Cuz there are cases where rural authorities arrest you for living off grid, collecting rainwater, etc.
fishing polls, solar panels, water purifiers, canned beans, dry rice, garlic and Tapatio.
Does Rasmussen poll fish, I did not know?
poles
The Chinese “crash” is getting the same size coverage on Marketwatch as the upset of Joey Chestnut in the Nathan’s 4th of July hot dog eating contest.
How much coverage did the more than doubling of the Chinese markets get?
facebook has a bigger market cap than walmart.Overvalued assets can only carry an economy so long.
Shuffling paper back and forth with no production seems like an honest economy.
Next door neighbor is all jazzed about buying a 1300 square foot house in Aliso Viejo. I think he is a divorced grandpa. He told me he’s not fond of living like a college student. I told him I’ve lived like a college student for all but six years of my life. I’m used to it.
Prices of 1300 square feet around there are around $500,000.
“Prices of 1300 square feet around there are around $500,000.”
And they’re “previously owned.”
China Central Bank steps in to bail out stocks as underwater traders pray for a rebound
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-05/panic-china-central-bank-steps-bailout-stocks
Drudge Report is riling up the gumbahs by posting a link to an Al-Jazeera video that mocks our American “exceptionalism.” Actually, the video is rather humorus and makes some valid points, i.e. that one in three ‘Muricans can’t see their own toes due to obesity.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/07/05/not-everyone-likes-the-fourth-of-july-themed-al-jazeera-video-that-mocks-american-as-fat-gun-toting-racists/
I have enough money to pay my rent and shop for stuff i don’t need but soon i will be pretty fricking rich due to family inheritance. My big question is why do I stay in san diego and rent when i can move some where with a better market. My siblings live in Virginia and Georgia and there are babies being born and raised over there. I want to live in ashville in the summer and get a charming home in tampa for the winter.
I have 30 years left to live and it goes so fast. I don’t want to rent houses stuck in the 80’s for the rest of my life! Why can’t i daydream about owning a forever home with a designer kitchen!
“I have 30 years left to live and it goes so fast.”
100 years by Five For Fighting (with lyrics) - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwktOq6albQ - 257k -
soon i will be pretty fricking rich due to family inheritance. My big question is why do I stay in san diego ??
Because its a great place to live…If, as you say, you are now receiving a significant inheritance, it sounds like you can now afford to buy & stay…
“Why can’t i daydream about owning a forever home with a designer kitchen!”
Because your dreams will conveniently leave out the broken appliances, maintenance costs, broken AC, etc.
will conveniently leave out the broken appliances, maintenance costs, broken AC, etc. ??
Thats what Angie’s List is for…
Angie’s List. Where unskilled goobers find suckers that overpay for substandard work.
+1. I prefer word of mouth from people I trust, not dubious online testimonials.
Why can’t i daydream about owning a forever home with a designer kitchen!
It strikes me as a bit comical to even call it a “forever home”, when you just said that you only have 30yrs left to live. Wouldn’t that make it a 30-yr home?
A thirty year hotel room!
“…but soon i will be pretty fricking rich due to family inheritance.”
I’m available for adoption.
Another food heard from.
http://www.thedailysheeple.com/kim-kardashian-we-need-more-gun-control-just-not-for-my-armed-guards_072015
Fool, I meant.
No, food was fine. She’s a tubbalard, most of what she eats goes to her buttocks.
She’s more like a butternut squash.
Watch and learn, ‘Muricans. This is the inevitable endgame of letting votes-for-entitlements leeches dictate your political class, whether it’s Comrad Pelosi’s ever-growing Free Sh!t Army or the welfare queens on Wall Street. And it might be useful to contemplate the day when the Fed’s deranged money-printing on behalf of its oligarch pals results in a refusal by producers to exchange goods and services of tangible value for green pieces of paper backed by nothing but the servitude of unborn generations.
http://news.yahoo.com/sugar-flour-rice-panicked-greeks-stock-essentials-175737930.html
When cash is indeed king …
“There are no banknotes in circulation. Shops are closed and people have no notes with which to buy food.”
Fiat notes are a great idea in this situation until they no longer are. Then Bitcoin and silver and gold will become preferred. Particularly when Greece returns to the Drachma.
It’s reassuring to be reacquainted with my stash of fiat though. I haven’t ran my hands through that lettuce in days, but today it was worth it.
At some point “they” will run out of fiat. Businesses will close because not enough customers. The businesses that will gladly take fiat won’t be able to afford to be open just to be in business. So what good would it be if you’re the last 1% holding cash? By that time there is another medium of exchange that overtook that former currency.
The US fiat Dollar is king until it isn’t.
“Fractional Reserves…”
So is there really enough paper money and coins out there in circulation to keep business going in case the U.S. banks institute capital controls?
Smokes fo votes
I miss the republic
If the exit polls are correct it is going to be very interesting for the lying leftist leader to deliver the deal in two days. I think most Germans are happy that the Greeks might have voted to leave even if their government told them that was not the vote. 75% want to stay in the Euro but they vote no, the Greeks are too stupid to be in the Euro zone.
Any happy Germans would do well to take a look at Deutche Bank’s massive $54 trillion dollar derivatives exposure.
The Poles seem to agree with the Germans:
http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=345301995
http://news.yahoo.com/no-vote-torn-down-bridges-between-greece-europe-195239582.html
And now they get to make an example of the Greeks. Iceland had a basically strong economy but a horrible problem with overextended banks. Greece is no Iceland. Greece has no working economy, the vote is horrible for the Greeks but it has a silver lining. Had the people voted yes, the left throughout the world would claim that had the Greeks voted no they could have had a good deal. Now, the world will see what happens when you run out of OPM.
It is interesting so far the futures are showing Germany’s stock market on a percentage basis being down only 1/3 of the U.S market. Perhaps the German’s had a lot of derivatives in the opposite direction too.
75% want to stay in the Euro but they vote no, the Greeks are too stupid to be in the Euro zone.
The banksters loaned insolvent Greece (or rather, it’s corrupt, well-connected oligarch and crony capitalist class) billions they knew they’d never get back except through forced taxpayer reimbursement courtesy of their puppets in the establishment political parties. Now Greeks have voted no to consigning themselves to being a bankster looting colony. All power to them. I hope they take down the EU’s fraud-riddled financial house of cards by stiffing the oligarch banksters.
Every one knew they were not going to pay back the loans the Greeks were just suppose to play along for awhile. They did not, now they do not have enough money to run the country if they do not pay back a dime. They needed continued support from the Euro zone now they will not receive it. As I have been saying for months, the PTB would rather allow Greece to go than encourage countries like Spain to reject austerity. You think this is a shock to them, I think it is closer to being the plan. Inflict incredible pain of the Greeks as a lesson and not have to take the blame for it.
http://wolfstreet.com/2015/07/05/panicked-chinese-government-imposes-desperate-measures-to-aggressively-rescue-a-lot-more-than-just-crashing-stocks/
Stock-market rescue measures, concocted by the government, have been hailing down for days, including an interest rate cut by the People’s Bank of China a week ago. But the collapse proceeded with brutal relentlessness. So now, Premier Li Keqiang pulled out all stops and the State Council is calling the shots in the market, the craziest, most desperate shots.
From July 4 last year through June 12 this year, the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) soared 150%. It was the era when stocks would create unlimited wealth out of nothing in no time, when all comers, from street vendors to farmers, would get their government-promoted chance to get rich quick.
“When our national economy is in its worst shape in more than a decade and many corporates have run into trouble, our stock market suddenly shot up to make everybody happy,” George Chen, Managing Editor for the International Edition of the South China Morning Post, wrote in mid-April. He described the phenomenon this way:
The bulls can always find reasons to defend why the market was up, but I rarely heard anyone explaining the disconnect between the weak real economy and the so-called bull run.
Even the state media probably got over-excited. One Chinese newspaper commentary tried to name the surprising market performance as the latest achievement of President Xi Jinping because the top leadership in the country wanted to “create a new opportunity for wealth redistribution for everyone” to narrow the income gap. Redistribute wealth through the stock market in a socialist country like China? Sounds an exciting new economic theory.
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2015-07-05 09:25:54
It turned out for many that the prosperity of the stock market - the “wealth” generated by rising stock prices - translated into employment for the workers, so when the wealth was yanked away the jobs that depended on this wealth vanished soon thereafter.
I read Combo’s post too late to reply yesterday…
But it reminded me that I still have significant questions in my mind the transmission mechanisms involved in the stock market crash affecting the “real” economy.
Part of it was likely that the “easy money” (and associated margin debt) from the stock market was washing through the rest of the economy; but the portion that was illusory or debt-fueled _should_ have vanished—the effects of removing this removed the mal-investment portion of the economy. Similarly with the wealth effects.
Were there other transmissions mechanisms at work, though?
“But it reminded me that I still have significant questions in my mind the transmission mechanisms involved in the stock market crash affecting the “real” economy.”
The “real economy” of the Twenties was powered by rising equity prices. The “real wealth” of the past decade or so was powered by rising real estate prices.
Both stocks and houses have this in common:
1.The actions of a few determine the wealth of the many. The few buyers of stocks and houses set the prices for the comps, and the prices of the comps are translated into values. If prices go up then values go up. If the values of what one owns goes up then one ends up richer than he was before.
2. Leverage is magic. Leverage can convert the unaffordable into the affordable. Leverage powered the hefty stock prices of the Twenties and it powered the hefty real estate prices of a dozen or so years ago.
If enough people go crazy (number 1) and if these people can get hold of a lot of money (number 2) the some crazy prices can result, and these crazy prices will create “wealth” - wealth for those who have gone crazy and wealth for those who just happen to be owners of things - stocks or houses - that this craziness is directed toward.
Wealth is fun, wealthy people spend more money than people who are not wealthy. Wealthy people and their spending entice people to open up pirate stores and candle making stores and other such necessities of life.
But all this wealth is illusionary because this wealth ultimately depends on crazy people getting access to borrowed money. And if (meaning when) the access to borrowed money to crazy people dries up then the wealth that was created by the actions of these crazy people will begins to vanish. And if the wealth vanishes then the spending by the previously wealthy will slow down and a lot of nonsense that seemed to make financial sense is a world of wealth will not make any sense at all.
And a lot of things that did make sense may still make sense but when wealth vanishes it takes a lot of money with it (what a strange thing to say, no?) and even though something may make sense it still may go away if there is no money to support it.
And financial things that “go away” tend to take jobs away with them and jobs mean cash flow and cash flow - hefty cash flow- means an economy that works.
Correction:
“The “real economy” of the Twenties was powered by rising equity prices. The “real wealth” of the past decade or so was powered by rising real estate prices.”
Should read:
The “real economy” of the Twenties was powered by rising stock prices. The “real economy” of the past decade or so was powered by rising real estate prices.
Oh, I agree, Combo—the transmission via removal of the wealth sloshing around is easy to understand. It sounds like you are arguing that what I called the portion that was illusory or debt-fueled was entirely responsible for the boom of the 20’s. In other words, it all went away because it was all mal-investment.
And a lot of things that did make sense may still make sense but when wealth vanishes it takes a lot of money with it (what a strange thing to say, no?) and even though something may make sense it still may go away if there is no money to support it.
Great point there, Combo. If you identified all of the net-positive investments that could be done with wealth, the more marginal ones will not occur in a liquidity-starved economy; the more productive ones are more likely to occur. So if enough wealth destruction occurs, even investments with some utility (but less than others) may not happen.
“No” in the lead in early Greek poll results. I would love to see them give the Troika the finger, although it would mean crashing the Eurozone’s financial house of cards. Futures are going to open uglier than Debbie Wasserman tonight if “no” takes the lead.
http://www.businessinsider.com/greece-referendum-live-blog-of-yes-no-vote-on-grexit-2015-7
Greece is just the first round. The rest of ClubMed is in the queue.
Yup, the Masters of Europe are in a pickle, as Greece is refusing to pay. If they give Greece a bail out, then others will want one too. But if they don’t, the others will watch what happens to Greece, and act based on what they see. If Greece does an Iceland, then the rest of “Poor Europe” might also decide to default as well.
Greece owes 2x gdp ?
Wow
At least they have free hc and gov unions
I keep seeing that China’s debt is at 282% of GDP (i.e. nearly three times). One view is that this is ‘all debt’; another is that in a communist country, there is no clear line between private and public debt.
So which country is in a worse debt morass: China or Greece?
China’s Debt Bomb
Danger or Dud?
By Enda Curran | Updated Jun 18, 2015 4:28 PM EDT
It’s a bomb! A mountain! A horror movie and a treadmill to hell! To doomsayers, China’s $28 trillion pile of public and private debt is a threat to the global economy. Or maybe it’s just a manageable byproduct of the boom that created the world’s second-biggest economy. Either way, the buildup has been breathtaking, with borrowing quadrupling in seven years by one estimate. (China doesn’t give a complete tally). Weaning the nation off that debt without intensifying an economic slowdown is tricky. Because China is a key driver of global growth, the solution is everybody’s concern. Propping up borrowers to prevent defaults is one approach. That could leave the country mired in bad debt and susceptible to years of stagnation.
…
and they fooled the world buy using that funny money to buy real property all over the place.
No. They bought up the world with our funny money due to our large trade deficit.
“to buy real property”
They are just bringing the money back to us. It will never return to China. $1 Trillion per year at the present rate of flight.
First official Greek referendum votes coming in, with “NO” in the lead. Not surprisingly, Greek’s Boomers - who like our own voted for successive corrupt, crony-capitalist administrations - want to stay in the EU, thinking their pensions might be at risk otherwise. Young people on the other hand, who have been well and truly buggered by the sins of the fathers, including 50% unemployment, are overwhelmingly voting NO (67% thus far), setting the stage for some serious intergenerational animosity as the young people of Greece, unlike their ‘Murican counterparts, are realizing just how badly their elders screwed them over.
https://twitter.com/ManosGiakoumis/status/617733208495497216
Obama Supporters Sign Petition to NUKE RUSSIA so America will …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNr5czZKEdk - 398k -
Jun 8, 2015 …
Obama Supporters Petition to Repeal the FIRST AMENDMENT …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpHOaW99ST4 - 323k - Cached - Similar pages
Apr 15, 2013 …
Obama Supporters Sign Petition to Repeal the BILL OF RIGHTS to …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0he0cqHH20 - 216k - Cached - Similar pages
Jul 8, 2013 …
You can’t fix stupid.
Great fireworks in Santa Barbara last night. They must have spent over $1mil, on them… who needs de-sal???
“Great fireworks in Santa Barbara last night.”
Cayucos or Pismo was enough for us.
Bitcoin again going to three month high as the Greek referendum is more likely voted “no.”
Probably a good time to short it, then, as it will be up on the rumor and down on the news.
I would not short Bitcoin, silver, gold, platinum, nor even cash. Greeks cannot even buy iTunes with their currency controls but they can order things with Bitcoin (those that have it).
You can buy gift cards to Amazon, for example, with bitcoin. Greeks without crypto have to have credit cards. Oops. capital controls. They cannot do that because the credit is through the central bank dummy! Cannot use debit cards either. So either buy with cash, buy with precious metals, buy with crypto, or barter. Oops! Only 60 whatchamacallits per day per person from the ATM.
The ECD is sociopathic. At the hint of resistance to pain, the pain is increased. Much better for the Greeks to quit that unhealthy dynamic in the long run. I wonder how long it will take them to reopen their own central bank.
Got popcorn?
http://www.businessinsider.com/el-erian-if-no-wins-global-stock-market-sell-off-2015-7
Not a very hard prediction to make. It’s kind of like predicting large oscillations of a seismograph will occur in the aftermath of a major earthquake.
With all the focus on Greece, let’s not forget Puerto Rico.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/why-the-puerto-rico-debt-crisis-is-such-a-huge-threat-to-the-u-s-financial-system
Puerto Rico will get a taxpayer funded bail out.
Concur. Too many Democrat votes at stake.
Yep.
Chinese stock exchange under massive attack after planning to help Greece
http://geopolitics.co/2015/07/04/chinese-stock-exchange-under-massive-attack-after-planning-to-help-greece/
If a fat stupid possum climbs way out on a fragile branch, is he “under attack” when it snaps?
Only after the cougar in wait on the ground below closes in for the kill.
nice one!
I think this exchange had to be on the 70s’ “Kung Fu” television show at one point between Cain and the Master.
it’s not “got cash?”
It’s “got assets outside of banks, real estate, stock markets and bond markets?”
You would think that anyone with half a brain in Greece would have already moved their cash out of their Greek bank by now and transferred it to a German or UK bank. I suppose that the Greek banks were paying a bigger interest rate, but I don’t see how it could have been worth the risk.
I don’t have the link but the $100,000 (whatever currency) bail-in that Cyprus had was telegraphed to all the big wigs there months in advance and all or 99% of them moved their money out of Cyprus before it happened. In Greece the $8000 (whatever currency) affects the little guy. It has not happened yet but the 30% haircut is bound to.
You would think that anyone with half a brain in Greece would have already moved their cash out of their Greek bank by now and transferred it to a German or UK bank.
Better yet, invested it in life’s essentials, which may rapidly become unobtainable as supply chains and commercial transactions start to break down. Watch and learn, ‘Muricans.
Hmmm…Why hoard physical precious metal when you can pair bitcoin with it?
https://bitreserve.org/
Yes! Looks like a landslide vote for “no” in the Greek referendum on the EU. Has “extend and pretend” finally reached the end of the line?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_GREECE_BAILOUT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-07-05-16-04-15
Suck it, Troika.
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/5/greece-votes-in-economic-referendum.html
Obama administration scales back deportations in policy shift
DHS has taken steps to ensure that the majority of the United States’ 11.3 million illegals can stay in this country
by Jerry Markon | Washington Post | July 5, 2015
The Obama administration has begun a profound shift in its enforcement of the nation’s immigration laws, aiming to hasten the integration of long-term illegal immigrants into society rather than targeting them for deportation, according to documents and federal officials.
In recent months, the Department of Homeland Security has taken steps to ensure that the majority of the United States’ 11.3 million undocumented immigrants can stay in this country, with agents narrowing enforcement efforts to three groups of illegal migrants: convicted criminals, terrorism threats or those who recently crossed the border.
While public attention has been focused on the court fight over President Obama’s highly publicized executive action on immigration, DHS has with little fanfare been training thousands of immigration agents nationwide to carry out new policies on everyday enforcement.
The legal battle centers on the constitutionality of a program that would officially shield as many as 5 million eligible illegal immigrants from deportation, mainly parents of children who are U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents. A federal judge put the program, known by the acronym DAPA, on hold in February after 26 states sued.
Comrad Pelosi’s permanent Democrat Supermajority isn’t going to build itself, you know.
Let the dominoes fall.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/05/greek-referendum-no-vote-signals-huge-challenge-to-eurozone-leaders
Greece delivered a landslide no vote to the eurozone’s terms for the country remaining in the single currency on Sunday night, unleashing a seismic political shift that could derail the European project. The verdict confronts the EU’s leadership with one of its most severe crises of confidence and leaves Greece facing potential financial collapse and exit from the euro.
In a polarising referendum called by the radical leftist government of Alexis Tsipras at only eight days notice, Greeks voted by more than 60% to 40% in support of the prime minister, spurning the extra austerity demanded mainly by Germany and the International Monetary Fund in return for an extension of bailout funds.
Tsipras said that Greece “has proved that democracy cannot be blackmailed; Greece has made a brave choice and one which will change the debate in Europe.
It’s great to witness the triumph of democracy over oligarchy in the nation which invented the concept.
WITH more than half of the votes counted, the “no” side had about 61% of the vote, compared with 39% for “yes”. The interior ministry predicted that margin would hold.
Thousands of government supporters gathered in Athens in celebration, waving Greek flags and chanting “No, No, No.”
“We don’t want austerity measures anymore, this has been happening for the last five years and it has driven so many into poverty, we simply can’t take any more austerity,” said Athens resident Yiannis Gkovesis, 26, holding a large Greek flag in the city’s main square.
http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/greece-on-course-to-reject-europe-s-austerity-plan-1-3822137
So Greece has voted no. What happens next?
Like every step in this dramatic saga, there are still a number of possible outcomes. The No vote makes a Greek exit from the euro zone significantly more likely than if there had been a Yes, but still far from certain. A lot now hangs on whether the EU leaders will re-enter talks with the Syriza-led government, whether a deal could be struck and, crucially, on what basis the ECB will supply money to its banks.
Prime minister Alexis Tspiras has said he will head to Brussels with a new mandate to negotiate a third bail-out programme.
Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras after placing his vote at a school in Athens. The sheer size of the No vote will make it difficult for European leaders to continue to play hardball with him. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty ImagesGreek referendum: Vindication for Tsipras but tough road ahead
The euro fell as Greek voters rejected austerity demands, fueling concern the indebted nation is on track to exit the currency unionEuro falls in wake of Greek voters rejecting austerity
Fine Gael MEP Brian Hayes has called on the Greek political leaders to “ditch their aggressive, provocative language”. Photograph: Eric LukeFG’s Brian Hayes call on Greece to ditch ‘provocative’ stance
A supporter of the No vote waves a Greek flag after the first results of the referendum at Syntagma square in Athens. Photograph: AP Photo/Emilio MorenattiSyriza celebrates as Greeks deliver an electoral earthquake
A ballot box is emptied by a voting official at the closing of polling stations in Athens, Greece. Photograph: Marko Djurica/Reuters Greece referendum: Greeks vote No as third of votes counted
Pedestrians walk along a road displaying an “OXI” or “No” campaign sign against bailout proposals in Athens, Greece, on Friday. Greece is divided heading into Sunday’s referendum on European bailout proposals. Photograph: Yorgos Karahalis/Bloomberg‘OXI’ and ‘NAI’: the two key words for the Greek referendum
Yanis Varoufakis, Greece’s finance minister, leaves the finance ministry in Athens on Wednesday. He says he will resign if the voters back a Yes in referendum on Sunday. Photograph: Yorgos Karahalis/Bloomberg Syriza’s illusory ‘silver bullet’ compounded wasted reform opportunities
San Juan, Puerto Rico - Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla addresses the island’s residents last week about the $73 billion debt crisis. He insisted that the people on the island will have to sacrifice and share in the responsibilities for pulling the island out of debt. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images. Greek voters should not listen to siren calls of American economists
But will anyone want to meet him when he arrives ? Initial reaction from senior German politicians and business figures was negative.
http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/q-a-where-to-now-for-greece-and-eu-1.2274345
European Commission “respects” result
The European Commission “respects” the result of the Greece bailout referendum, it said in a short statement on Sunday, after Greek voters overwhelmingly rejected terms offered by international creditors.
Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker will hold a teleconference on Monday morning with European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, the statement added.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11718775/Greek-referendum-day-results-live-no-vote-leads-by-60-per-cent.html
We live in interesting times.
They basically told Europe “F()k you” and defaulted on a $hitload of money. But will they learn from it and stop their Ponzi schemes and make people earn their way?
Will they really earn their money? The vast majority of American workers depend on the socialist system here in the USA. I wonder if Greece can become less socialist than the USA?
Decades of socialism have completely destroyed any sense of public or private morality or virtue. It will take severe hard times and dealing with the consquences of voting for corrupt/socialist politicians to re-instill a sense of responsibility in younger Greeks - the older ones are terminally feckless and debased, just like our Boomers.
Euro falls as Greece votes ‘No’ to bailout package
Reuters
4 hours ago
A No supporter flashes a victory sign before a Greek flag atop the parliament in Athens, Greece July 5, 2015. REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis
WELLINGTON (Reuters) - The euro fell sharply on Monday after Greeks looked to have overwhelmingly rejected the austerity measures demanded in return for bailout money.
just over broke
How to Avoid Capital Controls using Bitcoin
https://medium.com/@Bit2Me/how-to-avoid-capital-controls-using-bitcoin-621bde6ca839
Probably the most effective way to make sure such things become illegal.
If you check out bitreserve.org their privacy policy says essentially they follow applicable laws, which means a warrant has to be provided for law enforcement to get to your account. Of course that does not hinder the federal agencies, as Snowden revealed.
Remember though. the banks in the USA are supposed to be private. The capital controls are done by the banks and not by the government. So if 1) you own bitcoin, remember it is not illegal and 2) if you pair your bitcoin value to, say, gold in bitreserve, that too, is not illegal. But you diversify some risk and avoid the private banks. The Federal Reserve is supposed to be private. So if the government forces you to use a private bank then they automatically make those banks government-owned.
The 5th of July.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/07/05/the-5th-of-july/
It’s a gradual erosion of our freedoms, not a sudden elimination, that allows friends and family to carry on, the day after the 4th of July.
News flash: Shanghai market index is up nesrly ten percent in early trading, even as markets elsewhere fall on news out of Greece.
The Chinese economy is saved!
The Wall Street Journal
Markets
Shanghai Market Slide Is Still Far Short of 2008 Plunge
Seven years ago, China shares were in the middle of a 72% drop; today, more investors and a bigger market
An investor in China watched a stock board last week. The Shanghai market fell 72% from its high in 2007 through late 2008. Photo: Zhengyi Xie/Zuma Press
By James T. Areddy
July 5, 2015 3:29 p.m. ET
China’s recent stock drop has been the toughest test for the country’s investors in seven years, since the bottom fell out of a historic boom cycle for the market.
Worries back then about rising Chinese inflation and interest rates stopped a powerful bull run in October 2007, and the market tumbled through the following year as the global economy hit the skids. The Shanghai Composite Index shed 72% over roughly a year.
That fall was more dramatic than the market’s recent troubles. It followed an even more powerful period of gains than China has witnessed in the past year: The Shanghai Composite Index rose more than six times from mid-2005 to October 2007, reaching 6092, which remains the market’s record high.
In the current cycle, the market gained around 160% in the year to June 12, when it closed at 5166. Since then it has fallen by more than a quarter.
Much has changed since the previous meltdown. The value of real estate has expanded quickly, along with household incomes. Now at $21 trillion, bank deposits are triple the level they were at the end of 2007. But there are also significant ways to borrow money today to fund stock purchases that didn’t exist earlier.
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When the market peaked in 2007, it had a capitalization of around 33 trillion yuan ($5.3 trillion at today’s exchange rates), bigger than the 25 trillion yuan size of the country’s underlying economy that year. At the peak on June 12, the market capitalization topped 78.38 trillion yuan, also bigger than the gross domestic product last year in China, which was valued at around 64 trillion yuan.
China’s market took off last year, in part on the new borrowing techniques but also on investor hopes that lower interest rates would lift corporate profits and in turn equities, a standard investing strategy around the world.
During the previous market run-up, many investors were betting on little more than that a rising stock market was guaranteed, convinced that authorities would prop them up at least until the August 2008 Summer Olympics because the world was watching. Yet the market was down 57% from its high when the Olympic events began.
…
3,769.94 Up 83.03(2.25%) 10:04PM EDT
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=000001.SS
The Chinese stock markets are already falling off their initial surge. If this round of plunge protection fails, look out below!
Market Pulse
China stocks surge after government measures
By Laura He
Published: July 5, 2015 10:36 p.m. ET
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — Chinese stocks soared out of the open Monday after a week of panic selloffs, as China’s government and central bank launched a wave of drastic policies over the weekend to help save the markets, including the People’s Bank of China vowing “liquidity support” to the state-backed margin-finance entity, as well as a reported suspension of initial public offerings. The Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +3.18% opened 7.8% higher, and although it quickly trimmed those gains, it remained 3.7% an hour into the session. The index had slumped more than 12% in the previous week. However, Hong Kong stocks reversed their own opening gains and turned lower, as deepening concerns from the Greek referendum rejecting that nation’s rescue program outweighed a strong rebound in the mainland Chinese markets. The Hang Seng Index HSI, -1.79% fell 0.8%, with the mainland-China-tracking Hang Seng China Enterprises Index HSCEI, -1.59% down 0.5%. HSBC Holdings PLC 0005, -1.80% HSBC, +1.10% HSBA, -0.88% declined 1.8%, and Standard Chartered PLC 2888, -2.31% STAN, -2.14% — which, like HSBC, is based in Europe — lost 2.3%. Exchange-operator Hong Kong Exchange & Clearing Ltd. 0388, -8.70% HKXCF, -4.82% sank 5.7%, after Goldman Sachs reportedly downgraded its rating on the stock to sell and slashed its target price. Similarly, Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. 0992, -9.75% LNVGF, -1.82% tumbled 6.7% as UBS lowered its target price of on the shares. Other decliners included index heavyweight Tencent Holdings Ltd. 0700, -4.00% TCEHY, +1.09% which slid 3.5%, and among the real-estate stocks, China Resources Land Ltd. 1109, -6.29% CRBJF, +0.62% and China Overseas Land & Investment Ltd. 0688, -4.63% CAOVF, -4.36% — both Hang Seng constituents — sagged more than 4% each.
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Need…more…stimulus…[MR SHANGHAI MARKET GASPING FOR AIR...]
Tom Saler
Historical Perspectives
Could Shanghai Tower be an economic bellwether?
Updated July 4, 2015
When the Singer Sewing Machine Co. announced plans to build the world’s first skyscraper in February 1906, the United States was in the final stages of an economic expansion that was about to go bust in the financial panic of 1907.
Two decades later, the industrialist Walter P. Chrysler sought to do the Singer scraper 400 feet better. But by the time the Chrysler Building opened its posh doors at 405 Lexington Ave. in New York City, the recession that would turn into the Great Depression already had begun.
New York’s Empire State Building hit the drawing boards at the absolute peak of the 1920s speculative frenzy. Empire State opened in 1931 and quickly earned the dubious moniker, the Empty State Building.
Plans for New York’s Twin Towers were announced in the 1960s at the height of the postwar economic boom, though the World Trade Center (yes, that one) didn’t open its doors until the American economy was on the precipice of a severe recession in April 1973.
Similar late-cycle projects have occurred overseas, most notably the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, which debuted during the Asian financial crisis in 1998. At 1,483 feet, Petronas is 32 feet taller than the world’s previous tallest building, the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower in Chicago, which opened during the depths of the 1973-’75 recession.
Not again…
So it is with a degree of trepidation that investors might note this summer’s opening of the Shanghai Tower, a 121-story reflection of China’s economic vitality — or vanity. Though Shanghai Tower will be only the world’s second-tallest building, it nonetheless resides at the epicenter of arguably the world’s most incendiary mix of financial excesses.
Over the last year, the Shanghai Composite Index has climbed 70%, and that’s after a nasty correction last month that dropped the Chinese equity benchmark by 13% in a single week. Valuations are triple and quadruple those in the United States, inflated by a mania for tech stocks among young and inexperienced investors.
Those lofty valuations, in the context of a stubborn growth slowdown, reflect a worrisome decoupling between the real Chinese economy and its financial markets.
Like the runaway bull market in U.S. stocks during the 1920s, China’s latest equity binge is fueled by margin debt. Though the Chinese government recently moved to limit credit extended through traditional intermediaries like brokerages, so-called shadow banks operate in a Wild West environment in which the rules are few and the potential for losses vast.
Until last year, Chinese shadow banks — mostly wealth management firms and trusts — were more interested in financing that country’s red-hot real estate market. But with authorities focused on finessing a property bubble, money began flowing into Chinese stocks, which now look ominously like their American counterparts in the late 1920s.
The question investors need answered is whether a virulent correction in mainland Chinese stocks would send shock waves through global markets as well. Given China’s position as the world’s second-largest economy, deep losses by individual investors there would undermine consumer spending and restrain a needed shift toward equity financing among the country’s overleveraged private sector.
On a reassuring note, a research paper by Rutgers University economics professors Jason Barr, Bruce Mizrach and Kusum Mundra casts doubt on skyscraper height as a reliable “bubble indicator,” citing the widely varying lag times between when the 311 projects they reviewed in the U.S., Canada, China and Hong Kong were announced and when an economic downturn began.
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Gary Hart (former Colorado senator and presidential candidate) on corruption in the US and crony capitalist political dynasties, i.e. Bush & Clinton.
http://www.westword.com/arts/gary-hart-on-political-dynasties-campaign-financing-and-the-republic-of-conscience-6842209
We have a shoo-in for this year’s Darwin Award.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/05/maine-firework-kills-man-head
oh my gosh. Yes. Darwin.
This is the headlining news on the radio tonight:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/06/sports/soccer/womens-world-cup-usa-defeats-japan-to-win-title.html?_r=0
That’s greeeaaatttttt ( in a Lumbergh voice).
I’ve watched a lot of soccer in my lifetime, but have never seen a goal like this one. Amazing!
Shoeshine boy moment:
Cramer warns to NOT buy the dip this time!
Cramer: Danger alert—don’t buy on the market dip
Abigail Stevenson
Monday, 29 Jun 2015 | 6:10 PM ETC
NBC.com
Jim Cramer can see all of the chaos happening around the world right now, and there is just too much investor complacency going on for his taste. In fact, he doesn’t want to buy anything.
And while the “Mad Money” host is a big fan of buying stocks on a dip, what happened in the market on Monday is far from a dip, in his opinion.
“Look, I believe that dips are good buying opportunities, but do you mind if we at least get a dip first? There’s a lot of insanity in this tape, specifically the insane level of complacency that buyers exhibited toward the other markets around the world this very morning,” Cramer said. (Tweet This)
So, what are these signs of complacency that Cramer says have led to insanity in the market?
No. 1 Greece: Most investors actually thought that Greece was really negotiating in good faith. Who the heck gave them that idea? To think that the Greek government would agree to any deal that didn’t wipe out all of its debt is pure insanity to Cramer.
In fact, Cramer is disappointed with the previous compromise put in place. Five years ago, the Greeks should have either defaulted or cut their government size, trimmed pensions and paid more taxes.
The kick-the-can, middle-ground approach has been a ridiculous failure. The largest sign of complacency to Cramer was the fact that people thought that a deal could have been put in place, even though both the Germans and the Greeks clearly stand on separate sides.
No. 2 Market impact: The fact that the U.S. market declined on Monday shows that it cannot withstand Europe being down 4 percent. The big decline shows that there will be an economic impact from Greece to the U.S.
“I know how small Greece is, but I’m surprised that the Germans didn’t have a better handle on the short-term economic impact for Europe,” Cramer said. (Tweet This)
That means that U.S. companies with sales in Europe will take a hit this quarter.
No. 3 The Fed: Cramer’s mind was totally boggled when he saw New York Fed President William Dudley say on Monday that a Fed rate hike for September is on the table. Really? He had to say that on Monday of all days? This news was not that imperative. Congratulations, Bill Dudley, you helped to bring the market down on Monday.
No. 4 World vs. Greece: Cramer is concerned that the world hasn’t realigned while Greece is falling apart. While most people have gotten used to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras scowling at EU leaders, Cramer remembers one time last month when he was all smiles on a visit to Russia.
At that time Tspiras gave a resounding speech trashing the EU and expressing loyalty to Russia. Most people disregarded it because they assume that Russia is bankrupt due to Western sanctions. That is total nonsense to Cramer; it has plenty of cash.
Cramer is concerned that the interactions on Russia’s impact with Venezuela, China and the Greeks have gone completely unnoticed. He thinks the world needs to have this on its radar.
No. 5 Stocks bounce: The “Mad Money” host was most concerned that stocks bounced down so easily on Monday. Most of the companies that he follows have stocks that have been breaking down ever since the dollar stopped going down, so it’s reassuring that the euro is going back up. However, companies in the U.S. cannot afford to have one more big economic decline in Europe.
“I think we need to go lower before this level of complacency is purged. I couldn’t believe how many people on the floor of the exchange told me they were buying the first dip,” Cramer said.
No. 6 Puerto Rico: Did people really think that Puerto Rico wouldn’t matter? There are investors out there who have spent a fortune buying bonds in Puerto Rico, and many hedge funds borrowed money to buy them. That means there is plenty more pain ahead; Cramer always says that it is the margined hedge funds that cause the most pain.
No. 7 The world: The rest of the world is in a state of total chaos, as well! What the heck is going on with China? It had the largest bull market in history, and now investors are being hammered. Even Alibaba is sinking like a stone. Cramer is also concerned with Latin America, Canada and Mexico, too.
It is important to note that this list of warning signs does not mean that the U.S. is headed into another Lehman Brothers situation. That was systematic risk, but this is earnings risk and geopolitical risk.
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Apparently there currently is too much insanity in the markets for even Mad Money Jim to dip his toes in the market!
Houses Depreciate.