The Housing Bubble

I remember driving through Leadville in mid May one year. It was cold, overcast and snowing.

IN THE MIDDLE OF MAY!!!

That’s what you get with elevations over 10 thousand feet.

I follow Facebook Realtor’s business FB page, but Facebook Realtor himself rejected my friend request. He knows I am watching him, and I see him in person every few months at happy hours in Denver

Nobody wants to buy gold. The price is too low.

FoxNewsHate pimps the fear with a link titled “ISIS a bigger threat than Al Qaeda, FBI chief says”

William Kristol jingling coins in his pocket, laughing to himself over how easily his “base” of mouth breathers and window lickers are manipulated into supporting his wars, and seconds after the FoxNewsHate camera goes to commercial break, muttering under his breath “stupid f*ing goyim”

I guess we could just stop importing them here under the guise of “refugees”. One can recognize the atrocities of ISIS without advocating going to war with them. Just stop giving them the means to import their soldiers on to our soil. If they can’t bring their fight to us we have no excuse to bring our fight to them.

He won’t have an official escort from the Border Patrol though…

Donald Trump’s planned tour of the Laredo Sector of the Texas -Mexico border has been canceled by the national AFL-CIO-controlled union that represents U.S. Border Patrol agents, the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC). 

The Man with a Plan: Donald Trump’s 5-Part Strategy to Make America Great Again

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/17/the-man-with-a-plan-donald-trumps-5-part-strategy-to-make-america-great-again/

Marla Maples is aging nicely. Mind the Gap!

Give us this day our daily Trump:

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/248910-exclusive-trump-threatens-third-party-run

The Hill dot com also reporting Jon Stewart is “begging” Trump to appear on his final Daily Show on August 6

But the illegals vote or will vote the right way.

There will no media anguish over this, no marches, no #lives matter, no Al, no Jesse and not word from the president.

There is always a fly in the ointment.

Tech
Qualcomm to Cut 15% of Workforce, Weigh Split
Chip maker’s layoffs part of plan aimed at cutting $1.4 billion in costs, appeasing activist
Qualcomm reported a 47% drop in earnings and 14% decrease in revenue.
Photo: Reuters
By Don Clark
Updated July 22, 2015 7:34 p.m. ET

Qualcomm Corp. moved to appease an activist investor and slash costs in response to a nearly 50% drop in quarterly profit.

The San Diego-based chip designer said would cut spending by $1.4 billion and consider restructuring its operations, such as separating its design and patent-licensing businesses. Qualcomm previously has considered splitting into two but always wound up rejecting the idea.

Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf on Wednesday promised to take a fresh look at potential breakup options to reflect recent heightened competition. He told analysts Qualcomm now would examine “any and all ways to maximize shareholder value.”

The cuts include paring 15% of its full-time employees and “significantly” cutting its temporary staff. Qualcomm last year employed about 31,300 full-time and temporary employees, indicating that more than 4,500 workers could be affected.

Qualcomm also plans to cut $300 million from its annual share compensation grants to employees. The staff cuts will result in between $350 million and $450 million in restructuring charges, it said.
…

“Doesn’t compute.”

The chronically unemployed file no jobless claims.

people are not out of the workforce , they are out of the on the books taxpaying workforce, that’s why its almost mandatory we install a national sales tax say 3-5% to make sure everyone pays something.

It does compute - there is no one left in the workforce to claim benefits. What was that song a while back nothing times nothing is nothing or something like that?

If McCain was president you would not have a problem with these facts–think about it.

That is a Breitbart link, and Breitbart are not real journalists (Andrew Breitbart was murdered under direct orders from King Obama, and Sharyl Attkisson is next!) and if the New York Times ignores it, then MikeyMite and the rest of the HBB’s resident Social Justice Warriors™ should ignore it too…

2banana’s rule on politics.

Conservatives and more than happy to live under the laws and taxes they want for everyone else.

Liberals and democrats expect to exempted from the laws and taxes they want for everyone else.

———

One state that should be shopping around for a new attorney general is Pennsylvania. Attorney General Kathleen Kane seems to treat the office as a combination PR agency and trial lawyer slush fund.

Trial lawyers and their cohorts in the attorney general offices are going after legitimate businesses for political gain. Linda Singer persuaded Kane to bring a case against a Pennsylvania-based nursing home chain. The initial evidence in bringing the case forward was based on what the New York Times says is “a software program, that estimated resident harm based on the ratio between nurse’s aides and residents.”

Kane is mentioned in the New York Times story about courtroom cronyism and is currently under investigation for leaking classified grand jury information to the press, and then lying about doing so. Indictment charges could include perjury, false swearing, and obstruction of justice. If there’s a minimum requirement for a state’s highest legal advisor and chief law enforcement officer, it should at least be “Not a liar.”

Sorry, not yet.

“There is currently no stock market right in China, there is government mandated price level in stocks. While that may stabilize the price level in stocks, as the only real market participant Beijing got its wish but now needs to figure out how to extricate itself from a mess of its own making, and keep the market buoyant. Any hint of public selling will incur enormous losses for Beijing and the state owned banks that bailed out the market. Beijing needs to sell off its purchases but right now it’s the only player in the market forcing it to negotiate with itself.”

http://www.chinastocks.net/beijing-stabilized-the-stock-market-now-what/

What does China’s stock market crash tell us?
22 July 2015
From the section Business

It was up 150% until June. Then it fell by nearly a third. Then it had the strongest two-day rise since the 2008 global crisis.

China’s rollercoaster stock market has provoked panic in recent weeks: panic on the part of small investors, who looked on in horror as previous gains were wiped out, and panic - some would argue - on the part of the Chinese government, which did everything it could to stop the slide.

Lending rules were relaxed, making it easier for people to borrow money for investment. Investors holding stakes of more than 5% in companies were banned from selling shares in the next six months, and about 1,300 firms halted trading in their stocks to prevent the value of their businesses falling further.

Four expert witnesses analyse what these dramatic events reveal about China itself for the BBC World Service Inquiry programme.
…

From my other post:

““The Chinese authorities have tried to counter the slowdown by talking up an irresponsible stock market boom in the state-controlled media. This has been a fiasco of the first order.”

“Half the shares traded in Shanghai and Shenzhen were suspended. New floats were halted. Some 300 corporate bosses were strong-armed into buying back their own shares. Police state tactics were used hunt down short sellers. We know from a vivid account in Caixin magazine that China’s top brokers were shut in a room and ordered to hand over money for an orchestrated buying blitz. A target of 4,500 was set for the Shanghai Composite by Communist Party officials. ”

And if you don’t report 7% growth in your province they break your thumbs.

Stock Downturn Hits Chinese Investors in the Heart, Not Just the Wallet
点击查看本文中文版 Read in Chinese
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ
JULY 22, 2015
Photo
Stock investors playing cards at a brokerage house in Beijing.
Credit Gilles Sabrie for The New York Times

HONG KONG — Farmers turned village community centers into makeshift trading floors. Young workers quit low-paying jobs to play the market full time. Retirees started investment clubs, counseling one another on stock picks.

China fell under the spell of the stock market over the last year, as millions of factory owners, university students, wheat growers and other investors jumped at a chance to strike it rich.

“When we eat breakfast, we think of the stock market. When we sleep, we see flashing red and green screens,” said Elizabeth Xu, 37, a customer service supervisor at an electronics company in Shanghai, who invested $2,500 last fall. “This is our new sport.”

But with the market stumbling in recent weeks, investors are now engaged in a national game where the risks are increasingly outweighing the rewards.

That reality has prompted reflection among some traders, and it has touched off a wider debate about wealth in a society caught between the proud egalitarianism of its socialist past and the lure of capitalist riches. Some Chinese citizens have taken to social media to question the amount of attention devoted to the market and to criticize what they describe as an unhealthy materialist tendency in society.

“The stock market is all about filling your pockets,” said Zhou Lian, 32, a visual artist in Beijing who wrote a critical post on WeChat, a popular mobile messaging application. “Is that what we want to stand for?”

A recent opinion article in China Daily, a state-run newspaper, warned, “It is dangerous to play with greed.”

Cheered on by relatives, co-workers and rapturous headlines in the state-run news media, ordinary investors in China helped stoke a remarkable rally over the last year. With easy access to loans for trading, individual investors opened more than 38 million stock accounts in the second quarter, compared with nine million in all of 2014.

The lure of the stock market reflects broader cultural influences. Many people in China prize financial prudence, and the savings rate is among the highest in the world. But many Chinese also believe passionately in the power of luck, and China has a long history of high-stakes betting.

Gambling is widespread and often considered a social activity; mah-jongg games are common on street corners, and the lottery is a popular pursuit.

The intense interest in the stock market, in some ways, grew out of those habits. Many investors entered the market with lofty dreams — finally, they would have the money for an exotic vacation, an engagement ring or a new home.

Amateur traders turned to numerology, long a fixture of Chinese culture, to pick the best investments. Some purchased prayer beads made especially for investors, hoping to conjure good luck.

In Shaanxi Province in northern China, rural workers wishing for an early retirement began investing after seeing chatter on social media sites about the “mad cow market,” as it is sometimes called. They were encouraged by reports this spring in The People’s Daily, the flagship paper of the Communist Party, which trumpeted the seemingly never-ending bull market.

In Nanliu, a small town in Shaanxi, workers set up computers so that they could track stock purchases. “Everyone wants a chance to improve their lives, even if they only get a little piece of meat,” said Zhang Li, a longtime resident who invested several hundred dollars.

But greed has long been viewed as a particularly dangerous quality in Chinese culture.

The ancient scholar Xunzi, in describing the bad nature of human beings, cited a love of profit as his first piece of evidence, noting its ability to cause chaos and a lack of cooperation. Mencius, another ancient Chinese philosopher, warned against acquiring showy material possessions.

The early Confucian view, said David Wong, professor of philosophy at Duke University, was that “income, wealth, material possessions and social prestige are necessary only up to the point where they enable one to pursue goods that are of much greater value.”

“The human tendency to lose focus on that priority,” Mr. Wong said, “is perhaps the primary cause of our loss of connection to and care for each other.”

The financial pain for Chinese households has not been pervasive, since stocks are still not broadly held by families. The major indexes, too, have recovered somewhat in recent days, after the government aggressively moved to prop up stocks.

But the recent volatility has unsettled investors as they grapple with not only the financial toll but also a loss of the day-to-day emotional rush that underpinned the trading culture.

In some areas, retirees have made a habit of watching the market’s movements together, finding solace in collective cursing and celebration. At a brokerage house in downtown Beijing last week, retirees gathered before large stock boards, playing cards and assessing how much money they had lost in recent weeks.

One man said he was down about $10,000. “We’ve all lost money,” he said, growing irritated. “Everybody’s pretty much the same.”

At another brokerage house, a 70-year-old man who gave only his surname, Wei, said he had lost about $30,000.

“My wife blamed me, but is it of any use?” he said. “This is money we could have left to our son. But what else can I do? The damage is done.”

Mr. Wei had been investing in the market since 2008 but said he was devastated by the recent losses.

“I have lots of anger inside me,” he added. “It’s just never easy for us ordinary people to make money.”

Despite the volatility, Lu Wenjie, an analyst at UBS in China, said that many investors were likely to stay in the market.

“They are kind of stuck,” he said. “They are reluctant to record losses, and some of them will even try to add money in the coming weeks and bet on a rally.”

The turbulence has rattled some traders, especially those unaccustomed to the ups and downs of the market. In China, some doctors have taken to calling it stock market anxiety syndrome.

Academics have warned about the psychological effects of fluctuations in share prices. A study by Taiwanese researchers last year found that falling stock prices correlated with increased hospitalizations for mental health disorders. When a stock index fell for five consecutive days, for instance, hospitalizations increased by 1.6 percent.

Yan Zhengwei, a Shanghai psychologist, said he had recently seen several patients who told him they were depressed by the market, including a client who lost more than $1.6 million.

“They say they are fine, but they’re just saying it,” Mr. Yan said. “It’s a lot of money, after all.”

But Mr. Yan said there was a silver lining. Counseling sessions for couples had recently turned remarkably civil, he said, as husbands and wives found a common enemy in the market.

“When a major blow came, they actually stopped blaming each other and both blamed the market,” he said. “It’s like they had both become victims.”

Xue Wei, chief psychologist at Linzi Counseling Center in Shanghai, said the popularity of the stock market reflected a deeper insecurity in society. He said that Chinese people were accustomed to having a fixed social status under the Communist system. Now, he said, many people are looking to the stock market to define their worth.

“They are very insecure inside,” he said. “They think if they can achieve financial stability in a short period of time, they will feel more secure.”

For some investors, the round-the-clock trading has placed a strain on relationships.

At the height of the downturn this month, Wang Xiaoming, a 23-year-old bank attendant, had a dilemma: celebrate his girlfriend’s birthday or try to salvage his portfolio? Mr. Wang, who had invested $2,000, about a fifth of his savings, chose the portfolio. His girlfriend quickly scolded him for “only having numbers on my mind,” he said. After that, he promised to spend less time checking stock market chat forums. (He currently belongs to six.)

“It’s hard to find the right balance,” Mr. Wang said.
…

Opinion
The plunging stock market: China’s real-time stress test
Posted on July 22, 2015 11:23:00 PM
By Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng

THE PLUNGE in China’s stock markets, which has sent shock waves reverberating around the world, has amounted to a real-time stress test for the country. The bears, who have been predicting the Chinese economy’s downfall, are now consumed with schadenfreude. The bulls hold that, no matter how violent the stock-market gyrations may be, China’s economic success story remains intact. But, at this point, no outcome is certain.
…

Chinese stock market crashes, but San Gabriel Valley doesn’t burn
Bus driver Ramoncito Batac helps load passengers’ luggage for a trip to Yellowstone National Park and Mt. Rushmore from America Asia Travel Center in Monterey Park. (Christina House / For The Times)
By Frank Shyong contact the reporter

To Jonathan Ming Ren Liu, assistant president of America Asia Travel Center, the recent Chinese stock market crash is just a distant story on his television.

On a recent weekday morning, five buses roar to life behind the travel agency’s Monterey Park office as more than 200 Chinese tourists line up to board, bound for places including Disneyland, Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. The next day, the agency is expecting more than 600 riders.

In the weeks after China’s main stock index lost $3 trillion — nearly a third of its value — investors around the world braced for an economic earthquake.

In the San Gabriel Valley, where an influx of Chinese immigrants and money has spurred a surge in cash-offer real estate sales and an explosion of sprawling multistory strip malls covered with Chinese language signs, the web of connections to China is more extensive and integral than anywhere else in the country.

The Chinese stock market’s relative isolation and a small recovery sparked by drastic Chinese government intervention have kept immediate global damage to a minimum, and so far the main effect on Liu’s business, he said, has been enlivened office gossip.

But concerns about the Chinese economy’s long-term stability have left some economists and investment gurus jittery.

The San Gabriel Valley’s booming tourist business is where market reverberations pose the most likely short-term threat, experts say.

Chinese visits to Los Angeles County exploded in the last few years, said Sheena Yu, director of China Services for the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board. The county saw 686,000 tourists from China in 2014, a 20% increase from 2013. Another record high is expected this year.

Chinese tourism and the investment it encourages have driven up housing prices and spurred development even during the recent recession. The San Gabriel Valley’s tourism and hospitality sector added nearly 4,000 jobs last year, according to the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. More than a dozen hotels are under construction or proposed in Chinese enclaves across the region.
Travelers board a bus at America Asia Travel Center in Monterey Park. Tourism is still going strong in the San Gabriel Valley despite the Chinese stock market crash.

Recent regional tourism surveys don’t show any signs of a slowdown yet, in part, because vacations are booked months in advance, Yu said.

But China’s stock losses fell primarily on small, middle-class investors, who form a large proportion of the tourism market, and the airline industry is watching closely, said Zhihang Chi, vice president and general manager of Air China’s North America division.

“We’re not really sure what will happen, but we know for sure it’s not a good thing,” Chi said. “With such a big loss of wealth, travel tends to be the first thing cut.”
…

Mirror Mirror
China’s looming stock market disaster is part 1929 America, part 1989 Japan
Wall Street in trading panic - Crowds stand on the top of the Sub Treasury Building across the street from the New York Stock Exchange when collapse of the market was reported due to heavy trading, Oct. 24, 1929.
(AP-Photo)
Crowds gather across the street from the New York Stock Exchange as the market crashed on October 24, 1929.
(AP-Photo)
Written by Gwynn Guilford
Obsession
China’s Transition
July 22, 2015

China’s epic stock market boom—and impending bust—is like déjà vu all over again. The stock rally that began last year bears a striking resemblance to the credit-fueled American stock bonanza of the late 1920s. It also, however, has much in common with the Japanese market frenzy in the twilight of the 1980s. The uncanny similarities of both episodes also hint at what might await China when its market finally returns to reality.

Wall Street, 1929

Industry was pumping. Construction was booming. Dizzying leaps in technology were boosting living standards and giving rise to vibrant consumerism. That’s what set the scene to the epic American bull market of the late 1920s. But that description fits China of the last decade just as well. Here are some of the similarities between what’s happening now in China and the US in the lead-up to the epic Wall Street crash:
…

Marketwatch dot com
Emerging Markets Report
The true cost of China’s multibillion-dollar market intervention
By Sue Chang
Published: July 23, 2015 5:16 p.m. ET
Beijing estimated to have spent 10% of GDP to support market

As the Shanghai Composite Index dove and panic sales spread, the Chinese government spent billions of dollars to soothe battered sentiment and shore up the stock market. But China may eventually end up paying a much higher price from delayed reforms and a distorted stock market, analysts say.

For now, the throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks strategy appears to be working.

The Shanghai Composite (SHCOMP, +0.57%) rallied 2.4% on Thursday to close up for a sixth session, a stark contrast to its roller coaster ride earlier this month.

Between the end of June and early July, the Chinese government announced at least 40 measures to prop up the market, including an interest-rate cut by the central bank and establishing a stabilization fund to outright buy stocks.

All together, Chinese authorities are estimated to have mobilized as much as 5 trillion yuan, almost 10% of the gross domestic product, to halt panic sales, Reuters reported.

But such drastic tactics, while effective in the short term, could discourage foreign investors’ participation in the stock market and challenge China’s aspirations of becoming a global financial power.

“We know that China wants to open its capital markets to foreigners, and that will require an improvement in standards.” said Nigel Green, chief executive of deVere Group.

Chris Konstantinos, director of international portfolio management at RiverFront Investment Group, also noted that the Chinese government’s “carte blanche” on market action could offend “democratic societies’ sensibilities.”

“I don’t believe it bodes well for China’s recent overtures toward greater transparency and the prospects for attracting a more global shareholder base for Chinese shares,” he said.

Earlier this week, Bridgewater Associates LP, the world’s largest hedge fund, warned its investors that China’s market turmoil will have broad repercussions, a dramatic reversal from its usual bullish stance on the country, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Bridgewater joins a growing list of hedge-fund mangers who have turned more bearish on China in recent weeks, including Elliott Management Corp.’s Paul Singer and Pershing Square Capital Management LP’s Bill Ackman.

“The rise and fall of the market over the past year may well have convinced many investors that the market is simply not a reliable investment vehicle,” said analyst Michael Spencer at Deutsche Bank in a report. “Quite clearly, the reform objective of allowing the market to play a decisive role in allocating capital has suffered a setback.”

The state-sponsored buying of stocks is also creating an overhang, which the government will eventually have to tackle.

“Hong Kong resolved it by putting the shares they bought into a fund, restructured it to replicate the index and sold it gradually as the Tracker Fund. China could do the same. But it’ll depress the market for some time,” he said.

With the outlook on the market so uncertain, only contrarian investors with a high tolerance for risk should consider buying into Chinese stocks and, even then, limit their exposure to H-shares, according to Konstantinos.

H-shares are stocks of mainland Chinese companies trading on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
…

Lol, the geldings are neighing and whinnying and snorting in their corral.

I do like that there is a split of opinion on this blog about whether Trump helps or hurts Hillary. Those currently still asleep til noon sometimes say he is helping her, but they also show they are scared, which doesn’t really make sense (except that he’s bad for any establishment crony).

McConnell and Boehner have almost irrevocably tarnished the brand since the ‘14 election. Trump may be the only one who can revive it at this point.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11756858/Capital-exodus-from-China-reaches-800bn-as-crisis-deepens.html

So where is the money going????

Not to US Treasuries (the traditional “safe” haven) - the Chinese are dumping those too.

Caixin China PMI drops sharply, surprising markets
Leslie Shaffer
24 Mins Ago
CNBC.com
A worker stands on piles of industrial products before exporting, at a port of Lianyungang, China, July 13, 2015.
China Daily | Reuters

The preliminary China Caixin purchasing managers index (PMI) surprised markets by dropping to a 15-month low in July, with analysts pinning the hit on the recent stock market crash and weak export demand.

The index, released Friday, fell to 48.2, coming in well below the 49.7 forecast from a Reuters poll and the 50-mark separating growth from contraction.

“The PMI came as a big surprise for the market, which was expecting an increase,” Dariusz Kowalczyk, senior economist at Credit Agricole private bank, said. “I believe the reading reflects the negative impact of the stock market crash, the weaker outlook for consumption and the worsening of availability of funding for investment,” he said, noting that initial public offerings (IPOs) were suspended in the wake of stock market turmoil.
…

How many are illegal?

LOLZ

8 people to a house.

My sister experienced that in the 1980s in Santa Barbara. Houses turned into rentals for multiple unrelated people. She could not otherwise afford living there.

So far in South Orange County this is not happening.

“Not spoken in this article: NO ONE who works wants to live under long term democrat controlled cities with their public union goons, insane taxes, high crime rates and failing schools.”

Exactly, so why did you even bother posting the article?

“So what’s going on here? Michael Stoll, a professor of public policy and urban planning at the University of California Los Angeles, has an idea. Soaring home prices are pushing local residents out and scaring away potential new ones from other parts of the country, he said.”

So the article is actually saying that people do want to live in these cities, they just can’t afford it. Why don’t you post an article about people rushing to live in red states where their kids can be taught about creationism and licking the boots of billionaires?

“Social Security disability benefits…”

…the latest long-term unemployment program.

The average monthly benefit for disabled workers and their families is $1,017. The typical beneficiary would receive $193 less per month.

That’s a princely sum. I don’t think you could pay the rent in most metros with that.

Stupid is as stupid does.

and the low information voters think white people want them back into slavery….how utterly clueless

So what you are saying is….If you are white, then Mr. Obama has been a great president.

Why is Mr. Market so crotchety today on basically no news?

If you like your health insurance - you can keep your health insurance

And the yutes who call me from the UCSB alumni association wonder why I have NO interest in continuing my membership or providing donations to the U of C. Took one of ‘em to task a while back when I posed a simple question…..
Question: Do you have an idea of how much Big Sis’s predecessor provided to political campaigns?
Answer - no.
Question: Are you aware the U of C staff is providing funds to national political campaigns?
Answer - no.
My response - Wake the F… up - U of C staff and employees (some of whom are alumni) have contributed in several races with well over 1 mil to Dem Nat. Committee / Otrauma etc and a fraction of that to the opposition. In other words your chancellor is using YOUR funds through her salary to finance political campaigns - Until that changes I will not send one thin dime more to the U of C. Have a NICE day…goodbye!!!

https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000406&cycle=A

and then this little ditty - As an INSTITUTION it is not allowed but via salaries paid to professors, admins, and even the janitors - University funds go to predominantly Dem candidates.

UC CONTRIBUTIONS TO POLITICAL CANDIDATES
The University of California does not make any financial contributions to presidential campaigns or to candidates for local, state or federal office.
As a non-profit institution of public higher education, UC does not have a Political Action Committee (PAC), and as a matter of law and policy does not make financial contributions. However, individuals who are employed by the university are permitted by law to make
campaign contributions using their own personal funds. They may contribute individually to campaigns of their choosing. The university does not encourage its employees to make political contributions and has no knowledge of individual political contributions.
The Federal Election Commission (FEC), which oversees campaign finance and reporting laws at the federal level, requires candidates for federal office to collect and report data about contributors including the name, address, employer, and contribution amount.
In reports filed by an individual campaign with the FEC, the University of California may appear in the field for employer. This is because an employee may have contributed independently, not the university itself. The FEC’s website is http://www.fec.gov/.
Sometimes organizations that track campaign contributions, such as http://opensecrets.org, take the official data provided by the FEC about campaign contributions and report by demographic breakdown, such as by industry or employer. This type of data tracking and
bundling can be misleading because it implies that the company or entity supports the candidate in question and provided the funds. In fact, the listing merely means that a particular group of contributors happens to work for the listed entity. (My comment to this last sentence - REALLY? - The propaganda is just laughable).

Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-23 06:45:16

Napolitano at immigration hearing: US borders have ‘never been stronger’
thehill.com/homenews/senate/282845-napolitano-says-us-borders-have-never-been-stronger

It is important to distinguish between growth of consumption dropping and consumption dropping.

The miniscule growth in electricity production indicates China is not growing significantly.

I suspect that with all the wind farms they have been building “production” might increase even while consumption is going down.

The top dog in China told us not to believe GDP numbers, rather to look at electricity consumption.

how do you like the central bankers premium in your asset prices?

Being a Silver spooned rich inheritor crony snake oil selling Boomer, Trump would normally be someone I loathe, yet I don’t. This is how far it has come, that I would embrace that just for someone who tends to call it like it is against the other oligarchs and plutocrats. Who knows, maybe he is just a planned safety valve to let out some of the steam and anger that is boiling out there.

A Trump third party candidacy could be entertaining, like Ross Perot was back in ‘92. Of course, what’s needed is someone at SNL to work on a good impersonation with good material. If they have someone who just puts on a wig and yells at the camera, that won’t be too funny.

I know someone who could do it

Rachel Dolezal works as black hair stylist after losing job as African studies professor amid racial identity controversy

BY Meg Wagner
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Published: Monday, July 20, 2015, 10:40 AM

Rachel Dolezal is braiding hair to make ends meet after her racial identity controversy put her in the crosshairs.

The ex-NAACP leader — who resigned as the president of the Spokane chapter after her parents revealed she is white — lost her job as an African studies professor amid the June controversy. Eastern Washington University, where Dolezal once taught classes on the politics of black hair, did not renew the beloved professor’s contract this year, she told Vanity Fair.

So in order to provide for her 13-year-old son, she now makes her living braiding and weaving black hair, she said.

The 37-year-old Washington state mom books appointments about three times a week. Dolezal, who dons a rotation of elaborate African American hairstyles, has a passion for black hair from academic and practical standpoints, she said.

MSNBC Hosts Absolutely Shocked by Clinton’s ‘Stunning’ Drop in New Poll (It’s Bad)

Leave it to the Oligopoly’s out-of-touch media to completely miss the disenchantment brewing in flyover country with the kleptocracy’s Annointed Ones.

The article maked no mention of race so he must be white.

No one cares.

Sigh. I guess the Hillary boogeyman meme isn’t working. So now it’s “1% crony capitalist” talking point. Yawn. What else ya got?

Trumps plan works if you cut 90% of welfare. Let the tax savings be your welfare. I kinda like it as 80% of the welfare spending goes to the administrators.
Defense spending will need to be cut 30% too.

Flat rates may need to be 3, 8, 12, 18 to pay the bills.

Yep. If we would cut one inefficient government program by even 1% we would then into Somalia overnight.

A lesson to be learned by all

Hey GS - did you see that the longest running Pizza Hut in the nation that is in your neck of the woods is closing?

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/22/longest-running-pizza-hut-closing-this-weekend-in-/

Here little Miss Lindsey Graham gets her panties in a twist over Alpha Don:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/248926-graham-trump-at-the-beginning-of-the-end

The article comments are comedy gold

“I can support Trump exclusively based on who hates him”

+1

One of the few people who seems to have understood it is Pat Buchanan, oddly enough.

No press conference for our great mesdiah?

That could get messy.

Better to go on lefty comedy show to explain the facts.

Don’t worry - still plenty of money for illegals

FAA can’t/won’t/doesn’t have the budget to verify aircraft maintenance done on US aircraft overseas is done correctly.

I have to say, this makes me very nervous about getting on a jet.

Where does British Airways do their maintenance? Zimbabwe?

Commodities Collapsed Just Before The Last Stock Market Crash – So Guess What Is Happening Right Now?
On Wednesday, commodities got absolutely pummeled, and at this point the Bloomberg Commodity Index is down a whopping 26 percent over the past twelve months
by Michael Snyder | Economic Collapse | July 23, 2015

If we were going to see a stock market crash in the United States in the fall of 2015 (to use a hypothetical example), we would expect to see commodity prices begin to crash a few months ahead of time. This is precisely what happened just before the great financial crisis of 2008, and we are watching the exact same thing happen again right now. On Wednesday, commodities got absolutely pummeled, and at this point the Bloomberg Commodity Index is down a whopping 26 percent over the past twelve months. When global economic activity slows down, demand for raw materials sinks and prices drop. So important global commodities such as copper, iron ore, aluminum, zinc, nickel, lead, tin and lumber are all considered to be key “leading indicators” that can tell us a lot about where things are heading next. And what they are telling us right now is that we are rapidly approaching a global economic meltdown.

If the global economy was actually healthy and expanding, the demand for commodities would be increasing and that would tend to drive prices up. But instead, prices continue to go down.

The Bloomberg Commodity Index just hit a brand new 13-year low. That means that global commodity prices are already lower than they were during the worst moments of the last financial crisis…

The commodities rout that’s pushed prices to a 13-year lowpulled some of the biggest mining and energy companies below levels seen during the financial crisis.

…

Gold rout could turn into stampede out of commodity investment
World’s largest mining companies are running out of options as commodities slump tipped to deepen
During the boom years of the commodities super-cycle, gold topped out at more than $1,900 per ounce
By Andrew Critchlow, Commodities editor
5:54PM BST 23 Jul 2015

It all started with a bullion sell-off on the Shanghai Gold Exchange, when 4.7 tonnes of the precious metal was unceremoniously dumped on to the market. The trade sent gold tumbling 4.3pc to less than $1,100 per ounce and played to fears that China’s demand for all commodities, precious or otherwise, was imploding.

During the boom years of the commodities super-cycle, when iron ore traded at $180 per tonne, gold topped out at more than $1,900 per ounce and oil looked cheap at $100 per barrel, no bet on resources was too risky to take. China’s demand for raw materials, energy and food was expected to drive growth in the entire commodities sector uninterrupted for at least the next 25 years.

However, those days are over; and despite glimmers of hope that the current slowdown in Chinese economic growth may be short-lived, the crash in resource-based asset prices has turned from an orderly exit into a stampede. This sense of nervous panic is partly why gold prices tumbled so fast on Monday, only for them to recover their losses in the following days.

The sense of foreboding hanging over resources was made worse by the big global mining giants, which are running out of options if they want to maintain their commitment to progressive dividends while boosting production against the backdrop of a falling market. In valuation terms, mining companies trading on the FTSE are now back where they started just before the onset of the global financial crisis.
…

I wonder if David Stockman is aware of all of the stuff that’s put up on his site.

Buy the f*cken dip!

nobody can find a job to be included in the statistics.

labor force participation rate shows about 100 million people not in the workforce.

Just buy some stocks and your life will turnaround.

“col·lu·sion” easier done than said.

FWIW, in my neck of the woods we’re about $1 below the peak prices. Still, it’s interesting that while oil is about the same price as last fall, gasoline prices here are almost a $1 above the low (which was $1.70)

U must be living in the wrong state (CA, that is…)

A country governed by those we elected gits exactly what it deserves. It’s like they can’t see the train wreck ahead.

Oh well, time to head downstairs for slam poetry night.

S.Korea shares extend losses, won weaker after China PMI data
By Yeawon Choi
SEOUL, July 24

Seoul shares extended losses to a
near two-week low by midday on Friday on concerns South Korea’s
exports to the largest export market may decline following
lukewarm factory activity data from China.

The Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) was
down 1.1 percent at 2,042.95 as of 0238 GMT after falling to as
low as 2,040.30, the lowest since July 13. Losers led gainers by
3.1 to 1.

“Investors were focused on the data as local industries such
as chemical, steel, shipbuilding and cosmetics have large
exposure to China,” said Kang Hyun-gie, a stock analyst at
Dongbu Securities.
…

Business
July 23, 2015
Asia stocks down as China manufacturing weakens

Asian stock markets were rattled Friday by cautious earnings outlooks from U.S. companies and a further deterioration in Chinese manufacturing.

KEEPING SCORE: Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.7 percent at 20,545.98 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.9 percent to 25,178.20. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 1 percent to 2,045.27. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.7 percent to 5,553.70. Southeast Asian markets were lower but China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent to 4,152.29.

CHINA WEAKNESS: China’s manufacturing slumped to a 15-month low in July in a fresh sign of deterioration in the world’s second biggest economy. A manufacturing index based on a survey of factory purchasing managers fell to 48.2 this month from 49.4 in June. It uses a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 indicate expansion. Employment in China’s giant manufacturing industry, which employs tens of millions of people, continued to shrink.
…

Markets | Fri Jul 24, 2015 2:11am EDT
Related: China
China factories falter, commodities take the hit
SYDNEY | By Wayne Cole
An employee works on a final assembly line for CRH380B, a high speed train model, at China CNR’s Tangshan Railway Vehicle’s factory in Tangshan, Hebei province, February 11, 2015.
REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Activity in China’s factory sector seemingly contracted at the fastest pace in 15 months in July, a preliminary private survey showed on Friday in a blow undercutting recent signs of stabilization in the struggling economy.

The news came as Beijing announced it would allow its yuan currency to fluctuate more widely within its trading band as a way to support the trade sector.

Fears of faltering demand in the world’s largest commodity buyer piled further pressure on resource prices, sending gold to a five-year low and copper to a six-year trough.

It also added to the woes of emerging market nations already struggling with the risk of a rise in U.S. interest rates later this year.

The flash Caixin/Markit China Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 48.2, the lowest reading since April last year and the fifth straight month under 50, the level which the survey-makers say separates contraction from expansion.
…

CAW! CAW!!!!

Australian dollar hits fresh six-year low as Chinese factories continue to falter
Chinese manufacturing was sluggish for the fifth month running, a new survey shows, while the strengthening greenback sends the Aussie below US73c
New Chinese-made General Motors cars at a parking lot in Shenyang, Liaoning province. despite the slowing economy, GM has reported strong sales in China.
Photograph: Sheng Li/Reuters
Martin Farrer and agencies
Thursday 23 July 2015 23.30 EDT
Last modified on Friday 24 July 2015 02.44 EDT

The Australian dollar fell to a fresh six-year low and stocks across Asia dropped sharply after more signs of a slowdown in the Chinese economy.

The Aussie dipped below US73c for the first time since May 2009 on news that Chinese manufacturing activity slowed by more than expected, while good US jobs data bolstered bets that the Federal Reserve is on track to hike interest rates later this year.

The flash Caixin/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) dropped to 48.2, below economists’ estimate for a reading of 49.7 and the lowest reading since April last year. It was the fifth straight month below 50, the level which separates contraction from expansion, and the lowest reading since April 2014.

In early afternoon trade, the dollar was buying US72.86c having fallen as low as US72.70c.
…