Bits Bucket for July 28, 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.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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All war, all the time
P.S. no “smaller government” or “lower taxes” happening there
This is it right here:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/07/27/iran-deal-worth-more-than-all-u-s-aid-to-israel-since-1948
Which is unfortunate, because Breitbart gets it on many other topics
Jeb and Hillary will bring you the bloodbath you deserve, have at it!
FoxNewsHate wets the bed on Huckabee:
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2015/07/27/with-holocaust-comment-huckabee-has-gone-too-far.html
but, they said….
Our economy collapses without the military industrial complex… the original ‘too big to fail.’
Instead of engaging in the rich American tradition of a loud, raucous, messy, free speech free-for-all, we have begun to spend a disturbing amount of our speech just flagging the speech of others. The object is no longer to argue one’s own side of any issue passionately, but to argue that the other side should not argue. What used to feel like a national experiment (and source of national pride) in joyously pushing limits now feels like an exercise in imposing new limits. That’s why we call it the End of Discussion, because ultimately, that’s what it is designed to do. And far too often, it works.
“End of Discussion” - Mary Catherine Ham and Guy Benson, 2015
I remember a discussion with my Slovak cousins while Slovakia was still communist.
“We have free speech here. As long as your speech agrees with the party - you can say anything you want.”
The authors discuss their book on C-SPAN:
http://www.c-span.org/video/?326842-1/mary-katherine-ham-guy-benson-end-discussion
People tut tutting about what’s PC or not are only a problem if care what they think.
All these people throwing around the SJW thing (what the hell does that mean anyway), need to sack up and ignore these kooks.
How many SJWs does it take to change a lightbulb?
None, they can’t change anything.
If you scroll past the warmist warming and neocon wars on the Drudge Report you will find this, from Moonie rag the Washington Times:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/jul/27/obama-pushing-for-largest-gun-grab-in-american-his/?cache
And now back to your regularly scheduled real journalists
by James Tracy
June 4, 2015
In this brief video excerpt from Wolfgang Halbig’s most recent FOI hearing on June 3, 2015 in Danbury, Newtown First Selectman Patricia Llodra states that the “Everyone Must Check In” sign prominently displayed outside the Sandy Hook Elementary School grounds on December 14, 2012 and thereafter was placed there by the Department of Homeland Security.
“There’s a flashing sign that says, ‘Everyone must check in,’ but the town didn’t put it there. Who do you think put it there?” Halbig’s attorney L. Kay Wilson asked. “I think Homeland Security put it there,” Llodra responded.
memoryholeblog.com/…/06/04/dhs-set-up-everyone-must-check-in-sign-newtowns-llodra/ - 407k -
Sandy Hook was an inside job by DHS under direct order from King Obama and paid for by Michael Bloomberg
P.S. I love the smell of a burning Reichstag in the morning
Thugs, murderers and muslims love “gun free zones”
Comment by phony scandals
2015-07-28 04:29:05
June 4, 2015
DHS Set Up “Everyone Must Check In” Sign – Newtown’s Llodra
memoryholeblog.com/2015/06/04/dhs-set-up-everyone-must-check-in-sign-newtowns-llodra/
I have no problem with the mentally incompetent not being able to possess guns. If social security has you on record as receiving disability that is paid to a caretaker because you are incompetent to handle your own affairs and that record is used to sort you out, great.
Lots more sorting out needs to be done. Lots.
sorting out
Let me translate that from SJW to English:
Sorting out = Registration, Confiscation, Extermination
So, just to be clear, you think everyone should be able to buy a gun. The insane, people with dementia, people with EPOs taken out against them, children, everyone.
So, just to be clear, you think no one should be able to buy a gun in a democrat strong holds of NYC, Chicago and Washington DC (unless politically connected). The woman about to raped by an ex boyfriend, older people by thugs looking for their next high, people with EPOs taken out against thugs, defending your children from a home invasion, everyone.
Sure, if members of Congress and the administration can buy a gun, why not?
I think everyone should be REQUIRED to have a gun in their house, unless they are a felon or incompetent or otherwise disqualified (drug abuser, alcoholic, etc.). Forced lesson in responsibility.
“unless they are a felon or incompetent or otherwise disqualified”
Bzzz! Sorry, that’s the same as registration. Thanks for playing, SJW!
Americans are not safe until the criminally insane are armed.
Yea, give felons guns.
“I think everyone should be REQUIRED to have a gun in their house,…”
You should consider a move to Spring City, Utah.
LA Times
Rural Utah city encourages gun ownership
Spring City’s council votes in favor of an ordinance that supports all residents in having a firearm. They’re worried about crime and government interference.
February 23, 2013|By Jenny Deam
Officials in Spring City are urging residents to arm themselves. “We have a God-given right and a universal human responsibility to protect ourselves,” said Neil Sorensen, the council member who introduced the ordinance.
SPRING CITY, Utah — From a pretty mountain valley, where the spirit of the pioneers who came 150 years ago lives on, one small town took a stand on guns.
“All in favor?” Spring City Mayor Eldon Barnes asked at a recent City Council meeting.
Four hands shot up quickly at the council table, and the three dozen or so townspeople filling rows of folding chairs looked on approvingly.
In a vote of 4 to 1, Ordinance 2013-04-02 moved closer to becoming law. It encourages every individual in the town of about 1,000 to own a firearm.
The action advanced the measure to a public hearing that will be held Thursday before a final vote takes place. But there is little doubt in these parts that it will pass. By most estimates, 90% of the population is already armed.
…
Yes, I am a SJW, see my posts about it on Reddit under my username petgeo.
The same gun rights legislators who vote to approve guns in schools won’t allow guns in their legislative chambers. The NRA banned working guns from their convention this year. I don’t really have strong opinions about the subject, but if you think guns should be allowed everywhere, you shouldn’t be too pussy to live by the rules you want others to follow.
but if you think guns should be allowed everywhere, you shouldn’t be too pussy to live by the rules you want others to follow
There’s a difference between a legal ban and a private landowner determines to be acceptable on their land.
One can fight for the legal right to have a choice while then choosing not to engage in the positive exercise of that choice.
There’s a difference between a legal ban and a private landowner determines to be acceptable on their land.
Which is why we are going to become the “metal detector” nation, where you will have to walk through a metal detector to access any kind of public space that is publicly or privately owned: stores, schools, churches, stadiums, libraries, rec centers, gyms, amusement parks, large office buildings, etc.
I saw a sign at Dick Sporting Goods requesting that customers check their weapons with customer service upon entering.
Thugs, murderers and muslims love “gun free zones”
So do Crisis actors
The first thing we have to agree is, “Should certain people not be allowed to have guns?”
If we can agree on that, then perhaps there is a path forward. Otherwise, it’s more of the same.
“Guns don’t kill people, but they sure make it easy.”
Wait until a corrupt, incompetent Democrat cabal administers all of America, not just our decaying cities.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/07/26/30-blocks-of-government-incompetence/
There were two accidents on the Schuylkill Expressway last Monday morning. You know what this meant. I had the pleasure of traveling to work on the scenic 30 Blocks of Squalor. The 30 blocks from 69th Street in Upper Darby to 39th Street in West Philly is a tribute to government incompetence, failed government policies, shoddy union labor practices and fiscal mismanagement.
This entire thirty block trek could be completed in 5 to 10 minutes if the hundreds of union government drones in the Philadelphia Streets Department would get off their fat asses and timed the lights. The blocks are identical in distance. They don’t need advanced degrees in physics or calculus to set the lights to go green every ten seconds in order. They were timed in the 1970s and 1980s. Would smoothly flowing traffic be such a bad thing? Do they not care or are they really this incompetent? The first light at 61st Street was red when I arrived. It turned green and before you could touch the gas, it immediately turned yellow and red again. I wondered how long they’d allow this to go on. My guess would be days.
I’ve noted in previous 30 Blocks screeds that Philadelphia put a thin veneer of blacktop on the entirety of Chestnut Street about two years ago. I’ve also detailed the dozens of water main breaks that occur on a regular basis under the streets of Philadelphia, causing tens of millions in property damage. This is how corrupt incompetent government drones run the show. They gloss over the long-term real structural problems with a thin veneer of cheap half assed faux solutions that provide the false appearance of fixing something.
Ignoring the deeply rooted fundamental issues like crumbling hundred year old pipes and dangerous disintegrating Amtrak traintracks, while throwing down some blacktop, painting white bike lanes on streets where no one in their right mind would ride a bike, and installing wheel chair ramps on every corner even though a wheel chair could never navigate the crumbling trash strewn sidewalks, is the height of willful dishonesty and incompetence. Two years after smoothing over the bumps and potholes on Chestnut Street with tons of blacktop, driving the 30 Blocks of Squalor is now like driving in downtown Baghdad after a Sunni/Shia family reunion.
we need to sell some more treasuries and hand out more checks to these folks.
Sorry, that means less for Wall Street.
2banana’s Equation on Cities:
Long term democrat rule + huge free sh*t army + total control by public union goons = bankruptcy, ruin and misery.
When I used to live in Philly I would drive people down Route 1 on the west side of Philly. A very straight road.
Driving south - on the right side (Montgomery County) was propeserous, well maintained lawns, clean, businesses, shopping, restaurants, etc.
On the left side (Philly), boarded up houses, burnt out houses, trash, no shopping, no restaurants, slums, etc.
I would ask people what was magical about that road.
Hint - see equation above.
California’s Bay Area has been run by Democrats for years, has a strong economy that produces a great deal of wealth, has the largest concentration of venture capital startups, has a large concentration of highly successful and very wealthy entrepreneurs and has a very low unemployment rate.
I’m afraid your formula needs more work…
Everybody knows what it is; it’s always the same no matter where you go on Earth.
It is the concentration of ‘groids in an area that determines success or failure.
It is the concentration of ‘groids in an area that determines success or failure.
It’s the concentration of wealth.
If you took the wealth away from everyone and then redistributed it equally among everyone, within a couple of years the rich would be rich again, and the poor would be right back in poverty.
If you took the wealth away from everyone and then redistributed it equally among everyone, within a couple of years the rich would be rich again, and the poor would be right back in poverty.
Many people like to believe in this, for some reason.
If you took the wealth away from everyone and then redistributed it equally among everyone, within a couple of years the rich would be rich again, and the poor would be right back in poverty.
This “argument” is not only false, it makes no sense in the behavior of the super right.
If that were even partly true, the super rich would not fight to the death even minor wealth redistribution.
Now would they?
If that were even partly true, the super rich would not fight to the death even minor wealth redistribution.
of course comrade. why would anyone object to just a little theft? if someone came into your big house on the ocean an just stole one of your tvs, you wouldn’t mind that much, would you? after all, it’s not much compared to all you have. just one of your tvs. i’m sure you wouldn’t object to that. just a little wealth redistribution is all..
and the poor would be right back in poverty.
Probably so—but they’d sure have nicer cars and televisions!!
(A couple of decades back, I used to live in the south. Driving through rural, impoverished areas, I was always amazed at the number of tar-paper shacks (surprisingly still standing)—with rather nice-looking vehicles parked out front.)
Yes, San Francisco is such a bastion of awesomeness and high class individuals that they have to have urine proof walls.
http://kron4.com/2015/07/24/new-urine-resistant-walls-in-san-francisco-shoot-pee-back/
“I’m afraid your formula needs more work…”
Don’t forget that the coastal Democrats also banned winter and made the summer weather really nice, not too hot.
The more basic point is that nearly all big cities have Democratic mayors - the cities are doing and those that aren’t. So there’s no reason to say that Democratic mayors and unions and so forth are the cause of Philadelphia’s problems.
See Berkeley CA, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Sonoma, Laguna Beach, San Fran, Mill Valley….. all doing very well and Liberal.
Yes, well for the very well off.
Liberal cities are basically for the very wealthy and very poor.
But that’s how socialists like it.
I’m sure that cities with significant number if middle income people could be identified - Minneapolis and Seattle, for example.
look up the definition of Socialism. The intent is for everyone to be middle class.
And all of the cities have a middle class as well as super rich smart people and hard working poor. (very few blacks)
You too could have been well off, if you worked hard and wanted too. Your choice, dont blame others.
‘The intent is for everyone to be middle class’
Yeah but the new middle class will be poorer than the previous poor.
that is just a guess. Look at the countries riches…
ps. I am not for Socialism, nor crony capitalism.
Yeah but the new middle class will be poorer than the previous poor.
Well said, Ben! Just look how well it worked in the old Soviet Union; everyone was equal, and got to spend a considerable amount of time standing in equally-long bread-lines.
And sitting on one of the biggest fault lines in the world.
Top headline on the Huffington Post right now is “Boy Scouts Lift Gay Ban”
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7883332
2Banana can finally leave his trailer and help the kids earn badges.
New York Times - What I Learned At The Weed Dispensary
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/opinion/what-i-learned-at-the-weed-dispensary.html
P.S. Sheldon Adelson spent $5,000,000 to defeat the medical marijuana ballot initiative in Florida in 2014, why?
This is an article written by real journalists at the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/07/28/the-terrifying-timeline-of-how-a-colorado-teen-ate-a-pot-cookie-and-then-jumped-to-his-death
What is the ratio of incidents like this occurring as compared to college freshmen dying from alcohol poisoning?
What is the ratio of black killing other blacks as compared to white teen psycho on meds with his picture taken with the Confederate Flag killing blacks.
Never let a crisis go to waste.
Your concern for black children is touching.
Or prescrition meds. Doctors have been creating addicts at an epidemic pace for at least 20 years.
The doctors at the Fed have been creating debt junkies for 35 years.
The medical-pharmacuetical industry makes a lot more money by “treating” sickness than by promoting wellness.
Is it time for the PPT to buy some e mini futures?
This is an article written by real journalists advocating the extermination of white people:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/28/we-blame-minority-groups-for-individual-crimes-why-do-white-conservatives-get-a-pass/
And now back to your regularly scheduled Drudge Report links
Clinton collapse? I think so. Barack and Valerie don’t like her.
http://dcwhispers.com/hillary-clinton-operatives-bracing-for-clinton-collapse/
It’s interesting how I’ve been seeing lots of polls with Hillary, Jeb, Trump as the three choices but not seeing Bernie Sanders thrown in as an alternate lib choice. Sanders has a very big not Hillary following.
That’s surprising. I’m hearing a lot about him, actually, and he’ll probably be a nominee of some sort. He’s not a dem, although he does caucus with them. I know dems who like Sanders and don’t know any who want Hillary, but that’s just among my circle of acquaintance.
I think the MSM does NOT like un-anointed candidates. They have to pay attention to Trump because he’s Trump and he’s brash and he attracts attention and so therefore attracts eyeballs. Sanders, not so much.
The more I read about these Hillary glitches, the more I wonder if JEB! is the one who is next in line for the throne, as dictated by TPTB. He seems to combine the worst of both parties or factions.
Much as I have become disaffected with Trump, I’d much rather have him for Prez than JEB! or (shudder) Scott Walker. I’m just tired of all this humorless prickery. Trump at least brought some laughs, stickin’ it to various people and entities.
I lost interest when I heard his proposal to double the federal minimum wage.
Seems like this would merely serve to drive up already-high teen unemployment, plus increase already-high demand for undocumented immigrant labor.
That might not be a bad bargain. Republicans allow minimum $15 wage, and Dems crack down on illegal labor. I mean REALLY crack down, as in fining businesses and deporting workers directly off the job in their uniforms.
As for teen unemployment, we just need to roll with that. There are too many adults who need that job more than teens.
I lost interest when I heard his proposal to double the federal minimum wage.
There’s a simple test if minimum wages are too low: if the worker qualifies for government assistance, such as food stamps, housing vouchers, etc., then wages are too low. Raising the min wage to $15 would save taxpayers billions in reduced payouts for assistance. The higher-wages-leads-to-job-losses is a favorite boogeyman of the Chamber of Commerce, but so far in the cities and states with minimum wages over $10, there has been no increase in unemployment.
but so far in the cities and states with minimum wages over $10, there has been no increase in unemployment.
Rises In The Minimum Wage Really Do Destroy Jobs
Comment Now Follow Comments
Forbes - Economics & Finance - 1/07/2015
Such a pity for Steven Pearlstein that he writes a column on how raising the minimum wage only brings good things, that wages rise, kittens gambol again in the sunshine, there are not ill effects, just as a paper is published showing the ill effects of a rise in the minimum wage. Those ill effects being that a minimum wage rise really does destroy jobs. Meaning that sure, those who keep their jobs get the rise in that wage. Those who lose their jobs lose 100% of their income. This is not generally though of as a good outcome nor a desirable goal of public policy, that a million or more people get dumped on the scrapheap of unemployment.
So, the latest academic research, some of the best we’ve got, is indicating that a 30% rise in the minimum wage means that 1 million people lose either their jobs or even the opportunity to work. Hey it’s even possible that as Mr. Pearlstein opines this is economic justice. Although that’s not quite the description I would apply to it myself, it must be said.
Raising the min wage to $15 would save taxpayers billions in reduced payouts for assistance.
And where does this ‘free money’ come from? Oh yeah, increased cost of goods and services.
Don’t get me wrong — I’d much rather the government not be a middleman and re-distributing my money. However, to try to sell this as magical “savings” is misleading.
New report, just released:
http://www.integrityflorida.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Minimum-Wage-Policy-and-the-Resulting-Effect-on-Employment-final-.pdf
Key Findings
1.The preponderance of research finds that raising the minimum wage does not cause job losses. Many academic studies have examined the question, using data going back to 1990. They “suggest that the effects of minimum wage increases on employment have historically been slightly negative, negligible, or sometimes even positive.”
2.Economists cite several reasons why increases in the minimum wage, which raise employers’ cost, generally do not cost jobs. Increased pay adds money to workers’ pocketbooks and allows them to buy more goods and services, creating higher demand, which in turn requires hiring more workers. The higher wage may make it easier to attract applicants and results in less turnover of workers, lowering costs of employers.
“Job growth was higher on average (2.9 percent) in states where the minimum wage went up than in the other states (2.6 percent).”
“teen unemployment, we just need to roll with that…”
The teens think you are greedy. Move over and let two of them have your job.
So we print gobs and gobs of money that cause inflation and then we want to turn around and increase the minimum wage to further drive up prices.
How about we have SANE fiscal policy in the first place to keep inflation down so the minimum wage doesn’t have to constantly be raised?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
“That might not be a bad bargain. Republicans allow minimum $15 wage, and Dems crack down on illegal labor. I mean REALLY crack down, as in fining businesses and deporting workers directly off the job in their uniforms.
As for teen unemployment, we just need to roll with that. There are too many adults who need that job more than teens.”
I like it!! And I dont eat at McDonalds so go ahead, raise the prices or go under.
How about we have SANE fiscal policy in the first place to keep inflation down so the minimum wage doesn’t have to constantly be raised?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
The great Milton Friedman recommended using monetary policy to control inflation, not fiscal policy.
doubling the min wage, should lead to inflation, should lead to higher rates, should lead to re crash….
“Raising the min wage to $15 would save taxpayers billions in reduced payouts for assistance.”
Wouldn’t throwing low income workers out on the street when their employers can no longer afford to employ them actually increase the amount of public assistance needed?
“Raising the min wage to $15 would save taxpayers billions in reduced payouts for assistance.”
Please review the Big Mac Index… wiki.
A “Clinton collapse” would imply a sudden onset of intelligence in a vast cohort of demonstrated dullards, i.e. the same dupes who fell for hope n’ change. Not going to happen, unfortunately. The HillaryJeb crowd are herd creatures who with their bovine stupidity will readily allow themselves to be led through the gates of the incorporated globalist plantation/slaughterhouse.
Article for the Social Justice Warriors™
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/07/28/why-im-done-celebrating-womens-bodies/
Suzannah Weiss is a New York based writer with degrees in Gender and Sexuality Studies, Modern Culture and Media, and Cognitive Neuroscience from Brown University
“This week, women sizes 14 and up will compete in the Miss Plus America pageant in Atlanta. There will be interviews, pant wear and evening gown shows, and a “photogenic photo” contest.”
Betcha won’t see any camel toe thigh gaps there.
Heh, looks like ABC is a day late and many dollars short with their new show, Blood and Oil. I’ll definitely watch, because I’m a fan of Don Johnson, but I don’t think the Northwest oil patch is doing so well these days.
http://abc.go.com/shows/blood-and-oil/video/VDKA0_q88u4yxg
BTW, this story has been done before, totally interchangeable with Texas.
People will flee oppression, loss of freedom and tyranny if they have an opportunity.
Basically everything liberals and progressives stand for.
Who really owns your house? The public union goons.
————————-
Fleeing New Jersey, and Its Crushing Taxes, for a Better Life: The Story of an American Refugee
National Review | 07/27/2015 | Lee Habeeb
He lived in New Jersey his entire life. He was born there in 1932, grew up there, and worked his entire adult life there. I’m sure he planned on dying there.
He didn’t remember his first property-tax bill, because it was so low. There was no state income tax in New Jersey back in 1961, and no state sales tax until 1966. The only taxes individuals paid to the state were on gasoline, tobacco, and alcohol.
It was an ideal place to live; drive an hour east, and he was in New York City with his family visiting a museum or going to a Broadway play. Drive an hour south, and they were enjoying a day trip at the Jersey Shore.
But his kids knew why. The property taxes on the house their dad purchased for $32,000 back in 1961 had swelled, from a number so low he couldn’t remember it to a number he could not forget: $12,000 a year.
That number, reduced to a monthly payment, was five times higher than his home’s original monthly mortgage payment. Indeed, if you’d told him back when he bought the house that, many years later, three years’ worth of property-tax bills added together would exceed the house’s cost, he’d have written you off as crazy.
The home my father thought he owned outright had a co-owner: the local city council and school board. And it was a co-owner with an appetite for spending. The local property-tax bill alone was enough to make him move. On top of that, New Jersey went from having no state income tax to having one of the highest in the country (8.97 percent for the highest earners, and 6.4 percent for the middle class), and from having no sales tax to having one of the highest rates in the country (7 percent, almost as high as California’s, which is the highest sales tax in America, at 7.5 percent). It was all too much for him to handle.
Saddled by taxes and worried that future tax increases would eat up his retirement income and his savings, this lifelong New Jersey resident, at age 81, did what so many folks in high-tax states like New Jersey are forced to do: He sold his house and moved.
Indeed, New Jersey led all 50 states in one tragic category: creating refugees. Last year, the Garden State lost more residents as a percentage of its overall population than any other state in the country, according to a 2014 National Movers Study commissioned by United Van Lines of St. Louis.
In a poll conducted by Monmouth University a few years ago, 53 percent of New Jersey residents said they would like to move from the state at some point, up from 49 percent in 2007. Among those making more than $100,000 a year, a whopping 60 percent wanted to move.
Those businesses are fleeing New Jersey for the same reason so many residents are fleeing: the high cost of doing business there. Indeed, New Jersey ranked 50th, dead last, in the Tax Foundation’s 2015 State Tax Business Climate Index.
Those relocation stories are great news for the people of Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida. But they’re terrible news for the people of New Jersey, who are stuck with ever-increasing tax bills and fewer employers and workers to pay them.
It’s a vicious cycle, and stopping it is no small task. The country watched in disbelief as one of our great American cities, Detroit, created over a million refugees over five decades, as its population fell from a peak of nearly 1,700,000 in 1960 to its current 680,000. It spent, mismanaged, and shrank itself into bankruptcy.
why do you use liberal or progressive?
it’s collectivist,nannyist,statist,socialist
why do you use liberal or progressive?
it’s collectivist,nannyist,statist,socialist
Even though we all know that nearly all elected democrats (State and Federal Level) are collectivist, nannyist, statist and socialist - they still call proudly themselves liberals and progressives.
So that is the term I use.
“why do you use liberal or progressive?
it’s collectivist,nannyist,statist,socialist”
2011 Koch Brother’s Propaganda Manual for Dummies, Chapter 3 SectionIV
The country watched in disbelief as one of our great American cities, Detroit, created over a million refugees over five decades, as its population fell from a peak of nearly 1,700,000 in 1960 to its current 680,000. It spent, mismanaged, and shrank itself into bankruptcy.
There very few Japanese cars imported into America in 1960. Perhaps the decline of auto manufacturing played a role.
Long term democrat rule?
Public union goons?
Insane taxes?
Failing schools (run by public union goons)?
High crime?
Yep - a city could do NOTHING to stop the decline.
No one could see it coming.
It was for the children.
It’s hard to imagine what a city could about the incompetence of the people who manage its largest employers. Perhaps they could have implemented a Venezuelan solution - just take over the automobile industry and run it out of City Hall.
Cities “reinvent” themselves all the time when not chained by long term democrat rule and public union goons.
Detroit was a major trading hub before car manufacturing.
Charlotte was a major textile center before banking.
Spartenburg, SC was a major carpet manufacturing area before the auto companies came.
Etc.
The irony is:
Where have ALL the major NEW car manufacturing plants been opened in America for the last 30 years?
NOT DETROIT.
Why?
Because all the out of date factories have been closed, and it’s cheaper to re-tool an already existing factory than build a new one.
Liberals and progressive always will blame something else for their failed policies and ideas.
Or just make sh*t up.
It is really easier to build a new factory than re-tool an old one?
Because you have done this before?
In a place with NO supplier base?
Without a trained workforce?
Without infrastructure?
You just built a factory in the middle of nowhere and it was so much cheaper than re-tooling?
Or maybe SOMETHING was driving these businesses away
SOMETHING VERY STRONG to overcome all these expenses and issues.
What could that be?
Because all the out of date factories have been closed, and it’s cheaper to re-tool an already existing factory than build a new one.
Detroit was a much bigger city than Spartanburg. Its economy relied heavily on a single industry. It’s not a trivial matter for a city or a state to make a switch to a different industry. There are stories from all over America of politicians and business people who say that they would like there city or region to be a center of the software or biotechnology industry. The efforts that they make rarely bare any fruit.
Regarding this question:
Where have ALL the major NEW car manufacturing plants been opened in America for the last 30 years?
The basic answer is that the South is the poorest part of the country. So the car manufacturers can pay less. It’s the same reason that so many auto factories have been built in Mexico over the past 20 years.
“So the car manufacturers can pay less. It’s the same reason that so many auto factories have been built in Mexico over the past 20 years.”
Bingo.
“So the car manufacturers can pay less. It’s the same reason that so many auto factories have been built in Mexico over the past 20 years.”
But yet NO car manufactures have gone to Haiti where you can hire someone for $1/day.
So maybe it is SOMETHING ELSE.
Well, there used to be light manufacturing in Haiti, such as textiles. Baseballs were made there at one time. Maybe they still are.
It’s possible that you need certain infrastructure to heavy manufacturing that’s not present in Haiti. But it’s not worth addressing in the context of the US economy. If we get to the point where we try to figure out what Mexico does correctly that Haiti doesn’t do, we’ll be in big trouble.
Liberals and progressive always will blame something else for their failed policies and ideas.
Like Repub’s SupplySide/TrickleDown failed dogma that gutted Detroit.
Detroit was fine when there were jobs. Now how complicated is that? Really?
Like Repub’s SupplySide/TrickleDown failed dogma that gutted Detroit.
ya see comrade? no one could be this delusional. you promote crap that’s total nonsense.
Detroit was fine when there were jobs. Now how complicated is that?
detroit was run by liberals for 50 years comrade. all the cities that have been run long term by liberals are bleeding jobs and rotting from within.
No, there are quite a few cities that have been run by liberals for decades that have plenty of jobs.
‘plenty of jobs’ s a judgement call. to some people (like you) it’s possible to be bleeding jobs and still have ‘plenty of jobs’.
To make it clear, let’s put it this way, they’ve been experiencing job growth. The number of jobs in those cities has been increasing.
to make it even more clear, explain what liberal or democrat policies net increases jobs.
That’s a separate and more contentious issue, isn’t it? Why change the subject?
no, it’s getting to the heart of the issue.
are you saying you don’t know why the jobs are ‘increasing’?
So do you admit that the number of jobs is increasing in some cities with liberal mayors? That was the original subject.
Raindrops in the desert my friend. Raindrops in the desert.
do you know how the government bean counters count jobs these days?
do you know that when the unemployment rate falls it doesn’t always mean it’s because there was more hiring?
do you know that if one person holds more than one job, it’s counted as more than one job?
do you think there’s been a renaissance in these cities you’re talking about, and the standard of living is rising?
here’s the thing mike. people lost their good paying full time jobs. some went on assistance. others accepted a lower paying job or a part time job. about one third of them got lower paying part time jobs. so they’re working longer and harder for less money. and the lib mayors are proud of this?
so yes, sometimes because of this sickened economy there are more ‘jobs’.
so tell me mike, how do liberal policies in cities help create jobs. surely you wouldn’t be making this argument unless you had some kind of idea. so let’s hear it.
should say: ‘got 2 lower paying part time jobs’
I asked a question at 18:10:22 for which the answer is either yes or no. You respond with four questions. What’s going on?
what’s going on is you don’t know the reasons for these numbers and they aren’t good.
why don’t you pick ONE liberal policy and tell me how it creates jobs?
You were the one who wrote, “all the cities that have been run long term by liberals are bleeding jobs.” That’s what I responded to. That’s the topic. Why certain cities are doing OK, i.e. not bleeding jobs, is a separate matter. I could write hundreds of words on my notions of why they’re doing OK. The most important cause on the list is that those cities have certain industries that are doing well and adding jobs.
You’re backpedalling.
I never claimed that any liberal policy creates jobs.
they AREN’T doing ‘ok’. i explained why above.
i’m not asking for hundreds of notions. just explain how any liberal policy creates jobs.
The most important cause on the list is that those cities have certain industries that are doing well and adding jobs.
i’m asking you WHY you think they’re doing well. otherwise it’s just more correlation without causation. just more serving coffee causes turbulence.
pick a liberal policy and tell me how it creates jobs.
I never claimed that any liberal policy creates jobs.
if you don’t think that liberal policies create jobs, then why are you bringing up liberal mayors presiding over some cities with job increases? that looks like a pretty hollow stand. if it isn’t your liberal mayors, what are you saying?
I’m just stating a fact. There are some cities with quite liberal populations and governments that are doing OK.
liberal populations? what does that have to do with it? what matters is the rules they live under.
some cities are doing ok? by your standards i suppose. but not by most people’s. are they doing better when there is a loss of full time jobs that have to be replaced by assistance or people having to work 2 lower paying jobs to get by? is that what you call “doing ok”?
you won’t tell me about any liberal policies that create jobs because there are none. even my comrade admits that socialism doesn’t create jobs.
yet you continue to blather on about ’some’ cities doing ‘ok’ under liberalism. another vague judgement call. mine is that they aren’t doing ok.
another thing you should look at is how many liberal mayors that are doing ‘ok’ have conservative governors. but maybe you wouldn’t want to use those as examples of ‘ok’.
liberal policies hurt economies. they hurt job creation and lower standards of living by wasting wealth. if you think otherwise, present a logical case for it. show me just once where you think a liberal policy has created jobs.
“Mike” likes to invoke the word and yammer about “facts” but never seems to have any.
Why is that “Mike”?
The City of Detroit started going downhill after the 1968 riots. The car companies had nothing to do with it. The Detroit area is actually doing pretty good right now because the economy is based on making things, not paying each other more and more for houses.
“We had to destroy the village in order to save it”
“The property taxes on the house their dad purchased for $32,000 back in 1961 had swelled, from a number so low he couldn’t remember it to a number he could not forget: $12,000 a year.”
California was headed in this direction until Prop 13 put the kibosh to it.
Pfft! Even if taxes were low, who would want to live in New Jersey anyway?
So how much is his house worth now; $1,000,000.00?
This is an old story - Yankee lives and works in high tax state where there are plenty of high-paying union jobs, kids go to great public schools then off to an inexpensive state-supported university. Then, after all of his family’s needs for government supported goodies are satisfied, it comes time for him to support the needs of the younger families just coming up. Will he pay taxes on his now $1,000,000.00 house and support the community that supported him as young family man?
Hell no, that is socialism. It is time to move to the Villages in Florida. There he will have low, low taxes and will pay little, if anything to support public (now called Guv’ment) schools. In fact, because he moved to a 55+ community, his brand new house is exempt from the county school impact fees that other new homeowners pay. He has already paid for HIS kids to go to school; he is certainly not doing it here.
He becomes a republican, starts listening to Rush and cheers on Sarah Palin when she shows up twice a year to promote another book. It’s the new America.
Oh, I forgot to mention he gets a fat pension from his union gig and social security and medicare and Bush drug plan and…….
He is free to move about the country and or change his mind. Do you want to add regulations that prevent this? More oversight? More gov control over people? hmmmmm…..
You missed the point. He is still getting all of the government goodies; he is just not paying for it.
fix the pension scam that is broken, so they cant double dip. B
But moving to a cheaper place is fine.
And he would win.
——————–
Obama: If I Ran for a Third Term, I Could Win
Time | 7/28/2015 | Maya Rhodan
President Obama said that if he could run for a third term he thinks he would win, while calling for African leaders to adhere to term limits during a historic speech before the African Union.
“I actually think I’m a pretty good president. I think if I ran, I could win. But I can’t,” Obama said in Ethiopia on Tuesday. ” There’s a lot that I’d like to do to keep America moving, but the law’s the law.”
he polls in the 20% range w small biz
=rasis
Are there polls of small business owners?
yes
He probably could win a third term. The vegetables who fell for hope ‘n change haven’t grown a brain since 2008 or 2012. You can’t fix stupid, after all.
He probably could win a third term.
How could anyone be surprised that Obama could win a 3rd term. Just look at the Repubs today.
Here is a gift expressly for collectivist WPA (har har!)
Zero Hedge: “Housing Recovery? Case Shiller Home Prices Tumble most in 10 Months”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-28/housing-recovery-case-shiller-home-prices-tumble-most-10-months
Thank you SH, I am touched…. but…. mouse….freezes… up…. it….won’t….click…. that…..link…..
Thanks for proving how ignorant you are.
Thanks for proving how ignorant you are. Oh no, I know exactly what I’m doing. When “Tyler Durden” is man enough to use his real name, share his qualifications and stand behind his writings publicly, then I might take his web site more seriously.
http://www.infowars.com/feinstein-youre-not-a-real-journalist-unless-you-draw-a-salary/
A lot of militantly stupid people ferociously resist any information that would invalidate their mistaken assumptions and false belief system. WPA is a little like those sun-bonneted FLDS babes who see nothing wrong with being the fourth sister wife to some 80-year-old.
Make sure you read the comments section whenever ZH does an article about China - there are a lot of ADan’s posting on blogs, although ours seems to have gone south like the Shanghai Exchange.
Just to clarify, people who post like ADan, not people who use that same name. Although there are many who could be him, right down to the grammatical errors they make. I’m still not convinced ADan wasn’t working from a cubicle in Peking.
“Home prices fall in May”
http://www.businessinsider.com/case-shiller-home-price-index-may-2015-7
how many years have u said home prices were falling as they rose in epic fashion?
Remember…. You can ask $50k for your run down 14 year old chevy pickup but where is the buyer at that price?
So it is with depreciating assets like houses.
What about your run-down 1955 truck you bought new for $1700?
What is it worth?
LOL-At you
Falling prices my friend.
1955 Ford F100
1/2 Ton Pickup Small Window
Value $25k
I see you are wrong again.
And not a buyer in sight.
See how that works?
When it all unwinds it will be swift and epic.
how many years have u said home prices were falling as they rose in epic fashion?
And rent’s were falling and “half the cost of buying”. And you can build with land for $50 a sq foot. And “mid-east” oil is profitable at $7. And massive deflation is “good for the economy”.
yes, you and yellen want higher prices. why do you hate the poor so much?
You’re a fraud and a phony Lola.
I smell a Realtor who just filled their adult diaper
Oops: I crapped my pants®
Housing Recovery? Case Shiller Home Prices Tumble Most In 10 Months
ZeroHedge - 07/28/2015
The 0.18% month-over-month decline in Case Shiller home price index is the biggest since July 2014 which confirms the David Blitzer’s view that “over the next two years or so, the rate of home price increases is more likely to slow than to accelerate.” His biggest fear is that “first time homebuyers are the weak spot in the market,” adding that prices are increasing about twice as fast as inflation or wages. Moreover, other housing measures are less robust - housing starts are only at about 1.2 million units annually, and only about half of total starts are single family homes. Sales of new homes are low compared to sales of existing homes.
Just wait until the ripple effects of China’s June stock market swoon show up in the Case-Shiller index. The best is yet to come!
Yes it is.
Soon - very soon.
The Chinese will be selling everything not nailed down to pay for the margin calls and to avoid bankruptcy.
First to go?
Overseas Real Estate.
Foreign Stocks.
Last to go?
Gold
Domestic Real Estate
If I thought my country was about to go in the crapper, I’d be more likely to sell my domestic RE and hold on to my overseas RE. Both for investment and personal refuge purposes.
You can always live in your domestic RE.
Overseas RE is more like a dream you may see once a year.
And a dream that is now a nice big fat check to solve all your problems.
You can always live in your domestic RE.
Nope, it can be confiscated by the Communist Government. Plus its probably going to become worthless.
Why do you think they are all trying to get Green Cards? Because they’re going to stay in China.
Anecdote: My wife naturalized as a US citizen a few months ago. At the ceremony, Mexicans were by far the largest group naturalizing … guess who was #2?
They were Chinese.
“Last to go”
Already gone
The Globe and Mail
Gold tumbles to 5-year lows on aggressive and heavy China sales
Reuters in New York and London
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 21 July, 2015, 9:09am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 21 July, 2015, 9:09am
Gold necklaces on display in China as heavy selling of the precious metal in Shanghai depressed prices to their lowest in five years. Photo: Reuters
Gold prices plunged more than 4 per cent to five-year lows on Monday as a sudden bout of selling across Shanghai and New York markets during the illiquid early Asian trading hours triggered a mini flash crash, deepening bullion’s biggest rout in years.
A wave of sell orders in a one-minute period shortly after the Shanghai Gold Exchange opened on Monday sent the most-active US gold futures contract down US$48 to as low as US$1,080 per ounce, its weakest since February 2010.
Within two minutes, an estimated 33 tonnes of gold in Shanghai and New York worth $1.3 billion changed hands. A lack of liquidity, with Japanese markets closed for a holiday, hastened the slide.
The ferocious selling triggered CME circuit breakers twice within one minute just before 9:30 pm EDT (0130 GMT) on Sunday.
The exact cause of the selling was not immediately known, but traders and analysts attributed the massive move to high-frequency trading algorithms as well as stop-loss selling.
“It was just a bit of a bear raid and there was nobody on the other side to mop up the selling,” Societe Generale analyst Robin Bhar said.
…
First to go?
Overseas Real Estate.
Foreign Stocks.
Only if they wish to stay in China. If they have no assets left in China and only debts, they will leave and go to their safe haven. That was the whole point for expatriating their wealth. It’s why they bring their wives here to give birth to “anchor babies”. They aren’t planning on staying in Dodge when the SHTF.
The last thing they will do is hang onto Chinese real estate, because they know they might lose it anyway. Heck, they don’t even own the land their real estate is built on.
They’re already on the run and headed back to asia.
In all seriousness, I’d love to find me a Chinese buyer to buy my San Diego house sight unseen on a cash-only basis. But since we know RAL, what’s the best way to go about finding an overseas buyer? I wouldn’t even mind renting back from them if they don’t want to occupy the property for a few years. A 2% ROI would be better than being Shanghai’d methinks…
How A Chinese Farmer Lost More Than Everything Trading Stocks
Zero Hedge | 07/28/2015
Last night, just six weeks after one Chinese farmer Liu Jianguo invested his life savings in the Chinese market, proclaiming “it’s a lot easier making money from stocks than farm work,” we wondered if it was time for a sequel:
A few hours later we find out that it was because as CNBC reported in its sequel, another farmer has lost it all… and more. As CNBC’s Eunice Yoon reports, just a few weeks after his glorious gamble in China’s manipulated market, the farmer “trader “now owes - thanks to wonders of margin calls and leverage - as much as he originally invested.
From the hope-filled exuberance of early June to Yang Cheng’s utter hopelessness, “I have lost everything,” after he followed the government’s ‘grand plan’ to open the economy and encourage stock market speculation.
Having piled his life savings (plus his relatives’ money) into the market, thanks to encouragement from his broker he borrowed $1 million in margin and bet it all on one stock - a local mining company.
“I don’t know what to do… I trusted the government too much…” he exclaims, adding “I won’t touch stocks again, I have ruined everyone in my family.”
So much for China being all ants. Grasshoppers getting their a$$ handed to them.
Must.not.laugh.
Democrats politicized and corrupted everything they touch when they gain power.
—————————
Mind-blowing Temperature Fraud at NOAA
StevenGoddardWordpress.com ^| July 27, 2015 | Steve Goddard
The measured US temperature data from USHCN shows that the US is on a long-term cooling trend. But the reported temperatures from NOAA show a strong warming trend.
They accomplish this through a spectacular hockey stick of data tampering, which corrupts the US temperature trend by almost two degrees.
The biggest component of this fraud is making up data. Almost half of all reported US temperature data is now fake. They fill in missing rural data with urban data to create the appearance of non-existent US warming.
The depths of this fraud is breathtaking, but completely consistent with the fraudulent profession which has become known as “climate science”
Real journalists say 5 million acres of Alaska burned so far this year
Real journalists say Alaska was 7F degrees above average in May
You say real journalists say raise taxes and ban something
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush, 2008
Warmists gonna warm
350.org You just need to reed the facts.
I wonder if Steve Goddard has cashed his Koch Industries check yet?
“The depths of this fraud is breathtaking”
It is indeed, seeing as it requires the cooperation of millions of scientists spread throughout multiple fields of study, in countless institutions and universities, in every country throughout the world, to accomplish.
In other words, it’s a crock.
Ford Profit Beats Estimates as Buyers Pay Up for F-150 Truck
Ford Motor Co. posted a 44 percent surge in second-quarter profit, exceeding analysts’ estimates thanks to consumers paying big money for fully loaded versions of the new aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup.
Ford reported net income of $1.9 billion, or 47 cents a share, compared with $1.3 billion, or 32 cents per share a year earlier. Profit beat the 37-cent average estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
The results ease pressure on Ford for the second half. Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields has pledged pretax profit will grow by as much as 51 percent this year as Ford resumes full production of the F-150, its top selling model. Ford started offering discounts of more than $10,000 on the new truck in some areas after U.S. sales fell 8.9 percent last month.
“We are confident the second half of the year will be even stronger,” Fields said in a statement.
Ford Shares Rise
After Ford reported earnings, the company’s shares jumped 2.4 percent to $14.90 at 9:39 a.m. in New York.
Ford has said it will be the end of September before dealers are fully stocked with F-Series trucks, which account for 90 percent of its global auto profits, according to Morgan Stanley.
“Ford is all about the second half of this year,” said David Whiston, an analyst for Morningstar Inc. in Chicago, who rates Ford the equivalent of a buy. “The F-150 will be at full availability then and the new Edge and Explorer SUVs are coming out at a time when gas is still pretty cheap.”
Ford has said it is selling many of its F-150s loaded with pricey leather seats and technology, which helps margins. The truck is selling for $44,100 on average, the highest transaction price in the full-size pickup segment, according to Erich Merkle, Ford’s sales analyst.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-28/ford-profit-beats-estimates-as-buyers-pay-up-for-f-150-pickup
Around here, the quality of cars and trucks driven by Hispanics/Latinos is bifurcating.
Trucks: half are loaded and shiny new; the other half are old wrecks. The wrecks are about half/half foreign/domestic. The new one look to be 2/3 Tundra and Tacoma. I see very few new Fords.
Passenger cars: jalopies, all of them: dented up, paint half gone, threatening to break down at any minute.
I bet these truck makers are dreading October 2016, when Dodd-Frank kicks in for auto loans.
Good for Ford. Nevertheless, I have absolutely no need for a gas guzzling pickup. If I need a car, I’ll buy a car and not a truck.
i rent a truck, 1-2x per year as needed.
I am looking to lease a new Honda CRV or Mazda CX-5, as my car is almost 10 yrs old now. I have never leased, in fact my last car is the first one I financed.
+1. I think in the city most truck owners do not use the truck bed at all. They just drive a big vehicle that uses a lot of gas but is no sports car. Might as well get a Mustang.
I occasionally rent a u haul truck if I have to move a lot of things short distance.
I think in the city most truck owners do not use the truck bed at all. They just drive a big vehicle that uses a lot of gas but is no sports car. Might as well get a Mustang.
Yup. Just the other day I smoked a dude in Toyota Tundra in a stop light drag race with my V6 car.
He looked pizzed.
cx-5 looks kewl
“Trucks: half are loaded and shiny new; the other half are old wrecks. The wrecks are about half/half foreign/domestic. The new one look to be 2/3 Tundra and Tacoma. I see very few new Fords.”
Domestic truck buyers are more likely to need their trucks to haul things, and usually require a high towing capacity and low end torque. If you live in an urban area with little agriculture or outdoor opportunities, a truck is much more likely to be a fashion statement.
In prior days I have asserted that climate change is on topic here because it will become an increasingly important factor in real estate valuations. The Miami Herald has figured it out:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article29029159.html
Say it like Carl Sagan: “bill-yuns and bill-yuns” of lost equity when seawater invades Florida real estate…
Hillary says climate deniers are like mad scientists!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF9Jrc6vjtY
Warmists gonna warm
Al Gore predicted CATASTROPHIC CAT 5 hurricanes slamming in Florida year after year due to global warming.
Causing BILLIONS AND BILLIONS in property damage - year after year.
What have we got instead?
The quietest few years of hurricanes in recent history.
I say Florida is way ahead of the game.
read about all the new building on the coast leaving the bottom floor nearly empty in anticipation of trouble ahead.
In fact, he says, we may have no choice. If sea levels rise by even two to four feet feet by the end of the century, the middle range of increases projected by scientific models, much of Miami-Dade will be inundated permanently or become prone to frequent flooding, Gonzalez noted.
And it’s not just beachfront construction that’s at risk. Low-lying western areas like Sweetwater and Doral, once part of the Everglades, and communities along the Miami River would be just as vulnerable as water rises through the porous limestone below. Aside from the obvious hazards, the cost of flood insurance for homes built at ground level in vulnerable zones could become prohibitive, Gonzalez said.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article18215432.html#storylink=cpy
I listened to this podcast the other day. It was interesting. I’ll leave it at that.
http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2015/06/matt_ridley_on.html
https://goo.gl/r8ox77
All the more reason to force Koch Industries to clean up it’s poison emitting factories. Think of all the babies those toxins are killing.
Slower killing is OK.
Adds to GDP in medical costs.
If former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says so, then it must be good for all of us not just the ruling elite.
“The sea-rise numbers are out there. The heat numbers are out there. What this study has done for the first time is really look at this from a business perspective,” former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who co-chaired the project, said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article29029159.html#storylink=cpy
Hank Paulson is rich as hell. Doesn’t that make him all knowing and infallible?
Can you imagine if, AS A CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT, on organization took workers money and gave it to pro-life, pro-gun, traditional marriage, anti selling baby organs for profit and enforcement of immigration law organizations - the left would not be screaming at the top of their lungs how unfair it is?
——————————–
With Right-to-Work, Employees No Longer Have to Put Up With Unions Opposed to Their Values
Capitol Confidential | 7/21/2015 | Tom Gantert
At the National Education Association annual convention, the nationwide teachers union passed an action item warning its members about right-to-work laws that “undermine high-quality education for every child.”
But critics of the NEA say what right-to-work laws really undermine is the union’s ability to promote a far-left ideology that violates the values of conservative members the union boasts of representing.
The NEA’s Michigan affiliate also tries to make it hard for members of any political persuasion to leave, notwithstanding Michigan’s right-to-work law: August is the only month in which the MEA says members can stop paying dues to their union. School employees looking to take advantage of this year’s “opt-out window” can find information at http://www.AugustOptOut.org.
The NEA has a long tradition of supporting left-of-center candidates and policies, many that have little to do with the teaching profession. For example, the NEA voted on agenda items involving abortion and global warming at its July meeting. It has also pointedly advertised that many of its members are teachers who consider themselves to be conservative.
Workers don’t have to financially support the union as a condition of employment in right-to-work states. In states without right-to-work, they can pay an “agency fee,” which is the calculated cost of supporting the union without paying for the costs of the union’s political advocacy, and does not lower the cost very much.
Do you have an organ donor sticker on your driver’s license?
Most of us do.
Hope and change.
A nation of broke ass renters with massive amounts of debt…
———————-
Homeownership rate drops to 63.4%, lowest since 1967
cnbc.com ^ | July 28, 2015 | Diana Olick
The U.S. homeownership rate fell to 63.4 percent in the second quarter of 2015, according to the U.S. Census. That is down from 63.7 percent in the first quarter and from 64.7 percent in the same quarter of 2014. It marks the lowest homeownership rate since 1967.
“It is now just five-tenths from the record low seen in 1965 in data going back also to 1965,” noted Peter Boockvar, an analyst with The Lindsey Group. “All the governmental attempts (certainly aided and abetted by many players in the private sector) at boosting homeownership has gotten us to this point in time with all the havoc it wreaked over the past 10 years. It’s just another governmental lesson never learned, of don’t mess with the free market and human nature.”
“It is now just five-tenths from the record low seen in 1965 in data going back also to 1965,”
Now we just need to wait another five years, while it overshoots to the downside…
And it will keep falling until housing prices fall to the long term trend.
Also while Uncle Sam gets many more low income and minority households to climb on the property ladder, just in time for the next recession to wipe many of them out.
Like depreciating worthless houses, soon you won’t be able to give one away.
“Used Electric Car Prices Continue To Fall”
http://ecomento.com/2015/07/28/used-electric-car-prices-continue-to-fall/
Who wouldn’t want to buy a “car” that can go maybe 100 miles before it strands you at the side of the road and that you will have to change out the batteries after 7-10 years for about $5,000.
And to get rid of the car altogether - you would have to pay someone to take it as it is a rolling toxic waste superfund site.
Thank you obama for the billions in subsidies…
I don’t even have a car, and I don’t take public transit either. My range on my bike is about 30 miles. 100 would be overkill.
If I need to drive far, I rent a car for a couple days, or get an uber to the airport.
There have been a number of people who have recently noted the high rates of both home price appreciation and rent increases.
While I can understand that there is an argument that low interest rates drive home price increases, I don’t see how that argument leads to higher rents (in fact, low rates should make it easier to build more apartment buildings, increasing supply, and decreasing rents).
There is one piece of data that helps explain both…vacancy rates…do we have enough physical supply of shelter? The Census updated their data today:
http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/files/qtr215/currenthvspress.pdf
The US home ownership rate is at a 48 year low…
(some of this no doubt due to would be buyers being shut out by speculators and flippers pre 2013 when buying was affordable and made sense vs. renting in some areas…I’m one of them)
http://time.com/money/3975212/homeownership-rate-record-low/
Whether you rent, or own, you live somewhere.
If there isn’t enough housing stock (owner occupied or rented), there are market pressures to push prices/rent higher.
That’s my main point.
I understand being “shut out” by competition. But much of the competition came from investors who bought in order to rent the property.
On the HBB, we have focused a lot of attention on Blackstone/Colony, etc. as the new landlords on the block. However, prior to this bubble/crash there were approximately 10MM single family homes that were rented out…these were almost entirely mom and pop landlords.
And that appetite from people to own a rental property (or two) didn’t go away…it was enhanced by a need to find yield (thank you Fed).
I don’t know the specific numbers, but my understanding is that several million homes went from being owner-occupied to being rented out. Only a small fraction of this number were bought by large institutions. The rest were bought by smaller investors–the same “mom and pop” cohort that owned the 10MM rentals before the crash.
So, do we villify the investors, who are now able to charge higher and higher rents due to low vacancy rates?
Or should we villify the system that makes it exceedingly difficult to add supply at a reasonable price that would serve to provide a more balanced market for those seeking shelter (whether it be as an owner, or tenant)?
There is a third option that has been raised…villify the holders of “shadow inventory”, and the system that allows shadow invetory to persist. The problem is that the magnitude of VACANT “shadow inventory”–the only kind of shadow inventory that would alleviate the pressure on the market–isn’t enough to solve the problem.
The problem is your “point” is false. Housing demand is at record lows. See for yourself.
US Housing Demand Falls To 20 Year Low
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fqSztKilps8/VFlPKlr52JI/AAAAAAAAhKU/v5oS41S-y0s/s1600/MBANov52014.PNG
Housing demand is the same as it ever was–every single person that I know wants be sheltered from the elements.
Whether they own that shelter or rent it (alone or with others) is the question.
No. Demand for housing is at 20 year lows…. and falling. Just like the demand chart shows.
No. Demand for housing is at 20 year lows…. and falling.
Here’s a 35 year chart of US rental costs. 35 years. Rent’s went up every year but one. One. If “demand for housing were at a 20 year low, I’d imagine to see rents falling. They’re not and never did.
http://www.macrotrends.net/1384/case-shiller-fhfa-and-cpi-rental-indices-compared
Yet still half the cost of buying at current grossly inflated asking prices.
If “demand for housing were at a 20 year low, I’d imagine to see rents falling.
how do you know you wouldn’t see rents rising comrade? if people aren’t buying, they still need a place to live. wouldn’t that make rents go up?
“Housing demand is the same as it ever was–every single person that I know wants be sheltered from the elements.”
Like all the Millenial children living in their parents’ basements, the homeless guys using a bridge for shelter, and the illegal immigrants living with two or more families under one roof?
I see your point. Housing demand is the same as it ever was.
“Like all the Millenial children living in their parents’ basements, the homeless guys using a bridge for shelter, and the illegal immigrants living with two or more families under one roof?”
And all above would live differently if there was an affordable alternative.
There will be Rental_Fraud…. there will be.
Off topic but it always makes me laugh when real estate cheerleaders tell us renters that we are writing them checks. No we are not necessarily. Most places I ever rented are owned by big corporations. I am rent from a small landlord in the future, but with money from my bond interest and dividends.
I’ve rented from both. The apartments I rented were always owned by a larger investor (not a BRE or Essex, but a larger investor). The single family home I rented through the bubble up until 2011 was from a “mom and pop”. He owned several houses in the area.
I think this is pretty common…single family home rentals were historically owned by small investors, apartments were owned by larger investment groups.
The US home ownership rate is at a 48 year low…
(some of this no doubt due to would be buyers being shut out by speculators and flippers
Under Jeb Bush, housing prices fueled Florida’s boom. Then it all went bust.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/under-jeb-bush-housing-prices-fueled-floridas-boom-then-it-all-went-bust/2015/07/27/3cb40da2-2409-11e5-b72c-2b7d516e1e0e_story.html
….The bubble, one of the biggest in the nation, drove up home prices and had many short-term benefits for the state, spurring construction, spending and jobs. But the collapse of the housing bubble as Bush left office in 2007, after eight years of service, sent Florida into a recession deeper than that in the rest of the country, and hundreds of thousands lost their homes.
“Who got hammered? Lower- and middle-class America,” said Marshall Sklar, a real estate investor who, like other well-off financiers operating in the state, has benefited from the wreckage.
…..The value of the condo was redistributed upward, like so much of Florida’s housing wealth in recent years. “You took it out of the sheep and gave it to the wolves,”
Thanks, good link. As it happens I sold my place in early 2007 for nearly triple what I’d paid 10 years earlier…but when I tried to buy again in 2011/2012 it was impossible to compete with 100% cash flippers and speculators. I had a lot of cash but not 100% so my offers (all full price or slightly more) were ignored several times. Locally prices are up 60% since then so buying no longer makes sense for me, may try again after Bubble 2.0 inevitably pops.
Is 25 million excess empty and defaulted houses enough for you?
And people wonder why Trump is doing so well in the polls.
—————–
Corrosion of Sanctuary Cities
Accuracy in Academia | July 28, 2015 | Malcolm A. Kline
“Sanctuary cities” that refuse to turn over deportable felons to the feds are frequently located in college towns. Yet and still, it’s hard to find academics who will speak ill of them, no matter how much these policies endanger collegians’ lives.
Kate Steinle, 32, was not the only recent victim of an attack by an illegal alien with multiple felony convictions. “Department of Homeland Security records show that in just one eight-month period in 2014, more than 8,100 deportable aliens were released by sanctuary jurisdictions,” Hans von Spakovsky writes on The Daily Signal. “Three thousand of them were felons and 62 percent had a prior criminal record.”
“The path of destruction weaved by these 55,322 illegal aliens was truly shocking. According to GAO, these criminal aliens:
• “Were arrested a total of 459,614 times, averaging about eight arrests per illegal alien;
• “97 percent had more than one arrest, while 26 percent had over 11 arrests;
• “Committed almost 700,000 criminal offenses, averaging 13 offenses per illegal alien;
• “10 percent of these illegal aliens were arrested for committing 26 or more offenses;
• “Out of all of the arrests, 12 percent were for violent crimes such as murder, robbery, assault and sex-related crimes; 15 percent were for burglary, larceny, theft and property damage; 24 percent were for drug offenses; and the remaining offenses were for DUI, fraud, forgery, counterfeiting, weapons, immigration and obstruction of justice; and
Why is our border patrol so inept? Bush and O sent them lots of money.
Because obama refuses to allow them to enforce the law?
Hope and change.
More talk radio lies for the sheeple to eat up.
Illegal Alien charged with murder and attempted rape in Cleveland area
WEWS TV Cleveland | July 28, 2015 | Newsnet5
“Razo admitted to being in the U.S. illegally and deputies called the U.S. Border Patrol, the report states, but the agency decided not to respond to take Razo into custody.”
And people wonder why Trump is doing so well in the polls.
Trump is “doing well” in Repub base polls. However the Repub base no longer represents the majority of Americans in national elections.
You’d think Dems winning 5 out of the last 6 presidential popular election votes would sink in eventually.
Hint: It hasn’t.
When 47% of the of population is on the dole of some kind, that naturally translate into a bloc lifetime vote for the Democrats.
Illegals get away with using the SS #s of dead people because nobody checks. It’s not that there isn’t a way to check; it’s that the US government loves illegal immigrants because that benefits the wealthy.
Different illegal immigrants often use the same SS#.
They get a tax break when they work under the table, and therefore do not pay taxes. They also get a tax break when they work for peanuts, but make up for it by collecting welfare benefits.
CRATER
Not true! I know someone who is here from Argentina. When they went to set up her 401k with her fake SS# that she bought, it exposed her. She has an MBA and works for a large company, she has done days worth of research, you cant pull off a fake SS. She is getting a work VISA from another company as she is valuable speaking 3 languages and in satellite equipment sales.
you cant get a bank account with a fake one ether nor a tax return.
yes, they can get paid cash - blame the guy paying them cash and cheating!
The SSA is pretty on the ball when it comes to keeping track of who’s dead and who isn’t. It’s much easier to cheat state agencies.
Great film!! http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3011894/
Especially for all you “ragers.”
But you might have to go to some liberal, hipster, Independent theater to see it. Ours is solar powered. ( only one in the USA) and $1 popcorn!
Our indiplex is showing it tonight but I have slam poetry downstairs at our local bean.
“Live the Loft!”
Demand for U.S. housing in the second half of 2015 looks so weak that the Federal Reserve will not be comfortable starting its interest rate tightening cycle, independent real estate analyst Mark Hanson said Tuesday.
“Having rates at zero hasn’t done much if you take a look at the numbers, but having rates 200 basis points higher or 100 basis points higher would crush housing. I don’t think they can take that chance,” the founder of M Hanson Advisors told CNBC’s
As long as there are more homeowners who vote than home shoppers who vote, high house prices will be considered a good thing.
Or how about this?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-28/stuck-market-purgatory-how-chinas-citizens-lash-out-broken-market-their-own-words
What lessons will ten million Chinese Greater Fools learn? The brass ring is most likely unreachable. Musical chair stock market. Best way is to never be greedy and avoid materialism.
One of the last good men on TV:
“I don’t think there’s been a single person in the media who’s more strongly influenced the support of veterans’ policies than Jon Stewart,” said Paul Rieckhoff, the founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
Democrats should be proud of this cornerstone right of their party.
Not only do they defend this - the FUND it with taxpayer money and attack anyone who questions it.
And people wonder what made a good German.
———————
Planned Parenthood’s baby parts abortion victims shown to the world
saynsumthn.wordpress.com | saynsumthn
The latest sting video is hard hitting and features Dr. Katherine Sheehan, Medical Director emerita of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest in San Diego.
Kate (Katharine) Sheehan made $312,509 plus $4988 in other compensation from the abortion giant in 2010, according to their 990.
In the CMP video, you see abortionist Savita Ginde standing in the Planned Parenthood abortion clinic pathology laboratory, where fetuses are brought after abortions.
To Planned Parenthood these children are just “specimens” whose organs get them additional dollars in their already profitable industry.
“The owner, Cate Dyer, she used to be a procurement tech and then she went and started her own business. And now she’s making a lot of money based off the poor girls who half the time don’t even want to get abortions.” O’Donnell adds.
“The harder and the more valuable the tissue, the more money you get,” O’Donnells says in the video.
“So, if you can somehow procure a brain or a heart you’re going to get more money…I guess that’s an incentive to try and get the hard stuff,” she said.
But, she said that she did not want to lose the job and even though she passed out in shock when she first saw the area where the babies are dissected, she went along with it for the job.
She then describes her first day at a “Concord clinic” where she met the staff and looked over in a corner where there was a “little white tray with pie dishes on it.”
“And my trainer comes over and she puts on gloves and she grabs some tweezers and she’s picking the parts away from the vaginal tissue…”
“So, I’m looking and I don’t know what’s going on. I had no idea this is what was going to be happening especially my first day, And she’s literally she has tweezers and she’s like okay well this is a head, this is an arm, this is a leg. And she hands them over to me and oh here you go can you show me some of the parts I just showed you?”
Shortly after the first Planned Parenthood videos from CMP were released showing their top medical directors bragging about crushing above or below specific human organs or using a “less crunchy” technique to procure “whole specimens” I wrote an Op-Ed reflecting on the horror where I ask, “When it comes to Planned Parenthood’s ghoulish crimes, are we all guilty?”
“The key word here is terrorist. Terrorists have no respect for human life,” she said. “In Germany, not all Germans were Nazis. There were many good Germans — but nobody spoke up.”
Dead is Dead.
Harvesting parts from human bodies has been going on for years to provide treatment for live bodies.
Where do you think new lungs come from, plus hearts and kidneys?
How can it be dispicable to harvest bones from dead fetuses and not dispicable to harvest bones from dead adults?
It is better , for some reason, to dispose of dead fetuses in the trash then to use some parts to assist sick adults?
If you are against abortions, be against abortions, but try not to bring that aversion to other discussions.
+1
Huh.
How long before ordinary British people get fed up with being innundated by asylum seekers from cultures deeply hostile to western civilization?
http://news.yahoo.com/more-2-000-migrants-tried-enter-channel-tunnel-200921688–finance.html
“…ordinary British people…”
They’re subjects, not people.
Another bubble stock craters.
http://www.businessinsider.com/yelp-shares-plunge-after-q2-earnings-2015-7
That looks like an excellent buying opportunity.
Another American community loses its sense of security.
http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/07/lake_county_killing_manhunt_le.html#incart_story_package
Jeb’s oligarch handlers want full amnesty. Bring us those wage slaves, dammit!
http://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2015/07/28/jeb-bush-endorses-unlimited-amnesty-in-spanish-telemundo-interview/
In a post Dodd-Frank world, we now have fewer community banks than at any time after the Great Depression and banking capital is more and more concentrated in the hands of the mega-banks.
In a post ACA world, we are now seeing massive insurance company consolidation–and may be down to less than a handful of nationwide carriers with the most recent merger announcements.
Is there any room left for smaller enterprises?
Does anyone else find this trend incredibly disturbing?
Does anyone else find this trend incredibly disturbing?
Anyone with a brain would find this trend incredibly disturbing. The consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of an Oligopoly would have horrified the Founding Fathers, and in their writings they warned the citizens of the Republic that the price of liberty was eternal vigilance.
Unfortunately, we have now devolved into ‘Murica, aka Idiocracy, where election after election, 95% of the sheeple bend over for the oligarchs by voting for their political puppets like Obama, McCain, Romney, and HillaryJeb. So yeah, we’re screwed. You can’t fix stupid.
fastFT
MarketsHow bad is July proving for commodities?
5 hours ago
Concerns about a slowdown in China, renewed strength in the US dollar and persistent supply concerns have combined to make it an ugly July for commodities. But just how bad has it been?
The S&P GSCI total return index, which tracks the price of 24 commodities, has fallen through the bottom it reached during the the financial crisis and is at its lowest level since February 2002, writes Mamta Badkar.
Its 13.6 per cent decline this month makes July the seventh worst month on record for the index which dates back to 1970, according to data from S&P Dow Jones Indices.
All of the 24 commodities in the index are down for the month, with the exception of lean hogs. Losses for the commodities in the index have only been so widespread once before - in September 2008.
October of that year is the worst month on record for the index, falling 28.2 per cent and was the only time all 24 commodities in the index have ended the month lower.
The world is experiencing a ‘negative feedback loop’ decades in the making
Linette Lopez
Jul. 27, 2015, 1:41 PM 21,107 29
See Also
* Why everyone blames China for slumping commodity prices
* Beijing says it will intervene ‘when necessary’ to stabilize China’s stock markets
* Foreign investors sold another $2.9 billion of Chinese stocks last week
The world is experiencing a “negative feedback loop” as commodity prices fall, according to Goldman Sachs.
What’s more, this loop is a huge story decades in the making — and there isn’t a country on the planet that won’t be affected.
Slowing Chinese demand for raw materials has pushed the Bloomberg metals index down 25%. Liquidity is low. Cash is in shorter supply.
This is all part of a global market cycle, Goldman argues, and commodities are getting caught in the violent shuffle.
Three forces are working together to make this happen: a general oversupply of commodities, a strong US dollar, and weak economic growth in emerging-market economies such as Brazil and China.
“Lower commodity prices reinforce the US recovery and dollar appreciation; while weaker commodity currencies keep downward pressure on commodity cost curves (mainly through lower wage and energy costs),” Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note published Friday.
Here’s how this whole feedback loop works: reduced Chinese demand for commodities has put downward pressure on prices, helping lower the cost of industrial production and putting more money in the hands of consumers.
That has helped spur economic growth in countries like the US which aren’t reliant on the export of commodities. That in turns has led to a stronger dollar, as the market has priced in expectations of a rate rise.
The prospect of higher rates in the US is pushing funding costs for indebted emerging market countries like China upwards. That puts even more pressure on those countries to delever.
Goldman said in the note: “This deflationary impulse leads to stronger US growth and higher rates, and increasing funding costs for EMs, increasing the need to deleverage. This in turn adds more divergence, dollar outperformance, and downward pressure on commodity prices.”
China’s role in all this can’t be overstated. The economy is slowing as the country tries to make a painful transition from an economy based on exports to one based on domestic consumption.
A big part of the economy was driven by the property market, which gobbled up copper and iron ore at a stunning rate.
Now the Chinese government is making overtures at exercising some kind of restraint in the sector.
That has made deflation an issue. China’s falling producer price index has analysts worried that corporate margins are thinning dangerously.
The longer this goes on, the harder it will hit commodities prices. That fall in commodity prices will help this keep going on longer.
You know … like a loop.
Investors fret over falling commodities
Investors’ expectations are for more falls in commodity prices amid worries about the Chinese economy and interest rates
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 29 July, 2015, 2:20am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 29 July, 2015, 2:26am
Reuters
Speculators have confirmed what everyone else has been thinking: expect more falls in commodities, as worries about China and higher interest rates combine with waning sentiment to suggest markets are heading further south.
But while more losses are certain, their scope could be limited because many speculators have already made bets that prices will fall.
Commodities from iron ore, to oil, grains and gold have shed value as the current extended price boom or “super-cycle” wanes.
Losses are not new, with oil and gold having peaked in July 2008 and September 2011 respectively, while iron ore has been in retreat since January 2011 and has shed more than 70 per cent since that time. Most are now at multi-year lows.
The Thomson Reuters Commodities Research Bureau index slid 10 per cent in July to its lowest levels since the low point of the global recession at the start of 2009.
But that may not be all.
“There could be more losses to come because I think people are still trying to work out all the moving parts,” said Frances Hudson, global thematic strategist at Standard Life Investments.
“It will depend on the individual commodities because at the end of last week it was becoming sentiment-driven. Everyone was just dumping commodities.”
Last Friday’s US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) reports showed hedge funds and other money managers slashed their bets on gains in US crude prices to the lowest level in five years, while they also bet on lower gold prices for the first time in at least a decade. They reaffirmed expectations for copper to fall.
“It would be dangerous to suggest we have seen a bottom,” said Nic Brown, head of commodity strategy at Natixis.
…
Now who does Tom Brady think he is?
The IRS? Eric Holder? Hillary Clinton? Lois Lerner?
Tom Brady destroyed his cellphone during DeflateGate investigation
By Cindy Boren July 28 at 4:50 PM
Updated with Smith’s information proving correct
As if the DeflateGate saga couldn’t get any odder, it took another turn for the weird Tuesday with an early-morning report that New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady destroyed his cellphone — the one on which he allegedly communicated with equipment men about deflating footballs — during the NFL’s investigation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…/ -
Who gives a rat’s a$$ about deflated footballs?
Evidently Tom Brady or he wouldn’t have Lernered his cell phone.
The nfl and police really wanted to see his wife’s taint selfies.
China trying desperately to levitate its Ponzi markets tonight. Will they succeed, and at what cost?
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/index/shcomp?countrycode=cn&mod=MW_story_quote
Markets
Why this China stock market plunge could be different
“The real worry is that this undermines Chinese people’s confidence in the real economy and the government’s ability to make policy,” says an analyst.
Everett Rosenfeld
19 Hours Ago
CNBC.com
China stocks fell another 1.6 percent Tuesday, a day after tanking more than 8 percent, and many analysts have been quick to point out how Chinese consumers are unlikely to take a hit. But experts who spoke to CNBC say that this time, it could be different.
Stocks account for only about 9 percent of household wealth in China, and major market indices are still higher on the year, so relatively few regular Chinese were severely burned by Monday’s move. Still, the fallout from July’s downturn—and the unsuccessful government interventions that followed—could damage Beijing’s credibility when it comes to exerting control over markets. And that’s a threat to China’s real economy.
“Normally we would say that the Chinese stock market is not that connected to its real economy, as firms don’t use it to raise that much money, and it’s a small percentage of household wealth,” said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Thornton China Center. “By coming in with all these measures, the central authorities on the one hand seemed a little panicky … and the real worry is that this undermines Chinese people’s confidence in the real economy and the government’s ability to make policy.”
Beijing instituted several measures to prop up equity prices, and they temporarily stymied stocks’ fall. But that strategy appeared to break down on Monday. Local, state-controlled media and regulators both suggested that Chinese markets may be under attack by malicious (possibly foreign) sellers.
…
Markets
China’s Stock Response Has No Public Face to Calm Turbulent Markets
There is no Alan Greenspan or Mario Draghi in China
By Lingling Wei
Updated July 28, 2015 1:42 p.m. ET
BEIJING—Wanted in China: a reassuring face to tell panicking investors that everything will be all right.
Since China’s stock boom turned bust more than a month ago, the Chinese government has put out measure after measure to stanch the bleeding. But the rescue effort is missing one feature found in markets elsewhere: a senior figure stepping forward to stop the panic.
“There is no Alan Greenspan or Mario Draghi in China,” said Peng Junming, a former official at China’s central bank and now chief investment officer at Empire Capital Management LLP, a Beijing investment firm. He referred to the former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman and the president of the European Central Bank, respectively, both known for their public assurances in times of crisis.
The reason? Senior Chinese officials, who are appointed by the top echelon of the Communist Party, are often “afraid of saying anything that could displease or overshadow their bosses,” Mr. Peng said. “This has to do with the long-standing Chinese bureaucracy.”
There is a broader disconnect between the People’s Bank of China and central banks in the developed world today. Seeing that the messages they send to markets about interest-rate policies can be as powerful as their actual policy moves in shaping investors’ expectations, the Fed, ECB, Bank of England and others have focused intently in recent years on tailoring their signals.
During the financial crisis, for instance, the Fed used assurances of continued low interest rates to convince investors it wouldn’t let up until the economy was back on its feet. Fed officials held long debates and researchers produced detailed papers focused on how their words and guidance to the public shaped markets and the economy.
The People’s Bank of China, on the other hand, has struggled recently to define its message. The absence of an identifiable and reassuring public face has been felt by investors since mid-June, as panic selling has caused two rounds of severe market drops despite a flurry of steps taken by Beijing to arrest the slide. Some observers said that points to China’s lack of independent and forceful voices among its central bank and top regulators.
“China’s government is learning that, at times of severe financial-market stress, the lack of an independent and credible central bank with a powerful authority figure at the helm can severely hamper efforts to contain investor panic and manage market volatility,” said Eswar Prasad, a Cornell University professor and former China head of the International Monetary Fund.
…
China has a major bubble problem
By Sophia Yan
Buy property! No, wait — buy stocks! OK, back to property!
China has a problem: Its citizens are among the best savers in the world, but they don’t have enough places to stick their money — a reality that’s contributing to the formation of asset bubbles.
For years, the investment of choice in China was property. At one point, this made sense — there was plenty of demand for housing in the world’s most populous country. Entire metropolises were going up overnight.
But as more investors piled into property, the market became saturated. Some new developments stood vacant, construction slowed and real estate prices declined. With returns dropping, many investors moved their money out of property and into a newly hot investing vehicle: the stock market.
The wave of investment helped push China’s stock market to new highs. Shanghai stocks peaked in mid-June, having increased by an incredible 150% over the previous year. The Shenzhen stock market was even frothier.
Then the bottom fell out, with stocks entering a dizzying free fall in recent weeks.
Now, because average Chinese have few investment options, some of the money is being plowed right back into property, according to the China Household Finance Survey.
“What we have here is Chinese households with a huge savings rate, with a lot of cash to invest,” said Brian Jackson, a China economist with IHS Global Insight. “There are fairly limited formal investment options in China, so people crowd into the ones that are available … [and] that does fuel speculative bubbles.”
Chinese investors are limited to property, government pension funds, basic savings accounts and stocks. There are no 401K accounts or Roth IRAs, and foreign investment is heavily restricted.
The lack of options has allowed the proliferation of much riskier, opaque investments, often referred to as “wealth management products,” which offer higher interest rates than traditional savings accounts. The problem is that they’re managed off a bank’s balance sheet, and with little transparency.
For investors hoping to avoid this shadow investment system, stocks and property can offer attractive returns.
The recent stock market boom was fueled by retail investors, many of whom had little experience with investing and rushed in after seeing neighbors and relatives turn a hefty profit. Many believed that government support for markets made stocks a safe bet.
That kind of crowd mentality exists in other places, Jackson said, but speculative bubbles can form more quickly in China.
“The issue the [Chinese] government has is to find a way to expand the number of investment options to match household demand for investment, but also without introducing too much volatility in the system,” he said.
…