August 1, 2015

Bits Bucket for August 1, 2015

Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here.




RSS feed

250 Comments »

Comment by Ol' Bubba
2015-08-01 04:12:27

Time to make the coffee…

Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 07:11:30

Slow news day? Chinese cyber attack per Adan’s orders?

 
Comment by Goon
2015-08-01 09:13:04

Have a cup of this:

http://www.picpaste.com/FtrLz10o.jpg

Region VIII

Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 09:35:03

Beautiful…

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 09:54:37

“Have a cup of this:…”

Czech out these mountains:
http://picpaste.com/goon_babe2.jpg

Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 10:19:37

I will pass on the mountains but thats a pretty nice a$$…

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 09:56:51

Did you see Crom up there? If not, climb higher.

 
 
 
Comment by frankie
2015-08-01 05:10:16

Family members of Osama Bin Laden were killed in a private jet crash in Hampshire on Friday, the Saudi Arabian embassy in the UK has said.
It came down near Blackbushe Airport, close to the Surrey border, killing the pilot and all three passengers.In a statement, the Saudi ambassador to the UK, Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud, offered condolences to the Bin Laden family.

The embassy said it was in contact with the British crash investigators.
The statement said: “His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf Al Saud… has paid his condolences to the family and relatives of Mohammed bin Laden at Blackbushe airport in Britain for the great loss they have suffered as a result of the crash of the plane that was carrying the family.”

The embassy added that it was working with the British authorities to ensure the speedy handover of the bodies for funerals and burials in Saudi Arabia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33745057

Comment by Ethan in nova
2015-08-01 08:45:12

Did the bush family offer condolences to their close family friends?

(I already read house of bush, house of saud.)

Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 10:20:56

+100!

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 10:43:05

“Did the bush family offer condolences to their close family friends?”

Did the bush family offer condolences to their benefactors?

In reality the Arabs, Jews and Persians really have little to offer the U.S. or its consumers. We should ignore this region until they become more civilized and produce compelling products.

Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 11:33:41

A: What is oil?

If we ramped up solar and wind, soon we dont need the Bush loving Saudis. But Exxon is getting angry.

Germany does more solar than USA and it is as far north as Canada. They also build better cars.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by In Colorado
2015-08-01 12:24:04

They also build better cars.

You mean cars that break and cost an arm and leg to repair.

 
Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 13:10:15

BMW’s don’t break as much as American cars and are fun to drive.

I find all new cars have very expensive parts and all the dealers charge an arm and a leg.

My neighbor’s 2007 Honda’s CRV’s AC went out. Quote $2100 to fix.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:32:18

Israeli has a world-class technological base that produces very compelling products in a wide variety of fields.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-08-01 14:51:26

And still we give them billions in handouts.

 
 
 
 
Comment by aNYCdj
2015-08-01 11:52:58

too bad bush allowed the family to leave the US when there was a shoot to kill no fly order after 9/11

Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 13:12:42

The connections, cultivated over a quarter of a century, are complex and multifarious, emanating outwards from Houston, centred on oil, embracing both the public and private sector activities of the House of Bush, lubricated and driven by money and power. Unger estimates that $1.476bn has made its way over time from the Saudis to the House of Bush, and its allied companies and institutions. He writes: “It could safely be said that never before in history had a presidential candidate - much less a presidential candidate and his father, a former president - been so closely tied financially and personally to the ruling family of another foreign power. Never before had a president’s fortunes and public policies been so deeply entwined with another nation.”

Jeb 2016!

 
 
 
Comment by frankie
2015-08-01 05:14:21

The federal government has closed the book on what was once called the Canadian Wheat Board.

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz says Ottawa has finalized the sale of the agency that marketed grain for western Canadian farmers since 1935 to G3 Global Grain Group.

G3 says the board, known recently as CWB, will be combined with Bunge Canada to form a new company called G3 Canada Ltd.

CWB privatization divides farmers
G3 CEO Karl Gerrand says the name change is a step toward building a highly efficient coast-to-coast grain handling company.

The federal government announced in April that G3, which is partly owned by Saudi Arabia, would buy 50.1 per cent of the board for $250 million.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/ottawa-closes-sale-of-canadian-wheat-board-name-changes-to-g3-canada-ltd-1.3175983

 
Comment by frankie
2015-08-01 05:27:08

Philippine generals on Wednesday asked Congress to almost triple annual defence spending over the next five years to upgrade equipment amid an escalating marine dispute with giant neighbour China.

The Philippines currently is in the middle of a 998 billion pesos (£14 billion) 15-year plan to modernize its armed forces in the face of rising tensions in the South China Sea.

“The gaps between our needed defence articles and the levels of our current inventory are too wide to ignore,” Brigadier-General Guillermo Molina told a national defence panel hearing at the House of Representatives.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/07/29/uk-philippines-defence-idUKKCN0Q31J420150729

WARSAW — Following a meeting in Vilnius, Latvia’s and Lithuania’s defense ministers have announced plans to increase their countries’ military spending — to 2 percent and 1.5 percent of their gross domestic products, respectively, local broadcaster LSM reports.

Latvian Defensce Minister Raimonds Bergmanis said that he and his Lithuanian counterpart, Juozas Olekas, also discussed sending Latvian military instructors to Ukraine to assist with training in support of that government’s battle against Russia-backed insurgents in the country’s east. Lithuania already has deployed military instructors to Ukraine.

http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/international/europe/2015/07/29/latvia-lithuania-raise-defense-spending/30843863/

Pakistan’s defence budget proposal for the year 2015-2016, was announced on 5th June, 2015, with the budget standing at PKR 781 billion, and the allocation for defence increased by 11.6 percent. Unsurprisingly, in the typically cavalier fashion of its critics, this increase has come under harsh censure, with little or no understanding of the context of why it occurred, or cognizance of the challenges being faced by Pakistan.

A closer look at global and regional facts and figures, presents a picture better representative of reality. In contrast to its regional partners, Pakistan’s defence budget has actually decreased over time, particularly in comparison to its share in the total national budget. Our defence budget for the 2003-2004, stood at about 21 percent of the total budget, whereas in the latest budget, allocation for defence totals approximately 16.6 percent of the total, standing behind debt services and general public services.

http://nation.com.pk/columns/03-Jul-2015/rationalising-the-defence-budget

Looks like it is a good time to invest in defence stocks.

 
Comment by frankie
2015-08-01 05:30:13

Sidney Rittenberg knows a thing or two about China. During World War II, he learned fluent Mandarin as a U.S. Army linguist, worked in China, left the Army, and joined the Chinese Communist Party. He became friends with Mao Zedong and spent 16 years in solitary confinement  —   as Mao’s prisoner.

We recently spoke to Rittenberg about his experiences in Maoist China, his imprisonment, and why he became disillusioned with the party. In his 93 years, he’s seen China and America at their best … and their worst.

Now as tensions between Washington and Beijing grow, Rittenberg worries that American officials are returning to old habits of seeing China as a mysterious and hostile power. The former apparatchik thinks this is a grave mistake.

http://theweek.com/articles/569232/war-china-bloody–stupid

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:30:24

This Red fellow traveler should’ve been hanged for treason.

 
 
Comment by azdude
2015-08-01 05:41:49

are central banks more interested in nurturing their investments or acting as if they are helping the economy?

I guess the PBOC is losing a sh@tload of money on their stock investments so they are rounding up short sellers.

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 08:15:30

It’s like they are handing out free money to investors, similar to what the Fed did in the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown with respect to the U.S. stock and housing markets.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:33:13

The Fed is still handing out free trillions in gambling money to its favored accomplices, aka the Primary Dealers on Wall Street. Who are once again up their old tricks, making it likely if not inevitable that they will need to be bailed out again by taxpayers. Thankfully for the bankers, ‘Muricans showed overwhelmingly in ‘08 and ‘12 that have have no problem bending over on demand when the banksters need a bailout, so they are free to engage in an orgy of speculative excess knowing taxpayers have their backs.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:34:34

The Fed is still handing out free trillions in gambling money to its favored accomplices, aka the Primary Dealers on Wall Street. Who are once again up their old tricks, making it likely if not inevitable that they will need to be bailed out again by taxpayers.

Thankfully for the bankers, ‘Muricans showed overwhelmingly in ‘08 and ‘12 with their votes for Obama, McCain, and Romney that the sheeple have have no problem bending over on demand when the banksters need a bailout, so the latter are free to engage in an orgy of speculative excesses and fraud knowing taxpayers have their backs.

Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 10:01:20

He who pays the fiddler calls the tune.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 10:14:34

Everything is fine until the music stops.

 
Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 10:53:52

And the band played on though

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:33:23

And the sheep grazed on.

 
Comment by Shrimpsaladsandwich
2015-08-01 13:57:07

Lol +1

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Dman
2015-08-01 05:58:32

The oil companies have experienced a shocking decline in profits. That makes me wanna cwy :(

Comment by Ol'Bubba
2015-08-01 06:26:35

Don’t cry. Go get yourself a jiffy lube.

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 06:46:23

Short XOM and CVX then.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 08:16:44

Go fill your SUV’s gas tank and rejoice!

 
 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 06:44:35

Detroit teachers livid as they go unpaid, shortchanged

July 31, 2015

DETROIT – While some teachers might complain about the size of their paycheck, Detroit Public School teachers are hardly surprised when they don’t get a check at all.

“We need something that will effectively, regularly pay the teachers what they’re owed. They do the work. They need the pay. They need it on-time, with bills to pay. All they get now is a runaround,” Detroit Federation of Teachers President Steve Conn told Click on Detroit.

Conn raised a ruckus in the media this week after some of his members were shorted hundreds of dollars in their paychecks, while others didn’t receive a pay check at all. And it’s not the first time.

“When I went online to look at my pay stub, I saw it was short by a whole week,” Regina Dixon, a teacher at Coleman A. Young Elementary, told The Detroit News.

“I was upset because I have obligations I need to meet. So I went down there today and was told they had to put the money on a debit card, so I have to go back on Friday after 3 p.m. But it’s inconvenient to have to go back, and there may be a long line,” she said.

“It’s a shame we have to go through this, especially with the so-called transformation of the schools.”

“It’s disheartening because I worked for my money and I want it,” Charles Wright Academy teacher Marcie Taylor said. “I’m calculating how much to pay for bills, and I help my mother, who is sick, but now my check is short.”

Taylor said it’s at least the second time the district has paid her on a debit card because of payroll problems.

“A lot of us are working paycheck to paycheck because our pay has decreased,” she said. “We’re getting paid less because our health insurance went up. I’m paying $200 per paycheck for insurance. Now I have to call about my bills and ask if I can pay them on Friday because I wasn’t paid all my money on time.”

eagnews.org/detroit-teachers-livid-as-they-go-unpaid-shortchanged/ - 169k -

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:01:00

A lot of public union takers who presided over turning our schools into DNC indoctrination mills will be enraged when they realize those corrupt, incompetent Democrat administrations they sustained in power didn’t just run those municipalities into the ground and rip off taxpayers and productive citizens - they also made dodgy deals with Wall Street grifters as the financing ran out (i.e. as the parasites killed the hosts) so now the public labor unions are going to get thrown under the bus. (Wait till you see what Wall Street did with your pensions, losers.) The poetic justice is rich indeed….

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 17:50:28

“A lot of us are working paycheck to paycheck because our pay has decreased,” she said. “We’re getting paid less because our health insurance went up. I’m paying $200 per paycheck for insurance. Now I have to call about my bills and ask if I can pay them on Friday because I wasn’t paid all my money on time.”

Cry me a river, NAR slugs. I only feel sympathy for the kids who are wholly unprepared to go out and function in society, thanks to their substandard “everyone’s a winner!” education.

 
 
Comment by Oddfellow
2015-08-01 07:27:29

Things that make you go ‘hmmm’.

Head of failed Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox arrested

Associated Press By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) — The head of the failed Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox was arrested in Tokyo on Saturday on suspicion of inflating his cash account by $1 million, authorities said.

Mark Karpeles, 30, is suspected of accessing the exchange’s computer system in February 2013 and inflating his account, Japanese police said. If found guilty, the France-born Karpeles could face up to five years in prison, or a fine of up to 500,000 yen ($4,000).

Mt. Gox went offline early last year. Karpeles said then that tens of thousands of bitcoins worth several hundred million dollars were unaccounted for, and suggested they were stolen by hacking.

The relationship between the lost bitcoins and the inflated account was not immediately clear.

Japanese authorities have acknowledged they were baffled by the Mt. Gox case because they had never dealt with possible crime dealing with bitcoin. Experts also said it might be difficult to take action because of the absence of laws over virtual currencies.

http://news.yahoo.com/failed-bitcoin-exchange-chief-karpeles-arrested-japan-071333424–finance.html

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 07:47:41

Mt. Gox is old news.

If you don’t make your own paper bitcoin wallet and store your bitcoins there, you are at the mercy of your app that stores the bitcoin.

See bitaddress.org.

Turn your Wi-Fi off or unplug your Ethernet cable, make your bitcoin wallet, memorize your private address, Clear your web browsing history, close your web browser, reboot your machine, turn on Wi-Fi or plug in your Ethernet cable.

security is simple as that.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:02:40

Investing in a make-believe currency doesn’t seem like something you’d fall for, SH. I’d rather put my hard-earned money into tangible items of value that are going to be essential after the Fed causes a dollar collapse.

Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 08:11:52

after the Fed causes a dollar collapse ??

And how will that happen ??

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by In Colorado
2015-08-01 08:21:23

And how will that happen ??

Indeed, right now Uncle Buck is considered the safe choice, as currencies around the globe are worth less and less.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:26:47

The Fed will cause a dollar collapse by doing what central bankers have done since time immemorial: printing (inflating) away all government debts and liabilities, destroying the value of the currency in the process.

http://dollarcollapse.com

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:29:18

Here’s a preview of what’s in store for us once the Fed’s deranged money printing coupled with our fiscal profligacy catches up with the dollar.

http://www.amazon.com/When-Money-Dies-Devaluation-Hyperinflation/dp/1586489941

 
Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 08:37:05

The Fed will cause a dollar collapse by doing what central bankers have done since time immemorial: printing (inflating) away all government debts and liabilities, destroying the value of the currency in the process ??

Really ?? You must have been to young then to remember this;

Inflation, which peaked at 13.5% in 1981, was lowered to 3.2% by 1983.[12] The Federal Reserve board led by Volcker raised the federal funds rate, which had averaged 11.2% in 1979, to a peak of 20% in June 1981. The prime rate rose to 21.5% in 1981 as well. Thus, the unemployment rate rose to over 10%. The economy was restored since the tight-money policy was over in 1982.

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-01 08:37:54

Collapsing demand as a result of the bottlenecking and price fixing of prices results in a more valuable currency.

 
Comment by WPA
2015-08-01 08:46:50

The Fed will cause a dollar collapse by doing what central bankers have done since time immemorial: printing (inflating)

It’s not so simple. Monetary policy and fiscal policy are two separate things. Monetary policy alone, as we’ve seen, has caused little inflation — but it has caused a huge savings glut among institutions and the wealthy. When corporations sit on their cash and don’t expand and hire, only fiscal policy (government spending, jobs programs, infrastructure, etc.) can inject money into the hands of the worker bees — that would cause inflation as incomes rise and a critical mass of people drive up demand for goods. It’s the velocity of money not the volume of money that matters.

For more see Krugman (http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/07/28/second-best-macroeconomics/

 
Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 09:05:12

only fiscal policy (government spending, jobs programs, infrastructure, etc.) ??

And IMO, that is whats coming…The combination of tax reform and fiscal policy boom coming to you in 2017-18….

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 09:13:39

Really, WPA? Citing Paul Krugman, chief propagandist for the Keynesian lunatics running our monetary policy? It’s not like you just destroyed your credibility, because you have none, but you and the other Krugmanite Kool-Aid drinkers are in for a rude awakening when the Fed’s asset bubbles and Ponzi markets implode under the weight of their own fraud.

 
Comment by WPA
2015-08-01 09:14:56

And IMO, that is whats coming…The combination of tax reform and fiscal policy boom coming to you in 2017-18….

… and when climate change really starts taking its toll (which will happen sooner than many realize), the feds are going to building lots of levees, bulwarks, seawalls, etc. in and near coastal cities. We’re gonna spending lots more money on infrastructure building whether Congress wants to or not.

 
Comment by The Order Of The Golden Chainsaw
2015-08-01 09:14:56

And IMO, that is whats coming…The combination of tax reform and fiscal policy boom coming to you in 2017-18….

Nothing more than a wishful thinking. Then again didn’t we do close to 800 billion stimulus 5 yrs ago? How did that go? We are living under massive stimulus by the central bankers and your currency will pay the price.

 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 09:18:20

(inflating)

But as we have seen, unless a bunch of that printed money makes it into the hands of the wretched refuse, the only things that get inflated are the prices of things that the central banks are manipulating.

IMO, “Housing Bubble II” is another under the radar Bankster bail out.

Who wants to bet that it all collapses again, just as soon as the banks, private equity, and hedge funds get these mortgages off their books, and/or fixes their MERS problems with new mortgages (with new bagholders)?

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-01 09:19:24

Monetary policy has caused unprecedented market distortions and collapsing demand.

 
Comment by WPA
2015-08-01 09:42:50

Really, WPA? Citing Paul Krugman, chief propagandist for the Keynesian lunatics running our monetary policy?

Don’t know what to tell you Ray. Myself and others have repeatedly explained that Keynes did not support monetarism (and neither does Krugman really) but you continue to give Keynesianism a bad rap. QE and central bank intervention is not Keynesian!

 
Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 09:44:16

Nothing more than a wishful thinking ??

Bet against it at your own peril…

Major Tax reform is a LOCK…..Through it we will get to surplus because EVERYONE will pay a bit more particularly if they include a VAT…That will tax the underground economy which now pays nothing…

After that, there are a number of issues that get addressed…Medicare…Debt…Infrastructure building…

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:47:14

Wouldn’t taxing value through a VAT reduce the value produced by the economy?

Maybe they should more accurately refer to the program as VRT (Value Reduction Tax)?

 
Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 10:11:40

Lock, lock? Nothing is a lock. The government is dysfunctional to the point nothing major can get passed anymore. Obamacare killed it until the public wises up, which will probably be never. Nothing can get done, hence the executive orders.

 
Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 10:25:53

VAT reduce the value produced by the economy ??

Is a broad easy way to collect taxes particularly from people who are evading taxes…

Lock, lock? Nothing is a lock ??

Major Tax Reform is…..

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-01 10:53:29

Tax reform without widespread spending reduction is a failure Dave. You know this.

 
Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 10:57:31

Major Tax Reform? Maybe we have different ideas about major and reform. Major Frank Burns (who eats worms) has a better chance of being elected President.

Housing prices have certainly inflated though (whether that’s counted as inflation or not).

 
Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 11:36:29

“… and when climate change really starts taking its toll (which will happen sooner than many realize), the feds are going to building lots of levees, bulwarks, seawalls, etc. in and near coastal cities. We’re gonna spending lots more money on infrastructure building whether Congress wants to or not.”

GLOBAL WARMING, LIKE WAR IS GOOD FOR THE UNEMPLOYED.

….SHORT TERM GAINS, LONG TERM DEBTS AND LOSSES…

 
Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 11:39:10

“Tax reform without widespread spending reduction is a failure Dave. You know this.”

SEE REAGAN

 
Comment by Uncle House
2015-08-01 14:49:59

The name ‘Keynes’ is forbidden to be spoken, except to ridicule, and his ideas are to be obfuscated. For his teachings are dangerous, and the common man is not to be trusted to learn of them and their history.

So say the high priests, and their lackeys who help guide us. And so it shall be.

 
Comment by The Order Of The Golden Chainsaw
2015-08-01 16:29:58

The greatest trick the Keynesians ever pulled was convincing the world that his ideas were unpopular while secretly implementing everything Keynesian hoping and praying it will stick.

 
Comment by Patrick
2015-08-01 18:55:31

Before, M1 did the trick for both M1 and M2 today. They needed to counterfeit under M2 to keep the level just equal. Right now I think the US economy is improving - slowly -

That is going to cause M1 concerns so I think WPA is right, even though today’s systems can dramatically improve the speed of money over 2008.

 
 
 
Comment by In Colorado
2015-08-01 08:26:00

Turn your Wi-Fi off or unplug your Ethernet cable, make your bitcoin wallet, memorize your private address, Clear your web browsing history, close your web browser, reboot your machine, turn on Wi-Fi or plug in your Ethernet cable.

security is simple as that.

And don’t forget to back it up and to keep the backup somewhere safe. You don’t want to lose your bitcoins if your hard drive crashes or your computer is stolen.

Heh. Most people can’t be bothered to back up their PC’s, heck most probably don’t even know how to do that. They crash and the lose all their photos and ripped music and videos.

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 12:14:56

Dude, your Bitcoin paper wallet is NOT stored on a hard drive. If you can remember about three dozen alphanumeric mixed case characters that is your wallet. In your brain. Your public address can be written down if you like. On paper.

Never store your Bitcoin paper wallet on your PC hard drive.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by In Colorado
2015-08-01 12:26:45

You really expect Joe Six Pack to do that?

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 16:35:41

I don’t expect J6P to buy bitcoin. The level of education in crypto is inversely proportional to how much someone is willing to be ripped off.

The bitcoin.org site is always where newbies are directed to.

Anyone who does not do their homework on crypto currency does deserve to be ripped off.

I am in a crypto club on line. I see lots of scammers there pitching things. I even have some friends on facebook I know are scammers and some try to hook me in. I know better. There is one called Onecoin. All it takes is to look up on your favorite search engine and you see it’s a scam. The friend of mine keeps pushing it. I just ignore his posts.

 
Comment by AbsoluteBeginner
2015-08-01 21:02:52

Uh, er, ummmm:

https://www.onecoin.eu/

And, is this a European creation too?

http://cointelegraph.com/news/114399/one-coin-much-scam-onecoin-exposed-as-global-mlm-ponzi-scheme

Think I’ll just wait for silver and gold to hit rock bottom and just buy those instead.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:17:44

Isn’t Mt. Gox’s proper pronunciation, “Empty Gox”?

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 07:32:35

Remind me again what John McCain and the neo-cons have to show for the $2 trillion we squandered in Iraq, not to mention the staggering human toll.

http://news.yahoo.com/iraqis-protest-over-poor-services-salty-tap-water-000016757.html

Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-08-01 10:29:07

An army of loon voters, terrified of whatever they’re told to be. OBAMA! BOOGABOOGA! IRAN! AIEEEEEEE!

 
Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 10:59:11

They have a very successful distraction. Meanwhile 10 million poured in from Mexico. Mission accomplished.

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 07:35:49

Zimbabwe to U.S.: Extradite dentist over killing of Cecil the lion

By Faith Karimi, Michael Martinez and Laura Smith-Spark, CNN

Updated 10:13 PM ET, Fri July 31, 2015
| Video Source: CNN

(CNN)As outrage grows over the killing of Cecil the lion, Zimbabwe has called on the United States to extradite the American dentist who shot the prized big cat.

Zimbabwe has started extradition proceedings and hopes the United States will cooperate, said Oppah Muchinguri, the African nation’s environment minister.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/07/31/world/zimbabwe-cecil-lion-dentist/ - 262k -
—————————————————————————–

‘What lion?’ Zimbabweans ask, amid global Cecil circus

By MacDonald Dzirutwe
Thu Jul 30, 2015 10:17am EDT

As social media exploded with outrage this week at the killing of Cecil the lion, the untimely passing of the celebrated predator at the hands of an American dentist went largely unnoticed in the animal’s native Zimbabwe.

“What lion?” acting information minister Prisca Mupfumira asked in response to a request for comment about Cecil, who was at that moment topping global news bulletins and generating reams of abuse for his killer on websites in the United States and Europe.

The government has still given no formal response, and on Thursday the papers that chose to run the latest twist in the Cecil saga tucked it away on inside pages.

One title had to rely on foreign news agency copy because it failed to send a reporter to the court appearance of two locals involved.

In contrast, the previous evening 200 people stood in protest outside the suburban Minneapolis dental practice of 55-year-old Walter Palmer, calling for him to be extradited to Zimbabwe to face charges of taking part in an illegal hunt.

Local police are also investigating death threats against Palmer, whose location is not known. Because many of the threats were online, police are having difficulty determining their origins and credibility.

For most people in the southern African nation, where unemployment tops 80 percent and the economy continues to feel the after-effects of billion percent hyperinflation a decade ago, the uproar had all the hallmarks of a ‘First World Problem’.

“Are you saying that all this noise is about a dead lion? Lions are killed all the time in this country,” said Tryphina Kaseke, a used-clothes hawker on the streets of Harare. “What is so special about this one?”

As with many countries in Africa, in Zimbabwe big wild animals such as lions, elephants or hippos are seen either as a potential meal, or a threat to people and property that needs to be controlled or killed.

The world of Palmer, who paid $50,000 to kill 13-year-old Cecil, is a very different one from that inhabited by millions of rural Africans who are more than occasionally victims of wild animal attacks.

According to CrocBITE, a database, from January 2008 to October 2013, there were more than 460 recorded attacks by Nile crocodiles, most of them fatal. That tally is almost certainly a massive underrepresentation.

“Why are the Americans more concerned than us?” said Joseph Mabuwa, a 33-year-old father-of-two cleaning his car in the center of the capital. “We never hear them speak out when villagers are killed by lions and elephants in Hwange.”

http://www.reuters.com/…/2015/07/30/us-zimbabwe-wildlife-lion-idUSKCN0Q41VB20150730 - 112k -

Comment by Ben Jones
2015-08-01 08:18:09

‘from January 2008 to October 2013, there were more than 460 recorded attacks by Nile crocodiles, most of them fatal. That tally is almost certainly a massive underrepresentation.’

“Why are the Americans more concerned than us?” said Joseph Mabuwa.’

The eternal re-ordering of priorities. Should we note that more US citizens are killed by falling furniture than by terrorists? Because if so, it might cause us to question why so much money and blood (and media attention; a connection?) is spilled on the latter.

When I lived in the Dallas metro in the 80’s, I noticed that automobile fatalities were relegated to a newspaper page far from the cover. But these deaths are enormous when compared to shootings and Ebola outbreaks, etc. Let’s dig a little deeper; most automobile accidents occur in construction zones. Why that means they could be preventable.

And in the 80’s, we didn’t have multiple 24 hour TV news channels, fighting for eyeballs.

Comment by WPA
2015-08-01 08:51:11

Hear hear. If you are a pedestrian or bicyclist, the number one threat to your life is not ISIS — it’s an American Idiot distracted driver checking their smartphones while driving.

Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 08:57:31

Try this experiment:

Next time you are sitting at a traffic light at rush hour, take a survey of how many people are talking/texting.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by The Order Of The Golden Chainsaw
2015-08-01 09:00:44

Just walk your neighborhood and observe how many are driving while talking or texting. You will be surprised.

 
Comment by WPA
2015-08-01 09:32:59

Near head-on collision caused by smartphone driver caught on dash cam: https://youtu.be/lPWOxtIe3Jg?t=48s

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 10:35:05

“Next time you are sitting at a traffic light at rush hour, take a survey of how many people are talking/texting.”

I commute to work and exercise on a bicycle, and I see it all the time.

 
 
Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 10:14:23

More people are killed by smartphones every year than by handguns.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 17:37:21

+1. All the so-called mothers who get so hot and bothered about guns are the chief culprits in distracted-driving mishaps.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-08-01 17:47:42

How’d you come up with that?

 
 
Comment by Bluto
2015-08-01 12:06:55

Very true, I do a lot of bicycling and walking now that I’m retired and have nearly gotten killed a number of times, generally have a really scary close call a few times a month. When I’m out in town I nearly always see at least one car blow through a red light, can remember this was a rare thing to witness years ago.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:38:04

And if you’re an American taxpayer, the number one threat to your wallet and your country’s solvency is the ‘Murican idiot voter.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:21:34

“…more than 460 recorded attacks by Nile crocodiles, most of them fatal.”

North African terrorists!

 
Comment by aNYCdj
2015-08-01 12:03:08

is that why most construction zones are dark unpainted even at 25 mph dangerous to drive in?

i never understood why they just dont paint the barriers with luminescence yellow so you can at least have some reference to where the road is in the rain.

Let’s dig a little deeper; most automobile accidents occur in construction zones. Why that means they could be preventable.

 
Comment by Dman
2015-08-01 13:25:43

Last year, a busy highway construction zone in Texas had a speed limit of 70mph, down from something like 80 or 85. We couldn’t believe that we were allowed to drive that fast only feet away from construction workers.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:24:18

“As with many countries in Africa, in Zimbabwe big wild animals such as lions, elephants or hippos are seen either as a potential meal, or a threat to people and property that needs to be controlled or killed.”

I’m sure Minnesotans would feel quite differently about Cecil if he had lived at large in a Minneapolis suburb.

Comment by Giraffe
2015-08-01 10:15:19

That Lion had it comin’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_krK8cWAetA - 304k -

Comment by Ben Jones
2015-08-01 10:26:53

‘MSNBC opens daytime hours for breaking news; Brian Williams will helm’

‘The move opens up the daytime hours for continuing breaking news coverage, where Williams will be at the helm. MSNBC will be the platform for the former “NBC Nightly News” anchor’s reentry to TV news after he served a six-month suspension for false statements he made about his experience reporting on the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.’

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-msnbc-reinvention-williams-20150801-story.html

Notice it’s the entertainment section.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by The Order Of The Golden Chainsaw
2015-08-01 10:35:58

Reinvent with more lies?

 
Comment by ComfortableClass
2015-08-01 11:02:04

An African friend of mine once told me you could hear a lion roar at night from something like 10 miles away!

 
Comment by The Order Of The Golden Chainsaw
2015-08-01 12:43:22

A Sherpa told me climbing 8000 meters mountain is like running a 5k.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 07:52:06

Musical currencies: Which currency will not get a chair when the music stops next time? Dollar? Yen? Euro? Yuan? Ruble? Bitcoin?

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-31/paying-broken-world

Diversify.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:06:15

That’s like asking who has the most fingers left in the leper colony. All of those currencies are “backed” by central banks that have embarked on a regime of currency debasement and trying to print their way out of their debts and obligations (or in the case of the Fed, printing trillions in free gambling money for its Wall Street accomplices). I’d rather trade my green pieces of paper (FRNs, as opposed to actual money backed by a store of value) for something of value, before the Fed debases it right into the ground.

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 08:31:22

Bitcoin is backed by its appeal to techno geeks of its block chain technology and to anti governmentarians for its freedom from political influence, confiscation or devaluation tax risks. But it is not exactly liquid, and has already gone through a massive bubble and bust over its short life span.

Caveat emptor!

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 08:37:52

“I’d rather trade my green pieces of paper (FRNs, as opposed to actual money backed by a store of value) for something of value, before the Fed debases it right into the ground.”

The trend ain’t your friend if your ’something of value’ is denominated in hard commodities. Did you ever consider that if enough people simultaneously employed the same strategy you did, a bubble in the dollar price of ‘actual money backed by a store of value’ could result?

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:44:27

I’ll be happy to buy up precious metals (physical only) from anyone willing to sell them to me at these prices. Am also buying canned goods, kerosene, and other essentials to have on hand in case things start to unravel more quickly than expected.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:27:35

You seem fearful of an imminent collapse of civilization. I’m not saying that I think such events impossible, but I’m missing the signs of a likely near-term collapse.

 
Comment by Prime_Is_Contained
2015-08-01 09:34:56

Am also buying canned goods, kerosene, and other essentials to have on hand in case things start to unravel more quickly than expected.

Stockpiling kerosene in your closet or basement?

The fire department loves people like you…

 
Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 11:46:58

Seems to me…. If you truly believed the chaos and collapse is coming you would move somewhere that you could live off the land and not freeze to death. Maybe GA is the cheapest place for that? OR for the fresh water? CA has the best weather and food, but $$$. Who needs kerosene?

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:45:11

ou seem fearful of an imminent collapse of civilization.

I’m not fearful of an imminet “collapse of civilization.” I do think it’s likely we will see a systemic financial crisis worse than 2008 and that could well lead to a dollar collapse. That could lead to a lot of supply-chain issues, desperate people, and localized civil unrest, but I don’t foresee an “imminent collapse of civilization” nor have I ever said such a thing.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 12:54:43

South Sea Islands, perhaps? (Of course, this plan would not have panned out well during WWII…)

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 12:55:52

“…systemic financial crisis worse than 2008 and that could well lead to a dollar collapse.”

Any thoughts on why this didn’t happen in the post-2008 period? Or why one should expect it to happen next time, given that it didn’t happen the last time?

 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-08-01 12:59:04

or why there would be civil unrest or supply chain issues?

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 17:43:40

Any thoughts on why this didn’t happen in the post-2008 period?

It didn’t happen because the Fed threw as much as $16 trillion in printing press money to paper over the gaping holes in the house of cards. Now they’ve spent their ammo and all they’ve done is to defer the financial reckoning day, but it’s still bearing down on us. Throw in geographic uncertainties - especially with an increasingly assertive China that at some point may be tempted to press its claims in the Pacific with military force, impacting our sea lanes - and it might be prudent to stash away enough essentials to ride out potential disruptions.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 17:48:24

Nine missed meals to anarchy - look at some of the recent bad behavior during short-term natural disasters, i.e. Katrina, and things will get ugly in the event of any large-scale disruptions to the transportation or power grids.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1024833/Nine-meals-anarchy–Britain-facing-real-food-crisis.html

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 19:58:36

“Now they’ve spent their ammo and all they’ve done is to defer the financial reckoning day, but it’s still bearing down on us.”

Many fairly knowledgeable observers commented that the Fed was out of ammunition before they implemented QE1, QE2 and QE3. I frankly don’t know what it means to say they are ‘out of ammo’ when the recent evidence suggests they have no budget limit on the quantity of liquidity the electronic printing press can supply.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:01:05

Speaking of natural disasters, I read an excellent though highly disturbing piece in the wee hours last night about the likely consequences of the next large Cascadia earthquake. I’m now fearful for many friends and colleagues who live in the PNW.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:03:52

Annals of Seismology
July 20, 2015 Issue
The Really Big One
An earthquake will destroy a sizable portion of the coastal Northwest. The question is when.
By Kathryn Schulz
The next full-margin rupture of the Cascadia subduction zone will spell the worst natural disaster in the history of the continent.
Credit Illustration by Christoph Niemann; Map by Ziggymaj / Getty

When the 2011 earthquake and tsunami struck Tohoku, Japan, Chris Goldfinger was two hundred miles away, in the city of Kashiwa, at an international meeting on seismology. As the shaking started, everyone in the room began to laugh. Earthquakes are common in Japan—that one was the third of the week—and the participants were, after all, at a seismology conference. Then everyone in the room checked the time.

Seismologists know that how long an earthquake lasts is a decent proxy for its magnitude. The 1989 earthquake in Loma Prieta, California, which killed sixty-three people and caused six billion dollars’ worth of damage, lasted about fifteen seconds and had a magnitude of 6.9. A thirty-second earthquake generally has a magnitude in the mid-sevens. A minute-long quake is in the high sevens, a two-minute quake has entered the eights, and a three-minute quake is in the high eights. By four minutes, an earthquake has hit magnitude 9.0.

When Goldfinger looked at his watch, it was quarter to three. The conference was wrapping up for the day. He was thinking about sushi. The speaker at the lectern was wondering if he should carry on with his talk. The earthquake was not particularly strong. Then it ticked past the sixty-second mark, making it longer than the others that week. The shaking intensified. The seats in the conference room were small plastic desks with wheels. Goldfinger, who is tall and solidly built, thought, No way am I crouching under one of those for cover. At a minute and a half, everyone in the room got up and went outside.

It was March. There was a chill in the air, and snow flurries, but no snow on the ground. Nor, from the feel of it, was there ground on the ground. The earth snapped and popped and rippled. It was, Goldfinger thought, like driving through rocky terrain in a vehicle with no shocks, if both the vehicle and the terrain were also on a raft in high seas. The quake passed the two-minute mark. The trees, still hung with the previous autumn’s dead leaves, were making a strange rattling sound. The flagpole atop the building he and his colleagues had just vacated was whipping through an arc of forty degrees. The building itself was base-isolated, a seismic-safety technology in which the body of a structure rests on movable bearings rather than directly on its foundation. Goldfinger lurched over to take a look. The base was lurching, too, back and forth a foot at a time, digging a trench in the yard. He thought better of it, and lurched away. His watch swept past the three-minute mark and kept going.

Oh, shit, Goldfinger thought, although not in dread, at first: in amazement. For decades, seismologists had believed that Japan could not experience an earthquake stronger than magnitude 8.4. In 2005, however, at a conference in Hokudan, a Japanese geologist named Yasutaka Ikeda had argued that the nation should expect a magnitude 9.0 in the near future—with catastrophic consequences, because Japan’s famous earthquake-and-tsunami preparedness, including the height of its sea walls, was based on incorrect science. The presentation was met with polite applause and thereafter largely ignored. Now, Goldfinger realized as the shaking hit the four-minute mark, the planet was proving the Japanese Cassandra right.

For a moment, that was pretty cool: a real-time revolution in earthquake science. Almost immediately, though, it became extremely uncool, because Goldfinger and every other seismologist standing outside in Kashiwa knew what was coming. One of them pulled out a cell phone and started streaming videos from the Japanese broadcasting station NHK, shot by helicopters that had flown out to sea soon after the shaking started. Thirty minutes after Goldfinger first stepped outside, he watched the tsunami roll in, in real time, on a two-inch screen.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:07:12

How To Survive The Cascadia Tsunami
Wes Siler
Filed to: Cascadia Subduction 7/30/15 5:23pm

“Thirteen thousand people will die in the Cascadia earthquake and tsunami,” reads Kathryn Schulz’s now-infamous New Yorker article. “Everything west of Interstate 5 will be toast.” Turns out a very similar event occurred in Chile 55 years ago. What wisdom can its survivors share with residents of the Northwest?

Chile’s Big One

On the evening of May 22, 1960, a magnitude 9.5 earthquake struck 100 miles off the coast of Chile. It would be the strongest earthquake ever recorded.

The resulting tsunami waves were so strong that they reached as far as Japan, where they killed 138 people.

Their effect was obviously stronger in Chile. By the time the flood waters had receded, authorities counted over 2,000 bodies.

The closest town to the epicenter was Lumaco, which even today is home to just 11,000 people.

A Chilean Model For Cascadia?

The similarities between Chile’s 1960 quake and the future one along the Cascadia Subduction Zone are striking. As noted by the USGS, “Recently, it has been discovered that the Cascadia Subduction Zone, like the subduction zone off Chile, has a history of producing earthquakes that triggered tsunamis. The most recent of these earthquakes, in 1700, set off a tsunami that struck Japan with waves about as big as those of the 1960 Chilean tsunami in Japan.”

“Both the 1960 Chile earthquake and the 1700 Cascadia earthquake were caused by sudden ruptures of long segments of subduction zones,” continues the USGS.

Back in the 1990s, the US Geological Survey identified the similarities between these two subduction zones and realized Chile’s experience could provide valuable lessons for residents of the Pacific Northwest. So, it set about collecting first hand accounts of the quake, tsunami and their aftermath from survivors. This article is drawn from that material.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:09:27

Is the Pacific Northwest Ready for the Cascadia Mega-Quake?
Jul 30, 2015 Susan Piperato
Emergency workers prop up a collapsed building in the Marina district disaster zone after the earthquake, measuring 7.1 on the richter scale on October 17, 1989 in San Francisco. Photo: Otto Greule Jr /Getty Images

The San Andreas Fault is so famous it’s the star of a recent movie. After all, that fault line has caused recent sizable earthquakes like Loma Prieta in 1989 and Northridge in 1994, and the world-famous San Francisco earthquake in 1906. But the San Andreas fault’s nearest neighbor, the far more dangerous Cascadia subduction zone has remained obscure, ignored, and denied—despite dozens of state task-force reports from Oregon and Washington, as well as news media on the subject, including a BBC documentary.

In fact, it wasn’t until this month, when The New Yorker magazine published “The Really Big One,” by Katherine Schultz, whose article lays out the scenario of devastation expected to be brought about by the Cascadia mega-earthquake and tsunami within the Pacific Northwest, that Pacific Northwesterners, Americans, and indeed, the world, began talking about Cascadia. Not only is the next Cascadia earthquake overdue, but the buildings and infrastructures of the cities it will hit along the coastline—including Portland and Seattle—are nowhere near ready for it. And meanwhile, seismic activity is happening every 15 minutes somewhere along the East Coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s real-time earthquake map.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:11:39

Breaking down the MEGA-earthquake threat
New Day NW Producers, KING 5
11:02 a.m. PDT July 31, 2015
Bill Steele from the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, shared the real threat of a quake with a magnitude 9.0 or higher hitting the Northwest.
Cascadia earthquake sources
(Photo: Pacific Northwest Seismic Network)

A recent article in The New Yorker triggered concerns about a so-called “mega quake” decimating parts of the Pacific Northwest, with little to no warning. Bill Steele from the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network , headquartered at the University of Washington Seismology Lab, shared the real threat of a quake with a magnitude 9.0 or higher hitting the Northwest.

For more information about creating an emergency kit, please CLICK HERE.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:17:57

Noting that all of the above Cascadia quake articles were published within the past few days, one has to wonder whether the concerns raised might help serve to cool the red-hot housing markets in PNW cities, including Vancouver, Seattle and Portland?

Or do people enjoy living with their heads buried in the sand?

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 22:25:48

Oregon Geology Department presents:

Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake and Tsunami
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0amLbhxCiqc

 
Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2015-08-01 22:54:06

Nope. Everything in sight near me is pending or sold w/in a week.

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 23:40:56

“Everything in sight near me is pending or sold w/in a week.”

Yep. A former co-worker’s family couldn’t stand the frozen winters in the Columbia Basin, so they relocated north of Seattle well beyond Green Lake. They rent a large 70’s home for something like $2500/month. I remember him once calling it a “mold heaven.” Now he battles traffic to and from work. Modern slavery!

 
Comment by sleepless_near_seattle
2015-08-02 00:12:38

If the big one hits here I can walk 300 yards east to safety!

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-02 07:58:41

“If the big one hits here I can walk 300 yards east to safety!”

Is it landslide susceptible while saturated?

 
 
 
 
Comment by In Colorado
2015-08-01 08:18:30

Given Uncle Buck’s current relative strength compared to other currencies, I’d say he has a reserved seat.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:47:11

Perhaps. Already the PBOC’s “easing” is starting to cause major price inflation for staples like pork. Inflation caused by money-printing represents a stealth tax, since it debases every existing dollar, Yuan, etc. in circulation - something the cretins who voted for Obama, McCain, Romney, and now HillaryJeb are going to learn firsthand.

http://www.businessinsider.com/pork-prices-will-not-derail-monetary-easing-in-china-2015-7

 
Comment by WPA
2015-08-01 08:59:40

Given Uncle Buck’s current relative strength compared to other currencies

This is so obvious. What else is there? There is no currency that can seriously challenge the dollar. Not the Euro, not with Greece/Italy/Spain dragging it down. Not the Yuan, too much debt in China and no one trusts their banks. Not the Yen, Japan’s finest days were decades ago.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 09:14:45

As I said, we have the most fingers left in the leper colony.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:28:49

Isn’t the leper with the most fingers the one you would want to bet on?

 
Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 09:47:59

yep…

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:46:50

What did the leper say to the prostitute? “Here’s a tip.”

 
 
 
Comment by Bill, just south of Irvine
2015-08-01 15:18:35

I don’t call it a reserved seat. The U.S. does not have enough power to control China and India. The labor situation over there can turn on a dime. Wages over here can inflate based on big social changes in China and India.

Comment by MightyMike
2015-08-01 15:28:40

Wages over here can inflate based on big social changes in China and India.

That would be nice, but it’s not likely.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 07:58:36

“What gives? Why hasn’t economic recovery freed millennials from their childhood bedrooms?”

Why Are So Many Millennials Still in the Basement?

Jul 30, 2015 11:51 AM EDT
By Zara Kessler

How much do millennials love their parents? Do snake people enjoy basements?

These are not questions that a new Pew Research Center report seeks to answer. But it may shed some light on them nonetheless. Pew’s analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data finds that in spite of an improved labor market, “the nation’s 18- to 34-year-olds are less likely to be living independently of their families and establishing their own households today than they were in the depths of the Great Recession.”

The unemployment rate for 18- to 34-year-olds has decreased from its 2010 peak, while median weekly earnings for workers in that age group have risen marginally from a 2012 nadir. Yet the share of young adults living independently — that is, “in a household headed by the adult, his or her spouse or unmarried partner, or some other person not related to the adult” — was 67 percent in the first four months of 2015, down from 69 percent in 2010 and 71 percent in 2007. Likewise, 26 percent of young adults were living in a parent’s home in the first third of this year, up from 24 percent in 2010 and 22 percent in 2007.

What gives? Why hasn’t economic recovery freed millennials from their childhood bedrooms?

http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-07-30/why-are-so-many-millennials-still-in-the-basement-

Comment by SFBayArea
2015-08-01 08:30:42

They are doing it because there is no stigma attached to living at home anymore? That’s the argument of Frey and Settersen?!?

Wow!

There wasn’t a stigma attached to living at home back in the late 1940’s either Mr Frey and Mr Settersen.

Pray tell why did millions of young people form their own households back then? These were their grandparents and ergo had the same genome.

Consider comparing the graph of small business formation to the graph to young people living at home. So how is it just two generations ago home sapiens with the same genomes were starting businesses like crazy? And yet this generation is not? They aren’t capable?

Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 08:52:34

Everybody already knows the answer to this. But admitting you understand also shows that all of this talk about “green shoots” and “improving economy” is BS.

My daughters are Exhibit “A”. Both working full time. Neither have had a raise in 3 years. Neither goes crazy by wasting money. Both still need money help from Bank of Dad when any kind of big expense comes up, like tires, car insurance, medical bills, etc.

(I suppose I could tell them to run up their credit cards, or go see a payday lender.)

Comment by The Order Of The Golden Chainsaw
2015-08-01 08:57:50

Could they be spending too much in entertainment? Cable, cell phone, movies, dining out, etc.?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:58:47

Or, you know, get a webcam like some of their peers are doing.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 09:12:25

Neither have had a raise in 3 years ??

Same here for mine…Its a indictment of the published unemployment rate…

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 09:15:46

But we have more billionaires than ever. So there’s that….

 
Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 09:49:58

But we have more billionaires than ever ??

The wealthy prosper in good & bad times..Nothing new here…

 
Comment by The Order Of The Golden Chainsaw
2015-08-01 12:45:21

The wealthy prosper in good & bad times..Nothing new here…

Only because gobmint make it easier for them. We need moar gobmint, more stimulus, more money printing.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:48:34

The Oligopoly has rigged the game, and 95% of our electorate has sanctioned their fraud and larceny by voting for their water carriers election after election.

 
 
 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-08-01 09:13:16

There wasn’t a stigma attached to living at home back in the late 1940’s either Mr Frey and Mr Settersen.

Maybe the parent’s today are allowing the kids to have their significant others spend the night, which wasn’t common in 1940s.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 17:54:01

It won’t happen under my roof.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 08:43:34

Everyone needs a place to live. Luckily for lots of Milleniaks whose barrista pay checks don’t cover the mortgage, they continue to occupy their childhood home by their parents’ good graces.

Too bad, so sad for real estate sales people who lack Millenials among their customers.

Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 09:04:26

The “problem” will fix itself eventually.

The Boomers will die off. The kids won’t sell the overpriced house because they “don’t want to give it away”.

One of the kids will move into the Master bedroom of a (hopefully paid for/mortgage free) house. In most of Flyover, you can live on $12-15/hour, if your housing is free, or close to it.

Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 09:15:57

you can live on $12-15/hour, if your housing is free, or close to it ?

Mom lived for many, many years on a social security check…House was paid for and taxes were very low…

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 09:28:24

That’s where my mom is now. Social Security plus a little savings. Living in BFE.

As noted before, trying to sell her condo to move to DFW.
Dropped the price to $39K. Got one offer for $32K. Move the exact same condo 75 miles east, and it would sell for $250K

Evidently the $200 a month association fee (for cable TV, water, trash, pool, landscaping and maintenance reserve) is scaring people off……..

Her Social Security payments have gone up very little in the past ten years. Good thing there isn’t any inflation…….

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-01 09:36:04

What makes you think a $39k condo that isn’t selling will sell for more elsewhere?

 
 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 10:52:33

“The “problem” will fix itself eventually.”

Yep, 10,000 boomers retiring every day until 2029, and plenty of expensive health care beyond then.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 11:48:17

Got health care and bio tech mutual funds?

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 12:57:38

Boomer die-off followed by millions and millions of used empty nest homes available at fire-sale prices…

 
 
 
Comment by CHE
2015-08-01 12:12:29

I was talking to an older co-worker and he admitted that us 20 and 30 somethings are screwed.

I told him yes, but that we’re adapting to it and we will have our revenge.

He asked how…

I responded that all you retiring boomers are expecting to sell your million dollar homes and finance your retirement. Except we don’t have the money to buy them. You guys are the ones that are screwed.

His jaw dropped and I walked away.

Comment by In Colorado
2015-08-01 12:34:26

I wonder if he put his house on the market, to sell it while he can.

Anecdote: The neighbor next is under contract. Don’t know what the offer was, but I’m guessing it was in the mid to high 400’s.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Tarara Boomdea
2015-08-01 15:00:18

The rental we just left in Las Vegas is on the market 21 days now. As far as I can tell, nothing’s happening. Two other places are hanging there, too. Big change from the spring.

LL has not returned our deposit within the 30 day time frame. We’re entitled to double now (just wrote the demand letter.)

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 15:42:51

“We’re entitled to double now (just wrote the demand letter.)”

Good for you!

 
Comment by Tarara Boomdea
2015-08-01 15:59:22

Well, we’ll see if I get it back at all, never mind double.

I’m sure I’ll be able to hear my old LL’s head exploding when the PM tells him about the demand letter, good for a laugh.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:13:31

Don’t hesitate to take the LL to small claims court if he tries to stiff you. After all, he owns the collateral of the investment property, so it is highly likely he is good for the money.

 
Comment by Tarara Boomdea
2015-08-01 22:55:00

Oh, he’s quite well off. IT guy for a public utility (published salary, $120K). He wanted us to show the place until it sold, and sent me an email saying that’s what we were going to do. Very mad when we said we were leaving ASAP.

We briefly considered buying to avoid the pain of moving. He wanted $5K given to him personally, no escrow, as earnest money, so that ended that.

Info gathered from neighbors and PM employees confirmed what I had surmised - he’s a hot tempered, easily offended, control freak who bullies his wife; other than that, a great guy ;-)

 
Comment by Tarara Boomdea
2015-08-01 22:57:43

You think he would have been able to count to 30.

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-02 06:25:11

File in small claims court. Done.

 
 
Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 13:19:34

“screwed” they said the same thing to us college grads in the 1980’s.

Smart people always do well.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 14:19:41

“Smart people always do well.”

That is a racist statement.

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 16:24:02

“Smart people always do well.”

Indeed.

 
Comment by MightyMike
2015-08-01 17:45:05

So only dumb people suffered during the Great Depression? I doubt it.

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 23:52:37

“So only dumb people suffered during the Great Depression? I doubt it.”

Smart peeps know that they don’t know. Dull peeps don’t know that they don’t know.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 08:35:53

What You Need To Know About The Federal Government’s Drone Privacy Rules

Gregory S. McNeal
2/15/2015 @ 1:40PM

Today, President Obama issued an Executive Order creating standards for how the Federal government will address the privacy issues associated with drones. Federal government agencies and some recipients of Federal funds will have one year to implement the President’s policies and make them publicly available. As expected, his Executive Order accompanied the FAA’s release of proposed rules that will allow for some small unmanned aircraft to fly over America.

According to the President, drones “may play a transformative role in fields as diverse as urban infrastructure management, farming, public safety…and disaster response.”

The President created new requirements for the collection of information by drones. The Order requires that agencies only collect information “to the extent that such collection or use is consistent with and relevant to an authorized purpose.” Information collected by drones that is not maintained in a system of records covered by the Privacy Act, shall not be disseminated outside the agency unless dissemination is required by law, or fulfills an authorized purpose and complies with agency requirements. If information collected using drones contains personally identifiable information (PII) that information shall not be retained for more than 180 days unless the retention is determined to be: necessary to an authorized mission of the retaining agency, maintained in a system of records covered by the Privacy Act, or is required to be retained for a longer period by any other applicable law or regulation.

http://www.forbes.com/…/ - 104k -

Well, they’ll Drone ya when you’re trying to be so good
They’ll Drone ya just a-like they said they would
They’ll Drone ya when you’re tryin’ to go home
Then they’ll Drone ya when you’re there all alone
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get Droned.

Well, they’ll Drone ya when you’re walkin’ ‘long the street
They’ll Drone ya when you’re tryin’ to keep your seat
They’ll Drone ya when you’re walkin’ on the floor
They’ll Drone ya when you’re walkin’ to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get Droned.

They’ll Drone ya when you’re at the breakfast table
They’ll Drone ya when you are young and able
They’ll Drone ya when you’re tryin’ to make a buck
They’ll Drone ya and then they’ll say “good luck”
Tell ya what, I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get Droned.

Well, They’ll Drone you and say that it’s the end
Then they’ll Drone you and then they’ll come back again
They’ll Drone you when you’re riding in your car
They’ll Drone you when you’re playing your guitar
Yes, but I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get Droned.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:53:36

Meanwhile, creepy people and criminals are using drones to perv on sunbathing teenage girls and peer into people’s patios to see if there’s anything worth stealing. And they’re doing it with impunity.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/kentucky-man-arrested-after-shooting-down-1800-drone-with-shotgun/

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:57:25

Oops, almost forgot to gratuitously get WPA’s panties in a twist by throwing in a ZH piece on shooting down drones that violate your property rights.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-31/should-it-be-crime-shoot-down-drone-over-your-property

Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 09:08:46

I love the guys response, when the pizzed off drone operator showed up

“if you step on my property, there’s going to be another shooting”

He screwed up though. He let them video him shooting the drone.

Better to get your own drone, and arm it with a balloon filled with paint

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:52:34

I love how some pitiful excuse for a journalist referred to his “40mm Glock.” A handgun with a bore that big would take your hand off if you fired it.

Try .40-cal. Same as US Federal law enforcement carries.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by Bill, just south of Irvine
2015-08-01 14:59:52

crime or not, I’d shoot down unwanted drones over my place.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 17:56:22

I’d moon them.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by peter a
2015-08-01 08:38:44

So my wife and I go look at a new housing development in our town (92399). The houses cost 375 to 415k. Talking to the sales person they ask if we are intrested. I tell them sure but we are waiting. The sales person states we can prequalify you right now. I tell the sales person we will go thru our bank. She tells me that. “You have to get qualifed thru our lender to buy here even if you get a loan thru your bank”. Then they tell me we are giving $1500 cash back to people who qualify.
I have been reading this blog from 2005 and thought I would share. My wife and I think something is wrong with this.
Paladin you still out there.

Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 08:52:55

She tells me that. “You have to get qualifed thru our lender to buy here even if you get a loan thru your bank” ??

Pretty standard for new developments…They do not trust what other lenders may say particularly mortgage brokers so the way they control the transaction and make sure you are capable of buying the house is to require you to go through their lender for pre-qualifying purposes…

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-01 08:58:01

Remember…… If you have to borrow for 15 or 30 years, its not affordable nor can you afford it.

 
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 11:05:10

“She tells me that. “You have to get qualifed thru our lender to buy here even if you get a loan thru your bank”. Then they tell me we are giving $1500 cash back to people who qualify.”

She wants a commission; period.

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 08:39:43

Watch and learn as another corrupt Democrat-run cesspool runs out of Other People’s Money. Will Puerto Rico default today, and when will taxpayers be forced to bail them out?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/31/us-usa-puertorico-default-idUSKCN0Q50DL20150731

Comment by WPA
2015-08-01 09:08:14

Soon to be followed by the corrupt Republican-run cesspool called Kansas. Take off your partisan glasses and understand that overspending and undertaxation are both equally bad and end in the same result.

Comment by scdave
2015-08-01 09:17:22

+1

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 09:18:09

Agreed. Sam Brownback and his “Republican” clique running Kansas show why both parties are corrupt, worthless, and only interested in enriching their patrons and cronies at the expense of everyone else.

 
Comment by The Order Of The Golden Chainsaw
2015-08-01 09:23:27

Brownback will tax his way out of the bankruptcy.

LOL

Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 09:42:29

See the article I linked to yesterday.

His $61M in “savings” is accomplished by cutting budgets for health car for poor people, cuts in the KDOT, and Division of Wildlife and Parks.

That, and using Obamacare money from the Feds to offset revenue losses from the tax cuts (money originally intended by the Feds to either expand coverage or expand services to poor people).

Brownback, being the stand-up guy he is, was out of state when these were announced.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 09:50:31

For the record, the -fixr has met Brownback once, back when he was a Senator.

First impression? Much the same as the time I met Alan Simpson from Wyoming.

“Sleazy/Reptilian” came to mind. Much like our division Vice President at my former employer, they all seemed to have a sense of saying what they thought their current audience wanted to hear. Without actually saying anything. Like they had a PR department living in their heads.

 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 10:00:47

Reminds me of a Bill Graves story (moderate Republican/Socialist Governor of Kansas 1995-2003). Last decent Governor we’ve had.

Was in town visiting the factory one day, was over meeting and shaking hands of the IAM union wretched refuse. Has a small entourage of news and company people with him. And his wife.

He came up to a guy, introduced himself, and shook his hand. It immediately became apparant that the guy had no clue as to who he was.

His wife immediately broke out into howls of laughter. Not at the guy, but at her husband, by getting his ego knocked down a peg or two.

Frankly, I’d take it as a compliment. Something about doing your job well, without drawing attention to ones self.

Everybody in Kansas (if not the country) knows who Brownback is.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 09:04:04

Stranger in a Strange Land, or why the thinking portion of the population - the tiniest minority of all - feels such unease as they witness our societal decline.

http://www.theburningplatform.com/2015/08/01/stranger-in-a-strange-land/#more-102789

 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 09:18:34

Obama: The only people who don’t want to disclose the truth are …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhFB7-w2MY8 - 232k -
————————————————————————–

Obama heavily redacts latest batch of Hillary Clinton’s emails

The classifications generally appear to have been done on Thursday, a day ahead of the release

by S.A. Miller & Stephen Dinan | Washington Times | August 1, 2015

The Obama administration slapped a secret designation Friday on a number of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails from her time as secretary of state, raising more questions about whether her controversial email arrangement led to classified information being left unsecured.

A new tranche of Clinton emails, released by the State Department under a court order to impose transparency on the Obama administration, contains dozens of documents with information redacted and labeled either “confidential” or “sensitive.”

The classifications generally appear to have been done on Thursday, a day ahead of the release, which means the information wasn’t necessarily classified at the time Mrs. Clinton was emailing about it — but has now been deemed too sensitive to put out in public.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:56:05

You must be mistaken. Obama explicitly promised us the most transparent administration in history. And the ‘tards bought it.

 
Comment by Dman
2015-08-01 13:34:40

Man, Obama must have been up all night to read that many emails.

Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 14:23:15

“The Obama administration slapped a secret designation Friday on a number of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s emails”

 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 09:19:55
Comment by rms
2015-08-01 18:53:08

“Greece may miss it’s biggest payment yet…”

No problem, phuc the lenders!

 
 
Comment by WPA
2015-08-01 09:21:56

I think Jimmy Carter has been lurking here at HBB. News wires are buzzing with his comments:

“Former President Jimmy Carter had some harsh words to say about the current state of America’s electoral process, calling the country “an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery” resulting in “nominations for president or to elect the president.”

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/videos/jimmy-carter-u-s-is-an-oligarchy-with-unlimited-political-bribery-20150731

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 12:57:10

Carter was epically incompetent, but has often told the truth.

 
 
Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 09:24:24

DNC Chair Grilled on MSNBC: ‘What’s the Difference Between a Democrat and a Socialist?’

Jul. 30, 2015 9:11pm
Oliver Darcy

That’s when Matthews hit her with a question she didn’t appear ready to answer.

“What’s the difference between a Democrat and a socialist?” he asked. “I used to think there was a big difference. What do you think it is?”

Wasserman-Schultz attempted to dodge the question, saying what was important was how different the Republican and Democratic candidates are.

Matthews, however, pressed on.

“You’re the chairman of the Democratic Party. Tell me what’s the difference between you and a socialist,” he said.

Wasserman-Schultz again, insisted that the real debate should be focused on how different the two parties are in terms of ideas and policy.

http://www.theblaze.com/…/ - 257k -

Tell Me the Difference Between You and a Socialist - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHpiMv3Sy8Q - 316k - Cached - Similar pages
1 day ago … Matthews Dumbfounds DNC Chair:

Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 09:34:15

I’m what used to be called an “Eisenhower Republican”.

But i find that I am also a “Socialist”, according to current Republicans.

Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-08-01 10:40:24

Just be quick to duck when they shriek and fling poo.

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 17:59:21

Actually current Republicans are socialists. Defense spending g is redistribution of wealth.

Comment by phony scandals
2015-08-01 20:39:02

“Actually current Republicans are socialists.”

You sound like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-08-02 00:14:38

And you sound like someone that has built a mythology out of AM radio sound bites.

 
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-08-02 12:32:06

You sound like you listen to too much AM radio.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:32:00

Whatever happened to AlbqDan? One day he was posting 50 times a day, the next day he was heard no more.

Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

– Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:34:32

China Official Factory Gauge Slips as Growth Slowdown Bites
July 31, 2015 — 6:10 PM PDT
Updated on July 31, 2015 — 8:22 PM PDT
An employee cleans residue from a container at an aluminum smelting facility in Zouping, China.
Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg

An official Chinese factory gauge slipped to a five-month low, signaling that months of easier monetary policy have yet to kick in and putting pressure on the country’s leadership to take further action.

The official Purchasing Managers’ Index was 50 in July, compared with the median estimate of 50.1 in a Bloomberg survey and down from June’s 50.2. The non-manufacturing PMI, a measure of services and construction, was at 53.9, from 53.8 the previous month. Numbers above 50 indicate expansion.

“The internal and external demand for the manufacturing sector is still on the weak side,” Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician at the national statistics bureau, said in a statement released with the PMIs on Saturday. Zhao cited the impact from hot weather, storms and commodity prices as major reasons for the drop.

The data echoes a private PMI that weakened in July, an indication interest-rate cuts and efforts to shore up local government finances have yet to spark a recovery despite recent signs of stabilization. China’s leaders pledged in recent days to make “pre-emptive” policy adjustments in the second half.

“This shows that the pickup we saw in the second quarter is not stable; we have seen no sign of recovery in the manufacturing sector,” said Zhu Haibin, chief China economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in Hong Kong. “We may see manufacturing bottom in the third quarter as the government continues and steps up measures to stabilize growth.”

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:36:09

Asia Pacific
U.S. Decides to Retaliate Against China’s Hacking
By DAVID E. SANGER
JULY 31, 2015

The Obama administration has determined that it must retaliate against China for the theft of the personal information of more than 20 million Americans from the databases of the Office of Personnel Management, but it is still struggling to decide what it can do without prompting an escalating cyberconflict.

The decision came after the administration concluded that the hacking attack was so vast in scope and ambition that the usual practices for dealing with traditional espionage cases did not apply.

But in a series of classified meetings, officials have struggled to choose among options that range from largely symbolic responses — for example, diplomatic protests or the ouster of known Chinese agents in the United States — to more significant actions that some officials fear could lead to an escalation of the hacking conflict between the two countries.

That does not mean a response will happen anytime soon — or be obvious when it does. The White House could determine that the downsides of any meaningful, yet proportionate, retaliation outweigh the benefits, or will lead to retaliation on American firms or individuals doing work in China. President Obama, clearly seeking leverage, has asked his staff to come up with a more creative set of responses.

“One of the conclusions we’ve reached is that we need to be a bit more public about our responses, and one reason is deterrence,” said one senior administration official involved in the debate, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House plans. “We need to disrupt and deter what our adversaries are doing in cyberspace, and that means you need a full range of tools to tailor a response.”

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 17:59:38

The Obama administration has determined that it must retaliate against China for the theft of the personal information of more than 20 million Americans from the databases of the Office of Personnel Management, but it is still struggling to decide what it can do without prompting an escalating cyberconflict.

Maybe if Obama had appointed competent professionals to staff the OPA, instead of political cronies and affirmative action appointments, this gross direlection of duty and massive breach would likely never have occurred.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:39:01

Chinese economy
China’s large manufacturers stall as demand weakens at home and abroad
The latest survey of the huge factory sector shows only very sluggish growth, fuelling expectations of more government stimulus
An employee conducts tests at FiberHome Technologies in Wuhan in China.
Photograph: China Daily/REUTERS
Saturday 1 August 2015 00.46 EDT

Growth at China’s big manufacturers unexpectedly stalled in July as demand at home and abroad weakened, an official survey showed on Saturday, reinforcing views that the economy needs more stimulus as it faces fresh risks from a stock market slump.

The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) stood at 50.0 in July, compared with the previous month’s 50.2. The 50-point mark separates growth from contraction on a monthly basis.

Analysts had predicted another tepid reading of 50.2, pointing to expansion, albeit a sluggish one.

However, both export and domestic orders shrank for the large firms covered by the survey, and in response they continued to cut jobs.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:41:57

Leadership 7/31/2015 @ 11:55PM
Do China’s Stock Markets Portend The Chickens Are Finally Coming Home To Roost?
Harry G. Broadman
Contributor

No economy can have its cake and eat it too. The overarching objective of modern China’s economic reform program, which was launched in 1978 soon after the death of Mao Zedung and perhaps best encapsulated in Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 pronouncement of the concept of a “socialist market economy”, has been always fraught with inherent contradictions.

Indeed, as someone who has professionally focused on China’s economy since 1993, worked extensively in many regions of the country—some far, far off the beaten track—and been on the factory floor in more Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) than have most Chinese (so I’ve been told by friends in Beijing), Deng’s notion always seemed to be a blatant contradiction in terms.

The country’s sheer size—in geographic, population and resource endowment terms—coupled with the tremendous ingenuity, determination and patience of the Chinese leadership and society, have, time and time again over the past 35 years, allowed China to largely paper over these contradictions and achieve a globally envied record of economic growth (even if allowances are made for the inadequacies and inaccuracies of Chinese official statistics).

But the recent perturbations in China’s stock markets—less so the price gyrations themselves than the authorities’ as well as the population’s reactions to them–may well mean a fundamental tear in the country’s microeconomic fabric and a breakdown in Deng’s logic are in the offing.

Heightened sensitivity to the prospects of China’s continued economic fortunes has been reflected in news headlines around the world for the past few years. Attention there has largely focused on the apparent slowdown in China’s annual macroeconomic growth rate, from about 10 percent to roughly 7 percent (at present).

To date, however, that performance is, in and of itself, likely reflecting more of a cyclical rather than a secular (or structural) set of changes. Nowhere in the world is the business cycle dead—no matter what label is championed to describe a country’s economic system. In fact, several such macro slowdowns have occurred in China since the advent of its reform era.

Huge changes in share values on China’s stock exchanges have also previously occurred. But now not only are they coming at the same time the economy is significantly softening after a long run of tremendous growth, but also following an unprecedented, dramatic increase in both the extent and intensity of the Chinese population’s participation in stock buying.

Most importantly, however, they are occurring as the confluence of many long-standing fundamental contradictions of the Chinese reform program are being further exposed, driven, in part, ironically, by Xi Jinping’s campaign to root out corruption and instill greater transparency in domestic economic relations.

All this is not being lost on China’s citizenry, business community, government technocrats and People’s Liberation Army. Notwithstanding the country’s strong nationalistic feelings, going forward the risk of loss of confidence in the leadership’s ability to manage—indeed perhaps even unwind—some of the more pronounced contradictions successfully may not be trivial. There has long been a nagging feeling by some China observers that, all told, these contradictions may well reveal an economy built on a house of cards. An exaggeration to be sure, but not wholly out of the realm of possibility.

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 13:00:14

Whatever happened to AlbqDan? One day he was posting 50 times a day, the next day he was heard no more.

Left town under cover of darkness, would be my guess.

 
 
Comment by Senior Housing Analyst
2015-08-01 09:38:33

Evergreen, CO Housing Prices Fall 11%

http://www.movoto.com/evergreen-co/market-trends/

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:43:28

Is it a seller’s market? Or not?

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:45:10

Housing market shows strength as pending sales soar
By KATHY RUFF, May 25, 2015 at 8:00 AM

April’s residential real estate sector mirrored the weather – up and down, depending on your location. But the momentum from the first quarter continues with a 6.7 percent growth in closed sales in the Greater Lehigh Valley compared to April 2014.

That momentum shows signs of continuing as pending sales grew 21.8 percent, from 1,567 in April 2014 to 1,909 last month in the Greater Lehigh Valley.

“We are pretty much knee-deep into a normal market, finally,” said Frank Renaldi Sr., owner/broker of Century 21 Pinnacle, Bethlehem. “I won’t say it’s robust but I certainly would not say it’s slow, either.”

Other real estate professionals agree.

“I’m encouraged by the residential market,” said Kate Steffy, associate broker/general manager of Century 21-Park Road, Wyomissing. “Business has certainly picked up over last year. Days on market are greatly reduced.”

Some are seeing more buyers and sellers.

“We are just jammed right now with buyers and sellers,” said John Keely, real estate agent with Re/MAX Results, Sciota. “I’ve never been this busy this time of year. It’s a good thing.”

Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 11:31:23

1989, I know it well. bought a 1700 sq ft townhouse in Huntington Beach, CA for $230k. Over the next few years it dropped to 189k. Eventually I sold it for $430k in 2003. $599k today. $350 HOA fee.

Good time to be a seller, not a buyer.

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-01 12:24:25

What were your losses?

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-02 11:52:22

$3.4 million. Isn’t that obvious.

 
Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-03 10:26:57

Math my friend math.

 
 
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:49:12

Southern California home sales soar in June; prices climb 5.7%
Home for sale
A home for sale last year in Huntington Beach.
(Bryan Chan / Los Angeles Times)
By Andrew Khouri contact the reporter

The Southern California housing market, known for its dramatic swings, is settling into a more normal, healthy pattern.

Home sales are up. All-cash and investor purchases are down. And home prices are rising at a more sustainable pace than in the last few years.

Economists said those factors put the regional housing market on a path for growth that won’t wash away in a tsunami of foreclosures and ruined credit scores.

“The healing continues,” said Stuart Gabriel, director of UCLA’s Ziman Center for Real Estate.

On Thursday, fresh evidence of that trend emerged in a report from CoreLogic. Home sales posted a sizable 18.1% pop in June from a year earlier, while the median price rose 5.7% from June 2014 to $442,000, the real estate data firm said.

The sales increase, the largest in nearly three years, put the number of sales just 9.6% below average, CoreLogic said. A year ago, sales were nearly 24% below average.

Notably, it appears more families are entering the market as the economy improves. Although still elevated in comparison to long-term averages, the share of absentee buyers — mostly investors — slid to 21.1%, the lowest percentage since April 2010, CoreLogic said.

“This is the real recovery,” Christopher Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics, said of a market where increasingly buyers actually want to live in the houses they purchase. “The last was the investor recovery.”

Comments

for those of us in the know, this is horse hockey pucks. having been in this industry 28 years this is the worst. There are so many homes still underwater by 50% or more. There are properties that now require MI to just do a rate and term refinance. I am talking from 157k to 4 million dollar…
Bernie Dillon
at 10:14 AM July 17, 2015

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 09:50:40

Real Estate
As homes languish, seller stress soars
By Jay MacDonald • Bankrate.com
Highlights
Home seller stress levels approaching clinical levels, expert says.
Many sellers remain locked in fantasy of higher prices.
Despite fears, less-dire outcomes more likely in most cases.

Want stress? Try selling your home today.

Two years ago, home sellers had it all. Multiple offers drove record-high home prices ever higher. Buyer financing was little more than an afterthought. The world was a seller’s oyster.

But the housing bust changed all that. In what has been termed a buyer’s market without buyers, home sellers find themselves trapped in extended servitude to the place they once called home. Sellers must keep their homes spit-shined, sanitized and stripped of any personal effects that might turn off picky buyers.

Lengthening DOMs — the Realtor shorthand for “days on market” — might more appropriately be spelled “DOOM,” as today’s sellers choose from three equally unpleasant scenarios:

Comment by Mafia Blocks
2015-08-01 09:58:48

hmmm…. more CAR lies. The reality?

CA Housing Demand Falls 2 Years Straight; At Lowest Levels Since The 1990’s

http://files.zillowstatic.com/research/public/State/State_Turnover_AllHomes.csv

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 13:04:04

Is it really possible that Albuquerue’s home ownership rate fell by 3.3 percent (63.8 - 60.5 = 3.3) over the course of one quarter? I find that implausible.

Real Estate Inc.
Millennial effect? Home ownership rate down across U.S., including ABQ metro
Jul 31, 2015, 6:17am MDT
Stephanie Guzman Reporter Albuquerque Business First

The number of people nationally who owned homes in the second quarter of this year dropped to levels last seen in 1967, according to data released earlier this week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

America’s home ownership rate in the second quarter of this year was at a low of 63.4 percent, down from 63.7 percent the first quarter of this year and lower than the same time last year. It’s also lower than the 50-year average home ownership rate of 65.3 percent.

To compare to boom times, the highest home ownership rate was 69.2 percent in the last quarter of 2004.

Albuquerque metro area’s home ownership rate was also down, from 63.8 percent in the first quarter to 60.5 percent the second quarter. Between 2005 and 2015, Albuquerque’s highest home ownership rate was in the fourth quarter of 2007 at 72.7 percent.

The Midwest has the highest number of people who own homes, with a home ownership rate at 68.4 percent. The West had the lowest at 58.5 percent. All regions except the West, which remained the same, experienced a dip in home ownership rates from the first to second quarter. New Mexico’s home ownership rate is currently 63.5 percent.

 
 
Comment by X-GSfixr
2015-08-01 10:48:24

Twenty-something columnist from big city who admits he doesn’t have a drivers license and hates driving tell us how to “fix” the Interstate Highway System. Aka a “Let them ride buses/transit” guy.

http://tinyurl.com/oprnbqp

Fortunately, the -fixr has been around long enough to remember what it was like traveling before the IHS was completed, and can tell you this guy doesn’t have a clue.

He bemoans the fact that interstates were built thru cities. But back in the day, many Interstates terminated at the outer bounderies of metropolitan areas, forcing all of that traffic (including truck traffic)onto city streets.

Typical trip from KC to Southeast Ohio, circa 1968.
- I-435 around south side of town to I-70 on east side of KC
- I-70 to west edge of St Louis metro on I-70.
- Drive thru St Louis metro and cross bridge downtown, get back on I-70 somewhere in Illinois.
-Intermittent diversions onto two lane roads in Illinois. Stop for night in Effingham, Illinois.
-Back on two lanes, driving thru Terre Haute, then thru downtown Indiananpolis
-I-70 to Columbus Ohio
-City Streets through Columbus
-Two lane highways in SE Ohio to Granny’s

Total travel time = Two days (or more, if we stopped anywhere to sight see)

Compare this to last trip to Ohio in 2013
East Kansas to Akron, Ohio, all on Interstates or divided/restricted access 4-lanes, w bypasses around all metros

One stop…….900 miles.
Total transit time (including stops) = 11 hours

Thank God for Interstates. Otherwise, we’d be forced to fly the airlines.

Also unmentioned is the stranglehold that the various public/private transportation unions had on the economy prior to the development of the IHS. That, and how you couldn’t “get there” from here by rail.

Rail trip to Granny’s in Ohio, circa 1965

- Drive to Union Station in KC
- Spend most of day riding MoPac from KC to St Louis Union Station
- Layover in Union Station
- Overnight by Pennsylvania RR to Columbus Ohio.
- Columbus to Granny’s by car.

And don’t get me started on “high speed rail”. Makes sense in the NE Corridor, or SF-SJ-LA-San Diego. Absolute insanity to build one across the continent, as much distance as there is between major cities. The price you can sell it for won’t even cover the cost of the rolling stock, never mind the actual right of way.

A 300 mph CHI to LA train is going to take 8 hours plus. Assuming no stops. And if it doesn’t stop, don’t expect anybody in Flyover to support it.

Comment by rms
2015-08-01 11:19:48

“A 300 mph CHI to LA train is going to take 8 hours plus. Assuming no stops. And if it doesn’t stop, don’t expect anybody in Flyover to support it.”

And it would be impossible to protect the infrastructure from saboteurs.

Comment by Califoh20
2015-08-01 11:56:49

“And it would be impossible to protect the infrastructure from saboteurs.”

Cant you say that about everything already built? So much fear out there.

Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 13:01:55

Fear is a useless emotion. Build resilient people, neighborhoods, and communities and fear slinks away.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 13:05:13

How is Uncle Sam’s program to turn all U.S. households into homeowner households working out?

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 13:06:20

Leave it to some dumb bozo to make lame comments to the effect that lower U.S. home ownership rates are “bad”.

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 13:08:32

11:54 am ET
Jul 28, 2015
Economy
U.S. Homeownership Rate Hits 48-Year Low
By Laura Kusisto
CONNECT
A for-lease sign is posted in front of home for rent in San Francisco.
JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES

The homeownership rate continued to decline in the second quarter of 2015, hitting a 48-year low.

The seasonally adjusted homeownership rate declined to 63.5%, down from 64.7% in the second quarter of 2014, according to estimates published by the Commerce Department on Tuesday. (The homeownership rate, not seasonally adjusted, hit 63.4%.) That is the country’s lowest homeownership rate since 1967.

In the first quarter of 2015 the homeownership rate hit its lowest level since 1989.

In part, the decline in homeownership reflects a positive trend: The number of rental households is growing. That likely reflects the fact that younger people are leaving their parents’ homes and striking out as renters on their own.

Total households in the United States grew to 117 million in the second quarter of 2015, up from 115 million in the second quarter of 2014.

The number of owner households decreased by 400,000, while the number of renter households increased by 2 million. While that is a good sign for the rental market, overall economists said that a lack of home buyers is likely a bad sign that incomes aren’t keeping pace with rising home prices, keeping young buyers out of the housing market.

In general, I think rising homeownership is a plus for the economy and it signals a strong economy. The fact that it is falling is generally not a good thing,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc.

Comment by Ben Jones
2015-08-01 14:59:44

Leave it to Chairman Mao Zandi to insert his command and control economics. How about letting these loanership rates find their natural level? “Revive the A shares! Benefits to the people.”

(Comments wont nest below this level)
 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 13:13:38

For an alternative perspective, consider that the falling demand indicated by plummeting U.S. home ownership rates is the first sign that future home prices are likely to be more affordable for American families than current prices are. Falling housing prices represent a positive wealth effect for Millennial families trying to gain a foothold in the American economy. How can this incipient development possibly be anything but good?

Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-08-01 15:04:16

It’s bad if you were expecting some kid to fund your retirement by wildly overpaying for your house.

(Comments wont nest below this level)
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:15:52

Why should the system be rigged to favor households who conduct such poor financial management?

 
Comment by AmazingRuss
2015-08-01 22:05:43

Because they are the majority, and our government is a parody of a democracy.

 
 
 
 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:19:58

It should be quite interesting when this begins to happen a few decades out to massive recently constructed Chinese ghost cities. It seems likely to get serious when Mother Nature reclaims skyscrapers and high-rise apartment buildings.

 
 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 18:09:30

The apartment renting lifestyle is the “new black.”

http://www.costar.com/News/Article/Apartment-Construction-Boom-Could-Extend-Well-Into-2016/168975

Look forward to some new apartments having far more upscale amenities as they have to justify high rent when all these apartments go “on line.”

Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 18:17:49

A fresher article on the apartment boom by Faux News - only, that this article is not faux.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/21/low-vacancy-rate-leads-to-increase-in-construction-nationwide-apartment-boom/#

 
 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 18:46:12

Credit rating by state. I guess I will not buy California municipals when I change my residency to California. Hmm: Florida’s credit ratings are surprisingly good! Arizona’s is…meh.

http://ballotpedia.org/State_credit_ratings

 
Comment by Raymond K Hessel
2015-08-01 20:11:29

Oligarchs snapping up politicians-for-hire. Much like George Soros and Goldman Sachs investing in Obama, they stand to reap a big return on their investment, once their puppets enter “public service.”

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20150801/us–2016-political_money-16d19d6082.html

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:20:58

Is everyone enjoying their affordable gasoline prices as much as I am?

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:23:46

“…market is oversupplied by more than 1.5 million barrels a day…going to be oversupplied well into 2016…”

Sadly, it is beginning to look like AlbqDan’s $80/bbl December 2015 oil price prediction was a massive miss.

Energy Commodities
Oil falls about 21% in July, worst since October 2008
Friday, 31 Jul 2015 | 2:59 PM ET
Reuters

Oil saw its worst monthly drop since the 2008 financial crisis after signs that top producers in the Middle East were continuing to pump at record levels despite a growing global gut.

A higher U.S. oil rig count for a second week in a row added to the market’s downside. Uncertainty ahead of key U.S. oil production and rig count data due later in the day also weighed on prices, despite a weaker dollar, which would normally support commodities.

U.S. crude closed down $1.40, or 2.89 percent, at $47.12 a barrel. The contract fell nearly 21 percent for the month of July, marking its largest monthly decline since October 2008, when oil had an epic collapse at the outbreak of the financial crisis. Brent fell 18 percent on the month.

Meanwhile, Brent was down $1.10 at $52.21 a barrel.

Diverting some attention from crude, heavy hedging activity in gasoline and diesel futures ahead of front-month contract expiration dominated play on the petroleum complex.

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 21:18:14

I noote that this time there is no financial crisis driving down oil, unless you count China’s stock market collapse of about thirty percent off massively overvalued levels as some kind of crisis.

 
 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:34:21

ft dot com > Companies > Energy >

Oil & Gas
Last updated: July 31, 2015 9:19 pm
Oil price collapse hammers big US energy groups
Christopher Adams and David Sheppard in London, and Robert Wright in New York
A droplet of petroleum drops from a fuel nozzle at Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s 150th gas station on its opening day in Moscow, Russia, on Wednesday, July 8, 2015. The global industry is scurrying to respond as oil below $50 a barrel guts cash flows.
Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

Shares in some of the world’s biggest energy groups tumbled on Friday as the collapse in oil prices battered the profits of ExxonMobil and Chevron, capping a week in which European rivals announced thousands of job losses and slashed spending by billions of dollars.

As Exxon, the US giant seen as best insulated from the crude price crash, reported its worst quarterly profits since 2009, its main US competitor Chevron suffered a huge $2.2bn loss in exploration and production in the three months to June 30.

For the first time, the biggest and strongest industry operators are feeling the full effect of a plunge in Brent crude since last summer that has led to an estimated 70,000 job losses worldwide and caused some $200bn of spending on major new oil and gas projects to be shelved.

The slide in the oil price, which began around this time last year, accelerated in November when Opec, the producers’ cartel, decided not to cut output in the face of a US supply glut.

After a brief recovery this spring, the oil price decline resumed in July, with Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, posting its biggest monthly fall since December. It now stands at $52.08 a barrel, down from $115 in June last year.

Analysts say the renewed decline was triggered by the surprising resilience of US shale output in the face of lower prices, as well as the nuclear deal with Iran which has raised the prospect of more barrels hitting an oversupplied market.

The US oil benchmark West Texas Intermediate fell by a fifth over July to approach $47 a barrel, its worst monthly decline since Lehman Brothers collapsed.

Saudi Arabia, which effectively leads Opec, is widely believed to be attempting to squeeze out higher-cost production in a battle for market share. Iain Conn, chief executive of Centrica, Britain’s biggest domestic energy supplier, told the Financial Times that he believed prices were likely to stay within a $45 to $70 range.

Rex Tillerson, Exxon’s chief executive, blamed the sharp fall in crude for a 52 per cent year-on-year slide in its second-quarter earnings to $4.2bn and a net loss in its US upstream business, with a robust refining result only partially offsetting the effects of oil’s collapse on revenues.

“Our quarterly results reflect the disparate impacts of the current commodity price environment, but also demonstrate the strength of our sound operations,” Mr Tillerson said.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:37:12

Emerging Markets Daily
News, analysis and actionable ideas about emerging markets.
July 31, 2015, 2:43 P.M. ET
Chevron Points To China In Lower Oil Outlook
By Dimitra DeFotis

Shares of energy giant Chevron (CVX) are down nearly 5% after it reported a plunge in quarterly profit and a lower oil-price outlook.

Negative currency translations also are hurting results; refining is helping the bottom line. Chevron’s quarter included impairments tied to the company’s lower outlook for oil prices, but the company didn’t reveal the price it’s banking on. When asked by Citi Analyst Alastair Syme about the impairment charges, Chevron CFO Patricia Yarrington said, according to the Thomson Reuters transcript of Friday’s earnings conference call:

We are not going to give you our proprietary oil price. I can just say the revised outlook was really based on two factors. One had to do with the rate we were expecting of global GDP growth and in particular around China. So we have seen softening in China and we have taken our view of that down accordingly.

And the second major factor that lowered our overall price outlook had to do with … much stronger production coming out of the U.S. and with the ingenuity and cost efficiencies of the U.S. industry we have seen costs continue to fall and economics of those barrels continue to rise. And so that puts more supply onto the marketplace.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:40:01

BG joins oil price casualties as profits slide 65 per cent
Tom Bawden
Enviroment Editor
Saturday 01 August 2015

BG Group, the FTSE 100 giant being taken over by rival Royal Dutch Shell, became the latest casualty of tumbling oil prices, reporting a 65 per cent dive in profits in its second quarter despite record levels of production.

Capping a week in which BP and Shell reported dramatic slumps in their financial fortunes, BG revealed a $429m (£273m) second-quarter profit – down from $1.2bn a year earlier. This came despite a doubling of production in both Brazil and Australia, taking group output to its highest-ever level.

Both countries are areas in which Shell is interested, and the takeover will strengthen its position as the largest supplier of liquified natural gas in the world after Qatar.

BG, formerly the exploration arm of British Gas, also revealed that it had cut costs by 34 per cent to $3.1bn in the first half of the year.

“Our costs are lower, our production is higher. This [the fall in profit] is more or less only driven by the lower oil price in the market,” said the chief executive Helge Lund, adding that he was “not disappointed” with the result given the tough operating environment in the oil industry.

The oil price has tumbled over the past year after the US shale boom created a glut in supply. Hopes that the price was beginning to rebound have been dashed in recent weeks following an international agreement to relax restrictions on Iranian oil exports in return for curbing its nuclear programme.

The benchmark Brent crude oil index averaged $62 a barrel in the second quarter, down from $110 a year earlier.

BG’s results come a day after Shell announced a 38 per cent drop in second-quarter profits to $3.25bn and said it was cutting 6,500 jobs this year.

On Tuesday, BP slumped to a $6.3bn second-quarter loss as the company was hit by a further multibillion-dollar charge relating to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, as well as falling oil prices.

Meanwhile Exxon Mobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, reported a 52 per cent slide in second-quarter profit as, again, tumbling crude prices weighed on its results.

Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, said its profit in the quarter was $4.2bn, compared with $8.8bn a year earlier.

Oil and gas output rose by 3.6 per cent to 4 million barrels oil equivalent per day. While profits at its refining operations more than doubled to $1.5bn, earnings at its oil and gas exploration business dived 74 per cent to $2bn.

Exxon’s US rival Chevron also saw its profits plunge 90 per cent in the second quarter – to $571m from $5.7bn a year ago – after nearly $2bn worth of writedowns.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:42:32

Oil and gas companies
Afren enters administration after oil price slump and boardroom strife
Oil and gas explorer fails to find financial backing to plug £132m funding gap caused by Brent crude’s international price nosedive
Petrol pump
The price of Brent crude, which is used for petrol production, has fallen from $115 a barrel to close to $45.
Photograph: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters
Terry Macalister Energy editor
Friday 31 July 2015 07.52 EDT
Last modified on Friday 31 July 2015 11.03 EDT

Plummeting oil prices and internal boardroom upheaval have forced the London-listed Afren exploration company into administration.

Crisis management consultants from AlixPartners were brought in after Afren failed to find financial backers to meet a growing cash crisis at the firm, which produces oil in Nigeria and the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

“The board believes that all the possible routes have now been explored during the course of this process, which was subject to a strict timetable, driven by Afren plc’s short-term liquidity issues,” said Afren in a statement.

“These discussions have failed to deliver support for a revised refinancing and restructuring proposal that would result in Afren being able to pay its debts as they fall due.”

Afren first revealed in January that it was in desperate need of a $200m (£132m) cash injection as the international price of Brent crude fell from $115 a barrel to close to $45.

 
Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 20:44:36

I’ll concede that AlbqDan was not that far off the mark with touting Rasmussen’s prediction for a Romney win in 2012.

By comparison, his predictions on oil and the Chinese stock market recovery are beginning to seem laughably wrong.

 
Comment by Selfish Hoarder
2015-08-01 21:11:09

“Is everyone enjoying their affordable gasoline prices as much as I am?”

No you aren’t. California gas prices are still above $4 per gallon.

Comment by Professor Bear
2015-08-01 21:25:00

Head over to Costco, pal. I filled up this evening for $3.699/gal.

 
 
 
Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment.

Trackback responses to this post