Bits Bucket for November 3, 2015
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The Housing Bubble
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Have you recently cut back on the quality of wine you drink?
Bordeaux bust: Fine wines languish in China warehouses as economy cools
Demand for imported wine still remains, but the luxury end of the market is losing out to entry level wines as consumers spend less
Reuters in Shanghai
PUBLISHED : Monday, 02 November, 2015, 9:54pm
UPDATED : Monday, 02 November, 2015, 9:54pm
A French village in the Bordeaux wine growing region. Wine consumption per capita is only 5.8 litres in China, a fraction of the 50 litres consumed in France.
Photo: AFP
The crates of Chateau Brehat wine from Bordeaux had gathered dust for three years in a bonded warehouse on the outskirts of Shanghai before the owners cut their losses in July, slashing three-quarters off the US$50 price tag.
The fire sale was prompted by a huge oversupply of wine that had built up after a swarm of importers jumped at seemingly stellar growth from 2010. China wine consumption - which had been rising in double digits - dropped last year and is set to inch up just over 1 per cent annually until 2020.
The striking slowdown is a headache for a global wine industry pinning hopes on fast China growth, and a further sign that Chinese consumers are reining in spending even as Beijing hopes they will pick up the slack from falling exports.
“When we started there was huge demand so we could control prices, big margins no problem,” said Xavier Grangier, sales director at logistics firm Europasia, which runs the 4,000 square metre Shanghai warehouse storing 250,000 bottles of mostly European wine.
Now, his firm has had to lower some prices and is stuck with some wine it is unlikely to sell.
“In Shanghai alone, 2,000 firms in the wine business just vanished over the last couple of years,” he added.
…
You need to buy equities cause uncle fed owns the market and wont let the ship sink.Then you can afford some real wine, not the sh@t at walmart.
Mark Cuban on wine: “Never pay more than $5/bottle.”
I’ve been doing Trader Joes $2.50 reds for years but the problem with them is that you might go through three bottles until you found one that has great taste.
I’ve had expensive wine that tasted lousy and expensive wine that made me go for a third glass. Trader joes saved me lots of money though. I think about 12 bottles in a box. Then I think about the $60 per bottle of Siduri and that same box would cost $720. I am done for awhile on throwaway money. Also I drink less wine and more beer.
more beer
Recommend Ska Brewing Company’s (Durango, CO) Modus Hoperandi, or Santa Fe Brewing Company’s Happy Camper, if you can get them there. Stone IPA isn’t bad either.
Whats wrong with Coors-Light ??
Nothing. It’s not available at Crater Joes.
Boont Amber is one of my current favorites at the pub next door. North Coast Pranqster is also high on my list. I tend to like Hefeweizen but it is not on tap at my pub. Saturday afternoons after a morning of biking or at the gym, and done with my driving around, is when I walk to the pub. The only one on your list I am familiar with is Stone.
Love the Boont. In high school, I played in a basketball tournament in Boonville (home to Boont Amber). Fun fact, Boonville is also home to Boontling…very strange…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boontling
Stone makes a great IPA. Also like the Modus Hoperandi. But my 2 favorites are the Four Peaks (Tempe, AZ) Hop Knot and the Prescott Brewing Company (Prescott, AZ) Ponderosa IPA. If you like IPAs, you owe it to yourself to give those a try.
founders centennial ipa is great as well as scuplin from ballast point. Little sumpin from lagunitus is good too.
Actually the great dark beers are found in Oregon.
When I was in New Mexico this year I tried Marble Red Ale. Good stuff. Can’t get it here in Florida, though.
Deschutes Fresh Squeezed IPA is my current fave.
I’m sure I’ve lowered my IQ some with Black Butte Porter.
Yellow Tail is only $6.99 for 750ml yo.
£3.99 if you buy it in France. £5 if you buy it in the UK. No wonder the French drink more wine.
At Costco a 1.5L bottle of Yellow Tail is under $10. It holds it’s own with much pricer wines. I like to sit on the curb outside my house and drink it out of a brown paper bag, as I’m sure we all do from time to time.
“Have you recently cut back on the quality of wine you drink?”
If you have, this may help.
Ranking the top 5 bum wines, from Thunderbird to Mad Dog 20/20
By Andy Kryza
1. Wild Irish Rose
What it is: Apparently named after a fact-based 1947 movie about Irish singer Chauncey Olcott (bam! Internet!), WIR has been warming bellies for more than five decades. We’ll call that a fine vintage.
ABV: 17%
2. Night Train Express
What it is: Without it, we would never have the GNR classic that it inspired. We probably also wouldn’t have Chinese Democracy, so it’s kind of a wash. It was also part of a crackdown on the industry that claimed it specifically contributed to vagrancy and public intoxication.
ABV: 17.5%
3. MD 20/20 Blue Raspberry
What it is: Known typically as Mad Dog, but really an abbreviation of Mogen David (no relation to Larry) the 20/20 used to mean “20oz/20% alcohol” but not any more… everything we thought about this is a lie. Including the idea that the “Bling Bling” necklace on the label means it’s baller.
ABV: 13%
4. Thunderbird
What it is: “The American Classic”, Commie! Also, “Citrus wine with natural flavors and caramel color… vinted and bottled in Modesto”. Commie.
ABV: 17.5%
5. Cisco Strawberry
What it is: A mixture of grape and citrus and strawberry that’s marked by a distinct thickness. It’s also a wolf in sheep’s clothing: Because of its effete bottle and technicolor glow, people often mistake it for a wine cooler… a wine cooler that’d dump the average consumer of wine coolers on her minivan-driving rump.
ABV: 18%
Boones Farm Tickle Pink is an obvious glaring omission from this list. Back in high school there was surer thing than one of the Patak twins, a bottle of Tickle Pink, and a camp fire….
I remember drinking Boones Farm Strawberry Hill while smoking Swisher Sweet cigars with my buddies. Thought we were the epitome of cool. Then I turned 14.
I drank a couple bottles of Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill during my freshman year of college. I had just turned 18. I haven’t had it since.
“What it is: Without it, we would never have the GNR classic that it inspired.”
GNR?
or is that GFR or BOC?
No, actually, our taste in wine has moved up the price chain to a point where I fear we drink the wines that BiLA is storing as an investment
Hopefully China will soon dump their unsold glut on the international market, and we can all enjoy better quality for less.
Hoarding expensive booze must be a bubble top indicator like the skyscraper index. The Japanese did it with scotch.
I have hardly tapped those precious bottles. I think my wine investing is on hold so that I could buy only two of above $100 bottles per year.
If it doesn’t come in a box, it’s too expensive.
not me…BTW Grocery Outlet on the west coast has some great bargains on decent wine AND sells some that is undrinkable, the quality is all over the map. The blog in the link below is helpful to in finding the worthwhile stuff….
https://grossoutwine.wordpress.com/
Is it possible the long tail of the Great Recession is only now finally catching up with the commodities markets?
Not just possible—likely.
Remember…. Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for the economy.
Racing full speed ahead towards the nearest brick wall seems like an odd crash avoidance strategy.
A recovery means you get to buy overpriced stocks and homes from wall street investors who picked up the crumbs during your panic in the last crisis. They are convincing the media that stocks can never go down again and stocks are a safe asset to own for the long run.
I have to admit these folks are great promoters.
I noticed how the investment banks and hedge hogs turned up flush with bailout money at the point when Joe Sixpack was out of work and had stopped paying his mortgage and stocks were on half off sale. The bailouts were well timed for a massive wealth transfer to the FIRE sector. However, they were necessary to save the planet from financial ruin.
what would happen to stock prices if interest rates went up to like 6.5% on the 10 year? what would this due to the feds massive bond protfolio?
What would happen to bond prices if stocks cratered? Flight to safety?
Which scenario is best for uncle fed?
what would happen to stock prices if interest rates went up to like 6.5%
Historically rates over 6% are associated with deep stock selloffs and bear markets. Why bother with stocks when you can get 6% on treasuries risk free?
But to get to 6% requires a rapidly growing economy, companies investing like crazy in capital expansion and equipment, full employment, rising wages… none of those are on the horizon.
exactly
so which market will the FED choose to protect if it has to make a choice?
The bull case for commodities is based on an assumption that China will undertake a near term large-scale housing and infrastructure construction program. I guess bovine brains aren’t exactly the biggest.
Top News
Tue Nov 3, 2015 | 5:30 AM EST
China commodity outlook brightens, but beware caveats: Russell
An employee unloads copper at a factory in Nantong, Jiangsu province, June 18, 2011.
Reuters/China Daily
By Clyde Russell
LAUNCESTON, Australia (Reuters) - - Lost amid the headlines about China’s decision to end its one-child policy was news that points to a brighter medium-term outlook for commodity demand in the world’s biggest consumer of natural resources.
While all the nitty-gritty details of the ruling Communist Party’s fifth plenary have yet to be published, the world of commodities should note the commitment to double gross domestic product (GDP) and per capita income by 2020 from 2010 levels.
This should go some way toward alleviating fears that China’s economy is in structural decline, as achieving those goals will require ongoing urbanization to boost earnings to a level where China could be considered a middle income country.
While it’s no secret that Chinese leaders want to see an economy led by more sustainable consumer spending, in order to get there the country needs consumers with higher disposable incomes, and this means city-based jobs, whether these be in services such as finance or in manufacturing.
China’s per capita GDP is currently around $6,000, or less than a sixth of the $50,600 a person in the United States. A more valid comparison would be to a country like Malaysia, which has a per capita GDP of about $10,500.
Achieving per capita GDP similar to Malaysia would allow China to become more consumer-led, while still enjoying a large export-focused manufacturing base.
The key question is how Beijing will go about its aim of getting per capita GDP to something closer to $10,000 in the next five years.
It’s hard to see any way to achieve such levels of economic growth without a large program of infrastructure and housing construction.
This makes it all the more likely spending taps will be fully opened in the next few months, with a consequent boost to demand for industrial commodities such as steel and copper.
…
If the dollar stays strong wont commodities likely stay weak?
Stays strong? Relative to Bitcoin the dollar is a joke.
relative to other currencies it appears to be strong.cleanest shirt n the dirty laundry?
It appears companies selling overseas r hurting from a strong dollar.
what impact would rising interest rates have on the dollar?
what impact would rising interest rates have on the dollar ??
In the face of everyone else cutting it will Hurt our exports even further…Trade in-balance goes through roof…
if you are right then janet yellen could hurt corporate profits overseas by raising rates?
hurt corporate profits overseas by raising rates ??
Hurt profits here…Layoffs to follow…At the minimum stocks get hit…
“Relative to Bitcoin the dollar is a joke”
Isn’t it still having its 2/3 off sale?
There you go. The cheap dollar represents a great buying opportunity for people who have bitcoins.
India
King Digital, the British creator of Candy Crush, has been bought for $5.9bn (£3.8bn) in the biggest takeover of a UK tech company in four years.
King is being acquired by US video game maker Activision Blizzard, the business behind World of Warcraft and Call of Duty. The US group will pay $18 in cash for each King share – 16% more than King’s closing price on Monday – in a deal that is the biggest in the British tech sector since Hewlett Packard bought Autonomy in an ill-fated £7bn deal in August 2011.
Activision Blizzard’s games are played on consoles – Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation – and it said buying King would give it a place in the rapidly growing mobile games market.
King floated on the New York Stock Exchange in March last year with a valuation of almost $8bn, making it the most valuable British business of the tech craze. Candy Crush became wildly popular, racking up a billion plays a day on smartphones for the company, based in London’s West End.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/nov/03/uk-maker-of-candy-crush-bought-by-activision-blizzard
Its a A Mad World, My Masters.
Pure insanity, enabled by the Fed and our deranged Keynesian central planners.
Breitbart dot com rallies the base:
http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/11/02/islamic-state-declares-war-israel-jews-hebrew/
No “smaller government” or “less regulations” or “lower taxes” happening here.
Fake @ss “conservatives” crying bout King Obama spending the national debt past $20 trillion, and then they click on these neocon links and vote for the candidate that Sheldon Adelson purchased.
And get the American foreign policy that Sheldon Adelson purchased.
And borrow more money to fight the wars that Sheldon Adelson purchased.
F*ing hypocrites.
Huffington Post rallies the base, reports Hillary Clinton meeting with the momz of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown:
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/563881d3e4b00a4d2e0bb83f
Got Arizona Iced Tea brand Watermelon Fruit Punch, Skittles, and promethazine with codeine?
LOLZ
And remember, kidz, every “progressive” movement in history has ended with a disarmed population, mass incarceration, and extermination:
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/258934-clinton-pushes-for-gun-control-in-new-ad
It’s the “progressive” way.
What’s the least progressive part of the country, the least progressive states. Are those areas the best places to live?
When 95% of the electorate are stupid, I’m not sure it matters what area you live in. There’s not a lot you can do to insulate yourself from the consequences of tens of millions of votes cast by cretins.
Does it seem like the financial sector has become a big @ss leach on society?
This is what 95% of ‘Muricans vote for election after election. Let’s give the sheeple what they want, and give it to them good and hard.
Looking very much forward to shorting this market early next year. Told you this one in Oct. wasn’t the big one.
why do u think the shorts have been covering like madmen in oct?
I was thinkn of buying amzn based on the experts saying it was cheap, lmfao.
Any segments you’re eyeing in particular?
go long!
Marty Zweig: “Don’t Fight the Fed.”
Don’t Fight the Fed
Williams publicly made a joke likening the crime of rape to bad weather, having stated: “If it’s inevitable, just relax and enjoy it”
BTW WPA, what websites are unacceptable today? Who should be banned from posting or have their comments censored? You and Mike spend a good amount of my bandwidth telling us such things. Let’s boil it down to one edict.
Calling out websites of questionable quality is challenging people to think for themselves. It’s not the same as advocating censorship.
And coincidentally you don’t agree with.
Ben, MightyMike & WPA have circumscribed little intellects that can’t handle inconvenient truths. Hence they not only feel a compulsive need to self-censor their every thought, they also are compelled to serve as the board’s self-appointed thought police. They are going to get their own rude awakening one of these days, when reality imposes itself on their liberal la-la land and bursts their soap-bubble dream worlds. Until then, most of us pretty much ignore their incessant school-marmish scolding.
Also lots of lies, like the one about NASA budget getting cut or the $150 a month for welfare.
And why lie about living in Brazil?
I’ve never suggested that anyone should banned or censored.
Nor have I.
I’ve suggested that all of our resident lib-tards should bitch-slap themselves on general principle, and to save me the effort.
Looking very much forward to shorting this market early next year. Told you this one in Oct. wasn’t the big one.”
yes you did. What do u think of IPHI ?
what is it?
Strong cities Networks
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/
Hillary Clinton should be in prison, not running for the presidency.
http://investmentresearchdynamics.com/make-no-mistake-a-hillary-clinton-presidency-would-be-a-disaster/
No man with assets and options should EVER get married:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/10/31/your-money/after-full-lives-together-more-older-couples-are-divorcing.html?referer=
“Man up” and be a beta provider, then get to start over with half your assets at age 50+, no thanks. AF/BB.
From the article:
Women “initiate about 60 percent of divorces after age 40, according to AARP.”
Marriage in America in 2015 is not two spouses marrying each other, it is two spouses marrying themselves to the State.
Also recommend the film “Divorce Corp”.
Bingo. Even some voluntaryists I am friends of are married. Their excuse was to do with the legal benefits in case the other dies. I still don’t buy it. You can appoint just about anyone your heir.
I spent some time with an ex-FWB and her husband of 6 months recently. I like them both, but there’s a reason she was never more than FWB for the decade we were on and off hooking up.
Listening to the way she talks to her husband, and thinking about the inescapability of being married to her, was painful to witness.
AF/BB.
I spent some time with an ex-FWB and her husband of 6 months recently.
And he was OK with hanging out with you? No wonder it was painful to watch her talk to him. Talk about failing a sh!t test.
Hello Superstar.
I am not vain enough to claim sole responsibility for making her an Alpha Widow. As FWB, I was only one of many on the CC.
She is 39 years old and 4 months pregnant with her first kid now
As FWB, I was only one of many on the CC.
Still, what kind of chump plays nice with with that? Simps are gonna simp, I guess.
She is 39 years old and 4 months pregnant with her first kid now
She sure didn’t waste any time, did she?
I have a significant other who had her first and only child at 40. The kid is doing well. Straight As and is fifteen now. Taller than his mom. Taller than his dad (and I am sure I am not the dad). The SO once ( years before she married) asked if I want to just remain friends or go from here. I said just remain friends - I took a road trip with her and confirmed she is too beechy. I know her husband is a big tall submissive type and that is what she wanted in a guy.
Interesting article…Wife and I have been together a very long time….Bottom line; We would prefer to be together than apart….
i was wondering about every now and then I read about old couples declaring they are madly in love with each other. And lots of people comment how great that is. Well it’s so great because it is very rare. I believe such couples exist. But it does not mean the people in the article made a wrong decision. I think they are divorcing because for them it is the right thing to do. Like the sociologist said, those people have twenty or thirty more years of life ahead, so if they are miserably together, why not enjoy life?
so if they are miserably together, why not enjoy life ??
No question about it…I agree…
Marriage is like a mortgage.
Marriage is like a mortgage ??
How is that ?? If you mean a commitment, well duh…
Uncertainty is taken away for the next 30 years. For better or worse.
Uncertainty is taken away for the next 30 years ??
Daily life is uncertain…
I think you know what I meant. People fear the uncertain and will go to great expense to minimize it.
Ditto for my wife and me. We first met 45 years ago and have been married for the last 38. We enjoy every day together.
met 45 years ago and have been married for the last 38 ??
In Santa Clara how long ??
“We first met 45 years ago and have been married for the last 38. We enjoy every day together.”
I’m sure there are many young couples out there today who share your enthusiasm, but you and your spouse probably didn’t have a $500k starter home and $60k of student loans. In my time you were considered lucky if you didn’t get killed in the Tet Offensive; today we are throwing our young adults under the debt bus, a slow certain death.
We’ve lived in Santa Clara since 1976.
We bought our first house in 1979 for $80K, put 20% down and carried a mortgage with an interest rate of 10.25%. We were very frugal and managed to pay off the house completely in 10 years.
carried a mortgage with an interest rate of 10.25% ??
I remember those interest rates…
I do as well. Labor force participation rate was at record highs, prices were very affordable and everyone lived well.
You prefer record unemployment, grossly inflated prices and a moribund economy.
Why?
I know a couple from the hippie era who live in Santa Barbara. They have had an open marriage for years. That is, they are married “on paper” but allow each other to stray. I prefer Harry Browne’s concept of “non-marriage.” Better than that is living alone. If I need someone to live with me, that is what LTC insurance is for. I lived with a woman for several years. Not sure if I want to live with a girlfriend again.
“Open marriage” says something about both of them. I love my wife too much to ever accept sharing her with some other dude. And if that’s what she wanted, or I wanted, then what’s the point of being married in the first place?
Get ready to ante up, taxpayers.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/freddie-mac-reports-first-quarterly-loss-in-four-years-2015-11-03?link=MW_latest_news
George Soros, who singlehandedly plucked candidate Obama from obscurity and is now backing Hillary, says borders of sovereign nations are an obstacle to the Oligopoly’s incorporated neoliberal plantation in a one-world superstate run by sociopathic criminals like Soros.
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2015/11/02/soros-admits-involvement-in-migrant-crisis-national-borders-are-the-obstacle/
+1 and f* George Soros the “progressive” sh*tbag.
I’m reading a biography of Stalin right now, and the sequence of events in Russia from 1905 up through 1918 are rather similar to what the “progressive” global agenda is pushing now.
@ Goon:
Also read up on T. Roosevelt and the run up to Woody Wilson with the Will Taft detour - we are living that nightmare for sure there. Agree with you 100%.
Soros, one man, an idiot as you say, can defeat the entire GOP…. gotta love that.
Hungarian born billionaire hedge fund guru George Soros grew up in poverty.
Soros’ was born in Budapest and grew up in a Jewish household. His father was a writer.
He grew up during the rise of Nazi Germany.
He eventually moved to England and studied at the London School of Economics. His uncle paid for his tuition, but he was still a poor student.
He took up small jobs such as a railway porter and a waiter. After graduation, he started a working for a bank called Singer & Friedlander.
You can find a lot more derogatory information on him than that with a simple Google search.
Warmist Warming Tuesday.
Antarctica may be gaining ice, but global warming ain’t over:
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/antarcticas-ice-gains-dont-mean-global-warming-is-over/
Warmists gonna warm.
“The new study—published October 30 in the Journal of Glaciology—offers no evidence that the planet’s temperature has returned to pre-1860s levels.”
That’s good since the 1860s was a time of the Little Ice Age.
Go here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age
Warmists gonna warm.
What do you fail to understand about that?
Warmism, to quote John Lennon from 1966, is “bigger than Jesus.”
Warmists gonna warm.
Yes, the interior of Antarctica is gaining ice as predicted by the climate models as early as 1991. As the Earth warms, the water cycle (evaporation and precipitation) speeds up, increasing the amount of water available to fall as snow at the south pole. The circulation patterns at the north pole are completely different than the south; the Arctic is losing ice at a rate 3x than Antarctica is gaining.
Of course the gas and oil paid-for Denialists will milk this “adding ice” for all its worth in their propaganda machine.
Did you get a PhD in atmospheric science from Social Justice Warrior University?
I don’t like warmism because I believe in the “science” of it, I like warmism because it confirms humanoids’ powerlessness in determining the conditions of their own finite ecosystem.
I like warmism because it confirms humanoids’ powerlessness
Climate change confirms the power of humans to conduct planetary engineering or geoengineering, it’s just that it’s been done inadvertently and haphazardly. We do have the power to reengineer the climate back to a healthier state, but it would take a new level of human cooperation on a grand scale never seen before. When the sh-t hits the fan humans can either respond cohesively or we will descend into chaos and war, fighting over scarce food and water resources. Technology doesn’t limit humans, our social constructs do.
a new level of human cooperation
One world government.
No thanks.
We do have the power to reengineer the climate back to a healthier state, but it would take a new level of human cooperation on a grand scale never seen before.
Boy, we think a lot of ourselves.
The hubris is dangerous.
We do a terrible job of bioengineering our bodies via drugs, and our bodies are systems on which we can do a huge amount of testing, our bodies generally don’t change much (evolution works generation by generation), and we can significantly control what goes into our bodies.
In other words, we know more about how the human body works than the climate, and I wouldn’t say that we are very good at engineering it.
If you consider vaccination to be a form of this bioengineering, quite a lot has been accomplished through bioengineering of the human body. A large number of diseases which formerly killed many children have conquered.
We do a terrible job of bioengineering
In 1880 you could expect to live to age 39.4. Today making it to your 80’s is quite common. It’s a work in progress but I’d call it a success.
Dramatically reducing child mortality, vaccinations, etc. are great examples of big improvements in lifespan through simple understanding of the immune system and infection.
Provide good nutrition.
Wash you hands with soap.
Show the body what you want it to fight, and then let the body do it’s job.
Tell the body to NOT fight a foreign object? Still pretty hard. Tell the body to NOT fight itself (certain autoimmune diseases)? Still pretty hard.
Don’t mistake a few meaningful victories as evidence that we have complete control over our bodies through science.
In 1880 you could expect to live to age 39.4. Today making it to your 80’s is quite common. It’s a work in progress but I’d call it a success.
Life expectancy once you get out of childhood has improved, but far less than you imply with your statistic. If you made it to age 5 after being born in 1880, your life expectancy was almost 58.5.
In 1880, if you lived to 65, you could expect to live about another 10 years.
In 1950, if you lived to 65, you could expect to live about another 15 years.
In 2011, if you lived to 65, you could expect to live about another 20 years.
The most significant improvements have occurred up to about 1950. Since then, the improvements have continued, but they are much more tempered.
“the Arctic is losing ice at a rate 3x than Antarctica is gaining”
Daily lies to promote global governance. We give this a C-.
Ice mass at the north pole isn’t significant compared to ice mass at the south. The use here of the term “rate” is simple ignorance. We think you are confusing % with rate. Intentionally.
Remember, to get an AAA rating you have to mention that the former Bangladesh has sunk into the sea.
Some good news to cheer up your morning
Death rates rising for middle-aged white Americans, study finds:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/03/health/death-rates-rising-for-middle-aged-white-americans-study-finds.html
Alcoholism, heroin overdoses, and suicides. Thanks, Obama.
“Do you get the feeling that you’ve been cheated?” — Johnny Rotten, at the Sex Pistols’ last show
LOLZ
Who’d've thunk that suicide could drive up the death rate?
PS The uptrend started in 2001, when W took office.
Before that……starting about 1990
It took a few years of Reaganomic/trickle down/free market ideology to kick in.
PS The uptrend started in 2001, when W took office ??
The uptrend will not likely stop with the many veterans who have returned home either F%$#-up physically or mentally or BOTH…
Thanks you sorry Ba$turd…
…Particularly if they notice that everything they did was for nothing.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34714205
Didn’t your therapist tell you to stop blaming others for your crummy life?
Let’s revisit the European nations voted the most livable in the world ten years from now, after their globalist governments throw open the doors to millions of migrants implacably hostile to western civilization and the cultures of their hosts.
http://www.businessinsider.com/legatum-institute-prosperity-index-top-countries-2015-10
Hillary Supporters Endorse SHARIA LAW in AMERICA!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKosd0xJadE
…and we used to make fun of hillbillys.
I am looking forward to all of the white cultural relativist Social Justice Warriors™ with blue hair and full sleeve tattoos and facial piercings and masters degrees in Victim Studies being forced into polygamous Sharia Law marriages.
Check your privilege, LOLZ.
I doubt the Sons of Mohamed will wife up those lovely cupcakes. They will make them wear burkas, however.
More validation, as if more were needed, that 95% of the ‘Murican electorate are retards.
Murphy, TX Housing Craters; Prices Plummet 8% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/murphy-tx/home-values/
Them’s fighting words….
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-03/al-qaeda-calls-isis-leader-feeble-failure-person-isis-calls-al-qaeda-bunch-donkeys
Well-connected oligarchs picked up Russian state enterprises for a song when Harvard’s Jeffrey Sachs and his team served as architects for the massive swindle of the Russian people by being the artitects of “shock therapy” economic “reform” after the USSR collapsed. Now the former commies have emerged as unlikely nationalists, and they want some of that stolen loot returned to state control. Never going to happen, but interesting nonetheless.
https://www.rt.com/politics/320494-communist-leader-promotes-referendum-on/
Thanks for the Zero Hedge and RT links. My day isn’t complete until I’ve had the latest spin out of the Kremlin. Thanks, comrade!
See Ben Jones’ post above about you and MikeyMite trying to censor the HBB. If you don’t like what people post here, stay on Salon and Huffington Post.
Calling out RT and ZH as Russian mouthpieces isn’t pro-censorship.
I’m challenging people to think about the sources they quote from.
“ZH is an important transmission belt moving the story from Russian propagandists/information warriors to western news consumers. It happens a lot. This is a particularly egregious example, but the transmission belt runs almost daily. ZH is as much a part of Putin’s information warfare as RT. If you follow closely enough, it’s as plain as the nose on your face”
http://streetwiseprofessor.com/?p=8947
Apparently some folks can’t handle this so they play the censorship card.
Calling out
Washington Times, World Net Daily, Weekly Standard = neocon.
Salon, Huffington Post = cultural relativist, social justice warrior.
Breitbart = reports on race and gender issues that no one else will do, but sadly is full of neocon.
Fox News = anti-intellectual, jingoistic plantation of “conservative” thought.
New York Times, Washington Post, network television, CNN, PBS, NPR = unofficial Democrat Party mouthpieces, Obama/Clinton leg humpers.
Drudge Report = neocon pretending to be libertarian.
I don’t read RT or ZH, but it doesn’t bother me that they’re posted here. I like the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg.
See my response. I never advocated censorship of the HBB. It’s quite informative to learn about the thoughts running around in Raymond’s head.
I only replied to Raymond’s ZH link because his happened to be the latest ZH link. Several posters like to share ZH links. All I’m doing is shining light on what ZH really seems to be, and let people make their own decisions.
I can’t prove ZH truly is an arm of Putin’s anti-western propaganda machine, but the theory seems plausible if not outright likely. Running a daily stream of negative stories about US markets to undermine investor confidence might be Putin’s response to what the US has done to their markets.
True.
It would help if the idiots on Wall Street and DC would quit giving them so much ammunition.
WPA,
I’m aware that both RT and the Bulgarian guy who is the main writer for Zero Hedge are presenting a pro-Russian perspective. I am no fan of the Kremlin or Putin, or what they’re doing in places like Ukraine. That said, I read a wide range of media outlets, spanning the spectrum from Mother Jones to Breitbart. When I see news articles of relevance to housing or more broadly to events that could impact markets and the economy, I post them, which isn’t necesarily a blanket endorcement of their editorial line or agendas. Do I feel a need to post that disclaimer on every ZH article I post just because it offends your delicate sensibilities? No. So stop, untwist panties, and lighten up, Francis.
Running a daily stream of negative stories about US markets to undermine investor confidence might be Putin’s response to what the US has done to their markets.
If RT and ZH didn’t exist, I couldn’t possibly have a more negative perception of our rigged and broken markets.
WPA is the contrarian on here, a sea of FOX news bots, too lazy to do anything but complain.
Judging by the content of his or her posts, WPA is a partisan Democrat, not a liberal. There’s a huge difference, because the current Democratic Party is not liberal at all, except for social issues.
I’ve seen the meme that pointed economic or foreign policy criticism on the internet is Russian propaganda. It’s primarily used by Obama supporters to discredit those on the left who are unhappy with the Administration.
Bottom line: We hired O to fix the Bush mess. He has done a fairly good job with zero cooperation from the GOP.
As a fiscal conservative who likes the great outdoors, and hates corp moochers and cheaters, I do not find I fit in either party.
Ten-year bond creeping higher. If/when its yield goes past 4%, Yellen the Felon will have no choice but to raise rates, ready or not.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Bond/TMUBMUSD10Y?countrycode=BX
It was near 2.6% a few months ago IIRC. If it goes above 4% I will start buying.
The feedback loop of higher bond rates in the US on emerging markets is still unknown…It can all come unbuttoned very quickly…
why would uncle fed want to raise rates and lose money on their bond portfolio?
The fed funds target rate has been zero. They have paid .25% interest to banks to keep the trillions in excess reserves parked. seems like there is plenty of money available for interbank lending.
How can the FED drain the reserves (sell treasuries) if they are buying the most of the govts debt that is rolled over every year?
Dont you think there is pretty strong financial incentive for the FED to keep rates low?
The Fed can only set rates for interbank lending. They do not control T-bill rates, corporate bond rates, commercial paper, or mortgage rates, all of which are set by the open market.
What was that $4 trillion in security purchases all about?
That’s the only tool the Fed has to try to influence bond rates, by using “open market operations” where they show up at the market as a buyer. Not the same as controlling rates though.
Don’t downplay the power of the mic. Expectations set rates, the Fed plays a big part in setting expectations.
That said, I generally agree that the Fed responds to market rates more than setting market rates.
Ten-year bond creeping higher. If/when its yield goes past 4%, Yellen the Felon will have no choice but to raise rates, ready or not.
+1. Yes, exactly right. Market bond rates drive the Fed to act, not the other way around.
How many bonds does the FED have on its balance sheet right now and what % of the bonds are they buying in the market right now?
Haven’t they been a huge buyer thus raising the price and forcing yields down?
If central banks were not buying yields would not be this low guaranteed.
Why do you have a bond bull market and a stock bull market at the same time?
The Fed ended the bond buying program a year ago.
Why do you have a bond bull market and a stock bull market at the same time?
QE, both by the Fed and the ECB, injected a lot of liquidity into institutions and created a savings glut. Corporations aren’t investing in capital formation and are sitting on piles of cash. You have institutions (pension funds, hedge funds, etc.) piling into bonds for safe returns and piling into stocks chasing returns and yield.
This was all predicted by Keynes as a supply side “liquidity trap.”
They ended QE but they are still active in the bond market. Who are they gonna unload all these bonds onto at these yields?
I just dont think it is in their best financial interests to raise rates and that’s why they haven’t done it in how many years now?
The Fed has about $2.5T in US Treasuries on their balance sheet.
It went up by about $40 billion from July 2014 to July 2015.
The deficit is about $500 billion.
So, the Fed bought less than 10% of the treasuries offered.
makes no sense
how are you coming up with 10% being offered?
40/500?
How many billions in treasuries come up for maturity every year and are simply rolled over? By that I mean new bonds sold to pay off the old?
They are a huge market maker in the bond market cause no one else wants them at these yields unless you are doing a carry trade or you have to buy them like china.
No, they used to be a big player in the bond market. For the last year their balance sheet has been flat. See
http://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/h41/Current/
no one else wants them at these yields
The mutual fund and ETF industry has grown to $17 Trillion. They are some of the big players soaking up bonds, keeping yields extremely low.
OK, then it’s potentially a lot less.
But then again, it might be in the ballpark.
You also need to consider that many of the treasuries held by the Fed would also mature (necessitating them to buy substantially more than $40B to maintain their balance sheet).
if you think there is such great demand for all these bonds why did the fed have to buy 2.5 trillion dollars of them? they are constantly buying and selling bonds. They cannot let rates rise .
this is all bs and hype.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-02/money-flooding-out-of-canada-at-fastest-pace-in-developed-world
Money Flooding Out of Canada at Fastest Pace in Developed World
That can’t be good for real estate prices.
some dimwit poll had canaDuh ranked as 6th most wonderful place to live
a 2 year recession may change that
Maybe they asked people in Greenland?
It probably wasn’t a poll.
On the treadmill now, watching FoxNewsHate on the TeeVee.
Big government nanny state Republicans are bedwetting about Ohio voting today to become the first state in the Midwest to legalize recreational weed. Big government in your body, big government in your bedroom, big government everywhere, because hypocrites.
P.S. Sheldon Adelson spent $5 to defeat a medical marijuana ballot initiative in Florida in 2014, because hypocrites.
Edit: $5 million.
And what does the Likud Party have against legal weed anyway?
The alcohol companies probably don’t like weed. And they’re big companies so they can influence lots of politicians.
An illustrative point: On DC news radio recently, ads against double-trailer trucks were running quite regularly. They’d put on law enforcement officers talking about the dangers. The group running the ads was the Coalition Against Bigger Trucks. CABT is a front for the railroad industry (a quick Google search will inform).
I happen to agree with CABT on this issue but it was quite amusing nonetheless.
because hypocrites
Big Time !!
Ohio = the oligarchy invading the weed market
“Issue 3, as the proposed amendment is known, is bankrolled by wealthy investors spending nearly $25 million to put it on the ballot and sell it to voters. If it passes, they will have exclusive rights to growing commercial marijuana in Ohio.”
Funny how “capitalists” love monopolies. So much for free market competition, eh?
I do not like the proposed law as written.
My interest is as a former resident and voter (I have lived in both Dennis Kucinich and Jean Schmidt’s districts) if the electorate, in an off off election year, will actually pass this.
Old people have nothing better to do with their time than vote. And Ohio is full of lots of old people.
Not just CraterRage!!!!…. It’s underwater hoof kicking Donkey Raaaaaaaaaaage!!!!
http://goo.gl/MJ6m9l
Honk Honk! It’s The Donk!
good Morning Boys and girls -
Today is a good day - it is one less day the Pres. Zero will be in office - but be mindful of the one who takes this losers place because they are all pretty much the same. I am just holding on to what I have now - not expecting much in the future.
It took me a while to come to understand like several on this site (Ray K. Goon) that the problem we face as a nation resides with the whole of TPTB - govt., the corporatists, the oligarchs, the Marxist State Media (MSM) etc. Finally had the scales drop from my blind conservative eyes to come to understand that it is indeed ‘us’ vs. ‘them’. And the ‘them’ are evil who do absolutely no good for the nation the founders risked life and limb to bestow on us all the very thing we take for granted - our liberty.
It has become evident that these self absorbed thugs are being exposed for who and what they are - thugs.
102 million folks who are able to work and aren’t - really?
When you cast your hopes and dreams on a smiling sociopath proclaiming hope and change with no opposition to his mantra - this is what you get - poverty of spirit, soul and pocket book.
Enjoy your day.
http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/21-facts-about-the-explosive-growth-of-poverty-in-america-that-will-blow-your-mind
I feel so much better about life when I stop pretending that this country has a future. That said, I feel like it’s the greatest time in my life to be alive, along with the late 90s up until 9/11.
When you stop making life choices that are limiting life only gets better, your options are limitless. The past doesn’t matter, there is only right now, and the future.
This country doesn’t have a future, but I’ll happily spend the next few decades of mine watching it crash and burn.
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
The past doesn’t matter, there is only right now, and the future ??
Nice quote..+ 1
Aren’t you quite the ray of sunshine….
And to think……what the f happened here?
https://news.vice.com/article/the-pentagon-blew-43-million-on-the-worlds-most-expensive-gas-station
Pay up Rummy or bear the pain …..
Cause after all its for the kidz…..
http://wgntv.com/2015/11/02/union-warns-cps-teachers-to-prepare-for-strike/
voters will be voting for re taxes going up 4x family income in my oblast s of central soviet
no escape for renters unless u live in a Yurt w GOON
how u know HA is black
$50 a sq ft hoods generally are
…. and living in your empty skull…. rent free.
Racist.
Idiots going ape$##t with the World Series parade for “our team”
(No, it isn’t “your team”)
Gave up trying to get to work. Delivery drivers of all flavors are pizzed. Met a guy at the store who is really pizzed. Drove up from Joplin for a doctor appointment with the kid. Got there, and doc had cancelled all the appointments without notification. Office is close to Metcalf and I-435, no problems with traffic around here
Daughter has it made. Her apartment is two blocks east of the parade route.
2015 Payroll
Los Angeles Dodgers – $273,440,830
New York Yankees – $211,747,857
Kansas City Royals – $112,890,000
I get some pleasure out of seeing LA and NY shell out big bucks for prima donna players but come up short. Money can’t buy everything…
I loved MLB when I was a kid and to a lesser extent into my thirties. I was a big Oriole fan going back to Brooks Robinson and Jim Palmer etc.
What turned me off to Major League Baseball was Wayne Huizenga and the Miami Marlins.
He spent a bunch of cash, signed some good players and won the series in 1997.
And then…
From Wikipedia
1997 offseason: the fire sale
Following the World Series victory, Huizenga dismantled the team, claiming financial losses despite winning the World Series. He traded most of the club’s best players in one of the biggest fire sales in sports history. The first deal came days after the World Series, when outfieldler Moisés Alou was traded to the Houston Astros for pitchers Oscar Hernandez and Manuel Barrios.
————————————————————————-
I was like, what a joke, screw this, this is way beyond George Steinbrenner. A rich dude can buy a team, buy some good players, win the series and then unload their salaries and put a AAA team on the field the next year. Hod did the fuqing Cubs not figure this out in a hundred years?
El Nino is doing it’s thing:
Mammoth has been blessed with its first big dump, covering the mountain with 12–30″ of beautiful, fluffy snow.
with 12–30″ of beautiful, fluffy snow ??
Cool….
CA is a dump. A big stinky dump.
The Sierras can easily get 30 feet of snow in a good season. Last year, at the peak of Winter there pass no measureable snow at Lake Tahoe. That has never happened. This October was unbearably hot all month. Anyone in denial of global warming needs therapy.
More Things That Are Now “Racist”: Thor, Heavy Metal Music, Viking Cosplay
Professor says that dressing up as stereotypically white mythological figures oppresses minorities
by Paul Joseph Watson | November 3, 2015
If you thought you could get through a whole day without joyless social justice warriors declaring another set of random things to be racist, then think again.
According to a new study from Leeds Beckett University, Thor, heavy metal music and dressing up as a Viking are all racist because they reinforce oppression towards “ethnic minorities”.
Despite the fact that progressives have spent the last month lecturing everyone about how dressing up in “ethnic” costumes for Halloween represents a hateful act of cultural appropriation, we now learn that dressing up as a stereotypically white cultural figure is also racially insensitive.
According to Professor Karl Spracklen, “Folk metal’s obsession with warriors and cultural purity, displayed through tales of Vikings and dressing up as Vikings on stage, reduces belonging and identity in a muti-cultural, cosmopolitan society to a few exclusive myths. It is showing white men how to be white men and showing women and ethnic minorities their place in European society.”
To recap;
Dressing up as an ethnic stereotype = racist.
Dressing up as a white stereotype = racist.
Actor Chris Hemsworth may also now be out of a job given that all portrayals of Thor have also been officially designated as racist by Professor Spracklen.
“The bands in the research are all trying to identify with some reputed folk culture that existed before modern times – a culture of pure white people, mono-cultural and mono-racial. In some bands, there is an explicitly racist purpose for their adoption of Thor’s hammers, Viking imagery and heroic pagan myths,” said Spracklen.
According to the esteemed professor, folk metal is also a toxic expression of white privilege which, “preserves an old-fashioned power structure where white, male Europeans are superior.”
“Folk metal serves as a comfortable leisure space for those that have lost power in recent decades: the white European, working class men who have faced challenges to their assumed privileges from women, globalisation, immigration and postmodernity. However, at the same time it should not be easily dismissed in this way, and I believe it remains central to the idea of heavy metal as a form of leisure that makes masculinity and whiteness the norm.”
So in other words, if you like folk metal you are merely compensating for your loss of white privilege, while also contributing to the continued domination of white privilege. Oh, and “masculinity” and being white are also bad.
Basically, any symbol or representation of anything that represents white culture or heritage, whether based in historical reality or mythological lore is racist and oppresses ethnic minorities.
You have been warned.
Is there an Off Lease program for the ISIL Toyota pick-up trucks?
I think US taxpayers bought them for our Iraqi “allies” who then ran like Ted Kennedy from a car accident whenever ISIL showed up, leaving their shiny new Toyotas (and HUMVEES, etc.) behind.
No worries. We can keep buying them more.
The Fed’s swindles against the 99% continue apace. This is what the sheeple voted for when they rejected Ron Paul and his attempts to rein in these criminals.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2015/11/02/bank-of-america-admits-central-bank-policy-enriched-wall-street-while-steamrolling-main-street/
JPM, BoFA and Bill Gross starting to grow more strident in their calls for rate increases suggests to me that a rate increase is, in fact, nearing. These people and their associates are among the Fed’s current and former directors, who actually have the ear of Yellen and company.
I’ll believe it when I see it. ZIRP and NIRP, along with QE, are the best way to effect a wealth transfer from the 99% to Yellen’s .1% partners in crime.
Trump goes after Yellen the Felon - it’s about time.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-03/furious-trump-goes-after-highly-political-yellen-she-not-raising-rates-because-obama
“More Americans Than Ever Use Prescription Drugs” on Drudge
Gee, do you think the fact that 11k persons turn 65 every day has anything to do with it?
“More Americans Than Ever Use Depends,” just ask HA.
It would certainly be nice if housing prices crashed, but so far it certainly hasn’t happened yet. The Great Recession of 2008 was traumatic to the system where major cracks were showing. I don’t
think the powers that be want a new one. Now is it possible we see a lowering of prices in the near future. That could certainly be possible.
Personally, I have my eye on several areas in the United States where I could buy a house cash if I were to sell in Southern California. With global warming beginning in earnest, Southern California could definitely go through a major downturn. I feel cities like Vegas and Phoenix will actually become ghost towns very soon. The excesses of fracking and the drying up of the Oglalla aquifier will definitely lead to food shortages and major loss of life in the near future.
I want to be in a place with a low population, and access to permanent, non polluted water. Thus a major portion of the U.S will be unlivable quite soon.
The big question is how soon is soon.
It seems the patterns of global warming will be advantageous for parts of the East coast. I think inland North Carolina would be quite safe, but if my predictions come true, will any region be safe with the inevitable anarchy that would follow a food production and safe water decline of any magnitude.
We already have dying cities like Detroit and Baltimore, but maybe a savvy investor could by huge chunks of these dying rotten metropolises and make some money off of them.
As a school teacher, I’m expecting a big retirement, but there is a good chance that in my golden years those funds will dry up as the United States reneges on its promises and sinks into third world status.
I hear Americans say America can’t get any worse. They should spend some time in the Kawangware slum of Kenya and see if the HIV and poverty, and police abuses couldn’t possibly get worse than what we are seeing in America now
I would say most Americans rate their intelligence and advantage over other countries way too high.
We were lucky to get the 50s to 2000s. That kind of societal success will never be repeated on planet Earth
Welcome to the new dark ages. We’ve earned them.
Did global warming wreck your love life?
Marketwatch dot com
The Margin
Global-warming threat hits between the sheets
By Shawn Langlois
Published: Nov 3, 2015 3:36 p.m. ET
Research study says when weather reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the birthrate takes a big hit
MarketWatch photo illustration/Shutterstock
If climate change doesn’t sap your sex drive, a wonky ”working paper” on “coital frequency” amid rising temperatures just might.
“Dynamic adjustments could be a useful strategy for mitigating the costs of acute environmental shocks when timing is not a strictly binding constraint.” And that is just the first line of the study’s abstract.
Excited yet?
To put the paper in layman’s terms: When the mercury rises, libido falls. In the U.S., anyway. That’s the conclusion reached by researchers from a trio of universities, who studied 80 years of fertility and temperature data to find that when the weather reaches 80 degrees Fahrenheit, the birthrate takes a big hit.
…
Pull yourself up out of that California sewer and cheer up and remember…. Falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels is positively bullish and good for your economy.
I feel sorry for your students. Cheer up.
Eaten alive by Crater Gators.
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