Bits Bucket for January 30, 2016
Post off-topic ideas, links, and Craigslist finds here. Please visit my Youtube channel which you can also find here:
http:tinyurl.com/http-hbb-com
The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
About Me
Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
To donate by mail, or to otherwise contact this blogger, please send emails to: thehousingbubble@gmail.com
PayPal is a secure online payment method which accepts ALL major credit cards.
Links
-
April 2024 M T W T F S S « Sep 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Photo Submission: hbbphotos@gmail.com
View the HBB Photo Gallery *updated 4/13/2008
Did you sell all your stocks last month?
10 hilarious cartoons about the stock market panic
By Philip van Doorn
Published: Jan 29, 2016 9:37 a.m. ET
Pictures can make it easier to understand investors’ behavior
Snarky and insightful Twitter posts this week about the panic in the U.S. stock market showed the folly of the investing world.
Buying high and selling low is a common problem, especially when novice investors listen to “horse tips” when selecting investments. Meanwhile, somebody else scoops up the shares that you’re selling and makes money at a later time.
…
Do u think yellen will let the DOW go down below 14k?
There are so many short positions that any whisper of stimulus is met with buying from the HFT algos.
All they have to do is keep people talking every week. They know which days are best to roust the shorts. so someone is wheeled out on cnbc.
Until the shorts are out it seems it will keep on going.
Marketwatch dot com
Stocks end sharply higher, but post worst January since 2009
By Ellie Ismailidou and Victor Reklaitis
Published: Jan 29, 2016 4:47 p.m. ET
BOJ stimulus boosts global stocks; Amazon tumbles on weak earnings
Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, right, lighted a fire under global equities.
U.S. stocks closed sharply higher on Friday, booking a second straight weekly gain but posting the worst January performance since 2009.
Friday’s surge came amid a global equity rally following a surprise decision by the Bank of Japan to push a key interest rate into negative territory that some said could push the Federal Reserve to ease up on its plans to steadily raise interest rates.
…
“a closely watched pot never boils over.” GET STUCCO
Marketwatch dot com
Dow, S&P posts most 1% swings in January since 2008 meltdown
By Mark DeCambre
Published: Jan 29, 2016 4:22 p.m. ET
It has been the worst January in eight years for the Dow and S&P
Rough sledding for stocks.
Take a breath, Wall Street investors. Not only has January been one of the worst stretches of trading in history, the frenetic swings in the S&P 500 (SPX, +2.48%) the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, +2.47%) and the Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP, +2.38%) made for one of the most harrowing months since the 2008 financial crisis.
Both stock-market benchmarks experienced wild gyrations as investors wrestled with the fallout from a rate increase by the Federal Reserve, lackluster corporate earnings and signs of a global economic slowdown that unsettled investor confidence, as the table below indicates:
…
Who is gonna be wheeled out next week to create more short covering?
Who has the fat finger working the VIX?
The central banks own these markets. They created the monster and now they have to maintain the illusion that all is fine.
“The central banks own these markets.”
It was God’s Plan.
“They created the monster and now they have to maintain the illusion that all is fine.”
You pukes allowed this “monster” (as you call it) to be created so stop your bitching and go get a job so as to earn money that can be sent up the economic food chain to where it rightfully belongs.
This “monster” that you allowed to be created must be fed.
You pukes allowed this “monster” (as you call it) to be created so stop your bitching and go get a job so as to earn money that can be sent up the economic food chain to where it rightfully belongs.
Testify, Mr. Banker. 95% of the electorate bend over for the Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate election after election by voting for its Republicrat water carriers, then wail about how the .1% are concentrating all wealth and power in their own greedy hands. Stupid is as stupid does.
fed…Fed…
I gits it!
Who is gonna be wheeled out next week to create more short covering?
“Zimbabwe Ben” Bernanke already sent up a trial balloon for NIPR. The sheeple didn’t bat an eye, even though this is another massive swindle against savers and retirees, so if the markets keep sliding next week I would expect Yellen the Felon or her Fed underlings to start jawboning about NIRP or more QE to come.
I think you understand ray.
They must have a calendar put together of who talks what days.
I’m expecting someone from the SNB soon.
They rotate around that way there is always ammo when you need to kick the shorts in the nuts again.
The Wall Street financial firms have full visibility into short positions and stop-lose positions, which is how they have been able to rig and manipulate the market so profitably using HFT algos or trotting out Yellen the Felon or other Fed officials to jawbone the market one way or the other on command. None dare call it racketeering.
I could not have said it any better buddy. You nailed it!
Mark Zuckerberg wealth increased about $3 billion last week.
not everyone is losing
“Did you sell all your stocks last month?”
Why would any long term investor sell when it’s gone down? 2015 was essentially flat for the S&P.
January effect: 5% drop, means lower prices are ahead.
But the time to sell was last year. Perfect time. I sold ASGN, hundreds o’ shares, with an average gain of 1500%, and VSGAX with a great gain. Also VTCLX, a good gain.
Sometime this year it will be a time to buy.
Bill - what indicators will you use to determine when it will be time to buy?
When the Dow bottoms of course. The Dow is still overpriced by 7000 points.
Individual stocks on companies with book values per share way above stock price, insider buying positive and way low debt compared to casfor ETFs buy when at least 30% below their peak NAV in a window of two years.
“Why would any long term investor sell when it’s gone down?”
Margin calls?
stop loss in place?
Has oil stopped its drop?
CNN
After 40-year ban, U.S. starts exporting crude oil
by Matt Egan
January 29, 2016: 1:55 PM ET
How low can oil prices go?
America is wasting little time getting back into the oil exporting business.
Just weeks after Congress lifted a 40-year ban on exporting oil, the first shipments of the black stuff left U.S. ports for Europe.
The first freely-traded shipments of U.S. crude are symbolic of the country’s newfound role as a leading producer of oil. America’s entry into the world market can also be viewed with relief by those worried about potential supply disruptions. After all, many big oil producers are located in volatile parts of the world susceptible to geopolitical shocks.
“The fact that producers have free access to the global market will make it easier for U.S. supply to respond to disruptions around the world,” said Jason Borduff, a former energy adviser to President Obama who is currently a professor at Columbia University.
…
It’s interesting that the U.S. as able to assume the role of leading oil exporter never gets any play.
The consequences are enormous.
And as I’ve said several times before, what is going on in this country right now (socially, politically, economically) is more important than anything going on anywhere else.
What boggles the mind is how many people are distracted away, and how easily they are distracted.
“What boggles the mind is how many people are distracted away, and how easily they are distracted.”
1. Dumb ‘em down.
2. Profit.
What boggles the mind is how many people are distracted away, and how easily they are distracted.
They’re not so much distracted as they are stupid.
“They’re not so much distracted as they are stupid.”
Clearly more student loans must be initiated so as to combat this stupidity.
Of course. And then all those non-performing loans must be transfered to the public ledgers, with the “benevolence” being richly rewarded by the banksters once their political puppets leave “public service.” And the sheeple graze on.
““The fact that producers have free access to the global market will make it easier for U.S. supply to respond to disruptions around the world,” said Jason Borduff, a former energy adviser to President Obama who is currently a professor at Columbia University.”
That little tidbit should have everyone on edge. I guess the plan here is to buy foreign oil at a higher price to keep gas prices higher in the US while exporting our oil elsewhere.
There’s the reason oil is so low.
Let’s imagine the United States based or heavily vested oil companies having the power to manipulate prices so low that congress repeals a 40 year old ban.
A ban that can now give the United States an oil shortage at the suppliers slightest whim.
The oil goes up domestically high enough to make the boondoggle wind and methanol projects less of a loser.
No loss of employment in wind and methanol and fracking and shale and sand and other fringe ventures designed simply to employ and churn.
That’s why oil is low.
Maybe, we’re sending offset money to countries to get them to play along for a few months on oil prices dropping.
Crude oil price isn’t “low”.
Crude prices have a long way to fall yet.
Any thoughts on why the Baltic Dry Index falls daily without fail?
Baltic Dry Index falls to 317, down 8 points.
in Dry Bulk Market 29/01/2016
Today, Friday, January 29 2016, the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 8 points, reaching 317 points.
Baltic Dry Index is compiled by the London-based Baltic Exchange and covers prices for transported cargo such as coal, grain and iron ore. The index is based on a daily survey of agents all over the world. Baltic Dry hit a temporary peak on May 20, 2008, when the index hit 11,793. The lowest level ever reached was on Friday, January 29 2016, when the index dropped to 317 points.
Source: Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
My poetic observation:
The Baltic Dry
Don’t lie.
From my observation it doesn’t matter what the economy is doing. This market trades off the central bankers next move and has for the past 7 years. At some level of the DOW QE 4 will be announced.
At least once a week someone is wheeled out to say things are fine.
“QE is like a roach motel, once your in you cant get out.” P. Schiff
This is a massive bubble and theoretically the central banks could keep propping it up for a long time. The whole recovery is based on the this.
“At least once a week someone is wheeled out to say things are fine.”
Hehe… gotta have an occasional pronouncement with the bread and circuses.
Easy money is a flash in the wok.
China had steel mills that could produce 70 million tons. They needed a bit more to build widgets and a lot more to build empty cities and money was cheap. By 2014 they had capacity to produce 825 million tons. All of these new steel mills required a lot of steel to build so demand seemed strong. So they built ports and ships and mines, and more steel mills. Easy money. Now they have 1.2 billion tons of capacity. Almost all of this happened in the last ten years.
Suddenly steel is on sale! The rest of the world is throwing up trade barriers. Making steel doesn’t seem like such a great business in China, so they stop building mills and make less steel. There goes half the requirement for all that capacity, maybe much more. There go the ports, the ships, the mines, the miracle, the easy money.
Nothing like this has ever happened before on such a scale. The clean up will take a long time and it is just getting started.
link
http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/red-ponzi-ticking/
“In fact, China is the rotten epicenter of the world’s two decade long plunge into an immense central bank fostered monetary fraud and credit explosion that has deformed and destabilized the very warp and woof of the global economy.”
A work of art.
God’s Plan: The bankers (Central Banks, the IMF, the World Bank - whatever) are soon to be placed in the position of deciding just who it is that gets saved - and on what terms they are to be saved - and who it is that gets to go under.
David Stockman is one of a tiny handful of brilliant commentators speaking truth to power. Sadly, when 95% of the population are stupid, it’s a case of pearls before swine.
“Nothing like this has ever happened before on such a scale.”
I said almost those very same words a couple of days ago when describing China’s economic picture to my dad. It seems like the MSM’s financial press core is largely clueless on the immense scale of their economic bust. Perhaps this is a Twenty-first Century instance of Hans Christian Anderson’s classic fairytale, ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes.’
Truth will out in due time.
“China is contained.” B. BERNAKE
The real fear, of course, is that if China experiences a hard landing and tens of millions of Chinese have their “investments” wiped out or see their jobs disappear, the ruling clique will try to deflect popular rage by embarking of some military adventurism in the South China Sea and/or Taiwan. Then they can whip up nationalist sentiment and cause the sheeple (yes, they have them too) to rally ’round the flag rather than blame the government for its failed policies.
How much has the PBOC printed in the last 15 years to make up for the difference in the yuan and the dollar?
For thousands of years, the rulers of China have been revered until economic disaster and hunger strike. Then they are thrown out.
Yep. Once they lose the “mandate of heaven,” they’re toast.
Somebody reads Gore Vidal
“Any thoughts on why the Baltic Dry Index falls daily without fail?”
A/o Jan 1, 2015 there were 16,916 bulk carriers in existence, more of these types of ships than any other type.
Chart:
http://www.statista.com/statistics/264024/number-of-merchant-ships-worldwide-by-type/
Any thoughts about what happens when the Baltic Index bottoms out?
There’s going to be tremendous need for Stuff as Stuff everywhere is consumed/wears out. Does the Baltic Index then skyrocket? Or instead, does production become increasingly nationalistic?
If production becomes more nationalistic, what is the political response of the world’s globalists? Should production everywhere be done more locally, or will globalists attempt to tell us what is to be manufactured where?
“Any thoughts about what happens when the Baltic Index bottoms out?”
The bottom of the ocean ends up being littered with thousands of “accidentally sunken” bulk carriers?
Just like the bottom of every lake will be littered with gold and firearms from all those “boating accidents” if a future permanent Democrat Supermajority regime comes looking to confiscate them for the greater good (and “for the children”).
Any thoughts about what happens when the Baltic Index bottoms out?
Whenever it starts rising again, Zerohedge won’t cover it.
Neither will Professor Bear.
I’ll be the first to let you know when it stops dropping like a rock.
Look at recent wto rulings and congressional bills tearing down laws that required point of origin labeling laws with regard to meat. They ruled it was illegal to require labeling telling consumers where their meat was produced and processed, Expect the same for all goods.
Wouldn’t want to get the sheeple needlessly alarmed, would we? What they don’t know won’t hurt them, so let’s not tell them what goes on at factory farms and agribusiness produce operations.
Are modern central banking practices increasing the frequency of panics?
The Telegraph
Finance
The Lords of Finance are skidding out of control
Has the US Federal Reserve made a terrible policy mistake in raising rates?
Picture: Jay Mallin/Bloomberg News
By Jeremy Warner
7:00AM GMT 29 Jan 2016
Financial markets have become dangerously dependent on the cheap monetary steriods of central bankers – creating yet more debt
‘When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?” So reputedly said the British economist John Maynard Keynes. Economists are always changing their minds, but few practitioners of the “dismal science” do it quite as regularly as central bankers.
I’ve lost count of the number of times Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, has signalled an interest rate rise, only to row back a few months later in the face of a softening economy, turmoil in the markets, or a plunging inflation rate.
On the other side of the pond, his opposite number at the US Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen, last month succeeded in pushing through the first US rate rise in nearly 10 years, but already she is being widely accused of making a grave policy error.
…
“Financial markets have become dangerously dependent on the cheap monetary steriods of central bankers – creating yet more debt.”
Financial markets = The true economy.
Rescue the financial markets and you will rescue the true economy.
Allow the financial market to decline and you will destroy jobs.
We bankers have now gotcha where we wantcha.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha
No, that’s Trump’s job.
Are modern central banking practices increasing the frequency of panics?
Read “The Creature from Jeykll Island.” In 1913 a bunch of banksters and robber barons created the Federal Reserve to facilitate the looting and asset stripping of the 99% through manipulated boom-bust cycles. It’s working according to plan, not least because 95% of the electorate mindlessly bends over for the Oligopoly’s political puppets and enablers election after election. It’s no accident that most central bankers are “former” Goldman Sachs officials.
“Are modern central banking practices increasing the frequency of panics?”
Yes! And the rescues from these panics - rescues at terms that benefit the rescuers.
Bahahahahahahahaha … the ninety-five percenters: Dumb ‘em down, and profit.
Bahahahahahahahaha … the ninety-five percenters: Dumb ‘em down, and profit.
Mission accomplished.
Ah the government protecting the little guy.
http://m.ottawasun.com/2016/01/28/man-jailed-over-unpaid-cat-fine-surrenders
While Hillary Clinton and Jon Corzine need never worry about being indicted or sentenced for their multiple felonies.
Nobody with money need worry.
His argument is he feeds the cat, but he doesn’t really own it, it’s wild.
Can’t every cat owner say the same thing?
“Smith says he bears no resentment against the animal.”
I’m not 100% sure, but I remember california law saying something of that.
That cats are by design feral and no one really owns one.
I may be wrong, but I know the ‘thst cat is his own cat’ defense has been used numerous times. I think it may be why cats do not require a leash in most places.
‘thst cat is his own cat’ defense
Cats are voluntaryists.
This guys an ahole liar and an old crank picking a fight for attention. He and his wife have owned that cat for 12 years and he knows it. Making up a bunch of half excuses and lies.
The should do a pawternity test.
Rob Lowe Riles up Angry Liberals With Bernie Sanders Tweet…
Steven Crowder Tuesday January 26 2016
RobLoweTwitter
@RobLowe
Watching Bernie Sanders. He’s hectoring and yelling at me WHILE he’s saying he’s going to raise our taxes. Interesting way to communicate.
Chris Bartley @phishb13
@RobLowe he’ll raise YOUR taxes. not “our” taxes. let’s get it straight.
9:20 PM - 25 Jan 2016
Jordan Purkat @JordanPurkat
@RobLowe YOUR taxes maybe, Mr. Millionaire
9:20 PM - 25 Jan 2016
Read more: http://louderwithcrowder.com/rob-lowe-blasts-bernie-sanders-on-raising-his-taxes-and-yelling-at-him/#ixzz3yjNqNZP9
Follow us: @scrowder on Twitter | stevencrowderofficial on Facebook
When the Oligopoly foisted the income tax on ‘Muricans at the same time they created the Fed, they sold it by saying only the rich would be taxed. That calmed the sheeple. Then the category of people being taxed steadily (and stealthily) was broadened to include all income earners, with the rich having creating loopholes to minimize their tax burden. Anyone who thinks “the rich” will be paying for Bernie’s Free Money for Free Sh*tters programs is an imbecile. Then again, since 95% of the electorate are imbeciles, Bernie will probably be successful in selling this snake oil.
anyone who thinks “the rich” will be paying for Bernie’s Free Money for Free Sh*tters programs is an imbecile
Well if the rich never lose, we should just quit complaining, eh? They’re gonna run things and that’s the way it is, always has been, and always will be. Why rant about it? Why vote?
Glad to see your coming around.
Glad to see your coming around.
By recognizing the point of such propaganda: discouraging democracy?
It doesn’t work on me, and I assume it only works on the dumb, so maybe it’s a good thing. Keep the dumb from voting. It’s hopeless, ya rubes.
Compared to the life that we have today, Americans lived in misery back in those days before the Fed and the income tax.
A continuous sub 2% growth world is worse than the 3.5 % of the past?
Do u have kids ?
Many of the millennial I know have nothing going.
The standard of living was much lower. It was growing more quickly from a much lower level. In other words, it grew a lot and that resulted in the much better lives that we have today.
The question for you is did you have grandparents? From my mine told about life when was like when they kids in the 1920s, it was pretty grim back in those days. I think that there were other memories that were rarely discussed before thy were so unpleasant.
Raise the taxes to pay our insurance, but that’s irrelevant….
Impotent Rage: The Liberal Superhero - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcXoEd8IF0g - 172k -
How have I never heard of this before! Thanks.
if hilary is indicted does this mean an immediate victory to the colonel or does bloomberg enter the dance?
She WILL NOT be indicted.
+1. Not a chance. As a member of the .1%, Hillary is literally above the law. Our captured judiciary and enforcers will find creative excuses to avoid prosecution, just like Eric Holder and Lorreta Lynch have done for the TBTF banksters.
I’ve heard everybody from Biden to Gov. Brown….
The loon and the looney. That’s the ticket!
Astonishing how the country has changed since Nixon resigned following impeachment.
To think that Boomers think of themselves as “moralists” and “crusaders”. Of what, exactly? This?
The Boomers are the most feckless, self-absorbed generation in American history. When they depart from the scene (not soon enough) they are leaving a gargantuan mess for future generations to deal with.
Amazing how people in my generation “boomers” used to dress scantily. I remember busty coeds wearing halter tops at my college. It was great scenery for sure. And a great deal of them are shocked by girls these days. And then there was Madonna in the 80s. She was the queen of shock. Probably a crusader against shock now.
I suppose in 30 years Miley Cyrus would crusade against revealing outfits among young women.
Nixon was impeached. Had to resign.
Clinton will walk away scot-free from what she has done.
And your response is to compare societal response to sluts through the ages?
Boomers are allowing Clinton to get away with what she has done. Why? Because she’s one of their own?
Clinton is a Boomer, and therefore, it’s fine to look away?
So much for Boomers leading others to the promised land.
The generation that found itself born in the catbird seat sure had no problem spending all of the social, political and economic capital bestowed upon it by those long since dead.
Sorry, Boomers, you didn’t create the conditions, the foundations, that allowed you to reap. Don’t even bother to pretend that you did.
People all over this country no longer trust one another. And that, dear Boomers, is the legacy you’re leaving behind.
Nixon was impeached? When?
“Nixon was impeached? When?”
July, 1984.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/house-begins-impeachment-of-nixon
1974, but this does NOT say Nixon was impeached. He never was.
Wrong.
“impeach: Impeach means to charge someone with doing something wrong, specifically a high government official, such as the US president, a senator, or a Federal judge.”
Link: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/impeach
Three Presidents have been impeached: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton.
Wrong, the committee voted but not the full house.
You are correct and I am wrong.
To think that Boomers think of themselves as “moralists” and “crusaders”.
Probably only only a small portion think of themselves that way. And it’s probably not more than other generations.
Biden enters by popular demand.
“Popular” meaning the oligarch puppetmasters orchestrate his entry into their Republicrat puppet show.
Bahahahaha … you know the script!
Biden enters by popular demand ??
If Hilary falls, yes…
Hillaryous is unelectable.
It appears that liberal politicians are so fat from largesse that only the fattest few can fit into the clown car simultaneously.
Of course, that the liberal clown car likely is a Trabant, might have something to do with lack of interior space.
If bimbo palin is till relevant, why not mimbo biden?
Boy would that make the perfect pair, Sarah and Biden, standing on their deck in Alaska, shooting their guns in the air to scare the bad guys away, while they gazed at the lights of Russia.
There are registry dates and rules and protocols for every state that cannot be manipulated en masse.
I think they are all out of time or March is the drop dead date.
Assuming they don’t just repeal or suspend, like FASB 157
Why Donald Trump is rich and you are not.
(psssst … it has something to do with getting hold of other people’s money)
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-donald-trump-is-rich-and-youre-not-2015-07-27
Why Donald Trump is rich ??
Simple answer…Not complicated…He was born “rich”…He did not make money the old fashion way…He “did not” earn it…
Why is Washington, DC, the wealthiest metropolitan area in the country?
If someone gave you a 20,000 loan could you turn it into 10 million?
Yes, it’s easy to take daddy’s money and spend it.
Much harder to take it and use it to make more.
There are two kinds of people. Which one will you be? A loser like them? Or a winner like me.
Watch and learn, Pineapples, watch and learn. This is ALWAYS the end game for socialism when you run out of other people’s money and the producers refuse to produce knowing the fruits of their labors will be stolen from them by the government and its FSA.
http://www.businessinsider.com/venezuela-is-on-the-brink-of-a-complete-economic-collapse-2016-1
This is ALWAYS the endgame when you elect a crazed narcissist with strongman tendencies as your leader.
Don’t try to make it about the front man, Oddfellow. This is socialism pure and simple: forcibly taking from the productive to buy support from the Free Sh*t Army. The Democrat game plan, in other words.
Hm. Why are the countries with the highest per capita GDPs and longest life expectancies mostly “socialist”?
Lets see if you get a answer from him…
Why are the countries with the highest per capita GDPs and longest life expectancies mostly “socialist”?
Why is it that the country everybody wants to go to is capitalist? Take a gander: world gdps. I can fit an awful lot of socialist GDPs into one American GDP. Your socialist GDPs are laughable.
As far as life expectancy, tell me historically how many countries have had a sign out saying “Give me all your losers”. The largest reason our life span is lower is the number of minorities killing one another and suicides. If you adjust lifespan by taking out violent deaths, we’re right there at the top. A homogeneous society goes a long way toward removing violent deaths so let me know how Europe’s life expectancy trends as they take on more and more of these migrants…
There’s your answer scdave, but don’t worry, I know the non-PC of it all blew right through your logic circuits and it’s meaningless to you. It’s the same for oddfellow.
More and more it really does seem clear that liberalism is a genuine mental illness.
They’re doomed! Doomed I tell you!
They’re doomed! Doomed I tell you!
Not any more than we are. I don’t know, though. This just in: “Germany’s Merkel says refugees must return home once war is over”
That’s of course wishful thinking and pandering all wrapped in one. Time will tell.
P.S. Notice how you have no real response? The kinda thing that gets pointed out over and over on here…
“Germany’s Merkel says refugees must return home once war is over”
Do you believe the neocons and mic will ever end war?
I can fit an awful lot of socialist GDPs into one American GDP
I thought we were already “socialist”. Are we free market now? Or does our status switch back and forth according to the needs of your current argument?
Did you check per capita GDPs?
Why is it that the country everybody wants to go to is capitalist? Take a gander: world gdps. I can fit an awful lot of socialist GDPs into one American GDP. Your socialist GDPs are laughable.
You’re kidding, right?
As far as life expectancy, tell me historically how many countries have had a sign out saying “Give me all your losers”. The largest reason our life span is lower is the number of minorities killing one another and suicides.
That sounds like a much of made up statist nonsense. Is there any evidence?
Always remember to wage war against the intrusive federal government in someone else’s county.
Oregon Town Torn Apart by Protest at Wildlife Refuge
By JULIE TURKEWITZ and KIRK JOHNSONJAN. 29, 2016
BURNS, Ore. — The courthouse is still blocked by concrete bollards. Tires have been slashed. Family members and old friends have argued and refused to speak again. Fights have broken out in church.
The occupation at a wildlife refuge near here by a band of outsiders — 11 of them have been arrested and one killed, and four remain in the compound — has turned this patch of small-town America into a community at war with itself. Rather than uniting the hamlet of Burns around a common cause, the rebellion at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge by anti-government protesters has exposed divisions among residents, some who support federal regulation of public land and others who bristle at Washington’s sway.
The tumultuous events of the occupation — still not over after 27 days — have left divisions that residents said would not soon heal, even after the drama ends and the world’s attention shifts.
“This county is so tore up, it will never be the same — ever,” said Jeff Dixson, 68, a wildlife photographer and former truck driver
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/30/us/burns-oregon-protest.html?_r=0
Why is it that the country everybody wants to go to is capitalist?
Are you talking about socialist Germany or socialist Sweden?
Are Hillary’s emails a ticking time bomb which will doom her candidacy?
My eighty-seven year old mom’s comment:
“I don’t understand how she could have done anything so stupid.”
My ripsote to your eighty-year-old mom: Did you vote for Bush, Obama, McCain, or Romney? I don’t understand how any member of the 99% could have done something so stupid.
Wiki …
“The term “affluenza” has also been used to refer to an inability to understand the consequences of one’s actions because of financial privilege …”
‘Muricans in general have rejected any notion of being responsible and accountable for their own actions. For example, 95% of ‘Muricans bend over and spread their cheeks for the Wall Street-Federal Reserve looting syndicate each election, then they tell pollsters that they don’t trust the government and the country is going in the wrong direction, while failing to acknowledge any possible linkage between their votes (and abject stupidity) and the corrupt, crony capitalist status quo.
LMAO I keep seeing that kids face plastered all over the net.He looks drugged up. Little pr@ck should be in a cell.
“Little pr@ck should be in a cell.”
But a wee distraction, while the big pr@cks get to skate.
+1
+ a lot more than 1.
Sympathy and excuses for white criminals, justified police shooting deaths for black criminals.
I’ll give Obama credit for one thing: unlike any president in recent memory, he seems to recognize how broken and bestial our penal system has become. He actually visited a prison and spoke with inmates, and recently signed an EO banning extended solitary confinement for minors. It’s about time someone in authority started taking a hard look at our prison-industrial complex and the cruelties and abuses being inflicted on prisoners that society treats like throwaways.
They’re not throwaways, they’re profit centers.
Did your mom approve of Reagan trading arms to the Muslims in Iran?
hypocrites are everywhere
So you want Hillary jailed the same way you wanted Reagan? Reagans dead. Hillary is still available though.
hypocrite
So, yes, you want Hillary jailed so you aren’t a hypocrite?
Not stupidity at all IMHO, figure it was done due an astounding level of arrogance and an attitude that the rules are for little people…anyway enough to prevent me from voting for her in the primary or general election.
the above didn’t post where I expected, anyway was referring to Hillary’s emailgate (though come to think of it the affluenza guy is not so different)
Did the chess master set her up? Hhahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahaha
Will Canada’s housing bubble crater before our’s does?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-29/meanwhile-canada-real-estate-bargain-emerges
Just as Obama is Gun Salesman of the Century, Frau Merkel and the other globalist politicians in Europe are Recruiters of the Century for far right and nationalist groups. It seems like the 1930s all over again, and we know how that movie ends.
https://www.rt.com/news/330697-sweden-immigrant-pogrom-stockholm/
Sweden is THE paragon of leftist virtue.
Interestingly, their leftists don’t appreciate diversity, either. Much like our own here in the States.
Leftists screw up everything they touch.
smart, look at our red southern states dragging us down or Chicago.
Obama voters dragging everyone down.
in your mind only
‘Murica 2016: We’re mad as hell, but we’re going to keep bending over for the Oligopoly by voting for its stooges.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/election/article57273748.html
The backlash in Europe is gathering force.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3423968/Mobs-hundreds-masked-men-rampage-Stockholm-central-station-beating-refugee-children.html#comments
“Diversity” as we all well know, is reserved for select groups.
What’s on display in Sweden, Hungary, Germany and France is a lack of appreciation for those with different belief systems.
Unlike Sweden, Germany and France, Hungary never put out the welcome mat for immigrants or refugees.
What is going to happen to the global financial system if the central bankers institute NIRP and moar QE, and the thinking 5% yank their money and put it into physical precious metals rather than accept getting bent over by the banksters?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-30/pandoras-box-open-db-warns-japan-may-have-started-silent-bank-run
Here we go again. Word to the sheeple: get ready to bail out your bankster overlords again.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/01/29/home-equity-subprime-atm-surges/
Bernie wont bail them out.
Senator Sanders introduced a bill to end “too big to fail” once and for all.2 Now it is up to us to show the rest of Congress that it is time to break up the biggest banks.
Stand with Bernie Sanders: Tell Congress to break up too-big-to-fail banks.
The 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law added new oversight, new rules, and most importantly created new institutions like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but it didn’t go far enough. Today, the biggest banks are bigger than ever, they can borrow money at lower rates because the market assumes we will bail them out, and their reckless behavior continues.
This is cut and paste from a Sanders email blast.
Hhahahahahhahahahahahahahahahhahaha
Shills
http://www.thedailycall.org/?p=74060
Bailout Barney Sanders is pro-debt slavery
Doug Casey describes Hillary Clinton and our Oligopoly elites:
There are seven characteristics I can think of that define a sociopath, although I’m sure the list could be extended:
1. Sociopaths completely lack a conscience or any capacity for real regret about hurting people. Although they pretend the opposite.
2. Sociopaths put their own desires and wants on a totally different level from those of other people. Their wants are incommensurate. They truly believe their ends justify their means. Although they pretend the opposite.
3. Sociopaths consider themselves superior to everyone else, because they aren’t burdened by the emotions and ethics others have - they’re above all that. They’re arrogant. Although they pretend the opposite.
4. Sociopaths never accept the slightest responsibility for anything that goes wrong, even though they’re responsible for almost everything that goes wrong. You’ll never hear a sincere apology from them.
5. Sociopaths have a lopsided notion of property rights. What’s theirs is theirs, and what’s yours is theirs too. They therefore defend currency inflation and taxation as good things.
6. Sociopaths usually pick the wrong target to attack. If they lose their wallet, they kick the dog. If 16 Saudis fly planes into buildings, they attack Afghanistan.
7. Sociopaths traffic in disturbing news, they love to pass on destructive rumors, and they’ll falsify information to damage others.
The fact that they’re chronic, extremely convincing, and even enthusiastic liars, who often believe their own lies, means they aren’t easy to spot, because normal people naturally assume another person is telling the truth. They rarely have handlebar mustaches or chortle like Snidely Whiplash. Instead, they cultivate a social veneer or a mask of sanity that diverts suspicion. You can rely on them to be “politically correct” in public. How could a congressman or senator who avidly supports charities possibly be a bad guy? How could someone who claims he just wants the U.S. to defend some foreign minority possibly be a warmonger? They’re expert at using facades to disguise reality, and they feel no guilt about it.
Political elites are primarily, and sometimes exclusively, composed of sociopaths. It’s not just that they aren’t normal human beings. They’re barely even human, a separate subspecies, differentiated by their psychological qualities. A normal human can mate with them spiritually and psychologically about as fruitfully as a modern human could mate physically with a Neanderthal; it can be done, but the results will be problematical.
It’s a serious problem when a society becomes highly politicized, as is now the case in the U.S. and Europe. In normal times, a sociopath stays under the radar. Perhaps he’ll commit a common crime when he thinks he can get away with it, but social mores keep him reined in. However, once the government changes its emphasis from protecting citizens from force to initiating force with laws and taxes, those social mores break down. Peer pressure, social approbation, and moral opprobrium, the forces that keep a healthy society orderly, are replaced by regulations enforced by cops and funded by taxes. Sociopaths sense this, start coming out of the woodwork, and are drawn to the State and its bureaucracies and regulatory agencies, where they can get licensed and paid to do what they’ve always wanted to do.
It’s very simple, really. There are two ways people can relate to each other: Voluntarily or coercively. The government is pure coercion, and sociopaths are drawn to its power and force.
The personality traits of politicians is unimportant. Politics doesn’t work that way.
That’s an interesting insight, that how a person thinks and acts isn’t important in politics.
Obviously, actions are important. I was referring to personality traits. Big business sensibly doesn’t care about such things when they choose which candidates to back. If they consider, say, a bombastic loudmouth like Trump and a calm, “low energy” guy like Ben Carson, corporate power doesn’t care about those personality differences. What they care about is who is better for their bottom lines.
Sociopaths sense this, start coming out of the woodwork, and are drawn to the State and its bureaucracies
And sure enough, here comes Trump!
Thanks for posting.
BTW Doug Casey has been a voluntaryist most of his public life.
http://www.internationalman.com/articles/doug-casey-shines-a-light-on-the-sociopaths-in-politics
Here is the whole article. Once again, Doug Casey is telling libertarians to move internationally. It seemed like a great idea when I turned 41 but the problem was I was an employee, just like I am now at 56.
He is trapped in the mindset that if you have precious metals in the U.S. it will be confiscated. I have a hard time imagining this will be done before the hundreds of millions of firearms and billions of ammo in private hands are confiscated. Government is not going to go door to door barging in and rummaging through households. Not when very few Americans own gold and not when more and more gold is moving out of the U.S. to China.
I welcome the idea of Americans moving gold overseas. It will make door to door searches for metals even less likely.
They will electronically confiscate your much larger balance in a 401k, IRA, bank account, or brokerage account in a flash before they take your silver, gold, platinum, and palladium.
As for moving overseas, Latin America is notorious for gun control. Honduras has the highest murder rates and has strict gun control. Best place is Switzerland but it is prohibitively expensive.
The U.S. May Build 500 Jets Before Finding Out If the F-35 Works
Tests of how Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 will perform in combat won’t begin until at least August 2018, a year later than planned, and more than 500 of the fighter jets may be built before the assessment is complete, according to the Pentagon’s test office.
“These aircraft will require a still-to-be-determined list of modifications” to be fully capable, Michael Gilmore, the U.S. Defense Department’s top weapons tester, said in his annual report on major programs. “However, these modifications may be unaffordable for the services as they consider the cost of upgrading these early lots of aircraft while the program continues to increase production rates in a fiscally constrained environment.”
The Defense Department plans a fleet of 2,443 F-35s for the U.S., plus hundreds more to be purchased by allies, including the U.K., Italy, Australia and Japan. The costliest U.S. weapons program, at a projected $391 billion, the F-35 is being produced even as it’s still being developed, a strategy a top Pentagon official once called “acquisition malpractice.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-01-29/pentagon-risks-building-500-f-35s-before-completing-combat-tests
“We have to pass it to see what’s in it.” — Comrade Pelosi on Obamacare.
The U.S. May Build 500 Jets Before Finding Out If the F-35 Works
I guess we just have to build these jets to see what’s in them!
I know for sure that you were behind the health care act right from the start and had no trouble with this kind of logic. It’s all good here, too, then, right? What’s your issue?
No, I’ve never approved of that logic. Also, one thing that you need to keep in mind is that the Congress passes thousand-page laws on a regular basis. It highly unlikely that any member reads them before voting.
corp welfare
Netcoin virtual ATMs for tech savvy folks buying BTC
https://btcmanager.com/news/feature-interview-netcoins-virtual-bitcoin-atms-cater-to-tech-savvy-demographic/
Did you use your Shift card today?
http://Www.shiftpayments.com
Redneck state, redneck problems.
Police investigate shootings, stabbing at Denver Coliseum
We have to do something about knife violence.
European Socialism: Why America Doesn’t Want It
By Lars Christensen
Mogens Lykketoft, former Minister for Finance of Denmark, once promised regarding his plan to radically increase taxes that, “Even after this tax reform, there will still be capitalists left in Denmark.” His statement is very telling of his rather low view of capitalism – that the Danish society should move toward “more state”, not less, and that capitalists were a minority that should simply be tolerated.
The majority of Danish politicians intuitively believe that capitalists are an unpleasant necessity to generate the revenues to fund the social welfare state. Denmark has the highest total tax pressure in the world and is towering far above the European average. It also has the smallest private sector in Europe, one that supports one of the biggest public sectors. Add to that a generous entitlement system allowing unemployed and unemployable citizens an income well above that achieved by full time employees in the private sector in many European countries, and you will observe a need for tax revenues nearly unmatched anywhere else in the world.
This is not surprising, since more than half of the adult population is either working in the public sector or living on some form of social transfer payment. Out of a total population of 5.6 million, a little more than 2 million are pensioners, unemployed, sick or on social transfer payments for other reasons. Around 800,000 are employed in the public sector. There are only around 1.8 million that are not directly dependent on state payments in some shape or form. But even among this group, there is high focus on cheap, subsidized childcare, free health care, child bonus payments, subsidized housing and an infinite number of other ways to secure some additional income from the state.
The recent rise of socialists that continue to hand out huge public expenditures combined with the broadly supported tax reform is going nowhere in terms of really moving the dial between public and private sectors. Even more, it highlights the fundamental challenges of a social welfare society, and the extreme vulnerability of business and capitalism operating within it.
In order to undertake a friendly business policy, one would need to gain the support of an overwhelming majority that in the short term would have to accept lower public expenditures and cut back on many of their perceived “rights” and entitlements. But rather than implement actual changes to the system, both voters and politicians like to create the illusion of reforms and security. The reality is that this is fundamentally an effort to create a feeling of reassurance that the current system can be upheld without any serious cutback, sacrifices or changes.
So is there really any hope for reforms, rationality, courage and capitalism in a welfare society? The answer is no, not under the current leadership. Some neighboring countries have pursued more responsible policies in recent years, notably Sweden and Finland. In a benchmarking of best practices, both countries have a more efficient use of money in the public sector, better value for money in education and health care, fewer persons permanently placed on social welfare and a more friendly rhetoric towards business, growth and job creation. Both of these countries must be considered traditional social welfare states, but at least show some degree of moderation in their socialist practices.
So if there is no hope for reforms of the welfare society, the next question must be whether capitalism can exist or co-exist in the long-term in a social welfare state. Essentially, the answer has to be no. A social welfare society that wants to embrace and benefit from some form of real capitalism in the long run will need to: set very stringent parameters for the amount of welfare available to its citizens as a percentage of GDP; set a maximum limit for taxation and government debt levels; secure strong fundamental incentives written into a constitution; and, secure basic negative rights for its individual citizens.
In addition, it will need to embrace a different rhetoric and give up on equality of outcome as a key objective. It needs to welcome, encourage and praise large contributors to the economy rather than vilify them and berate them for populist purposes. It needs to demand responsibility from the citizens for their own economic situation and be very firm on abuse or exploitation of public support or services. It needs to stop victimizing large groups of the society and stop pricing them out of employment through minimum wages and similar initiatives. It needs to stop its politicians corrupting the democratic process through bribing particular voter groups to gain power.
According to the 2012 Economic Freedom of the World report, America’s economic freedom has declined so greatly that it has plummeted to 18th place, even trailing behind Denmark. Now more than ever, America’s capitalistic society is threatened by burdensome government and a bloated entitlement state. Increasing amounts of regulations continue to come down the pipeline, making it harder for entrepreneurs and small businesses to create value.
Growing up in Denmark, I’ve seen this picture before. If America doesn’t want socialism its people must wake up and heed the lessons being played out in counties around the world – like Denmark.. If America doesn’t want socialism it must seek politicians and policies that allow the individual to have more liberty and freedom. If America doesn’t want socialism it must act now. But America must first answer the questions…. Does America Want Socialism?
One good thing. The answers to all the failed predictions are swiftly coming. Two to three more weeks and we’ll know a lot more.
In less than a month we could pretty much know it will be Trump v. Hillary or Trump v. Sanders.
we need to keep creating money so people have jobs.
California Experiences Record Rates Of Chlamydia, Gonorrhea and Syphilis
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-std-testing-20160124-story.html
Just what we expect in the poorest most impoverished state in the US
Those greedy oil companies charge too much for gasoline. Oh wait…was $4.00 per gallon a few years ago. My lieberal betters did not remember to tell me that and now I pay $2.75
It was $1.60/gal in Colorado Springs when I was there a few days ago (but that is for the 85 octane since they are at a high elevation and can get away with lower octane).
Soros and the hedge funds vs. China. Unleash the Kraken, China!
http://www.businessinsider.com/hedge-fund-yuan-devaluation-bets-2016-1