Bits Bucket for March 9, 2016
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The Housing Bubble
Examining the home price boom and its effect on owners, lenders, regulators, realtors and the economy as a whole.
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Name:Ben Jones
Location:Northern Arizona, United States
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The purpose of argument is not to persuade your opponent, but rather to persuade the observer.
It is not futile to argue with strangers on the internet. On most sites only a small percentage of observers actually post. As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts. And lots of “facts” presented on the internet are false, and should not go unchallenged.
“And lots of “facts” presented on the internet are false, and should not go unchallenged.”
I can think of a few relevant falsehoods. Rather flat out gross misrepresentations of the truth starting with;
-A SFR is an investment
-There is a shortage of housing
-There is no housing fraud
“Many of the quotes you read on the Internet are not bona fide.”
– Abraham Lincoln
+1. That was a good post.
I’m thinking the painful facts are getting in the way of someones bank account.
You are entitled to attack anyone who disagrees with your opinion if you can’t think of any objective argument to support it.
if you can’t think of any objective argument to support it.
Or you can just say “irrelevant”. That’s a good response when you’ve got nothing intelligent to say.
Then don’t say it Lola.
This….
http://twentytwowords.com/a-flowchart-to-help-you-determine-if-youre-having-a-rational-discussion/
Well, almost.
The first question is “do you envision yourself changing your mind on this topic.” That is, the discussion can only end with a winner and a loser. The flow chart excludes the option of a tie, i.e., mutually understanding your opponent’s viewpoint but to still agreeing to disagree.
Or, I guess the first question could be phrased as “do you envision yourself changing your mind from attacking me to not attacking me.” In which case the option to agree to disagree survives the flow chart.
The math doesn’t lie hence all the gyrations and avoidance of performing the math.
Oxy:
I think the point of the flow chart - is this…..if there is an irresolvable point (i.e. change of heart) - why bang your head against a wall only to find yourself with blood on your forehead?
Thank you, Mitt, Mich & Miss!
It’s gonna kill me if I have to vote Trump, but I’ll do it if he is the nominee. I’ll support whoever the nominee is to stop Hillary.
Hillary is almost a caricature of the corrupt, evil, political prostitute devoid of any true principles or convictions, intent solely on grasping the levers of power and peddling influence to the highest bidder. Her supporters are as vile as she is.
Then there is that yuuuuge group who will do anything to stop Drumpf.
Feel the Bern!
Why would anyone vote for Trump? A wall???lol!
The Trump bubble will expand indefinitely.
Why stop now with the bubble… let’s just go ahead and finish with a real estate developer as president. Maybe the VP pick can be a mortgage loan officer.
Donald Trump lives in your empty skull, rent free.
This is actually true. Everyone in the country is obsessed with the guy, whether for, against, or just neutral and fatigued.
We already have O - he’s been dishing out auto loans, student loans and mortgage loans like there’s no tomorrow.
Obama for Veep! Lol, now THAT would be a show stopper.
Soros and Goldman Sachs were always the real powers behind the throne, just as they would be for Hillary, Cruz, or Rubio.
Also supporting policies to artificially reflate the Housing Bubble…
Now the sheeple are blaming O for too many auto loans….
I like the 4.9% unemployment and record corp profits, people can buy more cars. New cars are safer and burn cleaner….win/win
but good is bad
Are you sure?
Labor Force Participation Rate Falls To 38 Year Low; Joblessness At Record High
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
4.9% unemployment with 94.3 million euphemistically “out of the work force”? Do you believe the official Chinese stats as well?
Thornton, CO Housing Market Caves; Prices Plunge 13% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/thornton-co/market-trends/
A lesson from the Trump campaign:
Donors don’t give money because they support the candidate. They give money because they want the support of the candidate.
Isn’t this how political influence peddling always operates? I’m missing the special lesson from Trump.
It’s always been there, but in the shadows. Trump very loudly brought it out of the shadows when he denounced those donors, waking up Ray’s 95% sheeple.
A billionaire has broken Citizens United. Yet again, predicted on HBB.
When was that predicted?
Thank you Hawaii!
A good article on the REAL reason you’re so popular, and why you’re the Teflon Don: TRADE.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/07/donald-trump-why-americans-support
Main upshots:
The ivory tower pundit elite is so disconnected from the working class that they incorrectly zoomed in on the racism issue as the source of Trump’s popularity.
Meanwhile, blue collars are sick of the elite snobs looking down on them as dumb racists. Really, they just want their jobs back, and Trump is at least attempting to promise that.
The comment sections of the article wondered why these Trump supporters aren’t flocking to Bernie, since Bernie seems to represent them better. My answer would be:
1. Blue collars registered as Republicans on the promise of trickle down. They can’t vote for Bernie, not in the primaries. [Brits might not know this.]
2. Bernie is a Democrat and Republicans have been well trained to vote against their economic interests. They’ll be d*m*ed before they vote for a Dem, especially a socialist.
3. Bernie’s (and Dem) version of economic interest is to raise taxes and borrow for more welfare. Trump’s version is to bring the jobs back.
4. There is already a lot of anti-establishment cross-support between Trump and Bernie. IMO it’s manifesting in the open primaries.
Barney Sanders is pro-debt slavery.
He’s subletting in your head until he moves into the White House.
And a socialist.
. Blue collars registered as Republicans on the promise of trickle down.
Blue collars registered as Republicans on the promise of getting those darn welfare queens out of their Cadillacs and stopping those young bucks from buying t-bones with food stamps. They never really thought about trickle down, that was just egghead mumbo-jumbo.
It’s more like Blue Collars got fed up with seeing six million living wage factory jobs offsourced to China and Mexico so the corporate titans could run up their stock options.
Blue Collars got fed up with seeing six million living wage factory jobs offsourced to China and Mexico
That came years after the Blue Collars had switched to the GOP. The switch started with Nixon’s Southern Strategy, climaxed with the Reagan Democrats. The jobs going to Mexico and China was a later period, when the Blue Collars finally realized they’d been totally and completely played by the GOP. Hence Drumpf.
Disagree with 3 - Bernie is anti TPP and will bring jobs back. He will also tax the elite and use it to create jobs rebuilding infrastructure.
The statement he will bring jobs back is a bit vague. A lot of jobs are gone regardless of our trade deals. When robots and foreign slave labor can do everything how will a free market capitalistic system work. This is something the trickle downers just can’t answer.
Bernie should be hammering Hillary (and Obama) for their support for TPP, a total screw-job of the American worker like every other oligarch-sponsored trade bill.
Fraudulent poster alert
China’s exports collapse 20%
http://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2016/03/08/chinas-exports-down-20-6-imports-drop-8-in-february
Also, China’s foreign trade reserves continue to shrink, though the bleeding has slowed somewhat.
Sounds like a good time for China to start a war. Vietnam, perhaps? Taiwan would be too risky.
China has already been at war with its own people for the past decade via central bank credit expansion. The country is littered with bombed out cities, steel mills and factories. Hundreds of millions of their people have been sold into debt slavery.
Our own Fed has done the same here. They are at war with us.
Testify….
My guess is a big reason for their collapse is
1. Being belligerent to their neighbors has created a big don’t buy from China mentality.
2. Their increased labor makes moving production financially rewarding
3. Their government sponsored corporate espionage has made technology companies rethink their relationship with China. American Super Conductor is still waiting for any kind of verdict years after a well documented theft of their software.
4. American’s losing their jobs are starting to think maybe paying 10 cents less for socks from China isn’t in my best interest. They also don’t buy as much crap and make the crap they have last longer.
The Oligopoly’s captured media outlets are proclaiming that angry white males are behind the rise of Donald Trump AND Bernie Sanders. Could it be that the marginalized middle and working classes are finally coming out of their coma and refusing to vote for Oligopoly-annointed establishment Republicrat candidates solely focused on enriching their donors and expanding their dependency classes, while throwing the productive middle and working classes under the bus?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/angry-white-males-propel-donald-trumpand-bernie-sanders-1457495579
It is interesting that The Wall Street Journal — of all media - also employs the “angry, white male” anti-diversity message.
Diversity = Believe as we do….or else!
NPR hates hates hates white people.
And the majority of its listeners are white people who hate themselves.
It is interesting that The Wall Street Journal — of all media - also employs the “angry, white male” anti-diversity message.
The WSJ is a flagship propanda outlet of the Oligopoly, as is the NYT, Washington Post, et al. Look for more “angry white men” memes to appear, along with a path forward for further marginalizing them and diluting their voice even further with “fundamental transformation.”
“News” does not exist. Just disaster porn and scripted outrages.
All neatly woven in a tidy little globalist package.
Globalists gonna globe.
memes…
It just means they are in denial. Marginalize and dismiss.
Not just angry white males. What about angry black males and angry Hispanic citizens? They are the ones who lost their unskilled and semi-skilled jobs to illegal immigration. They would also benefit from Trump’s promises to bring jobs back to citizens.
But that doesn’t fit the racis narrative of the elite.
Article about job displacement of workers (many brown) by illegal immigration:
http://www.fairus.org/issue/immigration-and-job-displacement
I’m guessing that anyone who loses his job today to an illegal immigrant, was likely an illegal immigrant himself… at least in Southern California.
This has been going full speed since the Mexican peso collapsed in 1982. Thirty-four years…
What a thing of beauty it would be if the whites, blacks, browns, yellows etc. who are all getting screwed over by the .1% quit their fratricidal us against them and focused on the real enemy: the oligarchs and their captured political elites.
That’s why we get Daily Black Crime Reports, to make sure there’s no dangerous mixing of the races and discovery of common political ground.
FoxNewsHate rallies the base with a narrative titled Words of Warning: Iran tests missiles saying ‘Israel must be wiped out’
No smaller government or less regulation or lower taxes happening here.
“Ever get the feeling that you’ve been cheated?” — Johnny Rotten
Trump Knocks Down ‘Politically Correct’ Reporter
Steve Guest
Media Reporter
10:30 PM 03/08/2016
Donald Trump mocked a reporter that questioned the Republican front-runner’s “language” on the campaign trail, prompting Trump to ridicule the reporter for being too “politically correct.”
The reporter asked Trump, “How do you explain some of the language?”
Trump replied, “Oh, you’re so politically correct. You’re so beautiful. Oh look at you. Ohhh, he’s so, I know, you’ve never heard a little bad, a little off language. I know, you’re a perfect. Aren’t you perfect? Aren’t you just a perfect young man? Give me break. You know what, it’s stuff like that that people in this country are tired of okay. It’s stuff like that.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/08/trump-knocks-down-politically-correct-reporter-video/#ixzz42PfP4b5K
Note to self: Make sure children are not in the room during R-rated Republican presidential debates.
I haven’t watched a single debate, from either party. And I plan on keeping it that way.
In all honesty, I’ve also successfully avoided all of the debates.
I watched the last democratic debate in Flint. It was pretty good, actually. Sanders zinged Hillary a bunch of times (she is candidate of the wealthy elite, etc. etc.) and she had ZIP to refute him, all she could do was smile and laugh, knowing it was true.
Much less name-calling and rancor than in the republican debates.
I haven’t seen a debate since the year 2000.
Rulers are worth less than brown rot.
I think we’re getting to the root of PB’s obsessive and unhealthy obsession with Donald Trump.
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/people-anxiety-may-hard-wired-see-world-differently-085029464.html
Is that guy always so high strung? We’re kinda on the same page because I’m FOR someone else, but he never said who he was FOR yesterday. He may blow a gasket today.
You’re FOR Ted Cruz, which is to say, you’re bending over for Goldman Sachs.
You are obviously though incorrectly projecting your own motivation onto me.
Trump voters are high anxiety cowards looking for an authoritarian dictator to protect them.
You must be quivering with neurosis right about now.
Talking to yourself about yourself could indicate a serious mental condition. Seek help immediately.
When will Yellen the Felon escalate the Fed’s War on Savers by introducing NIRP?
http://www.wsj.com/articles/fed-likely-to-stand-pat-on-rates-keep-options-open-for-april-or-june-1457468147?mod=djem10point
next recession
New York Times real journalists provide a narrative on San Francisco, a city so “progressive” that it deported all of its middle class income residents:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/09/technology/in-san-francisco-and-rooting-for-a-tech-slowdown.html
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
A related narrative reports that now that San Francisco is unaffordable, they’re all moving here and ruining Denver:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2016/03/01/price-shockedsan-francisco-tech-workers-looking.html
A related narrative reports that now that San Francisco is unaffordable, they’re all moving here and ruining Denver
I don’t know … none of my Silly Valley colleagues are willing to give up living in tech Shangri La and moving to Southparkland.
I dont know anyone moving to Denver. Most of the people leaving CA are retiring boomers, cashing in and looking for a town with out traffic , crime and snow to shovel.
Naw, can’t be. Everyone knows only Portland has food carts and bike lanes.
Maybe they’ll drive the crybabies out.
The city is full of people that can afford to live there. Should they be thrown out to make room for people that can’t?
Just pointing out the hypocrisy of a city that votes 75% Democrat Party but doesn’t actually give a sh*t about the poors.
And now they’re bringing that to Denver too.
Their hearts bleed for the poors … as long as they live somewhere else.
If you looked into it, you’d probably find that many people there give plenty of sh*t about the poors. There are just certain limits regarding can be done in the face of the forces unleashed by giant corporations spawned by the military industrial complex.
You don’t give a shit about the poors either. Why are you compelled to point and shriek?
Some Dems vote anti corp mooching being more of a drain then food stamps.
I am anti neo-con and hate moochers.
“Should they be thrown out to make room for people that can’t?”
Only if these tech giants plan on cleaning their own houses, doing their own landscaping, and paying $100K wages for stocking groceries and pouring coffee. Because if this goes on, the cost of the commute will exceed the low wages. Didn’t gs-fixr comment on this happening to his daughter in flyover? Working may actually LOSE money.
And you have pinpointed the reason why these service jobs will be eliminated and replaced by automation. $15/hour minimum wage mandatory at my local airport? Goodbye Wendy’s; hello vending machine with a cold burger in it, and some microwaves nearby.
A person-less Starbucks, coming soon to a corner near you.
And fast food - no reason that can’t be automated as well. They will have floater workers (independent contractors, no doubt) who will monitor several locations for problems, and inventory restocking will be done overnight as is done already.
$15/hour minimum wage mandatory at my local airport?
Is that SEA TAC? Is there another airport that they’ll lose business to?
Already happening, have read several articles in the S.F. paper on the closure of longstanding small businesses and the owners often cite that they have trouble finding help at a wage they can afford and that their workers were often worn out and not at their best due to ridiculous commutes, lack of sleep, etc.
FWIW I moved out of my native S.F. 20 years ago and recently turned down a local job offer when I learned it would involve regular work there too…the pay was decent for where I live 50 miles north but no way worthwhile dealing with the gridlock, regular auto breakins, $600 auto ticket/tows if you make a parking error, etc. required to do field service work in S.F., even with paid travel time. The interviewer told me they were having a VERY difficult time filling the position.
+1
“50 miles north”
Santa Rosa? Rohnert Park? Petaluma?
My former employer had an office there. Used to love visiting. Quite a sight to see the hoards on the highway heading south at 5AM to commute into “the city.”
…and that was back in the 90s. Did they add a 3rd lane yet?
And there used to be a Mexican place in Cotati that sold burritos the size of a newborn. Still there?
yep, Santa Rosa. Overall am happy living here but Housing Bubble 2.0 is still in full swing locally, however am confident that it will pop eventually. Meanwhile the median house price is $550K (which will get you a 3/2 T111 tract house) while median household income is $65K, not sustainable. Major flipping has been going on for 5 years or so but seems to be tapering off.
Many stretches are now 3 lane from Windsor to Novato and that helps…but the 3rd lane is for carpools during commute hours and the 2 lane bits (like Petaluma to Novato) often slow to a crawl.
Cotati has not changed much at all, the burrito joint you mention is probably still there, or one much like it. FWIW I worked out of Cotati from 2010 to 2012 and like it a lot.
Sleepless, are you talking about Rafa’s?
We used to get the “mini-Rafa” after a night out that was only 2 pounds. If I remember correctly, the full Rafa was 4 pounds.
The place that I really miss from that part of the world is Porter Street Grill. They used to grill Tri-Tip, slice it paper thin while it was still hot onto garlic bread made from a soft roll…damn, so good.
“are you talking about Rafa’s?”
OMFG, YES!! I searched but Rafa’s didn’t come up. IIRC, being the hippie enclave that Cotati was (is?), the owner got busted for pot or something on the premises. Looks like the business, or at least the same location, is reinvented as “Cafe Salsa.”
I think I’d order the Rafa and feed off it for a week.
“I think I’d order the Rafa and feed off it for a week.”
It might have occupied space in our fridge for a week, but after the “hair of the dog” the next morning, I don’t think I could touch the thing.
It was like a bad one-night stand…you wake up the next morning after a Rafa burrito thinking, Oh my God, what have I done?
For me that was the Garbage Plate at Nick Tahou’s in Rochester NY in the early 90s. By the mid-90s my palate’s standards came UP to the level of Rafa’s.
We’d eat there and lunch…and write off the rest of the day as the food coma took effect.
Why they don’t like diversity anymore up in Rainbow land ?
SAN FRANCISCO — These are anxious days in the land of start-ups. Another few months of tight money and the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists will be feeling real pain.
The sooner the better, some people here say.
Cities do not usually cheer the downfall or even the diminishment of the hometown industry, but the relationship between San Francisco and the tech community has grown increasingly tense.
Two years ago, radicals began delaying and harassing Google and other tech companies’ shuttles as they threaded San Francisco’s narrow streets. Now — after the city officially gave the shuttles free rein to use public bus stops; after the tech elite were accused of trying to buy a crucial local election; after the home-rental company Airbnb spent a fortune to defeat a proposition that would have restricted its business — the discontent is mainstream.
In December, 39 percent of Bay Area adults said they thought things in California were headed in the wrong direction, up from 29 percent a year earlier, according to surveys by the Public Policy Institute of California. In Los Angeles, by contrast, the percentage expressing general disapproval fell from 37 percent in 2014 to 33 percent in 2015.
“It’s practically a ubiquitous sentiment here: People would like a little of the air to come out of the tech economy,” said Aaron Peskin, perhaps the most prominent leader of the opposition. “They’re like people in a heat wave waiting for the monsoon.”
The Eurozone financial crisis has been papered over with trillions in printing-press “stimulus” but remains unfixed.
http://www.businessinsider.com/italy-isnt-greece-its-worse-2016-3
So we can expect a bigger printing press run. I think they are meeting today to talk about how to create inflation. Eventually they will just figure a way to print money to run the gov without actually putting debt on the books, ie straight cash injections. It’s coming no doubt about it. The proles are rising up see Sanders success with zero corporate wall street support and the decline of Merkle. If they don’t put some food on the table the proles will eventually get mad enough to burn the whole thing down.
Draghi is expected to announce moar QE and deeper NIRP tomorrow, as the oligarchy’s financial warfare against the 99% takes it to the next level.
Are the sheeple finally waking up and rejecting the Establishment Republicrats who have been throwing them under the bus?
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/03/08/bernie-sanders-overcomes-27-deficit-in-michigan/
Hillary’s big problem is that the longer Bernie stays around the more blacks and others in her base are going to hear his message and question their support of the Banker’s choice HC.
Wouldn’t surprise me if Hillary offered Bernie the VP if he’d drop out and endorse her. She’s already got the hispanic vote locked up against Trump, and most of the black vote. She needs the millenials’ enthusiasm and some of Bernie’s authenticity more than anything else in a running mate, in this election.
She needs to go a different direction for the general election. Lots of people are not voting FOR Hillary, but AGAINST the Bern in the primary. If she brings him onto the ticket, given her potentially less than stellar health, that will be a concern.
I suspect someone with Midwest roots, or younger will be her running mate.
“but AGAINST the Bern in the primary.”
As MikeyMite might say, “That doesn’t seem likely.” The only firm hatred he’s created (or rather others created about him) to engender such a response is from the right, which wouldn’t come out until the general.
“someone with Midwest roots”
Warren? Born in the okie state.
Oh I don’t know, I know plenty of folks that are registered D who think the Bern is a loony. In any event, I don’t see Bernie as being a VP candidate. Perhaps I’m missing it, but he would bring out GOPers in droves to vote against him.
Bernie is probably uninterested in being vice president. More importantly, VP candidates rarely have any effect on election outcomes. There’s usually a flurry of attention when they’re announced, followed by a fade into the background.
Do you think McCain could have had a different outcome if he didn’t pick such a lunatic as running mate?
I do.
“I know plenty of folks…”
As do I but I think most are more rabidly in love with (and defense of) the Hill than they are scared of Sanders.
In any event, this is why I’d love to see a Paul/Sanders pairing. We can see the results of the well-coifed and bee-yoo-tiful. Might as well let the “loonies” have their go at it.
Do you think McCain could have had a different outcome if he didn’t pick such a lunatic as running mate?
The economy started going south just before the election. That was McCain’s big problem. If you recall 1988, the GOP VP candidate was similarly ridiculed, but he was elected nonetheless.
He would have had my insignificant vote, but then he got involved with that lackwit…
I don’t think any group has been more screwed over by Obama, Hillary, and the corporate statist Democrats than blacks, and yet election after election they bend over for more. The stupid, it burns.
Angela Merkel’s globalist Quislings headed for defeat at the polls. Are Germans, like ‘Muricans, finally waking up from their comas?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/refugee-summit-angela-merkel-claims-of-a-breakthrough-met-with-widespread-scepticism-in-germany-a6919781.html
Most Americans agree Trump is a ‘fraud’ and a ‘phony’
Just over half of Americans agree with Mitt Romney that Trump is a ‘fraud’ and a ‘phony’, but Republicans disagree
As the Trump campaign maintained its strong momentum Republican heavyhitters Mitt Romney and John McCain blasted the frontrunner in unusually blunt language. Romney’s intervention was particularly severe, calling Trump a ‘phony’ and a ‘fraud’, while John McCain said that Trump was ‘dangerous’. Trump reacted in typical style, noting that Romney had ‘begged’ him to endorse his 2012 campaign.
A narrow majority of Americans (51%) agree with Mitt Romney’s assessment that Donald Trump is a ‘phony’ and a ‘fraud’, though 31% do disagree. Unsurprisingly a large majority of Democrats (71%) agree that he is a fraud, along with many independents (45%). Half of Republicans, however, disagree with Romney that Trump is a fraud and a phony, though a third do agree.
https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/03/08/most-americans-agree-trump-fraud-and-phony/?platform=hootsuite
Do you Fear The Trump Mighty?
“heavyhitters Mitt Romney and John McCain”
I thought those 2 were losers not “heavyhitters”.
They both won the prize that Trump is currently seeking.
Difficult to reconcile that “study” with the reality of the Primary results.
It isn’t, actually. Trump has gotten 35% or 40% of the support of Republicans in a couple of dozen states. The number of Americans who have indicated their support of Trump with a vote is actually very small.
No, Mike, it’s your weiner that’s very small. Trump’s support among the pissed-off, alienated Republican base is yuuuuugggeee!!
Gee, what a witty riposte. If you can, try to wake up from your fantasy world and deal with reality. Trump got 36½% of the vote, less than 2 out of 5, yesterday. Around 480,000 Michiganders voted for him, out of a population of ten million. Both Bernie and Hillary received more votes in Michigan.
Donald Trump is your next US President. Get over it and get on with your life.
Spoken like a true short fingered vulgarian!
Geez, you can smell the desparation of the establishment, rolling out two light weight has beens like Mittens and grandpa Simpson. The GOP establishment is clearly losing the battle in their efforts to derail Trump.
The sheeple aren’t bending over on command like they did in 2008 and 2012. The Establishment Republicrats and their oligarch pimps are as nervous as a six-year-old at the Neverland Ranch.
Yup, the Romney speech backfired. Romney’s dad was a governor in Michigan and Trump still won the state. And anything the Establishment does, from rolling out more hacks to speechify, to commercials, to phonied up polls from NBC/WSJ, will backfire even more.
The only arrow left in the Establishment’s quiver is a brokered convention, which will send every Trump voter directly to the couch on election day. In that case, say hello to President HR Clinton, a Democratic Senate, and who knows what at the local level.
Hillaryous is unelectable.
More oligarch-sponsored hokum. They must be panicking to see the sheeple starting to wake up.
How can they choose Mitt Romney as their attack dog. It’s the pot calling the kettle black. The moved over 100,000,000 into a retirement account and earns money tax free. His real effective tax rate is probably 6-7%.
Shorting a rigged, manipulated, broken market may be hazardous to your wealth.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/03/08/this-is-why-i-dont-short-anything-anymore/
Warmist Warming Wednesday
Washington Post real journalists provide a narrative titled America’s year without a winter: This season was the warmest on record, Temperatures across the country between December and February were nearly 5 degrees above the 20th century average
“This sucker could go down” — George W. Bush
“This season was the warmest on record,”
Who doctored I mean funded that study?
Cause when the funds goes down, we’ll be groovin
When the funds goes down, we’ll be feelin all right
When the funds sinks down under the water
It won’t be no hotter when the fund goes down
Kenny Chesney - When The Sun Goes Down - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGLdbpmXrbQ - 260k -
What would it be like to have real investigative journalists instead of Oligopoly-owned media stenographers and scribes pushing The Narrative?
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/03/china-red-princess-turned-investigative-journalist-160302101927365.html
We must import more fundamental transformation. Our globalist masters say so.
http://www.businessinsider.com/girls-as-young-as-8-are-raped-and-beaten-by-isis-2016-3
Will the rise of Trump and Sanders signify “angry white men” are mad as hell at being systematically screwed over, and aren’t going to take it anymore?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-09/behind-trumpsanders-revolution-angry-white-men
You should read more Salon and Huffington Post. How will you remember how racist you are unless you get told you’re racist at least a dozen times a day?
Is it racist to put sheets over the mirrors in your house?
Only if you cut eye-holes in them.
So that’s why Charlie Brown always got a rock!
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/5d/dc/8f/5ddc8f56fe08e31bedb3fb90e06c2b3c.jpg
Breitbart provides a narrative on the future coffee baristas of America:
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/09/university-of-arizona-campus-crybullies-demand-racial-quotas-free-tampons/
Another Region VIII narrative about homeless poors in Denver:
http://m.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2016/03/08/will-23-8-million-in-federal-grants-make-an-impact.html
This is why I live in South Denver. Downtown is overrun with panhandlers and junkies and meth tweakers and needles and feces on the sidewalks.
Goon:
Please keep this on your narrative list - I find this interesting having grown up there so many years ago - used to be the area up on N. Brighton Blvd that I think is now being gentrified used to be the encampment area of junkies and homeless. Seems the problem is spreading no?
A pictorial essay message to the voting cattle, especially the 95% who in 2008 and 2012 mindlessly bent over for oligarch-annointed Republicrat candidates who cared only about their donors and growing their party’s dependency classes.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/03/09/pictorial-essay-message-to-the-voting-cattle/
The voting cattle are in support of Trump this time.
Craig Paul Roberts: The Financial System is a Larger Threat than Terrorism (especially since it has captured both political parties and the so-called regulators and enforcers).
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/09/the-financial-system-is-a-larger-threat-than-terrorism/
Remember…. Nothing accelerates the economy, creates jobs and raises the standard of living like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
Would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall while these oligarchs and their political stooges conferred to discuss what has gone awry in 2016. Unlike in 2008 and 2012, large portions of the screwed-over working and middle classes, especially angry white males, are no longer meekly bending over on cue for their regularly scheduled deep-dicking by the Oligopoly and its Quisling Republicrat puppets.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-08/gop-leaders-tech-execs-plot-against-trump-secret-neocon-island-meeting
That “fly on the wall” and dozens of his fly friends should go dip in some polonium and then go fly up into the nostrils of these globalist pigs.
Can I get a “Hallelujah!” in the house?!
It took Alexander Litvinenko a month or so to die from that.
Pretty amazing that a few molecules of that can make someone go from healthy to dead of stage 4 cancer. The Davos/Aspen set deserve nothing less.
Wow! For an interesting read Wiki-up “Alexander Litvinenko”.
Alpha particle emitters inside your body do tremendous damage at the cellular level, which is why radon gas is so bad for you to breathe.
Jimmy Carter is Hitler — if that is his real name — did me the kindness yesterday of pointing out that I’ve been confused with ‘wondering’, which sucks enough that I am going to change my handle. I was never a regular here but I used to post occasionally as watchafallingknife back in 2007 or so. Came back about a year ago, needed a name, and thought ‘i’m still watching’; but I can do better. As of next post let’s go with ’strawman’.
Just to clear up any lingering miasma on the ‘wondering’ front, I, strawman:
- support Sanders as the least likely to be evil of all evils, but think Trump is going to be our next president.
- think in any case that Trump is owed a debt of gratitude for breaking the spell of the neolib/neocon gang on America. They’re done. That genie won’t go back in the bottle. If Trump meets Hillary in the general, eyes will be opened.
- like HBB for the analysis of housing and economic effects, for certain policy perspectives and rules to live by, for the widely shared understanding that the parties are theater, and evil.
- don’t care for Christian bashing, Muslim bashing, gay bashing, or Nurse Ratchet pumping a MightyMike post into your arm just when you’re sloughing off the effects of the last one, but don’t Joshua Tree anyone either.
I’ll fire off a ’strawman’ test post in reply to this and then I’m in business.
There we go. (Ben, I changed my email address to something permanent.)
Nice to be reintroduced to you all.
I suspect the same person who posts as Jane and Donald Trump has also recently posted as
Jimmy Carter is Hitler
I am Yuuuge in Burma
DumidolFanger
Meltdown
Canklepants
Anklepants
etc
The constant ad hominem attacks and lack of substantial discussion are dead giveaways to this Trump troll in his/her many guises.
Ah, no, I meant that as a joke, as in “real name.” He made a substantive point to the effect that he was getting me confused with someone else, which I appreciated.
I like being able to ascribe posts to a consistent viewpoint, but there’s enough real discussion going on that I don’t experience multiple names as a problem.
You’d be wrong.
The constant ad hominem attacks and lack of substantial discussion are dead giveaways to this Trump troll in his/her many guises.
Given how often you launch ad hominem attacks I can only assume you’re another one of the guises. On the other hand you certainly have more planks in your eyes than those other guises, though, so maybe I’m wrong.
You seem obsessed with that Bible verse about planks in people’s eyes. That image always left me scratching my head.
I always preferred “Ye blind guides, who strain at a gnat, but swallow a camel.”
“Output Freeze A Joke”, China Demand To Fall, And Other News That Should Be Moving Oil
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-09/output-freeze-joke-china-demand-fall-and-other-news-should-be-moving-oil
With crude currently priced many multiples over production cost, crude, like housing, has a very long way to fall.
Freezing output at a rate that greatly exceeds demand seems like a guaranteed recipe for dramatically falling prices to ever more affordable levels.
US oil production has fallen 10% or so and will likely accelerate.
The same is likely true in other parts of the globe. Even a few percent drop in global production could swing the supply demand balance. I was 90% cash and treasuries going into Dec but I’ve purchased some cash rich oil companies. Gov are getting desperate as interest rates aren’t going to fix things. We will eventually see a global stimulus spending bill.
Doubtful.
What is important here is that fuel prices continue to fall to dramatically lower and more affordable levels.
“cash rich oil companies”
The ones that were not borrowing money to buy back their stock at record high prices?
Bangledesh investors mad at the Fed because hackers drained $100 million from their accounts. Yet US savers, who have lost billions due to ZIRP, chew their cud with bovine nonchalance.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-09/wheres-our-100-million-angry-bangladesh-holds-fed-responsible-historic-theft
It seems like the better Trump does in the primaries, the more the prospects for a Republican win in November sink.
https://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/graphs/graph_Pres16_WTA.cfm
I haven’t checked the historical data to confirm, but I believe the difference between Democrat and Republican WTA prices is near the historic maximum.
This election cycle is the effective end of the “call something/somebody racist to shut down all subsequent discussion on a topic raised by the alleged racist” method of silencing opposition used by real journalists, the progressive left, the professional protesters, and all other assorted SJW types.
It’s not working anymore.
Yeah, all of those mean things said about David Duke were so unfair. It’s really great to hear what he has to say about the election.
The more that actual Klan membership declines, the more the wealth of the Southern Poverty Law Center increases.
But don’t let that get in the way of scripting a narrative.
Find some significant examples of people being falsely accused of racism. If you can’t, your narrative is a fantasy.
Bested by his better.
Um, you do realize that Trump got Dean’ed with the David Duke thing, right?
Google the Howard Dean-Al Sharpton dust-up from 2004. Rumor has it that Al was paid by a Republican operative (interestingly, Roger Stone, Trump’s advisor, was one of the suspects at the time), in order to get Dean out of the race. It’s likely there was a Republican operative at work this time around, too and it would not surprise me to hear that Duke got paid for his little caper by someone in the Republican establishment.
You’d also have to do a little research on line to see how the supremacists really feel about Trump. Caution: you need a strong stomach, especially if you, like myself, happen to belong to a group they’re not fond of.
Anyway, you’ll find that for the most part, they loathe Trump, in part because he has a Jewish daughter, among other things.
See, you just proved Goon’s point! If the media wasn’t doing exactly what he said, it would simply ignore people like David Duke and provide him zero airtime.
Well maybe you have a point. But when Goon writes, ““call something/somebody racist …” the implication is that someone is being falsely accused. Maybe I shouldn’t have assumed that. Maybe it’s irrelevant to his point. Perhaps he doesn’t care whether public figures are hateful a$$holes.
Schiff’s latest on jobs…..I think Mr. Mafia blocks is correct - none of these folks are gonna be buying 500k starter homes
Excerpt here:
The truth is that the big numbers in job creation do not reflect healthy economic growth but a fundamental shift in the labor force away from high-paying, full-time jobs to low-paying, part-time jobs. The February “household” survey of job creation shows that 78% of the jobs created were part-time, and 82% of those were in the low-paying service industries such as food service and retail. This partially explains February’s data that shows exports at the lowest level in almost five years. It’s hard to export the things created by bartenders and waiters. Meanwhile, we lost much higher-paying full time jobs in manufacturing, mining, and logging that would have produced things capable of being exported. Yes jobs are being created, but only at the expense of higher-paying jobs that are being destroyed. (BLS, 3/4/16)
http://www.europac.com/commentaries/peddling_fiction_ignoring_fact
Part time jobs are the future
1. Part time jobs means employer pays fewer benefits. You can then ramp up there hours to near full time but still pay lower benefits.
2. Part time jobs mean when extra hands are needed on deck no overtime pay.
3. Part time jobs mean if employee gets sick or isn’t happy or stands up for their rights it’s easy to kick them to the curb
4. Part time jobs mean flexibility and make gov happy because unemployment rate looks better.
5. Part time jobs mean hard for employee to take vacation. If you work 20 hours a week and take vacation one week they just plow 40 weeks of work into the following week and give you no paid vacation for the week you took off. In order to use your vacation hours you need to take 2 weeks in a row off and management won’t let you do that so your vacation expires worthless at the end of the year
Future? It’s really nothing new unless you’re Rip Van Winkle.
Did you forget this?
Labor Force Participation Rate Falls To 38 Year Low; Joblessness At Record High
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
You should take look at that graph. It’s coming back up!
Raindrops in the desert my friend.
“It’s coming back up!”
About as high as a cat bouncing off the sidewalk after being dropped out of a window on the 25 floor.
Apple has $86 billion in cash, sorry they wont hire you at $150k a yr.
Do you want the gov to step in? I dont.
George Martin, dead at 90. RIP.
“Revolver” is my favorite Beatles album. Six songs - She Said She Said, And Your Bird Can Sing, I’m Only Sleeping, Tomorrow Never Knows, Taxman and Eleanor Rigby - are irreplaceable.
“Love You To” also is very solid.
George, you did good. May your slumbers be forever golden.
I first bought a CD of Revolver 20 years ago. Chock full of good stuff. Now I got it on iTunes (worth buying again).
More on Martin:
http://www.allmusic.com/artist/george-martin-mn0000649950
The New York Times can’t understand why the wretched refuse won’t accept the inevitable screw-job….
http://tinyurl.com/jr3u3z9
Note the tone……opposing immigration and offshoring/outsourcing are inevitable, so you dumb $##ts had better get with the program. And none of this would have happened if you had improved your job skills.
He is what the NYT doesn’t get………these are policy decisions made by business and the Federal Government. Our opinions didn’t matter to the “deciders”.
Business loves sending jobs overseas, because they can cut their cost of labor, and pocket the savings.
The Federal government decided to give overseas businesses access to our markets, to “strengthen alliances”.
nobody really gave a care, as long as those getting the screw job were blue coller union-types. The problem for us working stiffs is that the offshoring is affecting skilled workers farther up the food chain. And this is nothing new. Clinton propaganda aside, the 90s were not a “decade of prosperity” for most people. It was a decade of 2%/yr pay raises, with a defacto 6%/yr inflation rate.
We have reached a state where our consumer economy is trying to operate with consumers that have no cash/income. Yet they wonder why the economy isn’t growing.
The Feds picked the “winners” a long time ago; the Military industrial/all-war-all-the-time guys, the Medical/Insurance/Pharma monopoly, Wall Street and Silicon Valley. All of the Federal Government tax and spend priorities have been aligned to promote them. The rest of us are just a food source for the vampires.
+1
+2
The proles are getting restless though Trump and Sanders banging on the gates, Merkel’s crew likely to get tossed to the curb. Things are going to get ugly unless they throw out some bones.
If Merkel’s “conservative” Quislings get kicked to the curb by Germans who don’t appreciate the globalists’ “fundamental transformation” then who is Draghi and the other “former” Goldmanites running the central banks going to find to put German taxpayers on the hook for never-ending bailouts of the PIIGS? This could bring “extend and pretend” to a screeching halt in the Eurozone.
Germans, like ‘Muricans, bent over for “fundamental transformation” with their votes for Merkel and her globalist CDU cabal. Now that they’re getting exactly what they voted for with 1.1 million Third World Muslim migrants, they seem to have a case of buyers remorse. What will the banksters do if they can’t count on servile Quisling stooges in Germany to sign up German taxpayers to cover their bad loans to the PIIGS?
http://news.yahoo.com/merkel-faces-drubbing-german-populists-eye-poll-surge-073013940.html;_ylt=AwrXnCDb1uBW2w8ALTLQtDMD;_ylu=X3oDMTByb2lvbXVuBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg–
The Feds picked the “winners” a long time ago;
Higher education was picked also. I don’t know if they picked silicon Valley or just aided them with H1B ?
Politicians are plastic and go with what gets them elected and I don’t think any of them have original thoughts.
Remember, I am the only one who is self-funding my campaign. All of the other candidates are bought and paid for by special interests.
Donald Trump is the white Jack Johnson.
Spook is back! Welcome back, Kotter.
+1.
Here we go…..
Weather here in Chicago was 73deg and sunny…..
I have to imagine that come summer this could get real ugly.
Two people were killed and 19 others were wounded over 20 hours in Chicago from Tuesday through early Wednesday, the equivalent of someone shot every 58 minutes. The violence ranged across the city, from the Northwest Side to downtown to the Far South Side.
Good thing those gunmen were holding their sacks and pointing their guns sideway while shouting “knee-yuggah”
A Cloward-Piven production.
Forward.
Wait…doesn’t Chicago have an outright ban on firearm ownership? Seems to me that they need more gun laws. How about an outright ban on all fire– er, never mind.
I remember Reagan surrounded by armed guards, still got shot.
Daniel AssHat-Crowman never left.
How does he keep himself from posting on China and rig counts?
WHat is the nicest city among this list??? Outdoor life, good people, weather and sunshine matter.
Boise, ID
Santa Fe, NM - does best on list, but lots of crime
Bend, OR
Spokane, WA
Don’t forget the crime, floundering economy, massively inflated cost of living and the that those places have no sustainable water supply.
u keep repeating the same old sh@t everyday.
U have been talking about housing cratering for a long @ss time but it never happens.
do u have any new material besides doom and gloom?
Az_Donk… Pull yourself up out of that gutter, cheer up and remember…. Nothing accelerates the economy, creates jobs and cures poverty like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
Boca Raton, FL Housing Market Craters; Prices Collapse 20% YoY As Speculators Slash
http://www.zillow.com/boca-raton-fl-33076/home-values/
I’d go with Spokane, I hear you can ski in your back yard.
Seriously, Spokane is like Portland 25 years ago. A lot of the grunge of the townies that Portland used to have, without the smug pretension of Bend, and with a growing downtown scene. Great access to outdoors. Boise would be my second choice.
In any of these, if you’re a Californian, you’ll most likely be looking around in a year saying, “if I wanted to live around this many Californians, I could’ve stayed in California.”
Oh, if having a jerb is important, Boise might be best.
smug pretension of Bend
Never heard that. Bend seems way laid back and very cool.
Santa Fe offers the most to do, but the crime is high and schools suk.
Boise seems safe and great fishing and skiing–very white.
Spokane is the least expensive.
Bend is where people go to say they live in Bend. Kinda like Boulder.
I need to make my way to Santa Fe. Never been.
You should be able to look up weather information pretty easily. On the other hand, finding which cities have “good people” has got to be difficult.
Weather cold at least compared to S CA my neighbor moved to Spokane WA last year.
The landscape around eastern WA looks really nice in the Summer
Palouse area is wheat farming land. Really pretty
Weather in both Spokane and Boise are high-desert, east of the Cascades weather. Bitter cold in winter; super hot in the summer.
“Palouse area is wheat farming land. Really pretty”
Did the drive from Lewiston, Idaho through Moscow and Coeur d’Alene up to Spokane last week visiting customers. Really pretty, yes.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/09/tiny-houses-for-the-masses-84-lumber-launches-packages-starting-at-7k.html
awesome better than a travel trailer?
much heavier than a travel trailer and more $$>
Wonder if they are like $400,000 in the San Francisco area, lol.
I wonder if u can park them at walmart?
Ben Jones, please read the following narrative:
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/03/09/why-social-media-caves-in-to-the-government/
I’ve noted more sites ditching discussion pages after articles, bloomberg was the biggest. This despite the fact that such discussion boards certainly increase add revenue.
Those sites may get me to click on an article linked to them but I usually scan the page and see if comments are allowed. If not, I generally do not bother reading the article and go another page. Still, I guess the site gets my initial click(s) so maybe they do not care much at all?
I’ve noticed the same.
When your primary purpose is to disseminate propaganda, you really, really don’t want the proles being able to call you on it.
And the sites that require you to use Facebook in order to comment - that is so they know who is doing the commenting.
The oligopoly media didn’t appreciate the truthiness in the comments section or the increasing tendency to call BS on their shilling of The Narrative.
Phony Club For Growth tried to shake me down for one millions dollars, and is now putting out nasty negative ads on me.They are total losers.
Obama gets a clean bill of health:
http://www.businessinsider.com/obama-health-report-condition-2016-3
For the record, though, if he’s still “occasionally using” nicotine gum, you can bet your bottom dollar he hasn’t really quit smoking. Not that I blame him, although I’m not an Obama fan, I think it’s cruel and unusual punishment to demand that the leader of the free world quit smoking during his term of office.
I’ll bet he can’t wait to shag ‘em up once he leaves the White House.
Kanye and the GOP want Cruz.
Home inspection tomorrow.
Comment by Muggy
2015-12-30 10:27:57
Prediciton: I’ll probably buy a house in 2016.
Headline
Walmart customers are too broke to shop
Who would have thought that gutting the lower middle and middle class would hurt the overlords. More to come as the upper middle and lower class elite are being consumed.
Your local China Distribution Center or WMT has always let taxpayers pay their workers so the Waltons dont have to. They all get welfare and food stamps.
No more corp mooching! Bernie 2016!!
he latest data, Japan’s GDP contracted at a 1.1 percent annualized pace the economy is failing to gain traction despite unprecedented efforts by the central bank to spur growth
Who would have thought that gutting the middle class would hurt the big fish. Central banks are pushing on a string. Consumers have been replaced by slaves and robots who don’t consume anything.
Yet most of these retards will vote for the Republicrat status quo. You can’t fix stupid.
Hillary crony and corporate stooge DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is facing a primary challenge from a self-styled progressive Democrat who acuses her of selling out her constituents. I would love to see this vile crony capitalist kicked to the curb, but given the Democrat base’s affinity for corruption, patronage, and graft, that seems unlikely.
http://observer.com/2016/02/why-debbie-wasserman-schultz-wont-make-it-to-congress-next-year/
@ Bill in LA/Selfish Hoarder
Thanks for the info. My family appreciates it. Also, just asking, did you read the new version of How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World? Browne got married and was happy. I’m not saying that you should, bachelorhood has many benefits, freedom foremost among them, but I’m married and my husband is the best partner I could imagine. To each his own of course, but you’re a great, smart, honest guy, and you shouldn’t rule it out, although I think there’s a heckuvalot of dross to wade through. Maybe the ROI wouldn’t be there, but you know, Harry Browne got happier. Maybe worth a look.
@ Meltdown: It wasn’t phishing, but I could see how you might think it was. I’ve been on this blog since 2004, but I’m a lurker; almost never post. Ben can verify. I miss fasterpussycat the most, but olygal I loved too. Combo’s still here, and so he’s my number 1. But Selfish Hoarder aka Bill in Irvine aka Bill in LA has always been rock solid, so he’s in my top three as well.
I found Ben’s blog when we couldn’t afford anything on the 4X income rule. Well, anything I would consider living in back in 2004. Our incomes have grown, but housing has outgrown them. We missed two houses in 2011, bt I’m not bitter about them because Mafia is right; this beeyatch has nowhere to go but down. And even if it doesn’t, Goon is right: I have way way more money and free time to take my dog and kids up mountains and on amazing vacations because we rent a great little house with absentee landlords for 1/3 the cost of “owning” (which doesn’t include the opp cost of a 20% down payment) an equivalent place (which doesn’t exist considering we live on almost half an acre) in Orange County.
So I’m going to wait these bastards out and only buy when PPSF is at a much more reasonable rate. Or never. Whatever. I’ve done the math, and the math says renting will mean earlier retirement. MUCH earlier.
Hugs to all, and thanks again, specifically, to Bill. I know some great central OC locations for a meetup Ben, if you ever come back to this part of the world again.
“great little house with absentee landlords for 1/3 the cost of “owning”… So I’m going to wait these bastards out and only buy when PPSF is at a much more reasonable rate.”
Eight days ago I had the same plan.
I don’t blame you, Muggy. I’ve got little ones too. Sometimes things pop up on the market that make me take a second look, but we’ve resolved not to finance for more than ten years. Everything is still laughably overpriced when you look at PPSF.
I am not giving the banksters any more interest than I have to, and ideally they will get NONE from me. That’s an ethical position, not a financial one.
If/when our landlords boot us, the game changes, but until then, we’re pleased as punch to rent.
Same here. Seen a few relative bargains that we’ve thought about buying but we’re staying put most likely for two+ more years.
“bt I’m not bitter about them because Mafia is right; this beeyatch has nowhere to go but down. And even if it doesn’t, Goon is right: I have way way more money and free time”
Two of the sharpest dudes on this blog.
The 99% have a common enemy: the Pigmen who are waging financial warfare against them. Trump and Sanders should be focusing on the real enemy: the oligarchy.
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-sanders-lash-out-at-free-trade-2016-3
All those minimum-wage jobs replacing the vanished middle-class jobs in our Obama-Fed-Goldman Sachs “recovery” apparently won’t be wearing suits to work.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/tailored-brands-to-shut-about-250-stores-2016-03-09?link=MW_latest_news
for Bill, the Eagles — Already Gone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTrEAo0mbgA
Bernie Sanders, as the child of Polish Jews who had first-hand experiences with genocidal totalitarian regimes and what they are capable of, is notably less enthused about disarming the populace than Hillary Clinton and her Oligopoly handlers.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-bernie-sanders-is-a-quintessential-american-jew-2016-03-09
Little Marco, the establishment GOP’s stand-in stooge now that Jeb has been sent packing, rents a stadium and manages to attract a couple hundred dolts who are prime candidates for court-ordered sterilization. Ha ha ha!
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/03/devastating-rubio-rallies-to-empty-stadium-at-hialeah/
More Jeb Bush “acts of love” that left four Americans murdered.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/03/suspect-in-mass-murder-of-4-people-in-kansas-city-caught-in-rural-missouri-is-illegal-immigrant/
Chinese food inflation is heating up - will this constrain the PBOC’s ability to print trillions more in “stimulus” to juice the Ponzi markets?
http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-inflation-is-heating-up-2016-3
ft dot com
Bitcoin
The bitcoin magic is losing its Midas touch
The currency’s advocates are right: money is a confidence trick, a form of frozen desire, writes Henry Farrell
A collection of bitcoins stand in this arranged photograph in London, U.K., on Friday, Jan. 29, 2016. The International Monetary Fund extolled the potential benefits of virtual currencies and said they warrant a more nuanced regulatory approach, at a time when the future of bitcoin, the most well-known example, is in doubt’s. Bitcoin traded at about $379 on Jan. 20, about a third of its peak in 2013.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
8 hours ago
by: Henry Farrell
Bitcoin, the decentralised, mainly digital currency that is neither issued nor guaranteed by central banks, has always seemed like a magic trick. Rather than spinning straw into gold it transforms wasted computing power into money that people will actually accept as payment.
Radical libertarians have desperately wanted to believe in it because they hope it can resolve the following dilemma. They prefer markets to politics and they violently distrust states. But modern states in effect have a monopoly over the currencies that markets need in order to work.
Bitcoin, if it became broadly accepted, would challenge states’ dominance of the economy. It is designed to prevent monopoly by states or other entities, building a new currency based on shared information and making it hard for any entity to gain control. Politics disappears and a combination of technology and cryptographic proofs is conjured up in its place.
Unfortunately, the magic is wearing off. Some of the technological innovations associated with bitcoin will stick around. The political project will not. Rather than overcoming conventional politics, bitcoin is succumbing to it.
The biggest fights are focused on the most innovative element of bitcoin: the “blockchain”. This is a decentralised ledger of transactions using bitcoin. Bitcoin “miners” compete with one another to solve computationally hard problems. The winner receives new bitcoin but also validates a “block” of queued transactions, which is then added to the ledger and shared with the community.
This system was designed to replace third-party regulation with decentralised authority. For technical reasons, it is starting to fail. Each block is small, meaning the system can handle only a few transactions at a time. As more people have started to use bitcoin, the system has grown more unreliable.
The problem is that coming up with a fix requires political agreement. Because there is no centralised authority within bitcoin, there is no one who can impose a mandate. Bitcoin’s creator, the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, apparently vanished years ago, leaving big decisions to an increasingly quarrelsome community.
…
Ft dot com
US presidential election
Republicans weigh the lesser of two evils
Success of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz confronts establishment with uncomfortable choice
9 hours ago
by: Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington
…
Mr Trump and Mr Cruz are disliked for different reasons. Mainstream Republicans worry that the tycoon’s rhetoric — from innuendo about his anatomy to harsh remarks about Hispanics, Muslims and women — will make it impossible to beat the Democrats in November. Mr Cruz’s peers see him as an arrogant and opportunistic insider masquerading as an outsider. So far, the Texas senator has not received a single endorsement from any of the other 53 GOP senators.
…
So far, the Texas senator has not received a single endorsement from any of the other 53 GOP senators.
He has the only endorsement that counts: Goldman Sachs.
If the Republican Party can’t even stand their own candidates, what chance is there for American voters to elect one of them?
Maybe not so good…
https://iemweb.biz.uiowa.edu/graphs/graph_Pres16_WTA.cfm
Another day, another drop in Chinese stock prices…
BloombergBusiness
China Stocks Head for Biggest Two-Day Drop in Month on Inflation
Kana Nishizawa
March 9, 2016 — 5:36 PM PST
Updated on March 9, 2016 — 7:56 PM PST
Consumer prices rise the most since mid-2014 on food costs
Shares may rebound on state buying, Ample Capital’s Wong says
China’s stocks headed for their steepest two-day drop in more than a month as concern about accelerating inflation overshadowed speculation state-backed funds will intervene to prop up equities.
The Shanghai Composite Index slid 1.1 percent at the break, led by financial and commodity companies. The benchmark gauge pared losses in the last half hour of trading on Wednesday after Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., long considered to be a target of government buying because of its index weighting, rallied. ICBC and PetroChina Co. both slumped almost 2 percent on Thursday. Consumer prices rose the most since mid-2014 in February as food costs jumped amid the week-long Lunar New Year holidays.
Thursday’s inflation data follow recent reports showing declines in exports and weaker manufacturing and add to pressure on the government to do more to stimulate the economy. Concern that the growth slowdown is deepening has contributed to a 20 percent slide in the Shanghai Composite this year, the worst performance among 93 global indexes tracked by Bloomberg.
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Does the white middle class feel like the Democrats are constantly throwing them under the bus?
ft dot com
Last updated: March 9, 2016 6:41 pm
Trump Democrats shake up US election
Courtney Weaver in Warren County, Virginia
Barry Shulsky, a life-long registered Democrat, thought he would never cast a vote in another US presidential election. Then came Donald Trump.
Fed up with the economy, Congress and the Obama administration, which he says has placed more of a priority on providing amnesty to illegal immigrants than fixing the economic problems of white, working-class Americans, Mr Shulsky says he is now planning to back the Republican real estate tycoon in November, after voting for Barack Obama four years ago.
“All [politicians] are puppets — except for Donald Trump,” Mr Shulsky, 68, declared, as he basked in an unseasonably warm March day in Front Royal, near the border with West Virginia. “Give the man four years and see what happens. He can’t make it any worse.”
“Democrats used to be better for [ordinary Americans],” he continued. “Now they’re better for immigrants.”
As Mr Trump’s candidacy gathers steam, his campaign is drawing support from white, working-class voters frustrated with the economy and with the Washington ruling class which they believe has ceased to represent their interests.
Among them are a large group of Democrats and Democratic-leaning Independents, such as Mr Shulsky. According to a survey by Civis Analytics, Mr Trump fares best among self-identified Republicans who are actually registered Democrats (43 per cent). This demographic has already been a crucial support group for Mr Trump in the Republican primaries, and could play an even more important role in the general election.
In Michigan, Mr Trump drew support from disaffected white voters in areas such as Macomb County, a region populated by Democrats that crossed over to support Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. His 12 percentage-point margin of victory there suggests he can do well in other Midwestern states. It mirrors recent wins among that demographic in Massachusetts and Virginia, where he also did well among working-class whites.
While Mr Obama won in 2008 and 2012 by building a diverse coalition of voters and drawing more young people, women and minorities into the Democratic party, that strategy has isolated some white, working-class voters who no longer feel represented, said Lara Brown, a political-science professor at George Washington University.
“The Democrats decided to walk away from that group of voters,” she said. “Obama couldn’t bowl at all. He was talking about arugula.”
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It appears central banker financial crack no longer delivers the high it once did to our crack-whore markets.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-03-10/did-draghi-just-blow-his-bazookas-wad-sends-gold-soars-eur-spikes