The Mother Of Bad Decisions
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Sales of Chicago-area homes and condos priced over $1 million dropped 9 percent during the first three months of this year, according to Re/Max research. The median sales price of single-family homes dropped 2 percent to just under $1.39 million, compared with a year ago. And it took significantly longer to sell a home. The result is ‘a painful process’ as people wait for months to sell large luxury homes and ultimately cut prices sharply, said Lisa Dooley Trace of Griffith Grant & Lackie. Buyers are cautious now about buying large homes, she said. ‘They are savvy. They know that people lost millions of dollars as homes fell 35, 40 or 50 percent during the horrible correction. That’s made people conscious about risks in buying them.’”
“She noted a 1928 ‘gorgeous, magnificent’ 9,499-square-foot home that won a historic preservation award in Lake Forest. The owner had purchased the five-bedroom home for $4.87 million in 2006, did major improvements and tried to sell it for $5.2 million in 2014. Recently, the property went under contract after the price was cut to $3.495 million.”
“Few real estate markets in the United States have enjoyed a sharper rise the past few years than Manhattan, where the average price of a home now stands at a record $2 million, according to Douglas Elliman Real Estate. But despite a few record-shattering purchases, New York’s priciest borough is now in the throes of a softening at the very high end as a glut of expensive condominiums floods the market and demand for top-tier properties tapers off.”
“A construction boom targeting the upper end of the real estate market is the biggest culprit, says Robert Dankner, president of Prime Manhattan Residential. ‘We’ve simply had too much building of luxury products in the city,’ he says. ‘There’s a penthouse glut and now we’re seeing a penthouse correction.’”
“Manhattan is not the only affluent real estate market suffering a slowdown, of course. Across the United States, from Miami to Los Angeles, real estate agents are reporting sluggishness at the very top of the market as inventory piles up and wealthy foreign buyers remain hesitant.”
“In a typical Gillette neighborhood on a residential street lined with signs advertising homes for sale or rent, Jake Smith is busy moving his family out of their rental home. ‘We moved here in November,’ Smith said. ‘I moved here to work at Black Thunder (mine). They didn’t tell me they were going bankrupt before I moved up here.’”
“The effects of those layoffs are beginning to ripple through the community, and as people take their job searches outside of Gillette, the city’s vacancy rate is skyrocketing. About 18 months ago, finding an apartment to rent was difficult with a stingy vacancy rate of only 0.7 percent. By the end of March, the vacancy rate has jumped to 12 percent. The speed of which vacancies have increased ‘is scary,’ said Kristy Brayton, property manager at Indian Hill Apartments. ‘I’m not getting the quality of applicants that I used to get. It seems like I’m not getting the flat-out traffic that we used to get.’”
“This week, hundreds of foreign visitors are attending the World Economic Forum on Africa in Kigali, where four international hotels will open in the next three months. Hundreds of new homes are coming on the market worth $500,000 each - a huge sum for a country where most of the 11 million population are subsistence farmers and the per capita income is just $730, far short of the $1,045 that the World Bank defines as middle income. To the government, this is proof of Rwanda’s dramatic recovery.”
“The pace of change is starting to reveal the risks of going too far, too fast. As imports are sucked into a nation dependent on farming, foreign aid and modest mineral exports, the Rwandan currency has fallen, some banks are turning cautious on property lending and economic growth - while still strong - has slipped. All this is threatening to take the shine off President Paul Kagame, a former rebel who masterminded the revival but has drawn criticism from Rwanda’s tiny domestic opposition as well as foreign governments for changing the constitution. ‘If people start to question whether he can deliver, there will be trouble,’ said one Kigali-based diplomat.”
“Super-rich international investors in London property are likely to sell off some of their mansions and penthouses after the introduction of anti-corruption rules cracking down on offshore secrecy, a leading estate agent has said. Privacy-hungry oligarchs, media owners and tech billionaires from around the world could also abandon plans to buy homes in Britain because they would no longer be able to keep their identity secret by purchasing them through offshore companies, Trevor Abrahamson told the Guardian.”
“Abrahamson said the measure would drive down an already slumping property market in the capital. ‘At the same time the oil price dropped, the world stock markets went into gyration, the Russians had a problem with sanctions and the Chinese stock market crashed. Transactions at the £5m to £10m mark are down 50% to 70% over the last year and we have lost 75% of our buyers. Prices are dropping 10% to 15% a year.’”
“Bill Shorten has made Townsville his base for the first week of the election campaign, but the Labor leader won’t get much traction here for one of his signature policies: making housing more affordable. Last year, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland found Townsville’s home vacancy rate was at an all-time high - 5.4 per cent - with prices down five per cent year-on-year. Over coffee at the North Queensland Leagues Club, two locals, Gloria and Lesleigh, say Townsville needs something much bigger to boost the economy.”
“‘Townsville is bleeding,’ Lesleigh, a self-funded retiree and Liberal voter says. ‘If you want to sell your home then it is a terrible time - buyers can basically name their price.’”
“Moody’s Investors Service flagged worries over China’s burgeoning debt load, a day after a party newspaper branded high leverage in the economy as the ‘original sin’. The ruling Communist Party’s paper People’s Daily published a front-page interview with an unnamed ‘authoritative figure’ who said high debt levels are leading to risks in the foreign exchange, stocks, bonds, and real estate markets, adding that China should make deleveraging a priority. The ‘fantasy’ of stimulating the economy through monetary easing should be dropped, the person added.”
“The term ‘authoritative figure’ in the paper usually refers to high-ranking officials who are unable to go on record. State-run media in China is often viewed as mouthpieces for the government and scrutinized for any insights into opaque policymaking in China. The source in People’s Daily added China’s economic growth has been stable and ‘within expectations,’ but warned of problems such as a real estate bubble, industrial overcapacity, an increase in non-performing loans, local government debt and risks in the financial market.”
“Do you just love paying more for something you really need? No, I thought not. So, how to explain the ’scary’ crop of stories informing us that there is a major problem because Hong Kong property prices have started slipping? The answer is that there is nothing more illogical than the way otherwise sensible folk approach investment in the property market. This is particularly worrying as for most people a property investment is the largest they will ever make.”
“A sense of jubilation arises among property owners when prices rise. They gleefully regale each other about how much they have ‘made’ thanks to a rising market. This, of course, is pure nonsense because no money is ‘made’ until a transaction takes place. The trouble is that this kind of property euphoria also tends to be the mother of bad decisions. Flushed with the success of their property investment people who should know better start taking out loans to buy more property, maybe they even look overseas where the prices are lower.”
“Meanwhile as prices fall in Hong Kong chances emerge for more people to clamber on the property ladder. It makes a lot of sense to do so for those who are still renting, not just in fiscal terms but also in terms of the security and comfort derived from owning a home of your own. Price falls are also good for the commercial sector; those of us who spend our time dealing with rapacious commercial landlords have absolutely nothing to fear from price falls. On the contrary we look forward to the boot being on the other foot.”
“So, why are there so many stories using words such as ‘worrying’ and ‘concern’ when describing falling prices in the property market? A more appropriate word, in my view, is opportunity, opportunity to buy at lower prices and an opportunity to lower costs. None of this strikes me as a matter for concern.”
‘Hedge fund managers ditch decorum in shouting match over China’
‘The clash Wednesday at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas, where 1,800 hedge fund industry executives are gathering, contrasts with last year’s meeting, where many money managers expressed confidence in China.’
‘Structured Portfolio Management’s Brownstein concurred. “China came out of a huge, huge mess and it is a huge country with a very, very diverse population,” he said. “I would rather put my money with a communist government than a capitalist government.”
The Chinese securities regulator just jumped in to stop an unlisted tech bubble. I’ll try and find an article about that.
‘The investment climate for technology startups in China over the past two to three years has been on a rollercoaster ride, with valuations of startups soaring beyond the level in Silicon Valley a year ago, only to enter a “winter” period last fall.’
‘GGV Capital managing partner Jenny Lee said series C funding in the country is way down, for example requests for $1 billion in late-stage funding last year plunged to $500 million in Q1. Lee, speaking yesterday on a panel discussing China’s investment climate, said the country has entered a winter, which impacts everyone.’
‘Lee agreed that there is definitely still a premium for quality companies. The China market is two to three times larger than the US, thus the higher valuations.’
‘Ben Bateman, director of strategic partnerships at Indiegogo, said that because of the lead time in completing deals, “we’re still in a bit of a bubble with advanced firms looking to go international. But the full impact [of the downturn] hasn’t been felt”.
“I would rather put my money with a communist government than a capitalist government.”
Sounds kind of crazy… I wonder what underlies such a statement.
More power in the hands of fewer politicians means fewer politicians to buy. More bang for the investment buck.
I know an investor that used to invest in companies both India and China and I asked about the different environments. He said that in India, you needed to bribe everyone. In China you need to find the right person, and just bribe that one person.
It would work great if politicians could actually control economies. In the long-run or even the mid-run, they can’t.
‘if politicians could actually control economies’
I’ve been interested in this China worship for a while. The people who really dig their government do so because they are draconian. They rule with an iron fist! Do this, don’t do that.
One can’t help but think these people secretly wish the US was like that. If only our technocrats had total control, they could force the system to work. They already think like that:
‘The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore.” He continued “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
We’re going to look at these controlled economies this weekend.
“They rule with an iron fist! Do this, don’t do that.”
Brings to mind certain American politicians! (Won’t mention any names…)
Who said this?
‘We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.’
Not “we are going to convince consumers to abandon coal with our superior ideas.” We are going to use our political power to shut down entire industries. How much more controlling can you get?
Speaking of controlled economies, this week was the secretive Microsoft CEO Summit (about 2 miles from my house) - look at just a few of the names in attendance:
http://www.geekwire.com/2016/whos-attending-microsofts-secretive-ceo-summit-theyre-talking/
Globalists gonna globe!
“Who said this?”
I submit that we could come up with plenty of examples of central planning efforts at top-down economic control from both sides of the aisle that would make the Founding Fathers turn over in their graves.
I know a teacher who retired from WV system and she constantly says that coal is essentially evil and has to go. I asked when Clinton shuts down the coal industry who will pay her pension? She said they can’t cut my pension can they? I need that money!. I said; Maybe. Maybe coal really isn’t so evil after all, it will probably depend on how much/if her pension gets cut.
At least he was honest. The time has arrived when neoliberal doctrine has to be imposed. Democracies aren’t the best environment for that. So far in this country we’ve been able to substitute propaganda for force, but the returns on that are clearly diminishing.
Sounds kind of crazy… I wonder what underlies such a statement.
Collectivists have always been underwritten by oligarchs, from the Jacobians to the Bolshevik revolution to our coming Permanent Democrat Supermajority. Once the means of production are taken from the rightful owners, then the oligarchs can snap up these expropriated properties for a song and sell them off for massive profits.
“I would rather put my money with an
communistauthoritarian government than acapitalistnon-authoritarian government.”FTFY. Are the means of production in China communally owned these days? Of course not. We need to stop pretending that they are communists, when factories, apartments, etc, are all privately owned now, or rapidly moving in that direction.
What they still are, and what this fellow find attractive, is an extremely authoritarian government with an iron grip on power, which is an ideal environment for crony capitalism to operate in. Sunlight and the rule of law are anathema to crony capitalism.
Too bad we don’t have more of both remaining here—but we still have WAY more than China does.
Got gold?
http://www.businessinsider.com/comex-vault-doesnt-have-enough-gold-2016-5
Gotta have physical ownership. Yup. GLD is going to disappoint big time while the price of gold goes into the 5 digits.
I don’t have the stomach to throw down for the physical gold, but what about silver? Does it follow gold for the most part?
Yes Silver does follow gold. Silver is an excellent way to save.
The reason I don’t buy any is that I have A LOT (between 100 oz and 1000 oz) of silver coins already, I bought in the 1990s.
I do advise a sister of mine to buy silver and I do not mention gold because she does not make much money. She does buy a silver eagle every month or so.
Where does your sister buy from?
I was having a conversation with my father about gold and silver and he doesn’t feel comfortable getting involved because he thinks the markup is way to high.
My sister buys silver from APMEX. They have a web site.
In the 1990s I bought silver from either Monex or Blanchard. I forget which.
As for markups, most everyone has markups and the fewer the units you buy the higher the markup. So it comes down to a matter of buying or not buying because you cannot avoid the markup.
In addition, prices change all the time. I’ve been buying precious metals regularly since 2004 and the commission is 4%. But what people like your father don’t know is that many of these places buy back above spot. There is a markup buying back. I think it’s 1% or 2%.
Your father needs to also understand that markups don’t matter in the long run. Say that I pay an extra $50 for a one ounce gold eagle if I buy today, based on $1275. The price might be $1175 in a year, or it might be $1400 in a year. So you sell it back when spot price is $1400. You paid $1325 for the gold today but when you sell it back you probably get $1414 (about 1% markup) and effectively a $89 gain. So why worry about markup?
precious metals prices are not going up or down. The value of the fiat money is what is really fluctuating. Keep that in mind and look at how much the Dollar has fallen over 100 years. Gold has historically been a store of value. If your dad has 10 years to wait for today’s purchase to really go up he will most likely profit. If not, he can pass on the gold to you and you will profit.
JM Bullion is a big online company with a good rep, like APMEX. But JM Bullion accepts payment in bitcoin.
I would rather go walk into a real world coin store and buy gold with bitcoin. I don’t know of any coin shop like that. Until then I will use cash to buy my gold at walk-in coin shops and will wait until cash is banned before using bitcoin to buy gold online.
precious metals prices are not going up or down.
???
Trying to reconcile this statement with the fact that the value of something is measured by what you can exchange it for, and what you can exchange precious metals for fluctuates every day based on it’s perceived value as measured by currency (and other more tangible things–which are translated to currency-based values).
If what you say is in fact true, then the relative values of different precious metals should stay constant…and they don’t.
Today, 1oz of gold is worth approximately 1.2oz of Platinum. So, if the values of precious metals are constant, you should always be able to trade 1oz of gold for 1.2oz of Platinum.
However, a year ago, 1oz of gold was worth only approximately 1.05oz of Platinum.
And 5 years ago, 1oz of gold was worth even less in terms of Platinum…approximatley 0.85oz.
There is nothing inherently valuable about precious metals, unless they can be used in some process that assists in the creation of a product that provides a value to someone–just like more common metals.
The value of precious metals are affected by market forces, just like everything else. If you flood the market with a metal, it’s value will go down. If demand for a metal goes up (for whatever reason), it’s value will go up.
Since supply and demand factors for each precious metal differ, their relative values differ over time.
‘Precious Metals prices are not going up or down”
“Trying to reconcile this statement with the fact that the value of something is measured by what you can exchange it for, and what you can exchange precious metals for fluctuates every day based on it’s perceived value as measured by currency (and other more tangible things–which are translated to currency-based values).”
The real traditional standard of value is in precious metals prices. Think back what the paper money looked like. They were certificates exchangeable for gold and silver. The search engine “Duck Duck Go Go” is your friend. You can find for yourself. Exactly one note was exchangeable for one ounce of whatever. In the 1900s they broke the ties and now they are relabeled “federal reserve notes.” So they are not based on currency. In the old days prices barely fluctuated based on supply of gold coming online. It’s a relative term but assuming no new gold is mined and no major vein is tapped to grossly flood the world with gold, the supply of USD would match what it said on the face - a certificate for equal amount of gold. Now the supply of federal reserve notes is increasing all the time and no metals to back it up.
Which is why I say it costs the same to print a $1 as it does a $100 because otherwise you could exchange the $100 for 100 times more precious metals that you could exchange a $1.
I understand fiat currency is tied to nothing but confidence, and that if the US drops $100 Trillion out of helicopters, we’ll be buying bread with wheelbarrows full of money.
I bought a few 100 Trillion Dollar bills from Zimbabwe to give to my kids at the right time in an effort to teach them about the power of the printing press.
Paper currency is worth something because people think it’s worth something, but it’s easy to print, which can make it fall in value quickly–and the government has complete control over those printing presses.
Precious metals are worth something because people think they are worth something (and in some cases they can be used to create something else), but they are hard to find, and thus it is hard to add supply. As such, the value usually fluctuates because of changes in demand (for lots of different reasons).
However, the value of BOTH paper currency and precious metals fluctuate based on supply and demand. It is wishful thinking to believe that precious metals’ value doesn’t go up and down.
“Gold has historically been a store of value. If your dad has 10 years to wait for today’s purchase to really go up he will most likely profit. If not, he can pass on the gold to you and you will profit.”
If you replace the word “Gold” with “S&P 500″, the statement is also true, but with owning the S&P, you get paid something while you wait…with Gold, you get paid nothing.
“If you replace the word “Gold” with “S&P 500″, the statement is also true, but with owning the S&P, you get paid something while you wait…with Gold, you get paid nothing.”
I do agree that owning stocks have some tangible worth. All one needs to do is look up “book value per share” - companies have assets. Well gold mining companies have the gold mine plus the equipment. Apple has its engineers. Ford has its factories, robots, equipment, engineers, and laborers.
This is precisely why I have far more of my assets in stocks than I do of precious metals.
@Rental Watch
I understand fiat currency is tied to nothing but confidence
you have a wrong understanding. yes, fiat currency needs confidence in order to work. it would be abandoned otherwise.
but it doesn’t get its ‘value’ from confidence. it gets its value because most of us work for dollars. we labor to get them. that’s why they’re valuable.
the point you made about the value of metals is correct. it’s the same for fiat currency. its value isn’t stable, it fluctuates. most of the time not by a lot, but it fluctuates.
lot’s of things affect the value of the dollar, but the main one is the efficiency of our labor. others things that affect the dollar is their quantity and the strength of the economy. there are other forces that affect the dollar too.
it’s not as simple as you think it is.
we labor to get them. that’s why they’re valuable.
Not the banks—they got them for free! Heck, in Europe they’re talking about _paying_ the banks to take them!
And yet they still seem to be valuable for the banks… Hmmm.
Not the banks—they got them for free!
not true, but even if it was true it wouldn’t matter concerning their value. their value is independent of what banks or anyone else does with them.
Heck, in Europe they’re talking about _paying_ the banks to take them!
destructive idiots.
And yet they still seem to be valuable for the banks…
of course.. there’s no reason for them not to be. what’s causing dollars to lose value is the weakening of the economy, the degrading of the efficiency of our labor. most people believe that it’s the increasing quantity of dollars, but that’s only half the equation.
the misunderstanding of currency has let politicians institute disastrous policies.
Of course, if you want to have a “Swiss bank account” on your tablet or computer, I know how to do that. The bonus is your wallet is not exposed to third party applications when you spend or receive crypto currency.
{I just need to make this system more user friendly. Like just make some script during the install take care of all the external modules needed…)
Crypto currency and precious metals are the way to protect yourself from the upcoming ban on cash.
Only fools are buying make-believe paper gold. In a time of universal fraud, possession is 9/10s of the law.
‘Hong Kong property prices have declined and sales are hovering near a 25-year low as the city grapples with the repercussions of a slowing Chinese economy. Home prices have dropped about 13 percent from a peak in September, according to data compiled by Centaline Property Agency Ltd.’
‘The last major housing crash in the former British colony saw prices tumble almost 50 percent in the 12 months from October 1997. They eventually bottomed in mid-2003 when the city was swept up by the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic and have almost quadrupled since then.’
‘Bass, famed for betting against U.S. subprime mortgages prior to the housing crash, is predicting losses for China’s banks and raising money to start a dedicated fund for bets in the nation. He said last week at a conference that investors putting money in Asia should ask themselves if they can handle 30 percent to 40 percent writedowns in Chinese investments.’
“China may be able to not tell the truth about specific output levels, or GDP figures — they might be able to fudge those numbers for a while,” Bass said at a panel discussion, moderated by Bloomberg TV’s Erik Schatzker. “But their trading partners kind of tell the truth, and you’re already seeing what’s happening in their primary trading partners.”
‘The Chinese credit system, according to Bass, is “one of the biggest macro imbalances the world has ever seen.” The fund manager said China is already experiencing a “hard landing as we speak.” He said he isn’t a “permanent bear” on China, instead describing himself as a pragmatist.’
Have you noticed how the media puts people in the position of being a China “perma-bear”? I guess I’m a perma-bear on repressive communism. You don’t have to fight it, just sit back and watch it fail. But you don’t trade with them, much less send most of your manufacturing to them. It goes to show the media bias toward globalism. And along those lines, globalism wasn’t set up for economics. One of those, “the world isn’t what you might think” things:
‘The EU – A CIA Covert Operation’
‘The secrecy and authoritarianism that characterizes the ruling style of the Eurocrats was prefigured in the memos sent back and forth between US government officials, the ACUE, and their European sock puppets. As the Telegraph reports: “A memo from the European section, dated June 11, 1965, advises the vice-president of the European Economic Community, Robert Marjolin, to pursue monetary union by stealth. It recommends suppressing debate until the point at which ‘adoption of such proposals would become virtually inescapable.’”
‘Indeed, the American sponsors of this “European” project directed every aspect of the pro-unity Astro-turf “movement.” As Ambrose Evans-Pritchard points out, “Papers show that it treated some of the EU’s ‘founding fathers’ as hired hands, and actively prevented them finding alternative funding that would have broken reliance on Washington.”
What they have is repressive crony capitalism. They may have fewer prisoners than the U.S. But they got those mobile execution chambers to technically not have prisoners.
“I guess I’m a perma-bear on repressive communism.”
I’m in the club, too. But many left it, after the Chi-Coms started fashioning an odd marriage of central planning and capitalism.
It’s the central planning part that is doomed to fail. Read Hayek if you want to know why.
“The Road to Serfdom”
Citizen! The good collectivist comrades of the DNC must caution you on your Thought Crimes. To avoid infecting the body politic with your anti-egalitarian agitation, it may be necessary to send you to a re-education camp if your ideological impurities persist. Forward!
I am further guilty of questioning the civil right of any teenage male who decides to “identify” as a boy to dress out in the girls’ locker room.
Bad on me for not accepting the empirical edict without raising questions.
Off-topic, but why are people like Bass “famed” for their foresight, while we here at the HBB are not? Is it because we didn’t make a hundred million dollars?
It has to do with whether or not you loudly proclaim your message from the mountaintop while beating your chest.
The Chinese are sitting on the biggest bubble markets on the planet, and THIS is what the authorities crack down on?
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/wtf/china-bans-erotic-videos-of-women-eating-bananas-online/news-story/5e2f0bd6261a6bb29e5bc1b3f9e158d6
The coming implosion of the Fed’s housing and tech bubbles is going to be epic.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/05/12/how-exposed-is-silicon-valley-office-market-cre-to-apple-google-facebook-amazon-linkedin/
One of the commenters to this article said this …
“Facebook’s P/E ratio is 80. Given that they’re pretty much at saturation in users, I don’t ever see them clawing that below 50 without a massive stock price “readjustment”. So if a lot of equity gets destroyed for that company and others I imagine that will pile onto the RE woes from the other end. Millions will suffer a reverse wealth effect and snap shut their wallets.”
And I will laugh with delight as this Ponzi stock crashes and burns.
Given that they’re pretty much at saturation in users, I don’t ever see them clawing that below 50 without a massive stock price “readjustment”.
They don’t need any more users to get their P/E below 50—all they would need is roughly a 50% increase in revenue-per-user. They’ve been doing a much better job of converting FB-addiction into revenue than I expected them to be capable of doing, say, five or six years back.
Moscow court has ordered the seizure of a £140 million Oxfordshire mansion in what has been described as a “political” attack on a fugitive billionaire.
Moscow’s Tverskoi district court ruled on Wednesday that the 300-year old Park Place Estate should be seized as indemnity for hundreds of millions of pounds it says Andrei Borodin stole from the bank he once owned.
Mr Borodin amassed billions as the chief executive and co-owner of Bank of Moscow, but fled Russia in 2011 after being accused of massive fraud.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/12/russian-court-seizes-britains-most-expensive-home/
Mr Borodin better keep an eye out for that red umbrella.
Equipped with the polonium-210 tip, of course!
London is the global center of financial fraud. The oligarch cabal that runs the place will ensure their fellow uber-criminals are well-protected as long as they park the fruits of their theft with the Bankers Above Reproach.
In the midst of a nationwide anti-corruption drive led by President Xi Jinping, China’s media regulators have lifted a long-standing ban on the production and primetime broadcast of television dramas featuring high-level corruption, clearing the way for harder-hitting content not seen since 2004.
In the Name of the People (人民的名义), a new television drama with a budget of over 120 million yuan ($18.5 million), is set to finish shooting in Nanjing in June and is expected to be broadcast the end of the year.
The 42-episode series is set to be the first major production with an anti-corruption theme since China’s media watchdog banished such programs from prime time 12 years ago. The show is expected to at least obliquely feature a top ranking government leader as a villain.
In 2004, the predecessor to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (known as SARFT at the time) made a recommendation that anti-corruption dramas not be shown in prime-time to “protect teenagers.”
Fan Ziwen, vice director of the Film and Television Center under the China’s prosecutor’s office and someone closely involved with the production of In the Name of the People, told the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper that the rules against such plotlines in TV always been a recommendation and never an outright ban.
http://chinafilminsider.com/china-anti-corruption-drive-moves-television-dramas/
I’ll believe this when it happens. The film “A Touch of Sin” remains banned in China.
Super-rich international investors in London property are likely to sell off some of their mansions and penthouses after the introduction of anti-corruption rules cracking down on offshore secrecy, a leading estate agent has said.
Privacy-hungry oligarchs, media owners and tech billionaires from around the world could also abandon plans to buy homes in Britain because they would no longer be able to keep their identity secret by purchasing them through offshore companies, Trevor Abrahmsohn told the Guardian.
The owner of Glentree Estates, which has sold property to billionaires from Russia, Nigeria and China, said the obligation for any foreign company buying UK property to join a public register of beneficial ownership would drive wealth creators away. It would also prevent corrupt individuals using the London property market to hide ill-gotten gains in offshore companies located in places such as the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands. He said about half of his customers buy through offshore companies……………
Abrahmsohn said the measure would drive down an already slumping property market in the capital.
“At the same time the oil price dropped, the world stock markets went into gyration, the Russians had a problem with sanctions and the Chinese stock market crashed. Transactions at the £5m to £10m mark are down 50% to 70% over the last year and we have lost 75% of our buyers. Prices are dropping 10% to 15% a year.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/12/super-rich-may-sell-london-homes-under-anti-corruption-rules
The inhumanity of it. Hug an oligarch.
Kailua Kona, HI Housing Affordability Surges As Prices Plummet 10% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/kailua-kona-hi/home-values/
One for goon, might be more my era than yours but
A host of stars have reacted to The Stone Roses’ new track ‘All For One’, including presenters Ant & Dec and ex-Manchester United defender Gary Neville.
The Manchester band released their first new music in over two decades on Thursday, unveiling their new track ‘All For One’.
Following the song’s release, musicians like The Courteeners’ Liam Fray and Erasure’s Andy Bell posted their reactions online.
Ant & Dec took to Twitter to write: “OMG! That new @stoneroses song. Love it!!” Gary Neville, meanwhile, uploaded a photo of his daughters dressed up as lemons, in reference to the band’s artwork.
Read more at http://www.nme.com/news/the-stone-roses/93540#zuFOIzqZ2lcYE98A.99
From yesterday’s discussion on negotiating rents:
———————
Comment by Professor Bear
2016-05-12 22:19:50
After raising our four lovely children, we have TOO MUCH STUFF.
…a key reason we have zero bargaining power in rent negotiations is that our landlord is bright enough to know damn well that we would rather prefer to stay put than to deal with the hassle of moving all our accumulated junk elsewhere.
[oxide:] “I can’t agree that falling house prices will justify lowering rent — at least not in commercial complexes.”
It really depends upon substitutability (or not) between housing of comparable quality. For example, suppose a large commercial complex is located near a community of comparably-priced houses which often become starter homes for residents of the complex who have reached the point where they can afford to move out. If home prices fall and the manager doesn’t respond with lower rents, a number of tenants in the large commercial complex may decide it is now time to buy, leaving behind vacant units. It is not hard to envision a scenario where the landlord does better by reducing the rent to attract new tenants rather than living with vacant units due to holding rents at a level where it is cheaper to buy nearby housing than to rent an apartment.
——————–
On moving: Even for people who don’t have much stuff, moving is still a huge hassle. I never counted specifically, but I’m guessing that when I move, I have to change my address 15+ times, and I’m a single woman. Add in a spouse, kids, and all the schools and doctors and such, and I can see why moving is considered one of the top stressors.
On house prices affecting rents: Your theory is logical, but then it becomes a vacancy and inventory game. If prices drop, say, 5%, how many tenants will suddenly be able to buy and free up the unit? More than the tenants on the waiting list? ISTM that building a competing complex of units depress rents much more than a stock of houses.
There are also a couple of confounding factors:
1. The actual rental rate is heavily skewed by move-in specials and teaser rates. So the LL might lower the rates to attract new tenants, but when that rental renewal form comes, the honeymoon is over and up goes the rent. And people don’t want to move their stuff or change their address. So they stick with the high rent.
2. People are just as likely to buy a house when prices are rising as when prices are falling. They like the (potential) resale value and don’t want to be “priced out.”
3. Even people who can afford to buy may decide against it, because they are transient or they don’t know if their job is going to last.
“A sense of jubilation arises among property owners when prices rise.”
“Even for people who don’t have much stuff, moving is still a huge hassle…”
The housing bubble is really a self worth bubble.
“The housing bubble is really a self worth bubble.”
Ever seen someone with paper equity (faux wealth) rock on the balls of their feet when they walk… vanity^2?
I keep thinking about trying to live in a commercial building somehow.
My rent is only going up $25/mo next year, but it’s still 40%+ of take home. No salary increase from work, and the small bonus stock grant is a 4 year payout that starts 1 year after grant.
Instead of whining about prices forever I’m trying to figure out to make more money. I’m sniffing at leaving the system admin/network admin world for sales engineer type positions, a friend was telling me about his commissions he makes, way better. Except of course I figure that industry is going to slow down (he says his sales are down pretty hard for the year so far.)
Ethan from a practical point a commercial apt. building is great if you dont care to deal with a landlord living in the same building or shoveling the snow to help out the 85 year old LL.
but when a large unexpected emergency arises such as a death or sickness or your transmission craps out, the commercial landlord will assess you late fees and lawyers fees if you are only one day late.
“I keep thinking about trying to live in a commercial building somehow.”
Rutger Hauer?
When I had a storage unit, I saw people living in their RV that was parked there (probably couldn’t get away with it for too long).
How about the basement of a mcmansion ?
I prefer living in an empty skulls. Rent free
“I prefer living in an empty skulls. Rent free”
Skull houses (images) …
https://www.google.com/search?q=skull+house&biw=1360&bih=651&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjAjMDn09fMAhUU5WMKHQuTA7cQ_AUIBygC
I’m sniffing at leaving the system admin/network admin world for sales engineer type positions, a friend was telling me about his commissions he makes, way better. Except of course I figure that industry is going to slow down (he says his sales are down pretty hard for the year so far.)
A word of warning: those sales engineers make hay when times are good (summer), but don’t do so well when the industry is in fall/winter; someone close to me used to be a coder, but moved to sales engineer for those commissions that you mentioned, and then got laid off when times got tough for EMC. By then, his coding skills weren’t fresh, and he was pretty specialized in a niche that wasn’t in demand; now he’s doing IT helpdesk/tech-support, and earning less than he would be if he had stuck with coding.
“If prices drop, say, 5%, how many tenants will suddenly be able to buy and free up the unit?”
You have to guess that at least some tenants in a big complex are on the fence between continuing to rent or moving into the Ownership Society. Other things equal, a drop in prices of homes in their budget range will nudge some of these folks into buying, leaving vacancies that otherwise wouldn’t be there.
I’m down to 2 suitcases and a backpack… I just buy $1500 worth of furniture when I go somewhere, and sell it when I leave. I don’t thin I could go back to having a hous full of crap. It’s suffocating.
Lake Forest
You wouldn’t believe some of the rabble they’re letting into Onwentsia these days.
“She noted a 1928 ‘gorgeous, magnificent’ 9,499-square-foot home that won a historic preservation award in Lake Forest. ”
Here’s the house, pix are still up. The trim seems a little plain-jane for the supposed grandeur of the estate.
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/401-N-Ahwahnee-Rd-Lake-Forest-IL-60045/4857137_zpid/
June 2006: Sold $4.88M
Feb 2014: Listed $5.2M
May 2016: Pending $3.5M
Nice pad, but they are going lose major money. Even if they had sold for the $5.2M list price, that would be barely breaking even.
The problem with this house is that it has a bedroom deficiency relative to the number of bathrooms. A mere five bedrooms, but eight full baths and three half baths. It needs at least 2 more bedrooms and it’ll sell at full price for sure.
When you have a tennis court and a pool and a home theater, you need more baths, I suppose. And a house like that would need servants, who would need their own facilities.
Downplaying the number of bedrooms seems to be a trend, especially in McMansions. No more than four bedrooms. They’ll have “dens” and “libraries” and “studies” and “gathering rooms” and master suites with a bedroom-sized sitting area. But only four bedrooms. I guess four-bedrooms is the mentality for a middle-class two-kid family. But if you go above than four bedrooms — now that’s a farmhouse for the litter of kids, and no self-respecting cubicle worker will tolerate that.
Add another major city where rental rates are cratering.
“After Years Of Building, Seattle Gets A Holiday Gift: Falling Rents”
http://bikeportland.org/2016/01/04/after-years-of-building-seattle-gets-a-holiday-gift-falling-rents-171524
“Denver Rents Falling—Analysts Credit New Supply”
http://www.planetizen.com/node/83465/denver-rents-falling%E2%80%94analysts-credit-new-supply
“Denver just joined Seattle in an exclusive club: high demand cities with flattening or falling rents.”
If you want affordable housing, you must add the supply. That is the best way to keep housing reasonably priced and stable.
I”m not holding onto rapidly depreciating shacks like melting ice cubes in environment of 25 million excess empty houses. It’s not me that has to act Jingle_Fraud.
Anybody wanna go in on an almond milk delivery service?
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/soon-won-t-rich-back-110008747.html
Well heck, why not. If regular schmoes want to play mini-me VC and invest literal pennies in a startup, more power to them. Caveat emptor.
(I suspect the most successful start-up will be whoever starts up the legal firm to write the disclaimers on these baby whisky distillers and [insert product] delivery apps and the grilled cheese trucks and whatever else these “creative” Millenials are rebooting these days.)
There is a bit of a redux of the late 1990’s dotcom boom going on. I can not put my finger on it, but it seems there is a lot of stoopid money looking for a home.
A little bit? No, this is dotcom 2.0 and it is WAY BIGGER than the first one, trust me. Read geekwire dot com, as it features unicorn fairy startups on a daily basis. You will be amazed.
Too lazy to get off the couch to turn down the lights? There’s a startup working on that.
Too lazy to go to the gas station on your way home from work to fill up? There’s several startups that will bring a tanker truck full of gasoline to your work parking lot and fill up your car. Ooopsie! You mean there may be some regulatory and safety issues involved? Who knew?
Too lazy to go to U-Haul and rent a pickup for $19.99 to move a couch? Want to find somebody other dupe who will move your couch for you? There’s a startup working on an app for that one too.
Pretty much any problem that affects the single, millennial, apartment-bound techies is being worked on by multiple startups right now.
All those Bernake Bucks had to go somewhere, right? The housing sector can only take so many.
And did you know that some startups even have a ping pong table, and that their employees take group naps in the afternoons? These startup folks really think outside the box, let me tell you.
“… the grilled cheese trucks and whatever else these ‘creative’ Millenials are rebooting these days.)”
The price of The Grilled Cheese Truck, Inc could use a reboot in that it’s now down to nine cents a share …
https://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=GRLD+Interactive#{”range”:”3mo”,”allowChartStacking”:true}
millions of gallons of water for almond trees, that are turned into thousands of gallons of almond milk (water) boxed and trucked to a store. dumb idea.
IIRC, it’s about a gallon of water per almond.
Its takes a special kind of stupid to think that growing an almond “consumes” 1 gallon of water, water that is lost forever.
I didn’t see anyone make that assertion. However, it doesn’t matter. The water is still diverted from other possible uses.
“Its takes a special kind of stupid…”
I just finished a 20-oz dark beer, and I’m going to return some of your water in an hour or so. Enjoy!
‘millions of gallons of water for almond trees, that are turned into thousands of gallons of almond milk (water) boxed and trucked to a store. dumb idea.’
What do I care? It ain’t my money.
Things that will happen before 1 inch of sea level rise much less 50 feet as predicted by the well paid climate “scientists”.
1: The Cleveland Browns will win the Super Bowl.
2: Chelsea Clinton will care about money.
3: Moochelle Obama will fly coach and clean her own house.
4: 1-year CD rates will be 10.35% APY.
5: Johnny Manziel will get back the entire security deposit on a house he rented.
Feel free to add to the list.
6. Housing stops depreciating
7. when companies are honest about hiring you full time instead of lying to get you in, then dropping the bomb saying its only PT with no benefits
8. Rush Limbaugh will impregnate one of his four (4) much younger wives.
9. Republicans will stop believing the “Noah’s Ark” story.
10. Alaskans, like 1/2 term Governor Palin, will stop believing that the check each and every citizen receives every year from the oil pipeline is NOT socialism.
12. Dick Cheney will admit that he fudged, just a little, on the “The Iraq War will pay for itself” statement.
13. Nancy Pelosi will take a bus load of illegal immigrant children from Central America out of a Border Patrol facility in Texas and bring them home with her.
“I wish I could take all those children home with me,” Pelosi said during a press conference in Brownsville, Texas, after visiting a nearby Border Patrol facility housing illegal immigrants, reported KGBT-TV in Harlingen, Texas.
What’s stopping her? After all, Pelosi and her husband are worth upwards of $100 million, with $42 million in real estate holdings covering hundreds of acres, including a massive $5 million vineyard.
After all, Pelosi and her husband are worth upwards of $100 million, with $42 million in real estate holdings covering hundreds of acres, including a massive $5 million vineyard.
If you were GD socialist like Obama, someone would accuse you of envy and class warfare.
The political elite insider trading class?
Her insider trading and light rail deals are almost as good as Diane Feinstein’s Husband Selling Post Offices to Cronies on the Cheap.
‘60 Minutes’ Uncovers Pelosi’s Insider Stock Trades
By Newsmax Wires | Sunday, 13 Nov 2011 07:49 PM
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi bought stock in initial public offerings (IPOs) that earned hefty returns while she had access to insider information that would have been illegal for an average citizen to trade with – even though it’s perfectly legal for elected officials, CBS’s “60 Minutes” reported Sunday night.
In a piece relying on data collected from the conservative Hoover Institution, “60 Minutes” revealed that elected officials like Pelosi are exempt from insider trading laws – regulations that carry hefty prison sentences and fines for any other citizen who trades stocks with private information on companies that can affect their stock price.
In the case of elected officials – this secret information ranges from timely details on lucrative federal contracts to legislation that can cause companies’ stocks to rise and fall dramatically.
How do they get away with it? Lawmakers have exempted themselves from the laws that govern every other citizen.
Pelosi, D-Calif., and her husband have participated in at least eight IPOs while having access to information directly relating to the companies involved. One of those came in 2008, from Visa, just as a troublesome piece of legislation that would have hurt credit card companies, began making its way through the House.
“Undisturbed by a potential conflict of interest the Pelosis purchased 5,000 shares of Visa at the initial price of $44 dollars. Two days later it was trading at $64. The credit card legislation never made it to the floor of the House,” Steve Kroft of “60 Minutes” reported.
Kroft confronted Pelosi at a regular press conference after she declined an interview.
Kroft: Madam Leader, I wanted to ask you why you and your husband back in March of 2008 accepted and participated in a very large IPO deal from Visa at a time there was major legislation affecting the credit card companies making its way through the —through the House.
Nancy Pelosi: But —
Kroft: And did you consider that to be a conflict of interest?
Pelosi: The — y — I — I don’t know what your point is of your question. Is there some point that you want to make with that?
Kroft: Well, I — I — I guess what I’m asking is do you think it’s all right for a speaker to accept a very preferential, favorable stock deal?
Pelosi: Well, we didn’t.
Kroft: You participated in the IPO. And at the time you were speaker of the House. You don’t think it was a conflict of interest or had the appearance–
Pelosi: No, it was not —
Kroft: — of a conflict of interest?
Pelosi: —it doesn’t — it only has appearance if you decide that you’re going to have — elaborate on a false premise. But it — it — it’s not true and that’s that.
Kroft: I don’t understand what part’s not true.
Pelosi: Yes sir. That — that I would act upon an investment.
April 20, 2016
Is Pelosi’s husband guilty of insider trading?
By Rick Moran
In late October 2014, Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul purchased between $100,000 and $250,000 in stock from green energy company Sun Edison. Just three weeks later, the company acquired First Wind, a wind power company. The purchase caused Sun Edison’s stock to soar 29%.
Coincidence? Or did Paul Pelosi act on information that came to his wife in her duties as House minority leader?
Pelosi’s office did not respond to questions about the timing of the purchase and whether she or her husband had any advance knowledge of the deal.
Pelosi has previously been accused of trading stock based on information gleaned through her official duties. She participated in Visa’s initial public offering as the company fought a House bill to subject credit card companies to increased regulation. The measure failed to pass.
A law passed in the wake of that controversy prohibits members of Congress from using nonpublic information for personal gain. Language in that measure was informally dubbed the “Pelosi Provision.”
In addition to her stock trades, Pelosi steered more than $1 billion in federal subsidies to a light rail project that likely improved the value of the San Francisco headquarters of cloud computing company Salesforce, in which her husband had invested up to $1 million.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/04/is_pelosis_husband_guilty_of_insider_trading.html#ixzz48ZTxa6jt
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
“…there is nothing more illogical than the way otherwise sensible folk approach investment in the property market. This is particularly worrying as for most people a property investment is the largest they will ever make.”
Nailed it!
….. and what he was really trying to say.
“…there is nothing more illogical than the way otherwise sensible folk approach investment in the property market. This is particularly worrying as for most people a property investment is the largest financial mistake they will ever make.”
You nailed it double-plus good!
‘Housing Sales in São Paulo Plunge 16 Percent in March’
Now that rio’s socialist paradise is coming unglued, I wonder if he ever got that banana for his shack?
‘Property prices in central Baghdad are as high as London’s, even though Iraq’s national income is down by 70 per cent since the collapse in the oil price. Islamic State’s bombs regularly devastate parts of the capital, and still the real estate market booms. Why?’
‘Because there is so much “dirty money” in Iraq that needs to be laundered. If you lack the political clout to get your stolen money out of the country, then the safest course is to put it into residential property. Although that’s not a very safe bet either when the entire pseudo-democratic system bequeathed to Iraq by the United States invasion is on the brink of collapse.’
‘The recent intrusion into the Green Zone, the vast (10sq km), blast-walled government compound in Baghdad, by thousands of angry Iraqis was probably the beginning of the end of the current dispensation in Iraq.’
‘After only two days they left on May 1, after delivering an ultimatum calling for wholesale reform of the government, but they vowed to return if it does not happen.’
‘Because there is so much “dirty money” in Iraq that needs to be laundered. If you lack the political clout to get your stolen money out of the country, then the safest course is to put it into residential property.’
Too non-legit to quit.
How much of that money came from the pallets of U.S. dollars that we brought over there, or represents payments we gave in exchange for not blowing us up?
I find high prices in places like Baghdad, Kigali and Phnom Penh fascinating. Everybody wants to live there, no doubt! You might unearth a skull or a femur in your backyard, but you can just pretend they’re fake, or use them as decorations for Halloween.
‘The Permian Basin Board of Realtors’ April 2016 report shows a nearly 10 percent drop in the median price of homes sold in April. The report, released Wednesday, also showed an increase in listings to 548, which is 12 percent more than April 2015.’
Seems like the supposedly non-existent housing bubble is popping!
March median in Midland still showed increases. Houston still does. How many people in Houston think house prices are up? (Not counting UHS).
It does appear the market is correcting. It does not seem to be a bubble popping, but we will know more after the summer.
‘I’ll Never Retire’: Americans Break Record for Working Past 65
Four charts tell the story.
Almost 20 percent of Americans 65 and older are now working, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s the most older people with a job since the early 1960s, before the U.S. enacted Medicare.
Because of the huge baby boom generation that is just now hitting retirement age, the U.S. has the largest number of older workers ever.
When asked to describe their plans for retirement, 27 percent of Americans said they will “keep working as long as possible,” a 2015 Federal Reserve study found. Another 12 percent said they don’t plan to retire at all.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-13/-i-ll-never-retire-americans-break-record-for-working-past-65
Irrelevant.
Bend, OR Housing Prices Crater 13% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/bend-or-97701/home-values/
Bend is a hot to cold back to hot market that is about as stable as being bi-polar. Don’t park anything there!
It’s because lots of them are supporting elderly parents or boomerang children with loans to pay off.
And here I am thinking whatif…I retire in five years instead of ten…right now at this moment I’d be on a bike trail.
‘By analyzing WARN Act filings, the four-county area of Santa Clara, San Mateo, Alameda, and San Francisco had a total of 3,135 tech jobs lost in the first quarter of 2016, the Mercury News calculated. That’s up from 1,330 in the first quarter of 2015.’
‘California requires companies with more than 75 employees to file a 60-day notice ahead of layoffs of more than 50 people under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Many of the smaller startups in the Bay Area don’t fall under that category. That means the real number could be much higher when you add up the companies that have done some downsizing or simply lost employees through attrition.’
I read this morning Apples stock has wiped out the gains of the past two years.
Here’s another debate we’ve had here that’s been resolved:
‘Obamacare: Costs Go Up, Insurers Drop Out and Consumers Get Screwed’
‘Almost three years later, there is little evidence of any more contrition on that failure, or others in Obamacare for that matter. Earlier this week , Charlie Rose interviewed three former Obama speechwriters on a variety of topics. After discussing their work on lighter-topic speeches, Rose asked whether they felt they had an impact on Obama’s more serious addresses. Jon Lovett replied that he felt most proud of his impact on “the most serious speeches – health care, economic speeches.”
‘That prompted his colleague, Jon Favreau, to interject. “Lovett wrote the line about ‘if you like your insurance, you can keep it,” he said, as the panel erupted in laughter. “How dare you!” Lovett shot back in mock indignation. “And you know what?” he asked as the laughter continued. “It’s still true … no.”
Do they have crows in Brazil? Cuz I think rio needs a helping.
Poor lola. Poor poor lola.
The more accurate line would have been: “If you like your insurance, Obamacare won’t prevent you from keeping your insurance, because existing plans are grandfathered in and therefore won’t be discontinued if they fail to meet the new Obamacare standards. However, if the private company decides to discontinue your insurance plan on their own because their CEOs and lobbyists aren’t bringing home enough sheckels, well that’s not Obamacare’s fault.”
But that doesn’t make a good soundbyte.
I know lots of folk want Obamacare to fail. Be careful what you wish for.
It’s already failed. The only reason we aren’t working on what will replace it is there’s a guy who’s really good at killing people in charge with a veto. The next president is going to scrap it, who ever that is.
I know lots of folk want Obamacare to fail. Be careful what you wish for.
Agreed, we could end up with a Single Payer system. Anyone remember Hillarycare?
‘want Obamacare to fail’
When did wants enter into it? I know a guys on it that needs hernia surgery. He can’t find a doctor anywhere near him that takes it. Now he’s trying to borrow the money to pay cash for the whole thing because he was going to have to pay for half of the cost with his deductible anyway.
Do you think I want that? Go ahead, surprise me with the successes. Show me how a law written by the insurance companies is magically for the good of all. Because I ain’t seeing it, and a lot of other people aren’t either.
We got Grubered!!!
“Show me how a law written by the insurance companies is magically for the good of all.”
I couldn’t bring myself to read the chapter in Matt Taibbi’s book about Insurancecare. Too depressing.
Obamacare is designed to fail. If you listen to the tape recordings of meetings from years ago, it is the politically-palatable path to single payer.
It’s all playing out as intended. The 1% don’t care as they have access to their own private doctors, surgeons, and hospitals.
Ben, how does your friend have insurance at all?
He had to buy it, it’s a mandate. And if he had those premiums back he wouldn’t have to borrow the money. What good is insurance that doctors won’t take?
Real comedians, these guys. It’s like George W. Bush wearing a tuxedo and joking about looking for weapons of mass destruction, or Bernanke and Geithner hamming it up together from their comfortable sinecures. These are real decisions and they have real impacts and official Washington thinks it’s funny.
I can’t see how our current healthcare system survives in any recognizable form, whether the ACA continues or not. In the meantime, I am awaiting my annual 10% premium increase.
I can’t see how our current healthcare system survives in any recognizable form, whether the ACA continues or not. In the meantime, I am awaiting my annual 10% premium increase.
Exactly, it isn’t the ACA per se that is failing (though it does have some big problems). It’s the American Healthcare system that is failing, big time. With those annual 10% increases eventually NO ONE will have insurance of any kind.
Our healthcare system is so effed up that the only way those ACA plan premiums can be semi affordable is to have monstrous deductibles, which render the plans fundamentally useless.
Literally, not that they care, but somebody should tell Lovett and Favreau that the name of the law is the real joke. “Affordable care”? On what planet does me paying $14,000 per year to insure my small family equal affordable? And that doesn’t include what the insurance doesn’t cover.
As to what you wrote, I went to my insurer to see whether the exchange plans it offered were cheaper or better, and they weren’t — higher premiums and/or larger deductibles and co-payments.
I too think ACA is awful, yet congress does nothing. Blue Cross wins again.
Why do others countries do it so much better for less $?
Why do others countries do it so much better for less $?
One reason is that we spend WAY more on end of life care.
“…sinecures.”
Okay, I confess… I had to look it up.
Yep, never held a job like that.
But, but, but, we needed to do SOMETHING
Redmond, OR Housing Affordability Skyrockets As Prices Plummet 18% YoY
http://www.movoto.com/redmond-or/market-trends/
Meanwhile back in realville….
As is said - Misery loves company…..
I was surprised not to see the US of A on this list.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/05/13/visualizing-the-most-miserable-countries-in-the-world/
I was surprised not to see the US of A on this list.
Consider this: in a poll taken a few years ago in Mexico, a majority of those polled said that if they could, they would move to the USA. The waiting list to get an unsponsored Green Card is decades long.
We naturalize close to a million people each year and hand out about as many new Green Cards.
For all its faults, the US is a far better place to live than most other countries. Sure, there are a handful that come out higher on those ubiquitous lists that appear on on the web, but let there be no doubt, we are usually in the top 10-20.
Yeah, the criteria don’t make sense. Any serious list would include per capita GDP as one of the most important variables.
Irrelevant.
Not sure about that. Rich countries don’t seem so happy to me. And even if they are happier, the distinction when compared to poor countries is not as great as the difference in wealth might indicate. I’ve walked up Park Avenue in Manhattan, and the Prado in La Paz, Bolivia, and it was the latter, by far, which had more overtly happy people.
How come none of the countries spewing migrants are on the list, but Russia, Iran and Venezuela are?
You may be right that the differences are small. On other hand, Denmark is often ranked as the happiest country. I’ve also read that some places in Bolivia have problems with wild dogs roaming the streets and biting people. I just looked it up and life expectancy there is 67 years.
Per capita GOP? I was thinking about stuff like per capita flush toilets, per capita mosquito nets, and per capita Ebola graves.
These pudgy rich folk at the Cato institute sure have a funny definition of misery. I come on. Some of today’s countries are more miserable than Ancient Rome.
Italians all want to move here until they see we dont get any mandatory vacation time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnqNjf5UM6Y
It’s pretty nice here if you aren’t poor.
Rules for Realtors……
http://www.housingwire.com/articles/37025-how-to-beat-out-other-homebuyers-when-there-is-no-inventory
‘Manhattan is not the only affluent real estate market suffering a slowdown, of course. Across the United States, from Miami to Los Angeles, real estate agents are reporting sluggishness at the very top of the market as inventory piles up and wealthy foreign buyers remain hesitant.’
‘Townsville is bleeding’…‘If you want to sell your home then it is a terrible time - buyers can basically name their price.’
‘At the same time the oil price dropped, the world stock markets went into gyration, the Russians had a problem with sanctions and the Chinese stock market crashed. Transactions at the £5m to £10m mark are down 50% to 70% over the last year and we have lost 75% of our buyers. Prices are dropping 10% to 15% a year.’
I guess the question of what happens when foreign investors stop buying has been answered. Coming to a Vancouver near you.
‘About 18 months ago, finding an apartment to rent was difficult with a stingy vacancy rate of only 0.7 percent. By the end of March, the vacancy rate has jumped to 12 percent. The speed of which vacancies have increased ‘is scary,’ said Kristy Brayton, property manager at Indian Hill Apartments.’
‘Spiraling New York City rents have led to resistance from tenants and an increasing focus on givebacks and concessions on the part of landlords, according to new reports. The monthly Elliman Report out Thursday showed 13% of new Manhattan leases included concessions in April, up from 2.7% a year before, while 6.5% of Brooklyn leases featured them, a jump from 3.6% a year ago.’
‘Its a powerful indicator of what could be a significant burgeoning trend in NYC real estate, experts said.’
‘If there is one ray of sunshine in the city’s rental market, experts say it may be the glut of new apartment buildings in such hot downtown neighborhoods as the Loop, West Loop, South Loop, River North, Streeterville, and Gold Coast. Appraisal Research Counselors reports 16 new rental high-rises – containing a total of 5,759 units – are under construction downtown and scheduled for delivery in 2016 and 2017. The majority of the new 2016 units are expected to hit the market this summer. Eight additional buildings are currently in the active lease-up stage.’
‘In addition, about half of the new buildings in the lease-up stage are offering rental concessions or deals. “We have seen an increasing frequency of free rent being offered on top of revenue management quoted rents,” DeVries said. “Through revenue management, vacant units are continually repriced up or down to reflect daily demand, particularly in new luxury buildings.”
‘Besides a month’s free rent, downtown concessions also can include gift cards and waiving or reducing application and move-in fees.’
‘The city of Atlanta has lost thousands of low-cost rental units from 2010 to 2014, according to a report published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. At the same time, a growing number of households are spending more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing, according to the report, which also examined seven other cities in the Southeast.’
“We’re going to be a very different city if it continues the way it is,” said report co-author Dan Immergluck, professor of city and regional planning at Georgia Tech. “We’re going to lose our housing options for working folks, for regular folks and really become kind of a playground city for affluent folks,” he said.’
‘In Atlanta, the percentage of households with incomes below $35,000 that spend more than 30 percent of their income in rent rose from 79.9 percent in 2010 to 83.5 percent in 2014. During the same time period, the report found that Atlanta lost more than 5,300 units that cost under $750 per month.’
‘He estimates 25,000 new luxury apartment units have been built over the past four years, and that these type of units can drive up prices, creating competition for affordable housing.’
Heck of a job Mel.
Hey, there is always the suburbs. Some of the crappier subdivisions are already fully rented. For 50 years, we have had “white flight” to the ‘burbs, now it is time for “black flight”. Enjoy the commute.
‘Besides a month’s free rent, downtown concessions also can include gift cards and waiving or reducing application and move-in fees.’
I can actually lower my monthly housing cost by renting?!?!?!? Who’d thunk it?
$500K for a house in Rwanda? I’ll take two!
How about those Mello-Roos fees in Kigali?
Free amputations!
Anyone break a tooth and have it get infected? mo-fo the pain is unreal!
Did you crack your jaw against the steering wheel of that new car?
Gotta watch those sudden stops.
All kidding aside, just about anything having to do with tooth problems is painful as heck. You have my sympathy.
Broke the tooth, lost the filling getting rear ended by a drunk driver, jaw slammed together, totaled my car. Pushing the limits on the Ibuprofen/Tylenol dance.
Easy: have the bad tooth pulled, scrape the root pocket and pack it with bone graft material, in six months have the titanium post installed, and four months after that have the custom tooth installed. Hand out, palm up… $5,500.00
Yep, that is the plan as soon as the infection goes away.
I had an infected root canal once, so I know. Luckily it drained just when the last of my sanity was about gone. Somehow they saved the tooth. Hope the pain lets up soon.
And that driver better have insurance. One time I drove tipsy. Made it home OK, but never again.
Watch out for the opiate addition! Ask Rush about how hard it is to kick . . .
Meanwhile back in the utopian paradise known as ILLANNOY!!!
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/reports/illinois-state-workers-highest-paid-in-nation/
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/cps-ctu-want-to-create-new-taxing-districts-to-raise-100-million-from-taxpayers/
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/afscme-demands-more-from-taxpayers-while-illinois-middle-class-continues-to-suffer/
https://www.illinoispolicy.org/illinois-has-zero-private-sector-jobs-growth-in-the-21st-century/
Tax (rent) is too damn high in this flea infested cesspool.
Taxes in the ‘burbs are bad enough. But at least our schools are solvent.
Trivia …
“Bidding on Zimmerman’s Gun up to $65 M”
“George Zimmerman’s online auction to sell the pistol he used to fatally shoot Trayvon Martin had reached $65,000,000 on Friday morning. The bids were switched from GunBroker.com, which eventually said it wanted ‘no part in the listing on our website or in any of the publicity it is receiving,’ to United Gun Group. The new location deems itself a ’social marketplace for the firearms community.’ Bidding on the 9mm Kel-Tec PF-9 pistol started at $5,000. Doubts have been expressed about the veracity of the bids that sent the item skyrocketing into the millions—several bids were placed by users named ‘Tamir Rice’ and ‘Racist McShootface’.”
Link to follow.
Link …
http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/05/13/bidding-on-zimmerman-s-gun-up-to-485k.html
Some related trivia …
Bonnie and Clyde’s guns go for anything but a steal at auction
(from Sept 30, 2012)
“The most prized possessions of Bonnie and Clyde, the notorious lovebird bandits killed nearly 80 years ago, were sold for a price that the couple could only imagine getting after one of their infamous bank jobs.
“One of the featured items of the auction was Bonnie Parker’s personal Colt .38 snub-nosed revolver, which sold for $264,000. Clyde Barrow’s Colt .45 sold for $240,000. Parker’s revolver was found taped to her inner thigh and Barrow’s on his waistband the day they were ambushed and fatally shot by a police posse in Louisiana in 1934.”
Link to the Bonnie and Clyde gun story …
http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/30/us/new-york-bonnie-clyde-guns-auction/
More trivia from the Bonnie and Clyde link …
“A 1921 Morgan Silver Dollar, later owned by Mafia boss
‘Big Paulie’ Castellano, sold for $32,400. Livingston said Castellano considered it his lucky coin, but gave it away before he was shot dead in front of Sparks Steak House in New York in 1985.
“Barrow’s pocket watch, given to his father, Henry Barrow, after he retrieved his son’s body, sold for $36,000.
“Other items included five original items collected off the floor of Bonnie and Clyde’s car: A woman’s silk stocking, an unused .45 caliber bullet and casing, a side temple from a pair of eyeglasses, a wood-handled screwdriver and an empty Bayer Aspirin tin, which sold for $11,400.”
I bet the gun that killed Zimmerman would go for quite a bit…
What interests me about all this is the power of specialness - the extraordinary power, as expressed by price, that specialness places on such ordinary items.
“… an empty Bayer Aspirin tin, which sold for $11,400.”
Because? Because it was somehow special, special enough to entice somebody to pay $11,400 for it.
If you can somehow create some “specialness” in an ordinary item then you can sell this ordinary item for some hefty bucks.
A phenom that P.T. Barnum would probably understand quite well.
It seems to me that there is a transfer of specialness from the item that is possessed to the person that possesses it.
A person can suddenly jump from being a “nothing” to becoming a “something” - as seen in himself and as recognized by others - simply by purchasing an item that is considered by everyone to possess the quality of “being special”; He becomes special because the item he possesses is special.
Look around, this happens everywhere.
BTW, the crypts nearby (as in next to) the crypt where the long-dead body of Marilyn Monroe is interred has been sold for some very hefty bucks over the years to those who wish to be buried next to her.
Here …
The crypt above Marilyn Monroe’s brings $4.6 million.”
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/aug/25/local/me-marilyn25
A snippet from the link above …
“He said, ‘If I croak, if you don’t put me upside down over Marilyn, I’ll haunt you the rest of my life.’ “
We must purge our workplaces of the non-diverse as part of our fundamental transformation. Forward!
http://www.businessinsider.com/white-men-now-being-called-non-diverse-2016-5
Where are the ‘non-diverse’ women at?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGQ-ISsDm8M - 379k -
It’s good to be an oligarch-kleptocrat and steer bribes, er, donations to your “charity,” to your favorite pieces of tail.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-13/did-clinton-foundation-give-2-million-bills-energizer-mistress
‘Muricans, here’s a foretaste of what’s in store for you once the collectivist comrades of the DNC succeed in importing and otherwise recruiting enough dependency voters to ensure their permanent Democrat Supermajority and install a regime of the takers. Only the point comes when any socialist regime is going to run out of Other People’s Money, and given the breakdown of morality as part of the good comrades’ collectivist utopia, dystopia ensues. Forward!
https://www.yahoo.com/news/venezuela-looters-target-chicken-flour-amid-worsening-shortages-173409212–business.html?nhp=1
You were probably warning people eight years ago that this sort of thing would come to pass if America elected the socialist Barack Obama.
The collectivist road to “redistribution” of the wealth always boils down to the takers freeloading off the productive, until there’s nothing left to steal.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-13/scenes-venezuela-apocalypse-countless-wounded-after-5000-loot-supermarket-looking-fo
Maybe were lucky that Obama is a socialist, but not a collectivist.
Obama is above all else a crony capitalist, like the Clintons.
http://nypost.com/2016/05/13/clinton-charity-arranged-2m-pledge-to-company-owned-by-bills-friend/
He’s a muslin terrorist space alien, not a collectivist.
Labor Force Participation Rate Falls To 38 Year Low; Joblessness At Record High
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS11300000
Congressman: “Voters Are Incredibly Ignorant”
http://nypost.com/2016/05/13/were-running-a-f-ing-casino-politician-tells-all-in-manifesto/
This song was in a film about Brazil a few years ago:
Tim Maia - O Caminho do Bem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y0MiNq6ueo
He hit the nail on the head. When 95% of the electorate are retards, our political class is going to reflect that garbage-in/garbage-out reality.
Voters are described as gullible, know-nothing jerks, while the only people who count are the big donors who pour billions of dollars into lobbying.
“Voters are incredibly ignorant. It’s far easier than you think to manipulate a nation of naive, self-absorbed sheep who crave instant gratification . . .,” vents Congressman X.
He says money “corrupts” and House members are “puppets” to lobbyists who bankroll their campaigns.
The neocons need your daughters to fight their wars.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/senate-bill-calls-women-register-draft-2018-080944056–politics.html
…Because the last intervention into Libya worked out so well.
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-special-forces-are-in-libya-to-drum-up-support-against-isis-2016-5
crushing.housing.losses.
More scare tactics to keep the Brits from voting for Brexit…God forbid that asset bubbles deflate or that lunatic Keynesian central bankers be put in check.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/05/13/house-prices-and-stock-market-will-tumble-if-uk-votes-for-brexit/
How’s that socialism working out for you, Venezuela?
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/13/crowds-steal-flour-chicken-underwear-looting-venezuela
Why Jim Cramer needs to watch ‘Money Monster’
By Jennifer Booton and Jeremy C. Owens
Published: May 13, 2016 6:36 p.m. ET
Another reflection of why Americans don’t trust Wall Street
Sony Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
George Clooney stars in “Money Monster” as a TV personality with a show similar to Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money.”
As “Money Monster,” the story of a television personality with more star power than stock-picking prowess, rolls out to theaters nationwide, there is a message in it for those who dispense investing advice in real life.
Jodie Foster’s financial thriller stars George Clooney as Lee Gates, an outlandish TV host of a circus-like financial show that features stock recommendations. While Foster denies that “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer was an inspiration for the character, the comparisons are too strong to ignore. ComScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said Gates is clearly a “thinly veiled [portrayal of] Jim Cramer,” and even the blue-and-gray scrolling ticker at the bottom of the fictitious show is reminiscent of the lower-third on “Mad Money” home CNBC.
In the film, viewed by MarketWatch ahead of its widespread release, a less-sophisticated investor named Kyle Budwell takes Clooney’s character hostage with a bomb vest after losing all of his money because of a stock recommendation made on TV. He seeks not money but accountability and an admission of wrongdoing.
…
The median price of a Chicago luxury home is over $1 million? WTF is a luxury home, this statistic is completely made up.
Chicago has houses as cheap as $10k. Does a home become luxury once the price gets over $500k? Over $1 million? And then we can report on the median price of homes over this arbitrary price? These are the numbers that suck in the wage slaves to spending too much money on a home. Made up statistics by the real estate industry.