The Current Easy Money Bonanza
A weekend topic on the housing bubble starting with Bloomberg. “The yuan’s worst quarterly performance on record is raising the risk of capital flight. China’s currency has slumped 2.9 percent since the end of March, the most since the nation unified the official and market rates at the start of 1994, to trade near its lowest level in five years. After turmoil in its currency and stock markets in the past year shook investor confidence, China stopped granting quotas for residents to invest overseas and clamped down on illegal fund transfers to restrain capital outflows. Policy makers are trying to guide the currency lower versus its trading partners as the economy slows while simultaneously damping expectations of faster depreciation.”
“There is plenty of evidence that local investors want out of China, while foreigners have so far shown little appetite to jump in. A program allowing some domestic and Hong Kong mutual funds to be sold on either side of the border has seen about 37 times more money leave China than enter so far this year. A link between the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges has to date enabled southbound outflows that are 39 percent more than the amount that’s moved north. In the first quarter, Chinese residents poured a record HK$13.2 billion ($1.7 billion) into Hong Kong’s insurance products, a popular way to move funds offshore.”
“There are ‘fears in the market over a sharp devaluation in China,’ Goldman analysts wrote in the note summarizing views from Chinese metals traders, producers and investors.”
The Nikkei Asian Review. “There are two kinds of cash rushing out of China right now: money actively looking for outside investment opportunities and funds that are simply fleeing. Both kinds are flooding into Silicon Valley and elsewhere in the U.S. This not only reveals the changing economic balance of power, it also betrays China’s precarious economy. In San Francisco, in the state of California, investment bankers cater to the high-tech venture companies nearby. For the past 30 years, Eric Edmondson has been one of them. These days, he is seeing more startups hoping to be snapped up by BAT.”
“That would be Baidu, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, high-tech giants from China now busy gobbling up businesses and trophies around the world. But not everyone in Silicon Valley welcomes Chinese money. Some folks call it ‘dumb money,’ according to a 30-something American entrepreneur. The unflattering term is meant to imply that China Inc. is being too generous, even putting its money in iffy startups that U.S. venture capitalists stay away from.”
“So put ‘dumb money’ in the ’simply fleeing’ category. Or perhaps under ‘has fled.’ According to the Institute of International Finance, a network of global financial institutions, a net $700 billion or so left China in 2015. This is a historic figure. The pace has slowed this year, but rivers of cash are still flowing out of the country. Since the top priority is to simply get the cash out of China, investment decisions tend to lean over the border of ill-conceived.”
“Bill Gross, who co-founded and turned Pimco into a globally renowned investment company, thinks the money gushing out of China is a warning sign. He has been paying attention to China’s private-sector debt, which, by one estimate, has surpassed 150% of the country’s gross domestic product. Paying off its massive debt and making interest payments will soak up most of corporate China’s profit. Very little will be left for productive investment, Gross believes. China could buy time by lowering interest rates. This would allow problems to remain hidden — for a while. Gross added that the Chinese people themselves realize their money will run out if the country continues down its current economic path.”
“Gross is currently a portfolio manager at Janus Capital Group, and he can see the same ’simply fleeing’ effect from his office in Newport Beach, California. The enclave of luxury homes and resorts is also being flooded by Chinese money.”
The Los Angeles Times. “A cooling market for the most expensive homes is costing hotel and casino magnate Steve Wynn some money. Two years ago, Wynn paid $16.25 million for an 11,000-square-foot mansion perched on nearly an acre above the Bel-Air Country Club. Less than a year later, he sought to unload the home with a paneled library and staff bedroom for $20 million. No luck. Then he tried $17.45 million. No luck again.”
“In May, Wynn dropped his price to $15.95 million, $300,000 less than what he paid for the property in 2014. The home went into escrow ‘very close’ to that price last month, said Coldwell Banker agent Mary Swanson, who confirmed Wynn would be taking a loss.”
It’s not just Wynn who isn’t getting as much money as he hoped. Even before Britain’s vote last week to leave the European Union jolted investors worldwide, there were reports of a slowdown in the ultra-luxury housing market. In Los Angeles, agents were seeing more price cuts. Condo sales on New York’s Billionaires’ Row were slowing. Luxury developers shelved projects in Miami. And prices at the tip-top end of the London market were on their way down.”
“So far, in Los Angeles, Wynn’s experience aside, the effect has been minimal, given the nature of Southern California ultra-luxury development – which largely consists of one dramatic hillside estate at a time, rather than a condo tower with multiple units. But a spate of new construction is on the horizon. By one estimate, there are about 30 new hillside homes priced above $30 million that could hit the market in the next year and a half.”
“In Manhattan, the slowdown has taken a sharp toll. The number of previously owned homes that sold in the first quarter for $10 million or more fell 40% from a year earlier to 15, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel. ‘More has been constructed in New York,’ said Stephen Kotler, chief revenue officer of real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman. ‘You have some sellers [in Los Angeles] getting more realistic, but in New York you are seeing more.’”
“Like elsewhere, local agents put much of the blame on a pullback by international buyers who had flooded Los Angeles in recent years. Turmoil in their economies, along with a strong dollar, have many from Russia, the Middle East and China second-guessing a purchase here. ‘It used to be, if they like it they buy it, or more like, if they like it they buy two,’ said Cindy Ambuehl, director of residential estates for the Agency. ‘Now they are keeping their hands in their pockets and they are waiting.’”
From PBS Newshour. “Editor’s Note: Central banks continue to create new money through quantitative easing. But should they? Harvard economist Terry Burnham warns against quantitative easing: Global monetary policy in the developed world is the loosest it has been since the German hyperinflation after World War I. That is, central banks in America, Europe and Japan have been printing money like mad. What have we gotten in return for monetary easing? The stated goal of monetary looseness is to create jobs and economic growth. By this yardstick, monetary policy is a failure.’”
“However, if the goal of printing money is to pay for government expenditures, monetary policy has been an enormous success. Central banks have taken more than $10 trillion dollars from their citizens. Not only have central bankers taken wealth in historic amounts, they have been cheered for their expropriation.”
“Governments have two ways to pay for their expenditures. They can take the money from their citizens through fees and taxes. Or they can have the central bank create new money. (Borrowing the money can be thought of as a third way, or it can be viewed as simply deferring the choice between taxing and printing).”
“Printing more money does not alter the size the economy; it simply reduces the value of each dollar. The seductive aspect of having the Fed pay for government expenditures is that, unlike taxes, the cost of printing money is invisible. Given the choice between printing money and taxing people, governments reliably take the easy way out and print.”
“In fact, every announcement of monetary easing has been greeted with global cheers. And until the cheering stops, the printing will continue. In fact, if printing money is good for the world and essentially free, why not, you might ask yourself, replace all taxes with newly printed money?”
“How will the coming massive round of printing money end? There are two ways that the world can end printing money. 1. Governments can reform themselves. Central banks can decide that printing money takes resources from people in exactly the same way taxes do. Even though the world does not currently express outrage at the extraction of wealth via printing money, governments can reform themselves, stop printing, cut spending, raise taxes and act responsibly.”
“2. Financial markets can reform governments. Under this scenario, the political cost of printing money increases to the point where fiscal restraint is less costly to decision makers than printing money. Governments will reform because they are forced by financial crises. The exact form of how the market would end the current easy money bonanza is not clear. However, it must be the case that the reaction to future monetary easing will become negative. The political cost of printing money must exceed the political cost of the alternatives — cutting spending or raising taxes.”
“Given these alternatives, the most likely outcome is financial crisis. As the crisis unfolds, we should expect people to claim, ‘NEVER AGAIN.’ You can get ahead of the crowd. Say it now. ‘Monetary policy cannot make us rich; we will never again try to print ourselves to prosperity.’ Open the window and scream it: ‘NEVER, NEVER, NEVER again.’”
“And then hope you die before the next round of monetary printing. Many elderly Germans who lived through the 1930s cannot believe the current situation. They are mad as hell, but there are too few of them alive to alter the outcome. The seed of future monetary shenanigans grows with each funeral of people who lived through the prior crises.”
I wasn’t able to use this article, but it’s a good read on the currency subject:
http://knowledge.ckgsb.edu.cn/2016/06/28/economy/the-trilemma-of-chinas-capital-outflow/
‘Monetary policy cannot make us rich; we will never again try to print ourselves to prosperity.’ Open the window and scream it: ‘NEVER, NEVER, NEVER again.’
You have to wonder if oft-touted central bank independence will prove an eventual casualty of the current “discretion on steroids” era in central banking.
‘Monetary policy cannot make us rich.’
Speak for yourself, Prole.
Exactly!
Operation Borrow/Print is just a unilateral re-allocation of resources to favored sectors by the central bank and the government.
There is an unwillingness at the top to allow creative destruction at the top.
The control the FIRE sector has on the government is preternatural; I question whether they have de facto merged. Otherwise their interests are so closely aligned as to make them indistinguishable.
The level of cronyism only becomes apparent when the cronyism must be overtly manifested to protect the interest of the cronies.
The tendency towards cronyism/oligarchy I think is a natural force in human affairs.
“The tendency towards cronyism/oligarchy I think is a natural force in human affairs.”
“Certainly among the paranoid.
I’m not sure I would agree that this is true for the non-paranoid.
I don’t understand the reasons why people seek to have power over others. I don’t understand the kind of mind that takes joy in dictating to others. Instinctual? Possibility.
More likely, it’s a form of mental illness.
‘Monetary policy cannot make us rich; we will never again try to print ourselves to prosperity.’ Open the window and scream it: ‘NEVER, NEVER, NEVER again.’
Silly prole. You have no say in the matter. And 95% of the dullards within the sound of your voice will have sanctioned the Fed’s “No Billionaire Left Behind” monetary policies with their votes for the crony capitalist status quo.
Here’s what Brexit will do to U.S. real estate prices
By Daniel Goldstein
Published: July 1, 2016 3:39 p.m. ET
Despite Brexit upheaval and stock market losses, U.S. real estate market appears on much more solid footing in 2016……
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/5-reasons-a-2009-style-real-estate-meltdown-is-unlikely-now-2015-08-25
“Despite Brexit upheaval and stock market losses, U.S. real estate market appears on much more solid footing in 2016……”
In other words, even if the rest of the world economy crashes and burns, U.S. real estate is sure to go up, because it is a special asset class with magical powers.
So real estate prices will keep going up much faster than wages? And it will never collapse due to a “silly excuse” such as “being priced out?” For gosh sakes. Where is logic?
The Financial Times
Sovereign Bonds
Government bond yields fall to fresh record lows led by UK Gilts
UK 10-year gilt extends post-Brexit drop below 0.8 per cent from 1.35 per cent
yesterday
by: Michael Mackenzie, Michael Hunter and Jamie Chisholm
Global government bond markets began the second half of the year extending their record-setting run, led by benchmark UK, Japanese and US yields.
The prospect of global central banks keeping interest rates lower for an extended period, with a likely easing from the Bank of England this month, has spurred strong buying of top-tier sovereign debt by investors.
Against a backdrop of UK political turmoil and with economists expecting a recession in the coming months, the 10-year gilt yield fell 8 basis points early on Friday to a record low of 0.78 per cent. The new mark came after BoE governor Mark Carney spoke of “some monetary policy easing” in the next few months on Thursday.
…
Developed world financial market investors seem to be adopting the crash position.
Economic policy makers have provided plenty of reasons for investor precaution.
There’s a whole lot of policy retrenchment going on.
The Financial Times
Brexit
Brexit tears hole in UK economy plans
Osborne ditches 2020 surplus target and yields head lower
yesterday
by: George Parker, Emily Cadman and Elaine Moore
George Osborne has been forced to abandon his persistent goal of reaching a budget surplus by 2020, as last week’s Brexit vote tore a hole in the UK government’s economic plan and continued to convulse world markets.
Mr Osborne hopes that some political stability can be restored soon following David Cameron’s resignation last week, amid signs that home secretary Theresa May is building up momentum to become the new prime minister.
In a speech in Manchester, the chancellor said: “The government must provide fiscal credibility so we will continue to be tough on the deficit but we must be realistic about achieving a surplus by the end of this decade.”
The chancellor’s allies said he was seeking to reassure markets that he would not inflict further austerity on an economy hit by a Brexit shock simply to hit his 2020 target.
During the EU referendum campaign he threatened a “Brexit Budget” to impose £30bn of emergency spending cuts or tax rises to plug an expected hole in the public finances; that threat has now been lifted.
At the Budget in March, Mr Osborne admitted he would fail to meet his promise to cut debt as a share of gross domestic product this year. Last year he rowed back on his cap on welfare spending.
Now he looks set to miss his third target of running a surplus by 2019-2020, although he argues that he is not breaking this fiscal rule: it has a get-out clause that says the target only applies in “normal” times.
Investors woke up to new records on Friday morning, with yields in US, UK and Japanese bonds dropping to fresh lows as investors bet on years of low interest rates and unconventional central bank stimulus.
…
Salon leads with a grabber narrative:
http://www.salon.com/2016/07/02/a_uniquely_american_tragedy_the_staggering_myths_about_gun_control/
And some commentary from Tom Araya of Slayer:
http://www.infowars.com/video-slayer-frontman-defends-2nd-amendment-in-epic-rant/
‘A disabled woman was beaten bloody by federal agents during an airport security screening while on her way to undergo treatment for a brain tumor. Hannah Cohen set off the metal detector at a security checkpoint at the Memphis International Airport, and she was led away for additional screening, reported WREG-TV.’
“They wanted to do further scanning, (but) she was reluctant — she didn’t understand what they were about to do,” said her mother, Shirley Cohen.’
‘Cohen said she tried to tell agents with the Transportation Security Administration that her 19-year-old daughter is partially deaf, blind in one eye, paralyzed and easily confused — but she said police kept her away from the security agents.’
“She’s trying to get away from them, but in the next instant, one of them had her down on the ground and hit her head on the floor,” Cohen said. “There was blood everywhere.”
It is an indication of what happens when you marry mindless government bureaucracy with uneducated agents given the power to make people miserable.
Our new standard apparently is to be dictatorial.
Not surprising considering that people are forging petitions to combat dress codes. Dress code is just another grave injustice.
http://www.multpl.com/
Pe higher than roaring 20s
Gdp 1.1
Gov workers are 99% efficient and 100% get raises
Tsa cost 4 x the old system
Yeah, now the big thing is to blow up the lines where people are waiting to take off their shoes.
Those lines are definitely attractive soft targets for suicide bombers…
Not sure if I should comment on this or not.
Meant for goon.
We can discuss the discography and musical legacy of Slayer instead.
“Salon leads with a grabber narrative…”
They didn’t mention alcohol, which has caused its share of grief.
Who’d've thunk a knee-jerk impulse towards isolationist socialism would drive both Trump and Leave voters to support their respective causes?
How a Quest by Elites Is Driving ‘Brexit’ and Trump
Economic View
By NEIL IRWIN JULY 1, 2016
What lesson should a card-carrying member of the economic elite take from the success of Donald J. Trump, and British voters’ decision to leave the European Union?
Voters in large numbers have been rejecting much of the underlying logic behind a dynamic globalized economy that on paper seems to make the world much richer. For the bankers, trade negotiators, international businesspeople and others who make up the economic elite (including journalists like me who are peripheral members of it), this is cause for introspection, at least among those who aren’t too narcissistic to care what their countrymen think.
Here is an overarching theory of what we might have missed in the march toward a hyper-efficient global economy: Economic efficiency isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Efficiency sounds great in theory. What kind of monster doesn’t want to optimize possibilities, minimize waste and make the most of finite resources? But the economic and policy elite may like efficiency a lot more than normal humans do.
Maybe the people who run the world, in other words, have spent decades pursuing goals that don’t scratch the itches of large swaths of humanity. Perhaps the pursuit of ever higher gross domestic product misses a fundamental understanding of what makes most people tick. Against that backdrop, support for Mr. Trump and for the British withdrawal known as Brexit are just imperfect vehicles through which someone can yell, “Stop.”
In a poll of 639 British economists conducted in May, 88 percent expected that a vote to leave the European Union would depress British economic growth, yet 52 percent of voters approved it anyway. Only two of 40 leading economists, surveyed by the University of Chicago Initiative on Global Markets, agreed with the statement that a country can improve citizens’ well-being by increasing its trade surplus or cutting its trade deficit, an idea that is a hallmark of populist rhetoric.
But what if those gaps between the economic elite and the general public are created not by differences in expertise but in priorities?
Consider an experiment published last year in the journal Science. Four economists tested people with a computer simulation in which they could either be greedy and keep tokens that had real cash value, or share them with others. The catch: If they shared them, the total number of tokens would decline. In other words, the more evenly the pie was divided, the less pie there was to go around. There was a trade-off between equality and maximizing income, a version of economic efficiency.
Among the general American public, about half of those who played the game favored equality over efficiency.
…
There is a large voluntaryist culture who love Brexit and cannot stand Trump.
Ron Paul cannot stand Trump and speaks favorably about Brexit.
Wearing my Ron Paul tshirt for the Independence Day holiday:
http://www.picpaste.com/20160702_102025.jpg
It is 90 degrees off. Is that a distress signal?
Picpaste keeps rotating pics I take in vertical, dunno why.
I’m surprised you love Brexit. I really am.
One of the chief reasons for the successful pro-Brexit vote is national sovereignty.
That entails border control.
Conversely, you are for open borders, and you have said so numerous times. Let everyone who wants to run back and forth across the border do so at will. Right?
The exception, of course, is when the concept of open borders applies to your personal domicile. No open borders, there, eh?
I guess in your world it’s okay for others to get screwed via open borders, just as long as you personally don’t have to suffer.
Figures.
Bill loves the Brexit because he sees it as a first step in the dissolution of the nation state:
Britain leaves EU
Scotland, North Ireland and and Wales leave UK, which would be just England
England’s counties break away, no more England.
Cities secede from counties … no more nation states, just cities with open borders.
Am I right, Bill?
In fairy land, where all dreams magically come true…
I bet your typical voluntaryist would insist that a city with open borders protect his or her personal belongings.
Otherwise, why not leave your door wide open?
I have yet to receive an answer to that question.
Colorado, exactly. By breaking off from the EU what happens to the EU? It becomes less powerful. The U.S. should get out of the United Nations, and that would be a good start too.
In a voluntaryist society I could have anyone I want on my property, provided the owner of the streets allowed that person to use the street to get to my property.
And fake book ceo who is anti borders, anti border walls, and anti trump (but pro cheap labor) builds - you guessed it - a wall around his estate in hawaii
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mark-zuckerberg-wall-hawaii_us_5772e30be4b0d1f85d479ff0
Hypocrite.
No he is not. It is his property. Do you own all the land adjacent to Mexico? Show us your property title.
I can’t believe you think private property is the same as jurisdiction by thuggery.
No he is not. It is his property. Do you own all the land adjacent to Mexico?
In the aggregate, the US citizens do; so shouldn’t they be able, in the aggregate, to make a decision to seal the border?
“The U.S. citizens do.” Show me the title.
You fail at reading comprehension - I never said he had no right to build a wall on his property. Have fun as the walls of Clownifornia continue to close in on fools like you who don’t comprehend that you’re supporting its tyranny over you with your life energy (taxes).
Okie dokie Faux Bastiat. My effective state rate for the ‘15 year was under 5% for California. You?
You’re like the character in Monty Python and the Holy Grail that gets all his limbs cut off and still wants to keep fighting. My effective state rate for the same year in California was 0% - I wasn’t dumb enough to live there and have 1 dime of my income taken and used against me.
I’m getting a good visual of you - that little creature that was chained to Jabba the Hut, laughing maniacally will living in its folds. Hey, whatever you have to do to get yourself through the day.
‘every announcement of monetary easing has been greeted with global cheers. And until the cheering stops, the printing will continue. In fact, if printing money is good for the world and essentially free, why not, you might ask yourself, replace all taxes with newly printed money?’
Or a chicken in every post and a condo on the coast. We’ve been headed this way for a long time. Remember the “Reagan proved deficits don’t matter” quote? The deficits a lot higher than when that was said. Every time these people push, they have to wonder, “is this the time something breaks?”
There was probably a bit of worry with QE 1. Not as much with QE 2. No fear now, as it’s a QE dance party all over the world. In the last link the writer mentions the EUCB is buying corporate bonds with QE now. Japans CB does it with stocks and REITs. This would have been unthinkable not that long ago, maybe even criminal. But it certainly wouldn’t have been considered sustainable.
‘…why not, you might ask yourself, replace all taxes with newly printed money?’
What a great idea! Why should any citizen have to pay a dime in taxes when the central bank’s electronic printing press can create all the money needed to pay for anything whatever for free?
“This would have been unthinkable not that long ago, maybe even criminal.”
Technically it is criminal, unless the monopoly central bank does it.
Think about the progression. Deficits don’t matter (for the US of course, everyone else has to pay back money). All past borrowing will never be paid back. It’s too much to pay back. We’re going to create money and buy government bonds and MBS (indirectly, houses). Then China does it, Europe, Canada, Japans been doing it more per capita than anyone. Dracula in Europe runs out of government bonds to buy, so he dives into corporate bonds. We went from negative interest rates as a concept to $10 trillion in negative yielding bonds in a very short time. What will it be next year? The last writer thinks we’re going to the moon, maybe $100 trillion of QE.
Where’s it going? If I put a thousand gallons of gas in my car and it was empty the next day, I might wonder where all that gas had gone. We should have $50 loaves of bread by now. It’s obvious now that the construct these people are operating on about money supply and inflation either doesn’t exist or is broken. Yet they constantly point to low inflation and say it gives them the green light to create more money.
When was the last time a central banker gave a speech on how this might go wrong? Yes, Yellen warned the junk bond markets years ago. They ignored her. She warned bio-tech markets, the same. We only have the past to guide us:
‘October 21, 2005′
‘By Janet L. Yellen, President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco’
‘In my view, it makes sense to organize one’s thinking around three consecutive questions—three hurdles to jump before pulling the monetary policy trigger. First, if the bubble were to deflate on its own, would the effect on the economy be exceedingly large? Second, is it unlikely that the Fed could mitigate the consequences? Third, is monetary policy the best tool to use to deflate a house-price bubble?’
‘My answers to these questions in the shortest possible form are, “no,” “no,” and “no.”
When a central banker said recently they were “the magic people”, it may have revealed more than most thought.
They deliberately conceal the fact that buying down the interest rate collapses demand.
Reducing the return on invested capital makes capital - money - difficult to get. Making something difficult to get increases its value.
The geniuses that run the Fed apparently believe that making money difficult to get will promote spending instead of saving. Go figure.
And in some strange twisted world, they believe that doubling and tripling in prices will increase demand.
The punch line to the joke of ZIRP is NIRP.
If the Central Banks are confused about people not spending money in a ZIRP environment what are they going to think if/when the environment goes to NIRP?
“We should have $50 loaves of bread by now. It’s obvious now that the construct these people are operating on about money supply and inflation either doesn’t exist or is broken.”
Yanis Varoufakis’s new book has an interesting take on this: essentially, he posits that the real printing was taking place BEFORE the crisis in the form of derivatives, which he likens to banks issuing their own private currencies (in staggering amounts that circulated exclusively between the banks, only a small fraction of which was ever redeemed for actual spendable US dollars to buy elite things like $100 million paintings and apartments).
The money printing by central banks today, he believes, is really only after the fact, expanding the official money supply to keep up with and legitimize the insanely out of proportion derivative money the banks created amongst themselves pre-2008. And of course the new official money is going into that same black hole private market, not to everyday people who would quickly bid up the price of bread if the money in their checking account/ebt card quadrupled in line with M0.
Not sure he’s right, but it’s an interesting way to look at it. First banks create derivative DisneyBucks, then realize there’s not enough government-issue money to exchange for it. In a way, the Wall Street types needed the crash and subsequent central bank printing to make their derivative money real.
That’s interesting, I’ll have to find a copy, thanks.
Now that’s something original. Thanks for the heads up, lurker.
Happy to be of service
He really only mentions it as an aside in the new book, which is mostly about the foundations of the euro. More about derivatives as private money in his first book, ‘The Global Minotaur’, and a quick overview here (second half of post):
https://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2011/02/18/the-minotaur%E2%80%99s-handmaidens-part-b-the-wal-mart-business-model-and-wall-streets-toxic-money/
the real printing was taking place BEFORE the crisis
I think he is correct about this part…
in derivatives
…and wrong about this part. The spendable portion of the printing was that produced by DEBT; it did flow through the economy, and the printing now is to avoid the deflationary effects of that debt going poof—by avoiding it going poof, rather than by counteracting the effects after it went poof.
“The spendable portion of the printing was that produced by DEBT”
Interesting. Yes, I think you’re right here. I guess the question is what allowed this debt to be doled out so suddenly in such large quantities. The exponential rise in derivatives mirrors the rise in debt. Maybe a chicken or egg question - which came first, the securitization machine’s derivatives or the debt that was packaged inside the derivatives?
(Not trying to argue, just trying to wrap my head around it!)
And until the cheering stops, the printing will continue.”
That was a pretty good article. They will keep printing until the cheering stops then what ? Diaster thats what.
Bahahahahahaha … Ben Jones and his Saturday morning jokes …
“How will the coming massive round of printing money end? There are two ways that the world can end printing money.”
Wait for it …
“Governments can reform themselves.”
Bahahahahahahaha … Wait! There’s more …
“Central banks can decide that printing money takes resources from people in exactly the same way taxes do. Even though the world does not currently express outrage at the extraction of wealth via printing money, governments can reform themselves …”
Reform themselves … bahahahahahaha …
“… stop printing, cut spending, raise taxes and act responsibly.”
Stop printing. Cut spending. Act responsibly!
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
Let’s look at the alternative argument provided by the ever even handed NPR:
‘Why the Fed should print more money, not less’
BY Paul Solman
‘In the current economic environment, central banks certainly should create new money — not only to shore up the world banking system short-term in a time of tremulous uncertainty, but more importantly, in order to make the necessary investments that will benefit their citizens and economies in both the short and long runs and, as always, prevent financial crises.’
‘The core of my argument is simple enough. Politicians are not making indispensable investments by the normal means: either taxing or borrowing. And investments need to be made.’
‘But where, critics ask, is the money to come from? “The answer is simple,” you might be thinking: “Just borrow the money.” And you would have a point. Right now, interest rates in this country are historically (some would say absurdly) low — down near zero, in fact, assuming any future inflation at all. Many experts are saying the borrowing rate is actually negative, since the U.S. can borrow money for 10 years at an interest rate of about 1.5 percent per year, the current “yield” on a 10-year Treasury note and many experts forecast inflation, over that same period, to be substantially higher.’
‘If it is, the government would be filling potholes and making money — by borrowing today to fill those holes and then paying back the loan in 10 years with money that will be worth less than it is at the moment.’
‘Problem is, there’s been so much handwringing and scarifying about a current budget deficit and the cumulative total of all past deficits — “the national debt” (America is becoming Greece!).’
‘So then how does a government invest in our present these days, not to say our future? Its central bank creates new money. In America, that bank is the Fed, which uses the new money to buy the IOUs the U.S. Treasury issues when it borrows money: Treasury bills, notes and bonds. The Treasury can then spend the money on infrastructure. (Or, yes, on drones.)’
‘There is a further justification for this admittedly roundabout way to fund government — so-called “public goods” — investments. What better investment opportunities than public goods are there nowadays? The great companies of our era are not building railroads, steel mills or auto factories, but software instead: search engines like Google; websites like Amazon; apps like Uber.’
‘Firms like these cost next to nothing to get started and not nearly as much to grow, compared to the giants of the past. And as a percentage of sales, they employ far fewer human beings. In a developed world economy of significant — some would say massive — underemployment, which in turn generates negligible wage growth and ever-greater economic inequality, government spending is an attractive option.’
‘But isn’t Terry Burnham right to bemoan the declining value of the dollar? Surely, if the Fed triples the supply of dollars in less than a decade, the dollar should fall by something like 75 percent, no? All else equal?’
‘Well, theoretically yes, but as usual — and this is what makes economics so slippery — all else is not even vaguely equal. Since the world is not investing in big projects as it once did — or even in small projects like home mortgages, because of the defaults of the Crash of ‘08, and for a host of other reasons — the global economy is awash in savings: the retained profits of companies and individuals who think they have nowhere to profitably invest it. Those savings wind up in banks which — and here’s the punchline — redeposit the money… at central banks like the Federal Reserve.’
‘Yes, the circle is closed. The Fed has created some trillion new dollars. And almost all of it has wound up back at Fed, sitting there. Small wonder the dollar hasn’t lost three-fourths of its value, has lost almost none of its value at all. No wonder inflation is so low, Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment has been zero in three of the past seven years. The newly created money that terrifies Terry simply hasn’t circulated through the economy at all.’
‘Since the much-maligned money explosion, post-crash, skeptics warned, again and again, that inflation was just around the corner. You could almost hear it coming. And once inflation took off, interest rates would follow suit, further undermining the world’s economies.’
‘It never happened. Indeed, in the wake of Brexit and all the wanton money creation of which Terry writes, what’s happened to interest rates? They are at historic lows throughout the Western world. And by that I literally mean: the lowest ever recorded, at least here in the U.S. That’s because people and businesses are sitting on their wealth instead of circulating it by spending and investing. What would you do if you were a central banker? Do nothing?’
“But wait,” you might be thinking; “what if all the new money does begin to circulate?” What if investment opportunities do present themselves, that is; if projects large and small again seem viable, loans less risky to make?’
‘Well in that case, the Fed has various technical options — more than you want to know, really. But the obvious one is to start shrinking the money supply to cool down an overheating economy. That’s what it’s always done — in a famous Fed phrase, “take away the punchbowl just as the party gets going.” You worried about an economic party anytime soon? As my grandmother used to say, we should live so long.’
‘Governments should be borrowing and investing, but for political fears — fears of the sort that Terry is voicing — they’re not.’
‘So central banks “print,” trying to goose their economies as best they can. They do so in an era where economists rightly worry more about deflation than inflation — an era where prices go down instead of up and spur a downward spiral in spending, hiring and ever lower wages. That’s what leads to a Depression. In such a time, I can’t for the life of me see what’s wrong with printing money.’
‘Why the Fed should print more money, not less’
Ben Jones and his never-ending stream of jokes.
Check this out:
“… the global economy is awash in savings: the retained profits of companies and individuals who think they have nowhere to profitably invest it.”
And just how many people is it that cannot come up with a mere $400 dollars for an emergency?
And check out the borrowing rates of corporations; Corporations have so much money on hand that they have to resort to borrowing huge gobs of it?
And as for countries, and states, and counties, and cities? Awash in savings?
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Seriously, Ben, you really need to find a way of including drum rolls and laugh tracks in your posts.
‘Since the much-maligned money explosion, post-crash, skeptics warned, again and again, that inflation was just around the corner…It never happened…what’s happened to interest rates? They are at historic lows throughout the Western world. And by that I literally mean: the lowest ever recorded.’
‘So central banks “print,” trying to goose their economies as best they can. They do so in an era where economists rightly worry more about deflation than inflation — an era where prices go down instead of up and spur a downward spiral in spending, hiring and ever lower wages. That’s what leads to a Depression.’
Money explosion, prices go down. This is what I mean about the link with increased money supply resulting in inflation has stopped working. Yet it is this very failed measure that gives the money printers the green light.
‘an era where economists rightly worry more about deflation than inflation’
Well, they aren’t very good economists who can’t make out this broken model they are all relying on. Here’s the inescapable conclusion I’ve stated before: easy money, QE, etc may cause deflation. If so, more of it may produce a global depression. It may already be unavoidable.
Like one post recently asked, are these guys really doing untested, radical economic experiments with the global economy? And as one central banker said, if you are going to produce an asset-based wealth effect, you better hope there’s growth to justify the asset price increases.
“And as one central banker said, if you are going to produce an asset-based wealth effect, you better hope there’s growth to justify the asset price increases.”
Oh, there’s growth all right, growth in loans, growth in borrowed money.
(insert laugh track here)
Somehow these asset price increases have to be paid for and if it isn’t by this enormous (and phantom) glut of savings then it has to be paid for in some other way.
There is a pretty strong correlation between scarcity and value.
Gold has a lot of value cause there isnt much of it.
U can create infinite digital currency.
When will we be up against the next debt ceiling and raise it so ebt cards can go out?
“…in order to make the necessary investments that will benefit their citizens and economies…”
Then why not rebuild our bridges, highways and waterways?
“Bill Gross, who co-founded and turned Pimco into a globally renowned investment company, thinks the money gushing out of China is a warning sign. He has been paying attention to China’s private-sector debt, which, by one estimate, has surpassed 150% of the country’s gross domestic product. Paying off its massive debt and making interest payments will soak up most of corporate China’s profit. Very little will be left for productive investment, Gross believes.”
Can’t their central bank use the electronic printing press to buy up all the private sector debt, much as the Fed made all the bad mortgage debt disapparate?
“… the money gushing out of China is a warning sign.”
No sh1t.
“China’s private-sector debt, which, by one estimate, has surpassed 150% of the country’s gross domestic product.”
Dumb ‘em down, and profit. Works in China, works in the U.S., works everywhere on the planet.
“Paying off its massive debt and making interest payments will soak up most of corporate China’s profit.”
And will fill the word’s banker’s coffers as God intends it to do.
“word’s banker’s coffers” = “world’s banker’s coffers”
Sorry; I got overly excited at the prospect as I typed this.
Making the case for Chinese debt equity swaps - FT.com
http://www.ft.com/…/79f5c306-1e6b-11e6-b286-cddde55ca12...
Financial Times
May 25, 2016 - Allowing banks to swap debt for equity is crucial for addressing non-performing loan problem. Earlier this year Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, …
China’s debt-for-equity swaps are a mess - FT.com
http://www.ft.com/…/27460fba-1053-11e6-839f-2922947098f...
Financial Times
May 3, 2016 - One of the Chinese government’s emerging strategies for dealing with problem loans in the banking sector is a debt-for-equity programme …
China steps up war on banks’ bad debt - FT.com
http://www.ft.com › GlobalEconomy › Chinese Economy
Financial Times
May 22, 2016 - Beijing has stepped up its battle against bad debt in China’s banking … for a debt-to-equity swap, which forces banks to write off bad debt in …
China Is Set to Allow Banks to Swap Bad Loans for Equity in Borrowers
http://www.wsj.com/…/china-plans-debt-for-equity-swap-…The Wall Street Journal
Apr 15, 2016 - China is planning a debt-for-equity swap program that could provide large companies mired in overcapacity a way to reduce their debt burdens …
Moving From Debt to Equity in China by Andrew Sheng and Xiao …
https://www.project-syndicate.org/…/china-moving-fro...
Project Syndicate
May 31, 2016 - A spate of recent commentary has been warning of the vertiginous rise in China’s debt, which jumped from 148% of GDP in 2007 to 249% at …
China Said to Plan New Rules Facilitating Debt-to-Equity Swaps …
http://www.bloomberg.com/…/china-said-to-plan-new-rules-fa...
Bloomberg L.P.
Mar 10, 2016 - China is drafting rules to make it easier for lenders to convert bank loans into equity stakes of debtor companies, a move that would help …
How Bad Is China’s Debt Problem, Really? - Bloomberg View
https://www.bloomberg.com/…/how-bad-is-china-s-debt-...
Bloomberg L.P.
Apr 7, 2016 - China’s policy makers say they recognize these problems. … For one thing, while a debt-for-equity swap may help excessively indebted firms, …
China Said to Plan $155 Billion of Sour Loan-Equity Swaps - Bloomberg
http://www.bloomberg.com/…/china-said-to-plan-1-trillion-yu...
Bloomberg L.P.
Apr 4, 2016 - China may approve as soon as this month a plan to make it easier for banks to convert soured debt into equity, according to a person with …
I’ve read they might take this up to a trillion Yellen bucks. Debt to equity, nice!
Next thing you know the US government will be collecting interest on its own debt. Oh, that’s already happening.
This debt to equity thing in China is a big deal, IMO, and I’ve read some concerns of others. Why? Recall the past couple of years the whole solution to China’s problems was reform. They are going to start letting broke companies go under, over-capacity would be gotten rid of, sustainable growth could then emerge. And the GDP would switch from manufacturing to consuming. (That last one was good for a laugh but never had a basis in reality).
Anyhoo, this debt to equity move blows the entire reform idea out of the water. They aren’t reforming squat. This is a zombie corporation just move like Japan did. And note how these links were saying, “maybe 100 billion” to a trillion to who knows?
China exists in the real world. We’ve slowly seen the invincibility of their “leaders” wiped away (much to the dismay of sad pandas everywhere, who secretly idolized these authoritarians). Yes, they can swap debt for equity. What about the overcapacity? What about the pollution, the corruption, the capital flight? Are more empty cities going to fix anything? So in the real world, rubber hit the road in the currency market. They can control what they control, but IMO it will be devaluation that sends Humpty Dumpty down. From there anything can happen. Chexit?
10yr vs s&p div yield
Nothing else matters
The greatest fear of China and ourselves is Deflation. In the 1979-1980 Recession Richard Russell said you either “inflate or you die.” It’s all about cheapening existing debt.
China’s was able to export over-capacity to Walmart, Costco and Sam’s Club. A byproduct of their over-capacity was environmental degradation. They are now a time-bomb. There’s no way to escape the next world-wide economic downturn.
‘either “inflate or you die.” It’s all about cheapening existing debt’
That’s the bankers line anyway. But they are in the business of debt. Heck, we have debt that pays you to borrow now. I can just see the cash flow statements;
Income from borrowing - 4 billion pesos.
When the Federal Reserve laid out $16 trillion all over the world, I wondered, “man what great savers, they had that much in the piggy bank!”
In a world where money is a fiction, is it really the end of the world when it goes poof?
Debt to equity, nice!
Isn’t this the transition that normally occurs in bankruptcy? Equity is wiped out, debt ends translated into equity, new debt is issued (as the post-BK balance sheet is deleveraged)?
Bankruptcy by any other name, would smell as sweet…
In some ways, I think that this is actually a better plan that what occurred here in the US. IMO, we would have been better off in the long-run if we had had BK’s (and the resulting cleaned-up balance sheets) rather than the continuing mal-investment associated with propping up firms that should have failed, as ZIRP has done).
Though I suppose the one downside is that new equity is significantly devalued by having to share ownership with the old equity that should have been wiped out, but wasn’t.
After snowflakes graduate from college their real-world education - and their real-world tuition - ensues …
https://www.yahoo.com/style/interns-get-fired-en-masse-after-protesting-dress-201632030.html
Not much different than your typical IT worker of ANY age.
Whining about dress code…unbelievable.
And adults over the age of 40 wonder why Millennials tend to be tattooed, self-absorbed, insecure, narcissistic brats.
Look in the mirror for a clue.
You might very well be a self-righteous slob yourself.
Millennials tend to be tattooed, self-absorbed, insecure, narcissistic brats.
They also think the over 40 need sensitivity training. I tell you verily that what most people really frickin’ need is a healthy dose of tougness training. Jeebus.
Screw ‘em.
As long as they continue to get cues from Facebook, they’ll forever act like whiny brats.
Facebook is a safe zone, where disagreements between individuals never have to be addressed successfully.
“Thank God!” says empowered Caitlyn, special snowflake cum laude.
If I were a hiring manager, you better believe I’d be checking prospects to see whether they had a Facebook account. If they didn’t have a Facebook account, I’d be more apt to hire them, all things equal.
“Just before the meeting ended, one of the managers told us that the worker who was allowed to disobey the dress code was a former soldier who lost her leg and was therefore given permission to wear whatever kind of shoes she could walk in. You can’t even tell, and if we had known about this we would have factored it into our argument.”
So it never occurred to any of these kids to simply ask the person in question if she was given a waiver for the footwear rule?
Having had a lot of foot problems myself over the years, as I read the article I wondered if that was the situation here. Turns out I was close.
Ponces on parade in London this morning, as the nose-pickers and bed-wetters raise their tiny fists into the air and whine their melting-snowflake butt-hurt slogans.
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/06/brexit-divide-wasnt-young-old-ponces-non-ponces/
The artice suggests that if you are not a “ponce” then you must be a … a “chav”.
So, what’s a chav?
Wiki …
Chav (/ˈtʃæv/ CHAV) is a pejorative epithet used in Britain to describe a particular stereotype.[1][2] The word was popularised in the first decade of the 21st century by the British mass media to refer to an anti-social youth subculture in the United Kingdom.[3] The Oxford English Dictionary defines “chav” as an informal British derogatory, meaning “a young lower-class person who displays brash and loutish behaviour and wears real or imitation designer clothes”.[4] The derivative chavette has been used to refer to females,[5] and the adjectives “chavish” and “chavtastic” have been used in relation to items designed for or suitable for use by chavs.[6
“… wears real or imitation designer clothes”(?)
WTF?
I’m way out of touch.
Hip Hugger wearing Liberaces? Lolas wearing their sisters hotpants?
Chav asks “What is you?”
Ali G (Sasha Baron Cohen) is parody of chavs.
Urban dictionary def chav
I was feeling way out of touch the other day because I had never heard of “slacktivism” - great term.
The money quote: There have never been a greater number of people I’ve loathed who have been made to cry all at once.
It’s that way on the HBB some days, as the wails and lamentations of the pineapples over their slaughtered sacred cows ascends to the heedless heavens.
Sending DebtDonkeys and MT pocketed fools into fits of engagement is merely a beneficial side effect of seeking the truth about this unfolding disaster.
The Millennial understanding of the world:
Childhood up to age 22: I am a special snowflake. I am wonderful, deserving and highly intelligent. My socio-emotional score is 98.13867729%. I am in touch with the needs of the environment, and sometimes with myself and others, too. I understand the world, its problems and its “unjustices”. I keep informed via Facebook. All my friends are there. My mere presence means I am worldly.
Emerging Adulthood after age 22: You expect me to do WHAT?!
Junk bond market signaling trouble ahead.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/01/investors-fleeing-junk-bond-funds-leveraged-loan-funds/
“Retail investors have difficulties buying junk bonds. Retail brokers usually sell only investment grade bonds. And that may be a good thing because each bond issue is a treacherous contract full of pitfalls and landmines that even specialists fall into or step on and often end up buying what they didn’t think they were buying. That can cause some painful surprises when the bonds default, which is a significant probability with low-rated junk bonds.”
So if a retail investor has difficulty buying these wonderful junk bonds what is a retail investor to do? Let’s find out …
“So retail investors have to make do with junk-bond mutual funds and ETFs. They give their money to institutional investors who then buy the actual bonds.”
So the retail investor who is shut out from the junk bond market turns to the mutual funds and ETFs (aka huge piles of Other People’s Money) who are middle men and thus DO NOT SHARE IN THE RISKS but nevertheless get to take substantial cuts from the huge piles of OPM that they get to manage.
I like it.
I especially like this statement:
“… each bond issue is a treacherous contract full of pitfalls and landmines that even specialists fall into or step on and often end up buying what they didn’t think they were buying.”
But nevertheless there are salesmen-type pukes out there who can convince great herds of Totally Dumb-Downed pukes that they, the salesmen pukes, are ’specialists”, are “experts” in this treacherous field full of pitfalls and landmines HOWEVER even they, the “specialists”, the “experts”, “often end up buying what they didn’t think they were buying.”
Bahahahaha … not that it matters much to these salesmen pukes since what they end up buying, which is not what they thought they were buying, is bought up using money THAT BELONGS TO SOMEBODY ELSE.
Bahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.
I like it. I love it. I want some more of it.
I just hope that a lot of these retail pukes who foolishly choose to turn over their precious and hard-to-get money to these salesmen pukes LOOSE THEIR FINANCIAL ASSES because then I WILL HAVE THEM WHERE I WANT THEM and this where-I-want-them is them groveling before me, begging me to allow them to SIGN THE DOTTED LINE, the dotted line that will allow them to VOLUNTAIRLY become my slave - and, if they have a good-looking teen-aged daughter, allow her to become my slave as well - my back room slave - something I am REALLY looking forward to because I am growing very tired of these weekly trips to Orgy Island to get my deviant and decadent and chronically infected itch scratched.
So the retail investor who is shut out from the junk bond market turns to the mutual funds and ETFs (aka huge piles of Other People’s Money) who are middle men and thus DO NOT SHARE IN THE RISKS but nevertheless get to take substantial cuts from the huge piles of OPM that they get to manage.
This is the transitional form of the Privatize-the-profits-socialize-the-losses business model. Up/down, win/lose you still pay the infrastructure regardless. But there still is some risk that players will stop playing.
The final form of the PTP/STL model is where the taxpayer bears all the risk while all the profits are privatized.
National debt jumps nearly $100 billion in one day to record high
By Pete Kasperowicz (@PeteKDCNews) • 7/2/16 12:01 AM
The U.S. national debt is creeping up again, after holding steady for the last few months thanks to the annual flood of individual and corporate tax receipts.
Total government debt hit a record $19.38 trillion on Thursday, up nearly $98 billion from the day before. It’s the first time it has ever exceeded $19.3 trillion.
The debt will soar higher still in the coming months, and is expected to approach $20 trillion by the time President Obama leaves office
End result of socialism.
Happy now that youre even poorer Comrades?
“National debt jumps nearly $100 billion in one day to record high.”
‘Tis but a flesh wound.
Party on, proles.
Trivia: On 09/30/2008, the total debt was about $ 10.025T.
Meaning that it will have approximately doubled during the Obama administration.
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm
Reminder: the debt limit was suspended until March 17, 2017. So the new prez gets to deal with this mess almost right off the bat.
“CALIFORNIA VIOLENT CRIMES JUMP 10 PERCENT IN 2015″
http://abc7.com/news/california-violent-crimes-jump-10-percent-in-2015/1410503/
Where there is record poverty you will find record crime.
Where there is corrupt, incompetent Democrat-run municipalities you will find dystopia. There, fixed it for you.
agreed
“Where there is record poverty you will find record crime.”
I want to see the rankings by race.
‘By one estimate, there are about 30 new hillside homes priced above $30 million that could hit the market in the next year and a half. In Manhattan, the slowdown has taken a sharp toll. The number of previously owned homes that sold in the first quarter for $10 million or more fell 40% from a year earlier to 15, according to appraisal firm Miller Samuel.’
http://elitedaily.com/life/the-10-things-weve-learned-from-the-great-gatsby/
crater
Elite K-8 school teaches white students they’re born racist
By Paul Sperry
July 1, 2016 | 2:15pm
An elite Manhattan school is teaching white students as young as 6 that they’re born racist and should feel guilty benefiting from “white privilege,” while heaping praise and cupcakes on their black peers.
Administrators at the Bank Street School for Children on the Upper West Side claim it’s a novel approach to fighting discrimination, and that several other private New York schools are doing it, but even liberal parents aren’t buying it.
They complain the K-8 school of 430 kids is separating whites in classes where they’re made to feel awful about their “whiteness,” and all the “kids of color” in other rooms where they’re taught to feel proud about their race and are rewarded with treats and other privileges.
Bank Street has created a “dedicated space” in the school for “kids of color,” where they’re “embraced” by minority instructors and encouraged to “voice their feelings” and “share experiences about being a kid of color,” according to school presentation slides obtained by The Post.
Meanwhile, white kids are herded into separate classrooms and taught to raise their “awareness of the prevalence of Whiteness and privilege,” challenge “notions of colorblindness (and) assumptions of ‘normal,’ ‘good,’ and ‘American’” and “understand and own European ancestry and see the tie to privilege.”
They say white kids are being brainwashed into thinking any success they achieve is unearned. Indeed, a young white girl is seen confessing on a Bank Street video: “I feel guilty for having a privilege I don’t deserve.”
http://nypost.com/2016/07/01/elite-k-8-school-teaches-white-students-theyre-born-racist/ - 260k -
Has Obama consulted Mugabe on this?
United States = the next Zimbabwe?
You mean people are paying top dollar to have their kids told that they are white scum? To quote Edmund Gwen, who portrayed Kris Kringle in Miracle on 34th St: “Oh, a progressive school!”
The Bank Street School for Children is a Nursery through Grade 8 co-educational school situated within Bank Street College of Education and is a working model of the College’s approach to learning and teaching.
Bank Street College of Education
From Wikipedia
Bank Street College of Education is a private, nonprofit educational institution located in Manhattan, New York City. The College includes a Graduate School, an on-site independent School for Children,
Notable Graduate School alumni
Bill Ayers, elementary education theorist and retired Distinguished Professor, College of Education, University of Illinois, Chicago
Bank Street School for Children
A school within a college
A leader in progressive education and a working model of the College’s approach to learning and teaching.
Leading the way with progressive education
As the city’s premier progressive school, we are focused on all aspects of children’s development. Our excellent curriculum is dynamic, age-appropriate, responsive to children’s needs and relevant to their lives.
Our faculty
Our teachers are well-trained (65% hold a Master’s degree from our Graduate School) and thoroughly knowledgeable about children and child development. They are experts in the field and our greatest resource.
Community & diversity
Hallmarks of our mission, we work hard to deliberately create a community that is broadly inclusive and reflects the diversity of our multicultural society.
We are a Nursery through Grade 8 school
Without the pressures of a high school environment, children can be children for just a bit longer. Our faculty specialize in nurturing the intellectual, social and emotional lives of young children and early adolescents.
Wahi believes even white babies display signs of racism,”
They eat albinos in Africa
Every creature that was ever born is racist. Humans figured out it’s counterproductive, and suppress it, with varying degrees of success.
Creepy startup will help landlords, employers and online dates strip-mine intimate data from your Facebook page - June 9, 2016
British Startup Strip Mines Renters’ Private Social Media For Landlords
Never joined, never will. Hated the idea the moment I heard about it, figured no good will come of this. Everyone I want to hear from knows where to find me.
I wonder if a person’s absence from social media will be/is condemnation enough?
“Rick Zeman writes:
Creepy British startup Score Assured has brought the power of “big data” to plumb new depths. In order to rent from landlords who use their services, potential renters are “…required to grant it full access to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and/or Instagram profiles. From there, Tenant Assured scrapes your site activity, including entire conversation threads and private messages; runs it through natural language processing and other analytic software; and finally, spits out a report that catalogs everything from your personality to your ‘financial stress level.’” This “stress level” is a deep dive to (allegedly) determine whether the potential renter will pay their bills using vague indicators like “online retail social logins and frequency of social logins used for leisure activities.” To make it worse, the company turns over to the landlords’ indicators that the landlords aren’t legally allowed to consider (age, race, pregnancy status), counting on the landlords to “do the right thing.” As if this isn’t abusive enough, the candidates are not allowed to see nor challenge their report, unlike with credit reports. Landlords first, employers next…and then? As the co-founder says, “People will give up their privacy to get something they want” and, evidently, that includes a place to live and a job.”
So? What’s not to like?
Why not just use good ol’ fashioned credit scores to determine likelihood of (re)paying, rather than guessing based on something you said two years ago?
Preach it!
And yes, only the foolhardy have joined Facebook. Ditto LinkedIn (doomed from the start as every idiot in the world can promote themselves through it).
Social media already is beginning to eat itself.
What fans of Zuckerberg don’t know is that he already knows that.
He knows that due to its current use as a driver of social norms and maxims - of the “establishment” and “big government”, social media has its own, inherently built-in obsolescence.
Social media as used and monitored today is a driver of LESS freedom, not more. It will become increasingly regulated, with users being increasing spied on.
Many people can’t wait to nose around in someone else’s business - why do you think social media is so popular to begin with?
The concept of a social/financial/sexual credit score was a central theme in Gary Shteyngart’s 2010 novel Super Sad True Love Story:
https://www.amazon.com/Super-Sad-True-Love-Story/dp/1400066409
So who you bang (or don’t) will have an effect on your credit score? I guess all those Alpha studs will get great interest rates for their loans.
Read the book Rockstar.
How about an ethics score?
Forget that noise, because it’s Current Year.
#CurrentYear
You sound like Hillary Clinton.
Under normal circumstances, a renter could just find somewhere else. But with house prices and sales at record highs (and household debt approaching the highest levels ever), and rents galloping higher, and new supply being mostly luxury, it’s an indicator of just how much power the landlord has in certain locales.
Pundits wonder why non-traditional candidates have gotten so much traction. One can either vote for more of the same or something different. The status quo candidates/policies offer more of the same. With something different, there is at least the remote possibility of improvement.
“Household debt approaching the highest levels ever”
So much for all that talk about a savings glut.
There’s been some question about whether the central bank can raise rates in light of all the money they’ve injected into the system. However, they were able to raise rates on cue in the 80s under Volcker. They were able to cut rates on cue in 2008.
Economists have a limited understanding of the economy. They run experiments and see if they work. Going off the gold standard. Massive stimulus (without inflation). Quantitative Easing. They’ve demonstrated the sorts of things of which they’re capable and the power of their battle station.
But as far as household savings go, there doesn’t seem to be a glut there.
And you know… despite all that talk about how low inflation is, and talk of deflation, here’s a look at MIT’s Billion Prices Project: http://bpp.mit.edu/usa/
Looks like prices are steadily marching higher, since 2008, despite public information claims to the contrary.
“I wonder if a person’s absence from social media will be/is condemnation enough?”
The Unabomber never had a facebook page, and look how that turned out.
We’re Being Played by the Clintons
July 01, 2016
RUSH: Okay, folks, I’m gonna tell you what I think is actually going on here. I think we are being played in the standard, common, everyday way the Clinton team plays the American people. It has happened, I can’t count the number of times….
http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2016/07/01/we_re_being_played_by_the_clintons
And we’re being trolled by Obama.
I loved the NY Post headline today: Snakes on a Plane!
http://www.pressreader.com/usa/new-york-post/20160702/281479275730980
Played by the Clintons, played by the Trumps, the Bushs want to play us but cant any more, played by the Saudis, played by Israelis…
We are obviously musical instruments of some sort.
We are obviously musical instruments of some sort.
Yep, but this is the only sound we seem to be able to make:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtmI–F8Zmo
Where is the growth
Even car sales w 84 month loans is dying
Some pu trucks selling,but net units are falling fast
Seven-year car loans sure put a damper on new car sales, doesn’t it?
Most people aren’t going to opt for another 84-month loan when they have yet to pay off the first.
How about removing 50% of all the unnecessary bells and whistles, and all the unnecessary regulation?
I bet doing so would drop sticker costs considerably, and increase sales.
Can’t have that, though, can we? We must have all the latest gizmos in our cars to go along with the granite (increasingly quartz, as granite has become gauche) in the kitchen.
I wonder if this country will ever return to inviting the neighbors and friends over for cards and beer, played on card tables.
God forbid.
I thought about a mortgage burning party to celebrate my last debt in life, but too few were interested. Not one of my California siblings called to offer a congrats either. Ended up sharing one bottle of Napa Valley Mumms with another couple.
Can’t have that, though, can we? We must have all the latest gizmos in our cars
FWIW, it’s what buyers want. Don’t tell them about the actual mechanics of the car: suspensions, engines, transmissions. They don’t care about that one whit. Hot spots, built in GPS, fancy schmancy stereos … that they care about.
And other expectations have been raised. Cars with crank operated windows are a very rare exception these days, usually only found on base model hatchbacks.
As for trading in for a new one every 3 years, it isn’t the 1970’s anymore, when a 3 year old car would turn into a constant fixer upper. There’s a reason that the average age for a car is 11 years now … they last much longer. Cars in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s were ready for the junk yard by the time they were 10 years old.
How about a granite countertop in the car?
Or at least a granite dashboard, for god sakes.
The Jeep Wrangler Willys model has hand-cranked windows.
36 mo warranty and an 84 mo loan on a car filled with circuit boards. My new car does not even have a parking brake, it is a button, no more power slides. Lease em, give em back is my new motto.
In the Philippines u can get a new Camry for $14,000
Minus bells n whistles
Where is the growth
Even car sales w 84 month loans is dying
Some pu trucks selling,but net units are falling fast
Also, the fact that new cars last much longer now has to put a damper on that. I’m surprised that aren’t pushing leases more, it gets people to roll over every 2-4 years.
Who wants a Audi A8 or a Land Rover out of warranty?
With interest rates at record lows, virtually the entire mortgage market bankrolled by the government/GSEs, downpayments at 3% (de facto 0%), and house prices and sales volumes at all times highs, I just read about a new “foreclosure prevention” program (the quote from DiBlasio about predators is heartwarming, apparently paying back loans is now predatory. But I digress). Not a peep about the policies which enabled people to buy houses they couldn’t afford to pay for.
What else can they do to juice this by all accounts, record-strong market? And why would they?
Some of these predatory loans were made by me and my bank, and for this I am deeply sorry.
To make up for this transgression I am willing to enter into the state’s program whereby I will be willing to sell to the state any and all non-performing loans that might happen to be carried on my bank’s books.
It is the least that I can do.
Mr. Banker, you are a true humanitarian. We should all strive to be like you. It takes some conditioning to “do what is necessary” as your business requires. But like the conditioning combat soldiers are put through to enable them to kill without hesitation, I’m somewhat confident a similar conditioning program will enable us to be like you, at least until it wears off
https://youtu.be/LLkLcnu_e_g
NY Post best.cover.ever. “Snakes on a Plane” - Bill Clinton and Lorretta Lynch hold a sub rosa meeting on a plane, no doubt for Bill to explain the compensation options for AG Lynch making sure Hillary is never indicted for her influence-peddling or national security violations with her private server.
https://twitter.com/nypost/status/749200150430621696/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This 4th of July, the HBB Pineapples have issued an appeal to avoid jingoistic, xenophobic displays like flying the stars & stripes, and instead give thanks for the blessings of fundamental transformation.
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/07/obamas-unaccompanied-minors-committing-horrific-crimes-including-decapitation-stoning/
If Hillary makes a false statement under oath - and it is difficult picturing her getting through a three-hour “interview” without resorting to lies and dissembling - she could face a five-year prison sentence for making false statements. Of course, as a member of the .1% she need not have any fear of legal consequences, since laws are for the little people.
http://www.businessinsider.com/hillary-clinton-fbi-interview-2016-7
The crux of this election to me is this: are there enough people in this country willing to elect an openly criminal person/party to the highest office in the land? I would be much happier with the state of this country had people chosen Bernie because while I believe he is completely wrong on just about everything, he’s not a liar/criminal/deep state puppet - as far as I know.
If Hillary is elected that tells me that the majority of the voting population wants to wield the power of the state (disregarding any and all laws in the process) to take from others for their benefit - even though the likelihood that they will benefit is nearly zero. In this case I will be looking to leave the country, as I don’t think it will be safe going forward for anyone but the 1% and their jack booted thugs. I left Cali nearly a decade ago because I saw it leading the decline, maybe the entire nation is in its death throes as it turns 240. Sad to think about.
as i have stared and got banned at other places we need tough love today, we have way too many functional illiterates collecting disability, in jail, heck lets demand you read the NY Times fluently before you get a HS diploma.
never let prisoners out of jail till they can read the NY Times. force welfare recipients to sit in class 15 hours a week to learn English and math for their EBT card……basic tough love to end functional illiteracy.
The only skill the dependency classes need is to mark “D” on their ballots.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet will mark D.
“Bill Gates and Warren Buffet will mark D.”
It’s the LGBT thing to do.
ny times is deep state propaganda - I would hazard a guess that at least a third is completely made up based on first hand knowledge of stories they’ve written. The masses should read socrates, adam smith, jefferson, the bible, and my namesake among others.
i agree but we have to start somewhere and the NYTimes is a pretty good first step to conquer and then on to more advanced material
Is janet yellens constant jawboning about rate hikes really just a scheme to keep the dollar propped up so it doesn’t crash. A cratering currency would force her to raise rates.
Traders speculated heavily in the dollar based on rate hikes that are basically a pipe dream.
1. Rate hikes would collapse the value of the feds bond portfolio.
2. Rate hike would increase the cost of borrowing for the treasury and for corporations to buyback stock.
Does anyone else see this pattern?
#1 us the one that I have been thinking. Does it mean that Fed cannot increase interest rates until all those bonds are very close to maturity. What is the weighed maturity of the Fed bond portfolio, anyway?
Would a rate cut and QE4 finally get the value of the dollar to crater ?
Would commodities such as oil go to the moon on a cratering dollar?
Gold is pricing in QE-to-Infinity.
great quote I just read:
QE works if your the only one doing it!
Seems like most developed countries around the world are so desperate for demand growth they are all basically printing.
Next time your insurance company wants you to fill out one of those “wellness” surveys - you know, so they can help you better and stuff - cite this article when you tell them to eff off.
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=231463
Girl urges boyfriend to commit suicide: now faces criminal charges. Meanwhile, the NAR syndicate every day encourages FBs to commit financial suicide, with impunity. Some things I just don’t understand.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/02/i-mean-youre-about-to-die-teen-who-urged-boyfriend-to-kill-himself-will-stand-trial/
If she’s attractive then she’s not guilty.
The corrupt collectivist kleptocrats of the DNC will be unable to push through their fundamental transformation and redistribution of the wealth until the Comrades of Proven Worth have established an unassailable permanent majority of dependency voters (check) and have disarmed all potential resisters. Forward!…for the children.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-02/nra-furious-after-california-passes-draconian-gun-control-laws-limits-assault-weapon
The epic neocon misadventure in Iraq has so far cost more than $2 trillion and the lives of 4,000 servicemembers (not a neocon scion among them), with tens of thousands more maimed and crippled. However, Iraqis are grateful to their neocon liberators and the United States for deposing Saddam and ushering in a thriving democracy…NOT!
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/07/photos-iraqis-march-us-israeli-flags-basra/
Hope ‘n change comes to Appalachia. Hey miners, next time don’t blindly vote for Democrats just because your corrupt union leadership tells you to.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/07/02/biggest-private-coal-producer-warns-cutting-80-percent-workforce-head-blames-obama-policies.html
Salon
“Most of all, they don’t understand how America can tolerate its chronic carnage of deaths and injuries from gunfire, particularly among our children and particularly after the horror of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012 in which 20 first graders and six adults lost their lives.”
The Sandy Hook Actors, “Do You Want Me To Read The Card …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV20DtXBuQs - 170k -
Dunblane: How UK school massacre led to tighter gun control
By Peter Wilkinson, CNN
Updated 5:57 PM ET, Wed January 30, 2013
What happened at Dunblane?
Shortly after 9 a.m. on March 13, 1996, Thomas Hamilton, a 43-year-old former Scout leader, burst into the gymnasium of a primary school in the tranquil Scottish town of Dunblane.
Within minutes 15 children aged five and six had died in a hail of bullets. One died later in hospital. Their teacher, Gwen Mayor, a 44-year-old mother of two, died in the attack, reportedly while trying to shield her pupils. Two other teachers were also seriously injured while heroically trying to protect children. Hamilton turned one of his four handguns on himself and was found dead at the scene.
Within a year and a half of the Dunblane massacre, UK lawmakers had passed a ban on the private ownership of all handguns in mainland Britain, giving the country some of the toughest anti-gun legislation in the world. After both shootings there were firearm amnesties across the UK, resulting in the surrender of thousands of firearms and rounds of ammunition.
Britain has never had a “gun culture” like that of the United States, but there were about 200,000 legally-registered handguns in Britain before the ban, most owned by sports shooters. All small-bore pistols, including the .22 caliber, were included in the ban, along with rifles used by target shooters. Penalties for anyone found in possession of illegal firearms range from heavy fines to prison terms of up to 10 years.
“Britain has never had a “gun culture” like that of the United States…”
That’s because they are subjects and heel when ordered.
Is that why they voted “Leave”?
Relax comrade.
You should take your own advice.
Big 10-4 comrade.
there have been lots of times lately i have held my head in shame by the worst president we ever had….. so no speakie iingilsh to get citizship
http://thehill.com/latino/286346-dem-immigration-platform-courts-hispanics
I love that picture of Hillary.
It looks like she has just proclaimed…
I just went to the bathroom all by myself!
as her I’m with her followers react accordingly.
She is in her element, basking in the adulation of her Free Sh*t Army entitlement voters, each and every one of them a portrait in stupidity and fecklessness.
Corruption, Inc. Aided and abetted by every accessory-voter who marks “D” on a ballot.
http://nypost.com/2016/07/02/loretta-lynch-falls-under-the-clintons-corrupting-influence/
All barriers to fundamental transformation and a permanent Democrat supermajority must be removed, immediately.
http://thehill.com/latino/286346-dem-immigration-platform-courts-hispanics
- - - I will have the most transparent administration in history.
- - - The stimulus will fund shovel-ready jobs.
- - - I am focused like a laser on creating jobs.
- - - The IRS is not targeting anyone.
- - - It was a spontaneous riot about a movie.
- - - Ii will put an end to the type of politics that “breeds division, conflict and cynicism”.
- - - You didn’t build that!
- - - I will restore trust in Government.
- - - The Cambridge cops acted stupidly.
- - - The public will have 5 days to look at every bill that lands on my desk
- - - It’s not my red line - it is the world’s red line.
- - - Whistle blowers will be protected in my administration.
- - - We got back every dime we used to rescue the banks and auto companies, with interest.
- - - I am not spying on American citizens.
One
Big
Ass
Mistake
America
From a ZH poster:
There was a crooked woman, and she walked a crooked mile,
She found a crooked sixpence, against a crooked stile;
She lied about her email, and about a Libyan attack;
She claimed it did not happen, it was all just untrue facts;
She had a crooked husband, who soiled a nice blue dress;
He said he didn’t do it, he was a victim of Congress;
She was pinned by enemy snipers, the Balkans weren’t sublime;
She was named for Sir Edmund Hillary, 5 years before his noble climb;
Bill also visited Loretta, they spoke of golf and grandchildren;
Not Hillary’s investigation, nor the crooked Clinton Foundation;
She bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
And they all lived together, in a little crooked Chappaqua house.
The US private sector must be incentivized to soak up the refugee flows generated by neocon regime change adventurism. Importing millions of Democrat-on-Arrival dependency voters is a central pillar of fundamental transformation. Forward!
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/06/30/fact-sheet-white-house-launches-call-action-private-sector-engagement
Walls for me, but not for thee.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/06/29/meet-donald-zuckerberg-facebook-founder-builds-oppressive-wall-around-100-million-hawaii-property/
Sooner or later, fiscal reality is going to catch up with China’s bubble markets - and ours.
http://www.businessinsider.com/china-housing-job-postings-point-to-downturn-2016-7
Is the Oligopoly cracking up under the stress of a rising tide of nationalist populism?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/03/angela-merkel-to-oust-jean-claude-juncker-as-europe-splits-deepe/
WTF - The FBI has to ask THE RUSSIANS for Hillary’s missing e-mails? Whatever happened to “The most transparent administration in history”?
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-03/senator-admits-fbi-about-ask-putin-his-copies-hillarys-emails
Social justice “warriors” are anything but.
http://www.westernfreepress.com/2016/06/10/stop-calling-them-warriors-social-justice-whiners-are-anything-but/
Sounds about right.
Clinton Insider Reveals Bill’s Secret Deal With Loretta … - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=999NuVGiBIs - 264k - Cached - Similar pages
21 hours ago .
Some American music for an American holiday:
the Allman Brothers — Brothers And Sisters (full album)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ-5lO-yaOg
Gregg. The most underrated and unappreciated US musician in history.
Just this morning I was wondering how on earth they could print money well beyond the growth of a nation’s wealth, and not reduce the purchasing power of most of the citizenry, those not recipients of the largesse.
Their response might be, “It’s magic - we don’t fully understand how it works but it does.” But does it? From the post: “The stated goal of monetary looseness is to create jobs and economic growth. By this yardstick, monetary policy is a failure.’”
Bernanke’s overview and understanding of The Great Depression, from a 2004 speech: http://www.federalreserve.gov/boardDocs/speeches/2004/200403022/default.htm
An informative read to understand why economists are so enamored of stimulus.
Two tidbits.
1. In California just before people looked forward to celebrating the 2016 rememberance of the Declaration of Independence (which is a radically different document than the federalist rag, the Constitution), Governor Jerry Brown instantly made millions of patriotic Californians criminals.
2. “Defiance, not obedience, is the American’s answer to overbearing authority.” - Ayn Rand
America: The Greatest Country on Earth
Paul Joseph Watson - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/PrisonPlanetLive - 452k -