Optimistic Investors Slowly Turn To Despair
The Daily Star reports from Lebanon. “Lebanese real estate developers dismissed Monday an imminent, drastic fall in property prices in Lebanon, despite the abundant amount of apartments in the country. ‘Real estate prices cannot fall sharply in Lebanon because lands on which real estate developers constructed their projects were purchased at very high prices,’ Fady Jreissati, chief executive of Sakr Real Estate, said on the sidelines of the Dream 2016 exhibition.”
“Ghassan Medawar, sales manager at Conseil et Gestion Immobiliere, noted that most of the high discounts are taking place in the secondary real estate market – where pre-existing units are bought and sold. Real estate developers interviewed by The Daily Star reported a low demand on residential units compared to previous years. Plus Properties CEO George Chehwan explained that resulting in an oversupplied market. ‘Developers start with their plans without having accurate statistics about existing projects which result in an oversupplied market,’ he said. ‘Our market is oversupplied today and this is why demand seems to be low.’”
The Independent on the UK. “Economists have warned the housing market could experience a downturn following UK’s vote to leave the EU. The warning came as Halifax prices showed house price growth cooled ahead of the referendum as buyers lost confidence in making big investments. Jonathan Hopper, managing director of the buying agents Garrington Property Finders, said that the pre-referendum market, in which steady price rises were underpinned by limited supply, now feels like history.”
“‘The Brexit result means all bets are off, and the market’s psychology has fundamentally shifted. While it’s too early to know how much prices have fallen, sellers are already behaving as if a fall is coming. Many of those who have to sell are starting to offer discounts, often big ones,’ Hopper said.”
The Hornsby Advocate in Australia. “The rental market in Ku-ring-gai is ‘dreadful’ for investors and landlords with a glut of new units slowing median rents to the lowest level in Sydney and there’s a thousand new units to come. Chadwick Real Estate — who manage about 1200 rental properties on the north shore — director Benjamin Goben said the ’sheer volume’ of units built recently is to blame. ‘A glut of apartments that have been built up on the highway has contributed,’ Mr Goben said. ‘When you get buildings that cater for the investment market with 50 units all to be rented at the same time, it gives rise to a situation of excess supply. We’ve never had so many apartments in this area.’”
“Senior property manger at Ray White Hornsby Kitty Deng has worked in the area for 12 years and said sales are ‘through the roof’ but rentals have changed. ‘The rental market is dreadful,’ Ms Deng said. ‘All agents (in the area) are struggling to find good tenants for the last six months and it’s getting worse. Sometimes a property will sit on the market for six to eight weeks, it’s shocking and it’s the same at other agencies.’”
From Today Online on Singapore. “The auction floors in the Republic were busier last quarter with auctioneers sealing deals valued at nearly three times that the previous quarter, as more luxury home owners faced difficulties servicing their loans. A condominium unit in Sentosa Cove’s Turquoise was auctioned off at S$2.92 million —almost half the S$5.46 million that the previous owner paid in 2007. A unit at Silversea in Marine Parade was sold at S$3.9 million, lower than the last caveated price of S$4.78 million in 2012, while a One Amber unit within the East Coast vicinity went to a buyer for S$3.7 million versus the purchase price of S$4.4 million back in 2011.”
“These homes were put up for mortgagee sales by banks after their previous owners defaulted on their housing loans. Ms Grace Ng, head of auction and sales of Colliers International, said: ‘Some investors who have bought penthouses off plan also found it difficult to rent or sell their properties upon completion.’ She added: ‘Property owners are finding it increasingly difficult to secure a tenant and, or achieve their desired rents to service their monthly mortgages. Owners who are holding multiple properties, are at greater risk of loan default.’”
NK News on the China/North Korea border. “Nearly five years after construction began on the new $338-million suspension bridge linking Dandong to Sinuiju across the Yalu River, and close to two years after it was due to open, China and North Korea remain silent on what – if anything – will happen to the project. Meanwhile, Dandong’s New District – a multi-billion dollar area built from scratch on the back of promised trade with North Korea – faces economic meltdown.”
“When construction of the bridge began in October 2011, China paid for everything. New development around the bridge had already been planned on a vast scale, according to published details. Fast-forward five years and Dandong’s New District is suffering economic free-fall. The driving factor for this slump remains the city’s New District, a giant building site where huge developments lie abandoned while ‘for sale’ and ‘for rent’ signs dominate almost every building, wiping millions of yuan off investments for each day the new bridge fails to open.”
“The bulky 25-storey Guomen Tower, the first building visiting North Koreans would see if they ever get to drive over the bridge, lies finished but empty. On the opposite side of the street, the enormous New Yalu River Bridge Port Center has held some exhibitions, but mostly lies disused. The entrance was blocked off and manned by a lone security guard on one recent visit.”
“Foreign investors here have seen initial optimism they would be on the front-line of North Korean economic development slowly turn to despair. The South Korean chaebol SK Group has invested in three operations in Dandong’s New District: a logistics unit, another for manufacturing and sales, and a real-estate development. ‘There is the potential that this area could grow as rapidly as Macau,’ an SK source had told South Korea’s Dong-a-Ilbo newspaper back in mid-2012.”
“Today the firm’s 19-storey prime office space SK International Tower remains unoccupied, with the lower floors used to store building equipment and supplies. Eight adjacent apartment buildings are all but empty. Other South Korean investors in Dandong’s New District are understood to have packed up and left months ago.”
From Live Mint on India. “With buyers facing long delays in getting possession of their homes and pressure from lenders building on the developer, what does the recent turn of events in Jaypee Group mean for their real estate business? Jaypee’s real estate arm has also been trying to sell some of its land and other assets for a while now. Executives at property consultants said that the company has been trying to sell large tracts of land in the National Capital Region (NCR) and find buyers or developer partners to take up its incomplete projects, many of which have been stalled for quite some time.”
“‘Exactly how the lenders will address the liquidity issues that the real estate company is facing right now is not clear. Many of the projects are mortgaged to the banks as project cash flows are weak. We have been trying to sell land for them but where are the buyers in the current market conditions?’ said a property consultant, who didn’t wish to be named.”
‘The driving factor for this slump remains the city’s New District, a giant building site where huge developments lie abandoned while ‘for sale’ and ‘for rent’ signs dominate almost every building, wiping millions of yuan off investments for each day the new bridge fails to open’
Check out the photos.
“…as the government has lost patience with Pyongyang.”
I’ve been trying for years to figure out why Beijing keeps supporting NK at all. Do they simply want it as a buffer zone between China and the pro-western South (which of course hosts a large contingent of US forces)?
Maybe it’s nice to have a country to point to that’s much less horrible and repressive than your horrible repressive country.
“Check out the photos.”
That looks like a great place for all of these middle-east refugees. Really!
Oops… no thigh-gap euro-blondes to grope there.
Who needs blondes when you have North Korean babes just on the other side of the bridge?
“I wish they all could be North Korean girls…”
North Korean killers in heels: Female soldiers spotted patrolling border as G8 nations warn madman dictator of ‘further significant measures’ if he test-fires missiles
…
“North Korean killers…”
Lot of good looking click-bait on that page. Deflector shields need more power…
Millions of “refugees” on one hand…Chinese ghost cities on the other hand…sounds like a match made in heaven!! Except I imagine the total number of refugees accepted by China will be closer to zero.
I want to live in a ghost city
I want to play guitar all day.
I want to live in a ghost city
It’ my time to crank out a play.
Brilliant idea, and next time there’s a famine, there will be plenty of meat available for the norks.
They could transport the refugees on the empty container ships on the way back to China.
Of course, there are no bennies in China. And I imagine that these ghost cities offer only sketchy cell phone service.
Aside from the Bridge to Nowhere linking Dandong to North Korea, how is the situation any different from myriad other Chinese cities filled with empty buildings?
Is that piece from the official North Korean news agency? If so, it was unintentionally hilarious. The way to get out of an obligation in that part of the world, apparently, is to execute the public official who negotiated it. See below:
“Ask people in the city why the bridge remains closed and almost everyone offers the same, hushed reply: “Jang Song Thaek”.
Jang was seen as a friend of Dandong during numerous visits here as he negotiated the bridge and other economic projects before he was purged and executed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in late 2013.
…
Jang signed the deal agreeing the bridge with the Chinese “on his own behalf,” said a North Korean source. As such, Jang was not representing the North Korean government or the people, the source added, and by extension the deal with China was made void following his purge and execution.
It remains unclear how this official take on the bridge’s problems was communicated to ordinary citizens in Sinuiju, but this is the version discussed among people in the city, the source said.”
“Check out the photos.”
Lotsa streets, no cars. Hmmmmm…
‘Lebanese real estate developers dismissed Monday an imminent, drastic fall in property prices in Lebanon, despite the abundant amount of apartments in the country. ‘Real estate prices cannot fall sharply in Lebanon because lands on which real estate developers constructed their projects were purchased at very high prices,’ Fady Jreissati, chief executive of Sakr Real Estate, said’
Just tell them about the sewer hook-ups Fady.
‘Our market is oversupplied today and this is why demand seems to be low.’
So many experts in supply and demand. Over here, they sometimes say low supply is the cause of low sales. Sometimes they say high prices are the result of low supply. It’s really just whatever they want to make things seem better than they are. But I’d bet if you cut the prices some more (10-15% ain’t doing it apparently) you’d have higher demand!
BTW, many don’t know that downtown Baghdad is more expensive than London. Iran, Turkey, Lebanon even Kurdistan have big real estate bubbles.
Tesla is a good example. They just cut prices, again. They are losing money on every car. And we hear about their “enthusiastic, devoted” clients on waiting lists. So why don’t they just raise prices?
The two things I appreciate about Tesla is 1) Breaking up the franchise/dealer model and 2) Battery tech investment. Other than that, I’d rather a proven vehicle that is affordable, i.e. my Honda Civic
I’d missed that story, thanks for bringing it up. They didn’t just cut prices, they are dumping the buyback guarantee to free up cash…
No more Tesla buyback guarantee as company cuts price of Model X
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tesla-prices-idUSKCN0ZT1HH
Interesting tid-bit from that article: “A three-year-old [Nissan] Leaf is selling on average for about 20 per cent of its price when new…”
” ‘Real estate prices cannot fall sharply in Lebanon because lands on which real estate developers constructed their projects were purchased at very high prices,’ ”
LMAO!! Classic, Fady. The prices CAN’T go down, they just CAN’T!!!
The same Lebanon that harbors Hezbollah and was on the war front with Israel in 2006? Hmm no wonder the market is slow there…
Real Estate only goes up! —Lawrence Yun
When I think of Beirut, the only image that comes to mind is of a war torn city. I’m sure that is not the current situation, but you can’t help but wonder if it will happen again. Then, you can admire the rubble of what used to be a “hot” investment.
Just a matter of time util the hebrews get shooty again…
‘The rental market in Ku-ring-gai is ‘dreadful’ for investors and landlords with a glut of new units slowing median rents to the lowest level in Sydney and there’s a thousand new units to come.’
‘When you get buildings that cater for the investment market’
I think you’re on to something. Building for the investor instead of the tenant. You guys are good at this in Australia. (Foreign investors are supposed to only buy new construction, they break this law all the time but many of these condos are built for Chinese investors). I’ve even read some units in Melbourne don’t have exterior windows and water usage there suggests 20% are unoccupied.
‘Swedish housing was showing signs of deflating already before the U.K.’s vote at the end of June sparked global financial turmoil. Stockholm apartment prices, which have risen 40 percent in the past three years, fell 2.7 percent in May, their biggest decline since late 2008′
“We’re currently seeing various pessimistic signs and it’s not obvious that prices will start rising again,” Per-Arne Sandegren, head of analysis at Svensk Maeklarstatistik, which tracks house prices, said in a phone interview. “The long-term development with double-digit price growth can’t continue.”
‘While new rules to make borrowing more expensive are partly responsible for the slowdown, surging prices have also put buying a home beyond the means of more and more people.’
‘Egged on by a worried Riksbank and warnings from economists abroad and at home, the government as of June this year imposed rules on new loans that will force borrowers to pay down their mortgages to a certain level. Until a few years ago, a majority of Swedes had interest-only loans with no payment of principal.’
“Earlier, it wasn’t expensive to take one, two million kronor extra in mortgage loans,” Sandegren said. “We’ve had a strange situation for a long time and now there’s a slight setback.”
‘new rules to make borrowing more expensive are partly responsible…Earlier, it wasn’t expensive to take one, two million kronor extra in mortgage loans’
All it takes to pop a bubble is cut the lending. You don’t need to wait until the borrowers buckle, or oversupply appears, or lenders default. Just cut back the loans.
‘Most borrowers were unable to service their bank loans in the first three months of the year due to high interest rates and tough economic times. Huge defaults on loans were recorded in mortgages, personal loans and credit to the manufacturing sector, pushing up net non-performing loans to Sh87.8 billion, government data shows.’
‘Real estate developers were the hardest hit, with nearly half of the loans defaulted coming from the sector, highlighting cash-starved Kenyan buyers opted to take up fewer housing units than what was produced during the period.’
“This is attributable to slow uptake of housing units,” said a quarterly report by the Central Bank of Kenya.’
‘The report shows up to Sh5.9 billion (42 per cent) of defaults were held by real estate customers with bank accounts between January and March.’
This was one of the most expensive housing markets in the world not that long ago.
“….A condominium unit in Sentosa Cove’s Turquoise was auctioned off at S$2.92 million —almost half the S$5.46 million that the previous owner paid in 2007…..”
Whoop, there it is…..2007!
I still see a few unresolved 2007 zombie homes around my market (Nor Cal foothills above Sacramento). I find it to be unreal that the housing bubble is still impacting the market almost a decade later. I will say though, these remaining units do get resolved from time to time at a value that serves to hold the market values of the neighborhood in check!
Man, Bubble 2.0, lax lending, and they still cant offload foreclosures from 2007? This economy in market must truly be sick.
They’ve been dribbling them out slowly so as to keep the supply down and prices up.
I believe that is case. The companies servicing the loans have no interest in the value of the homes, only in the monthly payments for their servicing fees. The longer the assets stay in their control, the more they can bill $300/hour for special servicing fees. Thus they just stall and postpone, every time they get another “auction date” set up fee.
The investor that wants his money back and an ROI is so far down the chain of command, it is impossible for them to even see what is happening.
Wow, has anyone been living rent-free all this time in any of those 2007 zombie homes?
I wish I was. Squatters have more rights than taxpayers in some locales
Plenty o’ people; this article says most people don’t admit it, some brag.
Voices: For some, foreclosure means free housing, January 16, 2016
Did it for a year myself, but as a renter. It was nice.
wonder why ohbahma doesn’t get it? prisoners are functionally illiterate going into and coming out of jail…..if you can’t read, write or speak English how will you stay out of trouble?
http://johnjayresearch.org/pri/projects/nys-prison-to-college-pipeline/
But…but…stress tests showed Italian banks were fine!
http://www.businessinsider.com/italy-is-on-the-brink-of-a-full-blown-banking-crisis-2016-7
But…but…I thought the Eurozone was fixed after all those bailouts and stimulus!
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/13/too-broke-to-fine-banks-above-law-spain-floor-clauses-variable-rate-mortgage/
I ran across this on the net and I think it fairly well sums up the current national mood …
“We are living in an era of justified general disgust. While this disgust manifests itself in all sorts of unproductive ways, the root cause is completely and entirely justified. People see so-called “elites” as the cause of their suffering and they are correct in that assessment. When I say elites, I refer to people who are in charge of crafting our public policy (politicians), those who bribe them (oligarchs) and the pundits who defend them (the mainstream media).
“These three groups comprise much, but certainly not all, of what many of us refer to as the “status quo.” These crony capitalists, corrupt legislators and their media gatekeepers have been absolutely instrumental in creating the wretched, lawless and disintegrating socio-economic fabric that anyone with an open mind can clearly see around us. As such, it comes as no surprise to me that Trump has now taken the lead in two swing states, and is tied in a third.
(snip)
“What really surprised me today is the continued cluelessness of even the somewhat enlightened, celebrated thinkers out there.”
Link to follow.
Link …
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/07/13/people-just-want-to-kill-the-status-quo-thoughts-on-trumps-surge-in-swing-states/
The natives are restless…
Combo - this……
https://straightlinelogic.com/2016/07/12/bring-it-on-by-robert-gore/
Wonder how French taxpayers feel about paying $10K a month for their “socialist” president’s hair stylist.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/14/world/europe/hollande-hairdresser-france.html?_r=0
When is this global “stimulus” binge ever going to end?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-14/bank-of-england-signals-august-stimulus-as-rate-kept-at-0-5
With all these ghost cities and failed developments in China, I’m starting to want to temporarily live there and experience China on the cheaps. Maybe when their charade is up I can nab a “luxury” condo for $5,000, maybe have 4-5 “neighbors” in a 200 unit tower? I’d do it, but only if they promise a doorman, closing costs, and maybe some SS appliance upgrades. That $5,000 would be cheaper than a 1 week round trip to China heh
The Ugly American.
Wiki-up “The Ugly American” and, in part, you will get back this:
“In one vignette, a Burmese journalist says ‘For some reason, the [American] people I meet in my country are not the same as the ones I knew in the United States. A mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They are loud and
ostentatious.’”
The book “The Ugly American” helped shape the thinking that led to the creation of the Peace Corps.
FWIW and all that.
Hmm interesting. I’m a pretty social guy and go with the breeze when it comes to being in a different culture/country. The mainpoint was, how cheap will China development be when the rug is pulled out? Because even when our market inevitably implodes, the prices wont “crater” like some on here spout. You might see $400,000 houses selling for $200,000, but that’s still a lot of money.
I was thinking about the similarities of these empty towers and Manhattan or London.
A 50% decline still doesn’t get to long term historic price trend.
@CEO yes I understand that, but the moneychangers and by proxy the GOV will NEVER let prices sink to the “historic” trends, because that would lead to historic depression and/or riots that make BLM/All Lives Matter/Rage Day look like elementary school recess…
How will people have access to cash to spend on cars and college if they cant pull equity out of thin air? Definitely not by having a middle class job.
Then demand continues to crater. It is what it is. Neither control prices anyways.
‘will NEVER let prices sink’
I had a lot of posters here say the same thing in 2005.
It was a popular theme with the DebtDonkeys.
They sank only briefly. We were all expecting them to sink and stay down for a decade. This was absolutely not the case.
Duration matters none.
They sank only briefly. We were all expecting them to sink and stay down for a decade. This was absolutely not the case.
Agreed, I was really expecting a readjustment. Yeah, prices fell a bit. I recall how we discussed how banks were not foreclosing and letting deadbeats stay in the houses without making payments. Then there were the tax incentives to buy. And then the bubble began to reinflate and it was business as usual. Lather, rinse, repeat.
At some point the house of cards will collapse and there will be no bubble reinflation, but who knows when that will be? I fear that the insanity will still be continuing when I leave this mortal coil.
30% decline is just a bit. A 60% decline is just a couple bits.
Based on the Case Shiller data, prices fell to approximately the same inflation-adjusted trough as prior cycles.
However, this was comprised of more desirable markets falling less, and less desirable markets falling more.
Many markets that I track are still 25%+ below peak values on a nominal basis (not even adjusting for inflation).
38% down in the bay area. And I don’t think you reallly want to review CS charts.
Crow. It’s your delicacy.
Well, I certainly don’t want to review the nominal CS charts that you keep posting, but the inflation adjusted charts derived from the spreadsheets posted on Shiller’s website are interesting.
There is no inflation my friend. Median household income is the same today as it was in the year 2000.
Those are two separate statements:
First, “There is no inflation”
Not according to anyone who buys anything.
Second, “Median household income is the same today as it was in the year 2000.”
Here is the “real” (inflation adjusted data):
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA672N
Median Household Income is lower on a real basis: $57,724 per household in 2000 to $53,657 in 2014.
Here is the nominal data:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEHOINUSA646N
2000: $41,990
2014: $53,657
Looks like incomes are rising, but just not fast enough to keep up with inflation.
Rising income is the definition of inflation my friend.
I’ve seen some ugly Americans in my time, but also plenty who are not ugly. A friend of mine moved to Brazil after a divorce and essentially went native — he learned Portuguese, and married a Brazilian woman. And at least in Asia, I imagine that part of the isolation is the language barrier, which is extreme. How many Americans speak Burmese?
Interestingly, my wife notices a change in some Colombians when they come to the U.S. In her judgment, they become more loud and ostentatious, as soon as they step off the plane in Miami.
Just look at the difference between a 1st gen and 2nd gen American. Many of my friend’s whose mothers were Navy wives from the Philippines grew up to be loud, spoiled, entitled brats/ Their mothers were mild mannered, good moms/wives, and didn’t take the middle class life for granted.
Just go to most campgrounds and you’ll see the same thing, lately.
Just LOOKING at a full campground overrun with blasting stereos and screaming brats makes my trigger finger itchy.
Free, dispersed camping is the way to go. Or better yet, if practical, backpack into the boonies and camp there.
Dry camping in National Forest or National Parks is often quiet and subdued. The lack of 120 power keeps the BudLight ATV crowd at a distance.
They’ll drive their RVs (sometimes a whole convoy of them with Texas plates) as high as they can get.
High clearance and short wheelbase is the only way to escape them.
The lack of 120 power keeps the BudLight ATV crowd at a distance.
That’s only the amateurs. Experienced campers bring Honda generators and enough gas to keep the party going all night long.
“…where are the buyers in the current market conditions?”
A cry of despair to be heard with growing desperation during the upcoming bubble unwind period…
“…where are the buyers in the current market conditions?”
Poof.
If the price rise is what sucks buyers in then the price had better keep on rising else the buyers will go poof.
A price rise will begat a price rise until it doesn’t.
Q. After a price stops rising what do you call buyers who bought because of the price rise?
A. Sellers.
Sellers to … sellers to whom?
Knifecatchers? Who else?
I always wonder why Realhores don’t own 3 or 4 pieces of property? If the market is so hot and nows the time as they always say, why do they have 1 house with a history of 2 refis? You’d think they’d hop on those unreal deals and cheap rates.
Back in 2004-06, many did, at least in Florida. Socially, that period also was the heyday of the mortgage broker/real estate agent marriage.
I knew a few who bought rental property before the previous crash.
I also knew a lady who was a college prof. She and hubby owned a rental and I got to hear often what a royal headache it was for them. This was around 2005. I haven’t seen her in years, so I don’t know if they still own it.
I’m a buyer. I’ve got a good credit score, good employment, a healthy DP that grows every month……..just bring the prices to more realistic levels and I’ll buy a house.
But if prices drop it breaks the illusion of a healthy economy…How will people have access to cash if their home value drops? Ha.
A high credit score means you’ve paid a ton of interest to the bank. Don’t be a Debt Donkey®.
Yeah it means you’re “winning” the debt hamster wheel competition.
My auto insurer specifically cites lack of mortgage loan in my credit file as a factor in determining premiums. Sickening.
Hmmm, BoE announces rate cut, Fed Reserve releasing beige book (more stagnant news), South China sea ruling (illegal expansion), and Gold/silver is dropping? Makes sense.
What’s next rising home prices in London?
Speaking of failed real estate developments, here is the first news story I heard when I turned on the news this morning:
Investors In Donald Trump’s Failed Mexico Resort Speak Out
Thursday, July 14, 2016
By Jean Guerrero
Sylvia Villavicencio and Mike Rodriguez enjoy the view of the ocean from their Tijuana condominium, April 8, 2016.
On her 65th birthday last year, Sylvia Villavicencio — once a Donald Trump devotee — pummeled a Mexican piñata of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Her guests poked out the eyes and tore off the legs.
“We wanted to express our feelings and vent our anger,” said her husband, Mike Rodriguez, a retired real estate builder. They live in Madera, in California’s Central Valley.
The couple is unlike most buyers of Trump piñatas, which have found a market on both sides of the border since Trump’s political rise. They dislike him not because of his hard-line immigration policy proposals or his remarks about minorities, although those have added fuel. The root of their anger is a sense of profound, personal betrayal. They believe millions of Americans will soon experience it, too.
…
“It’s scary, you know? It’s very scary. There’s millions and millions of people that follow him and believe in him, just like we did,” Rodriguez said. “I was like the people who follow him now. I didn’t question anything he said or did, because he was Donald Trump.”
…
‘Sylvia Villavicencio pummeled a Mexican piñata…Her guests poked out the eyes and tore off the legs’
Sounds a little unhinged.
So does this:
“I was like the people who follow him now. I didn’t question anything he said or did, because he was Donald Trump.”
I’m glad you brought this up, because I know a bit about these Trump condos. I was probably blogging about it at the time. So why don’t they sue him? Many have. The fact is Trump was usually selling his name and didn’t have anything to do with the projects. Now, we’ll have to let the voters decide about the decision to make some bucks selling ones name in the housing bubble (these angry people were going to get rich, don’t forget) relative to say, making millions giving speeches to Goldman Sachs, taking donations from Arab despots and corporations that are merchants of death. On that last point, let’s wander into the real world:
‘President Obama and NATO leaders signed on to the false narrative of a minding-its-own-business West getting sucker-punched by a bunch of Russian meanies, a storyline that suggests insanity or lies, reports Robert Parry.’
‘It’s unnerving to realize that the NATO alliance – bristling with an unprecedented array of weapons including a vast nuclear arsenal – has lost its collective mind. Perhaps it’s more reassuring to think that NATO simply feels compelled to publicly embrace its deceptive “strategic communications” so gullible Western citizens will be kept believing its lies are truth.’
‘But here were the leaders of major Western “democracies” lining up to endorse a Warsaw Summit Communiqué condemning “Russia’s aggressive actions” while knowing that these claims were unsupported by their own intelligence agencies.’
‘But there have been a few moments when the truth has surfaced. For instance, in the days leading up to the just-completed NATO summit in Warsaw, General Petr Pavel, chairman of the NATO Military Committee, divulged that the deployment of NATO military battalions in the Baltic states was a political, rather than military, act.’
“It is not the aim of NATO to create a military barrier against broad-scale Russian aggression, because such aggression is not on the agenda and no intelligence assessment suggests such a thing,” Pavel told a news conference.’
‘What Pavel blurted out was what I have been told by intelligence sources over the past two-plus years – that the endless drumbeat of Western media reports about “Russian aggression” results from a clever demonization campaign against Putin and a classic Washington “group think” rather than from a careful intelligence analysis.’
‘Ironically, however, just days after the release of the British Chilcot report documenting how a similar propaganda campaign led the world into the disastrous Iraq War – with its deadly consequences still reverberating through a destabilized Mideast and into an unnerved Europe – NATO reenacts the basic failure of that earlier catastrophe, except now upping the ante into a confrontation with nuclear-armed Russia.’
‘In the up-is-down world that NATO and other Western agencies now inhabit, Russia’s military maneuvers within it own borders in reaction to NATO maneuvers along Russia’s borders are “provocative.” So, too, is Russia’s support for the internationally recognized government of Syria, which is under attack from Islamic terrorists and other armed rebels supported by the West’s Mideast allies, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and NATO member Turkey.’
‘In other words, it is entirely all right for NATO and its members to invade countries at will, including Iraq, Libya and Syria, and subvert others as happened in Ukraine and is still happening in Syria. But it is impermissible for any government outside of NATO to respond or even defend itself. To do so amounts to a provocation against NATO – and such hypocrisy is accepted by the West’s mainstream news media as the way that the world was meant to be.’
‘And those of us who dare point out the lies and double standards must be “Moscow stooges,” just as those of us who dared question the Iraq WMD tales were dismissed as “Saddam apologists” in 2003.’
So here we have a clear difference; Clinton takes the neocon position and wants head choppers in Syria (which she helped regime change into civil war, like Libya) and WW3 with Russia. Trump disavows regime change, wants to work with Russia to wipe out the head choppers and to avoid WW3.
Seems a little more important than angry FB’s sticking their thumbs in the eyes of a pinata.
I’ll repeat something I’ve said before:
A close family friend is a native of West Africa (now US citizen), but still has close ties to family and friends in Africa. In her view, letting Libya fall is going to be MUCH worse than what happened in Iraq.
Apparently Qaddafi shared the oil wealth so much with any actual Libyans that they hired workers from other countries to do work that they didn’t want to do (painting, plumbing, etc.), and those workers were paid so much more than in their home country, that they would leave home, work in Libya, and send a lot of money back home.
So, when Libya fell, there became a HUGE number of working-age, African men who lost the ability to support their families back home. And in desperation, many turned to crime.
The whole e-mail situation goes directly to what we’ve known about the Clintons for decades…they obfuscate the truth.
HRCs position on Libya is taking a back seat, but in my friend’s opinion (certainly a reasoned and experienced opinion) , her position on Libya is a sign of very poor judgement.
Hillary Clinton Has No Regrets About Libya | Foreign Policy
foreignpolicy.com/…/hillary-clinton-has-no-regrets-about-…
Foreign Policy
Apr 14, 2016 - Hillary Clinton Has No Regrets About Libya. The intervention didn’t go according to plan. But the Democratic front-runner doesn’t think …
2016 Democratic debate: Hillary Clinton blames President Obama for …
http://www.politico.com/…/hillary-clinton-blames-obama-for-libya-syri...
Politico
Apr 14, 2016 - Clinton blames Obama for Libya, Syria messes … Hillary Clinton sought to shift blame for the messes in Libya and Syria Thursday, suggesting ..
Hillary Clinton Defends Intervention in Libya - The Atlantic
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/…/10/hillary…libya/410437/
The Atlantic
Oct 14, 2015 - Hillary Defends Her Failed War in Libya. Few even noticed the weakest moment in the Democratic frontrunner’s debate. Mike Blake / Reuters …
How Hillary Clinton Lied Her Way to War in Libya | Analysis | teleSUR …
http://www.telesurtv.net/…/How-Hillary-Clinton-Lied-Her-Way-to-W...
TeleSUR
Mar 18, 2016 - Declassified emails released in January and February reveal that Hillary Clinton was one of the main instruments in spreading chaos and …
“Trump disavows regime change, wants to work with Russia to wipe out the head choppers and to avoid WW3.”
I must be politically tone deaf, because amidst all the din created by Trump being Trump, I have a very difficult time discerning these policy positions of which you speak.
One can’t make a horse drink.
Sorry I’m not all that keen on either of the candidate choices this year. It’s my prerogative as an American voter to vote for a non-Republicrat candidate, or no candidate, and I fully intend to exercise it.
Selfish Hoarder = WIN
“So here we have a clear difference; Clinton takes the neocon position and wants head choppers in Syria (which she helped regime change into civil war, like Libya) and WW3 with Russia. Trump disavows regime change, wants to work with Russia to wipe out the head choppers and to avoid WW3.
Seems a little more important than angry FB’s sticking their thumbs in the eyes of a pinata.
“One can’t make a horse drink”
+1000
Is Trump really a billiionaire, or is he just a lion?
Tremendously Rich
Is Donald Trump Not Really a Billionaire?
The Republican’s recent moves suggest he has something to hide.
By Tina Nguyen
May 31, 2016 5:08 pm
The longer that Donald Trump refuses to release his tax returns, the more speculation grows that he has something to hide. And the 104-page financial-disclosure form that Trump recently filed with the Federal Election Commission, which he released in lieu of a more detailed 1040 form, is doing little to quiet the rumors that the self-proclaimed billionaire may not be as rich as he portrays himself to be.
…
Of course he isn’t. How can one expect him to be with a handful of “strategic” bankruptcies, a handful of failed casinos, some failed golf course deals. I bet he’s worth $500 million at most due to his property assets.
“And the 104-page financial-disclosure form that Trump recently filed with the Federal Election Commission, which he released in lieu of a more detailed 1040 form”
The 1040 deals with income. If an asset doesn’t generate income, like, say stock in Google, it doesn’t show up on the 1040. The the FEC disclosure will disclose ownership of Google.
Even if a stock holding generates income, the detail of which stock you own is in the 1099, not even on the IRS schedule.
Also, the K-1s that Trump undoubtedly files with his tax return won’t show VALUE either…only income. And just because an asset doesn’t generate income, doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value.
The FEC disclosure is more detailed when it comes to net worth, the 1040 is more detailed when it comes to income.
Let’s not kid ourselves, people don’t want to see Trump’s 1040 so they can question his net worth–because the 1040 isn’t going to get them there. They want to see his 1040 so they can question how much he donates, who he donates to, and his overall tax rate. It’s a political witch-hunt.
That said, I don’t doubt for one second that Trump is picking the high end of a range when he is quoting his net worth. I just don’t see the guy as being conservative when it comes to bragging about the size of his balance sheet.
Bloomberg is the same way his company throws off a lot of cash and he donates 70-100 million a year which means he probably pays zero in taxes on the rest of the income…..rich people know giving it to the government is throwing down the drain, so why not give millions to the Met Opera or Museum of modern art or a new hospital wing?
The Wall Street Journal
MoneyBeat
The New Abnormal: Coping With Weirdness in Bonds
By Jason Zweig
July 14, 2016 12:14 a.m. ET
It’s weird, all right, but probably isn’t as weird as you think.
Measured before inflation, interest rates have never been so low in so much of the world.
On July 5, the day after the U.S.’s 240th birthday, the yield on 10-year Treasury debt fell below 1.4% for the first time in the nation’s history.
World-wide, $13 trillion in debt is yielding less than zero; in “normal” times, when those bonds might have yielded 3% or so, investors would have earned roughly $400 billion on them annually. Now, investors are spending, rather than earning, tens of billions of dollars a year to hold those bonds—much as you might pay a storage company to keep your heirlooms safe for you.
However, this is far from the first time that interest rates have gone negative—once you account for inflation to measure what economists call “real” rates. Adjusted for changes in the cost of living, the yield on Treasury bills was negative in 18 out of the 27 years between 1933 and 1959. Over the same period, intermediate-term Treasurys had negative real yields in 15 years. In the 1940s and again in the 1970s, negative real rates were common world-wide.
Nor is this the first time stocks have hit records amid negative rates. In 1958, short-term Treasury bills yielded minus 0.2% after inflation. Stocks nevertheless rose 43.4% that year to reach what then were all-time highs.
None of this means there is nothing to worry about. Returns on stocks and bonds are almost certain to shrink, and investors all around you are likely to take reckless risks as they become increasingly desperate for income. In a world turned upside down, sanity will be your most valuable asset as an investor.
Today’s yield drought is “unprecedented in our lives and limited experience, but it’s not at all unprecedented in history,” says Thomas Coleman, a former hedge-fund manager who runs the Center for Economic Policy at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. “What’s fundamentally different now is that we have negative real rates without high and unexpected inflation.”
In other words, earning nothing on your bonds isn’t the result of sudden shocks from inflation, as it was in the 1970s. It is the deliberate result of central-bank policies that have failed to produce inflation.
…
“In a world turned upside down, sanity will be your most valuable asset as an investor.”
Your next most valuable asset will be cash.
“Today’s yield drought is ‘unprecedented in our lives and limited experience, but it’s not at all unprecedented in history,’ says Thomas Coleman, a former hedge-fund manager who runs the Center for Economic Policy at the University of Chicago’s Harris School of Public Policy. ‘What’s fundamentally different now is that we have negative real rates without high and unexpected inflation.’”
Negative rates during times of inflation generates cash. Not so when negative rates aren’t coupled with inflation.
“Negative rates” should be “negative real rates.”
GET READY
Low interest rates are about to really mess with America’s baby boomers
A salesman waits for customers in the showroom at the Boston Harley Davidson dealership in Everett, Massachusetts December 3, 2011. Harley Davidson Inc, often dubbed as an exclusive brand for well-heeled baby boomers, is gaining momentum on one of its lengthier and more elusive pursuits: luring young U.S. buyers.
Picture taken December 3, 2011. To match HARLEY/(ANALYSIS) REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Tough road ahead. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Written by Allison Schrager
6 hours ago
Boomers in America have had it pretty good. They were born in a time of economic hope and growing prosperity. They paid cheap tuition and faced a job market that didn’t require a college degree. Real GDP growth averaged nearly 3% during their working years. This translated stable career and a healthy stock market in which to park their savings. If they invested $10,000 in a broad stock market index fund in 1971 they’d have $140,000 today, after adjusting for inflation.
Even Social Security, talked about for decades now as a broken system, isn’t estimated to run short until 2034, just when many boomers will have made their exit.
It seemed like they timed it all perfectly—that is, until last week, when interest rates fell to record lows.
Rates have been trending down for the last 20 years. Many people expected them to go back up, or at least assumed they couldn’t go lower. But in some countries, the entire yield curve is negative. And following the UK’s Brexit vote and the additional economic uncertainty it brought to the scene, it appears low rates will be around for a long time.
Low interest rates come at the wrong time for baby boomers, who are in their peak wealth years and are getting a low return on their savings. For once it seems the economy is favoring younger generations. Gen-Xers and millennials are in their peak debt years (between student loans and mortgages) and benefit from low rates. No wonder young Americans have higher levels of consumer confidence than their parents.
It’s not just a low return to saving that harms boomers. Low rates mean a more expensive retirement.
About 10,000 boomers retire each day. Once you reach the transition from earning and saving to spending, it is often wise de-risk your portfolio, by shifting your assets into bonds, for example. After retirement, when you have fewer sources of income, you are more vulnerable to swings in the stock market. That makes fixed-income products a safer bet.
But bonds and annuities are more expensive when yields are low. Suppose you bought a 20-year fixed nominal annuity (even if you don’t actually buy an annuity, it is a good estimate of the cost of predictable retirement consumption). In 1996, $1 million in savings would’ve bought about $83,000 a year in income. That same annuity would’ve cost you $1.47 million last week.
The 20-year decline in interest rates is the equivalent of losing one third of your wealth. And the low rates undermine all those years of great stock returns.
Buttonwood
Slow suffocation
The financial system isn’t designed to cope with low or negative rates
Jul 16th 2016 | From the print edition
Timekeeper
EVERY time commentators say that bond yields cannot go any lower, the markets take delight in proving them wrong. After Britain’s shock decision to leave the European Union, yields dropped again: the income on ten-year Treasury bonds reached a record low, and German and Japanese yields headed further into negative territory (see chart). The prospect that monetary policy would remain accommodating also helped shares on Wall Street reach new highs.
Interest rates are the oil in the financial system’s engine, helping capital to flow from one area to another. There is a reason that rates have been positive for the past three centuries, despite world wars and the Depression. The system isn’t designed for a world of ultra-low, let alone negative, rates.
…
In a way, each sector’s problem is a manifestation of the same phenomenon. Short-term interest rates and government-bond yields are the risk-free rates that form the basis of all financial returns. The expected return on equities comprises the risk-free rate plus a premium to allow for the volatility of the stockmarket and the risk of capital loss. A good chunk of the income of financial-services companies is the “cut” they take out of these returns. Now there is simply less return to share around.
The irony is that low rates were initially devised as a policy to save the financial sector, and through the mechanism of higher lending, the rest of the economy. Many voters protested about the bailing out of the very institutions that caused the crisis. Those protesters can take only cold comfort that the same policies are now slowly suffocating the industry.
Paying off an overpriced house for 30 years is worse than being shot by a police officer during a routine traffic stop.
Speaking of which, where did all the Tasers go?!?!?
And who knew the Dallas police would have a pound of plastic explosives sitting around?
The 9/11 commission
DYNOMIIIIIIITE!!!!
Jimmy Walker.
And who knew the Dallas police would have a pound of plastic explosives sitting around?
Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows.
While we all agree that overpaying for a house is a very bad thing to do I find it absurd to say that it’s worse than being shot dead by a trigger happy cop.
It depends where the shot goes. Getting shot in the chest must be a lot worse than getting shot in the foot.
The operative word is “dead”. I don’t care whether I’m shot in the foot, leg, hand, or chest if the result is that I’m dead.
Think of it this way. If you survive you stand to get a BIG settlement.
Sarc/
Illinois Seeks to Shut Down State Obamacare Insurer; 49,000 to Lose Insurance
“It’s a bad day for the marketplace in Illinois and our consumers”
Ameet Sachdev | Chicago Tribune - July 14, 2016
Plan is functioning perfectly…..welcome to Single Payer (Public Option) as Killary is already floating. The republicans are also in on the scam too.
Bingo. NPR had a story this morning about mental health providers in SFO only taking cash because the reimbursement rate from the providers is 1/3 of what they can get otherwise.
It isn’t just mental health. A lot of MDs are going to cash as well. Maybe it will work out the other way, with a single payer system nobody uses and a parallel cash system with prices that are actually marked driven.
In that case, you’ll be paying twice. Single payer systems are funded via taxation and you can bet there won’t be an opt out option.
And Obama is pleading his case for a Govt insurance policy to “compete”. Ha. Unlimited money competing against for profit businesses?
I worked for a company that would rebill insurance companies after the bill was paid…correcting incorrect payments from insurance companies.
The job entailed reviewing contracts with insurance companies, and going through lots of data with respect to health records.
The BIG eye opener for me was that Medicare pays the hospitals substantially less than insurance companies for the same procedures.
And we all know that hospitals don’t make a lot of money.
In essence, cash payers supplement beneficial rates that private insurance companies negotiate, and private insurance companies supplement what Medicare pays.
If every payment to doctors and hospitals turned into medicare reimbursements tomorrow, all medical providers would go bankrupt.
Everyone likes to say “Medicare is very efficient, and if we changed to Medicare for all, it would be great.”
Medicare is efficient because they calculate efficiency by the number of dollars going to care as it relates to the cost of overhead. So, if you have one guy administering the program, and not questioning any procedure/medication (just authorizing every reimbursement with a blindfold on), they call this “efficient”!
Before we go this route, I’d like to pass one law, and one law only:
1. If you provide medical care, you must charge all patients the same price for the same products, regardless of the source of the money.
No longer would large insurance companies have such market power that they could dictate terms to hospitals. Small insurance companies could compete, driving down profit margins across the sector. People without insurance would pay the same as Blue Cross. Medicare would actually need to pay a fair price, etc.
I wouldn’t bring out the champagne just yet. The insurance companies are not going to go away without a fight.
My comment from yesterday……
Comment by rj soon not to be in chicago
2016-07-13 09:43:28
ruh roh….another one bites the dust…..
And to think that my employer SERIOUSLY thought about foisting us employees onto this train wreck during re-up last fall…..outrageous.
And they are wondering why I quit.
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/illinois-moves-shut-failing-insurance-op-40531933?yptr=yahoo
“Land of Lincoln is a nonprofit co-op, one of 23 established under the Affordable Care Act. Nationwide, more than a dozen of the original co-ops have closed.”
The list so far…..
A list of all failed co-ops and their cost to taxpayers compiled by the House Energy and Commerce Committee is found below:
CoOportunity Health - Iowa and Nebraska
Cost: $145,312,100
Louisiana Health Cooperative, Inc.
Cost: $65,790,660
Nevada Health Cooperative
Cost: $65,925,396
Health Republic Insurance of New York
Cost: $265,133,000
Kentucky Health Care Cooperative - Kentucky and West Virginia
Cost: $146,494,772
Community Health Alliance Mutual Insurance Company - Tennessee
Cost: $73,306,700
Colorado HealthOp
Cost: $72,335,129
Health Republic Insurance of Oregon
Cost: $60,648,505
Consumers’ Choice Health Insurance Company - South Carolina
Cost: $87,578,208
Arches Mutual Insurance Company – Utah
Cost: $89,650,303
Meritus Health Partners – Arizona
Cost: $93,313,233
Consumers Mutual Insurance – Michigan
Cost: $71,534,300
InHealth Mutual – Ohio
Cost: $129,225,604
HealthyCT – Connecticut
Cost: $127,980,768
Oregon Health’s CO-OP – Oregon
Cost: $56,656,900
Land of Lincoln Health – Illinois
Cost: $160,154,812
TOTAL TAXPAYER DOLLARS: $1,711,040,390
Exotic vacations, borrowing money from parents to buy rentals, fifth wheels on loan, boats and millionaire lifestyle that would make a millionaire blush. All this on dumb, borrowed money.
These are the signs I see of late that we are in a bubble again.
I have to say, I’m seeing a lot of shiny new F-350’s on the road lately.
‘Low interest rates and higher home values have more Tucsonans taking out loans against their houses — a move mortgage lenders and financial planners warn can be risky. Paul Volpe, senior vice president of Tucson-based Nova Home Loans, said the last two months have been the busiest for refinancing in almost 10 years. Debt consolidation and home improvement are the biggest reasons cited for the refinancing, Volpe said, but several customers are looking for cash to buy new cars. ‘People are calling to take cash out,’ he said.’
http://thehousingbubbleblog.com/?p=9685
1. Dumb ‘em down.
2. Profit.
Volpe said, but several customers are looking for cash to buy new cars. ‘People are calling to take cash out,’ he said.’
Yer complicit Mr Volpe. You clamor it’s risky, but then allow it. But then again he’s probably up to his eyeballs in debt too and can’t see the forest through the trees. You lost that 2008 feelin’
It’s the miracle of 84-month auto loans!!
“I have to say, I’m seeing a lot of shiny new F-350’s on the road lately.”
Which one the work truck for $34,900 the King Ranch with a base price of $56,630 or something in between?
Aluminum-Body 2017 Ford F-350 Super Duty Adds at Least $425 to Base Price
May 12, 2016 at 5:57 pm by Greg Fink
Ford F-350 Super Duty XL Regular Cab, $34,900: Like its F-250 stablemate, the base F-350 Super Duty comes with a single cab and an 8.0-foot bed. Single rear wheels are standard,
Ford F-350 Super Duty XL Regular Cab, $34,900:
Ford F-350 Super Duty XL SuperCab, $37,240:
Ford F-350 Super Duty XL Crew Cab, $38,500:
Ford F-350 Super Duty XLT Regular Cab, $39,115:
Ford F-350 Super Duty XLT SuperCab, $41,775
Ford F-350 Super Duty XLT Crew Cab, $43,605
Ford F-350 Super Duty Lariat SuperCab, $46,300:
Ford F-350 Super Duty Lariat Crew Cab, $49,800
Ford F-350 Super Duty King Ranch Crew Cab, $56,630: Add $2960 for the King Ranch Ultimate package, which includes a twin-panel sunroof, multi-contour seats, power-deployable running boards, a tailgate step and handle, LED headlights and taillights, LED fog lamps, and an LED CHMSL, plus blind-spot monitoring and cross-traffic alert. Choosing the larger bed will set buyers back $205 on rear-wheel-drive trucks and $195 on four-wheel-drive models, while four-wheel drive is $3195 on short-bed trucks and $3185 on long-bed non-dualie models. Dualie King Ranch F-350s are long bed only and add $1680 to the base price. Opting for four-wheel drive requires tacking on another $3195.
Father’s Old Rebuilt Dodge
Don’t worry about them, their losses when the bubble bursts will be socialized and we will be paying for them. The gubment will make us because majority voters will make it so.
I have not listened to closely but there is a 30-something over-confident flipper or renovator at the gym in the mornings talking $hit on the phone with his contractors several times a week in O.C. I hear bits and pieces to know enough that’s what he’s doing. It’s very bubbly here still, though in Irvine there are lots of apartment complexes being built.
what kinda quality of life is it to live in a large apartment complex full of Chinese taking your parking spot if not home by 6pm?
Id rather live in Golden, CO and work at Home Depot.
Does it matter what kind of people are taking the parking places if you can’t get one?
“Three Red Flags That US Housing Is Starting To Roll Over”
http://zerohedge.com/news/2016-07-14/three-red-flags-us-housing-starting-roll-over#comment-7825379
A day late and a dollar short but noteworthy.
Blomquist expects the fecal matter will hit the blades in a year or two, not a month or two. Still time for you to flip!
Let it crater, then buy later for 65% less. Rent in the meanwhile.
Coming your way soon: Affordable gasoline prices.
Does This Estimate Suggest We Are Heading For $30 Oil?
By Charles Kennedy - Jul 14, 2016, 11:22 AM CDT U.S. oil patch
Crude oil and refined products are once again begin stored on tankers floating at sea, a sign that the two-year oil glut is far from over.
Short-term floating storage is now at its highest level since 2009, the International Energy Agency said in its July Oil Market Report. Bloomberg echoed that conclusion, finding that 9 million barrels of crude oil were floating off of the coast of the UK in the North Sea in June, a sharp jump from 7 million barrels in May. Three traders who asked not to be identified told Bloomberg that the cargoes will probably sit anchored offshore for quite a while because of weak demand in Europe. One cargo has been sitting there since April 23.
Altogether, the IEA estimates that about 95 million barrels of oil are sitting in floating storage, the highest level since a wide contango opened up in the aftermath of the financial crisis in 2008-2009, which led to oil traders stashing oil at sea.
But the IEA said that the current floating storage predicament is different from the situation in 2009 when oil traders were hoping to store a glut of oil for a profit at a later point in time. The IEA says that the market contango does not support floating storage today – the price differential between near-term contracts, while trading at a discount to futures one year out, is not wide enough to justify storing oil at sea. Instead, oil and refined products such as gasoline and diesel are being stored on tankers because of logistical problems. In addition to the North Sea, the IEA cited a recent backup of gasoline tankers at New York harbor because onshore storage facilities were mostly already in use.
The rising use of floating storage proves that the market is far from balanced, even if it is moving in the right direction. The IEA warned in its report that a gasoline glut could force another oil price rout, and the presence of floating storage also demonstrates that there is still too much oil on the global market.
The rise back to $45-50/bbl of crude was unjustified. Remember how quickly gasoline went up in March? In a matter of 2-3 weeks it seemed to jump $0.50/gal in my town, all the while news of the supply glut was all over the place. Supply and demand my @$$
Keeping up with the Jones is expensive and a waste of time.
With the new highs and looser credit I’m finding it necessary to pull some marginal friendship plugs. Lot’s of bragging about new this and that. Conversations getting shallow again like the first go around in 2005- 2006.
Just brag back to them about how much you have saved and how you’re debt free.
“Just brag back to them about how much you have saved and how you’re debt free.”
The three kings: Cash in your brokerage account, physical precious metals, and crypto currency. When you are debt free you stack it all up so you can buy at 50% or more discount.
geesh - government hates us renters.
All the Jones’ here are currently out at lunch, $11 per head. My tuna sammich and grapefruit is less than half that. And the coffee is free. I have so much money after paying rent and brown bagging that I have to throw it in my brokerage account and dream for a stock market crash so I can buy stocks when they are cheap.
TRUTH. Preach it all you selfish hoarders!
Central Banks are manipulating the markets.
It’s a great time to sell on the high!
How’s this for an RE gimmick:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v408/csskalet/2016%20Uploads/Capture_zpsfn2xbr34.jpg
Going up to Idaho, Eastern Washington, Northern California, Reno, Pahrump and other great retirement towns.
Must know about water quality, transportation, medical proximity, safety, off the beaten track, not so beaten, its …
my ideas: living on the Bench in Boise, small town feeling with a good airport and decent weather. Or Santa Fe NM if you dont have kids. No to Reno. No to Spokane
I’m looking at Sand Point, but there are a number of small cities up there that are absolute heaven on Earth.
Maybe I’ll have to stay close to California, so that makes it very tricky.
The “safety” of the boonies is a myth. Cities bus welfare types to small towns. My small town I lived in 20 years ago got dumped on. Graffiti was then a big thing going on.
If not for criminals the other thing you watch out for is how long it takes emergency vehicles to get to your place. Forget the police - you provide your own protection with firearms. I’m referring to medical emergencies. You fall on a knife and need help stat.
Retirement is one thing but you gotta remember as a retired person you will still want to be around young people - waiters, waitresses, handymen, medical people, other services. Or how about a community full of grumpy older people - not my cup of tea, watching hearses drive by on a weekly basis.
Fremont(Seattle), WA Housing Prices Crater 6% YoY As Housing Demand Evaporates
http://www.zillow.com/fremont-seattle-wa/home-values/
Trump’s VP, 12 yrs of work, bills of his that passed: ZERO
lucky us!
“bills of his that passed: ZERO.”
What’s not to like? You want more rules and regulations on top of the 50,000 ones the criminals in Congress already imposed on us?
so we pay them to do nothing and that is good?
how about bills to fix obamacare? fix the cheating? fix too big to fail?
fix…fix fix…
Fix means Obama veto.
You CANNOT be this stupid!
Obama wouldn’t veto something that would improve Obamacare. That doesn’t make sense.
keep working on it…. we dont drive steam engine cars ya know.
“keep working on it…. we dont drive steam engine cars ya know.”
You’re right, we completely got rid of steam engines.
“Obama wouldn’t veto something that would improve Obamacare. That doesn’t make sense.”
Well, that would assume that his idea of what would improve it meshed with what was proposed. Remember, he didn’t think there was anything wrong with it as written in the first place.
Well, that would assume that his idea of what would improve it meshed with what was proposed.
Yeah, that was my point. Butters has his idea of what fix might be and it’s the opposite of whatever the president might prefer.
He will however, look very GOP-ish, eating a corn dog at the fair.
We need to have the FED buy more treasuries so we can all get massive stimulus checks and buy imports. Basically we get stuff for nothing. Its great to be top dog!
Events in Nice will guarantee at least a 10% rise in stocks and home prices.
Another sad night in France. Didn’t have to be this way.
I was having the same thoughts: How much more money is about to plow into super-safe sovereign debt at low or negative yields, and how much will stocks go up as a result?
Ca needs to lobby for more grants from the printed cash of yellen to send out more checks for principal reductions.
The higher home prices go the more they need to borrow in the next collapse of over inflated house prices.
whatever happened to working to pay for stuff? Now we just rely on capital gains from stocks and homes. Its like u just sit back and watch the cash roll in.
Now we just rely on capital gains from stocks and homes.
You forgot mention dividends from stocks. Fat cats have been doing it for a long time and no one ever complained.
but ya gotta sell it! most, just re-fi and then ride the slide.
‘George Osborne is brutally fired and shoved out the back door by new PM Theresa May. Former Chancellor left humiliated as new Prime Minister kicks him out of Government during speedy reshuffle of the Cabinet.’
‘And experts said the move would delight pro-Leave Tory MPs furious with the Chancellor for his Project Fear scaremongering during the Referendum campaign. His threat of a Brexit ‘Punishment’ Budget last month triggered an astonishing rebellion from 65 pro-Leave Tory MPs. And he enraged Cabinet colleagues by enlisting the support of the IMF and German Ministers to the Remain cause.’
‘Arch Brexiteer Andrew Bridgen added: “Theresa May’s decision to remove George Osborne gives me great confidence that she can make tough decisions, and in my opinion the right one. George Osborne had become toxic to a large part of the country.”
‘The sacking delighted some backbench Tory MPs. Outspoken Nadine Dorries MP tweeted: “The posh boys have gone. It’s over.”
What an A-hole:
‘his Project Fear scaremongering during the Referendum campaign… threat of a Brexit ‘Punishment’ Budget last mont…he enraged Cabinet colleagues by enlisting the support of the IMF and German Ministers to the Remain cause’
The liars are seething with CraterRage.
But muh betters assure this is like unpossible and stuff:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/jul/14/nice-bastille-day-france-attack-promenade-des-anglais-vehicle
7 years of Obama, and this is what you get.
Sigh, Forward…
What is it going to be like over there in a little while with all those new “refugees” piled in?
This is a Barack Hussein Obama narrative designed to deflect attention away from Francois Hollande’s hair care expenses.
Globalists gonna globe.
Coppell, TX Housing Prices Plunge 11% YoY On Billowing Housing Inventory
http://www.zillow.com/coppell-tx/home-values/
It’s Current Year.
Welcome to “The Narrative” whether you like it or not.
<3 — another Narrator
Should borrowing stupid qualify you for debt forgiveness? Seems like a great recipe for adverse selection.
Come to think of it, government-guaranteed subprime mortgage lending has exactly the same effect.
Class action lawsuit seeks college loan forgiveness for thousands of students
By Jillian Berman
Published: July 14, 2016 4:23 p.m. ET
Advocates seek compensation for former Corinthian students
Public Counsel
Debbie Terrell is a former Corinthian student seeking relief.
Former students of a defunct for-profit college shouldn’t be held liable for some of the private loans they took out to attend the school, a lawsuit filed Thursday claims.
The suit, which lawyers are filing as a class action on behalf of former students of Corinthian Colleges, alleges that three of the companies who bought, held or collected on private loans backed by Corinthian knew they were predatory and should therefore stop collecting on them.
“They cannot purchase debt that the students borrowed through false promises and then continue to collect on it,” said Anne Richardson, the directing attorney at Public Counsel’s Consumer Law Project and one of the lawyers representing the students. “It’s debt that the students should not have to pay back because there was deceit in getting the students to take on the debt to begin with.”
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A word to the wise:
People who load up on debt to buy expensive luxury items such as high-priced college educations, homes and automobiles are unlikely to have enough left over to afford even a basic vacation.
Economy
The middle class vacation squeeze
By Mitchell Hartman
July 14, 2016 | 6:11 PM
Sara Williams, 30, has not taken a vacation of one week or longer in more than five years.
She’s among those who participated in the Marketplace-Edison Research poll. She’s a military veteran married to a veteran; they both attended Colorado State University on the G-I bill. They have since settled down in Fort Collins — a cozy college town at the foothills of the Colorado Rockies. They both found jobs after graduating: she is an office administrator, he is a software engineer.
“We’ve never taken a trip just the two of us, anywhere,” said Williams. After their wedding, the couple couldn’t afford a honeymoon; then they bought a house—paying more than they originally budgeted. Next, their car broke down and they had to buy a new one.
“I think in a few years, once we get our student loans paid off and our car paid off, we’ll be able to start putting money towards that,” Williams said.”But there’s really not any extra to take vacation. We wouldn’t really be able to go anywhere.”
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The Financial Times
Brexit
Anger at JPMorgan’s ‘unhelpful’ Brexit warnings
Treasury presses UK banks not to speak about job losses
Large numbers of American bankers, lawyers and consultants come to Britain on short-term postings each year
yesterday
by: Martin Arnold and Laura Noonan
Senior bankers in London are growing frustrated with JPMorgan Chase’s public warnings that it may cut thousands of jobs in the UK, saying such remarks send an unhelpfully negative message.
The concerns come amid efforts by the Treasury to encourage international banks to paint a rosier picture of the City’s future in the aftermath of the UK’s referendum vote to leave the EU. The Treasury has separately urged British banks to refrain from public proclamations about any dire consequences from Brexit, people briefed on the discussions said.
Officials asked international banks to sign a “more optimistic” joint statement than the one eventually published last Thursday and said banks and the Treasury would “work together … to help London retain its position as the leading international financial centre”.
Banks resisted, arguing that they were “not cheerleaders”, one of the people present said. The Treasury declined to comment.
Large international banks based in London — who may lose the “passports” that allow them to offer services across the EU market with a UK licence — were very vocal in the run-up to the June 23 referendum about the catastrophic impact they said Brexit would have on UK financial sector jobs.
Most have been less forthcoming since. One notable exception is JPMorgan Chase chief executive Jamie Dimon, who has again raised the prospect of big job cuts in the UK, where the largest US bank by assets employs about 16,000 people.
One senior banker said Mr Dimon’s comments were “deeply unhelpful for our cause”. JPMorgan declined to comment.
…
Some of the things you don’t know about some of the people you knew is amazing.
She was a nurse at my High School who evidently retired the year I graduated.
Caroline Ducibella
Obituary
Caroline Teresa Ducibella, whose life was defined by her love of God, country and family, died July 7 in Stamford. A resident of Greenwich and Riverside for more than six decades, she was 100 years old.
Born in the Bronx to Sicilian immigrants who soon moved to Danbury, she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health and Nursing from New York University in 1934.
She enlisted in the Army during World War II and, three days after the D Day invasion at Normandy, was among those sent to shore to tend to the wounded. As with all things Caroline, there was an endearing story. She didn’t know how to swim, and her fellow nurses kept pulling her out from under the water. Six months later, she served at the Battle of the Bulge. A First Lieutenant, she served from 1943-46 then worked as a public health nurse for the town of Greenwich until her retirement in 1978. Her favorite memories happened at Greenwich High School with friend and guidance counselor Don Page and football coach Mike Ornato.
She possessed an unwavering faith in God, and attended daily Mass at St. Catherine of Siena in Riverside, where she served as a lay Eucharistic minister, taught Religious Education and sang in the choir.
Caroline is survived by a brother, James, and many, many adoring nieces and nephews, their spouses, great nieces and great nephews. She was preceded in death by her mother, father, sisters Lucy Besozzi, Antoinette and Mary Ducibella, and brothers Joseph, Charles, John and Salvatore.
- See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/greenwichtime/obituary.aspx?n=caroline-ducibella&pid=180657397#sthash.TWjSsvmn.dpuf
As Markets Reach New Highs, World’s Top Investors Ring Alarm
Sridhar Natarajan
Sabrina Willmer
Joseph Ciolli
July 14, 2016 — 8:37 AM PDT
Updated on July 14, 2016 — 9:49 AM PDT
An auctioneer speaks to potential bidders outside a home in Atlanta.
The big rally in stocks and bonds has some of the world’s top money managers putting up warning signs.
Laurence D. Fink and Howard Marks joined the likes of Bill Gross and Jeffrey Gundlach cautioning that buyers may be ignoring sluggish economic growth and Britain’s departure from the European Union as they look to put their money somewhere, anywhere, amid low interest rates.
“If we don’t see better than anticipated corporate earnings I think the rally will be short-lived,” Fink, 63, said in an interview Thursday.
A run-up in global stocks has added more than $4 trillion to the value of equities worldwide since June 27 on speculation central banks in major economies will boost stimulus. It’s been a swift turnaround from the doom-and-gloom surrounding global equities on June 24, the day after the British vote, when stocks lost $2.5 trillion in market value.
…
“…speculators may be over-inflating the market.”
Ya think!?
The Housing Market Is Waving a Red Flag
Third-party investors are making up an alarmingly high share of auction purchases, according to housing-data firm RealtyTrac
Michelle Jamrisko
July 14, 2016 — 5:27 AM PDT
Almost nine years after the housing-market bust helped trigger the most recent recession, RealtyTrac senior vice president Daren Blomquist sees the industry waving a red flag.
The same fervent speculation that abetted the housing bubble is showing up in the bloated share of foreclosures snapped up by third-party investors at auction — a record 31 percent in June, according to RealtyTrac data that starts in 2000.
Many of those third-party buyers are “mom and pop” investors with less experience, said Blomquist. At the same time, institutional investors, a subset of the third-party investors who purchase at least 10 properties a year, are ducking out of the market.
“It’s somewhat counterintuitive — as the market gets better and there are fewer foreclosures available, demand for those good deals, those bargains in the market goes up,” said Blomquist. “When you see this high percentage of the properties going to third-party investors, that is a sign that these speculators may be over-inflating the market.”
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