The Tsunami That Has Now Evaporated
Bloomberg reports on China. “New areas planned by China’s small cities could accommodate 3.4 billion people by 2030 — or almost half the world’s current population — a target that even Chinese state media calls problematic. A report by the National Development & Reform Commission, China’s central planning agency, found that small- and medium-sized cities were planning more than 3,500 new areas that could accommodate more than twice the country’s current population of 1.4 billion. The findings were detailed in an analysis by the official Xinhua News Agency, which criticized the planned new areas as unworkable: ‘Who’s going to live in them? That’s a problem,’ the piece said.”
From The Australian. “Stress is building from low levels across the housing market as more borrowers fall behind on mortgage payments, despite the lowest mortgage rates in a generation and price rises in many cities, according to new arrears data. And despite their sophisticated risk models, the major banks have more customers falling further behind than smaller lenders. For the seventh consecutive month, the number of home loans in arrears rose in May across ‘prime’ residential mortgage-backed securities, Standard & Poor’s said yesterday.”
“The ratings agency’s prime performance index, known as SPIN, rose to 1.21 per cent in May, from 1.14 per cent the previous month and 1.07 per cent a year earlier. It also showed the banks’ RMBS — securities backed by mortgages that lenders sell for funding — performed worse than non-banks, or institutions that do not take deposits. ‘Most of the increase in arrears for the month was in the more severe category of 90-plus days overdue. The larger upward movements were in the major banks and other bank categories, while nonbank financial institutions was the only sector to see a decline in arrears in May,’ S&P said.”
From News Talk ZB in New Zealand. “A property manager says the warning signs of Christchurch becoming a renter’s market were there 18 months ago. Landlords are having to drop their rents, and some are even offering free rent for the first week - with an oversupply of houses on the market. Brazier’s Property Management owner Tony Brazier said houses in new subdivisions are being bought as rentals - and that’s having a filter down effect right through the market.”
“‘Coming down from that, if you’re [looking for] a two bedroom flat and you can actually get a three bedroom house for the same price, then that’s what happens,’ he said. Brazier said already landlords are struggling to keep up with things like insulation, and that will get harder later on down the track. With rents dropping around the city, it could all prove too much. ‘If they haven’t kept up through the years then the costs of having to catch up may be too much for some of them,’ he said.”
The National on Dubai. “Villa and apartment prices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi fell between 4 per cent and 6 per cent during the second quarter compared to the same period last year as the economy slows amid softening oil prices, according to the property consultants Cavendish Maxwell. Banks are also still cautious when it comes to approving mortgages, exacerbating the slowdown.”
“‘Transaction activity is expected to remain muted during the third quarter, in line with past trends,’ said Manika Dhama, a research manager at Cavendish Maxwell. ‘Developers are promoting Ramadan-linked payment plans and the ‘affordable’ tag continues to be aimed at first-time buyers. However, this is unlikely to ramp up buying activity in the short term among this target segment given the restrictive mortgage-lending requirements and overall liquidity in the market.’”
“Declines were steeper in the second quarter in Dubai, where there is a bigger supply of real estate than Abu Dhabi. In the capital, property prices eased 4 per cent year-on-year. The consultancy said that house prices have been easing since the second quarter of 2014, when the price of oil began its descent. Since then, property prices in the country have dropped by 12 per cent. Rents have also declined by about the same amount as prices during the second quarter versus the first quarter, Cavendish Maxwell said. Drops, however, were most pronounced in certain high-end properties in Abu Dhabi such as Al Raha Beach because of job losses in the emirate’s energy industry.”
“London homebuilders are offering to pay sales taxes, gift 20,000 pounds ($26,800) of furniture and the chance to win a free parking space as Britain’s vote to leave the European Union damps demand. The U.K. capital’s housing market faces an oversupply of apartments that Londoners can’t afford and fewer landlords want after tax changes made owning real estate less attractive. Even before the vote, values were facing a ‘major shock’ as landlords offload properties after increases in levies and new lending rules reduced their returns to near zero, analysts at Deutsche Bank AG said a week before the referendum. Home prices fell 1.4 percent in May, the biggest monthly fall in about five years.”
“Pre-sales to Asian buyers, used by London developers to help raise construction finance, may not surge despite the fall in sterling since the vote. ‘I expected to see double the usual numbers of people turning up’ at a two-day property fair showcasing London homes in Hong Kong the weekend after the Brexit vote, ‘but it felt more like a normal exhibition,’ said Mimi Capas, head of international project marketing at Knight Frank LLP.”
The Khaleej Times. “Every social event, dinner, business meeting and strategy bull session I have attended since June 23 in Dubai has focused on sterling and London (and local) real estate. Investors in the UAE are shocked and unnerved by the trauma of Brexit, confused about its impact on sterling and London property, missold as a ’safe haven’ by so many brokers in town. A Pakistani friend told me he had bought two Nine Elms million-pound apartments as a ’safe haven.’ I did not have the heart to confess my conviction that Battersea projects are offplan leprosy that could well lose 80-90 per cent of their value.”
“From pied-à-terre in Edgeware Road to office leasing funds managed by Bahraini/DIFC/onshore Shariah-compliant banks, the Gulf has untold billions invested in London property. So what now? What next? London home prices, hideously expensive by any criteria, were a proxy for the tsunami of offshore global wealth creation that has now evaporated. Yet by any rational criteria of value, London is awfully overpriced relative to the rest of Britain and relative to UK income growth. There is no demand in Britian for 54,000 new multi-million pound flats sold as pieces of paper in hotel lobbies from Abu Dhabi to Hong Kong. Brexit is the catalyst for a property crash that has now begun.”
“The Russians, the Gulf Arabs, the Hong Kongers, the Malaysian Chinese, the (Benami) Indian oligarchs, the Pakistani (PMLN - dubbed the Panama Money Laundering Network by the media in my country!) money-mians are all gone. The party is over. Get set for ‘distress selling’ of Mayfair and Belgravia penthouses by cash strapped oligarchs. One of history’s great luxury home bubbles will unwind with Brexit - and ain’t no sunshine when the posh boys is gone and the white orangotang haunts the Foreign Office.”
“Do the math; the development pipeline is 14 million square feet. Sixty new projects launched since last October, twice credit bubble highs. Banking and finance is 40 per cent of office lease demand in London and the City is going to shed 100,000 jobs even before Brexit. One of my earliest, most traumatic memories in banking was watch my mates in Chase’s London dealing room get wiped out by the crash in London property just after the Kuwait war in 1991. If the plunge in sterling creates inflation, Threadneedle Street could even be forced to tighten monetary policy amid a recession. The macro tea leaves do not spell correction to me. They spell a full-blown office property crash.”
‘London’s best homes are proving a tough sell after the U.K. voted to leave the European Union. The number of prime properties sold in London in the 12 working days after the referendum fell 43 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to data compiled by researcher Lonres. The number of homes under offer dropped 25 percent.’
‘Home values across the capital were already being hurt before the vote, with prices decreasing 1.4 percent in May, the biggest monthly decline since June 2011, according to data compiled by Acadata Ltd. and LSL Property Services Plc. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors’ measure of London home-price changes last month fell to its weakest since the financial crisis.’
“Brexit or no Brexit, the high end of the London market was going to have a major correction and that’s going to happen now,” Sean Mulryan, the chairman of Ballymore Properties Ltd., said in an interview with Newstalk radio. The top end “had overheated two years ago,” he said. Ballymore is one of the city’s largest homebuilders.’
‘China’s Dalian Wanda Group’s 512-apartment Jewel project on Australia’s Gold Coast may be losing its shine after the company revealed that only 25 percent of apartments in the luxury condo complex have sold since the joint venture with fellow Chinese developer Ridong Group launched sales a year ago.’
‘The tepid results for the three tower, high-end condo project in the city of Surfer’s Paradise come as the conglomerate controlled by China’s richest man, Wang Jianlin, grapples with slowing revenues for its mainland operations.’
‘The project’s slow sales can be traced to ambitious pricing, sources said — although Wanda Ridong claimed the pace is appropriate for high end luxury homes. Local agents and sources close to the project were not as confident that the market would bend itself to Wanda Ridong’s expectations. The apartments at Jewel, priced between $1 million to $5 million, are twice as expensive as surrounding apartments, they said.’
‘Long one of China’s most aggressive cross-border investors, Wanda is also developing a luxury residential project on Sydney’s Circular Quay, and has several overseas developments in process in the US, Europe and other locations.’
‘Boosted in part by its pre-sales of apartments in London and Chicago, as well as in Australia, the group’s overseas revenue climbed to RMB17.7 billion ($2.68 billion) in the January-June period this year, up more than 78 percent compared to the same period in 2015.’
‘This offshore revenue will be badly needed as the company’s sales revenue from property sales in China declined to RMB 50.6 billion ($7.5 billion) in the January to June period — down 17.3 percent compared to the first six months of 2015.’
It’s probably intended to be occupied by only Asians and not enough Asians are there to take the bait.
I’ve been to a few places in California to look for rent a few years ago but was chased away by the Asian managers for not being Asian. Better to be in a place owned by a large corporation without xenophobes running things.
‘Agents in Perth’s outer suburbs are reporting more properties selling at below replacement costs as the new-build home supply remains high. Peard Real Estate agent Peggy Middelveld works in Perth’s north coastal strip and said it was becoming common to see homes sell for more than $20,000 below replacement.’
“It is a good opportunity for buyers to get a home that has been refurbished and updated for much less than what it would cost to build,” Ms Middelveld said. “They can move in in a month, often get a bigger block and, once prices start rising again, will see a bigger increase in value.”
‘Ms Middelveld said a greater number of homes were selling at less than their build cost in areas with a big number of house-and-land packages. “In some cases (the homes) are only a few years old,” she said.’
‘RE/MAX Extreme Butler sales agent Shaun Hayes said he had seen houses sell for $100,000 less than their replacement cost, creating a good opportunity for buyers.’
‘Earnshaws director Lindsay Earnshaw is based in the Perth Hills and said with builders competing for jobs, prices in the established-home market were being affected. “Homes that are more modern and less than 10 years old are taking the biggest hit,” he said. “We recently saw a Stoneville house that would cost about $950,000 to build sell for $850,000.”
‘Ms Middelveld said a greater number of homes were selling at less than their build cost in areas with a big number of house-and-land packages. ‘In some cases (the homes) are only a few years old’
‘For the seventh consecutive month, the number of home loans in arrears rose in May across ‘prime’ residential mortgage-backed securities, Standard & Poor’s said’
‘a proxy for the tsunami of offshore global wealth creation that has now evaporated…There is no demand in Britian for 54,000 new multi-million pound flats sold as pieces of paper in hotel lobbies from Abu Dhabi to Hong Kong’
‘The Russians, the Gulf Arabs, the Hong Kongers, the Malaysian Chinese, the (Benami) Indian oligarchs, the Pakistani (PMLN - dubbed the Panama Money Laundering Network by the media in my country!) money-mians are all gone. The party is over. Get set for ‘distress selling’ of Mayfair and Belgravia penthouses by cash strapped oligarchs. One of history’s great luxury home bubbles will unwind with Brexit - and ain’t no sunshine when the posh boys is gone’
Brexit; the gift that keeps on giving.
‘cash strapped oligarchs’
‘missold as a ’safe haven’ by so many brokers in town. A Pakistani friend told me he had bought two Nine Elms million-pound apartments as a ’safe haven.’ I did not have the heart to confess my conviction that Battersea projects are offplan leprosy that could well lose 80-90 per cent of their value’
Battersea is already down 20-30%. This friend is probably reading this right now, saying “Du-oh!”
‘missold as a ’safe haven’ by so many brokers’
Safe deposit boxes in the sky. This still cracks me up because it’s what’s in the box that’s supposed to be valuable.
Oh… safe haven for *money*. I was thinking of these in the context of safe haven houses to escape and live in.
‘the tsunami of offshore global wealth creation’
These guys were gambling. They expected to hit the jackpot.
I guess maybe a $5,000 house in Detroit and 10,000 rounds of ammo and plenty of AR-15s and maybe AKs would be a real safe haven with no way to lose house value
Realtors are liars.
There are two conflicting charts:
1) Number of vacant units
2) Number of vacant units for sale
One school of thought says to build more to alleviate the increasing house and rent costs.
BUT: There are a large number of vacant units, despite a limited number being for sale. I suspect the vacant units are being held as investments. Ben has noted one cannot build the way out of a bubble (assuming this is a bubble). Why? The supply gets soaked up as investment property, a significant chunk being added to vacant units.
So: perhaps policies which make it more lucrative to sell those units rather than to hold them might be a better way to reduce the supply constraints. This could increase transaction volume which the NAR would probably like. Also, it would probably mean more mortgages which Wall Street and the Federal Reserve would like. OTOH, it might reduce the house price and rent increases which other parties would not like.
“I suspect the vacant units are being held as investments.”
Your suspicion is correct.
perhaps policies which make it more lucrative to sell those units
Got any ideas for policies which would accomplish this? All I can think of is to raise interest rates so that the cash appreciates as much or more than the units (instead of NIRPing itself to nothing), and to discourage further buying of units.
Of course, the high interest rates would just crash the economy from another direction, and wouldn’t touch the money launderes or safe-housers.
Well Donk what does one usually do with excess unsold inventory?
Keep it on the books at mark-to-fantasy prices (Thank you FSAB Pronouncement 157!) until QE inflates away the debt. Then it can be rented out or sold to flippers, as desired… with no drop in price except for condition issues.
QE cant nor will inflate anything away. Worse yet, the losses to depreciation rack up every day.
The mark to market rules are only relaxed for inactive markets (ie. markets with few transactions). Like the “C” tranche of a CDO-squared.
They are not relaxed for assets like homes, that frequently trade and allow reasonable market comparisons.
How about not meddling in economic controls? The Govt needs to back off, that’s how people afford these empty or even new houses. It’s not interest rates, obviously this low rate environment is leading to malinvestment (again). If we stop with these horrendous trade deals, relax the corporate taxes, get the Govt out of the home mortgage industry….that might help jump start some $$$$$$$
You don’t need to guess at the make-up of the vacant units. The data is provided on the Census website:
http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/data/histtabs.html
Here are the definitions:
http://www.census.gov/housing/hvs/definitions.pdf
Tab 8 shows the breakdown of the vacant units each quarter going back to 1965.
Of the 17,667k:
3,267k are vacant and for rent (or for rent or sale)
1,312k are vacant and for sale
969k are vacant pending move-in of tenant/owner
4,557k are seasonal (units in resort towns, etc.)
2,084k are for occasional use…including things like timeshares and apartments that people use on weekends, etc.
1,568k are “occupied by people who have another residence elsewhere”–if I’m on vacation, my primary residence is still considered “occupied”, and to the place I’m temporarily staying in counts as “vacant.
3,920 is “Other”, which are detailed on Table 18
That roughly 4MM is broken down (approximately):
1,085k for Personal or Family Reasons (lots of reasons…family moving to assisted living, recent death, but not on market yet, etc.)
597k need repairs
265k are in foreclosure
408k are being repaired
267k are being used for storage
185k are in legal proceedings
255k are “extended absense”
250k are being prepared for sale or lease
199k are condemned
109k are “specific use” housing (military, corporate housing, etc.)
298k are “other/don’t know”
There are three main categories that I see:
1. Normal part of the housing market, properties are being repaired, properties are for lease, properties are leased but no one has moved in, specific uses etc. In round numbers, this looks like approximately 6.3MM homes.
2. Abnormal part of the housing market, but life gets in the way…foreclosures, property is condemned, property needs repairs but isn’t yet being repaired, stuck in legal proceedings, etc. This is approximately 1.2MM units.
3. Personal preferences…wants, not needs. These are homes in resort towns that are empty a lot of the year, timeshares, people who choose to split their time between two residences, etc. This is the rest, or approximately 9MM homes. This is the meat of the matter.
Many of these 9MM are not going to be suitable for where the housing needs are…how does a vacant vacation home in a resort town (where there are few jobs most of the year) alleviate a housing need 200 miles away? Fractional ownership can’t possibly work, etc.
Your question implies that if only people who were holding homes for rent would choose to sell their home, it would help alleviate home prices. That may be true…however, what would it do to rents, which are already sky high and rising?
The fact that both rents and prices are rising makes it hard to argue that the choice of investors (to rent or sell) would make a bit of difference in the bigger picture.
The bulk of the issue is with people who own/rent a second residence, and there being units in areas with seasonal occupancy. The seasonal homes are going to be hard to utilize to help the housing needs in non-seasonal locations.
There are things that you could do to make it more expensive to own a second home…as an example, in CA, you could change Prop 13 so that it only applies to primary residences (good luck with that…whenever I suggest such a thing, I get my head bitten off before they even hear past the words “Change Prop 13″ to my actual proposal). However, with demographics as they are, in any event, I suspect there will be more people buying/renting second homes than fewer.
While you try to figure out the new policies to make it harder to own/rent second homes (which will be a series of policies in multiple jurisdictions–it’s not hard to imagine lots of opposition), we continue to need about 1.5MM new units per year, are building 1.2MM (new number this morning), have 30-year low rental vacancy rates, and rising home prices/rents.
“Of the 17,667k:”
That would be 17,667,000 excess, empty and defaulted housing units. And we all know that number is understated.
Rental Watch: Your question implies that if only people who were holding homes for rent would choose to sell their home, it would help alleviate home prices. That may be true…however, what would it do to rents, which are already sky high and rising?
I would guess it would relieve population pressure on rentals, reducing upward pressure on rents.
However, with demographics as they are, in any event, I suspect there will be more people buying/renting second homes than fewer.
This is hard to say. Boomers will want to downsize to some degree. Big hedge fund/rental companies - they’re (supposed to be) nimble and can get out if they get information that there will be less government price supports. Millenials… I think this extremely strong demand for real estate is driven by investment goals on top of consumption goals. I’m not sure Millenials have quite the rosy view of real estate as an investment as Boomers (who hit a goldmine, buying in the 70s and 80s and unloading now) and to a lesser extent Gen X’ers who bought in the 90s/early 2000s.
I would guess it would relieve population pressure on rentals, reducing upward pressure on rents.
I don’t think I agree with that comment.
There is a countable and growing number of people looking for shelter, and generally speaking, if rents are going up faster than inflation, and home prices are rising faster than inflation, it is an indicator of demand outstripping supply for both rentals and for-sale housing.
If someone can’t find a place to buy, it doesn’t always mean they’ll rent…and if someone can’t find a place to rent, it doesn’t always mean that they’ll buy. In both cases, they might live at home, or stay with a friend for a while. In other words, there is unmet demand for both rent and for-sale.
So, if you pull housing units from the rental pool and put in the for-sale pool, there is slightly less unmet demand on the for-sale side, and slightly more unmet demand on the for-rent side.
This slows home price appreciation, but probably increases rent growth.
Said another way:
At best, in your example, you lose one rental unit, but also lose a renter (who can now buy that house), which is more or less a push in the demand/supply balance (in a crude example, 95 units rented out of 100=95% occupancy, becomes 94 units rented out of 99=94.949% occupancy)
HOWEVER, that is not always the case. In some cases, a person might have been living at home, saving up the down payment, and the loss of the rental unit is absorbed by a person who wasn’t renting before. You have one less rental unit, and the same number of renters in the market. In my crude example, 95 units rented out of 100=95% occupancy becomes 95 units rented out of 99=95.96% occupancy.
As long as there is a meaningful amount of unmet demand (as evidenced by rents/prices rising faster than inflation), the likelihood in my opinion is that shifting rentals to for-sale will result in more rent inflation, not less.
What demand?
US Housing Demand Plummets To 20 Year Low
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0q8fIAsczFk/VUANHEhSbnI/AAAAAAAAjRs/oANwXOUviGw/s1600/MBAApr292015.PNG
Neuro: on the demographics question:
Retirees more often than people think will stay put in their existing homes. However, many people have visions of living in new environments after retirement.
In some cases it will be an outright move.
In other cases, it will be downsizing the primary residence only. However, in other cases, it will be downsizing combined with buying a second home.
I can think of at least one family member that did this, and I’m sure if you think, you will find there are people in your universe that retired and bought a second home.
Personally, I’ll be traveling a lot more, not buying a second home, but my plans for retirement will increase somewhat the “URE” portion of the “Other” category. I might be renting a place for a week, but still have my primary residence. The more people stay outside their primary residence, the more the vacancy data will grow.
But in all cases the elderly have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana. And they’ll leave 35 million excess housing units.
There have been discussions of the Brexit harming the financial sector, leading to losses of high paying jobs and the resultant negative impact on society. However there is research that says a large financial sector is bad for society.
What really does the financial sector create that improves lives? It seems to me the goal is to extract money from society and gather it to themselves, yielding nothing but the thrill of gambling and the sense of “money for nothing” in return.
For those in the FIRE sector it improves lives but there are consequences to that, like there are consequences to low interest rates and stimulus and unconventional monetary policy. Volcker said the only worthwhile financial innovation of the past several decades was the ATM. And the ATM isn’t a financial innovation, but a technological one.
OECD: large banking sectors widen inequality and slow growth
Report from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development finds growth is stifled in countries where strong financial industries are expanding
The Guardian
17 June 2015
Countries with bigger banking sectors suffer weaker growth and worse inequality, according to a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
After analysing 50 years of data across its 34 member-countries, economists at the Paris-based thinktank have found that having a large financial sector can slow economic growth, while its highly paid workers exacerbate social inequality.
The report said: “There can be too much finance. When the financial sector is well developed, as has been the case in OECD economies for some time, further increases in its size usually slow long-term growth.”
Adair Turner, the former chair of the Financial Services Authority, gave a memorable critique of the UK financial services industry in the wake of the credit crisis when he said that some of the activities carried out by the City’s finance firms were “socially useless”.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/17/oecd-report-large-financial-banking-sectors-slow-growth-wider-inequality
And the political parties in the developed world most ardent in their defense of this industry and its socially useless activities are … the parties that purport to be on the left.
I voted for Bill Clinton, twice, but over time my whole view of his presidency has changed.
During his misbegotten presidency, Bill Clinton repealed Glass-Steagal at the behest of his Treasurey Secretary, Rubin, who was deep in the pockets of Citibank. That enabled the gargantuan speculative orgy that led to the 2008 financial crisis, though it enriched Bill and Hillary beyond their wildest dreams giving paid speeches - can’t call it payola - to audiences comprised of the banks that benefited from the repeal. Now the Republicans are joining the scant handful of decent Democrats to re-instate Glass-Steagal, though I’ll believe it when I see it.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/07/18/nightmare-on-wall-street-republicans-democrats-agree-on-reinstating-glass-steagall-act/
Funny you don’t mention Phil Gramm and Sandy Weill (citi) in your narrative of glass-steagall. How could you have forgotten those two mega-playas? pull down your skirt the conservative bias is showing.
Get behind re-instituting glass steagall and quit whining.
I’m behind it 100%, but If you promote change and expect success, only blaming one side is sabotaging from within.
Irrelevant.
Gotta shutdown Fannie and Freddie after re-instating Glass-Steagal.
This isn’t the army that won WWII.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/07/18/sec-army-to-worldwide-army-commands-balance-lactation-support-and-readiness/
Well, maybe not, but I saw a couple of real armed forces guys tell the audience at the RNC convention what really went down in Benghazi. Whew, those are two tough mo-fos. Those are the ones who really win battles and firefights. Dang.
Interesting they said the Gaddafi (I dunno what the heck the right spelling is anymore) loyalists were the ones who helped them out of a jam and got them to the airport.
Also I learned that these guys often bring a supply of tampons into battle, in order to plug the smaller holes in their bodies. It’s supposed to be very effective. One of the two mo-fos made an offhand comment on it during their presentation, and some Army guy in the sidebar chat explained it.
“A report by the National Development & Reform Commission, China’s central planning agency, found that small- and medium-sized cities were planning more than 3,500 new areas that could accommodate more than twice the country’s current population of 1.4 billion.”
Misallocation is the fundamental problem of planned economies.
“The party is over. Get set for ‘distress selling’ of Mayfair and Belgravia penthouses by cash strapped oligarchs. One of history’s great luxury home bubbles will unwind with Brexit - and ain’t no sunshine when the posh boys is gone and the white orangotang haunts the Foreign Office.”
I need to get myself one of these for such occasions.
Feel the Bern!
The Financial Times
Investment Banking
Wall Street on edge as Republicans warm to Glass-Steagall
Proposals similar to post-depression act of breaking up big institutions gains bipartisan support
yesterday
by: Barney Jopson in Washington and Demetri Sevastopulo in Cleveland
The Republican convention has left Wall Street banks on edge by embracing a populist proposal to break up big institutions, an idea loved by many Democrats that adds a new twist to the GOP under Donald Trump.
Defying nearly two decades of party tradition, the Cleveland convention adopted policies that include reining in banks by banning institutions that hold deposits from doing riskier investment banking, mirroring a law from the Great Depression. The policy platform was written by a committee of Republican lawmakers and officials.
The proposal to cut banks down to size has created an unexpected accord between the Republican and Democratic platforms as Hillary Clinton’s party — under the influence of her bank-bashing former rival Bernie Sanders — had made a similar call.
…
I liked my associate’s idea:
Limit the amount of FDIC insurance that each institution gets, and require disclosure to depositors in big bold, letters as to how much of their money is insured.
Let’s say the number is $400B. Well, if you have a deposit base of $10B (a small bank), you can insure every penny, even over $250k for one account.
If you have $2T in deposits, well, you can only insure 20% of your customer’s money…it’s up to you to tell each person how much of their money is insured.
You would see deposits (cheap source of cash) flow to small institutions, and large institutions would need to prove to their customers that they are safe (hold more equity, etc.).
An elegant, but simple way to make large banks safer, and small banks more competitive.
Somebody needs to come right out and say it: Hillary Clinton has no intention at all of reinstating Glass-Steagall. That’s why she was paid so handsomely to give speeches at Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan Chase. I’m guessing that speaking opportunity wasn’t extended to Bernie Sanders.
Suggesting the re-instatement of Glass-Steagall is akin to saying Dodd-Frank is crap and her husband making a mistake in allowing Glass-Steagall’s repeal in the first place.
default or print more cash? which will it be?
of course they will never inject money for the working slugs by lowering credit card rates to zero for 5 years…and you will not be allowed to increase your total debt unless its a life or death emergency.
4k flat screen tv’s must be paid for in cash.
“Than white people?”
This reaction is priceless.
Rep. Steve King says white people have contributed more to …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=med0tr9q5Fs - 374k - Cached - Similar pages
13 hours ago
Where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?
Peter Hasson | Daily Caller - July 19, 2016
King’s comments came during an appearance on MSNBC, when Esquire Magazine’s Charles Pierce expressed joy over the fact that “old white people” would play less of a role in American politics in the future.
“If you’re really optimistic, you can say that this is the last time that old white people will command the Republican party’s attention, its platform, its public face,” Pierce said. “That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people.”
“This ‘old white people’ business does get a little tired, Charlie,” King replied. “I’d ask you to go back through history and figure out, where are these contributions that have been made by these other categories of people that you’re talking about, where did any other subgroup of people contribute more to civilization?”
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes interjected. “Than white people?” he asked.
“Than Western civilization itself,” King said. “It’s rooted in Western Europe, Eastern Europe and the United States of America and every place where the footprint of Christianity settled the world. That’s all of Western civilization.”
Hayes, meanwhile, attempted to mediate by commenting: “Let me note for the record that if you’re looking at the ledger of Western civilization, for every flourishing democracy, you have Hitler and Stalin as well.”
Media members rushed to paint King as a racist, whose name became one of Twitter’s trending topics.
Vanity Fair quickly put up a blaring headline: “CONGRESSMAN STEVE KING MAKES WHITE SUPREMACIST COMMENTS ON LIVE TV.”
Well, now you’ve gone and done it. Wait’ll Mike and Russ see this. They’re gonna have purple conniptions. They’re gonna “Hitler” you.
Mighty lost all credibility with his hit and run Wiki post saying Vin Scully was “of course” wrong saying the daughter of Hugo Chavez was the richest person in Venezuela.
Vin Scully is no socialist, and he’ll tell you as much
By Jake Russell June 18
There’s a reason Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster extraordinaire Vin Scully has been calling games since the franchise was in Brooklyn. The man knows how to talk about anything. The topic de jour at Friday’s game against the Brewers? Socialism.
“Socialism failing to work as it always does, this time in Venezuela,” Scully said. “You talk about giving everybody something free and all of a sudden there’s no food to eat. And who do you think is the richest person in Venezuela? The daughter of Hugo Chavez. Hello. Anyway. Oh and two.”
Iron-Fisted Socialism Benefited Hugo Chavez’s Daughter To The Tune Of BILLIONS, Reports Say
Guy Bentley
Reporter
5:28 PM 08/10/2015
The richest person in Venezuela isn’t a billionaire industrialist, but the daughter of dead socialist President Hugo Chavez, according to Venezuelan media reports.
María Gabriela, Chavez’s favourite daughter, is reported to be worth a staggering $4.2 billion. Gabriela’s father was a notorious opponent of capitalism and Venezuela’s entrepreneurial class. When he was alive he went so far to say “capitalism leads us straight to hell.”
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/10/iron-fisted-socialism-benefited-hugo-chavezs-daughter-to-the-tune-of-billions-reports-say/#ixzz4ErVOcmKx
Old White People: The most important people ever!
King is a neocon. Speaking of neocons, notice how the people who are always saying Islam is Hitler don’t say boo about the dictator running Turkey? He’s setting up an Islamic state, some say Caliphate (it is the seat of the last one after all). He jails journalists, stages fake coups so he can purge thousands. He’s got his nose in the NATO tent even. He helps out ISIS. Mostly of all, he’s a BFF with Israel!
But you don’t hear boo about him from the Savages and A-Dans of the world.
…and “probe” the US air base which just so happens to house a nuclear arsenal. It’s ok its all in the name of getting to the bottom of the “coup”
” he’s a BFF with Israel”
This won’t end well. It never does.
He’s got his nose in the NATO tent even.
???
Turkey is a full NATO member.
Well yeah, but he’s not really allowed in the tent yet.
Whitey had the wheel and Indians didn’t
“Whitey had the wheel and Indians didn’t”
According to Esquire Magazine’s Charles Pierce, If you’re really optimistic Elizabeth Warren of the Cherokee Nation and the rest of her Native American ancestors will not have to worry about Whitey much longer.
“If you’re really optimistic, you can say that this is the last time that old white people will command the Republican party’s attention, its platform, its public face,” Pierce said. “That hall is wired by loud, unhappy, dissatisfied white people.”
“Whitey had the wheel and Indians didn’t”
According to Jared Diamond the Anglo-Europeans had the saddle with stirrups, which allowed effective use of edged-weapons.
Glass Steagall. Making a comeback.
So weird to see the Republican party purged of many neo-cons. No Bushes, no McCain, no Lindsay Graham, no Kristol, no Romney, etc. It’s almost unbelievable.
“Glass Steagall. Making a comeback.”
Dream on.
You’ll have to have a little convo with the Godfather, Manafort.
The real story of this election is going to be about the ground game and the coattails.
The real story of this election is that he’s already won by a landslide.
He’s on a glide path now and there’s nothing Hillary can do to stop it, short of physical harm. Every Islamic related attack, either here or elsewhere on the planet, is a massive Trump ad.
Every violent protest, a massive Trump ad. Every time a cop gets shot, a massive Trump ad. While Hillary is spending millions of her donors’ dollars on negative ads and such, all Trump has to do is make a tweet or Facebook comment on the attacks or whatever, or hold a press conference. Believe it. It’s blowback, baby.
Here’s how to read the polls: When they show Trump even with, slightly behind or slightly ahead of Hillary, it means he’s ahead by a landslide.
Also, in case you missed it, the fake “controversy” over Melania’s speech is another Trump trolling the media.
Even I got taken in by that one, but the centipedes knew what was going on and there I am, sitting there like a dummy with my headphones on, watching her talk and wondering why she paused every once in a while with a little grin.
Then I see the centipedes in chat talking back and forth “Holy Chit, she’s Rickrolling us” and laughing about it. I had no clue WTF they were talking about until someone explained it today in one of the forums.
OK, so they dug up maybe four or five sound bites that sounded similar to Michelle Obama’s 2008 convention speech. The media went wild. Everybody had it under a microscope. It was the talk of the internet, the big media topic of the day. But wait, what’s this? Turns out, Michelle’s speech had some similarities to Elizabeth Dole’s. Which is why Melania gave a surprise shout-out to Bob Dole during her speech.
As the centipedes say, it’s 4-D chess in a checkers world.
I think that it was Albuquerque Dan who said that Putin plays chess and Obama plays checkers.
Gee, I’m sorry, Mikey. Did you want to say a few words about racism? Or bigots? Go ahead, you have the floor.
I too believe that Trump will win. What amazes me is that several polls show him tied or leading in Florida while being outspent something like 40 to 1. I haven’t seen or heard a single Trump ad. I get that the media coverage serves as a de facto advertising campaign, but nearly all the media coverage is hostile.
The idea that people call themselves centipedes reminds me of that movie The Human Centipede. Starting now, let’s call them human centipedes.
Centipedes? What does THAT mean? You kids and your crazy memeslang, I just can’t keep up.
Tell it to Uncle Morris.
palmetto: Here’s how to read the polls: When they show Trump even with, slightly behind or slightly ahead of Hillary, it means he’s ahead by a landslide.
I was listening to a simulcast of NBC’s evening television news show on the radio this evening. They led with these screaming headlines of the scandal of how Melania had plagiarized Michelle Obama’s speech, and how the convention was essentially a smoking ruin for Trump. I guffawed - I don’t expect the MSM to be neutral, they never have been. But I burst out laughing because of how over the top they were characterizing one semi-similar boilerplate sentence as how the whole speech had been plagiarized and this was a scandal overshadowing the convention.
Ultimately, during the broadcast, the news show spent a few seconds on the speech superimposing the two sentences and truncating them when they were different. The superimposition really felt like OJ trying on the glove - it didn’t fit. It was literally a second or two of superimposition.
I realized they are having a really a hard time controlling themselves when it comes to Trump.
How many media lackeys that have mortgages to pay will secretly trumple in the ballot box?
The Silent Majority has transformed into The Secret Trumplings.
The white house is about to get deeeeluxe!
No Bubble…but….
Could the Housing Markets in These Top Cities Be Getting Too Hot?
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/housing-bubble-2/
Is there a locale where housing prices aren’t in a bubble?
“As it turns out, not a single big metropolis in the good ol’ USA—that’s right, not even San Francisco or New York—appears to be “bubblicious,” says Smoke, who carried out an analysis of the 50 largest metropolitan markets in the country. During the bubble, home values were dramatically inflated, making the high prices unsustainable.”
http://www.realtor.com/news/trends/housing-bubble-2/
Getting there though:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPCS20RSA
“not even San Francisco or New York—appears to be “bubblicious,” says Smoke.”
Smoke? Does anyone believe this is a coincidence?
Of course there’s no bubble in NYC or SF. People can just manage hedge fundz and sell insurance or develop a fart counting app for eternity. It’s 110% sustainable, and leads to great boutique beer bars where you can get fine ale for $8 / glass.
Ah yes, that noted nitwit (and wannabe DJ) Jonathan Smoke, chief economist of realtor.com. There is more of his blathering at
http://www.realtor.com/author/jonathansmoke/
“DJ Smoke” - I like it!
‘New areas planned by China’s small cities could accommodate 3.4 billion people by 2030 — or almost half the world’s current population — a target that even Chinese state media calls problematic’
Smart as a whip, these Chinese.
Everybody wants to live in China!
New areas? On top of the sprawling ghost cities? I wouldn’t mind making a ghost city tour in China. How eerie would it be to be one of 50 people in a giant empty city? They should start bus tours.
“Who is going to live in them?”
Mold and mildew for a millennia. Then after the end of the world Cockroaches and Realtors will battle over them in an epic struggle.
‘Brazier’s Property Management owner Tony Brazier said houses in new subdivisions are being bought as rentals - and that’s having a filter down effect right through the market…already landlords are struggling to keep up with things like insulation, and that will get harder later on down the track. With rents dropping around the city, it could all prove too much’
Insulation. I’m often reading about how uncomfortable these houses in New Zealand are. For 500k or 800k or whatever they’ve paid you’d think it would have insulation.
What does a landlord have to do with insulation?
In the walls and attic?
Either it is there or it is not.
From the article:
Brazier believes it’s a much fairer market now - with landlords having to provide better maintained, warmer and dryer homes as they compete for tenants.
So, in other words, a better insulated house is easier to rent out. If the house you’re trying to rent out is cold then you’ll have to upgrade the insulation to attract tenants.
Also saw this online: “central heating is very, very rare”
The latitude of Christchurch is 43.5° S. Toronto is 43.6°N. Even with ocean currents, NZ is hardly tropical. And I remember those Lord of the Rings movies showed a lot of snow and cold. For some of the mountain scenes, they had to digitally wipe out ski chalets. And Andy Serkis literally lost his senses in a near-freezing river and almost went over a waterfall.
And yet, central heating and insulation are rare? Are they huddling over woods stoves like they did in Little House on the Prairie?
Wikipedia …
Christchurch has a temperate climate with moderate rainfall. It has mean daily maximum air temperatures of 22.5 °C (73 °F) in January and 11.3 °C (52 °F) in July.[49] Under the Köppen climate classification, Christchurch has an oceanic climate (Cfb). Summer in the city is mostly warm but is often moderated by a sea breeze from the Northeast. A record temperature of 41.6 °C (107 °F) was reached in February 1973. A notable feature of the weather is the nor’wester, a hot föhn wind that occasionally reaches storm force, causing widespread minor damage to property.[50] Christchurch experiences the urban heat island phenomenon, similar to cities such as Tokyo, London and New York City, making temperatures feel warmer than they actually are within the inner city regions.[51]
In winter it is common for the temperature to fall below 0 °C (32 °F) at night. There are on average 80 days of ground frost per year.[52] Snowfalls occur on average three times per year, although in some years no snowfall is recorded.[53] The coldest temperature recorded was −7.1 °C (19 °F) on 18 July 1945, the third lowest recorded temperature of New Zealand’s major cities.
They might use portable space heaters in the winter.
When I lived in Mexico City it could drop below freezing on winter nights. The place (because of the altitude) isn’t tropical.
Most people just lived with the cold, and some would run a small natural gas fueled space heater in a central part of the house or apartment. Our house did not have central heating and I remember many a chilly morning getting up for school. I am certain it was under 60F inside the house. Whoever got up first would turn on the space heater (usually my dad).
We would really crank up that space heater during the day and friends who visited would say “Wow! your house is warm!”. It really wasn’t, it just felt warm compared to an unheated house or apartment.
A report by the National Development & Reform Commission, China’s central planning agency, found that small- and medium-sized cities were planning more than 3,500 new areas that could accommodate more than twice the country’s current population of 1.4 billion.
No problem, they’ll all crumble into dust after a few years.
The value of owning a home in the U.S. has never been greater, at least according to one figure buried in a monthly Commerce Department report.
The share of Americans’ total personal income coming from rental profit rose to a record 4.4 percent in the first quarter of 2016, data released in June show. That’s at an all-time high in figures dating back to 1947, and is up from just 0.7 percent thirty years ago.
Rental income includes landlords’ profits, according to the Commerce Department’s definition. What’s perhaps less obvious: It also includes how much owner-occupants would make if they rented out their house or apartment, after accounting for expenses including mortgage interest and property taxes or insurance.
More from Bloomberg.com: Ireland Hits Brexit Alarm in Biggest Foreign Crisis in 50 Years
As a result, the data offer a nice gauge of how much homeownership is worth versus other income sources, like wages or transfer payments. The figures underline an important trend — homeowners who escaped foreclosure during the financial crisis have made out in the years that followed, while renters have faced a difficult road.
Depends how little you pay for the shack. Anything price greater than $50/sq ft(which is construction cost incidentally), you’re cash flow negative.
I can move around ina cyclical economy, i.e. a normal economy.
If jobs dry up, I’ll pack up my Honda and bounce town. If a tree falls through the roof during a Nor’Easter storm, I call the landlord.
Cash strapped oligarchs:
‘Amazon has been awarded a patent for “docking stations” for its delivery drones that will be built on tall structures such as lampposts or churches and allow the unmanned machines to recharge and pick up packages.’
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-wants-lampposts-churches-drone-142407938.html
‘Like with all patents, the idea may never come to fruition.’
Now how are they going to get my can of almonds on top of a lamp-post?
It’s off to a better start than Musks’ not-self driving cars.
Google self-driving car crashes into a bus (update: statement)
https://www.engadget.com/…/google-self-driving-car-accident/
Engadget
Feb 29, 2016 - Google’s self-driving cars have been in accidents before, but always on the receiving end… at least, until now. The company has filed a …
The first self-driving car fatality proves nothing | John Naughton …
http://www.theguardian.com › Opinion › Self-driving cars
The Guardian
2 days ago - The death of a driver using the Tesla Autopilot function doesn’t show that the technology is unsafe.
Google self-driving car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_self-driving_car
Wikipedia
Jump to Crashes - On February 14, 2016 a Google self-driving car attempted to avoid … Google addressed the crash, saying “In this case, we clearly bear …
Southfield art gallery owner survives Tesla crash - Detroit Free Press
http://www.freep.com/story/…/cars/…art…crash/86712884/
Detroit Free Press
Jul 6, 2016 - A preliminary investigation has begun for a fatal car crash involving a … on a fatal crash in May involving a Tesla that was in self-driving mode.
Tesla’s bigger risk from the autopilot crash is the story line surrounding …
http://www.marketwatch.com › … › Automobiles › Outside the BoxMarketWatch
2 days ago - The Tesla Autopilot crash challenges the narrative about autonomous vehicles … Will a negative narrative about self-driving cars take hold?
The Robot Car of Tomorrow May Just Be Programmed to Hit You - Wired
http://www.wired.com/…/the-robot-car-of-tomorrow-might-just-be-programmed-...
Some road accidents are unavoidable, and even autonomous cars can’t ….. As much as I’m a fan off the pure idea of a self driving car, but the …
Inside Google’s Quest To Popularize Self-Driving Cars | Popular Science
http://www.popsci.com/cars/article/2013-09/google-self-driving-car
Self-driving cars have been around in one form or another since the 1970s, … the cars have driven more than 500,000 miles without crashing.
If a Self-Driving Car Gets in an Accident, Who—or What—Is Liable …
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/…self-driving-car…accident…/375569/
Let’s say Google were to sell a self-driving car to you. And then it got into an accident. Who should be responsible for the damages—you or …
“The docking stations may incorporate a number of features to enable UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to fly longer routes, to fly routes more accurately, and to provide shelter during adverse conditions,” Amazon’s U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) filing said.
I could see a whole bunch of those delivery drones getting blown out of the sky by a sudden change in the weather, especially here in the Centennial State. I doubt they could stay airborne during a hail or thunder storm. Those don’t keep the ubiquitous brown trucks away.
Ultimately, will it be robots that load the drones and fly the joystick controls to get the package to the recipient?
How many drones will it take to get the 3 ton of stainless fabrications I ordered from the fab shop in Texas to my project in Maryland?
That will be handled by the self-driving 18-wheel tractor trailers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL8dEtIJPBA
They will use this drop it right on your landlords house, why you want to rent BTW
Why allow me to live comfortably rent free in your skull?
“Now how are they going to get my can of almonds on top of a lamp-post?”
How did they get that dog up there?
All kidding aside, I think Bezos is a full-on loon. A rich one, yes, but more and more Amazon looks like a Ponzi.
For example, recently there’s been a lot of heavy breathing in the press over Amazon’s much touted web services. OK, that’s the PR.
The reality is probably closer to the experience of a small website that I’m a member of. They had to drop Amazon’s service, issue a letter of apology to the members and start from scratch, things got screwed up so bad.
Thanks a bunch, Jeff.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meerkat_At_the_zoo_Novosibirsk_Siberia.jpg
Investors should get ready for U.S. stocks to slide
By Mark Hulbert
Published: July 19, 2016 8:29 a.m. ET
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/investors-should-get-ready-for-us-stocks-to-slide-2016-07-19
Housing starts rise 4.8% in June, as supply still lags demand…..
By Andrea Riquier
Published: July 19, 2016 10:12 a.m. ET
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/housing-starts-rise-48-to-annual-119-million-pace-in-june-2016-07-19
11 days and counting -
Comment to my comment yesterday…….
“time to move to a new chapter of life”
As you ramble through life, whatever be your goal;
Keep your eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole.
Irish proverb
So….as I ramble through life…..this……
Ramble On - Led Zep……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvQ2oKSLIGQ
“So….as I ramble through life…..this……”
YES! YES!
Ramble On and take no prisoners!
koko taylor chicago blues she was 80 years old and recorded this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jI-R1xEDcLU
Trump -
choose VP - fail
approve penetrating logo - fail
wife’s speech - fail
sure, Trump will be great for the USA.
Hillarious is unelectable.
Ha-ha, Melania was magnificent. You got Rickrolled. Don’t feel bad, so did I until the centipedes splained it to me.
They changed the logo.
Sure wish they could do something about Pence, though.
I have higher standards.
And lower IQ.
lola! if you only knew.
That bad, eh?
Well, may I suggest twitter? It works better for Valley Girl one liners.
Cant you get CBS on your TV? Did your VCR quit on ya?
Why Trump’s Prosperous Supporters Are Angry, Too
By Tyler Cowen
There is bitterness and resentment to the Trump movement that differs from the tone set by America’s last few Republican presidents, most of all Ronald Reagan.
Older white Americans are Donald Trump’s core support group, and that’s relevant to the success of Trump’s rhetoric. Commentators frequently cite globalization and wage stagnation as the economic forces behind recent political shifts, but there is a less heralded force influencing American politics: insufficient savings, most of all for older Americans. For those individuals, the prospect of falling standards of consumption – for the remainder of their lives – means the economy is worse than the GDP growth and unemployment numbers are indicating.
Here is an unsettling statistic about the U.S. economy, although like many scary things, it reveals its full problematic nature only with scrutiny: “The Center for Retirement Research at Boston College reports that for those on the cusp of retirement – workers between the ages of 55 and 64 – the median balance in household 401(k) or IRA accounts is $111,000.” That is from the new Oxford University Press book “Empire of the Fund: The Way We Save Now,” by William A. Birdthistle, a law professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law.
These days, the 20-year retirement is extremely common, and savings must hold for longer yet for those who will live to 90 or 100 years old. For a 20-year retirement, that $111,000 in savings can work out, under plausible assumptions, to no more than $7,300 a year. And that is the median, so half of America’s older workers are in a worse situation.
To be sure, private retirement accounts are not the only available means of savings. Social Security is already the primary source of income for retired Americans, yet Social Security benefits for the elderly average only $16,000 a year, and traditional private-sector pensions have dwindled in importance.
When it comes to comparative retirement security, in an international comparison the United States finished 19th for three years in a row. Even relatively optimistic assessments suggest that only about 28 percent of American households will be able to maintain their pre-retirement living standards.
Often it’s argued that Americans are too strained by circumstance to save much more, but the evidence belies that view. China is much poorer, yet its citizenry often manages a household savings rate of 30 percent. And in the 1970s, a much poorer America had a savings rate that once reached 15 percent and hovered above 8 percent as recently as the early 1990s. Since then the American savings rate has fallen and has settled in the range of about 4 to 6 percent.
As for today’s 45-to-69-year-olds, only 36 percent claim to be engaging in net savings. And only 45 percent of all people earning $75,000 to $100,000 a year claim to have net positive savings, as measured in 2012. That helps explain why the typical Trump voter in the Republican primaries earned a relatively high income of about $72,000 a year and still worried about his or her economic future.
The savings problem thus is about the scarce virtues of temperament, patience, and discipline. American savings rates started to fall in the 1980s, and rising asset prices during that time set a problematic dynamic in motion. As homes and stock portfolios rose in value, many Americans concluded they didn’t have to lay aside much for their nest eggs. Asset markets would do their savings for them.
That attitude still may have made some sense in the 1990s, but now the country has a less vigorous economy and high real-estate and stock-price returns are far from guaranteed. Yet Americans keep spending money. That is the root of the problem, and even the financial crisis significantly boosted savings rates for only a short while.
The patience factor illustrates why political solutions to this problem are hard to come by. The American will as expressed through the public sector is arguably no more far-sighted than that expressed through the private sector. For an extreme example, consider the approximately $111 billion in unfunded pension liabilities in the state of Illinois, to draw another figure from Professor Birdthistle. Bloomberg View columnist Megan McArdle has argued it won’t be easy to boost Social Security enough to fill savings gaps.
To sum all this up, over the last few decades the U.S. has been conducting a large-scale social experiment with ultra-low savings rates, without a strong safety net beneath the high wire act.
http://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-07-19/why-trump-s-prosperous-supporters-are-angry-too
He’s got a ton of younger supporters, and they certainly don’t seem to be bitter, resentful or angry, although they certainly would be justified if they were. They’re bright and funny and creative. They’re having a ball. Bloomberg is a bore.
The young sheeple who skipped college to work in hotels all love Trump!
Why do the smart people see right through this clown? Pence?? lol!!
Trump has yet to make one smart move, yet the sheeple love him blindly! What a clown show.
You are correct, but every time I hear/see Hillary talk I keep expecting the flying monkeys to appear.
So, it all boils down to trump is not hillary. lame
Pretty much.
I’ve had people argue to me that despite Hillary’s flaws, at least she isn’t Trump.
They both have a point, and so I’m voting for Gary Johnson.
Hilarious so far….
SB: “Congratulations Indiana! You just got rid of one of the worst governors you’ve ever had,” she said, while offering condolences to the Garden State.
“I’m sorry New Jersey, you were this close,” she said while holding her thumb and forefinger barely apart.
I’m not a Trump fan but I have a feeling if Hillary burned down her sheeples house and took their first born they would still give their right arm for her.
41st and possibly the last Republican Convention…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/samantha-bee-takes-down-mike-pence_us_578db0e7e4b0fa896c3fcc90?section=
Southlake(Dallas), TX Housing Prices Crater 6% YoY On Rising Mortgage Defaults
http://www.zillow.com/southlake-tx/home-values/
Trump: http://proudemocrat.com/donald-trump-children-named-by-federal-judge-in-250-million-tax-evasion-scheme-details/#
Donald Trump & Children Named By Federal Judge In $250 Million Tax Evasion Scheme
Donald Trump lives in Lolas empty skull…. rent free.
foH20 does seem obsessed and angry.
The roving band of liars, an army of two or three are too predictable anymore.
Alameda, CA Housing Prices Crater 14% MoM; Plunge 8% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/alameda-ca-94501/home-values/
buy it cause its going up! LMFAO
lol@Az_Donk
how r u my friend? Still putting up shanties @ 50/ft?
Data my friend. Stick with the data.
Seattle, WA Housing Prices Plunge 14% MoM; Crater 5% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/seattle-wa-98102/home-values/
No wonder the extremely transparent mainstream media attacked her and boy did they look pathetic doing it.
Melania Trump’s Dress Sells Out Less Than an Hour After Her Republican Convention Speech
by Bruna Nessif | Mon, Jul 18, 2016 11:36 PM
Now that’s how you make a fashion and political statement.
Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s wife Melania Trump took the podium tonight on the first night of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, marking one of the first times we’ve heard the potential First Lady speak on the election.
And while the 46-year-old did an impressive job with her delivery during the speech, she also killed it in the fashion game, which is one she definitely knows how to play.
http://www.eonline.com/news/780932/melania-trump-s-dress-sells-out-less-than-an-hour-after-her-republican-convention-speech - 122k -
Melania = PFLOTUS
Bill = PFMOTUS
Is she guilty or not guilty?
Guilty imho. I hope the blog owner is wheeling out the RageCages. He’s going to need them.
Junior said politicians destroyed this country. Junior is right.
it be fitty cents losin his shirt on hiz home frum de bubblle but its all good
http://patch.com/connecticut/farmington/asking-price-lowered-again-50-cents-farmington-mansion