Cutthroat Price Competition Is Emerging
It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “Even with another hint of a late-summer cooling in home prices, the Seattle area real-estate market has still gotten so intense there often aren’t enough inspectors and appraisers to keep up with the demand. That’s creating extra risk and cost for homebuyers desperate to get an edge in bidding wars. ‘You get a lot of panicked phone calls (for inspectors): ‘Do you know anybody? We’ll take anybody with a pulse,’ said Dylan Chalk, who owns Orca Inspection Services. ‘It worries me — whenever we get these bull markets, there’s a huge pressure to lower the quality of a home inspection to make it quicker and cheaper.’”
“‘Houses can be in filthy condition — rot infested with mold — and the buyer’s response, is, ‘Yeah, but can I buy it?’ said Richard Hagar, owner of American Home Appraisals, and also an agent. ‘So there are people who will not have inspections. Or (after buying), they will discover things — cracked foundations and things like that.’”
“Metro Denver’s housing market continued to show signs of leveling off in August, with both median and average prices dropping for single-family homes, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors. Interest rates dropped after Britain’s June 23 vote to leave the European Union, unleashing a big wave of mortgages refinancing and leaving appraisers stretched thin. ‘Appraisals are taking longer than ever and, as a result, are causing widespread delays with closings,’ noted Anthony Rael, the report’s author and a Denver area real estate agent.”
“Manhattan’s traditional peak apartment-leasing season wrapped up in August with no rent growth for landlords, a sign that their ability to push up costs may wane further in the coming months. ‘Owners felt that these four months were their primary season — they were in the driver’s seat and they didn’t feel they needed to make adjustments,’ Citi Habitats President Gary Malin said. ‘Now, there’s that fall and winter drop-off, and they realize, ‘If I don’t start corrective action, I may be stuck with apartments for longer than I’d like to be stuck with them.’”
“As other luxury condo developers are pulling back, ROVR Development is unfurling its plans for The Fairchild Coconut Grove, a boutique luxury condominium set to soon rise on the Coconut Grove waterfront. Sales have already softened in the luxury category, and prices are expected to eventually follow suit, said Peter Zalewski, a principal of the Miami real estate consultancy CraneSpotters. Between January and June, eight luxury condo units closed in the Grove this year, at an average square foot price of $703, he said. In the Grove’s preconstruction category, there are six projects with 357 units proposed, planned or under construction, he added.”
“‘I would characterize the market as over-saturated,’ Zalewski said, noting that inventory levels in Coconut Grove are almost three times what is considered healthy. ‘Where you are in the market now, a buyer can be very selective and make the seller or the developer bow down and provide incentives. Two years ago the developer would have had the advantage.’”
“There is some good news for those who feel high property prices have locked them out of the buying market - renting is becoming more affordable. According to the latest CoreLogic rent review, Darwin recorded the biggest drop of 14.1 per cent and in Perth rents dropped by 9.4 per cent. Real estate investment advisor Zaki Ameer of Dream Design Property said while many people focused on buying property, renters held all the power in the property market. ‘Renters have the ability to live in whichever area they like, without worrying about a large mortgage,’ he said.”
“Lamudi Philippines managing director Jacqueline Van den Ende attributed the shift in consumer interest towards renting instead of buying to the rapid growth of vacancies due to more new properties being completed. ‘I think one of the key drivers here is the big inventory of unsold units. There’s a lot of inventory coming into the market, and that inventory is increasing vacancy rates,’ Van den Ende said. ‘With more than 11,000 more residential units, primarily condominiums, expected to become available by the end of the year, developers are under some pressure to find residents for their new properties.’”
“Residential housing units inside and surrounding the four three-rail terminal stations in Taiwan have failed to resist the trend of declining prices that has plagued the property market for the past two years. Average prices for residential housing units plunged by 11.6 percent to NT$507,000 from NT$574,000 per ping (one ping = 36 square feet), according to statistics provided by Great Home Realty Co. Ltd. A senior researcher at Great Home Realty Co., Ltd said the booming ‘rail economy’ has attracted commercial entities seeking to cash in on the robust consumption habits of passengers.”
“This caused an initial surge in residential property prices around the stations, with the availability of multiple transportation systems attractive to home buyers. Yet most home buyers share the view that the housing prices will continue to trend downwards, the researcher added. Cutthroat price competition is emerging in the pre-sales housing market, undermining the possibility that house prices in areas surrounding the four three-rail terminal stations will pick up.”
“The home bubble has burst in Athens with home prices and leases continuing to drop. In a market that hit rock bottom following Greece’s financial meltdown home prices have plummeted with basement flats selling for a song. Rent prices in the capital have also dropped and are continuing to do so, says Remax realtors. The steepest drops in Athens were noted at upmarket regions such as Ekali and Psychiko (13 percent), the working class western suburbs (10 percent) and some regions of the center, such as Ambelokipoi (11 percent).”
“Volos, Larisa and Patra tenants prefer small apartments that they can get for a song from 180-300 euros per month.”
“Amid rumblings of pre-pre-election campaign talk focusing on B.C.’s real estate situation, some were surprised at the Premier’s use of the word ‘bubble’ yesterday. NDP housing critic, David Eby took it to Twitter this morning saying the ‘Premier describes Vancouver Real Estate as a ‘housing bubble’… Not sure Bob would approve of these election year talking points.’ A dig at developer Bob Rennie as well who many see as being too close to the premier, who’s been accused of dragging her heels on cooling the market.”
“But Eby says Clark’s message is inconsistent. ‘It’s one that’s definitely going to drive a wedge in her fundraising base which is driven by real estate agent Bob Rennie who’s been very clearly saying that there is no bubble so it’s a very interesting change of talking points in an election year.’”
‘NDP housing critic, David Eby took it to Twitter this morning saying the ‘Premier describes Vancouver Real Estate as a ‘housing bubble’… Not sure Bob would approve of these election year talking points.’ A dig at developer Bob Rennie as well who many see as being too close to the premier, who’s been accused of dragging her heels on cooling the market.’
‘But Eby says Clark’s message is inconsistent. ‘It’s one that’s definitely going to drive a wedge in her fundraising base which is driven by real estate agent Bob Rennie who’s been very clearly saying that there is no bubble’
Where is Bob these days? Doing a two handed, all he can eat, crow buffet?
Poor Blob. Poor poor Blob.
‘One57, like many shadow-casting buildings on 57th Street that will one day plunge Central Park into eternal darkness, isn’t very well-liked by people who aren’t hiding potentially dirty money in New York City real estate. For people who do love hiding money in LLCs though, the building has seen record-breaking sales figures…the proletariat gets a laugh today because one of One57’s condo flippers is going to have to sell one of their apartments for a huge loss.’
‘The Real Deal reports that unit 62A in One57, which was bought by “Escape from New York LLC” for $32 million in 2014, has now been reduced to listing the 4,500 square foot ultra luxury apartment for just $25 million, which is a 21% price drop. In your FACE shady real estate interests!’
‘Listing the apartment in whatever the really really rich person version of Price Chopper is follows the trend of a softening (ew) demand for super high-end condos that was first identified this summer. It also follows in the footsteps of the Brooklyn condo glut, in which luxury apartments for the merely really rich are seeing a slowdown in demand. Does it mean that you, a person relying on a paycheck instead of dividends or money laundering or a trust find might one day afford apartments? Let’s see, what did we say last time this question came up…’
“A housing expert who works for a prominent real estate investment company who asked to remain anonymous because he was speaking so candidly, agreed that New York has a chronic supply shortage that will take decades to fix. Even if the housing market cools off, he said, “when the bottom falls out … you will only see massive rent decreases in marginal neighborhoods.”
“Even if Brooklyn’s housing sales end up being a bubble, the expert says, it’s unlikely that renters will reap the benefit of it bursting, as “rents are not speculative, whereas housing prices are.”
‘Renters have the ability to live in whichever area they like, without worrying about a large mortgage,’
Home ownership = debt slavery
Renting = financial freedom
I wonder how much the Plins made on their home sales
Rather, what were their losses.
Sorry HA SARAH made bank
Houses are depreciating assets my friend.
“‘Houses can be in filthy condition — rot infested with mold — and the buyer’s response, is, ‘Yeah, but can I buy it?’ said Richard Hagar, owner of American Home Appraisals, and also an agent. ‘So there are people who will not have inspections. Or (after buying), they will discover things — cracked foundations and things like that.’”
Dumb, borrowed money looking for a place to die…
It’s likely speculative demand driven by the belief that the asset price will keep rising in perpetuity.
With housing the picture is blurred because there is consumption demand and a continuously rising population. And a government and central bank dedicated to increasing asset prices for their own purposes. HOWEVER - there is also speculative demand. How much consumption demand, how much speculative demand and how much government/central bank support there is now will determine the market’s behavior going forward. Figuring out components A, B and C is the trick IMO.
“It’s likely speculative demand driven by the belief that the asset price will keep rising in perpetuity.”
It gets a bit confusing when central banking policy appears to embody an intentional effort to levitate asset prices in perpetuity.
The confusion increases when financially engineered asset price inflation fails.
Don’t forget the extent to which regulations and financial conditions allow lending to enable all of the above. Regardless of whether the buyer is a speculator or end user, most can’t buy the dry-rot house without a loan. And the central bank may encourage it, but if the securitization machine freezes up, there won’t be any more loans.
These FBs will mail the keys to the bank and walk away. Then the banks will be made whole by middle class taxpayers and the Fed’s printing press. ‘Muricans have ratified this massive, perpetual swindle with their votes for the crony capitalist status quo.
I think it’s important to remember that the Fed’s printing press is not consequence-free. Adding slips of paper or changing values in a database does not increase wealth. It merely dilutes the value of the existing currency.
The economy is not an ocean; it’s a series of rivers. The government and central bank has been redirecting a lot of currency to a few rivers (housing, education, health care). There may not be water(price) level increases everwhere. But to the sectors receiving the ministrations, price levels have climbed dramatically.
“The economy is not an ocean; it’s a series of rivers.”
Profound.
And those rivers make it easier to bottleneck to rig markets and fix prices at grossly inflated levels.
Are you aware of the fact that there is nothing that raises the standard of living, creates jobs and accelerates the economy like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels?
The river analogy reminded me of this:
https://youtu.be/PHe0bXAIuk0
I disagree Raymond; the so-called ‘FB’s in my neighborhood are high-income immigrants with several children and the kids’ grandparents too, all living under one roof. After talking to many of them, it is not uncommon for their extended family to pool their money so they can afford to buy a house here.
And when you have 2-3 kids and one set of grandparents living in the same house, a 4-5 bedroom 2-story house with at least one master on the main floor works very well.
These buyers bought because 1) it is close to work, and 2) it is in a good school district. Did many of them buy at the top of the market? You bet. Will they lose equity when the downturn comes? Sure. Will this cause them to walk away from their primary residence? I don’t see that happening unless their are significant job losses in the tech sector.
They’re all one paycheck away from default.
That’s what happens when you pay new house price +200% premium for a 20 year old run down house.
Again….. Rent it for half the monthly cost of buying. Buy later after prices crater for 70% less.
In some cases those grandparents aren’t yet retired, so there may be three paychecks supporting the household.
Irrelevant.
Immigrant grand parents don’t have no income. Most are living off their kids.
Unless their mosques coach them in faking disabilities that they can collect supplemental disability medicare payments for. That is a lucrative scam.
“Immigrant grand parents don’t have no income.”
True.
“Most are living off their kids.”
I not so sure about that.
Look at: 60 N 3rd Street, San Jose, CA 95113
This Section 8 place is filled with aged Chinese immigrant parents of children who were educated and now employed in the U.S. tech industry on some program(s), and their kids hired lawyers to get the rest of the family moved over. Your SS pays their parents way 100%.
Of all the cases I know, none of the grandparents living at home are working in a paying job (typically they’re visiting on the maximum 6-month visa), but almost all are working - at home doing childcare, cooking, and such.
After all, taking care of one or two children is such hard work….
So then the household would have at least two paychecks.
If they have to pool their money, how are they getting the mortgage? I guess the down payment is high enough that they mortgage amount can be managed by the sole breadwinner. e.g. $700K house, family puts $400K down, $300K mortgage underwritten with $100K household income.
Donk,
A 3% downpayment mortgage is the very definition of subprime.
I dunno about that “pooling together money for a downpayment” story.
All indications is that lending got stricter in recent years (which may be getting looser now). When I got a mortgage a few years back, the underwriters were very concerned where I got my money, even though I was totally legit.
I think if you had to prove your downpayment from a pooled arrangement, when the underwriters start to stick their nose into it, and then find that it came from a several different people, then they would have to investigate those people, and it would be a big complicated mess, that probably wouldn’t get approved.
Then again, there’s always Rocket. Push button, Get Mortgage.
What I always find interesting about these calls to eliminate cash is that economists claim it’s a pressing law enforcement issue. Yet I’ve never heard any law enforcement official call for the elimination of cash
Methinks it’s just a way they can run their ill-conceived experiments with Other People’s Money. Experiments, by the way, which never fail to enrich the connected insiders.
This Harvard Economist Is Trying to Kill Cash
Bloomberg Businessweek
September 7, 2016
Law-abiding citizens rarely have need for $100 bills, yet there are 34 of them in circulation for every woman, man, and child in the U.S. That suggests the bills are circulating mainly in the underground economy. If the biggest bill were worth $10, rather than $100, delivering someone a million bucks under the table would require a 220-pound chest rather than a 22-pound briefcase. Forcing people to use smaller bills, Rogoff argues, might make crime more conspicuous and less convenient.
Rogoff also contends that suppressing cash would make it easier for the Federal Reserve and other central banks to boost economic growth by pushing interest rates into negative territory.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-07/harvard-economist-kenneth-rogoff-is-trying-to-kill-cash
Yeah, negative interest rates are doing wonders for European growth!!!!
The steepest drops in Athens were noted at upmarket regions such as Ekali and Psychiko (13 percent), the working class western suburbs (10 percent) and some regions of the center, such as Ambelokipoi (11 percent).”
Wasn’t “Psychiko” a Hitchcock movie?
Hope ‘n change n’ globalism comes to Dell.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/09/09/dell-emc-lay-off-2000-3000-u-s-workers-after-requesting-5000-h1b-visas-green-cards-to-import-foreign-workers/
Goldman Sachs is trying to frighten fed-up Italians into not voting for much-needed reforms to its crony-capitalist political system and to maintain their subservience to the globalists’ agenda that benefits only a corrupt and venal .1% in international finance.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/09/08/goldman-sachs-launched-project-fear-in-italy-no-vote-referendum/
The bankster parasites, having looted productive economies, now face the prospect of deflation as the increasingly pauperized middle and working classes are seeing their wages and purchasing power erode while paying ever-higher taxes. This will require doubling down on the same failed “No Billionaire Left Behind” policies, of course.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/09/08/ecbs-mario-draghi-has-run-out-of-magic-as-deflation-closes-in/
Economy-related: pensions. These will become a factor going forward as the rosy return rates of the bubble eras may not hold up :-0 This sort of thing will affect a lot of people.
Illinois governor’s office warns of crippling pension payment hike
Reuters
Tue Aug 23, 2016
A Monday memo from a top Rauner aide said the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) board could decide at its meeting this week to lower the assumed investment return rate, a move that would automatically boost Illinois’ annual pension payment.
“If the (TRS) board were to approve a lower assumed rate of return taxpayers will be automatically and immediately on the hook for potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in higher taxes or reduced services,” Michael Mahoney, Rauner’s senior advisor for revenue and pensions, wrote to the governor’s chief of staff, Richard Goldberg.
When TRS lowered the investment return rate to 7.5 percent from 8 percent in 2014 the state’s pension payment increased by more than $200 million, according to the memo.
The country’s fifth-largest state’s unfunded pension liability stood at $111 billion at the end of fiscal 2015, with TRS accounting for more than 55 percent of that gap. The funded ratio was a weak 41.9 percent.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-illinois-pensions-idUSKCN10Y28Z
The shrieks of the NEA Comrades of Proven Worth when they discover that their faithful, decades-long support for Democrat corruption and graft is being rewarded by looted pensions is going to be music to my ears.
They always mention higher taxes and fewer services but never reworking of overly generous pensions. We need a taxpayer revolt immediately.
95% of the electorate voted for the status quo in 2008 and 2012, and at least half will vote for Hillary in 2016. There will be no taxpayer revolt anytime soon.
The thing to watch for is a bondholder revolt. The herd was a little nervous this morning around 9AM.
Do you mean the bond vigilantes?
“A bond vigilante is a bond market investor who protests monetary or fiscal policies he considers inflationary by selling bonds, thus increasing yields. In the bond market, prices move inversely to yields.”
I had assumed the bond vigilantes were crushed years ago and abandoned…
Do you think they might come back?
Only gov workers will ever retire
Got pension math?
A regular fed gov worker’s pension will pretty much max out at $35K/year, in today’s dollars. That’s if they work there 30 years and reach the highest normal rank.
The rest of the income comes from a sort-of 401K and SS, just like everyone else.
By the time the Fed is done printing away all government and corporate debts and liabilities, $35K might buy a few cans of spam.
The oligarchs are lining up against Trump and behind their favored crony capitalist, Hillary Clinton.
http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-cofounder-pledges-20-million-to-fight-donald-trump-2016-9
Facebook actively censors any criticism of Hillary.
Is it criticism, or is it trumplings in a froth over the latest World Nut Daily conspiracy?
All of that.
Facebook actively censors this type of content so it falls off of other peoples news feeds.
Reddit is even worse, they like to shadowban posts and the paid employees of Correct The Record will follow people around other non-political subreddits in a downvoting brigade.
This is all true.
Gee, that’s such a tragedy. Maybe Trump can fix it.
Irrelevant.
You haven’t been on /r/the_donald… Where people are banned for not worshipping enthusiastically enough:
Oh my. Bond yields headed higher. Is this going to force Yellen’s hand on interest rate rises?
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Bond/TMUBMUSD10Y?countrycode=BX
Looks like investors are demanding more yield for government debt. PIIGS bonds are surging…this should get interesting.
http://www.marketwatch.com/investing/Bond/TMBMKIT-10Y?countrycode=BX
A populist revolt in Europe would hasten the end of the EU and the ECB’s endless bailouts of insolvent banks. The can-kickers are finally running out of road.
http://libertyblitzkrieg.com/2016/09/08/a-political-hurricane-is-about-to-sweep-across-europe/
Reba McEntire to sell multi-million dollar Lebanon mansion
Actress and country music singer-songwriter Reba McEntire’s 83-acre lakefront farm in Wilson County has been put up for sale.
McEntire is seeking $7.9 million for the property on Cherokee Dock Road in Lebanon, which is known as Starstruck Farm.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/real-estate/2016/08/23/reba-mcentire-sell-multi-million-dollar-mansion/89200688/
Must’ve been worried about the escalating Shia-Sunni conflict in Lebanon and Syria….
“Reba McEntire to sell multi-million dollar Lebanon mansion”
That master bed is surrounded by glass; for gazing out or inward?
Drone footage from Aleppo, the place the clueless Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson, never heard of. “An ignorant candidate for an igorant electorate” probably won’t get much traction as a campaign slogan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9CSqWQBpOo
‘What The Response To Johnson’s Slip-Up Says About American Politics’
‘What’s worse, momentarily blanking on the name of a foreign city or spearheading a failed CIA-directed regime change that displaced 10 million people and left more than 250,000 dead, many from that city? Based on their coverage of Gary Johnson’s recent Morning Joe blunder, where he inquired, “what is Aleppo?” when questioned about the largest Syrian city, political strategists, pundits, and journalists seem to judge forgetfulness worse than igniting a civil war.’
‘Simply put, the world would be a much much safer place had Hillary Clinton never heard of Aleppo. After failing to disentangle Syria from Iranian influence through secret negotiations with Israel in 2010, Hillary Clinton led the charge for her proxy war to overthrow Assad. By 2011, the US adopted her plan explicitly and used the Arab Spring to align with and arm anti-Assad efforts such as ISIS and initiate what currently stands at over 4,800 airstrikes in Syria.’
‘Despite early attempts at ceasefire negotiations in 2012, the CIA-led insurgency and the predictably violent response by Assad has ravaged Syria. Aleppo in particular has been a focal point of the Syrian civil war for months, with hundreds of people dying on both sides of the conflict. Until America agrees to a ceasefire without regime change, Aleppo will likely continue to suffer the consequences of Hillary’s hubris.’
‘When asked about Johnson’s hiccup, Clinton laughed and noted that “you can look on the map and find Aleppo.” Of course Clinton is aware of exactly where Aleppo is; don’t you think you’d be able to identify a city you helped destroy on a map?’
‘As Clinton enjoys continual passes for causing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, Gary Johnson is laughed at by the media for a single slip-up. What does it say about American politics when a presidential candidate who’s laid waste to a city through reckless foreign policy can laugh at a third-party candidate barely polling double digits for briefly forgetting the city’s name?’
‘Clinton’s stubborn refusal to reconsider this childish adventure in Syria shouldn’t come as a surprise since US-led regime change has been her favorite policy tool throughout her career. Whether it be Belgrade in 1999, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003, Honduras in 2009, Libya in 2011, or Syria for the past five years, Clinton shows no sign of learning from her mistakes, even at continually increasing costs to human life.’
‘While Gary Johnson immediately acknowledged his error and owned up to his human imperfection, Hillary Clinton has never given us a sign that she thinks of herself as a fallible human. Decry his momentary ignorance all you want, a humble, ignorant president is preferable to a stubborn, murderous one.’
‘Imagine if there was as much discussion over a politician’s credentials when they call to arm extremist rebel groups or airstrike a city as there was for making an early morning, one-time blunder. Imagine if war-making was considered as terrible as interview mistakes.’
Drudge Report and Breitbart both want war with Iran.
The MSM is working hard to make Johnson look bad to help Trump.
I think he’s doing that pretty much by himself.
His interview a few days ago about immigration was telling about his character. The first few minutes of it, everything was perfectly fine, whether you agree with his views or or not, it was a cordial interview, and the interviewer wasn’t poking at him or anything.
Then, out of nowhere, simply because the interviewer used the phrase “illegal immigration”, Johnson completely flips out and loses his composure badly.
If you want to skip to that part, it starts around the 4:00 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hoM_TfkCcI&feature=youtu.be&t=19
Johnson would make a nice small-town mayor. Anything bigger than that and he’s out of his depth. Libertarian dogma can’t adapt itself to unpleasant realities.
“Johnson would make a nice small-town mayor.”
If that. I’d never even heard of the guy until recently. After watching him flip out like that, and then not even having a basic knowledge of what’s going on in Syria, and he wants to be President.. I was a little shocked he was the Governor of New Mexico for 8 years. The governor!
Interestingly, the guy was apparently pretty big in construction.
From his wikipedia page:
“While in college, Johnson earned money as a door-to-door handyman. His success in that industry encouraged him to start his own business, Big J Enterprises, in 1976. When he started the business, which focused on mechanical contracting, Johnson was its only employee. His firm’s major break came when he received a large contract from Intel’s expansion in Rio Rancho, which increased Big J’s revenue to $38 million.
Overburdened by his success, Johnson enrolled in a time management course at night school, which he credits with making him heavily goal driven. He eventually grew Big J into a multimillion-dollar corporation with over 1,000 employees. By the time he sold the company in 1999, it was one of New Mexico’s leading construction companies.”
–
Hey, that’s cool, the guy started and built a business, sounds like he got lucky with the Intel contract. He’s still a weirdo. I would never vote for him.
If they really wanted to help Trump, why wouldn’t they make the points this writer did about Clinton and regime change?
Trump would have to play a role by criticizing the war crimes committed by the American government. With the absence of that and his announcement that he would like to significantly increase military spending, the MSM wouldn’t be able to convince people that he’s the peace candidate.
Trump has criticized regime change, often. But this isn’t about him. It’s Syria, Libya, Iraq (etc) and Clinton. Why won’t the MSM criticize the coughing pantsuit about the war crimes?
New Hiliary campaign theme: Bring out your dead - please!
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2016/09/09/photos-embarrassing-turnout-hillary-clinton-keynote-speech-baptist-convention/
Trump is curb stomping her. All her scumbaggery coming home to roost.
I’m tellin’ ya. Her “rallies” are more like wakes with professional mourners. They’ve got an ambulance standing by with a gurney ready to go at a moment’s notice. Her candidacy is like Weekend at Bernie’s. The polls are a complete joke, considering the comparison of rally turnout numbers.
From this video you’d think she was running for local dogcatcher - with a decent chance of getting elected at that, based on her “nabbing” of Bill lo those many years ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hg61mBMdAg
Whenever I see the leftists and/or this guy Johnson lose their composure, it’s always in a finger-wagging, *I am better than you, and I know better than you* way. Condescending.
Whereas with Trump, yeah he’s definitely had his heated rants and ravings, but the tone is different. It’s more like a general shotgun blast at everything and the whole system.
His position on many issues is that he’ll be able to fix things because he’s a great businessman. When pressed for details, he often refuses to give any. That’s the case with his secret plan to defeat ISIS. His attitude is “Trust me. I’m smart. I’ll fix it.” It’s not any different from, “I am better than you, and I know better than you”>
You do have a point. One thing that bothers me a bit about Trump, he’s used this phrase a few times, for example in his RNC speech, he thundered out:
“Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why **I alone** can fix it.”
–
“I alone”.
A little bit on the megalomania side…
And the way he says it, he emphasizes the “I alone” part so there is no doubt that’s what he means.
One last thought about that.
Trump: “Nobody knows the system better than me”
If you know a system better than anyone, that means you must have participated in it very deeply, or are/were part of the design of it. Otherwise, you would not have the knowledge of it better than anyone else.
And things like, how he can’t help but to repeat phrases like, “Believe me” over and over. Any normal person, if they kept saying “believe me” all the time, you’d know they were a used-car salesman.
I’m no Clinton fan either, in my mind she’s clearly been running a criminal operation forever for whatever reasons. The whole upper-leadership of all branches of government looks like they are employees of the Clinton crime syndicate.
Not a Bernie fan either, “free s** for everyone!”. Not really a Stein person either.
There doesn’t seem to be any good choices.
Our country is a battle between used-car salesmens and mafia Goodfellas types.
For what?
What is the goal?
What is the final goal of all it? So they can go all out to Rape Island and sit back and laugh and all the minions funding it from their labor?
I think I need to go back to my safe space and eat some more of my Russian ice cream.
I wish I could spend more time on this.
The logicians out there should be having a field-day. My old teacher showed me so many cases of false-speak. I was already well informed of logical constructs, because I am a computer programmer, and everything made sense after that with some instruction. The language.
The philosophy of logic in language.
Good stuff.
Ignorance in a candidate is only tolerated with a heaping helping of bullshit to wash it down.
“Drone footage from Aleppo…”
Amazing lack of color. The building rubble suggests dirty aggregate in their concrete, which crumbles easily. It’ll be a while before Apple builds a campus there.
Donald Trump Vows to Bolster Nation’s Military Capacities
PHILADELPHIA — Donald J. Trump on Wednesday called for a vast expansion of the military, including 90,000 new soldiers for the Army and nearly 75 new ships for the Navy, requiring up to $90 billion a year in additional spending.
But Mr. Trump did not match those numbers with details about how the country would raise the money, other than a promise to take steps like reducing wasteful spending, which military budget analysts said would be insufficient.
Mr. Trump, in a speech at the Union League of Philadelphia, also vowed to order the military to devise a new plan to defeat the Islamic State “immediately upon taking office.” The plan would come within 30 days from “my generals,” he added, without mentioning that those generals are the same ones who came up with the current strategy, which they believe is working.
The speech was the latest effort by Mr. Trump’s campaign to demonstrate to voters that he can lay out detailed policy prescriptions to problems confronting the nation. It also seemed to be directed at the conservative foreign policy establishment, coming a day after Mr. Trump released a letter from about 90 retired military officials endorsing his campaign.
He lamented the shrinking of the military and warned that enemies were preparing to capitalize on perceptions of American weakness around the world. “Our adversaries are chomping at the bit,” Mr. Trump said. “We want to deter, avoid and prevent conflict through our unquestioned military strength.”
With the speech, Mr. Trump also moved to refocus his campaign on critiques of Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival. Espousing a foreign policy “tempered by realism,” Mr. Trump portrayed Mrs. Clinton, the former secretary of state, as unsuited to lead the nation’s armed forces.
“Unlike my opponent, my foreign policy will emphasize diplomacy, not destruction,” Mr. Trump said. “Hillary Clinton’s legacy in Iraq, Libya, Syria has produced only turmoil and suffering and death.”
But it was the size of the military, and the amount that the United States spends on its defense, that lay at the heart of Mr. Trump’s speech. In addition to increasing the Army to 540,000 soldiers and adding the Navy ships, Mr. Trump proposed buying dozens of new fighter aircraft for the Air Force.
To pay for the expansion, Mr. Trump said he would call on Congress to reverse the cuts to military spending made as part of the budget sequester in 2013, which was the result of a compromise reached between Democrats and Republicans.
The new spending, Mr. Trump said, would not cost taxpayers an additional penny. He said he would eliminate wasteful government spending, increase energy production and trim the federal work force, including the military bureaucracy. He also suggested that he would collect unpaid taxes, which he said amounted to $385 billion.
Asked about the plan, Todd Harrison, a military budget expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, “Good luck.”
“Everyone comes in saying they want to reduce wasteful spending,” Mr. Harrison said. “Folks have tried that again and again, and they have largely not been successful.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/08/us/politics/donald-trump-speech.html?_r=0
“He also suggested that he would collect unpaid taxes, which he said amounted to $385 billion.”
By eliminating the IRS.
Trump seems to know something about Americans of his generation, and it isn’t something good.
In my former life I worked with some triple dippers collecting a military pension, a Lockheed pension, and a government contractor paycheck.
I worked with one guy who collected military disability, he liked to run half-marathons and Iron Beast races.
Every single one of them loved to b*tch about blacks and browns on welfare and how government was too big and taxes were too high.
In a former life, I knew some people working for PGE (Pacific Gas/Electric utility in California), who got TWO pensions from them!
First they took a job with PGE, and worked long enough to get Pension #1. Then quit and worked in the private sector for a few years. After that, they went back to work at the utility and got a 2nd pension!
I had no idea that was even possible. Two pensions from the same company.
My dad worked for PG&E for decades. His pension formula isn’t like a government pension. My understanding is that the pension calculation was something like 1.6%*the number of years employed*the average of your last 3 years salary (without getting the bump up for unpaid vacation/sick time).
So, if your example is correct, I doubt the 2 pensions are some kind of windfall as compared to what a person who was at PG&E for the same number of total years as the person who took the break in the middle.
Ah, OK. I had been wondering about how that worked, whether it was two windfalls or something like what you described. Thanks for the explanation.
So, if your example is correct, I doubt the 2 pensions are some kind of windfall as compared to what a person who was at PG&E for the same number of total years as the person who took the break in the middle.
Some people probably don’t care. It’s two pension checks every month!
that’s a lot how we got into this mess, retirement should mean retirement…..no more w2’s or minimal 1099
early retirement should be eliminated unless the company is going out of business…. you collect full amount when you turn at least 65 this 20- 25- 30 years was a product of the 60′ 70’s when tens of millions of people smoked and had shorter lifespans
i think the actuaries way underestimated the cost of all the non smoking campaigns and if people actually stopped smoking en-mass
Correction: Spartan Beast Race. I’ve done the Pikes Ascent half marathon twice but I might try one of these sometime:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spartan_race
“I worked with one guy who collected military disability, he liked to run half-marathons and Iron Beast races.”
+1 Yep… lots of this chit happening. Heroes.
Donald trump promises a freepony to every real americcan
Hardly compares to the freebies your mom is offering on the Internet.
Ron Paul, still the voice in the wilderness speaking truth to power.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-09/ron-paul-vote-all-you-want-secret-government-wont-change
When the 10yr yr yield= s&p
Ben Dover
“A dig at developer Bob Rennie as well who many see as being too close to the premier”
I think I saw Ben mention this guy before recently, but I don’t know the backstory. Was there some kind of battle between the HBB and this guy in the past?
A few years ago I did an interview with a Canadian paper. This guy then was on youtube giving a speech where he attacked this blog for suggesting there was a bubble in Vancouver. I always thought it strange that he wouldn’t just ignore it. BTW, he’s a big donor to the “Premier” who runs a REIC dog and pony show for developers, etc. He might be the biggest donor.
Immunity’s are being granted to the lower level people. It’s coming. The wheels of justice may be slower than we’d like, but it’s good to see they’re still functioning.
“WASHINGTON — A computer specialist who deleted Hillary Clinton’s emails despite orders from Congress to preserve them was given immunity by the Justice Department during its investigation into her personal email account, according to a law enforcement official and others briefed on the investigation.”
“Mr. Combetta is one of at least two people who were given immunity by the Justice Department as part of the investigation. The other was Bryan Pagliano, a former campaign staff member for Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, who was granted immunity in exchange for answering questions about how he set up a server in Mrs. Clinton’s home in Chappaqua, N.Y., around the time she became secretary of state in 2009.”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/09/09/us/politics/hillary-clinton-emails-investigation.html
Will newly sworn in President Tim Kaine play the harmonica at Hillary’s funeral?
She is so sick and weak she will be lucky to survive 6 months in office.
Hillaryous is unelectable.
The wheels of justice may be slower than we’d like, but it’s good to see they’re still functioning.
Seriously, Pollyanna? Not a single banker has gone to prison for the 2008 financial crash, despite massive, systemic fraud. John Corzine, Obama’s campaign bundler and a DNC bigwig, ripped off $1.6B from customer accounts but won’t ever see the inside of a cell. Crooked Hillary has been a one-woman crime spree since the mid-1980s, but need never fear indictment from a see-no-evil FBI. The .1% are literally above the law, and they know it.
I can hope.
Maybe I should have phrased it more like: “it’s still good to see they’re still functioning *a little bit*”.
Like a 4-time open-heart surgery patient. The heart is still kinda functioning, kinda. But there’s some life to it yet.
Midland, TX Housing Prices Crater 7% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/midland-tx/home-values/
The rent is too damn high:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2016/09/09/denver-renters-overall-are-satisfied-but-miffed-at.html
Trump’s ‘Take the Oil’ Plan Would Violate Geneva Conventions, Experts Say
By DAMIAN PALETTA
Sep 8, 2016 1:08 pm ET
Donald Trump’s stance that the U.S. should have taken oil out of Iraq following the 2003 invasion would have been a violation of the fourth Geneva Convention and likely other international agreements, two legal experts said Thursday.
On Wednesday during a forum televised on NBC, Mr. Trump said the U.S. could have prevented the growth of the Islamic State terror network had it used a number of U.S. troops to pump oil out of Iraq. This would have blocked Islamic State’s access to oil, which the group used in part to finance its insurgency and operations.
“It used to be, to the victor belong the spoils,” Mr. Trump said.
But Laurie Blank, director of the International Humanitarian Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law, said Mr. Trump’s proposal would be a violation of the fourth Geneva Convention, as well as international agreements made at the Hague Conventions in 1899 and 1907.
Under the fourth Geneva Convention, when you are an occupying power, you are a caretaker, you are administering the territory,” Ms. Blank said. “The idea is to keep it as close to status quo as possible and give it back. It’s not yours to do with it what you want.”
She also said that because Iraq is a sovereign nation, the U.S. can’t simply take its natural resources.
“It’s not like this is some unclaimed land where everyone is running to grab the candy from the piñata,” she said.
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2016/09/08/trumps-take-the-oil-plan-would-violate-geneva-conventions-experts-say/
Here’s a deal; let’s apply the Geneva Convention right now to all violators. Trump hasn’t violated it. The President - prison. Both Clintons - prison. Two Bush - prison. Hands up who likes this idea?
If this were the case, I doubt any US president would violate international law again.
“Hands up who likes this idea?”
I give it a big LIKE!
+1
Ben Jones are you familiar with David Brock and Correct The Record?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Brock
Their shills are all over any sub-reddit that is remotely political.
Lol, I actually got accused of being a CTR shill for disagreeing with some Trump campaign stuff during the Manafort months.
Posters on The_Donald subreddit using the same account on other subs report getting downvoted on everything they post. This is the totalitarian left in action. Intimidation and defamation are all they’ve got.
The American equivalent of a Russian troll farm.
Say what you want about ZeroHedge but this paid downvote brigade hate hate hate free speech.
Some of them are gonna have a stroke when Trump wins.
Yep, they get brigaded pretty heavily. Most of the posters seem to be pretty decent folks, IMO. But they have a group on there that are one paranoid mess. And just as partisan as any Hillary shill, IMO. Trump could crap his pants on stage and they’d go into raptures about how he’s the God Emperor playing 3D chess. It gets old real fast.
Contrary to what Bill has talked himself into believing, I don’t think many Trump supporters are giving him a pass on being a douche or any other disturbing tendencies he manifests. We also want no part of ignorant, hateful, bile-spewing cretins who happen to line up behind Trump or any demagogue. His main redeeming value is that he isn’t Hillary Clinton and he isn’t owned by Goldman Sachs.
I’ve never heard of him.
I’d be in favor of that, as long as they do it in a court of law with evidence and arguments, and done out in the open / transparently, not some secret court or anything shady.
“Hands up who likes this idea?”
Hey Mighty…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73tGe3JE5IU - 338k -
“I doubt any US president would violate international law again.”
Or violate many other things too.
I nominate our GuillotineRenovator to carry out the sentencing.
Can I get a Hallalujah in the house?!!
Doesn’t the Geneva Conventions imply there is a world police force that can abduct any violator and try them? Seems like it would be disruptive.
Is it just me, or is Bill Gates, as he gets older, starting to resemble Woody Allen?
A little bit, yes.
I love Bill Gates.
His operating system sucks sh*t through ten bricks.
In case people care about non-residential real estate:
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/video/prologis-ceo-not-seeing-weakness-205700672.html
Hamid Moghadam (CEO of ProLogis, MIT engineer, Stanford GSB) is probably the smartest guy in any room when it comes to industrial real estate. The transcript from PLD’s conference call is the first I read, to get his view on what is happening.
If it weren’t for blogs the world would be blind.
Could be said that the intelligent are foolishly wasting their time responding to trolls on the internet than rising up with their pitchforks
Yesterday there was a diversion here about the dark sith lord Soros and his plans to steal the US coal industry.
From bloomberg today. Coal, the commodity, has been in a bull-market mode all this year.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-08/coal-rises-from-the-grave-to-become-one-of-hottest-commodities
China’s the big buyer of it. Perhaps we could sell them some of ours.
Separately, bloomberg’s been posting a bunch of interesting articles about credit bubbles, property bubbles. Kind of surprising given they are part of the “main stream media”.
With Yellen the Felon’s debasement of the currency, all commodities are headed higher.
I didn’t want to post the link because it was from Fox and stuffed full of advertisements, but they were saying all those payments we did to Iran *also* included gold. I assume the physical.
It was like.. “damn… they gave ‘em a bunch of our gold too?”
Sad.
The government should sell all of its gold. Let it all be in the hands of the people to enhance our freedom, not locked away in government vaults.
While you are to be commended on a rare lucid thought, we need something to back up our currency, once the Fed’s fraud and swindles cause a dollar collapse.
Store of value vs. medium of exchange.
btw Raymond,
I’m not being rude, and I don’t have much history here, but stop insulting MM. He’s not so bad.
Point - Counterpoint - Point - Counterpoint.
That is our way of democracy. Not group-think.
if you want to insult everyone who disagrees with you, that is your right, and you should be free to do it, but it just sucks.
Wouldn’t it be more fun to engage and have discussions? You might learn something about “the other side” whatever that side may be.
btw, I am an excellent debater. I can argue anything on either side, and win. For example, debating the issue of abortions, I can go either way and win either way, because I studied and know all the details of each side of the arguments. I won debates in both sides.
I don’t want to be that way on the HBB blog, switching things. I’d rather be myself and just go for it.
Ultimately, I’m a pretty cool dude.
Irrelevant
Millennials are reaping the hope n’ change they voted for.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/09/millennials-will-be-renting-for-a-lot-longer.html
But…but…green shoots!
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/09/09/german-exports-plunge-10-overall-14-to-non-eu-countries/
But…but…the clever man on CNBC said the Eurozone was fixed!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/09/09/eurozone-woes-continue-as-german-exports-plunge-and-french-indus/
The Oligopoly is trying to convince the sheeple that the EU and ECB are good for them. Good luck pitching that snake oil to the masses.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/09/juncker-commission-to-launch-charm-offensive-to-stave-off-populi/
How can the oligarchs rig elections and hack votes unless we move the voting process online?
http://www.breitbart.com/jerusalem/2016/09/09/leaked-memo-george-soros-foundation-seeking-expand-u-s-online-voting/
Corrupt and deranged.
http://www.theburningplatform.com/2016/09/07/corrupt-and-deranged/
Here we go again - pretend “reforms” by PIIGS deadbeats in return for new bailout money to keep the “extend and pretend” game going. But the rise of populist-nationalist alternatives to the Establishment Quisling parties is going to bring the ECB can-kicking to a screeching halt.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/pressure-back-greece-bailout-falters-dijsselbloem-093111104.html
Fed officers must be contemplating the dread spector of waves of class action lawsuits against the Wall Street-Federal Reserve Looting Syndicate by insolvent state and union pension funds once the Fed’s financial house of cards comes tumbling down.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-08/u-s-banks-face-series-of-post-volcker-proposals-from-regulators
Something tells me the zombie housing inventory is about to get refreshed.
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/08/wiping-out-housings-zombies-banks-sell-off-foreclosed-remnants-of-crash.html
Listening to Michelle Bachmann on C-SPAN now introducing The Donald. She wants war with Iran, badly.
Who’s paying for this?
Michelle Bachman is a barking lunatic and a “religious right” fundamentalist. However, she was one of the few congress-critters to ask the right questions and demand the right answers as the financial crisis of 2008 was taking shape. And she has awesome corndog-downing skills. Just sayin’….
“Listening to Michelle Bachmann…”
Born in Waterloo, Iowa, Michele Bachmann became a born-again Christian at the age of 16. ’nuff said.
Has the cheese slipped off of Hillary’s cracker?
Revealed: The Truth About ‘Hillary’s Handler’ » Alex Jones’ Infowars …
http://www.infowars.com/revealed-the-truth-about-hillarys-handler/ - 220k - Cached - Similar pages
7 hours ago
This cannot possibly be true. It has not been revealed by Real Journalists. Hence I refuse to view the video.
The prison-industrial complex is an abomination and a national disgrace. Inmates already lose their freedom, but are still entitled to a mediocum of human dignity and decency, as well as help for those truly wishing to rehabilitate themselves or live more meaningful existences behind bars.
http://www.businessinsider.com/inmates-biggest-prison-strike-in-america-2016-9
Idiot Frenchmen elected a globalist, Hollande. They will pay for that mistake.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3781186/Deeply-unpopular-Hollande-calls-France-embrace-Islam-rejects-calls-nationwide-burkini-ban.html
GOOD LORD
Donald Trump, Jon Voight Vow to Save Christianity
In a speech to the annual Values Voters Summit Trump pledged to repeal tax provisions he said silences religious leaders and to protect “Christian heritage” like no one ever has before.
ASAWIN SUEBSAENG 09.09.16 5:15 PM ET
WASHINGTON, DC — On Friday, some of the biggest names in Donald Trump’s conservative celebrity posse traveled to the Omni Shoreham Hotel in northwest DC to join the Republican presidential nominee to talk god, Trump, and culture wars.
For the 2016 Values Voter Summit (the annual social-conservative conference organized by Tony Perkins’ Family Research Council), Trump took the stage in the main hall mid-afternoon to deliver a speech that leaned heavily on playing upon the Christian right’s longstanding persecution complex.
“How can it be that our media treats people of faith so poorly?” Trump asked rhetorically, before reminding the audience that many politicians have straight-up “abandoned” them for more progressive, secular, politically correct values.
In a Trump administration, our Christian heritage will be cherished and protected like you’ve never seen before,” he said, reciting an easy applause line. “There is no more charitable group in this country than Christians.”
The occasion was special and the target audience uniquely pious—but all they got from The Donald on a humid Friday afternoon was a rehash of a typical Trump stump speech, with an extra biblical trimming or two tossed in.
During his Values Voter remarks, Trump repeated his calls to repeal the Johnson amendment, which bars tax-exempt religious groups from endorsing political candidates (“I figure that’s the only way I’m getting to heaven”—a joke he has crowd-tested on the trail before) and Obamacare. He again touted his school-choice policy prescriptions, and continued denouncing Democratic politicians for not taking care of black constituents in “the inner cities.” He hated on all those trade deals he loves to hate on (“We’re gonna terminate NAFTA!”). He of course once again said a couple of mean things about Mexico plundering our jobs. He took his usual digs at Common Core, bashed the Iran nuke deal, talked about the Supreme Court, revved up the crowd by insulting Hillary Clinton’s “stupid” foreign-policy positions and her email scandal, and riffed on ISIS’s “genocide of Christians” in the Middle East.
“[Our enemies] think we’re stupid—they won’t be thinking it for long,” Trump assured everyone. “Hillary Clinton is UNFIT to be our president! … It’s time to restore honesty and integrity to our government, we have to do it.”
This was only Team Trump’s latest exercise in (rather successfully) wooing Christian and evangelical leaders and voters into his camp. Given Trump’s boorish behavior, naughty language, womanizing, and past deep associations with liberal Hollywood and Democratic Party figures, it seemed only natural that evangelicals would grow to loathe Trump. Instead, over the course of the primary, the opposite happened.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/09/09/donald-trump-jon-voight-vow-to-save-christianity.html
“Vancouver Housing Bubble Burst Sends Local Consumer Sentiment Crashing Most In Three Years”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-09-06/vancouver-housing-bubble-burst-sends-british-columbia-consumer-sentiment-crashing-mo
They called it back in the 80’s.
Oh, I messed up. How do you post a picture? I tried linking the URI but it didn’t come out.
Can’t.
You can use Picpaste.
Thank you. All I have is Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast. There is no motion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7pkOZ5n6PQ
I like marmalade.
Thanks.
I think I might get kicked out.
Hope all is well.