From Property Bonanza To An Almost Complete Standstill
A report from the Evening Standard in the UK. “Sales of luxury apartments in London have collapsed by more than 80 per cent since the spring in a ’staggering’ market slump, the Evening Standard can reveal. A toxic combination of rocketing stamp duty rates and ‘Brexit blight’ have brought the capital’s prime property bonanza to an ‘almost complete standstill’ and could threaten Mayor Sadiq Khan’s ambitious house-building targets. Just nine newly-built homes worth more than £5 million changed hands in the six months to October, down 83 per cent from the 52 that were sold in the same period last year, according to an exclusive analysis of the latest Land Registry data.”
“The figures have triggered near panic among developers and agents specialising in the so-called ’super prime’ market with one claiming that the Government had scored ‘a spectacular own goal’ by raising stamp duty rates to 12 per cent for homes worth more than £1.5 million. The figures are even bleaker than those seen in the property ‘nuclear winter’ that followed the 2008 credit crunch and banking crisis when sales fell by around 45 per cent.”
“One prominent agent, Trevor Abrahmsohn of Glentree Estate, said prices for some homes in the higher levels of the market may now be 30 to 35 per cent below peak levels of 2014. Latest research from high-end agency Knight Frank suggested that Chelsea prices fell 12.6 per cent in the year to November and properties close to Hyde Park saw an 11.2 per cent drop.”
From B Daily. “A combination of Brexit and tax increases is putting a serious squeeze on London’s luxury upmarket housing market and the UK’s wider luxury market as a whole. Naomi Heaton, Chief Executive Officer of LCP believes a cocktail of Brexit-induced economic uncertainty, combined with the added pressures of tax increases, including the added 3% Additional Rate Stamp Duty (ARSD), is putting serious pressure on the top end of the housing market. She said: ‘As can be seen over the last 6 months, the market appears to have finally succumbed to the constant residential tax hits from the Government.’”
From This Is Money. “A shortage of properties coming up for sale means Britain’s housing market will get off to a slow start next year, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors predicts. Meanwhile, more than a third of surveyors told Rics they thought properties in the area they covered were overpriced. Donald Leslie MRICS of chartered surveyors Donald Leslie & Co in Amersham, said: ‘It has changed to a buyers’ market and there is evidence of discounting. Overpriced properties are not attracting interest.’”
“Mark Annett FRICS of estate agents Mark Annett & Company in Chipping Campden, adds: ‘It has been very busy although achieving a deal is tough. Vendors seem to think prices have risen over and beyond reality.’ John Frost MRICS of estate agents The Frost Partnership in Beaconsfield, said: ‘Stamp duty has affected the number of high value market transactions as purchasers are not willing to pay the increased tax.’”
From Letting Agent Today. “The dramatic slump in the prime central London sales market is now leading to a reduction in rents being achieved in the lettings sector too. Yesterday we reported on Estate Agent Today that one agency claimed transactions were 60 per cent down from a year ago in some parts of prime central London - now another agency, Knight Frank, says the increase in supply of homes to let is pushing down rents.”
“‘Higher stock levels have put downwards pressure on rental values which has boosted affordability for tenants, whose negotiation position has strengthened over the course of this year. Higher supply is the result of increased uncertainty in the sales market, which has meant a growing number of vendors opting to let rather than sell until more clarity emerges surrounding future pricing trends’ admits Tom Bill, head of London residential research at Knight Frank.”
‘prices for some homes in the higher levels of the market may now be 30 to 35 per cent below peak levels of 2014′
Can we say the bubble has popped?
What did they think was going to happen with these 5 or 10 million peso shacks? Good gravy.
“Can we say the bubble has popped?”
Not without causing me profound sadness.
This “prime London” boom was the global center of the “park your money” myth the REIC and media peddled. A lot of it was money laundering. Same story as Vancouver: price didn’t matter because the more expensive it was the more you laundered. Well it’s parked alright and now we get to watch what happens when shacks are treated as pure investments instead of housing.
‘prices for some homes in the higher levels of the market may now be 30 to 35 per cent below peak levels of 2014′
Some of these are north of 30 millions. Yesterday we learned Natty Ice Dudes hero DiCaprio took a 2 million hit. The multi-million peso, never lived in ass poundings are coming in fast and furious.
DiCaprio is another one that walks around like a fool with a hole in his pocket. And he’ll die dead broke because of it. Just like the rest of the Film Phoneys.
Still need a Lehman Brothers/AIG type moment for it to sink in to the public, especially the sellers. Right now with the Dow closing in on 20K everyone think everything is still awesome.
With a few trillion gone to money-heaven in the bond market, the moment may have passed. The stock thing is a surprise: we’ll see if it sticks. I don’t know if I buy this rotation theory as stocks and bonds were in step for so long.
Well, since we are becoming more of an isolationist country with the new administration, I think these stocks are up in hopes of a big infrastructure bill or jobs bill. Invest now in the US of A or be priced out forever! Time will tell if it sticks or if they are “peddling fiction”.
How is a country that is $21 trillion in debt finance a multi-trillion dollar infrastructure “investment” program?
Oh yeah. Deficit spending, with all debts and liabilities to be printed away by the Fed.
‘Isolationist’ = neocon speak for not constantly invading other countries, toppling their governments, stealing their stuff, and slaughtering their people.
Pretty sure we’re still importing and exporting stuff. Not going to turn into North Korea and block off the world. Quit the drama.
Quite the drama…
I had a long drive today and was listening to NPR. I began to fully appreciate the depth and scope of what is being referred to here as bedwetting.
Drama is an expensive luxury. Some of these people are going to have a rude awakening when they actually have to shoulder some work and produce something real.
Interesting. Since I don’t imbibe the msm much or hang with people like this, I’m only aware of the bedwetting I see here. I had sort of thought once a little time passed after the election, they would stop the whining.
“I don’t know if I buy this rotation theory…”
In lockstep on the way up and in rotation on the way down doesn’t seem very plausible.
http://www.businessinsider.com/consumer-business-ceo-confidence-higher-since-trump-election-2016-12
Confidence is very high.
Business Insider should have asked the line workers if they are as confident as their CEOs. (my guess is, not as high as the CEO’s, but higher than it’s been in 15 years)
Why look for the depressed pessimist?
Optimist live longer.
Optimists believe they will live longer.
Pessimists are afraid they might live longer…
‘Higher supply is the result of increased uncertainty in the sales market, which has meant a growing number of vendors opting to let rather than sell until more clarity emerges surrounding future pricing trends’
These accidental landlords find falling rents just as they rush to market. What are the returns? Negative after the taxes. Oh dear, it always gets messy when it unravels.
The calm before the storm is clearly at hand.
Next up: The storm.
Opinion: Is the bond market embarking on a 1946-like 35-year cycle of rising rates?
Published: Dec 8, 2016 9:16 a.m. ET
Rising inflation would be good for stock-market bulls and bond-market bears
By Samantha LaDuc
Interest rates follow very long-term cycles. This chart highlights a 35-year (1946-1981) bond market, but unlike our most recent-35 year (1981-2016) bond market, it was in a rising rate environment. Yields climbed from a low of 2% to a high of 16% over those 35 years. A series of labor strikes in 1946 (big ones, like when U.S. troops seized control of U.S. railroads during rail union strikes) pushed the American economy into an inflationary spiral so much so that inflation surged 20% that year, and with it yields broke out.
…
I rather think much is lost by taking snap shots that are shorter than a life span.
It’s been “the calm before the storm” since at least 2013. And still the central bankers’ Ponzi markets and asset bubbles just keep expanding.
Maybe they can keep their Ponzi aloft forever, and maybe not.
Time will tell!
‘Just nine newly-built homes worth more than £5 million changed hands in the six months to October, down 83 per cent from the 52 that were sold in the same period last year’
To understand this you have to know that entire towers are dark at night and there are thousands more on the way. 9 in 6 months? London is worse off than Miami beach.
Burial urns in the air.
Some may remember the saga of my cousin who’s been living in a house for around 6 years without paying the mortgage (at various points even renting it out and keeping the money! And curse me, I always forget to ask if they have been paying the taxes on the place). The last I reported was him working with a lawyer to try to get adverse possession since they’d lived there so long without paying. The latest is this: they were just offered $17K if they move out by December 22nd and hand over the keys without destroying anything! $13.5K for Jan 6, and $10K if they move out by Jan 20th. Jeebus!
They “owned” another home and got 5K to turn over the keys. Not sure how long they lived there without paying.
How in the holy F can they be paid 17K after stealing all of that money? Talk about getting a reward for being a deadbeat.
How common is this? Does anybody know?
I’d say it is highly unusual. I’ve been involved in a number of these and it’s usually between $500 to $1,500. He could be a lion.
I don’t think he’s a lion, but I think I’ll be able to tell for sure because I’ll ask to see the check. He had called to ask advice and I said ‘clear out ASAP’.
Maybe the adverse possession business is what upped the ante? I’ve never believed that kind of thing can really happen, but they’ve been there a long time.
“I don’t think he’s a lion…”
Well, you can be sure the bank wouldn’t be a lion!
Good point! I’ll make sure he insists on some sort of cashier’s check!
“How common is this? Does anybody know?”
It was a tactic recommended by Carlton Sheets in his real estate courses during the 1980s/1990s as a way to get rid of deadbeat tenants in an amicable fashion. Much cheaper than going through the eviction process and having to repair damage made by disgruntled tenants. Sometimes he even paid for the movers. Most of the cash came out of the deposit they paid up front.
In this case, however, I think the adverse possession process has upped the ante. There’s a lawyer involved. That’s why the 17k. I would imagine the lawyer gets a good chunk of that and is probably advising your cousin to take the deal, thereby ensuring his or her payment.
Keep us posted, this is interesting. Is this in Florida?
Bend, OR. Land of the hipster doofus transplants in their quilted diaper jackets and the fake urban cowboy transplants.
not everyone can afford Bend. Great place to raise kids. Skiing, fishing, SUPing, kayaking, sunshine, no traffic, little crime, good food and brews!
What is not to like?
Crime, drugs, Lolas, illegals… Just like California.
That’s why it cost so much. doh!
Did I mention rampant fraud?
Why are you so butthurt about CA? You live near Buffalo, NY. You have more in common with people in Moscow.
CA lives in your head rent free and we store our boards there too.
Not to mention the fact that California is the poorest state in the US.
Lola - your personal attacks here are not welcome. Go away if you can’t play nice with the other kids. This is your second warning. Do it a third time and I’m bringing it up with Ben.
One guy criticized New York and the other guy criticized California. Which is the objectionable personal attack?
Well, clearly New York is a suckier place than California.
Just sayin’…
Is his name Mike?
Oh wait…
How strong is this adverse possession case? If your cousin thinks he has a good chance of winning adverse possession, he would have turned down the $17K. Or is this how they play now? Simply sue on meritless adverse possession, collect an $17K.
And so what if “a lawyer is involved.” Banks have lawyers too, very highly paid lawyers, lawyers that wouldn’t be scared off by some local swinging shingle.
And I like that the get-out award diminishes at a rate of precisely $1750/week. My guess is the bank wants to unload the house in a fire sale ASAP because they know the market is declining at a rate of $1750/week. They may even have a buyer ready.
Hey Donk.
Different scenario, but kinda similar. Was talking to a fella in Oakland who was trying to get a section 8′r out of a property so he could redevelop. Ended up paying her like $25k to move out. I don’t think that figure is uncommon in rent controlled jurisdictions.
I reco’d he 1099-misc her at the end of the year, you know, sort of as a return the favor kind of gesture since that’d jeopardize her entitlements.
Was the tenant doing something unethical?
Not unless you consider welfare fraud unethical.
OK, it sounded as if she did something to the landlord.
From my perspective, she extorted $25k from him. Granted, some payment to compensate her for moving expense and her trouble etc. would be reasonable. She held out for a substantial windfall however. She was the benefactor of that for no other reason than being on public assistance.
Was the tenant doing something unethical?
and what color was he?
Was the tenant doing something unethical?
Well as a deadbeat and parasite, we have to assume he was voting straight D. That’s as unethical as it gets.
A large portion of poor people don’t vote. The PTB have put obstacles in their way. Though things have gotten less bad in recent decades.
Obstacles?
I wonder like what; having to show up?
Yeah, here’s a story about NY rent controlled tenants collecting $25M. Unbelievable. I guess NY is exceptional in that regard, but other rent controlled jurisdictions require the same ‘lubricant’ to move tenants out.
‘Tishman Speyer Properties, one of New York City’s most active real estate developers, had bought two parcels of land on the Far West Side of Manhattan to clear the way for a 2.8-million-square-foot office tower planned for Hudson Yards.
Standing in the way, though, were the occupants of two apartments on the site. So this year, the developer turned to a lubricant that can be counted on to ease New York City tenants out of their rent-regulated units — a buyout, in this case, for $25 million in total to three tenants.’
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/25/nyregion/new-york-builders-paying-huge-buyouts-to-tenants-in-their-way.html?_r=0
Clark: So, this is the old homestead, eh?
Cousin Eddie: Yeah. I don’t know for how much longer, though. The banks been after me like flies on a rib roast.
Cousin Eddie: I got laid off when they closed that asbestos factory, and wouldn’t you know it, the army cuts my disability pension because they said that the plate in my head wasn’t big enough.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Bu4MwNTJwA
“How in the holy F can they be paid 17K after stealing all of that money? Talk about getting a reward for being a deadbeat.”
The hustlers never work, and the workers never hustle.
Thank you howling braying collapsocrats and WaPo for the endless stream of priceless comedy.
“To Get Over A Breakup, I Went To A ‘Rage Room’ And Smashed Things”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/soloish/wp/2016/12/06/to-get-over-a-breakup-i-went-to-a-rage-room-and-smashed-things
“Most rage room owners report that the majority of their customers are women, who usually arrive in pairs and sometimes with a photo of an ex-boyfriend.”
Yikes! Guard those family jewels if womyns like these happen your way…
LOL
Carl’s Jr.: F**k you, I’m eating.
http://picpaste.com/charlotte-mckinney-with-burger.jpg
‘2016 marked the end of the biggest bull market of our lifetimes’
‘In 2016, the nearly 40-year bond bull market ended. Date of death: July 11. And this was the biggest economic event of the year.’
“The biggest of 2016, in a weird way, was not Trump, was not Brexit, was not the end of the OPEC war back in February, it was July 11,” Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, said at a panel on Wednesday.’
“On July 11, 2016, a couple weeks after Brexit, the 30-year Treasury yield fell to 2.088%. On that day, the Swiss government could borrow money for 50 years — out to 2076, a year most of us won’t be around to see — at a negative interest rate.”
“And that day was the day that the greatest bull market ever, in the bond market, ended. Since then, yields have been rising. And that without a doubt is the biggest event of 2016.”
A question that I have been asking for a long time….how can interest go up if the world is awash in debt???
Now I know you didn’t make bail yet Lola.
“…how can interest go up if the world is awash in debt???”
Hehe… just print more and charge loan origination fees.
“when my friend janet yellen talks about interest rates I highly suggest you shut your pie hole and listen up!”
You’ve been betrayed by “Marbles in the mouth” Yellen and “Can’t get it (inflation) up” Bernanke. Now they are as irrelevant as dingle-berries in a junior high locker room.
QE4 is coming mr jones.
Did Yellen tell you that? You might have misunderstood because she’s got a goldfish flopping around on her tongue.
She’s into goldfish? She’s all gray, but I didn’t realize that she was that old.
This is the headline, published by Sprott Money on ZeroHedge, at the top
“The Stock Market is a Propaganda Tool”.
I’ve posted the article below, which is essentially touting Sprott’s book, however, I didn’t even have to read the article/promo. Just reading that one sentence was like getting hit in the face by a blivet.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-08/stock-market-propaganda-tool
Compared to 2015 Q3, the average rent for a single-family home in Dallas-Fort Worth increased 10.1 percent compared to this year’s Q3, according to RentRange.
DFW ranks just No. 15 in the country for rent increases.
http://www.wfaa.com/money/see-how-much-the-average-dfw-rent-increased-this-year/366052845
Once some of these new developments get finished though, there should be substantially more supply.
I’m back
I’m back in the RageCage again
I’m back
I’m back in the RageCage again
Here’s a funny.
For some reason, my banner ad here on the HBB is for real estate in India.
So you can follow your job there?
If Trump stops jobs from leaving isnt that and example of big government telling you what u can do?
Libertarians want less gov.
No, it’s winning. I’ve been thinking about all this ideological purity people are waving about. The US government has been encouraging companies to go offshore for decades! These idiots set the whole dang thing up. Who allowed China into the WTO? The US. Who crammed NAFTA down our throats? It wasn’t Mexico or Canada. Turning this thing around isn’t a job for academics with litmus tests. Somebody has to grab the bull by the horns. If it was your job on the line I doubt we’d hear all this urine-soaked whining.
All the bedwetting is comedic.
How does the USA encourage it?
Yes, I can hire a CPA in the Philippines for $10 an hr or a local one for $75 an hr. No encouragement needed. Free world market thanks to the internet.
Sounds like you want less competition from outside the usa–good luck.
‘Free world market’
Ima going to answer but it isn’t directed at you. Globalism has failed. It’s over. It didn’t work, can’t work, will never work. So while the adults clean up the mess here’s what you butthurtistanians do: wait 4 years, nominate a globalist candidate and win the election. Good luck with that.
This guy is with new.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZ9cR93AynY
“Globalism has failed. It’s over. It didn’t work, can’t work, will never work.”
Moar please.
MOAR
Yes
Deregulate,don’t hesitate
Not likely.
I understand you guys have some Global Warming up there.
Don’t get busted playing date rape music within earshot of a Loon.
Activists push to ban ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ because it promotes date rape
POSTED AT 9:01 AM ON DECEMBER 6, 2016 BY LARRY O’CONNOR
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/12/06/activists-push-to-ban-baby-its-cold-outside-because-it-promotes-date-rape/
Leon Redbone & Zooey Deschanel - Baby, It’s Cold Outside
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d-4aOi3AzQ
“Rising Interest Rates Trigger Losses on Banks’ Massive Bond Holdings”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/rising-interest-rates-trigger-losses-on-banks-massive-bond-holdings-1481132298
The internet brought you:
Globalism
bad posture
kids with no skills
eyeglasses
free porn
good luck stopping it.
I just had new business cards designed in India. $30 for new logo and look in less than 24 hrs. Or I could have ordered a lrg pizza locally.
I bet you really like pizza.
he’s a fat ugly white man. the worst kind.
‘I just had new business cards designed in India.’
Let me guess:
fake news
You don’t seem to understand what globalism is. It’s not free trade. It’s rigged trade agreements courtesy of new world order types.
Remember my friends… Nothing accelerates the economy and creates jobs like falling prices to dramatically lower and more affordable levels. Nothing.
buy stawks!
Borrowing costs are going up up up!
Worked in 1921
Life was miserable back in those days.
Certainly true for those who didn’t have a skill or a strong back.
It worked in 1981 too. It’s the only way to grow an economy.
“when fiat was backed by something it actually had value. It was limited to the commodity behind it. It was created to facilitate transactions. Somehow this system has gotten out of control where it has become a power play where one group of people controls another.”
Dollars are increasingly valuable with each passing day. Hold on to every one you got. You’ll be glad you did.
True 1981 was the last time we did something heroic (economically)
So it must have been heroic to throw millions of people out of work.
Incorrect. Not only did employment skyrocket, prices fell.
1980: 7.1%
1981: 7.6%
1982: 9.7%
1983: 9.6%
1984: 7.5%
http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNU04000000?years_option=all_years&periods_option=specific_periods&periods=Annual+Data
That’s not employment. Sorry.
yeah, it’s unemployment
Nonsense.
I was around during the Reagan years. His first term was brutal, jobs were scarce. Second term was better.
Yep, the world stops when interest rates are high enough.
It only stops because the debt-pushers have gotten most of society thoroughly hooked on their drug (debt). Imagine an economy that was more cash-based and less debt-based—how much would such an economy be affected by high rates? Very little, as most of the activity would not depend upon the taking out of new debt.
Ben Jones this one’s for you. Thanks HBB!
http://m.imgur.com/hQRcCWB?r
An interesting year, to say the least.
Zardoz!
The demise of the ultimate housing bubble company, Restoration Hardware.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-08/restoration-hardware-implodes-after-more-terrible-guidance-blames-election
Here’s part of one of the comments:
“How does a furniture store (that sells Chinese quality at European prices) have a maket cap 1.6 BILLION to begin with?”
I’m sure that that commenter has gone through their financial statements and calculated what he think the market cap should be.
The stock market is a propaganda tool.
Eagle Point, OR Housing Prices Crater 5% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/eagle-point-or/home-values/
And a repost of this. Nobody on Fakebook is talking about it. Maybe because Trump didn’t cause it and there’s no points to be scored by calling somebody racist about it…
Pentagon buries evidence of $125 billion in bureaucratic waste:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.39b0ff77a5e3
I don’t use Facebook. Maybe people have gotten tired of politics on Facebook and have returned to posting photographs of food and pets.
Wu-Tang Clan — 7th Chamber Part 2, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island (1993):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMDGsxSEbOE
This is interesting:
“The secretary of state of Georgia is asking the Department of Homeland Security to explain what appears to be an attempted breach of the state’s voter registration database by someone in the federal government.
In a letter to Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson dated Thursday, Georgia’s Secretary of State Brian Kemp said the state had discovered an unsuccessful attempt to breach the firewall of state computer systems. That attempt was linked to an IP address associated with DHS, he said.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-08/georgia-accuses-homeland-security-attempting-hack-states-election-database
That’s exactly what some have said, that all the so-called “hacking” has been coming from within the US gov.
Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in Dead Heat in Georgia: Poll
Melissa Chan @melissalchan Nov. 3, 2016
The Republican nominee is ahead of Clinton 45% to 44%, with Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson in the mix, and 47% to 46% without Johnson. Georgia last went Democrat in the 1992 election, when Bill Clinton won the state.
http://time.com/4557386/donald-trump-hillary-clinton-georgia-poll/
More trouble in Texas, they can afford to pay the pensioners what they promised them.
Gotta love it!–right! Cheers for misery for others!
This is what happens when markets are rigged and prices are fixed at grossly inflated levels.
Learrrrrrrrrn my friend.
Same everywhere
Only gov workers will retire
Given the precarious state of pension funds, it’s going to be a spartan retirement.
The misery of innocent taxpayers stuck paying for all this, right?
Heckova job, Ben & Janet.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/12/08/calamity-economy-performs-household-wealth-miracle/
Is extend-and-pretend ever going to end?
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-07/monte-paschi-asks-ecb-for-more-time-to-complete-capital-increase
Clinton blasts ‘epidemic’ of fake news
BY HARPER NEIDIG - 12/08/16 04:48 PM EST
Hillary Clinton on Thursday decried the spread of fake news online, calling it an “epidemic” that Congress should take action against.
“The epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year — it’s now clear the so-called fake news can have real-world consequences,” Clinton said during a speech on Capitol Hill.
Some Democrats have argued the spread of anti-Clinton fake news online contributed to her electoral loss to Donald Trump.
“Lives are at risk — lives of ordinary people just trying to go about their days, to do their jobs, contribute to their communities.”
“It’s a danger that must be addressed and addressed quickly,” she said.
https://origin-nyi.thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/309532-clinton-blasts-epidemic-of-fake-news
And there she is in her purple majesty. That’s a thing now, this wearing of purple, a color reserved for priests and rulers. Signifies authority.
Purple was a big thing in the last days of the Roman Empire. As were all kinds of putrid practices.
I haven’t believed anything the Clintons have said for a couple of decades now.
Purple was simply a very expensive dye. Life is much better when expensive luxuries are dispensed with. Good bye Clintons.
the Kinks — Waterloo Sunset:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_MqfF0WBsU
The Kinks - I’m Not Like Everybody Else (Scene from “God Bless America”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHeTJt-Hii0
When I got the CD for Muswell Hillbillies it had two bonus tracks that had been cut from the LP:
Kentucky Moon ~ The Kinks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40HU5Qdna78
Great slide guitar.
The Kinks-Mountain Woman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7CzHFWsXQQ
“Uneducated but they’re happy!”
Jeb Bush’s WORST Fails [Fail Compilation]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EhhtezPD9Y
Jeb Bush Saddest Moments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yHckRTkcZg
You gotta see 2:13.
Whatever Trump’s shortcomings, the fact remains that he singlehandedly knocked 15 clown-car occupants out of the race, including Jeb, and then went on to wipe the floor with Crooked Hillary. That will go down as the best things that happened in 2016.
“It’s A New Record: Americans Not Participating In The Labor Force Nears 100 Million”
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2016/12/03/its-a-new-record-americans-not-participating-in-the-labor-force-nears-100-million/
who needs to work when we can inflate stock and home prices to the moon?
I can ask $50,000 for my 10 year old Chevy pickup but where is the buyer that price?
So it is with all depreciating assets like houses and cars
1993 NAFTA signed into law
History.com (This Day in History) | 12/08/2016 | staff
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Clinton said he hoped the agreement would encourage other nations to work toward a broader world-trade pact.
NAFTA, a trade pact between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, eliminated virtually all tariffs and trade restrictions between the three nations. The passage of NAFTA was one of Clinton’s first major victories as the first Democratic president in 12 years.
If Japan is the model, there might be some unintended consequences.
Japan’s frugal millennials a bad omen for its economy
Reuters
Japan’s millennials have grown up in an economy that never seems to grow.
Accustomed to stagnant wages, jobs without benefits and a debt-burdened government, they came of age during the global financial crisis and the 2011 tsunami and nuclear disaster - events that set them apart from other generations, especially in their spending patterns.
Millennials in the United States and other developed countries also show a reluctance to buy and own things, with young Americans sharing anything from cars and couches to boomboxes and dresses. But it’s a particularly serious economic problem for Japan: Its population is shrinking, and each household is spending less.
Young people are reluctant to spend because of stagnant wages and a lack of stable jobs. Nearly 30 percent of contract workers aged 25-34 said last year that they settled on temporary jobs because they couldn’t find permanent employment, according to a government survey.
Across all ages, Japanese people are spending less, with the biggest drop coming among the youth.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-economy-frugality-idUSKBN13Y074?il=0
The stock market might be all psychology per Shiller (”Animal Spirits”), but that doesn’t mean that all of the economy is a head game. The basis of it is bullet-hit-the-bone real.
Donald Trump’s BEST MOMENTS of his 2016 Campaign!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RYVEIbwiOE
My first childhood hero has left earth for the last time.
U.S.
John Glenn, American Hero of the Space Age, Dies at 95
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
DEC. 8, 2016
Obituaries By ERIK OLSEN, JOHN SCHWARTZ and TAIGE JENSEN 6:44
The Last Word: John Glenn
John Glenn, a symbol of the space age as the first American to orbit Earth, sat down with John Schwartz in 2012 — the 50th anniversary of his flight — to talk about making history and that “beautiful view.”
John Glenn, a freckle-faced son of Ohio who was hailed as a national hero and a symbol of the space age as the first American to orbit Earth, then became a national political figure for 24 years in the Senate, died on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio. He was 95.
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A storied life.
Rate hikes are coming!
The Financial Times
US Interest Rates
Markets risk undervaluing the Trump effect
Washington rhetoric suggests a likely rate rise next week could be first of a series
3 hours ago
by: Michael Mackenzie
It is a story of the markets against the US Federal Reserve — and so far, the markets have been on the right side of the call. Bond market movements have this year proved a better guide to potential shifts in benchmark rates than has the Fed’s official range of projections.
But as Donald Trump prepares to take power amid expectations that the Fed will next week raise benchmark rates, the question is whether the markets are wrong to be confident that rates will remain relatively low.
Several analysts and experts argue that the markets have failed to factor in the full implications of Mr Trump’s drive to switch from monetary to fiscal stimulus — and that an increase in the Federal funds rate next week could be just the beginning of a sustained series of rises over the medium term.
‘’The market is not pricing in a level of aggressive hiking that the rhetoric in Washington is suggesting,” said Ian Lyngen, strategist at BMO Capital Markets, who adds that “”with [Fed chair Janet] Yellen leaving in the beginning of 2018 and two empty seats on the board to be filled, Trump will surely seek to leave his mark on the Fed and we have to assume it will lead to a more hawkish Fed composition.’’
John Brady, managing director at RJ O’Brien, a futures broker, is concerned the bond market is being too complacent. He says there could be at least three further rate hikes next year, taking the Fed funds rate towards 1.5 per cent as Mr Trump pushes a fiscal stimulus through Congress. “There is a risk that the market then starts pricing in more tightening from the Fed,” he says.
For 2016, by contrast, market scepticism about the Fed’s willingness to raise rates has been broadly proved right.
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QUOTE: raising stamp duty rates to 12 per cent for homes worth more than £1.5 million.
Whoa, that is pretty radical. The Vancouver transfer tax is just for foreign buyers, but this stamp duty in London is for EVERYONE?
And is the 15% for the entire sales price, or is it just the marginal rate for amounts in excess of 1.15 GBP? I was unable to find information about this.
I found the answer. The ARSD is stepped in the same manner as the US income tax.
https://www.gov.uk/stamp-duty-land-tax/residential-property-rates
Property or lease premium or transfer value SDLT rate
Up to £125,000 Zero
The next £125,000 (the portion from £125,001 to £250,000) 2%
The next £675,000 (the portion from £250,001 to £925,000) 5%
The next £575,000 (the portion from £925,001 to £1.5 million) 10%
The remaining amount (the portion above £1.5 million) 12%