Staring At Empty Premises And Counting Their Losses
A report from the Australian Financial Review on the UK. “Never before in the history of London has there been so much uproar about so many buildings – many of them skyscrapers, and most built or approved during Boris Johnson’s eight-year reign as London’s Mayor. Investigative financial journalist George Turner – who fought an unsuccessful campaign to prevent the controversial high rise redevelopment of the Shell Centre on the south bank of the Thames – believes the high-rise horse has bolted. ‘Luxury apartments are stacked high and left vacant while housing is now unaffordable for most Londoners,’ he wrote. ‘Warped by financial interests, our planning system guarantees property developers huge profits but fails to deliver the buildings and services we need.’”
“Architect Barbara Weiss co-founded Skyline Campaign in February 2014. “There were 236 high rise buildings either built, approved or in the pipeline when we launched Skyline Campaign,’ Weiss explained. “Now there are 436: that’s 200 extra skyscrapers in two years. Around 75 per cent of the new skyscrapers are residential. That’s new for London. They’re being built very cheaply. Corners are being cut. And they are going to be very difficult to demolish once they have gone past their use-by date.’”
“‘We’re building ghettos of the wealthy in the sky,’ Weiss complained. ‘These towers are symbolic of how divided London has become. Sydney and Melbourne are being similarly trashed. It’s an international disease.’”
From The National on Dubai. “Dubai rents are set to decline further next year with more than 20,000 new homes entering the market, brokers say. After having fallen by up to 5 per cent this year in parts of Dubai, rents should drop by another 4 per cent in the suburbs next year amid the supply influx, according to the Core Savills 2017 forecast. Jesse Downs, managing director of Phidar Advisory, expects prices and rents across Dubai to weaken next year as the slowing economy forces companies to downsize, dampening demand.”
“She said banks continue to cut staff and the new jobs which are created are in lower paid industries – something which she says will depress rents, in turn depressing sales prices. ‘It seems stakeholders forget to ask the simple question: who will live here and why?’ Ms Downs said.”
The Daily Nation on Kenya. “The rapid growth of real estate saw Nakuru voted the fastest growing town in the region by UN Habitat. However, the current shortage of tenants for most of commercial and residential units seems to indicate that the anticipated economic growth was overstated. Some landlords are beginning to realise that investing in the town might have been a hasty decision. Many landlords in the central business district (CBD) are staring at empty premises as property agents count their losses.”
“A spot check by DN2 found that in most buildings, occupancy was concentrated on the ground and first floors, while the rest are largely empty. The situation is the same in residential areas such as Racetrack, Shabab, Naka, Section 58, Kiamunyi, Barnabas and Freehold.”
“According to Skylight Commercial Agency Managing Director Mr John Kiritu, the inflated landlords are to blame for the situation. ‘Some of the rents charged in the CBD are not affordable. For instance, two years ago, an office measuring 10ft by 10ft on Kenyatta Avenue was going for between Sh4,000 and Sh5,000 per month. It has now shot up to between Sh15,000 and Sh20,000,’ Mr Kiritu offered. ‘With so many building coming up, it is up to the landlords to review their rents if they hope to get new tenants.’”
The Bangalore Mirror in India. “The final quarter of 2016 has bad news for real estate players as the supply of new residential inventories in most metros including Bengaluru has exceeded the absorption rate, showing a slowdown in the industry. ‘Post-demonetisation, the affordable housing segment will get a much-needed boost. Confined to the fringe areas of metros, this segment is expected to get a boost as land prices will plummet in the next few years, especially in far-flung areas around Indian metros, as well as tier-II and tier III cities,’ said Anuj Puri, Chairman and Country Head, JLL India.”
The Gladstone Observer in Australia. “Sellers desperate to offload their Gladstone properties are offering massive price drops on homes on the proviso that buyers snap it up quick. The vendor discount in Gladstone, used to measure the difference between the original asking price and the eventual sale price, is the state’s second biggest at 10.6%, only beaten by Mackay at 11.4%. The discount has increased slightly in the three months to September from 9.6% in the June quarter. It was up from 8.1% in 2015, meaning the average buyer can expect to see $106,000 reduced from a $1 million home.”
“Real Estate Institute of Queensland Gladstone zone chairwoman Vicki Brown said she’d noticed a drastic ramp up of sales in October. ‘As you know it been a pretty bad year, but the last month has been crazy busy,’ she said. ‘The prices haven’t gone up, but we’ve sold a lot of houses and rented a lot of houses.’”
“Ms Brown said she’s sold to investors from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Darwin, but a large portion of homes have been handed over to first home buyers that previously rented in Gladstone. ‘Tenants are buying now because it’s very affordable for them.’”
It seems stakeholders forget to ask the simple question: who will live here and why?’ Ms Downs said.”
No no no! Buy and flip for big gains! Real estate always goes up!
Step 1: Collect underpants
Step 2: (shrugs shoulders)
Step 3: Profit!
‘Some of the rents charged in the CBD are not affordable. For instance, two years ago, an office measuring 10ft by 10ft on Kenyatta Avenue was going for between Sh4,000 and Sh5,000 per month. It has now shot up to between Sh15,000 and Sh20,000’
The article says lots of tenants can’t afford the commercial space too. Like Manhattan. Actually I read stories every day of diners and restaurants that have been in Portland OR or some like burg in California for 10-15-20 years and are closing because the rents went so high. It reminds me of the RE guy on that luxury apartment in Minnesota that had 4% occupancy: “I assume the developer did some research about what his potential tenants could afford.”
Here is a pretty good article about it, from April earlier this year. Many local businesses in lots of places are closing or have closed due to high rents, and they are being replaced by national chain stores instead (because they can afford the higher rents or negotiate better deals). It’s kind of ironic — lots of people moved to these places specifically for the “culture” of the local businesses, but they end up driving ‘em out instead.
https://ilsr.org/affordable-space/
Cambridge toy shop forced to close by high rent and parking charges
‘Mrs Watson, 58, said: “We’re very sad to have to do it, but it is not possible to carry on the way things are. The main issue is the extra rent we are being asked to pay by the college that owns the building.”
I come across dozens of articles like this every day.
‘In addition to the lights, decorations and holiday spirit, locals doing their holiday shopping along Santa Barbara’s State Street may have noticed something else: dark and empty windows.’
‘In November, some 73,000 total square feet of retail space was vacant on downtown State Street. “I think quite frankly you have a lot of long-standing property owners on State Street whose tax bases are very low and they probably have no debt on the property,” Turner said. “There’s not much motivation for them to re-lease their space. They’ll wait until the next Apple store comes knocking on their door.”
‘Owner Amy Cooper now sells what she calls ethical and sustainable men’s and women’s clothing in the space next door, products she said are not currently offered elsewhere in town. The key to her success, she said, is providing customers, many of whom are from out of town, shopping and retail experiences that they can’t have back home or online.’
“They’re looking for a one-of-a-kind experience, and there are fewer and fewer of those on State Street. … We hear that every day from customers: ‘Where are the other local stores?’”
‘After State Street’s recovery from the recession, she said, “in the past year and a half, two years, there’s just a dramatic increase in vacancies, especially on my block.”
‘According to Jim Haslem, a business leasing expert and founder and CEO of the consulting firm CS Advisors, dark stores suggest a disconnect between a landlord’s rent demands and what a tenant can actually afford.’
“There’s a lot of talk about market rents, but market rents don’t correlate with the right rent,” he told Noozhawk. “Dark stores imply the landlord has not yet priced the location in a manner that’s appropriate for the sales opportunity for that location. … I think the right rent for the tenant is often the right rent for the landlord.”
‘Landlords, he noted, still prefer a higher rent even though what “they think is full-market” rent tends to cause “churn” — the revolving door of businesses coming in and dropping out of a location. Many businesses, especially restaurants, work with only a thin profit margin and can’t afford to raise their prices to keep up with rent hikes because consumers will look elsewhere, Haslem said.’
“The dark stores aren’t smart for anybody,” he added. “They signal blight, they’re negative for tourism, the city misses out on sales-tax revenue and landlords face higher insurance premiums.”
Nail on the head:
‘I think the right rent for the tenant is often the right rent for the landlord’
This was the conclusion I reached about rental housing. My ability to raise rents means nothing if the tenant can’t pay. If I’m churning through people who are overextended and can’t meet financial challenges that always appear. A landlords biggest expense is vacancy. Keep the rents right and you will reduce your biggest expense.
“I think quite frankly you have a lot of long-standing property owners on State Street whose tax bases are very low and they probably have no debt on the property,” Turner said.
Mom is in this position. She talks to her good tenants and watches their stores for customer traffic, and she lowers their rents during the downturns rather than have empty space.
‘Most people can agree that 2016 was a hard year. And in the Bay Area, one group was hit particularly hard: restaurateurs. It seemed like every week, a beloved eatery closed, while another one opened, only to shut down a few months later.’
‘As the Bay Area continues to enjoy tech-fueled economic growth, the restaurant industry has suffered…Everything is expensive: while SF commercial rents have relaxed slightly, the’re still astronomical, forcing chefs to look beyond San Francisco and into the East Bay. The increase in housing prices over the last few years has caused restaurant employees to work farther and farther from their jobs, leading to unsustainable, multiple hour commutes.’
‘On January 1, 2017, Oakland’s minimum wage rises to $12.86, and next summer, San Francisco’s minimum wage increases to $14/hr. (Depressingly, the new minimum wages, while obviously a step in the right direction, are still woefully inadequate for the current Bay Area housing market: advocacy group Oakland Rising recently tweeted that “A minimum wage worker would need to work 130 hours a week to afford median rent in Oakland”).
I recall an Aussie restaurant slogan, “Eat here before we both starve.”
People vote for liberals/progressives and are shocked when they get raped in taxes.
Public union goon will never accepted a single penny in cuts voluntarily.
They expect and demand the politicians they PUT IN POWER will tax the citizens to OBLIVION.
Housing is a massive and immovable asset.
Don’t pay your property taxes and a union goon with a GUN will come and take it from you and sell it at auction.
There is a reason why northern NJ, Detroit, Chicago and all of NYC have the highest property taxes in the nation. And the most powerful public unions.
And there is a reason why many houses in these areas are worth LESS THAN ZERO.
—-
When Assets (Such As Real Estate) Become Liabilities
Dec 27, 2016 - ZeroHedge
It will be the middle class that accepted the notion that “real estate is the foundation of family wealth” that will be stripmined by higher taxes on immobile assets such as real estate.
“At law courts throughout Greece, people are lining up to file papers renouncing their inheritance. Not necessarily because some feckless uncle left them with a pile of debt at the end of his revels; they are turning their backs on what used to be a pillar of Greece’s economy and society: real estate.
Growing personal debt, declining incomes and ever higher taxes as Greece’s depression grinds on have turned property and the dream of easy money into dread of a catastrophic burden.
In 2010, property taxes accounted for 0.26 percent of gross domestic product, while this year they are around 2 percent, according to state budget figures. ‘Suddenly, the state treated the Greeks as if they were rich, at the precise moment that they ceased to be rich.’
It will be very difficult for the Greeks to get out from under this mountain of debt. Delinquent loans, which at the end of June made up 31.7 percent of all housing loans, were a mere 5.3 percent of the total in 2008.”
The self-reinforcing dynamics in this narrative profoundly reverse time-honored concepts of value: assets that once held or gained value now carry high costs of ownership and lose value.
1. Governments desperate for tax revenues raise property taxes, which add costs that eventually depress sales and future price appreciation.
2. High debt levels and high property taxes trigger foreclosures and forced sales that further depress the market with high inventories of unsold/unrented homes.
3. As sales decline, appreciation can no longer be counted on to enrich owners. Instead, owners fear declines in value and higher taxes. This further depresses sales.
4. High debt levels become even more burdensome as property values fall.
5. Rather than offer a means of building and protecting wealth, real estate becomes a liability that destroys wealth via payment of taxes and declines in value.
Once an asset class shifts from being a means of wealth preservation and appreciation to a financial risk and burden, a self-reinforcing feedback loop reduces demand and increases supply, pushing prices lower–a decline that then causes more people to sell before prices drop further.
Anecdotally, stories of owners destroying buildings to lower their property tax appraisal emerged in America’s Great Depression, as owners desperate to lower their property taxes destroyed their assets (buildings on the land) as the only available means of keeping their property.
There was a recent 400% increase in arson at vacant, detached Vancouver shacks.
Either global warming or those nefarious Russians….
Letting property stay in a rundown condition can be a strategy to avoid high property tax. People have often remarked about why the main drag through one of the towns in my area looks so rundown. It’s looked that way since I moved here in 2000.
Naively, I used to think they’d want to spruce up that commercial property and make the storefronts more attractive. Now, I understand why they don’t and why they let the grass grow and that sort of thing. The owners may be able to get a bit more money in rent, however, the profits would be eaten up by taxes.
Ruskin
Well, I didn’t want to say anything, but…Yup, aqius. It probably looks much the same as it did when you left.
From what I understand, most of the frontage on 41 is owned by a few old, established Florida families in the area. One civic group tried to get them to “improve” their properties to give the area a boost, but TPTB didn’t want their taxes to property taxes to get a boost. I don’t blame them.
A couple of the families did sell some large swaths of land in the back country area, orange groves and fallow farm land, that became housing developments.
Alaska is riddled with houses covered in dirty, decades old Tyvec For this be y reason. They’ll brag about their annual PFD handouts, but property tax is communism.
Taxes Up 5,5% here vs 1,5% price appreciation
Next year the same w prices down 2? %
22151 south of politberau
darn Liberals!
Reagan was a serial tax raiser. As governor of California, Reagan “signed into law the largest tax increase in the history of any state up till then.” Meanwhile, state spending nearly doubled. As president, Reagan “raised taxes in seven of his eight years in office,” including four times in just two years. As former GOP Senator Alan Simpson, who called Reagan “a dear friend,” told NPR, “Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration — I was there.” “Reagan was never afraid to raise taxes,” said historian Douglas Brinkley, who edited Reagan’s memoir. Reagan the anti-tax zealot is “false mythology,” Brinkley said.
“Ronald Reagan raised taxes 11 times in his administration — I was there.”
Saint Ronnie.
‘Reagan was a …’
Reagan has been dead for 12 years and he still lives in your head rent free. You guys keep talking about 30 years ago and wonder why you have become irrelevant losers? There’s going to be an opposition party come out of all this but it ain’t going to include ideas like yours.
I watched network TV news today, a rarity. Sounded to me like the Establishment is gunning for the President Elect big time. My own opinion is they need to bring down the big two non-Globalist leaders together to save their sorry game. Yea, something new will come of this.
The Trump circus will be great for ratings. His election was a major windfall for the MSM.
“My own opinion is they need to bring down the big two non-Globalist leaders together to save their sorry game.”
Nagaha. (Not gonna happen). US and Russia will be allies. Then the mop-up will begin. It will be great to see.
“Hey, we got this pain in the arse multi billionaire here who keeps fomenting civil unrest. You want him?”
It seems like we’re still living with the Gipper’s war on drugs, police confiscating cash and private property without due process, etc., amazing when you think about it. He also deregulated banking, liberalizing credit… still enjoying that too.
It’s 2016 almost 2017. In Reagan’s time there was no NAFTA, no WTO. China was a joke. The yen traded 210-240 to the dollar when my friend bought a new Honda Civic in 1986 for $6,000. Three years later they were $9,000, and we noticed they ran like clocks. It’s a different age with different problems. Rio used to go on and on about Reagan too with bits about FDR and such. Get over it dogma dinosaurs! Move on to the Jane Fonda old folks home and let the modern age adults figure this freaking mess out.
Ben, that still doesn’t answer rms’s point about deregulating banking. Even just allowing banks to merge into giant conglomerates is part of what got us into the central banking mess.
The main question that needs to be decided is simple: Should we be a trickle-down or a trickle up country? What would a modern adult answer?
‘Should we be a trickle-down or a trickle up country?’
Wrong question. What is the defining economic structure in the economy? Globalism. You can see it on every store shelf and main street in the country. What is the dominant economic policy in the world today? Central bank-ism. Like the guy said in the last post: central bank stimulus is larger than the dotcom and housing bubble combined. A lot larger. This combination has distorted everything from metals to food to commercial real estate and housing and all the related financial instruments. Balance sheets are creaking with trillions in derivatives.
Look at the London article. The entire city has been transformed into an empty unproductive skyline of airboxes. Never has so much been wasted by gambling.
Instead of these little 1970’s economic quarrels, we have to kick the central banks back into their box and renegotiate or eliminate these trade treaties.
“What is the defining economic structure in the economy? Globalism. You can see it on every store shelf and main street in the country. What is the dominant economic policy in the world today? Central bank-ism.”
Whew. That just hit me pow! in the kisser. That’s ED ZACHARY what it is. Truth.
Should we be a trickle-down or a trickle up country? What would a modern adult answer?
That this is a patently obvious false dichotomy.
It’s a deliberate pretext to contain.
Central banking failed.
Obama has increased the national debt 68% over the already insane levels he inherited from George W. Bush.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/12/27/obama-added-7-917-trillion-to-the-national-debt-68-percent-spike/
But mr Cheney told us defecits don’t matter!
3991 E Lawman Dr, Kingman, AZ 86401
5 beds 4 baths 5,198 sqft
Foreclosure
$449,000
Foreclosure Estimate: $444,175
‘This massive estate home is 99.9% complete with an abundance of square footage. Amazing 360 views with windows everywhere!Corner lot,2 separate 3 car garages.Uniquely designed home including a 2nd kitchen in the basement/downstairs. Priced accordingly, needs fridge,stove, dishwasher and finish floor on patio.Priced at $91.38per sq Ft! Sq footage from county does not include the basement of approx. 1800 SQ Ft, buyer to verfiy. Unisource power and good well. Adjacent surrounding 28 acres also available to buyer to make a nice 33 acre estate with complete solitude. Lender Owned and sold in as is where condition. One of the largest homes in Lazy Y U.’
‘Single Family Built in 2007′
http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/3991-E-Lawman-Dr-Kingman-AZ-86401/82009882_zpid/
The lazy Y U is a ranch named development. I was thinking this FB probably calls it the Lazy Y Me?
What a gaudy, pretentious monstrosity.
$450k in Kingman, Arizona!??
It seems like the house is overbuilt for its location.
What kind of jobs are available in Kingman, Arizona that pay enough to cover the costs of living in that house?
It’s a 2007 house. I don’t know why it took so long to foreclose. No drive way, probably never lived in. Likely some 30,000 dollar millionaire who was going to flip it to riches. It got little goofy in Kingman around then. All those rich Californians so close by, doncha know. Around 2009 I was a little lost on a dirt road near Golden Valley and I came across this huge entrance to a failed housing project. They had brought in hundreds of enormous palm trees to line the entrance lane. And that’s all there was plus a sign with some ridiculous name. Just one road lined by hundreds of 40 or 50 foot tall dead or dying palm trees, heading into the desert.
“Uniquely designed home including a 2nd kitchen in the basement downstairs.”
Perfect for today’s college graduate.
And so it begins…CalPERS puts pension benefits for the first time. But certainly not for the last time.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/2016/12/20/calpers-cuts-pension-benefits-for-first-time.html
‘Starting January 1st, four retired City of Loyalton public employees will have their pensions cut 60 percent. For 71-year-old Patsy Jardin, that means her pension will drop from about $49,000 a year to a little more than $19,000.’
‘In an interview with the FOX Business Network, Patsy asked, “How am I going to make it now? What am I going to do?”
Now Patsy, Natty Ice Dude assures us you are all rich out there and have most of your teeth. Are you saying he’s a lion?
Loyalton
Might as well be Reno, NV where the po folk live.
‘Starting January 1st, four retired City of Loyalton public employees will have their pensions cut 60 percent. For 71-year-old Patsy Jardin, that means her pension will drop from about $49,000 a year to a little more than $19,000.’
So we can expect to see a lot more of this.
DOCUMENT: Florida, Man, 81, Cops Shuffleboard Rage Plea
Cops: Floridian battered fellow retiree at senior citizens center
DECEMBER 27, 2016
The attack, cops say, occurred at the Pinellas Park Senior Center’s open-air shuffleboard pavilion (pictured below). Hayden battered the victim near the close of the 16-court facility’s thrice-weekly Black & White Shuffleboard League competition.
Hayden and victim James Sutton “had a verbal argument that escalated into a physical altercation,” police reported. After the 6’, 200-pound Hayden slugged Sutton, he “hit him with his shuffleboard cue causing damage to both cues.” Sutton suffered a pair of four-inch scratches on his face during the scuffle.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/florida/shuffleboard-rage-plea-deal-174938
I hope they keep cutting!!! And take away Prop 13!!!
It means California is broke, but everybody but Californians already knew that.
“but everybody but Californians already knew that.”
I hope these guys don’t find out.
Secessionists formally launch quest for California’s independence
NOV. 21, 2016, 10:43 A.M.
Liam Dillon
SACRAMENTO
Supporters of a plan for California to secede from the union took their first formal step Monday morning, submitting a proposed ballot measure to the state attorney general’s office in the hopes of a statewide vote as soon as 2018.
Marcus Ruiz Evans, the vice president and co-founder of Yes California, said his group had been planning to wait for a later election, but the presidential election of Donald Trump sped up the timeline.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-california-secession-calexit-htmlstory.html
The one redeeming value of our bi-coastal “elites” is that it will be easier to drive them into the sea.
Can you imagine California printing its own currency? Heh.
The “elites” have, for whatever reason, already drawn themselves to sea level.
The elites may get a helping hand from Mother Nature:
http://ktla.com/2016/12/28/series-of-quakes-hit-near-nevada-california-state-line/
Hillary Clinton won Califorina by 4.3 million votes.
got whitey?
Unsustainable California: The Top 10 Issues Facing the Golden State – Wall of Debt: $443 Billion
http://uscommonsense.org/research/unsustainable-california-the-top-10-issues-facing-the-golden-state-wall-of-debt/
Debt, crushing poverty, rampant crime. It’s what California is all about.
‘San Francisco grapples with growing crime, blight after years of liberal policies’
‘Housing indeed represents one of the biggest challenges. It is among the wealthiest places in America, where median home value and yearly income are $1.1 million and $84,160, respectively. In other words, few can afford to live there. This bubble dates back years.’
“California as a whole has long put a premium on clean air, open space and modern buildings. But in 1996, San Francisco took a hard left turn with the mayoral election of former state speaker Willie Brown. His ensuing policies increased government, taxation and building regulations while shying away from creating more affordable housing. Brown worked with developer lobbyists he knew from his legislator days to demolish single-room occupancy hotels and other low-income homes, making room for well-heeled dot com workers.”
“If you don’t make $50,000 a year in San Francisco then you shouldn’t live here.” —Willie Brown, former state speaker
$1.1 mil / $84,160 = home price to earnings ratio of 13.
IT’S A BUBBLE, FOLKS!
LOL @ removing Prop 13. The sole thing standing between the citizenry and onerous property taxes via the legislature arbitrarily raising them.
In IL they tried and the courts decked the taxpayers
Goons. Win
You’re probably referring to contractual obligations, which courts enforce.
Emotional toddlers know nothing of contractual obligations… it’s aall me me me with them.
w/o bo IL will get no bail=BK
contract that
mighty is a gov worker, I can smell it
Hollywood, CA Housing Prices Crater 8% YoY
http://www.zillow.com/hollywood-los-angeles-ca/home-values/
Financial statements:
Calpers pension system …..73% funded
FRS (Florida)……………….85%….
California made 0.6%{That’s six-tenths of 1%]. Their required projections are 7.5%/year.
“Calpers pension system …..73% funded”
“California made 0.6%{That’s six-tenths of 1%]. Their required projections are 7.5%/year.”
CalPERS is actually considering cutting its “discount rate” to just 6.4% to reflect what it expects to be smaller returns in the future.
J6p should use 3%, not 4 as the depletion rate for retirement
3 might be high
The next narrative. AG nominee Sessions is gonna take away your legal weed:
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/12/28/backers-of-legal-pot-worried.html#
This is good news for my grower clients. We need higher export prices, LOLZ.
Those white cowboy hat conservatives trumpet state’s self-governance, IIRC.
He’s also a big fan of civil forfeiture.
By Robert Everett Johnson Opponents of civil forfeiture — myself included — have been waiting for someone to take the other side of the debate. Every year, the federal government uses civil forfeiture to seize more than $1 billion dollars in private property simply by alleging it was somehow involved in a crime. Property owners are forced to engage in protracted legal battles to prove their own innocence and get their property back. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has been difficult to find anyone willing to defend this controversial and constitutionally suspect practice.
That changed at a recent hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, when civil forfeiture finally found a voice in GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Now we know what a full-throated defense of civil forfeiture sounds like. And that defense is unconvincing.
It’s not hard to see why champions of civil forfeiture are difficult to find. Consider the case of Russ Caswell, who testified at the recent Senate hearing. The government invoked civil forfeiture to take his family-owned motel, not because he did something wrong, but because some customers violated the law in the privacy of their own rooms. Caswell was forced to prove his own innocence to prevent the forfeiture of his business, which also happened to be his life-savings and retirement plan, all rolled into one.
Few are willing to go on record defending a practice that so blatantly disregards the fundamental principle of innocent until proven guilty — to say nothing of the right to private property.
Enter Sessions. Midway through the committee hearing, he declared that he was “very unhappy” with criticism of civil forfeiture, because in his view “taking and seizing and forfeiting, through a government judicial process, illegal gains from criminal enterprises is not wrong.” Apparently drawing a number from thin air, Sessions announced “95 percent” of forfeitures involve people who have “done nothing in their lives but sell dope.”
- See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/home/civil-forfeiture-finds-a-champion-commentary#sthash.q4BxQOtc.dpuf
But…but…I thought Russians only backed those evil Alt-Right types.
http://www.businessinsider.com/yes-california-moscow-embassy-russia-2016-12
The red flags are starting to proliferate.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/12/28/bovis-warns-december-slowdown-could-hit-profits/
‘A Sour Holiday Season for Neocons’
“Thus, for the past several weeks, we have witnessed daily meltdowns across the mainstream media as neocons and liberal interventionists fume about all the forces that conspired to deny them their God-given right to select who runs America.”
I still don’t understand Obama saying that he would have won rather than Trump. Is this president baiting or just the n… coming out?
He thinks that he could have won if he had run a third time. There was probably no intention to “bait” Trump. Trump just baited himself.
Irrelevant
Hackers are stealing RE deposits.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/the-72000-question-you-should-be-asking-your-real-estate-agent-2016-12-27?link=MW_latest_news
Realturds(TM) aren’t smart enough to protect their client’s interests.
Oh dear…pending home sales dive to lowest level in a year - “unexpected” of course per the MSM permabulls.
http://www.businessinsider.com/pending-home-sales-november-2016-2016-12
Amy Schumer, FB.
http://wolfstreet.com/2016/12/27/manhattan-house-price-bubble-deflates/
Republicans have moved from being bearish on the housing market before the election to outright bullish afterwards,” wrote Ralph McLaughlin, Trulia’s chief economist.
por que?
biz optimism has raised 30 yr mort rates 15% already
That’s right.
There is nothing more bullish and optimistic than rising interest rates and falling prices.
Don’t forget slackening demand from tapped-out consumers/debt donkeys.
That can’t be good.
It’s very good Meltdown.
Yippeee! T crash 2017 rolling out in theaters near you!
Employment and interest rates already crashed NattyBoi.
Somewhere, Sweet William is experiencing severe cognative dissonance as he paused his post-Trump stamping of little feet long enough to do an end-zone dance over his soaring Bitcoin, which, being a scam crypto currency, is now unfortunately running into a little something called gravity. So right about now Sweet William is likely pitching a fit reminiscent of Rain Man when he didn’t get his eight fish sticks.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-12-28/equity-selling-spills-over-bitcoin
Like lambs to the slaughter.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-27/americans-market-sentiment-jumps-most-since-dot-com-boom-chart
Americans need to make an appointment with the shoe shine boy.
‘Warped by financial interests, our planning system guarantees property developers huge profits but fails to deliver the buildings and services we need.’
Luckily this could never occur in the U.S.
Who is more pro-Israel: Obama or Trump?
I think it’s Trump. I don’t think that’s a good thing for America.
Every American should thoroughly read-up on, “United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012.” Your health care or social security retirement might be adjusted downward or simply be nationalized, but your friends WILL get their cutting-edge military weapon systems; it’s the law.
Is this what you guys wanted?
Middle East
Donald Trump tweets support for Israel ahead of Kerry speech on Middle East
Construction in the Har Homa settlement in East Jerusalem.
(Atef Safadi/EPA)
By Ruth Eglash and Carol Morello
December 28 at 2:16 PM
JERUSALEM — President-elect Donald Trump tweeted messages Wednesday showing his support for Israel and accusing President Obama of making inflammatory statements and damaging relations between Israel and the United States.
Trump tweeted that he could no longer allow Israel to be treated with disdain and urged Israel to “stay strong” until he takes office on Jan. 20.
…