The world is falling apart.
Celebrity foreclosures
This has to be the subject of a new blog; anyone out there up to the task? Even celebs can find themselves in housing trouble.
Terminal five loses 900 bags a day
Heathrow has always been my vision of hell. They should have posted a sign on the front door of terminal five - "forsake all hope, ye who enter".
Venezuela inflation at 32 percent
Chavez, the cracker from Caracas, has an inflation problem. It must be the fault of the Imperialists, who are trying to bring down the Bolivarian revolutionary.
Inflation is back
Long term readers of this blog know that I have never believed in this "deflation is coming" baloney. I have always thought that we are heading for a prolonged period of slow growth and inflation. Trichet, the ECB governor, is now calling recent trends as "worrying". At least, the ECB had the good sense to raise rates, unlike the Fed and the BoE.
Housing losses to top $1.6 trillion
Nouriel Roubini's blog is always alarming, but rarely wrong.
Home ownership ‘out of reach’ for average earners
"Couples who have a combined take-home pay of £27,500 or less would have to save more than a year’s salaries to pay for a deposit, stamp duty and solicitors’ fees on the average first-time home – a total bill of £27,738 – figures from the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) show. Couples both earning the average wage would have to set aside two thirds of their take-home pay of £44,000 to cover the bill."
This is why house prices fell two percent in June.
10 comments:
Inflation vs deflation: I think you can have both simultaneously, and we do now. Food and fuel up, many manufactured goods and housing down. E.g. a Nissan Micra now costs *far* less in real terms than the one I bought in 1989, especially if you choose to adjust the current price hedonically.
Whether you're personally hit by IN or DE depends on how much wealth you've got, and what it's in.
I picked an interesting time to decide to get rich then.
http://electro-kevin-electrokevin.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-get-rich.html#links
Real inflation has been with us for some while now. A steady economy has been Nu Lab's most successful lie.
DEAR ALICE,
WHY THE ANTI-CHAVEZ ARTICLE?
HE HAS DONE A LOT FOR VENEZUELA(JUST CHECK THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE AT WIKIPEDIA ABOUT CHAVEZ):
During Chávez's presidency from 1999 to 2004, per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) dropped 1–2%,[141] but with the help of rising oil prices, the end of the oil strike, and strong consumption growth, recent economic activity under Chávez has been robust. GDP growth rates were 18% in 2004,[142] 9% in 2005,[143] and 9.6% in the first half of 2006, with the private sector growing at a 10.3% clip.[144] From 2004 to the first half of 2006, non-petroleum sectors of the economy showed growth rates greater than 10%.[145] Datos reports real income grew by 137% between 2003 and Q1 2006.[146] Official poverty figures dropped by 10%.[147][148] Some economists argue that this subsidized growth could stop if oil prices decline,[65] but the government argues its budget uses US$29 a barrel and 60 billion dollars in reserves as a cushion for a sudden drop.[149]
Some social scientists and economists claim that the government's reported poverty figures have not fallen in proportion to the country's vast oil revenues in the last two years.[142] The president of Datos said that, although his surveys showed rising incomes because of subsidies and grants, the number of people in the worst living conditions has grown. "The poor of Venezuela are living much better lately and have increased their purchasing power... [but] without being able to improve their housing, education level, and social mobility," he said. "Rather than help [the poor] become stakeholders in the economic system, what [the government has] done is distribute as much oil wealth as possible in missions and social programs."[150]
:
During Chávez's presidency from 1999 to 2004, per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) dropped 1–2%,[141] but with the help of rising oil prices, the end of the oil strike, and strong consumption growth, recent economic activity under Chávez has been robust. GDP growth rates were 18% in 2004,[142] 9% in 2005,[143] and 9.6% in the first half of 2006, with the private sector growing at a 10.3% clip.[144] From 2004 to the first half of 2006, non-petroleum sectors of the economy showed growth rates greater than 10%.[145] Datos reports real income grew by 137% between 2003 and Q1 2006.[146] Official poverty figures dropped by 10%.[147][148] Some economists argue that this subsidized growth could stop if oil prices decline,[65] but the government argues its budget uses US$29 a barrel and 60 billion dollars in reserves as a cushion for a sudden drop.[149]
COMPARE THIS DATA TO THE FIGUERES OF ALSO OIL RICH NIGERIA.
"I have never believed in this "deflation is coming" baloney."
Give it time. All the deflationistas I know anticipated a temporary price hike in things like food and energy before the deflation becomes obvious.
As for homes being out of reach for median earners - not for long. You can only sell a house for what someone else can pay.
Nick
Anonymous 12:13. Chavez has stolen Venezuela's wealth from it's owners (regardless of whether they were legitimate or illegitimate owners). He's used a big piece of it to buy off the population while he wrecks the economy. More or less what Gordon Brown would love to do.
The oil wealth belongs to the people of the country, not Chavez. So the fact he's squandering it is just giving the illusion of helping the country. It's like a dissolute playboy squandering the fortune his ancestors bequeated him. Sure, for a time he appears to live the good life as do his flunkies, but it's unsustainable and undeserved.
Nick
Dear Nick,
Take a look a the following article and after that let me know if you think the same:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8711
Just did. Still do. The very first sentence makes it clear this is a polemic, not a research piece.
"Venezuela ’s President Hugo Chavez remains the world’s leading secular, democratically elected political leader who has consistently and publicly opposed imperialist wars in the Middle East.....blah blah.....lefty apologist rubbish....blah blah"
Everything in that is consistent with my point. He's stolen wealth, shared it among his cronies to keep a grip on power, bought votes with oil and otherwise just squandered the wealth of the people.
Nick
Dear Nick,
Who did order the mass killings in Chile in 1973?
Who did order the mass killings in Indonesia in 1965?
Who did order the mass killings in Iraq in 1963?
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/217.html
Who is next?
On deflation - I would say deflation can be characterized as an effect of super-efficient production, leading to falling prices, over-production and oversupplied markets.
In a global trading economy, the deflation will necessarily therefore appear in the lead economy for industrial efficiency; that has been Japan since the 60's, and Japan, which had zero per cent interest base rate from 2000-2005, still has deflation. It is recycling the Japanese surplus around the world that has caused asset price inflation elsewhere.
Deflation is relenting in Japan, but will still be there for a few years yet. When Japan goes inflationary, the world economy will be truly inflationary... I would guess c. 2016 - about the time house price deflation in the UK will end, I observe.
B. in C.
Let's see.....
Chile - Thatcher
Indonesia - Bush
Iraq - Cheney
How am I doing? And what's this got to do with Venezuela?
Nick
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