BBC - Culture - Can Europe’s new designs help the UK’s housing crisis?

BBC - Culture - Can Europe’s new designs help the UK’s housing crisis?:



Very cool indeed !



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No, The Plunge In Home Sales Was "Not" Due To Cold Weather | Zero Hedge- Loss in momentum starting

No, The Plunge In Home Sales Was "Not" Due To Cold Weather | Zero Hedge:



This is what loss in momentum causes



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Hedge Fund Wants to See Just How Much Everyone Dislikes JPMorgan - Bloomberg

Hedge Fund Wants to See Just How Much Everyone Dislikes JPMorgan - Bloomberg:



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Wall Street's new housing bonanza

Wall Street's new housing bonanza: "Wall Street may be clamoring to lend to investors in single-family homes, but it is still difficult for millions of Americans to qualify for a mortgage. The easy financing could give investors the upper hand in bidding for homes on the market."



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Slow down! We have too many cars: AutoNation CEO - Another way they fudge numbers in our economy

Slow down! We have too many cars: AutoNation CEO:



"The automakers have a "pretty bizarre" way of calculating inventories to justify these levels, he said in a "Squawk Box" interview. "But if you cut through the bogus calculations and look at dealer inventory for the Detroit 3, it's over a 100-day supply. And it simply doesn't need to be there."

In response, Joe Hinrichs—president of the Americas at Ford—told CNBC: "We have been cutting some production in the fourth quarter of last year and in the first quarter of this year on a couple of our product lines where we saw the inventory grow a little bit.""



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For those waiting to buy the big stock market dip, good luck - Love it another CNBC idiot

For those waiting to buy the big stock market dip, good luck:



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Here Is The Second Dot Com Bubble: Just Beyond The "Public" View | Zero Hedge

Here Is The Second Dot Com Bubble: Just Beyond The "Public" View | Zero Hedge:



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The Second Subprime Bubble Is Bursting, Gundlach Warns | Zero Hedge

The Second Subprime Bubble Is Bursting, Gundlach Warns | Zero Hedge: "Gundlach's take home message is simple:

“The housing market is softer than people think,” Gundlach said, pointing to a slowdown in mortgage refinancing, the time it’s taking to liquidate defaulted loans and shares of homebuilders that have dropped 14 percent since reaching a high in May. D.R. Horton Inc., the largest builder by revenue, fell 1.9 percent to $21.54 at 9:43 a.m. in New York trading, extending its drop since May to 22 percent.
 
The money manager has cautioned investors before about avoiding subprime. In 2012, he said investors can’t assume the “lines will head south” speaking about loss severities for loans and then last year, referred to the debt as being stubborn."



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JPMorgan Increases CEO Dimon’s 2013 Pay 74% to $20 Million - Bloomberg

JPMorgan Increases CEO Dimon’s 2013 Pay 74% to $20 Million - Bloomberg:



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Bank of America Head Technician: "Our Bullish View Is Invalidated, Going Neutral; Below 1806 Spells Trouble" | Zero Hedge

Bank of America Head Technician: "Our Bullish View Is Invalidated, Going Neutral; Below 1806 Spells Trouble" | Zero Hedge:



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No bank too big to indict, US attorney general says

No bank too big to indict, US attorney general says:



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Real estate's least sexy sector is red hot

Real estate's least sexy sector is red hot: "Warehouses are the strongest prospect for both investment and development in 2014, according to the latest PWC Investor Survey. Two thirds of respondents deemed warehouses a "buy.""



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Hedge Funds Raise Gold Wagers as Goldman Sees Drop: Commodities - Bloomberg

Hedge Funds Raise Gold Wagers as Goldman Sees Drop: Commodities - Bloomberg: "



Goldman View  - Goldman expects bullion to fall to $1,050 in the next 12 months as the Federal Reserve reduces monetary stimulus, analysts led by Jeffrey Currie, the bank’s head of commodities research, said in the report last week."



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Germany Has Recovered A Paltry 5 Tons Of Gold From The NY Fed After One Year | Zero Hedge

Germany Has Recovered A Paltry 5 Tons Of Gold From The NY Fed After One Year | Zero Hedge: "Going back to the main explanation, we wonder: how exactly is a gold transport "simpler" because it originates in Paris and not in New York? Or does the NY Fed gold travel by car along the bottom of the Atlantic, and is French gold transported by a Vespa scooter out of the country?"



In light of the above facts and evidence, one can see why the Buba is doing all in its power to avoid the spotlight being shone on the purity of its gold inventory: after all the last thing the German central banks would want is someone to go through the publicly available archived literature, to put two and two together, and figure out that it does not take one massive "rehypothecation" (see "to Corzine") event for German gold credibility to be impaired: all it takes is death from a thousand micro dilutions over the decades to get the same end result. Because chipping away one ounce here, one ounce there for years and years and years, ultimately adds up to a lot.



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Short-Sellers Set-Up Shop As Sentiment Starts To Shift | Zero Hedge

Short-Sellers Set-Up Shop As Sentiment Starts To Shift | Zero Hedge: "Jim Chanos, president and founder of Kynikos Associates and one of the most prominent short sellers, said the market is primed for people like him and as a result he has gone out to raise capital.
"



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Spot The Labor Force Collapse Culprit | Zero Hedge

Spot The Labor Force Collapse Culprit | Zero Hedge: "And just to put the final nail in the coffin of this silly debate, first here is the Labor Force Participation rate by "old" workers, or those most prone to retirement, and where the Fed is now desperate to scapegoat the collapse in the Labor Force, compared to all other age groups. The chart, which shows that the "55 and over" worker group has now normalized its participation rate to pre-crisis levels while that of younger workers has tumbled to levels not seen since the 1970s, speaks for itself."



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A Brief History Of Jim Cramer's Opinions On "Pillar Of Strength" Best Buy | Zero Hedge

A Brief History Of Jim Cramer's Opinions On "Pillar Of Strength" Best Buy | Zero Hedge: "Then the next day, November 21, just in case the message was lost:

Best Buy Co. Inc. Jim Cramer ranked this stock a Buy. Cramer previously ranked this stock a Buy on November 15, 2013. The news about tablets also bodes well for Best Buy, a company that has turned around its ailing retail position to once again become one of the stronger names selling technological products to consumers. Cramer said that retail stocks were especially well-positioned at the moment, and he did not neglect to mention Best Buy near the top of his list of retail all-stars.
Fast forward to today, following a 30% collapse in the stock price in one day. From TheStreet:"

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Tennis Quant’s System Doubles His Money Without Knowing Players - Bloomberg

Tennis Quant’s System Doubles His Money Without Knowing Players - Bloomberg:

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Is Singapore set for an Icelandic-style crash?

Is Singapore set for an Icelandic-style crash?: "Song acknowledged that the normalization of interest rates was a clear risk to the Singaporean economy, but in his view, while some will likely get burned, the majority will not be severely impacted.

"Some will be affected, but most will be fine. I expect an orderly adjustment, to say it is a bubble is stretching it," he added."

He also added that Singapore and Iceland have very different macroeconomic fundamentals, which makes them difficult to compare.

"Singapore has a strong current account surplus, while Iceland had a current account deficit during its credit crunch. Singapore's fiscal position and strength is also much stronger compared with Iceland," he said.

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Push is on to get ‘kill switch’ into smartphones

Push is on to get ‘kill switch’ into smartphones:

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What the Heck Is a RAM Scraper? | Re/code

What the Heck Is a RAM Scraper? | Re/code: "But there’s one particular moment when that data is vulnerable, and it occurs during the milliseconds that it is stored in the system memory — a.k.a. random access memory, or RAM — of the back-end server that processes the transaction. Think of it as a package being delivered to you with a lock on it. Even though you have the key, you still have to open it to see what’s inside. The same thing happens when your credit card number gets decrypted.

And when that happens, your credit card number is briefly stored in the system memory of the server processing the payment. When that happens, that data is “in the clear,” as in unencrypted."

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Google house: Tech giant spends billions to get inside your home

Google house: Tech giant spends billions to get inside your home: "Nest issued a statement on Monday assuring customers that its privacy policy "clearly limits the use of customer information to providing and improving Nest's products and services. We've always taken privacy seriously and this will not change."

However, Nest's statement doesn't exclude possibilities like Google using anonymized data that can't be tied back to any specific user – which could still be extremely valuable. Both Nest and Google declined to comment beyond the statements the companies issued on Monday."

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These 10 People Collectively Own 33 Million Acres, Or 1.5% Of All US Land | Zero Hedge

These 10 People Collectively Own 33 Million Acres, Or 1.5% Of All US Land | Zero Hedge: " Investing in rural, undeveloped land continues to be a popular strategy among the affluent, according to the 2013 Land Report 100, the latest annual survey and ranking of the largest private landowners in the United States just published by The Land Report and presented by Fay Ranches. Increasingly seen as a “safe deposit box with a view,” acreages continue to be purchased by leading landowners at solid rates. In 2012, the country’s top 100 landowners cumulatively increased their private holdings by 700,000 acres to a total of 33 million acres, nearly 2 percent of U.S. land mass."

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World Bank Raises Growth Forecasts as Richest Nations Strengthen - Bloomberg

World Bank Raises Growth Forecasts as Richest Nations Strengthen - Bloomberg:

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Federal Reserve Said to Probe Banks Over Forex Fixing - Bloomberg

Federal Reserve Said to Probe Banks Over Forex Fixing - Bloomberg: "The Fed, which supervises U.S. bank holding companies, is among authorities from London to Washington probing whether traders shared information that may have let them manipulate prices in the $5.3 trillion-a-day foreign-exchange market to maximize their profits, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter, asking not to be named because it’s confidential."

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Meet China's "Street Of Fakes" | Zero Hedge

Meet China's "Street Of Fakes" | Zero Hedge:

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Francois Hollande considers legal action over actress liaison report

Francois Hollande considers legal action over actress liaison report: "A second man - which Closer said was Hollande - then arrives on the back of a scooter. He is unidentifiable because he is wearing a black helmet.

Subsequent photos taken in the morning show the first man arriving with what Closer said was a bag of croissants, then the second man in a helmet emerging and jumping on the back of a scooter."

Mais Oui ! We are Freeennchh !!

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Home Equity Gains Spur the Economy as Owners Buy Cars: Mortgages - Bloomberg

Home Equity Gains Spur the Economy as Owners Buy Cars: Mortgages - Bloomberg: "Rising home values are boosting the economy by giving owners more confidence to buy appliances, electronics and cars, said Daren Blomquist, a RealtyTrac vice president. Every $1 gain in home equity adds as much as 3 cents to personal spending that accounts for about 70 percent of the economy, said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Using that formula, equity gains in the third quarter will spur more than $12.5 billion of consumer outlays."

History is repeating itself

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Draghi’s ‘Whatever It Takes’ Still Works as Euro Revives - Bloomberg

Draghi’s ‘Whatever It Takes’ Still Works as Euro Revives - Bloomberg:

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And The Most Popular Political Party In America Is... | Zero Hedge

And The Most Popular Political Party In America Is... | Zero Hedge: "Americans are increasingly declaring independence from the political parties. It is not uncommon for the percentage of independents to rise in a non-election year, as 2013 was. Still, the general trend in recent years, including the 2012 election year, has been toward greater percentages of Americans identifying with neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party, although most still admit to leaning toward one of the parties.

The increased independence adds a greater level of unpredictability to this year’s congressional midterm elections. Because U.S. voters are less anchored to the parties than ever before, it’s not clear what kind of appeals may be most effective to winning votes. But with Americans increasingly eschewing party labels for themselves, candidates who are less closely aligned to their party or its prevailing doctrine may benefit."

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If You're Waiting For An "Economic Collapse", Just Look At What Is Happening To Europe | Zero Hedge

If You're Waiting For An "Economic Collapse", Just Look At What Is Happening To Europe | Zero Hedge: "Of course poverty continues to explode on this side of the Atlantic Ocean as well.  In the United States, the poverty rate has been at 15 percent or above for three years in a row.  That is the first time that this has happened since the 1960s.

And this is just the beginning.  The extreme recklessness of European banks such as Deutsche Bank and U.S. banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Goldman Sachs is eventually going to cause a financial catastrophe far worse than what we experienced back in 2008.

When that crisis arrives, the flow of credit is going to freeze up dramatically and economic activity will grind to a standstill.  Unemployment, poverty and all of our current economic problems will become much, much worse.

So as bad as things are right now, the truth is that this is nothing compared to what is coming."

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Will Corporate Spending Float The Economy in 2014? | Zero Hedge

Will Corporate Spending Float The Economy in 2014? | Zero Hedge:

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Despite 150% gain, Cramer says ‘buy’

Despite 150% gain, Cramer says ‘buy’:

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