Just me? Or do you smell it too? I mean that aroma a sweated-up coonhound throws off after the hunt. Not that it was much of a chase. And that revenuer fella didn’t actually need his duodenum.
You sure could sniff it wafting through the Gaylord Hotel (one of my favs) in Nashville a couple of days ago, just after Sarah Palin took to the podium of the National Tea Party Convention. And you’ll be smelling it more, too. All the way to Canada.
So here’s the deal. Everything’s connected.
The US economy is on life support, thanks to a $1.6 trillion deficit. That Obama guy has pumped more drugs into America’s veins than any other president. The result is one mother of a debt load, and a mother from Alaska. Palin is tapping into a profoundly deep constituency of middle class Americans appalled at their descent into debt, untold more disgusted at government bloat and 15 million unemployed people rapidly losing hope.
This could mean big losses for Obama in the fall midterm elections, leading to speculation he’ll be a one-term wonder. That may lead to more talk of a new protectionism for Fortress America, as the Republicans go feral on us. Not exactly what they want to hear these days in Greece, Portugal or Spain – which are economies on the brink of a debt collapse. An isolationist Washington (except for a few wars, natch) is an economic nightmare.
Meanwhile on Wall Street they get it. The Dow has closed below the 10,000 mark again – after four weeks of losses – on fears a European skid could set the dominoes falling again. Incredible as it seems, the stock market is now where it was 10 years ago, despite having created fortunes and fools in some of the wildest swings ever. More proof those who swear by index funds aren’t paying attention.
How does this affect us?
How does it not?
It’s hard to underestimate the potential for mess. If Obama and the Dems smell coon, too, you might well see the US move to control its debt disaster with higher taxes, spending restraint and a rate hike to viagratize the dollar.
The result will be (as I predict) a flatlined economy for years. Inflation, but no growth. More jobs in the oil patch leading to $650,000 trailers in Fort Mac. No jobs in the Ontario rustbelt. And big consequences for realtors in the Okanagan.
Against this background, of course, the real estate pumpers continue to pump, hoping you simply won’t notice. And most won’t. CREA is predicting house values, already at an all-time high, will increase about 5.5% this year to a new historic plateau, bringing the two-year appreciation to a stunning 25%. And they may just be right.
I’d be surprised if there isn’t a housing rush, led by cashless, hormonal, frantic, pre-approved newbies, desperate to beat the HST and the fabled rate hikes of autumn. Fanning the flames will be every local real estate board, gorged as they are on the MLS fees which have gushed in (let’s save this for another post).
Once again, the actions of the herd – driving a market to orgiastic crescendos of desire – will be the truest barometer of what comes next. People so desperate to get in that price hardly matters. Bre-X. Nortel. Bullion. Pet.com. It doesn’t take a genius to know what comes next.
And speaking of Sarah, she’s hot.
136 comments ↓
Afraid you’re wrong about inflation for the time being. When debt collapses, i.e. yields will go sky high, bond prices will fall as well as commodities and stocks. I agree with you about a fall in real estate in Canada. Is that inflationary? Is it inflationary when people’s wealth gets destroyed and they can’t borrow against the only asset they own. Go ask our American friends.
Accordingly the CBC punditswho were glassy eyed giddy over the acent of Obama will turn nasty and start blaming whitey for his downfall.
May Iqbal Ignatieff should get a better tan, perhaps Even Solomon would transform himself into an angel and float around his head the way he was whenever Obama was mentioned.
Does anyone remember when the CBC was decrying the fact that we didn’t have ‘an Obama”?
Lets face it, Obama has done nothing that Taliban Jack Layton wouldn’t have done. W.A.C Bennett said it best when referring to socialist politicians when he said “Those morons couldn’t manage a lemonade stand”.
I’m afraid that our Harper has tried to emulate the wrong guys in his desperation for a majority. He’s spent this country into the toilet and set up the ‘mother of all real estate bubbles’.
Garth the listings are surging couver, sales are sluggish, all the MSM here in Canada is talking about our bubble, as is the WSJ
I say F gets the message.
Garth, if your right, we would have been better off buying last year.
Sheesh.
This is a bubble and its reached(ing) its maximum limit. Bubble is the talk of the news. How many GREATERFOOLS are there out there? I think sellers are getting twitchy.
Make money by selling early. Lose it selling late. — Garth
Caribou Barbie=Sarah Palin.I’ve been following this topic about her for awhile now. I just read this a few hours ago and had a bit of a chuckle. She seems to be developing a strong base down south. We should be paying a LOT of attention to what is happening there. http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/93375?fp=1
How many first time buyers with real, saved cash still to buy a house?
I think not too many.
Thoughts:
-See through this glass: Government’s intervention/manipulation is the root of all the problems; …. and you will see how clear the picture is.
-As somebody said: “…. inflate or die…”
-Most mortgages insured by CMHC are “subprime”. They are not insured by the originator because the borrower has less than 25% downpayment, they don’t meet the “standard”.
-Next: 50 years term.
Garth I thought for SURE your next post was going to be on the Competition Bureau’s decision to go after the MLS. I’m sure the other blog dogs are salivating waiting for the next post…but in the mean time, your right, Palin is hot.
I got a kick out of the book Sarah has her feet on. Here’s a quote from Saul Alinsky:
“Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have”.
So lets see, market goes down, fear kicks in. Where to invest money, how about more real estate. Rates are cheap, feels more secure than the markets, something solid, you can see, feel, sleep in it and board up the windows, lock the doors, move furniture around to enhance you field of view with weapon of choice to keep bankers or mortgage lenders at bay. Heck you can even store some food or gold in the Panic Room. Real estate also makes the GDP look good too.
Got your book today Garth, got a deal from Chapters on line with free shipping because I ordered 3 other books with it. No offense, remember we are in a depression. according to some peeps.
Sarah Palin is coming to the French Maid March 6th Calgary. I am looking forward to it. The lunch buffet is great.
Did Nostradamus say the third coming of the Antihrist was a man?
Steve Keen describes the AUSSIE bubble! Sound familiar?
http://www.switzer.com.au/video/keen20100204
“Incredible as it seems, the stock market is now where it was 10 years ago, despite having created fortunes and fools in some of the wildest swings ever. More proof those who swear by index funds aren’t paying attention.”
Look at the alternative with actively managed funds:
“Most actively traded mutual funds are poor products from the investor’s point of view. This may come as a surprise to many people since mutual funds are the primary investment product for most individual investors and they are very heavily advertised. Professional institutional investors rarely use active mutual funds. ”
According to Lipper, Inc. over the past 20 years the average US stock fund lagged the market by about 2% per year. The true track record is actually noticeably worse than this due to “survivorship bias”. Survivorship bias occurs when poorly performing funds are closed or merged (with better performing funds) and are not counted in this data. The actual data including all funds (including the closed/merged funds) is probably another percentage point worse than the number mentioned above. Over 10 years or longer it is typical that 75% (or more) of all active mutual funds lag the market.
You can’t predict which funds will be the best performers and “beat the market” ahead of time. According to numerous statistical studies, past performance is not an indicator of future performance. Funds which have the hottest recent records are not likely to continue to provide the best returns, contrary to popular opinion.
“”The best way in my view is to just buy a low-cost index fund and keep buying it regularly over time, because you’ll be buying into a wonderful industry, which in effect is all of American industry. “If you have 2% a year of your funds being eaten up by fees you’re going to have a hard time matching an index fund in my view,” Buffett said. “People ought to sit back and relax and keep accumulating over time.”" Warren Buffet quoted in an interview.
Okay, so if you didn’t actually take the time to read a few books on “Peak Oil”, you really should take 5 minutes and read the link posted by “Knucklewalker”, post #84, “What Issue”, 07 February 2010, wherein Gail”the actuary”Tverberg delineates the threat to the underpinnings of the global economic model.
Real Estate is a back story to the main story, which is the arrival of Peak Oil.
“The best way in my view is to just buy a low-cost index fund and keep buying it regularly over time,.
If you have 2% a year of your funds being eaten up by fees you’re going to have a hard time matching an index fund in my view, People ought to sit back and relax and keep accumulating over time.”
Warren Buffet quoted in an interview
Re listings surging” in vancouver, what does MSN stand for and also WSJ? Can someone tell me.
Thanks
great post, Greece will implode taking Spain and Portugal down with them, the euro zone will then spin wildly outta control, mayhem and panic will take root, stock markets world wide will come tumbling down leaving the world in utter chaos, the world is changing.
a new world lays ahead, since i was very young (I am not old now, still in my forties) I have heard these words repeated over and over again,
PREPARE FOR A BRAVE NEW WORLD.
these are interesting times indeed
yep u were better to buy last year or right now b4 you miss out on the free cash the banks are giving out. How can anyone or why would anyone sit on the sidelines while u could get a 5 year fixed for 3.74%.
For those that are buying into the stock market you are just hoping, praying the market will go up. u have zero control and real estate is always the safest way to live and invest. so the greater fools are those that don’t buy now b4 interest rates go up, hst etc etc. btw stocks down 15% this year and houses up 19%. LOL…
This blog is entertaining though and it looks like the herd is in here all waiting and waiting and w a i t i n g …
like being renters?
Had to think for a minute on that one, si vis pacem, para bellum. Like that Garth.
Oh alright, I’ll take the high road. If you wish for peace, Prepare for war.
Alternately, the EU will bail Greece out, Portugal and Spain will see this and decide that an overspending government that cannot control their spending and debt load is actually OK, so they will continue to spend irresponsibly delaying the collapse by about 6 months.
either way shes over.
one more thing for goldbugs, the rush to the USD will be relentless….crushing metals, energy and anything else priced in USD
“Palin in 2012”! Can you imagine? A gun totting, bear shootin’, royalty dispersing, bridge to nowhere building, Gucci buying, under investigation hockey mom who “can see Russia from her house” for president? Why not?
A quote:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
- H. L. Mencken
I used to think this prophecy had been fulfilled with Bush the younger, but I see now I probably “misunderestimated” the potential of the American voter.
Mind you, we fair no better.
But whoever is president, the Teleprompters are manned by the banksters so it doesn’t matter. More of the same.
Back to the debt. Government debt that is. Long term, there are only 2 ways out: massive inflation (let’s call it by its formal name, “hyperinflation”, even if we don’t mean ala Weimar Germany), or default. It cannot be paid back, so it will not be paid back.
It must be understood; things that cannot happen, do not happen. The debt cannot be paid back. Ergo, it will not be paid back.
Which way it goes is very important. Default is extremely deflationary, hyperinflation is, of course, extremely inflationary.
Or, we could get both. Inflation in things you need, and deflation in debt backed assets.
Regarding inflation… if the inflation numbers didn’t catch housing on the way up – I doubt they’ll catch the figures with houses on the way down.
Asset price inflation (specifically for homes) seems to be ignored on purpose by our governments. Let’s face it, pension costs would have killed us over the past few years if housing was given a greater weight in the inflation calculation. Pension costs are tied to inflation.
On the other hand, I really was starting to regret not buying that condo about 3 years ago. But I can tell you, there are a lot of recently completed empty/dark condo buildings around Toronto. It’s getting creepy actually. They’re not just downtown anymore. They’re everywhere.
Toronto’s market has been driven primarily by investors in my opinion. And they will not sell until the last possible second it seems.
God help us when the SHTF.
Sarah Palin … A beautiful body in search of a mind. Might not be all that great to listen to but real easy on the eyes.
This is a link to Korea’s home of the future … Is there no end to humanity’s stupidity??? I can see Gore’s hydro bill from this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mxocMgUrvo
Anecdotal evidence from Vancouver… I had a mortgage broker try to add me as a Facebook friend in January, and a Realtor call and leave a message asking how I’m doing this weekend. I met both of these individuals in the Fall of 2007 and haven’t spoken to either person since (since we realized the market was crazy and we kept renting). Hummm….
And big consequences for realtors in the Okanagan. may i add calgary vancouver edmonton and almost all other Canadian cities to the list
most of them will flee (run away)
Garth;
“The Dow has closed below the 10,000 mark again – after four weeks of losses – on fears a European skid could set the dominoes falling again. Incredible as it seems, the stock market is now where it was 10 years ago, despite having created fortunes and fools in some of the wildest swings ever. More proof those who swear by index funds aren’t paying attention.”
Its actually much much worse that than this represents – as bad as it is …
You could have bought the US markets at these levels as far back as 1998. A Canadian buying the Dow at 10,000 twelve years ago would have forked over … about $17,000 (Canadian) If they’d held on they could now cash that in for shy of $11,000 today for a nice little currency exchange loss of more than … $6,000 – down a mere 35%. But wait … its gets worse still … if you can believe it because we have to account for inflation … yup those dollars have 31% less purchasing power than they did in ’98. So … that 11 grand is actually only worth … about $7,600.
Sooo … the Canadian buy and holder of US index stocks has lost … 59% over the past 12 years in real terms.
By the way … that little currency thingy is something people should be sure they are always taking into account when they are looking at anything denominated in $US. Gold and commodities for example. Currency fluctuations have a huge effect on the profitability of Canadian commodity producers as well as manufacturers. There is a huge difference between the profitability of a $70 barrell of oil with the Canadian Dollar at $0.65 and at parity. A HUGE difference.
Cheers & another good Blog by the way.
Whatever the heck happened to that McCain guy? This is uncharted territory as to how bad things are really going to get, bad they will get, the only question is how bad?
You still selling them generators Garth? 2012 may indeed turn out to be the beginning of doomsday, at least economically speaking but who knows with climate change accelerating and winds of Big wars blowing, real estate prices may not matter so much. I hope that a RE crash is the biggest news over the next couple of years. We can survive a few thousand or few hundred thousand Rosedale and West Van yuppies having to relocate to trailer parks but more than that I’m not sure.
The result will be (as I predict) a flatlined economy for years. Inflation, but no growth. More jobs in the oil patch leading to $650,000 trailers in Fort Mac. No jobs in the Ontario rustbelt. And big consequences for realtors in the Okanagan.
**************************************
I think there will be high inflation as well–But–
Only in one source of our money supply–
and although it is–in the true sense–Inflation–
It will not be “Inflationary”
We have two money supply’s–
One being “cash money”the “printed” type/computer bite/money–
The other being–”credit money”
Both are “real” money–
(actually gold is the “real” money) but we wont go there–
I agree they will print like crazy–real inflation–But-
What is that printed money going to do?
It will do exactly what it did in the US–sit in banks and really do nothing,so it is not at all inflationary–
In order for it to be inflationary–it must circulate through the economy–
It will not circulate–simply because,banks will not lend into an economy that is contracting–and-
Credit worthy people have no incentive to borrow and buy into an economy of falling prices–
Sentiment will shift–from buy today–because the price will be higher tomorrow–to–
Wait for tomorrow because the price will be lower–
Very deflationary–
Money velocity will contract–
(of course there will be a few peanuts thrown out for the peasants—in the way of “job creation”
The more important money is–”credit money”
We have up to anywhere from 60-90 times the amount of this type of money,then we do–cash money–
Today in Canada–it’s expanding–”inflationary” –but–
It will make a u-turn when this bubble pops and when it does–it will contract–
Credit money in reverse–is genuine deflation and it is extremely “deflationary” because it is debt and because–what underpins it–homes/autos/toys/credit lines/all types of loans–all of it,will be devalued–
This is negative leverage winding up,as the value of the collateral decreases–against the amount of debt owed-
People/home/auto/toy credit line holders,will experience real deflation–a decrease in net worth–
Lenders will experience real deflation–through defaults-
They will need all their money to handle write downs–
Sure the 80 billion CMHC –will work for a while,but there ain’t a hope in hell,that it is enough to wipe out the debt–
There is just too much debt and the economy and the value of the assets its “all” based on–are all falling out from under it–
This is not by any means–an inflationary event–jmo
Garth, it’s called the “crack-up boom”. Mises was right over 60 years ago.
stay out of the stock markets if your investing
this is a traders market only, just to prove as much I
bought SIRI (sat radio) in dec for 0.61 sold today for 0.86 a 40% profit….bought TM (toyota) this morning @ $72.56 will sell at opening tomm for likely $74.55 a 3% profit (unless the prius recall thumps me before opening)….this is not a bragg..but a caution
please be careful where you put your RRSP monies as the markets are about to tank
your stocks require watching all day
simply trusting someone with your money is fool hardy
#7 Craig
“Garth I thought for SURE your next post was going to be on the Competition Bureau’s decision to go after the MLS.”
It will never happen. CREA lobby is too strong. You might as well ask for the TTC to be privatized.
Vancouver Rocks has lost credibility amongst the Bulls. Seems like self interest has clouded his position. State the facts and let people judge whether it may apply to them.
I only mock people when they can’t see the light. Like interest rates won’t go up for 22 months. There will be a token 0.5% rise but that’s it. Compare this to the big 5 bank forecasts. Also, note that the Dow is below 10,000. It will continue to fall. Little pressure to raise US rates. Likewise in Canada.
Garth, can you speculate what would happen if interest rates aren’t raised much during the next 2 years? Even if you don’t agree, take this position if only for a moment.
Not that I want to crow, but I predicted during the US primaries in Feb,2008 that Obama would be a one termer. I realize that maybe that prediction maybe a bit immature cause who knows what a desperate, beaten leader with the power Obama’s got is capable of doing. Just read today on another blog the diffinition of Obama.
One
Big
Awful
Mistake
America
One final thought! Sarah Palin might be nice to look at but she’s no leader for the USA. Mind you she couldn’t do much worse could she. What they need is a Hillary, Sarah cross. Dare I say more.
I seem to read at times that Some type of correction may happen sometime this year and then I read blogs like today and Garth claims he wouldnt be surprised if the price of houses goes up by 25 percent. Damn, I should have lived in my house a little longer and reaped the benefits.
Does anyone feel that there may be a big correction this year instead of 2011. Im hoping something.
“Everything’s connected. How does this affect us? How does it not? Bre-X . . . the potential for mess.”
Recently I mentioned that we are all connected in one way or another, and we will see in the afterlife how everything is woven together.
You are describing the situation in the US moderately, but the message is getting out. Europe is a good idea of what to look for, in a few years or so. That is when we will REALIZE we are up the creek and without a paddle (deliberate dumbing then takedown).
One gets a gut feeling that Earth is nothing more than a pinball machine, and we are the balls having our brains bashed out of us.
BTW, another warmonger added to Palin and McCain — Pence 1
Pence 2
Isotopes “Weapons-grade uranium is 95% or higher. 20% is consistent with medical isotopes, which Iran openly admits they are making and selling.” (wrh.com). Didn’t Canada used to make isotopes?
——
CPC is slicing up natural health foods / supplements stores.
Now the CPC is starting to clamp down on natural health food stores (because big pharma told them to), remedies like these (for cancer) wouldn’t be available here.
False flag update. See previous link (#123) about Yellowstone.
Wazzup with this? Something is happening which we are not supposed to know about. Second para. and comments are interesting: “Most notably are telecoms, banks and energy companies. People who would have insider knowledge if something huge were about to happen.” Also, see if this company is in the Top 50 list.
Sarah is hot???
Sheeeez Garth!
MINUS 100 “esteem points” for you!
Go take a cold shower!
Unless there’s a currency crises in America interest rates won’t rise for about two more years. Like the boy who cried wolf that joke about interest rates going up in Canada around summer is just that, a joke. It won’t happen the biggest threat is still deflation not inflation. I’d hate to see what where the stock market indexes would be today without market manipulation such as was never seen up to around the year 1995. I dare say the DOW would be about one third of where it is today without manipulation.
A woman has to have an IQ over 60 to be hot imho. Marilyn Monroe was hot. As far as conservatives go, Monica Crowley (The McLaughlin Group) is raging hot. Palin is an abysmally clueless bimbo with a carefully cultivated pornstar cliche image that of course is worshipped like a female Bush from the mobile home crowd duped by fascist big biz, because she says all the wrong things no matter how absurdly stupid they are.
That said and done, scuttlebutt all over the net is Obama and the US are gearing up to nuke Iran. Same rationale for Obama as Bush when he destroyed Iraq; to prove he was all balls and no brains, and because he couldn’t accomplish a damn thing else, and to win in November and 2012.
It won’t go as planned.
Make plans how to survive with a glowing cinder to the south with both coasts washed super-tsunami clean and yellowstone super erupting for at least a month. China will not let Iran go down and the US steal more of the Mideast without a fight, and after the US and China suicide against each other, Russia will insure the corpse is really dead and will never rise again.
Couldn’t happen to a more deserving warmongering fascist country soon enough.
#2 grumpy on 02.08.10 at 9:48 pm
Lets face it, Obama has done nothing that Taliban Jack Layton wouldn’t have done. W.A.C Bennett said it best when referring to socialist politicians when he said “Those morons couldn’t manage a lemonade stand”.
**************************
Come again? From Mulroney to Regan, from the Bushs to Harper, to BC’s own Liberal Conservative party, record debts and deficits never achieved by even, Trudeau!
It seems that if we want fiscal mismanagement, elect a Conservative government. Recent history proves this to be correct, don’t listen to me.
GT, how in the heck did you even know about a duodenum (I had to look it up) …then we get orgiastic …remind me not to play Scrabble with you.
Here’s Byron Wein’s 2010 – 10 surprises.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/34711337
Apparently his predictions in 2009 were pretty darn good.
Cheers
the selling of easy answers to a desperate population is an old story…….hyperinflationary Germany in the 1920s followed by the rise of the brownshirts and Adolf himself.
I wonder how Palin would look with a moustache?
History does not repeat itself but it does tend to rhyme!
” And they’re right. CREA is predicting house values, already at an all-time high, will increase about 5.5% this year to a new historic plateau, bringing the two-year appreciation to a stunning 25%. And they may just be right.”
So I guess we are supposed to keep waiting and waiting for a few more years eh? After all, we may see a 25% appreciation yet….lol
I guess all those realtors with their six week educations were right when they told people to buy last year. If they followed the “herd” then would have a 25% return in two years, which is fantastic!
Like, 8 years of phony and expensive wars and counter-productive tax cuts has nothing to do with the US debt.
Speaking of the CREA:
Competition agency attacks MLS system
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/todays-paper/Competition+agency+attacks+system/2539122/story.html
“The federal agency said yesterday it will challenge rules created by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) that “limit consumer choice” and stop real-estate agents from being more “innovative” in the services they offer.
The target is the Multiple Listing Service, the system owned by CREA and estimated to control about 90 per cent of all transactions in Canada.
“CREA views the commissioner’s decision as surprising and disappointing,” CREA president Dale Ripplinger said in a statement. “We do not agree with the bureau’s position that certain CREA rules are anti-competitive, either as a matter of fact or as a matter of law.”
federal agency said “In our experience, if you introduce choice, you introduce innovation, you introduce enhanced competition, there is downward pressure on prices,” Aitken said. “In United States, where they have dismantled rules quite similar to these, competition is flourishing.”
—-
About time!
CREA, go away(R).
Mike
Garth,
You don’t seem to have too many friends at the National Post. See link:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2010/02/08/garth-does-wall-street.aspx
Penis envy. — Garth
#9 Brico9
(snickers) Is that an all you can eat buffet? (chuckles)
Obama didn’t create the economic mess in the US. He inherited it. The Republicans have been really good at spinning that story around.
There’s no set formula for swimming your way out of quicksand.
The same people who are bemoaning the rising US debt would have been wailing had there not been a stimulus.
“”"”you might well see the US move to control its debt disaster with higher taxes, spending restraint and a rate hike to viagratize the dollar.”"”
…Garth, a higher US Dollar begets an 80 cent Loonie which benefits Canada’s exports, including Ontario’s manufacturing economy.
The U.S. is in process of bankrupting the world, Europe first, Arab oil countries second, Russia third, South America fourth.
# 10 JET
“”Did Nostradamus say the third coming of the Antihrist was a man?”"
…I’ll have to check my records, five hundred years is a long time ago…
If that disaffected constituency you refer to in this post chooses Sarah Palin as their leading exponent they will have signed their own death warrant. Country hick fascism that even the bullet riddled corpse of Huey Long would disavow. Coming to a world near to you.
@ #45 Vancouver Rocks:
“I guess all those realtors with their six week educations were right when they told people to buy last year. If they followed the “herd” then would have a 25% return in two years, which is fantastic!”
Is there any time that a realtor wouldn’t say that it’s a great time to buy?
Also – with your fundamental analysis of the market, are you predicting that buying now in Vancouver will net a 5.5% paper profit by Jan 2011? (as per the CREA)
The house next door to me looks like it sold. Three months on the market. Original asking was $98,500 my new neighbour says he got it for $87,000 (I think he still over spent).
He works third shift at a tier one auto parts supplier feeding the mini-van plant.
If sales of mini-vans declines – there goes the third shift assembling them and the third shift at plants supplying. I think we all know how this will end.
Garth,
*Sigh*…see link…no one seems to be listening in this country…
http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=2536848
Funny (as in strange, not ha ha) how the media likes to pick on Greece et al for their “fiscal problems”.
Why doesn’t anyone ever mention the mess California is in? The EIGHTH largest economy in the world?
That would fill up a page or two.
I’m tired of everyone implying that Sarah Palin is stupid. Yes she has some strange political ideas, and yes she can’t interview very well, but that doesn’t automatically make her a twit. Inexperienced- yes. Ignorant and misguided- perhaps. Retarded- NO.
#57 Sid
I believe last nights episode of The Daily Show has you corrected sir…
In her eyes, retarded is just sarcasim, and after watching, I agree she is retarded.
The female version of George Bush in every sense.
Most people here already knew the sh@t store Obama was coming into, this is no suprise. Maybe a bit of one that figured he was going to just forgive their mortgages and debt…
Canadian real estate is a house of cards. F and C are the jokers in the attic. GT is the ace in the hole (or bunker, for that matter).
It would be so funny to see Palin run in ’12, I love a good train wreck.
Not that I think she has any legitimate chance at winning, other pseudo-fiscal-conservatives like Romney or Huckabee are more likely to get the Republican ticket (sigh … still no love for Ron Paul). But in the snowball in hell chance she does win, expect immigration Canada to receive a tsunami of applications from Americans.
#14….it is funny how the VAST majority simply are incapable of separating wheat from chaff.
This time around it IS DIFFERENT people.
The arrival of Peak OIL has set the stage for truly cataclysmic events….and no… mega tsunamis and 2012 prophecy plays no role at all…well except in the minds of monkeys that can’t see past their nose.
Flat lined economies are absolutely, the beyond best to be hoped for outcome…not going to happen….
There are now geopolitical forces at work driven by energy constraint and climate change that are far beyond the bounds of apocalyptic.
Canadians are soft and stupid….and we are going to be hit by a truck of planetary size……I suggest that after one reviews the objective economic analysis presented on sites like TOD and TAE that one reads a seminal work by that illustrious military author and historian…and fellow Canadian…Gwynn Dyer…in his latest work “Climate Wars” Gwynn lays out several probable scenarios for conflict in the near future based on our final rush for global resources in a declining energy environment.
Think ….an expanding Chinese Naval fleet encountering a US carrier battlegroup off of the Asian continental shelf……think the Russian bear beginning to charge the Chinese dragon as it surges north to escape crushing droughts in southern mainland China…….
Think Canada (esp Alberta)….being occupied by US tank brigades…….
Now view all that in light of absolutely crushing economic tightening worldwide…..full scale planetary depression…….
The funny thing is…is that we are actually into it now…..the great collapse has begun and most people do not even see it….and the objective data is freely available to anyone in the developed world.
I find it hard to get excited about the price of a condo in Kitsilano when anyone with any brains would not even be considering buying such an obviously stupid “asset” even in “normal” times.
What does deep fried squirrel taste like anyway?
$350,000 the new Canadian norm?
Check it out — if mortgage rates stay around 4%, average home prices could get into the upper 300,000′s.
Family Income: $70,000
Downpayment: $15,000
Car loan/Monthly debt repayment: $450
Annual property tax: $3000
Interest rate: 3.99% 5 year fixed
Amortization: 35 years
RESULT: Bank will lend you = $335,000
Home price = $350,000
34 The Truth
Lol…”credibility” on a blog! Too funny “The Truth”…
“Seems like self interest has clouded his judgement”
Lol…I forgot that everyone here is altruistic and wants prices to go down so that they can be affordable for everyone, rather than simply themselves or their kids….yes, no self-interest there…
Stick to shouting on the street corner with your “the sky is falling” sign if you want to maintain your “credibility”
#45 Vancouver Rocks on 02.09.10 at 2:12 am
———————————————-
Question is: Was that information worth $40,000 in fees?
Let’s see: a top surgeon goes to school until the age of 30-35, spending $500,000 on their education. It would take them 2 weeks of intensive work SAVING LIVES to earn $20,000 (salary: $500,000/yr).
A dentist goes to school until the age of 25, spending $150,000 on their education. 2 weeks of intensive work nets them $10,000 (salary: $250,000/yr)
A realtor completes an on-line, 6 week course costing them $1,000? 2 weeks of intensive work nets them $10,000. (salary: $250,000/yr)
Something doesn’t smell right here.
How could anyone smell that when the stench of sulphur still lingers in the air from the other Bush? LOL
Now, to a more important issue. Yesterday the CBC closed and obliterated all the comments on Colonel Williams arrest for murder at CFB Trenton. it happened quite suddenly. Likewise, the Toronto Star is not allowing any comments either.
So that begs the question who ordered that to happen? was it Harper, MacKay, or some DND official? What are they so afraid of? What happened to Harper’s promise of a ‘transparent and accountable’ government?
If you think Palin is bad, we have snakes in our own house who are far more dangerous IMO.
“The US economy is on life support.”
Don’t count on it. Productivity is up…way up…industry is lean and mean and the US has the intellectual capacity to turn a lemon into lemon ade and are on the cusp of doing so. To create a trillion dollars out of thin air is the easy part….to turn it into ten trillion of real wealth is the challenge. They just made the mistake of spending a million or so to create just one job…they won’t make that mistake again.Watch for real job creation and a galloping economy that will propel the Dow to 30,000,000.
Sorry about that…should have read DOW at 30,000 but if inflation should rule the day who knows?
Meanwhile back in the USA
…Look for clawbacks of Union & Civil Workers Pensions
…jailed California Illegal aliens returned to Mexico
…Other Illegal aliens offered US citizenship
…Freddie and Fannie becoming Canada’s CMHC
For the US to survive, it must support and prop Home R E values.
Neither Canada or the US have the $$$ to support senior pensions…the home is now the last place to find $$$ security in North America.
Nostradamus jr.
#64 DUI
One of those people is smart, two are educated. Can you guess which ones?
The Tea Parties have sure devolved a lot since the neo-cons and conservatives hijacked the movement from the Ron Paul supporters. But it still shows a level of dissatisfaction with the system, which is a good thing.
BTW, I don’t see anything “hot” about SP.
Women with weapons are hard to ignore. — Garth
Hi Garth, just on page 109 of MONEY ROAD and making notes, it’s a great read, lots of info. that I will apply to my personal situation.
Question I have and a topic of discussion with people that I know…..is how is Calgary RE going to go down if the price of oil is going up? Won’t that mean an influx of people into the city?
Last summer I was suggesting/cautioning to people who were considering buying in Calgary to hold off, but now I’m starting to wonder myself?
I still think Calgary RE is WAY over priced, but is that going to be a mute point in the coming years with the energy crunch?
Thanks!
Post#50 Nancy here read this, comparing US and China government spending. http://www.chrismartenson.com/blog/emperor-has-no-clothes/35184
Garth, I enjoy your blogs and reading all the comments from your blog dogs! But I must say we are truly living in delusional times. The amount of disinformation and blatant lies that are being spread by governments, banks, real estate industry, economists and the M$M is unbelievable but not shocking. Imagine if we were told the real truth! Exploding worldwide unemployment, worldwide economic and financial collapse! What the hell is going on? The truth of the matter is that governments of the world have lost complete control of the situation and are terrified of the consequences! It seems to me that the masses don’t truly understand what is really beginning to evolve. Ladies and gentlemen it seems that the game is rigged. This game is not about money but about “power and control”. There is more to things then meet the eye. Things are not always as they seem!
People need to understand that we are not in a “recession” but rather in the beginning stages of a global transformation, a carefully planned implosion and takeover of the entire global financial and economic systems of the planet to bring about a “New World Order”. A “One World Government” if you will. That’s just another conspiracy theory you say! Well let’s see!
“The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the larger centers has owned the Government ever since the days of Andrew Jackson.”- letter written by FDR to Colonel House, November 21st, 1933
“We shall have world government whether or not you like it, by conquest or consent.”- James Warburg to The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on February 17th, 1950
“The real rulers in Washington are invisible, and exercise power from behind the scenes.”- Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1952
“For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are
part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will. If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”- David Rockefeller’s autobiography ‘Memoirs’
“We are grateful to the Washington Post, The New York Times, Time Magazine and other great publications whose directors have attended our meetings and respected their promises of discretion for almost forty years.”
“It would have been impossible for us to develop our plan for the world if we had been subjected to the lights of publicity during those years. But, the world is now more sophisticated and prepared to march towards a world government. The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.”-David Rockefeller at Trilateral Commission Meeting in June, 1991.
“In the next century, nations as we know it will be obsolete; all states will recognize a single, global authority. National sovereignty wasn’t such a great idea after all.”- Strobe Talbot, President Clinton’s Deputy Secretary of State, as quoted in Time, July 20th, 1992
“We are not going to achieve a new world order without paying for it in blood as well as in words and money.”- Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., in Foreign Affairs 1995
The US financial system has been hijacked! The scene of the crime was 1913 when “The Federal Reserve Act” was enacted. After signing the act into law President Woodrow Wilson had this to say:
“I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.”- US President Woodrow Wilson 1913
There is a critical fact that people must understand. The “Federal Reserve” is not a part of the federal government but a privately owned entity. This so called “Federal Reserve” has absolute control over the reserve currency of the planet the “American Dollar”. They basically have the power to print money out of thin air. It reports to no one, is accountable to no one and has no Congressional oversight. The “Federal Reserve” is actually above Congress. Talk about the proverbial “putting the fox in charge of the hen house”
It’s time to call out the “Federal Reserve” for what it really is, the “front office” of the private international banking cartel. It’s the head of the snake that has wrapped itself around the entire planet’s financial and economic system. A cancer that is slowly devouring us!
Do your own research on the Federal Reserve. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Who are the men that control this so called “Federal Reserve” system? Why do we never see any names? Why do they operate in complete secrecy with no oversight? Why have they never been audited? Why are they fighting tooth and nail against Congressman Ron Paul’s proposed bill to audit the “Federal Reserve”? Who’s interests does the Federal Reserve really serve? Why is the control of the money supply in private hands? Why must the US government borrow money from the Federal Reserve? And most importantly, why is the US dollar not printed and controlled by the US Treasury under the oversight of Congress?
It’s time to wake up! It seems that the true power structure of the planet is in the hands of a group of private international bankers. How can it not be? Think for a moment! Money is what controls our economies. Without their money the entire financial and economic systems collapse. The private international banking cartel is well aware of this fact! We the people are under their complete control!
“The modern banking system manufactures money out of nothing. The process is perhaps the most astounding piece of sleight of hand that was ever invented. Banking was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. Bankers own the earth. Take it away from them, but leave them the power to create money and control credit, and with the flick of a pen, they will create enough money to buy it back again. Take this great power away from the bankers and all the great fortunes like mine will disappear, and they ought to disappear, for this would be a better and happier world to live in. But if you want to continue the slaves of bankers and pay the cost of your own slavery, let them continue to create money and to control credit.”- Sir Josiah Stamp, Director and President of the Bank of England 1920
“Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes her laws.”- Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Rothchild understood that “money=absolute power and control”.
Now before dismissing me as another tinfoil hat wearing conspiracy theorist, I ask that you please keep an open mind and watch and pay special attention to events as they unfold.
“Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talks of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile… Once a nation parts with the control of its credit, it matters not who makes the laws….Usury once in control will wreck the nation.”- William Lyon MacKenzie King, former Prime Minister of Canada
Let’s hope there is a mass awakening to this global takeover that is underway!
“The drive of the Rockefellers and their allies is to create a one-world government combining supercapitalism and Communism under the same tent, all under their control…. Do I mean conspiracy? Yes I do. I am convinced there is such a plot, international in scope, generations old in planning, and incredibly evil in intent.”- Congressman Larry P. McDonald, 1976, killed in the Korean Airlines 747 that was shot down by the Soviets
Conspiracy theory! Time will tell!
Keep up the good work Garth these are truly times of caution
BTW my handle “Men Who Stare At Sheeple” is in reference to private international bankers view of the population of this planet.
‘ThisOnesForLordAbove!’ replies to my earlier comments (twice) in the last thread on Sovereign Risk in the Bond market, by attacking the messenger, without addressing the facts of the matter in any way whatsoever. Nice attempt at deflection of all contrary fact with absurdity.
I guess that’s what happens when you prefer a reality-free lifestyle. The websites you attack so bitterly have in fact broken many important stories that the MSM would never touch. Perhaps you prefer to read only happy puff pieces that do not dig into the facts of the matter or challenge your pre-conceived notions.
Me, I just tell you what the present situation is, not as I wish it to be. When the facts change, I will re-evaluate. I care not for Bull nor Bear, I just trade the tape I am given. I monitor global macro economic events because it affects my trading, which is mostly related to mining stocks and currency plays. I am not involved directly in any trade regarding European credit worthiness – but the international Bond market certainly are, and I pay attention to what they say. Bond traders are usually said to be the ‘smart traders’ who weigh all outcomes with intensive analysis, but don’t let the facts get in the way of your rant.
The concept that you don’t like what the international Bond market is saying by their actions speaks more to your rather remarkable lack of understanding of how markets actually work. Certainly the angry tone suggests you dare not hear any contrary opinion that might burst your bubble.
Gave me a good chuckle though.
FYI I own several pieces of real estate in Ontario, pretty much all paid for now. Exactly what does that have to do with Greece and the Bond market, again?
#68 nostradamus jr.
…Freddie and Fannie becoming Canada’s CMHC
Really, the weed is that good out there huh? Why would Freedie and Fannie take over CMHC?
For the US to survive, it must support and prop Home RE values.
Hey, new-flash, this is what has been happening and its not working is it, try again. Prices are going to drop another 33% and BO, SP, Jesus or Santa Claus can’t stop it. Get used to it gramps, its coming to your neighborhood.
I predict that this Olympics will be an embarrashement and show how mickey mouse Vancouver and the rest of those, just trying to “cash-in”, really don’t know what they’re doing. RE to plumnet by 70% in Vancouver before the whole show is over.
Enjoy the rain during the Vancouver 2010 Water Olympics…
“Women with weapons are hard to ignore. — Garth”
Know a lot of woman with weapons hotter and smarter than SP. Karen De Coster for one.
Greece is too small to fail. I can hear Heinrich and Helga marching in.
MLS monopoly is undemocratic (and uncapitalistic)
Stock market will continue a short-medium term erosion until interest rates hit and then perhaps a long term erosion
Bond Market is f$%#ed. If you’re buying bonds you and Palin should hit it off.
Currencies trade like stocks now. If you don’t believe in the Euro (PIGS) and you don’t believe in the greenback (14 trillion debt/1.6 trillion annual deficit) then what do you believe in?
Core assets are your best bet over the next couple decades…real estate, gold, silver, diamonds, art.
Yup, it’s never the guy you think that’s the devil. It’s the ones that come after him… The world improvers. Unbelievable though it may be right now time will yet come when Dubya will be seen as nothing more than a naive who meant well but whose follies paved the way for the real demons. Those without children to worry about, get some popcorn sit back and enjoy the show…
3 house sales in the last month on my little street in my little town in rural Eastern Ontario. Folks are being very realistic about pricing though.
Roubini is talking a 15% – 20% increase in the Canadian dollar to the US in the next 2 – 3 years.
But this comment by George Soros surprises me!!
“It would help by making U.S. exports more competitive to China, but also would help to introduce an element of inflation in the U.S. In the current circumstances that would be very helpful.”
http://bit.ly/ddIdCf
How in the hell would inflation help the US. This will come with higher interest rates… causing even more mortgage resets to higher rates on homes that are under water 40% – 50% in some parts.
Please explain.. or am I missing something here???
Some may think Palin is nice to look at but she really needs to gain some intelligence…check out the notes scribbled on her hands at last week’s convention… embarrasing…
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/100208/usa/us_politics_palin_hand
You actually believe that was not planned? — Garth
Hello Garth.
Mmm is Sara Palin hot? Oh yah! The thing is she has got to run away from the zionists and their ilk and keep her distance.
If I recall Nostradamus, he predicted the third antichrist would be asiatic which could be anything from chinese to arab/ isreali. Quite a sellection to pick from I’d say and I don’t think it includes Sara Palin.
As for a debt collapse raising interest rates and flopping the price of everything else lower than whale excrement I would say its plausible with the possible exception of physical precious metals in hand. Massive debt defaults may wipe out the non physical official currency and then some and make cash rare but backed by nothing. I think the faith in the credibility of banks and governments at that time will be rather thin and people will be looking for something solid and shiney to trade with instead of paper. After an orgy of electronic and paper currency production goes south who will want more promises to pay nothing to nobody?
They will want the good stuff and no cheap substitutes.
The Bank of Canada doesn’t have any gold or silver do they Garth?
Steven
That interest rates will stay low is unlikley. At some point we have to pay for what has been put spent.
Low rates made this mess and will pepetuate the current economic malaise and make it worse.
Take the bad tasting medicine [ higher taxes and interest rates] and get better or do nothing and continue the slide to poverty.
I am half cash as of about 4 weeks back and I am in a couple of gold and silver juniors on the cusp of becoming mines.
My small position in oil and gas is going to increase as the pm jr’s show some profit.
Wont be looking at real estate as it is too illiquid in these evil times to unload rapidly when the shtf. Which is imminent in my opinion.
release of documents
Monday, February 8, 2010 11:37am -
The document was an annual report on Public Works’ massive real-estate portfolio
The full report showed, among other things, that Public Works’ repair and maintenance costs for its building portfolio is much higher than in the private sector, as are vacancy rates.
The document showed that the average vacancy rate in Public Works-managed real estate was 5.1 per cent, far above its internal target of 3.5 per cent.
—————————
The private sector are better managers? If that was true than why all the law suits lately to get these private equity (flippers) off the maintenance contracts.
# 75 smw
My child…Freddie & Fannie will, over the long haul, become more like CMHC….the partnership between the US Govt and US Citizens homeowners.
…Neither the Canadian or US govt’s can ever support Retirement $$$ Pensions for its citizens….that leaves home ownership as pretty much the last place where citizens can draw on retirement funds when needed.
…Canada got it right a year or two back….dropping interest rates….otherwise Canadian Citizen’s homes would have dropped off the cliff in value….WORLD DEFLATION…but had……Canada raised interest rates….it would have “CREMATED” Ontario’s already devasted Manufacturing Industry.
Nostradamus jr.
Oh and vancouver rocks
you actually have to put that 25% increase in a bank before it is called a profit.
Are all those 25% ‘ers selling at the moment or are they letting her ride ?
just wondering.
#50 Nancy: “Obama didn’t create the economic mess in the US. He inherited it. The Republicans have been really good at spinning that story around.”
True, though Obama failed by owning the mess and trying to bail everyone out, instead of letting the recession hit immediately while blaming the Republicans, then engineer a recovery in his third & fourth years. He believed his own press releases and thought he was a miracle worker, and now it’ll be a miracle if he gets a second term.
Then again, Palin is no real competition; she’s too obviously nutty to appeal to a majority, and the Repubs will find someone more mainstream.
Hi
I really enjoy this guy
So I though I’d share it here
Not for the errrr “faint hearted” – only for the educated palate
Enjoy!
http://ibankcoin.com/flyblog/
#75
Yeah, we are seeing exactly the same phenomenon here in South Africa with the Soccer World Cup – the insane greed is driving away potential tourists
Examples: Airfare from Johannesburg to Cape Town under normal circumstances = R2,100 (approx. $250) – durig World Cup, same airfare is R40,000 (approx. $5,300)
Go figure!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/five-warning-signs-of-a-bubble/article1461256/
Hey Garth
you were quoted in todays vancouver sun. biz section
#68 nostradamus jr.
…Neither Canada or the US have the $$$ to support senior pensions…the home is now the last place to find $$$ security in North America…
That is right. No senior pensions and all that wealth tied up in a house. Look out … every year will bring more and more houses to the market so seniors can survive.
Sigh, as if Obama was responsible for the mess the US is in. Drama queen post, this one Garth.
“Economist Joe Stiglitz, who is advising the Greek government, last night denied that the country would require a bail-out, and urged national authorities to intervene in markets to “teach the speculators a lesson”. Likening the situation to the Asian financial crisis, in which even healthy economies were targeted as hedge funds and investors withdrew from the region, he told the Sky’s Jeff Randall Live show: “The speculators will always look for the weakest link. What they’re doing now is a version of the Hong Kong double play in 1997 /1998. “What Hong Kong did in response was to raise interest rates and intervene in the stock market. They burnt the speculators and Europe needs to do the same thing.”
================
Investment advisor Marshall Auerback and others in his camp say the U.S. can and should borrow more to finance the recovery.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-petruno6-2010feb06,0,611604.column?page=1
It’s hard being a contrarian in a market that defies gravity (and reason). Another colleague just sold her $1.5mm house at 10% above ask 3 days after listing it in Vancouver. More cooler talk fodder. More people thinking about pre-sales.
Maybe it is different here.
Inflation got everyone into this mess and it sure as hell will not get us out. It is a proven failure of an economic policy.
Think you are island immune to the rest of what happens? Good luck when the rude awakening comes, and it is very near!
Front page article of the Victoria Times Colonist business section.
Realtors are seeing bidding wars amongst first time buyers. (although has been going on for the past year on and off).
http://www.timescolonist.com/business/Real+estate+market+heats+capital/2540447/story.html
The message from our friends in the RE profession to young couples that have never seen anything but upward spiralling prices – jump in while you still can.
#61 – “Think Canada (esp Alberta)….being occupied by US tank brigades…….”
The US won’t have to invade Canada as long as idiots keep electing Harper, the US fascists’ lapdog.
“You actually believe that was not planned? — Garth”
SP is capable of planning NOTHING, not even a trip to the toilet. Talk to the McCain people. They couldn’t find a leash and muzzle set strong enough.
She’s a household name, a millionairess and a presidential prospect. And you? — Garth
If you are afraid of losing money then this article is for you!
Brain area tied to fear of losing money
Governments love this stuff. Bubble it up more and the tax on sales lines their pockets as there is a huge deficit from income tax. Rising Real estate makes most people feel good so they will keep this going as long as they can. May be a lot longer than we all still think. USA will keep low as long as they can. US$ oversold so it may come back without rate hikes so they may continue to keep rates low. Can bondholders really push the US around? I am not certain because if US goes down, most everyone else goes down. It is an interesting dance and it should not end well but it seems to be holding on much longer than I ever thought possible.
The one thing I am surprized at is that you didn’t catch the desparation of these clowns in our government and the lengths that they will go to try to make it seem like everything is ok given that you knew them. The MSM, government and CREA are a major force to be reckoned with… 25% increase in house prices cannot be lost easily with the free money promises and low downpayments. 25% down only gets us back to where we were last year which we all thought was bubbly. Hope I’m wrong but this thing has legs with the power behind it. Rationality apparently has nothing to do with it here in Canada.
I’ve been reading this blog for a year now. I have seen my home in Toronto virtually double in price in a short period of time as my mortgage shrinks with 8 years of mortgage payments left. My coworkers are in similar situations and some already have their mortgages paid off *jealous*.
Everybody has been talking about RE being over priced for (at least) a year (if not longer; I don’t know how old this blog is), and nothing has happened. What is the point of all these gloomy responses?
If you have doubled your money and don’t sell, you will know soon enough. — Garth
TO BE CLEAR – the 20% price run up on average house prices is the run up from the dark days of spring 2009.
The only people that have experienced this 20% increase are the few that bought during the Jan to April 09 period.
Any one that bought before this time has made it back to what their house was worth in 2008. Think otherwise and you are fooling yourself.
Heres the chart
http://www.housepriceindex.ca/Default.aspx
#84 nostradamus jr.
Freddie and Fannie = CMHC?
Not news to the majority that have spent any time here, however, you might see journalists actually start to take note. Its has been overlooked from the begining of the 40 year mortgage.
http://www.greaterfool.ca/2008/03/15/end-times-for-the-boom/#comment-96
As for Ontario, you for once are understating the seriousness of the problem in your favorite province in Canada.
Ontario with 1/3 the population of California has 20% more in deficit, Cali @ $20billion and Ontario @ $25billion. HST will only close on near 20% of that deficit per year.
Don’t worry the future is bright in Ontario, McGuinty is now paying teachers to “teach/babysit” 4 – 5 year olds.
Imagine getting a teachers salary for what early childhood educaters were paid minimum wage, showing kids how to tie their shoes, wipe their asses and not eat play-doh.
Funny cause his(Dalton’s) wife is a teacher too…
Anyone taking on a large mortgage to “beat” the HST panic and interest rate rise is going to get slaughtered for being a wee piggy.
PS Jr. its nice to see you comment on other things than Vancouver and how wonderful it is. You 100% correct on deflation, it is still the scary word of the day.
Sarah Palin is a F@#^ing Retard now that was some classic Stephen Colbert last night
Hi there Garth, I just finished reading money road, and wantged to say thank you!
I’m 31 years old, and i live in Alberta, and all i’ve heard for the last 5 years is how i gotta buy a house!! Now! Right this second, don’t even finish that e-mail buy a house now they’re going up. About a year and a half ago, when house prices were low and the markets were tumbling I took every dollar I had and bought equities instead of a house. And the funny part is everyone laughed at me, even when I was making great returns.
But over the last few months houses in Alberta have gone back up and oil going back up and now more than EVER is the time I should be getting a house! Houses are going back up through the roof. Sell your stocks buy a house! Now. Right Now. And for probably the last month or so, I almost starting thinking, maybe i’m wrong, maybe I should buy a house… Maybe 6 times income is what a house should be.
Then I was in Chapters in the middle of January and saw you had a new book comming out (I had previously read After the Crash). After reading, I’m not crazy! Thank you for being one of the few sane voices out there! But all of Alberta is telling me to buy, and I really starting thinking that I was out to lunch. I gotta say as a younger canadian I’ve really tried hard to follow the steps in your book.
I really loved your section on Canadian Preferred Shares. It’s actually somethinng I’ve wanted to learn alot more about.
Just cause you brought it up so many times in your book here’s a funny (depending on how you look at it) story. I moved to Calgary when i was 21 back in 2000, and right when i moved there Nortel was at $100 on it’s way down, and everyone i met in Calgary kept telling me one thing. Buy Nortel, it’s at 100 dollars it’s a steal….Weeks go by… Buy Nortel it’s at $72 it was a steal at $100 it’s gonna go back up, buy it….Months…Buy Nortel it’s like $40 going back up….And finally before i stopped back attention $20 come on! It’s easy money, won’t go down! Years later everytime someone talks about housing to me it feels like the exact same speech.
Anyways thanks alot, just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your book
Jag
#61 knucklewalker
Peak oil, peak people, peak green revolution, peak resources, how long will it take in terms of pushing past these peaks to peak environmental destruction and peak war… lots of peaks to be aware of and the dangers of pushing past peaks or towards the most dangerous peaks of all, but the timelines? Will it be us who see it? Or our children? Or our grandchildren. Do you know? Do you appreciate those who would put their reputations on the line to declare more than a wild guess?
I feel compelled to council you to be careful about what you say about 2012. It might be more than anything else, a mere end of an astrological age of which we all read more (or less) into it than there is. We are, after all, dealing with the Mayan calander which is astrology based and an astrological age does end on this date. Or… it might be a shift in consciousness, a plausible spiritual shift forced by any number of factors including systemic/economic collapses of nations that forces us all to rethink our systems and way of doing things but more importantly, why.
We won’t really know for sure the signifigance of 2012 until it happens or doesn’t, but this much I know. There were people from an ancient civilization who took the time to pass a message onto those of us in the future they will never have a chance to meet in real life. Whether accurate or not, they took the time to tell us something that they felt was extremely important for us to know. It wouldn’t be any different than what our other ancestors who passed on the alphabet’s and numbers or recorded knowledge that gives the generations that follow a chance to accumulate more knowledge and thus potential then they themselves had. Why they did it, we might not ever really know but my guess is because the Mayans responsible for this prediction simply cared enough to make sure the future of humanity would hear it for our own benefit more than anything and that, if I’m right, has value that shouldn’t be mocked.
I otherwise appreciate your posts for the most part, don’t mean to lecture but just try to be a little more humble is all I ask. Its not in the cards for us all to be intellectually wise (we all have a role to play) but the most profound wisdom of all comes from the heart. Only the most humble see it and I do hope you have those eyes to see it for yourself before this is all over.
CREA’s Dale Ripplinger for back peddler of the year seen him on fox north . Possibly bs’er of the year .
Sara Palin hot ? She makes me queezy to see her on tv that blog pic of her makes me queeeeezzerr . Yuck all the millions she has doesn’t make her look any better imho.
You can put lipstick on a pig , but it’s still a pig. The way she lies , Barron von munchhaussen would blush.
property investment clubs -land trust
avoidance schemes
Short sales at first seem an unlikely target for fraud, because they can be a lengthy and difficult process, with banks often taking months to approve sales, if they do at all. For that reason, Cecala said, he believes short sales – at least for now – comprise only a small piece of the mortgage fraud picture. But the Treasury Department is expected to issue guidelines soon on streamlining short sales and offering financial incentives to borrowers and lenders. The push for more short sales, combined with a backlog of foreclosed homes, distressed homeowners, and banks anxious to get foreclosures off their books, will likely make short sale and REO flipping fraud more prevalent.
A recent investigation by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune of sales in two Florida counties, for example, found that banks had lost “untold millions” because of short sale flippers using questionable appraisals and failing to disclose that a quick sale at a higher price had already been arranged. The report found a small industry of flippers buying distressed properties and reselling them within days. Real estate professionals were a key part of the schemes, participating in both buying and selling properties. All the losses added up, with just the most suspicious sales, where properties were flipped within a day, already costing banks $1.7 million in Sarasota and Manatee counties alone.
Flipping properties isn’t illegal, but it can involved fraud in several ways, explained Ann Fulmer, vice president of business relations for Interthinx. It’s when a seller never mentions higher offers on the table from bona fide purchasers, or fails to disclose that the seller already has a contract with a buyer for a higher price. Red flags sometimes should be raised when borrowers use transactional funding, which means essentially renting someone else’s money for one day, in order to appear in a stronger financial position. Then there’s the the use of land trusts – they’re not illegal, in and of themselves. Land trusts are organizations created to purchase and hold real estate. But short sale gurus are advising investors to set them up to evade FHA anti-flipping rules, and to hide the true borrower’s identity, which can amount to fraud…
“Short sale flips are today’s equivalent of the California gold rush,” Fulmer wrote recently…
http://ezinearticles.com/?Land-Trusts—The-Answer-to-Flipping-Short-Sales?&id=1800792
====
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FBI builds its case in flipping schemes
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100207/ARTICLE/2071061/0/BREAKING?p=5&tc=pg
HERALD TRIBUNE ARCHIVE
By Michael Braga, Chris Davis & Matthew Doig
Craig Adams, orchestrator of one of the largest real estate fraud rings in Florida history, has secretly spent more than a year and a half as an FBI informant, helping build cases against the people he once recruited into his schemes, the Herald-Tribune has learned.
Federal court records show Adams has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy charges at a later date and has pledged his help in an attempt to earn leniency. In at least one instance, Adams wore a wire to record a conversation with a key business associate.
So far he has laid bare at least $200 million in fraudulent property deals, incriminated more than 30 of his former business partners and given the FBI enough evidence to arrest his longtime title agent, Lisa Rotolo, the court records show…
Ultimately, dozens of Sarasota real estate investors could be caught up in the investigation. Adams’ list of associates includes mortgage brokers, Realtors, real estate appraisers, attorneys and developers.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20100207/ARTICLE/2071061/0/BREAKING?p=5&tc=pg
garth what are you thoughts on all of the MSM coverage of ‘is this a bubbble’ as of late – could this sway F? March 4th I mean…
Politician. Wind. Weathervane. — Garth
Garth sometimes lately I think your retreating from your almost assuredness on the market downturn this yr. I hope I’m wrong. Tyee blog on the Canadian RE market shows a statement from the Scotia Bank that says our market will continue to see modest price increases over the coming yrs. I’d put more faith in your prediction than the banks or RE but is very hard with so may contradictory views on what’ s going to happen. If I buy and prices drop I’ll be kicking myself, if I hold on and prices go up I’ll still be kicking myself. It’s a gamble either way. Looks like I’ll be kicking myself for a good while yet.
#107 Daystar on 02.09.10 at 4:57 pm
I feel compelled to council you to be careful about what you say about 2012. It might be more than anything else, a mere end of an astrological age of which we all read more (or less) into it than there is. We are, after all, dealing with the Mayan calander which is astrology based and an astrological age does end on this date.
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Not mocking– just kinda wondering to myself–
If we can stay solvent until “that” date–
Can we say–we won (:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZeTlMpnfHk
garth,
i don’t know if you want to call someone sexy who is openly advocating war against iran.
here’s her quote from sunday:
“Say [Obama] decided to declare war on Iran or decided really to come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do.”
furthermore, is it sexy when palin denounces the rule of law?
palin quote: “We need a commander in chief NOT a professor of law standing at the lectern.”
- concerned garth fan
Said she was hot, not sexy. Nothing sexual about it. — Garth
S Palin is about as hot as a frozen wolf carcass in the snow.
It will certainly be entertaining to see her actually talking to savvy and intelligent people – like Obama. He dressed down the Republicans in fine style a couple of weeks ago, and will prevail.
She’s entertainment for the trailer park boys, that’s the extent of it.
Calgary bubble? Give me a break.
Prices are already down 20% from the peak in some markets.
I can easily buy a detached home for $350,000 or less.
Try doing that in Hongcouver.
You won’t even get a half-duplex for $600,000.
If presidential candidates were based on hotness, shouldn’t Megan Fox and running mate Jessica Alba be up against Kate Beckinsale and Scarlet Johansson?
“She’s a household name, a millionairess and a presidential prospect. And you? — Garth”
Now Garth, you KNOW how hard I’m working on the first two. As for the third, thanks but no thanks!!
Fame and wealth doesn’t take intelligence. In fact, given today’s crop of rich and famous, it would seem to be a hindrance.
Of course, you’re the rare exception, which is why we are here in the first place!
#98 Future Expatriate — “The US won’t have to invade Canada as long as idiots keep electing Harper, the US fascists’ lapdog.”
Thanks Future Ex. An outstanding lead into Harper‘s speech on one-world govt. (NWO) at Davos last month, but this leads to plenty of other things such as:
Palin;
Palin 2
‘Net censorship;
Debacle
#113 concernedgarthfan — One reason that SP is calling for war against Iran, is because the USgovt. doesn’t have anything else to do, other than to bankrupt the rest of the world (Nostradamus Jr. says it well.)
May as well let the warhawks spew forth all their venom.
Chalk River was the name of the place where isotopes were produced. Iran is now running short as well.
This is a good possibility, with sheeple’s attention on the ‘lympicks.
India May be a good time to consider putting all Canada’s and Province’s debts / deficits on top of Dimona and blowing it up. Alternatively, if anyone has a solid realistic plan for time travel, please share it with the rest of us!
More and more busted countries — Nostradamus Jr. is right; the US is taking the world down with it! Addendum: Biggest bubble in history.
“Said she was hot, not sexy. Nothing sexual about it. — Garth”
Ahh. Hot as in radioactive. Agreed.
#63 Vancouver Rocks,
Yet another bizarre comment – “I forgot that everyone here is altruistic and wants prices to go down so that they can be affordable for everyone, rather than simply themselves or their kids….yes, no self-interest there…”.
I don’t think what we say here is going to impact prices. I don’t think any (or many) of us believe that our little voices on this Blog are going to have any effect on RE prices. I will lose money if prices go down but I expect that I will still remain ahead of where I otherwise would be.
For me, part of the reason I write here is selfish in that I want to express my views and test my opinions in an environment where people hold differing opinions. This is not the only site I blog on.
However there is an element of concern and empathy for those who do not see the coming storm.
Ever since the gov’t dropped interest rates to the floor in 2009 and expanded the CMHC rules we have been operating in highly stimulated economy in the RE business. It is these important factors that you always conveniently forget when you rail on about how prices go up forever and how stupid all the Bears are. However you never address this fact – prices were going down and would have kept going down had the gov’t not intervened. We are not in a free market situation.
My concern – and many others – is that this part of the gov’t stimulus plan is going to wreak havoc on many Canadians on an individual basis when the market corrects and all of us as taxpayers when the CMHC has to pony up. My concern is that the gov’t chose an easy stimumlus route that kicked the problem down the road – and made it worse – instead of dealing with reality.
They should have focused on jobs and infrasture instead of increasing consumer debt.
So, yes, there is an element of altruism in there and some self interest. However it is not about driving housing prices down so we can afford a new home. It is about the fact the gov’t has chosen to drive our economy off a cliff in the face of obvious information from South of the border that this is a strategy fraught with disaster. We are all being made poorer by our poor leadership.
I see many people railing against Obama but thank god he got in instead of McCain. At least he understands the problem as opposed to the Republicans who are clueless, hopeless and beyond selfish.
Our leaders have failed us.
Not all women eh Sarah?
Women were much better off in the 1950s
http://www.news.com.au/national/job-aid-for-women-better-in-the-50s/story-e6frfkvr-1225828526330
WOMEN with working husbands are being tied to the sink under a welfare system that hampers them finding a job.
A new study that examined barriers to women entering the work force found they had more help from the Federal Government’s job-seeking services in the 1950s.
And that was at a time when women were viewed largely as mothers and wives, not in today’s society when both partners frequently needed to work to survive.
The new privatised government employment services give women advice on the local job market and training opportunities but they don’t get the complete suite of employment services available to unemployed people on welfare, the report says…
Ah yes.us old guys know what hot is..and Sarah Palin is!! HOT!
#75 SMV – NOS JR – #92 dd
I would like to comment on your content of homes being the last place for the avg. Joe & Sue to store their money for retirement and for survival.
This scenario is so deflationary it’s not funny. When RE prices turn negative and keep going to an avg of 30% nationally over the next 24-36 months it will not be unlike the US where boomers are now leaving before the next downturn in RE.
Canadians have the chance of a lifetime to sell and take profits and sideline with various options. Rent, Leave Canada, Bunker!
Let’s face it, if you need the money, you have to pull it out of your home equity. As this happens, RE values drop at a quicker pace then what I am describing above as this dynamic is compounded on top of higher rates, boomer downsizing etc.
You may call this the final nail as everyone who owns RE will be in the same boat.
The outcome will be very bad. Watch what happens in the US when property drops another 20%+ on this neg. equity withdrawl and also watch what the government tries to implement to stop it.
Restrictions on how much you can take out and taxation on the amount withdrawn and only to a point whereas a home deflating is absolutely impossible to valuate.
There will be both taxes on withdrawls on RE values on top of taxation on this as money deemed earned and likely a third plan to charge you for insurance on further deflationary value drops.
These forms of taxes will be put in place to both stop the withdrawls of equity and cover further losses to Fannie and Freddie for those who do.
50-70% down Van Victoria, yes over 36 months agreed.
“Sarah Palin is a F@#^ing Retard now that was some classic Stephen Colbert last night…”
Hey, maybe Palin can run in OUR torch relay.
Why not? After all, Schwarzenegger will be.
Now THAT’s retarded.
Who thinks this stuff up?
#107 kind words respectfully accepted
I gave up “thinking with the heart” as it were many years ago…..I remember teaching a course in financial and land management over 15 years back were I essentially reiterated much of the same things that I am saying today….back then I was hopeful (and younger/naive) that sound advice given with the best of intentions good actually help………
it does not……
today I just get a perverse pleasure out of watching “the monkeys” scramble and try to make sense of their world. I do make my own investment decisions based upon my analysis but I share my view personally with very very few outside of cyberspace.
I have found that those that appear “negative” are among the first to get targeted in the pogroms that will arrive in due time.
Re: 2012…I am of the scientific/analytical mindset….I have looked into the whole “mayan prophecy” stuff and found that once again of course, us monkeys cannot help ourselves in misinterpretation and misdirection of basic facts. The facts being that the Mayans never said that 2012 was terribly significant at all….oh the irony of it all…..sigh.
I do of course include myself in “monkey kind” and am well aware of my fallibility….I of course make margins for errors in the details…..
But the bedrock facts are clear…..we are in vast overshoot now of virtually every single natural resource class that you can name. We have been so for decades in fact. The symptoms of this have been masked by the “treatments” applied to our economic system (that would frankly have buckled under normal constraints in the 70s) by cheap oil (high EROEI)….
the treatments began to fail in the early 2001-2005 period as the EROEI began to rise hard. There has now been outright failure of the treatments as we hit the peak of crude production and flatlined since 2005-2010.
We will now begin the process of dying (economically and indeed in the population sense) as the “Oil Slide” begins……in the period of 2010-2020 we will see EROEI ratios decline into the lower teens and the export land crisis will hit developed nations like a freight train with a dead conductor…..watch for Venezuela and Mexico to cease exports to the USA within 2-3 years now……
The positive feedbacks from the economic contraction will eliminate investments into alternative energies as well as the extremely low EROEI mega projects (esp deepwater exploration/development). Low EROEI systems like oil sands will never take up the slack and the spiral will will steepen and tighten……
as economies go into wholesale collapse we will rapidly pass from stage 3 into stage 4 failure of societies…..and we of course will do the predictable thing….to secure any possible advantage in the race for resources…we will go to war…..
It is laughable that the bulletin of the atomic scientists moved the time clock for nuclear Armageddon back recently….by my estimation the clock is near the zenith……it is virtually certain that we will see at least tactical nukes used in the next 5 years as the oil crunch tightens….it is just logical…..
I realize, to many reading this it sounds “ridiculous”…..in a country that considers itself “enlightened” and perhaps even a bit “above the fray”……I would hazard the guess that we will find out quite soon that we might not be as special as we think……even if the price of a 2 story home in Sylvan Lake Alberta is $500,000.00
There is something odd happening in the area of Ottawa where I am currently living. There has been a lot of new homes listed for sale when I drove through the neighborhood last weekend. I also checked them out on MLS.
A few of them are advertised with long term tenants currently living in them and there is much clutter if you go to view them. So, this would suggest the speculators are getting out of the market before the bubble bursts.
I’m in a position to buy a new home in this neighborhood because I like the area, but I’m going to hold off until after the collapse. The speculators usually know when to get out.
Financially, I can withstand an interest rate hike if the price of the homes come down.
Anyway Garth, keep up the great blog postings and we’ll all eventually see how it all ends.
There may still be a few buyers out there willing to buy at the top of the bubble.
Garth,
Evidently you have made some of the ladies and ladettes jealous with your candid appraisal of Sarah Palin’s manifest pulchritude
To these I simply say…… wallow.
grantmi
I think Soros is short on the us dollar. And he hopes the americans inflate their way out of their current economic problem [s] . I dont know really so ……
All that unwinding complexity or have they come up with a way to carry “a cat home by its tail.” as Mr. Buffet once warned.
….Banking supervisors need to strengthen the so-called resolution regime mechanisms to ensure the failure of any important financial institution will be managed internationally, Caruana said.
“The Basel Committee has recommended that supervisors provide capital or other prudential incentives for banks to simplify group structures that are too complex to permit orderly and cost-effective resolution,” he said.
BIS Says Banks Need More Capital to Withstand Shocks (Update1) bloomberg
CONSPIRACY?? Consider this (plz read this
…
I’ve noticed that there is rampant inflation in northern India. Vegetables now cost the same as they do here in Vancouver. Food is up massiveley, and RE is up as well. It’s not like demand all of a sudden went up for food…but it goes up.
Now, wages have more or less stayed the same in Northern India. There is no minimum wage so labourers generally earn $5 dollars a day ($0.50 per hr for 10 hr day)… and there are a lot of labourers! What gives???
Price for food and RE keep going up in Canada while wages stagnant at best. Bring in more immigrants and pressure the low end of the wage spectrum. What would happen if we got rid of the minimum wage??? Race to standardize global labour rates?? all while the rich put their wealth in assets (metals, RE, farmland, etc).
Seems like we are heading for a dichotomy; ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ but on a global basis. the ‘have-nots’ will find it impossible to ever move up to the ‘have’ status.
possible?? comments??
Here is why we should not bailout car companies:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100208/ap_on_bi_ge/lt_mexico_chrysler?
I wonder how much rescue money the Messican govt. ponied up to Chryco during the meltdown?
My guess would be zero.
Maybe shes a fox……think about it.
btw stocks down 15% this year and houses up 19%. LOL…
This blog is entertaining though and it looks like the herd is in here all waiting and waiting and w a i t i n g …
like being renters?
——————————————-
not sure what stocks you’re talking about but it’s definitely not the junior gold and lithium sector which are more than 10 times higher than real estate for the year. lol back at ya!
#129 TheTruth on 02.09.10 at 8:31 pm
CONSPIRACY?? Consider this (plz read this
…
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Yes imo-we are all heading for a lower standard of living-
learning to do with much less–not a bad thing–
Change will be the difficult part for most–
India/China and the wage disparity between them and us–has to be reconciled–
We can no longer afford unions and perks/pensions and all the other benefits,that we’ve come to know and depend on–
We must change and if we don’t decide to do it on our own–the market will force it on us–
In order to be competitive we must come down–
Most of us think we cannot live on $5/day–
Well–we could–we really don’t need the amount of money that we see floating around–
For instance–why does a beer have to cost$5–
Why not 5 cents?
Being paid 50 cents/hr–not a bad deal at all–
Prices will have to come down–they”cannot” stay above the market clearing level–
Sure–GS et al can drive prices higher with spec trading,but what good will it do them,when buyers don’t show up–
buyers= you and me-
If we don’t buy–GS becomes a bag holder–that’s all–
Ya see they actually need us peasants or they cease to exist–
Food and oil–go hand in hand and are “always” an anomaly–based on–weather/war/political strife/oil shortages–all of it–
There has and always will be haves and have-nots–
I suspect the ratio of have-nots to haves will increase dramatically for some time as we enter the deflationary winter–but–all winters although long–eventually end and spring returns–jmo
http://photos1.blogger.com/img/101/3984/1024/cycleofdeflation1.jpg
#124 knucklewalker
Here’s my email. lornemccuaig@gmail.com
Please give me a contact and I’ll have something well worth reading to send to you. Its way too long to post here and I’m pretty sure you’ll appreciate it.
Regards
Lorne
Dan in Victoria Maybe shes a fox……think about it.
Oh, she definitely is now…A Fox Talking Head that is!
I think the critical nature of Stephen Harper isn’t necessary here, and by that I mean saying hes “spending us into the toilet”
Can I remind everyone that Pierre Trudeau put us into a debt that was double or three times as bad as this? Or is it too big of a sin to say anything against Trudeau?
We will work our way out of this debt. It will happen. The problem will be low lending rates leading to consumption, as noted above. But rebounds in BRIC markets will allow for the Canadian commodity market to pull us out of recession, and their increased consumption will do the same for everyone else.
Policies enacted under the Harper Government, including the investment and trading policies with the EU, will allow for the more diversified economic portfolio, and help drive our economy stronger than ever.
The problem right now is emotion. Some of us have lost jobs, others are afraid that their jobs are next, but calm it will be okay. When the dust settles after you elect a new government because you were too impatient with this one, youll sing the Liberal parties praises for their economic prowess, without understanding that it was the Conservative parties policies.
I promise, by the end of 2010, this will all be done and over, and we will all be focussing on the next “crisis” that passes our eyes on television
“Real Estate is a back story to the main story, which is the arrival of Peak Oil.”
Energy creates wealth but wealth cannot create energy and herein lies the great peak oil paradox. 4 barrels of light sweet crude to extract 1 barrel of tar sands and you realize the world will be a different place when the Ghawar field finally runs dry. It takes 1.2 units of Methane energy to convert into 1 unit of Hydrogen energy which then gets shipped 200 miles by Diesel tanker to the hamlet of whistler to run their billion dollar “Hydrogen Highway” Wake up people, real estate is the least of our worries very soon.