Money and the mainstream media
Here’s a story I haven’t seen in the Sun or Province: Canwest shares now ‘worthless’. What happened? How have the mighty fallen so far and so quickly? Where they too reliant on real estate advertising for income or is this a larger problem?
Last week, Canwest posted a net loss of C$1.44 billion for the three months ended February 28. This included a C$1.19 billion writedown related mostly to its publishing operations.
“We see no compelling reason to own, let alone buy Canwest shares, which we would continue to avoid,” National Bank Financial analyst Adam Shine wrote in a note.
Analysts have previously said that Canwest could file for bankruptcy protection, but the company thus far has continued to negotiate with creditors rather than involve the courts.
“We continue to believe there is significant risk Canwest is forced into bankruptcy protection or to sell assets at unfavorable prices or a massive debt restructuring,” GMP Securities analyst Jason Jacobson wrote to clients.
“Either way, we believe Canwest equity value is very limited.” His target price on the shares is zero.
A Canwest spokesman had no comment on the status of the creditor talks on Monday.
Read the full article here.
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April 18th, 2009 at 11:59 am
eat me:
Realtards are lice they deserve the misery thats being thrust upon them, and about time too. The whoreing media is getting thier comeuppance, can you spell ” do you want fries with that”. Karmic justice. They’re all assholes who are getting the kick in the nuts they collectivley deserve.
Anyone who supports that pestilential mob is a brain dead idiot. I guess ‘eat me ‘ was a freudian slip exposing your oral fixation.
April 18th, 2009 at 8:57 am
RuPaul, do you ever think for yourself or do you just repeat whatever you set your eyes on?
That quote from your favorite failed politician, repeatedly off-the-mark writer (anybody remember The Strategy? Had you followed it you’d have been bankrupted 7 years ago in the tech wreck, never mind the housing bubble), and door-stop author was so far off base it’s laughable.
Brokerage employees and CEOs go on TV and radio all the time to urge people to buy stocks. Often urging people to buy stocks in companies that are, well, kaput.
How many of them do you see in jail?
Instead of spending all week trolling for places to complain about realtors, why not go do something constructive with your life, like enrolling in an extension course on Taking Responsibility Like An Adult.
As for Chilled, what is so wonderful about newspaper reporters being thrown out of work? Do you have any idea how newspapers work? No, because you’re an illiterate retard. Reporters fill the space between ads. They have precious little control over news content and ZERO over advertising content.
Some of you people need to grow the fk up.
Proceed with arrowing into oblivion. I got that off my chest.
Losers.
April 15th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Serves them right. Creeps.
April 15th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
blueskies:
Just a quick Q. Do these figures published by the uber real whore Cameron Muir represent actual price averages or just the median average?
I think the real whores are fudging the information as always to ‘suggest’ a greater decrease in ‘averages’ as reduced prices than actual price reductions represent.
I think they have decided that using this tactic may encourage math challenged buyers to get out and shop for deals which are not really there.
The big price reductions are yet to come.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:52 am
from the Vancouver Sun:
http://tinyurl.com/cmuuh6
The average home price in B.C. hit $424,122 in March, down just over 12 per cent from $483,291 in the same month a year ago.
The Okanagan Mainline region, which includes Kelowna and Vernon, and South Okanagan, which includes Penticton and Osoyoos, saw the steepest price declines in the 17-per-cent range.
In the Kelowna—Vernon corridor, the March average price was $344,845. In the South Okanagan, the average price was $296,023.
In Greater Vancouver, the average price of $616,496, down almost 14 per cent from a year ago. Sales in region were down 24 per cent at 2,310 units.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:18 am
http://www.californiaprogressr.....raph-2.gif
April 15th, 2009 at 11:18 am
better chart..http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/Graph-2.gif
April 15th, 2009 at 11:15 am
this second wave of mortgage re-sets will take a lot of US banks down..
http://www.irvinehousingblog.c...../reset.PNG
April 15th, 2009 at 10:45 am
that article I posted seemes to have triple posted itself, so sorry for the use of space.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:37 am
VanBanker:
BTW just wanted to note that the very reason no-recourse laws were passed in the US was to prevent RE from being sold at inflated prices by making it impossible for the lender to recover more than the true value of the property.
Worked pretty well until they invented securitization.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:34 am
Canwest Global has officially missed thier debt payments,announced thia AM on BNN. It looks like Izzy Aspers kids were not the sharpest tools on the bench. Had the Liberal party still been in power I may have sniffed a bail-out, but the Aspers were rabidly anti-Conservative Party during the heady Liberal days and that could be the final nail in thier coffin. Choosing the wrong side in politics has never been a good move. The local rags should take this lesson from history when lining up with the real estate whores, the bullshit propaganda campaign will come back to haunt them. FYI.
The spin douchebags are touting a ’7%’ increase in real estate sales in March, what a joke, look into the stats and see that the market is still declining. What the spin whores want you to look at is the velocity of the decline, which they can’t hide, so they say instead it’s merely ” slowing”. LOL
Meanwhile, down in the big show the foreclosure moratorium has been lifted as scheduled and the spike in new foreclosures has gone parabolic as predicted. The number of Alt-A and Option Arm mortgages far surpasses the number of sub-prime mortgages and are only now beginning to re-set. This group won’t actually crest until late 2012. The bullshit artists and realty whores are trying to suck in as many losers and other sheeple as they can right now before the bad news goes mainstream and sinks the real estate market in the final wave down. So, don’t be a sucker, the sun may be shining but theres a very ill wind blowing in and it’s cold brothers and sisters, very very cool indeed.
“U.S. FORECLOSURE INDEX: Foreclosures Soar in March, Up 44 Percent Over February’s High
Lenders End Moratoria, Opening Flood of Foreclosures; Re-Defaults and Job Losses Also Take Their Toll
SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Completed foreclosures hit another monthly record in March as 175,199 homes were lost to foreclosure, up 44 percent from February’s record high, according to the latest U.S. Foreclosure Index released today by ForeclosureS.com, a leading real estate information provider.
The number of foreclosed properties was up dramatically from 121,756 in February. Nearly 370,000 properties have been repossessed by lenders so far this year – 18.3 of every 1,000 households – up more than 38 percent from 266,986 in the fourth quarter of 2008, the U.S. Foreclosure Index shows, and up 76 percent from 210,280 in the first quarter of 2008.
The first-quarter 2009 total is the highest quarterly total of completed foreclosures since the foreclosure crisis began. Pre-foreclosure filings – filings that could lead up to a completed foreclosure – also reached their highest quarterly level, topping 600,000 for the first time since the foreclosure crisis began. ”
U.S. FORECLOSURE INDEX: Foreclosures Soar in March, Up 44 Percent Over February’s High
Lenders End Moratoria, Opening Flood of Foreclosures; Re-Defaults and Job Losses Also Take Their Toll
SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Completed foreclosures hit another monthly record in March as 175,199 homes were lost to foreclosure, up 44 percent from February’s record high, according to the latest U.S. Foreclosure Index released today by ForeclosureS.com, a leading real estate information provider.
The number of foreclosed properties was up dramatically from 121,756 in February. Nearly 370,000 properties have been repossessed by lenders so far this year – 18.3 of every 1,000 households – up more than 38 percent from 266,986 in the fourth quarter of 2008, the U.S. Foreclosure Index shows, and up 76 percent from 210,280 in the first quarter of 2008.
The first-quarter 2009 total is the highest quarterly total of completed foreclosures since the foreclosure crisis began. Pre-foreclosure filings – filings that could lead up to a completed foreclosure – also reached their highest quarterly level, topping 600,000 for the first time since the foreclosure crisis began.
U.S. FORECLOSURE INDEX: Foreclosures Soar in March, Up 44 Percent Over February’s High
Lenders End Moratoria, Opening Flood of Foreclosures; Re-Defaults and Job Losses Also Take Their Toll
SACRAMENTO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Completed foreclosures hit another monthly record in March as 175,199 homes were lost to foreclosure, up 44 percent from February’s record high, according to the latest U.S. Foreclosure Index released today by ForeclosureS.com, a leading real estate information provider.
The number of foreclosed properties was up dramatically from 121,756 in February. Nearly 370,000 properties have been repossessed by lenders so far this year – 18.3 of every 1,000 households – up more than 38 percent from 266,986 in the fourth quarter of 2008, the U.S. Foreclosure Index shows, and up 76 percent from 210,280 in the first quarter of 2008.
The first-quarter 2009 total is the highest quarterly total of completed foreclosures since the foreclosure crisis began. Pre-foreclosure filings – filings that could lead up to a completed foreclosure – also reached their highest quarterly level, topping 600,000 for the first time since the foreclosure crisis began.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:17 am
“patriotz Says:
April 15th, 2009 at 8:03 am
VanBanker:
The more lender-friendly the laws a place has, the more predatory lenders there will be.
That’s only true if the lender has to hold on to the loan. US states with no-recourse laws are far more borrower-friendly (i.e. less lender-friendly) than Canada is, but the lenders didn’t care because they were able to pass the bag to someone else.
And who holds the bag on high-ratio mortgages in Canada?”
Very true, I was thinking the same thing after I made my post. Borrower-friendly laws only help if the companies have to take full responsiblity: no government insurance or bailouts.
Unfortunately the major banks around the world are good at scaring govts into helping them: “If you don’t bail us out, there will be a systemic failure.” Which is complete untrue btw; orderly/pre-arranged bankruptcies of a couple of the big boys in the US would benefit the conservative banks that didn’t take risks.
April 15th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Overheard someone who works for the WestEnder yesterday talking about how depressing things are over there since all their advertisers are going out of buisness. I really like that local little rag so hope it doesn’t go…
April 15th, 2009 at 8:03 am
VanBanker:
The more lender-friendly the laws a place has, the more predatory lenders there will be.
That’s only true if the lender has to hold on to the loan. US states with no-recourse laws are far more borrower-friendly (i.e. less lender-friendly) than Canada is, but the lenders didn’t care because they were able to pass the bag to someone else.
And who holds the bag on high-ratio mortgages in Canada?
April 15th, 2009 at 7:43 am
sure you did rob. now piss off and troll somewhere else.
April 15th, 2009 at 7:28 am
snark: I also changed my mind and sold my condo at the peak and made off with lots of cash. I get my kicks from being a winner in real life not from making sanrky comments on a blog.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:00 pm
“squidly77 Says:
April 14th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
stories like this piss me off
Perched high on a hill overlooking the Vancouver harbour, the shining glass castle features five bedrooms, an indoor pool and a six-car garage sheltering a Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz.”
That guy sounds like a serious deadbeat, but I have to say it’s good we have such borrower-friendly laws in BC. The more lender-friendly the laws a place has, the more predatory lenders there will be.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
stories like this piss me off
Perched high on a hill overlooking the Vancouver harbour, the shining glass castle features five bedrooms, an indoor pool and a six-car garage sheltering a Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes-Benz.
Between 2005 and 2007, the Vancouver stock promoter added a series of modern conveniences: five mortgages. The loans carry interest rates ranging between 10 and 15 per cent, but court documents show that most of the owed interest and principal payments have not been paid since 2006
He said he would have made the payments earlier but his family has suffered “devastating losses” from stock market investments.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....y/Business
while hard working people cram into over priced sub standard apartments pieces of shit like this guy hide behind the law
April 14th, 2009 at 9:06 pm
Canwest/Global bankruptcy may be the only way to get Tony Parsons to retire,may he can start again as a real estate salesman.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:21 pm
ralph: I’m no economist but when I see Q1 losses of $1.44B and a gov’t bailout of $150M being discussed, to me this $150M equates to a drop in the bucket.
Consider it the “pat on the back” for those campaign contributions.
I think the gov’t is continually being pressed to save some of these shit companies because of the pensions that have invested so heavily in them. Look for the shit to hit the fan with some of these major pension funds sooner than later, IMO.
April 14th, 2009 at 8:16 pm
I can’t help but wonder how many unemployed reporters will be taking that correspondence course to become a licensed “real estate professional.”
Bawwwhawwwhawww
April 14th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
uslterman, indeed
Hence my sunday tends to be with the NYT or one of the British papers, if I happen to be in a place where I can get one. One of the few things I miss about the UK are the Sunday papers.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
I think a society get the newspapers it deserves. If the local population isn’t up to reading a quality newpaper on a Sunday then they won’t publish one. Vancouver has the Province. Zzzzzzzz.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Kinda unrelated to the post, but I have a question:
A friend of mine’s interested in buying a condo, he’s told me some vague information, 1 of which is the years that the 2 he’s thinking about ‘trying’ to get.
Is there a way that I can search for ‘year built’ on MLS or some other real estate database I don’t know about? It would narrow the search a lot and save me time from manually clicking on each one to see it.
Thanks
April 14th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Rob A.: Is this ironic considering you where saying downtown Vancouver was where the action was last spring and recommending people buy condos that are now down thousands and thousands of dollars?
April 14th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
It’s a great time to buy Canwest shares! It’s where the action is!
April 14th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
If the government were to bail out the media whores then what would they be directed to print? The governments have proven themselves to be the biggest and most aggregious liars historically. Even today we have Obama nad Harper “talking up’ the market with happy talk even though none of thier BS can be substantiated with fact. The government spokespersons AKA ‘THE CBC’ announce that this propaganda is ‘right’ and ‘neccesary’ to sew the seeds of ‘hope’ and ‘confidence’ for ‘the future’. With a spoonful of pap and a dose of mothers milk we’ll all be fine.
If anyone imagines a world where the ‘collective’ of the CBC is totally in charge of the dispensation of information in this country then your vision of the future is exactly what George Orwell warned us all against.
The following article is an example of ‘news repreating’ as opposed to ‘news reporting’, there is a big differance.
http://finance.sympatico.msn.c.....d=19184271
April 14th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
print media around the western world is in deep trouble, and its woes go far beyond RE advertising. Advertising more generally has become a much more diffuse game, with online advertising (especially) diverting huge amounts of money away from traditional print media.
I for one do hope newspapers survive in some form, as I enjoy a sunday reading one in a cafe (and lets face it, reading a laptop screen in the cafe is not as much fun), but they are in for a number of difficult years and will have to transition to a new business model.
April 14th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
There is a still a big risk that the government sweeps in and bails these companies out.
There would then be absolutely no criticism of government policy. Our media would then be completely bought by corporate interests, government and the families that control them. Sheep get in line.
If you have not done so, please express your outrage. It takes four minutes.
http://fishyre.blogspot.com/2009/04/and-some.html
April 14th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
with newspapers who needs a**wipe??
April 14th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
With blogs, forums and Craig’s List, who needs MSM?
April 14th, 2009 at 11:57 am
If the news papers (Canwest) goes out of biz, I am totally fine with that.
But I dont want the Scott TP paper to go out of business.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:46 am
Also from Garths blog…too imporatnt a point to miss.
IF IT WERE ANY OTHER INDUSTRY THIS BEHAVIOUR BY THE MEDIA WOULD BE DEEMED ILLEGAL AND RIGHTLY SO !!!!!!!!!!
“Can you imagine a leading brokerage-paid economist, the managing director of a securities firm and the CEOs of three publicly-traded corporations calling a presser to forecast higher stock prices and urge people – especially novice, first-time investors – to buy in now with 95% leverage?
Of course not. That would be illegal.
As this should be.
Just in – news that isn’t.Time is right for first-time homebuyers, housing experts say
By The Canadian Press
TORONTO – Panelists at a BMO real estate conference say there is no doubt that now is a great time for first-time homebuyers. President and CEO of Brookfield Real Estate Services Phil Soper says affordability in many parts of the country is improving for the first time in a long time. He says the housing market has shifted from a seller’s market to a buyer’s market, which is good news for someone looking to buy their first home. And BMO economist Sal Guatieri says the average mortgage payment has fallen one-third or $600 from its peak. He says the average resale price of a home has fallen 14 per cent from its peak and will fall “moderately further” this year.
And this… and this… and this… and this….”
April 14th, 2009 at 11:41 am
From Garths blog today excellent read as usual
‘This is called ‘marketing’, not news. Two executives from one of the country’s biggest mortgage lenders. Toronto’s condo king, in the middle of flogging a new project. And the heads of Century 21 and Royal LePage. Granted, they are all trying to pump and primp and pimp the market – that’s their job – but the really distressing part is how it will be reported as “expert” opinion on a commodity being sold to naive first-time buyers.
No wonder traditional media in Canada, as in the States, is down for the count. So long as newspapers depend so heavily on developers, real estate marketers, furniture stores, electronics marketers and others in the home-frothing business, objectivity is impossible. As I reported a while back, when the country’s biggest newspaper threw its real estate editor overboard for ticking off advertisers with real journalism, the die was cast.”
http://www.greaterfool.ca/
The MSM is trying to fool everyone all the time ….but failing.
April 14th, 2009 at 11:26 am
Why do I get the feeling that the same people who have a problem with tax dollars supporting the CBC wouldn’t have a problem with them supporting a failed media business?
Why do people seem to be so willing to privatize profit, but publicize risk?
April 14th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Fortunately for Canwest the Gov is considering a bail-out for failing media giants:
http://www.gantdaily.com/news/.....04-14.html
April 14th, 2009 at 11:06 am
The fact is that we have witnessed a collapse of journalistic integrity from Global. The advertisers are capitalizing on the lack of a normal ethical platform to spin out the most outrageous propaganda due to the dearth of editorial oversight. The biggest problem with this is that many sheeple have traditionally relied on the local broadcasters for news and information with some semblance of integrity and are now being caught in the web of lies fabricated over the corpse of broadcasting in BC. The people of BC are being fed a daily pap of the most insidiuos and poisonous lies that totally misrepresent reality. It’s as if the Nazi party has risen from the grave and has taken over the airwaves. The intent of the puppet masters is pure evil.
Meanwhile, Vancouver has been officially recognized as a culturally devoid dead zone and denegrated to strip mall class.
“National Ballet cancels Vancouver performance
Canwest News ServiceApril 14, 2009 10:02 AM
Vancouver fans of Sleeping Beauty can hit the snooze button this fall.
The National Ballet of Canada won’t be touring Western Canada to start its 2009-10 season “in order to avoid undue financial risk,” the Toronto-based company announced yesterday.
The National Ballet was to have performed The Sleeping Beauty in Calgary, Edmonton, Nanaimo, Victoria and Vancouver between Sept. 17 and Oct. 3, with a total of 13 performances overall.
Artistic director Karen Kain promised in the announcement, “We will work diligently to return west.”
In otherwords, we wouldn’t touch that shithole with a bargepole.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:52 am
The wheels fell off the ethics wagon at Canwest/Global a long, long, time ago…..now their stock is as worthless as their journalistic integrity.
RE/MAX is the national sponsor of the Global TV nightly news broadcast across Canada.
The “REIC” populates the overwhelmingly vast majority of the advertising pages in their print media.
Reality is not a word in their dictionary.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:00 am
couldn’t happen to a better news company in my opinion
April 14th, 2009 at 9:25 am
I’ll wait for the article to
show up in the dead tree edition of the Van Sun
April 14th, 2009 at 9:20 am
Ouch.
I wonder how many Canwest employees are shopping for homes.