Uncategorized

Friday Free-for-all!

117
117 Comments

Hey guess what!? It’s FRIDAY and that means we do our weekly news round up and open topic post.  Here are a few links to kick off the weekend discussion:

–BCREA predicts market on upward climb for rest of ’09
–IOC pledges to make up for advertising shortfall
–Provincial revenue forecasts keep dropping
–Number of BC E.I. recipients double since October
–BC Place P3 Roofing?
–Real Estate Council of BC disciplinary decisions
–Renting with Red Robinson
–US Unemployment at 16%

So what are you seeing out there? Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and have an excellent weekend!

117 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
realpaul

oneangryslav2:

#115 OAS, I was a very active particapant in the school system. I know exactly whats going on in the public school system. The warts in the private sytem is that they actually insist on your participation and they really push your child to succeed. The public system is just a paycheque factory for union members who's agenda is to push political concepts through the filter of the school system.

0
0
no-lympics

#114 realpaul

Quote:

The school principal from the high school in my home districts cachement also had his boy at my sons private school, go figure.

================

You would be surprised how much of this goes on…ie public system educators enrolling their children in private schools.

PS lilypad and oneangryslav2

….. just out of curiousity do you have/had children in the public system?

0
0
oneangryslav2

Lilypad: I agree. I appreciate your contributions to this site, realpaul, but you're way out of your depth (and wrong) when it comes to talking about education.

0
0
Lilypad

realpaul: For Pete's sake, RP, take a breather.

Tons of kids go from public school to university and are highly successful. The ones who are most successful are those whose parents are involved in the education process with their children and teachers all together in a constructive way.

0
0
realpaul

GM: #`111 GM, No one forces a person to get into debt for one thing. When a person has racked up a huge student loan debt they shouldn't expect to turn from poor student to homeowner and vacation taker overnight. You shouldn't think that you can solve the problems you created for yourself by joining a union and holding the public hostage and using the children as human shields. The scum that walk around the perimeter of public buildings for weeks at a time while parents fret that their childrens education is being negatively effected ( and rightly so) are no better than child abusers who go to prison for lesser slights. So why do the teachers take there financial frustrations out on the public when the real enemy hides behind the silk wallpaper of union offices and government palaces?… Read more »

0
0
realpaul

NO -LYMPICS: #103 NO, well , I remember posting the 'dumbing down' of the primary and secondary schools and how differant standards were being applied district by district. That real brought the bats out of the belfry's. The public knowledge of this is apparently a hot button issue with the BCTF and their thralls in the various unions concerned. Apparently they don't want the public to understand how social engineering will benefit the greater socialist movement according to the Trotksyites who infest the Unions and the executive of the BCTF. Shhhhhhhhhhh !!!!! It's a secret. I also responded to some of the flamers with information based on my own personal experiance of having children in two distinctly diffeant school districts and how the teachers in both districts responded to my kids educational needs when I insisted that they learn to… Read more »

0
0
GM

RealPaul said: Specifically, with the teachers, I believe that they are victims of their own greed and political stupidity which has them in a vortex of evil consequence. The unions support perpetual strikes for more money and when they get it the government has to raise taxes to pay for the increase. When the increase is clawed back by higher taxes they ( the teachers etc) go on strike again for more more more. The devil would call this a virtuous circle. Teachers who are carrying 60 to 80 thousand dollars of student debt when they graduate only have themselves to blame, but when they get into the union they take it out on the general public through the children to pay for their own stupidity. Go figure. Does anyone notice that before the strikes the union always hides behind… Read more »

0
0
No Longer Looking

rp: rp, good point. But a kid with a credit card will blow hundreds of dollars on a new microwave rather than locate a good used one for a fraction of the cost.

0
0
rp

No Longer Looking: A microwave for a student in university may not be a frivolous expense. $50 microwave + $2 cup o' noodle = breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I realize there is usually a microwave somewhere nearby, but it is likely to be dirty or in use. It is easily worth $12.50/year to be able to eat something or make coffee or tea without going anywhere and interrupting your studies. You might even recover the cost just by avoiding the temptation of vending machines.

0
0
NO -LYMPICS

" The study of money, above all other fields in economics,is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth , and not reveal it ."

John Kenneth Galbraith

==================

" Of all the contrivances for cheating the labouring classes of mankind, none has been more effective than that which deludes them with paper money."

Daniel Webster

============================

Old Vancouver Mayor Gerry McGeer .. interesting connection to the B of C.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zB7GbM1OgzA&fe…

0
0
pricedoutfornow

No Longer Looking: When I was a university student 10 years ago, I lived at home. My parents wouldn't LET me get student loans, so I felt like the poor kid when all my friends with student loans seemed to have money to burn. They all lived the high life, going to the bar, Mexico at spring break, lots of dinner, lunches out and the whole dorm life. Now I am ever so thankful that I don't have student loan debt. I now have friends who are drowning in debt, it makes me feel sick when I wonder how on earth they will ever pay back a loan of $35k when they're only making $15 per hour (because of course, student loans don't discriminate and you can master in basket weaving if your heart desires). There's got to be a… Read more »

0
0
NO -LYMPICS

THE CRIME OF THE CANADIAN BANKING SYSTEM: Bill Abram (part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&… Over the past 4 years, the Canadian people have paid $137.4 billion in interest on money borrowed from private banks whereas the Bank of Canada could legally print the public's money into existence… Over the past 4 years, the Canadian people have paid $137.4 billion in interest on money borrowed from private banks whereas the Bank of Canada could legally print the public's money into existence rather than borrowing it at interest. "They've paid out this huge sum because our government has failed to abide by the law." Abram, a retired high school teacher and activist on Vancouver Island, B.C., explicates the trick of fractional reserve banking (part 1 of a series); ======== This is quite good video. It made me recall valuable collectibles that exist out there.… Read more »

0
0
NO -LYMPICS

For those of you with children (or planning to have)and looking towards their post secondary education funding

Human Resources and Skills Development Canada

http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca

Canada Student Loans and Grants
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/learning/canada_studen…

0
0
NO -LYMPICS

From Garth's blog QUOTE: Lets look at this list and give it the old reality check. 1) Canada is extremely resource-rich Yes, this is true, BUT! our costs to extract are some of the highest in the world. The President of Vale / INCO said last year the company was unsustainable at present costs. We are now competing with the third world in the resource area. Must I remind you how our manufacturing sector fared against those same countries? Mines and forestry operations are closing all over Canada. So, if you plan to hitch your cart to this horse .. think again….. it’s gone lame. 2) best banks in the world Sure, if you ignore all the bad debt that’s about to swamp them. Rising credit card defaults and personal bankruptcies. Commercial RE has tanked. And the value of residential… Read more »

0
0
NO -LYMPICS

realpaul: That's a whole other discussion. aka the education system is as bad ad the RE buuble. WTF happened that the cost of post secondary education has put graduates behind the 8 ball before they are gainfully employed, in debt by the tens of thousands. Remember when the BC NDP put all those unemployed forestry workers into computer classes for 10 months so they could get jobs…lol When I went to both university and college I can't recall any discussions re: student debt IF you stayed at home and drove to school(or took the bus). I think the system is geared to create students in order to keep them off the UNemployment roles as opposed to a real education. When I graduated from high school, the stats were 10% went onto university….I assume the rest went to trades school etc.… Read more »

0
0
realpaul

No Longer Looking: #95 NLL, generally I find that people who have kids in finacal trouble are thenselves pretty stupid with money. Financial stupidity is a learned experiance, as is good finacial management. As a parent it is your 'job' to teach your kid about money and ride herd on them while they learn the ropes. You do not give a seventeen or eighteen year old 'carte blanche' with anything. Kids don't make good decsions, thats just a fact. the current idiocy promoted by the teachers and couinsellors in the high school system is that kids will learn from one another and that parents should butt out. What effing lunacy. KIDS DON'T MAKE GOOD DECISIONS !!!! The current idea that 'kids need to learn from their mistakes' is another bi-line of the systems ignorance. This is exactly wht the average… Read more »

0
0
realpaul

crabman:

#96 C, 7 x's income in Canada yes, but 10 x's income in BC !!

0
0
NO -LYMPICS

crabman;

Yes…you read the article and picked that up to.

What I read is that Canda was pre-emptive in its cover-up…made moves before the meltdowm but then delayed the inevitable day of reckoning.

0
0
Bob Rennie in hell

Soon we will see the real estate stats come out for the last quarter.

Unless mistaken, there may be bidding wars, but the prices have near reached past peaks..say in 2008 …. correct ?

So, after the global economic collapse in Fall of 2008, the RE dead cat bounce this past spring/summer, not enough gas in the tank to meet or beat peak price.

So, that should be a warning sign and scare those peak price purchasers.

0
0
Bob Rennie in hell

Hi :

I can't beleive how many people connected to RE industry are here !

Realtors, bankers, economists, politicians.

I've had to get asbestos business cards.

PS did you know granite countertops can withstand 1000 degrees celsius.

For our next pre-sale, we will be exhuming bodies from all the "view" cemeteries and looking towards Burns Bog waterfront once the landfill closes.

0
0
buff_butler

RE: B.C. Real Estate Association's forcast

I wonder when people will stop asking the salesmen of an investment what they think their product will do.

😛

0
0
crabman

NO -LYMPICS: From the article, US home prices peaked in 2006 at 5.0X income. Today, Canadian home prices are at 7.0X income!

0
0
No Longer Looking

http://www.theprovince.com/business/fp/fourth+edu… "Norman Kerr, an alumnus of Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., says the desire of students from diverse backgrounds to fit in with campus life is driving the inertia of spending. Mr. Kerr (not his real name) observed that when the “hottest” new band would come into town, many would pay for the expensive night out (ticket, food, drinks, transportation etc.) on their credit cards. And everyone “had to have” a microwave in their room, not to mention the $80 residence sweat shirt and ball cap. For those in residence, the meal plan turned out to be financial death by a thousand french fries. “That dinner you had at 5 p.m. … is not going to hold you over until breakfast the next morning. So you headed down to the cafeteria to buy french fries at 10 p.m. It’s… Read more »

0
0
observer

Girlbear: yes, you are right of course. But that was a result of loosening credit and a booming economy 3-4 years ago. Lower interest rates have kept things going for a little while longer but sooner or later unemployment and a decreasing supply of FTB's will weigh down on the market.

0
0
Anonymous

"he also said “nobody knows why” and i sure as heck agree with him. i can’t understand it at all."

The elephant in the room is low interest rates. You can get a variable at 2% or even better. That's pretty close to free money, dude. Enjoy the punchbowl while it's still full because the hangover's a bitch. :mrgreen:

0
0