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October 6th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
“The persians know all about the misplaced power and abuse a police force can wield and what is happening in Canada doesn’t frighten them it reminds them of the tactics used by their own secret police and it just pisses them off to no end.”
Are those the same persians that fled in 1979 and came to Canada out of FEAR because of those security tactics
Lol.
Maybe we will see another mass exodus of 30,000 persians from West/North Vancouver once this Olympic “fascist, pig, thug shake down” occurs. Lol.
Wait a second, that might just solve our high housing market prices if 30,000 new units come on the market.
The reason they are not afraid by the way, is because they know that we live in one of the strongest democracies, where established civil liberties are entrenched to the point of infringing upon the state’s ability to maintain law and order. The risk of a lawsuit to our fine forces is more of a threat than one of your neighbour’s “tearing a new asshole” for an officer or constable.
It is easy to lack fear when you know that we operate in a system where criminals have almost the same rights as victims, and in a society that is extremely litigious.
And the inevitable retort – “Tell that to the Polish guy that got tasered! ” “Our democracy sucks bollocks” [insert any rant from butterflies to the colour of light posts here]
October 6th, 2009 at 5:18 pm
@Hot Air Bloweth…:
you have poor reading comprehension skills. My neighbours are successful and powerful people who have no fear of the police. I have a neighbour from Iran who lived under teh Shaws secret police and knows all about the misplaced power and evil that be generated by an unchecked gang of thugs.
I have a neighbour who owns a grocery chain who grew up under the communists in China. these tactics by the RCMP don’t frighten these people, they piss them off. theres the differance pally.
October 6th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Oh, and one other thing, realpaul, for such an important and astute “businessman” (or whatever) you certainly have a lot of time on your hands, judging by the number of posts you have made thoughout the day.
Does your boss know?
October 6th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
“Get the tazers out.
It’s “taSers”, by the way, numbskull.
Someone should use it on YOU.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
@Hot Air Bloweth…:
Your comprehension skills are at odds with the context. My ‘neighbours’ have no fear of the police, they are extremly intelligent and powerful people in their own right and would question the authority of anyone who came around asking questions for some bogus Olympic security ruse.
You put some numbskull RCMP agent from bumfuck Saskatchewan up against an engineer from Iran and the persian will tear the cop TWO new assholes. The persians know all about the misplaced power and abuse a police force can wield and what is happening in Canada doesn’t frighten them it reminds them of the tactics used by their own secret police and it just pisses them off to no end. Don’t get me started on how a successful business person from China would react to this thuggery.
I would love to see the ‘crack down’ on one of my little lady neighbours who owns a super market chain. Get the tazers out.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
@Hot Air Bloweth…: I’m going to keep this brief (off-topic): I agree with realpaul on this one. The authorities seem to have confused our local hippies with Al Qaeda. It is right to be very worried when legitimate political dissent is attacked by the Powers That Be.
October 6th, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Here’s another case of taking a $1250-1300 unit in a C building and asking $1700!
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.....73007.html
I’m going to go view it and then ask why the professional management companies, like easyrent, usually ask uner $1,300 for the same 536 sq ft unit!
October 6th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
You have to see the irony in ranting against municipal police and the RCMP with such venom, all the while living beside neighbours that are “nastier sons of bitches” who “would most enjoy tearing the asshole out of an inquiring amateur thug.”
Nice neighbours – maybe you would benefit from some of the law and order the police can provide rather than ranting against them all the time. Sounds like your neighbours might need to be cracked down on if they are are “hard bitten Canadians with no fear of authority.”
Too funny…
You certainly lead a *cough* interesting life….
October 6th, 2009 at 3:49 pm
@Anonymous:
#85 Well said.
October 6th, 2009 at 3:44 pm
@NO – LYMPICS:
I heard on CKNW that the RCMP – Olympic Thugs were going door to door gathering ‘information’ on anyone who was known to be questioning the Olympics. What makes the list I don’t know. You know the drill, they send over some RCM Pervert to lean against the door frame and insinuate harm and menace.
My neighbours are even nastier sons of bitches (professional people for the most part originally coming from countries where the fascists/pig men were even worse than our own dictator-murderer apprentices) and would most enjoy tearing the asshole out of an inquiring amateur thug, not because they like me but because most of my neighbours are hard bitten Canadians with no fear of authority , nothing to lose and lawyers up the ying yang.
I would imagine the RCMP are running the intimidation scam the same way that ICBC ‘investigators’ do. By making a victim think that they may have something to worry about and sending in ‘suggestions’ of harm/intimidation that may cause some people with complacent/tentative existences into the closet.
Stalin did the same thing. His thugs would noisily take an anonymous resident out of an apartment block in the middle of the night and ‘question’ the neighbours the following day. people lived in fear and the pigs got their way.
Oh Canada, we’ll rue the day we let the pigs take our freedom.
October 6th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Langford buys $7-million property for $350,000
Bear Mountain owner’s refusal to pay three years of taxes resulted in property being sold at auction to municipality
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....le1304879/
=========================
This came from HouseHuntVictoria
” What a joke the Times Colonist has become. After weeks of being scooped by the G&M on the Bear Mountain story, the TC get’s it in the kiester again”:
October 6th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Wasn’t it only a matter of time before someone broke ranks and raised interest rates ? Seems like the house of cards is falling as we speak.
Re Olympics:
It appears that , in the Weekend Sun, even the IOC is getting concerned over the bid process, and how Olympic bidders tend to tie or piggyback a number of other initiatives(ie infrastructure) to the bids. This tends to leave host cities with huge deficits, higher taxes and declining economies.
In BC, its pretty obvious the bid backers were those with a private vested interst and nothing to do with the phoney idealism the Olympic movement brings. In other words, the VANOC bid catalyzed, if not created, an unsustainable RE market that will have consequences for every BC citizen. Or, if we hadn’t have won the bid, the negative impact would have been much less .
October 6th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
B.C.’s recovery so feeble it might as well be dead: Analyst
http://www.theprovince.com/bus.....story.html
B.C. faces an economic recovery so tepid it will leave the province’s two-year performance looking dead flat, a prominent economist says.
The provincial economy will likely grow by 2.4 per cent next year — the same amount by which it contracts this year, Bank of Montreal economist Doug Porter said yesterday.
October 6th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
Bollocks – I’ve just posted that twice. Sorry about that chaps.
October 6th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
Australia has just raised their interest rates – which means that NZ won’t be far behind, and presumably the rest of the world will follow suit eventually.
The thing that I’m really worried about in Vancouver is the combination of BC hysteria (a combination of RE and Olympic congratulatory hype) followed by the flatlining of interest rates to an already trigger happy buying market. The amount of people I know personally who’ve recently jumped into the market right now to take advantage of the interest rates is insane.
Now I’m no genius, but if you’ve just created an unsustainable borrowing marathon on top of a market that is clearly overpriced. The ramifications down the line may be severe. Once interest rates kick in to ensure inflation doesn’t become a problem, houses are going to be defaulting left right and centre – combined with the Olympic aftermath and a phycological seachange, the way down could have the gravity to pull BC into a micro recession for years to come.
While I’m on the subject, I have nothing against the Olympics, yes, I do think the money would have possibly benefited the healthcare system or the education sector, but
I know these things are generally regarded as boring and not as impressive as a brand new road to Whistler – but anyway I hope who ever’s going has a good time. But please don’t listen to the bollocks that’s been touted around, like ‘The world is watching’ – no the world won’t be watching. The US, Canada, and Sweden will be watching – the rest of the world watches the real olympics, the one in summer where you have people running around in circles, and throwing spears across a field. The winter olympics which is usually shown at !!pm , where highlights generally focus on people falling of on the downhill skiing.)
October 6th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
Australia has just raised their interest rates – which means that NZ won’t be far behind, and presumably the rest of the world will follow suit eventually.
The thing that I’m really worried about in Vancouver is the combination of BC hysteria (a combination of RE and Olympic congratulatory hype) followed by the flatlining of interest rates to an already trigger happy buying market. The amount of people I know personally who’ve recently jumped into the market right now to take advantage of the interest rates is insane.
Now I’m no genius, but if you’ve just created an unsustainable borrowing marathon on top of a market that is clearly overpriced. The ramifications down the line may be severe. Once interest rates kick in to ensure inflation doesn’t become a problem, houses are going to be defaulting left right and centre – combined with the Olympic aftermath and a phycological seachange, the way down could have the gravity to pull BC into a micro recession for years to come.
While I’m on the subject, I have nothing against the Olympics, yes, I do think the money would have possibly benefited the healthcare system or the education sector, but
I know these things are generally regarded as boring and not as impressive as a brand new road to Whistler – but anyway I hope who ever’s going has a good time. But please don’t listen to the bollocks that’s been touted around, like ‘The world is watching’ – no the world won’t be watching. The US, Canada, and Sweden will be watching – the rest of the world watches the real olympics, the one in summer where you have people running around in circles, and throwing spears across a field. The winter olympics which is usually shown at !!pm , where highlights generally focus on people falling of on the downhill skiing.)
October 6th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Vancouver’s Olympic Village $131M over budget: Report
By Miro Cernetig, Vancouver SunOctober 6, 2009 1:27 PM
http://www.vancouversun.com/bu.....story.html
QUOTE:
There seems to be a degree of consensus around the cost to complete,” says the report by KPMG, which was released Tuesday after months of delays at city hall. “Unfortunately, less clear is the timing and quantum of revenues that will ultimately be generated from the sale of Millennium Water.”
The business model underlying the city’s real estate project is to have the developer, Millennium, build the units and then sell off the condo units after the Games, when Olympic athletes leave. But the steep decline in the real estate market has threatened to slow the rapid sale of the condos.
That means some units will not go to the market as quickly as anticipated, creating carrying costs for the already stressed developer. Both the city and the developer need prices to be above construction and loan costs to turn a profit.
The auditors offered no assurance that will happen.
“This (real estate prices) will likely have the largest potential unknown impact on the city’s financial exposure in this matter and while currently available estimates might suggest at this time a relatively neutral outcome for the city, the current state of the real estate market makes forecasting the city’s financial exposure with an degree of precision extremely difficult.”
=================
COV already announced a $62 million shortfall in revenue(a lot of that due to drop in permits….
Now its another $130 Million in cost overruns in its P3 ” Olympic Village ” project,which will come onto market and further exacerbate the problems for the RE market. I can’t see COV holding onto these, the carrying costs will be to great,…this will end up like the Fast Ferries..firesale them and COV taxpayers will have to eat the loss.
,
October 6th, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Canada enters the Great Manic Depression. We are performing very strongly as we defy gravity.
http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/.....soars.html
October 6th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Olympic Village:
My time flies…it has to be handed over to VANOC at the end of this month….in less than 4 weeks.
I’ll bet there is a lot of Overtime being paid or else penalties will be incurred…….and as realpaul implied….”haste makes waste” and a shitty end product which will be sold into a tanking market.
October 6th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Canadian media giant Canwest enters bankruptcy protection after restructuring its debt
http://blog.taragana.com/index.....-its-debt/
October 6th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
75 X realpaul Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
If you think you’re living in a democracy, think again. I listened to a news bit on CKNW at 1:00 PM which described how the Olympic Security Arm of the RCMP ( the ISR) has been harrassing peoples ex wives, neighbours, employers, childrens teachers etc of anyone even remotely saying bad things about the Olympic Fiasco
================
Realpaul: …..Could you explain this a a bit more….are you saying RCMP is hassling any/all associates of Olympic naysayers? How are they doing it ?
October 6th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
#40 Anonymous
re Olympic rentals:
The COV announced a few weeks back that they were going to check advertisements for anyone trying a short term rental aka the Olympics. It is apparently against the bylaws to rent on such a short term basis and will require a special license.
In addition, Richmond has informed approx. 30 existing bed and breakfast that they need to do a re-zoning before allowed to continue…and given bureaucracy they won’t get one beforte the Olympics….seems like a dirty stunt given many of them have been in business for years.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
“The city says they hope to break even when the lasy 900 suites get sold at above market value.”
—
Err, the price they get sold at – be it high or low – IS market value, no? More retarded thinking / writing from the press.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Oh and PS, the Atheletes Village bonanza has ballooned to an ‘official’ 1.2 Billion dollars and it ain’t even close to complete. The city says they hope to break even when the lasy 900 suites get sold at above market value. If the leakers in the condo market were built under a normal construction regime.
What kind of shit and deficiencies are people going to find after this place was slapped together with absolutley NO inspection. Not as if that did the leaky buildings any good but at least there were some inspections. How much care do you think is going into the Olympiv Village site? Not much I ‘m assuming.
I’ll bet the disclaimer and the warranaty will be so long and full of legal weasels that it will take a Public Inquiry to flesh out the real meaning of any documents coming out of the city when the sales docs are ponied up.
Word to the wise CAVEAT ( run for the fucking hills) EMPTOR !!!!!!!!!!
October 6th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
@Anonymous:
From the comments to the linked article:
And I’ll remind you again – people in BC are a lot more indebted than Canadians as a whole.
October 6th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
If you think you’re living in a democracy, think again. I listened to a news bit on CKNW at 1:00 PM which described how the Olympic Security Arm of the RCMP ( the ISR) has been harrassing peoples ex wives, neighbours, employers, childrens teachers etc of anyone even remotely saying bad things about the Olympic Fiasco.
Hey Pig Nation !!!! I’m over here, bastards. So much for Canadian values eh?
The Aspers of ‘Global fame’ are going broke and stand to lose their entire holdings. Oh Boo hoo.
Gold closing at over $1030 US today broke a long established technical resistance point. It has the potential to hit the next ‘line in the sand’ at $1650. Let ‘er rip, I say. The lies need to be washed out of the system, sonner than later.
Interesting that only hours after I started reporting the interest rate news the TD apologists for the BOC have come out with a backpeddling campaign and now say the the ‘pledge to hold rates down until 2010′ is being rethought. Sure glad I didn’t listen to those bozo’s.
And on a sad note the RCMP is still fighting tooth and nail to ‘take back’ what they said on the stand at the Braidwood enquiry. Why can’t these people man up and get themselves straight. Why not just apologise?
October 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Above link: TD explores the potential that the dead cat bounce we are experiencing in real estate might accelerate interest rate increases in Canada. Australia got a jump on this by raising their rates this week.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Realist Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 1:01 am
“I think a lot of the bears haven’t lived in other cities or just don’t understand them. They just see numbers. DaBull has it partially right. It is all about location. People WANT to live in Vancouver and will pay a premium for it.”
Haha, realist, you’ve got it backwards… i’m a bear BECAUSE i’ve lived in alot of other cities so I know how over-rated and over-priced Vancouver is.
October 6th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....le1313830/
October 6th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Just to add to the “undocumented criminals” debate.
The RCMP says that organized crime is moving AWAY from BC and Vancouver because they’re finding other places where it’s easier to run illegal hydroponics set-ups. The law allowing BC Hydro to report excessive energy usage is credited for this change and apparently Montreal is now the fastest growing Pot producer in Canada. Nevertheless there is no corresponding jump in real estate prices in Montreal.
For those who point to the recent violence and say “you call that LESS organized crime!” remember it is typical when drug or other illegal business is declining for local gangs to become more violent in an attempt to keep their income from shrinking.
October 6th, 2009 at 11:27 am
MK-Kids
The Melville had units available for $1550 ,that were also low floor duds, when it was new.
check the vancouver sun for better prices.
October 6th, 2009 at 11:17 am
$1700 at the pointe!
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.....54745.html
October 6th, 2009 at 11:04 am
@No Longer Looking:
From the Province article,
“However, they acknowledge there is a “material risk” that real estate could continue its red-hot pace.
Banks have been able to extend real estate loans, at lower costs than otherwise, due in part to a federal scheme that aims to buy up to $125-billion in existing mortgages from banks’ balance sheets. The scheme was meant to ensure there was enough long-term funding for businesses and households amid the deep recession.
Even though demand for that financing has diminished, Ottawa announced last week it would extend the financing available until March 2010 – prompting some analysts to warn that such a move carried a small risk toward further fuelling the housing market.”
Really, free money has had an effect on otherwise unqualified buyers? Really really? Yahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha, Christ I think I’ve shit myself laughing !!!!
October 6th, 2009 at 10:58 am
@No Longer Looking:
Thats all just toooooooo funny. Hahahahahaaaa , the BOC ‘pledge” oh man, thats rich. From the frying pan into the fire. Was the BOC pledge a header on the HELOCS and mortgage docs that the Government was pushing just weeks ago? Talk about a suckers rally !
October 6th, 2009 at 10:43 am
“The possibility exists that the Bank of Canada may have to break its conditional pledge on interest rates should the housing market continue its red-hot performance, economists at Toronto-Dominion Bank said Tuesday.
“The Bank of Canada will likely be watching developments in Canadian real estate quite closely,” say economists Craig Alexander and Grant Bishop. “If surging existing home sales do not cool, the bank may be inclined to respond.”
http://www.theprovince.com/bus.....story.html
“The Pressures from Family and Relatives: Why Not Buy?” « Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive Says:
October 6th, 2009 at 10:04 am
[...] 6 October 2009 · Leave a Comment The details of an intra-family debate regarding Vancouver RE is laid out by real scenario at vancouvercondo.info on October 5th, 2009 at 5:07 pm – [...]
October 6th, 2009 at 10:02 am
@shikko:
And keep in mind that Seattle was way cheaper at peak than Vancouver at peak (or Vancouver today, for that matter). Portland was cheaper still.
Seattle median SFH at market top in summer 2007 was $501,000
October 6th, 2009 at 9:53 am
“any other recommendations?”
These days, I’d go to my target area and wander around it. It seems like just about any apartment building has vacancies and they are often only announced on a sign out front.
Also, you will notice some REITs have multiple buildings. Find out the names of the REITs on those same signs and go to their websites.
example:
http://www.bwalk.com/rental/Va.....asp?lng=EN
October 6th, 2009 at 9:49 am
@nonymouse:
Precisely, just as the demand for amazon.com stock was not the same as the demand for books, the demand for 360 Networks stock was not the same at the demand for long distance calls, the demand for pets.com stock was not the same as the demand for pet food, the demand for oil company stocks is not the same as the demand for oil, and so on.
The bulls simply don’t get that demand to purchase capital (i.e. stocks or RE) and demand for its output (e.g shelter, which is the use of RE), are entirely different things.
Or to put it simply, they don’t understand how the economy works, period.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:41 am
several people have commented that craigslist has overpriced rental listings
any other recommendations?
October 6th, 2009 at 9:41 am
@Realist said:
I think a lot of the
bearsbulls haven’t lived in other citiesorand just don’t understand them.Fixed that for you. What other cities have you lived in? People who have never been a bill-paying adult in another North American city have no idea how screwed up Vancouver actually is.
They just see numbers. DaBull has it partially right. It is all about location. People WANT to live in Vancouver and will pay a premium for it.
Please support this statement or admit you’re blowing smoke. How many people do you know that don’t live in Vancouver? How many of them are actively pursuing relocation here?
You can’t compare prices/rents and population growth to a city like Calgary, because they have so much available land. The NW is sprawled almost all the way up to Airdrie, the south is stretching past 200th Ave, and the west has gone way past Springbank. All with room to spare. People want to live near Vancouver’s downtown core are willing to pay for the lifestyle.
You’re right; Calgary is a bad comparison. How about Seattle or Portland? Portland is of 15% from peak; Seatle is off 22%. What does Vancouver have that Seattle or Portland don’t? Industry? Popular sports teams? Access to outdoors? Culture? What is it? What is it that will keep us safe from a 22% drop in home prices?
Please just admit that you’ve bought the hype and are trying to justify your belief.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:22 am
@cashisking:
#54 CIK, read the UrbanSurvival link as well , its slightly more articulated.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:20 am
@mk-kids
I was interested in The Rise last year, but they were being snooty about not allowing cats. They’ve been forced to be more accommodating… I see now in their Craigslist postings that they are allowing some pets. They can’t lower their prices on vacant units, or they’ll face pressure to lower prices on all the existing rented ones. Giving away free months is a sneaky trick. Maybe one could work it? Lease for a year and then move a few doors down annually. It would be a pain in the a** to move, but it’s a good excuse for a deep cleaning and decluttering!
October 6th, 2009 at 9:19 am
On US apartment vacancies
“”Vacancy could be worse if landlords didn’t realize fairly early on that this end game was not going to end well and lowered rents really quickly,” he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/200.....mentmarket
October 6th, 2009 at 9:03 am
The BOC policy of setting bond rates so low is their way of saying to the world
” Stay away from the Canadian Dollar”
They have been trashing the cash dollar domestically at the same time. The recent flushing of the $CDN in the foriegn dollar short has been ineffective. The .40% bond offering is just another childish ploy, the debt ghouls around the world aren’t buying the lie and are bidding the dollar up to play an arbitrage spread straddle between the USD dump and the CDN rise, amongst othe commodity currencies. Effectivly, because the move by the BOC is so transparent, its free money for the Forex traders to the detriment of the Canadian taxpayer. Not selling the Canadian Bonds means deficits and additional tax increases for us all. The BOC has entered into what could be called a “Faustian’ bargain. They are gutting the citizen in return for political favours from a few constiuencies in Southern Ontario. We are all suffering from the political map which concentrates power in the hands of a few to the detriment of the many. This is also the consequence of having a minority government.
October 6th, 2009 at 8:59 am
hey girlbear, the suites were in the melville in coal harbour.
we are currently awaiting the end of our lease here at the most overpriced building in vancouver: the rise! these guys are offereing 2 months free rent to new renters but have not reduced their ridiculous asking prices. the building is poorly managed, the suite sizes are measured via “commercial” standards where they divide up the common area by the number of suites and attribute that space to each unit so our 900 Sq foot place when measured is actually only 740 square feet. its a freakin’ ghost town here with almost all of the original tenants gone at the end of their overpriced year and not too many greater fools scrambling to get in. we knew this place was overpriced last year when we took it but wow how the market has changed!!! whereas i’d say it was maybe $100-$200 p/mo overpriced then based on 900 sq feet & market rates, now its about $700 p/mo overpriced based on its actual 740 square feet and the changing market.
oh, and the finishings and appliances here are total crap. we can’t run our dishwasher and watch tv at the same time because the dishwasher is stupid loud. i think a big wake up call is around the corner for grosvenor…
October 6th, 2009 at 8:54 am
Real story today is in the Independant … Have a read about the U.S. buck
October 6th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Stop crying all you bears. The real estate prices won’t drop just because a few of you are crying. Get with the program and just load up properties.
October 6th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Canada Gov is caught like a deer in the headlights on this one. More on this story,
“First, the macro view: For several years now the predictive linguistics have been warning of ‘dollar death’ and how that would bring with it a massive impact on US lifestyles. in 2007, the reports actually went so far as to talk about dollar death in November. As it turns out, which November may have been wrong, because this is a fledgling science – this looking into the future stuff – and since there are no textbooks, we have had to infer rules about how language shift happens.
One of the rules which has evidenced itself though – and it is THE rule to be aware of this fall – goes to the idea that the further ahead we can see something, the BIGGER its emotional impact will be.
Does the ‘dollar death’ therefore occur this year? Well…maybe.
Our first ‘dot’ to trip over this morning is the report that the “Gulf States in Secret Talks to Drop Dollar” surfaced. The original story was published in the UK Independent under the headline “The demise of the dollar: In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading.”
Now, as you might expect, that set up a screaming crapstorm in the overnight markets, and that in turn has spurred denial after denial about the dollar dumping scheme. For example, the “Saudi Bank Governor denies talks to replace Dollar” and “Gulf region to stay with dollar for oil: UAE central bank source.”
(Ain’t forensic journalism fun?)
Although we haven’t heard too much from the Obama administration yet (it’s early in the storyline here) we can already infer some things from the fact that president Obama is not meeting with the Dalai Lama – a move which is bound to please the Chinese at a time when the Chinese could play a key role in deciding how much the US dollar should figure in future oil pricing. On the other hand, congress is meeting with him (Dalai Lama) – so the US is trying to play both sides in this. On the one hand trying to maintain the charade of a balanced pro-freedom stance on Tibet, while at the same time sucking up to the Chinese who are the up and coming 900-pound gorilla in oil consumption as their country’s standard of living comes up; a euphemism for eats more energy.
Despite the denials out of the Middle East this morning that something’s afoot, the gold and silver markets had a healthy bounce since any devaluation of the US dollar (a kind of foregone conclusion long term, especially since the G-20 meeting last week in How’s your Sound Cannon City? put the writing on the wall for all to see.
Another consequence of the weakening of the US dollar’s relative prestige in world finance would be an increase (dollar denominated) in domestic commodity prices. You can see the mechanics of this already coming to play as Australia has triggered the first round of interest rate hikes (to 3.25%) because governments now have to pay a little more to keep people buying stodgy bonds when go-go commodities could really pop in dollar terms.
Don’t be surprised to see the Australian lead in interest rates followed – and perhaps that means the next Fed meeting might be forced to start increasing rates which in my view will come at a time when rates need to be kept low because if they are not, then banks that borrow on-the-cheap from the Fed will raise their rates to commercial borrowers and that would about nail (as in coffin) the second leg down in the Second Depression getting underway.”
http://urbansurvival.com/week.htm
Reality and macro economic trends are a bitch eh?
October 6th, 2009 at 8:33 am
nice one realpaul
It appears the Aussie GOv has handled itself quite nicely of late. Of course, they are only a first world nation of 30 odd million living near global giants. Nothing like us..
this link argues the rate hike wasn’t entirely unexpected:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8291968.stm
and “The Fed will start raising its benchmark rate in the third quarter of 2010, as will the European Central Bank, according to analysts’ forecasts compiled by Bloomberg. The central banks of U.K. and Norway will start this year, the data show.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....lGxBV0m5t4
I’m not sure the Canadian gov can keep rates low until summer of 2010. Who will buy our Gov’s bonds?