It’s Saturday night! The weekend is here!
…and clearly that means our usually Friday free-for-all open topic weekend thread is a bit late this week.
So…
What are you seeing out there?
Post your news links, thoughts and anecdotes here and keep on having an excellent weekend!
No Friday free for all? Unheard of! I call a top!
SUCCESS opens its doors for Chinese-Canadians in Beijing on Sep. 2
The facility, officially named the Active Engagement and Integration Project (AEIP) Service Centre, is designed to offer services such as foreign credential recognition, employment and health care familiarization for new Canadians already approved by Immigration Canada but still physically in China.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/SUCCESS+opens+doors+Chinese+Canadians+Beijing/11287796/story.html
RCMP deals with China, United Nations as fentanyl deaths surge in Vancouver
The Sunshine Coast Sales Stats for June & July have now been posted at VancouverPeak.They’re in two parts starting here:
http://vancouverpeak.com/showthread.php?tid=5312&pid=6471#pid6471
If you have any thoughts on or questions about the stats and what’s happening on the SC, post them here at VCI. Look forward to any and all input.
This week I mashed up a chart that looks at Canadian full time employment which has plunged M/M, overlaid with the FX war with China which has erupted this month:
http://www.chpc.biz/history-readings/workin-for-a-livin
So far the BoC’s action in reducing the overnight rate (Jan & July) has had little effect in stimulating earnings in the private sector. Canadian corporations, given the choice are going to more often than not, choose low labour rate regimes to run their businesses… unless of course the Canadian Government subsidizes their operations in exchange for remaining in Canada. (ITEM: Toyota plant expansion to get $100 million boost from federal, Ontario governments)
In China, Illegal Drugs Are Sold Online in an Unbridled Market
@5
>This huge spike in fentanyl overdoses is because you can’t get oxycontin anymore.
Oxycontin has been banned since 2012, it’s now 2015. If the ban is the only reason for the deaths we would have seen it earlier.
This huge spike in fentanyl is because of cheap and dangerous synthetic drugs being exported by China. This is a global problem that goes beyond Vancouver and fentanyl.
The recent explosion in China was a giant drug lab…North America will soon cut ties to China ie no more HAM. FACT
“The rout in commodities has ravaged Canada’s oil patch and its mining sector. For example, home sales in Calgary, the epicenter of the oil patch, have plunged 25% year-to-date. Canada is in one of the most magnificent housing bubbles the world as ever seen, and when it pops in Toronto or Vancouver, there will be fireworks. But not yet”
Rio airport agents bribed in Chinese immigrant scandal
http://news.yahoo.com/rio-airport-agents-bribed-chinese-immigrant-scandal-214911127.html
Cheap mortgage rates don’t justify home ownership
He seems to be comparing the cost of renting a 2 bedroom apartment against buying the average house (or average property, not sure which), which is bogus. However the relative rankings of the cities are still informative.
Millionaire Basement Wars Documentary
votetogether.ca
Obama Administration Warns Beijing About Covert Agents Operating in U.S.
It is a criminal offense, (USG spokesman) said, “for an individual, other than a diplomatic or consular officer or attaché, to act in the United States as an agent of a foreign power without prior notification to the attorney general.”…
Steve Tsang, a senior fellow at the University of Nottingham’s China Policy Institute, said the clandestine deployment of security agents in pursuit of Chinese abroad has a long pedigree under the Communist Party, which sees itself as wielding dominion over all Chinese people regardless of what passport they may hold. “The party believes if you’re of Chinese ancestry then you’re Chinese anyway, and if you don’t behave like one you’re a traitor,” he said.
Chinese assholes again
1)Retired baseball pitcher Jamie Moyer sold his seven-bedroom Tudor mansion in Seattle to a Chinese couple for $3.2 million in September. The new owners promptly rented it out to a group of Amazon.com Inc. employees.Seattle has become the latest West Coast hot spot for homebuyers, from Chinese emigrees
2)Chinese buyers topped Canadians to rank as the biggest foreign purchasers of U.S. homes by both sales and dollar volume, accounting for more than a quarter of all international spending.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-17/chinese-top-list-of-foreign-buyers-of-u-s-homes
15
2)Chinese buyers topped Canadians to rank as the biggest foreign purchasers of U.S. homes by both sales and dollar volume, accounting for more than a quarter of all international spending.
Canadians WAS no. 1 Asshole before the chinese take over.
@patriotz – Right…so ok for US to use drones, special ops, hired mercenary, covert agents/assasins to achieve its objectives, regardless of whose jurisdiction the operation took place. But when other countries decides to bypass a length court process to extradite its criminals it’s sudden all no-no, it’s illegal, and such?
Sounds like a big hollow do as I say but not as I do. At least China is honest about what policies and tools it is willing to use, unlike US who’s acting like the biggest bully & hypocrit.
@Tiger – I guess you didn’t like being replaced as the biggest asshole?
at least the Chinese are renting it out to locals, rather than just keeping it empty for 6 months+ a year like Canadians ahoels do in Arizona, Florida, Caribbean, while pushing locals out of their own housing market.
@15: “Retired baseball pitcher Jamie Moyer sold his seven-bedroom Tudor mansion in Seattle to a Chinese couple for $3.2 million in September.”
http://www.zillow.com/homes/2550-40th-Ave-W-Magnolia-Seattle-WA-98199_rb/
Zillow thinks it would rent for $6,293/mo. If it’s being rented piecemeal to Amazon employees, the owner is probably getting more.
In the US non-resident landlords must submit a withholding tax of 30% of rent.
Vacant Bathrooms “Too Small” So Parents Let Kid Poo in the Airplane Aisle
There were some stinky flights in China this weekend
https://thenanfang.com/chinese-airliners-recipients-kids-taking-dump/
There are billions of dollar laundered through the Canadian Real Estate. Until the politicians acknowledge it, nothing will be done and the prices will shoot for the stars. Vancouver will be a city of China.
@22: Blame your neighbors, not the politicians. Well, blame them both. Don’t let your neighbors off the hook is what I’m saying.
Politician aren’t going to touch this so long as the vast majority of the population doesn’t want it touched. As we are talking about the single most valuable asset most people have and we are looking at a record high number of Canadians participating in the real estate market, I’d say active changes at the level of government are unlikely. Heck, the pandering to this segment is ongoing during the current federal election campaign.
Changes are unlikely to come from the inside or policy changes in the near-term.
