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Thursday Free-for-all! June 15th 2017

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It’s the end of another week and that means it’s time for another Friday Free-for-all!

This is our regular end of the week news round up and open topic discussion thread for the weekend, here are a few recent links to kick off the chat:

–Poloz: ‘anything’ could cause correction
–Owners face threat of rising rates
–Interest rates are a blunt tool
–Realtor revolt
–Manitoba wants foreign buyers
–

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

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Abdul Lahazi

China propels rise of electric ultra-high-performance cars :

https://app.tmxmoney.com/news/cpnews/article?locale=EN&newsid=f78715&mobile=false

The catch: The EP9 costs nearly $1.5 million.

Yet another scam.

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bullwhip29

Nine Things the Real Estate Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know
https://thetyee.ca/News/2017/06/19/Nine-Real-Estate-Secrets/

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Just me

Cash-for-jobs. Chinese mainlanders pay local business to appear as their employees.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/undercover-investigation-unmasks-cash-for-jobs-chinese-immigration-scheme-1.4159137

Does anyone here remember the last change Christy Clark made to the FBT? Something about people on work permit, right?

Rule of law anyone?

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bullwhip29

what do you think is going on in all these unmarked warehouses in richmond where there parking lots full of mercedes and range rover suvs but no other signs of life or normal business activity?

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Hyper-mega-Bull

it took over 30 years for naive and PC candians to get the balls to even talk about “foreign buyers”.

how many more years do you think it will take before they are willing to admit that PR and citizens are causing problems?

put your mind at ease and stop worrying about unsolvable problems. just buy a house and learn mandarin. you can’t make other candians understand what’s happening.

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bullwhip29

Manitoba town woos investment, immigration from Chinese cities
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/pinawa-manitoba-wenzhou-china-1.4166871

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bullwhip29

Homeowner hit with extra $10K penalty for ending mortgage early
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/go-public-mortgage-prepayment-penalties-first-national-1.4160456

>>> while consumers are supposed to know better, I know first hand that disclosure of such terms and conditions is deliberately glossed over or never explained in full at the bank.

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Just me

Typical Christy Clark.

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bullwhip29

BC Liberals to announce social assistance increase in throne speech
http://globalnews.ca/news/3538778/bc-liberals-to-announce-social-assistance-increase-in-throne-speech/

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Abdul Lahazi

just like it was “too hard” to eliminate the 1 year tenancy.

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Just me

Australia’s Haunted Housing Market. Rents rising at the slowest pace in more than two decades.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-18/stagnant-rents-haunt-australia-s-housing-horror-movie

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history

look whats happened in Calgary

http://business.financialpost.com/news/property-post/vacant-skyscrapers-are-an-albatross-that-canadas-oil-capital-cant-shake-off-too-soon

in a couple of years, a jehovah will buy this shit up for pennies on the dollar, turn the buildingd into social housing, and collect huge rents from the govt

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Just me

Regulator tracks rise in mortgage fraud complaints in B.C. as house prices jump http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/regulator-tracks-rise-in-mortgage-fraud-complaints-in-b-c-as-house-prices-jump In an interview, NDP MLA David Eby said he was concerned by the findings in Postmedia’s investigation. He said he believes Ficom hasn’t kept up with risks from the growth of shadow banking and loan fraud because the B.C. Liberal government understaffed Ficom. He said millions in fees from regulated industries, money that was intended to fund Ficom auditors, was instead put into general provincial revenues by the Ministry of Finance. A new NDP-Green government would make sure these fees go to staffing, Eby said, to “make sure we have sufficient auditors in place at Ficom, to make sure B.C. citizens are protected from a shock related to shoddy lending or fuzzy collateral.” Part two of two A review of B.C. regulatory filings points to a… Read more »

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Shadow banking

Vancouver probly kinda done as a functioning city.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-18/chinas-ghost-collateral-arrives-canada-heralding-crisis

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Just me

(1) Go ask Christy whether restricting loans to Chinese mainlanders is a good idea: want to guess what are opinion is? If you don’t know, you are from planet Mars.
Of course, she never gives details of her “broad brush” nonsense. She is a liar after all, and details get in the way.

(2) As for reply button, I very well post whichever way I want. Most surely, I don’t take advise from repressed losers like yourself.

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Shut It Down Already

So no quote then?

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Just me

Haha. Good try.
Would you argue what I wrote does not correspond to reality? If so, why?

Or perhaps, in some parallel universe of your own invention, this is all a racist plot to suppress the rights of Chinese mainlanders?

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Shut It Down Already

“Good try” to attempt to get you to back up what you say with verifiable fact? I guess your lying must be a cultural thing.

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Just me

What did I write that was actually not true. Please list.

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Spec

Based on the petulance, I’m starting to wonder if Just Me is Oracle’s attempt at a sane, reasonable (by comparison) sockpuppet….

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Abdul Lahazi

The thing you gotta realize with the “free enterprise” parties in BC is they always go after the low hanging economic fruit which currently is real estate. They are not going to do anything which requires any real work to develop the economy. Even back with the Social Credit party it was the same thing; remember Bill VanderZalm with his bag of cash from Faye Leung? Same thing.

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Just me

Here is a vast selection of Clark’s quotes.

http://www.azquotes.com/author/31936-Christy_Clark

For the one regarding saying “YES” to removing obstacles to loans for foreigners and the like, here is a pearl of her wisdom:

“One of the things I do know about investment from around the world and job creators: they won’t come to British Columbia if our attitude is well, “no,” or all of our processes are just going to be a way of making sure you can’t get to “yes.” They’ll just go somewhere else. Those jobs will be somewhere else.”

If you want more of her views on this (and other topics) you can google them. The gist is: we will remove whatever regulation necessary for these guys to come and “invest” here. NOTE: investment for Chinese mainlanders is mostly buying real estate, at least in our fair city,

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Shut It Down Already

So no quote about ghost collateral then? Thought so. And learn to use the “reply” button ffs.

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VanRant

This is insane – Canadian banks can accept collateral from China to back home loans in BC, which raises “ghost collateral” fraud risk.
Meanwhile China’s banking regulator requires that collateral accepted by banks must “actually exist”

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Just me

The BC Libs and federals support this lending behavior. In fact Christy Clark even claims this is a good idea and benefits the economy.

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Shut It Down Already

Quote?

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Abdul Lahazi

‘I’m on the verge of moving out:’ frustrated Vancouverites vent to city over housing woes:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/city-of-vancouver-housing-conference-housing-survey-1.4166229

“I think we’re almost at the desperation stage,” said Randy Pecarski, the City of Vancouver’s deputy director of planning. “People are on the verge of leaving the city because they can’t find a place to stay.”

What else to expect when the planners and politicians do nothing for 10 years. This is where we are now.

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Just me

I disagree. Politicians have done a lot.
Look at Christy Clark: she has repeatedly said that she will put in place policies to preserved the “hard earned” equity of homeowners.

Do you remember the leaders debate in April: she looked straight at the camera and with a smirk she said to homeowners: vote for me and I will do my utmost top support ever rising home prices.

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patriotz

This bubble (from 2009 onwards, I consider it distinct from 2005-8) was created by politicians at the federal and provincial level to give the illusion that Canada was leading the G7 out of the recession. I actually remember Harper saying in 2009 that that fact that house prices were rising again demonstrated this.

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Best place on meth

Even 2014-2017 is a distinct bubble.

2002-2011 was mostly interest rate driven, then 3 years of treading water followed by china’s crackdown on corruption sending an enormous wave of capital flight our way.

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Just me

Spot on. That was the timeline. Different drivers of growth, same results.
It has been a long string of positive shocks for housing.

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squeak

Pathetic leadership, more concerned with “looking good” than doing what is right, which will lead to looking good. Instant gratification crap.

We need a part of the news paper or ” news for dummies” that will explain in simple terms with nice colourful graphics how things really work. That way people will be able to have an opinion and then express it, or at least see what is coming down the crap shoot and vote accordingly. Without a curriculum in economics in the schools, and most parent not knowing the basics, I would say most are pretty vulnerable to the whims of banks/real estate industry/media and other brainwash.

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Loon

A little off topic (OT) but has anyone else noticed prices in grocery stores have gone up significantly ?

I’m seeing $4 celery and $6 bacon.
$6 for bacon !?!? I’m pissed !

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Abdul Lahazi

Canada’s inflation rate cools in March as food prices drop :
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/canadas-inflation-rate-cools-in-march-as-food-prices-drop/article34771202/

The annual rate fell to 1.6 per cent from the previous month’s 2.0 per cent, Statistics Canada said on Friday, exceeding forecasts for a decline to 1.8 per cent.

The three measures of core inflation put in place by the Bank of Canada last year remained tame, with CPI common the lowest at 1.3 per cent.

The central bank, which has an overall inflation target of 2.0 per cent, had dismissed a recent rise in inflation, saying that reflected temporary factors.

And if you believe these numbers there is also a bridge for sale…

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Shut It Down Already

Blame the foreigners. Pork bellies historically have done nothing but go up. Chinese buy them as a store of wealth and just leave them uneaten in the fridge.

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goofus ottawais

http://www.norges-bank.no/en/Published/Speeches/2017/2017-04-25-dnva/

Central bank explains how money is created

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Spec

Sam Hyman on rampant tax evasion… http://www.vancouversun.com/Opinion/11141340/story.html

“According to a recent CBC report, the federal government has not vigorously enforced real estate agent and financial intuition compliance with FINTRAC reporting rules for cash transactions aimed at money launderers and criminals who park their ill-gotten gains in B.C. real estate because other Pacific Rim countries such as Australia, New Zealand, and the U.S enforce their anti-money laundering rules stringently while Canada does not.”

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Best place on meth

“To permit foreign nationals to acquire permanent resident status for themselves and their dependents without becoming resident for income tax purposes for the duration of their PR status is an abomination. It creates an attachment disorder for those who would obtain all of the benefits of Canadian residence and a pathway to precious citizenship for themselves and/or their dependents without their assuming any responsibility to contribute their fair share, based on their worldwide income as all resident Canadians are legally required to do. ”

What kind of vermin would come to our country and treat it in this manner?

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Just me

This is due to politicians turning a blind eye to get the cash and donations. Shameful and frankly unacceptable?
Trudeaus, stop taking selfies and do something about it.
Clark, where were you while we were selling the Province to China?

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Just me

If there was a party that truly tackled this kind of issuers, they would win an outright majority.
People are really pissed off and ready to vote on a single issue. Too much.

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patriotz

Well the NDP did get a majority of provincial seats in Metro Vancouver and I think these issues had a lot to do with it in a broad sense, but don’t kid yourself that the rest of the country cares.

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Just me

If this circus keeps going, the rest of the country will have to care. The pool of winners is shrinking, the pool of losers is expanding. Eventually politicians will have to take notice. Many of them eill lose their jobs if they don’t introduce policies that please the losers.

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Just me

Interesting.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-16/canada-proposes-new-bail-in-regulations-for-the-country-s-banks

The government introduced in its April 2016 budget a plan to implement a bail-in regime for Canada’s “systemically important banks,” which would allow authorities to convert securities of a failing lender into common shares to recapitalize the bank and let it remain open and operating.

Regulators worldwide have been working on similar regulations to prevent a rerun of the 2008 financial crisis, which saw the U.S., U.K. and other developed nations recapitalize failing lenders with taxpayer money to keep them from dragging down the rest of the economy — and then face popular push-back from taxpayers.

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Bear Vancouverite

What’s everyone’s opinion about the discussion of “vulnerability” of anyone with a mortgage over 450% of annual income?

It seems unbelievable to me that anyone buying in the past 3-4 years would be able to buy anything more than a 1BR condo with a mortgage less than 450% of income.

So what’s your opinion, if a correction were to occur, of what % of your annual income you’d be willing to borrow to buy a home? I’d like to hear particularly from Ulsterman, PBOM, Confucius, and vangrl (if she’s around anymore).

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Confucius

At current rates I’d prefer to stay under 300, but would go up to 500 with a suite. Most importantly to me, I would calculate wether or not we could carry our living and housing costs if one of us had to go on unemployment.

Low rates have encouraged families to borrow to the max and from the statistics we’ve all read, many families are living paycheque to paycheque, so it’s apparent they haven’t considered job loss when purchasing home.

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Shut It Down Already

Size of downpayment must be a factor. Everything bigger than a 1 bed condo looks completely unaffordable if you consider 5% down only.

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Best place on meth

Who’s PBOM?

Sounds like a delicious breakfast, peanut butter on multigrain.

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Loon

I tried some of these online calculators at the big banks and they will give you as much rope as you need to hang yourself.

Specifically, I plugged income and a substantial down payment and found all of them were willing to lend 600% of income. That would result in a 1.2m mortgage, and being on the hook for that much makes me want vomit.

The monthly payments would be about 6k which is outrageous considering you can rent similar places for 3-4k. In 2013 I remember 800k (400%) was the most I could borrow using the same calculators.

Lenders are totally complicit in this pyramid scheme that they are letting people borrow more and more just to get them in. I can’t believe government is allowing this and even making provisions in case of big bank failures.

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Bear Vancouverite

Hey BPOM,

Confucius just complimented you on once being a funny, witty guy whose posts he enjoyed, but that over time real estate has leached that out of you and you need to relax and be more like you once were, and you called him a f@#! asshole. I think you kinda proved his point.

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Best place on meth

The “compliment” came after I called him an asshole, not the other way around.

See? Calling an asshole an asshole can sometimes yield positive results.

And, as an added bonus we found out his parents are fucking racists, which may be why he’s so sensitive.

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southseacompany

“Looming rate hikes seen dousing Canadian consumers, housing market”, Reuters

http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKBN1972N0-OCATP

“Looming rate hikes by the Bank of Canada will put financial stress on indebted Canadians and potentially exacerbate a slowdown in the nation’s long housing boom, credit experts and real estate analysts said.”

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Just me

One can only hope the government will not step in to help indebted home “owners”.

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patriotz

“One can only hope the government will not step in to help”

They are getting plenty of help already, of course. But if you are talking about outright handouts to anyone who claims to be having trouble paying their mortgage, that’s not going to happen. Rather you will see expansion of the programs that already exist, which are designed for maximum bang for the on-the-books buck. For example letting them raid their RRSP’s to pay down the mortgage.

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Bear Vancouverite

Over the past 6+ years on this blog we always see “looming rates”.

I don’t even want to count the number of times someone here (probably YVR or bullwhip29) has said something like “rates won’t be low forever” and yet every indicator, even now, is that low rates will persist for quite a while longer.

There is no longer any confidence the Fed will even reach 3% rates on their schedule based on the US now being below the inflation target.

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YVR

For the first time since oil prices crashed, strong job growth has the Bank of Canada worried about inflation, meaning higher interest rates are coming

http://www.macleans.ca/economy/economicanalysis/interest-rates-from-lower-for-longer-to-low-for-no-longer/

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southseacompany

“Risky mortgages, shadow bankers threaten Vancouver housing market’s stability”, Vancouver Sun

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-real-estate-in-the-red

“Massive and risky home loans are increasing in number across Metro Vancouver, while mortgage fraud cases are also on the rise, connected to the growth of so-called “shadow banking,” a Postmedia investigation shows.”

“The trend of increasingly risky loans underlying Metro Vancouver’s high home prices is illustrated by Bank of Canada figures that show the rapid growth since 2014 of large mortgages made to people with relatively low incomes.”

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Bear Vancouverite

southseacompany, or patriotz, or anyone: could you explain why shadow banking is such a big problem now and why it was never an issue before? I’m not sure I understand the conditions that enabled the rise of shadow banking versus in previous bubbles.

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YVR

Supply and Demand. There is supply of cash people want yield to invest and demand to borrow to buy housing. As an example Capital Direct will offer investors 8% return (not guaranteed) and then lend it out for 12% or what ever. On one side there are people desperate enough to invest in 3rd mortgages with their cash to try to get 8% and on the other side you have people willing to pay 12% to get the down payment, etc. This is growing in part due to tightening lending with banks and CMHC. For the bubble to keep going this must continue to grow. Any hiccup on the supply side and game over. Just look at Home Capital.

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Confucius

https://compassioncoach.com/blog/racism-and-low-self-esteem

“People with low self-esteem have a lot of jealousy and a lot of envy.
The golden rule to self-esteem is: the road to psychological ruin begins with blame. If you start blaming, your self-esteem goes down. The road to psychological power begins with responsibility.”

Hating a country is no different than racism, it’s equally ignorant prejudice. Chinese people could be 100 percent responsible for the Vancouver bubble, but you made the decision not to buy. Take some responsibility and stop preaching hate.

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Just me

So gamblers must be praised, and cautious people must be punished?
This circus has gone beyond what any responsible person is willing to accept (short of sending your intellect to the scrapyard). The problem is that government decided it was better to let the circus run.

If everyone around you goes crazy, should you just join in? Is that what responsibility means to you?

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Confucius

It’s about blame. I’m not happy with my decision not to buy years back, but I blame myself. I’m still not going to buy one of the most overpriced assets in the world.

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Just me

I regret the situation. But I cannot blame myself for not being crazy.
Because this housing market amounts to that: madness, abetted and supported by the local and federal governments.

Like all things, this too shall end.

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Confucius

I hear you, it was crazy then and batshit crazy now. Unfortunately, I would be better off now if I had just bought. I take full responsibility for that. I agree the madness will end and whether or not I will be better off after the dust settles remains to be seen.

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Oracle

You got to fight for what you want. Revolutions only happen that way. Otherwise they will happily trample over your rights to a decent life.

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Oracle

Be corrupt and selfish. Get ahead.

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history

where is Hilliard today? Vegas? Alberta? BC Okanagan? Bc West Coast? On a plane going somewhere? Uber driver to the airport?

mayboe on a tube goin’ down the Cowichan river?

do i have the right thread? im unsure of myself. Should i tube down the river with this crazy Harlot on my arm?

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Best place on meth

“Hating a country is no different than racism”

That’s why all those people world-wide who have been trashing the USA for decades are all racists, right asshole?

And my grandparents who hated the Germans…again, nothing but racists. Correct motherfucker?

“You can’t hate a country, it makes you racist” whines the triggered little piece of shit confuckius.

Yes you can hate a country, for their collective behavior and I fucking HATE china as do most people do who aren’t brainwashed PC twats like you.

FUCK OFF!

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Confucius

I feel bad for you. Many years back, most of your posts were pretty funny. As prices have gone up higher and higher, you’ve become more obsessed about China being the cause. I remember you were buying highly leveraged inverse ETFs as well, did China make you do that too? I’m sure you lost buckets on that. I’m not at all triggered. My wife is from China and we live in an area with many people from China. They are no different than other people. Some are assholes, but most are good people. You need help if you hate all these innocent people. I don’t like what the American government does, but the people are mostly good. My parents hate Japanese people because of WW2, yeah my parents are prejudice. Most of the Japanese that fought in the war are… Read more »

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Best place on meth

“My parents hate Japanese people because of WW2, yeah my parents are prejudice. Most of the Japanese that fought in the war are dead, so who do my parents hate, their grandkids?”

Well, you haven’t changed the minds of your racists parents, so why don’t you spend more time on that instead of making stupid accusations about people on a blog you don’t even know, huh?

Maybe even try accepting criticism of that horrible country instead of reaching for the race card every time because you can’t stand to hear anything bad about china.

Look inward first before yapping at others.

Lesson to others, look at how chinese like confuckious behave when it comes to defending the motherland.

I’m not sure ANY of them can be trusted, no matter how many generations removed, based on how they speak.

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Confucius

I’m always looking inward. I’d rather find fault in myself and correct it rather than blame others and continue making the same mistakes. I have no problems criticizing China. The government has done a lot of really bad stuff. That’s not the issue. I have an issue with prejudice comments like what you just said.

“I’m not sure ANY of them can be trusted, no matter how many generations removed, based on how they speak.”

All billion Chinese can’t be trusted? At least that comment is better than your regular nuke China comments. It really doesn’t matter how you run your life, that’s up to you. But as you suggested to me, make sure you look inward before you start yapping at others. I think you’d be a lot happier.

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Oracle

WTF?

Have a drink dude.

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Shut It Down Already

Leave him alone, you’d be angry too if you’d spent yet another Friday night alone in your $1400/month shithole hissing and spitting like a hobo on welfare day.

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Shut It Down Already

So you think Japanese is a race but Chinese isn’t? What a dummy.

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Oracle

Lol. China is the cause.

Are we still debating this? Hahaha.

Chinese money is responsible 100%. Otherwise prices be at least 60% lower.

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Oracle

Meth, I’m a minority so people can’t call me racist when I criticize Asians or HAM.

Don’t buy this BS. High Immigration and foreign money is the cause of high prices.

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Shut It Down Already

Minorities can’t be racist? You fucking moron.

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Bear Vancouverite

Oracle only plays the “I’m a minority” card when he wants to be racist. Otherwise he’s been documented several times as believing that soon Indians will be the majority of the Lower Mainland and that he’ll benefit from that.

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Bag it and tag it

OK thanks for confirming the Chinese and China are the biggest racists on the planet.

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patriotz

“Chinese and China are the biggest racists on the planet”

They don’ t come close to the Koreans, who consider themselves to be a “pure” race as opposed to the Chinese who are of mixed origins. But for both ethnicities, the Communist-ruled parts are a lot worse than the rest.

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paulb

New
183
Price Change
52
Sold
176
TI:9113

https://www.instagram.com/clivestevepaul/

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Just me

And for all China doubters, here is a nice snippet: The other elevated risk is the potential for a shock from China’s volatile economy. China has its own shadow banking problems, the Bank of Canada says. In China, “linkages between the banking and shadow banking systems are also becoming more complex and opaque, increasing the underlying credit risk,” the Bank of Canada’s December 2016 risk report says. “The experience of the 2007-09 global financial crisis showed that financial stability can be threatened by vulnerabilities originating in the shadow banking sector.” As a result of the flood of money pouring from Mainland China into Vancouver real estate in recent years, some financial experts say they believe Canadian banks are directly exposed to shadow lending in China and the risks of so-called “ghost collateral” — meaning collateral that may not exist or… Read more »

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