““It’s like Saskatchewan putting (poison) on all their fields,” he said.”

yes because owning a second house is like food it is necessary for survival …

“ICBC says it’s already paid out more than the car is worth”

That right there tells you why ICBC should be shutdown and private insurance brought in. What kind of insurance company pays more to fix a car than it would cost to write off and pay out the insured? Incompetence.

Owner is a local neurosurgeon.

“The changes are impacting foreign companies and their joint ventures, too. The vice minister of the party’s organization department, Qi Yu, boasted in October that some 70 percent of the 106,000 foreign firms operating in China already had party committees.

“Companies are concerned establishment of a party unit in the company means the party would play a role in companies’ operational decision making — leading to decisions made for political rather than business reasons,” said Jacob Parker, vice president of China operations at the U.S.-China Business Council. “We are concerned about that. Introducing political objectives and management roles into foreign invested enterprises is not a positive step for businesses.”

“Xi’s changes are beginning to challenge the rules of everyday life. During an October advisory board meeting for Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management, Xi described his vision for education. He said it exists to “develop builders and successors to the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, not bystanders or opposition groups.”

Universities have introduced additional classes on Marxist theory and inspection teams fanned out across campuses last year to check on the “ideological and political work” of teaching staff.”

“Xi’s expansive vision for the Communist Party extends beyond China.

David Gitter, director of the Party Watch Initiative at the Washington-based Project 2049 Institution said the party has stepped up “united front” efforts to influence other countries by “guiding” overseas Chinese communities to support the party’s agenda. It’s also courting opposition parties to support Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and beyond, Gitter said.”

“The more a political system comes to depend on fewer and fewer people, the more imperative it is that those people remain in the system,” Blanchette said. “If something were to happen to Xi — a 64-year-old man — do we really believe that political system would peacefully transfer power over to Li Keqiang?”

Keep doing it for another few years, you will get a doctoral degree in copy and paste.

“China, Canada and Hong Kong are among the economies most at risk of a banking crisis, according to early-warning indicators compiled by the Bank for International Settlements.

Canada — whose economy grew last year at the fastest pace since 2011 — was flagged thanks to its households’ maxed-out credit cards and high debt levels in the wider economy. Household borrowing is also seen as a risk factor for China and Hong Kong, according to the study.”

Pphhhhfffffttt! Yet another “alarme faux” on your part, Oracle?

People just do what they need to do: stop the NDP to pick-pocket them front and back. Just Me is only good for copy and paste.

“Assumption: Interest rates will remain low because governments and individuals can’t afford higher rates.

When it comes to rates, the affordability argument is regularly put forward, but it’s losing its punch for two reasons.

First, bond buyers are not in the business of giving governments and households what they need. Rather, they’re seeking a return that will leave them better off for taking the risk. If they can’t get a reasonable, real (after inflation) return, they’ll demand a higher yield and/or look for substitutes.”

“Assumption: With low interest rates and credit readily available, leverage is a good thing.

The amount of debt in the world should naturally rise as economies grow, but the pace has been faster. Since the debt-induced crisis of 2008/09, overall debt levels have increased more rapidly than GDP.

Central banks have been expanding their balance sheets and governments are running deficits despite healthy economies and daunting future obligations (healthcare and infrastructure).

Corporations have lenders throwing money at them and their climbing debt obligations have been outpacing cash flow growth. Bond issuance has allowed U.S. corporations to disburse cash to shareholders (dividends and share buybacks) in excess of their profits.”

It doesn’t matter how big a correction of the market is, you will never own your own home. Your thinking will never get you ahead. You never learned the media has to sell doom and gloom for a living. Unfortunately a mind like yours buys into it.

Canada’s Federal government has chosen to take a cooperative view to China in spite of growing evidence that it is not in the long term interest of Canadians to do so.

I am not sure whether it is a misled view of multiculturalism or the desire to pick low hanging fruit in terms of economic returns. But the Trudeau government is gravely lacking in protecting us all from these foreign opportunists. Their motivations are anything but innocent in my view.

What’s the Chinese equivalent of Hari Kari ?

This would be Adam Cooper’s bread and butter. Shame we are losing him.

What is it with Julia Lau: she manages to always be involved in the dodgiest transactions, often involving murders.

“PAN JINGYUAN has little time for traditional family values. The 26-year-old says she has no intention of ever getting married and loves living far from her parents. But Ms Pan is traditional in one way—she sees a home as the best investment for her savings. She plans to buy a small flat in the southern city of Shenzhen, where she works at the headquarters of a restaurant chain. “There is no way the government would ever let prices really fall,” she says.

Such confidence has long been rewarded. Property prices in cities have roughly quadrupled this century, a rate of growth far exceeding that of the American housing bubble of the early 2000s, albeit from a lower base.”

“This has led to a series of concerns: that homes are increasingly unaffordable, that the economy is too reliant on property and that housing prices, having gone up and up, might someday crash.”

“The government has, until now, tried to reduce the risk by periodically applying brakes on the market. Whenever real estate overheats, the authorities restrict funding to developers and make it difficult for people to buy new homes—for example, by increasing mandatory down-payments. When prices stabilise, they relax the controls. But such measures create volatility. Every three years or so, prices surge again.”

“So officials have started talking about a “long-term mechanism” to calm the housing market. Several times during the past year China’s leader, Xi Jinping, has said that “homes are for living in, not for speculating on.” The government appears to be adopting three main approaches. Together these could reshape the architecture of China’s housing market.”

“A big reason for the slow development of the rental market is that there is not much profit in it. Cities tend to give more benefits to homeowners, such as the right to send children to local schools, so families far prefer to buy homes.”

“One of the government’s new approaches is to offer incentives to developers to build decent rental properties. It is doing this by selling land for rental projects at steep discounts, in effect guaranteeing hefty yields for developers. In some big cities, plans call for these discounted plots to account for about a quarter of future land supply. The government has promised to give renters the same rights as homeowners, though some doubt that it will actually do this. Many urbanites would resent additional competition for school places.”

“A second approach will be the introduction of a property tax. Officials have talked for years about raising an annual levy on homeowners based on the value of their housing, as is commonly done in other countries. A possible benefit would be to nudge speculators to sell or at least rent out homes that they would otherwise leave unoccupied. At the same time it would give local governments a new revenue source, reducing their unhealthy dependence on land sales.

Yet apart from two small trials of such a tax in Shanghai and the south-western city of Chongqing, the government has dragged its feet. It has worried that a full property tax, implemented suddenly, would depress sales, says Eva Lee of UBS, a bank.”

“The other way is more destructive. By imposing population limits on China’s largest cities, officials hope to combat what they call “big-city disease”: congestion, pollution and excessive pressure on urban resources (including, by implication, housing). Beijing aims to keep its population to 23m by 2020, while Shanghai wants no more than 25m people by 2035. Both are incremental increases over their current sizes and far below where, left unchecked, they would wind up. Population caps may help to calm the property market.”

“There are plenty of moving parts, too. Capital controls have trapped cash inside China, making property all the more alluring for investors. Rising incomes and changing lifestyles add to upward pressure on prices. Families want bigger apartments; more unmarried people also want their own homes. Mr Xi might succeed in skimming some froth from a bubbly market. But speculators are a hardy bunch. China has surely not seen the last of them.”

How much oil and LNG, if any, is moved by railcar.. Where and when?

“In the absence of any analysis, the only winners from the government’s speculation tax appear to be speculators who pay the tax only once by selling a property quickly while owners who hold it will have to pay the tax year after year. Obviously, that is not what the government intended.”

Housing is cheaper in Ottawa.

But seriously, this is a set back. Just when things wete picking up momentum.

We need more people like him. Honest reporters who don’t work for Capital Direct.