Rent Increases have outpaced Income growth 2 to 1 by Zillow

If rent is rising much faster than the growth of income there is only two possible outcomes in the long run. Either income will have to catch up with the debt load American families are taking on or the economy will force deflation to occur at a quick pace. Families will not be able to pay for the curent American lifestyle.

The world is facing a slow down. The economist say the main reason for the falling price of gasoline is because of slow down in demand world wide. The falling price of gasoline is not enough of a stimulus to drive an increase in spending in most parts of the world. Debt loads are way up everywhere. Because of the deflation and lower demand soon American exports will decrease and jobs lose will occur.. Very soon many oil well rigs will begin shutting down and a large number of people will loose high paying jobs. There are 1500 rigs drilling for oil in America today, but according T. Bone Pickens more than 30 percent of wells will lay down and layoff crews.

The question of the day is what will happen to rising house prices and will families and communities be able to cope with a decline in revenues?

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Brooklyn Is Now the Least Affordable written by Jacob Davidson

 The study gauges affordability by measuring the percentage of the locality’s median monthly household income that is required to make monthly payments on a median-priced home in the area.

This study was based on a study of 475 counties in the United States. The statistics I have read about other parts of the world is most of the US single family homes are currently still affordable as compared to the worst three markets I have read about. Hong Kong, Canada (Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary) and London are much less affordable than most of the United States. It appears I need to study more about New York because prices have risen so much in the last eight-teen months.
Gene Hoffman

Read More by Mr. Davidson.

 When RealtyTrac ran the nation-wide numbers in October, payments on a median-priced home required 26% of the average household income. In Brooklyn, by contrast, where the median home costs $615,000 and the median household brings in only $46,960, home payments take up about 98% of a regular family’s wages. That’s less affordable than Manhattan — and even than San Francisco, where half of all homes sell for $1 million or more.

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Sell butter and make $$Millions$$ greasing the political wheel BY FRANCISCO TORO

Venezula has more oil offshore than any county in the World an yet people are lined up arounf the block to buy one stick of butter and a roll of toilet paper. Gene Hoffman

A recent New York Times article about the protests in Venezuela reported that "demonstrators condemn a wide range of perennial problems, including… shortages of basic goods like sugar and toilet paper." This has become a meme in coverage of the unrest, as just about every story mentions these "shortages" as a reason for the student demonstrations. The word has become a kind of shorthand for the chaos and decay of the Venezuelan economy, driven by bolivarian socialism's uniquely self-destructive mix of economic policies. But how, you might wonder, does government policy cause a toilet-paper crisis?

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U.S. Housing Market Mortgage Purchase Applications Running Out Of Time by Doug Short

The article and chart from Doug Short shows that wages have been declining. In Fact it shows median wages have declined to 2005 level. following the decline is mortgage applications. Both wages and mortgage application peaked at the end of 2006, What the chart doesn't show is the huge rise in the median price of a house. The median price of a house has rose 14% nationally. In Florida where I live prices rose over 20% in 2013. With house prices rising and wages on the decline house sales will decline in 2014 if one of two things do not happen soon. Either the twenty percent of people who are not looking for a job anymore find a good job or prices of houses must decline. If income remains the same most sellers will bot be able to find enough qualified offers to float the market.

by Gene Hoffman

U.S. Housing Market Mortgage Purchase Applications Running Out Of Time by Doug Short

For 2013, one of the main stories in housing was the cool down in existing home sales numbers over the second half of the year, in spite of the relative strength in GDP. What was the main reason for this? Follow the data and the answer appears. When interest rates spiked we did not see the mythical sideline home buyer rush to the market place. Rather what we saw was a collapse of the mortgage purchase application index.

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Immigration Minister Chris Alexander reveals contradictions in citizenship law by Jenny Uechi

Should I or should I naught by Gene Hoffman

Should I or should naught get my Canadian citizenship. I had the choice to have dual citizenship before I was eighteen, but then the law changed. Now the opportunity has arisen once again. I would love to live in Vancouver or better yet Victoria Island. It is above my pay-grade because all the rich Chinese have moved there and they bought up all the nice homes. Their houses are now priced as the second highest in the world(I have an article on my blog site).

Read about the new Canadian immigration policy by Jenny Uechi

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Christopher Alexander tread a fine line between sympathy and sticking to government script when speaking about the overhaul to citizenship law proposed by the Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act.

Speaking at the Sutton Hotel ballroom on Tuesday at an event hosted by the Canadian Club of Vancouver, Alexander spoke about the injustice suffered by Lost Canadians: legitimate Canadians whose citizenship was removed due to archaic and often blatantly discriminatory provisions of past laws. While the majority of Lost Canadian cases were resolved in 2009, it continued to exclude people born before 1947, as well as creating a whole new category of stateless children born abroad.

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The Vampire Squid Strikes Again:by Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone Magazine

Call it the loophole that destroyed the world. It's 1999, the tail end of the Clinton years. While the rest of America obsesses over Monica Lewinsky, Columbine and Mark McGwire's biceps, Congress is feverishly crafting what could yet prove to be one of the most transformative laws in the history of our economy – a law that would make possible a broader concentration of financial and industrial power than we've seen in more than a century.

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Banks Loosening Mortgage Lending Standards by Philip van Doorn

It feels like 2006 again. I believe the mortgage market is heading to financing sub-prime borrowers. This smells bad to me.

Gene Hoffman

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The decline in mortgage activity in the United States continued in January and big banks, including Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) are responding by lowering their underwriting standards.
The Mortgage Bankers Association projects that originations of one-to-four family mortgage loans in the U.S. will decline to $1.116 trillion in 2014 from an estimated $1.755 trillion during 2013, with the wave of refinancing slowing as long-term interest rates have risen.
According to a preliminary estimate from Inside Mortgage Finance, the issuance of single-family mortgage-backed securities by Fannie Mae (FNMA), Freddie Mac (FMCC) and Ginnie Mae totaled $67.8 billion during January. That's down 10% from December and is also the lowest figure since January 2009.

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'Time Is Short' On Debt Ceiling, Treasury Secretary Says By Mark Memmott

Warning that "simply delaying action on the debt limit can cause harm to our economy," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew repeated Monday that he believes Congress should act soon to raise that limit so the federal government avoids even looking like it might default on its debts.
"Time is short," Lew also told an audience at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization founded by four former Senate majority leaders — Republicans Howard Baker and Bob Dole; and Democrats Tom Daschle and George Mitchell.

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Paper Money vs. Gold Money by Michael Edward and Vincent Cate

This article is very easy to follow and states the facts about the future value of our fiat money printing.

In 1913 the US took a big step away from gold when it authorized the Federal Reserve to issue paper notes that were only 40% backed by gold while claiming they were fully convertible. This fell apart when people tried to exchange their paper money for gold in 1933. Instead of admitting the central bank was bankrupt, the government confiscated everyone's gold, made it illegal for them to hold gold, and devalued the paper to $35 per oz of gold. At Bretton Woods the US agreed that central banks around the world could redeem $35 US for 1 oz of gold. As countries tried to exchange their dollars for gold it became clear US did not even have enough gold to back the dollars returning from overseas. Instead of admitting the central bank was bankrupt, the US said it was "closing the gold window". In reality this was stealing from billions of people. By the time the dollar:gold ratio went from 35:1 to 800:1 the government was able to stabilize the dollar by buying up dollars using gold and raising interest rates to 20%.

"I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you" - Friedrich Nietzsche.

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Western Gold bars have disappeared. Why Germany wants its gold back

Peter Krauth

After spending more than 50 years in foreign hands, Germany's gold is finally going home.
In a recent watershed decision the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, has decided at least half of its gold should be held in its own vaults.
Since the Bundesbank is the second-largest gold holder in the world, that's going to mean moving 54,000 bars of the shiny metal.

So why does Germany want its gold back, and why now?

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