Luxury Home Foreclosures Soar – Up 61% Versus Last Year

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I’ve always wondered what would happen once private equity players decided enough was enough and foreign oligarchs finished their real estate money laundering transactions. Well, we might be about to find out.

According to RealtyTrac, foreclosures for homes worth $5 million or more are up 61% this year despite the fact that overall foreclosures are down 23%. The question is, does this merely represent holdouts from the prior housing bubble, or is it a sign of things to come? Only time will tell. From CBS:

Foreclosures in the ultra-high-end housing market — homes worth $5 million or more — have skyrocketed 61 percent over last year.

That growth bucks the trend: Overall foreclosures are down 23 percent, according to a new report from Irvine, Calif.-based real estate information site RealtyTrac.

Until lately, that is. “Recently, we’ve been hearing from agents that they’re starting to see the high-end properties go to foreclosure and there turned out to be some data to support this notion that high-end holdouts are finally moving through the foreclosure process,” he said.

It may be a sign that lenders are now financially stable enough to start moving on ultra-high-end delinquencies and take the substantial losses these multi-million dollar homes represent.

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U.S. Military Changes Drone Rules to Make Targeting of Civilians Easier

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The drone issue is just another topic in which President Barrack Obama has proven himself to be a world-class liar and master of deception. Despite his claims that drone strikes do little damage to civilian populations, in July we discovered that “of the 746 people killed in drone strikes in Pakistan from 2006-2009, an incredible … Read more

In California, A Tesla Has Now Been Bought with Bitcoin

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I’ve been waiting for this headline. It was just a matter of time before the exchange of BTC for a Tesla happened. The purchase took place at  Lamborghini Newport Beach in California, and this isn’t just a one time gimmick. The dealership has announced that: Lamborghini Newport Beach in California is proud to announce that we … Read more

The Spanish Government is Preparing Another Bailout of Billionaire Oligarchs

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Over the weekend, I covered the extraordinarily disturbing new law that just passed in Spain which essentially criminalizes protests and allows for up to 30,000 euro fines for simply wearing a mask. It’s all starting to make sense now, as the country’s Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy prepares a new oligarch bailout, this time of the country’s highway operators who of course must be saved at all costs. They know the protests are coming and they want to be able to deal with uppity peasants when they feel the need to get out into the streets. Truly despicable. From Bloomberg:

Spanish taxpayers have bailed out banks and power companies. Next up are highway operators and their billionaire owners.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government is considering a 5 billion-euro ($6.7 billion) plan to take over and guarantee the debt of about 364 miles (585 kilometers) of roads, according to two people familiar with the matter who declined to comment because no final decisions have been made.

“This is another repeat of ‘too big to fail’,” Jose Garcia Montalvo, an economics professor at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, said in a telephone interview. “You don’t need to worry if something goes wrong, the government will come to the rescue.”

Oligarch rules.

The roads are controlled by some of Spain’s biggest companies, including the Del Pino family’s Ferrovial SA, the Koplowitz family’s Fomento de Construcciones & Contratas SA, Sacyr SA and Actividades de Construccion y Servicios SA, run by Real Madrid Chairman Florentino Perez. They’re entitled to the rescue through a law passed under General Francisco Franco in 1972, which stipulates that when a private highway goes bust, the state has to repay its owners for the cost of the land and the construction.

Well sure, if a former fascist dictator says it’s the right thing to do…

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Food Poverty in the UK Has Reached “Public Health Emergency” Levels

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This tragic story emanating from the UK just doesn’t seem to go away. Probably because it’s true. The food crisis across the pond first came to my attention in earnest back in October when the Red Cross announced it was set to provide food aid to the UK for the first time since World War II.

The latest twist to this unacceptable saga comes via a letter send by a group of doctors and senior academics from the Medical Research Council and two leading universities to the British Medical Journal calling it a “public healthy emergency” and accusing the government of covering up the problem by delaying a report on the subject.

More from The Independent:

Hunger in Britain has reached the level of a “public health emergency” and the Government may be covering up the extent to which austerity and welfare cuts are adding to the problem, leading experts have said.

In a letter to the British Medical Journal, a group of doctors and senior academics from the Medical Research Council and two leading universities said that the effect of Government policies on vulnerable people’s ability to afford food needed to be “urgently” monitored.

A surge in the number of people requiring emergency food aid, a decrease in the amount of calories consumed by British families, and a doubling of the number of malnutrition cases seen at English hospitals represent “all the signs of a public health emergency that could go unrecognised until it is too late to take preventative action,” they write.

Despite mounting evidence for a growing food poverty crisis in the UK, ministers maintain there is “no robust evidence” of a link between sweeping welfare reforms and a rise in the use of food banks. However, publication of research into the phenomenon, commissioned by the Government itself, has been delayed, amid speculation that the findings may prove embarrassing for ministers.

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Video of the Day: Greenspan Calls Bitcoin a Bubble

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I have to admit I was starting to get a little worried in recent days as certain folks who’s opinions I hold in very low regard started to rethink their prior clearly poorly researched opinions on Bitcoin. Personally, I would prefer small thinkers and professional media trolls to continue to mock and bash Bitcoin at … Read more

Ron Paul Says Bitcoin Could be the “Destroyer of the Dollar”

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Personally, I wouldn’t put it that way. The dollar is being destroyed by the Federal Reserve. Bitcoin is merely a preferred conduit through which fed up citizens decide to express their displeasure with the incredibly corrupt corporatist-facist state being shoved down our throats by a handful of insane and greedy oligarchs. Interesting comments nonetheless. From CNN Money:

Imagine a world in which you can buy anything in secret. No banks. No fees. No worries inflation will make today’s money worth less tomorrow.

The digital currency Bitcoin promises all these things. And while it’s far from achieving any of them — its value is unstable and it’s rarely used — some have high hopes. 

“There will be alternatives to the dollar, and this might be one of them,” said former U.S. congressman Ron Paul. If people start using bitcoins en masse, “it’ll go down in history as the destroyer of the dollar,” Paul added.

It’s unlikely that Bitcoin would replace the dollar or other government-controlled currencies. But it could serve as a kind of universal alternative currency that is accepted everywhere around the globe. Concerned about the dollar’s inflation? Just move your cash to bitcoins and use them to pay your bills instead. Tired of hefty credit card fees? Bitcoin allows transactions that bypass banks.

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Gold Smuggling Increases 7x in India and Surpasses Illegal Drug Trade

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The absurd “War on Gold” that India has launched this year has been covered many times on this site. From the moment I read about it, it was obvious that if Indians want their gold, the Indians will have their gold. You can’t break thousands of years of tradition and culture because of the ignorant whims of a few bureaucrats.

Earlier today, Reuters published an article detailing the extent to which Indian smugglers will go in order to bring the money of kings into the country. This includes hiding it in underwear, swallowing it whole and even painting gold staples gray. What is most disturbing is the lengths authorities are willing to go to in order to stop a supposedly free people from buying a brick of metal. From Reuters:

(Reuters) – Indian gold smugglers are adopting the methods of drug couriers to sidestep a government crackdown on imports of the precious metal, stashing gold in imported vehicles and even using mules who swallow nuggets to try to get them past airport security.

Stung by rules imposed this year to cut a high trade deficit and a record duty on imports, dealers and individual customers are fanning out across Asia to buy gold and sneak it back into the country.

Sri Lanka, Thailand and Singapore are the latest hotspots as authorities crack down on travelers from Dubai, the traditional source of smuggled gold.

Stop one and another will rise. As always.

In a sign of the times, whistleblowers who help bust illegal gold shipments can get a bigger reward in India than those who help catch cocaine and heroin smugglers.

Because that makes a so much sense.

“There has been a several-fold increase in gold smuggling this year after restrictions from the government, which has left narcotics behind.” 

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Erik Voorhees Responds to Peter Schiff’s Bitcoin Criticism in an Open Letter (This is Excellent)

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Last week, Peter Schiff put out a video titled: Bitcoin vs. Gold, which quite frankly was horrible and one of the worst videos he has ever done. It added nothing the the debate that everyone involved in Bitcoin isn’t already completely cognizant of, but even beyond that, it framed the debate around Bitcoin in a totally unproductive and useless way. The reason I say this is because the debate is not Bitcoin vs. Gold, the debate is Bitcoin vs. Fiat Money. Gold is a store of value that has survived as such for thousands of years and and has also served as money for a decent part of human history. Gold will never be worth zero, Bitcoin could certainly trade back to near zero some day. We all know this.

So the key point from my end is, Bitcoin is not competing as a store of value versus gold, it is competing as a currency versus fiat money, and on that count it is superior in an extraordinary number of ways. His video was so awful that I challenged him to a debate on his radio show on Bitcoin via Twitter.

 

He never responded to me, but fortunately he did have Erik Voorhees on his show to discuss the topic. While I have not listened to the show because apparently you need to be a subscriber to Schiff’s radio show to hear it, Erik Voorhees wrote a follow up open letter to Schiff afterwards. All I can say is that this is one of the most eloquent, incisive and thoughtful articles in support of Bitcoin I have ever read.

I have republished the entire thing from Reddit below (emphasis added by me):

An Open Letter to Peter Schiff A follow-up to the discussion on the Peter Schiff Show, December 2, 2013 (this has been emailed to Peter just now)

Dear Peter,

It was a privilege and an honor to be a guest on your radio show today. I’ve been a fan of yours for more than five years; you were one of the reasons I discovered Austrian economics (and, in turn, Bitcoin), and your eloquent explanation of consumption vs. production in an economy has guided my outlook of the world ever since. So thank you sincerely for what you’ve taught me, and for the opportunity to appear on your show. It was a really special moment for me.

While we had some valuable discussion today, I felt a follow-up was appropriate to better articulate my points. You’re right to be highly skeptical of such a new technology and monetary system, but please take the time to ensure your skepticism doesn’t blind you from what I humbly suggest is one of the most important tools for human freedom ever conceived.

The Fundamentals

First, Bitcoin must always be considered as two things: the payment network (Bitcoin) and the currency units (bitcoins). Condemnations of the latter can often be resolved with an understanding of the former. Satoshi should have named them differently to avoid this initial confusion.

When you suggest that bitcoins have “zero intrinsic value,” you are only considering the currency unit itself and ignoring the payment network. While I prefer the term “utility” over “intrinsic value” (because all value is subjective to the valuer), I may indeed admit that bitcoins, as currency units all by themselves, have no fundamental utility and are completely uninteresting. But – and this absolutely critical – the payment network has vast utility.

In fact, this network is probably one of the most valuable and consequential technologies currently on the planet. Some of us realized this a few years ago. Others are realizing it now. Many more will realize it in the future. The Bitcoin network is, fundamentally, a ledger of title controlled by no man. Ponder that for a moment. The transmission of value and ownership has thus just been severed from the State, not by impotent voting, but by the technological achievement of man.

Now, during the show, you agreed that perhaps this payment network has utility. So, if the network (Bitcoin) has utility, and only one currency is accepted on this network (bitcoins), and those bitcoins are scarce, then should not those units themselves command a market price? Who knows what that price should be, but there should be a price, no?

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Cancer Patient and ObamaCare Critic Says He Now Faces an IRS Audit

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If this is true, it would be just another example added to the long list of examples demonstrating the rampant cronyism and complete lack of morality that has characterized the Obama Administration from the beginning. It would also serve as further confirmation that the status quo intends to use the IRS as a political weapon against … Read more