I figured this stuff out back in 2001 when I took a position in Oklahoma City.
Nice to see the young folks are figuring it out too.
Great article. Read it here.
Economy
The Blind Squirrel Finds a Nut
The real crime here is that Amazon has been exempted from making a profit, and the culprit is the Federal Reserve’s malignant regime of Bubble Finance. The latter has destroyed financial discipline entirely and turned the stock market into the greatest den of speculation in human history.
If you think the US economy is doing well read this.
Planning on Buying a House in Toronto? (don’t)
Check out the full article here for more scary details.
The average price for the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) plunged 12.4% overall to C$767,818. This represents a drop of about C$110,000 in the average home price over the 12-month period.
Barcelona Grapples with its Housing Crisis
Even today, following months of political uncertainty in Catalonia, Spain is the second most attractive European country for real estate investment after Germany, according to the London-based real estate consultancy Knight Frank. For Spain’s central government this is a sign of success, and it has no intention of changing the law that helped fuel Spain’s rental bubble, in spite of all the damage it’s doing across cities like Madrid, Barcelona and San Sebastian.
The affordable housing problem is not limited to the US.
I’d usually recommend relocating to Oklahoma but…
Read these two articles here and here.
Barcelona Rental Market Is Out of Control
Rents up 50% since 2013, wages go nowhere, a third of residents earn less than €1,000/month.
Tiny House Update from Hong Kong
James Law Cybertecture
Check out the renderings and read the article here.
Estimated cost will be $15,000 for the opportunity to buy and live in a 100 sf cement tube.
Top 5 Retirement Havens
The Great College Loan Swindle
America as a country has evolved in recent decades into a confederacy of widescale industrial scams. The biggest slices of our economic pie – sectors like health care, military production, banking, even commercial and residential real estate – have become crude income-redistribution schemes, often untethered from the market by subsidies or bailouts, with the richest companies benefiting from gamed or denuded regulatory systems that make profits almost as assured as taxes. Guaranteed-profit scams – that’s the last thing America makes with any level of consistent competence.
Going to college doesn’t guarantee a good job, far from it, but the data show that not going dooms most young people to an increasingly shallow pool of the very crappiest, lowest-paying jobs. There’s a lot of stick, but not much carrot, in the education game.
An interesting point of view and well worth reading. Click here for the full Rolling Stone article.
Use Spare Older Workers to Overcome ‘Labour Shortages’ – naked capitalism
Rather than relying on mass immigration to fill phantom ‘labour shortages’ – in turn displacing both young and older workers alike – the more sensible policy option is to moderate immigration and instead better utilise the existing workforce as well as use automation to overcome any loss of workers as the population ages – as has been utilised in Japan.
Source: Use Spare Older Workers to Overcome ‘Labour Shortages’ | naked capitalism
The referenced article describes the situation in Australia but is a worthwhile read for those of us in the US.
“Spare older workers”. I like that.
What Is CamperForce? – WIRED
Chuck and Barb found that they had a lot in common with their fellow workers, who came from all corners of the United States. Many had seen their retirement savings vanish in the stock market or had lost homes to foreclosure. Others had watched businesses go under or grappled with unemployment and ageism. A larger number had become full-time RVers or vandwellers because they could no longer afford traditional housing—what they called “sticks and bricks.” They talked about how Social Security wasn’t enough to cover the basic necessities and about the yoke of debt from every imaginable source: medical bills, maxed-out credit cards, even student loans.
Source: What Is CamperForce? Amazon’s Nomadic Retiree Army | WIRED
I was delighted and surprised when I found Nomadland by Jessica Bruder available for loan at my local library. So I downloaded the book and have been reading stories of the forgotten victims of the 2008 financial crisis. I feel lucky and blessed to be where I am at the present time. Life for me could have turned out a lot like the people profiled in this book.
The New Reality of Old Age in America – Washington Post
Source: The new reality of old age in America – Washington Post
The present standard of retiring somewhere between ages 60 and 70 is not going to be sustainable when half the population lives to 80 or 90 – which is already realistic today – let alone 100 or more. It’s just not possible. If you’re like me, you don’t intend to retire at 70 or maybe not at all, but it’s nice to know we have the option. Future generations won’t.
John Mauldin
I refuse to extrapolate the stories of two families profiled in the linked Washington Post article but will readily admit the author may be on to something. The cartoon was not part of the article but ran in my local newspaper’s Sunday Comics. So I put the two together and the picture is anything but funny.
So what happens when you look at sales figures for RV’s in the US? Yeah…wow.
I guess it’s pretty tough out there for some. The sad thing is it’s going to get a lot tougher.
The Retirement Myth. It’s a new hashtag.
I found some pretty sound advice here. Scroll down to the bottom of the article.
lifeunderwriter.net 
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