With Evergrande’s liquidation, is China’s
Potemkin economy nearing its end?
Posted By: DVC, 2/7/2024 11:22:00 PM
Last week, a court in Hong Kong ordered that Evergrande, China’s massive property developer, must be liquidated. Real estate accounts for about one-quarter of China’s GDP, and Evergrande isn’t the only troubled part of the Chinese real estate sector. While I’d always like to see China constrained, not only is a collapsing China dangerous, but the real estate collapse also reminds us of what’s happening domestically. Business Insider reported on Evergrande’s liquidation, which has long been expected and which will be carried out in an orderly fashion. The assets are valued at $245 billion (which I suspect is inflated), while the company’s debts are $300 billion.
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Last week, a court in Hong Kong ordered that Evergrande, China’s massive property developer, must be liquidated. Real estate accounts for about one-quarter of China’s GDP, and Evergrande isn’t the only troubled part of the Chinese real estate sector. While I’d always like to see China constrained, not only is a collapsing China dangerous, but the real estate collapse also reminds us of what’s happening domestically.
Business Insider reported on Evergrande’s liquidation, which has long been expected and which will be carried out in an orderly fashion. The assets are valued at $245 billion (which I suspect is inflated), while the company’s debts are $300 billion.
Ukraine's Navy said that the Russian ship destroyed by Kyiv's forces on Wednesday was a "significant loss" for Moscow's Black Sea Fleet stationed near Crimea.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced Thursday that its forces struck a Russian supersonic missile-armed corvette, dubbed the Ivanovets, during an attack on a Crimean airbase the day prior. The strike was carried out by "Group 13" of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine, according to the MoD.
Ukraine has ramped up its attacks on Russia's military infrastructure stationed in Crimea in recent months, with special attention on Russian President Vladimir Putin's prized naval fleet.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich ably defined, in a syndicated column on Monday, the findings that pollster Scott Rasmussen had uncovered in several surveys but distilled earlier this month: There’s a group of Americans out there who must be marginalized if this country is going to survive.
[snip]
* 71 percent have a favorable opinion of the legacy media;
Two-thirds, or 67 percent, say teachers and other educational professionals should decide what children are
taught rather than letting parents do so;
77 percent would “impose strict restrictions and rationing on the private use of gas, meat, and electricity”;
Don’t Mock the Los Angeles Times’ Loss
8 replies
Journalism experienced one of its darkest days last week when the Los Angeles Times laid off 115 of my fellow left-wing activists, roughly 20 percent of the entire staff. Already the reverberations are being felt in Hollywood, where crucial journalistic pieces have been scuttled, including one examining why it’s insensitive for Holocaust films to exclude black, brown, and transgender Jews from being murdered by Nazis.
Don’t believe me? That’s the problem with modern-day journalism. Nobody believes us any more, for reasons I’ve yet to define. The late Rush Limbaugh once said that journalism is the only business
A decade ago, someone knocking on your door to sell you solar panels would have been selling you solar panels. Now, they are probably selling you a financial product—likely a lease or a loan.
Mary Ann Jones, 83, didn’t realize this had happened to her until she received a call last year from GoodLeap, a financial technology company, saying she owed $52,564.28 for a solar panel loan that expires when she’s 106
[snip]showed up at her house on the outskirts of Fresno, Calif., pushing what he claimed was a government program affiliated with her utility to get her free solar panels.
Ford CEO Jim Farely confirmed that the V8-powered Mustang will not be discontinued anytime soon, leaving the Blue Oval with what seems like the last standing production V8 muscle car, assuming other modern muscle car manufacturers don’t change their tune.
According to a recently published report from Motor1, Ford isn’t fazed by its rivals moving away from V8 power. This comes as exciting news for muscle car fans as the Chevrolet Camaro makes its exit, and Dodge moves on from the Hemi-powered Challengers and Chargers.
"A lot of our competitors have left," Farley said, also reminding us that both Chevrolet and Dodge
f you tour the magnificent Blenheim Palace, you will see the room where 150 years ago Winston Churchill was born — Nov. 30, 1874. A short distance from the palace is the very modest Bladon churchyard where Churchill was buried 90 years later on Jan. 24, 1965. Though he lived most of his life in the 20th century, Churchill was and remained a 19th-century man, with 19th-century values and a 19th-century worldview. The contrast between Blenheim Palace and Bladon churchyard symbolizes the history of Great Britain during Churchill’s life — a history that he helped shape and explain.
A couple from Illinois, Jodie and Ken Zitko, have formed a group of concerned citizens who have been analyzing the Illinois state voter database. They have found serious irregularities, detailed in a formal complaint filed with Bernadette Matthews, director of the Illinois State Board of Elections on December 21.
Here are some of their findings after almost 2,000 hours of analysis.
There were over 300,000 votes from the 2020 election missing or deleted from the Illinois voter data prior to the conclusion of the federal retention period of 22 months.
China is a serious threat to America’s dominance in the world, and when America’s dominance collapses, so does America’s lovely standard of living. Nothing happening within the U.S., especially on Biden’s watch, will change that. However, China is at very profound risk from its internal problems. The latest one to catch the headlines is China’s continuing and, indeed, accelerating demographic collapse.
China famously instituted its one-child policy in 1979 when it was afraid that its population growth was out of control. Not only did the policy have the effect of lowering the birth rate, but it also decimated the number of female babies being born.
Ram Channels Cher — But Not for Long
9 replies
What if you could turn back time — to 2008 — and buy a brand-new half-ton truck like they used to make them? One without the “assistance” and other “technologies” that come standard with the new ones, like it or not — but with a standard 8-foot bed that’s increasingly hard to get … and for thousands less than what they’re selling the new double-and-crew cab short-bed trucks for today?
[snip]
Better to get out your checkbook — because for a time, you can buy a brand-new 2008 Ram 1500 Classic with a regular cab with an 8-foot bed and a standard 3.6-liter V6 without “eTorque technology” for $32,345.
Obama Destroyed Martin Luther King’s Dream
10 replies
Monday was a holiday dedicated to the memory of the greatest American civil rights leader of the 20th century: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But while the airwaves were covered with shallow tributes to the man, in 2024 it’s clear this country doesn’t honor his legacy.
Not anymore. Not for some time now.
This is likely to be something of an explosive column, and it will draw comments from all over the spectrum, so perhaps it’s most useful to begin by defining exactly what King’s legacy is.
And while the man was complex and his message multifaceted, the moment that made him great was a speech given at the National Mall in Washington
Trump's blowout win in Iowa sure does
send a message about those politicized prosecutions 10 replies
send a message about those politicized prosecutions 10 replies
One wonders what it's like to be Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Leticia James, or Fani Willis waking up to watch CNN this morning.
Here's CNN:
Former President Donald Trump’s huge win in the Iowa caucuses on Monday enshrines one of the most astonishing comebacks in American political history.
Losing one-term presidents almost never mount subsequent successful primary campaigns, much less pull off landslides that demonstrate utter dominance of their party. Trump transformed the GOP in his populist, nationalist, nihilistic image in 2016. By claiming 50% of the vote in the biggest win in caucus history
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The IRS said it is poised to reap hundreds of billions of dollars of additional tax revenue by going after overdue and unpaid taxes, far beyond what was previously anticipated, thanks to funding from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The new analysis, released Tuesday by the Treasury Department and the IRS, estimates that tax revenues are expected to rise by as much as $561 billion from 2024 to 2034, thanks to stepped-up enforcement made possible with money from the Democrats' IRA, which became law in August 2022.
Nikki Haley Claims Trump 'Rigged' Nevada's
Primaries After Suffering a Humiliating Defeat 36 replies
Primaries After Suffering a Humiliating Defeat 36 replies
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, after suffering a humiliating loss in the Nevada primaries, complained that former President Donald Trump “rigged” the race to prevent her from making a decent showing.
Haley’s comments come weeks before the much-anticipated South Carolina primaries. Given that this is her home state, it will be a critical race that could decide the future of her candidacy.
During an interview, a reporter asked if her loss in Nevada would hurt her campaign. Haley responded, claiming that the race was a “scam” and explained why her campaign did not direct any spending in the state.
Donald Trump called for a cease-fire in the culture war over Bud Light’s transgender fiasco – a move that provoked critics to claim he was getting “bought out” by mega-brewer Anheuser-Busch.
The former president took to his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday and declared that Anheuser-Busch was “not a woke company” and that it had already paid a “very big price” for Bud Light’s ad campaign featuring transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Trump added that it was time to move on from outrage over the ads, which he called “a mistake of epic proportions.”
The former president noted that Anheuser-Busch “spends $700 million a year with our great
Are We on The Doorstep of Another Civil War?
29 replies
Before I get into my analysis, I want to make it clear I believe that anyone who wants a civil war to happen in the U.S. is dangerously naïve, insane, or working for one of America’s enemies. Imagine a Russia-Ukraine-type conflict in the U.S.
Thanks to Hollywood, most Americans believe that rebellions can be started and won by small ragtag groups of patriots, freedom fighters, insurrectionists, or everyday common folk. All you need are pistols, assault weapons, bows and arrows, and maybe a few Molotov cocktails. Blow up the Death Star, and the problem is solved.
But that is not how it usually works. Revolutions require armaments, soldiers,
Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman for the Republican National Committee (RNC), has reportedly told former President Donald Trump that she will step down from her position following the South Carolina primary later this month.
Should Ronna McDaniel follow through on her alleged pledge to leave, the former president will then reportedly promote the chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, Michael Whatley, as her replacement, according to several sources who spoke with the New York Times. A new election will take place within the committee.
The sources said that Trump prefers Whatley due to the two reportedly aligning with each other on views about the 2020 election being allegedly “stolen.”
Controversial talk show host Tucker Carlson could be subjected to sanctions from the European Union due to his activities in Russia, a new report says.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been interviewed by Carlson, the Kremlin confirmed Wednesday. It is Putin's first interview to a Western journalist since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago. Carlson released a video from Moscow on Tuesday in which he said he would be interviewing Putin, less than 24 hours later, the Kremlin confirmed the sit-down took place. Former Belgian Prime Minister and current member of the European Union Parliament Guy Verhofstadt told Newsweek as the Russian president is considered a 'war criminal'
We've written before about the slow but steady erosion of support from black and Hispanic voters for the Democratic Party, something that became very pronounced during Donald Trump's presidency as he and the RNC courted core left-wing voting blocs by explaining they had a lot more in common with the GOP than they did Democrats. Since Trump left office, the decline in alliances among these same voters for Democrats has continued, but the most recent numbers from Gallup on this front suggest that Dems aren't looking at just a trickling loss of support but a flood as fed-up black and Hispanic Americans are saying "adios" to Democrats in droves:
More than 150 Chinese nationals have snuck into the US illegally every single day since October, according to startling new CBP statistics.
Among the record numbers of migrants flooding the southern border, Chinese illegal immigrants made up the fastest-growing faction of border crossers last year.
The 2023 fiscal year reportedly saw over 37,000 Chinese migrants encountered at the border - with a staggering 20,000 more since October, when the 2024 fiscal year began. The surge forms part of an uncontrollable wave of migrant crossings that has stretched border resources thin. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has tracked over 1 million migrant encounters since fiscal year 2024 began,
Climate czar John Kerry is leaving his job with the Biden administration, as we reported.
He’s exiting that job to work for Joe Biden’s reelection campaign. But hopefully, they will both get tossed out of their “jobs” with the vote in November. But there's news that's not good for Kerry, and I wonder if it may have anything to do with him heading for the exits.
The House Oversight Committee has launched an investigation into Special Envoy for Climate Kerry for frequently meeting with climate and environmental activists. Comer demanded unreacted documents and communication related to Kerry's "collusion with leftist environmental groups," as well as information about Kerry's secretive office
Guilty: Disgraced Ex-Baltimore District
Attorney Marilyn Mosby Convicted of Mortgage Fraud 26 replies
Attorney Marilyn Mosby Convicted of Mortgage Fraud 26 replies
Disgraced former Baltimore District Attorney Marilyn Mosby sobbed in court Tuesday as she was convicted of mortgage fraud — a verdict that could carry decades in prison.
The Democrat served in office from 2015 until she lost her 2022 reelection bid after being indicted on perjury and mortgage fraud charges related to the withdrawal of funds from the city’s Deferred Compensation Plan. (snip)
Mosby, 44, was indicted on both the perjury and mortgage fraud charges in January 2022, and was found guilty of the perjury in November 2023.
The White House is bracing for the special counsel's report on Joe Biden's mishandling of classified documents, fearing it could contain details and photos that would embarrass the president.
The report by special counsel Robert Hur will be made public in the coming days after a year-long investigation. Biden will not face criminal charges, the Washington Post reported.
However, it's unclear to what extent the report will criticize the president and his aides regarding their handling of classified material that was found in the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. and in his garage at his Wilmington, Del., home.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday twice referred to the late German chancellor Helmut Kohl instead of former Chancellor Angela Merkel while detailing a 2021 conversation at campaign events.
It was the second time this week that Biden had recalled speaking with a European leader who had died years earlier.
Biden's gaffes Wednesday came at a series of fundraisers in New York as he described conversations he said he had with European leaders at a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized nations in the U.K. in 2021, months after the Jan. 6 riot.
Biden said at both events that "Helmut Kohl," who died in 2017, had asked him how he
Comments:
China's real estate market is a fraud, nearing collapse.
The US commercial real estate market is not going to collapse, but it is going to make a massive readjustment. Lot's of commercial real estate was purchased based on money loaned at 3%. With money at 6% or greater, they will be unable to make their business work, and they will be forced to sell. The real estate will be revalued to about half what it last sold for. Lots of current commercial real estate is massively overvalued.