Sunday, May 20, 2012

When the boom was born

What to do,  what to do.  With this giant shit stew...

The Overhauling Keynesians
In the summer of 1944, a group of men finalized a system to overhaul and provide a method for financial stability.  A team of economists, led by John Maynard Keynes, prescribed that the international method of trade should be tied to one country's datum point - and that datum point would provide a staple to the gold standard and result in the free, fair exchange of currencies and commodities - - all in the just order to re-build our world after we had torn it apart - - the Bretton Woods system was adopted.  We could finally trade a dinar for a dollar, and a rupee for a ruble.

However upon that signing, a new bridge hurdled across the obstacle - the thirst for the consumer economy found a link across an ocean, and a line across a channel.  It triggered a new boom and bust cycle - - and one that that has been terribly impossible to pop... The bubble has just kept growing and growing and growing... but all bubbles do pop - - and as the old adage goes - - the bigger they are, the harder they will ....

Broadcasting Harmonic Harmonics
During the time that the international economic map would be etched in stone, another development was par for the course in small steps for mankind. On September 4th, 1951, Harry S. Truman announced nationwide to numerous television households that a treaty had been reached with the Japanese.   As ironic as it was that the announcement that the Atomic Bomb was defused through a technology that inherited its principles, the monumental occasion was more in the fact that for the very first time - - you could see someone from across the planet...  You could see someone talking from 3000 miles away - - at the same point in space - - and the same point in time...  The monumental occasion, was that our minds could see what others did - - see what others looked like - - and see what others wanted....

For the very first time, we announced to the world that we had the capability to destroy ourselves, while making the statement that our growth had gone global, and that disputes could be settled with a silent stir and a low bang.  The boom was born with the loudest bang from the incorrectly named fission-induced annihilator.  From one bang to the another - we turned the page on our social evolution - the boom began with our broadcasted blunders.  The Fifties are when it truly began.  This was the communication revolution.

That's One Small Step

Shortly after the hallowed speech by President Truman, our consumption found a new way of spreading.  National broadcasters spread like wildflowers through the spring bloom - - 98 stations suddenly reached over 7,000,000 households - - and with the economic stability pressed by rebuilding nations - - we bred.  We bred and we bred in the way of panting wabbits. The boom of technological global communications bred a global link that to this day has evolved into truly a one-world mentality.  In was in the 1950s that we finally woke up and realized we had Jones' to the left, and Lings to the Right, and we all wanted to keep up with every single one of them.  We finally woke up that a consumer economy could not only be local - - it could be global.

By the time the 60's rolled around, we had the Beaver, we had Ed, we had Lucy, we had Amos, we had Andy, we had Pop, we had Rock, we had the Blues and we had Country.  Our international talents, treats and jokes and jives could be seen and heard by all.  We could buy, we could drink - - we could talk and we could listen.  The 60's were a groovy time and talkative time - - all instigated by the communication revolution.  We would spend.  We would work.  And we would communicate.  Our history etched in stone.

As decades passed, Keynesian economics persisted.   The 70's saw signs that outside growth influences into the model needed to be accounted for - - an oil shortage proved time and time again that derivatives from the system would cause shakeups and meltdowns.  But the system was strong - - built to last as long and money was printed and money was borrowed.  And what the 70's truly saw was a consumer economy hard at work...

It wasn't necessarily a smooth ride, but when people spent hard-earned money, all the while borrowing from the nice lady at the bank, we would carve out a perceived measure of growth, all of which would indicate to us that our economy is sound - - and our spending is prudent - - we were on a growth path.

The path was further aided by the fact that with our new-found culture - - one of cars, flash bulbs and luxury - - we would always be chasing the American Dream.   We found a way for everyone in the country to never stop shopping, searching and selling out - - because everyone was doing it, and we wanted to jump off the bridge too....

Blip to Bubble to Burp to Bump to Bulls to Bears to Bursting

As the 80's turned into the 90's, a small little blip to the bubble began to burp. A bump, perhaps.  Or maybe a bull.   Yes bulls and bears, buttons and budgets.   The blip was an on switch to a network that would known as the http://www.

A second wave in our communication revolution.  And the revolution was on.  It was on like Donkey Kong.

And so now, we go mainstream
So here we are now.  Skip another two decades.  And here we are.

The Keynesian economic model is in front of us.  Hanging on by any beltstrap and bootlegged derivative it can support.   It has bubbled and bullioned.   It is bursting and ballooning.  The fundamentals of debt and spending have potentially reached a limit.  And it is because we cannot control ourselves.   We have to spend.

We spend to eat.  We spend to shelter.  We spend to impress and we spend to instill fear. We spend and we spend and we spend.  The potential flaw in the Keynesian economic model isn't that governments can print money to borrow money so we spend money - - it is that we can't stop spending money.  We want EVERYTHING.   And it is because EVERYTHING is on display in front of us.   Two-clicks away from a new dishwasher. Easy-peazy lemon squeezing dishwasher.   Two clicks.

So here we are now.   With a shit-stew of austerity, salaries, cut-backs, derivatives, MBS and BSer.

We've linked our selves into everyones backyards and kitchen sinks, and we want the same and more.

We are etching our stones in debt and we can only blame ourselves.  We need an erosional forces to wipe out the etchings and start with a clean slate.   We need a new model.   We need a new device to balance, to budget, to burst this bullshit pile of shit stew that we've concocted.  It reeks.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Expansion

So here we are.  My time at 11,880 rotations through space, 360° by 33.  At this moment in time - with my tiny brain still processing, and my heart still beating, I seem to use this format to log my digitally stored neurotic impulses throttling from my frontal and cervical nerves - my records to interpret our current statuses of our being.

A moment of time was stamped some 724,068 rotations ago - and as I go along with the spin, I drop these pieces of crumbs to pick up when I am lost in numbers and nosedives - when my numbers move in magnetically-induced messes which then murk the marks and moments in my time.

Lately, most of my moments are at work.  I count for a living. I remember for a living.  I write for a living and I talk for a living.  I can't always talk to most people about things that matter to me - - so I have this thing where I hold interest in the mundane topics of the world to vaguely fake interest - - all the while wondering what future is in store for them.  For most I see status-quo types - - those that have given up on a dream and have accepted that que sera sera and we live for only a short time - - the non-dreamers.   Then there are the dreamers - - those who dream of some future that is always beyond their grasp - - almost reachable, but always not quite - - these are the dreamers.  And then there folks who I think I fall into - - the Observers.   Those who watch.

I may talk for a living, but I watch to observe. I observe and think.  And what I think I have found is those who either dream or don't dream narrow their views to the point that it is all about them or theirs - - and we're now at a moment in my time where we could move backwards in our times - - backwards to a narrower viewpoint that is not good for the progress of our local society - we're on the slippery slope to the times of our forefathers - - and this is not the future I think we should be laying the foundations for.  The future is not the times of our forefathers - - and our elected planners of our future should not be allowed to push us backwards.   That is what I mostly observe during my times of work.  Backwards is fine for the status quo-ers.

In four more days, the province of Alberta may go backwards in time.  We might elect a government system that will be tied to the religious right - we might elect our pastors and good neighbours.  Those who are polite, yet if are not agreed with, are left to be cast judgement on when they think the time is right.  And they want to try to fix our problems when they don't realize something - - the problem is them.

Bubbles and Bouillons and Bullions
I'll start with some expanding principles - - a bubble perhaps.  We are in a Wealth bubble.  I don't hear that much - - a Wealth Bubble you say?  We'll - - it's the concept that Wealth, an imaginary concept don't forget... Wealth is the perceived notion that you own more than the next guy.  It's what makes us wealthy - - and make us poor - - but it is all imaginary.  Have you ever in your life had all of your own cash in your walls? Ever? That's because we have don't have enough to give it all back to the walls!  If every person on this planet were to empty their bank accounts to hide in the walls - - we couldn't do it.  There would not be enough money to give to everybody.   They, the banks, borrowers, bridge builders and legislative assemblers of course, have too many debts.  And... well...not enough deposits.  Welcome to debt - - welcome to wealth.  This is the game.  Play it.

But the funny thing is - - it is just a game.   Our wealth, and wanting of wealth, is just a way to divvy up the masses.  Some are at the top -- some are at the middle -- and some are at the bottom.   Our class welfare system.  We welfare the bottom -- we prop up the middle with more debt -- and the wealthy are made by the millions...

But we're a world in the billions.  And we are global.  And we are hungry.   We are thirsty.  And we are getting hot and bothered.

But in  four  more days, the province of Alberta may go backwards in time.  We may allow money manipulators continue to be money manipulators - - and we will continue the pasts behaviour of accepting poverty as a reality and the status-quo.

Blowing in the Gentle Wind we Expand
And as we expand we blow.   We blow the air out of reason and consideration, hypothesis and theory and enter the expansion of the science.  We may go backwards in time in four  more days, to find that our scientists are wrong, and our that our methods of persuasion are fine.

Our status-quo may be drinking some 'proverbial fat, glass jar, sunglasses wearing dude'-aid.  When we burn our fuels, we create this thing called combustion - - a release of heat.  So when heat is released in this chemical path, it leaves behind a trail of energy that excites the molecules around it, and raise the temperature only for the temperature to disperse in the air.   The beauty of thermodynamics, yet entirely invisible.

Yet what happens in the short temperature increase, let's say at the exhaust of your car (and the exhaust and engine can be hot can't it?).  A temperature release is made. Not much - - but if you remember the laws of thermodynamics, energy is neither created nor destroyed, only transferring forms.   So when we burn, it dissipates into all the molecules in its surrounding with a wave of new heat and energy from the recent exothermic chemical reaction.  And when we heat, we transform.  We transform air waves, sound waves and radio waves.  Heat does effect us.  And we are heating with our burning.

A single candle in a balloon would suffice. But just imagine the balloon is big - - and that Gravity is the glue that holds the bubble together - - a universal force that keeps our boundaries firm.  So when a candle fills the balloon - -what is the end result (and of course use your imagination and imagine a tiny candle that always burns, but just not hot enough to burn and burst the bubble - - imagine if we burst this gravity bubble - - whoa).  Anyways - - the candle will burn, ever so slowly adding the mass of molecules into the balloon.

So as we burn the candle, we heat the balloon - - heat and heat - - and remember, heat is trapped with more molecules in the air to trap it, all thanks to 0.8 kJ/kg.K heat capacity of carbon dioxide, which is the every increasing molecule in the balloon, of course.

So when we fill and fill and heat and heat - - what do you think the balloon will do?  Pop of course, silly!!! Balloons and bubbles pop silly!!!

But the beauty of the balloon we live on... is that it soaks as well.  It soaks in excess stuff called CO2 silly.  It soaks up in trees and our grass and our palms and our beaches.  But the thing is Danielle, is that we can count silly!   We can count and count the ways that CO2 is soaked up... we can count and count the times that we burn to burn...  And when we count what we burn to what we count when we soak - - we worry.  We worry that we will heat and heat and burn and burn.  And in   four  more days, we might go back in time and look down - - we don't want to see what's in our future.  Unless we panic now.  We need to panic to fix the problem.  I wish people would listen - - I wish they would read - - and I wish they will depress the remote button's off setting to stop that broadcast and interrupt everyone from this reruns of skanks and banks to bring you this important message - - or we are fucked.  But not for another 100 years or so, so what the fuck do I care now for, anyways?  Not my problem...   four  more days.

Yee Haw
Four more days until we go back in time to persecute and persist.

In the last two days - - two pastors, and one statement: What the fuck!?!   I mean, what the fuck?   These guys preach patience and kindness, and they go out and flaunt in public that they have a ethnic advantage and that others will burn in hell if we don't think the same way.  Four more days and we go back in time...   What the fuck...  we cannot go back on our future.   I mean, WTF, OMG, WTF!!!

Two-Steppin Sweatheart
So in  four  more days - - we find out if $300 is worth a vote, and if the promises of less waiting and more money will come true.   In four more days we find out if this is just a short chapter in the evolution of a generational shift in attitudes and hip replacements.

Yet it will be much more that four more days until we find out if the numbers of bigots and hicks will dwindle into the melting pot of a multinational province, and we finally accept our global environment and take steps towards finally fixing the problems.   It could be 36,000 more spins... it could be less... but for now, we four days closer to 2050 and beyond....

yee haw - - yeeeee haaawww!!!

Friday, March 30, 2012

A Perfectly Scripted Future

Two lights flickered in the distant pixel of the screen.  Twitching their repetitions in a solaced fashion dictated by the bits and bytes of their holographic'd database.  The files upon files being progressed in algothrithmic fashion, storing names and their tendencies through their if statements and the digital SQL Proportional preferences -- everything is known about us from the day we are born -- the social software in full effect. Our future, perfectly scripted.

The following thoughts are fictitious -- made up -- just a random blip in the radar -- however they do represent a fear I hope my children will not experience.

Suppressing the System
In the future when I wake up, I'll roll over and and get ready to work.  I'll sanitize the parts that need sanitized, and a I'll get dressed.  I'll sip as I drive -- and I'll listen to the morning news.   Ho-hum will I go, as the willing whistling worker.

I'll do this, because we'll live in a world where we want to better our lives.  We won't need to salvage and harvest - and we'll want a nest.

The nest we'll live in will be our roost.  It will have walls, windows and ways to keep those freezing temperatures from shaking our bones - and it will also makes our worst offense - feces - just go away magically...

We'll want our roosts to be the biggests and brightest - and we'll create our own market for it -- to such a point that people will get rich for ages over it... wealth will be a real thing of the world...  And not only that, when wealth doesn't make money, we'll keep it propped to protect our future -- and we'll protect it so much, that we'd give our own health and welfare -- and our common right to learn.

We'll make wealth the suppressing system... everybody will want it -- some may reach it -- but by that point, they'll be so in tune with our programming -- that they'll swim with the rest of us for it --- wealth will be synonymous with freedom for us...

But the future may always be dark...

Harlem Globe-trottered
In the future - entertainment will be globalized.  Our airplanes will spin, our blu-rays will fly -- the future will be glittered with more glitz and glamour than our globe-trotting, ghetto-fabulous, gluten-freed lives could handle... Updates will be instant, while global ideals will be spread faster than we can keep up with...


Taking a deep breath
If I could pause  for a moment -- and explain a concern that I'm not sure why we haven't acted on yet...

Our globe is warming.

Aside from the argument of who did what -- we know there are serious ramifications if the Earth does warm. And it does.   It warms and cools faster now than it did before -- mainly because our averages are warming -- while our thermostat is cycling and starting to cook our coats...  and we have really thin coats.

So if there is a problem -- no matter who did what -- and we know that by increasing the concentration of CO2 only compounds the problem of heating a container -- loose lid or no loose lid -- then why aren't we acting to fix the problem...

We have a problem here - we either aren't listening, aren't paying attention, are busy talking about who did what, or else aren't being told...


An economic trifecta - consumption, real estate, wars
Our future will be acronymically aligned - with our growth and our goods of domesticated products leading the path to green and golden shores.   With the creation of wealth, laws will follow the wealth and be made by those who control our best interests.  We'll follow the equations, encourage the method and sacrifice our peanuts when we'll need to - all for the maintenance of the steady growth - we're growing the planet after all.

The first step in our three step plan - is we buy ourselves a new everything!!! Imagine a future full of bright shiny  things that flash and flip and film and flop and fly and flood and fish and fry and fool the eye!   Consumption will fill the every void that needs to fulfill the balance.

The second step in our three step hop - is we buy everything back off ourselves!!! Imagine a future where buying a home is as easy as 1, 2, 3!  ... or 1 - starter ...2 - step up .. and 3 - go!

The third step in our three step tango - is we war.  And we war and we war...  We war to eat... we war to protect and we war to hunt... In our ways with war we'll keep up our growing... to protect our children's future.

Dots should connect to five points - Social Tendencies
It took approximately no effort to save this script to a database without any delay.  I don't have a choice once the words roll off these fingers.   With every stop I make with the keyboard on my table -- the Draft saves at every consistent pause.  And I pause in thought often...  It takes seconds, scratch that -- milliseconds -- for a piece of data to be stored in the intra-wide-web...  The scripts are right there.

Every moment of every seconds -- oddles -- scratch that -- quadrilli-oodles of data are filed in a sequence of 1's and 0's left in a stash of servers from every click to that new shopping website...  As your friend updates and status changes in very counting moment in every tablet and pads -- so do the oodles.  And oodles and oodles do they ogle and ogle.  The data serves to count your tendencies for purchasing - your tendencies for eating -- and your tendencies of beliefs.   You can't help feel that you are being watched -- watched and watched to make the tendencies that much easier to predict... to ensure your tendencies are to follow...



How the pyramid of 1981 became 2012
The future told above is fucked.  It's shallow, conceited and vain.  It flaunts its sorry ass in front of us while we're told to shop and shut the fuck up.  But in reality - - the future told above is locked and loaded...

But where will it end?  That's for the future to decide... But philosophically -- I hope an outlaw or two will come to save the day...


How a 2050 came to 2112
A pleasant faced man steps up to greet you, he smiles, and says he's pleased to meet you. Beneath his hat the strangeness lies, take it off, he's got three eyes.  Truth is false and logic lost, now the fourth dimension is crossed... You have entered the Twilight Zone beyond this world strange things are known.. Use the key, unlock the door, see what your fate might have in store...

Come explore your dreams' creation, enter this world of imagination...

You wake up lost in an empty town, wondering why no one else is around.  Look up to see a giant boy, you've just become his brand new toy.   



No escape, no place to hide, here where time and space collide. Enter this world of imagination... 

Saturday, March 10, 2012

The Lesser Wiseman

As my laptop flashes warnings to ‘Solve PC 4 issues’ while rhythmically activating pixels to march in command, I sit here weathering news of new days bringing a calm before the storm and grimace as my tension headaches persist to ease me into the pain.

Our ministers and their cabinets of costumed displays of prowess have been at their helm for just shy of a year to this day. They’ve gavelled and garvilled, craptioned, and crewfoot, marvelled and mivelled, all the while eating their green eggs and ham.  And what they are accomplishing will reshape how Canadians are perceived.

with a Penny on his Name

Our Canadian Economy has been clustered into a single name brand: Oil. 


We sit on the 3rd largest reserve of recoverable, upgradeable, refineable, burnable source of liquid energy known on our globe.  We have it, there's lots, you needs it, and our message is: take it now!  It took eons to cook and bake under the pressure of the earth with its gentle decay, but we can't get this stuff outta the ground faster for that quick hit to our blue, purple, green, red and our Sir Robert Bordens staches'.

In order to pump this stuff faster than Technonic pumps up the jam, we're trying to cram it down to our coastlines.    Our arms are extending from shore to shore to ship the shipwrecked remains of bacterial growth.  We’re sending out our keystone lights, larges and supersized gateways.  We’re hurrying because we have to: the global connection is starting to occur and global problems are being recognized to be relatable to our precious growth.   We're hurrying because Our Economy depends on the precious growth.  We're hurrying because they want the quick easy dollar.


has Often Offered, Offshore Onslaughts

Canada’s foreign ownership is what drives our economy.  In 2009, $1.4 trillion of assets located within our pacific to atlantic shores are owned by foreign companies.  In that year, $860 billion of operating was generated by those foreign companies and $47 billion of profit was shipped across our fences.  Profits equivalent to 3.9% of our GDP were shared by non-canadians.  We’ve sold our economy to make people outside of our borders rich.

But when the engine that drives the machine slows, and with the foreign investors being used to fast cars and smooth engines, they may be turning in their keys knowing the engine only runs on one fuel – our good ol’ fashioned sar-sas-pa-bid-amin.  If we can’t keep fueling our fires to run our economy, for instance if our fire is causing too much smoke that irritate the global heaters to debate, then we might stop shopping.  And when we stop shopping, it might be because our debt ceilings can’t go any higher… or are we already on that escalator to the top floor of the BOC...


In any regard, we owe money… a lot of money.  More than we’ve ever owed.  And now we might not be able to get money as easy as we used to.  Mortgage offerers used to trust us so much, we could tell them any reasonable salary and be handed the key to our brand new houses and till pits.   As part of this generosity and offering of trust, we have bloated our bullion boxes to limits that has pushed our protectors to new levels of insurability.  We have bloated our boxes so much, that even as our big banks and priced ticket providers booked big bucks while our employment bumps higher and higher, we took on more and more to owe and owe.  The big banks bucked the trend of slumping afterthoughts to cash in on the cash cow while the cash cow curdles its milk.  And with the expiration date soon approaching, the sour taste it is going to lead will leave our lead ministers and lead cabinets wondering what went wrong….

, Holding the warmth
There are books on HTML, JavaScript, Java, ActiveX, and all sorts of other geeky subjects. But not only don't you need to understand these things in order to set up a Web site you can read a dozen such books, and you still won't know everything you need to do.
124 kilotonnes at a time, we plug and play our way to selling our souls.  124 times a few dozen equals the pace of development in our oilish-sands.  This means a few megaton or two – and I am talking about that dangerous, acidic gas again, the hot air with some carbon copied spewing from our pipestacks.  Its been correlated to our seas and leveled the playing field with a stark realization that we could be purposely poisoning ourselves with a bitter pill … but it contradicts our model.

We need to puff, and to keep up the puff, we need to huff.  So when we huff and huff the puff in a gruff to make it seem like it's tough for geeky stuff like science to cuff any GHG fluff to our well beings being rough... we end up hiding true stuff...


is Sparing Some Dollars
Profits drive wealth. Profits provide an assurance food is fed and wine is drank.  All is merry when profits proliferate.  But the profit has been proven to be pushed towards the persons in the ponzis... while the persons in the pyramid are charged their purses and their pursuits of happiness to populate the particles which pressurizes the bubble.
We moving towards a new era in the timeline of economic development.   One which will be clouded in the coffers of a new class system.  A division is occurring.

In the short time that ministers have spared their 2 cents, we changed our laws... we changed our oversight... we changed our habits and we changed our minds.

We claimed we were the best in handling our money, as we were told that our systems were protecting us.   But in the coming weeks and months our protection systems will keep watching us lose more and more for less and less.  These will be hard times in the country that proclaimed it was the best.  And will be far from image that we perceived ourselves to be...

Thursday, March 8, 2012

A Mirrored Image

I'm not sure how I think.   I stop a lot throughout the day and wonder how these neurons and microns throughout my nervous and intelligence systems are programmed.  I doubt too much...  Not my thoughts, but the things around me... they make me nervous with their intelligence systems.  I read... I doubt... Mostly politics... some religion... and well a few other things.   The other day, with my skip to my beat, I got a virtual signal from my inbox that life's lessons could be taken for free; some facts and figures on how to take what you want by signing on the dotted line and how it would be the smartest investment decision of you're life; the cost would only be a small fee and your life's soul... A signal from a REIN supremer so hidden with sub-primal tendencies that non-primed engines would never be stopped....  The signal by the REIN supremer in the dark, my response in the light... 

Discover Canada's Top City For Real Estate Investment
Here Are The Facts, Figures & Details You Need To Make Smart Investing Decisions Today
There is no doubt that Calgary is one of the hottest hubs for real estate investment in the country... one could argue the globe over, yet this powerhouse is flying under the radar of most Canadian investors, especially Albertans. The grass always seems greener somewhere else, a phenomenon that never ceases to amaze, but the numbers simply don't lie.   
Calgary real estate has been hot.  And for some time.  While growth in the energy sector has resumed and the oil sands are developed, Canada is ramping its production rate right up to it's export pipeline's capacity.  But some problems persists; our Gateways are closed, and XLs too supersized for other's needs.  We can't move it anywhere.  And to further compound problems, the tea, shnitzel and cappucino makers are considering labelling us as "dirty", but fortunately we know and told the right people in Europe that doing so might lose a few profits to couple of BPs, Totals and Stats and that thing should keep going for a while longer... 
It's time you have the information, all the facts & figures that major corporations are looking at and have been looking at for the past few years. Money continues to pour into Alberta for a reason - many reasons - so take a look at the latest research our team has just put together. This is something we usually keep just for members of REIN™, but not this time - it's too important.
Research is defined as the study of something thoroughly so as to present trends and determine or infer hypotheses of events happening...  Research is not defined as interpreting a small sample data over a short time line and suddenly declare: ALL IS GOOD, we're all getting rich!!  Keep buying!!! and either ignorantly or greedily declairing money is pouring in like Pacman makin rain cause we all good...   Research can be muddled with fake facts and fake fools.  
Take a minute or two, absorb all the latest research included below, and who knows, maybe you'll gain some new perspective on the opportunities available here in Canada.

A new perspective would mean to differ from the status quo... and what has the status quo been?  Buy real estate. Buy BuY BUY!!   The status quo is so so, as the sow and flow of dough was thought at prid-quo-pro, but the pro was so that the dough went to the bro, da b of m's and da t dot c of i b sees.  Da bee o see... See?   Buy means borrow.   Borrow means one thing.  Bucklet boots and beer bellied bottle rockets of bubbles.  Bubbles and bubbles of debt. 

ˈkælɡri/ 
   With a population of over one million people, Calgary offers amenities and business opportunities found nowhere else in Alberta. As such, the city will continue to experience growth as it is recognized as a prime location for both businesses and home owners. 

It is a city in the province of AlbertaCanada and is located in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, approximately 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The city is located in the Grassland region of Alberta. John Glenn was the first settler in 1873, then the gush came.....


 As of the last Civic Census (April 2011), the City of Calgary had a population of 1,090,936, an increase of 19,421 residents (a growth of 1.81%) from the 2010 census. During this time period (ending April 2011), four communities grew more than 100%, reflecting a migration to some of the newer developments: Mahogany (205%), Walden (183%), Skyview Ranch (154%), and Sage Hill (102%)1.
Five communities had population increases of more than 1,000 people. Often, depending on the original number of inhabitants, this number is more telling than percent change (i.e. an increase of 10 residents to 20 residents is still a 100% increase). These communities include: Panorama Hills (1,952), Auburn Bay (1,552), New Brighton (1,236), Cranston (1,186), and Skyview Ranch (1,093)2.
As the baby boomers age, driving the average age up in most centers across the country, Calgary will have a distinct advantage as it continues to attract younger families. This important fact will help drive the economy longer and farther than most other major centers in the country. In other words, as other areas age, Calgary continues to renew itself
.  

So if boomers age, and agers boom... and younger families become more and more attracted, they'll keep buying and buying, building up loads and loads of betchas and dont'chas.   Sure, they don't make money now... but when they do make money, they'll be ready to high five their way to their 5% down and on the five by five plan... just tell them not to worry about those newly formed credit debts from the donuts... and that the best investment strategy is to join the party that every one is invited to!!   The more the merrier... everyone into the pool... last one in is the rotten egg!!!!! 
Despite the overall decline in net-migration compared to previous record years (9,563 this year down from a peak of 25,794 in 2006)3, Calgary will continue to be a magnet for a vibrant populous. Calgary is no longer just attracting people from Canada; it is also becoming a more attractive location for immigrants and foreign workers.
Calgary's labour participation rate increased to 74.5% in the CMA as of December 2011 from 73.4% in December 2010. At the end of 2011, the unemployment rate stood at 5.5%, down from 6.2% the previous year. By the end of December 2011, employment was up 2.9% from 2010. A majority of the jobs created during that time period were full time-positions, adding over 16,000 jobs4. With employment opportunities improving, more people will be drawn into the labour force, preventing any large declines in the unemployment rate. CMHC is predicting the unemployment to drop marginally, to 5.4%, by the end of 20125.
In the beginning of 2008, the CMHC determined that housing sales would be slower, but only drop 3.9%.  Everything was fine... nothing to see here....  but by the end, there were a few more worried at the time that the CMHC was a little off...  and they can always be a little off...

Take for example, advising on mortgages... When advising, they tell you how much and by when... they tell you how often and who to talk to.. they tell you this and that and the other... But they don`t restrict...  and they don`t check.  And when they don`t restrict ... yes, they will drive up the prices of houses.  But when they don`t restrict and they don`t check... and if things get bad... and by bad I mean bumpy... and by bumpy I mean bubbly... and by bubbly I mean not affordable by the bump up in the price of houses... then we might have that correction... 


Housing Trends

Like most cities in the wake of the recession, Calgary has also experienced some ups and downs in the housing sector in the last several years. 2006 and 2007 saw record building permit values and housing starts in the city, while starts dropped off in 2008 and 2009 before increasing again in 2010. By the end of 2011, it appears that market conditions have started to improve.
The City of Calgary reported a total building permit value of $4.5 billion in 2011, an increase from $2.9 billion in 2010 and the third highest year on record. The city posits the building permit value growth to an increase in new builds over improvements. Several large residential projects have bolstered the total building permit value, including the University Residential Towers ($55 million) and Eight Avenue Place - West Tower ($195 million)6.
The Calgary CMA recorded a total of 9,292 housing starts in 2011, a slight increase from 9,262 units in 2010. The increase in housing starts can be directly attributed to the increase in multi-family construction. In 2011, 4,208 multi-family units began construction, in comparison to the 3,480 units started in 2010 (an increase of 21%). On the other hand, single- detached housing experienced a small decline: 5,084 units began construction in 2011, a decrease of 12% from 5,782 units in 20107.
Residential construction is expected to lift even further in 2012 as the economy improves, increasing job creation and net migration. CMHC predicts that the city's housing starts will increase 11% to 9,400 in 2012, with gains in both the multi- family and single-family housing markets. Single detached starts are forecast to reach approximately 5,500 units in 2012, while multi-family starts should hit 3,900 units8.

So to start, we need a beginning.  And when was the beginning?   At the last end.   The last end was when again?  Back then again?    Although they start, housing start stats aren't really indicative of a healthy real estate/mortgage industry.  They need the middle of the start of a recovery.... but if we never really ended the last beginning to end, then how can we start?  Anyways... what starts do is lag... they wait for the all clear and then they start... they don't dig until the dust has settled and the doorbells are ringing... So to say housing starts lead they way to a safer and better housing stats might be a bit misleading... they lag... they let things start.. and then they start.... And in reality, we haven't started that fast... in 2007 we started faster... about 2 times faster back then... To compare the starts to finishes from now till then isn't the best presentation.  That's just weak Don.

Sale and Rent

Getting into the housing market with positive cash flow properties in Calgary has proved difficult for investors in the last decade and that is one key consideration that kept Calgary out of the #1 spot for several years. 2006 and 2007 were characterized by multiple offers, zero days on the market, bidding wars and offers with no conditions. Most home-owners and investors were wishing the market would come back to normal. As the pendulum swings the other way to a buyers' market, we are seeing the opportunities for sane purchasing once again entering the market.
According to the Calgary Real Estate Board (CREB), residential sales in Calgary have increased 8% in the past year, with 18,568 sales in 2011 compared to 17,267 in 2010. While sales activity was lukewarm in the first half of 2011, job growth,

Insanity is reckless... it's harmful and it is sometimes hurts to type responses to virtual signals...  But sane purchasing habits are misleading.  Most mortgages (95%) today high five their way to the 5% down variety, and our affordabilities are being pushed to the limit.  So when affordabilities are pushed to the limits with our gases and our peanuts escalating their ways to  black gold and cashews, we have recorded our debts to record high territory.  So how can it go down?   The answer is, it has to.  We simply cannot afford it anymore.

Stronger migration, and higher earnings all contributed to lift sales in the second half of the year9. In addition, low mortgage rates continue to provide prospective buyers, especially first-time home buyers, with many opportunities.
While sales were up in 2011, elevated levels of inventory limited housing price growth. At the end of 2011, the average price for a single-family home in the Calgary CMA was $466,402, an increase of just over 1% from $461,132 in 201010. The median price of a newly constructed home sat at $457,271 in 2011, an increase of 5.1% from 201011.
One negative of the renewed momentum in Calgary's real estate market, however, is the decrease in housing affordability. Calgary's affordability index is currently sitting at 38.2 for a standard two-storey home, meaning 38.2% of an average person's pre-tax income is necessary to afford an average home in the city. But when compared to other major cities across Canada, Calgary still comes out on top. In the third quarter of 2011, Toronto recorded an affordability index of 61.3, Montreal came in at 52.2, and Vancouver sat at 94.412!

Numbers never lie.  remember that... 

Smaller means better.  In comparing Apple A to Apple B.  Apple B is two times larger than Apple A.  Therefore, Apple A is much smaller.  But when Apples A and B are both larger than the healthy average... then what does that make Apple A and B?  Both higher than normal?     Comparing an index to some of the worst indices in the world that are both indicative of a normalized bubble is not a great way to make an argument for a safe investment.    Numbers never lie.  Unlike the ones in the dark.  

Rental rates in Calgary have also increased in the past year. The average rent for a private apartment in Calgary was $978 in October 2011; an increase from $969 in October 2010. The average rent for a bachelor unit was $705, down slightly from $709; a one bedroom unit rented for $899, up from $894 in 2010; a two bedroom unit was $1,084, an increase from $1,069 the previous year; and a three bedroom unit sat at $1,077, up from $1,057 in October 201013.
Numbers never lie. Rental rates are fine.  These are increasing with inflation.  The numbers do not lie.  Is it better to rent than "invest in real estate".  Don't be a greater fooler.  The Lesser Wiseman told me.  He's smarter than you or I.  But you can also do the math.    The numbers don't lie. 

Increased economic activity will support rental demand in 2012. Improved activity in the energy sector will create jobs and attract newcomers. New migrants are expected to be the main contributor to rental demand in 2012 as many of them will look to rent and familiarize themselves with the city before deciding to purchase a home. As demand for rental housing rises, rental rates are also expected to increase. The average rent of a two-bedroom apartment is anticipated to reach $1,100 by October 2012. However, despite the rise, the average two-bedroom rent will still be below the peak of $1,148 experienced in 200814.
Canada is losing jobs.  The only sector churning anything is the heavy oil industry, while economic activity has stalled with our GDP only being propped by the mortgage industry.   But even our best sector is having problems; we can't ship it east, as they get their oil non-synthetically from the middle East, and have peaked in their growth, so oil consumption may not increase.  We can't ship it south, as they've been boosting their own production and reserves while increasing theirs.. and we can't sell to anyone unless country we get a pipeline.

Vacancy Rates
As the rental market tightened in response to increased economic activity, the Calgary CMA experienced a dip in the average vacancy rate. As of October 2011, the vacancy rate of a private apartment in the CMA was 1.9%, down from 3.6% in October 2010. This is the lowest vacancy rate the city has experienced since October 2007.

A bachelor unit had a 1.9% vacancy rate, down from 4.1% in October 2010; a one bedroom private apartment sat at 1.8%, down from 3%; the vacancy rate of a two bedroom unit sat at 2%, down from 4.2%; and a three bedroom unit had a vacancy rate of 3.3%, down from 5.3% in October 201015.
Downtown Calgary reported the lowest vacancy rate, sitting at 1% in October 2011. Demand for rental units in the downtown area has remained high, as many people strive to live close to their place of work. The Beltline area has also benefitted from increased activity in the core, posting a vacancy rate of 1.7% in 201116.

So you've just moved to Calgary.   Welcome aboard.  We hope your flight wasn't too bumpy on the way through that turbulence.  Here's $500,000, you can be on your way now...

Yes, we've grown.  And we've benefited. And with that $500,000 you get to live in the 'burbs.  There's no room for you in the un-vacated rental boxes.  And if you take that $500,000 and just rent it there's lots of people  who need it - it's just you need to rent it for $2,500 per month to pay for it... hmm... something seems funny...


Top Investment Town
Calgary, the head office center of the west, is no longer a city with wild economic swings like it experienced in the 1980's..  It's economy has diversified  (with more work to do), the population growth continues to be leading the Nation, incomes are increasing faster than anywhere else, and the lifestyle it offers has been rated one of the best in North America.
Receiving an 'A' grade from the Conference Board of Canada17, Calgary showcases many investment opportunities. A growing population, steady job creation and the strong resale housing market are driving growth.
During the economic recession, Calgary's real estate market made a predictable correction resulting in slightly more affordable housing compared to recent years passed. It was economically impossible for the market to continue at the pace at which it was heading and now finds itself adjusting to market realities.  
Here is just one lie after another.  As recent as 3 years ago, we had a wild economic swing.   And as recently as 2 weeks ago, we almost had another.  We are on a constant swing over cycles and balances of supply and demand, which can, at times, be dictated by people who have vested interests.  We cannot control the swings.  Sometimes they miss... but every once and awhile - - they hit.  
The next lie is the assumed value that 'A' is a good grade.   Maybe the student paid off the teacher... maybe the A is not graded on a curve and every one else got A+++'s.... maybe the grade is a given by someone who benefits from dolling out A's all day long... maybe the AAA plus ratings are better?  A grade from a institute that wants economic properties and growth is not going to give you an F- and cause a panic.  It would be akin to economic suicide... 
Well the last one is kind of true;  it is economically impossible for the market to continue at the paces at which is has headed for 13 years without adjusting to market realities:  we overinflated and overborrowed... and we're cooked.
Housing affordability will continue to be an issue in Calgary, with rents increasing and a high average price. However, when we look at that price versus average income, we see that other cities in this country have a much larger problem on their hands. Calgary has the long-term economics to support long-term market strength while other cities do not.
Ah, here is where the lies continue.  Housing affordabilities DO LOOK AT PRICES VERSUS AVERAGE INCOME.   If it continues to be an issue... it will remain an issue.   Saying other cities are worse off doesn't mean that we are not worse off....  It doesn't work to say: "you gone stepped in some big pile of shit", when you are knee-deep as well.... FACK!
If you are investing in Canadian real estate right now or hope to do so soon... or even if you invest outside the country, the information presented above is hugely important. Understanding exactly what's going on in Calgary and all of Alberta is key to making smart investment decisions for the next decade and beyond. So whether you're living in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Alberta or Ontario, Calgary has to be on your radar as a sophisticated real estate investor. The numbers simply don't lie - Calgary is poised to perform.
I hope this research has been helpful to you and your investment business and if it has, it would be great to hear back from you. Even better - repost, re-blog, forward or tweet anything and everything you learned
!

Please do not invest in real estate in Canada right now.  Understanding exactly whats going on in Calgary and all of Canada is key to making wise investment decisions for the next decade and beyond.  So
whether you're living in Saskatchewan, BC, AB or the t.dot... none of these should be on your radar as a sophisticated human.  The numbers simply don't lie... but in the dark, they can be muddled to look like truth.

Friday, April 22, 2011

Waning Gibbous

Like clockwork, it happens - with a tick tock of beating hearts it never fails, two weeks a month, a beautiful visitor peeks the rays of desolate sun glare and lights our nights skies in the vast openness of space. La lune floats as a marvelous beacon radiating a connection to terra cotta that is vastly understood, yet eerily misunderstood...

Angularly Momented
It may have happened like the flash of a boiling pot - percolating and pinballing from corner pocket to parking stall - with chaos in full effect as static, dynamic and ultrasonicular forces bounce through the entropy of waves in gravitational crashes. The moon may have held the perfect amount of rotational and angular directions to graze the side of a new and forming earth, resulting in a spin of angular momentum that perfectly caught each others escaping masses to bond in a unison so delicately cherished - the impact leaving a pressurized core and molten spin in the the bowels of earth - almost like the moon had impregnated a special spin in the earth, one that locked the moon in a gravitational pull that would fertilize the world...

Spinning the chords
As the molten core spun, the earth pulled and waned... groaning at the pushing and pulling - the kicking and gases, the surging and swelling - the earth began to show signs stretch marks - scars of mountains rising high from the spin and spun of the molten core... And locked in tight - the moon held onto the gravitational pull of the pregnancy. But even more miraculous that all, the moon held on so tight, that tiny little molecules began to excite themselves, spark energies back and forth - and cycle themselves with the constant tidal pulls and gravitational tunings - these tiny molecules began to dance and twirl. Twisting with twine and tiny little ribonucleic textiles - the twists became more and more elaborate - as if every two-week dance with the moon turned gravitational pulls into tidal tangos of primordial soup and stew. We had some life. The bacteria were born.

The crusts, the clearing, the shield and the trees
Land masses cleared. Dusts settled and the air cleared. The molten core spun through the chaos and filtered the particles of entropy into tiny packets of magnetic energy and shield - and a livable atmosphere was born. So instead of soup and stew of the primordial slop being continuously stirred in the pot - some spilled onto soil and land. Textiles of nucleic acids turned into sun-soakers - the plants - our green-ness. They found some miraculous way of structuring their structures to program a beacon to soak the light of the day and the carbon in the air and turn it into energy and organic matter - and our greens fertilized the beasts.



Waxing Crescent - Step.. by step.. by step.. by step..
With the moon continuing to pull back on the masses, the calcinated creatures of the deep learned how to walk. It was a struggle at first - but they crept... they crawled... they clawed and they clunked their way to find newer, and well.. greener.. pastures. The beasts roared and clamored up the stretching trees - growing to heights and lengths and weights worthy of reaching the moons close touch - so close and a mere 370,000 km wave in the night's sky it would seem too close to be true - and the gravity was bountiful in these days. With the moon so close, our spinning core's pull of weight and tonnage easily offset with the gentle pull of the moon's gravity. So surreal the pull - that beast and birds of giant proportions could support the calcinated structures of bones against the spinning pull of the core. Until it started to drift.

Drifting to Sleep
At a snails pace of toenails spurt of calcinated creation, the moon has been drifting... a drift so slight and sleuth that 3.8 measures of a centimeter per year moves into the deep horizon. So when back in the day of giant beasts and large lizards the moon began to pull away, the beasts and large lizards began to feel the pull of the earth - the spin of the core. Gravity began to pull it's weight as it's forces were dimished - over the course of 145 million years - gravitational forces from the moon and earth reduced 6% - and the weight of the world came crashing down on the dinos and giant ducks - the calcinated structures so strong and sturdy could no longer hold their weights - the true death of the dinos could be the waning and drifting moon - no longer as close as can be.

So as we find the mammals and fishies and birdies and lil lizards now roaming with a wave now over 384,000 km away, the moon still flourishes us with constant gravitational pull and cycled determination. It will hold on tight from generation to generation. But as bones grow to great lengths, the pull of the earth is always increasing. We must always return to the earth. It is truly, our only real destiny.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

1.6% of my life...

Stretched Thin
As my back tightens, and my shoulders feel the brunt of the long hourly grind of pushing little woven fabrics of pulped and processed bits and pieces of information through the highway of idiocracy, I find solace in my ultimate saviour - the intra-wide web. As my fingertips roll through the preemptive strikes on the keys, as if muscle memory for every nerve of my occular beings are transmitted through the clicks of a mouse, I find myself amused. Our national pride is on display as our nation prepares for it's future ride with another Prime Minister.



Circling the Wagons
Our candidates are well known - the massed presses of the media outlet won't skip a beat - they'll pound every story whether the material is soft, hard, woven, piece-mealed, clovered or rednecked - and clearly our country is full of them. But maybe what isn't quite being covered is their respective approaches to their tactics; one using Republican-style smack down with daunting voices and nervous contempt, another almost being a complacently terrible used car saleman, almost as if his half-crooked smile is repeating: "C'moooon.... this other guy's a crook", and the three others just trying to keep their pasted smiles from slapping the first two.

In any regard, the opposition has been careful not to tread too deeply into a taboo topic of tankers, trucks and sticky ol' bitumen. Alberta, and ultimately Canada, have sunk our nails deep into the breadth of the beast - Washington, DC. We've sent our finest diplomats and ministers, all to act as our people's voice for our precious product. We're selling our resource - not just to the highest bidder, but to our closest neighbour.

Not quite Tar... Not quite Oil... Is it Chicken!!!?
So the Oilsands, tarsands, whatever. It's actually called bitumen. Not quite tar. Not quite oil. It's bitumen, stuck in sand. The Natives used to use it to patch their boats with. You see, when cold, it acts like a water repellant, and you can almost make hockey pucks out of it (no wonder us Canadians must love it eh?!). But what it needs to pump and separate from sand is a bunch of heat. Steam to be exact (or hot water, really hot water). So to extract it, we plug in the kettles, sort of - anyways, we burn a bunch of energy - clean natural gas really - or sort of clean if you remember to count the carbon. And then to make sure it doesn't refreeze into hockey pucks, it's mixed with oil. Yes - oil is used to make other oil. Or condensate to be exact. Not quite oil. Only the lightest of oil. Olive oil, almost - well... not quite. Anyways. to sum up, a bunch of wood is chopped down and rivers are polluted - I digress; that's my summary of the oilsands, or tarsands, or bitumen, or oil user, or gas user or tree chopper or river polluter. It's kind of under the spotlight by the US as a not-so-squeaky-clean product.

A Choice of 1.6 Concerns
So in order to make it a squeaky clean product and get the seal of approval to ship it across to our good ol' neighbour, what does our government do? I'll provide two options:

1 - Immediately address elevated levels of pollutants in the waterways by reducing the point source; address climate change by adopting Environment Canada framework for reducing oil sands carbon footprints; develop a strategic outline of responsible resource development through planned, orchestrated production increases
or
2 - throw millions of dollars towards monitoring equipment and never really stopping the water pollution, scrap the climate change plans, cause hey; what Canadian doesn't want our winter to be a little warmer right? and finally, we'll green light every project that plans to produce bitumen, jam a pipeline down the US's throat by sending a bunch of our best oil saleman (i mean government officials) to lobby on behalf of an industry we own no part of.

Whew....
I find myself flabbergastroided (kind of flabbergasted, but mostly feeling gastrointestinally haemorrhoided) - instead of a government that will keep our air and water fresh and clean, we have to settle for one that's willing to lobby for an industry that employs 550,000 (2006 statistic), or 1.6% of all Canadians (again 2006 statistic). When did 1.6% of us represent a majority? Our statistics are telling us that climate change is real and effects all of us - should our government not be focussed on all of us instead of 1.6%? For myself, I've planted into my leftwinged attitude into a conservative stronghold, left stuck to wonder how so many blindly choose to check a name for fossilized principles - and fossilized truths... we don't own any of it, but we are definitely paying for it.