Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith of OfTwoMinds blog,
If we understand property taxes as a "lease from the local government for the right to gamble on another housing bubble arising," we see "ownership" in a different light.
We're constantly told ours is an ownership society in which owning a home is the foundation of household wealth. The concept of ownership may appear straightforward, but consider these questions:
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Nonperforming Loans (NPLs) for U.S. Banks' Commercial & Industrial (C&I) loan portfolio is rapidly deteriorating climbing $9.32 Billion over 2015 Q4 figures.
Commercial & Industrial NPLs
While worsening C&I NPLs are concerning, it is the acceleration in the deterioration that should be alarming. The industry NPL% has leapt to 1.24% which is well above last quarter's 0.78%.
U.S. Banks Commercial & Industrial NPL %
Boston Fed's Eric Rosengren spewed forth more attempts to define the narrative as an improving one in which The Fed hikes rates to "save the world." Unfortunately, almost every word he uttered is pure propaganda and utterly false based on his "guess" - which has been so spot on for years.
First he utters...
Seems The Fed knows so much better than the 'market'...
Then he proclaimed...
2015 was the year of M&A: some $5 trillion in global merger and acqusition deals were announced, the highest level ever, topping even pre-crash 2007. In fact, last year there were more mega-deals, those valued at $20 billion or above, than ever. In all, there were 17 deals at or above that value compared with 35 such deals in the five years from 2010 through 2014. Such was the cheap debt-fuelled boom in large deals that the average size of all M&A valued at $500 million or above was $3.3 billion, up from $2.2 billion in 2014.