Business

By Charles Mudede Of The Stranger's Slog

Occupancy Rate Becoming Less of a Concern for Downtown's Real Estate Investors

I was recently informed by local economist and manager of IDEAeconomics, a website that promotes post-Keynesian views (and post-Keynesian must not be confused with neo-Keynesians), Alan Harvey that a significant shift has occurred in the market for commercial property in Seattle's downtown area.

The dream of transition to a 'consuming' economy just crashed into the wall of excess debt and leverage. 2016 has started with a 44% collapse in China passenger car sales. This is the biggest sequential crash and is 50% larger than any other plunge in history.

While there is a seasonal effect here obviously, the sheer scale of this 2-month drop - which removes the new year holiday affect - indicates something is terribly wrong in China.

India has banned companies such as Monsanto from conducting GMO seed trials on their land, saying that the risks to public health and the environment are too high.  Bihar’s Agriculture Minister, Narendra Kumar Singh, confirmed that India’s food supply will be protected from GMO companies growing genetically modified corn on Indian land and assured the public that seeds will be protected from contamination from genetic material drift. Naturalnews.com reports: His speech was given at the 2014 Seed Festival at the A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies.

It’s no secret by now that China has a rather serious debt problem.

Although getting a precise read on it is next to impossible, all told the debt pile probably sums to something like $30 trillion. Various reports put the figure at between 250% and 300% of GDP all-in and as we reported back in January, that may have swelled to more than 340% by the end of 2015.

A leaked document has revealed that unelected European Commission (EC) officials won’t be able to make new trade laws without asking Washington first, if the secretive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) comes into force.