Von_Jones

Is it any wonder this is happening when the central organising feature of our political, economic and personal lives is a huge ponzi scheme? This reality has destroyed the possibility of changing a system to benefit all. This ponzi scheme is the housing market: since the late 90s this has ceased to be a true market, and instead became a pyramid scheme in which value growth and price is based on the expectation that money will be sucked in from new investors, not derived from the utility of house-ownership or expectation for yield. This is the very definition of ponzi - and it governs so much of our lives. Why are the young and the old so segregated in their voting? It's because they are either the beneficiaries of or the 'bigger suckers' in this state-sponsored fraud - and can be mobilised accordingly. Until the housing market is dealt with, it will be impossible for politicians to create policies which 'grow the pie', increasing wealth for all, rather than simply carving it up - governing by robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The only solution I can see if for the young to organise to boycott house purchase, but I am not yet sure how realistic this.

1. Cost of living soars in Britain. 2. Britain's young people want to leave: Europe offers a better deal. Cheaper property, better employment conditions, better looking men and women, good food. 3. Britain's codger population votes to pull up the drawbridge - not to keep the foreigners out, but to keep its youth enslaved.

You poor bastards, good luck to you.

I am not an American and I wonder why the most likely presidential candidate is the one taking somewhat opaque "speaker's fees" from an organisation that a lot of Americans realise operates in ways akin to a mafia. From the outside it like turkeys voting for Xmas.

WELL DONE CHAPS! Hopefully this will push governments into contributions of equivalent relative magnitude - ie many times the 20 BN that ZuckerGates are valiantly contributing.

This article is super interesting and potentially highly political, although Bloomberg does well to neutralize the issue behind straight business reporting.

Related, I am interested in the following questions and am looking to do some research in the new year to investigate:

1. How much is paid in home loan interest to banks annually. 2. How much of this bank income is paid in interest to (a) savers, (b) other issuers of debt 3. How much of this bank income is paid in dividends to bank owners. 4. How much of this bank income is paid in salaries to bank staff. 5. How long the average home owner spends working for the above three categories in their quest for home ownership (I look at this as a form of indenture).

Following this article, I will also be looking at the question of how much in rental income is paid to financial institutions.

I am also interested in the relationship between bank lending and house price increases, ie as banks lend more, do they understand how this affects future business, ie an increase in lending of 10%, leads to house price rises of x%, leading to an increase in bank income of y%.

I guess there must be such models out there?

Any sources of data / reading would be much appreciated!