Tag: finance

If you BTFATH today, this is the forward-looking fundamental backdrop that is supporting your decision…

 

 

(h/t @Not_Jim_Cramer)

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/vayWngxWdeM/story01.htm Tyler Durden

What do you do if you have more money than you can ever spend, and own residences in most major metropolises around the world. You invest in the most exclusive “third” (or fourth, or fifth) vacation “house” that can be purchased by people for whom money is no object, such as the $1 billion Faena Miami Beach, which has lined up as buyers none other than the creme of the (bailed out courtesy of a multi-trillion ongoing taxpayer bailout) Wall Street crop including Apollo’s Leon Black, and of course Goldman’s very own resident of a duplex in 15 CPW, Lloyd Blankfein. The Faena oceanfront development for the megarich is financed by another billionaire, chairman of Access Industries, Len Blavatnik, whose $16.1 billion net worth puts him 49th in the Bloomberg Billionaires index.

What is it? Bloomberg covers the bases:

The project will feature an 18-story tower with 47 residences priced at $3 million to $50 million, two luxury hotels and an arts center designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Rem Koolhaas.

 

Faena’s residential tower, designed by Norman Foster’s Foster + Partners, also has attracted New York dealer Larry Gagosian among the buyers, according to the people.

 

Some residences will have 20-foot ceilings to accommodate large artworks, and many buyers requested to install special film in the windows to protect the art from direct sunlight, he said.

 

Anchored by the historic Surf Club, where Winston Churchill came to paint and Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor came to play, it will include a five-star hotel and two 12-story residential buildings designed by another Pritzker winner, Richard Meier. The Surf Club Hotel & Residences will be Meier’s first project in Miami, he said at a Dec. 5 poolside brunch celebrating the development.

 

The 8-acre (3.2 hectare) project includes more than 800 feet (244 meters) of beach, according to developer Nadim Achi. The 150 units will include nine penthouses, each with a private garden and a swimming pool. Three of the penthouses have sold for prices from $20 million to $25 million, he said.

 

“The mega-wealthy are looking for exclusivity, service and design,” Achi said, drinking bottled water at a cabana overlooking the ocean and a giant construction pit. “A lot of buyers who are deciding to make Miami their second or third residence came through Art Basel.”

 

“Miami real estate is on steroids,” said Mera Rubell, a local art collector who attended the Faena dinner. “The fantasy is about the community. But what are the chances all these billionaires will show up at the same time?”

From the building’s website:

• Architecture and interiors designed by Foster+Partners
• Porte-cochère entrance with travertine paved drive
• Dramatic 27’ triple height lobby defined by polished black concrete fin walls
• Floor-to-ceiling window wall systems with wide, custom designed and engineered sliding panels
• Lobby walls in polished architectural concrete with blackened steel finish on all lobby doors
• Tranquil pools through the lobby area into the surrounding landscape
• Lobby and elevator flooring in polished stone
• Three passenger elevators with interiors in Bendheim glass and Japanese silk paper running at 500 feet per minute
• Dedicated service elevator running at 350 feet per minute

Interior Features

• Atlantic Ocean, bay and city panoramas through floor-to-ceiling glass
• Private or semi-private elevator vestibules
• Service entrances in 2 to 5 bedroom homes
• 10?-6? Ceiling Heights, 11?  or 13? in Penthouses
• Entry foyers with stone flooring and teak entry doors
• Master bathrooms with double sink vanities, separate bathtubs and glass showers
• Morning Kitchens in master bedrooms of all penthouses
• Laundry Rooms with full sized side-by-side washer and dryers in most residences
• Choice of flooring: White Venetian Terrazzo or 8? Light White Oak
• Fan coil system with multiple zones to maintain better temperature and humidity control
• Integrated motorized blinds in dual tone fabric throughout residences
• Trapex door handles designed by Foster+Partners
• Trufig flush-mounted electric fixtures
• Optional Staff Quarters

Grand Scale

• Interiors range from 1,307 to 4,730 sq ft (121.4 to 439.4 sq m)
• Aleros range from 420 to 1,516 sq ft (39.0 to 140.8 sq m)
• Half floor Penthouses range from 4,243 to 6,399 sq ft (394.2 to 594.5 sq m)
• Half floor Aleros range from 2,727 to 3,887 sq ft (253 to 361 sq m)

Penthouse Features

• Total Living 18,253 sq ft (1695.8 sq m)
• Indoor 8,273 sq ft (768.6 sq m)
• Alero 7,299 sq ft (678.1 sq m)
• Private Rooftop with pool 2,681 sq ft (249.1 sq m)

And the punchline from none other than Blavatnik, wearing his best salesman outfit:

“I remind you, there are very few apartments left,” he told the crowd from a stage. “Hurry.”

Hurry indeed, before the music stops, the Fed’s liquidity tide recedes, and people start asking questions.

In the meantime, this is what Lloyd and company will buy with the Fed’s “wealth effect.”

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Iy9cMCIGKd8/story01.htm Tyler Durden

What do you do if you have more money than you can ever spend, and own residences in most major metropolises around the world. You invest in the most exclusive “third” (or fourth, or fifth) vacation “house” that can be purchased by people for whom money is no object, such as the $1 billion Faena Miami Beach, which has lined up as buyers none other than the creme of the (bailed out courtesy of a multi-trillion ongoing taxpayer bailout) Wall Street crop including Apollo’s Leon Black, and of course Goldman’s very own resident of a duplex in 15 CPW, Lloyd Blankfein. The Faena oceanfront development for the megarich is financed by another billionaire, chairman of Access Industries, Len Blavatnik, whose $16.1 billion net worth puts him 49th in the Bloomberg Billionaires index.

What is it? Bloomberg covers the bases:

The project will feature an 18-story tower with 47 residences priced at $3 million to $50 million, two luxury hotels and an arts center designed by Pritzker Architecture Prize winner Rem Koolhaas.

 

Faena’s residential tower, designed by Norman Foster’s Foster + Partners, also has attracted New York dealer Larry Gagosian among the buyers, according to the people.

 

Some residences will have 20-foot ceilings to accommodate large artworks, and many buyers requested to install special film in the windows to protect the art from direct sunlight, he said.

 

Anchored by the historic Surf Club, where Winston Churchill came to paint and Frank Sinatra and Elizabeth Taylor came to play, it will include a five-star hotel and two 12-story residential buildings designed by another Pritzker winner, Richard Meier. The Surf Club Hotel & Residences will be Meier’s first project in Miami, he said at a Dec. 5 poolside brunch celebrating the development.

 

The 8-acre (3.2 hectare) project includes more than 800 feet (244 meters) of beach, according to developer Nadim Achi. The 150 units will include nine penthouses, each with a private garden and a swimming pool. Three of the penthouses have sold for prices from $20 million to $25 million, he said.

 

“The mega-wealthy are looking for exclusivity, service and design,” Achi said, drinking bottled water at a cabana overlooking the ocean and a giant construction pit. “A lot of buyers who are deciding to make Miami their second or third residence came through Art Basel.”

 

“Miami real estate is on steroids,” said Mera Rubell, a local art collector who attended the Faena dinner. “The fantasy is about the community. But what are the chances all these billionaires will show up at the same time?”

From the building’s website:

• Architecture and interiors designed by Foster+Partners
• Porte-cochère entrance with travertine paved drive
• Dramatic 27’ triple height lobby defined by polished black concrete fin walls
• Floor-to-ceiling window wall systems with wide, custom designed and engineered sliding panels
• Lobby walls in polished architectural concrete with blackened steel finish on all lobby doors
• Tranquil pools through the lobby area into the surrounding landscape
• Lobby and elevator flooring in polished stone
• Three passenger elevators with interiors in Bendheim glass and Japanese silk paper running at 500 feet per minute
• Dedicated service elevator running at 350 feet per minute

Interior Features

• Atlantic Ocean, bay and city panoramas through floor-to-ceiling glass
• Private or semi-private elevator vestibules
• Service entrances in 2 to 5 bedroom homes
• 10?-6? Ceiling Heights, 11?  or 13? in Penthouses
• Entry foyers with stone flooring and teak entry doors
• Master bathrooms with double sink vanities, separate bathtubs and glass showers
• Morning Kitchens in master bedrooms of all penthouses
• Laundry Rooms with full sized side-by-side washer and dryers in most residences
• Choice of flooring: White Venetian Terrazzo or 8? Light White Oak
• Fan coil system with multiple zones to maintain better temperature and humidity control
• Integrated motorized blinds in dual tone fabric throughout residences
• Trapex door handles designed by Foster+Partners
• Trufig flush-mounted electric fixtures
• Optional Staff Quarters

Grand Scale

• Interiors range from 1,307 to 4,730 sq ft (121.4 to 439.4 sq m)
• Aleros range from 420 to 1,516 sq ft (39.0 to 140.8 sq m)
• Half floor Penthouses range from 4,243 to 6,399 sq ft (394.2 to 594.5 sq m)
• Half floor Aleros range from 2,727 to 3,887 sq ft (253 to 361 sq m)

Penthouse Features

• Total Living 18,253 sq ft (1695.8 sq m)
• Indoor 8,273 sq ft (768.6 sq m)
• Alero 7,299 sq ft (678.1 sq m)
• Private Rooftop with pool 2,681 sq ft (249.1 sq m)

And the punchline from none other than Blavatnik, wearing his best salesman outfit:

“I remind you, there are very few apartments left,” he told the crowd from a stage. “Hurry.”

Hurry indeed, before the music stops, the Fed’s liquidity tide recedes, and people start asking questions.

In the meantime, this is what Lloyd and company will buy with the Fed’s “wealth effect.”

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/Iy9cMCIGKd8/story01.htm Tyler Durden

“In 1960, about one in four renters paid more than 30% of income for housing. Today, one in two are cost burdened,” according to a new study (ironically) by Harvard University. As Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Peter Coy notes, the availability of apartments, especially cheaper ones, hasn’t nearly kept up with demand, and the problem has worsened since the 2007-09 recession. Remarkably, the number or people with severe cost burdens (paying over 50% of income to rent) is up by 2.5 million in just four years, to 11.3 million; and as usual, the pinch is hardest on the poor. The share of cost-burdened renters increased by a stunning 12 percentage points between 2000 and 2010, the largest jump in any decade dating back at least to 1960.

 

Via Bloomberg BusinessWeek,

If you can’t afford to own, you can rent. But what if you can’t afford to rent, either? Millions of Americans are in precisely that situation, according to a study released today by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The availability of apartments, especially cheaper ones, hasn’t nearly kept up with demand, and the problem has worsened since the 2007-09 recession, the study says.

 

 

 

“In 1960, about one in four renters paid more than 30 percent of income for housing. Today, one in two are cost burdened,” according to the study, America’s Rental Housing.

 

“Cost-burdened” means you’re paying more than 30 percent of income for housing and “severely cost-burdened” means you’re paying more than half. “By 2011, 28 percent of renters paid more than half their incomes for housing, bringing the number with severe cost burdens up by 2.5 million in just four years, to 11.3 million,” according to the Harvard study, which was conducted with partial funding from the MacArthur Foundation.

 

 

 

The boom in housing prices made ownership unaffordable for many families, and the subsequent bust forced others into foreclosure. You would think that all of those foreclosed homes would make great rental properties, and they have. “Remarkably,” though, the study says, “soaring demand was more than enough to absorb the 2.7 million single-family homes that flooded into the rental market after 2007.”

 

The result of the spike in rental demand is a seller’s market: “From a record high of 10.6 percent in 2009, the vacancy rate turned down in 2010 and has continued to slide, averaging 8.4 percent in the first three quarters of 2013.”

 

 

 

As usual, the pinch is hardest on the poor, those with incomes under $15,000 a year who pay at least half their incomes on rent. “With little else in their already tight budgets to cut, these renters spend about $130 less on food—a reduction of nearly 40 percent relative to those without burdens.”

 

The problem would get worse if Congress, in its zeal to eliminate loopholes from the tax code, were to rid of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. That tax credit provides incentives for construction or preservation of affordable housing units—about 2.2 million since 1986.

 

Deterioration is another potential enemy of affordable housing. According to the center’s study, more than one in five mobile homes was removed from the housing stock from 2001 to 2011.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/EpFuGUKWTm0/story01.htm Tyler Durden

“In 1960, about one in four renters paid more than 30% of income for housing. Today, one in two are cost burdened,” according to a new study (ironically) by Harvard University. As Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Peter Coy notes, the availability of apartments, especially cheaper ones, hasn’t nearly kept up with demand, and the problem has worsened since the 2007-09 recession. Remarkably, the number or people with severe cost burdens (paying over 50% of income to rent) is up by 2.5 million in just four years, to 11.3 million; and as usual, the pinch is hardest on the poor. The share of cost-burdened renters increased by a stunning 12 percentage points between 2000 and 2010, the largest jump in any decade dating back at least to 1960.

 

Via Bloomberg BusinessWeek,

If you can’t afford to own, you can rent. But what if you can’t afford to rent, either? Millions of Americans are in precisely that situation, according to a study released today by the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. The availability of apartments, especially cheaper ones, hasn’t nearly kept up with demand, and the problem has worsened since the 2007-09 recession, the study says.

 

 

 

“In 1960, about one in four renters paid more than 30 percent of income for housing. Today, one in two are cost burdened,” according to the study, America’s Rental Housing.

 

“Cost-burdened” means you’re paying more than 30 percent of income for housing and “severely cost-burdened” means you’re paying more than half. “By 2011, 28 percent of renters paid more than half their incomes for housing, bringing the number with severe cost burdens up by 2.5 million in just four years, to 11.3 million,” according to the Harvard study, which was conducted with partial funding from the MacArthur Foundation.

 

 

 

The boom in housing prices made ownership unaffordable for many families, and the subsequent bust forced others into foreclosure. You would think that all of those foreclosed homes would make great rental properties, and they have. “Remarkably,” though, the study says, “soaring demand was more than enough to absorb the 2.7 million single-family homes that flooded into the rental market after 2007.”

 

The result of the spike in rental demand is a seller’s market: “From a record high of 10.6 percent in 2009, the vacancy rate turned down in 2010 and has continued to slide, averaging 8.4 percent in the first three quarters of 2013.”

 

 

 

As usual, the pinch is hardest on the poor, those with incomes under $15,000 a year who pay at least half their incomes on rent. “With little else in their already tight budgets to cut, these renters spend about $130 less on food—a reduction of nearly 40 percent relative to those without burdens.”

 

The problem would get worse if Congress, in its zeal to eliminate loopholes from the tax code, were to rid of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit. That tax credit provides incentives for construction or preservation of affordable housing units—about 2.2 million since 1986.

 

Deterioration is another potential enemy of affordable housing. According to the center’s study, more than one in five mobile homes was removed from the housing stock from 2001 to 2011.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/EpFuGUKWTm0/story01.htm Tyler Durden

Bereft of holiday gift ideas for the greater-fool in your house? Too much hard multiple-expanded cash burning a binary hole in your Prime Broker’s servers? Then spend it all on what will truly set you above the rest of the 0.1% – the following two lovely unicorns.

 

Via Craiglist:

 

h/t @Stalingrad_Poor

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/BCdcKd7ye-0/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The WSJ has revealed the latest developments of tomorrow’s “fluid” Volcker Rule vote on prop trading:

• Volcker Rule Will Bar Compensation Arrangements That Reward Proprietary Trading, Rule Text Says
• Rule Will Exempt Foreign Sovereign Debt From Proprietary Trading Ban, According To Rule Text Reviewed By Wall Street Journal
• Volcker Rule Will Apply To Foreign Banks With Operation In U.S.
• Market Making Language Will Require Banks Provide “Demonstrable” Analysis Of Historical Customer Demand
• Volcker Rule Requires Banks Detail Specific Risk Hedges Designed To Mitigate
• Rule Requires Ongoing Review Of Hedges To Ensure Compliance
• Volcker Rule Will Restrict Banks From Sponsoring Or Making Investments In Most Hedge, Private Equity and Venture Capital Funds
• Rule Considers “Covered Fund” Any Fund That Would Be Investment Company If Not For Investment Company Act Exemptions

In other words, prop trading itself will not be explicitly barred, just associated compensation (and banks can still buy as much Italian and Spanish bonds for their accounts as they want). Which means banks can engage in as much prop trading as they wish (which courtesy of $2.4 trillion in excess deposits aka excess reserves is a lot) and bang as much VIX closes as they desire, they just need to have trader bonus “arranagements” to be tied to something else. Like make-believe flow trading which can be manipulated to show anything and everything.

Wall Street 1 – Non-FDIC backstopped fair markets 0. Again.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/PChiZ8zjVT4/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The spin does not get any better than this… As they reported they would,

• *LEW SAYS U.S. SOLD ALL REMAINING SHARES OF GENERAL MOTORS RECOUPING $39 BLN OF ORIGINAL GM INVESTMENT

That is a $10.5 Billion loss! But, The Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan nonprofit organization that analyzes auto industry issues, those funds “saved or avoided the loss of $105.3 billion in transfer payments and the loss of personal and social insurance tax collections — or 768% of the net investment.”

 

Via LA Times,

…

 

Additionally, the center said the bailouts and financial restructurings saved about 2.6 million jobs in the U.S. economy in 2009 and $284.4 billion in personal income over 2009 and 2010.

 

In the report, “The Effect on the U.S. Economy of the Successful Restructuring of General Motors,” researchers Sean McAlinden and Debra Maranger Menk wrote that the value of the bailouts can’t be considered just by what the taxpayers will lose in the sale of GM’s stock.

…

 

“If you only count the things that make you look good and don’t count the things that make you look bad, any investment will look good and any investment will be profitable,” said Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.

 

He said the analysis doesn’t place a value on the adjustments that the auto industry would have been forced to make in the absence of a bailout.

 

“Those adjustments, more meaningful concessions in labor costs and work rules, would have put the auto industry on a sounder footing,” he said.
 

We can't wait to hear how much Bill Ackman made or saved on his Herbalife investment…

Ackman lost a ton on HLF, but because the company didn't liquidate he made or saved thousands of Herbalife jobs.

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 9, 2013

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/uCXvvCFfmNE/story01.htm Tyler Durden

The spin does not get any better than this… As they reported they would,

• *LEW SAYS U.S. SOLD ALL REMAINING SHARES OF GENERAL MOTORS RECOUPING $39 BLN OF ORIGINAL GM INVESTMENT

That is a $10.5 Billion loss! But, The Center for Automotive Research, a Michigan nonprofit organization that analyzes auto industry issues, those funds “saved or avoided the loss of $105.3 billion in transfer payments and the loss of personal and social insurance tax collections — or 768% of the net investment.”

 

Via LA Times,

…

 

Additionally, the center said the bailouts and financial restructurings saved about 2.6 million jobs in the U.S. economy in 2009 and $284.4 billion in personal income over 2009 and 2010.

 

In the report, “The Effect on the U.S. Economy of the Successful Restructuring of General Motors,” researchers Sean McAlinden and Debra Maranger Menk wrote that the value of the bailouts can’t be considered just by what the taxpayers will lose in the sale of GM’s stock.

…

 

“If you only count the things that make you look good and don’t count the things that make you look bad, any investment will look good and any investment will be profitable,” said Dan Mitchell, senior fellow at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute.

 

He said the analysis doesn’t place a value on the adjustments that the auto industry would have been forced to make in the absence of a bailout.

 

“Those adjustments, more meaningful concessions in labor costs and work rules, would have put the auto industry on a sounder footing,” he said.
 

We can't wait to hear how much Bill Ackman made or saved on his Herbalife investment…

Ackman lost a ton on HLF, but because the company didn't liquidate he made or saved thousands of Herbalife jobs.

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) December 9, 2013

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/uCXvvCFfmNE/story01.htm Tyler Durden

WTF was this!!??

 

Apparently pummeling the close is only illegal if its leads to lower stock prices… or, somehow, higher gold.

via Zero Hedge http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/zerohedge/feed/~3/1TZmou8eCzs/story01.htm Tyler Durden