Thursday August 6 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

After Quick 8.5% Crash, Confusion Reigns in China’s Stock Market - (www.bloomberg.com) It’s days like Monday that reassure Tony Hann he was right to avoid stocks in mainland China. The severity of an 8.5 percent drop in the Shanghai Composite Index is bad enough, but what irks him the most is not knowing why it tumbled so much. In a market where unprecedented intervention has made government money one of the biggest drivers of share prices, authorities aren’t transparent enough for investors to make informed decisions, said Hann, the head of emerging markets at Blackfriars Asset Management Ltd.  Monday’s plunge was all the more surprising because it followed a government rescue package that had helped drive a 16 percent rally since July 8. That support appeared to vanish without warning, leaving analysts guessing whether authorities shifted their policy stance or just got overwhelmed by a flood of sell orders. After the close of trading, the securities regulator denied speculation that the government has exited the stock market. Investors “are concerned and lost,” said Alex Wong, a Hong Kong-based asset-management director at Ample Capital Ltd., which oversees about $155 million. “China’s market is distorted, so you can’t sell short very confidently and you can’t buy up very confidently either.”

Los Angeles Unions Fought for a $15 Minimum Wage. Now They Want to Be Exempt From It - (www.slate.com)  Just like it did in Seattle and San Francisco, organized labor helped lead the fight to raise Los Angeles' minimum wage to $15 an hour. But now, with the City Council preparing to pass a final version of the bill that would do so, union leaders are asking for a major carve-out that would let businesses with collective bargaining agreements pay their employees less. In other words, they would like an exemption from the very law they've been trying to pass. "With a collective bargaining agreement, a business owner and the employees negotiate an agreement that works for them both," Rusty Hicks, head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and co-chairman of the Raise the Wage coalition, said in a statement. "This provision gives the parties the option, the freedom, to negotiate that agreement." Predictably, the move has led to some charges of hypocrisy from conservatives, as well as pure bafflement among others. In Los Angeles, the Chamber of Commerce is arguing that labor groups want the change so that business owners will simply let workers organize instead of paying the new minimum, which would plump up union rolls.

Florida council official tells resident his BBQ smoke 'cannot leave the property'  - (www.dailymail.co.uk)  A bizarre video has emerged out of Florida showing a man who says he is a council official telling a resident that the smoke from their barbecue is not allowed to leave the property. The video, which went viral over the weekend, shows the male resident arguing with the apparent official and not believing what he is being told. 'I'm only here because of the odor, I'm only here because of the smoke,' the official says the clip. The resident tells the official that it's only a barbecue and that most residents in the street 'cook out'. The official alludes to the fact one of the man's neighbors had complained about the smell he was producing.  Then the official says: 'Frankly, today, I can smell it, I can smell it again right now, but I'm on your property. 'You're allowed to have it smell on your property, so that doesn't count, but when I'm on the street, that's when it counts.' The official finishes up by saying that the barbecue smoke, by a rule in force in Pinellas County, cannot cross their property line, Opposing Views reported.

[Bloomberg] China Rout Spreads Across Emerging Markets as Ruble Drops on Oil - (www.bloomberg.com)   Developing-nation stocks slumped to the lowest since 2013 as China’s equity rout spread around the world and Brent crude’s slide into a bear market sapped energy shares. The Shanghai Composite Index sank 8.5 percent on concern a three-week rally sparked by unprecedented government intervention is unsustainable as the economic outlook worsens. Stock markets in India, Russia and Saudi Arabia each fell at least 2 percent. The real traded at a 12-year low and the Ibovespa dropped for a seventh day as economists forecast a deeper decline in Brazil’s gross domestic product this year. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index retreated 2 percent to 892.60, bringing its drop in July to 8.2 percent, on course for the worst monthly performance since 2012. Chinese industrial profits fell 0.3 percent year on year in June, official data showed on Monday, underpinning the risks to the world’s second-largest economy that threaten to curtail trade with other developing nations. “Until we see signs of better Chinese data, emerging-market assets will be under pressure,” Michael Wang, a London-based strategist at Amiya Capital LLP, said by e-mail. “Chinese growth concerns will continue to impact commodity and commodity currencies the most.”

China Stocks Sink Most Since 2007 as State-Induced Calm Shatters - (www.bloomberg.com) China’s stocks tumbled, with the benchmark index falling the most since February 2007, amid concern a three-week rally sparked by unprecedented government intervention is unsustainable. The Shanghai Composite Index plunged 8.5 percent to 3,725.56 at the close, with 75 stocks dropping for each one that rose. PetroChina Co., long considered a target of state-linked market support funds, tumbled by a record 9.6 percent. China Securities Finance Corp., a state-backed agency that provides margin financing and liquidity, hasn’t exited the stock market, China Securities Regulatory Commission spokesman Zhang Xiaojun said in a statement after the close of trading. Monday’s retreat shattered the sense of calm that had fallen over mainland markets last week and raised questions over the viability of government efforts to prop up share prices as the economy slows. China’s industrial profits fell 0.3 percent in June from a year earlier, the statistics bureau reported on Monday. The International Monetary Fund has urged China to eventually unwind its support measures, according to a person familiar with the matter.

OTHER STORIES:

China Stocks Sink Most Since 2007 as State-Induced Calm Shatters - (www.bloomberg.com)
China Rout Leads Stocks Lower as Dollar Drops, Treasuries Rise - (www.bloomberg.com)
China Rout Spreads Across Emerging Markets as Ruble Drops on Oil - (www.bloomberg.com)
Turkey’s Lira Heads for Record Low as Bonds Slide Amid Violence - (www.bloomberg.com)

Ruble Sinks Most in World on Oil Slump as Stocks Fall With Bonds - (www.bloomberg.com)
IMF paints dim picture for Europe, suggests more money printing may be needed - (www.reuters.com)
These 10 States Will Be Hurting the Most After the Commodities Meltdown - (www.bloomberg.com)
Beijing faces dilemma after China stock market rout  - (www.ft.com)
Traders Burned by Graft Scandal Now Singed by Brazil Bank Probe - (www.bloomberg.com)
Yanis Varoufakis Revealed Secret Plans for Parallel Greek Payment System in Recorded Phone Call - (www.bloomberg.com)