Tuesday January 17 2017 Housing and Economic stories

TOP STORIES:

Bitcoin Collapses, Chinese Latecomers Get Fleeced - (www.wolfstreet.com) The People’s Bank of China announced on Wednesday that it is probing the major bitcoin exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai – BTCC, Huobi, and OKCoin – for a list of violations, including market manipulation, money laundering, and unauthorized financing. This is part of the PBOC’s efforts to crack down on capital flight, a major escalation from last week, when Chinese officials warned investors – if you can call them “investors” – to be careful with bitcoin. That warning came at the peak of the spike and tipped the whole thing over. Ironically, China’s many other crackdowns on capital flight have pushed the hapless Chinese, who want their capital to flee, into bitcoin. It was seen as a way of converting their yuan into something other than yuan, which they fear will depreciate relentlessly.

Millennials are falling behind their boomer parents - (www.cnbc.com) Baby Boomers: your millennial children are worse off than you. With a median household income of $40,581, millennials earn 20 percent less than boomers did at the same stage of life, despite being better educated, according to a new analysis of Federal Reserve data by the advocacy group Young Invincibles. The analysis being released Friday gives concrete details about a troubling generational divide that helps to explain much of the anxiety that defined the 2016 election. Millennials have half the net worth of boomers. Their home ownership rate is lower, while their student debt is drastically higher.

China Commodities Juggernaut Rolls Into 2017 as Records Tumble - (www.bloomberg.com) The appetite for raw materials in the world’s biggest consumer keeps getting bigger. China’s imports of crude oil and iron ore rose to records in 2016, while coal buying expanded for the first time in three years, according to government data released Friday. Growing domestic demand sent steel and aluminum exports down, while outbound shipments of oil products soared as the country sought to reform its refining industry and fuel specifications. Iron ore imports surged to a record above 1 billion metric tons on unexpectedly strong steel production and lower local mine output. Meanwhile, exports of steel and aluminum ended years of expansion, with producers selling more at home as government stimulus sparked a surprise rebound in buildings, infrastructure and manufacturing.

Not pocket change: Man delivers 298,745 pennies to DMV – (www.foxnews.com) A Virginia man who had a beef with the Department of Motor Vehicles settled his sales tax bill with 298,745 pennies. Workers at the DMV office in Lebanon, in rural southwestern Virginia, had to spend hours counting the pennies by hand when the coin-counting machine jammed. Nick Stafford carted the pennies into the DMV in five wheelbarrows Wednesday. The coins weighed 1,600 pounds. “If they were going to inconvenience me, then I was going to inconvenience them,” he told the Bristol Herald Courier. The paper reported that Stafford became incensed in September when he attempted to call the Lebanon DMV and was routed to a call center in faraway Richmond.

Multi-Billionaire Hugo Salinas Price Just Issued A Dire Warning To The World - (www.kingworldnews.com) With so many people around the globe worried about what the planet faces in 2017, multi-billionaire Hugo Salinas Price just issued this dire warning to the world. Multi-billionaire Hugo Salinas Price:  The president elect of the US, Mr. Trump, does not know what he is doing when he proposes protectionist measures to encourage the reindustrialization of the US and bring home again, the American industry that emigrated to foreign lands. The US lost their industry as a result of the Bretton Woods Agreements, which were signed (under pressure) by representatives of the allied countries and of the countries conquered by the US in World War II. Those Agreements established the world’s monetary system for the post-war world, after the victory of the Allies, which was already in sight in 1944.

OTHER STORIES:

What’s Causing Those Capital Outflows From China: QuickTake Q&A - (www.bloomberg.com)
China, Russia agree on more 'countermeasures' against U.S. anti-missile system: Xinhua
Trump’s Pick on Trade Could Put China in a Difficult Spot - (www.nytimes.com)

Federal Reserve Shows Greater Unity on Path for Interest Rates - (www.wsj.com)
U.S. Budget Deficit Widening Again Amid Talk of Possible Tax Cuts - (www.wsj.com)
Japan leads surge in equity inflows at start of the year - (www.ft.com)