16 things that the people will never see again in Libya

Since we have officially helped Al-Qaeda take over Libya and with National Transitional Council leader Mustafa Abdul-Jalil’s announcement that Libya would follow Sharia law, here are 16 things that the people will never see again:

1. There is no electricity bill in Libya; electricity is free for all its citizens.
2. There is no interest on loans, banks in Libya are state-owned and loans given to all its citizens at zero percent interest by law.
3. Having a home considered a human right in Libya.
4. All newlyweds in Libya receive $60,000 dinar (U.S.$50,000) by the government to buy their first apartment so to help start up the family.
5. Education and medical treatments are free in Libya. Before Gaddafi only 25 percent of Libyans were literate. Today, the figure is 83 percent.
6. Should Libyans want to take up farming career, they would receive farming land, a farming house, equipments, seeds and livestock to kickstart their farms are all for free.
7. If Libyans cannot find the education or medical facilities they need, the government funds them to go abroad, for it is not only paid for, but they get a U.S.$2,300/month for accommodation and car allowance.
8. If a Libyan buys a car, the government subsidizes 50 percent of the price.
9. The price of petrol in Libya is $0.14 per liter.
10. Libya has no external debt and its reserves amounting to $150 billion are now frozen globally.
11. If a Libyan is unable to get employment after graduation the state would pay the average salary of the profession, as if he or she is employed, until employment is found.
12. A portion of every Libyan oil sale is credited directly to the bank accounts of all Libyan citizens.
13. A mother who gives birth to a child receive U.S.$5,000.
14. 40 loaves of bread in Libya costs $0.15.
15. 25 percent of Libyans have a university degree.
16. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project, known as the Great Manmade River project, to make water readily available throughout the desert country.

Colonization of africa part II

Since Gaddafi was first in Africa to be taken out by the Westerner this decade due to his oil and $$$, whos next? Here is a map from the 1914 and the list of the dictators today...

Bill Gross Tells Clients 2011 a ‘Stinker’, thats what happens when you jump the gun on a trade!

Here is a article from Bloomberg, so, Bill Gross, doesn't it suck that sometimes, no matter how right you are on fundamentals, your trade may not work.. Even Bill Gross, all his theories were right, but he just forgot one factor that caused him to trail behind this year: FEAR! Like they always teach in trend following: who cares about the fundamentals, it goes up you long, it goes down you short. There is a reason to this saying Mr Gross....

Bill Gross, manager of the world’s biggest mutual fund, told clients he misjudged the extent of the economic slowdown in developed economies, causing his Pimco Total Return Fund to trail rivals this year.
“This year is a stinker,” Gross wrote in a letter to clients entitled “mea culpa,” a copy of which was posted by Dealbreaker.com. “There is no ‘quit’ in me or anyone else on the PIMCO premises. The early morning and even midnight hours have gone up, not down, to match the increasing complexity of the global financial markets.”
Gross’s $242.2 billion Total Return Fund has returned 1.3 percent this year, lagging behind 82 percent of peers, Bloomberg data show. That’s his worst performance relative to rivals since at least 1995, the earliest year for which Bloomberg has rankings for Pimco’s flagship. Gross shunned Treasuries in the first half of the year, missing a rally as investors rushed to the safety of government-backed debt amid the European sovereign-debt crisis.
“As Europe’s crisis and the U.S. debt ceiling debacle turned developed economies towards a potential recession, the Total Return Fund had too little risk off and too much risk on,” Gross wrote.
Gross, who is co-chief investment officer at Pacific Investment Management Co. in Newport Beach, California, wrote that Pimco’s economic growth forecast for developed markets, under a scenario it termed the “new normal,” was too optimistic. The firm has revised its forecast for developed economies to zero, according to Gross.
Over the past five years, Pimco Total Return has returned 7.8 percent, beating 97 percent of its rivals, Bloomberg data show.

Just my 2 cents on the Montreal housing market

This is not really relevant to the blog, but since I always talk about how we are soon going to see a housing price correction for Canada, especially in Montreal, here is a short article:

Price levels alone don’t tell us if valuation in a particular area is high, or at risk of a substantial correction. Other factors such as average incomes in the area need to be considered. Let’s look, then, at the most recent RBC Housing Affordability Measures report.

For a standard two-storey house in Canada, home ownership costs (including mortgage payments, utilities and property taxes) take 46.2% of a household’s pre-tax income. The average since 1985 is 43.7%. Bankers historically have preferred homeownership costs to be lower than 40% of gross monthly income.

In Vancouver, the RBC affordability index stands at 77.8% (compared to the historical average of 62.9%). Next come Toronto (56.6%), Montreal (51.6%), Ottawa (40.5%) and Calgary (37.0%).

Toronto is only 3 percentage points above its historical average while Montreal is 10 points above. Ottawa is fractionally higher, while Calgary is actually 4 percentage points lower. The Maritimes, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have affordability readings from 37% to 40%, not far from their long-term averages.

Vancouver clearly raises some concerns. Indeed, the Demographia International Household Affordability Survey ranks the city the third least affordable in the world. To a lesser extent, Montreal poses a few worries. Toronto may have some of the highest houses prices in Canada but they aren’t too far out of line in relation to income levels. Ottawa looks even less risky, and Calgary -- although its average price level is relatively high -- is not only one of the most affordable the RBC survey but also showing the most improvement.

Risk can also be assessed by the ratio of house prices to household incomes, which removes the impact of mortgage rates. As mortgage rates are currently quite low and likely to revert to higher levels, price-to-income ratios provide another perspective on risk levels.

A look at the Greek Math...

• The Greek January – September budget deficit was EUR 19.16bn versus 16.65bn same period last year (+15%). This only includes the central government.
• The initial deficit target for 2011 was EUR 17bn. We blew past that after only 8 months. The revised target (July) is now 22bn (9.5% of GDP).
• Latest estimate from the Greek government: 8.5% deficit (19.5bn) for 2011 (instead of 7.6% or 17bn).
• While 2011 revenues are trending below 2010, expenses are trending higher.
• Despite all the austerity measures, Greece is still spending 150% of its revenues.
• Of course, the Ministry of Finance sees a reduction of the deficit to a miniscule 2.6% of GDP by 2014 as revenues rise and expenses come down.
• How is that possible? Somehow, after spending four consecutive years in recession (2009-2012), the economy will rise like a phoenix and grow by 5.8% in 2014.

PBOC Launches Day Two Of Currency Cold War Offensive

Zerohedge: The People's Bank of China set the yuan's central parity rate against the U.S. dollar at 6.3737 on Thursday, a second sequential major drop and down from Wednesday's 6.3598. This follows a weakened fixing of 6.3598 on Wednesday, down from the record high fixing of 6.3483 on Tuesday, just before the Senate decided to launch the first salvo in the Sino-US trade wars. Surely news of the collapse in Chinese exports will merely reinforce the theme that the USDCNY is in sudden need of devaluation and be a loud slap in the face of the Senate which will now come face to face with its utter worthlessness.  In Hong Kong, the offshore yuan spot rate was fixed at 6.4407 against the greenback on Thursday, compared with Wednesday's 6.4923. The fixing is based on an average of bids from 15 participating banks and is calculated by the Treasury Markets Association, a Hong Kong-based industry group. We are hardly the only ones who noticed the escalation in spot USDCNY wars by the PBOC, which now appears hell bent on showing the US its peg can go lower in addition to higher (inflationary consequences be damned) - from the WSJ: "The yuan fell sharply against the U.S. dollar in early Thursday trade, after the Chinese central bank surprised the market by guiding its currency weaker for the second consecutive day despite the dollar's global weakness." So even as the USD is plunging against the hope-driven Euro, which has soared 600 pips in the past week on nothing, the USD is now jumping against the CNY for no other reason than mere demagogic policy. And this environment in which central bank decisions are all that matter is the one in which traders hope to make a living based on rational market decisions (as otherwise one can flip a coin in Vegas)? Good luck.