“In America, Nielsen found in 2017 that 3% of the population called themselves vegans and 6% vegetarians (people who eschew meat, but eat eggs and/or dairy products). This proportion seems more or less stable; the country’s largest polling organisations, Gallup and Harris, both found 3% of the population calling themselves vegan over the period 2012-18. But more detailed research by Faunalytics, a company which has been running large surveys of eating habits for 20 years, puts the numbers at just 0.5% for vegans and 3.4% for vegetarians. Fully a quarter of 25- to 34-year-olds in America claim to be either vegan or vegetarian, whereas studies by Faunalytics find the median age of American vegans to be 42, four years older than the national median. It seems that a fair amount of aspirational self-deception, terminological inexactitude or simple hypocrisy is at play.” -“the retreat from meat”, in the economist, oct 18 2018

:D :D

ingleses, tell me about this bercow guy. the washington post just painted him as a hilarious shit-stirrer

“stick to your abacus, man” :D :D :D

—

eta saw his youtubes. not a shit stirrer but a shit queller

“order. order.” lololol

copypasta:

Home price growth skids to a 4-year low, Case-Shiller says
Jan 29, 2019 at 9:00 a.m. ET
By Andrea Riquier
There’s still a lot of catch-up from the most distressed cities going on: Vegas saw 12% annual price growth

The numbers: The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city index rose a seasonally adjusted 0.3% in November compared to October and was 4.7% higher compared to a year ago. That was the slowest pace of annual growth since January 2015.

What happened: Home price growth just kept slowing as housing headwinds gathered late last year. The headline number for the Case-Shiller report covering the three months ending in November missed the Econoday consensus forecast of a 4.9% yearly increase.

See also: Existing-home sales slide to a 3-year low as housing market stumbles

Big picture: In normal times, a near-5% yearly increase for home prices would be just about right. But these are hardly normal times for the American housing market. Scant supply and oversized demand have pushed prices too high, and even with the recent cooling, it’s not clear whether there’s inventory, or financing, that will help make housing available to everyone who needs it.

What happened: Home price growth just kept slowing as housing headwinds gathered late last year. The headline number for the Case-Shiller report covering the three months ending in November missed the Econoday consensus forecast of a 4.9% yearly increase.

In November, the metro areas with the biggest year-on-year gains were Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Seattle. But many of the biggest losers on a monthly basis were the cities where prices had surged: Denver, San Francisco, and, yes, Seattle.

Metro area Monthly change 12-Month change
Atlanta 0.3% 6.2%
Boston 0.1% 5.6%
Charlotte 0.2% 5.5%
Chicago -0.7% 3.1%
Cleveland -0.7% 4.6%
Dallas 0.2% 4.0%
Denver -0.3% 6.2%
Detroit -0.4% 5.7%
Las Vegas 0.0% 12.0%
Los Angeles -0.3% 4.4%
Miami 0.3% 5.0%
Minneapolis -0.2% 5.8%
New York 0.4% 3.5%
Phoenix 0.3% 8.1%
Portland -0.5% 4.4%
San Diego -0.6% 3.3%
San Francisco -0.7% 5.6%
Seattle -0.7% 6.3%
Tampa 0.4% 5.7%
Washington 0.0% 2.7%

Market reaction: The 10-year Treasury noteTMUBMUSD10Y -0.46% , which sets the tone for fixed-rate mortgages, has benefited from a recent round of stock market turbulence.

See also: Mortgage rates aren’t moving — where do home sales go from here?

What they’re saying: “Home prices are still rising, but more slowly than in recent months,” said David M. Blitzer, chairman of the Index Committee at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “The pace of price increases are being dampened by declining sales of existing homes and weaker affordability. Sales peaked in November 2017 and drifted down through 2018. Affordability reflects higher prices and increased mortgage rates through much of last year.”

Read: The man behind Case-Shiller on why the housing index has no Houston and why that’s no problem

venezuelan military starting to ditch maduro

how soon till he’s in cuba?

From The Economist Espresso

1/8
The leaders of Germany and Japan meet in Tokyo today to consecrate a new trade deal between Japan and the European Union. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, and Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, have recently huddled closer together, as the chilly winds of protectionism blow through the global economy. On February 1st Mr Abe faced down his country’s farming lobby to pass the Economic Partnership Agreement, which covers about a third of the world’s GDP and eliminates most tariffs on European food imports to Japan. Both leaders are trying to fill the vacuum left by America. They have little choice: as major exporters, their countries’ prosperity depends heavily on open trading rules. Shared priorities means they will be careful not to tread on diplomatic toes. On a previous visit in 2015, Mrs Merkel nagged Japan to follow Germany’s lead by confronting its historical misconduct. This time, there will be no mention of the second world war.


and then!

6/8
...
Nissan, a Japanese carmaker, announced that its new X-Trail SUV model would no longer be made in its British factory in Sunderland, but back in Japan. Nissan cited political uncertainty as a factor, saying Brexit is “not helping companies like ours to plan for the future”. Britain’s government had fought hard to keep the car.
...

AMLO starting to act like some economic messiah in Mexico, dumping experts and technocrats in favor of... his own whims?

not a good look

Semi-related but I read this article on the way home from work and thought you might find it interesting:

https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/c...-a4057926.html

oh yes! thanks. good read!

i've probably read her articles in the economist, but they don't sign their names there. last weekend's issue was all about venezuela so this looks a lot like that, except for what it means in england to have your labor party led by a rabanito, ha ha ha.

yeah maduro is a real motherfucker. he's way worse than chávez, as he's murdered a lot of people. but then again, chávez enjoyed a boom in oil prices which allowed for vast patronage, whereas maduro reaped the crash and put even his accomplices on a diet. either way, fucking idiots, both of them.

hey demonyo (if you read this) i just got to this article today:

https://www.economist.com/britain/20...byns-worldview

you really have no life at all do you


Total Posts: 38,011 (8.08 posts per day) Find all posts by !@#$%!

and you’re watching what a no-life does, so consider the depths of your despair

It takes like 5 seconds to post something dude.

Why the need for a false sense of superiority, tesla?

As if anyone who posts on a sonic youth message board, of all fucking armpits of the internet, is better than anyone else... smfh

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...apse-of-nature

“Unless we change our ways of producing food, insects as a whole will go down the path of extinction in a few decades,” they write. “The repercussions this will have for the planet’s ecosystems are catastrophic to say the least.”

“If insect species losses cannot be halted, this will have catastrophic consequences for both the planet’s ecosystems and for the survival of mankind,” said Francisco Sánchez-Bayo, at the University of Sydney




Should be an interesting next few decades, that's for sure. We're probably arrogant and short-sighted enough to believe this will be fine, but really, it will not.

I just read AOC's resolutions for her Green New Deal. I honestly thought it was a joke at 1st, some kind of smear put out by the Republicans.

If this is legit the Republicans must be rubbing their hands together.

Any articles from the Economist have a paywall so I can only see the title and the 1st couple of lines. :(

on the one hand, the repukes have been milking it for all theyve got

on the other hand, even serious people are starting to take that shit seriously

e.g. this morning’s financial times had an article explaining how switzerland attracted the rich in spite of the wealth taxes (theyre still a fraction of what warren proposes)

of course the journo did nto mention that switzerland has no estate tax, and one had to learn that in the comments. so it’s like “estate tax on installments” which, whatever. .3% or something, not 2%, and no taxes on inheritances.

sheesh...

keeping my eye now on kobluchar and some coloradoans

yeah.

If it's legitimately come from her then I'm honestly amazed she has any kind of serious platform whatsoever.

maybe she’s being scripted by singapore
ocasio’s 70% income tax rate would be a boon for them!

Pelosi dismissively referring to it as "The green dream, or whatever they call it" seems a pretty astute manoeuvre.

yep. she’s trying to corral the children.

im keeping an eye on kobluchar at the moment. don’t know details, but seems like a promising and competent adult