Oil jobs still disappearing despite higher prices
Crude prices have started to climb out of the cellar. But in Britain, job losses in the oil and gas industry continue to pile up. …read more
Source: Oil jobs still disappearing despite higher prices
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Air pollution could cost global economy trillions
Outdoor air pollution could cost the world a whopping $2.6 trillion a year by 2060, finds a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. …read more
Source: Air pollution could cost global economy trillions
Oversupply And Slumping Demand Is Crushing UK Developers
By Tyler Durden
As we first pointed out back in April, due to slumping demand for luxury apartments in the UK, desperate developers had started to offer significant discounts in an indication that the UK real estate bubble had officially burst.
Today, we receive further confirmation of that fact. In order to stem hot money flows into the market (see: China), the UK implemented a 3% tax on anyone purchasing a second home. This effort has slowed the demand for luxury real estate, catching developers off guard, and has created even further oversupply issues for developers to deal with. As even steeper discounts are provided in order to try and fill vacancies, margins are coming under significant pressure.
From the FT
Widespread discounting of newly built luxury apartments is cutting into developers’ margins, prompting cost-cutting measures and delays to projects across London.
Developers including the FTSE 100 companies Barratt Developments and Berkeley Group are offering “stamp duty paid” deals in the capital, which amount to a discount of at least £30,000 on a £800,000 home.
Such deals are reducing developers’ margins by about 4 percentage points on “prime” homes costing £1,350-£3,499 per square foot, and 7 percentage points on “super prime” homes priced above that, according to data from Arcadis, a building consultancy.
Developers plan for a typical profit margin of 20 per cent, said Mark Cleverly, a partner at Arcadis, but have faced a different picture since the stamp duty rise on luxury homes cut into an already faltering market.
“This hits straight at the margin, at a bad time for the market,” Mr Cleverly said, arguing that higher stamp duty amounts to a “tax on development”.
Barratt is offering discounts from £32,149 on selected homes in its Nine Elms Point development, which is part of London’s largest residential building site in Battersea. Berkeley Group offered discounts on its Riverlight apartments in the same area, which have now all been sold.
The rush to buy land and construct apartments is now coming back to haunt developers as the demand is slowing. The number of homes in development and coming to market is creating an even larger supply glut, and will continue to cause downward margin pressure as discounts become even more pronounced.
The Nine Elms area, where 19 developers are constructing at least 12,800 apartments, forms part of a wave of new luxury flats under construction. Some 35,000 are planned over the next 10 years, according to Arcadis. This has raised concerns over a potential oversupply.
Developers vied to acquire land for prime London homes as values rose after the financial crisis, but the market has since softened thanks to the large supply, a fall-off in demand from Asian buyers, and higher stamp duty on homes costing more than £937,500 from December 2014.
Developers are scrambling to figure out just how to deal with the oversupply, from delaying projects to scaling back the size of some planned developments in order to make the apartments more affordable. Whatever decisions are made, one thing …read more
Source: Oversupply And Slumping Demand Is Crushing UK Developers
Air pollution could cost global economy $2.6 trillion a year
Outdoor air pollution could cost the world a whopping $2.6 trillion a year by 2060, finds a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
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Source: Air pollution could cost global economy $2.6 trillion a year
How to shop in Nigeria: Use your ears
How are entrepreneurs supposed to cope when loans aren’t available? In Nigeria, they hustle.
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Source: How to shop in Nigeria: Use your ears
A Day In The Life Of Several Hundred Laid Off Nomura Traders
By Tyler Durden
Back in April, Japan's largest brokerage, Nomura, announced that it was quitting the European equity business. The decision was a cost cutting measure, and was made easier by the fact that the European operation hadn't made a profit since 2010.
Nomura isn't alone, Investment banks across the globe are cutting equity traders as a result of the current trading environment.
The following is what it was like for a group of London traders the day Nomura made the announcement that their services were no longer required, as chronicled by Bloomberg.
* * *
The fact that the division had only made one annual pretax profit since being bought from bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings in 2008 created an environment where traders would have to filter out the rumors of impending cuts quite frequently. However on April 11, it wasn't business as usual.
At One Angel Lane, Nomura’s stylish, eco-friendly European headquarters, employees have learned to filter out rumors of impending cuts. The division has only made an annual pretax profit once since it was bought from bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in October 2008 — a fact so often mentioned one half-expects it to be printed on employees’ business cards.
On April 11, though, the noise was louder than usual. A senior executive had let slip to a colleague at a barbecue that he was dreading the following week because the bank was shutting down equities. By the time media reports of unspecified job cuts in the U.S. and Europe appeared at lunchtime, all semblance of work had ground to a halt. Desk heads asked their managers what was going on. According to one of those doing the asking, they were told there was nothing to worry about.
That changed early the next morning when e-mails went round ordering staff to attend a compulsory meeting. Research analysts and salespeople caught the elevators up to the 11th floor; traders congregated on the third. By 9 a.m., it was official. Everyone was given an “at risk” letter, in which the firm offered to help them find alternative roles over the next 45 days, but they knew it was typically just a formality.
After listening to speeches by senior managers and human resources personnel, everyone was told to gather their belongings, leave key cards at reception, and exit the building. Most made their way to All Bar One and The Folly, the only pubs open in the city of London at that hour, to have a pint, and perhaps even to express a sigh of relief that there was no longer a daily worry about whether or not a job would be there the next morning.
The Folly, a pub operated by Drake and Morgan Bars and Restaurants
They made their way in dribs and drabs. Hundreds of displaced bankers, shuffling up Suffolk Lane to All Bar One and along Upper Thames Street toward the Folly, the only pubs in the City of London open that early on an overcast Tuesday …read more
Source: A Day In The Life Of Several Hundred Laid Off Nomura Traders
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The Pentagon’s Great Wall Of Impotence
By Tyler Durden
Authored by Pepe Escobar, originally posted at RT.com,
No one ever lost money betting on the Pentagon refraining from exceptionalist rhetoric.
Once again the current Pentagon supremo, certified neocon Ash Carter, did not disappoint at the Shangri-La Dialogue – the annual, must-go regional security forum in Singapore attended by top defense ministers, scholars and business executives from across Asia.
Context is key. The Shangri-La Dialogue is organized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which is essentially a pro-Anglo-American think tank. And it takes place in the privileged aircraft carrier of imperial geostrategic interests in South East Asia: Singapore.
As expressed by neocon Carter, Pentagon rhetoric – faithful to its own estimation of China as the second biggest “existential threat” to the US (Russia is first) – revolves around the same themes; US military might and superiority is bound to last forever; we are the “main underwriter of Asian security” for, well, forever; and China better behave in the South China Sea – or else.
This is all embedded in the much ballyhooed but so far anemic “pivoting to Asia” advanced by the lame duck Obama administration – but bound to go on overdrive in the event Hillary Clinton becomes the next tenant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Real threats are predictably embedded in the rhetoric. According to Carter, if Beijing reclaims land in the Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea, “it will result in actions being taken by the both United States and … by others in the region.”
What’s left for China, in Pentagonese, is just to be a member of a hazy “principled security network” for Asia – which will also help protect the East against “Russia’s worrying actions”. Carter mentioned“principled” no less than 37 times in his speech. “Principled” cheerleaders so far include Japan, India, the Philippines, Vietnam and Australia.
So here’s an instant translation: we do a NATO in Asia; we control it; you will answer to us; and then we encircle you – and Russia – for good. If China says no, that’s simple. Carter proclaimed Beijing will erect a “Great Wall of self-isolation” in the South China Sea.
If this is the best Pentagon planners have to counteract the Russia-China strategic partnership, they’d better go back to the classroom. In elementary school.
Navigate in freedom, dear vassals
Predictably, the South China Sea was quite big at Shangri-La. The South China Sea, the throughway of trillions of US dollars in annual trade, doubles as home to a wealth of unexplored oil and gas. Stagnated and increasingly irrelevant Japan, via its Defense Minister Gen. Nakatani, even advanced the Japanese would help Southeast Asian nations build their “security capabilities” to deal with what he called “unilateral” and “coercive” Chinese actions in the South China Sea. Cynics could not help to draw similarities with Imperial Japan’s Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
The Beijing delegation kept its cool – to a point. Rear Admiral Guan Youfei stressed, “The US action to take sides is not agreed by many countries.” Youfei – the head of the …read more
Source: The Pentagon’s Great Wall Of Impotence
China Orders 1,000 Heavy Transport Aircraft "Based On The Experience Of The United States And Russia"
By Tyler Durden
As tensions escalate to dangerous levels in the South China Sea and in eastern Europe, an interesting decision has been made be the Chinese government.
According to Sputnik, back in January the People's Liberation Army Air Force was preparing to develop a new fleet of stealth fighters and heavy transport aircraft. The heavy transport aircraft, the Xian Y-20 transport, was going to be built in order to give Beijing a “fast and reliable platform” to deliver arms and soldiers over long distances.
Model Y-20 Transport
During a technology exhibition in Beijing, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) elaborated on the governments plans for the Y-20. Although originally thought that Beijing would want only 400, “More than 1,000 Y-20s will be needed” said Zhu Qian, head of AVIC's large aircraft development office – the reason? “Based on the experience of the United States and Russia” Zhu says.
Now that's an interesting nugget of information. So due to the fact that the US and Russia are at odds, China needs 1,000 heavy transport aircraft – why would that be, is China planning on getting involved if ever the US and Russia got into a military dispute?
The Y-20 weighs roughly 220 tons, has four turbofan engines, and can carry up to 66 tons of cargo at a range of about 3,230 miles. This means the heavy transport aircraft can reach everywhere in Europe and Asia, the US state of Alaska, Australia, and North Africa.
So to summarize, due to what's happening between Russia and the United States, China has ordered nearly triple the amount of heavy transport aircraft it originally intended so that it could take tanks and other military equipment anywhere in Europe.
Which reminds us of what we reported earlier today. As China sailed a warship by disputed islands that are claimed to be controlled by Japan, Japanese officials also stated that a two Russian vessels were also spotted in the contested zone. Something tells us that there may be a military alliance in the works between Russia and China, and that could present significant problems for the US as it tries to bully both simultaneously.
Ben & Jerry’s new split: Hillary or Bernie?
Ice cream icons Ben and Jerry are split over whether to support Hillary Clinton now that Bernie Sanders is likely to exit the 2016 race. …read more
Source: Ben & Jerry’s new split: Hillary or Bernie?
House passes Puerto Rico rescue bill
The House overwhelmingly passed the Puerto Rico rescue bill Thursday evening. The White House is urging the Senate to pass it soon as well.
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Source: House passes Puerto Rico rescue bill
