Forget Bitcoin Beware the USC

‘Utility Settlement Coin’ Emerging As Bankster’s Cryptocurrency

UBS, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Santander, the market operator ICAP, and the startup Clearmatics formed an alliance in 2016 to explore the use of digital currency between financial institutions and central banks, using blockchain.

The ultimate goal of the project is to create a digital currency known as Utility Settlement Coin (USC), which will facilitate payment and settlement for institutional financial markets.

A transnational currency controlled by the banks. Eh, what's the problem?  More at Technocracy News.

 

Corned Beef & Cabbage for the 21st Century

By now everyone is tired of my posting the secret recipe.  Refresher:

2017 and prior incredible corned beef and cabbage recipe

Forget that.  Even if you have to buy an instant pot it is worth it.  Thus the new instructions:

• 3pounds (1.5kg) corned beef, 1.5 inches in thickness

Wrong.  No reason to go with the more expensive flat cut.  The point cut will lose the fat and tenderize just the same.  no need to pay twice as much for the "better" cut.   Point cut.  Don't worry about thickness. 

• 4 cups (1L) cold water

Wrong.   You need beer.  this is a holiday.  you need beer.  The old rules still apply.  Cheeap is fine, probably better even BUT no rice beer.  The grains are part of the process. 

• 1 large (300g) onion, quartered

Ehhh, seems a bit much.  to taste.  I use a 1/4-1/3rd.

• 6 (25g) garlic cloves, crushed

Again.  We aren't French cuisine here.  A couple crushed cloves is fine for that hint but 4 is overpowering 

Pickling Spices Seasoning:

• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
• 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
• 3 whole cloves
• 3 bay leaves
• Optional: 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

Sounds about right or if your corned beef came with a seasoning packet, you can use that instead.

Vegetables:

• 8 (500g) carrots, peeled, cut to 2.5 inches in length
• 6 (600g) small red potatoes, quartered
• 1/2 cabbage, cut into 3-4 wedges

Let's face it.  nobody really likes more than few bites of boiled cabbage.

ENJOY!

We Pay for Our Snow

At least our snow is behaved and stays on the slopes. 

View from the Dawghaus 15 May 2018

More Rain Day Flowers

This is on Hawai'i from last month.

Going to be a good year for Bacon Avocados. 

Tulips in the rain. 

I had this one blown up to 8x10.  Beautious. 

Dreary Weather Interlude

A few colorful treats from the yard.

The Canary is "singing"

Longtime readers know I use Wrightwood CA 92397 as an early warning for changes to the general housing markets.  A mix of vacation homes, relatively inexpensive housing, escape from the High Desert all with limited supply makes for a good barometer. 

Here's what I just found:

Owner spent 100K on complete designer remodel with high end upgrades, European Stainless steel Appliances.This charming Jewel is nestled on a corner lot on a lovely private road Elite Acorn. High wood beam ceiling and floors are through out the floor plan. French doors in every room that give entry to a large wrap-around deck allows this lovely cabin to live much larger then it is . Beautiful stone fireplace, stainless steel appliances, chiseled granite counter tops and spacious kitchen , bar and bath. Charming chandeliers custom made and fixtures add to this one of a kind mix of contemporary design. This Diamond in the woods must be seen to be appreciated. It currently rents out as a vacation rental for $250.00 a night. Being sold with All the furnishing Ready to Go to start your own Vacation Rental business. 

5475 Acorn Dr, Wrightwood, CA 92397 2 beds 1 bath 900 sqft $320,000

It's like the last dozen years never happened.  

All this suggests to me a "stumble" in housing prices.  A quick, orderly 15%-20% drop in sales prices followed by a steady inflation plus return to increasing prices.  

What company is crazy enough to write fire coverage? 

Peak Transit?

Greater Los Angeles has been disinvesting in roads whilst massively investing in transit for decades.  Now we are seeing the long cycle failure of that policy.  Look at the Metro ridership data:

Down, down, down.  This in a period of economic cycle that traditionally sees rising transit usage.  And yes, Uber is cutting into ridership.  There is no upside except for the inevitable overspending for the 2028 Olympics. 

Goosing the PCE

First time I've ever owned a new washer or dryer.  Not too bad to install.  Fancy.  Sends a text alert to my phone when the cycles are completed. 

Edit to add garden flowers today.  Yes, today.

Statewide Rent Control Dead (for Now)

SacBee:
California lawmakers killed a bill Thursday (late Jan '18) that likely would have expanded rent control laws in cities and counties, setting the stage for a protracted statewide battle over how to rein in the state’s soaring housing costs.
Democratic Assemblyman Richard Bloom’s Assembly Bill 1506 died in the Assembly’s housing committee.
The 3-2 vote set off protests in the committee room, with angry tenants chanting, “Housing is a human right,” and “Repeal Costa-Hawkins.”

-----

I cannot even begin to estimate the disruption statewide rent control efforts would generate.  

CA Assembly Bill 1506 (legislative text/etc)

Costa-Hawkins Act explainer (Curbed LA)

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article194245939.html#storylink=cpy

One Flew Over the Dawghaus

Commercial Spaceflight is becoming reality. 

Bearly Noticed

The Arctic Ocean is warming up, icebergs are growing scarcer and in some places the seals are finding the water too hot, according to a report to the Commerce Department yesterday from Consulate at Bergen Norway.
Reports from fishermen, seal hunters and explorers all point to a radical
change in climate conditions and hitherto unheard-of temperatures in the Arctic zone.
Exploration expeditions report that scarcely any ice has been met as far
north as 81 degrees 29 minutes.
Soundings to a depth of 3,100 meters showed the Gulf Stream still very warm.
Great masses of ice have been replaced by moraines of earth and stones,
the report continued, while at many points well known glaciers have entirely disappeared.
Very few seals and no white fish are found in the eastern Arctic, while
vast shoals of herring and smelt which have never before ventured so far north, are being encountered in the old seal fishing grounds.
Within a few years it is predicted that due to the ice melt the sea will
rise and make most coastal cities uninhabitable.
* * *
This report was from November 2, 1922, as reported by the AP and published in The Washington Post - 96 years ago.

Cold Front Moving Through

I am glad I haven't planted the tomatoes.  Snow level to 1400 feet tonight.  At least you all get a break from my tedious bragging about the weather.  At 8:30AM Monday the temp dropped 10 degrees in 15 minutes. 

Not my picture.  But may happen.

It should still be warm enough for the Wednesday dawn Falcon 9 launch. 

Dirty Birds

“The soot on these birds’ feathers allowed us to trace the amount of black carbon in the air over time, and we found that the air at the turn of the century was even more polluted than scientists previously thought,” says Shane DuBay, a graduate student at The Field Museum and the University of Chicago and one of the authors of the study. He and co-author Carl Fuldner, also a graduate student at UChicago, analyzed over a thousand birds collected over the last 135 years to determine and quantify the effects of soot in the air over cities in the Rust Belt.

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/10/12/dirty-bird-carcasses-tell-the-story-of-how-air-pollution-has-improved-in-the-last-100-years/

I love real science.  

LINXS would design, build and operate the system under a $4.5 billion, 30-year contract.  Commissioners on Thursday approved a preliminary $42 million agreement with LINXS for pre-construction work to keep the project on schedule for completion in 2023.
The 2¼-mile system will carry up to 10,000 passengers per hour and connect to a transportation center and the Metro light-rail system.

TWO BILLION DOLLARS PER MILE!

Oh, and the Metro light rail green line?  Currently carries 32k boardings daily for the entire line  

Tarnished Golden State

California leads the nation once again in a statistic no state wants to boast about.

When the cost of living is factored in, the Golden State has the highest poverty rate in the country. More than 20 percent of its residents struggle to make ends meet, according to recently released Census figures.That’s nearly 8 million people.

Unfortunately for Californians, this year’s poverty numbers are not an aberration. The Census began releasing state-by-state results for its “supplemental poverty measure” in 2011, in an attempt to improve upon the outdated and heavily criticized official poverty statistics.

http://www.vcstar.com/story/news/2017/10/17/sky-high-housing-costs-make-california-countrys-poorest-state/740639001/

 

Eating Their Dust, the 1% Pull Away

If we go back 38 years to 1980 — an entire lifetime of work — we find real (adjusted for official inflation, which seriously understates big-ticket expenses such as rent, healthcare and college tuition/fees) wages have notched higher by $10/week — a gain of $500 annually.

Read more: https://dailyreckoning.com/pie-shrinking-99/

This ties in with LBD's questions about the future where labor is devalued relative to capital. 

Beautiful Islands

Unless otherwise noted i took all the pictures.  Real posts soon.  A thousand emails and stuff first. 

Botanical Hawaii

Pretty Fishy

Insurance Mess

Losses from last fall’s wildfires in Northern, and Southern California wildfires are staggering, hitting the $12 billion dollar range.
The State Insurance Commissioner’s Office says 32,000 homes were destroyed or damaged statewide by the October and December wildfires in California.
In Ventura County, claims have been filed for 4100 homes, and $1.3 billion dollars stemming from the Thomas Fire. State officials say so far, insurers have paid out $256 million dollars.
In Santa Barbara County, the state says 1700 homes have been the subject of fire related claims. The claims seek $40 million dollars, with nine million paid out at this point.
As far as commercial properties are concerned, 524 claims have been filed seeking more than $100 million dollars to cover losses. In Santa Barbara County, 189 commercial claims were filed seeking $2.4 million dollars in compensation.
The just released numbers don’t include losses from this month’s flooding.