One of the aspects of the Trmpocalpyse which should NOT get lost in the shuffle is the prevalence of luxury (and possibly other) real estate transactions as money laundering. From everything I’ve read, at least 30% of those transactions are money laundering not true real estate deals.
This is happening all over the world in any “hot” real estate market. London may be ground zero but it is happening in Boston, NYC, LA, SF, Paris, Berlin…
Of all the things I’d criticize the Church for, that’s probably not one of them. Barbed wire is likely to discourage vandalism and/or theft.
For me one of the most discouraging things in Cathedrals is the private alters behind locked gates. To me, those make no sense. Is there not one god for all in the Catholic faith? Why should there be “private” churches with in the church?
(I’m just speaking of the buildings, mind you, not of the other disagreements I have with the practices and politics of the institution.)
“Since we decided a few weeks ago to adopt the leaf as legal tender, we have, of course, all become immensely rich.
“But we have also,” continued the management consultant, “run into a small inflation problem on account of the high level of leaf availability, which means that, I gather, the current going rate has something like three deciduous forests buying one ship’s peanut.”
“So in order to obviate this problem,” he continued, "and effectively revalue the leaf, we are about to embark on a massive defoliation campaign, and…er, burn down all the forests. I think you’ll all agree that’s a sensible move under the circumstances.”
In the U.S., there’s public expense at every stage of projects like this. First, there are lending incentives and tax breaks given to the developer, who needs financial help to be successful (despite already having plenty of funds from previous projects). Initial buyers often get tax breaks, too, which may be temporary so that the second buyer gets hit with a large bill after the abatement expires. In the meantime, the entire community pays more because the wealthy initial buyers aren’t contributing to the pool used for community services, schools, etc… If units go unsold, the developer is probably claiming that as a loss on business tax filings. If anyone sues over the taxes, assessed value of the property, or the condemnation process, court costs are added to the total. Finally, the owners might decide to declare bankruptcy or hide, which adds to the costs and time involved for the municipality to find them:
Wheatley set the movie in the same time period as the book, so it has a very late 60s/early 70s art deco feel to it, and suprisingly enough, so does the TOS and the first TOS film.
Given the craziness of the London property market, it shouldn’t be particularly surprising that they’ve got a bigger one of those:
Or you could try this one:
Average asking prices in the capital were now 1.1% lower than a month ago and 5.5% lower than March last year, it said. In the last year London prices have fallen 3.8%. Across the south-east prices are 1.5% down on this time last year.
Or this one:
So it depends who you ask and where you’re looking.
I saw Posh Ghost Towers open for Grizzly Bear in '06.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
