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The Snake Oil Doesn’t Magically Turn Into Anything Else

A report from Bisnow on Texas. “Real estate investors and developers surveyed for a PwC and Urban Land Institute study still view Dallas-Fort Worth as a Top 10 U.S. real estate investment market even though the region plummeted from the No.1 spot last year to No. 6 on shrinking yields, oversaturation fears and memories of former boom-bust cycles in the Big D. ‘There is a rising sentiment that Dallas could have some potential oversupply if there is a downturn,’ PwC U.S. Real Estate Practice leader Byron Carlock said. ‘With the investor market, you always have to prove that a Texas deal is not going to be subject to past boom-bust cycles that [investors] may have experienced in a Texas market before.'”

“While Carlock does not see a boom-bust cycle in DFW at this time, the latest PwC survey — although favorable in terms of the Metroplex’s overall strength — does report an ‘abundance of capital’ targeting the market, which has the effect of pushing yields to ‘very thin margins,’ while property taxes may ‘face upward pressure to sustain infrastructure growth.’ It has become more difficult to find cost-effective DFW development sites in top submarkets like Uptown Dallas, Frisco and Legacy Town Center, which may have driven investor sentiment down, Carlock said.”

From Bakersfield.com in California. “Hopes for a quick resolution of Sundale Country Club’s fate faded Monday after a scheduled auction of the financially troubled Bakersfield golf course was again postponed, this time because one of its minority owners has filed for personal bankruptcy protection. The auction was rescheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, though the auctioneer said the sale will probably be delayed further by the bankruptcy filing. Facing foreclosure for more than a year, the group had been negotiating to sell the property to a group of investors led by Bakersfield businessman Randeep Dhillon.”

“But when successive appraisals estimated the club’s value at far less than the purchase price of $4.4 million, Dhillon’s group sued Ohr and his partners. Ohr and his partners countersued. Both suits are pending in Kern County Superior Court.”

From KPBS in California. “California Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins (D-San Diego) said Monday she would take a more active role in reviving one of the most closely watched and controversial housing bills that stalled earlier this year. Senate Bill 50, authored by Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), would require cities and counties to allow denser and taller apartment buildings in areas with access to good public transit, jobs and schools. It was shelved in May. Home construction, meanwhile, is experiencing a slump. The Real Estate Research Council of Southern California recently found home building in San Diego County was down 43% in the first half of 2019 compared to the same time period in 2018.”

From KGUN 9 in Arizona. “The Tucson City Council just approved tax incentives for a very big change for 4th avenue. There’s a 13 story apartment tower going in on the South end of 4th. The site is in Councilmember Kozachik’s Ward 6: ‘You know, so we were kind of played out with a student housing with the district and the other one that just opened up across the street. And frankly, there is a saturation issue with respect to student housing.’ The city still has to approve construction details of the project. What it did do is approve five and a half million dollars in tax incentives to encourage the developer to invest.”

The Technician on North Carolina. “Coming to NC State, I expected tuition to be the greatest expense. To my astonishment, housing is a remarkably close second. Construction is characteristic of Raleigh and other booming cities alike, and with every new apartment complex, hope for affordability is created only to ultimately disappoint. That’s because although Raleigh — and noticeably Hillsborough — are seeing new apartments pop up frequently, most of these newly constructed apartments around college campuses are advertised as luxurious. The demand for student housing goes without being said, but the ever-growing supply of luxury student apartments doesn’t really match our desires or our needs.”

“Instead, there are limited options and we have to settle, but instead of settling for something that doesn’t reach our expectations, we are left with such little choice but to settle for unnecessary luxuries that used to be uncharacteristic of college life if we want to be fully immersed and live away from home. There is no excuse to neglect the real problem of the cost of housing; the fact is that expensive student housing cannot be sustained and must be stopped.”

The Naples Daily News in Florida. “Construction began last week of the first phase of Siena Lakes, a senior living community near St. Katherine’s Greek Church. Even though Siena is not expected to open until 2021, more than 70% of the initial 175 apartments have been reserved said Fred Moschetta, its sales director. Baltimore-based Erickson Living intended to begin construction once a 50% pre-sales threshold had been achieved. ‘Demand for the lifestyle has exceeded our expectations,’ Moschetta said.”

“After a little bit of drilling, here’s what In the Know found for the minimum a resident will pay for a starter one-bedroom ad. The monthly service package begins at $3,400 monthly for utilities, a meal plan and other services. But first one must pay an ‘entrance’ fee of $352,000 or elect to go with an 80% refundable deposit. For the latter, $541,000 gets you in the door. Should you decide to leave Siena or spend the rest of your life there, 80% will be returned to you or your heirs.”

“In the three counties of Collier, Lee and Charlotte, 10 communities catering to folks age 55 and over were completed between 2000 and 2014. The pace has quickened dramatically. From 2015 through 2017, 21 senior housing projects including Siena were either delivered, under construction or proposed, according to CRE Consultants.”

The Wall Street Journal. “Property owners have long worried that short-term rentals bring noise, crime and regulatory risks to their buildings. But some real-estate firms are starting to embrace the presence of itinerant guests. In downtown Nashville, Tenn., developers of a new 77-unit condominium project are explicitly marketing their building to owners interested in renting out their apartments via short-term listing sites. Florida-based property developer Newgard Development Group is expanding a similar model it started two years ago. It is collaborating with home-sharing company AirBnB.”

“Iconiq Capital, a San Francisco-based investment firm, is also teaming up with a management firm to help tenants in its apartment buildings sublet their units. These developers are hoping that promoting short-term rentals could make their projects more appealing to buyers and renters and lead to higher profits. Heather Gustafson, a managing director at Compass Development who is overseeing sales at Bradley’s property in Nashville, said the project appeals to potential buyers who don’t plan to occupy their units year-round. Ms. Gustafson expects more developers to follow suit. ‘I think we’re on the front end of this wave,’ she said.”

“While Illume is merely allowing residents to sublet their units as short-term rentals, other projects are going a step further. Newgard’s coming Natiivo buildings, including a 249-unit condo and hotel planned for Austin, will have in-house staff to manage short-term renting for each unit owner, for a fee. The company plans another Natiivo property for Miami, a 604-unit condo and hotel with for-sale units starting at $300,000.”

The Brooklyn Eagle in New York. “Mega-developer Toll Brothers admitted to the state’s ethical oversight commission in July that the company had illegally donated $25,000 to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s not-for-profit ‘Campaign for One New York’ at a time when the developer was working to develop a hotel and condo in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The NYS Joint Commission on Public Ethics fined Toll Brothers $15,000 for the donation at the time the city was overseeing approvals for the 1 Hotel and Pierhouse complex. Toll Brothers has agreed to the fine and has waived its right to appeal.”

“The donation was just one of what appears to be a pattern of solicitations by de Blasio from real estate developers seeking to do business in the city. Another developer, an affiliate of Park Tower Group Ltd. also agreed in July to pay penalties for illegal donations to the mayor’s Campaign for One New York, as did Brookfield Properties. According to its settlement agreement, Park Tower Group was seeking to develop Greenpoint Landing in 2015 when a senior executive of the company was asked to meet de Blasio and one of his campaign officials, Russ Offinger.”

“Brookfield Properties, which has developed many Brooklyn sites including MetroTech Center, was found to have donated $50,000 to the mayor’s not-for-profit, at a time when it needed city permits to develop Manhattan West in the Hudson Yards. The company was fined $30,000.”

“‘My first thought was corruption pays: Toll Brothers make an illegal contribution, gets fined $15k and is allowed to double the size of the building,’ Save the View President Steven Guterman told the Eagle. ‘They likely made an addition $300 million in profits while stealing the view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the tourists and residents who walk along the promenade. The fine is a joke relative to the benefit they received. Furthermore, why wasn’t our mayor charged with anything? He was on the receiving side.'”

From The Week. “WeWork is not feeling great about its chief executive officer these days. The company, which rents out workspaces with an urban-chic vibe to individuals and companies, is run by CEO Adam Neumann. He’s garnered a reputation for questionable leadership, an ostentatious company culture, and a general penchant for grandiosity over substance. According to reports, some of WeWork’s big investors and board members are now quietly discussing ways to, if not oust Neumann, at least cut his power down to size.”

“Unfortunately, it may not be enough. WeWork’s problems likely go beyond the qualities of its CEO, to the basic nature of its business model. WeWork lost $1.6 billion last year, and $1.37 billion in just the first half of this year, even as its spending for the two time periods was $2 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively. The last big previous investment in the company valued WeWork at roughly $47 billion. Yet the latest assessments suggest a more accurate market value may be less than one-third of that; even efforts to rejigger the IPO to value the company at a mere $15 billion failed to bring investors back on board.”

“After going through WeWork’s IPO documentation, the Times couldn’t really make heads or tails of the numbers. When you combine that with the company’s massive — and growing — losses, the fact that it only has $2.5 billion of excess cash on hand, and the growing expenses associated with marketing itself and keeping up its not-exactly-spartan amenities, WeWork begins to look more and more unstable; a company that could be knocked down by one strong gust of recessionary wind.”

“Granted, WeWork does have a few potential routes out of this mess. It’s trying to get more long-term commitments from bigger corporate customers. WeWork could yet evolve into a business model that makes sense over the long haul. The difficulty is that such a business would be inherently modest. In other words, WeWork is either a sensible or an exciting investment, but at a basic structural level it can’t really be both.”

“Nor is the company alone in this. As far as their concrete business models go, a lot of the Silicon Valley titans, from Facebook to Uber, suffer from a similar problem: They can certainly work as normal meat-and-potatoes enterprises, but they can’t do that while also justifying the absolutely insane market valuations they’re garnering. Those valuations can only be justified by less-reputable long-term outcomes, such as the companies bigfooting their way into permanent monopoly positions, through a combination of anti-competitive behavior and gaming regulations.”

“It’s actually weirdly appropriate that WeWork’s CEO is a carnival-esque figure who comes off like he’s selling snake oil. The thing to remember is that the snake oil doesn’t magically turn into anything else when the salesman gets demoted.”

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This Post Has 88 Comments

  1. ‘the Metroplex’s overall strength — does report an ‘abundance of capital’ targeting the market’

    QE is deflationary. It always creates overcapacity.

    ‘which has the effect of pushing yields to ‘very thin margins’

    Yellen bucks looking for a place to die is a real phenomenon.

  3. ‘The fine is a joke relative to the benefit they received. Furthermore, why wasn’t our mayor charged with anything?’

    Good question. Anybody have an idea?

  4. WeWork is a fraud. And a very poor one at that.

    Tesla, Uber, Netflix at least could put up a charade for awhile so that the executives could make good on stock options.

    1. so that the executives could make good on stock options

      https://twitter.com/evdefender/status/1176569034642481152: These $TSLA insiders
      “- Knew the truth about $SCTY
      – Knew there was an @NHTSAgov cease and desist order
      – Knew the truth about ….”

      Blatant insider trading using material non-public information. How much of our tax money via government subsidies and contracts went into Musk’s “pyramid” of companies? How much tax money is the eventual prosecution of all this going to cost?

    2. Why We Love to Call Everything a Bubble

      “Helene Meisler, a stock market columnist who’s been active in the market for four decades, offers a similar explanation for the current obsession with bubbles: “I have often thought that we are all products of when we ‘grew up’ in the market. So, for example, folks who grew up in the ’70s are always looking for inflation. Those who grew up in the ’80s are always on alert for a crash.””

      “He also sees a very heavy moralistic element to the bubble callers—its no fun to watch sinners enjoying themselves. And there’s a reason the gloomy chorus keeps getting louder as the financial crisis fades further into the past. Bubble talk, says McNamara, is “especially common in the (non-tiny) group of people who got ’08 right, but then got hosed in ’09 because they were waiting for the other shoe to drop in the form of mass defaults, depression, and hyperinflation.” In the view of those people, the high asset valuations of today can only be sustained because the market is rigged by the Federal Reserve and other central banks.”

      1. “In the view of those people, the high asset valuations of today can only be sustained because the market is rigged by the Federal Reserve and other central banks.”

        I wonder what gives them that crazy idea?

        1. The ECB’s Beggar-thy-Trump Strategy
          Sep 16, 2019 Hans-Werner Sinn

          The European Central Bank’s decision to cut interest rates still further and launch another round of quantitative easing raises serious concerns about its internal decision-making process. The ECB is pursuing an exchange-rate policy in all but name, thus putting Europe on a collision course with the Trump administration.

          MUNICH – On September 12, the European Central Bank decided to launch yet another asset-purchase program, with plans to buy €20 billion ($22 billion) in new securities per month for an indefinite period of time, using the same structure as it has in the past. The decision was not made unanimously: the German, French, Dutch, Austrian, and Estonian members of the ECB council have all voiced fierce opposition to further quantitative easing (QE).

          ECB President Mario Draghi claims that the majority in favor of further loosening was so large that it was unnecessary even to count the votes.
          …

  5. ‘WeWork is either a sensible or an exciting investment, but at a basic structural level it can’t really be both’

    ‘Nor is the company alone in this. As far as their concrete business models go, a lot of the Silicon Valley titans, from Facebook to Uber, suffer from a similar problem: They can certainly work as normal meat-and-potatoes enterprises, but they can’t do that while also justifying the absolutely insane market valuations they’re garnering’

    I’ve said for years this “we don’t need to make money” horse-sh!t is a cancer that needs to be purged. It’s simply a scam, and I’ve called it silicon valley snake oil for decades.

    1. It’s simply a scam, and I’ve called it silicon valley snake oil for decades.

      Pshawww, Ben. With such Democratic stalwarts as Senator Running Deer and Maxine Waters occupying leading positions in our finance oversight committees, surely any such scams and their perpetrators could count on swift, severe justice from our ever-vigilant and scrupulously honest regulators, enforcers, and policymakers.

    3. If these startups worked as normal meat-and-potatoes enterprises, they wouldn’t need cash infusions from VCs every quarter.

  7. Nice pop today on 10- year Treasurys…Wall Street’s porcine beauticians seem to be having difficulty painting lipstick on the pig.

    Dow utilities surge toward record high as 10-year Treasury yield falls for 7th straight day
    By Tomi Kilgore
    Published: Sept 24, 2019 2:37 p.m. ET

    The Dow Jones Utility Average (DJU, +1.14%) surged 1.2% toward a record high, to buck the selloff in the broader market, as the drop in the 10-year Treasury yield (TMUBMUSD10Y, -5.10%) for a seventh-straight session helped fuel the sector’s gains.
    …

    1. Seems like the Democrats are shooting themselves in the foot by pursuing impeachment. I guess they must be feeling desperate, given that none of their candidates seem likely to be able to defeat Trump. But the risk of this blowing up in their faces seems great.

      2. Let them continue to believe that Twitter comments and Reddit downvotes win presidential elections. They’re winning the censored social media bubble, because the silent majority (see also Nixon 1972) doesn’t participate in their circle jerk.

      3. Agreed, the risk to reward ratio of these theatrics makes me think this is a set up, with Biden the tip of the iceberg. How did Pelosi, Waters, Feinstein, etc. get so rich given their salaries? We know the answer – now we need indictments, trials and extended vacations at gitmo (or better ;))

      4. Gambit on!

        The Financial Times
        Donald Trump
        House launches Trump impeachment inquiry
        Nancy Pelosi accuses president of enlisting a foreign power to help win 2020 elections
        an hour ago

      5. The transcript of the offending phone call with the pres of Ukraine is out. Libs are screaming quid pro quo but it’s not crystal clear. I can’t make a judgment on it.

        2. it’s not crystal clear

          https://saraacarter.com/doj-trump-did-not-violate-any-federal-campaign-finance-laws-no-further-action-required/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-pug

          “The Department of Justice criminal division reviewed the whistblower’s complaint against President Donald Trump in August, and had determined that based on the law there was no campaign finance violations during his conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky and ‘that no further action was warranted.’”

          1. Goes to show just how much I’m out of the loop. I didn’t realize the whistleblower stuff had been around for a couple months.

        3. Ukraine

          Peter Schweizer: Biden Ukraine dealings – 7 essential facts

          1. Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma in April 2014, according to RSB bank records. Hunter Biden had little background in energy. Over a 16-month period, Burisma paid $3.1 million to a bank account associated with Hunter’s business.

          2. Joe Biden led the Obama administration’s policy toward Ukraine when he served as vice president. Biden helped shape Ukraine’s energy and anti-corruption policies, issues that directly impact Burisma.

          3. Burisma sought to capitalize Hunter Biden’s name and relationships. According to The New York Times, Hunter Biden helped assemble the company’s legal team, which consisted of American attorneys and consulting firms, including a former Obama Justice Department official.

          4. Burisma is led by an oligarch named Mykola Zlochevsky. Zlochevsky served as ecology minister under pro-Russia former Ukrainian leader Viktor Yanukovich, leading to allegations that he used his office to benefit Burisma.

          5. Burisma was under legal scrutiny. Shortly before Hunter Biden was appointed to Burisma’s board, British authorities froze $23 million of Zlochevsky’s assets as part of a corruption investigation. Ukraine opened its own probe later that year.

          6. Financial records from Morgan Stanley show numerous lines of money going into the account of “Robert H. Biden.” The funds originated from oligarchs and anonymous LLCs in Ukraine, China, Kazakhstan and elsewhere.

          7. In 2013, then-Vice President Biden and his son Hunter flew aboard Air Force Two to China. Ten days later, Hunter Biden’s firm scored a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China.

        4. transcript of the offending phone call with the pres of Ukraine

          It unlocks Pandora’s box: Crowdstrike and the DNC server.

    2. Was it impeachment or dwindling China trade deal prospects that worried traders today?

      Dow falls after Trump criticizes China in UN speech, impeachment worries rise
      By Chris Matthews and Clive McKeef
      Published: Sept 24, 2019 3:31 p.m. ET
      Trump says he won’t accept bad China trade deal
      Getty Images
      U.S. President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters

      U.S. stocks fell during the final hour of trade Tuesday, after President Trump criticized China in a United Nations speech, undermining investor sentiment that had been improving on hopes for successful trade talks in October.

      Equities extended their losses after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, when asked about launching impeachment proceedings against the president, said she would make an announcement later Tuesday after meeting with Democratic Party leadership and House committee chairman.

      What are major indexes doing?

      The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, -0.53%) was down 140 points, or 0.5%, to 26,806 while the benchmark S&P 500 index (SPX, -0.84%) was off 24 points, or 0.8%, at 2,967. The Nasdaq Composite index (COMP, -1.46%) fell 112 points, or 1.4%, to 8,025.
      …

      1. Has anyone even bothered to talk to Mike Pence about all this? He’s been strangely quiet. The libs are in celebration mode, thinking they are going to take down both Trump and Pence and install Pelosi in the White House. I think that highly unlikely. Trump clearly looks down on Pence (and everyone else), so I doubt that Trump stooped to involve stupid little-‘ol Mike Pence in any of this.

        You would think that some smart Republicans would have Pence on a short leash, making sure that he would continue with Trump’s policies on the major issues that got him elected: immigration, Supreme Court, rural issues, trade wars, nationalism, taxes, etc. Throwing Trump out (he won’t be) would be even worse for the libs, since they’ll have Trump’s policies but they won’t have any orange-man-bad bluster to rally around.

        1. I think that was Trumps plan all along to have a quiet VP, not like Gingrich although i think Gingrich would have a lot more leverage over wayward republicans

          1. Didn’t he need Pence to get the Republican nomination? I got the impression Pence wasn’t DJT’s choice.

  8. Scam cryptocurrencies got monkey-hammered today. I sense a great disturbance in the force, as if millions of get-rich-quick dreamers screamed out their last and were suddenly silenced.

    All the Bitcoin fan-bois vanished from the gold boards, as their “old bug” taunts are now being thrown back at them as gold rises inexorably while their make-believe “currency” craters.

    1. lots of corruption and cr8r going on in this post! this one is great:

      “‘My first thought was corruption pays: Toll Brothers make an illegal contribution, gets fined $15k and is allowed to double the size of the building,’ Save the View President Steven Guterman told the Eagle. ‘They likely made an addition $300 million in profits while stealing the view of the Brooklyn Bridge from the tourists and residents who walk along the promenade”

      300 million profit from a mere 15k investment. right on! need me some TOL stawks!

        1. Which is why it’s really odd that people are paying close to $10,000 for a single unit, whatever that is.

    3. Bitcoin fan-bois

      Q: What’s a Bitcoin?
      A: About $8500. Sigh.
      Q: No, what is a Bitcoin?
      A: Oh, it’s not a “thing”.
      Q: It’s nothing?
      A: Well, yesterday it was about $10,000.

  9. ‘With the investor market, you always have to prove that a Texas deal is not going to be subject to past boom-bust cycles that [investors] may have experienced in a Texas market before’

    Oh, those! Well they do like their booms in DFW. And they are pretty casual about paying the money back if they get caught with their pants down. There was a joke in the late 80’s that the only ones that could make a deposit on a Mercedes were the pigeons.

    But there’s one thing: I fly in and out of DFW fairly regularly. They have never, ever had a construction boom like the one these fools are belatedly worrying about. It’s multiples of the 70s and 80s.

  10. WeWork Is a Mess for JPMorgan. Jamie Dimon Is Cleaning It Up.

    The bank’s unusually close relationship with We Co. means their problems are shared

    “The governance reflects there are no adults in the room,” said Sam Zell, the longtime real-estate investor, who isn’t involved with We. “The underwriters are as guilty as the board for instituting a preposterous governance.”

    ‘Earlier this year, as We’s IPO plans began to take shape, Mr. Neumann bragged to friends and associates that he was meeting with Mr. Dimon to discuss a massive debt deal that would get people’s attention ahead of the offering.

    ‘It was a $6 billion credit line, arranged by JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. A laundry list of banks agreed to fund it, provided We raise at least $3 billion in the IPO. While such arrangements are common for companies on the verge of going public, We’s credit line was unusually large—reflecting, in part, the company’s latest private-market valuation of $47 billion.’

    ‘As the IPO neared and We’s valuation ticked lower, some bankers worried they were extending too much credit to the company and pushed for a delay, according to people familiar with the matter. The credit offer expires if We doesn’t go public by Dec. 31. JPMorgan is in line to collect a $50 million fee for arranging the loan.’

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-is-a-mess-for-jpmorgan-jamie-dimon-is-cleaning-it-up-11569349994

    1. “some bankers worried they were extending too much credit to the company”

      Whose fault is that? Credit doesn’t extend itself, morons. Isn’t anyone going to be the parent and say “no?”

      1. “Isn’t anyone going to be the parent and say ‘no?’”

        Lenders do not make much of a living by saying “no”. The lender who says “no” to a puke encourages the puke to go down the street until he finds a “yes”. And the puke doesn’t have to travel very far.

        1. Her zero exhaust emissions sailing trip over with the wind was expensive but the trip back against the wind might not be so easy for her. It’s a dilemma.

    2. GRETA’S PARENTS PICTURED IN ANTIFA GEAR, AFTER CLIMATE ACTIVIST DENIES TIES TO VIOLENT GROUP

      Brainwashed teen exposed as pro-Antifa shill

      Infowars.com – SEPTEMBER 24, 2019

      “Yesterday I posted a photo wearing a borrowed T-shirt that says I’m against fascism,” she tweeted in July. “That T-shirt can apparently to some be linked to a violent movement. I don’t support any form of violence and to avoid misunderstandings I’ve deleted the post. And of course I am against fascism.”

      Thunberg went on to criticize her detractors, claiming the shirt was innocuous, “can be bought anywhere” and is only linked to violence “according to some.”

      In recent days, however, photos have emerged showing her parents, Svante Thunberg and Malena Ernman, wearing the exact same t-shirt, throwing her whole explanation into question.

      Charlie Kirk
      @charliekirk11

      Congress brought 16 year old Swedish girl Greta Thunberg before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Yesterday

      She’s been pictured wearing pro-ANTIFA clothing & raising money for ANTIFA causes in Europe

      This is the Democrats’ star witness—a supporter of domestic terrorism?

      https://www.infowars.com/gretas-parents-pictured-in-antifa-gear-after-climate-activist-denies-ties-to-violent-group/

        1. “If you check out her photos young Greta is being escorted around the country by her handler – far left activist Luisa-Marie Neubauer”

          “Luisa-Marie Neubauer is a 23-year-old German climate protection activist. In Germany, she is one of the main organizers of the School strike for climate movement, inspired by Greta Thunberg. She supports the implementation of Agenda 2030 in Germany and a climate policy that is compatible with the Paris Agreement.”

          UN Agenda 2030: A Recipe for Global Socialism

          Written by Alex Newman
          Wednesday, 06 January 2016

          While the establishment media in the United States was hyping ISIS, football, and of course “global warming,” virtually every national government/dictatorship on the planet met at the 70th annual General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York to adopt a draconian 15-year master plan for the planet. Top globalists such as former NATO chief Javier Solana, a socialist, are celebrating the plan, which the summit unanimously “approved,” as the next “Great Leap Forward” — yes, the old campaign slogan of the Chinese Communist Party.

          In plain English, the Agenda 2030 document is claiming that today’s “consumption and production” patterns are unsustainable, so we’ll need to get by with less. How much less? It would be hard to find a more clear and concise assessment than that offered by the late Maurice Strong, the recently deceased Canadian billionaire and longtime UN environmental guru who led the 1992 Earth Summit, in a pre-Earth Summit document: “It is clear that current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle-class … involving high meat intake, consumption of large amounts of frozen and ‘convenience’ foods, ownership of motor vehicles, numerous electrical appliances, home and workplace air-conditioning … expensive suburban housing … are not sustainable.”

          https://www.thenewamerican.com/tech/environment/item/22267-un-agenda-2030-a-recipe-for-global-socialism

          1. affluent middle-class

            Yeah, we’ll have to do something about those folks thinking they can live like the rich. Who do they think they are, anyway?

          2. The price for meat is going to go up in the US pretty substantially I reckon as more Chinese consumers enter the middle class. There will be more and more American vegetarians because of economics, not concern for animal welfare or health reasons.

            involving high meat intake

            Meat Is Getting Pricier Because China Is Peckish for Protein
            WSJ
            September 23, 2019

            “China is on a global meat-buying spree, pushing up beef, pork and poultry prices around the globe as the world’s most populous nation scrambles to fill a large void in its meat supply.”

            “American shoppers so far haven’t felt much price impact from China’s meat purchases, but that could soon change. December-dated U.S. lean hog futures have climbed 4.5% so far this month, rising after Chinese officials said the country could exempt U.S. pork and some other agricultural goods from punitive tariffs, though President Trump on Friday said the U.S. didn’t need to complete a trade agreement with China before the 2020 election.”

            “Many U.S. meat companies watched over the past year as competitors in Europe and South America raced to supply China’s pork needs. In time, executives of Tyson Foods Inc., TSN -0.20% Smithfield Foods and Sanderson Farms Inc. SAFM -0.02% said they expect to benefit from higher prices, as China’s rising imports draw down global meat supplies.”

        1. +1 Clown World has been used in contemporary circles to express the utter disarray of Western politics, particularly that of the modern left, also known as the woke. —urban dictionary

    4. Ben, your failure to treat Greta with the adulation and uncritical blind devotion due a Soros-funded teen climate activist will be duly noted the next time your social credit score is up for review.

      1. Just like I have always thought, the climate change hoax comes out of the agenda 21 movement.

        It’s really about a bunch of rich people who want to control the World. In Agenda 21 they think 500 million is the population number World wide that is best.

        They want the population to be moved to cities where they get small airboxes to live in. Of course the rich get to live a higher life style because they are the controllers, not the controlled.

        It’s one thing for people to agree to something based on the merits, it’s another if it’s being done to you under a bunch of false pretenses.

        1. It’s really about a bunch of rich people who want to control the World.

          Globalists. And, the UN is the EU writ large.

  18. If these startups worked as normal meat-and-potatoes enterprises, they wouldn’t need cash infusions from VCs every quarter.

    Meat and potatoes won’t make you rich based on all talk and no profits.

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