sauer kraut posted:

Why don't you just put a washing machine in your kitchen, is that a crime in North America or something?

OhYeah posted:

I'm betting most jail cells in the Western world have more space, because to constrict someone in such a small space would be considered inhumane.

Baronjutter posted:

When I moved to an apartment I was really worried about dealing with a laundry room but it's seriously fine, never had any problems at all. There's a big board and people stick their apartment number on a time slot and you then have those 2 hours.

OhYeah posted:

I'm betting most jail cells in the Western world have more space, because to constrict someone in such a small space would be considered inhumane.

Reverse Centaur posted:

There are regulations about proper drainage for flooding and venting that make that impossible. You can't use existing shower vents because the dryer fluff is a fire hazard and you have to have an industrial drain underneath in case your washing machine explodes and water goes everywhere or whatever. Believe me I looked into it, communal laundry sucks even in an owners/adults-only building.

quote:

Jury finds Calgary men guilty in multi-million dollar ponzi scheme

A Calgary jury has found two men guilty in what authorities have called the largest Ponzi scheme in Canadian history.

After a five month long trial and three days of deliberations the jury came back with guilty verdicts Saturday against Gary Sorenson and Milowe Brost in an elaborate scheme where investors were brought in and promised unrealistic returns.

Sorenson, 71, and co-accused Brost, 61, had pleaded not guilty to two charges each of fraud and theft. Brost was also charged with money laundering. The two men were arrested in 2009.

Ponzi schemes involve taking funds from new investors and using them to pay old ones.

Police said investors around the world lost between $100 million and $400 million in the scheme. The Crown says many lost their life savings, retirement plans, even equity in their homes.

The prosecution has indicated it will seek the maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. Both men had remained free on bail but were ordered kept in custody prior to a sentencing hearing expected next week.

During the trial the Crown argued that the money invested was never really safe and new money was used to pay out the earlier investors.

One set of fraud and theft offences took place between 1999 and 2008 and involved companies named Syndicated Gold Depository SA, Base Metals Corporation LLC, Bahama Resource Alliance Ltd. and Merendon Mining Corporation Ltd.

More wrongdoing took place between 2004 and 2005 with a company called Strategic Metals Corp.

Investors were promised a 34 per cent annual return on an investment of $99,000 which was supposed to grow to $1,035,000 within eight years.

They were told that the business involved selling gold for refining and that the deal was “low risk.”

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alberta/jury-finds-calgary-men-guilty-in-multi-million-dollar-ponzi-scheme/article23004620/

Cultural Imperial posted:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/alberta/jury-finds-calgary-men-guilty-in-multi-million-dollar-ponzi-scheme/article23004620/


It seems like a lot of Canadian Ponzi schemes have been falling over lately. There's these shitheads and then we have:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/110m-ponzi-scheme-winners-become-losers-1.2947023
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/william-wise-gets-22-years-in-prison-for-130m-ponzi-scheme-1.2954456
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rcmp-allege-ponzi-scheme-afoot-at-seaquest-capital-1.2938388

jet sanchEz posted:

"Investors were promised a 34 per cent annual return on an investment of $99,000 which was supposed....."

Lol, how insane do you have to be to fall for this? I mean, there is dumb and then there is just plain insane.

jet sanchEz posted:

"Investors were promised a 34 per cent annual return on an investment of $99,000 which was supposed....."

Lol, how insane do you have to be to fall for this? I mean, there is dumb and then there is just plain insane.

PT6A posted:

To quote something I read somewhere but I can't remember where: "You can almost always short-circuit the three braincells humans use for reasoning by appealing to their greed."

etalian posted:

Canadians seem to have lots of greed right now, like all the articles in which they can't wait for their parents to die so they can collect their inheritance money and solve their money problems

Cultural Imperial posted:

The Waiters

Also kids asking for an advance on their inheritance lol

etalian posted:

Canadians seem to have lots of greed right now, like all the articles in which they can't wait for their parents to die so they can collect their inheritance money and solve their money problems

Baronjutter posted:

Isn't giving your inheritance to your kids before you die way better from a tax perspective or is that just a myth being spread by boomers trying to get out of debt asap?

I know if I was old and rich I'd slowly give my kids all my money over the last decades of my life so I could see them enjoy it, not have to deal with lawyers, and maybe save some money on taxes. Unless they were idiots, then I'd give most of it to charities helping people with way bigger problems.

quote:

MULTIPLE lenders have eased requirements on borrowers’ deposit sizes making it easier to buy a home…

New data from comparison website Finder.com.au shows lenders including Homeloans, HSBC, loans.com.au, Macquarie Bank, RAMS and Westpac have moved their LVRs on some mortgage products, relaxing the size of the deposit needed to secure a loan…

Finder.com.au spokeswoman Michelle Hutchison said borrowers who had small deposits and were taking out a loan at a time when interest rates were at record lows was a “recipe for disaster”…

According to the financial comparison site, almost half of all home loans on their database had a maximum LVR of 95 per cent or higher.



This rise in high LVR lending of course comes at a time when investor mortgage lending has surged to unprecedented heights, whereby nearly one in two new mortgages are going to investors (see next chart).



Regulators have been debating whether to implement macro-prudential controls on high risk mortgage lending for nearly two years now. Seriously, how much more evidence do they need that housing speculation is out of control?

Get off your arse APRA, do your job, and curb this fiasco before it takes the economy down.

Cultural Imperial posted:

jumpingmanjim, anecdotally, what are your friends and associates doing about real estate? Myself, I am friends with a couple, both of which are accountants who have just bought a house in Melbourne. I mean, they're loving accountants. How the gently caress does this make sense to accountants?

Cultural Imperial posted:

excuse me but you're all rentailures.

What's the % of Australia's GDP subsumed by Finance, Real Estate and Insurance industries?

Cultural Imperial posted:

That's way better than Canada. We're at what? 30% FIRE?

Reverse Centaur posted:

One of the floorplans



I mean gee whiz, how could you not want a living room smaller than your tiny rear end bedroom with no closets for $600,000?

Cultural Imperial posted:

jumpingmanjim, anecdotally, what are your friends and associates doing about real estate? Myself, I am friends with a couple, both of which are accountants who have just bought a house in Melbourne. I mean, they're loving accountants. How the gently caress does this make sense to accountants?

quote:

Norwegian millenials face soaring private debt levels, a wilting oil age: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-16/scandinavia-s-richest-millennials-might-be-in-trouble I warned about that: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-post-2009-european-housing-bubble-2012-12?op=1

https://twitter.com/TheBubbleBubble/status/567338370679189504

Cultural Imperial posted:

Saltin posted:

It's almost like some people make decisions about housing that are based on emotion.

quote:

cc: @conorsen Six weeks into 2015, and housing inventory looks like it's going to be super tight again this year. http://blog.altosresearch.com/housing-market-still-super-tight-should-be-a-good-year-for-sellers/

https://twitter.com/mikesimonsen/status/567346597437386752

quote:

The Post-2009 Northern and Western European housing bubble is proof that we are living in the era of The Bubble Bubble (a bubble of bubbles) as well as an era characterized by the most outrageous arrogance and hubris that humanity has ever experienced.

The 2008 global financial crisis should have taught everyone their lesson once and for all, but we are clearly living in a world filled with excruciatingly slow-learners

quote:

Canada extends millionaire migration deadline as scheme appears to flop with rich Chinese

Canada’s new millionaire migration scheme appears to have flopped amid doubts about its suitability for rich mainland Chinese, forcing authorities to quietly issue a lengthy extension to an application window which was supposed to have ended last week.

The Immigrant Investor Venture Capital (IIVC) pilot programme, which will grant permanent residency to immigrants who are worth a minimum of C$10 million (HK$62 million) if they hand over C$2 million for Canada’s government to invest on their behalf, will now take applications until April 15. That extends the application window from two weeks to a total of 11 weeks, suggesting the scheme has fallen well short of the worldwide cap of 500 applications.

Immigration industry sources had doubted the costly scheme would hit the application cap during the original window, and questioned whether the government was sincere about the programme. They said the scheme’s strict requirements - applicants must speak English or French, have a Canadian tertiary qualification or equivalent, and undergo a financial audit - would deter mainland Chinese millionaires.

Canada’s defunct Immigrant Investor Programme (IIP), which the IIVC scheme replaces, was the world’s most popular wealth migration scheme, thanks mainly to rich Chinese applicants.

The IIVC extension was made via new instructions from immigration minister Chris Alexander which were published in the government gazette on Friday, two days after the initial window ended. The amendment was noted on Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s (CIC) website, but no other public announcement appears to have been made.

There was also no explanation why the extension was needed. The initial ministerial instructions had said the scheme, which opened on January 28, would only accept applications until February 11 “or until a maximum of 500 applications are received, whichever comes first”. Only a maximum of 60 randomly drawn applicants and their families will be allowed to immigrate.


Jean-Francois Harvey

Prior to the extension, The South China Morning Post asked CIC whether the number of applications received by February 11 would be made public and whether a breakdown of the nationalities of applicants would be provided. “If or when we have something to announce, we will,” CIC’s entire emailed response said.

Hong Kong immigration lawyer Jean-Francois Harvey said he doubted whether the extension would have much effect.

“From what I have seen from the market reaction, I do not think that the extra time will make a big difference. Once the client learns about the criteria and conditions, the conversation switches quickly to other destinations that are available,” Harvey said today.

“I stated before that CIC will get their [60] cases, well, I may have to review this statement by April 15.”

Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said the initial two-week application window had stymied would-be immigrants. “CIC kept the new rules secret, and so no surprise to see prospective millionaire applicants scrambling to get their language tests done, and education credentials assessed from a small list of authorised providers, all before Chinese New Year,” he said on Sunday.


Richard Kurland

The prospect of a financial audit would also give many would-be applicants pause. “Given the matrix of information-sharing agreements between Canada and many countries, including China, millionaire applicants will need to be squeaky clean,” Kurland said.

Fellow Vancouver immigration lawyer Ryan Rosenberg had said last month that “CIC is either vastly over-estimating demand, for what is a very expensive programme, or is genuinely disinterested in filling their quota.”

Kurland said the need for the extension “was definitely foreseeable”. “I expect IIVC applications to begin arriving at CIC only in late March, because there is no advantage to filing early, when the system is designed as a lottery, instead of ‘first come, first served’,” he said.

Canada’s former IIP was the world’s most popular vehicle for wealth-based migration before it was axed last year. In 2010 alone, the scheme attracted a peak of 12,675 applications representing 42,312 wealthy would-be immigrants. More than 80 per cent were mainland Chinese who lodged applications via the Hong Kong consulate, creating a vast backlog that contributed to the scheme’s demise.

The axing of the 28-year-old IIP was followed by Hong Kong’s decision to shut down its own Capital Investment Entrant Scheme last month. The schemes had been criticised for helping drive up property prices in Vancouver and Hong Kong respectively, the two most unaffordable housing markets in the world.

From 2007 to 2013, 81 per cent of all Chinese applicants to the IIP said they planned to live in British Columbia, representing 61 per cent of applicants worldwide. About 37,000 investor immigrants are known to have activated permanent residency in BC from 2005 to 2012, nearly all settling in Vancouver. Many others likely arrived after landing elsewhere in Canada.

Ceciltron posted:

I love it. Did anyone actually think these people earned their money legitimately?