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It used to be the promoter who was at the forefront.
Over the last three years, it’s very much the bottle hosts
who have become the most prominent person in the club.
-- Jamie Mulholland, an owner of Cain on West 27th Street.
To critics of bottle service, these hosts are further trappings
of a warped system in which the old intricacies of after-hours
chic have been vulgarized down to mere spending power.
For club owners, bottle hosts who bring in business help
them survive in an increasingly competitive industry in
which overhead costs like insurance and rents are climbing,
scrutiny by the city and law enforcement is increasing, and
some clubs are losing revenue as traditional New York
patrons pause in their tracks at the sight of the police
barricades blocking off West 27th Street, known informally
as club row.
[ Via NYT ]
We moved to Canada, by former Americans.
Nain reports CBC’s Tony Dawson had some video of the cars
zooming and zipping around Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
The clips were shown on Here & Now.
Prosper now enjoys some powerfu tools.
regression analysis forum
adverse selection says avoid the high rate borrowers.
Money Walks journal of patterns in data, performance.
Erics great survey or lenders: oustandings, return
Prosper Analytics animated charts, not quite chart junk. ROI.
P2P conventional loan analytics.
Prosper's own loan performance database.
The Politico tracks Washington-centric partisan politics,
by ex-Washington Post staffers at Capitol Leader.
it would seem that a sequence of price declines continuing for
many years has some substantial probability of happening.
Traditional finance theory has trouble reconciling even a semi-predictable
sequence of price declines with basic notions of market efficiency. The
situation we are facing is a reminder of the glaring inefficiencies and
incompleteness of existing markets for residential real estate, and
may be regarded as evidence that institutional changes will be coming
in future years to fundamentally change the nature of these markets.
Things That Go Boom
By ROBERT J. SHILLER
February 8, 2007; Page A15
Tech President covers the race for US President, 2008.
Experts say the phenomenon of the newly rich gravitating
toward country-club enclaves like Alpine is well established
in American society.
The old adage is crowding into the winner’s circle
and so these superaffluent communities are very desirable
for the big winners in our society, and there’s always
the contrast between the old money and new money.
-- Jim Hughes,
Dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and
Public Policy at Rutgers University.
Especially in the case of hip-hop stars, many of whom insist
they’ll never lose touch with their street roots.
-- NYT, on Alpine NJ, 07620.
Notable:
Dimora Ristorante, in Norwood,
Kiku sushi house in Alpine.
Nearby: twons of Saddle River, Cresskill.
Blue Fly, prestige brands for online shoppers.
Pocket Change offers speed dating, NY style.
[ Via leveragedsellout ]
economist freeexchange economics and public policy.
Adverse selection in healthcare, about inequality.
Infosthetics shows time trends.
BEIJING (AP) -- Foreigners in Beijing will be limited to buying
a single home for their own use under new curbs imposed amid
efforts to slow a surge in housing costs, newspapers reported
Saturday.
Foreign home-buyers in Beijing will have to prove they have lived
in China for a year for work or study, and will be barred from
renting out the property, the Beijing Morning Post and China
Daily newspapers said.
February 3, 2007
Beijing Limits Foreign Home Ownership
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:44 a.m. ET
BEIJING (AP) -- Foreigners in Beijing will be limited to buying
a single home for their own use under new curbs imposed
amid efforts to slow a surge in housing costs, newspapers
reported Saturday.
Foreign home-buyers in Beijing will have to prove they have
lived in China for a year for work or study, and will be barred
from renting out the property, the Beijing Morning Post and
China Daily newspapers said.
China's government is trying to restrain a jump in housing
prices and cool an investment boom that Chinese leaders
worry could spark inflation or a financial crisis.
Beijing has mainland China's largest population of long-term
foreign residents, including tens of thousands of Western
and Asian business people, diplomats and others. The
reports gave no indication whether other cities would impose
similar curbs.
The communist government began allowing Chinese
families to buy homes in the 1990s, and later let foreigners
buy real estate. The government still officially owns all land
in China, but buyers of apartments and houses receive
deeds valid for up to 70 years.
The government warned last July that it would restrict
foreigners' purchases in an effort to restrain prices
and ensure adequate supplies of low-cost housing.
Restrictions in the capital also apply to buyers from
Hong Kong and Macau, which are Chinese territory
but are treated as foreign economies by regulators,
according to the reports.
Spending by developers on apartments, office buildings
and other real estate projects nationwide jumped by 21.8
percent last year, according to the government.
Under a measure that took effect Thursday, developers
will pay a value-added tax of up to 60 percent on new
projects.
Chinese leaders also worry that heavy spending on real
estate, fueled by easy bank credit, could ignite inflation
or cause a debt crisis if builders of ill-conceived projects
default on their loans.
Investment from Hong Kong and other areas outside
China's mainland has poured into real estate.
Some foreign investors apparently hope to profit from
the rise of China's currency, the yuan, which would push
up the value of mainland assets in foreign currency terms.
Some projects, such as luxury villas, have been banned
outright as the government prods developers to build
more low-income housing.
[ViaNYT ]
MeFi says the CBC mothercorp finally kills off its treasure, Brave New Waves.
See also radiofreecanuckistan, insidethecbc, cleverlazy, zoilus, Discorder, Canada.com, StilePost.
thetyee.ca Vancouverite proleview culture zone cannot be elitist.
