Today’s super-rich are the most privileged and powerful group of people in history. If you’re a billionaire, you can even decide an election by funneling a little bit of your money into the race. You can choose to pay 0% tax.You can sway public opinion by buying up media outlets, and by using think tanks to influence schools and news sources. You can mobilize law enforcement agencies towards targeting your enemies, that is anyone who annoys you.
The eight richest people in the world hoard more wealth than the bottom 50% of humanity combined, they are playing with fire.
Extreme inequality and declining living standards have happened everywhere that neoliberalism has been imposed, including in the Scandinavian countries that have tried to “reform” capitalism. While the world’s eight richest men now have the same amount of wealth as the bottom half of humanity, the world’s poorest 3.6 billion people are currently getting poorer.
Some call it Moneyland, others see a return to feudal times. The offshore world could also be compared to the two-tiered architecture of imperial Panem in Suzanne Collin’s dystopian Hunger Games trilogy, which is said to reflect the workings of the Roman empire.
Any discussion on Venezuela is likely to end in fisticuffs. On one side we have the US and neoliberal forces conspiring together with a repressed middle class and the old ruling class in every conceivable way to destroy a state socialist revolution, which may be corrupt, inept and brutal but guarantees basic health, education, housing, food and a vision of social revolution to the great majority of people..
24 Jan, 2019 13:17 You could scour the bowels of US imperial crimes, from the Mexican-American War to the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam, and you won’t find a more brazen cynical act of gangsterism than that which is now underway against Venezuela.
Not since Hitler justified blitzing Poland by claiming it had encroached on the frontier into Nazi Germany has a more blatant set of falsehoods been adduced as a pretext for conflict.
‘This Fight Is Ours’: Venezuela Women March Against Imperialism.
The have-nots, workers, unemployed, women, indigenous, blacks … still support the government.
In Venezuela, it will quickly become a civil war that will most likely draw in other countries from Cuba to Colombia and Brazil (as I previously predicted here) with incalculable consequences – not least for the world’s oil prices.
Discerning readers will already be aware that Venezuela has the world’s largest oil reserves and is a major producer – and the biggest seller to the American market.
This is not about Maduro, the former bus driver-turned-foreign minister who is now the elected president of Venezuela. If it were, I’d waste my time critiquing his period in office.
Here’s a heart-wrenching picture of babies in laundry-baskets, with the question, What kind of revolution is this? But the photo is from Honduras. see many more false images at…. Exposed: Tsunami of Blatant Lies by Western Media on Venezuela
It’s not about Maduro because the US had been seeking to overthrow his predecessor Hugo Chavez for more than a decade before this.
Even though Chavez was one of the most electorally successful politicians on the planet in a democratic process described by former US president Jimmy Carter as “the best in the world,” US presidents Bush, Obama and Trump routinely called him a dictator.
After 18 years of subversion, infiltration, coercion, bribery and a constant blitz of fake news the US is pushing Venezuela into a horrific civil war in order to take control of its oil.
Venezuelan commune movements march in support of the new Constituent Assembly (photo by AVN)
Before they drop the bombs, they drop the narrative, of course. And the disinformation bombardment in Venezuela has been one of the longest bombing runs in history.
Massive sums of US money have been spent on media distortion, subversion, sabotage, military coups, and threats of invasion throughout the Chavez-Maduro era.
Is Maduro a dictator? By whose standards? Remember how we were fooled by the blitz of fake news into condemning Gaddafi, so they could destroy the best welfare state in Africa, leaving him raped and murdered in the street and the country in horrific chaos to this day. Remember the mega-lying witch hunt against Saddam..Why? To steal rights over their oil.
The gold-toothed Venezuelan emigres who fled to Miami with their ill-gotten gains have long been effectively a coup in the making.
The recruitment of neighboring Colombia into “associate membership” of NATO, the propeling of Brazil’s Bolsonaro (another NATO applicant) to power, and plans for US military bases there have all been in preparation for this day.
Although many such crimes have been committed across all continents for centuries by the US, none have constituted such comic-opera gangsterism as this latest – more ‘Bugsy Malone’ than ‘The Godfather.’
An almost random figure whose name was largely unknown until this week has disdained to put himself up for election as president of the republic, instead pronouncing himself to actually be the president, and has even sworn himself in!
All the “experts” on Syria, Ukraine and Russia are scrambling to studios, practicing in the taxi how to say his name.
And the “international community” recognizes Juan Guaido. This includes US, Canada and assorted American satrapies across the world. They will likely soon be joined by the so-called democratic European Union, NATO and almost certainly the UK.
It is a new form, to be sure – usually the hated Latin American presidents are dead, like Allende in Chile, or have fled or been jailed before the coup de grace is delivered.
But Trump is in a hurry.
As investigations come ever closer to the Trump syndicate, as the clock ticks towards impeachment or defeat in 2020, as the war-cell of Bolton and company screech for a victory, somewhere, anywhere, it has come to this.
It is a “Wag the Dog” war, and it’s coming to your screens soon – today in fact.
”The rich want lower taxes, and ending social programs for the have-nots, and they want the privatization of vital government enterprises so that they can loot the country, as is happening right now in Brazil. And most of all, they want the privatization of the oil in their hands. They want to be billionaire oligarchs just like oligarchs in other oil-rich countries”. The have-nots, workers, unemployed, women, indigenous, blacks … still support the government. They want the government to keep control of the oil for the benefit of the people, the have-nots. They are in the streets too, they are supporting the government, and they are being violently attacked by the hoodlums of the haves and the mercenaries for the U.S. Empire”.
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rushed a financial agreement between Turkey and Qatar through Parliament for approval ahead of his decision to turn over a $20 billion tank and pallet factory to a company run jointly by his associates and the Qatari army.
The tank and pallet factory at 1st Main Maintenance Command headquarters in Turkey’s Sakarya province.
The deal, the avoidance of double taxation agreement, came just in the nick of time before the Erdoğan government presented a multibillion-dollar national tank factory on a silver platter to Turkish-Qatari armored vehicle manufacturer BMC, a company run by Ethem Sancak, a member of the MKYK executive body of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The rushed agreement on double taxation between Turkey and Qatar replaced one that had been in effect since 2009.The taxation agreement was approved in Parliament.Erdoğan issued an executive decree on Dec. 20, 2018 that turned over the rights to operate Turkey’s national tank factory for a 25-year period to BMC without any competitive bidding or transparent process.
On paper, 49.9 percent of BMC’s shares belong to the Qatari Armed Forces, while Sancak owns 25 percent and the Öztürk family (Ahmet Öztürk, Talip Öztürk and Taha Yasin Öztürk) owns 25.1 percent.
Rumor in Ankara circles has it that Erdoğan is the real owner of BMC and Sancak is merely a caretaker looking after the Turkish president’s business interests. The Öztürk family, known to have mafia links to Galip Öztürk, a convicted murderer and head of an organized crime network, is seen close to the Turkish president.
With the spectacular betrayal and defeat of the two main militias in the Turkish paid NFL coalition the Al Qaeda (HTS) administration has taken control of the province of Idlib, which right now is an Al Qaeda sharia regime state, sponsored by Turkey.
While the western media were entertained with the Erdogan/Trump daily pantomime no one seemed to notice that the Tutkish paid mercenaries sent to the Manbij border to ”bury, plunder, rape and occupy”the Rojava Revolution were mainly recently recruited NFL jihadis from Idlib, and not Erdogan’s FSA terrorists still busy destroying Afrin.
The good news is that in future Erdogan’s other mercenaries, the FSA, will be wary about him sending them to invade and plunder Rojava…
Their weapons were seized and no other faction or their Turkish sponsors helping or supporting them. According to the Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV, more than 200 militants and 20 civilians were killed during the battle between HTS and the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. Nour al-Din al-Zenki suffered total defeat at the hands of HTS and lost all of its areas in western Aleppo.
Next in line were the biggest faction of the Turkish NFL jihadis, Ahrar al-Sham , who were defeated by Al Qaeda in just 3 days.
Mekut@Mekut_Mallet Leader of Syrian branch of al-Qa’ida (rebranded HTS), known as abu-Muhammad al-Jolani, supports Turkey in attacking Syrian Kurds. The Islamofascist axis AKP//HTS/ISIS has been planning to subjugate or exterminate Kurds and others who stand in their way. #Turkey#alQaeda#HTS
Then Erdogan forced the demoralised NFL facrions to sign the agreement giving administrative control to Al Qaeda/HTS, as many fled into the already terrorist infested Turkish occupied Afrin
So to cut a long story short Al Qaeda has triumphed and is expanding out of Idlib into Hama, Aleppo and Lattakia, leaving Assad and the Russians a bit confused.
Opposition websites agree that Turkey has cynically and murderously betrayed and destroyed its own paid allies, Al Zenki and Ahrar al-Sham, opening the door to a general attack by Syria/SAA and Russia on Al Qaeda/HTS (because all sides have labelled HTS as terrorists while the Turkish backed groups had some defense).
Was Erdogan wrong footed by Trump’s sudden withdrawal declarations into sending his mercenaries into a trap? ??
Maybe yes this was what happened, it was important perhaps for Turkey to make the preparations to attack Rojava real and concrete . One report suggested they hoped to get the vital ‘airspace bombing permission’ for a new invasion from the US and Russians by appearing that the invasion was going ahead anyway.
But things are never as they seem .. Some very suspicious circumstances..
Turkey apparently sent its untried NFL mercenaries from Idlib to attack Rojava via Manbij instead of its established FSA terrorist army.
Opposition websites agree that Turkey has cynically and murderously betrayed and destroyed its own paid allies, Al Zenki and Ahrar al-Sham.
The ‘huge buildup of Turkish tanks and NATO war material, linked to the threat to ”bury” the Kurds, seems to be more on the Idlib/Hatay border, far from Kobani/Rojava.
Turkey has a thriving business with Idlib in the laughably named ‘demilitarized Zone’ (DMZ) via the Hatay/Turkey border. Al Qaeda/HTS is now a far-right religious administration with its own social services.
Turkey has expanded its ten bases in the Idlib ‘DMZ’ but made no effort to enforce the terms of the agreement.
Erdogan is supplying arms to his mercenaries (now seized by Al Qaeda HTS) but also all kinds of supplies, international aid, and trade, all taxed by the Al Qaeda/HTS regime which controls road access here and elsewhere.
NFL mercenaries have been complaining recently in online comments that their pay has been cut (partly caused by the collapse of the Turkish Lira in which they are paid). One comment claimed ”Turkey is paying double to Al Qaeda/HTS militants” causing mass defection of desperately poor rebels.
So what will happen next?
Perhaps Turkey will now defend Idlib as a client state, hoping it will be one more jewel in the racist, misogynist, jihadist ‘New Ottoman Empire’.
Reports suggest the Al Qaeda takeover has caused fear in Idlib of an all out attack by the massive SAA Syrian army which is entrenched around the east and south of the area.
The chorus of demands, no doubt orchestrated by Turkey, is resuming, asking that the Turkish army intervene to stop the ‘evil Assadis’ committing ‘a shocking massacre of civilians’ with their ‘poison gas attacks’.
An agreed invasion or ‘increase on troops to enforce the DMZ agreement’ could make Idlib forever a Turkish Empire protectorate, and set the stage for the ”cleansing” of Rojava where Turkey promises to ”bury the Kurds in their ditches”.
Erdogan already has 10 bases in Idlib. He, or his script writing team, are experts in threats and blackmail, (put the words ‘Erdogan Threatens’ in google and you find many pages of threats!) with ”leverage” over Russia due to key pipelines, nuclear and arms sales, etc. Leverage over Syria as he already occupies and is ‘turkifying’ Afrin, Jarablus, Azaz and Al Bab. Turkey also has blackmail ammunition over the EU with the oft repeated threat to let loose a new flood of refugees. And over the US with the threat of leaving NATO, cancelling arms agreements, etc.
Hopefully despite all the threats and Machiavellian maneuvering, Erdogan’s plans will come unstuck again. But the increasing evidence that Turkey sacrificed its own supposedly ‘moderate’ mercenary allies to be wiped out by Al Qaeda show again what level of War Criminals are at work.
12/01/2019.. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham continues to expand its influence within the Idlib de-escalation zone. Now, the target is northern Lattakia.
Jailed Kurdish opposition politician Leyla Güven has reached a critical condition and has been unable to see her lawyer for four days due to health problems caused by her long-running hunger strike, Turkish news site Diken reported.
Güven, who is both the co-chair of the Democratic Society Congress, an umbrella organisation for Kurdish groups, and a deputy for the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), is imprisoned pending trial in Diyarbakır, south-east Turkey after being arrested in January 2018 for criticising Turkey’s military operation against Kurdish militias in northwest Syria.
The Kurdish deputy is one of nine from the HDP who are currently held behind bars in Turkey, including the party’s former co-chair, Selahattin Demirtaş. The party is particularly vulnerable to prosecution due to perceived links tying it to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed group that has fought Turkish security forces for Kurdish self-rule since the 1980s.
Day 68 of Leyla Güven’s Hunger Strike in Turkish prison. Her health has rapidly deteriorated & is now at life threatening stage. Silence is no longer viable, in fact, it is complicity at this stage. #LeylaGuven< Morning Star@M_Star
Together we will make 27 and 28 January two days of global resistance against Turkish fascism. Together we will intervene in the numbing routine of war and oppression, expressing our solidarity with various forms of action. Together we will show that this revolution is not alone!
Let us stand shoulder to shoulder against fascism!
Long live the international solidarity!
The revolution in Rojava will be victorious! Fascism will be crushed!
The Zapatista National Liberation Army (Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional, EZLN) has said that it would not permit President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Maya Train project of death and dirty tricks to happen.
It described López Obrador as “crazy” and “crafty,” and therefore, it said, it will defend what it has constructed in the past 25 years.
On Monday, López Obrador arrived in Villahermosa to attend the swearing-in of Adán Augusto López as governor of Tabasco. Upon asking him about the resistance announced by the EZLN to some of his projects, he answered: “They are within their rights, how good that they are going to do it, and many congratulations to everyone.”
In the voice of Subcomandante Moisés, during an event held in the community of La Realidad, municipality of Las Margaritas, in the Lacandón Jungle, the EZLN stated: “Think about how crazy it is that he says he is going to govern for rich and poor. Only a crazy person that is sick in the head can say that; his mind doesn’t work, he is braindead (…).
“He doesn’t know nor understand what he’s saying, and he doesn’t understand because his boss dictates to him what he has to say. It’s simple: you can’t support the exploited and the exploiter, you have to choose one of the two,” he said.
The EZLN criticized, without mentioning him by name, that Lopez Obrador “is very tricky, because (he says) that he is with the people of Mexico and continues deceiving the original peoples, demonstrating that he thrusts himself on the land asking for permission and saying that all the original peoples believe him, but we say that we don’t believe him.”
Masked Zapatista rebels participate in a protest against violence in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas state, Mexico. The Zapatistas staged a brief armed uprising for greater indigenous rights in southern Chiapas state in 1994.
Upon referring to the ceremony held on December 1 in Mexico City’s Zócalo, where López Obrador received the staff of command from the indigenous peoples, the EZLN expressed: “Only because Mother Earth doesn’t speak, if she did she would say: fuck your mother; she would say: go to hell!”
In the context of the 25th anniversary of the January 1, 1994 Zapatista Uprising, he added: “We’re not going to allow them to come to destroy us,” and he warned: “We’re not afraid of their Nacional Guard, which changed their name in order to not say Army, but they are the same.”
He maintained that López Obrador “is going to destroy the people of Mexico, but principally the original peoples; they’re coming for us, especially for the EZLN.” He reiterated that they are not afraid of the new federal government. “We’re going to fight and we’re going to confront it.”
He remarked: “They’re coming for us, the original peoples. The consulta (vote) that they make is to manipulate the people. They are asking permission to attack us with votes. They are consulting so that they can come to confront us with that dirty trick of the Maya Train” (Tren Maya),” but “if they provoke us, we are going to defend ourselves. We’re not going to allow anyone to come to establish themselves in this territory in rebellion.”
He asserted that the so-called Fourth Transformation “is nothing of a fourth. Those of the third confronted him with facts. (López Obrador) says, for example, that he is going to forgive all the criminals. Like the one who says that he won’t do anything to the murderers of our Compañero Galeano,” murdered in the community of La Realidad in May 2014.
Advierte el EZLN que no permitirá que pase el proyecto del Tren Maya
Está en su derecho de oponerse, señala López Obrador
▲ El comandante Pablo Contreras (Pablo González Casanova) en el segundo Encuentro de Redes de Resistencia en apoyo al Congreso Nacional Indígena y al Concejo Indígena de Gobierno.Foto Mariana Gutiérrez
Elio Henríquez
Corresponsal
Periódico La Jornada
Miércoles 2 de enero de 2019, p. 4
San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chis., El Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional (EZLN) afirmó que no permitirá que pase el proyecto de muerte y porquería del Tren Maya del presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a quien calificó de loco y mañoso, por lo que, dijo, defenderá lo que ha construido en los pasados 25 años.
El lunes, López Obrador llegó a Villahermosa para asistir a la toma de protesta de Adán Augusto López como gobernador de Tabasco. Al preguntarle sobre la resistencia anunciada por el EZLN a algunos de sus proyectos, respondió: Están en su derecho, qué bueno que lo van a hacer, y muchas felicidades a todas y todos.
En voz del subcomandante Moisés, durante un acto realizado en la comunidad de La Realidad, municipio de Las Margaritas, en la selva Lacandona, el EZLN manifestó: “Figúrense cómo está de loco que dice que va a gobernar para ricos y pobres. Sólo un loco que está mal de su cabeza puede decir eso; no trabaja su mente, es descerebrado (…).
No sabe ni entiende lo que está diciendo, y no lo entiende porque su patrón le dicta lo que tiene que decir. Es sencillo: no se puede apoyar al explotado y al exolotador, se tiene que escoger a uno de los dos, expuso.
Mural painting near La Realidad symbolizing the Zapatista uprising on 01-01-1994
South of the Border: The indigenous people in Chiapas have defended the Zapatista free area for a generation, with a communal, feminist, non-hierarchical and non-tribal culture that has inspired the world.
El EZLN criticó, sin mencionarlo por su nombre, que Lopez Obrador es muy mañoso, porque (dice) que está con el pueblo de México y sigue engañando a los pueblos originarios, demostrando que se hinca en la tierra pidiéndole permiso y diciendo que todos los pueblos originarios le creen, pero nosotros le decimos que no le creemos.
El mega propietario de Wall Street, Blackstone, gira el tornillo del gobierno español y el mercado inmobiliario
In English Below. traducción del articulo de Don Quijones, El mega terrateniente de Wall Street, Blackstone, una vez más está haciendo sentir su presencia en España, que representa aproximadamente una quinta parte de su imperio de propiedad global. Durante la sesión de preguntas y respuestas de una reciente reunión de desayuno organizada por la Cámara de Comercio de Estados Unidos, la asesora principal de la filial española del grupo, Claudio Boada, se enfrentó a la Ministra de Economía y Negocios de España, Nadia Calviño, sobre los planes del gobierno para reformar las leyes de alquiler en España, un intento de frenar el ritmo de aumento de alquileres.De particular interés para el coloso de capital privado es el objetivo declarado del gobierno de extender la duración mínima de los contratos de alquiler de tres a cinco años para particulares y de tres a siete años para empresas, con la esperanza de atenuar la tasa a la que aumentan los alquileres. en el país. Pero también obstaculizará la capacidad de los propietarios de capital privado como Blackstone para desalojar a los inquilinos existentes de las propiedades recién adquiridas lo más rápido posible para aumentar los precios de alquiler de los nuevos.“Creemos que las medidas que se están discutiendo podrían terminar incrementando el precio de los alquileres y reduciendo la inversión”, dijo Boada. Traducción: si el gobierno continúa con su plan equivocado para hacer la vida un poco más fácil para las legiones de inquilinos en dificultades, los propietarios de capital privado como Blackstone podrían verse tentados a reducir su inversión en sacar dinero de los españoles.
Crisis de la vivienda en 2018: la gente de Dublín dice “¡Recupera la ciudad” y ocupa dos casas como parte activa de esa idea! Sucediendo ahora mismo!@D_C_H_ASouthwark Notes
Dado que las firmas de capital privado son una de las mayores fuentes de demanda de propriedades en España, así como los principales compradores de activos inmobiliarios deteriorados de los bancos españoles y el banco malo de España, Sareb, es una amenaza bastante grande, y una del gobierno sin duda está tomando muy en serio.
Blackstone tiene más de 100,000 activos inmobiliarios en España que son controlados a través de docenas de compañías. Esos activos incluyen una enorme cartera de activos inmobiliarios deteriorados, incluidas las hipotecas en mora y los activos de propiedad inmobiliaria (REO).
La compañía no es solo el mayor administrador de propriedades privados en España; También es el mayor propietario de hoteles, luego de adquirir el fideicomiso de inversión en bienes inmobilarios(REIT) más grande del país, Hispania, por € 1,9 mil millones, a principios de este año.
Tras una serie de operaciones más pequeñas, la adquisición de Hispania consolidó la posición de Blackstone como el líder en uno de los mercados turísticos más grandes del mundo, con un stock total de 17,000 habitaciones, muy por delante de Meliá (casi 11,000), H10 (más de 10,000) y Hoteles Globales (algo más de 9.000).
En el último año y medio, Blackstone ha desempeñado un papel destacado en algunas de las operaciones inmobiliarias más grandes de España. En 2017, pagó 5,1 mil millones de euros por los préstamos en mora que Banco Santander heredó de su adquisición de Banco Popular.
En los últimos meses, se han desembolsado otros 1.700 millones de euros para comprar las participaciones de los bancos españoles en TESTA, otro REIT gigante con una cartera de más de 10.000 propiedades de alquiler.
Blackstone también es propietaria de 1,800 unidades de vivienda social, que adquirió del Ayuntamiento de Madrid en un trato poco fiable negociado por el hijo del ex primer ministro español José María Aznar y la ex alcaldesa de Madrid Ana Botella.
Blackstone pagó 202 millones de euros por los apartamentos en 2013; ahora se estima que tienen un valor de € 660 millones, ¡un 227% de rendimiento en solo cinco años!
Desde la compra de las propiedades, Blackstone ha incrementado las rentas de los apartamentos en un 49%. Los que no pueden pagar han sido desalojados.
La transformación de los principales grupos de capital privado como Blackstone en propietarios globales con más de tres billones de dólares en activos inmobiliarios, casi el doble de lo que tenían hace cinco años, se ha producido por varias razones.
Crisis de la vivienda de 1946: miles de personas marchan en Londres y ocupan bloques de lujo, forzando el Gobierno a construir casas sociales baratos. Crisis de la vivienda 2018 – ¡La misma lucha sigue siendo bueno! 196 Retweets 239 Likes
Primero, después de la crisis financiera, fueron uno de los pocos grandes participantes en el mercado con suficientes fondos disponibles para invertir en casas embargadas y planes de propiedad fallidos, de los cuales había un exceso masivo en todo el mundo.
Los bancos centrales, los reguladores financieros y los gobiernos prestaron una gran ayuda al reducir el costo de los préstamos, especialmente para los fondos bien conectados de Wall Street, a profundidades hasta entonces inimaginables, así como al aprobar regulaciones que facilitaron la emisión de fondos respaldados por títulos basado en alquileres
Dado que las alquileres medias en España aumentaron en un 25% desde 2014, y en más del 50% en Barcelona y las Islas Baleares, esas inversiones han dado buenos resultados.
Como advirtió en mayo la Fundación Española de Cajas de Ahorros (FUNCAS), los fondos de capital privado con grandes inversiones han empezado a preocuparse de que muchas familias españolas, que se ganan la vida con trabajos mal pagados, sin seguridad, sean incapaces de pagar las altas rentas de hoy.
Muchos de los que no pueden pagar ya han sido desalojados de los apartamentos que son propiedad del fondo.
El gobierno pretende (o al menos antes tenía la intención de) ayudar a estas personas al aumentar la duración mínima de los contratos de alquiler. Pero hacer eso chocaría de frente con los intereses del mayor propietario de Wall Street.
Como tal, las posibilidades que el gobierno de España, que ya ha descartado una serie de medidas populares, en realidad cumple su promesa, son infinitamente más pequeñas hoy que antes de la reunión del desayuno de la semana pasada.
Wall Street mega-landlord Blackstone is once again making its presence felt in Spain, which represents about one-fifth of its global property empire. During the Q&A session of a recent breakfast meeting organized by the American Chamber of Commerce, the senior advisor of the group’s Spanish subsidiary, Claudio Boada, confronted Spain’s Minister of Economy and Business, Nadia Calviño, on the government’s plans to reform Spain’s renting laws in an attempt to slow down the pace of rising rents.
Of particular concern to the private equity colossus is the government’s stated goal of extending the minimum duration of rental contracts from three to five years for private individuals and from three to seven years for businesses, in the hope of tempering the rate at which rents are rising in the country.
But it will also hamper the ability of private-equity landlords like Blackstone to turf out the existing tenants of newly acquired properties as quickly as possible in order to jack up rental prices for new ones.
“We think that the measures being discussed could end up increasing the price of rents price and reducing investment,” said Boada. Translation: if the government proceeds with its misguided plan to make life a little easier for the legions of struggling tenants, private equity landlords like Blackstone might be tempted to reduce its investment in Spanish real estate.
Given that private equity firms are one of the biggest sources of demand for real estate in Spain as well as the main buyers of impaired real estate assets from Spanish banks and Spain’s bad bank, Sareb, it’s a pretty big threat — and one the government will no doubt take very seriously.
Blackstone alone has over 100,000 real estate assets in Spain that are controlled via dozens of companies. Those assets include a huge portfolio of impaired real estate assets, including defaulted mortgages and real estate-owned assets (REOs).
The company is not only the biggest private real-estate manager in Spain; it is also the biggest hotel owner, after acquiring the country’s largest real estate investment trust (REIT), Hispania, for €1.9 billion, earlier this year.
Following a string of smaller operations, the acquisition of Hispania cemented Blackstone’s position as top dog in one of the world’s biggest tourist markets, with a total stock of 17,000 beds, far ahead of Meliá (almost 11,000), H10 (more than 10,000) and Hoteles Globales (just over 9,000).
In the past year and a half, Blackstone has played a leading role in some of the largest real estate operations in Spain. In 2017 it paid €5.1 billion for the defaulted loans Banco Santander inherited from its shotgun-acquisition of Banco Popular.
In the last few months it has splashed out a further €1.7 billion to purchase Spanish banks’ holdings in TESTA, another giant REIT with a portfolio of more than 10,000 rental properties.
Blackstone also owns 1,800 social housing units, which it acquired from Madrid City Hall in a dodgy deal brokered by the son of former Spanish prime minister José María Aznar and former Madrid mayor Ana Botella.Blackstone paid €202 million for the apartments in 2013; they are now estimated to be worth €660 million — a 227% return in just five year! Since its purchase of the properties, Blackstone has hiked rents on the flats by 49%. Those who can’t pay have been evicted.The transformation of top private equity groups like Blackstone into global landlords with over three trillion dollars of real estate assets — almost double what they had five years ago — has occurred for a number of reasons.First, after the financial crisis they were one of the few large market participants with enough funds on hand to invest in foreclosed homes and failed property schemes, of which there was a massive glut all over the world.
Housing Crisis 1946 – Thousands march in London in support of squatted empty blocks in Bloomsbury, forcing Governmant to build cheap social housing. Housing Crisis 2018 – The same struggle is still good! 196 Retweets 239 Likes
Central banks, financial regulators, and governments lent a big helping hand by driving the cost of borrowing, especially for well-connected Wall Street funds, to heretofore unimaginable depths, as well as by passing regulations that made it easier for the funds to issue rent-backed securities.
With average rents in Spain soaring by 25% since 2014, and by over 50% in Barcelona and the Balearic Islands, those investments have paid off handsomely.
As the Spanish Savings Banks Foundation (FUNCAS) warned in May, heavily invested private equity funds have begun to fret that many Spanish families, scratching a living on poorly paid, zero-security jobs, are incapable of paying today’s high rents.
Many of those that can’t pay have already been evicted from the fund-owned apartments.
It is these people the government intends (or at least intended) to help by increasing the minimum duration of rental contracts. But doing that would clash head-on with the interests of Wall Street’s largest landlord.
As such, the chances of Spain’s government, which has already backslid on a number of popular measures, actually carrying through on its pledge are infinitely smaller today than they were before last week’s breakfast meeting.
By TM .. A medical doctor in Turkey was arrested by a court on Wednesday and sent to pretrial detention on charges of insulting the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Family practitioner Dr. Çiçek Fidanboy appeared before a judge in Hatay province and admitted that the social media posts she was accused of writing were in fact hers.
Dr. Fidanboy will stand trial at a later date.
According to the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) insulting the president carries a sentence of between one and four years.
A medida que la UE responde al último informe sobre ciencia del clima, aquí detallamos por qué no deberíamos escuchar a la industria del gas. Últimamente,la Unión Europea ha estado ampliando su ‘estrategia climática 2050’ . La próxima semana expondrá cómo la UE puede cumplir sus compromisos en virtud del Acuerdo de París y mantener el aumento de la temperatura global por debajo de 1.5oc.
El anuncio responde al último informe del Panel Intergubernamental sobre el Cambio Climático (IPCC) , que muestra que mantenerse por debajo de 1.5c requerirá recortes de emisiones profundos y urgentes. Entonces, ¿puede la industria del gas, cuyo producto principal son los combustibles fósiles, lo mismo que impulsa el cambio climático, ser parte de la solución?
Two front aid groups that operate in Turkey’s southeastern border provinces near Syria, led by known militants of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), have been allowed to keep collecting new recruits to fight for armed jihadist causes in the permissive environment created by the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
A high-profile Turkish al-Qaeda operative identified as Aytaç Polat has been involved in several charity outfits to mask his jihadist activities and appears to be untouchable despite the fact that his front association was named in court proceedings as an operation that sends fighters to Syria for enlistment with armed radical groups.
The eight richest people in the world hoard more wealth than the bottom 50% of humanity combined, they are playing with fire.
‘This Fight Is Ours’: Venezuela Women March Against Imperialism. 
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iba a ser desahuciada
Blackstone paid €202 million for the apartments in 2013; they are now 
Housing Crisis 1946 – Thousands march in London in support of squatted empty blocks in Bloomsbury, forcing Governmant to build cheap social housing. Housing Crisis 2018 – The same struggle is still good! 
The Free 
