Juggling Dynamite

Nope not about the weather…home sales have fallen the most in the west–no polar vortex there.

Mortgage applications to buy a home fell last week to the lowest level in nearly two decades, according to a weekly survey from the Mortgage Bankers Association.

The report is a clear sign of weakness in buyer demand heading into the usually busy spring housing season.

“Purchase applications were little changed on an unadjusted basis last week, but this is the time of a year we would expect a significant pickup in purchase activity, and we are not yet seeing it,” said Mike Fratantoni, the association’s chief economist.

“We’re in a critical juncture in housing, and it started when rates went up a small 1 percentage point back in June,” housing analyst Mark Hanson told CNBC on Tuesday. “We’re going from an investor-led housing market to an end user-led housing market, and that’s creating a lot of problems.” See: Mortgage applications at lowest level in 2 decades

That is a problem indeed.  Since end-users (the masses) have been largely left out of economic “recovery” since 2008…they have very little ability to buy houses today, especially at now higher prices and higher mortgage rates. Who is going to provide the exit capital “liquidity events” for all the investors who piled into reality markets the past few years?

Even after 6 year of QE-extended recovery in US stock and high yield bond prices, deficits in public pensions continue to outpace all gains as cash-strapped states defer necessary reforms, and direct planned funding towards other short term expenses. One can imagine how much larger these deficits will be once the next bear market has had its way once more with now egregiously over-valued asset markets. See: Public Pension Tabs Multiply as States defer Costs and Hard Choices.

Central Banks were trying to bail out banks not pension plans with QE, but nonetheless, any hope for lasting ancillary benefit to pensions has not panned out. A temporary reflation in asset values has only bought an extension of misguided policies. For the pension plans at least, QE was a backdoor bailout that has not worked.

A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association: Internal Medicine this month reaffirms that plant-based diets lead to lower blood viscosity and lower blood pressure compared to meat-eaters. See the report here: Vegetarian Diets and Blood Pressure.

In interview on the findings, one of the study authors Dr. Neal Barnard explains that plant-based eaters have less viscous blood that moves through human arteries with less strain and pressure on the system. Cleaner fuel, more oxygen in the bloodstream, faster performance, less need for medications:

“It’s not uncommon for us to see patients at our research center who come in and they’re taking four drugs for their blood pressure, and it’s still too high. So if a diet change can effectively lower blood pressure, or better still can prevent blood pressure problems, that’s great because it costs nothing, and all the side effects are ones that you want, like losing weight and lowering cholesterol…

Take the fastest animals, take a stallion, they don’t eat meat or cheese, so their blood is not viscous at all. Their blood flows well. As you know a lot of the top endurance athletes are vegan. Scott Jurek is the most amazing ultra-distance runner in the world. That’s why Jurek says a plant-based diet is the only diet he’ll ever follow. Serena Williams is going vegan, too. A lot of endurance athletes are doing it.”

What of all that talk about needing protein? Where do plant-eaters get their protein to rebuild muscles and brain tissue?

“Well, the same place that a stallion or a bull or an elephant or a giraffe or a gorilla or any other vegan animal gets it. The most powerful animals eat plant-based diets. If you’re a human, you can eat grains, beans, and even green leafy vegetables. Broccoli doesn’t want to brag, but it’s about one-third protein.” See: Vegetarians and their superior blood.