Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Banksters and Their Bernanke Printed Money Makes Manhattan a Very Expensive Place to Live

Manhattan is all about Bernanke money. This is where the banksters and bankster traders for the Primary Dealers, the dealers that are allowed to trade directly with the Fed, live.

And if it isn't direct bankster money, it's foreign money. It's all those dollars Bernanke pumped into the foreign banks, especially during the peak of the financial crisis, that ended up in the hands of global elitists, who are using those dollars to out bid Americans for food and property in America's largest city.

NYT reports:

In TriBeCa [area of Manhattan], Karen Azeez feels squeezed. A fund-raising consultant, Ms. Azeez has lived in the city for more than 20 years. Her husband, a retired police sergeant, bought their one-bedroom apartment in the low $200,000 range in 1997.

''When we got here, I didn't feel so out of place, I didn't have this awareness of being middle class,'' she said. But in the last 5 or 10 years an array of high-rises brought ''uberwealthy'' neighbors, she said, the kind of people who discuss winter trips to St. Barts at the dog run, and buy $700 Moncler ski jackets for their children.

Even the local restaurants give Ms. Azeez the sense that she is now living as an economic minority in her own neighborhood.

''There's McDonald's, Mexican and Nobu,'' she said, and nothing in between.[...]


''A lot of people are hanging on by the skin of their teeth,'' said Cheryl King, an acting coach who lives and works in a combined apartment and performance space that she rents out for screenings, video shoots and workshops to help offset her own high rent.

''My niece just bought a home in Atlanta for $85,000,'' she said. ''I almost spend that on rent and utilities in a year. To them, making $250,000 a year is wealthy. To us, it's maybe the upper edge of middle class.''

''It's horrifying,'' she added.[...]

The average Manhattan apartment, at $3,973 a month, costs almost $2,800 more than the average rental nationwide. The average sale price of a home in Manhattan last year was $1.46 million, according to a recent Douglas Elliman report, while the average sale price for a new home in the United States was just under $230,000.

1 comment:

  1. I have lived in Manhattan my entire life, and I just moved out of my parent's home and got my own apartment this month (I am a 22-year-old recent college grad). However, I cannot be happier to see that the absurdity of Manhattan's living expenses is finally getting more scrutiny.

    Manhattan has always been an expensive place, as my parents moved here in the mid-1980s and exclaimed it to be pretty expensive relative to the rest of the country then as well. However, this is a part of the city that is heavily dependent on renting and as such is very susceptible to erosions in purchasing power brought on via inflation.

    In addition to the inflation, I also believe the fact that the city is incredibly over-taxed. In addition to a resident like myself having to pay city, state, and federal income taxes, as well as payroll taxes, we also have to grapple with city sales and excise taxes. Manhattanites feel the effects of inflation at the grocery store and in general every day, because many of the institutions here are the very politically-favored organizations that get their hands on the new money and enjoy the windfall.

    Add to the mix that I have a ton of student loan debt, and each month through taxes and debt service I am giving the government about 40% of my income (bear in mind I am a 22-year-old kid, not an established worker making over $250K per year).

    The example provided was absolutely correct, making $250,000 a year in Manhattan is by NO MEANS "rich". This is why I take such strong personal issue with advocates of tax increases, because for those who live in our nation's largest city it makes it that much more difficult to survive. By raising taxes not only do I have even less than before trying to make it here, but the tax incidence will ultimately be passed to us consumers via higher prices at stores anyway! Demand in Manhattan being so high also contributes to high costs and prices, because as our economy gets more service-centric by the day (specifically financial services) the more people will try to live and work here.

    I am fortunate and very blessed to work at a large bank here in the city (specifically in private banking, so I feel like I am actually helping people not peddling bullshit). I was so excited when I landed this job after graduating college, and even my parents told me that at my age I am well ahead of where they were at 22. However, both my parents and I are legitimately concerned about my future because our monetary and fiscal policy have guaranteed that I will have a lower standard of living than them.

    I mean isn't that what this is all about...leaving the kids a better future? If this government and generation has ensured that the future is going to be much bleaker for the young...then how can you in good conscious agree with a single spending bill putting us further in debt or a single open market operation purchasing yet another treasury bill....

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