According to a recent story provided by the New York Post Wallstreet is winning again

Wall Street just had its most profitable quarter ever — fueled in part by the skimpy returns paid out on savings accounts.

US banks rang up record profits of $48.3 billion in the second quarter as the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes weren’t passed along to consumers, the FDIC said Tuesday.

The total bottom line profit marks a 10.7 percent rise from the same period last year — resulting in the biggest profit quarter in Wall Street history, an FDIC spokeswoman confirmed.

Banks have been clearing more profit as the Federal Reserve has hiked its benchmark rate four times since 2015.

The interest rate banks charge on loans is based on the Fed rate — meaning banks can charge a higher interest rate on loans after a Fed hike.

But banks are not raising the interest they pay on accounts — and they can pocket the difference.

JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank, reported $26.5 billion in profit for the 12 months ended June 30. That’s the most profitable year for a company in the history of banking, according to Bloomberg.

Most other banks have seen their profits surge this year, as well as their stock price.

One glaring exception, Goldman Sachs, has seen its profits hit by bad bets on energy, according to reports.

Nevertheless, Goldman’s stock is still trading near all-time highs, thanks to optimism that the White House will pass a corporate tax reform bill.

Despite the ebullience at banks, not all is clear on the horizon, said FDIC Chairman Martin J. Gruenberg.

“While the quarterly results were largely positive, the operating environment for banks remains challenging,” Gruenberg said in a speech Tuesday, warning of risks to liquidity and the credit markets.

“These risks must be managed prudently for the industry to continue to grow on a long-run, sustainable path,” he added.
Bankers, however, seem more interested in keeping the spigot of money flowing. And that argument involves rolling back regulations.

JPMorgan boss Jamie Dimon has been the most vocal Wall Street executive when it comes to what he calls over-regulation.

Seattle Housing Stats

The housing market continues to be on fire. With recent data released by the northwest multiple listing shows sales remaining strong through July 2017.

 

  July/Aug Number MOM YOY   Buyers  Sellers
Active Listings 2898 +11.4% -18.5%
Closed Sales 2737 -5.7% -2,7%
SAAS 1.28 +6.4% -4.0%
Pending 2950 -13.00% -7.8%
Months of Supply 1.06 +18.1% -16.2%
Median Price *$658,000 +0.8% +18.6%

 

Millennials Google Themselves Daily

According to  recent New York Post article based a survey from Bank of America. Millennials google themselves daily more than any other group. Read full story

Data released Thursday from Bank of America found that 9 percent of millennials and 11 percent of Gen Z say they Google themselves every day, versus 6 percent for the population overall.

I Google myself every day

  • Gen Z: 11 percent
  • Millennials: 9 percent
  • Gen X: 5 percent
  • Baby boomers: 5 percent
  • Seniors: 2 percent

What’s more, millennials top the list of those who say they Google themselves “frequently” with 57 percent admitting to this.

I frequently Google myself

  • Gen Z: 48 percent
  • Millennials: 57 percent
  • Gen Xers: 45 percent
  • Baby boomers: 37 percent
  • Seniors: 22 percent

It’s not just Jane and John Does who do it either: Plenty of millennial A-listers admit to Googling themselves, including Blake Lively, Kristen Stewart, Scarlett Johansson and Jennifer Lawrence. And the topic has become so mainstream that it appeared on HBO’s popular series “Girls.” In Season 5, Hannah Horvath’s friend and literary nemesis Tally Schrifin admits to doing it, saying, “Do you know I Google myself every day? It’s so gross but I do and I just want to see if like Gawker or whoever they are has written a snarky comment thing about what a hack I am or even if there’s a pretty picture of me in the Financial Times roundup of Books of the Year.”

Why are the younger generations more likely to look themselves up online frequently? One reason may be ego. “Googling yourself has become a new form of narcissism in our society,” says psychologist Christina Barber-Addis. Indeed, research published in 2008 by Swiss and Australian scientists found that our obsession with self-Googling is, in part, due to a rise in narcissism — and millennials have higher levels of narcissism that older generations, research from psychologist Jean Twenge, author of “The Narcissism Epidemic,” found. The 2008 study also found that self-Googling was a way for people to find out about and alter their online “brand” — something millennials are more apt to care about cultivating.

In many ways, it’s smart to — at least sometimes — Google yourself, says Barber-Addis. Indeed, eight in 10 employers Google potential employees before they hire them, so you want to know what’s out there on you and correct any errors. Potential dates are also likely to look you up (71 percent say they research a person before they go out with them) so, again, you want to ensure that your search results match up with the perception you’re hoping to put out into the world.

Still, experts say that you should limit how often you Google yourself — Barber-Addis recommends no more than every few months or if there is a big event like a job interview coming up — as it can have harmful psychological consequences. “As people post more and more on social media, they seem to be googling themselves often to see how they are being seen by others,” says Barber-Addis. “The response to this likely swings from deep satisfaction if there is a positive reflection seen, to despair if it appears that they are not being seen, or if there is a negative reflection.” What’s more, psychologist Elizabeth Lombardo, author of “Better Than Perfect” says that Googling yourself too often can lead to issues “ranging from depression and anxiety to shame and guilt as well as anger towards the people who make any negative comments.”

Of course, it’s hard to resist the occasional Google of your name. But if you do, it’s important to remember that what people say about you on the internet isn’t always how they feel. “People can be mean on the Internet – meaner than in real life because there tends to be a sense of anonymity. People often say things they wouldn’t normally say to your face online,” says Lombardo. “What’s more, they don’t always mean it either. Sometimes it’s just a stress release, an impulsive reaction.”

Seattle Housing Market Update

by Louis Howard

Seattle continues to be hotter than a habanero pepper with housing records continuing to fall month. below is an example of the latest.

The Seattle Area Market
Following up on a record-breaking spring, the county’s real-estate market had its hottest month of July since such monthly records began in 2000, with prices rising 18.6 percent from a year ago.

The new median price is $658,000, or $103,000 more than last July, according to monthly data released Monday by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Just a down payment on the median house costs about $20,000 more than a year ago. So first-time buyers who didn’t save up that much in the past year are further from buying a house today than they were a year ago.

Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff isn’t worried about the threat of newly-public Redfin — but he thinks the rest of the real estate industry should be. He made that clear during a conference call associated with Zillow’s second-quarter earnings Tuesday in which he went so far as to say that Redfin is a “threat” to the traditional real estate industry.

“Undoubtedly, one of Redfin’s goals is to obviate the buyer’s agent,” Rascoff said on the call. “I think they have stated, quite publicly, that they aim to acquire more listings inventory in given markets, and then have no buyers’ agents on the other side of those listings. And that is a threat to organized real estate, and that’s one of the many reasons why brokerages are so t was interesting to hear Rascoff rise up as the defender of traditional real estate agents, since Zillow at one time was perceived as the villain in many real estate circles. It was also noteworthy that Rascoff took such direct aim at Redfin, which raised $138 million in its IPO last week.

N. Korea Retracts its Intent to Attack

Winning: North Korea Backs Down from Guam Threat

North Korea backed down Monday from a threat to fire missiles at the U.S. territory of Guam, according to a North Korean state media report cited by the Wall Street Journal.

Dictator Kim Jong-un had decided against the missile attack, according to the report, after making preparations to launch it. He warned that North Korea was still ready to attack Guam if the U.S. continued to make “arrogant provocations” and “unilateral demands.”

“If the Yankees persist in their extremely dangerous reckless actions on the Korean Peninsula and in its vicinity, testing the self-restraint of the DPRK, the [North] will make an important decision as it already declared,” he said.

North Korea’s decision to back down is a major victory for the United States, as it was achieved — apparently — with no concessions to the regime, and after a sustained “Twitter war” of words with President Donald Trump.

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