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Forget The Snow, It's The Drought That Is Crushing The US Economy
With all eyes and talking heads focused on the 'weather', it seems cold, wet, snowy, and frigid are the most GDP-destructive adjectives. However, as Bloomberg reports, the drought out West is starting to infiltrate U.S. housing data, according to the chief economist of a homebuilders' group, and weakening a major part of the nation's economy.
Housing starts in the West fell for a third straight month, dropping by 19 percent in March to an annualized rate of 201,000 for the weakest since May. Construction rebounded from harsh winter weather in other parts of the country, such as the Northeast, where they jumped a record 115 percent, and the Midwest.
The weakness in the West might reflect the record-setting drought, which may be discouraging companies from building or taking out permits for new construction, said David Crowe, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders in Washington. Uncertainty surrounding local water policy and the ability to obtain water connections for new homes or apartment buildings could be holding some builders back, he said.
"Until it's clear what restrictions mean for new building, it's wise for builders to be hesitant," Crowe said. "This is more serious than just a temporary dry period. This is a new regime that says it's going to be harder to obtain additional water usage."
And it's not just California...
About 21 percent of the contiguous U.S. fell in the "moderate" to "extreme" drought categories at the end of March, according to the Palmer Drought Index, which dates back to the beginning of the 20th century.
States such as California, Nevada and Wyoming were experiencing extreme drought in some or all of their boundaries last month, according to the National Climatic Data Center.
Of course, this weakness is transitory - just like the multi-decade drought that is being forecast; but analysts are ever full of hope:
"When it comes to new-home construction, the stage is set for strength in the second quarter," Patrick Newport and Stephanie Karol, U.S. economists at IHS Global Insight, wrote in a note to clients.
Tomorrow... just you wait...
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The Economy is sure startin' to affect the Weather mighty bad!
gotta stop HAARP'in' 'bout it before folks thinks y'all nutz
Reverse Dustbowl commencing in 3 2 1....
The Great American Desert is forming while Sahara is receiving record rainfall.
Some truth to Annie. The parts of Texas shaded green had their worst drought in 100 years in 2011. Now it wont stop raining.
Besides over the lakes. Though this last one we got some west in the more desert regions over our lakes. some lakes east and r fairing better but nope... Our lakes r still beyond low... Aquifers getting fuller though. At least it isn't the center of the dehydration zone here any more.
The drought isn't the only things that's hurting this economy and we have hardly felt the effects of Cali drought on our food yet.
HE IS BACK!!!!! Jon Corzine to launche hedge fund.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/jon-corzine-considers-launching-hedge-fund-1...
You can't keep a good man down. And you can't keep a con man content. It's amazing how fast he got out of jail.
Oh wait....
The sun'll come out
Manana
States such as California, Nevada and Wyoming were experiencing extreme drought in some or all of their boundaries last month
Can we please get the updated forecast, daily?
Pelosi's vineyards don't look like they're doing too bad...
http://toprightnewscom.c.presscdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/pelosi-...
lol what the fuck is this shit ZH. The drought is not that bad. They're just saying this so you'll believe in climate change. Some areas have a nasty drought, but not that much of the country.
You must live near Wallyworld.
Severe drought in Florida?? It rains every fucking day here
Idiotic, isn't it? Based on these comments it would appear the ZH koolaid does exist.
Plenty of water, just unusual weather patterns.
"The water level of Lake Michigan/Huron is steady in the last month, but up 19" in the last year. The lake(s) are 4" above the April average water level. Lake Superior is down 1" in the last month, but up 6" year-to-year. Superior is 6" above the historic average for April. Lake Erie is up 10" in the last month, at the same level as one year ago and now 2" below the average for April. Lake Ontario is up 6" in the last month, down 8" year-to-year and it’s 14" below the long term average. Lake St. Clair is up 15" in the last month (ice “dam” broke up in the St. Clair River). The lake is up 9" year-to-year and 6" above average. Water levels on the St. Mary’s, St. Clair and Detroit rivers are expected to be above average for the next two weeks with the Niagara near average.
Great Lakes Ice Cover 4/14 evening = 20% (Michigan 5.8%, Superior 28.2%, Huron 23.3%, Erie 27.3%, Ontario 3.3%)".
http://blogs.woodtv.com/category/bills-blog/
People believe how they are wired to believe and then set about rationalizing it.
Rain Every day in Florida? You're mistaken.
Really??? where do you live, underground perhaps
Heh, that's cute. Did you really think that pumping water out of the ground on such a grand scale and letting it evaporate would have no consequences?
Ah, no.
http://lakemead.water-data.com/
We can finally say "...shit's gettin' real" and be right.
Holy shit I didn't know Lake Mead was the whole country.
Slave is right. There is no drought in south Alabama. Don't know about other States but I live here and it is soggy.
If there was a drought here there would also be one in central and south Mississippi. Notice how it stops at the State line. The map is bs.
yeah, I have been suspicious of ALL the data coming at us now. zh just conveys it. what I do look at confirming data is the arranged california water shortage, they mean to kill off the food we get from there is seems.
Please tell me how an "arranged shortage" works? I live in Ca and it's rained twice since Jan 1. So did it rain in secret and the Government is hiding the water in some underground bunker? Maybe it's an optical illusion that our reservoirs are at 25% capacity.
Pretty much the entire southeast is drowning after the past week of relentless rain. I question why Georgia is shown as a moderate to severe drought zone on the map. I just checked our rainfall statistics and they show that 2014 rainfall was near the average and 2013 was way, way above average, so I don't see how they arrived at their assessment that we are in a drought. 2007 was the most recent year of extremely below average rainfall.
Everything is an emergency now, don'tcha know
"Severe drought" here in upstate SC, so that chart says - but the rain coming down every day and the vegetation say different.
And note that was March data. Here is mid-April data from another source. Looks more realistic to me.
http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/
I believe these drought conditions will intensify over the next few decades. Drinking water will become a precious commodity, mark my words. Plan accordingly.
Lucky for me I live in a place where people have lived with droughts almost continually - two drinking water sources, very few private pools, lots of xeriscaping. Heck, most people here only takes a shover every 2nd or 3rd day (but we tend to keep to ourselves).
I'm down with one shower a week, and that is Saturday when I shower with my girlfriend. I'm doing my bit to conserve water.........what about you?
good. now we have scapegoats for every season.
if nothing else, no one can argue american's great love for expediency.
I'm making over $7k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life. This is what I do... www.globe-report.com
Soo ... you started turning tricks... I see. Does your boyfriend know?
Bullish, they'll just take Seattle's water and send it to california!
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/exclusive-william-shatners-30-billion-1166727...
In other news, India and Pakistan exchange artillery fire on the border.
Iran raises military alert, calls up reservists as their ships head to Yemen...
France is so freaking weak, they are still in negociations with the Ruskies to sell them the Mistral ships.
Anti-NATO parties could get power in Finland...
California bans lead ammo for hunting...
Capt. Kirk needs to rethink his cunning plan and stick to gouging water on Priceline instead.
Monica Lewinski's ex-boyfriend's wife will straighten this whole mess out for us.
We know that Hillary won't create any moist places, but Monica might.
What's it take to get an upvote anymore?
Supplication.
"What's it take to get an upvote anymore?"
Like reading a series of jokes, you get used to the humor. Starts to become, "That was funny." Life in the gallows that is ZH.
Bill's life is an historic Hillary drought and deluge of others
This is a very rough measure of "drought."
In the Florida panhandle if probably means you don't get soaked to the bone every day.
Yeah, right about Wakulla it goes from Extreme Drought to Extreme Moist.
Whatever the hell that means, Gaia doesn't like Fred but she loves Al across the street...lol.
I just love how words connotate meaning and yet, when used in a NOAA propaganda piece the meaning is completely lost. Does anyone know what "Extremely Moist" is supposed to mean to them, is that like somewhat wetter than normal or a fucking flood?
Probably not Monica's ex-boyfriend's wife's snortch.
PS She officiallly's the candidate, betcha some enterprising fellah starts a line of Humidors named "Monicas"
There's a bumper sticker in there, if you have a long enough bumper.
Saw my first Hillary 2016 sticker yesterday. Almost lost my cookies.
Was it a Mr. Yuk?
For the collector, I'm sure the original is available at the right price.
Snortch flavored blunts
She is Havana Cigar.
I'm going long blowtorch lighters and Febreeze! ;-)
Democrat landslide?
Fire Season.
Jewish Lightning: Electoral College Edition.
It means Common Core has infiltrated everything.
Or it means whatever the people making these charts / graphs want it to mean.
I think its the latter but it won't be long before its the former.
"Now, it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political andeconomic causes: it is not due simply to the bad influence of this or that individualwriter." Orwell, from essay, "Politics and the English Language"
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/Politics_and_the_English_Language-1.pdf
The banksters need to repay us.
It is not that they lie, but that they are a lie.
In the areas marked "extreme drought" here in Northern Cali the taps still flow, we're all taking showers and watering our plants, everybody's car is getting washed somewhere, the almond growers are planting new acerage, the 50 acres of grass at the local high school is still green as are the golf courses, pools are full, the open-air fountains at city hall are blasting away etc etc etc.
So, yeah, there's a disconnect somewhere between this terminology and what people are experiencing in their everyday lives.
let me know when that all changes............
Does anyone know what "Extremely Moist" is supposed to mean to them, is that like somewhat wetter than normal or a fucking flood?
I'm in the middle of the Extremely Moist area. It's rained every fucking day for the last 2 weeks except for two; and right now it's hailing and raining. Yeah, some areas are flooded.
Whichever Tyler posted this piece of shit graphic should have his/her/its ass kicked.
Look closely at the numbers represented by the color zones. Note that they aren't linear. Also note that the center of the mid range isn't zero.
I'm not saying the government didn't issue this tissue teaser. But I AM saying that the editors at this virtual rag really need to vet their stuff better.
The map is just this side of totally useless because it's been slanted to make a point. Which is why it probably WAS issued by the gummint.
Golly, a hundred years of Palmer_Z index and nobody ever noticed they aren't linear. Good thing you showed up fuk 'ead
Actually, the real ones are. But thanks for playing.
Nope, it's financialization, debt, and globalists killing the U.S eCONomy.
No gricking drought here in SE Illinois ....rain again...unrelenting all spring...can't get in fields to plant.....Been praying for a drought since February.....
Moar QE will fix this.
Dear Californians,
Texas is already full, so you'll have to choose another State in which to relocate.
...and besides, Detroit really needs YOU!
Best of luck for your journey elsewhere!
Sincerely,
The People of Texas
New Jersey is already full of worthless commie dumbfucks.
Quebec is a lot like Frisco, very liberal and has lotsa water -whyuncha try your luck up there..
Dear Texas,
If you haven't been here you are excused for somehow thinking Texas is something we Californians aspire to.
Texans are like the geeky kids in school who weren't ever cool enough to
know that they were, in fact, geeks.
Someone should develop a pipeline to deliver snow from the east coast to the west coast
No severe drought in Phoenix area.
NOOA is full of shit.
PS, rain expected here later this week.
You are gonna have one when Lake Mead is empty.
This map is a lie oklahoma bone dry ok city lake hefner where my water comes from is getting bone dry. People standing in middle fishing. This map says normal? Propoganda
I like how the state line boundaries define the index in many areas. Must be HFT cloud seeding.
We pissed on some folks and told them it wasn't rain.
Secret Chemtrail Pilot Speaks, on Dec 8, 2014
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZaD-H_j3pU (11:42)
Goldilocks, I can't figure out why your post would get four minuses. A startling video.
Another:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDF_dAuZXnM
The End is Near
"Your end is too near", She said
The only blow back is coming from Wall Street Hookers
Droughts are one of the main signs of the onset of a mini ice age. Except it is going to rain again this week in SoCal so it could all be propaganda.
That's what the predictive bot says ~ we will look back at 2015 and say yea that would be the year the mini ice age started.
T'rrsts. I tell you, its they t'rrists. They is everywhere.
Many point to the hidden image of Hoover dam on the $50 with water seemingly flowing through a rupture as the next terror event. I believe that if these hidden images were indeed purposeful warnings, then this event has been underway for sometime. It was not a ruptured dam, but a massive draining of all easily available water through a drastic man made alteration of climate. Aileen Gore is correct. It is man made climate change. Drying out the west. Flooding the east. Over the next two years there will be an exodus of the parched west coast. There will be issues with food. The goal of forcing the population into a smaller, confined, controllable area will be well underway. If the drought is not enough to convince you. Add in a sudden discovery that the west coast waters are increasingly radioactive.
Buy land east of the Mississippi.
The predictive bot says Boone dam is the dam with the problems as we are in an earth expansion due to its alignments in our solar system. It's loaded w nuke plants down below it and it's gonna go.... If u look at it in google it was out in a sucky place anyway geologically. But it's got some sink hole shit going on and the dam is leaking underneath and also around like down river is popping up in odd places. Boone dam is suppose to go and tht river is suppose to find a new way to the ocean first wanting to go to the Atlantic then heading gulf way.
This map isn't close to this map-
https://www.drought.gov/drought/content/products-current-drought-and-mon...
I'd say this on is bullshit
You're right, this one is better.
Beutiful sunny day in New England went hazy and cloudy due to all the chem trails spraying today.
Same here in the Southern Hemisphere. Beautiful autumn day.
They are an illusion. I see what appear to be massive chemtrails in Dallas, but they can't be real. Our local media and City Council would be on top of it if they were real. I'm convinced it's all in my mind. I see them, but none of my neighbors do. Or if they see them, they assume they are clouds. The big ones linger on and on all day -A straight arrow of chemtrails cover the entire sky, as far as the eye can see, gradually expand to massive cloud formations. I never noticed this until a couple of years ago when I saw a video and started looking up into the sky daily. I saw the planes spraying them -and I saw all the planes departing and arriving at Love Field and DFW Airport -with no chemtrails -or brief contrails which quickly dissipated. If they do exist, I'm sure they are a matter of national security and we should all just shut up and trust that our Government is doing them for a purpose -to help us. Right?
That's not the black Annie.
#shitsfuckingracist
i noticed that the price of walnuts went up 25% overnight. don't know if the drought has anything to do with it though.
Don't know about walnuts, but almonds (ah-munds in CA parlance) gonna get scarce. Is one of the most inefficient users of water known and all the Birkenstockers and climate changers drink the shit because it's "like, good for the world, man."
Assholes.
Well any how, lotta ah-mund groves/fields being torn up due to water. Lots and lots of ah-mund firewood for sale in nice cute little plastic wrappers at Whole Foods, etc.
Like it's soooo natural, man.
They burn it except on the Spare the Air* days.
Assholes2
* http://www.baaqmd.gov/Divisions/Communications-and-Outreach/Spare-the-Ai...
I'll buy ten pound of almonds tomorrow.
It will be my contribution to pushing California over the edge.
1 almond = 1 gallon of water ... almond crop watering would supply LA+SF for one year ... 75% of almonds shipped to China
Californians have to cutback on water so Chinese can eat almonds ... go figure
Moonbeams over Manhattan ... Beach
Yeah, so?
The country NEEDS almonds.
The country could do a lot better with a lot fewer people in LA & SF.
Yeah, but the Delta Smelt are thriving.
Nuts always go up when the cold hits
Map says severe drought for my neck of the woods, north central Kansas. That has been corrected already. If we get anymore rain, we'll start to have flooding. Reservoir is full. Crops and grass are growing full blast.
We've must of had precip, 5 of the last 7 days.
i call bullshit on that map. here in the red box in MI our lakes, rivers, streams and creeks are full. hell it's raining now.
also in the small city that i live in we are getting a notable number of college grads from cali moving here. too bad about those pensions in cali that these kids won't be funding.
and how the fuck can you have a "drought" in place that had RECORD snowfall? This map, this story and whatever "Tyler" that wrote it are full of shit. Serious stick wonky financial stories and leave the sensational multi-colored maps for USA Today.
I don't know ... my CA home as gone up over 10% since the drought was declared historic
Don't expect those gains to last unless you're in Prime LA/OC/SF. And by Prime i don't mean suburbs of those areas, becuase there's a correction coming to all but the most exclusive enclaves.
I know you're 100% right and I'd move as fast as I could but alas ... family is here
Demand pressures to go asymptotic as China nears yet another bloodbath. And then - nothing. Nil, zilch, nothing but the debt.
I'm a SoCal lifer too brother. Just waiting out Housing Bubble 2.0 so I can secure a reasonable payment and as always continue to preach to my friends as to why the Golden State went south :-) But after 13 years of waiting out hyper manipulated RE markets, I WILL own my piece of dirt in this state. Been patient to long to give up LOL!
"too", not "to". Sheesh, MUST be an American education.
Well since I did use "too" either you've got it wrong or you weren't paying attention fuckstick :-)
Maybe he mistyped. Try using verbs.
Really, Grammar Nazi? Really? Correcting someone's grammar is your contribution to the discussion?
I heard a blip go past the gov is at again with predatory loans. They're gonna try to prop this market up with a housing boom for busting again ... But they still have to dump a bunch of homes from the last bust.
But ur right Cali special issues.
It's a "dry" appreciation in value.
Your home has gone up by 10% when someone pays you 10%. Until then, you have an imaginary profit.
That is a bit like the stock market and GDP of an economy. On paper it is worth that but if everybody would start selling at the same time then life expectancy of that value rapidly declines. Works the other way around as well. It is all about what a fool would give for it.
Except when appraised by the "taxman"!!
"Extreme drought", that is the actual, historic normal.
Jeeze! I'm offended! They don't even mention Utah which is in a worse drought than Wyoming and in one county has a higher birth rate than Bangladesh.
Here in NE Ohio the weather it is a mini - ice age 7 months of the year, and then to much dam rain when it thaws.
It's a NOAA map, you can trust it. I've often noticied that near state lines that storms often stop and turn around.
Can we print rainclouds?
I seem to remember a rather soft-spoken curly haired dude on PBS that did a pretty good job painting them
Quite all right with the NIMBYs. They didn't want any more white folks moving to California anyway---and lower supply means higher prices for the remaining housing stock.
The help can be safely locked in the basement each night.
Most of us in California don't have basements...we're going to have to chain em in the yard.
I live in Upstate NY. We had 180 inches of snow this year. I can still find melting piles of snow in my neighborhood
And this map says we are in "severe drought???"
I call BULLSHIT.
Keep up the great news please. I am contemplating a home in the US and it's only worthwhile if it's new construction. I'm sorry america, but your building standards are garbage. Go ICF or go home. No wooden roofing, nice solid 16 inch thick reinforced concrete walls, rolladen over the windows and security doors. Build a tornado-proof cop-proof invasion-proof fortress for the same price as a stick and twig lean-to? Faster, cheaper, more efficient? Thank you very much.
But again, only worth it in select areas. Best to wait for the next crash where it makes sense to buy an acre plot and do a teardown on the mcmansion. When it all goes to shit, new starts will be desperate and cheap. Same goes for anyone with actual cash for getting things done without the banks.
Rolladens rule. Very useful and effective. I wish there was some way they could catch on in North America ...
they exist, but only for hurricane reasons it seems. americans tend to just be really fucking dumb when it comes to anything that makes sense.
Invasion proof? Not in the US. People shoot .50 cal and mortars for fun in many states in the US. I like your style though, my next house will be ICF.
Invasion proof, as in, a standard breaching team isn't going to have a great time.
https://youtu.be/XWpQEHFfeYs
ICF withstands 50 cal. Not forever of course, but it'll take quite a few rounds before anyone can get inside, and even then they have to deal with all the damned rebar. If you are very concerned about home invasion, you go ahead and pour some concrete slabs for a neat little perimeter wall/fence. Nice brick facade and no one can tell.
One thing is drought, another thing is water shortage or crisis. The first one is climatic, the second one is man-made.
Both are measured against some arbitrary benchmarks that differ from state to state.
The same is in California now where drought metrics and water crisis hysteria serves economic and political interests:
https://sostratusworks.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/california-waterworld-of...
But we would all drown
Tax nimbus clouds, that should do it!
From most reactions here on ZH on this topic I would say that denial is a river that runs through America.
WTF, the smelt in San Francisco bay have plenty of fresh water?
Right on the mark! the fools running CA have been allowing water to flow down rivers to preserve the Delta smelt-to hell with thepeople and agriculture that provides food and revenue!
And in other news-
Venezuela just signed an agreement with China to build one of the few and most modern desalinization plant in the continent. A Venezuelan official outlined three areas of effort for the project.
I tell ya, them there fucking Socialists really are "an unusual and extraordinary threat" to our national security and 'Murican way of life.
The actual Palmer Modified Drought Index chart for March, 2015
http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/cmb/drought/recovery/current/curr-pmd...
The Z-index is a short term chart that looks nothing like the chart in the story.
http://oc3m.worldwindsinc.com/drought/pmdi_latest.gif
Thanks for that (I was givin' the PhoQ nubee the gears above lol) but the actual still has some 'outstanding' features ; )
p.s. I don't often check profiles so if you are new to Zero Hedge, HI : )