Community Discussions
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Modern supercars have the same problem as modern smart phone market
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I don't think I'm the only one that has had this feeling, especially after watching many of Dougs videos. Somebody mentioned "model fatigue" and it struck a note.
In the modern age there are dozens of Ferrari, Lamborghini, McLaren, 911 etc models. With new ones constantly coming out. They all practically do the same thing with misc gimmicks that aren't really revolutionary game changers.
This reminded me of how the smart phone cell phone revolution was in comparison to how it is today.
Back in the day, iPhone was king with Droid being a little behind. New models would come out with distinct names (for iPhones) and distinct obvious features and advantages in size, camera, storage etc.
Fast forward to today and now there are a dozen different phone models from many manufacturers with no obvious advantages, similar specs and each one having it's own gimmicks that we realistically don't use in our every day lives. Smart phones have essentially peaked and market demands gimmicks in order to keep selling new units.
With obvious exceptions of extreme cars such as Ferrari Monza, new supercars all seem to be the same thing. Superfast (sub 3 second 0-60), great on the track, some kind of aggressive design, 200mph top speed and a few gimmicky features and random compromises and sacrifices, with different limited availability.
I can appreciate these cars, but my allegiance lies in my flair with the Colin Chapmans moto of "simplify, then add lightness" which is lost in modern cars due to market forces and government regulations.
Edit: lmao @ headphone jack tagging. Real talk about real problems.
Top Comment: You don’t see “simplify and add lightness” in the supercar market because 99% of supercars are never driven in circumstances that make their over engineered systems worth it. They’re rich guy props. A super light, simple car will not impress the modern supercar buyer because it isn’t flashy enough.
Steam Community Market Issues
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Over the past few days, the market has been extremely slow or non functional. Sometimes I am unable to view my inventory, view items on the market, or even cancel buy orders on items in the market.
Has this been happening to anyone else? Worried it may be an issue on my end, but no idea what could be causing it. I am browsing through Steam directly, not with a browser/extensons
Top Comment: That is pretty common, steam marketplace/inventory has been a shit show for years
Community market problems
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It seems today (January 29), Steam Community Market is not working at all, new listings are not being displayed on the market. Only the pre-existing ones are visible and the prices are going up for a lot of items. Does anyone know why? and how long it can last?
Top Comment:
I am looking for answers on this exact topic. I think they rolled out some update on the steam community market because it looks different then before if you use it on the browser. Also the fiirst page is not cs items for some reason and when trying to acces the second it doesnt work.
Problems of the crypto market and new solutions from DBX
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The modern problems of the crypto-industry still exist on extended scale, asservers prefer to create the dotted solutions for them. The described issues mostly include such point as inability of proper integration of fiat into digital and vice versa, and it mostly depends on the users in how to replenish or withdraw the assets. The limited functionality of servers that prefer to concentrate on only one task prescribed can also be a serious problem for someone. There are also some other questions to solve that can be called rather narrow, and not everyone concentrates on them.
That is why DBX is ready to offer the help to any user who searches for unified server including all the necessary tools together. Ability to find solution of problems in one ecosystem can become rather precious for knowledgable ones, as they understand the importance of having diverse services at one place.
Top Comment: The modern problems of the crypto-industry still exist on extended scale, asservers prefer to create the dotted solutions for them. The described...
Something is rotten in the GTA (and Canadian) real estate market and it isn't going to change
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...obviously.
My family spent the last 6 months trying to buy a detached home in Durham. I'll spare you the nightmarish details of 30 offer houses, near tear downs going for 170k over asking, prices going up 50k week over week, etc. but needless to say we've decided to call it quits for now. It was just that awful.
In the entire ordeal, one thing stood out more than anything else: a large proportion of buyers currently are investors, not people looking for a primary residence. Shockingly, we don't even actually have stats on the number of investors in the market as Stats Can (as far as I know) doesn't gather this information.
The presence of investors in and of itself is not horrible, of course - someone has to provide rental properties. But when there is so much capital in the market (looking at you all time low interest rates) and so little inventory, the end result is that many people who are simply looking for a place to live are getting squeezed out.
A commenter on here recently suggested a great lever that the government could use to tamp down on this trend: up the capital gains tax on non-primary residence sales.
Thinking this was a great idea, I decided to do a bit more digging, and remembered something I had read a while back (originally posted by fractx) that took away all my enthusiasm:
The Canadian housing market is too big to fail.
- Real estate (and associated the construction sectors) are now the #1 contributor to GDP at 15% of Canada's GDP. Over time the economy has morphed to depend on housing as our primary driver of growth. This has been even further exacerbated by COVID and the collapse in the Alberta oil sector. The Canadian economy is dangerously under-diversified with slow decade over decade declines in manufacturing, mining, etc. This is the primary reason why no politician would dare hurt the real estate or associated construction sectors currently - we have barely anything else propping up our country.
- A housing collapse would destroy the banking system, which is built on collateral assets such as housing. In Canada's largest bank's October 2020 credit risk analysis (see pg. 68), residential mortgages and HELOCs made up by far the most significant portion of all outstanding credit. If home prices crater and homeowners are underwater, all Canadian banks would end up with negative equity (liabilities > assets) and everyone would stop lending to each other. Bankruptcies and unemployment would soar. It's ugly. The government would then have to spend massively more to bail out banks in addition to reviving a collapsed economy. That's what happened in 2008 before they started flooding the market with money to prop up banks in the US.
- Canadians own housing and they don't want to see price come down. The majority of Canadian households in desirable cities are homeowners, and have their nest eggs invested in housing. Falling home prices sets everyone back from retirement, and they carry that displeasure to the polls during elections.
- Homeowners feel wealthier when home prices go up, they go spend money in retail, food services, personal services, technology, etc. Those sectors then hire more people, and they increase their spending and the cycle continues. If the music stops, renters are often the first to lose their jobs.
- Local policies kowtowing to voters have resorted to perverted NIMBY policies to slow the supply of new homes. Majority of City of Vancouver's land mass is zoned low density to maintain neighborhood characteristics. Voters go up in arms to protest whenever this zoning status is threatened. Vancouver city councillors voted in May to reduce building permits to supply new homes in Vancouver by half source.
This is why short of serious incompetence and negligence, no political will is ever strong enough to shake Canadian housing market. Real estate is not a strictly free market because of the emotional, social, economic, and political upheaval its unravel could cause. This is also why every recession will see wealth inequality widen.
The first thing the Canadian government did during COVID-19 was to save the housing market. Low interest rates, reduced stress testing thresholds, deferrals, giving homeowners money to pay mortgages, etc.
It's never going to stop until the threat to housing is removed.
Top Comment:
The housing market isn’t too big to fail, it’s just politically unpopular to not prop up housing.
New Zealand is also seeing a massive rise in house prices so they are taking the following steps to quit encouraging speculators and foolish purchasers:
Effective March 1st, anyone buying a house they intend to occupy will require a down payment of 20% of the purchase price
Investors buying property to hold for capital appreciation or rental income will require a down payment of 30%.
Effective May 1st, the minimum down for investors will rise to 40%.
New measures will be forthcoming in a few days to curb demand, “particularly from those who are speculating,” says the finance minister.
Among the moves expected: changes to tax deductibility of rental property expenses to make them a less attractive investment vehicle.
We could do the same but we would actually need a government with guts.