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Hidden FBI Microphones Exposed In California (cbslocal.com)
An anonymous reader writes: "Federal agents are planting microphones to secretly record conversations," reports CBS Local, noting that for 10 months starting in 2010, FBI agents hid microphones inside light fixtures, and also at a bus stop outside the Oakland Courthouse, to record conversations without a warrant. "They put microphones under rocks, they put microphones in trees, they plant microphones in equipment," a security analyst and former FBI special agent told CBS Local. "I mean, there's microphones that are planted in places that people don't think about, because thats the intent!" Federal authorities are currently investigating fraud and bid-rigging charges against a group of real estate investors, and the secret recordings came to light when they were submitted as evidence. "Private communication in a public place qualifies as a protected 'oral communication'..." says one of the investor's lawyers, "and therefore may not be intercepted without judicial authorization."
As a Canadian still unable to afford a house without signing my life away to debt for the next 30 years, I welcome the burst. Housing prices are INSANE and a lot of that is owned by foreigners.
Gets worse then that actually. A lot of those houses especially in metro Vancouver/Victoria and Toronto are empty. These people are using real estate to sink cash into expecting either a huge economic crash or believing that there is no limit to making money in the real estate market.
My parents bought in during the very early 1980's, and I know a couple of police constables who bought in then. Then the inflation hit, mortgages became impossible because of 19% interest rates. But people who had COLA tied to their contracts were suddenly in the money and were able to buy two, three, four houses and flip them. Taking a 20-30k house and selling it for 90-150k. Really though, I've been expecting the bubble here in Canada to pop for the last 4 years the situation is very similar to what happened in the US prior to the 2006-2008 bubble pop, but it hasn't hit yet. I expect it more has to do with the current levels of debt, they're not quite at where they were in the US, but if the number of insta-loan(aka legal loan sharks) places popping up over the last 3-4 years is any indication, it won't be too many more years.
Om, nomnomnom...
Nobody ever said capitalism was fair. In fact capitalism sucks in a lot of ways, it just sucks a lot less than any of the alternatives people have come up with.