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Here's a surprising stat: from 1845-1960, UK house prices pretty much kept pace with inflation – a house you'd bought 20 years ago could only be sold for more-or-less what you paid for it (technically, houses rose about 0.25% ahead of consumer prices).
From 1960-1979, house prices started to nudge ahead of inflation, averaging gains that were 1.75% higher than consumer prices. But it wasn't until 1980 that the annual above-inflation price increase of houses grew to 3%. Steve Keen's "Remedies for Ridiculous House Prices" explains what happened to make housing so eye-wateringly expensive (and how to make it affordable again):
Keen unpacks just how dramatic this change is: since the Thatcher years, house prices have doubled every 23 years. Before 1960, the house prices rose so slowly that they would have taken 280 years to double (which is to say, the fate of most houses was to turn to rubble, not to double).
So what did Thatcher do to make homes so eye-wateringly expensive? The high-level explanation is that the UK – like much of the world – transformed its housing stock: not a way provide the basic human right to shelter, but rather, an asset:
Transforming a human necessity into an asset is a terrible idea. Governments work to increase the price of assets owned by actors in their economy. But increasing the price of housing only benefits the minority who own houses, while everyone else – everyone who needs a roof over their head – suffers. For a comparison, imagine if our governments instituted a policy of making some other necessity as expensive as possible, say, food or water. Transforming shelter into an asset class was always going to end badly.
Keen is an econ prof, and the point of this piece isn't merely to observe this remarkable shift in the economics of having a home, but also to trace the policy choices that led us to this moment, and to propose policies that could change things so that everyone can have a home.
So what did Margaret Thatcher do to destroy the chances of everyday Britons to have a home? Well, this is Margaret Thatcher, so if you guessed the answer was "deregulation," you'd be right. Prior to Thatcher's deregulation, home loans in the UK mostly originated with "building societies," a specialized lender whose operations are fundamentally different from the operations of a bank.
Here's the difference: when a building society makes a home loan, it withdraws money from a regular bank account at a regular bank, much like your savings account. In order for your building society to credit your mortgage account by £100k, there must be a corresponding decrease of £100k in its savings account (just like when you send £10 to a friend, you have £10 less and they have £10 more).
But that's not how it works when a bank originates a loan. Banks are "fiscal agents" for the UK's central bank, the Bank of England. That means that banks can create new money, simply by crediting one of its depositors' accounts. When a bank loans you £100k to buy a house, £100k in new money is created. Banks don't raid other depositors' accounts for your loan – they make new money, out of thin air.
So after the bank originates your loan, your account has £100k more in it, and the bank has an IOU from you for £100k, which sits on its books as an asset. In the moment the money is created, the bank makes £100k in new money for its balance-sheet.
Every time a bank issues a new mortgage loan, the money supply increases – more money is added to the economy. Thatcher deregulated mortgage lending, and after that, the majority of UK mortgages came from banks, not building societies. Every new mortgage increased the supply of money in circulation in the UK.
As Keen writes, this precipitated an "explosion" in house prices – and in household debt, which rose from 20% of GDP to 80% of GDP by the time of the Great Financial Crisis. Since Thatcher, house price have risen by 350% more than consumer prices.
Thatcher's deregulation "set off a vicious cycle": the existence of more mortgage debt made house prices rise (when banks supply more bidding money to buyers, buyers bid higher sums). As housing prices went up, housing could be used as collateral for still more loans, which encouraged homeowners to stake their homes to borrow money in order to buy more homes to rent out. Because they have so much collateral (an overpriced home), they can borrow so much (from banks that can create money) that they are able to outbid people who don't have a home yet and just want to buy a home so they can live in it.
This is Keen's diagnosis, but the real question is, what do we do about it? The UK housing situation has been vapor-locked, because there's a powerful voting and donating bloc of homeowners who want to keep house prices high, both to maintain their personal net worth, and to avoid having their "chained mortgages" collapse when prices fall and they suddenly no longer have enough collateral and the banks demand repayment.
This is where Keen's proposal gets really interesting. In this installment, he proposes two policies that break the deadlock, offering a glide-path out of the housing crisis, rather than a crash.
The first of these policies is deflationary – it will lower prices. It's called the "PILL" ("Property Income Limited Leverage").
With the PILL, the most a bank could offer a housebuyer for a mortgage loan would be some multiple of the rental income from the property they're buying. Say that multiple is 10, and the home you're trying to buy would rent out at £50k/year: the largest mortgage you'd be allowed to take would be £500k (even if you're not buying a home to rent it out, you'd still be subject to this cap, since potential rental income is a large determinant of the price of a home).
Keen notes that UK rents are really high, but property prices are even higher – property prices (and mortgages) have risen faster than rents. The average London home price is about 25x the annual rent it generates, and London mortgages are about 20x the annual rent for the properties those mortgages cover.
The PILL would cap mortgage issuance at the current multiple (so in London, about 25x annual rent), but that number would be gradually reduced, a few points per year, until it reaches about 10x annual rent. This will have the effect of making homes a much less attractive asset-class for speculators, gradually driving "investors" out of the market, so that the majority of homebuyers would be people who were in the market for somewhere to live.
This will make houses cheaper over time, and the majority of Britons (who can't afford to buy a home) would like this. But house-rich Boomers would not, and for good reason: the austerity-starved UK state has slashed benefits for everyone, and older people rely on selling or borrowing against their homes as a way to remain sheltered, fed, and cared for as they age.
How do we win those Boomers over and stop them from scuttling affordable housing (again)? That's where the second proposal kicks in: AHA (the "Affordable Housing Authority"). This is a system for making homes more valuable, offsetting some of the reductions from the PILL, but without denying homes to people looking for somewhere to live.
The biggest barrier to buying a home isn't the price of the home – it's the price of the home and the price of the mortgage. Decades of mortgage interest vastly increase the total cost of a home, and the interest on a monthly mortgage can make the difference between an affordable home and one that makes you "house poor" (where the cost of your home eats up so much of your income that you struggle to pay for heating, groceries, transportation, etc).
Here's Keen's math: say you're a median UK household (£37k/year in disposable income) and you buy a median house (£270k) with a 10% deposit (what Americans call a "down-payment"), at 7% interest. Over a 25-year mortgage, your monthly payments will be £20.6k/year, more than half of your disposable income.
Not only is this more than you can afford – it's also so much that you just won't get a mortgage from a bank. They'll look at those numbers and decide that you can't afford to pay back this loan (they'd be right, too).
But what if we trim that interest rate to zero? At 0% interest, the annual payments for your mortgage go from £20.6/year to £9,300 per year – an easily affordable sum for the median household.
So the question is, why do we pay so much to the banks in interest? The Econ 101 answer is that banks take a risk when they loan out their depositors' funds, and they need a reward and incentive to take that risk. But banks don't lend out deposits: they create deposits. When you take out a £100k mortgage, the bank adds £100k to your account, without taking it from anywhere else. Banks are "fiscal agents" of the national bank, and they are permitted to create money this way – and then charge you rent (interest) on that money they can create for free.
Keen's AHA is a different kind of lender, a publicly owned one that creates money in exactly the same way as banks do, but without charging interest. The AHA is charged with offering loans solely to people trying to buy a home who have been priced out of the market. These loans will drive property prices up (by putting more buyers into the system), offsetting some of the price declines created by the PILL.
Other than the fact that AHA loans won't come with interest, these loans will work like regular mortgages: the borrower will pay them off every month, until they have paid back the entire principle. If they default on the mortgage, AHA can foreclose on the house and sell it off to get its money back. AHA always gets its money back and costs nothing – on balance – to operate.
Do interest free loans sound like a communist plot to you? Keen asks us to consider such noted socialist proponents for this ideas as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, who railed against financing the Muscle Shoals hyrdroelectric plant with bank loans, instead insisting that the national bank should simply create the money to make those loans:
[Ford] thinks it’s stupid, and so do I, that for the loan of $30,000,000 of their own money the people of the United States should be compelled to pay $66,000,000—that is what it amounts to, with interest. People who will not turn a shovel of dirt nor contribute a pound of material will collect more money from the United States than will the people who supply the material and do the work. That is the terrible thing about interest.
As Keen points out, it's not merely that the banks that currently issue mortgages don't "turn a shovel of dirt or contribute a pound of material" – they simply will not issue a mortgage to a median buyer. The median buyer can't get a mortgage, so the system is rigged to make them pay someone else's mortgage through their monthly rents, every month until they die.
AHA cuts the banks "out of a market they won't even enter."
Now, it's true that current financial rules (foolishly) ban the Treasury from having a negative balance at the Central Bank. But we don't have to repeal those rules to make this work: the Treasury can offset AHA loans by offering bonds to private banks.
These two policies create "winners all round." New home buyers can afford a home. Banks get interest from AHA bonds to offset losses from limits on mortgage lending. Current home owners get a cushion to protect their net worth even as homes become more affordable.
The loser is the investment sector, the City boys who buy and sell mortgage debt. And you know, fuck those guys.
Keen finishes by teasing one more policy prescription that he thinks will tie this all together: the intriguingly named Modern Debt Jubilee, a way to "to reduce private debt, but in a way that doesn’t cause an economic collapse," which he says he'll cover in his next post. Can't wait!
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
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Warnings: Smut (minors DNI….), Anal sex, Crying, male x male, whiny Marlon, no prep Marlon is REALLY desperate, pain then pleasure, internalized homophobia, really bad writing.
Synopsis: Your a roadie who just started out your career with the Jackson Family during their Victory Tour. After the show Marlon try’s to subtly flirt with you then one thing leads to another. A lot of tears were shed.
A/N: Gulp… sooo this took me WAY too long to write. This idea came to me in a dream like a few months ago and I just had to write it. Also this is like my second fic EVER so please don’t mind if it’s ass..
You started working as a roadie about 2 months ago and it’s been a bit exciting. Not only is it your first job as a roadie, but you’re also working for The Jacksons on their Victory Tour. The Jacksons—you still can’t believe it—your first job within your new career is being a roadie for a legendary family of musicians.
The show ended about thirty minutes ago; you’re busy picking up and wrapping instrument cables backstage, trying your best to remember the specific way they’re supposed to be wrapped. While you were so focused on wrapping up cables, you never noticed that Marlon Jackson is standing right next to you.
“What’s that you’re doin’ there?” Marlon said in a cheeky tone. He peeked over your shoulder to see what you were doing. His presence completely startled you, making you dropping the cables into a tangled mess on the floor. As you reach down to pick up the cables you exhale deeply. When you turn around to face Marlon he’s looking up at you, waiting for a response. You never really noticed how short he was until now. As you were about to answer he completely changes the question.
“So what is it that ya roadies do around here?” He asked in a tone you were unsure the meaning of, staring up at you through his eyelashes. Your face turned a faint shade of red. Does he always act like this?
“W-well, I’m new around here, so I’m still finding out myself,” God why did I say that? You want to bash your head against the wall for how awkward you were being. Suddenly, catching you by surprise, you hear a loud cackle from in front of you. Marlon was laughing, he found what you said hilarious. You couldn’t help but look at the way he would cover his mouth.
“You’re quite the funny guy aren’t ya?” Huffed Marlon, finally regulated his breathing after his laughing fit. You didn’t mean to be funny? Once Marlon catches his breath, there’s a large silence between the both of you. Marlon stares up at you with a look in his eye that you know the name of, desperation.
The silence continues to grow. You can tell Marlon wants something, from his over exaggerated facial expressions and movements. Marlon bites his lip in frustration—it’s almost like he wants you to read his mind—it’s kinda cute.
Without thinking, you lean down to give him a slight kiss on the cheek. His skin was so soft and plush against your lips. The sound of his breath hitching was enough to knock you back into reality; you realized what you just did. Marlon looks up at you with a look of surprise and something more on his face. His mouth slightly open while his cheeks rapidly turn a more darker shade of red. You can hear his breathing, and it’s heavy.
Shit…. I fucked up..
“Can you.. do that again..?”
Wait… huh?
Marlon starts pulling on your shirt, looking to the side with a flushed face while biting his lip. You’re just, stunned. What just happened? You just kissed Marlon Jackson on the cheek, and he liked it? The both of you just stand there. Marlon starts to pull on your shirt more urgently, looking up at you with the biggest hazel eyes you’ve ever seen.
“Please? Can you kiss me again? Please? I’ll be good..” he begged urgently, like kissing you would solve world hunger. You continue to stand there in confusion. He’ll be good?
Suddenly Marlon—incredibly impatient and desperate—grabs the back of your neck and pulls you down into a kiss. The kiss was messy and desperate, nothing like the kiss you gave him on the cheek. You’re stuck in shock for a moment, but soon after you reciprocate the kiss. Marlon opens his mouth to whine into your mouth as he grabs a handful of your hair. You break the kiss to breathe. He starts to eagerly grind against your leg, letting out little whimpers with every time he grinds hard against you.
What the fuck is happening?
You don’t know what to do, Marlon Jackson is grinding against your knee, moaning into your ear, and you’re just standing there, not doing anything.
You start to maneuver the two of you to the closest surface, being a table. Marlon moans loudly as he feels the edge of the table press against the back of his thighs.
“I need you to fuck me on this table right now,” he demanded
“Are you sure? Have you ever done this before?” You inquired.
“No, who even cares? I need you in me so bad. Pleasee” Marlon whined into your ear as he eagerly ground against you. Your hands make their way to his stage pants, shakily pulling them down. Through Marlon’s underwear you can see the obvious outline of a bulge. As you reach into his underwear to grab his cock he stops you.
“No no… no foreplay, please I need you in me now..” Marlon begged as he stared into your eyes, his own clouded with lust. He bit his lip. You stare at the shorter man, surprised yet again. He wants you this bad huh?
Instead of going further, you quickly flip him over so that he’s bent over the table. He whines loudly and the noise goes straight to your cock. You pull his underwear down past his ass, soon after dealing with your own trousers. You stick three fingers into your mouth, getting them wet and slick so that they’ll slide in easily.
“What’s taking so damn long? Can you hurry uPP-!” Marlon’s head falls forward in a whimper as you push your index finger into him. You can hear the change in his breathing and it’s honestly turning you on even more. He’s clenching a lot for only one finger. As you work your finger deeper into Marlon you can’t help but revel in all the noises he keeps making. You knew he was a noisy guy, but you didn’t know that noisiness transferred into bed too.
“F-fuckk..! Can.. can you please put it in already…?” He huffed out. He was really eager, not even fully prepared or adjusted and he wants you in him.
“I need to finish prepping you or else it will hurt..” you massage his insides.
“Ngh!! I don’t care! Please just put it innnn…!” Marlon sobbed out, pushing back against your hand. Man, there was no way you could argue with him when he sounded like that.
You take your finger out of him, hearing his breath hitch as you do. As you spit in your hand to lube up your cock he pushes back eagerly; so impatient. Finally, you grab onto his hips—which are actually quite big for a man—tightly, getting yourself situated properly. Marlon screams out in pain as you enter him from behind. His breathing becomes fast and irregular.
Despite the fact that you can tell he’s a bit uncomfortable, you can’t stop thinking about how perfect he feels. It’s almost like his body was made with the soul purpose of taking you. Marlon’s breathing is still irregular, letting out little whimpers here and there. His fists clenched, his eyes shut closed while he bites his lip. He’s clearly uncomfortable.
“Marlon…. You should’ve listened to me-“
“No! I’m ok! Just…… just start moving now…” The shorter man blurted out.
You look at him with a bit of sympathy. What is he trying to do here? After a moment you sigh. You don’t really know what he’s trying to accomplish with this, but you don’t feel like passing off this opportunity. You start to move, pulling out almost all the way then slamming back in. Marlon lets out a choked out whine, scratching at the table. He clenches his eyes shut while biting down on his lip hard enough to draw blood.
You notice this, how uncomfortable he is. Instead of continuing you come to a stop, resting so that the shorter man has time to adjust. At this point you don’t really care if he whines at you to continue, it’s very clear that he’s not enjoying it due to pain.
“H-hey…… why huff why did you stop….? Keep moving.. please!” Marlon pleaded, pushing back against you.
“You’re very obviously in a great amount of discomfort. I stopped so that you could have enough time to adjust and actually enjoy the experience.” You replied as you started rubbing soothing circles on his back. I wonder why he’s doing this anyways?
After a couple of minutes you do an experimental thrust. Pulling out just and bit and pushing back in. The sound that came from Marlon’s mouth was probably the most beautiful sound to ever have blessed your ears. Marlon pushes back against you, urging you to move again. It seems that he’s actually enjoying it now.
The rhythm you start with isn’t fast, but isn’t slow either. With Marlon’s insides clenching so perfectly around you you’re not so sure you’ll be able to last. The whimpers and moans he’s letting out sure aren’t helping either.
You shift your hips a bit, getting a deeper angle. Then suddenly you hit something that makes Marlon cry out from underneath you.
“FFUUuuck.!!! Oh god oh god.. right there…. Again again… oh fuck please..!” He starts to babble. Clenching hard around you while arching his back. His right hand comes back to grab the back of your thigh, pushing you in deeper. Marlon continues to babble and moan out as you start thrusting into his prostate.
After some time you’ve sped up, causing Marlon’s moans and babbles to increase in volume.
“Right there.. yes! I’ll be good….. I’ll be good… f-fuck!! Hah..” Marlon exclaimed, his breathing quickened.
Then suddenly, you notice him freeze up. He stops rocking back against you, he stops moaning and babbling. You hear his breath hitch.
What happened? Is he ok?
Maybe it’s not as pleasurable anymore..? Thinking that this was the problem, you speed up.
You notice that he’s moving again, did that solve it? Wait no, that looks like something else. A teardrop falls onto the table as Marlon starts to slightly convulse. His breath hitching, you hear little sobs. Worried, you pull out and flip him over so that he’s face to face to you. Scared that you might’ve done something wrong.
The sight below you is upsetting. Marlon on his back, crying, trying to hide his face from you. You try to touch Marlon’s shoulder to try and see what’s wrong.
“Hey, Marlon what’s wro-“
“Don’t touch me!” He smacks your hand away, backing up further from you. The shorter man runs his hands through his hair, with a look of horror and worry on his face.
You just stand there, extremely worried now. Just staring at the sobbing man in front of you. Every once in a while you hear little “he’s gonna kill me” and “what have I done?”s in between his little sobs.
You’re not going to give up from comforting Marlon. Suddenly you reach out and hold him in between your arms, rubbing his back while he cried. Surprisingly instead of trying to push you away, he pushes in closer. His cries growing stronger as he hides his face in your chest. You continue to rub soothing circles on his back, hoping that he’ll calm down. Whats wrong with him..?
After some time Marlon has calmed down a bit, his breathing evening out, little hiccups here and there. His skin is so warm and soft, makes you wonder what soap he uses.
“Can you tell me what’s wrong now?” You say, continuing to rub soothing circles on his back. Marlon hesitates.
“… I shouldn’t be doing this… it’s wrong..” his breathing growing in pace slightly. “Oh god what if he finds out… what if Joseph finds out about this?” Marlon starts to panic again. “I shouldn’t have done this I shouldn’t have done this!!”
“Hey wait! Marlon, you’re a grown ass man, Joseph shouldn’t be able to control you. It’s your life not his, he shouldn’t get a say. So what if he finds out? Who cares what he thinks. You’re your own person, ok?” You pull Marlon away to look into his eyes. His eyes shining a beautiful shade of hazel, red and watery from the tears he shed.
Honestly you’re kind of relieved a bit, you thought you might’ve hurt him or something.
Marlon just stares up at you with wide eyes, a little hiccup every here and there.
“We don’t have to continue if you don’t want to. I can help you get dressed and we can go our separate ways.” You rub his shoulders. Marlon turns his head away, like he’s considering stopping. He’s stayed that way for a minute. You sigh, he probably doesn’t want to continue. You start to pick up your clothes but he quickly grabs your arm, stopping you.
“Wait!…… I… I don’t want to stop..” Marlon exclaimed, staring up at you again with those beautiful hazel eyes.
You stare at him for a second, then came a sigh. Eyes closing while your lips curled into a small smile, chuckling a bit.
“Okay baby,”
I just reread this 5 times and it’s actually so ass omfg sorry gang. High key still posting this because the Marlon yaoi community(me) needs to be fed. So drop a like and smash that subscribe button if you enjoyed it, and I’ll see you in the next video.
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thank you to @incandescent-creativity for the trend, this was honestly so fun even tho i ended up spending my whole day on it instead of actually writing skskks
i used this picrew to make all of the character pictures! except for the ones on the last page, which i made myself (i just wanted to keep things consistent in the actual character slides).
honestly i think this will be replacing any serious character info post lmao, so if you have questions about any of them, feel free to ask here! i would of course love to talk about them ^.^
(for the record! vice, taylor, izzy, cliff, push, ekaf, and alex are all made by various other players from my dnd group! unfortunately none of them have tumblrs, but still. i am the only one writing this novel but i am stealing their characters (with permission) so there's that!)
Here's a real avgeek treat, only one of two Martin AM-1 Mauler attack aircraft on display in the world- this is the Mauler at the Erickson Aircraft Collection in Oregon, the other one is only display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. Only 154 Maulers were built and served on a limited operational basis 1948-1953. Powered by a massive Pratt & Whitney R-4360 Wasp Major radial engine, the Mauler was developed as a back up to the more complex Curtiss BTC-2 which was the planned successor to the problematic Curtiss SB2C Helldiver. Originally designated the BTM-1, 750 were ordered for the upcoming invasion of the Japanese Home Islands but with the surrender in August 1945, the order was reduced to just 99 examples. In April 1946, the Navy had consolidated the scout bomber (SB), torpedo bomber (TB) and bomber torpedo (BT) roles into a single “A for Attack” designation. The Mauler's designation changed from BTM-1 to AM-1 and found itself in the shadow of a far more reliable and well-liked piston attack design- the Douglas AD Skyraider. One of the interesting features of the AM-1 Mauler was its combination landing flaps/dive brakes- the upper and lower dive brakes had intermeshing fingers that formed a solid flap when closed. As opposed to perforated dive brakes which had the many holes to reduce buffeting in a steep dive, the Mauler's dive brakes did the same thing but with the fingers exposed when the upper and lower dive brakes opened. I'll be posting a bit more about the AM-1 Mauler on our La Jetee Press feed as it's a fascinating story of aircraft not meant to compete with the Skyraider, but in the post-WW2 drawdown, found itself constantly compared with the Skyraider. #Avgeek #aviation #aircraft #planeporn #MDJ #Madras #Oregon #airport #planespotting #EricksonAircraftCollection #Martin #AM1 #Mauler #instagramaviation #mil_aviation_originals #instaaviation #aviationlovers #aviationphotography #flight #AvGeekNation #AvGeekSchoolofKnowledge (at Erickson Aircraft Collection) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf2E1rEuZz7/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
