Internet connection. The recorded Music Industry really is an important component of the world in our National Economy and it is a larger part of the Music Industry valued at one hundred thirty billion dollars globally thats about three times more than just the actual recorded music itself and while some older folks are now discovering streaming many millennia olds are actually going backwards retro in the other direction theyre listening to vinyl to analog for quality and sound its really fueling a renaissance in sales of l. P. s and turntables and causing bottlenecks at record pressing plants i did my part being part of the trend of bought green days American Idiot on vinyl for my neighbor as a gift and it sounds great everything old is new again with music and we have a booming Music Industry in the states and around the world and we have a meal berliner and Thomas Edison to thank for the electronic start to all of that recorded music now check this out from the best of boom bust. This week the National Association of homebuilders released a report showing a jump in home builder confidence in december most economists expected the rate to remain unchanged so it was a welcome surprise but what does it mean for actual Home Ownership to discuss that further were joined now by dr Clifford Ross a professor of finance at the smith school of business at the university of maryland dr ossie whats your biggest takeaway from this report how significant is that. Well i think its actually significant given given that this is some of the best numbers weve seen coming from the any peace index for some time and the idea that their optimism is picking up steam is consistent with that was the view that we need to get more Construction Activity going on into the Home Building market here in order for it to see some some improvement in terms of the fate for borrowers basically well the current homeownership rate in the u. S. Thats at sixty three point nine percent which is obviously below the two thousand and five peak of sixty nine point two percent so is this report reason to believe that we can actually see that rate jammed up a little bit. I think its possible that we could see that i think in addition there with millennial sort of have been holding back their their home buying activity ever since the financial crisis so i think. The optimism that were seeing from from homebuilding as well as sort of the jump back into the market by someone else will bode well Going Forward for homeownership rates well as the fed is expected to have more rate hikes for two thousand and eighteen what kind of effect do you think that could have on current and also future mortgages. Well you know in terms of the fed rate hikes i think most economists would think there is about three to four of these in play for two thousand and eighteen which would be significant on Mortgage Rates if it wasnt for the fact that were talking about rate hikes that affect really the short end of the yield curve however Mortgage Rates are are really tied more to the to the intermediate part of the curve somewhere in the five to ten year range so i think what well see is continued flattening of the yield curve maybe a pickup of forty to fifty basis points point fourth point five percent increase that is in mortgage Interest Rates for the fixed rate thirty year mortgage i still think it will be a good market to be buying into if youre buyer particularly a first time home buyer out there even with these kind of hikes on the horizon some people are predicting to see higher housing prices in the u. S. In two thousand and eighteen and two thousand and nineteen which is double the rate for underlying consumer inflation and wages so is that assessment only taking into account areas with higher housing costs like l. A. In new york or is this really in line with the Current Health of the Housing Market. Well i think that overall nationwide home prices should appreciate between two and a half and three percent both in two thousand and eighteen and two thousand and nineteen which would be running about parallel or maybe even a little bit higher than inflation so the numbers you were quoting me earlier probably are more reflective of some of the hotter markets the Housing Markets on the west coast in particular the san franciscos. San jose seattle those i think we can expect to see continued acceleration in home prices for the foreseeable future largely because of tightening in the Housing Inventory side on a lot of those markets freddie macs chief economist john because he wrote that an area where the Housing Markets werent prepared for a war coastal housing areas which are in danger poor rising levels do you think that we could see and now theyre real estate bubble that could harm the nation or is this something that would have more of a local a fact. Well it certainly is a local fact those properties that are that are on the coastal markets will certainly be affected i think some of the studies that youre the shot is referencing there are are saying that the the these markets will be hit by a six foot rise in sea levels by the year twenty one hundred so this is not something that i think any of us have to worry about on. A five to ten year basis even i think this is out there quite a number of years but. Certainly its an issue as you start to think about things like Flood Insurance programs that are out there. And hazard surance policies that are offered by Insurance Companies for for homeowners those things if we were to see a continued rise in sea levels even very small levels it might make them start to think twice but overall im not i think there are many other things about the Housing Market that we need to pay closer attention to them than sea level rising in the immediate future i want to ask you now about millennial is what you sort of touched upon earlier in our interview its very well known that millennial is have quote kaleb the Housing Market as they have with many other industries continue to rant morris is by far a handful of reasons a millennialist are getting older now and closer to the age that their parents bought homes for the first time so down the road how big of an impact do you think that will have on the homeownership rate. I think it will have a fairly Significant Impact if you look back from the years right after the financial crisis of two thousand and eight two thousand and nine what we saw was a lack of of formation household formation coming from. That millennial segment what that did is it really suppressed first time home buying opportunity for quite a while and historically weve seen as much as thirty forty percent of new home purchases coming from the first time home buyers of which two thirds these days are made up of millennial buyers so its a big deal i think Going Forward the fact that we have an uptick in millennial interest in becoming homebuyers coupled with the next generous the thirty seven of the fifty one year olds that are also showing a bit higher. Interest in homeownership will certainly push the market along from what weve seen over the last couple years well it obviously had a pretty big impact is there a way to offset the millennial effect on the Housing Market. In terms of what we see going on today i think there are any number of things that are you know causing headwinds for for the market and one of the biggest happens to be affordability i think if you look at that among anything in the market today we have to stand back and really assess can people spend the or have budgeted that is the amount of income for the cost of those she added with homeownership its rising as we know and many of the the large metropolitan areas largely because of a severe shortage and Housing Inventory and from that standpoint i think we really kind of have to look at what opportunities are there to kind of either promote truman and tax credits and other kinds of things to lure people into the housing sector some what weve seen in the past few years do you think the Housing Market actually created any new protections to create a safety net or prevent anything to Housing Market bubbles like with zod during the financial crisis. Yes there are a bit of a lot of things that have happened since the crisis four years and probably the biggest i would say is the Consumer FinancialProtection Bureau has implementation of the socalled qualified mortgage rules which really dramatically changed the underwriting quality the requirements for underwriting that is of home mortgages in other words if you look at the quality of loans being done today versus ten years ago its dramatically different these are very very low risk assets again they arent the nontraditional mortgages that we want saw and many would say contributed to the crisis in fact that coupled with other improvements better oversight of fannie mae and freddie mac. Even though both are in conservatorship. Along with other measures have gone a long way to really make sure that what we saw in two thousand and eight two thousand and nine very unlikely to happen again on. Our watch for quite some time dr clippard ross a professor of finance at the smiths will and business at the university of maryland thanks so much for your time today thank you as we go to break heres a holiday quiz question for you Real Christmas trees are grown in all fifty states of the union which states grow the most Christmas Trees will have the answer after the break. Join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and ill be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business im show business ill see you then. I played for many clubs over the years so i know the game inside out. Football isnt only about what happens on the pitch pull the final school its about the passion from the fans its the age of the superman each kill the narrowness and spending two hundred twenty million on one player. Its an experience like nothing else i want to get close i want to share what i think what i know about the beautiful game a great one more chance for. And thinks this minute. About a hundred for them i did but thats not a good idea oh no i mean my. Dismissal. Must be still slot. Machine of slate feel compelled to. Write about and im going to have the guys you know some of the foremen on sunday the left a lot of people died that something is innocent. And then the most will go down. As become a hot item. Criminon with the most fundamental needs. From some listener count some how much for some someone some made out. Coming on not. One of the from the one that hit. Welcome back the answer to our quiz question Real Christmas trees are grown in all fifty states of the union which states have the most of those well the top Christmas Tree producing states are oregon North Carolina michigan pennsylvania wisconsin and Washington State more in the Christmas Tree industry and a little later now check this out from the best of boom bust. Bitcoin is still doing fairly well have a ring around fifteen thousand dollars but its crypto competitors are starting to out china to get his take on whats happening were joined now by chief market analyst at think markets name has had a pretty wild month and theres so much speculation as to why what do you think are the main reasons for the surge. Thank you for having me well there are a number of reasons as you said speculation is one of the major reason that we have seen those that theres a major difference when it comes to big corn and assessing how this movie is happening where the coin is a commodity where the big coin is actually a currency but let me just vine by this many out of Bitcoin Bitcoin is the entire concept is just decentralized and that has fueled a rally not only in bitcoin but also in the i see your market and then we have major major firms taking a stab on the Companies Like whatsapp and other things like each have is having its own platform where they wanted to introduce their we introduce their own point and they wanted to go after way you can Exchange Money through the entire platform but again coming back to your question what really fueled this rally the rally has been fueled on the basis that this is actually a drover to where you can go and store your valve and this is why we are seeing not much big movement to the downside but we seeing Massive Movement to the upside but the liquidity was the massive problem with the introduction of siebel c. M. E. And now nasdaq next year that liquidity gab but how could become a lot more better because we have institutional traders coming into the market and participating that remember when seba did its listing for the future the gap between the future and the spot index was over two thousand dollars that gap has narrowed because bigger institutions have started to participate in this market and with the introduction of these institutions were seeing a lot more less wallet when it comes to because and i think that is driving and that would drive the price in two thousand and eighteen as well you pointed out. In a piece that you wrote for forbes that a theory and light coin returned to a bit quines main rivals have done well recently to is that simply because of the sudden interest in crypto currency or is there Something Else at play absolutely like i said its not the only eat three m. Its not only dice its not only near but other companies which are issuing their i. C. s like each other via also gene pool and performing very very role you look at the performance of the three m. The reason that these firms are doing so well is because of the great in the technology that they have got how many transactions can you execute per second i think that is where everyone is looking at everyone is looking at what is the next quarry which is going to seed this must so ron like bitcoin thats why investors and capitalists or trade is the are trying to capitalize on this market theyre trying to find what is the next big coin what is the next court which is going to drive this massive rally look at look at your report look at the performance for the last four this year some of these coins have performed march on washington better than bitcoin in two thousand and seventeen bitcoins were eyes in december took a lot of people by surprise and it led to plenty of crypto currency critics to say that this is a risky bubble waiting to happen do you think theyre right i mean what do you think we can expect for a bit coin for the rest of this year and in twenty eighteen yes some of those steps because of some of those biggest listen the people who are not that favorable in terms of a big point turn out to be holding the Biggest Holdings of bitcoin the physical holdings of bitcoin so lets just remind our viewers that that was the premature case and theyre going to provide the Brokerage Services to the main media or to what they call a sophisticated clients so what do we think holds for bitcoin in two thousand and seventeen. In my articles in force before the sea the sea board did its future listing we said theres a good chance is there that big coin price could easily touch twenty thousand so we are near enough that twenty thousand by the end of this year but i think going into two thousand and eighteen there are a number of factors which are very important and that could easily drive the price of bitcoin value above forty thousand what are those factors lets look at regulation because we know the throughout two thousand and seventy regulations havent been able to pull back bitcoin in terms of is priced or how much price we have a change is how many new issues were going to get what different products we are going to get if theres going to be any Technology Upgrade for because of how the brokerage and it has fallen and its issue sions are going to react within this one because the more participation that we have from these ones and i will be writing an article on forbes about this the more liquidity we have and the more liquidity we have and the more regulation in terms of her credibility we have we will see even more participation from the general public but one thing above all is that if the perception continues that this is a derivative way you store was driver to have to store your valve then i do think that the price the book tensional for the prices for forty thousand perhaps by the end of two thousand and eighteen but if the perception changes that bitcoin is no longer a driver to where you can store or a commodity it is actually a currency and alternative to the Mighty Dollar then perhaps the upside for that isnt that much because then the volatility needs to see the volatility need to die out i also since you are in london i want to pivot and talk about bracks and now members of parliament are set to vote on whether or not to put an official date. Im putting that into law do you think theyre going to vote for that but i think the breadstick negotiation will remain the major major obstacle for the u. K. s economy im going to thousand and eighteen and i think through some a house done after theyre released and starting in toronto she has done a tremendous job in terms of bringing where the breaks it started from and where we are we have gone through she has gone through a major obstacle such as Northern Ireland such as establishing stable grounds in terms of how much theyre going to pay for the bill i think these are the major obstacle in order to start that negotiation where she would be able to go into the room and start ok who is going to be my trade partner and who will be how were going to negotiate these trade deals i think she is on the right track but doesnt necessarily mean that every year doesnt necessarily mean the two thousand and eighteen by any mean is going to be good for the u. K. Economy or even in two thousand and nineteen yes she certainly had a rocky road ahead and has dealt with a lot but earlier this month samuel tombs of pantheon macro economics who predicted the outcome of the last general election said he things might not actually happen primarily because of whoever is in power at that point what want to risk damaging their own reputation by implementing it do you think that scenario is possible. I do think that scenario is theres a probability for that and im sure if you see some sort of a betting companies out there they could be still providing a bet on the zones that ok the breakthrough could actually not happen after all of this drama that we have seen but i think the probabilities or the reality of that situation happening are very minute. The e. U. Has gone through a lot over the past especially when it comes to elections so what do you think will be the blocks Biggest Issue to face in two thousand eighteen i think the Biggest Issues going into two thousand and eighteen would be once again you geo political concern it would be again the drift vivian the European Union because we know whats happening right now in catalonia i think catalonia would the entire situation about catalonia would resurface in two thousand and eighteen and also not to forget about the elections taking place in italy in two thousand and eighteen that also remains an important agenda for the e. U. And for the European Central bank but on the on the overall i do think that the euro zone has a much much Brighter Future as compared to the u. K. I do think that the European Central bank has done tremendous job in terms of that bring in the recovery we do think that we do Unemployment Rate could easily fall to point to two point five percent in two thousand and eighteen and we could see substantial g. D. P. Growth which could be in a round of a one point nine percent and also inflation could be picking up as well so do you think that will help with wages in the eurozone because like you said unemployment is lower and we could see an increase in g. D. P. But wage growth like here in the u. S. Has been kind of slow so what do you predict for two thousand and eighteen yes for sure certainly i think with a lorry and unemployment the slack in the economy would reduce and that we could certainly see that higher wages kicking in because remember there are certain cities. That we have them be the biggest economy of the euro zone germany where complete are actually losing contracts because they do not have a sufficient labor because they do not have a number of people who can actually go into those factories and make those work what they are supposed to do and these companies are unable to deliver on the contract source for sure i do think their wages would rise and going back to your what you have touched at all in the us that yes vague pressure is something that we have not seen in two thousand and seventeen but with the us overall to tax overhaul we do anticipate that in two thousand and eighteen with there is a greater potential for ages to grow and gradually move a lot more higher in two thousand and eighteen over in the u. S. As well name as chief market analyst at think markets thanks so much for your time today. Before we go with only a few days before christmas the final figures wont be in for a while but every Holiday Season people flock to get their Christmas Trees some cut them for themselves some pick them up in a parking lot and some get them at a store and others still are having them order directly to their home regardless of how you get one of those trees dont grow themselves well perhaps they do but they need a lot of help along the way and they get it there are more than fifteen thousand Christmas Tree farms throughout the United States and they add to local state and National Economies according to the United States department of agricultures us to to stick service and the national Christmas TreeFoundation Yes there is a grand national Christmas Tree foundation there are approximately twenty five to thirty million twenty five to thirty million Real Christmas trees sold in the u. S. Every year there are close to three hundred fifty million Real Christmas trees currently growing on Christmas Tree farms in the u. S. Alone there are all planted by farmers on close to fifteen thousand farms and about three hundred fifty thousand acres are used as we said in our answer to our quiz the top Christmas Tree producing states are oregon North Carolina michigan pennsylvania wisconsin Washington State and there are over a one hundred thousand Christmas Tree jobs in the u. S. Eighty percent of the artificial trees are made in china and there are of course made from nonbiodegradable plastics they can be used for many years perhaps we need to buy a great degradable Christmas Tree although i guess it wouldnt last for that long certainly is not of long as the other the existing by the existing trees the artificial trees that is so i suppose as for real trees there are of course recycling in fact there are more than four thousand local christmas. Tree recycling programs in the states all throughout the country every Real Christmas tree thats harvested for everyone thats harvesters there is either one or three seedlings that are planted each spring it can take as many deaths as fifteen years to grow a tree of typical height six or seven feet or as little as four years the average time is seven years for a tryst mystery thanks for watching be sure to catch boom bust on you tube at youtube dot com slash boom bust r. T. C n x time. How does it feel to be a sheriff the greatest job in the world its as close to being a king as any job there is what Business Model helps to run a prison now we just do it on my guess is nobody over the case and i dont no one comes anymore we dont have to serve them anymore is Cost Effective thats what they want to do that knowing they dont give a damn if you did chores and that there are actually paying us to put it back into. The louisiana incarceration rate is twice as high as the us same breach what secret is behind such success. I think the International Community as a whole must make an f. On toll brain peace fills the middle east and i think this is not only in the interest of the palestinians and as i said before also the interest of jerusalem big and the israelis because it is are these two interests and stability and peace but such measures as those taken by trump do not favor civility and peace in the middle east and it george. Clashes breakouts another day of rage just call the process palestine in the wake of Donald Trumps decision to recognize to reduce the level of israels capital. Cost and. Were sending once again you can see that theres a number of injured people you can see the census are keeping people with same. Boris johnson visits russia for the first time as British Foreign secretary talking trade and action meddling and even attempting some russian somebody has just given me a pad for the. Book because it has news today you get i guess thats the if this be. The world of sports is stunned off the end