A weekend topic starting with USA Today. "Across America, investing a little sweat equity, watching the nest egg grow steadily – is in peril. The housing market is so tight that home sales in 2023 were the lowest in three decades. The federal government plays a key role in helping Americans achieve homeownership. In the past few years, the quasi-governmental agencies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have backed approximately 40% of all new mortgages, and the Federal Housing Administration, which is a government agency, has insured an additional one-quarter of them. As of earlier this year, the median 'all-in' cost of a mortgage payment, property taxes, and insurance was $2,201, according to Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. That’s up a whopping $852 in just the past three years, and JCHS estimates it’s the highest since data first started to be collected over three decades ago."

Midland Daily News. "Remember that classic image of a smiling couple with two kids, a dog, and a house surrounded by a white picket fence? It symbolized homeownership — a desirable and highly attainable aspect of the American Dream. But today, that picture-perfect vision has become a badly faded photograph. Not only is the number of first-time homebuyers at a record low, but home affordability is also the worst it’s been since the 1980s. 'If you go back all the way to the 1950s and 1960s, the average home price was just a little over two times the average salary of a family,' says David P. Weber, a professor of law at Creighton University. 'Even five years ago, it was about four to five times the average income. Now, it’s about six times the average income and that’s with inflation-adjusted dollars. The cost of homes has grown at a rate that outpaces any growth in income and that’s a really big part of the problem.'"

From Mises.org. "With much consternation, capital markets participants are watching US treasury bond yields go up while Jerome Powell and the Fed continue to lower the Fed Funds Rate in an effort to spur another round of easy money. The US is on track to run a $2 trillion deficit this fiscal year, which began in October. This will add to the existing national debt of $36 trillion, or 135 percent of GDP. In late 2020, the global inventory of bonds with negative yields reached an astounding $18.4 trillion. Let that sink in. $18.4 trillion worth of bonds where the lenders—rather than earning interest—were actually paying borrowers for the privilege of lending them money."

"The direct cause of this unfathomable distortion was central banks—the Federal Reserve foremost among them—playing fast and loose with monetary policy. Forcing interest rates down, creating money by the trillions, and fostering a reckless inflationary environment—centered on the capital markets and asset prices—has produced market signals that are unmistakably irrational. Into the teeth of this raging asset bubble comes the Fed with further rate cuts, the stand-alone effects of which are reflationary."

Pagosa Daily Post. "The economy, both nationally and for you personally, is manipulated by the Federal Reserve Bank (the Fed) and its objectives have nothing whatsoever to do with whether you can afford groceries or gas for you car to get to work (or if you even have a job). Their goal is to maintain the 'strength' of the U.S. dollar, vis-à-vis the currencies of other countries, because that’s the basis of global power for the elites who currently run the U.S. To maintain that strength as things now stand, the Fed needs to do two things: increase inflation; and encourage (or require) you to go into debt rather than save. I’ll repeat that, because it is at the crux of what’s coming. Inflation is not a glitch in the Fed’s manipulation of our economy; it’s a critical feature. As is keeping you as far in debt as possible."

The Walrus. "The plan was put into action, in two phases, by Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker. The first was an initial interest rate spike to 13 percent that hit hard in January 1980. This sudden increase caused the economy to stumble badly and led to a massive loss of jobs. Volcker followed up with an even more severe shock in 1981, when he drove rates above 21 percent. The American economy went into a tailspin. People stopped purchasing vehicles and appliances. Families defaulted on their mortgages. Small and mid-size companies were hollowed out and left as easy pickings for the emerging face of mercenary capitalism—the corporate raider. Speaking before Congress, he laid out the strategy: 'The standard of living of the average worker has to decline.'"

The Globe and Mail. "Joseph Stiglitz is, in a sense, the ultimate establishment man: former chief economist of the World Bank, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under U.S. president Bill Clinton, winner of the John Bates Clark medal as America’s top young economist in his 30s and the Nobel Prize for economics two decades later. But he’s also been a constant critic of the excesses of the free market and the necessity of regulation and government. Keller: One of the big economic issues in Canada right now is the slump in Canadian productivity and gross domestic product per capita relative to the U.S. A lot of people say the fix is to be more like the U.S., with lower taxes and less government. What do you say to someone arguing for that?"

"Stiglitz: There are many things they’re missing. Productivity doesn’t necessarily translate into well-being. Are you really interested in just the production of goods and services, or are you interested in well-being? If the ordinary American is struggling, our economic system is failing. Wages at the bottom are at the same level they were 60 years ago, adjusted for inflation. I mean, that’s a failure. Life expectancy is lower than in any other [developed] country, and declining. That’s a failure. Median incomes have been stagnating. When you look at any of these statistics, over a 40-year period when this is supposed to be the innovative economy, by most measures things have not gone well. So I would say our system as a whole is a failure."

"Keller: Since the 1970s, the pace of economic growth has slowed across the developed world. To what extent is that because of our economic policies, and to what extent is it an independent slowdown in the rate of innovation and technological change? Stiglitz: Neoliberalism played a very big role. Since the Cold War we have been cutting back on basic research. The private sector won’t do that, they do the last mile well but not the basic research. Neoliberalism underestimated the importance of that. Neoliberalism also highlighted money, and there was a diversion of resources toward finance, and that actually led to less real investment, so that undermined growth. In many countries there’s been a deterioration in public education – again, undermining growth. Financial liberalization led to volatility, which is bad for growth. The irony is that neoliberalism was supposed to enhance growth but the evidence is unambiguously that growth slowed, and I think there’s a causal connection."

La Civilta Cattolica. "The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an annual event in Davos, Switzerland, where prominent business leaders, politicians and academics from around the world gather to address pressing global challenges and promote international collaboration. Political scientist Samuel Huntington coined the term Davos Man to indicate the clear common denominator that associates members of this elite.[3] It epitomizes the global citizen, suggesting little devotion to national reality, a group that welcomes the disappearance of borders and regards national governments as vestiges of the past. And there is no doubt that the transnational corporation is without a homeland, especially in the current era, characterized by globalization, which this carefully selected group reflects and promotes."

"Pope Francis, in his Message addressed to WEF 2024, stated that proper governance must seek first and foremost the universal common good. We quote his words in conclusion: 'The process of globalization, which has now clearly demonstrated the interdependence of the world’s nations and peoples, thus has a fundamentally moral dimension, which must make itself felt in the economic, cultural, political and religious discussions that aim to shape the future of the international community. In a world increasingly threatened by violence, aggression and fragmentation, it is essential that states and businesses join in promoting far-sighted and ethically sound models of globalization, which by their very nature must entail subordinating the pursuit of individual power and gain, whether political or economic, to the common good of our human family, prioritizing the poor, the needy and those in the most vulnerable situations.'"

CBS Bay Area in California. "Complaints against a large vacant lot in Oakland's Fruitvale District are mounting, just like the mountains of trash that are piling up there. The lot is located at 2783 E 12th St, right next to the busy intersection of E 12th St and 29th Ave. Neighbors said the homeless have taken over the property. They said the trash has been piling up there for the last two years. But it's gotten significantly worse in recent months, where it's become inaccessible due to the amount of trash. 'There's one, two, three, four schools in the vicinity of this trash pile, and no one cares. This is supposed to be normal for us,' complained Diosa Diaz, a social worker and educator at International Community School, bettern known as ICS Elementary. Diaz said in a recent safety meeting between the school officials and the city officials, the city said because it's a private lot, they can't do anything about it. 'It's scary. I feel like we teach and we support children in an apocalyptic society,' said Diaz."

The Daily Telegraph in Australia. "If you were wondering if there was any uncertainty in our economy right now, look no further than Finder’s latest RBA survey. While being asked to predict rate movements in 2025, a panel of 40 economists and experts were also asked for their one piece of economic advice for the year ahead. 'Pray,' was the single word response from Richard Holden of UNSW. Economists and desperate religious implorations don’t often go hand-in-hand. Why this advice? 'Core inflation is too high and the RBA didn’t raise rates enough,' Holden explained."

From Reuters. "A bearish commentary by a prominent economist on China's weak consumption, unemployment and 'dispirited' youth that went viral on social media has vanished from the country's tightly controlled internet. The loss of access to the comments by Gao Shanwen, chief economist at state-owned SDIC Securities, come ahead of a meeting of Chinese leaders this month to set the economic agenda for 2025, including growth targets. Gao said on Tuesday that China's youth are dragging down consumption due to high unemployment, while spending among older people has plateaued since the COVID-19 pandemic."

"'The younger a province's population, the slower the consumption growth,' he said at an invitation-only investor conference, according to a transcript of his speech. He spoke of China's 'dispirited youth' and its 'disenchanted middle-aged' and also estimated that China's GDP growth may have been overstated by 10 percentage points between 2021 and 2023. Gao's speech was shared online and went viral on social media, but access was later blocked. Local online news reports that had carried his comments were also not accessible."

"China's ruling Communist Party exerts a high degree of control over domestic media and social media platforms in the name of safeguarding social stability and preventing the spread of rumours and fake news. Reports and public discussions on what the party considers as sensitive and potentially disruptive to social order are also routinely removed from the internet, including views critical of the economy and any veiled criticism of policymakers. In a similar case, access to a video social media account of Fu Peng, the chief economist at Northeast Securities, was blocked after comments he made in September at a conference."

"Fu said weaker consumption stems from falling property prices, leaving some middle-class homeowners with negative equity, according to media reports. Such losses, given real estate's dominance in household wealth, cannot be offset by other income sources, he said. He questioned if an increase in middle class consumption in the past decade had been driven more by the wealth effect of higher property prices than rising incomes."

"'If it was driven by rising incomes, say, salaries increasing from 10,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan, and then doubling to 40,000 yuan - there would be no issue. If the consumption upgrade of the past decade was based on the wealth effect created by rising real estate prices, then that is a very dangerous signal,' Fu said. When Reuters checked Fu's account on Friday, a notice said access had been blocked."