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That Program Is In Case People Are Concerned About, Jeez, Are The Prices Going To Fall

It’s Friday desk clearing time for this blogger. “‘I’ve definitely seen deals in escrow when this hit, where the buyer came to the seller and said ‘I’m still willing to move forward, but with this news and health crisis and all of this uncertainty I’m only willing to do it at this [particular] price,’ said Noah Grassi, a realtor with Compass. ‘And we’ve seen properties in escrow that granted a large reduction in price to keep the sale on track. The longer this goes on that’s going to be the bigger impact for high-cost expensive areas like Southern California, like San Diego.'”

“He said for buyers, they may have more leverage in this market, as sellers are more excited to see offers and potentially more willing to negotiate a deal. Grassi said if the stay-at-home order drags on too long, we may start seeing people who can no longer afford to live in California, moving to less expensive places such as Nevada and Arizona. ‘If we see that mass exodus of people out of California, that’s what would have a significant impact on housing, and that’s what we saw in the last downturn,’ he said.”

“The advertisements are meant to entice: A month of free rent in a high-end apartment in downtown St. Petersburg. A free pool at a new housing development in Tampa. A $20 Amazon gift card for taking a virtual tour. ‘GREAT Specials!!!’ Across the Tampa Bay area, there are examples of these incentives springing up, for both people looking to buy new houses or sign an apartment lease. William Ryan Homes had already been offering free pools for buyers who commit to the newly constructed homes (or $20,000 toward bonus features like a ‘gourmet kitchen’) in January. But lately, after seeing a 50 percent drop in purchases since the pandemic began, the company has been promoting those perks more heavily, said Tampa division president Jeff Thorson.”

“The builder also started offering a price protection program, that allows buyers who have entered into a contract on a home to get a lower price if the base price falls before the closing. William Ryan Homes hasn’t instituted that program since the Great Recession. ‘(That program) is in case people are concerned about, ‘Jeez, are the prices going to fall,’ Thorson said.”

“The market for homes priced about $1 million and up in North Texas is cooling, real estate professionals say. ‘The high-end market is seeing a pullback right now,’ said Keith Conlon, president of Sales at Dallas-based Allie Beth Allman & Associates. ‘It’s definitely lower. The average price point in terms of things under contract is down from where it was a year prior.'”

“The average sales price dropped 13 percent for homes sold through Allie Beth Allman & Associates’ year-to-date through April 17 compared to the same period in 2019, Conlon said. The average sales price for the company, which trades primarily in high-end homes, fell to about $846,000 through April 17, compared with roughly $976,000 through the same date last year. ‘That’s the big difference,’ Conlon said. ‘You’re talking about $130,000 average sales price (decrease).'”

“Many Arlington homes are still getting multiple offers, but we are seeing fewer offers in these scenarios. Homes that might have attracted 8-12 offers last spring, or even in early January or February, are mostly only getting 2-3 offers right now, and it’s still happening in the first few days of public marketing. Of course, this does not represent all properties. Some homes don’t receive multiple offers or sell in the first week. Some take multiple price reductions in order to find the market — they were on the market, but not really in the market. This is leading to some head scratching from sellers and maybe realtors alike.”

“‘I’m calling it the Great Pause,’ said Tommy Choi, a real estate agent at Keller Williams Chicago-Lincoln Park. ‘We were starting to see a shift from a seller’s to a buyer’s market even before the pandemic.'”

“Many banks and lenders have imposed more stringent requirements for new borrowers amid the economic uncertainty. The rise in rates also comes as lenders are rethinking who they will lend to amid the coronavirus pandemic. ‘Lenders are announcing more stringent underwriting requirements and exiting some products completely,’ said Tendayi Kapfidze, chief economist at LendingTree. ‘JPMorgan is one of the top originators in the market, and they in some ways set the standard for what other lenders are going to do,’ said Kristy Fercho, vice chairman of the Mortgage Banker Association.”

“If a lender doesn’t make changes after one of the largest companies in the industry does so, Fercho said, they risk the possibility of attracting borrowers in worse financial shape who might be more likely to go into default.”

“Just over 3.4 million borrowers, representing 6.4% of all mortgages outstanding, are now in forbearance plans. That’s an increase of 477,000 loans in just one week, or a nearly 9% jump, according to Black Knight. These forbearances represent $754 billion in unpaid principal. They include 5.6% of all loans backed by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and 8.9% of all FHA/VA loans.”

“Not all loans in forbearance are government-backed. About 740,000 loans either held on bank balance sheets or in private-label securities are also in forbearance plans. This represents $207 billion in unpaid principal balance. The majority of these loans are higher cost, so-called jumbo loans. The tally is expected to rise, along with job losses. Borrowers have faced only one monthly payment since the full economic shutdown.”

“The calls coming into Iowa Bankers Mortgage Corp. are twice what they used to be — about 1,500 to 1,700 a week. Unlike most of those who have called the Johnston-based loan servicer, many of these customers have never had trouble paying mortgages before. ‘You can sense the fear,’ said Lorna Goeldner, a vice president who oversees the customer service reps handling the calls. ‘And the hard part is, you can’t have an answer until this hardship is over.'”

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This Post Has 167 Comments

        1. He said CRE was going to be restructured, and that happens through “value.” Also said the residential equity gains since 2010 are “gone.”

          1. He said CRE was going to be restructured, and that happens through “value.”

            Your investment portfolio is going to be restructured, e.g., less value.

          2. Yes, but he elaborates it’s the “equity partners” who eat the sh$t sandwich. Pensions, ETFs etc.

          3. Yes, indeed. They invest in CRE, which is apartment complexes, furnished student housing, etc., as well as office space, as they look to squeeze better returns from people just wanting a place to sleep at night.

      2. He had a good opening, but went downhill from there. What actually happens when demand craters is that the quantity sold falls, as does the price. People who don’t have to sell take their homes off the market, while those who have to sell take whatever the market will bear at a deep discount to last month’s price.

        1. “He had a good opening, but went downhill from there.”

          He’s going to sound like Jeremiah Babe if he’s truthful.

  2. I’ll have to catch up the international crater this weekend.

    ‘If a lender doesn’t make changes after one of the largest companies in the industry does so, Fercho said, they risk the possibility of attracting borrowers in worse financial shape who might be more likely to go into default’

    So this is the race to the bottom lending in reverse.

  3. ‘fell to about $846,000 through April 17, compared with roughly $976,000 through the same date last year. ‘That’s the big difference,’ Conlon said. ‘You’re talking about $130,000 average sales price (decrease)’

    Good thing they all put 20% down. Wait, they only just started requiring that. You can see how the lending falls in on itself.

    1. In one of these articles some loan person says the changes are “temporary’. Well if you think years is temporary. These people all know the drill. You tighten, sales slow, prices follow, more loans become untenable, more tightening. They start dropping like flies, Impact for example, and many loans just aren’t around. This was all completely predictable. But greed took over and Mel Watt encouraged it – the chief regulator no less.

      1. But greed took over and Mel Watt encouraged it – the chief regulator no less.

        If anyone deserves lengthier prison sentences than the Fed officials and policymakers who enabled and encouraged the Everything Bubble, it’s the captured and complicit regulators and enforcers who were criminally negligent when it came to doing their jobs.

  4. Re-post from the last thread, this article published today:

    “The millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in recent weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic will have a devastating impact on the economy going forward as workers are left without pay.

    Losses in the month of April alone could push the unemployment rate to about 16%, according to James Knightley, chief international economist at ING. If another 10 million Americans file jobless claims in May, that would push the unemployment rate to roughly 22%, he said.

    “Thankfully this is below the 24.9% peak experienced in 1933, but we have to remember that one third of Americans aged 18-65 are not classified as employed or unemployed – they are students, early retirement, homemakers, carers or sick,” Knightly wrote in a Thursday note.

    “This leads us to yet another sobering statistic – that less than half of working age Americans will be earning a wage next month,” he said.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/layoffs-coronavirus-less-than-half-american-workers-paycheck-wage-may-2020-4

    1. This is what bugs me about the shutdown: we were told it was to keep the hospitals from being overwhelmed. I could understand the logic. That’s past. Arizona re-started doing elective surgeries today. So where is the logic now? All I see is irrational fear. No plan, no objective measure for what to do. Arbitrary dates. May 15th? Why not now or June 15th? It’s like throwing darts at a board. They don’t have a legal right to keep doing this.

      Part of the problem as I see it is allowing guberment to make our health choices. Given the power they will always cover their own asses. If it was up to many in DC we would never smoke a pipe, climb a mountain, eat apple pie, skydive, any number of things that free people do. See the control freaks for what they are.

      1. “it is allowing guberment to make our health choices.”

        “Millions of American women just pricked up their ears … “

          1. Some 1st Amendment Religous folks don’t want yer needle body poking vaccines poked into their personal flesh.

            Thee needle in the damage done.

      2. “irrational fear … They don’t have a legal right … make our health choices … See the control freaks for what they are”

        You won’t read about any of this in the New York Times. Or on CNN. Or on Facebook. Or on Reddit. Or on Twitter.

        It’s a fear narrative, a scripted narrative.

        “It’s ClownWorld, Jake. Forget about it”

      3. “They don’t have a legal right to keep doing this.”

        Maybee knots yet, but the device to do $o is in constitution.

        “Typically, the imposition of martial law accompanies curfews; the $u$pen$ion of civil law, civil right$, and habeas corpus; and the application or extension of military law or military justice to civilians. Civilians defying martial law may be subjected to military tribunal (court-martial).”

        Examples:

        Martial law in the United States refers to several periods in United States history where in a region or the United States as a whole were placed under the control of a military body. On a federal level, only the president has the power to impose martial law. In each state, the governor has the right to impose martial law within the borders of the state. In the United States, martial law has been used in a limited number of circumstances, such as New Orleans during the Battle of New Orleans; after major disasters, such as the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 or the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 or during riots, such as the Omaha race riot of 1919 or the 1920 Lexington riots; local leaders declared martial law to protect themselves from mob violence, such as Nauvoo, Illinois, during the Illinois Mormon War, or Utah during the Utah War; or in response to chaos associated with protests and rioting, such as the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike, in Hawaii after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and during the Civil Rights Movement in response to the Cambridge riot of 1963.

        The martial law concept in the United States is closely tied with the right of habeas corpus, which is, in essence, the right to a hearing on lawful imprisonment, or more broadly, the supervision of law enforcement by the judiciary.

        The ability to suspend habeas corpus is related to the imposition of martial law.
        Article 1, Section 9 of the US Constitution states, “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

      5. Well said, Ben, and I wonder if the lack of clear criteria could lead to legal challenges to these lockdown orders.

        Apparently a lot of the shutdown orders have been issued on the authority of various state statutes empowering governors to issue decrees in emergency situations. But if there’s no clear definition of what constitutes the emergency or when it’s deemed to begin or end, the decrees look a lot more arbitrary and could possibly be attacked in court.

      6. See the control freaks for what they are.”

        VDH has a podcast on this if you ever listen to him. The Victor Davis Hanson Podcast.

      7. I did the numbers on the actual deaths in NYC and the number of people who died with out preexisting conditions was very low. They have repeatedly moved the goal posts as well be reclassifying previous deaths.

        One of the younger folks in my team go it (to the extent you can truly isolate via testing) complete with Hypoxia symptoms. He went to the hospital and they gave him oxygen (not via a ventilator) with prescriptions for several things including Chloroquine. He recovered fine.

        This seems to have been well planned from a response/hysteria standpoint given statements by Fauci back in 2017 and from other Globalists fan bois. We now know that there are many strains of Corona found in any given year. Was there a bad strain present that hit some people? There may have been, but many more people die of pneumonia each year.

        The economic calculations have been tossed out the window with appeals to emotion pumped by media (social or otherwise) and the Fauci, Birx, Gates Axis of Evil + a million breathless Karens. No normal until you get chipped and vaccinated and that stuff isn’t even tin foil hat territory as these people actually stated this. Finally the former terrorist Tedros heading the WHO while praising China’s tyranny tells us all we need to know.

          2. I wonder how many 25 year olds are heavy Vapers? seems like that info is secret.

            It can’t be secret any longer, ’cause you keep harping on it.

      8. We are becoming a nation of Karens, tattle telling on our neighbors for perceived indiscretions.

        2. Hey now. What’s with picking on Karens? This Karen never wants to talk to a manager, stays out of people’s business, and prefers to fix up a bowl of popcorn while watch the apocalypse unfold.

        3. Our collectivist Comrades of Proven Worth require their surveillance state for total information awareness and control. This requires the full cooperation of every citizen, and punishment for all who fail to comply. It’s for the children….

      9. So right you are, Ben. Worked at the Fed for a year as a contractor and the culture is nothing but CYA. And the entitlement! The country needs to know that they are paying 100K+ salaries, 4 wks vacation plus every known holiday, and full pension for these mediocre people. It needs to stop .

    2. 24.9% peak experienced in 1933

      We might already be worse. Unemployment was counted differently back then. For example, an unpaid working family member was considered “employed”.

    1. Per Zillow…since October ’17, for Santa Clara, CA:

      — Median List Price is up 21%
      — Median Sale Price is up 4.3%

      I think you are letting your emotions get in the way of the data.

      1. since October ’17

        Tom, you’re not thinking YoY means what I think it means.

        I do find it interesting that the most recent month’s median listing price is so far below the sale price.

      2. Prices fell 10% YOY and cratering fast.

        It is what it is my good friend…it is what it is.

      4. Your cherry picked data is out of date and unrepresentative of COVID-19 housing impacts.

  6. $484 billion, is that alot?

    “President Trump on Friday signed legislation providing $484 billion to replenish a popular small business lending program and support hospitals and COVID-19 testing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

    The measure includes an additional $310 billion in funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), $60 billion of which is reserved for community banks and small lenders; $75 billion for hospitals; $25 billion to support testing efforts; and $60 billion for emergency disaster loans and grants.”

    https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/494412-trump-signs-484-coronavirus-relief-package

    My mom collects Social Security. I doubt I ever will…

    1. My mom collects Social Security. I doubt I ever will…

      FWIW, in Mexico their Social Security program (IMSS) has survived a lot. That said, inflation ravaged the payouts, which didn’t even come close to keeping up with the cost of living. Expect the same to happen here.

      Also, in Mexico the IMSS provides socialized healthcare, which is crude and poorly supplied by our standards. Right now the IMSS is completely overwhelmed by COVID.

  7. Grassi said if the stay-at-home order drags on too long, we may start seeing people who can no longer afford to live in California, moving to less expensive places such as Nevada and Arizona. ‘If we see that mass exodus of people out of California, that’s what would have a significant impact on housing, and that’s what we saw in the last downturn,’ he said.”

    Noah’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

    2. Someone on my local NextDoor site just posted an ad for someone to please take their two dogs because they have to quickly California. I thought that was interesting and wondered if we’ll see more of that. This is not an expensive part of California. But still … I know of a few people who loved out of CA in the last ten years. They have some shitty unpredictable weather to deal with, but one woman I know sold a little house for over $400k in the Sacramento area last year, and got a much bigger, newer home with land in Tennessee for around $300k. Another guy from high school moved to Michigan. Says his wife makes the same, but everything else costs less.

      Btw, a side note on the pet situation. I recall how people left their homes and pets during the housing bust 10-12 years ago. But pet ownership seems to have gone up/. Yet veterinary work hasn’t improved since the recovery. Suicide rates for vets have gone up, low job satisfaction, and overall wages have gone down since many clinics are corporate run. I’m imagining another wave of pets being abandoned. Especially if the virus cases get worse as people try to go back to work.

      1. “low job satisfaction”

        1. They truly care abouts others strangers critters condition$

        2. They truly care abouts the critters stranger owners concern$

        3. They know to medically fix thing$ ain’t cheap.

        4. Sounds like a hard & con$tantly recurring “bidne$$” $ituation.

        5. Think eye’s be depre$$ed on a daily ba$is.

  8. $125,0002 bd
    1,817 sqft
    4210 E Mojave Ln, Bullhead City, AZ 86429

    Price history
    DATE EVENT PRICE
    4/24/2020 Listed for sale $125,000

    https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/4210-E-Mojave-Ln-Bullhead-City-AZ-86429/8391448_zpid/

    The red tape in front of the wood stove means this is a HUD shack. It’s a single-wide. And they winterized it even though it hasn’t froze there in modern history. (It may be HUD policy to winterize everything, they have their own playbook). Here’s what significant: the asking price is likely what was loaned. If HUD was backing that size of a loan on an old single-wide in Bullhead City, lending has been just as insane as last decade. Maybe more insane.

    1. I got this in an email from HUD:

      ‘The FHA is “looking at various options” to address that issue, Commissioner Brian Montgomery said in an interview. But at the same time Montgomery would not rule out measures to mitigate potential risk to the FHA’s insurance fund, including raising premiums. “We want to make sure that our cash [inflows] exceed our cash outflows, so again, we’re looking at a lot of different things, and premiums being one of them, but there are other things that we’re considering as well,” Montgomery said.’

      ‘FHA stepped in during the financial crisis and expanded its loan book considerably after Fannie and Freddie entered conservatorship in 2008 and shrank their market share. Although the agency is not expected to repeat that growth this time around, Montgomery said FHA would do whatever it can to play a countercyclical role amidst the economic uncertainty. “We’re here to make sure that in good times and bad people can buy a home, refinance, take out a reverse mortgage,” he said. “We’re not chasing any sales goals or volume here.” If the private market can’t serve low- to moderate-income borrowers, “we’re here to make sure that we can do what we need to do,” he continued. “And sometimes that means our volume grows and sometimes it means it contracts.”

      This is critical:

      ‘FHA stepped in during the financial crisis and expanded its loan book considerably after Fannie and Freddie entered conservatorship in 2008 and shrank their market share’

      That’s FHA’s role, counter-cyclical. Or it was the role. The swamp turned FHA pro-cyclical in 2014, same as Fannie and Freddie. Now here we are in 2020 and FHA is also loaded up with risk-layered, subprime crap.

    2. Re the Bullhead City single wide, there’s 1800+ square feet in that thing?

      Also, good luck battling Bullhead City summers with a couple of wall unit air conditioners.

    3. That’s a $15,000 shack and piece of dirt, only because it’s got utilities. Otherwise, I’d put the value under $10k for the shack and dirt.

      1. ‘there’s 1800+ square feet in that thing?’

        I doubt it, probably counting the patio, if you can call it that.

        ‘I’d put the value under $10k for the shack and dirt’

        That’s what I’m saying about the HUD asking price. Nowadays they will try to get the loaned amount at first, and I don’t think they would realistically try for 125k. It has to be the amount owed, and if so it is worse than any loan I ever saw in BHC last decade. And I saw many hundreds. I spent years working foreclosures out there.

        There was one that was worse nearby. It was a little blue trailer sitting on 5 acres in Golden Valley. They had loaned $150,000 on it. I don’t know if that was refi or what. Most assuredly fraud because it wasn’t much better than this one in BHC. GV is a got-forsaken place for sure.

        1. This got me to thinking. BHC is reliant on Laughlin NV for jobs. Most people in Laughlin probably work at the casinos or a supporting business. These casinos have been hurting since gas prices went so high years ago. I’d bet Laughlin is a ghost town right now, worse than Las Vegas. There’s no other job source and they are looking at months or more without income. There’s gonna be some crater out there.

      1. I bet there’s plenty of tweakers and heroin addicts around to make life interesting around those parts.

  9. ‘Every Friday afternoon in the U.S., just after markets close, the Fed releases data on various bank metrics. This report has taken on greater importance as more and more companies have tapped their credit lines and loaded up on cash to help offset the loss of revenue from the coronavirus pandemic. This dash for cash has been swift and severe.’

    ‘Commercial and industrial loans outstanding have surged by about $510 billion, or 22%, since early March to $2.87 trillion. To put that increase in perspective, consider that the previous record increase for a full year was just $235.1 billion in 2007. The old saying goes that banks only want to lend money when people don’t need it. But now, everybody needs money, and that can’t be good for banks.’

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/lloyd-blankfein-shouldn-t-surprised-204001485.html

  10. https://news.umich.edu/depth-and-length-of-coronavirus-recession-mount/

    Depth and length of coronavirus recession mount
    April 24, 2020

    ANN ARBOR—Consumer sentiment tumbled 17.3 index points in April, the largest one-month decline in nearly a half century, according to the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers.

    A two-month decline of 29.2 points was also the largest consecutive monthly decline ever recorded.

    Most of the weakness was due to a collapse in consumers’ evaluations of current economic conditions, which posted a percentage decline twice as high as recorded in the Expectations Index, said U-M economist Richard Curtin, director of the surveys.

    Job and Income Uncertainty Soars

    When asked to explain their buying plans, record numbers of consumers justified their negative views by referencing their uncertainty about future job and income prospects. Negative views of buying conditions for large household durables were voiced by 55%, twice last month’s 27% and three-times February’s 18%. Home-buying conditions were judged less favorable than anytime since 1984. Vehicle-buying conditions declined to their lowest levels in nearly a decade. Home and vehicles were aided by more frequent references to price discounts. The attraction of lower interest rates and prices were easily offset by rising uncertainty.

    1. Heck, I wouldn’t buy a car right now. If my car was stolen or totaled I’d keep the insurance money and do without one for the time being.

      A house? Fuggedaboutit.

    2. 📰 …👀🏠🏧♻️💪 … 👀🚗💪?

      2020 Corporate$ & Con$umer debt$ load$ + invi$ible deeth👾killa.germ$ =

      🏘 & 📉

      A. Carnage$
      B. Collap$e$
      C. Calamitie$
      D. Catastrophe$
      E. ALL OF THEE ABOVE ☝️

  11. Because it’s illegal for rich people to lose money in America:

    “As part of the economic rescue package that became law last month, the federal government is giving away $174 billion in temporary tax breaks overwhelmingly to rich individuals and large companies, according to interviews and government estimates.

    Some of the breaks apply to taxes have long been in the cross hairs of corporate lobbyists. They undo limitations that were imposed to rein in the giveaways embedded in a $1.5 trillion tax-cut package enacted in 2017. None specifically target businesses or individuals harmed by the coronavirus.”

    https://www.nytimes.com./2020/04/24/business/tax-breaks-wealthy-virus.html

    1. overwhelmingly to rich individuals

      Is the guy with a little store on Main St trying to make payroll for a few employees a “rich individual”?

    2. “They undo limitation$ that were impo$ed to rein in the giveaway$ embedded in a $1.5 trillion$ tax-cut package enacted in 2017.

      None specifically target businesses or individuals harmed by the coronaviru$.”

      Hurry, hurry, hurry, ..
      it’$ an 👾😷😱 “Emergency!” + no one i$ watching u$!🙈🤫

      🙈+🙉+🙊

      “Forget the coin$, grab the jewel$ you idiot!”

    3. “the federal government is giving away $174 billion in temporary tax breaks overwhelmingly to rich individuals and large companies,…”

      – “The federal government is giving away $Bs & $Ts of hard earned taxpayer money to a greedy and corrupt system.” – There, fixed it for you.

      – The CCP virus pandemic is being used for cover for the largest, by far, taxpayer theft through the bailout of well connected players that made bad bets and lost. The bailout is heavily skewed towards large, connected entities. We all know that corp. greed and debt were at record levels before the virus. Corps. were heavily indebted and leveraged, courtesy of the Fed’s low rates. Stock buybacks were largely funded by debt, buybacks are all but gone, but the Fed is the “market” now.

      – Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are the engines of job growth, innovation, and creativity. Large enterprises are all about monopolistic behavior, building moats, and stifling competition. The SMEs aren’t getting the priority they need to grow us out of this recession. Moral hazard and corruption have been institutionalized. The divide between the haves and have-nots is only going to get worse going forward. Again, the lion’s share of this bailout went to the 1%.

      “We’re essentially continuing a system where profits are privatized and…losses socialized,” – Nouriel Roubini

      – Crony capitalism is now the primary business model. Heads I win, tails you lose. “Embrace the suck.”

      2. ^^^^ This. When people catch on and can’t feed their kids, how will this go down for the Cloud People or for any pol that thought shuttering business and instituting curfews was a good idea?

        1. how will this go down for the Cloud People or for any pol that thought shuttering business and instituting curfews was a good idea?

          Apparently some elite have already bugged out to New Zealand:

          https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/realestate/we-needed-to-go-rich-americans-activate-pandemic-escape-plans/ar-BB12SUrX

          As coronavirus infections tore across the U.S. in early March, a Silicon Valley executive called the survival shelter manufacturer Rising S Co. He wanted to know how to open the secret door to his multimillion-dollar bunker 11 feet underground in New Zealand.

          The tech chief had neve­r used the bunker and couldn’t remember how to unlock it, said Gary Lynch, general manager of Texas-based Rising S Co. “He wanted to verify the combination for the door and was asking questions about the power and the hot water heater and whether he needed to take extra water or air filters,” Lynch said. The businessman runs a company in the Bay Area but lives in New York, which was fast becoming the world’s coronavirus epicenter.
          “He went out to New Zealand to escape everything that’s happening,” Lynch said, declining to identify the bunker owner because he keeps his client lists private. “And as far as I know, he’s still there.”

          3. I wonder when/if the survivors on the surface will take to bulldozing a few tons of dirt over the entrances and air vents for these ultrawealthy bunker denizens.

    1. Main.$treeter$ $hafted … again!?

      Un.po$$ible! + inCONceivable!

      (I$ Wall $treet getting ANY of the (0%) a$ in Zero%?, ANY of thee x$6+ Trillion$?, ANY of thee “UNLIMITED!”?)

      👀👾🆘 🌊💰💲💰💲💰💲💰💲💰💲💰💲+💉📈↗📈↗📈↗📈↗📈↗📈⬆📈🎉🎡🎪🃏♻

      1. “Main Streeters”? Who’s that, anyway? In Missoula it’s the lawyer’s wife with the art gallery or souvenur/junk store and maybe one employee.

        Or a dozen coffee stores or tap rooms.

  13. ‘You can sense the fear,’ said Lorna Goeldner, a vice president who oversees the customer service reps handling the calls. ‘And the hard part is, you can’t have an answer until this hardship is over.’”

    You can always tell the FBs they should’ve rented, Lorna.

  14. “The advertisements are meant to entice: A month of free rent in a high-end apartment in downtown St. Petersburg. A free pool at a new housing development in Tampa. A $20 Amazon gift card for taking a virtual tour. ‘GREAT Specials!!!’

    I fail to be enticed.

    1. “I fail to be enticed”

      Why move? x3+ month$ delayed rent$ @ $3,086.00 = $9,288.86

      (collect$ that & maybee$ even more$, [gov’t interce$$ion$] then vaaaamoo$e!)

  15. Some homes don’t receive multiple offers or sell in the first week. Some take multiple price reductions in order to find the market — they were on the market, but not really in the market.

    In other words, greedhead sellers and realtors who indulge them are wasting everybody’s time.

  16. “The builder also started offering a price protection program, that allows buyers who have entered into a contract on a home to get a lower price if the base price falls before the closing. William Ryan Homes hasn’t instituted that program since the Great Recession. ‘(That program) is in case people are concerned about, ‘Jeez, are the prices going to fall,’ Thorson said.”

    Recent buyers “homeowners” threw under the bus

    1. if the base price falls before the closing

      You gotta read the fine print. They’ll be giving away more and more free pools on the high end and nicer flooring plus granite on the low end for a LONG time before they even think of lowering the base prices. In fact I would bet they fold before they lower the base prices.

  18. “Oh, what a box we weave$, when 1$t we weave a box.” … or $omething$ like that.

    (Moscow.Mitchy kinda put his.self in a res$cue monie$ Ru$$ian.doll)

    Election$ 2020:

    McConnell’$ Hometown Will Be Hit Hard Without Federal Bailout$

    Bloomberg / By Fola Akinnibi and Amanda Albright / April 24, 2020

    Congre$$’$ fourth re$cue doe$n’t offer city budget relief$

    Louisville, Kentucky, facing (-$115) million$ deficit$, mayor says

    “We’re not intere$ted in revenue$ replacement for $tate government$,” McConnell said

    The CARES Act created a $150 billion fund for states and large governments to cover public health-related costs they’re incurring to mitigate the outbreak of the virus.

    A spokesman for McConnell said that Kentucky is expected to receive at least $1.25 billion in relief from the stimulus package, including a large share for the Louisville metro area given its population.

    But the Trea$ury Department said in guidance released this week that $tate and local government$ cannot u$e the monie$ to replace lo$t revenue$.

    Louisville has projected a $115 million budget $hortfall over the next 14 months, and without federal aid, will have to cut a fifth of its workforce, according to Fischer. About half of Louisville’s budget comes from payroll taxe$, making the budget e$pecially $ensitive to the job lo$$es driven by the viru$.

    About 78 miles away, Lexington is facing what Mayor Linda Gorton, a Republican, called an unprecedented $40 million$ drop in revenue$ for the coming fi$cal year. Gorton plans to cut $ervices, trim a planned bond offering for new police car$ and road work$, and tap into a $35 million rainy-day fund.

    McConnell said he wasn’t ready to send a “blank check” to government$. New York’s Cuomo criticized McConnell’s comments, saying that Kentucky — unlike his state — take$ more federal monie$ than it contribute$.

    $ad. Kentucky.re.election$.$ad

    (— With assistance by Steven T. Dennis)

    1. An older article (long but interesting read) that shows Cuomo to be a financially destructive, nepotistic bureaucrat from way back in time.

      Fees for Our Friends: The Scandal that Taints Andrew Cuomo
      By Lucy Komisar

      Aug 22, 2006 [Part 1]

      “As Secretary of HUD, Andrew Cuomo reversed the policy of selling defaulted mortgages so that families could keep their homes. Instead, he chose to foreclose on mortgages, which meant that families lost their homes and insiders cleaned up on fire-sale priced properties. The US Treasury also lost billions.”

      https://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2006/08/fees-for-our-friends-the-scandal-that-taints-andrew-cuomo/

      Part 2/ Fees for Friends: Vendetta [Andrew Cuomo Scandal]:

      “When Cuomo became HUD Secretary in 1997, he axed a federal program that had saved the US $2.2 billion between 1994 and 1997 and reinstituted a system that lost the government money while earning billions for favored friends.

      He used the power of his office to target a former HUD official who had assisted his predecessor in operating the successful program. A HUD legal vendetta destroyed the official’s company before the Justice Department finally admitted there was no case and dropped it.”

      https://www.thekomisarscoop.com/2006/08/fees-for-our-friends-the-andrew-cuomo-scandal-the-vendetta/

    2. Hwy I hope you dole out equal disdain for Ice Cream hording Pelosi as you do the Mitch the Turtle.

      1. “The religious quality of Marxism also explains a characteristic attitude of the orthodox Marxist toward opponents. To him, as to any believer in a faith, the opponent is not merely in error but in sin. Dissent is unapproved of not only intellectually but also morally.”

        ~ Joseph A. Schumpeter

        1. Eric Hoffer : “True.Believer$”

          “You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.”

          In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

          1. Good points. I’ve also found you can also get a good idea of what people are most dishonest about by observing what things they assumes other people are being dishonest with them about.

          2. The only ones who inherit the future are the survivors. Some learners, like Wiley Coyote, learn a bit too late to get there.

      2. Oh, eye’$ doeth, everyone’$ got green.ink$ on their hand$ ($ome.more$.than.”other$) … even my $acred.farmers.family.members (-Amish.cousins)

        This is From RFD.tv so reads it as gospel!

        Like eye said a few days ago:
        “How many ice cream sandwiche$ will this kinda monie$ buy?”

        Farmers to get up to $250,000 each in COVID-19 ca$h

        Monday, April 20th 2020,

        Farmers will get cash payments of up to $250,000 each to help them survive an estimated 20% drop in farm income this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

        President Trump announced a $16 billion fund in for direct agricultural aid and said the additional money might be spent this summer to help the sector.

        In addition, the government plans to spend $3 billion to buy fruit, vegetables, dairy, and meat which will then be donated to charities and food banks.

        “I’m announcing … a $19 billion relief program for our great farmers and ranchers as they cope with the fallout of the global pandemic,” said Trump at the White House on Friday. The USDA will receive additional funding in July “to continue help” to producers, he said.

        Farmers and ranchers will be eligible for up to $125,000 per commodity with an overall limit of $250,000 per person according to the USDA. The only ineligible people would be those with more than $900,000 in adjusted gross income and those who get more than 25% of their income outside of agriculture.

        Earlier today the American Farm Bureau praised the $19 billion aid package provided to the farmers noting how helpful it will be.

        Cattle producers will get almost a third of the money, $5.1 billion according to North Dakota Senator John Hoeven. Row-crop farmers would get $3.9 billion, dairy farmers $2.1 billion, specialty crop growers $2.1 billion, hog farmers will receive $1.6 billion, and producers of other crops will get $500 million.

        More detail$ on the program will be released at a later date.

        In thee “old.day$” this kinda monie$ behaviours was called “purcha$ing vote$” but in modern time$, it’$ a called “growin”.yer.input$”

        Got ethanol$?

  19. Days on Zillow: 1 day on Zillow
    Views since listing: 674
    34 shoppers saved this home
    22151 still perky

    Bought some tips
    American homes for rent,zillow and others quit buying homes,so much for the low end

  20. This is *meaty*…..i.e. sales PRICE drops…but anecdotal as it is one brokerage’s info…in one particular area of North Texas. Hopefully it’ll become wide-spread…

    ———–
    “The average sales price dropped 13 percent for homes sold through Allie Beth Allman & Associates’ year-to-date through April 17 compared to the same period in 2019, Conlon said. The average sales price for the company, which trades primarily in high-end homes, fell to about $846,000 through April 17, compared with roughly $976,000 through the same date last year. ‘That’s the big difference,’ Conlon said. ‘You’re talking about $130,000 average sales price (decrease).’”

  21. Poor Czar Putain, eCONomic collap$e$? … again!

    $ad

    Economy & Politic$ Out$ide the Box:

    Opinion: Ru$$ia is the world’$ bigge$t lo$er from oil’$ cra$h, and that’$ rea$on to worry

    Bloomberg / Published: April 24, 2020 / By George Friedman

    Ru$$ia’s economy and power is highly dependent$ on oil and energy price$

    Karl Marx wrote that “history repeat$ it$elf twice, the fir$t time as tragedy and the $econd time as farce.”
    The collap$e of the Soviet Union was not a tragedy, nor is what is happening in Russia now a farce. Still, the collap$e of the Soviet Union was a defining moment in human history

    At i$$ue for Ru$$ia is the collap$e of oil price$. A country that depend$ so heavily on any one commodity, as Russia does, will always be vulnerable. Since the price of commoditie$ i$ inherently volatile, determined as it is by the robustne$$ of indu$trial power$, the exporter can neither control the price$ nor have an opportunity to generate inve$tment capital$ on a $ystematic basi$

    After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia faced the old challenge of building a modern economy rather than a Potemkin village of modernity. The first decade after the fall was chaotic as investment bankers and oligarchs appropriated the wealth under the banner of privatization. The emergence of Vladimir Putin, the former KGB agent who was tied into the oligarchy, should have led to a surge of modernization. Energy prices were reasonably high, and investment capital for a modern economy could, in theory, have been created.

    Instead, investment capital was diverted for profit and safety outside of Russia, and Putin, who depended on the oligarch$ for his power, could not do what he knew had to be done. Over time, his power surged and investment was possible, but as the process began to accelerate, the price of energy declined and with it the foundation for investment. In the past few days, it has totally evaporated.

    Russia’s challenge is not building a new generation of hypersonic missiles, nor investing in advanced technologies.

    Russia’s challenge now is to avoid collapse.

    The Russian budget is distributed among its constituent regions, which pay the teachers and doctors and firemen. But with the decline of energy prices, Russia’s budget declines, and as it declines, the regions contract. Russia, a Third World country, has few counters to low energy prices.

    The Russian people endure, and I am always told by Russians that the ability to endure means that Russia cannot be judged by foreign standards. It is true that the Russians endure and only rarely rise. But when they rise, as they did in 1917 or against the Germans in World War II and ultimately in 1991, they can dissolve things that seem immutable. The Russians say that they know how to survive a long hard winter. But at a certain point they snap, and with the value of oil a fraction of what Russia needs it to be to make do, let alone prosper, it is hard to see how the Russians will endure this winter of disease and poverty.

    So I think Marx got it wrong: The farce came first. The tragedy may come second.

    1. It is apt you quoted Marx as he did get his start in soviet Russia as the first full blow production test. Would it be more apt to say that Russia could survive this but US Shale – not so much.

      1. Eye did knot quote$ Marx, the Author of the article did.

        Knot.found quilty by rea$on of knot.a$$ociation.

  22. This was a heist. They took what we had left. Welcome to Neo Feudalism.
    US CORONAVIRUS ‘BAILOUT’ SCAM IS $6 TRILLION GIVEAWAY TO WALL ST – ECONOMIST MICHAEL HUDSON EXPLAINS
    21 APRIL 2020
    “Well the word bailout, as you just pointed out, really was used by Obama and only applies to the banks. The word coronavirus is just put in as an advertising slogan.

    Banks and corporations, airlines, have a whole wish list that they had their lawyers and lobbyists prepare for just such an opportunity. And when the opportunity comes up — whether it’s 9/11 with the Patriot Act, or whether it’s today’s coronavirus — they just pasted the word coronavirus onto an act, which should be called a giveaway to the big banking sector.

    Let’s talk about who’s not bailed out. Who’s not bailed out are the small business owners, the restaurants, the companies that you walk down the street in New York or other cities, and they’re all shuttered with closed signs. Their rent is accumulating, month after month.

    Restaurants, gyms and stores are small-markup businesses, small-margin businesses, where, once you have no sales for maybe three months and rent accruing for three months, they’re not going to have enough money to earn the profits to pay the rents that have mounted up for the last three months.

    The other people that are not being bailed out are the workers — especially the people they call the prime necessary workers, which is their euphemism for minimum-wage workers without any job security. There have been huge layoffs of minimum-wage labor, manual labor, all sorts of labor.

    They’re not getting income, but their rents are accruing. And their utility bills are accruing. Their student loans are accruing. And their credit card debts are mounting up at interest and penalty rates, which are even larger than the interest rates. So all of these debts are accruing.

    The real explosion is going to come in three months, when all of a sudden, this money falls due. The governor of New York has said, “Well we have a moratorium on actually evicting people for three months.” So there are restaurants and other people, individuals, wage-earners, who are going to be able to live in their apartments and not be evicted. But at the end of three months, that’s when the eviction notices are going to come. And people are going to decide, is it worth it?”
    https://michael-hudson.com/2020/04/another-giveaway/ Video embedded in the article.

  23. Denver, CO Housing Prices Crater 17% YOY As On Broker Concedes, “Housing Is Becoming More Worthless With Each Passing Day”

    https://www.zillow.com/denver-co-80202/home-values/

    *Select price from dropdown menu on first chart

    As one Denver broker conceded, “If you’re a buyer, the broker is lying to you. I know a liar when I hear one. I’ve been lying my entire life.”

    1. Denver is a dump.

      I would leave, but it’s too easy to make money here. Millennials overpay for used houses, try to do their own electrical work from watching Youtube videos, then realize they’re in way over their head and call me to come out and fix their hack work.

      1. I would leave, but it’s too easy to make money here.

        That should be changing very soon, if not already.

      3. “…do their own electrical work…”

        Not much to learn in 15A-125V residential. I’ve installed my own ceiling fans, add another 15A circuit breaker in the panel and the worst part…digging through blown insulation with a 90-degree drill and a spade bit for the 14g Romex. I wouldn’t want to it for a living. I’ve also met lots of guys pulling CAT5 through dusty office buildings; no thanks! Glad I went to Ƨkool. 🙂

  24. This may be evidence, albeit anecdotal, of Laguna Niguel dropping 6.79% in price since Feb 26th.

    Here’s my logic:

    Check out the price history

    One way to interpret this data….it went ‘Pending’ at $590k about 2 months ago before the Covid stuff really kicked in

    Now the ask is -6.79% lower than that ‘pending’ price

    To me, this equates to, at least for this property, that the price has fallen at least 6.79% (if it were to sell at the current ask)

    24596 Camden Ct, Laguna Niguel, CA 92677 (via Zillow)

  25. “Russia’s challenge is not building a new generation of hypersonic missiles, nor investing in advanced technologies.”

    “Russia’s challenge now is to avoid collapse.”

    – I think there are a lot of countries in that camp. The bottom line is that we’re all in for a world of hurt.

    – Back here in the USSA, we’ve got Fed money printing and bailouts with $ borrowed from yet unborn future generations (posterity) to pay for the gambling losses of the oligarchy; aka Socialism for the wealthy. For decades the U.S. has been trying to stamp out Communism (same as Socialism, but better English) in far-flung places throughout the world, but it turns out that all of that foot stamping was in the wrong place. 🙂

    1. So … 20K out of the 26 million that have been laid off are from start ups?

      That’s all?

      1. Startups are debt based, and generate no revenue. Of course they’ll be backstopped.

        1. I suppose it depends on how one defines “start up”.

          Personally, I don’t consider firms that are funded billions, like WeWork or Uber, as “start ups”. I would label those as “fire pits for destroying vast amounts of money”.

          Of course, the definition has changed over the decades. Used to be a start up was “started up” in someone’s garage on a shoe string. Then the definition changed to be a few dozen employees with 12-24 months of funding. You either made it in that time frame or folded. I’ve worked at a few of those and from what I can tell they are still around.

          Another category was a small firm, with maybe 100 or so employees, which you hoped to sell to a FAANG or some other tech firm. Not sure how that category is faring these days. My employer used to buy statups like that, though I haven’t heard much about that lately.

  27. What’s scary to me is the carnage just 6 weeks of no income or revenue did. I mean does any business, corporate, or individual keep emergency funds or cash reserve anymore? What happened to the profits? Stocks buyback, hookers, snorting lines, etc.? Reading “cry me a river” stories on LA times about poor me, 64, with 16 properties and faces financial ruins if only 6% doesn’t pay rents is fucking hilarious. Should have saved some money for that rain days LOL.

    1. The widespread belief is that in the winner take all economy you have to swing for the fence, or you’ll end up a pauper. “Poor me” could have dumped his 16 rentals last year and probably walked away with some cash. But FOMO is strong, so they swing for the fence, and either strike out or hot into a double play, instead of just talk a walk.

      Working and saving is for losers.

      1. “Working and saving is for losers.”

        No, no it’$ knot. Knot now, knot tomorrow, knot yesterday.

        It’$ all $till groovy!

        (Except, eye can’t recall$ ever when touchin’ a 👾doorknob or handle had such pos$$ible lethal implication$ for my well being! Yike$!)

          1. intravenously inject Lysol

            Fake News. Real News: Healight. YouTube removed the video I posted yesterday publicized by Scott Adams. Information warfare.

  29. The UK house builders are all going back to work. I’ll post a couple of links tomorrow it is rather late here. They couldn’t handle the pain of not building. Quite who they are building for is a mystery, half the population don’t know if they have a job, but that isn’t stopping them.

    1. As some have posted here in years past, builders build because that’s what they know how to do.

      I do wonder who would finance them in this economic landscape.

    1. The Financial Times
      Coronavirus
      US equity valuations reach near two-decade high after rally
      Forward price-to-earnings ratio for S&P 500 hits highest level since December 2001
      Wall Street analysts have faced extra difficulty in gauging earnings given many US blue-chips have withdrawn full-year profit guidance
      © AFP/Getty Images
      Richard Henderson in Melbourne 18 hours ago

      The US stock market has surged over the past month despite the damage to corporate profits from coronavirus, pushing one popular measure of equity valuation to its most expensive in nearly two decades.

      Corporate earnings are set to tumble this year as economic activity slows, wiping a third from company profits in 2020 compared with last year, Goldman Sachs estimates. At the same time, the US central bank’s unprecedented capital-market interventions and the government’s $2tn stimulus package have drawn investors back into the stock market, dragging the S&P 500 benchmark up 25 per cent since its low on March 23.

      The rally has pushed the forward price-to-earnings ratio for the S&P 500 above 21 to its highest level since December 2001 — during the final stages of the dotcom bubble. The ratio reflects the price put by investors on future profits and is one of the most popular tools for investors to value stocks.
      …

      1. A$ you ponder the $tock market’$ amazing re$ilience, ju$t remember one thing:

        Like real estate, the stock market always goes up.

        1. Our savings are mostly in cash, but one of the scenarios going forward is financial repression to wipe out that cash. Basically seizing it for the government back door in a way that rewards the rich, speculators, and other debtors and wipes out savers.

          https://www.economist.com/briefing/2020/04/23/the-pandemic-will-leave-the-rich-world-deep-in-debt-and-force-some-hard-choices

          I only hope that there will be enough crater first to allow a shift to actual assets that provide something like a decent return. The stock market is presuming that will never be allowed to happen, because the rich control the federal government. And the virus is proving an excuse for those with power to seize even more from the serfs.

          1. The plan could be to let the early dips buyers to rush in before pulling the floor away from the trapdoor…as in fall 2009.

        2. The Financial Times
          Equity valuation
          Investors baffled by soaring stocks in ‘monster’ depression
          Gap between financial markets and global economy yawns wider
          Unemployment forms are distributed at a drive-through collection point outside John F Kennedy Library in Florida earlier this month
          Stock markets have been on a tear for a month
          © AFP via Getty Images
          Robin Wigglesworth in Oslo yesterday

          The divergence between the flying stock market and the dying economy is so extreme it is leaving many analysts scrambling for explanations.

          The recent string of economic data releases reflecting life under global coronavirus lockdowns has been even grimmer than expected, spurring the IMF this week to forecast the biggest global recession since the 1930s’ Great Depression.

          Some investors are in awe at the scale of the shock. “We really are in uncharted territory,” said Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab. “We have a monster mash-up of the Great Depression in size, the crash of 1987 in speed, and 9-11 attack in terms of fear.”

          And yet, stock markets have been on a tear for a month. What was once dismissed as a mere “bear market rally” — often strong but ultimately doomed bounces that can occur in the middle of severe downturns — has now turned into a 23 per cent jump for global stocks. Technically, that qualifies as a new bull market.

          The rise has erased half the stock market’s fall since late February, and brought the FTSE All-World index back to levels seen in the US tax cut-fuelled summer rally of 2017. Analysts and investors say that global efforts by central banks to soothe the financial system have been the trigger.

          Citigroup estimates that the biggest central banks will buy $5tn of bonds this year, led by the US Federal Reserve, which is more than twice the size of the stimulus seen at the peak of the 2008-09 financial crisis. The Fed has even charged into areas once thought untouchable for central banks, announcing plans to support corporate debt graded “junk” by credit rating agencies.
          …

          1. “The divergence between the flying stock market and the dying economy is so extreme it is leaving many analysts scrambling for explanations.”

            Soaring unemployment? Great. Businesses can cut worker wages.

            Soaring national debt? Great. Those lower-paid workers will still have money to spend on business sales.

            What happens when the debts have to be repaid? Who cares — Generation Greed will be gone by then.

          2. Who cares — Generation Greed

            I’m just a process engineer, but I am pretty sure that if you can’t properly identify the cause of a problem, you can’t identify a solution.

          3. Speaking as a member of the Generation Apathy that followed Generation Greed, as long as most of us could keep spending, because we could keep borrowing, we weren’t interested in the problem or the solution.

            Millennials are screwed even more, but at least they know they are screwed rather than having it be a complete surprise at age 45-60.

          4. “Millennials are screwed even more…”

            Like a Rabbit there’s not much meat on a Millennial’s bones, and AI will likely get most of their future earnings.

  34. Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey has said it plans to resume work on its construction sites from May 4.

    It comes after it ordered its sites, show homes and sales centres to be closed in March, as the coronavirus outbreak gathered pace.

    The company said it will re-start activity on the majority of its sites in England and Wales using “detailed new site operating protocols developed in compliance with strict social distancing requirements”.

    Taylor Wimpey said trading has “inevitably been impacted” by the virus, but demand has continued, with sales teams continuing remotely.

    https://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/national/18399709.housebuilder-taylor-wimpey-reopen-construction-sites/

    How you keep construction workers 2 metres ( six foot six inches) apart is a mystery to me; I suspect you just pretend they do.

  35. An unexpected victim of the virus

    The UK’s biggest funeral director has warned that funeral homes could go bust without government support because they are shouldering the cost of staging stripped-back services for coronavirus victims.

    The Co-op, which carries out 100,000 funerals a year, is asking the government to step in and support the industry. “We have been very clear with the government,” said the Co-op chief executive, Steve Murrells. “Without financial help for the sector. There will be many businesses that won’t survive this Covid-19 period.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/24/funeral-homes-push-for-state-help-as-lockdown-leads-to-no-frills-services

  36. https://www.taylorwimpey.co.uk/an-update-from-our-ceo—23rd-april?

    Highlight for me is buy a house and at sometime in the future you can move it, possibly, probably, perhaps 😉

    Customers who have bought a Taylor Wimpey home and not yet moved in

    Our teams will continue to be in close contact with you and will be in touch to update you on our plans for your site and what it means for the timing of your home. We want to be very honest and upfront with you that this will be subject to change and heavily dependent on a number of factors including whether we can safely operate on your site, and home.

    Our priority must remain health and safety at all times. We very much appreciate your support and understanding on this. We would encourage customers to continue to use our customer portal, Touchpoint, to keep up to date with build progress, the selection of options and to raise any questions you may have.

  37. Q. How can you tell if a policy measure is just for optics, rather than a medical necessity?

    A. If it is enacted with a full week’s delay…

      1. No mention of any new medical necessity to wear masks starting on May 1, or why sharing coronavirus is safe in the water while surfing but not while boating. It seems like political expediency has won out over reason. We are all Chinese now, following our dictators without question.

        ‘Officials are also mandating that residents who leave their homes wear a face covering if they are going to be within six feet of an individual who is not a housemate.

        “We believe this is going to be a part of life in the new normal,” Fletcher said. “Until such time that we have a vaccine or a widely available therapeutic drug, there are going to be parts of life that are going to change. And getting used to having a face covering when you leave your house — that’s going to be a part of the change.”

        That change goes into effect May 1, but county officials are encouraging residents to comply with it immediately.’

    1. If you buy a car right now and know the dealer’s minimum price they will accept in a cash offer, you can easily get them to accept it. If they try to haggle, act like you’re going to walk…they’ll come around!

  39. This is a narrative scripted by globalists and the Deep State. Note that Facebook, Twitter, Reddit not only allow but promote left-wing violence by Antifa and other Soros-funded terrorists.

    Amid The Pandemic, U.S. Militia Groups Plot ‘The Boogaloo,’ AKA Civil War, On Facebook:

    “Thousands of armed right-wing militants are plotting a violent uprising against the U.S. government during the coronavirus crisis, a new report finds, and Facebook is providing them a platform to prepare and organize.

    A report published Thursday by the watchdog group the Tech Transparency Project found 125 Facebook groups devoted to the idea of the “boogaloo,” a far-right term used to describe what they believe is an inevitable civil war in the U.S. Members discuss weapons, combat medicine, and how to develop explosives, the report says. One group even shared a document detailing how to disrupt U.S. government supply lines and discussing the possible need to assassinate government officials.

    These groups have proliferated during the pandemic, according to the report, as right-wing extremists grow more agitated over lockdown orders aimed at slowing the spread of the virus, measures many militia and “patriot” groups view as the oppressive maneuverings of a tyrannical government.”

    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/boogaloo-facebook-pages-coronavirus-militia-group-extremists_n_5ea3072bc5b6d376358eba98

    1. get my own parade

      You and a few million others. NY has started antibody testing according to Cuomo’s office. Preliminary results indicate 21% of New Yorkers (NYC) probably already had the CCP virus.

      Insert here my usual caveat about unknown accuracy and false positives.

      1. I’d personally prefer imperfect testing to no testing (still the situation for the vast majority of California’s masked, panic-stricken population).

        I tried to sign up for a nationwide antibody test study yesterday, but haven’t heard back yet.

      1. And mandatory homemade coronamasks, to show you are doing your part to defeat the virus…

        1. My guess is that when/if the pandemic cools off, you will see a great many more people wearing masks in public, like they do in the Far East.

    2. It’s footstamping time for Chinese retail investors in oil futures contracts.

      Bank of China “deeply disturbed” about investors’ loss on oil products
      Contributors
      Leng Cheng Reuters
      Emily Chow Reuters
      Published
      Apr 24, 2020 12:30PM EDT
      Credit: REUTERS/JASON LEE
      Bank of China (BoC) said on Friday it was deeply disturbed by the losses of investors who had invested in its crude oil futures trading product and would work to protect their interests.

      BEIJING, April 24 (Reuters) – Bank of China (BoC) said on Friday it was deeply disturbed by the losses of investors who had invested in its crude oil futures trading product and would work to protect their interests.

      Investors were crying foul over the bank’s decision to settle the trades at historic negative prices, claiming it should have done more to protect them.

      BoC said in a statement late on Friday that it had sent several messages via various channels, including SMS and phone calls, since April 6 to remind investors of the risks regarding the recent fluctuation in oil prices.

      “Under the circumstances of the global (coronavirus) epidemic, and volatile fluctuations in the crude oil market, Bank of China is deeply disturbed by the losses of investors in the crude oil ‘bao’,” it said.
      …

  43. ‘How can you say that?’ Economics professor is slammed as ‘heartless’ for arguing Australia would be ‘better off’ if it had NOT gone into coronavirus lockdown

    Australia Flattening the Curve

    Very interesting graphic.

    Looks like the epidemic in Australia is as over as it is in NYC. Australia peaked around March 27 and NYC around April 7. Seems to me the approach of “flattening the curve” hasn’t worked out as we were told to expect. The curve seems to have no fat tail at all. Over in a month. Go figure. Good news.

    Talked to one of my kids last night while she was working second shift at a Virginia Beach hospital. They’re all standing around. The “census” is very low.

    1. ‘Seems to me the approach of “flattening the curve” hasn’t worked out as we were told to expect. The curve seems to have no fat tail at all. Over in a month. Go figure. Good news.’

      A big question is whether the outbreak would remain subdued if they reopened, or would flare up into a second wave, requiring another quarantine.

      ‘Talked to one of my kids last night while she was working second shift at a Virginia Beach hospital. They’re all standing around. The “census” is very low.’

      My anesthesiologist BIL is very underemployed, as elective surgery is at a trickle.

      1. whether the outbreak would remain subdued if they reopened

        That’s why I made the point about the curve having no fat tail. It didn’t flatten and extend, it just dropped off.

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